Leah Hayes accompanies her fragile voice with the thunderstick resulting in a sound that is simple, mournful, and humble. When running it through a distortion pedal, the noisy, feedback texture is closer to Royal Trux or playing Harry Smith Folk Anthology. Hayes's melodies are always beautifully wrought and melancholy, and her voice has the expressiveness and simplicity of early Will Oldham or Cat Power.
Scary Mansion has toured with Kyp Malone of TV On The Radio, and sings on that band's album "Return to Cookie Mountain". Hayes was half of the noise-rock duo Satan's Fingers with frontman David Ivar (of Herman Dune). In addition to music, her work as an illustrator has lead to two books on Fantagraphics and creating album art for Ryan Adams and Cardinals. Every Joke Is Half the Truth (zum023) is Scary Mansion's debut album.
Released in Europe on Talitres.