Hayley's next album

[Dave]

TV advertising rates increase dramatically in the run-up to Christmas so you have to be confident of high sales to risk releasing then. Pure was released in the UK in September but continued selling right up to Christmas, one week it sold around 80,000 copies IIRC, so that paid for its (extensive) advertising... but nothing since would have done, I think. And for genres with no radio or TV show exposure (most Classical Crossover!), no TV advertising usually means no supermarket positioning and no decent chart position so no decent sales.

Decca cannot be confident of high sales for Hayley's next album so it will I think be released well away from the Christmas season, I think we are looking at sometime next year, to be honest. But I hope we hear *something* about it later this year. I mention Decca because of Costa Pilavachi's recent 'Like' of our Facebook page, which is reassuring because I wouldn't otherwise have been confident that it was going to be a Decca release at all, so thank goodness for that!

Cheers, Dave

[Libby]

That's my thought, too. If she's still writing with Jeff in June, I can't see it happening any earlier than November, and even that seems soon (yet so far! LOL).

If they aren't confident about her sales, it's their own fault for screwing up Hushabye's release! I mean, did Paradiso do terribly? I can't remember.

I was looking at the recent Japanese album (from last year), and under Summer Rain it says "Music by Jeffrey B. Franzel, Lyrics by Hayley Westenra". So now we know!

[Joe]

I do hope Hayley's album is released before Christmas, although my optimistic nature gets the better of me.  I definitely feel that she is pouring her heart and soul into her album.  

Hayley needs to post some videos of herself singing!  Perhaps a verse of a newly-finished song! 

[Libby]

May 26, 2015 5:43:53 GMT Joe said:

I do hope Hayley's album is released before Christmas, although my optimistic nature gets the better of me.  I definitely feel that she is pouring her heart and soul into her album.  

Hayley needs to post some videos of herself singing!  Perhaps a verse of a newly-finished song! 

Yeah, seriously, I honestly don't understand the total silence, unless she was on "holiday", but then why can't she post at least one little picture? LOL Oh, well. Even if the music is top secret right now, why not post more of the "mundane" things like her washer woman post? Not that exciting, but at least there's a new photo to hold us over for a while. She's been working on the album for some time, posting all kinds of teasers about it. What's the problem now?

I've thought that maybe Hayley would spend the summer doing recording sessions, photo shoots and video shoots, and there still could be time for a November release. I mean, really, it's not impossible. Maybe the upcoming work with Jeff Franzel is the last of it, especially since we now know she already worked with him in Oct. I'd like to know, though, is it different songs they're working on, or the same songs? I'm guessing different.

And I still wonder about all those times we've seen the studio pics, if the one with her wearing headphones, and Alberta Cross sitting behind her, if that was a real recording. I still even wonder if that violin pic from a year ago was more than just a demo (and another one where I thought her hair was slightly messed up, possibly from headphones). I wonder about her pic in that studio in LA, where apparently she was joined by Stephan Moccio. I wonder about Kerenza's presence there with her (but who in the heck is Ryan Gilmore??). I wonder about Paul Carter's seeming coincidental presence in LA at practically the same time as her. I remember the "interview downstairs" posted by Frank Smith, I think (the kermit sipping tea pic). I mean, what could she have been interviewed about in LA?? And what's the deal with Vittorio? All of the studio pics in the past few months could easily have been recordings. There have been quite a few. They probably aren't all recording, but I think some of them are. So, there might not be as much recording left to do as one might think. Like for Winter Magic, Paradiso, Hushabye, etc., those were recorded all within a few days or a week. All of the songs were chosen and written by then (and there weren't that many to write). This album might be recorded in stages (not to be confused with Stages by Josh Groban, LOL). There might not be an orchestra this time.

I think it's still possible for a 2015 release, even if none of the recording has been done yet.... but I'm of the opinion that some, even a lot of it, has been. They've released Hayley's albums in November before, and if they weren't successful, it's because it was a Christmas album and a greatest hits album, and then competing with Simon Cowell singers. I don't really buy that Decca's confidence in her is really so dismal as Dave suggested. As I said, any poor sales are more their doing than Hayley's. It wasn't Hayley's fault they didn't release Hushabye closer to George's actual predicted birthday. It's not her fault they didn't seem to follow up on the contest. It's also not her fault that Christmas music isn't that popular in the UK. Also, not her fault that she didn't appear on a single show, TV or otherwise to promote it (I can't remember a single one). Of course, a Christmas album had to be released at Christmas time, so there was no getting around that part of it. They must have at least had confidence in her for River of Dreams, and what about Paradiso? I think they must have thought that was a more likely success than the other 2 albums I mentioned, because the songs were well-known, and her voice so beautiful singing them. I mean, it nearly topped Amazon's classical music chart in the US for maybe a day or 2. I mean, come on, I really don't understand the problem here.

