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Genevieve Hayward, that is good company.
I'm rocker here with Caleb on Max Inc. Radio.
We are Local Music.
Genevieve Hayward is a natural-based indie rock artist whose career has been nothing short
of a whirlwind.
With a knack for authentic lyrics and witty sense of humor, Genevieve has captivated audiences,
both nationally and internationally, touring across the US and Europe.
A native of Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, in a former resident in Sturgeon Bay, Genevieve
relocated to Nashville, where she collaborates with another Wisconsin transplant, Madison's
Dan O. Snuffles.
Right now, Genevieve is on tour in the Midwest and will be in Wisconsin just a few days,
tonight.
I believe we're talking with Genevieve backstage at the Raccoon Motel in Davenport, Iowa.
Genevieve, welcome to Max Inc. Radio.
Thank you.
Thanks for having me.
And did I get that right?
Are you backstage at the Raccoon Motel?
We are.
Yeah.
I'm actually sitting in our tour van right now, so I can actually feel the sound sucking
without me right now.
I can hear them.
Oh, that is too funny.
Well, we just heard your song Good Company from your new album Make It Easier.
Is this song you wrote about Dan O. Snuffles?
Did I write it about Dan O?
Yeah.
I, ironically, Good Company is more so about, no, it's not, I mean, Dan is good company
technically.
Yes, I don't want to like just credit that, but no, Good Company is kind of like, I'd
moved to Nashville.
I wrote it there and I just kind of had a little bit of an identity crisis and it was like,
well, all my friends are gone, all my family's gone, like I'm in this new city, but it wasn't
the case.
That's like really dramatic, dramatic way of saying that.
So it's actually Good Company is like the opposite.
Like, it's not actually Good Company.
Well, Dan is good company.
I'm glad you're with him.
Tell us a little of your backstory.
How did you get started in music?
Oh, my gosh.
Yeah, I got started.
I was really young.
I was like, started taking piano lessons when I think I was six, six years old.
So, and I very supportive music parents, they're not music, but they are really supportive
of me.
So they got me and everything I could have been signed up for, whether it was school
or rock or vocal lessons, guitar lessons, all that stuff.
And I started doing festivals when I was younger and was just so obsessed with all the cool
artists I was running.
I was like, I'm going to frickin' do that one day.
I want to sleep in a van and be on the road and stuff.
So, hold on if you're out for sure.
How old were you when you were doing your first shows?
Like my first, first performances, like with my own music, probably 13.
I think when I had like four originals or whatever, then I was touring a little heavier
one of the 16.
And then when I got out of high school, I couldn't get to any fast enough.
I was saying yes to every offer I got or that you could let me play for 50 bucks pretty
much.
Now, how did you meet Dan O' Stauffles?
I'm going to imagine that there was a steel bridge involved.
There was a steel bridge involved.
Yeah, I've seen that.
Dan and I was like, God, like 15, I think.
So I met him at a steel bridge song Festival in Sturgeon Bay.
And he was one of the engineers there and we just hit it off and we started to work
together more seriously because I think he saw the originals in me.
And when I was 17, we made a record and we released it on my 18th birthday and we've
been working together pretty much ever since then.
So yeah.
Now, you also, I think, have done some work with Tim Buck III's Pat McDonald, the future
so bright, I got to wear shades guy.
Do you have any good, save the bridge memories?
Oh, man, yeah, Pat, I mean, steel bridge changed my life like no, no down my mind on that.
I met Pat when I was 13 and I was playing an open mic in Sturgeon Bay because my parents
we have a cabin up on Washington, we actually missed the ferry because of the snowing.
So, honestly, the butterfly sector is a very real thing.
So I met Pat that night and I think some of my favorite memories I'm in are at 4 in
the morning and I was 17 years old writing and playing with touring artists and getting
that experience and being able to be around that and solidifying like, yeah, this is 100%
what I want to do.
A lot of kids don't get to be in that kind of environment and my mom, luckily, my mom
was like, all right, like, sure, you could sing a motel with a bunch of artists, we'll
see how it goes and then it was the best thing ever.
That's the music, the music motel, their paddons up in Sturgeon Bay, right?
Yep, the holiday music motel, human.
Hi, music motel.
Yeah, human Jackson Brown, I believe Jackson Brown is part owner on that too, but yes.
What a great place.
Genevieve, you recently signed with Symphonic Distribution and Little Dog Entertainment
for Management.
How has that impacted your musical career as an independent artist?
Yeah, it's been nice.
It's kind of more reassuring than anything.
