By Kyle Horne
This time last week, we sat down with Haiden Henderson across Zoom, to chat all things about his debut album bleach, released today. From supporting 5SOS, to making the album while on the road with the band, we chat about how bleach came to fruition, songs he’s most nervous for his fans to hear, and about his upcoming tour in 2027.
KYLE
You’re just about to release your debut album, bleach, this time next week, on the 30th. How are you feeling now that it’s so close to being out?
HAIDEN
I’m nervous, and I’m really curious to see what the fans think of this album. It’s a pretty f**king wild ride. It is eclectic and chaotic. And really, as a listener, I don’t think you know what’s coming next for every song down the tracklist. It’s a pretty insane listening experience.
KYLE
Yeah, there’s there’s ups and there’s downs. It’s very unpredictable but it’s so fun. Take me back to when you were writing the record… where were you in your life at that point? What was your headspace like? Because it feels like a little bit of a departure from the tension world.
HAIDEN
Totally. I mean, I think that this album, to me, is taking the best of what I have done from each of my projects, and just turning up the dial and the intensity on all of them.
I think that there’s characters from each of the projects – there’s lover boy in where are we running from? and domino and landmine and, there’s tension in bleach and in dumblond, and even freak for you. And then there’s just stuff on this album that doesn’t sound like anything I’ve ever heard before, while also sort of feeling like they’re in the world of my past stuff, so I came into it wanting to define Haiden Henderson, but I didn’t want to redefine what my fans already think of me. I just wanted to challenge them and challenge myself to make something a bit more bold and chaotic and intense. I just wanted it to feel really raw and passionate.
We made [this album] in three months, which is disgustingly fast. Part of that was because I was going on tour with 5 Seconds of Summer and I didn’t know that was going to happen, so I had to finish the album while on the road with them. And then another part of it was that we were just making a lot of really fun, incredible songs really fast. And it just felt like we got into a groove where everything we were making had so much life and character that I just wanted people to hear it as soon as possible. But the album was supposed to come out six months later and it got moved up really aggressively.
KYLE
Do you think there’s something quite special about making something really quickly, or to a tight deadline, that you will push yourself to be as creative as you can?
HAIDEN
Yeah, I’m full of my oxymorons and contradictions. The perfectionist in me is like, ‘Oh, I wish I had like three more months’, but the majority of me is so glad that I didn’t get the opportunity to overthink, and I just created songs that in the moment in the room, they sound like we had fun making these, you know what I mean? And I don’t know if I’ve felt that way in the past with my with my other stuff, everything was so calculated, and in a lot of these songs you can literally hear in the background us laughing and talking, and just being human in such a new way. And I don’t think that that would have happened if I got the opportunity to nitpick and tweak things until they felt perfect, so these songs are intentionally messier. It was almost a protest to my music in the past. I love my music in the past, but I just think the scariest thing that I could do for myself was let go of the need for perfection, and let go of the polish. I think a lot of pop music right now is a lot less polished, which is exciting.
KYLE
There’s a real kind of early 2000s boy band, anthemic, pop rock feel to some parts of the record. Who were you listening to at the time, and what were some of your influences going into it?
HAIDEN
I have a lot of weird influences, because I didn’t grow up listening to guitar music at all, [or] rock or pop, really. I grew up in a very ghetto area. My dad was in gangs. Everybody in my family is addicts and in gangs, and so I grew up listening to the stuff that was in the neighbourhood, which is was hip-hop and R&B. I still primarily listen to R&B music, but when I started playing guitar is when I started discovering rock music.
I think in the past I’ve tried to emulate my heroes. I tried to make music that felt like a certain song or an era of music that I loved. And this time I actually wanted to just like take individual pieces from all of my influences and put them together to make something that I haven’t heard before. So while making this, I was listening to a lot of Prince, because I think Prince was really imaginative with the guitar – he made the guitar fun and sexy – and he was so bold in his vocal deliveries and even in the stories that he was writing. I was also just listening to stuff I grew up on, which was like Missy Elliott and 50 Cent and Michael Jackson. And then Britney, a ton of Britney.
