Photo Credit: Lawrence Fafard
The idea of love is interesting, wild, and quite strange when one boils it down – and that’s just from an adult perspective. However, remember those initial inklings of emotional feelings towards someone else; the first butterflies to ever flutter in the depths of your belly; the starting line at which you kicked off crushing on someone? While there can be some not-so-great memories attached to all of that and then some, singer-songwriter Shaina Hayes decided to shine a light on positives, or as she says, “the joy, lightheartedness and wonder” of it all on her new and nostalgic album, ‘Kindergarten Heart,’ out everywhere February 23rd. We talked not only about all of the above but also about what country singers helped her find her voice and more in this back-and-forth exchange.
Kendra: Your vocals shine on the title track of your 2024 release, ‘Kindergarten Heart,’ but I’d love to know if there is a song you sang growing up that made you realize your voice was meant for making music?
Shaina Hayes: Thanks so much – that’s really sweet! It’s tough to recall if there was any one specific song. Surely it would have been something from The Chicks (Dixie Chicks) or Shania Twain. They really rocked my world for most of my childhood!
Kendra: Looking back at ‘To Coax a Waltz,’ an album that garnered a lot of praise, was there anything about how you approached that record that you wanted to change up when it came time to write and record the follow-up? Or was it an instance of, if it ain’t broke – don’t fix it?
Shaina Hayes: Definitely a little bit of both. From a production standpoint, we kept things quite similar to the first album. We hit the studio with the same intimate team – me and my two bandmates/co-producers Francis (Frank) Ledoux and David Marchand. Frank plays drums and also engineers and mixes the album. David plays guitar, pedal steel guitar, and bass. So between the three of us (myself on guitar and vocals) we can run pretty far with a musical idea pretty quickly, so we opted to stick to this effective format. Our synergy as a group is owed to their incredible kindness as people and talent as musicians, but I think there is also something to be said about the fact that, as a group of three, decisions are always either unanimous or 2-1, so this allows us to make creative decisions relatively quickly in the studio.
The differences in approach with this second album, ‘Kindergarten Heart,’ are centered more around the songwriting and overall album concept. The songs that made up my ‘To Coax a Waltz’ were truly, at that point, the only songs I had ever managed to finish writing. This resulted in the album being a real mixed bag as far as themes, instrumentation, and overall concept. I have no regrets about that – the album took shape exactly how it needed to and I love it – but for ‘Kindergarten Heart,’ I attempted to take a more unified approach to both the songwriting and production.
Most of the lyrical content of the album is unified under the theme of memory – the first half from a more active and celebratory sense, and the second half in a more pensive and nostalgic sense. We leaned particularly heavily into the sentiment of childlike wonder and worked to weave the whimsy and lightheartedness of this sentiment into the musical arrangements throughout.
Kendra: I’m a lover of the past and as someone who works with pre-k students, I totally get nostalgic every day when I see the kids doing something that takes me back to elementary school. I also can get a little sad though seeing the not-so-great moments of childhood as well coming back around. So when diving into this album, while nostalgia can be fun it can also make some a bit melancholy. Did you feel those two sides of that nostalgic coin when working on this record?
Shaina Hayes: I totally resonate with what you are saying. That alongside the bright and shiny memories from our childhood there certainly may also be a lot of negative ones. In the case of the album though, the focus is generally on the good feelings – the joy, lightheartedness, and wonder.
The main concept of the song ‘Kindergarten Heart’ itself is that at some point in adulthood, you might get snagged on some of the responsibilities and expectations you’ve accumulated as you’ve aged. This may require you to look back to earlier, perhaps forgotten versions of yourself to help inform you how to healthily proceed into adulthood. As I mentioned, the latter half of the album does dig a bit more deeply into nostalgia, but more from the perspective of longing. So grief does make an appearance in this regard, but for the most part, the album aims to draw only from the positives.
Kendra: As for “New Favorite,” it’s about trying to recapture that feeling of love when you’re younger. As someone who does a podcast all about crushes, I get it. I talk A LOT about crushes from the past, but for you – why do you think those initial crushes in life have a hold on our hearts for so long? Even when we know it would’ve never lasted, there’s still this attachment to first loves (or crushes even), you know?
Shaina Hayes: Ooh – I’ve got to check out this podcast!
Honestly, I think those early moments of falling in love are a big deal. Not just because they are exciting and tingly, but because witnessing the way that your desire can sweep you up and really drive you forward is a crucial lesson to learn – at least it was for me.
This was the idea from which I drew the title to coax a waltz for the first album. It’s from the track Honey Friend, a love song at a glance, but the specific line in verse two reads, “My stern heart, beating a dutiful cue, is learning to coax a waltz from all that I do.” Meaning, now that I’ve seen what it is like to be propelled forward by romantic love, I want to cultivate that propulsion with everything I do, and everything I create.
This new perspective made me realize that I had primarily been motivating myself with negativity up to that point like I wouldn’t be good enough if I didn’t accomplish what I was setting out to do, like my ambitions were only to get me out of some sort of self-worth debt. Seeing first-hand the power and momentum that came from falling in love proved to me that, not only was this perspective going to be much more efficient for achieving my goals, but it would actually make the process itself more nourishing.
Kendra: In “New Favorite” you sing, “Your voice in the dark.” Was that a bit of an homage to the infamous party game, 7 Minutes in Heaven?
Shaina Hayes: I wish I could say yes – that really would have been a clever way to bring it all back to childhood wonder! But no, it’s simply referring more to the first pillow talks of a brand new love!
Kendra: Time for a side note – with it being February, I’m asking everyone for their favorite and/or the best love song they’ve ever heard…
Shaina Hayes: It’s pretty tough to choose just one, but a song I often go back to is Blake Mills’ “Seven.” He has such a unique way of building these wild textural journeys around what is fundamentally, as far as melody and progression, very simple and accessible songs. He can just take you on such a ride without ever losing you, you know?
Kendra: Lastly, with ‘Kindergarten Heart’ out on February 23rd, what else can fans expect as we continue rolling forward in 2024?
Shaina Hayes: We’ve got some Canadian tour dates on the radar for 2024 and are working on getting out to some other territories too…I can’t say much at this point, but folks can keep an eye on our social media/website for updates.
