Meet the rural Southland musician capturing attention

Lachie Hayes' family has done the world a favour because what we have now is a musician who has a bright future in front of him.

Southland Musician Lachie Hayes.

There was a decision to make in Lachie Hayes’ musical family home when he was a kid.

‘Either play us a song or head to bed’.

Hayes always chose the song. And still does.

The harmonica-playing, guitar strumming, singer-songwriter from rural Southland is starting to capture the attention of a much wider audience through his authentic musical offering.

Hayes is currently working on a new full-length album that is set to be released later this year after being recorded at the MASSAV Studio in Invercargill last year and produced by New Zealand music heavyweight Delaney Davidson.

Southlanders can catch Hayes trial some new songs from his looming album when he performs at various venues over the coming weeks where he will be. (See below for dates & venues).

His sound is built on blues, but has a strong folk, country, and rock flavour weaved in.

From the folk and rock of Bob Dylan to the blues of Robert Johnson and Muddy Waters, Hayes’ list of musical influences is lengthy and diverse.

They are all baked together to form his own storytelling tunes.

Hayes is a deep thinker who latches onto many random thoughts during his songwriting process. Prominent in most of it is his love of film.

“I actually studied film, that was my degree. I still love cinema, especially those old films. They’ve got such poetic language throughout them.

“You know you are watching a film when you are watching those movies. Just the way they are talking.

“I love the cool dry wit of the heroes from the ‘50s and ‘60s, especially the Westerns.”

In Hayes’s eyes, old Western movies lend themselves perfectly to songwriting.

That is evident in his popular track Shoot ‘em once.

The chorus from that song is inspired by dialogue from a Western film called Hombre, starring Paul Newman. Much of the story is from old cowboy movies.

“I am always interested in the character trope of people who break the law, based on a necessity to save the society that made the law to begin with.

“They are too bad to be good but too good to be truly bad. They base their actions on scruples and personal morals rather than societal laws and bureaucracy.”

“That's the Cowboy of cinema in a nutshell. It's Paul Newman, John Wayne and Eastwood. So many of my songs have been inspired by the philosophical questions those characters ask of us as the audience.”

Outside of that movie inspiration, his latest musical work also weaves in storylines from people he has met through his journey to date, and just the world’s weird offerings in general.

“A lot of it is just from throwaway lines and I’ll pick it up and flesh them out and turn them into whole songs.

“I guess I am [a deep thinker], I tend to fixate on things that are not necessarily important.”

Hayes’s musical journey started on the family farm in small-town New Zealand - Tokanui, Southland.

It started early for Hayes. Hayes was pictured in The Southland Times playing the harmonica as a two-year-old.

By 2018 Hayes had become Southland’s Entertainer of the Year and a first-time father in the space of just four days.

That Southland Entertainer of the Year crown came just two years after his dad Steven Hayes was awarded the same honour, highlighting the talent of the family.

“Music has always been around. My parents are both musical as were my grandparents and even my great-grandies.

“I didn't discover music as much as it discovered me. I was dragged to pubs about the place to fill in on guitar or drums or whatever I was told to at a young age.”

His family has done the world a favour because what we have now is a musician who is thrilling audiences and has a bright future in front of him.

Lachie Hayes’ looming dates

- Speights Ale House - Invercargill, April 5th

- Tokanui Tavern, Tokanui - April 13th

- Rootstock Festival, Wilson's Farm, April 20th

- The Redcliffe, Te Anau, April 20th

- Speights Ale House, Invercargill, April 27th

- Tussock Late Night, Gore, May 25th