Despite Hayden's penchant for raw, organic lo-fi sounds, the Toronto singer-guitarist took his sweet time about recording the follow-up to his top-selling indie album, Everything I Long For.
 
 Following a huge bidding war which landed Hayden a sizable deal with the new Geffen subsidiary, Outpost, he took no less than a year to make The Closer I Get (due May 12 through Universal Music in Canada).
 
 "After month seven, they were wondering if I was still in the business," Hayden jokes of his record label. "One of the reasons it took so long is because this was my chance to make a `record', and have a little freedom making it, so I really wanted it to be perfect."
 
 An EP, Moving Careful, was released on Hamilton indie label Sonic Unyon in the interim.
 
 Even with a major label budget and recording sessions in Seattle, Woodstock, Los Angeles and Toronto, Hayden still didn't produce a slick, polished record. The singer with the trademark melodic moan retains his "indie" folk rock sound on The Closer I Get, but adds touches of theremin, trumpet, mellotron and other textures without overpowering the songs. From the four-track recording of "I'll Tell Him Tonight" to the state-of-the-art "Two Doors", to instrumentals "Waiting For A Chance To See Her" and "Inst W/Mellotron", and catchy first single, "The Hazards Of Sitting Beneath Palm Trees", The Closer I Get is surprisingly cohesive.
 
 If Hayden had it his way, he'd still be creating and reworking these songs, but, in the last stretch of recording, an imposed deadline motivated him to finish. "I need a push sometimes. Not a push to do work," he clarifies. "I realize this year that I work really hard. "I'd like to not think that I stopped because I was sick of recording," he says. "I actually do think that each song on here, there's either a really special live performance that took place that makes a song have a feel that I really love and am comfortable with, or something took shape in the studio that could never happen again."
 
 Track listing:
 
 The Closer I Get
 Stride
 The Hazards Of Sitting Beneath Palm Trees
 Bullet
 Waiting For A Chance To See Her
 Two Doors
 Between Us To Hold
 Better
 Inst W/Mellotron
 Memphis
 Loneliness
 You Are All I Have
 I'll Tell Him Tonight