Some artists stay in their lane; they find a sound and refine it record after record. Others never stand still, musical chameleons adapting to their environment, mood and the prevailing wind. Then you get someone like Darren Hayman, who seems to simultaneously do both. Darren can still release an indie-pop album that will have Hefner fans flocking back, or he can release a concept album about Essex Witch Trials or take William Morris’ Chants for Socialists and give them a soundtrack. He’s released so many albums that probably only God and Jamie for Audio Antihero have any idea how many, yet he still manages to surprise us all.
In the midst of tidying up his peerless back catalogue, Darren has also decided to put out a few things that hadn’t previously seen the light of day, the latest of which is I’m Your Team, a quietly remarkable collection of duets between Darren and the notoriously fickle DX7 synthesiser, accompanied by a rhythm section of Rickenbacker bass and a TR707 drum machine. Those really in the know will probably notice similar themes to those explored on 2022’s You Will Not Die, which is, in a way, I’m Your Team’s thematic predecessor, as he explains, “sometimes after making an album you don’t want to go into a different direction. You want to go deeper into it, and I felt I was just getting the hang of this stripped, slow, emotional music”.
While all the talk of synthesisers might have you expecting some sort of Pet Shop Boys-esque retro-futuristic pop direction from Darren, this is definitely at the more sedentary end of the electronic-pop spectrum, bringing to mind the likes of Elvis Depressedly or Advance Base in its fusion of slowcore and electronica. That’s not to say I’m Your Team isn’t a record without shifts in both tempo and mood, from the Penguin Cafe Orchestra-like flourishes of I Will Paint You through to the twinkling Words Fall Out of Me, which starts out nodding to Beach House and ends as the record’s most overtly pop moment courtesy of a delicious rumbling bass-line and Darren’s vocal embracing his indie-pop origins.
Today Darren takes us through the album track-by-track, talking influences from reggae to Whitney Huston, the complexities of programming a DX& synthesiser and which track might be, “the best song I’ve ever written“.
I Made Up My Mind
This is an album made completely on a DX7 and TR707 drum machine and a Rickenbacker bass. Oh, and my voice as well. I do sing on it.
The DX7 is a very hard synthesiser to program; in fact, I have probably already forgotten everything I learnt. It has things called “carriers” and printed flowcharts and algorithms along the top of it. You enter different values with a slider through a small LCD screen.
It’s known for having a very cheesy sound, and the electric piano in particular is a mainstay of 90s R&B and pop, but it is also used by Aphex Twin and Brian Eno, so go figure. MY DX7 was given to me by Pete Astor. He didn’t even want it cluttering up his house. He said, “Here, just have it.”
I think I was thinking a little bit about those ’83 and ’85 Lewis records that were discovered a few years ago. Absolutely still, very sad, but romantic.
This is a very simple song with a simple message: It’s you, I can’t change my mind, no matter how hard it is, it’s you, I’m in love with you.
Darling All The Time
Sometimes a tune or a title line stays with you for years because it grows into a proper song. “Darling, All the Time” was a little refrain that I would often sing when I picked up an acoustic guitar. It had a kind of bluegrass-hillbilly feeling to it. Maybe it also sounded like those early McCartney songs. Like, a thing he would record on his farm.
It’s fun to sometimes completely strip a song out of its original setting. What was originally fast and acoustic is now slow, electronic and programmed.
I Will Make You New
I loved it when I could make this kind of fluttering, indistinct ghostly sound with the DX7. The keyboard has a tendency to sound quite luscious and opulent. I don’t know if I originally intended this to have words; maybe I did. The bass guitar becomes the most human thing on here. It’s really where the tune resides. I enjoy that it doesn’t really move. It just stays there. Perfectly still. It just sits beside you.
I’m a noisy person, and I sometimes make noisy music. But sometimes I need things to be quieter. Just like you do.
I Will Paint You
Like a lot of my songs, there is a nursery rhyme-like simplistic quality to this one. I can imagine this to be something that would put people a little off me. It’s probably irritating. It’s not the first time, nor probably the last, that I’ve tried to sing about my painting. My art and music cross-pollinate so much, and painting is such a big part of my life that it would be ridiculous to not expect it to turn up in lyrics.
I love the way this song just pulses. My voice probably isn’t the right voice to have placed upon these very pristine backing tracks, but in some ways that might be the appeal of this album. My little, broken voice, surrounded by jewels.
Say if You Want Me To Stay
I love reggae but feel very guilty when the influence pokes through in my work. I’m worried about being seen as a cultural tourist or appropriative. I usually try and make it sound as white as possible. “C Moon” by Wings is usually my benchmark.
Once again, simplicity and repetition are the key ingredients here. I’m surprised at how much this is a love album. A lot of the songs are about a plea for openness and honesty. If we like each other, let’s say so.
Once again, this song is purposefully too long. It should be two minutes shorter. The tune becomes a mantra and outstays its welcome, so you are forced to accept it.
I Refuse
This is kind of that very typical DX7 piano sound I was talking about earlier. It reeks of Phil Collins and Whitney Houston. Not that that’s a bad thing. I think my original intention was to make the DX7 be something it wasn’t supposed to be, but it persistently declares its personality.
I think also I became immune to these sounds after a while. I grew to love it, like we grow to accept all our lovers’ bad habits.
The message in this song has been used in many of my lyrics. It’s about the beauty of giving up. The sweet release of not caring and accepting defeat.
I love the ending to this. I’ve tried many times before to make this kind of soft music.
Close Your Eyes and Face The Sun
I think this may be my favourite song on the album.
What is it to write a song about a person? It feels almost a rude thing to do. What right have I? This is a song about a particularly dear person who is rarely in my life now. They just used to do the thing in the title a lot. When it was a bright day, they would just close their eyes and pause and face the sun for a few moments of quiet. It was such a mindful thing to watch. I try and do it myself, sometimes.
Of my songs that are specifically about a person, I don’t know if one has ever embodied the person as much as this one, but only I would know that, and I don’t think the person will ever hear this song in any case.
The arrangement slowly brings in all the instruments one by one, and then they all gradually disappear. Just like a relationship.
Maybe this is the best song I’ve ever written? I think it now as I listen to it. But I’ll forget that later on.
Words Fall Out of Me
Another song that took a completely different form at an earlier stage. Also a refrain that had been hanging around for a year or two before. It’s a song about the need to shut the fuck up. Shut up Darren. Just shut up. Why don’t you shut up?
Make Love Stay
It’s interesting to find the word “stay” in another song on here. I think the album is about wanting to stay and never leave but understanding that something is over.
I’m not always so hot at vocal harmonies, but these aren’t too bad.
I like this kind of wavering, uncertain lead keyboard playing that I do here and on a couple of songs on this album.
It’s twitchy and hesitant amongst what is a quite steady and lush-sounding record.
I’m Your Team
Once again, the opening lyric is something I’ve had for years, ever since hearing someone say it once.
Hopefully the album comes across as kind and good in the end. That’s my intention, and this seems like the right song to also give the record its title.
No matter what. I am on your side. Honestly.
I’m Your Team is out now via Audio Antihero. For more information on Darren Hayman visit https://hefnet.com/
