Jack Hayter, pedal/lap steel player, coder and singer-songwriter to visit Hastings

Jude Montague talks to Jack Hayter about his music, the Medway and pedal steel in advance of his visit to Hastings to play at Barnaby’s Lounge on Thursday 29 May.

Can you give me a quick bio?
There are at least two Jack Hayters. One is a singer/songwriter, and another is a pedal steel player. The two seldom meet in the same room. Hayter grew up
on a small isolated dairy farm in Devon with adolescent dreams of being a punk, left and lived in Liverpool and London, taught himself to code and earned a
living doing computer and network stuff for decades. Eventually became a physics teacher in S.E London and now lives in Gravesend. Bought a broken lap steel from a charity shop for 20 quid in 1996 and discovered an accidental music career.

What kind of music do you play/write?
These days I seem to get put into the folk singer category. I’ve never felt I was particularly ‘folky’, but I do tend to write songs that are narratives and about
particular places and times, so maybe that does fit. With pedal and lap steel I’m usually in other people’s bands attempting to alliterate their lyrics. I’m a competent guitarist but the world’s full of them… it’s pretty much a standard social skill like knowing how to use a spoon. So I’d rather play something most people don’t.

Are words important to you – what’s a great lyric and why?
Words are important. Without them I’d be just noodling on an instrument. That’s fine if you’re an exceptional player but I’m not. So, I spend far too long on trying to be accurate with words and details because they’re the main point of it all for me. I know that lyrics can never truly be poetry, but I do poetry readings and sometimes I cheat by using my modified song lyrics (shh!) so they need make some semblance of sense and scan. Also, my feelings aren’t not usually the subject of the songs, so there’s little point in me being mysterious, or including pillow talk.

What’s a great lyric?
One that I wish I could write, that is all the things I can’t do. I dunno… “Ai dil, hai mushakil, jeena yaha, Zara hat ke, zara bach ke , Ye hai Bombay meri jaan,” which is in Hindi from an early Bollywood song that I’m currently trying to learn.

Are you an instrument builder? Have you modified any instruments?
Oh yes! As a kid I was always making and bodging things. On Dartmoor there are no music shops! I used to mail order parts and build circuits from Practical
Wireless magazine. My first guitar amplifiers were home-made or modified gramophones, and I was always fiddling with instruments to ‘improve’ them or
making tape loops and fuzz boxes. I got pretty good at setting up a guitar or repairing a violin. My main lap steel is one I made out of bits of the kitchen. It looks agricultural but it’s actually a really good instrument. I still occasionally make microphones as birthday presents for people.

Do you have a musical philosophy?
Not really but I’m not interested in perfection… I think that I actively dislike it now. I like to hear people stretching themselves beyond what they are capable of or comfortable with… to breaking point if necessary. That’s when something becomes human and relatable to an audience and attains beauty for me.

Do you want to mention one or two projects that you collaborated on, what you enjoy about playing music and how it interacts with your life?
I’m lucky because I get to play steel guitar with all sorts of people who I admire as songwriters. There are so many in so many genres. In the past: Various projects with Ollie Cherer, TV Smith, Suzanne Rhatigan, Darren Hayman and Hefner, Ralegh Long, Papernut Cambridge, Mark Fry. Recently Keiron Phelan, Helen McCookerybook and Irish singer Barry McCormack. Plus loads of one-off sessions. My rates are very reasonable!!!

I started playing music in public rather late, so making music still feels like a new mid-life crisis sort of thing. I have more time, less distraction and I’m old… so I’m not as worried about embarrassing myself or trying to impress. Although I do tend to feel impostor syndrome a lot because music has always taken second place to work, family, and my passion for riding motorbikes… and cryptic crosswords! That feeling of “what am I doing here when so many have sacrificed so much of their time for their art?”

Living in the music scene in the South East – I believe you are in Gravesend – what do you feel about music making in Gravesend/ Medway and SE England, Kent and Sussex Folk and Country?
There is a lot going on… especially in Medway (Rochester the Chicago of North Kent). Gravesend isn’t as busy but things have improved recently… though more poetry and spoken word clubs than music.

One thing I’ve noticed is that since the Covid pandemic and the sad demise of the mid-sized music venue, free open mic type evenings are popping up everywhere. I love them because of the variety. Everything from a drunk kid singing karaoke with a mobile phone to seriously interesting and experienced songwriters in the same session. Of course, you get to hear a lot of bad Wonderwall and Valerie covers but there are always nuggets of originality. I tend not to go to the folk clubs much…imposter syndrome again I suppose! Morag Butler has a great one in Margate at Rosslyn Court which I’ve played at. I’m working up to the folk clubs!

Hastings – any thoughts on our local town and the scene that you are visiting?
I haven’t been down to Hastings so much recently, but I’ve played quite a bit around St Leonards with Oliver Cherer, Riz Mazlen and Darren Morris doing things like live improv film soundtracks at Kino Teatr. There always seems to be loads going on in the area. At one point it seemed almost all my friends were leaving London and moving to St Leonards.

Any thoughts on the predominance of Americana in the pedal steel repertoire? And about the music scene as a pedal/lap steel player?
It’s impossible to play pedal steel without hearing a lot of Americana, though I’ve always tried to avoid playing a pure country or blues. I started playing the
instrument in the ’90s in noisy indie bands and that style just wouldn’t have worked, so I deliberately steered away from it… so I was more influenced by people like Bruce Kaphan of American Music Club or the great gospel steel players like Aubrey Ghent… and jazz horn players like Sydney Bechet and Chet Baker. Recently I did a load of very trad honkytonk style steel for Californian singer Max Devereux… finally I had to teach myself to play the instrument in the style for which it was designed!

It’s rare to hear pedal steel in modern pop country these days. I think in large part that’s because it’s a free-flowing lyrical instrument that doesn’t quantise easily in a modern studio. There are convincing virtual guitar libraries nowadays, but the virtual/synthesised pedal steel attempts so far are pretty laughable.

Jack is playing at Barnaby’s Lounge, Robertson Street, Hastings on Thursday 29 May with Jude Montague. 7–9.30pm. The gig is FREE, though donations for the musicians are encouraged.

www.jackhayter.com
https://jackhayter.bandcamp.com/
http://garedunordrecords.co.uk/

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