Hot off the release of their newest LP, We’re Here Now, Hayley Jane & The Primates are in the midst of a promotional tour, taking them everywhere from Maine to Colorado. Yet, as team captain/leading lady Hayley Jane recently mentioned, there are plenty of additional creative flames to stoke. She recently wrapped up a stint in Everyone Orchestra and has a new folk duo in the works. She has also started playing solo shows sans Primates, recalibrating her usual, confident stage manner.
“If you ever want to see me shaking in my boots, come see me at one of my solo shows. In the best way possible!” She said during a lively phone call, “It’s all me, and it’s terrifying. It’s really something that I’m excited to be doing, and every time I do it, it gets better and better.”
Topics of conversation jumped from the band’s Boston roots, to the time Jane simultaneously played the roles of a Disney character and a prostitute, to their recent work with producer/Turkuaz guitarist Craig Brodhead, but above all else Jane’s passion for music and performing was paramount.
Tell me a little about your recent show at the Brooklyn Bowl. Since it doubled as the wedding of your bassist Josh Carter, it seemed like a real party.
Yeah, it was pretty unbelievable. It all started when we got the offer for our first headlining show there. We kind of made it a big album release weekend tour. We had one in Burlington where I live with our drummer, and then we had another one in Connecticut, and one in Boston where the band started. When we found out that we were headlining the Brooklyn Bowl, Josh approached us with the idea of getting married onstage. I thought it was just fantastic—I had never heard of anything like it. It all fell into place very easily. They approached Pete Shapiro about officiating it, because the bride, Kristin [Carter] worked for Relix Magazine for quite a while, and knew Pete well. It just seemed like a really great way to combine two momentous occasions. My gift to them was I made them a chuppah out of a Grateful Dead tapestry.
I saw that! How awesome.
I was so proud of it. It came together really well. I had a blast running around before the show trying to get all of the things for it. I went down to this Hasidic lumber yard, where I was definitely the only woman in this gigantic lumber yard. [Laughs.] I walked in and it was just the most amazing, intense situation I’d ever been in. It was pretty hilarious. There I was, just looking for four poles to make this chuppah.
Eric Gould—our manager—did a great job putting together a really fun opening band, the Brooklyn Bowl Wedding All Stars, as we call them. It was a bunch of cats from Kung Fu and Pink Talking Fish and Dopapod. So by the time it was a week away, we were so pumped. It became quite a show. The service ended up being short and sweet and beautiful. And I cried. Pete did such a great job. And then we just kicked right into gear like it was a normal show. The Brooklyn Bowl Wedding All Stars killed it, and it was so great to finally play the Brooklyn Bowl with all four of my backup dancers, because that’s become such a huge part of what we do.
What a great night for you guys.
Oh, unbelievable. I have more words, they’re just not there. It was pretty magical. Kristin looked beautiful—she looked amazing. It was just so rock and roll. We felt like a badass rock-and-roll band. It was a pretty hip way to get married.
I want to shift to the new record. Your band name is a nod to your childhood fascination to Jane Goodall, and apes and evolution. How has your band evolved with the new release, We’re Here Now ?
That’s a great question. It’s funny because I always wanted a really tight-knit group for a band. Because of different things that happened in the past, we’ve lost band members in all sorts of different ways. Now, I feel like in the last two years, we have this really solid group of musicians for the first time. We write all together. It used to be just me writing the tunes, or me and Justin Hancock—our guitarist—would write the tunes on acoustic guitar, and then bring them in and develop them as a band. Now, we all sit in a room and write the tunes together.
What I love about We’re Here Now is that it’s a mixture of all of those different techniques, or ways of writing. There are some songs that I wrote by myself, and there are some songs that I wrote with Justin, and then there are a bunch of songs that we all wrote together as a group. Like “To the Moon,” for example—I wrote that song. You can usually tell mine because they have simpler chord progressions [Laughs], but I’m getting a little more complex in that department. It’s great because even as I get to know our music—I know that sounds strange, but listening to it is very different than playing it—I start to hear the little nuances and pieces of each member and what they contributed. I think the best part about our evolution has been each of us really honing in on what we contribute to the sound…And that’s the fun part—I never want to settle on a way of writing. I want to keep evolving in that department. So We’re Here Now is just a really cool compilation of songs that were written in all different ways, during different periods of the crazy shit we’ve been through as a band, and that I’ve been through as a human being. And it’s just going to keep evolving.
