Colin Hay

Colin Hay drew upon his melodic instincts and natural affability to convert his position as lead singer and songwriter for Australian new wave powerhouse Men at Work into an extended run as a solo acoustic performer and intermittent screen actor. His first attempt at independence, the 1987 release Looking for Jack, met with only modest traction and could not sustain the broad listenership generated by Men at Work’s commercial peak. Toward the close of the 1990s he laid the groundwork for a durable independent path by establishing his own Lazy Eye imprint, shifting from stadium-scale rock toward intimate folk-pop, settling into his adopted Los Angeles home, and forming a lasting creative partnership with Peruvian vocalist Cecilia Noel, whom he would marry. Hay also resumed performing signature Men at Work numbers such as “Who Can It Be Now,” “Down Under,” and “Overkill,” gaining fresh exposure through filmmaker Zach Braff, who placed several of his compositions in the 2004 feature Garden State and the series Scrubs and thereby heightened the singer’s visibility in the early 2000s. Capitalizing on that momentum, Hay accepted additional film and television roles, joined Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band, developed a spoken-and-sung stage show documented on live recordings, and maintained a steady schedule of touring and studio work—all chronicled in the 2015 documentary Colin Hay: Waiting for My Real Life and extended by later projects including the 2022 album Now and the Evermore.

Although the worldwide reach of Men at Work’s “Down Under” permanently linked Hay with Australia, he was born Colin James Hay just south of Glasgow in Saltcoats, Scotland, and spent his childhood there before his family relocated to Australia in 1967 when he was 14. Roughly ten years afterward he joined guitarist Ron Strykert in Melbourne to form Men at Work, drawing in Greg Ham, John Rees, and Jerry Speiser to craft a style that merged idiosyncratic melodic pop with sharp new-wave edges. Their 1981 debut Business as Usual achieved enormous international success, reaching number one in Australia, the United States, the United Kingdom, and additional territories. In America, heavy MTV rotation of the videos for “Down Under” and “Who Can It Be Now?” introduced the band to a wide youthful viewership. The 1983 follow-up Cargo, though not matching the debut’s commercial altitude, still performed strongly and contained the signature Hay composition “Overkill.” Internal strains surfaced by 1985, and after the lukewarm reception accorded Two Hearts the following year the group disbanded.

Hay’s 1987 solo debut Looking for Jack achieved moderate chart placement with a polished production typical of its period. After moving to the United States and taking up residence in Topanga outside Los Angeles, he issued the Celtic-tinged Wayfaring Sons in 1990 under the Colin Hay Band name. Once his association with MCA ended, he operated largely independently for the remainder of his career, issuing Peaks & Valleys in 1992 and Transcendental Highway in 1998 on smaller imprints before launching the Lazy Eye label in 2002. Parallel acting work included appearances on The Larry Sanders Show, JAG, and The Mick Molloy Show. Although subsequent solo releases never replicated Men at Work’s early sales, Hay cultivated a devoted following that encompassed Metallica’s James Hetfield and actor Zach Braff. In the 2000s Braff actively promoted Hay’s catalog, featuring his music on Scrubs and placing the acoustic ballad “I Just Don’t Think I’ll Ever Get Over You” in Garden State, thereby introducing Hay’s post–Men at Work material to fresh listeners ahead of Are You Lookin’ at Me? in 2007 and American Sunshine in 2009.

Hay sustained a high output through the following decade with Gathering Mercury in 2011 and the well-received Fierce Mercy in 2017, while continuing occasional screen roles and serving as the subject of the 2015 documentary Colin Hay: Waiting for My Real Life. He returned to the studio for 2021’s I Just Don’t Know What to Do with Myself, an album of covers drawn from Gerry & the Pacemakers, Faces, and Glen Campbell. His next collection of original songs, Now and the Evermore, appeared on Compass Records in 2022 and included a guest contribution from Ringo Starr.