Stephanie Hayden

Music Therapy weaves her life lessons into songs

I want to help people through my music. That’s kind of my main goal, using music as therapy.

Stephanie Hayden

Stephanie Hayden can’t pinpoint the exact moment that she wanted to be a musician, but she does remember her first song.

“I was 11 and I wrote it because I was being picked on all the time. So, I was like, ‘Hey, this is great, writing a song is actually kind of therapeutic.’”

Stephanie Hayden

Hayden has moved on from using mean girl bullies as her impetus for creativity, but the therapy part has certainly stuck as an important part of her creative process. Her 2021 single, “Blame,” fired back at an ex-boyfriend in a positive way, while the track “I’m Not OK,” from her recent EP “Split,” is about an old friend’s suicide. Like many singer-songwriters, Hayden sees the creative impulse to track her personal life in lyrics as heavily linked to an instinct to connect with people.

“That’s definitely one of the most important reasons,” the 19-year-old affirms. “I want to help people through my music. That’s kind of my main goal, using music as therapy.”

While she hasn’t quite gotten out of her teens yet, Hayden can almost be described as a music veteran. She recalls that her mother was bringing her along to music classes when she was three months old, and while she wasn’t participating, she was certainly soaking it all in. When she was six, Hayden began singing lessons, following up with classical and light opera training at 13. Ten years worth of piano training helped her in composition. It was also around that time that Hayden began singing in public, emulating her early hero, Taylor Swift.

“She was just a good one to get into. My mom took me to a concert of Hers, when I was nine, and that was definitely pretty inspirational because she writes all her own music. So that was someone that I looked up to in my younger years, especially in terms of songwriting.”

Stephanie Hayden

If there was an early balance between her love of Swift with her classical training and appreciation for musical theatre, it was upset when Hayden turned to country and pop to make her mark locally. Big Valley Jamboree proved to be an excellent training ground as she honed her performance and songwriting skills to receptive audiences who recognized her emerging talents with two audience choice awards. It began reaping dividends early on, as Hayden won the St. Albert’s Got Talent competition at the age of 11. A video release at St. Albert United Church in 2021 saw the singer-songwriter celebrating her first official single, the aforementioned “Blame.”

Through all of this she continued to work on her performance skills. A mix of gigs saw her playing at charity events for the Mustard Seed Church, bars like Blakbar Tavern, soft seaters, and cafes like the Blackbyrd. The release of her EP “Split” in April of 2024 saw her performing for a large number of fans at the Arden Theatre, an experience that she describes as “amazing.” Through all this she’s kept a busy schedule, teaching private music lessons while also studying it at Grant MacEwan University.

“It’s great to be surrounded by other musicians,” she says. “You’re kind of thrown in there and you’re learning about other genres. It’s a lot of fun. And teaching has been great as well; I like to help people who want to sing as well.”

You could say that Hayden is immersed in music. While she’s enthusiastic about performing, she’s also very involved in recording, as is her boyfriend, who has a small studio in his basement. Hayden can often be found there working on new music with other local musicians, fine tuning the backlog of songs and song fragments that she’s accumulated from her pre-teen years.

“Obviously some of them are not so great,” Hayden acknowledges with a hint of a laugh. “I kind of pick and choose. I have a co-writer for a couple who lives in London, England, and he’s been helping me to fine tune them. It’s been really cool, because it helps to add another voice in there.”

She’s still in the early days of a career, but Hayden has concrete plans for the future. While still recovering from a January accident that left her with a concussion, she’s looking at future gigs, a possible tour, and a whole lot more recording. She hints at the possibility of a new album in the near future, and she continues to develop as a performer and musician.

“I’m definitely changing,” she notes. “Like, I feel that a song like ‘Split,’ which is a pop-rock song, is very different from the other music that I’ve done. That’s kind of what I was going for, because I want to always surprise people and show them that there are lots of things that I can do.”