Haley (Haley Bonar)

HALEY was first discovered by Low’s Alan Sparhawk who spotted her at a local open mic club in Duluth, Minnesota and was so impressed he immediately invited her to join them on tour. Which is how, a week later, nineteen-year-old Haley was transformed from college student to ambitious dropout, crammed into a Honda Civic with a guitar and a drummer for company, touring the US opening for Low.

In the decade since Haley has released a succession of recordings, each of which have garnered more praise than the last, and has seen her collaborate with the likes of Andrew Bird (with whom Haley occasionally plays live) and Justin Vernon (who contributed guest vocals to the Last War album). Her most recent album, Impossible Dream picked up wild acclaim from the UK music press, followed by two sold out UK tours, and her debut appearance on Later… with Jools Holland.

She chose International Women’s Day 2017 to announce that she would officially adopt her mother’s maiden name (McCallum, a Scottish name meaning “a person of peace”) and now performs and releases under the moniker HALEY, the first fruits of which were the single Bratt, released for Record Store Day 2018. She says of the single:

“These two songs are kind of the last ones I wrote with lyrics in them, at least, for the time being. "Bratt" was intended to be sung from a teenage perspective, appropriating that unsentimental attitude while simultaneously looking back at yourself at that age, all of the insecurities that went along with it, letting go of your self-judgement on the past."