By Veronica Lee:
Singer songwriter Haley Bonar is to return to Denver with a new album, Impossible Dream, and an opportunity to offer new and old fans alike an amazingly intimate experience at Larimer Lounge. Mile High Feedback had the opportunity to interview the delightful Bonar before her performance this Wednesday and get to know her on a bit of a different level.
Mile High Feedback Exclusive:
A now veteran to the scene, Haley made her beginnings in the early 2000’s by releasing 4 EP’s and Demo tapes, and she gained national attention in her re-release of Lure the Fox with Afternoon Records. Since then, Haley has released 8 albums and is currently on tour for her 9th, Impossible Dream, with a full band. Raised in Rapid City, North Dakota, Bonar is no stranger to national as well as international work.
She shares with us some of the favorite places she has performed, “I love the Black Cat in DC” she tells, and even what makes an international tour different from a US tour. “International touring is different in many ways, but one difference that I recall immediately is the fact that in Europe, venues have your entire rider (food/snack/beverage requests) upon arrival at the venue. Most venues here (in the US) either don’t have it, do a small version of it, and or deliver it to you far after you arrive or after you eat dinner! When you’re traveling all day, and you finally get to the club, it is really nice to have a healthy snack to eat. It’s everything to musicians!”
Life on the road can be nomadic and lonely in its endless city after city, club after club, night after night monotony. Family can be one of the few luxuries that an artist is able to make time for, and if you are a follower of Haley, you can see the love and connection she shares with her 5-year-old daughter. As a child of an artist or a musician, it is safe to say that inherent talent exists; however, pursuing the arts as a direct career course seems a bit premature when currently “she oscillates between being a cat and a butterfly who does karate.” Maybe a martial artist is the kind of art we may expect to see from the young Bonar?
With such a successful career in storytelling and music, Bonar doesn’t keep her writing strictly to songs. She finds an outlet in writing short stories and poetry, and feels that those are ways to express what music sometimes cannot.
Often times, we assume that a musician with depth in lyrical content still has memories or feelings they are battling, because so often we as fans attach meaning that resonates within us. When we asked if her music still tugs at things deeply in her, or if there is a specific song or album that takes her back in time, she explains, “Honestly, I do not think of it that way. I just want to perform the song well, and singing with emotion doesn’t necessarily mean I’m reliving a memory from the past.”
