Music
Press
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Discography
Longyearbyen (2011)
“Longyearbyen is something very special and holds a lot of promise for what else is to come.” – Timber & Steel
“A symphony with banjo. Packwood’s arrangements are bright and expansive, these are journey songs.” – Vicarious
“Bayden Packwood Hine is one ambitious fellow. Bayden Packwood Hine is badass.” - Folkhive
Packwood EP (2012)
"One of the most interesting things I have heard in a while" - Sean Magee, Abbey Road Studios
"...I am in love with your EP - the arrangements are sensational - a symphony with banjo = delight" - Rosie Beaton, triple j
"It's like an old fashioned Disney film had a head on collision with a full-scale orchestra" - Frankie Magazine
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Bio
Heavily influenced by his upbringing in rural NSW, Bayden endeavoured to create a work with a sense of augustness - a response to the natural world that surrounded him. It is his attempt at reclaiming a part of the richness of the human spirit, something that he feels he is perhaps losing touch with. “The more and more I grow up into the disconnected, artificial world that we live in, the faster I run towards the creation of my own excessive and emotive musical world. My own little universe that I have shaped and filled with my inspirations and dreams”.
This impassioned debut EP welcomes you to the Packwood universe. As told through a collection of works that takes you on a journey from elation to contemplation; to galaxies beyond our comprehension in Sloan Great Wall, to the worlds northernmost town in Longyearbyen, through the jubilance of Bats, to the mournful Charlotte and the reflective Tinder, Packwood covers an extraordinary amount of musical terrain over the course of it’s seven songs.
Cinematic in it’s conception and told through the humble pickings of his banjo, a bracing yet sincere voice, and the subtle nuances of a 50 piece orchestra, each aspect is cleverly composed to evoke a depth of emotion that takes the listener straight to the heart and soul of each piece.
Some impressive comparisons to visionary artists like Sufjan Stevens and Joanna Newsom are often bandied around on first listen, and although Packwood retains elements of Bayden’s beloved musical genres he has coupled them with his own unique view of the world and created a sound that is wholly his own.
Working together with Sydney-based composer Ella Jamieson in mid 2010, the orchestral arrangements and first recordings turned out to be a learning curve, resulting in a re-recording at Trackdown Studios with Daniel Brown, James Ezra and Craig Beckett in May 2011. The end result was exactly the sound that Bayden had been striving for. Engineered by Chris Vallejo (Josh Pyke, Passenger) at Linear Studios in July 2011 and finally mastered by Sean Magee (Paul McCartney, Pink Floyd) at Abbey Road Studios in London in August 2011, it was complete.
Since bursting onto the folk scene in the later half of 2011 with his first single Longyearbyen, Bayden has received nothing but praise for his ambitious project. He has garnered a well earned respect from his fellow musicians which lead to the highly successful event 'Folkraiser', that saw the likes of Sydney's best folksters (The Maple Trail, The Falls, Faith Lee, Patrick James, Amanda King, Missing Children and Arbori) donating their valuable time to perform, raising the last amount of money required to release the
long awaited EP.
Armed with his debut EP out in March and a national tour in the works, the future looks bright for Packwood. "To be rewarded for being overly ambitious, to work hard at it and hear my whistling and pickings realised - I wouldn’t trade it for anything”.
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