Paul Hayes

Paul Hayes is a singer-songwriter who is not afraid to combine his folk rock with fuzzed out guitar noise. Now resident in the Boston, MA area, he is one of the many musical refugees from New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina."I miss my band," he says. "They were all friends who hung out even when we didn't have a show. I also miss the power of performing my songs on stage with a band. Performing solo re-contextualizes you. Suddenly, you are back to the coffee house and the open mic, with all that it entails. But a good side to it is that you must be more disciplined in your playing; you can't use the band as a crutch."Born and raised in Ireland, Hayes moved to New Orleans in the late 1990s, and quickly made a name for himself in the city's emerging acoustic music scene. "It was a great time. Acoustic-based music had long been overshadowed by more obvious New Orleans music like Jazz or Funk. Suddenly, people of different genres were jamming together with no rules." For a time, Hayes played as sideman with New Orleans notables such as Slim Nelson, Jim Smith and Lynn Drury as well as being a founder member of jam band The Shy Teds.In 2003 he released his first album, "Vol.1: Love and Pain and The Whole Damn' Thing" to a mostly positive response around the Gulf South. The record was distinguished by its mix of folk melodies with wry and sometimes bitter lyrics, and full-on guitar feedback."Love and Pain" was eclectic from song to song, showing influences as varied as Neutral Milk Hotel, T Rex and Crazy Horse. But the live show was decidedly different. With Matt Swiler on drums, John Trahey on bass and Tom Marron on fiddle and guitar, Hayes' live band roared with a strange combination of Celtic music and "Bug"-era Dinosaur Jr. guitaring. "We could have played out more," says Hayes, "but we were being coy, holding out for the cooler gigs. Little did we know that Katrina would wash the whole thing away!"Since moving to Massachusetts, he has spent the downtime songwriting. " I was in a deep funk for a long time. Call it shock, call it PTSD, whatever you want, but it was difficult to motivate myself. I had two albums worth of songs as yet unrecorded, and they all seemed insignificant after the hurricane. Writing new songs was all the therapy I could afford."He is loath to call his current work-in-progress his "Post-Katrina Album," as many of the projected songs were written before the storm, but the working title is, after all, "Dark Matter.""Yes, it is much darker than the first one, but it isn't going to be about Katrina or New Orleans per se. In fact it's turning out to be quite a little State of The Union Address. 'Love and Pain' was all about individuals and their relationships with the world. This one addresses the world more directly. So far."A year of writing without a band in mind has brought a few surprises musically. Hayes has gone back to the blues as a reference point. Not your father's BB King-type blues but the pre-war stuff of Kokomo Arnold and Charley Patton. But don't expect a blues album. "So far, working without a band has made things more electronic, also. Not in a dancey way, but in more of a dubby, ambient way. But don't worry, there will still be some short songs and mindless loud guitar!"