Edinburgh based singer and musician Hailey Beavis talks songwriting and lyrics with Ryan Van Winkle of the Scottish Poetry Library. We also get a chance to hear Hailey’s fantastic new track ‘Jennifer’ with her band Wax, also featuring Jed Milroy, Jenny Hill and Cammy Sinclair.

Hailey started writing songs when she was 14 with her first band Turncoat. After she left school, the band reformed as The Bells, The Bells and became quite popular in her hometown of Norwich.

Hailey can often be found at The Royal Oak, a great bar for songwriters and musicians. “You can be yourself and play your own stuff.” She says she’s learned a lot just hanging out there because it spurs her on to write.

Hailey does most of her lyric writing walking home, walking to places, on her bike. “Walking around town is dead time. It’s a good place to get all that thinking and formulating your song lyrics in.” She will often start by playing music and then work out the lyrics afterwards.

Hailey really enjoys singing with groups of other musicians. “It’s great because they listen to the lyrics of the song and the mood you are trying to project… It’s really inspiring.”

I like songs which are packed with loads of raw feeling, honesty and interesting phrasing

She can’t believe that people don’t listen to lyrics as she loves listening to them. “Personally I like songs which are packed with loads of raw feeling, honesty and interesting phrasing and imagery.” It used to be great fun for her to try and write down lyrics from a mix-tape and then find out later that perhaps she’d got some of them wrong!

Her favourite lyricist at the moment is John Darnielle of The Mountain Goats. “He’s just on a mission of honesty… He captures things in an effortless way.” And her current favourite is probably ‘This Year’.

Check out Hailey’s MySpace page for more of her songs.

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