Music > Interviews

Hayseed Dixie

09/12/14

Watching Jools Holland’s Hogmanay is a great way to pass the time afore Ye Olde Yeare bells chime. It also introduces the nation to those musical acts we may not know so well; I’ll never forget that time that Seasick Steve played. This year, Hayseed Dixie, long-bearded-bluegrass-rock-covers-band were defo the highlight of the night. The boys from Nashville have been about for 14 years and toured in over 30 countries. Lead singer John, is a true Southern Gentleman. We chatted for 45 full minutes about everything from politics to a smart tweed suit he bought in Norwich. What a guy. He’s bringing the whole Hayseed shebang over to the Waterfront this month to play some crowd favourites and some songs from their latest album, Hair Down To My Grass.

Can you give me a brief run down on how you guys met and got together?

Hayseed Dixie’s been a band now for 14 years. It seems like these guys have always been on stage with me; I mean, it’s been a long time. This is now our 14th album!

How do you choose which songs from your 14 albums to play live?

It seems that every album has had one or two songs that everyone always wants to hear, and if we try to take to take those out of the set people will complain in large masses and at great volumes and with huge torrential downpours. I guess that’s a good problem to have though! But in a 90 minute set if I’m gonna say anything to the people in between songs other than “Heyhow’reyoudoinglet’sROCK” then we’re gonna have to take some of them out to make room for the new songs.

What’s your most iconic song?

I’m Keeping Your Poop In A Jar. I suggest you go to Spotify to hear it if you haven’t already. That will determine if you really ought to come and see us. It’ll tell you if you’re truly British and have an ironic sense of humour or whether you lean more towards the American or French side where you don’t like to laugh at yourself! People will listen to that song and say oh it’s so disgusting, but they don’t mind one bit when Eminem gets up and cusses and screams and talks about beating bitches and hoes. I don’t use any words that can’t be said before 6pm on CBeebies. People expect songs which are kinda folk-ish or country-ish to be this safe, wholesome kind of music. The history of those genres, however, covers the stories of murder, highwaymen, death, people living hard lives and kids dying…we’re not talking about floppy, aw shucks, Sunday morning church music here, you know!

Have you been to Norwich before?

Actually yes, I’ve spent quite a lot of time kickin’ about in Norwich, and my wife wants to move there; we live in Cambridge right now. Norwich reminds me a bit of Nashville where I’m from really. We’re just thinking about what schools are good in Norwich; mind you, it’s hard to judge on how good a school is. I didn’t go to a fancy school, and my mother always looks at my albums and says “I’m so sorry, I failed you, I didn’t raise you right”. But then, if your music doesn’t somewhat scare your momma, you’re not doing it right! There have been songs I’ve been unable to put on our albums as my mother-in-law always buys our albums; I really wish she wouldn’t do that! There’s one song we do called I Wish I Was You So I Could Fuck Me; My wife’s mother stopped making me Beef Stroganoff for a while after she heard that song.

Do you have a favourite tune you like performing live?

It depends on the audience. I do like I’m Keeping Your Poop..for an audience that’s never seen us play before; when it gets to the chorus I love seeing that moment of being caught between attraction and disgust. I watch them straddle that one. For a folk audience I really like playing Highway to Hell because it scares the shit out of ‘em. We’ve got a version of We’re Not Gonna Take It on our new album that I’m looking forward to playing live; we’ve done it like a campfire song, and the way we sing it you can really hear the words. That track could have been written by Woody Guthrie, man; it’s got that whole We Shall Overcome vibe.

What sort of reaction have you had from the press?

Well we’re hoping We’re Not Gonna Take It gives us a level of credibility we’ve always lacked. Did you know that the guitarist from Chumbawumba gave one of our albums one star in Record Collector in 2006? I’m sorry none of these songs remind you of the good times or the better times, buddy. What can I say?! USA Today said out Kiss My Grass record was the worst record of the year in 2003! That takes some doing!

As you play loads of covers, do you have to pay a lot in royalties?

You have to pay royalties to the songwriters; it’s something like 85p per record subdivided by the number of songs on the record. That gets paid before I see anything, so I don’t really know how much I’m losing. Whenever you play a live set you have to fill out a form for PRS saying what songs you played and who wrote them. In a Hayseed show it’s usually half songs I wrote and half other people’s songs. The thing about being in the music industry is you can’t rely on one source of income; it’s best to have a lot of little things going at the same time and that way your kids can eat chicken most nights.

You’ve recorded some songs in other languages and have toured all over the world. What have you learnt on your travels?

A reasonable amount actually. If you turn up and you ask people questions about their town people always want to tell you about it. What historically has made this town tick? What drives the economy now? What’s real life on the ground like for an average dude in Thurso or wherever? I know more about it than a lot of politicians do because my job has allowed me to go an hang out with these people night after night. It’s been very interesting and I feel really lucky.  

Have you had the opportunity to learn about traditional music from different countries?

Most folk music honestly is generally pretty similar across Western civilisations; it’s all based on the same 12 note scale, roughly the same time signatures, the melody lines tend to resolve in roughly the same way; it’s all based on Bach really! The stories are all about roughly the same things. If you go to places where people have a higher standard of living their songs are darker, and when people have shittier lives their songs are a lot happier. If you go to Mexico it’s all happy, and if you go to Norway it’s all “BURN DOWN THE CHURCH!”

You play covers of a lot of older songs, but what modern music do you like?

Left to my own devices, I’d sit and play piano all day. I do quite like Ben Folds, he writes quite quirky songs, and I actually think Bruno Mars’ record is cool! I think he’s a pretty good singer writing decent songs. He’s not 100% my thing, but I think he’s pretty good at what he does. Other than classical music, which I what I mostly listen to, that’s about it. It’s pretty hard to talk about Rachmaninoff or Bach, but they’re hard to top!

Do you consider Hayseed Dixie to be a folk band?

No, I’ve always thought of us as a rock band. It just so happens that we play instruments which are more associated with folk music. I never thought the presentation, the attitude or the music of the band ever had anything to do with folk music, or anything like what people from Nashville would compare to country music. They’d never make a film like Spinal Tap about country music!

Hayseed Dixie play the Waterfront on 18th January. Tickets from www.ueaticketbookings.co.uk