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American Sunshine (Pre-Order)

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ABOUT COLIN HAY

“Although I’m not technically an American citizen, I’ve been living here for twenty years,” reflects
Colin Hay from his home in California. “I like it here. You look up at the sky, and there’s no evidence
of anything. It’s amazing to think that, under that sky, there is so much horror going on here…but
it’s so beautiful at the same time.” Hay’s new album American Sunshine, available from Compass
Records later this summer, is marked by several sideways glances at the American dream – that
perilous balance between potential and reality – along with knowing ruminations on the
transformative effects of love and the passing of time, set to some of the purest pop, hardest rock,
and most emotionally bare acoustic balladry Hay has yet laid down. Curiously, the America of
American Sunshine is profoundly shaped by two very different dream factories on nearly opposite
ends of the country: California and Nashville. 
 
“Oh, California” – all smog-kissed sunlight and lingering, still-untapped possibilities – opens
American Sunshine with a perfect blend of awe and cynicism, exploring an idea of the west that
began with the pioneers and persists well into the present. When Hay tells of how “The sons and
daughters / Followed all the signs to paradise / drinking only dreams and promises”, he could be
describing the region’s earliest settlers or tomorrow’s American Idol hopefuls. “There’s a broken
dream in every grain of sand,” Hay observes, “but it’s as close as I can get to the promised land.” 
 
American Sunshine’s title track, which concludes the album, is an evocative instrumental that
counters the decaying glory and bittersweet compromise of “Oh, California” with widescreen glory
and the inspiring vision of an endless horizon. “It began in my head as a surf song,” Hay explains.
“Not that I surf…but the Californian experience has a lot to do with surfing. It just has a liberating,
free kind of feeling. I had this musical idea that I was playing in the studio, and when it came time
to attach a name to it, I thought of my wife’s cousin Mateo, who lives in Lima. He has a nickname
for me. My wife was down there in Lima and she was on the phone to me, and she said ‘Mateo, say
hello to Colin,’ and he picked up and, through his thick accent, said ‘Colin, Colin, lindo – American
sunshine.’ He’s one of the only people I’ve ever met who has a genuinely pure spirit…” Hay’s wife,
dynamic salsa vocalist Cecilia Noël, provides harmony vocals throughout American Sunshine, and
co-wrote the touching character study “The End of Wilhemina.”
 
Themes of redemption and renewal come naturally to Colin Hay, as he is in the midst of a
remarkable renaissance. While his voice and visage are still familiar to millions from his tenure as
frontman, principal songwriter, and lead vocalist of pop sensations Men at Work (“Down Under,”
“Overkill,” “Who Can It Be Now?”), the past ten years have found him quietly re-introducing himself
to new generations of fans. The frequent use of his music on soundtracks – including the hit
television show Scrubs (on which he has also had several cameos) and the sleeper-hit soundtrack to
the film Garden State – has proven the timeless appeal of his songs’ personae: quizzical, curious,
cynical yet open-hearted. Combine that with tireless touring and an ongoing successful partnership
with Nashville-based indie Compass Records, and Hay is poised to enter a new phase in his already
storied career.

Most artists who have experienced the levels of success and adulation Hay has would be content to
sit back and earn a living walking to the mailbox and back. Yet Hay is restless, eager to move
forward and continually hone his craft while continuing to challenge himself. While the resultant
performances have an easy-going clarity and honesty, the process behind much of American
Sunshine was actually designed to take Hay out of his element and try working methods that were
at once classic and unfamiliar. “Six of the songs,” he says, “are from a two-day session in Nashville.” 
 

Having never recorded in Nashville with local studio musicians before, Hay intended on cutting three
songs and had them prepared in advance. “We had all three done before lunchtime, the first day,”
he says, laughing. “I had to scramble back to my hotel room and bring in more material.” A constant
and consistent songwriter, Hay dug through his notes and returned with more songs – all of which
were cut live, on the floor, and only subtlety fine-tuned after the fact. “They were such good
musicians,” he said of the crack Nashville band assembled for the session, “that we did nine tracks
in two days. It was like the old days: you’ve got the song, you show it to everyone, and then the
drummer counts it off and they play like they’ve been playing it for ten years. I played guitar and
sang live with the band. I did a few overdubs, but I didn’t labor over it. I tried to keep it fresh. It’s
an old way of working,” he says, “but it seems new again. Overall, there’s very little machinery on
this record. It’s real instruments and real musicians.”
 
“My last record [2007’s Are You Lookin’ At Me?] was the first new album I’d done in a long time,”
Hay continues. “In a way, it felt like my first solo album. I’m still learning, and I learned a lot on that
record. This one is definitely a step up in terms of the quality of the songs and the sounds we
captured. Dare I say, there is something a little more effortless to this record.” The vibe established
by the Nashville sessions – spontaneous, heartfelt, immediate – is carried through the rest of
American Sunshine, which was recorded at The Washroom, Hay’s well-appointed home studio, with
similarly timeless methods: a lot of live tracking, minimal overdubs, and without an over-reliance on
technology. 
 
Much of the stripped-down energy and unflinching clarity of American Sunshine can also be
attributed to Hay’s endless tour itinerary, which consists of both solo and full-band shows. Just prior
to the release of American Sunshine, he traveled for a little over a month, playing 28 solo acoustic
shows, 26 of them sold-out. “It was, honestly, the best tour I’ve ever done,” he says – no small
claim from a man who has performed in every possible situation, from packed arenas and enormous
outdoor festivals with a full band to demanding, intimate shows in small rooms with just his guitar.
Hay’s solo shows intersperse classic and new songs with hilarious, poignant, and downright surreal
stories drawn from his often unbelievable experiences over the past three decades. “I’ve been doing
these solo tours for a number of years,” he explains, “going back to the same places and building
audiences by doing the best shows I can. Judging from this last round, it seems to be building to a
critical mass.”
 
“Sometimes you do all these things 3 tours, TV, all that – and no one thing pushes you over the
top,” he concludes. “Success becomes a point where everything you work on converges. I equate it
to a boxer in a match. It’s very difficult to knock someone out with one punch – it’s usually a series
of combinations over fifteen rounds that wins the fight.”