The record is cohesive and well-produced, and it showcases The Primates as much as it showcases you, which I think is really great. When I was listening to it, I felt like in a lot of ways it comes off like a debut record, even though it’s your second official release.
I agree. On Gasoline —which was technically our first album—there was so much growth happening in that moment. We didn’t have a lot of money. I’m very proud of that album, don’t get me wrong. But this was the first time that we really got a producer that knew…Well, it was our first time using a producer. On Gasoline, we kind of produced it ourselves. We had a lot of help from my high school band director, and very good friend Brian Wallace, who is more of a ska and reggae musician.
What I mean to say is that this was the first time we really honed in on who would be the best fit to do what we were trying to put out. And Craig Brodhead is the guitarist for Turkuaz, so he’s got all of that under his belt. Plus he’s done a lot of other, folk-ier and alternative stuff—he just has a wealth of knowledge. And his ear is great—he gets these ideas that I would never think of. But yes, I completely agree that this does sound like our debut album. It’s also the first one that we’ve been able to put some oomph behind, as far as marketing and getting it out to people. We have a manager now and a marketing team—all these things that we didn’t have with the other album. With the other album, we just put on Facebook, “Hey, we have an album,” and carried a box to our shows hoping people would buy it. Now we’re on iTunes and Spotify and all these things; it’s just the next big step. It feels like a debut album in the sense of it’s our first time where we really did it in a very professional way with all of the best people around it and backing behind it.
The record was funded by a Kickstarter. Why you guys decided to go that route, and how did it feel that you were able to exceed your goal and still have a lot of creative control behind your record?
Oh, it was wonderful. The crowdfunding thing is so wonderful, because you’re not asking for a handout. You’re asking people to front you the money. It’s great because you say, “Hey listen, we want to make this for you. If you just pay us now, we’ll get it to you in a year or two…” [Laughs.] Patrons of the arts are still very much a thing, so this is a new platform for what, to me, is a very old way of doing things, where people help support artists and musicians so that they can make their art.
I’m also looking at PledgeMusic. I have a project with Ryan Montbleau called, Yes Darling, and we’re going to be doing a PledgeMusic campaign to make an album that I’m also really excited about.
Our goal is to put it out on Valentine’s Day, because the project is kind of this theatrical, comedic folk duet. It’s very much based on a romantic relationship. It’s like if June Carter and Johnny Cash were a little more honest and blunt about what it’s like to be in a relationship. One girl called it June Carter and Johnny Cash meets Tenacious D, which I really liked. Somebody else said it’s like listening to your parents argue to music. [Laughs.] That one kind of made me sad, but I get what they’re saying. There are very deep love songs, but then there are also hilarious argument songs. We make you cry, and then we make you crack up. It’s like a relationship, you know?
Since Yes Darling has some theatrics involved, I wanted to ask about your background in musical theater. What was your favorite role that you ever played?
Oh my goodness. Well, I gotta be real. I worked for Disney and I signed an NDA, so I don’t know how much I can say. But, it wasn’t so much my favorite one role, but the fact that I was playing a role at Disneyland during the day, and then I would get off work at Disneyland and rush over to rehearsal for Cabaret, where I played Lulu the German prostitute. It was something about getting to play a very wholesome character all day, and then clock out and go and put on 1930s-style underwear and paint bruises on my body, and grow out my armpit hair, and paint my cheeks sunken in as if I was malnourished, and play this German prostitute named Lulu. As an actress, there was something unbelievably fulfilling about getting to do both of those within 24 hours of each other. So for that three month period, I was probably the happiest I’ve ever been.
What a juxtaposition.
It was wonderful! And I think if you come and see the Primates, you’re going to see both of those girls. I really try and carry all of that into the shows that we do. All of these different characters, they stick with you—at least with me. They stick with me a lot. I try to summon them back them back for certain songs. There’s a song about a girl that becomes a prostitute, called “Madame Humphrey.” I love to become her. My favorite thing onstage is to blur the line between fiction and reality… to the point where you might find people asking, “Wow, I wonder if Hayley ever was an actual prostitute.” All of these characters are just little pieces of me, whether they’re real or not. They’re things I’ve either thought about or was curious about, or had a friend that did them.
