Broadway alum and singer-songwriter Lindsey Hailes knows her way around a stage. But it wasn’t until she was cast in the hit musical Hadestown that she felt pulled to focus on songwriting more than theater.
Hailes—who is originally from Overland Park—was heavily inspired by the production’s playwright and composer, Anaïs Mitchell, an Americana songwriter who wrote the musical in her Vermont home. Similar to Mitchell, Hailes had recently begun writing songs in the bedroom of her shoebox New York City apartment.
“Being a part of the energy of that show, it was like, this really is the formula,” Hailes says. “I have a very strong opinion that most people don’t want to just step into something that’s already built. I think it’s our human nature to want to create things for ourselves. That’s where my attention is now.”
Today, the musician simply goes by her last name, Hailes, and describes her style as “R&B infused with everything.” Later this month, on June 26, she’s taking the stage for an international audience at the FIFA World Cup’s Fan Festival. She says the performance will be her largest stage to date, trumping Broadway. “I pride myself on being very intimate and personal, but in a space like FIFA Fan Fest, it’s very rowdy,” Hailes says. “I’m excited to adapt my music for a lively sports audience and push myself.”
To amp up the performance, she plans to add a horn section to her band, reworking arrangements from her debut album, Good Things Take Time, and cooking up remixes with help from drummer and co-music director Ryan J. Lee.
As is the case for many worthwhile creative endeavors, Hailes has built a career on taking risks. After studying musical theater for a year at Pittsburgh’s Point Park, she had an inkling that school wasn’t the right fit for her. So she boarded a megabus to New York City to audition for a touring production of Wizard of Oz and promptly landed the role. She left school the next week and hit the road. An ensemble role in Dirty Dancing followed, and eventually, Hadestown.
Last year, after a decade spent touring the country and working in New York, Hailes decided it was time to come home. Although she had performed in KC on national tours, it wasn’t until last summer that she introduced her own music to her hometown at the Blue Room. “My music was received so well,” Hailes says. “I met so many local artists and just thought, wow, this city is so different from when I was a kid.”
For Hailes, the upcoming FIFA Fan Fest performance is the beginning of what’s next. With 14 songs and counting in the vault, she says new music is on the horizon—singles, an EP and a sophomore album. “After being on a stage of that size and the kind of visibility that can give me, I’m expecting a lot of new opportunities that I don’t even know of yet,” Hailes says.
GO: Hailes at FIFA Fan Festival. June 26. 5 pm. National WWI Museum and Memorial.