So, if they are lacking confidence in Hayley, then they're out of their minds. Have they not heard her sing lately?? It does seem that they are finally allowing her to do her thing. That seems to suggest that they at least have confidence in her to let her do THAT. They have let her do that before, haven't they, with Treasure?

Joe, you and me can stick to being optimistic. There's still hope yet. I don't have a lot of confidence in Decca, but I do in Hayley, and I think they still do, too.

[martindn]

So much time is being taken with this album that I think there could be a lot of music on it - might even be a double album. Either that or there will be lots of different versions released in different countries again. But I agree with Libby. We know that it is happening and a lot of work has gone and is going into it. It is very clearly not a cheapskate job. Somebody is spending lots of money. If that is Decca, then they clearly MUST have confidence in Hayley and her work. They must believe it will sell enough to get that money back, and lots more besides. That puts me too in the optimists club I think. It looks like more work and money is going into this album than any Hayley album since Pure, perhaps even more than Pure. Of course we all know that some of the recordings made for Pure never saw the light of day - that could happen again of course. But I'm optimistic about it and I fully expect it to be a very good and hopefully very successful album when it finally does materialise.

Martin D

[Dave]

Libby and Martin, you are putting words into my mouth, I didn't suggest that Decca won't have confidence in Hayley, in fact I am sure they do have!

I was speculating about Decca maybe not being confident of the high sales needed to risk a pre-Christmas release, nothing else. So I think they'd avoid November and December, it's very expensive, and risky, to release in the Christmas period. Yes the rewards can be great but the risk is even greater, unless you have had a high public profile including TV/radio, for weeks or months before the release, and we have seen no sign so far that that will happen (but you never know). I really don't think we'll see a November/December release, but any other month is on the cards, IMO.

The only reason for my final sentence is that I'd been wondering if Hayley might decide herself to go independent, so I was pleased to see a sign of interest from Costa.

Cheers, Dave

[Libby]

Martin, I seriously hope they don't pull another Odyssey on us... as far as songs being scattered over different versions. I loved the album as a whole (all 22 songs!), but I detested what they did with it as far as different versions. It's really a disaster for the fans, if you ask me. True, the most devoted are willing to buy more than one version, but the more casual fans will be missing something, and that's not fair. I would think they'd learned their lesson by now, and I would think Hayley herself would be against that. I doubt Hayley liked what they did with Odyssey, either. So, I bet there might be a version with bonus tracks in the UK (wouldn't be the first time), and of course Japan always gets the goodies. But I honestly don't think they'll pull another Odyssey (or even another Treasure vs. Celtic Treasure, but that was mostly due to the CW stint). And quite possibly they'll do something slightly different on the US version, though I hope it's VERY slight, if anything. One thing is if they were to add Bridge OTW; I would think it would be on both the UK & US version, but then Japan already got it, so they wouldn't repeat it for them. I know some of you are so sure her album will be all originals, but I am still skeptical of that. I don't think Decca does have as much confidence in her for songwriting as they should. Anyway, as I've reiterated many times, for a label like Decca, it would be hard for her to get away with a full album of originals and still be considered truly classical, unless they allow her to be more of Josh Groban-style classical crossover style. But if you recall, Hayley's been singing 3 songs in her concerts that Decca would probably love for her to include (not to mention many fans): You Raise Me Up, Bridge Over Troubled Water, and Over the Rainbow. The fact that OTR was on one of Hayley's NZ albums shouldn't matter; so was the Mists of Islay! So was the Bach/Gounod Ave Maria! In fact, even though OTR has never been much of a favorite of mine, she performs it so beautifully that I would actually like it if it was on there, at least for Decca's sake. I'm sure most of you would admit that you would love to hear a few covers like that. There are other cover songs she's done that we've liked too, though I'm not sure after all this time she'd really still include them all (I Know You By Heart and Vivo Per Lei, for example). I just think it would be too big of a leap to go from no true originals since 2009 (Paradiso songs weren't truly original), to ALL originals in 2015/2016. Even Josh Groban has never had a full album of originals, and he's not with Decca. So, there you go.

Well, Dave, Hayley seemed hopeful that her album could be out later this year; in fact, I think she would rather have it out sooner than later. She knows we've been waiting a long time for this, and from what she said herself, she has too! I get what you're saying, Dave, but I'm still holding out hope in spite of it all. You never know, her new album might be looking so good that they just might decide to take a chance. Remember, they've never gone more than 2 years apart without a major release. Why stop now? And, if you recall, the time between Odyssey and Treasure was less than 2 years... but again, most likely due to Celtic Woman touring.

