Hayley Sales

Negotiating an easygoing mix of jazz-inflected adult alternative and vintage pop, sun-warmed acoustic fare, and pop-soul, singer/songwriter/producer and actor Hayley Sales emerged on the music scene as a teen in the mid-2000s. Her major-label debut, Sunseed, appeared in 2007, and the single "What You Want" made it into Canada's Top 50 while reaching as high as number 11 in Japan. Three years later, "Just Pretend," from 2010's When the Bird Became a Book, garnered millions of plays online, and she soon earned acting roles on TV series like Supergirl and The Good Doctor and in films including the 2018 blockbuster Deadpool 2. Sales reappeared on the music radar in the 2020s with singles including the original Christmas song "It Can't Be Christmas Without You Here" and 2021's "Never Before," a song she co-wrote with Sharon Stone. The daughter of musician and sound engineer Richard Sales, Hayley was born in Washington, D.C. and raised near Portland, Oregon. She taught herself to play piano and guitar in grade school, eventually attending a performing arts school in Portland with an eye toward becoming an actor. She graduated with honors at the age of 16. With stints in local and regional theater companies under her belt as well as some roles in shorts and movies including teen horror film Sleepover Nightmare, she rejoined her parents, by then operating an organic blueberry farm on Vancouver Island. There, she worked with her father in his recording studio, learning the basics of engineering and studio management while writing her own songs. She also developed her vocal talents from studying the techniques of such greats as Judy Garland and Nina Simone. After a self-released demo, The Drifter, attracted the attention of a management company, Sales signed with Universal Music Canada. Featuring production and instrumental work by her father, Sunseed, Sales' first album for Universal, arrived in June 2007. The song "What You Want" peaked at number 49 on the Billboard Canadian Hot 100, and Sales went on to win the award for Best Mainstream Artist at the Canadian Radio Music Awards. She spent the next few years touring in support of the release alongside acts such as Jason Mraz, Amos Lee, and INXS. In June 2010, she issued her sophomore long-player, When the Bird Became a Book. The official video for the album's lead single, "Just Pretend," received over five million views in a matter of weeks. Back in Los Angeles to foster her acting career, Sales eventually won a recurring role on the television show Cedar Cove (2013-2015) as well as several guests spots on other series. Meanwhile, she continued to work on material for another album. However, staff turnover at the label in 2016 resulted in her third album being shelved. That year, she starred in the independent film Generation Wolf. As Sales worked independently on a fresh set of songs, she appeared on series such as The Good Doctor and Supernatural and had a supporting role in the Marvel franchise film Deadpool 2 (2018), playing the wife of Josh Brolin's Cable. After another major-label contract, more staff turnover, and ensuing legal disputes, she returned with the original songs "All This Love" and "It Can't Be Christmas Without You Here" in 2020. In 2021, Sales released her first co-write with Oscar nominee Sharon Stone, "Never Before," which served as the lead single off her next studio album, Ricochet. The song led to an opportunity to join Rufus Wainwright on a tour of the U.K. and Europe, and ASCAP included Sales among their featured artists at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival.
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