Haywire was formed in 1982, in Charlottetown, PEI by Dave Rashed, Paul MacAusland, Marvin Birt and Ronnie Switzer. For the next few years, the band toured constantly throughout the Maritime provinces playing wherever they could get a gig.

      In 1984, Haywire won first prize in the Q104 Homegrown Contest; the prize being a chance to record a single. Instead, Haywire invested their own money and recorded a 5-track EP, entitled Haywire. It was around this time that Sean Kilbride joined Haywire replacing Ron LeBlanc on drums. In early 1985, Haywire performed in Labatt's Battle of the Bands in Saint John, NB and again won first prize, $10,000. The prize money was used to record more material for the 5-track EP. When the EP was released in 1985, all 5,000 copies were sold.

      After shopping their EP around to various labels they finally signed a five album contract deal with Attic Records in 1986. Later that year, Haywire's first full length album, Bad Boys, was released. Three Top 40 hits came from the album: 'Bad Bad Boy', 'Standin' In Line' and 'Shot in the Dark'. Bad Boys went on to sell 100,000 copies and went certified platinum in Canada.

      Haywire went back into the studio in early 1987 to record their follow-up album, Don't Just Stand There. Within four months of its release, it went certified gold in Canada. Don't Just Stand There spawned the band's first Top 20 hit, 'Dance Desire'. Later in the year, Haywire represented Canada in the World Popular Song Festival in Tokyo. Haywire performed 'Dance Desire' and won the Golden Award for best song. Over the next two years, Haywire toured in Canada with Kim Mitchell, Helix, Honeymoon Suite, Brighten Rock and Neo A4.

      When touring ended, Haywire returned home to start working on their next album, Nuthouse. Haywire decided to attain a new producer for the album to update their sound and settled on producer Bjorn Nessjo. For the next six months, Haywire recorded demos with Nessjo in Norway. Haywire was not happy with the preliminary results, fired Nessjo and decided to produce the rest of the album themselves. In late 1990, Nuthouse was finally released. Nuthouse had taken longer to write, record and produce and featured a new sound for Haywire, a harder guitar-oriented sound. Nuthouse eventually went certified gold in Canada.

     Even though Nuthouse went gold in Canada, Haywire record sales were dropping off. Attic Records realized that Haywire had to get back into the studio and release another album quick. In 1992, Haywire released their fourth and final album, Get Off. This album featured a mixture of styles including pop, rock and alternative. The diverse music on the album did not resonate with fans and in turn record sales further dropped. The song 'Buzz' was a radio hit but could not save the album.

      Soon after, Haywire and Attic Records went their separate ways. Haywire continued to showcase their material to labels to attain a new deal; no such deal surfaced. In 1993, Attic Records released a Haywire greatest hits CD, called Wired - The Best of, which fulfilled the contractual obligations of the label.