Hayden has announced Are We Good, his first full-length studio album since 2015, will drop on April 5 via Arts & Crafts. Along with the album news, the singer/songwriter has shared lead single “On A Beach (feat Feist)” and video, featuring Leslie Feist with cameos by Matt Berninger of The National and beloved actor Steve Buscemi (who Hayden last worked with on the music for Trees Lounge, Buscemi’s 1997 directorial debut).

“”On A Beach” was my “day four” submission. I continued tinkering with the song and recording in the following weeks, adding a bridge, tracking several synth lines to try to create what I thought hypnosis may sound like. A few weeks later, Leslie was in town and I invited her to sing on a newer verse I’d written to make the song more of a conversation. Who better than the best, and the one who basically made the song happen in the first place.”

Six years in the making with sixty plus songs in the running, Are We Good was written, produced, and mixed predominantly by Hayden at Skyscraper National Park, the studio at the top of his Toronto home. A perfect combination of complex family life – he and his wife are parents to a child with developmental disabilities – coupled with the grinding halt of creative inertia, Hayden found himself trying to balance the album on an unachievable ledge of perfection. By breaking his confines, Hayden – who has defined his perennial 30-year career with a staunchly DIY approach – made an album richly inspired by relationships, from first crushes to family, and music in between. Trading ideas back and forth over time with Berninger, Hayden put trust in a lyrical voice not his own for the first time across his eight achingly beautiful solo albums. The collaboration led to Berninger’s verses unfurling beneath Hayden’s repeated mantra of “Are we good” on the title track, just one defining moment of the album. The National frontman also co-writes on album tracks “It’s Just Me” and “Can’t Happen Now,” furthering a collaboration which began on “Take Me Out Of Town” off Berninger’s Serpentine Prison and will continue.

Hayden also worked with another member of The National on this record. After listening to an early version of “Are We Good,” Aaron Dessner came on board to lend his immense talents as co-producer. They worked on several songs at his storied Long Pond studio in Hudson NY, enlisting Dessner heavyweights like engineer Jonathan Low (Taylor Swift, Big Red Machine) and drummer James Krivchenia (Big Thief). Although just two of these co-productions appear on Are We Good – the stunning “We Danced” in dedication to Leonard Cohen, and “It’s Just Me” – the others are sure to show up in the near future.

“One afternoon February 2021 I was asleep at my piano when I received a text from my friend Leslie (Feist), inviting me to be a part of a songwriting workshop with several other musicians of note. I was terrified, but joined in as an attempt to jolt myself out of submission. The idea was to write a song a day for seven consecutive days, sharing them later each evening with the other writers. A great combination of pure feet to the fire expression and accountability.

Hayden
Are We Good
tracklisting
Arts & Crafts

1. East Coast
2. We Danced
3. On A Beach (ft. Feist)
4. Terry Cloth Blue (Every Single Thing)
5. Nothing Wrong
6. Are We Good
7. Window Washer Blues
8. Miss Fort Erie
9. It’s Just Me
10. Lay This In Mind
11. Can’t Happen Now

Pre-order Are We Good by Hayden HERE