Self-Portrait: Hayden Pedigo

Artwork by Mickey Miles

For our Self-Portrait series, we invite our favorite musicians to create an audio depiction of themselves through songs from the past and present.

Much like the man himself, Hayden Pedigo’s musical output contains multitudes. The unassuming musician is also an accomplished actor, former political candidate, Gucci runway model, and expert humorist. Similarly, at a cursory glance, his five full-length records of fingerstyle guitar instrumentals are landscapes of emotive 6-string arrangements rich in nuance and wonder. However, studying deeper, his art is a chaotic coalescence of qualities from pummeling Musique concrète, dissonant prog-rock, primordial blues, and eccentric pop. For his Self-Portrait, he brings some of his earliest and most unpredictable influences that leads us from Charley Patton to This Heat.

"In light of my new album 'The Happiest Times I Ever Ignored" I wanted to share some of the music that really shaped my life. I decided to focus on the ages of 15-18 when my interest in music was really going crazy. There's plenty of prog rock fantasy, Canterbury scene whimsy, haunted mellotrons, hypnotic twelve strings, and electric jazz chaos. This is really a photocopy scan of the music that set the course for my life. I can still hear so much of these songs in my music, you just have to listen really closely. It's in there....I hope y'all enjoy these songs, this really is a fun selection of stuff. There's a lot of good tunes in here.."