Haiden Henderson on touring with 5SOS & ‘Why he’s a pop girl at heart’

Henderson's run supporting the Australian four-piece started at Glasgow’s OVO Hydro on March 30th and culminates with the final leg of the band’s UK run in Cardiff tomorrow evening. For the Californian pop-rocker, the opportunity to tour with Five Seconds of Summer is a full-circle moment.

“I should say I quite controversially have called them a boy band since the beginning,” Henderson said with a laugh. “On this latest album (Everyone’s A Star) they are officially claiming the boy band title, and I'm very happy about it. I'm, as you guys would say, absolutely buzzing because of the little kid inside of me that found them playing YouTube covers. I must have been 12 when I first started seeing them, and I found them through their YouTube covers and then saw them kind of become a band in front of my eyes, and I didn't grow up listening to much guitar-driven music, and then I saw these guys being like little rock stars playing their guitars and then becoming like real rock stars when they started playing like real shows and all this stuff. So I'm totally geeked out,” Henderson finished.

For the penultimate leg of the tour, Henderson will take to the stage at the biggest arena in Europe – Manchester's Co-op Live. For those who haven’t listened to Henderson before, how would he describe his sound, and what can you expect from his set?

“For people that haven't seen my stuff, I would say if you're a 5SOS fan, you're probably going to like a lot of what I do, because I'm a 5SOS fan, and I like what I do,” Henderson stated with confidence. “I would say though, compared to the other openers and compared to a lot of 5SOS's catalogue, I just make kind of flirtier, cheekier music that's intended to be kind of sexy and have a rock and roll energy, but it's really just pop music at the end of the day. And so the set will feel kind of rock and roll, but I'm just like a pop girl at heart that loves to flirt, and I love 5SOS and the whole generation of pop-rock kids that they brought up. And as I am getting deeper into music, more and more of my drums and stuff come from a hip-hop/R&B world, because that's really what I grew up listening to, a lot of that kind of music. A pop girl at heart,” Henderson finished.

Prior to becoming a professional musician, Henderson previously studied aerospace engineering at the University of Southern California and held a role at SpaceX. However, as ever in life, plans can change within the blink of an eye. The coronavirus pandemic opened the door for the pop-rocker to hone in on his musical skills before showcasing his sound on TikTok, and the rest is history. But was the decision to abandon aerospace engineering a difficult one for Henderson?

“Mind-numbing, just absolutely a lack of inspiration in studying thermodynamics for long enough,” Henderson admitted when asked what came into the decision to put aerospace engineering into the rear-view mirror. “I didn't think that there was ever another option for me. I listened to music growing up, but I didn't know anything about it. And I went to a school that didn't have a music programme or arts programme. It was all math and science. And I was naturally pretty good at math. And it just felt like it was the normal, right thing for me to do. I was also the first kid in my family to go to university at all. And so I wanted to make my mom proud, and wanted to be a good boy. And then I started playing electric guitar during the pandemic, when we were allowed to not go to class anymore. And I caught the bug. I started writing riffs and then writing songs and then put them on TikTok. And then everything kind of changed. My life kind of changed,” the Californian pop-rocker finished.

For Henderson, who initially launched his musical career under the name “Haiden” before later adopting his full name, authenticity is of the utmost importance. However, in a digital age that has a significant emphasis on social media, can staying true to yourself be a challenge? “It's so difficult not to compare yourself to people,” Henderson admitted. Because I started not that long ago, I can remember very clearly what it was like when people were telling me, like, 'Don't compare yourself to others; stick true to yourself.' I was like, 'Okay, thanks, Mom.' That's really helpful.

“And I still did it regardless because I didn't understand the real value of putting on this visor and going into a tunnel and doing what you do and only focusing on that. And I had a period of time where I did compare myself to people a lot more. I was the least satisfied with my music and everything about myself at that time. It was during my, like, second project called 'Choke On My Heart', my second EP; I was comparing myself a lot to people. And ever since then, ever since I stopped doing that, everything has worked exponentially better. I've got more fans; I've sold more tickets. I'm like more myself than I've ever been. And it's still a day-to-day struggle, but I am now being rewarded, I guess, for just being more bizarre in a way. I'm probably going to say some stupid shit on stage to be honest,” Henderson finished.

You can catch Henderson’s support slot at Manchester’s Co-op Live this evening and at Cardiff’s Utilita Arena tomorrow evening.