My first studio album in almost four years is FINALLY HERE! Available from my hands, on my Bandcamp, and in store at Off the Beaten Path Books & Cafe in Farmington Hills, MI! The album is called “idiot child.”, and includes some refurbished stuff previously heard as demos, crowd favorites from live shows, and brand new material never heard before. $10 for 12 tracks, and you can listen to the whole album before you buy it!

I promise you’ll never have to wait this long between albums ever again.
I missed recording and mixing and 3 am vocal tracks and staying up too late and I can’t wait to write more material and do it all over again.
ENJOY!
Love always,
Hayley Jane

The short story is this: I have a new digital release up on my BandCamp. It is composed of previously unreleased material, things that were only up for a short time, tracks from FOREVER AGO…it’s a mismatch of things. But now you can buy it! Click the album cover to go to my BandCamp and buy 19 [or 20? hmmmm hidden tracks...] ridiculous slices of the Hayley Jane psyche.

HERE IT IS:

To read more about who what when where why, keep on reading.

I work at a dayjob that I hate like most other starving artist types, but now, I’m losing said dayjob on September 30th, due to the store I work for closing down. This has put a lot of stress on myself and the owner of the company, who has started treating me like crap. I mean, the working conditions were never great [I rarely get breaks during 8 hour shifts, and if I do, it was because I snuck away and hid for 20 minutes in the back room], but they’ve gotten decidedly worse, with my boss badmouthing other employees, talking down to me, and just generally being an uber jerk [including something that I think was supposed to be a joke about taking my life, but just made everyone uncomfortable]. I work weird hours [the same every week] that aren’t conducive to job searching and also leave me sitting in an empty store for hours on end, as the reason we are closing is because of a lack of business.

This is why I am releasing the above chaotic collection. I had all these mp3s and sketches that I was hoarding and people wanted to hear my music, so here it is. If I sell 30 downloads of this album, I can quit my dayjob and start looking for a new one full time. I already have some interviews set up, but it’s hard to interview for new positions with my schedule the way it is.

I’m not dreaming big and hoping that I can just live off the sales of my music- it’s not possible at this point in time. All I want right now is the ability to cover my expenses while I look for a new job, to keep a roof over my head and food in my belly. Maybe at some point I can live off of my art and what I make in merch, music, and touring, but right now, it’s not feasible. I’m just looking for a little assistance during this transition, since I don’t have any savings and I’m already barely making it from paycheck to paycheck.

Thank you so much, please check out the album even if you can’t buy it! I will most likely be releasing more information about each song as the days tick on by, depending on if people want to hear what inspired me to write each piece. Head on over to my Facebook and lemme know what you think!

Love always,
Hayley Jane

1. I am officially running for Miss Michigan USA 2012. You can follow my hijinks over on my Facebook!

2. YOU CAN NOW BUY MY 2008 RELEASE, soliloquy, ON ITUNES! I can’t freaking believe it, I am so thrilled by that. CLICK HERE TO GET THE ALBUM!

3. Bad news: crashed my car, have to get a new one.

Love always,
Hayley Jane

YES. WHAT. AWESOME. I’ve never done anything like this before- the closest I’ve ever been to being in a pageant is an obsessive “Miss Congeniality” phase soon after the release of the DVD. [I can still quote the commentary.]

I have to raise a whole bunch of money to be able to compete, and the run down of what I need to do is on my IndieGoGo campaign, where you can donate via PayPal or credit card. There are different perks or prizes for different amounts that you donate, including hand-painted tshirts, handmade pasties, and [at the highest price point] a song written just for you about whatever you choose!

In other news, I’m thinking about starting a podcast, both video and audio, of me ranting about whatever, playing music, doing burlesque acts, etc. I’ll probably record a couple episodes before I start it, so I have regular content to put up at first. I was inspired by my friends over at WDDP, the Working Detectives Dragnet Podcast, who recenty featured my Dragnet burlesque act!  That and I need someone to hear all this music I write and don’t have the means to put out an album right now.

CROWN THE CLOWN PRINCESS!
Hayley Jane for Miss Michigan 2012

Love always,
Hayley Jane

Because I am a nerd and I over-prepare, I’m starting to design my potential entry for Miss Exotic World 2012- I know, it’s pretty far away, but I figure I’ll have enough money to build the prop at some point in between now and then. It’s going to be huge- 10 feet tall. And it’s going to be awesome. And I can’t tell you what it is because it’s a SECRET, but also because if I tell a bunch of people what it is and when it’s going to happen, they’ll expect something and if I never finish it, I won’t have let anybody down, because you never knew what it was in the first place. Right? Right!

Regarding classes- currently writing up curriculums for a burlesque act series where we go from start to finish on how to create a burlesque act over 4 weeks and develop a stage persona, as well as a basic burlesque class and some specialty classes on make-up and tassels and other such things. Might do a fan veil workshop, but I’ll have to study with those a little more. I’m in love with my fan veils- I need to start making my own so I can have them in every colour. I mean, ostrich feather fans are gorgeous, and I love the fans that I made, and I enjoy working with them, but I can convey so much more emotion and ferocity with my fan veils. I just have to work more with them and see how concealing and revealing can be maneuvered…

I’v also recently gotten into doing conceals/reveals with just a veil- I did an act wearing only a couple yard of chiffon and it was a real blast. I need to work on the technique more, but I enjoyed the style and tease of it.

I AM A BURLESQUE ROBOT WHEN I TALK SOMETIMES, I’M SORRY.

Also, DOUBLE RAINBOW BURLESQUE ACT. Just so you know.

Love all-the-ways,
Hayley Jane

I’ve decided to make the front page of my website a blog now, since I’ve wanted to start a legit blog that wasn’t on livejournal for quite some time, and I wanted a blog on my website, so here we go. It’s a blog.

Back in 2008, I blogged a lot on that livejournal, mainly because I felt I had a purpose. I was giving people information. I mean, it wasn’t very important information, but it was information that hadn’t yet existed in that format, directed at that audience. The faeries. I’m trying to bring more faerie elements into my performance. The purple hair helped a lot with that, but now that I’m blonde, I’m not as inherently fae.

My new costume, however, does have some perfectly fae details, which I thoroughly enjoy. Iridescent violet/magenta dupioni silk, Swarovski crystals… It’s gorgeous. I want to strip out of it as much as possible. I am truly in love. I have it on my dress form in my living room so I can just look at it. I’ve been costume crazy lately. Doing a lot of pattern drafting- I should put up some scans of my sketchbook just so you can see all the numbers and details and sketches. I’m always interested to see things like that from artist, maybe you will be, too?

I recently designed this coat that I can not wait to dive into. I’m not as experienced with tailoring, and I haven’t done anything really “heavy” in quite some time. I’m interested to work with the drape of a denser fabric- I’ve been working with so much chiffon and silk lately I’ve forgotten what it’s like to sew through 3 layers of tapestry on a regular basis. Ah, Ren Faire costuming, you’re such a fabulous education in things that can go horribly wrong.

I also need to set up my Etsy with all these extra things I’m making so I can pay for my burlesque habit.

I haven’t blogged in quite some time, so I think I’m going to end this before it gets awkward for all of us.

Love always,
Hayley Jane

Donate, I’m Irish!