By Jae-Ha Kim
Chicago Sun-Times
February 17, 1994
Until releasing his latest album, Nick Heyward hadn’t had a fantastic day for a long, long time.
A decade ago, Heyward fronted the English pop band Haircut 100, whose debut album, “Pelican West,” spawned a trio of hit singles (“Love Plus One,” “Favourite Shirt” and “Fantastic Day”). At the height of the group’s success, he trimmed himself from Haircut to pursue a solo career.
Except for one single that did well for him, Heyward disappeared from the pop charts – until now. His radio-friendly “From Monday to Sunday” is doing well both critically and commercially, driven by the bubbly first single, “Kite.”
Heyward headlines a concert tonight at Park West.
“I didn’t disappear by choice,” Heyward says, laughing softly. “I hadn’t intended on waiting five years to record another album, but I couldn’t get a recording contract with the material I had. I’d take my songs around and it’d be like, `Could you use this producer instead?’ or `If you jazzed it up a bit we could use it.’
“The whole thing made me more stubborn. I wanted to do it myself. And I pretty much waited until I found a record company that let me. And fortunately for my family, Epic let me.”
Though Epic gave him his choice of studios, Heyward said he kept things economical, choosing a small unknown studio with few frills. And because he wrote, produced and played nearly all the instruments himself, his entourage was kept to a minimum.
“My friends would visit me there and say, `Things aren’t going well for you then, are they, Nick?’ ” said Heyward, 32. “And I’d be thinking, `Things are going brilliantly.’ ”
Things also appeared to be going brilliantly when he quit Haircut. So why did he leave?
“It was an accident,” he said. “I never intended on having a solo career back then. I thought it would be suicide to do it. We were really naive and didn’t know how to deal with all the moguls diving on us. I wanted the band to take a break and work on a film or a TV series, and the management convinced the rest of the guys to get back in the studio and whack something out really quick. They ended up switching to another label and I didn’t go with them. And that’s how I went solo.”
Now married, Heyward said his kids (Oliver, 6, and Katie, 3) had no concept of what their father does. Oliver’s classmates would brag about their doctor dads and ask what his dad did.
“Oliver would say, `Nothing. He plays the guitar sometimes,’ ” Heyward said. “I miss them terribly now that I’m on the road. And they miss me, too, especially after having been used to having me around all the time.
“I didn’t choose to stay at home (during their infancy), but in retrospect I’m happy I did. I wouldn’t trade those years home with the babies for anything.”