KYLE
I think I remember you saying, when we were talking about 5SOS, that you felt like ‘the Britney Spears of the lineup’.
HAIDEN
I was the pop girl on the lineup. Everybody was holding guitars and stuff, and then I’m up on stage treating the mic stand like a stripper pole. So I felt like an alien, which was what I was hoping to do. I wanted to look different than [5SOS] because I knew I could never be them, you know?
KYLE
Is there a specific unreleased song on the album that you are most excited for your fans to hear, or most nervous?
HAIDEN
I’m excited for people to hear domino because I don’t think domino works in a 15-second snippet on TikTok. I think that when you listen to domino, it swallows you whole, and it’s hard to do that. It’s like watching just the trailer of a movie. You know what I mean?
Trailers can be dope, but the whole point is to go watch the whole movie. And so I think domino is going to resonate in the fandom. I think bleach, the title track, is going to rock people’s s**t. I think they’re going to be like, ‘Oh, what the f**k is this?!’ And I am excited to witness both positive and negative reactions to that song and other songs on the project.
WHAT A TIME TO BE YOUNG will probably be polarising. And I think how you like it will probably be polarising, even though it’s just like a fun vibe. I think it really depends on how open minded you are when you listen to these songs. So I either want you to love it or hate it, really. I don’t really want a lukewarm reaction.
KYLE
I think that’s what’s cool about each of the songs is that it’s down to whether you’re open to it, and what you like about it. Because domino, like you say, so much that happens in that song that fifteen seconds can’t capture.
HAIDEN
Yeah. I think it’s just such a classic sounding song. Like, it feels like a song that’ll last for a long time. And sometimes the hardest songs to market yourself as an artist are songs that sound timeless, because there isn’t anything gimmicky about it, if that makes sense. Whereas, there are a lot of gimmicky sounding things on this project, there’s a lot of craziness that happens, and domino is just like bulletproof and kind of classic in that way, so it’s hard to force it to be something more, like more kooky than it is. It’s just meant to be what it is.
KYLE
Did all of the songs come quite naturally to yourself, or were there any that took longer to write?
HAIDEN
bleach took a second to figure out because there was an initial version of bleach that was more of like a pop-rock style song, very 5SOS core. And then we made the rest of the album, and bleach just didn’t make sense anymore. Because while I use guitars all over this project, and I think that’ll continue to be a core aspect of my music, it’s hard to describe this album as pop-rock.
I don’t really know how to describe this album honestly, and I don’t think my fans really know how to describe even me in general. (Laughs)
They’re like, “He’s sort of like this, but he’s kind of like this. I don’t really know what the f**k he is! He’s just Haiden”, which is cool. I think that that’s my goal, so bleach being just pop-rock didn’t make sense to me. It was just a little too simple, so we redid it and made it what it is now, which I’m so glad.
I think that it’s a song that the more you listen to it, the more you hear with each listen, and between Hans Zimmer’s orchestra doing the strings, and the drums feeling like they’re from Black Skinhead by Kanye, and then the high falsetto melodies feel like they’re Britney in the pre-chorus, but then the guitar… it’s just like, it’s a f**king rollercoaster of a song. It’s so crazy.
KYLE
So in terms of the tracklist, you’ve got these really deep, sensual tracks on the record, of course – the true genre of Haiden Henderson – but you’ve also got some quieter, vulnerable songs on there. How did you find that balance? Do you think it was important to show different sides of yourself?
HAIDEN
Something that we did with this album, which I’ve never done before, and it scared the s**t out of me, was we would bring strangers into the studio and play them unfinished music. Strangers – not music people!
