I was a music obsessed kid. As a child in the 60s, I listened intently to the records my older brother and sisters brought home. In the early 70s, I listened to singer songwriters who fused folk, pop and soul music, rock bands who were moving away from blues rock and into more musically adventurous territory, German synthesiser bands, and odd ball English eccentrics like Kevin Ayers. I loved pretty much anything on the Island record label and Joe Boyd's Witchseason especially.
I joined my first band at the tail end of the punk era and released my first single, the reggae influenced Happy Birthday Sweet 16, with my mate Clive Piggott who decided to call the band Clive Pig and the Hopeful Chinamen (as you do). A year later I was called up to join art school new wave heroes The Tea Set, at that time riding high in the indie charts with their cult classic Parry Thomas. With The Tea Set I recorded some singles (one of which produced by Hugh Cornwell of The Stranglers) and an (unreleased) album. In the short time the band stayed together we gigged a great deal, going on nationwide tours with The Stranglers and The Skids and supporting bands such as U2, XTC, The Clash and Iggy Pop.
Between 1982 and 1986 I worked on a wide range of projects, including a world music band led by accordionist and art school teacher Mike Adcock. I also worked on a number of one off projects for the psychedelic re-issue label Bam Caruso. At that time, the label was starting to release new music with a 60s influence. In 1987 Bam Caruso released my first solo album The Great Indoors which drew comparisons with Nick Drake, Kevin Ayers and Syd Barrett. Although a critical success the album did not do well enough to keep me afloat financially and I withdrew from music altogether in 1989.
In 2019 I self-released an album called A New Life Awaits You. A year later I was invited to contribute a track to the album Miniatures 2020. I joined the Dimple Discs label and released a mini album of instrumentals, The Electromagnetic Imaginary in 2022. Dimple Discs is a South East London based label started by Brian O'Neill and Damian O'Neill. It now has over 30 very diverse acts including The Undertones, Jah Wobble, Microdisney and Keeley. The label is well supported by Nick Clift (Definitive Gaze PR) and has a strong working relationship with musician, DJ and promoter Neil March.
I started to play live again in 2022 and have a regular backing band including Marcus Holdaway of the High Llamas, William Hayter and Pierre Lassègues of Cross Channel Music.
Dimple Discs will release a new album of songs, What Time Can Do, in Autumn 2023. In addition to the folk and psychedelic stylings of previous releases, the new album foregrounds the sounds of dub, 70s soul and latin music. I think it is my best music to date.
Interview with It's Psychedelic Baby Magazine: https://www.psychedelicbabymag.com/2022/11/nick-haeffner-interview-the-electromagnetic-imaginary.html
Review of live gig at The Lexington, December 2021: https://freshonthenet.co.uk/2021/12/keeley-nick-haeffner-dragon-welding/
Latest release: The Electromagnetic Imaginary. A mini album sampler containing unreleased instrumental tracks.
Review of The Electromagnetic Imaginary: https://progrockjournal.com/review-nick-haeffner-the-electromagnetic-imaginary/
Buy on Bandcamp: https://nickhaeffnerdimplediscs.bandcamp.com/album/the-electromagnetic-imaginary
Upcoming releases:
What Time Can Do, new album on Dimple Discs, release due Autumn 2023
Nick Haeffner with Mike Adcock and Jim Wallis: What Was and What Might Have Been
This is a track on a forthcoming album also featuring Sean O'Hagan, James Yorkston and Simon Fisher-Turner.
Nick Haeffner's Pandemonium Shadow Show: Are You Sleeping? Release date TBA
This album consists of songs from the soundtrack of Harry Nilsson's The Point, reworked with many talented contributors. In addition to Nilsson's songs there are also some self-penned instrumentals.
