Last July, I took a day trip to Amarillo to see Hayden Pedigo perform a homecoming show at the Amarillo Museum of Art. After a fantastic show and a cocktail reception, Pedigo took a moment to chat with me. Here is our full interview:
This interview has been edited for length and clarity and was previously aired on the August 2nd episode of The Zach Summer Show
Zachary: Talking about the tour, you’ve been going across states doing shows. How does it feel being back here doing a show in Amarillo?
Hayden Pedigo: Feels incredible. This is the first time I’ve played a show in Amarillo in quite a long time. Beautiful venue, amazing theater, great turnout. Very fun. It was a good homecoming of sorts. Felt like being at my own funeral.
Z: You’ve been touring with Jenny Lewis, who also had a fantastic album this year. What was it like touring with her?
HP: Jenny is incredible. Touring with her is amazing. One of the nicest people on earth. Life changing. Very life changing tour. Three weeks with her, and opening all her shows. It broke my brain. It was incredible
Z: And you got to perform with her at one of the last shows you did together. That sounded like a great experience
HP: She asked me on the last night if I’d come up and perform a Rilo Kiley song, The Silver Lining, which is like their biggest song, so I had to learn it 40 minutes before we went on stage. It was very overwhelming, but awesome.
Z: When you’re on the road and touring, what kind of music do you listen to? What sounds do you pull from in travel mode?
HP: We had to do a lot of long drives. There is an ambient record by this guy, Dylan Henner that I was really into. Another one is the Shakira song She Wolf weirdly enough. I listen to that on repeat over and over and over because it’s a fantastic pop song. A lot of late 2000s or 2010s pop music. I try not get too experimental when I’m driving.
Z: When driving gets tedious and the music gets a little crazy, it can make you mad sometimes.
HP: You don’t want brainy music.
Z: With The Happiest Times I Ever Ignored on Mexican Summer, how does it feel having another album finally out? You have this album fully released to the masses. How does that feel?
HP: Feels amazing. It took two years to make. I have pretty decent gaps between my records, and this record was like a passion project. I think it’s the best thing I’ve ever done. A lot of care went into it, and it’s a very personal record for me. I think it’s a good guitar album.
Z: What was the process of creating this album?
HP: Basically, I wrote all the songs one by one just carving them out at my house and just sitting with the guitar. I then went down to Gainesville, Florida. I recorded it with the producer Trayer Tryon of the band Hundred Waters. He produced the whole record and it was just this very relaxed way of recording, but a lot of care was put into it. It was just no distractions. We worked on the album until it sounded perfect, but the guitar was always the focal point. It was a very fun process to make the record. It was awesome.
Z: Do you feel the process there was different from making Letting Go or Greetings from Amarillo?
HP: Absolutely. This was the first time I’ve recorded in a legitimate pro studio. Letting Go was recorded in my friend Andrew Weathers’ home studio, This new album was made in a legit, very fancy studio. I had never done that before, so that was a learning curve.
Z: And having to travel record in Florida, that’s kind of different than being back at home and recording an album.
HP: I was definitely out of my comfort zone, but it felt like I was with my friends, so it felt very laid back.
Z: Hearing this album and being a person that’s been living in West Texas for a few years, it feels very connected to the area sonically and with the ambiance. How do you draw inspirations from the land or the area that you’re from?
HP: It is kind of weird because I don’t know how to directly draw from it. I think it is something that seeps through my pores. It just comes out in the music because of the space in it. It’s definitely my biggest influence. Amarillo, the space, and the silence. I think that’s why I have pauses in my music because the pauses to me kind of feel like the landscape, the flatness, and the openness. It’s like the room to breathe, basically.
Z: Your music is very serene and peaceful, but your presence on social media is very silly, and sometimes insane and absurdist. Do you feel that juxtaposition benefits your music?
HP: I think it helps because solo guitar music can be really boring and stale. I think you need something to break up the monotony and I have interest beyond guitar music. I like being a prankster, and I like doing funny things and having a sense of humor about it. I think I need both things to keep the music interesting or else it can just get really stale if you’re just noodling on a guitar.
Z: Jumping on your social media presence, being someone that’s been in West Texas, the “Get Hit, Call Witt” billboards, I see those everywhere. I now see them and think of your posts with your huge almost David Byrne-like suit and the bald cap. How does a process go in making a post like that and doing the shoot for that?
HP: Basically, I see something like the Witt billboard. I think it looks funny, and then I usually go home and think about it. I’m then like “Oh, that would be funny if I were to stand in front of it and look like him.” Then my wife and I will take a couple of days to put the stuff together and figure out how to make that come together. Sometimes the photos work and I post them, and sometimes they don’t work and they are never seen by people. It’s just trial and error. Some ideas stick, some don’t. I’m trying to come up with the dumbest things I can that kind of break reality.
Z: Jumping on the Bob Foster photos that he did Highsnobiety, that shoot was awesome. Those photos were very similar to what you’ve posted on social media, but feels very professional. Was that the vibe you were going for?
HP: It’s elevated because I met Bob because he had shot photos for Gucci.
Z: When you were modeling?
HP: Yes. Then, we connected on Instagram, and a year ago, he was like “I am going to come to Amarillo and do photos with you”. He luckily pitched it to Highsnobiety and they said yes, so he came down for a week. It was fun, a British dude just coming to Amarillo. He loved it. He geeked out. That’s the thing people like to complain about Amarillo, and I took a straight up dude from London here, and he loved it.
Z: There is something so interesting about what you said in your post about suburban life and seeing a run down strip mall or a run down Dillard’s. You don’t see that in a big city. Being from Tyler, Texas, I am used to seeing the Dillard’s logo have a yellowish tint to it.
HP: It’s the best.
Z: It just an aesthetic. Seeing the Chili’s and the old Chuck E. Cheese logo from the early 2000s.
HP: I think some of those logos like Dillard’s are supposed to have a certain air of facelessness because it’s like a corporation. Once they get worn down, it’s the uncanny valley effect to me. It’s not supposed to be yellowed in age. It’s not supposed to have personality, so it’s like this weird hypercommercial corporate suburban hellscape disintegrating into middle America country despair
Z: With you wearing Saint Laurent clothing.
HP: It’s the best thing and it works.
Z: It’s such a great photo shoot. The one that you did at your house with the Jeep and the Little Tike Jeep, and then, you are holding wood. That one is probably my favorite. It’s so absurd. I love it.
HP: It’s crazy.
Z: Back on the album, My favorite song is Looking at the Fish, the opening track. What’s the story behind that song specifically?
HP: I hate to say this, but I wrote that song for Amazon. It was an Amazon original where they contracted me and paid me a chunk of change to write a song. They then were like “Hey, the license is only six months and then you get it back completely. I was like “Cool. Good way to start my new record,” so I wrote that song for Amazon, got the bag, and then I redid it to fit the vibe of this record because I liked the song so much and I had intention of it being on the record.
Z: I got one last one for you. It is our KTXT signature question. We ask this to every single artist we interview. If you were to soundtrack or score a movie that already exists or a director’s style of movies, what would that be?
HP: It would probably be Wes Anderson. I feel if he asked me to score a modern western he made, that would be ideal.
Z: It was great to have a short little chat with you.
HP: Yeah! Thanks for talking with me.
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