Portland, OR · folk

Haley Heynderickx

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Fingerpicked folk parables — 'The Bug Collector' and quiet devastation, garden-and-insect imagery hiding songs that cut deep.

Haley Heynderickx was born in Stockton, California, and grew up in Forest Grove, Oregon, a suburb of Portland, where she learned to sing in church. She later graduated from Portland State University with a degree in business before settling into music full-time and building her career from Portland.

Her guitar style traces to Leo Kottke and John Fahey, fingerpicked and unhurried, paired with a conversational vocal delivery and lyrics that carry well-timed moments of humor. Arrangements sometimes open out to include horns or lap steel, but more often stay sparse, leaving room around the guitar and voice.

She released her debut EP, Fish Eyes, in 2016, along with a collaborative EP with Max Garcia Conover called Among Horses III. Her first full album, I Need to Start a Garden, followed in 2018 on Mama Bird Recording Co., earning a 7.3 from Pitchfork, praise from NPR and Uproxx, an Artist to Watch nod from Stereogum, and an NPR Tiny Desk concert built around its songs.

Wider attention centered on the song "The Bug Collector." Her writing draws repeatedly on plants, insects and domestic detail, using them to approach subjects like anxiety, patience and self-doubt without stating them directly, letting small, close images carry a larger unease.

She opened for Tim Baker on his Canadian tour in 2023, and released her second album, Seed of a Seed, on Mama Bird in November 2024 to more positive reviews. In November 2025 she reunited with Max Garcia Conover for a full collaborative record, What of Our Nature, on Fat Possum. Live, she performs largely solo or with a small band, in sets quiet enough that the room has to meet her halfway.

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folk