Hailey, It Happens are a Boston, MA-based electronic pop project from longtime friends and collaborators Chris Cleary and Bobby DiBari. Bringing musicality and sincerity into electronic pop, they want to give you something to grab hold of once you’ve absorbed the big hooks and sing-along melodies. Bobby plays piano and composes/programs the intricate soundscapes, while Chris provides the vocal attack, with both members collaborating on the arrangements and lyrics. They self-released their debut EP Everything for You, recorded with Mike Poorman (Paulson, Therefore I Am) in 2009, and spent the following year selling copies at shows all around New England and playing regional dates. Their debut full-length, Aurora was recorded with Paul Leavitt (All Time Low, VersaEmerge, The Dangerous Summer) and drops on April 5th, 2011. This is “electronic music for people who are skeptical about electronic music.
For Fans Of: The Rocket Summer, Jack’s Mannequin, Something Corporate
Responses From: Chris Cleary and Bobby DiBari
How did the band come together? How have you grown since you guys started?
Chris: We were really just kids when we started working together, 14 or 15 years old. It’s the fifth or sixth band we’ve been in together. We started Hailey while we were working on another project and realized we both loved electronic pop like The Secret Handshake, but it was just missing something for us. We’re both really into sincerity in lyrics and real musicality in instrumentation, and all the electronic stuff we were hearing was just dance-y, party music. So we figured if we wanted to hear something different, we should make it ourselves. So really, everything we’ve learned about making music, we learned together over the last ten years. It makes for a really great working relationship where we’re 100% on the same page about the music and message we wanted to put across with Aurora and we’re able to realize it together.
What do you have to offer that other bands don’t? What sets you apart from a lot of the other newer bands out there today?
Bobby: I feel that our brand of electronic pop sets us apart mostly due to the honesty/sincerity of our lyrics, the style of Chris’ vocals, and the instrumentation of the songs. Lyrically every song we write is extremely personal to us and we believe that type of openness is maybe missing from other bands doing this type of music. We are more interested in a personal connection with the listener than writing the next party/club song. Chris’ vocals are something different for this style of music, too, and the fact that we don’t douse his vocals in auto-tune seems to be a plus among people who might otherwise have been skeptics. Also, the majority of the songs are based around piano which adds a certain organic aspect to a style that can tend to feel artificial.
How is the live show compared to the general sound of material that’s been released?
Chris: Our live setup is really intimate in a way. The band is just the two of us right now, so I sing and Bobby plays all the piano parts live and runs the laptop setup with all the backing stuff. So it sounds very similar to the record except maybe a bit more intense from me vocally as well as highlighting some of the piano parts that might not be as emphasized in the mix on record. But it really lets you know that the two of us put a lot of work in to making these songs. Where a lot of electronic pop is all about just commanding you to dance and party, we put an emphasis on the songs like any other band would, because our heart and soul is in them, not just our desire to have a little fun.
More times than not, influences tend to bleed through. What bands are currently inspiring the music that you’re making?
Bobby: In terms of my piano playing; Andrew McMahon has always been a huge influence and essentially changed the way I write. I’ve always admired the way he can create memorable and incredibly well-written piano parts which at times are very simple. Other than McMahon, each track tends to have its own influence ranging from the Counting Crows all the way back to Van Morrison. More recently, I’ve been listening to a lot of records from the 80’s such as Peter Gabriel’s So, Fine Young Cannibals’ The Raw & the Cooked, and lots of Prince.
Chris: The thing that really changed for this record was that on our first EP we asked “what do we like that electronic bands are doing?” and used that as a jump-off point. For this album we focused on what we like that any band is doing, and didn’t let our genre limit the kinds of influences we brought to the music. Personally, I know I drew lyrically from a little of everything: Sam Cooke, Taylor Swift, Bruce Springsteen, etc. It was really satisfying to bring in all the different things that inspire us, no matter how unlikely.
What would you say the band has already accomplished and what do you have your eyes set on next?
Chris: I think our biggest accomplishment is making a record we can stand behind and be fully satisfied with. As an artist, I find it rare that I’m ever fully happy with something I’ve created. So to listen to Aurora and be able to say “this is exactly the album I wanted to make” is an accomplishment in itself. Any material achievement is pretty secondary to being truly passionate about the music we’ve made.
As far as what we want for the future, really just to be able to share our music with as many people as possible. Our dreams are pretty modest. We don’t want to be rock stars, just to be able to keep making music for as long as we can and to share it with as many people as possible.
Thus far, what’s a favorite memory or something quirky that’s taken place with the band (in-studio, onstage, or elsewhere)?
Chris: I think the quirkiest story we have is probably from the recording of Aurora. We went to work with Paul Leavitt, who is an incredible producer, primarily because of how much we loved his work with The Dangerous Summer. Recording the album only took 5 days of studio time, so, as fate would have it, Paul booked our time right in the middle of TDS working on their new album in the studio. So we were all staying at the studio at the same time. But they were really focused on writing and recording their record, just like we were (plus I was incredibly sick at the time) so we kind of just each stayed in our rooms and hardly interacted. Some star-struckness about being around one of your favorite bands probably played into it, too. So here we are, living next door in the studio to the band that inspired us to be there, hardly even running into each other. It was a bit surreal.
Is there anything in particular that you’d like people to take away from listening to your music?
Bobby: Personally I hope that people will be able to have an emotional connection with the music and lyrics we write. We try to be as honest and sincere as possible and if the listener can feel or connect with any of that then we have accomplished what we set out to do.
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