It's getting help as a DIY artist is such a crazy feeling because when you've done it
it's like, buy yourself for seven years without any help.
I mean, I've helped from friends like Dan, I don't want to discredit that, but it's
still pretty early on, like with Symphonic, that's really early.
I'm only on my second single, I just released Make It Easier, actually yesterday it came
out.
So, still early on with that, so I'm not quite sure what will come from that, but management
has been phenomenal.
Our manager Russ is outdozing himself.
I mean, he's phenomenal and he's gotten us so many opportunities already in the short
time we've worked together, so that's been like, oh, wait, let's get off my back.
I have a proper team now, you know, like a really solid team.
Oh, it's nice to have that support.
Oh, God, yeah, it feels so good.
Now you have a new EP coming out soon and it's called Sprinkles.
I mean, I really like chocolate jimmies.
Tell us about Sprinkles.
So, I got invited to do this artist development program at a really cool studio, but it's
also schooled called Dark Horse Institute in Franklin, Tennessee, outside of the city.
And I got invited to go there and there was like a writing camp, so I got to write with
a bunch of artists for a week and Sprinkles was one of the songs that I wrote because
I think I sit, can I swear on this?
No.
Oh, no, okay.
That couldn't be said back, because I was about to, so I pretty much said, I pretty much
said the line while we were writing this song, I was like, well, you know, you can't put
Sprinkles on a S-word Sunday, that's what I said.
And so they all were like that hilarious.
So like one of the taglines in the song is, can't put Sprinkles on a S-word situation.
We changed the Sunday to situation and Sprinkles just kind of ducked with me because Sprinkles
are.
It's kind of like, you can't fluff stuff up, you got to kind of take it head on.
So that's what the Sprinkles represent.
It was a really cool opportunity to our course.
We're here with Genevieve Hayward.
Genevieve Hayward hits Wisconsin May 15th at the Gamma Ray Bar in Madison, May 16th at
the Club Garibaldi in Milwaukee and Gibson Music Hall in Appleton on May 17th.
How do you like having Daniel Snuffles as your tour guide through Wisconsin?
It's great.
I mean, I was born and raised there and so it's kind of like an nostalgic.
We both feel the nostalgia.
I only moved about a year and a half ago, though, so I feel like I'm just going home.
But yeah, no, it's been, it's been good.
I mean, touring's hard, lot of hard work, so much hard work and so much energy, but we've
been really making it happen on this one.
This one has felt really good so far.
Now, Dan is the drummer.
Who else is in your band?
So Dan's drumming and then we also have Jason Richard, my car player.
And we have Ryan Norman on bass to first tour with us actually.
Ryan, they're both based in Nashville.
And then we have my good friend, Jess Murphy, who's morale booster,
merge person, extra pair of hands, helps us find food in the area, helps us.
Just with anything we need, nice and phenomenal to have on this.
Yeah, little navigation.
Yeah, navigation, yeah, she's been really, really awesome.
So there's five of us all together.
Touring in a van in the Midwest on tour.
How can we keep up with Genevieve Hayward online?
Yeah, so this is really important.
Social media is honestly, I hate that I have to push it, but as an independent
artist, it is one of our only things that we have to use to utilize.
And somebody told me I need to stop being embarrassed about talking about my
Instagram handle.
But Instagram, I'm very, very active on that.
So if you ever want to find out where we're going next, like I post stories,
I post silly reals.
My Instagram is at G-E-N-H-E-Y-W-A-R-D.
And then Facebook, you can just find my page, Genevieve Hayward.
And then we actually just did a really big merch drop.
So if you go to Genevieve Hayward.com, you'll see all the tour dates there.
But not only that, you can order merch.
You can pre-order merch and pick it up at a show.
It's really cool.
We have a whole bunch of new stuff, posters, shirts, cookies.
I think those are my top three ways to keep up with me and Spotify.
Nice.
Perfect.
Let's see May 15th at the Gamma Ray in Madison.
May 16th at Club Garibaldi in Milwaukee.
And May 17th at Gibson Music Hall in Appleton.
Genevieve, thank you so much for taking the time out to chat with us tonight.
In just a moment, we're going to listen to your new single.
Make it easier.
Is that a commander or a wish?
I guess it's a, okay, in the terms of the song, it's a wish.
Okay.
It's kind of like, man, you really could have made a lot of this easier,
but you just didn't.
Kind of in that realm, I guess.
Nice.
Okay.
Well, let's listen to the brand new single from Genevieve Hayward.
This is Make It Easier.
You listening to Maxing Gradio, we are local music.
We are local music.