MARTY HAILEY
COMPOSER PRODUCER GUITARIST
Born in the UK and growing up in Canberra in the Australian Capital Territory, Marty was the recipient of the music prize from his High School and in his final school years his composition/electronic music assignment received the highest mark across the region for the year. After leaving high school he worked for three years in the Australian Customs Service, all the while his first working band, ASAP were getting busy playing pubs on weekends and at formal parties for many local high schools. ASAP was voted as FM104.7's most popular local band in the early nineties, they performed on the Ch10 'Star Search' programme and were a regular feature in many venues around town. Marty left the ACS to persue a degree in Arts with a major in music at the ANU/Canberra School of Music. After illness Marty decided to leave studies and move to Sydney to pursue a career in performance.
Landing in the inner city scene, Marty's first bands included Root, Soulfish and Pete Bull (ex Paul Kelly) in the China Shop. He became the musical director for Kia Kaha theatre working on an EP for them and in conjunction with Shopfront Theatre for Young People the show Seven Canoes and a Boom Box. Marty organised local jazz jam nights and found himself starting to fall into the session scene.
His first signed band was Raw Sugar. This funky 5 piece put out two albums through Festival records and the band toured extensively up and down the east coast of Australia. Towards the mid life of this band Marty made a succesful album with indie sensation Diana Ah Naid and again found himself touring Australia. At this time he was given an endorsement with Maton guitars. Towards the end of the 90s his band Story came to prominence and was featured on high rotation on JJJ and also performed and recorded for that stations 'Live at The Wireless' project.
By the end of the 90s Marty had established himself as a reliable and versitile guitarist and he played countless sessions for Sony studios in Sydney including in later years, Paulini's #1 single Angel Eyes. The Sony work led to him being introduced to the band Lo-Tel who had a big hit with the song 'Teenager of the Year' from the film 'Looking for Alibrandi'. With Lo-Tel Marty would tour extensively with bands such as Fuel, Wheatus, John Mayer and Pretty Violet Stain.
At the end of 2001 the first incarnation of Lo-Tel disbanded and Marty was immediately snapped up by Buzz Bidstrup to play guitar in Jimmy Little's touring band and as dep guitarist in the iconic Ganggajang. Thus began a long term love and interest in indigenous affairs and arts. Marty went on to produce Jimmy's critically acclaimed return to country music, 'Down The Road' in 2003. He maintained a strong interest and involvement in Australian indigenous arts, running workshops for young songwriters and musicians and producing the ‘Deadly Award’ nominated album ‘The Journey’ for Charlie Trindall, three albums for Glenn Skuthorpe and the Ngariwanajirri project for the communities of the Tiwi Islands. One of Glenn's songs that Marty co-produced with Steve Francis, 'No More Whispering' went on to be the theme for John Pilger's moving film, "Utopia". Also in 2001 Marty joined country star Brooke McClymont and was a regular guitarist for her on televison and radio promotions. They toured with Ronan Keating and on the Rumba concert tour with Pink, Bon Jovi and Natalie Imbruglia.
In the mid 2000's Marty joined Senegal drum master and Griot Pape Mbaye and played with his group Chosani Afrique for several years. He also produced his debut Australian release 'Yoff' which was also released in Senegal and Mali. In 2005 Marty was asked by composer Andrew Wilkie to add his guitar to the touring soundtrack of the hit dance show 'Tap Dogs'. His parts remain in the show to this day. In mid 2005 Marty toured with Oz electro-rock legends Psuedo Echo along with Brian Mannix from Uncanny X Men, Scott Carne from Kids In The Kitchen and Dale Ryder from Boom Crash Opera. This eventually led to the formation of the Absolutely 80s show in which Marty was a key collaborator and member until 2010 also performing with Sean Kelly from The Models, The Chantoozies, The Machinations, Paul Gray from WaWaNee and Dave Sterry from Real Life..
The early to mid 2000s saw Marty move into Audioscapes studio and commence the long time collaboration with Jim Blackfoot. Marty produced and engineered records here for Asha Kuerten, Humankind, Glenn Skuthorpe, James Henry, The Favourties, Diesel and many more. Marty also wrote the score to the documentary 'Renewing Womens Business', he was commissioned to write music for Captain Cook Cruises to accompany their Sydney Harbour Tours and also wrote music for Channel 7's 'Auction Squad'.
2006 saw Marty join the cast of the first Australian production of 'Hedwig and the Angry Inch' alongside iOTA. The relationship with iOTA continued for many years with Marty producing his 2016 album, Wolf Number 9. iOTA and Marty have also worked together with the bands Junglehammer and Panda and in the award winning cabaret hit, Smoke & Mirrors. Another major highlight of 2006 was being asked to accompany the iconic Jimmy Somerville on his 2006 Australian tour. This would eventually lead to Marty doing two albums with Jimmy - one at the end of this year and later in the UK in 2009.
