2… Read Full Bio ↴1. A British indie pop and "urban folk" band fronted by Darren Hayman.
2. electronic downtempo artist Lee Jones who released an album called Residue,
3. An experimental side project of Swedish indie, electronic, hip hop artist Lechy
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1. Hefner were a British indie pop and "urban folk" band fronted by Darren Hayman. They were active from about 1996 until 2002; since then they have played together only once, for a tribute to the DJ John Peel, who was a strong supporter of theirs.
Hefner began as a live band in 1995. In 1996 Darren Hayman recorded a tape for Sticky Records (named The Devotion Chamber) on which all instruments were played by Darren himself. His friend from art school, Antony Harding, assisted, providing backing vocals.
The band's first release was in April of 1997 when the 7" single "A Better Friend" was released by Boogle Wonderland. The single featured Antony on drums and John Morrison (from Rhatigan) on bass. Shortly after the release, the record label Too Pure offered a record deal to Darren, who extended the offer to Antony and John.
After a few more singles, Hefner recorded their debut album Breaking God's Heart. A lo fidelity album primarily recorded in one take, Hayman has declared that this album is the one he is least interested in listening to, due to its unrealized potential.
The Fidelity Wars would be their next record (with the recent addition of multi-instrumentalist Jack Hayter playing on some tracks, who would later join the band properly); a darker collection of songs. In the official website of the band Darren has explained that all of the songs gravitate around the concept of breaking up.
Hefner had, at this point, recorded a large number of singles and EPs. Boxing Hefner collected some of those tracks that had not appeared on the previous albums, often as new recordings. The compilation also included some unreleased material. The band stated that this album was released primarily to mark Jack's actual joining.
We Love the City marked a change in direction for the band. In contrast with previous records, which had older songs, all of the compositions on We Love the City were made for this record, which had better production value and more varied instrumentation.
Dead Media, released in 2001, continued the interest that Hefner had shown in exploring new ways. Dead Media is certainly different from previous records in the sense of its electronic weight, an interest that led Darren to eventually create The French.
After the band's final gig at the ICA in London on 10 December 2001 and the release of an EP called The Hefner Brain the following March, the band went on a seemingly permanent hiatus, save for one reformation for the "Keeping It Peel" tribute show, marking the death of one of their biggest supporters, Radio 1 DJ John Peel. In 2005 a t-shirt was released that read "Hefner, Britain’s Largest Small Band (1997-2002)", and in an interview Darren Hayman said "no, no reunion planned".
In 2005, after a legal dispute between Darren Hayman and Too Pure, the rights to all the band's Too Pure recordings have reverted to Darren. As a result, he has released The Best of Hefner 1996-2002 (on Fortune & Glory) and Catfight (Cargo), a 2 CD collection of 43 unreleased songs, both in 2006. The full recording of Hefner's special live Peel Session performance from 23rd August 2000 in the eight piece We Love the City formation (amelia fletcher and a horn section - part of which appeared as a limited bonus disc with some copies of the CD of We Love the City) has been released under the title of Maida Vale in November 2006. All of the band's albums have also been reissued with bonus tracks.
In 2008 Darren and Jack got together and played Hefner songs on a limited number of venues around Europe. This project is not planned to continue further after September 2008 though.
Darren Hayman tours and releases music as a solo artist - sometimes as Darren Hayman and the Secondary Modern, but he has been involved in several solo projects: The French, the Stereo Morphonium and Hayman, Watkins, Trout and Lee.
Antony Harding's solo project is known as Ant
Jack Hayter releases solo stuff as well.
www.hefnet.com
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2. The other is Lee Jones who released an album called Residue, a number of 12"s and remixes on Inertia Records.
Residue sold 85,000 albums independently through Inertia Records. Lee Jones, in response, took the project on the road around Europe, playing throughout Holland, Germany, Italy and France. Also appearing on national TV in both Germany and Holland. The album was voted number 3 in the BBC Radio 1 urban albums poll.
Then all went quiet. He worked on Josee's solo album, Lost Souls Dancing, and moved to Berlin.
