By Michael Swanger michael@dmcityview.com

Colin Hay's solo work is business as usual

If you find yourself asking the question "Who can it be now?" when you see Colin Hay perform Thursday at Nitefall on the River as a solo artist, you probably haven't been keeping tabs on the singer-songwriter for the past 20 years. Hay may be best known as the front man for the popular '80s Australian rock band Men At Work, but his work as a solo, acoustic artist has been business as usual since Men At Work's breakup in 1985.

"I've done a lot of work since then, but that's where it stops for a lot of people," says the 52-year-old Hay, who was born in Scotland and moved to Australia with his family at the age of 14 and now resides in Los Angeles. "But if they like what you did once, they tend to like what you do now."

Since Men At Work split up following the release of 1985's gold album, "Two Hearts," Hay has released a series of solo albums with songs that have found their way into film and television as audiences have rediscovered his trademark voice and clever observations. Hay's "I Just Don't Think I'll Ever Get Over You" became a hit from the success of the "Garden State" soundtrack and it spurred Compass Records to re-release "Going Somewhere," an album Hay first recorded in 2000 for his own label, Lazy Eye Records.

In 1987, Hay released his debut solo album, "Looking For Jack," and its lead single "Hold Me" hit the U.S. Top 100 on the Billboard charts. Unfortunately for Hay, his follow-up record didn't fare as well and his label, RCA Records, dropped him. So from 1991 to 2003, Hay worked without the support of a major label, creating his own in 1994.

"It was a case of necessity, not of choice," he says. "I license my albums to Compass so they have more of a chance to get to the store instead of a room in the back of my house. You get dropped and you have to figure out how to stay in the game."

Hay hasn't enjoyed the same kind of commercial success he did with Men At Work, whose debut album "Business As Usual" sold 10 million copies and garnered the band a Grammy Award in 1982 for Best New Artist, but he hasn't stopped working. In addition to his solo career, he's also appeared in film ("The Country Bears," "Heaven's Burning") and on television ("Scrubs," "The Larry Sanders Show").

"There's a lot of people aware of what I'm doing, but they're not in the mainstream," Hay says. "But you carry on and do what you do. It ebbs and flows. I'm loving what's going on at the moment."

For Hay, "the moment" includes working on a new album to be completed by the end of the year and endless touring, adding that his fall from grace has been more interesting than his peak in popularity with Men At Work. He says he also enjoys the freedom of being able to work as a solo artist or with a band, and that he hasn't lost his knack for writing songs of bittersweet humor.

"It's what I did when I was 14 years old and it's what I still do," Hays says. "It's what I did until Men At Work, which was the exception when it formed and had amazing success. That was five years out of my life, then I started making records again with other musicians. But I'd always return to the acoustic guitar and singing because it felt most natural."

A reunion with his former bandmates, in case you're wondering, wouldn't be as comfortable, Hay admits. "You have to ask yourself, 'Why would you do that?'" he says. "What's the intrigue? Is it a nostalgia thing?"

Hay says television executives who produce shows like VH1's "Bands Reunited" and Bravo's "Hit Me Baby One More Time" have asked him to reunite with Men At Work, but he has refused their offers.

"The only people who win are the TV people because people watch it and they get ratings," he says. "They're shockingly appalling and there's nothing in it for the bands. They don't pay them much money and it sets you up for public humiliation, which is what those shows are all about. Would you go on TV with people you hung out with 20 years ago, which wasn't that much fun then? I'd run a mile the other way."

Though he once ruled the pop music world and he's spent the last 20 years carving out a niche for himself as a solo artist, he says he has yet to scratch the surface on a career he hopes will last a lifetime.

"I haven't done anything yet," he says. "I play a few chords and sing a few songs. There are many things to do. It's a lifetime. It's as deep or as shallow as you want to make it." CV

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