The Sit Down with Hayley Jensen
Following the success of her trip to the UK last summer,Australia’s highest-selling female country artist and 5x Golden Guitar Finalist Hayley Jensen is set to return later this month for a headline show in Birmingham and to perform at The Long Road Festival.
Following on from the success of last year’s “Country Soul” album, Hayley has recently shared the second release of her next era with “WILD AS THE WIND” which is the focal point for her extensive Australian tour around the trip to the British Isles. With the return to these shores on the horizon, Hayley joined us over Zoom to look ahead to the trip.
Hey, Hayley, how you doing?
“Hello, I'm good, how are you?”
I'm great and looking forward to you heading over for what will be trip number three, I guess.
“Yeah, the first one and the second were too far in between, but now this is the second year back in a row and I’m so excited to be coming back.”
I’m looking forward to finally get to see you play because 2018 was the first time you came over and I couldn’t make Buckle & Boots that year as I was in Nashville, then last year I was in Germany but I’ll make up for it at The Long Road this summer. What have you heard about that as a festival?
“Whenever I come back over there, I just feel like there's so many exciting opportunities and the scene over there is just absolutely exploding. So, everybody that I spoke to at Buckle & Boots this last time had a recommendation of you've got to get on this festival, you've got to come back for this and you've got to do that, but the one that I kept hearing over and over again was The Long Road. They were saying you've got to go to The Long Road, so I had my little eyes and radar set on that and I knew that Baylen, who is the talent booker for it was at CMC Rocks this year, so I followed up afterwards and went, hi, I know you were here and if you happened to catch my set I would love to come and play at your festival. Then I was lucky to get an offer. It came in quite late actually, I thought that the lineup had all been finalised and then I got an offer when I think they were probably just about to announce the next round of artists.”
Are you just playing one day?
“I’m doing two, the Saturday and the Sunday.”
Love it and that means you’ll get to play a couple of different stages which are all so well themed there and I’m sure you’ll have the best time.
“I'm so excited.”
Following on from the success of last year’s “Country Soul” album, Hayley has recently shared the second release of her next era with “WILD AS THE WIND” which is the focal point for her extensive Australian tour around the trip to the British Isles. With the return to these shores on the horizon, Hayley joined us over Zoom to look ahead to the trip.
Hey, Hayley, how you doing?
“Hello, I'm good, how are you?”
I'm great and looking forward to you heading over for what will be trip number three, I guess.
“Yeah, the first one and the second were too far in between, but now this is the second year back in a row and I’m so excited to be coming back.”
I’m looking forward to finally get to see you play because 2018 was the first time you came over and I couldn’t make Buckle & Boots that year as I was in Nashville, then last year I was in Germany but I’ll make up for it at The Long Road this summer. What have you heard about that as a festival?
“Whenever I come back over there, I just feel like there's so many exciting opportunities and the scene over there is just absolutely exploding. So, everybody that I spoke to at Buckle & Boots this last time had a recommendation of you've got to get on this festival, you've got to come back for this and you've got to do that, but the one that I kept hearing over and over again was The Long Road. They were saying you've got to go to The Long Road, so I had my little eyes and radar set on that and I knew that Baylen, who is the talent booker for it was at CMC Rocks this year, so I followed up afterwards and went, hi, I know you were here and if you happened to catch my set I would love to come and play at your festival. Then I was lucky to get an offer. It came in quite late actually, I thought that the lineup had all been finalised and then I got an offer when I think they were probably just about to announce the next round of artists.”
Are you just playing one day?
“I’m doing two, the Saturday and the Sunday.”
Love it and that means you’ll get to play a couple of different stages which are all so well themed there and I’m sure you’ll have the best time.
“I'm so excited.”
Even though I missed you last year. I did see that you were playing with Sally and Stephen at those two festivals, so are those Gasoline & Matches guys going to be helping you out again when you're here?
“Yeah, they were the first people I messaged, of course. Even when we were leaving, I was like, I have to come back here more often and I just love them so much. They're just the most beautiful people and they're so generous with their time and with everything. They were just so lovely with sharing contacts and advice for the scene over there, then this time they were like, right, you're staying with us, we’re picking you up from the airport and the whole band is organised. It’s such a relief because it's a stressful thing coming from another country and obviously it's so expensive to travel where I'd love to bring my band from here, but they’re the next best. I mean, they are they're fantastic musicians and gorgeous people, so yeah, it's great.”
