About Black Hay

Having been described as “Worse than Leonard Cohen”, “A baby Nick Cave”, and “A voice you’d roll over in bed for”, Black Hay’s music fits comfortably under the description ‘Romantic Music for Perverts’.

Helmed by singer and songwriter Gideon K, who started recording under the name in 2011, as well as developing a live set of spontaneously entertaining and occasionally confrontational acoustic versions of the songs. Killing Moon called the first fruits of these recordings “Heavily inspired yet authentic”.

Having spent the first half of 2012 gigging solidly around London, Nightsong EP, a mixture of songs about hedonism, despair, suicide, duplicity, and religious levels of fanatical lust, all wrapped up in dark humour and shark-eyed lyrics was self-released in early 2013. Mad Mackerel called it “Garage rock meets jazz, rockabilly meets gothic and country meets punk. Echoes of Nick Cave and Mark Lanegan at their most dark hearted and compelling”.

Gideon then went back into the studio with producer David Ezra to finish making the debut Black Hay album. In a climate where many bands put out nothing but singles and EPs, it seemed necessary to make a much bigger artistic statement. All songs were written, arranged, and co-produced by Gideon, who also played most of the instruments on each of the tracks, which feature a sense of lust, physicality, as well as loss, and outsider perspective.

“In these songs you can hear an artist going places. They sound like songs way beyond a debut from an unsigned artist. Get it (the album). Consider it an investment.” – mynewfavouriteband

With the album ‘Romantic Music For Perverts’ now complete, the live setup has been augmented with Rotem Haguel on bass and Jack Kenny on guitar. The band plays a twisted, relentlessly grooving brand of rock n roll – guitar music you can dance to despite eschewing drums altogether. The live sound is rhythmic and up-front in-line with early Elvis and Johnny Cash recordings via over-amplification and distortion.

“A great band” – The London Gig Guide

Catch Black Hay live at a sleazy, cheap-entry fleapit near you. Or download their tracks here: blackhay.bandcamp.com

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