So, I feel really blessed that I started in musical theater, because I think it gave me a level of bravery to take on different characters, and let them take on me. Almost to the point where I don’t even really know who I am anymore [Laughs.]
It creates a captivating performance.
Oh yeah, I mean it really works onstage. But in life it gets me into trouble.
You and your band formed in the Northeast, and the city of Boston really fostered you guys. How specifically do you think that Boston influenced you and your band’s growth?
I moved to Boston when I was 19. I followed a trumpet player named Rich. He was in a band called Westbound Train, and I met those boys out in California when I was 19 years old. They were like, “You should come check out Boston!” And I said, “Okay!”
Back then, you could’ve told me to go anywhere and I would’ve gone. So I went, and I ended up in the traditional ska reggae scene. And then I got scooped up by Big D and the Kid’s Table as a backup singer, and that’s ska punk. In the beginning, Boston was like the 5th member of our band. I went Cambridge every Sunday to see the Frank Morey Band, and I think that shaped me as a lyricist. His lyrics were some of my favorite I’d ever heard. And then the Lizard Lounge and Toad—those are all Cambridge places. I got to do some crazy stuff because of all the different connections in Boston. I had the pleasure of backup singing for Alice Cooper because I just happened to be in the right place at the right time during a recording session with Big D and the Kids Table. It was all the Boston scene. And I bounced around through the Boston scene, not just the ska and reggae scene. I ended up in the folk scene, and then eventually the jam scene. Boston will always be the band’s home.
Yeah, and even during the wedding, I recognized Rob Compa from Dopapod. I was just like, “Oh, it makes sense. You both lived in Boston.”
Exactly, yeah! And with Turkuaz too. A lot of us were at Berklee around the same time. I only did one semester, but it’s funny, you only have to do one semester, and then you’re in. You just get pulled in and it’s all about networking and you just meet a ton of people.
You’ve been playing some shows with Everyone Orchestra alongside some of the guys from moe. and Snarky Puppy. What’s it like being in that kind of entirely improvised sphere?
It’s the best thing. It’s my favorite thing! Matt Butler is a genius. The whole idea behind Everyone Orchestra is inclusion, which think in this world right now, there isn’t enough of. In music, there’s this big separation between the audience and the band, and Matt Butler breaks that down. What I loved about jumping from musical theater to rock-and-roll was that you get to interact with your audience. And Matt Butler, with Everyone Orchestra, takes that to a whole other level, and makes them a member of the band and gets them singing and interacting. The improvisation part is great, because they’ll start playing something, and when he points at you, that’s it. It’s go time. As a lyricist, it’s terrifying. But I find that no matter what—whether it’s lyrics that I have already written or it’s brand new lyrics—it just comes out.
Out of all the silliness and fun and craziness that is Everyone Orchestra, I think when you get to the bottom of it, it’s togetherness and inclusion, and just fun and joy. He’s doing some really good work. I’m really proud just to be on stage with those people. You know, just to be on stage with three members of moe. and Mike from Snarky Puppy. And Ryan Clausen, who, even though I’m in a band with him, I’m one of his biggest fans and have been going to see him since I was like 20 years old. If you’d told me a year or two ago that I’d be in a band with him, I would never have believed you. It still shocks me, even today, that I get to perform with these people. Everyone Orchestra was a really amazing experience.
The last thing I wanted to ask you about, is for a couple of shows over the Halloween season, you guys played the Forrest Gump soundtrack as Jenny & the Gumps. How did you guys stumble on that idea?
We were in a Green Room at the Stone Church in New Hampshire. And they have this old TV with a VHS player attached to it, and a bunch of VHS tapes. And Forrest Gump was there, so we put it in, and we watched the whole thing. We were just thinking, “What if we did Jenny & the Gumps?” I can’t even say that it was me that said it. It was very collective
We just wanted to play the music, really. And then, we just started laughing at the idea of the guys dressing up as different Gumps from the movie. But in the end, we liked it because…We just like to do things that we like to do. I think when you do things that make you really happy and make you laugh, as a band and as individuals, I don’t think it matters if people get it. They’ll get it once they see how much fun you’re having. The second you stop doing the things that really get you off, people will notice that.
I think the main thing with you guys is that you’re always having fun. That’s something you can really pick up from the audience.
Yeah! Well, the second we aren’t having fun I’ll go do something else. But so far, so good.