I suspected with the gig at Rodeos in Birmingham that you would definitely be catching up with them and I’ll see them next weekend at another festival. We’re seeing more and more of you guys from down under playing over here but if you take Keith or Morgan Evans away and Amy Sheppard, who first came over with the band at the height of “Geronimo” out of the equation, you were kind of the pioneer really that started this new wave back in 2018.
“That was so crazy how it actually all came about. I received this random email from Karl (Hancock) who runs that festival saying, hi, we run a festival in Manchester, it's on our property and it’s a beautiful place but I just saw your music video for “Summertime Soundtrack” on YouTube and I love it, do you want to come and play at our festival? I’m like, I'm getting invited to play from a video on YouTube, how powerful is the internet? I think it was one of my first country singles ever kind and I was just like, wow, when is it? It lined up like perfectly within a week of my husband and my wedding that we'd already planned over there, so we were flying to Europe anyway and I was like I'll be really cheap and I'd love to come. I just met so many people on that trip, I remember going for a walk and hearing Kezia singing on one of the stages, I don't even know that she was on the main stage, I feel like she was on the second stage or something, but I just heard this voice and I was like, who is that? I need to find out who that is and she has just exploded with her music, then meeting Jade (Helliwell) and I think I met Donna (Zanetti) back too, so it’s just such a beautiful crew of people that stayed in touch. Then it was so lovely to go back again last year and now this is going to be a bit of a whirlwind trip as I fly on Monday because I'm in the middle of a tour over here for my new single, then I think I'll land on the Tuesday or something like that, Wednesday we have a rehearsal, Thursday we're at Rodeos and Friday, I get to sleep all day before Saturday and Sunday at the festival before I fly out again on the Monday, so I'm not there long.”
“Yeah, they were the first people I messaged, of course. Even when we were leaving, I was like, I have to come back here more often and I just love them so much. They're just the most beautiful people and they're so generous with their time and with everything. They were just so lovely with sharing contacts and advice for the scene over there, then this time they were like, right, you're staying with us, we’re picking you up from the airport and the whole band is organised. It’s such a relief because it's a stressful thing coming from another country and obviously it's so expensive to travel where I'd love to bring my band from here, but they’re the next best. I mean, they are they're fantastic musicians and gorgeous people, so yeah, it's great.”
I suspected with the gig at Rodeos in Birmingham that you would definitely be catching up with them and I’ll see them next weekend at another festival. We’re seeing more and more of you guys from down under playing over here but if you take Keith or Morgan Evans away and Amy Sheppard, who first came over with the band at the height of “Geronimo” out of the equation, you were kind of the pioneer really that started this new wave back in 2018.
“That was so crazy how it actually all came about. I received this random email from Karl (Hancock) who runs that festival saying, hi, we run a festival in Manchester, it's on our property and it’s a beautiful place but I just saw your music video for “Summertime Soundtrack” on YouTube and I love it, do you want to come and play at our festival? I’m like, I'm getting invited to play from a video on YouTube, how powerful is the internet? I think it was one of my first country singles ever kind and I was just like, wow, when is it? It lined up like perfectly within a week of my husband and my wedding that we'd already planned over there, so we were flying to Europe anyway and I was like I'll be really cheap and I'd love to come. I just met so many people on that trip, I remember going for a walk and hearing Kezia singing on one of the stages, I don't even know that she was on the main stage, I feel like she was on the second stage or something, but I just heard this voice and I was like, who is that? I need to find out who that is and she has just exploded with her music, then meeting Jade (Helliwell) and I think I met Donna (Zanetti) back too, so it’s just such a beautiful crew of people that stayed in touch. Then it was so lovely to go back again last year and now this is going to be a bit of a whirlwind trip as I fly on Monday because I'm in the middle of a tour over here for my new single, then I think I'll land on the Tuesday or something like that, Wednesday we have a rehearsal, Thursday we're at Rodeos and Friday, I get to sleep all day before Saturday and Sunday at the festival before I fly out again on the Monday, so I'm not there long.”
