Hayden - Bad As They Seem

What this video is

Released in 1995 as a single from Hayden's debut album Everything I Long For, 'Bad As They Seem' emerged from the Canadian indie underground at a moment when CanCon regulations and MuchMusic's alternative programming gave domestic lo-fi artists rare national visibility. The song's sardonic portrait of suburban stagnation — a twenty-something stuck in his parents' basement, working the same job he had at fourteen —…

Why it matters

A landmark of mid-90s Canadian indie folk-rock, 'Bad As They Seem' demonstrates the viability of the confessional lo-fi singer-songwriter format at a moment when the mainstream was dominated by polished alt-rock production. The song's frank, darkly comic lyricism prefigures the indie-folk…

The director

Paul Hayden Desser (born February 12, 1971) is a Canadian singer-songwriter from Thornhill, Ontario, who records under the mononym Hayden. His debut album Everything I Long For was self-released on Hardwood Records in 1995 and subsequently picked up by…