The official website of the Brooklyn-based singer-songwriter Hayley Coupon is a purposefully minimalist statement. On it are the musician’s name in script, a SoundCloud embed of her latest single, email listings for press inquiries and bookings, three candid photographs and four social media links, one of which leads to a private Instagram account. In an era of digital oversharing, Coupon prefers to let her work speak for itself. “I don’t tend to offer up a lot of personal information, even to close friends,” she says of her sparse online presence, which mirrors her passion for “purity” and directness in songwriting. She quotes Joni Mitchell: “Don’t muddy the waters to make them seem deep.”
Coupon’s forthcoming EP, the piano-driven “Do The Right Thing, Like You Said You Would,” evokes singers like Mitchell, Fiona Apple and Amy Winehouse at their creative peaks. “Bastille Day,” which premieres here, is equal parts comfort-food soul and stripped-down balladry. In Coupon’s words: “There’s a moment when you recognize a person, and you are seeing each other for who the person truly is. And you really can’t look at each other the same way. It’s bittersweet, but there’s a hopefulness in it.”
For Coupon, who is self-taught and has worked in the fashion industry, performing can be as torturous as it is transformative. “The act of baring everything you possibly have, saying this is the only thing that matters to you all the time, is frightening,” she explains. “You’re asking people to listen to you. Where I’m going is not necessarily pretty, but it’s honest. It’s the most honest part of myself. If I’m doing that, I’m doing something right.”
