Artist

Hazel English

Sydney, Australia · b. 1990

Hazel English is a musician from Sydney, Australia, active since 1990. Their discography on Gatefold includes 5 records.

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Photo of Hazel English

5

Albums tracked

13

In collections

1990

Since

Biography

Hazel English did not just materialize out of the Bay Area dream-pop scene. She met Jackson Phillips of Day Wave in an Oakland bookshop, and that encounter basically designed her entire early sound. He produced her debut EP, Never Going Home, on a shoestring budget using cheap analog gear and a lot of tape hiss to hide the seams. The result was a foggy, nostalgic brand of indie pop that felt like it was recorded inside a humid bedroom with the windows shut. It was the absolute peak of the mid-2010s blog-rock boom, before every bedroom producer discovered the same chorus pedal. Then she signed to Polyvinyl and Marathon Artists, which forced her out of the lo-fi safety net. For her debut full-length, Wake UP!, she got thrown into the studio with Justin Raisen, a guy known for his aggressive, sharp production work with Sky Ferreira and Charli XCX. Suddenly the tape hiss was gone, replaced by pristine sixties psychedelic pop and big, clean drum sounds. Some of the old-guard fans complained about the loss of that fuzzy Oakland bedroom charm. But the songwriting was actually stronger, proving she did not need a wall of reverb to write a hook.

Bio from The Clerk

The Arc of Hazel English

The pivots — what forced Hazel English to reinvent.

  1. The Oakland Bookshop Sessions

    Between 2015 and 2017, the collaboration with Jackson Phillips defined Hazel English's entire aesthetic. Working in makeshift home setups around Oakland, Phillips layered her vocals under thick coats of spring reverb and warbly guitar tracks. The resulting EPs, Never Going Home and Just Give In, captured a specific post-collegiate anxiety that resonated with the late-era blogosphere. You can hear the physical limits of their gear in the muddy low-end and the warm, compressed high-frequencies that felt like a worn-out cassette.

  2. The Los Angeles Studio Shift

    In 2019, English moved to Los Angeles and teamed up with producer Justin Raisen to blow up her bedroom-pop blueprint. Leaving the tape machines behind, they tracked Wake UP! using vintage sixties gear, autoharps, and clean, driving basslines. Raisen pushed her vocals to the front of the mix for the first time, stripping away the defensive reverb of her early work. The record shifted her sound from hazy nostalgia to a sharp, widescreen critique of modern consumerism.

  3. Return to the Wave

    By 2022, English felt the pull of her original working methods and reunited with Jackson Phillips for the Summer Nights EP. This pivot was a deliberate retreat from the high-gloss studio system back to the collaborative comfort zone of their early Oakland days. The tracks were built on jangly, melodic basslines and lighter, shimmering guitar tones that bridged the gap between her lo-fi origins and her newer pop sensibilities. It proved that her chemistry with Phillips was not just a phase, but the core engine of her project.

Influences

  • The Cranberries — English has repeatedly cited Dolores O'Riordan's vocal delivery as a foundational blueprint for her own style. You can hear this in the breathy, melodic leaps on 'Never Going Home' and 'Shaking.' She channels that specific Irish indie-pop melancholy without copying the trademark yodel.
  • The Jesus and Mary Chain — The template of burying sweet, pop-oriented melodies under a thick wall of fuzzy guitar noise comes straight from Psychocandy. On tracks like 'Control,' English uses that exact contrast between her soft, clean vocals and the abrasive, chorus-drenched guitar tracks. It is the classic noise-pop formula executed with modern restraint.
  • Cocteau Twins — Robin Guthrie's signature swirl of heavily modulated guitar effects is the DNA of English's early EPs. The dream-pop textures on 'Fix' directly mirror the ethereal guitar landscapes found on Heaven or Las Vegas. She strips away the operatic vocals of Elizabeth Fraser but keeps the lush, watery atmosphere.
  • The Smiths — English has openly pointed to Johnny Marr's jangly, arpeggiated guitar style as a major influence on her songwriting structure. The guitar leads on 'Other Lives' mimic Marr's clean, melodic counter-melodies rather than relying on standard chord strumming. It gives her dream-pop a sturdier, British indie-rock backbone.
  • The Velvet Underground — The minimalist, driving rhythm section and deadpan vocal delivery of Nico on 'All Tomorrow's Parties' heavily shaped the title track of Wake UP!. English uses that same hypnotic, repetitive drum pattern and detached, cool vocal persona to anchor her sixties-inspired psych-pop. It keeps the sunny melodies from sounding too sweet.

Discography

Their records — most-collected first.

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