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Photo by Caity Krone

As the temperatures begin to drop and leaves change color, indie folk artists crawl out from their summer hibernation to provide us with the perfect fall soundtrack. Acoustic guitars and soulful voices accompany us through the cooling weather as we slip into our flannels and sip apple cider, and this year Hazlett is providing the music. The Australian-born, Sweden-based singer joined us via Zoom from a cafe in LA to talk about his new album, last night you said you missed me, opening for Noah Kahan, and experiencing seasons for the first time. 

I love how “doing my best” opens the album. It’s such an honest, open song, and it immediately sets the tone for the whole project. What was it like crafting the rest of the tracklist?

Hazlett: It’s good that you noticed that. I think that any time I write an album, I’m waiting for the one song. I came up with this idea of calling it the Sun song because I find that once you find that one song, everything else orbits around it. When I write, I’ll write and write, one song will jump out. Last album it was “Blame The Moon” and I was like “Okay this is the song that feels like it encapsulates this period of time.” Then you pull a drum sound or a lyric from that song and it extends itself out into the other songs. “doing my best”, the whole album really, was kind of an accident. I was actually supposed to take a break and then I picked up my guitar one day, and I call it a creative check in, you pick up your guitar one day and you can kind of quickly tell in your fingertips if there’s something there or not. So I’ll pick it up for five minutes and be like “Nah I’m going to go do something else today,” but I picked up my guitar and “doing my best” just fell out. Half of me was like “Oh no I really want to take a break right now,” and then the other part of me was excited about having that feeling again and I wasn’t expecting it to happen right now. That happened and I called Freddy, who I produce everything with, and I said “Can we get some studio time? I think I’m ready to go,” and even he was a bit surprised. We went away a week later and the whole album came together in a month, it was a very quick process. 

I love that description of a “Sun song” and I love hearing about when projects come together so quickly kind of accidentally.

I’ve tried to force writing. I’ll beat my head against the wall and try to write a song for months and months. I feel like even when you finish it sometimes it’s never something you’re proud of or happy about. Maybe it was getting older, maybe it was coming to terms with you should just wait for it to come along. Now I hold it all a little less in my grip instead of trying to grab on and be like “I have to find the one song!” I guess it’s some weird metaphor of falling in love or dating, in there too. 

Sometimes taking that step back makes all the difference. Talking a bit more about tracklist, what was it about “last night you said you missed me” that made you feel like it encapsulated the project and made it the titular track?

The album was originally called Honey, and then I changed it towards the end. Early in my music career I did a lot of trying to do what people would think is good, or what you think people would like from you. I got away from that with the past couple albums. This album, I guess because it’s going into more of a band sound and it's a bit foreign for me to step away from the acoustic guitars, part of me was going back into that nervous feeling of what do people expect from me? Do people expect anything? Will people care? Should I do something cool? I wrestled with that for a while and then eventually it just fell into place with “last night you said you missed me.” That grabbed the whole period of time I was going through. I went through a long term relationship ending and stuff like that. All these push and pulls of trying to think everything happens for a reason, you come to terms with a phrase like that and then part of you is like “I can fix things,” then you’re like “No, I need to let things be.” It’s a push and pull. “last night you said you missed me” summed that up for me. Last night you may have said something but then the next day it changes.

You mentioned moving away from acoustic guitar a little bit, but it’s still present throughout the album. Is this where most of your songs start?

Yeah. I’ve got this old Martin in my house. It’s the very first guitar I bought when I decided I wanted to start singing. I was 25, 26, I got into singing quite late. My guitar’s called Daphne, she’s a lovely guitar. She doesn’t get out on the road much anymore but it’s definitely the guitar I pick up the most and everything starts on. I’ll walk around my apartment, pick up the guitar, nothing’s there, go do something else, come back, and then I’ll sit down, me and this acoustic guitar, and four or five ideas will fall out in an hour. Even if they’re not fully finished, it’s the moment I wait for with all the writing. Starts on acoustic and then we’ll dig in a little more, electrics come out and you can see the sweet spots where the acoustic is needed. There’s something about an acoustic guitar that’s so timeless and sincere. The more you explore away from it feels better coming back to it for certain songs. I think a part of me’s like “This album is so different,” but to most people it’s probably not. When it’s you creating it, it’s never too far from what you are.

Do all your guitars have names?

Yes. Unfortunately a lot of the ones I own are back in Australia. I haven’t moved them up to Sweden. My other favorite one, her name’s Gloria, she’s my electric guitar. I just got a new guitar recently but I’m yet to name that guitar. A bit of a TBD at the moment.

Would love an update once this one has a name.

I need to find a connection with this guitar. It’s like writing the songs, I have to wait for the right thing to come along.

I’m so glad you mentioned living up in Sweden. You’re Australian but have lived in Sweden since 2019. Does your environment impact your creative process? Do you think if you were still in Australia that your music would have the same sound it does now?