Okay, let me do another breakdown of a potential album tracklist again, just to prove my point (from what we know of her songwriters and past cover songs she knows we like/liked):

Jeff Franzel: at least 2 songs
Stephan Moccio: at least 1 song
Pam Sheyne: at least 1 song

Potential cover songs:

You Raise Me Up
Bridge Over Troubled Water
Over the Rainbow

Vivo Per Lei
I Know You By Heart
Close to You

Then, let's add:

Talk to Me

That's only 11 songs! When you remember that most of her albums are usually 15 songs long, that means that leaves 4 songs to spare! Which could be anything! Maybe 1 or 2 more songs by Jeff, 1 more song each by Stephan Moccio & Pam Sheyne. Or someone else entirely. Maybe something with Alberta Cross' help, though I still wonder if he's just providing guitar services. Oh yeah, and, the US usually gets fewer songs than the UK. I looked at all my US albums, and the range is 12-14, whereas, I think the UK is more like 13-15. However, they'd have no reason to eliminate any of the songs I listed from the US version, if my list anywhere near resembles the real thing. Now, remember that I Know You By Heart and Vivo Per Lei were each performed live only about 2 years ago (less for Vivo Per Lei). Considering she's done very few concerts since 2013, that's really not that long ago, not long enough to say, I'm done with that song, even though my fans petitioned for one on twitter once, and people post videos of me & Andrea Bocelli singing the other one, literally every day. LOL I literally see that everytime I do a search on twitter. And, if she could record it with Bocelli, that would be amazing, but I'll take a wild guess and choose Vittorio (not that wild, considering she's met with him twice).

Oh wow, I'm going on forever tonight. Oh well, remember, it's my favorite thing to do. I could honestly say it's my favorite indoor thing to do. LOL Maybe with some music in the background

[Richard]

Hello Libby!

I'm still wondering if Hayley has written a new song with her old songwriting partner Sarah Class. I just looked her up on Twitter and found this Instagram that you'll definitely like!

http://instagr.am/p/1zxg-2NJix

Sarah Class on Twitter: twitter.com/sarahclass

Richard

[jimg]

Hi Libby,

Is this another piece to the "Jigsaw"

Hayley has Instagrammed about meeting up with Viktoria Hansen.

Her "wiki" entry starts

Viktoria Hansen was born in Aarhus, Denmark. Viktoria is a Singer Songwriter, Recording Artist, Vocal Coach in the field of music. Viktoria's professional career started in musical theatre at age 13 in her home town Aarhus, Denmark.

Viktoria is responsible for songwriting many successful music artists' careers, including those of Aggro Santos, Kimberly Wyatt, Girls Can't Catch, The Saturdays, Lena, Medina, Cover Drive and Twenty Twenty. In 2013 co-wrote the music for I will pray (Pregherò) performed by Giorgia and Alicia Keys.

Her entry in Wikipedia is at: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viktoria_Hansen

[Libby]

Richard, I remember seeing that bunny pic once when I looked at Sarah's twitter page. I think it's entirely possible she's worked with her again, but of course, we certainly have no evidence of that. She's been working with at least 2 writers she's worked with in the past, so it wouldn't be surprising she'd go back to Sarah, who not only wrote Let Me Lie, but also ATUOT, and arranged the music on Pokarekare Ana (it says so in the booklet of that Japanese album!). I'm still not convinced that Stephan Moccio actually worked with her on What You Never Know. He wrote the song, but Sarah Brightman is the original singer, I think. And Hayley herself wrote the new lyrics. I think her connection with him was from her Boston Pops concert in 2012 when she met him there.

Jim, it's a piece to the jigsaw, but we can't find the right spot for it yet! Sometimes on a jigsaw there are pieces that look like they go in a certain spot, but they're not quite right. We have lots of jigsaw pieces, but it's a challenging puzzle! LOL All these Scandinavian folks! I'm sure it's a coincidence, but you never know.

Going back to my tracklist "breakdown", I probably should have pointed out that the examples of cover songs I thought of would make up only 6 potential spots. Meaning, that leaves as many as 9 more spots available for original songs. And one of the originals could be Talk to Me. I just hope nobody misses out on any of these songs! The covers I mentioned would be perfectly acceptable in the US! 3 of those songs being extremely popular in the US. And Vivo Per Lei was first seen on US television, for goodness' sake! I Know You By Heart might be lesser known, but that shouldn't matter; it's a gorgeous song! Also, Eva Cassidy herself isn't unknown here (though probably less so than in the UK). Though I guess I shouldn't get myself worked up over songs she might not even put on the album. It would be really sad if she didn't. Those have all been well-loved by her fans for some time now.

[jimg]

It could, of course, be that they friends relaxing together and nothing to do the album but I doubt that.

[Martin]

I have been following this thread over the last several months with interest although of course much is pure educated speculation at this stage. One thing that does intrigue me though is why, if true, is Hayley using Tileyard Studios to lay down some potential tracks for the new album when in the past Decca has used established studios such as British Grove, Shine and Abbey Road. Could it suggest that Hayley is recording all this material without the auspices of Decca!

