Interview By: Michael Morgan
Words By: Lauren Plumb
Riding a career high with after finishing an arena tour opening for the band 5 Seconds of Summer, Haiden Henderson is here to stay. Reflecting on what performing and song writing means to him with his debut album bleach. The album which releases October 30th is a “very diverse and borderline chaotic sounding album.” A true statement indeed, with the album opener, dumblond the song starts almost akin to a classical music track which then switches into a more electronic, alt pop song.
But Henderson wasn’t always interested in music. He originally wanted to be the first in his family to go to college and studied Aerospace Engineering. It wasn’t until he found himself bored during the pandemic, and with nothing else to do he picked up the guitar. When reflecting on his studies he says, “I… was pretty lost, in it and very bored… I felt as though the pandemic was some kind of sign to reevaluate what I was doing.”
Only having had some slight experience with a $200 guitar as a child, Henderson mentioned his fear towards the instrument, but also a fascination. “For a little boy, the electric guitar represents like God or something.”
Once coming to the realisation that he had been making his choices for other people and not himself, the guitar finally bought him that peace of mind and the urge to push this further.
So, he started from the beginning, going back to learn about the origins of blues music in the US. “I’m such a nerd that I felt that I needed to study the guitar in general before I could do anything about it.” He mentions that this type of analytical view on things is very helpful when it comes to song writing because of the science behind pop music, “I was very quick at understanding the patterns that make something satisfying to the ear.”
However, music is more than just a chance to flex these methodical skills for Henderson, it can also help him understand his emotions. He mentions how sitting to write songs helps him in this way and he can pinpoint what he was feeling in certain situations, “the process of song writing is almost chasing down those feelings that I’m generally afraid of letting in.”
Despite these deep emotions embedded into the framework of Hendersons songs he found the easy part to be performing. Having recently finished opening for 5 Seconds of Summer on their last arena tour, Henderson described the experience and says, “[it] changed a lot for me and that way I view this career and performing in general.” Performing to rooms of over 20 thousand people every night he realised that aspect of the job is just to have fun.
“Your brain can’t even process that there are that many people there. So, it’s really about just being on stage and just doing something that you find fun and impressive.” And the easiest way to do that is to release music fans love to sing along to and shout back during live shows. Henderson reflects on pop music as a genre and why he is so in love with it. He speaks on the idea of a melody being so captivating it can capture the attention of people that might not even understand English but the songs still, “can bring millions of people together just because it is a universal language.”
One of the fans favourite songs to yell back to Henderson is his song, lips. Written simply as a reference to his own lips, he takes what couple be used as a dig in a TikTok comment section and makes it is own.
This kind of playfulness is something he really plays with on this album. With songs like NSFW and i wanna be your girl, there is a cheekiness and sexiness to the lyrics in these songs which is almost certain to help make the album a regular rotation within his fanbase, “I want you to love it or I want you to talk shit about me.”
NSFW in particular is a very interesting song, the verse following the chorus I find almost reminiscent of the Beastie Boys, it really adds to the promise of the playfulness that will be seen throughout the songs.
When Haiden describes the sound on the album and the emotions people might feel when listening to it, he says, “I would rather somebody hate the songs on this album than not really care about them.” Later going on to mention that the direction he took Bleach in is something, “a lot of specifically boys in pop music are maybe afraid to do right now.”
He acknowledges that whilst working on the album he noticed all the songs were, “either like promiscuous and sexy, or vulnerable or, romantic… I felt like a person who just wanted to win you over, like a performer.” Naming the album bleach seemed like an obvious choice with the selection of songs at hand.
Dyeing his hair bleach blond for multiple years, Haiden alludes to the corrosiveness of the chemical and the metaphor this pushes onto the album. The title track features the lyrics, “maybe the bleach has gone to my head, stripping me clean, the old me is dead.” Thinking this perfectly summed up the theme of all the songs on the album, “I think that all of these are kind of me being performative in different ways.” And so, bleach was born.
Always keen to evolve it will be great to see where his career takes him and what direction the music will take next, Henderson admits, “I’m constantly chasing this fusion of genres and stuff in my head” further adding, “There’s a sound in my head that I’m constantly looking for, and I don’t think it’s represented out there yet.”
So, what will be next for Henderson? Following the release of his debut album bleach on October 30 he will be endeavouring on the dumblond tour, a 48 city headline tour around Europe and the US next February.
