Assignments 2020

In the midst of the Lockdown, whilst realising that everything I usually do is a collaboration with a group of people standing in the same room, I came across a Lou Reed interview where Lou talked about writ­ing the song Vicious and about how it was an as­sign­ment from Andy Warhol. Andy gave Lou the ti­tle and the first line and, ac­cord­ing to Lou, the rest was easy be­cause it be­came about fin­ish­ing an as­sign­ment. The first dif­fi­cult step had been done by some­one else.  
I then wrote to some fel­low artist col­leagues around the planet and asked them for an as­sign­ment - the ti­tle and first line of a song - Maybe there's a song they'’d like to hear that no-one's writ­ten yet?  

ASSIGNMENTS #1  was released on Cassette (with download) and on all digital platforms via Ikarus Records, Switzerland in November 2020.
Song titles and and first lines were suggested by;
Jacob Wren
Paloma Ayala
Charbel Haber
Erin Hawkins 
Renée van Trier 

ASSIGNMENTS #2 released June 2021 on Cassette (with download) and on all digital platforms via Ikarus Records with song titles and first lines suggested by;
Kim Noble
Shawn Sides
Dominic Oppliger
Jen Rosenblit
Sahar Rahimi

ASSIGNMENTS #1 & #2 were recorded and mixed by David Langhard at DALA Studios, Winterthur.
Phil Hayes Sings, plays Guitar, Drums and a Bass 
Daniel Nievergelt plays Guitars and Bass 
David Langhard  plays Piano.
For live shows, ASSIGNMENTS also features Dominic Oppliger on drums and Christa Helbling on bass

ASSIGNMENTS #1 and ASSIGNMENTS #2  were both "Albums of the Week" and made the best of 2020  and 2021 lists for songs and albums on the Sounds! programme on Swiss national radio SRF3.
Buy ASSIGNMENTS  here
ASSIGNMENTS  on Bandcamp
ASSIGNMENTS on Spotify