Biography

“For me, Girlhood is the album I wanted and needed to hear when I was younger,” Brisbane-based, alt-country singer-songwriter Hayley Marsten says of her eagerly anticipated second album. “Everything from the songs down to the way the album looks was really inspired by who I so badly wanted to be when I was a teenager and I’m really proud of what I made for that younger self.” Although Hayley admits her debut record Spectacular Heartbreak (2019) – a self-described “breakup album” – was “very vulnerable”, Girlhood delves even deeper. “I honestly feel like going to therapy really informed a lot of the songs on this record,” she reveals. “I was doing a lot of reflection on who I was, and the way that I treat myself. I think Girlhood is my entire personality and all the things that – had I listened to it when I was 15. Earlier this year, Hayley signed with the prestigious alt-country label Cheatin’ Hearts Records and also took the stage at Australia’s biggest country music festival CMC Rocks, “I looked out into the audience during the set and there were people with signs with my lyrics on it!” she extols. “I will never forget that one.” Hayley’s “very autobiographical” Girlhood album most closely represents where she’s at right now, both as an artist and a person: sometimes sassy, always heartfelt. And something tells us Baby Hayley would wholeheartedly approve of Girlhood, which is, unquestionably, her adult counterpart’s most honest and accomplished set of songs to date.