John Coltrane, The John Butler Trio, Bob Marley, The Beatles, Jack Johnson, Pink Floyd, Dave Matthews Band, Ben Harper, Billie Holiday, Judy Garland, Bob Dylan
Everyone has a story...so what’s mine? I guess the place to start is on the present page. From there I’ll start flipping backwards. I’m a singer/songwriter/ surfer living on a blueberry farm on Vancouver Island, Canada. I live in a cabin heated solely by a woodstove. Many mornings, I’m woken up by a couple of roosters who for one reason or another love wandering to my window to crow. During the summer I pick blueberries and plant vegetables, all those farm-girl type things. Plus I live to surf. My 9’0 long board pretty much sleeps with me. Some mornings, I’ll bike down to the beach which is about ten minutes from the farm, play music and chill, watch the waves, read and write in my journal. We’re so far from the lights of town that the stars are clear and bright overhead at night. I’ll go out and lie down in the middle of the road out front of my house and try to find the different constellations.
The 22 years I’ve been alive definitely feel like a novel- kind of fictional. Everything from being raised by hippie parents, being born in the suburban ghetto of Washington DC, interviewing the Dalai Lama, touring with a Saint from India, trekking to new parts of the world with nothing but my tattered backpack (I am actually surprised I’m alive sometimes), self-penning and producing my debut album Sunseed at 19, living on an organic blueberry farm, surfing with sea lions, and playing basketball with the Tibetan monks that live across the street.
Since I can remember I’ve been wrapped up in a love affair with music. My dad, Papa Sales, who has always looked like Santa Clause, had a professional recording studio in the upstairs of our old Victorian farmhouse when I was born. He recorded all styles of artists- from folk to rap. All day and night, the beats and the melodies permeated the walls and became the soundtrack to my childhood. When I was three, my parents packed the studio, my two older brothers, myself and all our belongings into a beat up van and a U-Haul and set out across the country. We set up camp in Portland, Oregon and stayed there till I graduated from high school two years early at 16. I have pretty much been a self-proclaimed nomad since.
It had always been my parent’s hippie dream to own a farm and live off the land – to learn to live self-sustainably. So when my parents stumbled upon an organic blueberry farm on Vancouver Island, Canada they didn’t just jump, they pretty much did everything short of strapping their belongings to their backs and swimming there. And they pulled me along with them.
The change was pretty strange for me. I had just graduated from an urban, eclectic music/arts high school in the center of downtown Portland. I was used to living downtown in a bustling metropolis. Suddenly I found myself living on a farm on an island floating off the coast of British Columbia. For a while, I pretty much hid away and worked on my music, and learned how to use the studio. Music was my only confidante for a while.
Those years with so much time alone was unsettling, uncomfortable for a while, but I’m grateful for it. Music had always been my ‘go-to’ growing up, but being alone on the island was different. The laid back way of life really gave me some perspective, rattled my concepts and paradigms in a margarita shaker and handed me back a sweeter view of life than I could possibly have imagined or concocted intentionally.
Pretty soon, I slid comfortably into the kicked back life style, started surfing the wicked beach breaks on the west coast of Vancouver Island, trekking up the logging roads around my house, and helping out around the farm. I loved the mountains, the coast and the forests and met more than my fair share of bears. The lifestyle sifted into every part of me. I spent hours sitting in the middle of the blueberry field, plucking away on the guitar writing riffs, words, doodling random ideas and thoughts. The songs on my debut album Sunseed sprouted out of these hours and days spent hiding in the blueberry bushes, chilling at the beach, traveling round the corners of the world. We recorded the entire album on the blueberry farm at my dad’s studio.
In 2007, Universal Music released Sunseed For the last couple years I’ve been living out of my backpacker’s pack, seeing even more of the world, touring with the likes of Jason Mraz, The Cat Empire, Feist, Donavan Frankenreiter, surfing whenever I can get down to the water. All the faces and places I’ve seen have made me so interested in humanity, in the simple things, the connection we all have to one another. I think music is an exchange of energies, and I love the exchange. It makes me feel good and inspires me to write music that I hope makes other people feel good.
We are just about to start recording the next album on the blueberry farm, which is extremely exciting. My band and I will pretty much set up camp in the studio, emerging every now and then to catch some waves and run around the woods for some sunlight. The whole recording process should take about four months. I am just now starting to see the faded outlines of words and events that will appear on the page in future chapters but for now, this is my story. Have a wicked 2009!
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Hiya Hayley, Finally settled in Australia. Gold Coast waves have been fickle and small this season. Still getting some occasional, punchy beachies. Your blueberry farm sounds pretty idyllic.
Sure dig your laid back grooves. Hope you are feeling "all right".
Hey Hayley thanks for the add! And awesome songs, beautiful voice, All the best yo you, Stop by my page anytime for some soulful Canadian hip hop.peace
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