Hayley Sales
“Before I could talk, some part of me must have known I wanted to sing,” Sales says. “Apparently, when I was a baby, I’d raise my finger and if someone in my family didn’t start singing, I would burst into an irreversible temper-tantrum…I try not to do that anymore,” she adds with a laugh.
Sales was born into an incredibly artistic family; her mother being a dancer and writer, her father a musician and sound engineer (Miles Davis, The Grateful Dead and The Ramones), who operated GlassWing Studios out of the basement of their Washington D.C home. “I was surrounded by music at all hours of the day. All types of music. I remember the melodies and beats actually rattling the floorboards. My childhood had a soundtrack filled up with everything from R&B and Jazz to Rock and Americana.” For many recording sessions, Sales would even allowed to sit in and watch the recording process.
The family relocated to Portland, Oregon when Sales was four and within several months, Sales began playing piano and participating in local musical theatre productions. At the age of five, something happened that altered her life indefinitely. “My friend was playing a tape of Judy Garland singing ‘Get Happy.’ I can’t explain it, but I was captivated, I was in love…Maybe obsessed. I couldn’t stop listening. I made my friend play the song over and over and over again till finally she just gave me the cassette. I went home that night and listened ten more times.” Sales learned to sing by studying the voices of all the powerful female vocalists during the 1940's and 50's.
Before reaching sixth grade, she had begun composing and performed in over one hundred plays and productions. By middle school, Sales was accepted into the private performing arts school, The Northwest Academy, where she studied both classical and jazz music, writing, acting, dance and film-making. She continued to study until graduating two years early, with honors at sixteen. To this day, Sales continues to take online university courses.
Following graduation, her family moved again, this time to an organic blueberry farm located on Vancouver Island, British Columbia. “I thought my life was over,” Sales laughs. “I went from a cutting edge, urban arts school to a farm on island floating off the coast of Canada.” The dramatic shift, however, proved to be beneficial. “I spent every second of the day learning the technical side of music in the studio or sitting in my bedroom at my piano writing songs. Art was all that I had. Besides solitude.”
Within a half of year of being on the island, Sales landed a lead role in a teen horror film, leading to a move down to Los Angeles, California to pursue acting shortly after turning seventeen. The move ended abruptly when a bout of acid reflux caused her lose her voice. “For over a year, I could barely talk. It was the hardest year of my life. Everything that I had identified with was gone. I was speechless. Literally,” she recalls.
When her voice finally returned, Sales quickly returned into the studio and recorded a full length demo which she released on her own record label Drifter Records. In 2006, Sales signed with Universal Music Canada. Her first album Sunseed, was released in 2007, with singles ‘What You Want’ and ‘Keep Drivin’ landing in the Canadian Top 40 and on the charts in Japan. Sales' mesmerizing, sultry vocals and infectious melodies caught on instantly. In 2008, she won Best Mainstream Artist at The Canadian Radio Music Awards. Her sophomore album, featuring guest appearances by G Love and Donavon Frankenreiter, When the Bird Became A Book, was released in 2012. The music video for ‘Just Pretend, directed by Josh Forbes (Sarah Bareilles, The Fray) generating over five million views in three weeks following its release.
Since the international release of her last record, Sales has been hard at work touring, writing on a new collection of songs, and recently guest starring on the TV show CEDAR COVE (Hallmark USA) in the role of “Shelley.” She splits her time between Vancouver B.C and Los Angeles CA. Recently, Sales teamed up with Pledge Music to fan-fund the recording of her next album which she plans to record early next year. The highly anticipated album is set to be release Fall 2014.
“I am incredibly excited about this next album,” she says. “Over the past couple years, I have become re-enchanted with my earliest musical influences, appreciating what they have to offer even more now than when I first listened – Judy Garland, Billie Holiday, Nina Simone, the list goes on. What came out of those women was angelic yet human, joyful but not ignorant of life’s sadness. I want to bring the same authenticity to the next album, mixing together the sounds of vintage soul with contemporary pop.”
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