At this time in order to satisfy demand Inertia released a compilation of his best remixes called "Reworks" featuring his versions of tunes by Lamb, 4 Hero, Omar faruk Takbilek and others and took time off to produce some other artists.
In 2003 Inertia hooked Hefner up with Frazey Ford, lead singer of The Be Good Tanyas, a fantastic rootsy, folky band from Vancouver. The resulting material was magical but due to recording commitments to EMI the project had to be stalled until the Be Good Tanyas album was finally released. As of the end of 2006 the project has been revitalised with the partnership working together again. An album is due at the end of 2007.
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3. Dr. Hefner, the Prince of Holmiapolis
She Can't Sleep No More
Hefner Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
She makes little pastries and stuffs them with cheese.
The coffee burns her knuckles,
Every time she spills it.
She's alone, she's bereft.
When he moved to Hackney in 1990,
He bought in little trinkets but she turned him down.
She can't sleep no more,
Since he's gone.
She wrote clumsy poetry,
She let him read it.
He told her it was perfect,
But she scrunched her nose.
She can't sleep no more,
She can't sleep no more,
Since he's gone.
All the ambition that they'd been storing up was flushed down the lavatory,
She didn't love him but she knew he was what she needed.
He started wishing it, she started dreading it,
She burnt her party clothes.
Now there's nowhere to go since she burnt those party clothes.
She said she didn't need him,
He didn't believe it.
He moved to the country,
And started sleeping around.
She can't sleep no more,
She can't sleep no more,
Since he's gone.
The lyrics of Hefner's song "She Can't Sleep No More" tells the story of a woman who works in a greasy cafeteria and spends much of her time alone. She longs for a man who once offered her little trinkets but was turned down. The song narrates how she struggles to sleep at night since her love interest moved away and started sleeping around. The woman writes poetry, but her love interest dismisses it as clumsy even though he describes it as perfect. The song describes how she burns her party clothes and now has nowhere to go.
The lyrics paint a picture of a woman barely holding on to her life as she tries to make sense of her relationship with her love interest. The reference to little trinkets he had offered her implies that she might have had a chance with him but did not take it. The song underscores the importance of relationships, how they could shape one's past, present, and future, and how they could affect one's ability to sleep at night.
Line by Line Meaning
She works every morning in the greasy cafeteria,
Every morning she goes to work in a cafeteria which is not very clean or healthy.
She makes little pastries and stuffs them with cheese.
She prepares tiny baked food items filled with cheese.
The coffee burns her knuckles,
The hot coffee she serves burns her fingers.
Every time she spills it.
She spills the coffee quite often.
She's alone, she's bereft.
She feels lonely and sad.
When he moved to Hackney in 1990,
In the year 1990, he relocated to Hackney.
He bought in little trinkets but she turned him down.
He tried to gift her some small things as souvenirs but she refused them.
She can't sleep no more,
She is unable to sleep anymore.
Since he's gone.
Since he left her.
She wrote clumsy poetry,
She wrote poetry which was not very good or refined.
She let him read it.
She allowed him to read what she had written.
He told her it was perfect,
He expressed to her that what she wrote was excellent.
But she scrunched her nose.
She didn't believe him and disliked what he said.
She burned her party clothes.
She destroyed her clothes meant for parties by burning them.
All the ambition that they'd been storing up was flushed down the lavatory,
All the plans and ideas they had accumulated were ruined completely.
She didn't love him but she knew he was what she needed.
Although she didn't love him, she understood that he fulfilled a purpose in her life.
He started wishing it, she started dreading it,
He began to desire something while she became afraid of a possible outcome.
Now there's nowhere to go since she burned those party clothes.
She doesn't have proper clothes to attend events since she destroyed them.
She said she didn't need him,
She expressed that she didn't require him.
He didn't believe it.
He didn't accept her statement as true.
He moved to the country,
He left the city and relocated to the countryside.
And started sleeping around.
He began to have casual relationships with multiple partners.
She can't sleep no more,
She is still unable to fall asleep.
Since he's gone.
Since he departed and is no longer with her.
Lyrics © O/B/O APRA/AMCOS
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