Pre-order the forthcoming album ‘Amazing Things by Darren Hayman and his Electric Guitars’
A year ago, I lost my friend.
During his last few months, he visited his favourite curry house and told the owner that he probably wouldn’t be in again.
“I have cancer,” he said.
The owner was upset and said, “Oh, but they can do amazing things these days!”
Darren Hayman has made an album about death and grief titled Amazing Things, which isn’t morose, slow, or quiet. Instead, it is packed with joyful, melodic guitars and some of Darren’s prettiest tunes. It is sometimes very sad, but also heartfelt, loving, and rewarding.
Darren recorded the album almost entirely solo, except for one song written with his childhood friend Andy Field. Darren is using the name Darren Hayman and his Electric Guitars for this project to reflect the making of the record.
“Apart from drums, bass, and vocals, the only instruments on the record are electric guitars,” explains Darren. “This is both an homage to my friend’s music taste and another one of the rules or limitations I need to make records. Despite the electric guitar being my main instrument, I often run scared from it and feel that records need many other instruments to create texture. This time, I had to take time and care and find out what guitars can be.”
Amazing Things is an album about the complexities of grief; it is about loss and love. “Nobody You’d Know” tells you about a friend you never had. “All The Toys” is about a heaven where you can have every toy you want and they repair themselves every day. “It’s Gotten Quiet Round Here” is a song about the deafening nothing that follows death.
Darren says, “When I knew we were going into the final months and that I would be spending some of that time with him, another friend said to me, ‘That will be an honour’; I didn’t understand what they meant until afterwards.”
Darren Hayman is a British songwriter best known for his work with late 90s band Hefner, but has since made more than 20 albums dealing with astronauts, the English Civil War, William Morris, Lidos, and Thankful Villages. He lives in South London with his dog.
Darren Hayman and His Electric Guitars
Amazing Things wia123lp
Released 22 August 2025
On black 12″ vinyl, printed inner with 7″ square colouring-in book
CD in card wallet with 7″ square colouring-in book
also available as download
Track List:
Nobody You’d Know
Amazing Things
Teenage Guitar
Something Beautiful
Clean White Page
Do Whatever You Want
Heart’s Been Broken Before
All The Toys
It’s Gotten Quiet Round Here
Somebody Good Thinks I’m Good
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Despite the electric guitar always being Darren’s primary instrument this is the first time he has felt he’s dug deep into the instrument. This song and the following album are rich on tone, feeling and melody.
Each painting is accompanied by a fragment of prose by Darren and the book also contains Darren’s thoughts on the process and creation of the paintings.
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“I think of this record as taking place at night, in contrast to the daytime setting of Home Time. This is an album about empty dance floors, lacklustre parties and lonely night buses home.” The record is entirely electronic and recorded on Darren’s collection of ’70s synthesisers. “These instruments themselves are very fragile and mortal, they corrode and decay and behave in erratic ways. They do however, remain alive, for now.”
