Hedley talks about growing up

Leah Collins, Dose.ca
January 4, 2012

Hedley frontman Jacob Hoggard laughs off talk that the band is maturing and insists they've always written introspective ballads.

Photo by: Universal

Jacob Hoggard says he snickers when he reads reviews suggesting "Hedley are growing up." He’s doing it, too — snickering, that is — as he refers to some of the critiques about the Vancouver-based four-piece’s current album, Storms, which debuted at No. 2 on the Canadian albums chart in early November.

They’re a pop-punk band long embraced for their hooliganism by the teens (among others) who tune into MuchMusic. But Storms also happens to feature several slow, introspective, piano-heavy ballads, a sound that tends to provoke such claims of maturity, suggesting maybe they’re through with dropping their pants on the MMVA red carpet.

We recently gave away music from Hedley today as part of the iTunes 12 Days of Christmas promotion, and the four songs (plus one music video) are all ballads. They also span Hedley’s entire four-album discography — from this year’s Storms to 2005’s self-titled debut.

"When someone says we’re growing up now, I guess in certain ways we’re maturing as artists or people and whatnot, so it’s obviously factual, but at the same time it’s just always been a part of us to make music this way," Hoggard says over the phone, recovering from a late night out (he insists it was work-related) and preparing for a long tattoo session later in the day. "I think for me, ultimately, it’s always been one of my strengths creatively," he says of Hedley’s ballads, "because I’ve always seemed to be most comfortable expressing myself with songs like that."

Examples such as the song Perfect from the album The Show Must Go have proven to be strengths for the band in other areas, as well. The torchy ballad is the only Hedley track to crack a U.S. chart (it was in the Top 30 of Billboard’s Adult Pop Songs Chart). Here in Canada, it won a SOCAN award in the fall for being one of the most-played songs on Canadian radio this year. Perfect also earned the band an award for best music video at the 2011 Junos.

But Hedley has indeed grown. Hoggard sees how his abilities as a songwriter have changed, citing songs such as For the Nights I Can’t Remember or Beautiful as an example. He says those songs are succinct and about "just one specific sentiment."

As for Gunnin? "I still don’t know what it’s about," he says. "I remember writing it and being like, ‘Well, this is a song.’ And I loved it. It was really passionate, and the sentiment in it struck a chord with me, but I just can’t remember what it’s about."

He’s learned to be much less stream-of-consciousness in his approach since then, and uses Beautiful as an example.

It’s the most recent song of the four featured downloads, and the one he’s most proud of — written in early 2009 while the band was stopped in Denver.

The introspective love song worked its way into the band’s setlist while touring in 2010. "It’s very open-ended and actually means a lot to a lot of different people for a lot of different reasons," says Hoggard.

"For me personally, (Beautiful) is a song about my mother and my sister and my girlfriend and just the women in my life and why they’re important and what makes them beautiful, aside from just the esthetics."

Expect to hear it live when Hedley launches their sea-to-sea Canadian tour in February. The same goes for every song featured today.

"We’re playing a (bunch) of songs, every single one of them," Hoggard says, all to be integrated into a stage show that’s under development. The singer hints at the production having a storyline of sorts, one which will integrate video elements, something they tried with some creative success on their last Canadian outing.