Hayden

This is the 98th post in our Musician of the Day series.



Paul Hayden Desser was born in 1971 in Canada. His music style has always been varied with aspects of alternative country, grunge rock and indie rock all mixed in together.

He released his first album in 1995 entitled Everything I Long For, but prior to that he had released a cassette in 1994.

In 1998 he went on a North American tour in order to promote his second album The Closer I Get. Up until this time Hayden had been releasing albums in the U.S. with Universal Records and in Canada under his own record label (which until 2005 only released his own albums). After the release of The Closer I Get, it is believed that Universal bought Hayden out of his contract for an unknown sum of money.

So in 2001, Hayden was left with no label support for his album Skyscrapers National Park so he initially delivered 100 hand written cds to friends and record shops in Toronto. This was followed by a release of 1,500 copies with professionally printed liner notes which were sold at concerts. The limited edition releases were highly praised and led to a full commercial release of the album.

In 2004 he released Elk Lake Serenade and went on a North American tour with Oshawa's Cuff the Duke acting as his back up band.

It wasn't until 2008 that he released another album but this time he had the backing of a record label once again. The album In Field & Town was supported by Universal Music Canada, the same label that was said to have bought Hayden out of his contract in 1998.

Hayden's most recent album is The Place Where we Lived and it was released in May of 2009.

To learn more about Billboard.com.