Interview with Chris Haze

Interview with Chris Haze

Mark my words; this guy is going to be huge. With his new single 'Let Us Be Heroes' set to be released on December 4th, playing festivals such as Indiependence and supporting bands like The Academic on tour, Chris Haze is already taking steps in the right direction.

I recently caught up with the rising artist to pick his brain about the new single and talk about much more besides!

"Music is always something I loved, I ended up teaching myself the guitar when I was in a pretty shitty place in my life. (excuse the sob story). I lived in a house with a few mates at the time and one of them used to play the guitar. I kinda robbed his guitar all the time teaching myself a few chords from YouTube videos. Until I could eventually afford my own second hand guitar. From there I ended up writing my own songs by putting chords together rather than learning covers. The natural progression after that lead me to writing lyrics and that's when music really became special for me."

One could only assume that one of the hardest things about being an up and coming solo artist is promoting yourself and getting people to listen to your music and take you seriously. Haze admits, it can be difficult at times. 

"It is definitely not one of the easiest things. The hardest part is getting people in the industry and fans to take you seriously as an artist. Promoting yourself also takes time from the things you should be doing like writing, rehearsing and most of all enjoying the music. I look at it like this..no one will push you/promote you better than yourself because nobody believes in what you do like yourself as an artist. So it is hard but rewarding if you can make the connections and fans you need supporting you."

Anyone who is familiar with Haze's music or knows him personally, will be well aware that he is an extremely hard working musician and has enjoyed a considerable amount of success recently, with things falling into place for him at the right times, but he is adamant, the hard work is just beginning.

"I have been enjoying it but at the same time I still have a lot of work to do to get to the stage i'd like to be at. I'm my own worst enemy when it comes to my career because I always want the next step which sometimes kicks me in the teeth from expectations being too high. But I'm learning and working harder everyday to achieve the success I'd like to achieve."

The release of his new single 'Let Us Be Heroes' will undoubtedly bring more success, I'll let Chris explain where the idea for the song came from and what people can expect from it!

"Let Us Be Heroes is another way of me saying “stick together”. And when I say “Heroes” I don’t mean superman, I mean everyday heroes that go out of their way to make things easier and more manageable for those who find it hard to do it for themselves. It’s about sticking together and trying to help rather than hoping these problems pass by without affecting you. It’s easy for a lot of us to get on with every day life without these kinds of issues because most of us live in modern societies where we don’t have to see or deal with issues like starvation, and fatal diseases taking the lives of our loved ones.
The idea and message behind this song and title is that..just because these kinds of issues are not a part of our everyday lives, doesn’t mean they’re not happening. We should always be conscious of these issues other people face on a daily basis and do whatever we can to help.  I know some days it’s hard to but we should always be grateful for the lives a lot of us have without ever forgetting about the people facing real life problems right now."

Regarding that song, he recently posted on his official Twitter @chrishazemusic that it would be going back to the studio for a bit of work, but fear not, the change will hopefully bring positive rewards.

"When I say a little different I mean a higher standard of production. I produced the current version of the single but a producer that worked on the latest The Script album and produced Superheroes really likes the song and wants to take it to the next level production wise. Which will hopefully result in a higher rate of airplay for the release."

As I mentioned before, Chris has and is still touring with Irish band The Academic (playing in the Fences in Mullingar tonight Friday 23 Oct) and he says he is delighted to be gigging with the guys.

"It's a great opportunity to be given to support any band or act with hype behind them. On top of them being a pretty talented bunch. I was delighted when their management asked me to support them as they played just after me on the mainstage of Indiependence Festival this Summer."

So it really does seem to be coming together for Haze but like he said, the hard work is only beginning, and here is what the future holds;

"The future holds lots more Single/EP & Album releases and as many gigs and tours as possible. The aim is to get a label involved to help make all these things easily possible."

EOIN!