Q&A: Hailey Dawn’s Dynamic Ode to the Record Store, “Generation Records”
RECORD STORES ARE MAGICAL SPACES — It might sound cliche, but it’s true. In what other place does the past intermingle with the present so closely? Vinyl containing thousands of songs from different genres and eras sit on shelves, snugly tucked into their places alongside one another, as they patiently wait to be taken to their new homes. Any avid music lover is likely to have their go-to store where the majority of their most treasured records have been found — singer-songwriter Hailey Dawn certainly does. In fact, Dawn loves one particular record store so much that she wrote an entire ode to it, “Generation Records,” released today as the first cut off her upcoming sophomore EP of the same name.
“When you go into a place that feels like it's from a time gone by or like it's a relic of a time gone by — like a record shop — it makes you feel closer to that wonder and the magic of music,” Dawn asserts. “It feels closer to you when you're surrounded by it.”
Dawn has been preoccupied with surrounding herself with music for what seems like forever — her formative years were spent penning ditties on the piano and guitar and quietly hoping to follow in the footsteps of the legendary Taylor Swift. Soon after COVID assumed its tight grip on the world, Dawn threw all hesitation to the side, deciding to pursue music as a full-time career, following this passion to New York University (NYU), where she currently majors in Music Business.
It was in New York where Dawn was truly able to tap into her artistry. The singer-songwriter quickly got to work in NYU’s practice rooms, releasing a handful of singles and her debut EP, homemade constellations, in just under two years. Dawn’s love for songwriting is ever-so-clear within her brightly synth-filled discography, with every track being oh-so-carefully assembled into dynamic arrangements that cleverly work to purvey the artist’s sharp emotional intellect.
“Generation Records” is the beginning of a brand new era for Dawn, one full of powerful, cascading waves of sound and painstaking introspectiveness. The track guides listeners through a period of massive transition and upheaval, in which Dawn was forced to reassess everything she once knew.
Of course, even in this frenzy of confusion she knew where she could retreat: trusty ol’ Generation Records. Finding a much-needed reprieve in between those tight-knit shelves that act as home to her most beloved albums has always been the surefire remedy to anxiety or anguish. Once that iconic bright red storefront comes into sight, Dawn knows that she is safe to take a deep breath once again.
“I make my way down underground / And sort through dust covered piles of forgotten sounds / Untouched unknown for years now,” Dawn belts out over tinkling chimes and rumbling synths, more eager than ever to get lost in hours of musical exploration. “I wanna know everything / I wanna feel it all,” she professes, thoroughly inspired by the trove of melodic knowledge available right at her fingertips.
“Generation Records” lets listeners know that it is perfectly okay to be lost and confused. Human life is full of blissful ups and arduous downs — it’s an unending cycle that we ultimately must come to terms with. With her discography, Dawn hopes to make navigating through that in-between space a little bit easier. By providing this friendly reminder that music itself is eternal and will always be there to pick us up when we are down, Dawn effectively creates an atmosphere of gentle understanding and comforting camaraderie with “Generation Records.”
Continue reading below to learn more about Dawn’s experience working in the music industry, her relationship with her artistry, and to get some insight into the release of her sophomore EP, Generation Records.
LUNA: I want to start out by asking about your origin as a musician. How did you realize that you wanted to do music?
DAWN: I've been writing songs for pretty much as long as I can remember. I've done it for my entire life. Someone who really inspired me early on was Taylor Swift. I was really into all of her country stuff. When I heard her music and knew that she had written it herself, this light bulb went off in my head that I could do that too. So that's what I did. All throughout middle school and high school I would write songs. Then slowly along the way, I taught myself how to play piano and guitar and started being able to put them to music. In my senior year of high school, right before COVID … I decided I really wanted to take it seriously — no regrets! You only live once. I might as well go for it — I'd always regret it if I didn't go for it and give it a shot.
LUNA: Even though COVID was terrible, it did provide an opportunity for people to explore different things that they wanted to do. That's one of the few benefits of having that happen to the world.
DAWN: COVID fundamentally changed the music that I would have made. Had COVID not happened, it would have been totally unrecognizable. I started college during the pandemic. I was a freshman in 2020, a music business major at NYU. When I went to school that first semester, there was literally, like, no one — all of the classes were online. I used to literally spend upwards of around eight hours a day in the practice rooms, where I wrote songs all day and recorded my first EP.
LUNA: You mentioned that you are a music business major at NYU. How has your experience being on the business side helped you better understand the industry and work as an artist?
DAWN: It has helped to demystify the industry a little bit. When you're really far on the outside of it, you don't actually know … what these people do. Once you get into the world and you have these internships and meet these people, it's really not a crazy kind of thing. It's about working hard, being persistent, and trying to put yourself out there. It's a lot of having to campaign for yourself all the time.
LUNA: What is the most challenging part of being a musician in today's industry? Is it the campaigning part, like you mentioned, or something different?
DAWN: The most challenging part is trying to get through all of the noise. There's so many people making music. I'm a listener first so I love when I hear cool songs by new artists, but sometimes it feels like there's so many artists and you have to really think, "What am I doing that's different? What am I adding to this genre? How can I make my songs something that people will remember?"