Let's talk about the new era music post “Country Soul” and “WILD AS THE WIND” is the latest one, which we’ll come on to in a bit, but I’m imagining at some point we're working towards the next project. What sort of stage are we at? Are you still writing songs? Are you still in the process of trying to find things? Are we recording? Are we done and into a strategy phase?
“I am currently writing, I'm actually in Adelaide at the moment and I've just recorded another new song, which will come out before the end of this year, probably towards the end of September. So yeah, I'm absolutely just in the writing kind of ideation phase of like, okay, where am I going with this new album and what do I want to do next? It's been kind of tricky because “Country Soul” was only really released at the end of August last year, we did a big tour, then had our awards and everything here in early January and the next minute I was thinking I've got to move on to the next album, but I feel like I've just released this album. It feels like my baby that I'm having to let it go, head off into the big wide world and turn my back tostart thinking about something new. It's actually quite a process when you have to sort of leave the past work behind, I'm still touring it, love performing the songs live and all that sort of stuff, but you have to start getting into this frame of mind of being creative in a different sense.For months, we were just thinking about the live show and promoting the album where it's more about the promotion side of things, whereas now it's like I'm gonna write again, what am I writing about? What do I care about? What do I want to say in this world of ours? What's important to me? It's so fun diving back into that part of the process again and it's like you don't have a recipe so you're just throwing things in and seeing what you can create. I guess the exciting part about being an independent artist is you can experiment and try things to see how they land, thenkeep working from there so it's a really fun stage at the moment. This year, I would probably should be a little bit less stressful kind of year because it's not an album launch year, but I've still been massively busy with everything and am heading back out on tour again in the second half of this year which is really exciting as well. I'm seeding some of the new songs out but it's very early stages, in the next few months, I'd say, I'll be writing a stack of new songs, then we'll be picking, choosing and trying to hone the message.”
You said you’re in Adelaide today, is that the part of Australia on the weird half hour time difference?
“Ha-ha yes, it’s weird, it’s really weird. I've had a bunch of interviews today and I've been sitting there thinking just follow the alarm, it's still all set, it'll readjust with the time that it actually is, but yeah, it is. I mean, it's a beautiful city although I've really been stuck in a hotel room all day actually doing admin stuff but I'm here tonight for the Australian Independent Recording Association Music Awards because “Country Soul” is nominated for Independent Country Album of the Year. It still feels weird because I'm focussed on the new album, writing the new stuff and I'm here to record a new song, but I'm celebrating the album that released last year still, so there's a long tail on these things in some aspects.”
On the new ones, “WILD AS THE WIND” is the most recent and what you are building the tour around at home and tagged the UK shows into it too, where did that one come from and why did you feel that now was the right time for this one to breathe?
“Yeah, it’s probably a little bit of a newer one, “BURN IT DOWN” was quite a while ago, I think it was towards the back end of the “Country Soul” album and was one that could have ended up on that record but I felt like I already had enough big country bangers on that album and I thought no, I'll save that one as the first one out the gate for the next lot. That's how that one came about and “WILD AS THE WIND” was somewhere in between, soit’s really a fresh new start and new song. I wrote this one with an amazing artist and guitarist here called Anthony Snape, who's been over in Nashville for many years touring with Tommy Emmanuel and playing guitar with him, so he's just incredible. I've known him for a really long time and I've known him through a lot of seasons of my life as well, so that's always great when you sit down to write with somebody that you feel like you can be open and share stories with. This song goes right back to when I first was on Australian Idol many, many years ago and I was in a relationship at that time, then we kind of got spat out of the show and it was that waiting for record labels to come knocking but it’s just crickets so it’s okay, well, I'm going to have to really do this myself then. The person that I was with at the time was just like, it's too hard and it's too expensive, do you really think you've got it? I think you should just settle down and get a normal job because it's all a bit too much, this pipe dream that you've got, it's all a bit too lofty. I remember thinking that I'm so close to starting to build something here, I've had this great platform, I've been singing my whole life and my whole world had revolved around music. Learning the piano as a little kid and it all stacks up and you think I'm about to make it but to have somebody that I was with who you think would be supporting you along the journey to be like, nah, just get a normal job and settle down, so it was really tough.
