You might think that a country music star like Hunter Hayes would spend his down time in a fancy hotel ordering room service and peeking at fans from behind curtained windows.
You’d be wrong.
When The Blade recently reached Hayes by phone, he was relaxing in his tour bus, or what he refers to as, “my 20 square-foot apartment,” before playing that night’s show in Massachusetts.
“I don’t even go into a hotel if I have the option; I’ll stay on the bus because I love it,” Hayes says. “This is my place of peace before we make a bunch of noise.”
Hayes travels to northwest Ohio for a performance Friday at Centennial Terrace, 5773 Centennial Rd., Sylvania.
The 25-year-old five-time Grammy nominee and double platinum-selling artist quickly became familiar on country radio after his 2011 self-titled debut album launched him into the spotlight with hit singles like “Storm Warning” and “Wanted.” Attention grew in 2013 when, Hayes, 21 at the time, released his song “I Want Crazy,” which went double platinum.
Yet, the multi-instrumentalist credits his success in large part to his hometown in Breaux Bridge, La., a land of blue-collar workers, where his hard work and love for live music began.
“I grew up around people who would work a full-time job outside, sweating, exhausted, get home, change clothes, get back in their car, load up their gear by themselves and go play a gig for fun,” he says. “Yes, they got paid for it, but it was a completely different mentality. It was all about, ‘I live to make music;’ that’s kind of what I grew up around, and that’s what they taught me.
“People who I’ve played music with, they just loved it, and they did it because it was so much a part of them that nothing could separate them. It was always just for the love of it.”
While his first album was released when Hayes was just 19, he says as he gets older he tries to not stress too much about what type of a song he should create next. Instead, Hayes is primarily focused on the present.
“This year’s are probably the most transparent shows I’ve ever put on,” he says. “I feel like I’m at a different place as a 25-year-old. Everyone goes through those changes. My first record came out when I was 19, and I’m 25 now. Imagine all of the things that have changed in your life. The only difference is I get to talk about it through music. I live for it, and I think the atmosphere we try to keep on the team on the road is we all live for it in some form or fashion.”
Hayes has come of musical age at a time when vinyl and CD are no longer the preferred distribution methods for new music. He praises the various formats now available, including streaming, which makes it easier for people to discover new artists in country and other genres.
At the end of June, Hayes released his latest single, “Rescue,” which logged more than 1 million Spotify streams in one week. The song is a dedication to friends and family.
“It's a great time for music,” he says. “Now there’s endless doors; there’s so many rooms. That means I can create more, and there’s a bigger promise for me as a [songwriter] to put music out, but also knowing I’ll be able to directly give stuff to the fans as soon as I can, whenever it’s done, at whatever rate that happens.
“If I’m going to say Red Bull to you on this song, one of us is going to get a Red Bull ad,” he says. “All of this stuff is customized on how to get things in front of us, and I feel like with music that’s actually been beautiful because it's not so much ad driven it's just, ‘Oh you’re interested in this, you would probably like this,’ or, ‘Hey, I heard you were listening to this song, they’re going to be playing a show here soon.’
“I love how that’s completely opened the door on discovery and people can now have even more of a voice and kind of have a stage where it’s easier to discover them.”
When it comes to writing new material, Hayes’ strategy was always to create 100 songs and cut the number to 10 to make an album. Now his output doesn’t have to be as limited.
“Sometimes it takes a while to get to that unfiltered part,” he says. “You write it consciously and write yourself into corners and write too much and forget you’re trying to get an album. Sometimes it takes that many songs to get to the one I’m meant to write. I’ve embraced that part of my process.
“It's a great problem to have creating too much music ... that’s better than the opposite. I know the opposite; I’ve seen the opposite. I’ve been in a place at times where I’ve had nothing I can say or just didn't know how to say it at all, and that’s definitively not the side I want to be on.”
Even so, it’s the live shows that keep the “Wanted” artist on the road performing in front of thousands day to day.
“Because I grew up around music, and because I eat, sleep, breath music, you don’t [tour] unless you love it, and for me it's a labor of love,” Hayes says. “The live show, playing and touring, that’s when all of that comes full circle and that’s the most ultimate version of making music. ... [It’s] so alive and so unfiltered; you have no choice but to put it all on the line.”
Special guest is Walker Hayes. Doors open at 6:30 p.m., and the show starts at 8 p.m. For seats, visit etix.com.
Contact Geoff Burns at gburns@theblade.com or 419-724-6054.
First Published August 20, 2017, 4:00 a.m.
