Christian Hayes

Christian David Hayes^[1] (born 10 June 1964 in Westminster, London^[2]), also known as Bic Hayes, is an English rock guitarist, singer and songwriter. His highest profile musical role has been fronting the band Dark Star between 1998 and 2001, whom he formed with fellow ex-Levitation members David Francolini and Laurence O'Keefe.^[3]

He has also played in a number of bands including Levitation, Cardiacs,^[4] Ring, Panixsphere, The Dave Howard Singers, Mice (featuring ex-All About Eve's Julianne Regan) and Heather Nova.^[5]

Since Dark Star split up, Hayes has worked and toured with Heather Nova and The Pet Shop Boys^[6] and has also involved in tour and production management.

He has also been working on solo material under the guise of Mikrokosmos releasing two albums to date (The Heart Of The Home and The Seven Stars) via his own "Ingatia Recordings" record label.^[7] One track,'Hold Like Mother's Hand', appeared on the Cardiacs tribute album Cardiacs and Affectionate Friends.^[8]

Musical style and techniques

Hayes is best characterised as an English psychedelic musician, although one who emerged from the post-punk scene of the early 1980s. He began his career with various South London-based underground bands (including a stint in the last lineup of Ring). For a while he also played bass for the eccentric lounge-punk act The Dave Howard Singers, who were at the time known for the novelty single "Yon Yonson".

Hayes was brought into Cardiacs in 1989 to replace saxophonist Sarah Smith - he played second guitar in the band during a period in which it was evolving into a harder-rocking guitar-orientated style. During this time he displayed a performance style incorporating a strong use of distortion and echo but combined with passages of quieter detail. This was expanded for his work in Levitation (1992–1994) and with the Julianne Regan-fronted Mice (1995-approximately 1997), and reached full fruition in the power trio Dark Star. In the latter band, Hayes created a layered and detailed but hard-rocking sound using a wide variety of effects pedals and devices (with apparent influences including Jimi Hendrix and Keith Levene). Although he played numerous lead lines, these were always part of an integrated band sound and featured few standard rock-style solos.

Hayes was picked to replicate Johnny Marr's original guitar parts from the Pet Shop Boys album Release when the band toured.^[9] His current project Mikrokosmos (for which he plays the majority of the instruments) has clear stylistic references to previous generations of psychedelic musicians such as Syd Barrett and Hawkwind. His approach to guitar playing for Mikrokosmos is considerably simpler than his previous work with Dark Star.

From time to time Hayes has shown his skill in music production. Most recently on "Luck Had Nothing To Do With It" by Pinhead Nation, released in 2012.

References

External links

• Mikrokosmos Myspace Page
• A Dark Star fan site
• A Levitation fan site
• Crew Cuts Interview with Bic Hayes