For most music fans, Colin Hay will be forever known as a founding member of Men at Work, a group he spent six years in during its original run from 1978 to 1986.
During that time, the original quintet released three studio albums and won the 1983 Grammy for Best New Artist. In the four decades since the band’s first breakup, Hay has carved out a solid solo career for himself, releasing 16 solo albums.
He’s also worked with the likes of actor Zach Braff, who extensively used Hay’s music in the former’s 2004 cinematic debut, Garden State, and also invited the Scottish-born singer-songwriter to appear as himself in Braff’s sitcom, Scrubs. Through it all, Men at Work has never been far afield, as Hay has periodically reformed the group, at one point with his former bandmate, the late Greg Ham.
Hay will appear with a reformulated Men at Work tour lineup at BottleRock Napa Valley this Friday, May 22.
Meanwhile, Hay most recently released Men @ Work Volume 2, the sequel to his eighth studio album, Man @ Work. Like that collection, Volume 2 features reworkings of Hay’s group and solo work. For the 72-year-old rocker, the timing was right.
“After 23 years, it turns out (Man @ Work) sold 100,000 copies,” Hay said. “The label I’ve been working with all that time, Compass Records, sent me a little plaque (marking that milestone). It’s not bad for an independent release, in light of what was possible in the past. It’s still relatively humble in a way because it’s hard to get from zero to that amount in 23 years. The label said we should really do another one, and (I agreed) since I didn’t really have a new album of original material ready to go.”
He added, “I’d been doing some Men at Work material live, so they think there are tracks I could redo and reimagine. When I started to think about it, there were some songs I really liked that I wouldn’t mind doing again. It seemed to be the thing to do. Then we had the idea of re-photographing the cover to make it exactly the same cover, except it’s many odd years later.”
“I think there are some interesting takes on the songs and some acoustic ones that came out well. I enjoyed making it because of all the time I was in the studio by myself, and I can mess around. I’d just have a microphone and guitar and have another bite at the cherry, so to speak,” Hay continued.
Highlights on Volume 2 range from “Into My Life,” a pop nugget wrapped in chiming mandolin runs and layered vocal choruses that first appeared on Hay’s 1990 sophomore bow, Wayfaring Sons; the reggae-flavored “Blue for You” from the 1983 Men at Work album, Cargo; and closer “Next Year People,” an acoustic Dylanesque anthem of hope from the 2015 solo album of the same name.
Songs from the “Men at Work” albums will, of course, be included in the shows Hay is playing this summer, as he takes the current version of Men at Work on the road on a bill that also includes Toad The Wet Sprocket and Shonen Knife. The band is rounded out by bassist Yosmel Montejo, drummer Jimmy Branly, multi-instrumentalist Rachel Mazer, guitarist San Miguel Pérez and Hay’s spouse, Cecilia Noël, on harmony vocals and percussion.
When asked what fans can expect him to play for these shows, Hay responded with a clever analogy.
“It’s like when you walk into a party and think, ‘So and so will be there. It’ll be good to see him or her.’ You want to see these friends you’ve known for years,” he explained. “But, at the same time, it would be nice to have a conversation with a couple of strangers. You don’t want to be overwhelmed by the strangers, but sometimes, if there are too many old friends, you think that you’re sick of these people.”
Hay’s love of music dates back to a childhood growing up in Scotland, with memories of his mother vacuuming the house to the sounds of British big band stars like Al Bowlly and the Ray Noble Orchestra on a big Gramophone radio as her son lay there with his head against the speaker.
A major inflection point came when his father opened a record shop when his son was five and ran it until Hay was 14, at which point the entire family immigrated to Australia. Hay is quick to point out how much of his musical passions and influences were shaped by that particular time period.
“That was extraordinary, more so when I grew up and was an adult realizing that the most [remarkable] music was made during that time period, between 1958 and 1967, when we had the shop,” he recalled.
“You had the birth of everything and the discovery of everything. I was of course mad for The Beatles, The Kinks, The Rolling Stones, The Who, and then my brother turned me onto Booker T and the MGs, Otis Redding, Sam Cooke and all that stuff. That was a whole other deal. It was a rarified way to grow up,” added Hay.
Landing in another continent halfway around the world also proved to be fairly earth shattering for the young Scot, who quickly found a bubbling music scene to which he could relate.
“At that age, you are so impressionable,” Hay said. “By the time I went, I was almost who I was, but I got very much affected by my new environment. Although I had dreams about my Scottish homeland.”
“The curious thing was that there were a lot of bands made up of immigrants like me. AC/DC was from Scotland, and The Bee Gees were from England,” he noted. “The Little River Band was also made up of people from England. There were so many bands made up of immigrants in Australia during the ’60s and ’70s.”
Fast forward to the present, and Hay’s musical journey has taken him from early multi-platinum success with Men at Work to a steady solo career and being recruited to be a member of Ringo Starr’s All Starr Band back in 2003 that led to his being a regular member starting in 2018. He’s doing a run of dates with the former Beatle in late May and June, just ahead of the Men at Work U.S. tour. Even with so much history under his belt, the man from Down Under has plenty of unfinished business.
Said Hay, “I realize I don’t have as much time as I think I have, so I just need to get on with it.”
Men at Work performs at 8:45pm Friday, May 22 at the HelloFresh Stage at BottleRock Napa Valley. For more information, visit bottlerocknapavalley.com.
