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Art can emerge at any age, and that’s just as true of younger artists as those who find their creative voices later on. Sydney singer-songwriter Hayden Phillis is not yet twenty years old and has spent his teen years developing his skills as a musician, singer and songwriter, attending the CMAA Academy of Country Music three times – twice as a singer-songwriter, once in the instrumentalist strand, which he describes as one of his favourite experiences, forcing him to rapidly develop piano skills and adaptability in a band setting.
His debut album, Too Young, may have been released only last year but Phillis already has a new single, ‘Stick Poke Tattoos’, which was inspired by a friend’s relationship and written using Phillis’s somewhat wry powers of observation. He’s a songwriter who is interested in human experiences, and exploring them through his songs. He writes on buses, at gigs, in the notes app on his phone – collecting fragments, testing them against what he already has, and discarding what doesn’t fit.
I had the attitude of writing what I see and what I think,’ he says. ‘I wasn’t trying to put myself in a box that everyone will like.’
Both the first album and his forthcoming second, which is to be called What Time Doesn’t Know, were recorded at Rabbit Hole Recording Studio on the Central Coast with producer Dingo (Brandon Dodd), a collaboration Phillis talks about in this new interview.
He also mentions his upcoming long trip to Nashville, his plans for the 2027 Tamworth Country Music Festival – and his hobby making video games, which is another creative outlet and form of storytelling.
Listen to ‘Stick Poke Tattoos’ on Apple Music
Listen to ‘Stick Poke Tattoos’ on YouTube