“I am currently writing, I'm actually in Adelaide at the moment and I've just recorded another new song, which will come out before the end of this year, probably towards the end of September. So yeah, I'm absolutely just in the writing kind of ideation phase of like, okay, where am I going with this new album and what do I want to do next? It's been kind of tricky because “Country Soul” was only really released at the end of August last year, we did a big tour, then had our awards and everything here in early January and the next minute I was thinking I've got to move on to the next album, but I feel like I've just released this album. It feels like my baby that I'm having to let it go, head off into the big wide world and turn my back tostart thinking about something new. It's actually quite a process when you have to sort of leave the past work behind, I'm still touring it, love performing the songs live and all that sort of stuff, but you have to start getting into this frame of mind of being creative in a different sense.For months, we were just thinking about the live show and promoting the album where it's more about the promotion side of things, whereas now it's like I'm gonna write again, what am I writing about? What do I care about? What do I want to say in this world of ours? What's important to me? It's so fun diving back into that part of the process again and it's like you don't have a recipe so you're just throwing things in and seeing what you can create. I guess the exciting part about being an independent artist is you can experiment and try things to see how they land, thenkeep working from there so it's a really fun stage at the moment. This year, I would probably should be a little bit less stressful kind of year because it's not an album launch year, but I've still been massively busy with everything and am heading back out on tour again in the second half of this year which is really exciting as well. I'm seeding some of the new songs out but it's very early stages, in the next few months, I'd say, I'll be writing a stack of new songs, then we'll be picking, choosing and trying to hone the message.”
You said you’re in Adelaide today, is that the part of Australia on the weird half hour time difference?
“Ha-ha yes, it’s weird, it’s really weird. I've had a bunch of interviews today and I've been sitting there thinking just follow the alarm, it's still all set, it'll readjust with the time that it actually is, but yeah, it is. I mean, it's a beautiful city although I've really been stuck in a hotel room all day actually doing admin stuff but I'm here tonight for the Australian Independent Recording Association Music Awards because “Country Soul” is nominated for Independent Country Album of the Year. It still feels weird because I'm focussed on the new album, writing the new stuff and I'm here to record a new song, but I'm celebrating the album that released last year still, so there's a long tail on these things in some aspects.”
On the new ones, “WILD AS THE WIND” is the most recent and what you are building the tour around at home and tagged the UK shows into it too, where did that one come from and why did you feel that now was the right time for this one to breathe?
“Yeah, it’s probably a little bit of a newer one, “BURN IT DOWN” was quite a while ago, I think it was towards the back end of the “Country Soul” album and was one that could have ended up on that record but I felt like I already had enough big country bangers on that album and I thought no, I'll save that one as the first one out the gate for the next lot. That's how that one came about and “WILD AS THE WIND” was somewhere in between, soit’s really a fresh new start and new song. I wrote this one with an amazing artist and guitarist here called Anthony Snape, who's been over in Nashville for many years touring with Tommy Emmanuel and playing guitar with him, so he's just incredible. I've known him for a really long time and I've known him through a lot of seasons of my life as well, so that's always great when you sit down to write with somebody that you feel like you can be open and share stories with. This song goes right back to when I first was on Australian Idol many, many years ago and I was in a relationship at that time, then we kind of got spat out of the show and it was that waiting for record labels to come knocking but it’s just crickets so it’s okay, well, I'm going to have to really do this myself then. The person that I was with at the time was just like, it's too hard and it's too expensive, do you really think you've got it? I think you should just settle down and get a normal job because it's all a bit too much, this pipe dream that you've got, it's all a bit too lofty. I remember thinking that I'm so close to starting to build something here, I've had this great platform, I've been singing my whole life and my whole world had revolved around music. Learning the piano as a little kid and it all stacks up and you think I'm about to make it but to have somebody that I was with who you think would be supporting you along the journey to be like, nah, just get a normal job and settle down, so it was really tough.