We would go to dinner and ask the waiter what time they were finishing their shift, so that we could bring them into the studio and just play them songs. Not even ask them questions about it. We’d just play it for people and watch them react. And you can tell when a song is connecting with a person. It sounds kind of woo-woo and weird, and I didn’t think it was going to mean anything. But the producer that I did this whole album with, Benny Cassette, his first ever song that he made when he was nineteen was Black Skinhead by Kanye West. And then he went on to make the rest of Yeezus and ye and The Life of Pablo. He was like one of Kanye’s right hand men before Kanye went crazy. It is just a practice of Kanye’s camp to do this, to bring strangers into the studio and watch them listen to music. And it tells you a lot about what the album needs and doesn’t need. So to answer your question, how do you balance like vulnerable moments versus playful moments versus intense moments? We would just play music for strangers and kind of watch whether or not the songs were connecting. And when you play like five intense, upbeat songs in a row, you can feel the room needing a vulnerable moment to like, chill the f**k out, obviously. You need a breather.
And really, when you’re making your own music, you listen to it so much that you forget that the upbeat songs have that ‘in your face’ quality, because you’re so used to listening to them. So it was telling to just watch people who didn’t know who I was hear this music. And that’s how the song landmine came about, and the song kick my ass came about.
We were playing these other songs for people, and I was watching them slowly kind of sink back in their seat after like five or six intense, adventurous songs. And I was like, okay, we need a love song on this album, and I had landmine already. And then we need like just a song where it’s me and an acoustic guitar and one violin and like, that’s it, and that’s how kick my ass came. So it was a process of experimentation.
KYLE
You’ve just been on tour with five Seconds of Summer. It must have been such an amazing experience. What have you taken away from that tour?
HAIDEN
They’re really, really good at building a cult. 5SOS has one of the last remaining stan-doms of that generation. I mean, of any generation, really. Like they had an internet stan-dom before the internet had stan-doms, and they technically haven’t had a number one hit song since f**king 2016, but they are selling out arenas all over the world right now. And they’re selling more tickets now than they were even five years ago, so it’s insane to watch the value of a community stand the test of time, so I think I learned how to nurture that and how valuable that is.
I’m very lucky that I think touring is the most important part of what I do, and I think the fans show up more than anything for the touring. Like my tour announcement for this album was substantially more successful than my album announcement. And the album announcement went really well. I was like, ‘Damn, this album is popping off! This is awesome!’ And then the tour announcement blew it out of the water and I was like ‘What the f**k?!’
And that’s so cool. I hope to just keep growing that, because ten years from now, that’s really what’s going to matter.
KYLE
And you’re performing at all these venues in the UK. You’re coming back to all of the cities you played when supporting 5SOS. What are you most excited about when it comes to getting on stage and performing this album?
HAIDEN
Now that I’ve performed for like 20,000 or 25,000 people a night, I am most excited to go back to these smaller rooms where I’m playing to like 1500 people, and take everything that I learned, all of the confidence that I gained from performing for that many people and bring it to the stage that will probably feel small.
I’m excited to bring this new confidence or playfulness to the shows that I think now the music sort of has, I think the music feels pretty confident in itself, even if it’s a swing and a miss. You know, like I want the music to feel confident in what it is. And I think that now I’m most excited for the live show to feel as confident as the music does.
KYLE
And definitely connecting with your fans. I’ve seen online, you’re giving locks of hair to your fans. Is that a dumblond move? Is that what we’re calling it? Aren’t you worried people might hex you or clone you?
HAIDEN
Ha ha, Yeah, I guess I am. A lot of people are threatening to get a witch off of Etsy to clone me or whatever, but my hope is that I’ve made enough good impact in people’s lives that instead of cursing me, they would hope to to manifest good things in my life using the hair. I’m hoping that they use this responsibility wisely, and that only good things come to me. I’m putting it out there. Let’s pray.
KYLE
When you’re on stage, have you got a track that you’re most excited to perform?