When Hedwig finished in 2007 Marty was asked to join David Campbell's swing band. This again was the beginning of a long and fruitful period. Marty was to tour with David for the next 6 years and to play on several albums and live DVDs. Marty was the engineer on David's gold selling 'Let's Go!' album of 2011 and played guitar on the Australian #1 DVD "Good Lovin". David's musical director, Joe Accaria and Marty had worked together in Sundial in the early 2000s and had known each other from the funk scene of Sydney's inner city since the mid 90s. Joe and Marty would then go on to produce a number of albums together and scores for the NRL, A-League and the popular disco/circus show Velvet. The Velvet cast album being nominated for an ARIA award in 2016. In 2007 Marty joined the house band of the popular ABCTV variety show 'The Sideshow' and also worked in the house band on 'The Singing Office' for FoxTV.
2008 saw Marty join Angela Little's Ophelia of the Spirits project. He played guitar on that album which then led to him playing the guitar and lap-steel on the soundtrack for Baz Luhrmann’s film ‘Australia’, Angela was one of the orchestrators and songwriters for that film. Marty also this year began to work with screen composer Stephen Rae and he was a significant contributor to the score for the Channel 10 police drama 'Rush'. in 2008 he contributed to the score of the award winning documentary, 'The Burning Season'
In 2008 Marty and Jim Blackfoot moved into the newly built Blackfoot Sound recording studio. Marty went on to produce and engineer many records and single sessions during this time for artists such as Bobby Fox, Trevor Ashley, Diesel, Sheps Shack and Carmen Smith.
Marty won a Helpmann award in 2010 for the score to the highly successful stage show Smoke & Mirrors and in 2012 then went on to write and perform in 'Empire', which played on Broadway NYC and then went to tour the world. In 2013 he composed the music and sound design for the critically acclaimed Workhorse Theatre company production ‘The Motherf**ker With The Hat’
He has been a regular performer at The Edinburgh Fringe since 2010 working alongside acts Le Gateau Chocolat (UK), La Clique, Becc Sanderson, Jody Trehy (Ireland), Jack Lukeman (Ireland), The I Hate Children Children's Show (USA), The Shuffle Club (Aus) and Bob Downe (Aus). In 2017 he joined Meow Meow for her production of The Little Mermaid at the Edinburgh International Festival and 2018 and 2019 saw him as guitarist for Stewart D'Arietta's critcally acclaimed and popular shows, Belly Of A Drunken Piano" and "My Leonard Cohen". As Le Gateau Chocolat's MD Marty was commissioned to write an orchestral version of his incredibly successful show ICONS.
As an endorsee for Roland electronics Marty has presented videos and live clincs and performances. He was invited by Roland to contribute patches to the release of their ME80 multi fx unit and both he and Joe Accaria were invited to compose and perform a piece for the 2013 Ultimate Drummers Weekend showcasing Roland electronics.
In 2013 Marty returned to live in the UK and now resides in Scotland. He has scored short films and documentaries for Hopscotch, GTMP, Viz Films, The Gate Worldwide and The National Library of Scotland. Marty has worked on creative art collaborations wtih artists Derrick Guild, Aurelian Froment and The Dovecot Gallery and has a commissioned piece, 'Prepare The Planet' accompanying the video content for Jupiter Artland. Marty has written, collaborated with and played many guitar sessions for the London based music group Delicious Digital on film trailer music, commercials and program and library material. In 2015 he composed the music for the BBC's coverage of the Rugby World Cup and in 2017 was commissioned by Delicious Digital to write music for the Rugby League World Cup TV coverage for the BBC.
In recent years Marty has scored 'Logan High' for ChalkboardTV/BBC, a short film with director Siri Rødnes 'None Of The Above', a promotional piece for NGO Insight Share, an animation for Werewolf Studios and the documentary ‘4 Men, 3 Legs and an Ocean’ which follows the journey of four amputee ex-servicemen who row across the Atlantic ocean. He produced and arranged music for the film No Song To Sing, set in Tokyo, directed by Lukasz Gasiorowsky and produced by Ewen Bremner. In 2016 two shorts he composed for premiered at the Edinburgh Film Festival: the drama, ’Grimm Street’ and the animation ‘Dave’.
In 2022 Marty launched his label, Metro 13 Records, first releasing the debut album from Katherine Aly and the latest release being from Edinburgh artist, Sophie Penman. Marty has also taken over the iconic Chamber Studio and is beginning a new chapter in production and composition.