It took me probably longer than it should have, but I eventually decided I've got to chase this dream and I've got to follow my passion because in this life, we've only got one so you can't go back and I just kept thinking I'm going to regret this if I don't chase after this dream. There's a song out there that says chase it because the dream won't chase you back, so you've really got to, if you want it as there's so many other people that are willing togo the extra miles and if you don't, then it's probably not going to happen. In the meantime, I did end up getting a corporate job and I finished degree that I was doing in economics and management but still doing music on the side and hoping. In the process of all this, I met my now beautiful husband who is just so incredibly supportive, so proud of everything that I am doing and encouraging . You know he was just cheering me on from the outset and was saying you've got to do this. Then I got the courage toleave the corporate gig and Chris was like, just go for it with everything you've got which I'm so glad I did. The second verse of the song is around the time when we firstmet and he was saying to me I'm going to America on this road trip, it's going to be really fun, I've hired a Mustang and I'm going to go from like California through Yosemite National Park to Vegas, it's going to be this awesome American road trip and I'm just going on my own, do you want to come with me? I’d never been to America at this stage and I was like, oh, that sounds so exciting, I don't have the money, I’ll just put it on the corporate credit card and shotgun, I'm there, baby. So, off we went and that was sort of the start of our adventures and journey together. We kind of refer to that in the second part of that song and of the song and it's just about chasing your dreams and I remember thinking at the time, I may never find anybody again, what if it never does happen and I'm throwing all of this away for that, but in the end, I think, you know deep inside that you’ve got to trust your gut and your intuition to chase after the things that are important to you. I feel like we're good at things, they're put on our heart for a reason and yeah it'd be a shame to not follow after it.”
Well good luck tonight and I look forward to meeting you andfinally get see you at the back end of next month, but as afinal question as we are always on the lookout for some new names to check out down under so have you got any namesthat we need to get on our radar and should check out?
“Oh, gosh, there's so many amazing and talented upcoming artists who you guys are already snapping up but I also run an artist coaching business and I have some emerging artists who are getting to put some more stuff out.There is an artist that I'm working with, her name is Coral Renee, she has bright pink hair and she's put one EP out but she's just shown me the recordings for her new EP that’s not released. None of it is released yet, but it's on the way and they sound unreal. I'm so excited for her because she's grown so much since that first EP, you know, the storytelling, the songwriting, her voice andeverything, then the production too. She's working with Stuart Stuart, who did a lot of stuff with Sheppard and is just top shelf. I reckon she's on my radar for and she'll probably get the slip lane to overtake a whole lot of people, she’s great.”
Love that! . Thanks for the hang, I appreciate your time and we'll say hey and have a hug in a few week time.
Well good luck tonight and I look forward to meeting you andfinally get see you at the back end of next month, but as afinal question as we are always on the lookout for some new names to check out down under so have you got any namesthat we need to get on our radar and should check out?
“Oh, gosh, there's so many amazing and talented upcoming artists who you guys are already snapping up but I also run an artist coaching business and I have some emerging artists who are getting to put some more stuff out.There is an artist that I'm working with, her name is Coral Renee, she has bright pink hair and she's put one EP out but she's just shown me the recordings for her new EP that’s not released. None of it is released yet, but it's on the way and they sound unreal. I'm so excited for her because she's grown so much since that first EP, you know, the storytelling, the songwriting, her voice andeverything, then the production too. She's working with Stuart Stuart, who did a lot of stuff with Sheppard and is just top shelf. I reckon she's on my radar for and she'll probably get the slip lane to overtake a whole lot of people, she’s great.”
Love that! . Thanks for the hang, I appreciate your time and we'll say hey and have a hug in a few week time.