HAIDEN
dumblond is going to be really fun live, I think. I won’t say any more, but I know it’s gonna be amazing. We have the same musical director that did 5 Seconds of Summer’s tour, and he created all of the iconic moments in the 5SOS show, a lot of the moments between the band and the audience, where they clap on certain cues and do these things that have become like staples, so he’s doing my tour and I’m very excited about that. And I know that dumblond is going to be phenomenal. I also think, with i wanna be your girl, we’re going to do something new with it that is going to make it super, super fun.
KYLE
Interesting… but you can’t give too much away!
HAIDEN
I think you just should expect the unexpected with this show, because tension tour was far more successful than I had anticipated. I think we made that show sort of on our backs like, whoa, we didn’t know that this was going to be this much of a thing. And now with dumblond tour, I feel like I’m on the offensive and I get to make something that will give people whiplash.
KYLE
Some fan questions now. We asked some of our followers if they could come up with some questions for you.
Bailey has asked ‘If you could describe bleach as a household appliance, what would it be?’
HAIDEN
Probably bleach. (Laughs)
KYLE
Kara asks ‘Emotional slow song or heavy pop rock song?’
HAIDEN
I don’t know if I like either of them, to be honest. Heavy pop rock song has never really been my thing. I’ve never liked when people are like, ‘This is my heaviest song ever.’ Like that’s such like a boy-like rock thing to say. Like, I don’t want to listen to your drop d heavy a** rock song. That sounds terrible. And then like a slow, emotional song, I don’t know. I’m going to say option C, which is a playful song that is a little bit horny.
KYLE
Ash asks ‘What is a hill that you will die on?’
HAIDEN
God. I mean, I have so many. If you follow me on Twitter, you’ll probably see a hill that I’ll die on.
One I will die on is that if I have to walk up to the counter and order my meal from you, I don’t need to tip you, because I did your job for you. I’m basically an employee of this establishment. If I have to walk up to the counter and tell you what I want, and you just have to enter it in on a screen, I’m sorry, like I don’t feel like I have to. I don’t think that makes sense. Don’t flip that iPad at me. I don’t want that iPad. Get away. That’s probably my hill.
KYLE
Final fan question. Vowt has asked, ‘What’s the best piece of advice 5SOS have given you?’
HAIDEN
Oh, that’s a great question. While on tour with them, I was getting a pretty solid amount of hate on Twitter, like a decent amount. You know, a healthy amount of hate, which by the way, means that you’ve made it.
Calum and Ashton reached out to me, because they went through the hayday of Twitter when it was like the f**king World War One in Twitter. And people were so vicious at each other and blah, blah, blah.
Calum reached out to me and offered me his therapist, which has been really helpful for him and like rehabilitating his self-image. And they really just told me, like, if you’re not getting talked about, even if it isn’t in a negative way, if you’re not getting talked about, then you’re probably not doing enough in this career. And what comes with success and adoration is hate, and people not liking what you do. There has never in the history of the world been a unanimously loved figure. That’s just how it works. Even Jesus has a lot of haters. So, um, I think that their best advice to me was to just not take it too personally, honestly. And the majority of things that people think about you that are negative are genuinely just not true. Like they don’t actually know, so that was really important to me, because they’re heroes of mine.
KYLE
Now that you’ve made your debut album, do you feel like you’ve got a clearer idea or vision of who you are as an artist, or do you think that you’re still figuring that out as time goes on?
HAIDEN
I think I have a much clearer image of who I am as a person, and all I know about me as an artist is that it will continue to be a reflection of who I am as a person. Therefore, I think it’s allowed to change and it’s going to probably keep changing. And I’m just going to continue to make stuff that I’m a fan of, really, and that’s probably the best I can do for now.
KYLE
Very insightful.
HAIDEN
Very wise, very insightful… I try my best!
KYLE
Well, yeah, thank you so much for your time and for doing this interview with us. We’ll have to get to your tour and see your new era in person!
Kelsey McAndrew 
Alexandra Pullen