No. Sonically speaking, I met Freddy, we’ve produced all my songs for the past six years together, every song I’ve put out he’s had a hand in. It’s been huge me and him clashing. He’s done huge pop records. I think Scandinavians get this label of high quality, highly polished producers and I come from a very DIY background, let’s make everything sound like it’s come out of trash can. We’ve hit this nice sweet spot, in terms of building soundscapes, of meeting in the middle, which wouldn’t have happened if I stayed in Australia and was left to my own devices. I think a lot of the stuff I would’ve done would’ve come out cliche. It’s been fun being a solo artist but you definitely need that person to collaborate with and swap ideas with, or else you’re in your own echo chamber. 

Environment wise, I never experienced seasons properly. We just have different degrees of summer in Australia, particularly where I’m from in Brisbane. Going up to Sweden, it’s my first time experiencing leaves turning brown, and being like a little kid and kicking them along a footpath. It’s my first time enduring winter, where the sun comes up at 10 am and goes down at 3 pm. It was a big roller coaster, it probably made the music more depressing honestly. Going through those environmental changes, it’d be silly to say it hasn’t rubbed off in some way, I’m sure my subconscious has been taking a lot of that in.  

Let’s talk about live shows. You were hand picked by Noah Kahan to be one of the openers for his BST Hyde Park show. Can you give us a little behind the scenes of what it was like when Noah reached out? And what was the actual show like?

I didn’t believe it when he reached out. I was in Nashville at the time. I was skipping down the street afterwards with my coffee in my hand. Obviously I wasn’t allowed to say anything about it at the time, so I was in my own little bubble. I didn’t believe it until I did it, and even after I did it I was still in a little bit of disbelief. When it comes to these festivals a lot of times you don’t get time for soundcheck. I’ve learned that when you’re on earlier in the day you just need to have your gear set up side of stage and say a little prayer, push on, and hope that it sounds good when you get out there. When you’re the first act of the day, which I was, there’s a little window between when the headliner finishes and when they open the doors, when you might be able to sneak a soundcheck in. Noah was soundchecking and I’m feeling like a kid on the first day of school, holding my guitar pedals just waiting to see if there’s a small window, because obviously I’m super nervous and a soundcheck goes a long way to making you feel a bit better. I’m sitting there, feeling a bit like a fish out of water, I look to my left and Gracie Abrams is next to me, I look back again and Lewis Capaldi is next to her, I was like “What am I doing here?” Noah finished sound check, had a nice chat with him, we chatted about golf, and thanked him so much for allowing me to do a bucket list item. People asked me post-show “How was it? How did it feel?” and I don’t know, I don’t remember, I blacked out. I still don’t really think it happened. 

You’ve also got a headline North American tour coming up. What’s your prep process for a big tour look like, where you’re the headliner and people are coming to see you?

I try not to think about that last part that you just said. I worked in advertising for two years so I live my life by managing expectations, so under promise, over deliver. If I expect no one to be there, I’ll be happy if people turn up. The process of prepping is rehearsals with the band. We did a little pop up here in LA and I was chatting to people about it, they were asking how I was feeling and if it’s much different from a solo set. In a way it feels like I’m starting again. I’ve toured by myself for three, four years now, just me and a guitar. If something goes wrong, I know how to get out of it. If I mess up a part of a song I can figure out a way to change or adapt. I can sub out a song on the setlist if it doesn’t feel like the right time. Now, in a weird way I have to go back to trusting people. I’m excited, I’m not nervous in a scared way. I’ve always been scared of being a cliche singer songwriter and being perceived that way. I always wanted to make sure there was depth to the songs. Not just lyrically but sonically, there’s layers and things like that. It’s going to be nice to showcase some of the extra stuff that’s gone into the songs, the layers, the intricate melodies of the guitars and keyboards. It feels like starting again but in a good way.   

Starting a new era, instead of starting again.

Yeah! I have toyed around with the idea of using that word but I feel like Taylor Swift has that word cornered, so I need to think of another word other than era, and not step on that turf. 

You touched a little bit on festival performances with the Noah Kahan show. How do you prepare for festival performances versus headline shows?

A lot of the past year or so, it’s been a lot of new experiences and figuring it out as I go. I always knew festivals would be different, I don’t think I realized how different they would be. When you’re playing festivals, especially during the day time, you have to play a lot more “bangers” and I don’t have a lot of bangers. I like to try and move in the subtleties of that. We might erupt bigger into parts of songs or I’ll talk to Greg, the drummer, and say “Let’s really stomp on that kick drum during ‘shiver’” and give something that people passing by might feel. I think it would also be a disservice if I tried to change things too drastically. I’m not going to suddenly bring in a ton of electronic backing tracks and start singing everything 10 BPM faster just to try and bring the crowd in. It’s trying to have a little confidence, which I lack sometimes, of this is what I do and hopefully the right people come by and listen to them and like them.

Who are your OnesToWatch? 

I’ve been listening to a lot of Becky and the Birds. She’s up in Sweden. I’d say she’s like female Bon Iver. It’s really cool, lots of interesting layers, she has an amazing voice. I’ve been listening to a lot of Charlie Hickey, lately, I really like his stuff. I’ll shoutout another Swede: Augustine. That's a good thing about being up there you uncover a lot of stuff that hasn’t broken out just yet but he’s great.