It may be, but unlikely, that Hayley is only using Tileyard for writing material and laying down demos for future submission to Decca but this would be an unusual path to take for such an established artist.

To add a final controversial thought I would even ask the question "Is Hayley still contracted to Decca"?

Martin

[comet]

May 29, 2015 19:22:11 GMT Martin said:

To add a final controversial thought I would even ask the question "Is Hayley still contracted to Decca"?

Martin

A very valid question Martin,
Did we have any solid information from either of Hayley's books or a genuinely reliable source as to the terms of her Decca contract ?

I would have thought that with her original contract with Universal NZ first and then Decca in London that Hayley has more than fulfilled the normal "five album deal" that most record companies seemed to start off with when signing an new artist, Many lesser mortals never even got to make their second album.

Pure, Odyssey, Treasure, West Side Story, Paradiso, Hushabye,

so even if you exclude West Side Story as a compilation / collaboration, you still have five albums completed.

There is always the possibility of something independent like Pledge Music which Jonathan Ansell has used.

The meetings with Vittorio Grigolo may be more significant than we have estimated, Vittorio is a significant rising superstar in his own field.

Oh yeah ! the reason for my post,

some of the popular tracks from the Shepherds Bush concert would be Great...

"Something Good"

Just wanna know ya
Just wanna talk to ya
I wanna hear about your day
I'd never leave ya
Never be mean to ya
I'd always let you get your way

Oh yeah and I HOPE I NEVER

[Bamafan]

Ah, yes, I would LOVE to hear Hayley record those, or at least perform them again. Its been almost 8 years!

-Taylor i.postimg.cc/9fYxy370/smilie-big-grin.gif

[Libby]

Jim, I doubt that, too.

Martin, didn't she say she recorded Treasure without Decca knowing what she recorded until afterward? Or was that just the album work process of song selection, writing, etc.? Also, I'm doubting that she's using an orchestra for this album... at least not yet. We've seen guitars, violins, and a cello. Just one or a few instruments is often all you need for a beautiful song. It's still possible that an orchestra could record separately, but if so, I doubt it's for the whole album, maybe only a few songs.

As for whether she's with Decca or not, didn't Dave say Costa ... Pilavachi (sp?).. liked the HWI FB page, showing that he's still very much interested in Hayley? Also, if she had broken ties with Decca, do you think she would have been able to start an album so soon? Unless she was planning to go independent, which I highly doubt, and wouldn't be keen on. However, I am wondering about a similar issue she faced before Paradiso that seemed to delay the album release, and if this will affect this album, too.

Comet, I certainly haven't seen her meetings with Vittorio as insignificant. In fact, haven't I mentioned a collaboration with him as a possibility, somewhere? I know I have. As for the 5 albums, I'm a little surprised you listed WSS, an album which only features her a couple of times, but you didn't mention Winter Magic or River of Dreams. Are those not considered albums? Josh Groban's Noel is counted as one of Josh's albums; they're calling Stages his 7th album, and counting Noel, he does have 7 albums now. But of course, his album was extremely successful, where it doesn't seem Hayley's was, not that Decca even tried with that one!

What's the bigger risk: the demand for high sales at Christmas time, or going a longer time than usual without an album, and possibly your audience losing interest due to lack of anything NEW from Hayley. All the albums between Treasure and this one have helped with the wait for the "real" one, but they haven't been quite enough. I only listen to Winter Magic at Christmas time, with exception to possibly All With You, not being that much of a fanatic for Christmas music outside of the Christmas season. Only listening to them about 1 month out of the year make them more special. I never listen to Paradiso in its entirety (actually, I rarely listen to any album all at once anymore, because shuffle is more fun). I enjoy most of the songs very much; they're beautiful and ethereal, but Da Quel-whatever bores me a little, and Metti is catchy, but not my favorite style. And I still dislike the music lesson one. I can't even recall the right name, it's been so long since I've even seen the title. I didn't add that to my music library. And I have literally never listened to the entirety of Hushabye. I at least tried all of them for a bit, but most of them I couldn't handle for long. I now only listen to DaLD, Hine, All through the Night, and Bridge OTW. When at Night occasionally. Most of the time when I listen to Hayley, I'm more in the mood for songs on the first 3 albums, plus HSJS and Prayer. I do listen to Malena, Amalia, & Whispers, though, more often than any of the others on Paradiso.

I can wait 6 months for a new album, but 9 or 10 (or more!) months would be a bit harsh! If it was that long, it would be practically 2 years after she started, and I think that's a little much, especially taking into account that Decca has never allowed more than 2 1/2 years to go by without an international release. And November would be nearly 2 1/2 years from Hushabye.