New Starts is Darren Hayman’s new band and the upcoming More Break Up-Songs his first newly-released music since 2022’s epic You Will Not Die. The band sound sharp and bright with an air of new wave briskness, citing the Rollers, the VU, and ZZ Top as influences.
Most visible in recent years through his Thankful Villages trilogy, though there have been three solo releases since, Darren recently decided he wanted a band again:
“and not a band that just backed me up and played my old songs… I usually look for players who play in a way I’m used to. This time I looked for variance and was led by people’s personality.”
He was put on to guitarist Joely Smith by a friend who said, “She makes everything better”, and having agreed on the correct number of guitar pedals there seemed no need for an audition: “There is a tendency for me to make my chords too pretty. Joely cuts against that and plays in the opposite direction.”
Hayman is notoriously a setter of rules and constraints; he couldn’t walk away from this entirely so he turned strategy on its head: “I decided that I would say ‘yes’ to every suggestion from the band, regardless of my instinct.”
So being the product of four individuals the songs warp and bend into new shapes. The rhythms shake up given bassist Giles Barrett and drummer Will Connor bring funk and afro-beat tendencies: “Pretty much the only rhythm I use, left to my own devices, is the ‘road runner’ rhythm. Will takes to care to find where the drum beat can be and we always end up somewhere I didn’t expect.”
More Break-Up Songs is a collection of twelve break-up songs because Darren broke up with someone: “It’s never anyone’s fault. It makes me very sad but I do have to work through these things in song and there’s always something to learn. I try to make songs about breakups that could be understood by both parties. I’m not interested in nasty songs.”
‘A Little Stone’ opens the album and blisters along with Joely’s wildest guitars. The protagonist will do anything to make things right, but nothing ever is: “I’ve had a long standing distrust of the guitar despite it being my primary instrument for twenty years. I thought it was time I made a record with two guitars and drums and bass. I wanted it to be bright, immediate and young sounding, despite the fact I’m old”.
A further rule Darren instigated was that each song would be a tonal equivalent to one from The Velvet Underground’s third album. So some little teasers to look forward to when the album’s released – through Fika Recordings – on 16th August.
Bucketfull Of Brains 
I very much appreciate you flagging this new Darren Hayman project and also including the link where it can be sampled and purchased. It is always a joy to find new music on this site that one might otherwise be unaware of. Many thanks! — Doug (Annandale, Virginia, USA)