LUNA: I hear you. Social media is great for so many reasons, but right now it is a big platform for people to put everything they release into. It can definitely be hard to feel like you have to differentiate yourself between other people. Let’s switch topics and chat about the EP! The name, Generation Records, came from the name of a record store that you frequent. What do you love about record stores, vinyl, and cassettes?
DAWN: The reason that I love music so much is because it's such a source of wonder for me. There are certain times where I'm listening to songs, especially older songs, and I get this feeling of wonder. It's hard to describe. When you go into a place that feels like it's from a time gone by, or like it's a relic of a time gone by — like a record shop — it makes you feel closer to that wonder and the magic of music. It feels closer to you when you're surrounded by it. There's something kind of magical about music in a physical form; songs that you can sort through and hold. They're a real thing that holds space on this earth. It's really interesting.
LUNA: There's also the cool thing about the different prints and versions of a record. It's such a cool way to conscientiously consume music instead of streaming.
DAWN: It makes me think back to something my mom was telling me about. I am always asking my parents about what kind of music they liked as they were growing up in the ’80s. My mom would always mention how [consuming] music then was not like it is now. It was part of your identity. You had to go to a store and put down money just to buy one album by one artist. It was such a big thing that I think we'll never have again. That's okay, though! There's something kind of magical about having that in the past.
LUNA: You really had to be intentional about where you put this energy and money. With the EP, how did you decide which tracks you wanted to be in it? Did you write them with the intention of having this cohesive album, or were they all written spontaneously and put in the EP?
DAWN: I had this idea in my head that I wanted to write a song using the generation records store because it was just such a cool place. Something about the word "generation" is really powerful. "Generation Records" is such a strong title for a song. I knew I wanted to write that, but I had no idea what that song was going to be about. I spent the entire summer writing — I probably wrote around 20 songs, just trying to understand what the vibe I wanted… My family sometimes has these impromptu music nights. One night we were watching these live performances on YouTube of different artists. We watched Bruce Springsteen's "Dancing in the Dark," Bon Jovi's "She's a Little Runaway," and Queen at Live Aid. After watching that Freddie Mercury performance I immediately went upstairs and wrote "Generation Records." It inspired me, and all of the sudden I knew exactly what I wanted the song to be about. I had my phone and was humming what the chorus would be into the voice memos. From there, I looked at the 20 songs and chose which ones I thought would fit that theme.
LUNA: My family does the same thing — we'll sit around and watch Pink Floyd playing at Pompeii. It's such a good bonding experience.
DAWN: It's a concert in your living room. Every concert now is, like, $500, so we take what we can get.
LUNA: That was kind of your Paul McCartney moment, with a song coming into your brain.
DAWN: That's the first time I've been compared to Paul McCartney! Thank you!
LUNA: Of course! Going off the songwriting flowing into your brain, what purpose does writing songs play in your life? In this EP there are so many different feelings and themes, from regret to growing up to feeling impostor syndrome. How does writing these songs help you process life?
DAWN: Honestly, just the action of writing down what I'm feeling [is helpful] because sometimes I don't even know what I'm feeling until I put it into words. It's sometimes hard for me to get all my thoughts out in a cohesive way in this form where I'm just talking. I'm not usually great at coming up with things at the moment. I really have to sit down and think about it. That's how I process everything. A lot of my songs I don't even start out writing a verse and chorus. I'm just sitting there writing things down. I'll usually write a crazy essay about whatever it is I'm feeling and then turn that into a song.
LUNA: I love that. You can write everything down and pick out these small details that turn into this really concise concept within a song. In the first track, "Generation Records," you discuss feeling trapped and wanting change in your life. How do you spark change in these stagnant periods of life? What do you do to get out of a rut?
DAWN: That's actually a good question because I was in a serious rut today and I had to get myself out of it. Normally what I do when that stuff happens is look for some form of art. Sometimes it's music — I'll go back to songs that mean a lot to me and walk down the street. There's something about being outside too — it does a lot. Sometimes I can seriously get lost inside of the songs, and I get so lost inside of the songs that I forget why I was even down in the first place when there's such good music that exists. Sometimes it's a film that I'll go back to, a comfort film that I love. One of my favorite films of all time, Titanic. I've seen that one a million times — that's a good example.
LUNA: I love that! Resorting to other media is so helpful — both in getting those creative juices flowing, but also in having something to make you feel warm inside. It's so important to have those comfort films and comfort songs.
DAWN: Definitely, feeling warm inside — that's so well-put.
LUNA: (Laughs) Thank you! Correct me if I'm wrong, but the second track, "The End of the Road (For Penny Lane),” was it inspired by the movie Almost Famous?
DAWN: Yes, indeed.
LUNA: Oh my gosh, I love that movie. How did that song come to fruition?