HAYLEY JENSEN ‘WILD AS THE WIND’ TOUR 2026
SAT 01 AUG - ROYAL HOTEL QBN QUEANBEYAN NSW
SUN 02 AUG - BENDED ELBOW ALBURY NSW
FRI 07 AUG - BRASS MONKEY CRONULLA NSW
THU 13 AUG - ARCO BAR HEATHERTON VIC
FRI 14 AUG - NOOJEE HOTEL NOOJEE VIC
SAT 15 AUG - John Cain Arena MELBOURNE VIC
SUN 16 AUG - EUREKA HOTEL GEELONG VIC
SAT 22 AUG - ADELAIDE Entertainment Centre ADELAIDE SA
THU 27 AUG - RODEOS BBQ BIRMINGHAM UK
SAT 29-SUN 30 SEP - THE LONG ROAD LEICESTERSHIRE UK
THU 03 SEP - BIGSOUND 2026 BRISBANE QLD
FRI 04 SEP - BEAUDESERT SHOW BEAUDESERT QLD
SAT 12 SEP - TRIPLE B RODEO CABOOLTURE QLD
FRI 18 SEP - THE BEER SHED CAMPBELLTOWN NSW
SAT 19 SEP - THE OAKS ALBION PARK NSW
FRI 25 SEP - LEICHHARDT HOTEL ROCKHAMPTON QLD
SAT 26 SEP - MCGUIRES HOTEL MACKAY QLD
SUN 27 SEP - THE WAREHOUSE TOWNSVILLE QLD
THU 01 OCT - LITTLE ALBERTS BATHURST NSW
FRI 02 OCT - THE ESTABLISHMENT DUBBO NSW
FRI 09 OCT - FULL THROTTLE RANCH BUTTAI NSW
SAT 31 OCT - NEVILLE COUNTRY MUSTER NEVILLE NSW
The latest single “WILD AS THE WIND” from Hayley Jensen is out now and is available HERE. You can find ticket information for all of her tour dates (listed above) including the upcoming shows here in the UK on her WEBSITE and follow along to see all that Hayley is up to socially over on INSTAGRAM FACEBOOK X & TIKTOK.
The Long Road Festival takes place at Stanford Hall in Leicestershire between Thursday 27th and Sunday 30th August, with tickets on sale now. You can find ticket details and further information on their WEBSITE and you can be the first to know all updates ahead of this year’s event by checking out their socials on INSTAGRAM or FACEBOOK.
SAT 01 AUG - ROYAL HOTEL QBN QUEANBEYAN NSW
SUN 02 AUG - BENDED ELBOW ALBURY NSW
FRI 07 AUG - BRASS MONKEY CRONULLA NSW
THU 13 AUG - ARCO BAR HEATHERTON VIC
FRI 14 AUG - NOOJEE HOTEL NOOJEE VIC
SAT 15 AUG - John Cain Arena MELBOURNE VIC
SUN 16 AUG - EUREKA HOTEL GEELONG VIC
SAT 22 AUG - ADELAIDE Entertainment Centre ADELAIDE SA
THU 27 AUG - RODEOS BBQ BIRMINGHAM UK
SAT 29-SUN 30 SEP - THE LONG ROAD LEICESTERSHIRE UK
THU 03 SEP - BIGSOUND 2026 BRISBANE QLD
FRI 04 SEP - BEAUDESERT SHOW BEAUDESERT QLD
SAT 12 SEP - TRIPLE B RODEO CABOOLTURE QLD
FRI 18 SEP - THE BEER SHED CAMPBELLTOWN NSW
SAT 19 SEP - THE OAKS ALBION PARK NSW
FRI 25 SEP - LEICHHARDT HOTEL ROCKHAMPTON QLD
SAT 26 SEP - MCGUIRES HOTEL MACKAY QLD
SUN 27 SEP - THE WAREHOUSE TOWNSVILLE QLD
THU 01 OCT - LITTLE ALBERTS BATHURST NSW
FRI 02 OCT - THE ESTABLISHMENT DUBBO NSW
FRI 09 OCT - FULL THROTTLE RANCH BUTTAI NSW
SAT 31 OCT - NEVILLE COUNTRY MUSTER NEVILLE NSW
The latest single “WILD AS THE WIND” from Hayley Jensen is out now and is available HERE. You can find ticket information for all of her tour dates (listed above) including the upcoming shows here in the UK on her WEBSITE and follow along to see all that Hayley is up to socially over on INSTAGRAM FACEBOOK X & TIKTOK.
The Long Road Festival takes place at Stanford Hall in Leicestershire between Thursday 27th and Sunday 30th August, with tickets on sale now. You can find ticket details and further information on their WEBSITE and you can be the first to know all updates ahead of this year’s event by checking out their socials on INSTAGRAM or FACEBOOK.