Artist: Darren Hayman

Essex-born Darren Hayman is a singer/songwriter who releases albums as a solo artist, but he is best known as the lead singer, songwriter and guitarist of the UK indie band Hefner.n n Hayman formed Hefner in 1992 in Kent along with fellow art-school student Antony Harding (later a.k.a. ANT), who played the drums. Moving to London and joining up with John Morrison (bass) and later Jack Hayter (multi-instrumentalist) they started to perform live from 1995, and from '97 they released four studio albums (plus one b-side collection, a live album and a compilation) before splitting up in 2002. n All Hefner albums have lyrically been strongly focused on the pathos of geeky young men having troubles with their (lacking) love life. Musically Hefner had a very lo-fi guitar-based singer/songwriter touch to them, but Haymans characteristic somewhat off-key and slightly nasal vocals strongly enforced the emphasism and the irony of the lyrics.n With their last album: Dead Media The band included more analogue synth sounds and drum machines in their music though. n n Darren ...