DAWN: I had just gone through a really tough situation with someone [who] I thought was a friend and they turned out to not really be a friend. I was really going through it on a night. I was on YouTube, spiraling, watching random videos and edits, and eventually I came across an edit that had Almost Famous in it. I had never seen the movie so I looked up the trailer, and I was so inspired by [it]. I didn't even watch the film — I had a keyboard in my dorm room and wrote a good chunk of the song, and then I was like, "You know what, I should probably watch the movie before I write the rest of this." Then I finished the movie, and wrote the rest of the song. The song is about a lot of different things. Penny Lane was the character as a vessel for my emotions at the time. I was feeling like I had been sort of left behind in the same way that she was in the movie by Russell. I used her as a medium.
LUNA: I love that. That movie is so good.
DAWN: I have a Penny Lane jacket now. I can't believe it took me so long to watch it. Honestly, I don't know what I was doing.
LUNA: You needed to wait for the inspiration to strike. You have a story about watching it for the first time. In the next track, "Room 536," you discuss this whole thing where college students have to decide what they're going to do for the rest of their lives. You feel like you have to make others happy with your decisions. How does one overcome others' expectations for them and learn to put their own life first?
DAWN: That's a good question. What I've learned in my own experience is that it comes from you first. You can focus on how you're not getting validation from the people that you want validation from and just be upset about it — "No one's on my side. No one supports me" — but then if you're also not on your side, you're really not getting anywhere. Regardless of whether or not you have a parade marching behind you or not — usually you don't — you have to make sure that you are solid and that you are on your own team.
LUNA: Like they say, you have to be your own best friend, but you also have to be your biggest cheerleader.
DAWN: It's honestly hard for me. I am not my biggest cheerleader every day because it's really hard, and sometimes you have days where you're down — the day that I wrote that song wasn't a good one. But you have to at least have some moments where you really feel like you 100% stand for everything that you believe in and feel great.
LUNA: Speaking of the rough days, "Breaking the Band" is this really nuanced version of a breakup song. A lot of musicians can relate, especially if they've played in a band with their significant other, broken up, and had to deal with the consequences of that. What was the inspiration behind the track?
DAWN: It was inspired by the same situation that I had been talking about with "The End of the Road (For Penny Lane)." I was losing a best friend, or someone that I thought was a best friend. That was the initial inspiration, but as I was writing it, it became about anyone who had ever parted ways with me. It's a song about trying to regain your own power after something like that happens.
LUNA: That's so beautiful. So often we dwell on the losses that we forget to acknowledge that we have to build ourselves up. You have so many messages about uplifting yourself in these times of pain within this project.
DAWN: That's what the entire EP is about. When I was thinking about it in my head, if somebody asked me what the message was here, I would say that Generation Records lives in the time between something that has ended but also before the next thing begins. It's in that in-between space. It's all about growing up and moving on.
LUNA: It's really about digging into that transitory space, that really uncomfortable space, but finding like the silver lining. It might be uncomfortable, but at least you have a catchy soundtrack to be uncomfortable to. The last track, “what’s another cut to the broken-hearted?,” is this really awesome, heartbreaking ballad with such a punchy rock twist. How did you go about creating this dynamic rock soundscape that you can really hear across the EP?
DAWN: I was really inspired by music from the past, specifically’ 70s and ’80s music. I was listening to a lot of David Bowie, Elton John, Bruce Springsteen — all of these artists. I was thinking about the vibe of a record store, looking back to past music that really inspired me. Music that you can really feel that magic from. I wanted to take inspiration from those songs. I wanted to make sure every song had an element of something that you can feel — like a heavy guitar moment or an ’80s synth. Something from all of the eras I really was trying to recreate.
LUNA: It's all encapsulated in the EP. It's all of these different essences. You pull from so many different styles. It goes to show how the theme of Generation Records is omnipresent.
DAWN: That was definitely what I was trying to accomplish.
LUNA: What do you want listeners to get out of the EP?
DAWN: Hope. The idea of hope and dreams is something I think about a lot when I write music. When you're young, they're so important. They're probably the main two things that I talk about in every song that I write. I want people to come away from listening to the EP ready to take the next step, hopeful for things to come, even if whatever happened before wasn't so great. Try to be positive about the future — you never know what can happen.
LUNA: Hope is such a simple and concise message, but it really rings clear across everything, even if the song themes are a little melancholy at some points. There's this really solid underlining of hope that I heard within the record, and I think others will hear it too.
DAWN: Oh, thank you. I appreciate that so much.
LUNA: We're actually at my last question! I always like to end my interviews on a happy note, so I wanted to ask: What has been giving you joy lately? It can be anything, music related or not.
DAWN: This is kind of embarrassing. I already mentioned this earlier, but I really love the movie Titanic. They're actually doing a release of it to theaters this weekend. I've never gotten to see it in theaters because I wasn't alive in 1997, obviously, but my ticket has been purchased.
LUNA: That is so exciting. It's such a unique experience to see movies that you've always watched at home with a giant crowd. You can hear their live reaction to it — that's so exciting.
DAWN: I'm honestly way too excited. I need to calm down. It's literally a movie that has been out for, like, 30 years, but I'm very excited.
LUNA: Take all the chances you can to revel in joy!
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