"Hipsters & Production Values" ~ Under The Radar With Vancouver's Hawking

About to embark on a Canadian tour with a spot in Sudbury next month, Hawking’s lead vocalist & guitarist, Tom,  took the time to come on Under The Radar and talk about their music. Going over why Hipsters suck at shows, the importance of production values, how your Hometown’s music scene can influence your music’s sound, touring Canada, and a LOT more! Enjoy the interview and don’t forget to subscribe to Under The Radar on iTunes!

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Daly: I start every interview like this because I find it gives a good vibe of the band. Tell me the kind of person who would not enjoy a Hawking show and then the kind of person who would have a blast at a Hawking show.

Tom: Man, I love that question. I think just like hipsters who have that mentality that they’re too cool for something, I think they are the kind of people who would not have a good time at our show. Because well, we’re an indie rock band that’s made up of metal heads basically. We all grew up listening heavy shit. I think that shines through on our music, where if you go to a metal show there’s that energy, it’s unashamed, people are flailing around in the pit. And I think that’s kind of what we bring.

That sort of arms crossed at the back of the room with the smug, “ugh entertain me”, I think those people are sorely disappointed that we’re not a cool kid band, we’re just a band that does what we do.

I think the type of person that would have a good time at a Hawking show is the opposite. Someone who comes in with an open mind, you know, “ok cool an indie rock band with breakdowns, I can dig that”.

Daly: [laughs] Well that’s interesting; that a group of metal heads would come in and do indie rock the way you guys do. So where did the inspiration to do this kind of music come from? Or was it just kind of a natural thing when you jammed with your bandmates?

Tom: I would say it’s a bout 50-50. When you grow up in Vancouver it’s very much an indie rock town. Like there’s other scenes but Vancouver has a way of shaping everything through that indie rock lens – which isn’t a bad thing – it’s just sort of what prevails here.

When you’re first starting out and you’re trying to find your sound there is an element of that environmental stimulus trying to push you towards that indie rock sound.  The metal scene is pretty much entirely underground, I mean there is a commercial metal scene operating here, but for instance if you went to Jacksonville Florida you would see a lot of bigger metal bands coming through than you would Vancouver.

So that’s part of it and also part of it is just we love all sorts of different types of music. When we started playing we happened to have Fender amps and guitars with single coil pickups if that’s not getting to technical…and that stuff really lends itself to indie rock. So we mashed it all together and that’s what we ended up with.

Daly: So you had the EP come out last year, and recently the music video and single for “Comfortable” and now soon you’re about to hit the road across Canada, are you stoked for the shows?

Tom:  We so, so stoked. We haven’t been on the road since last July after our North American tour. We’ve just been so busy working so hard on Comfortable that we kind of pushed back this tour. We usually tour in the summer.

First of all, our bus doesn’t have AC [laughs] which was a motivator to tour in the fall. But also we’ve never toured in the fall before, we like the idea of school being in session in September through April. We like playing college towns because we have a younger crowd but it’s kind of a bummer to play say Kingston, Ontario; where yes it’s a college town but half the kids have gone home for the summer. So we’re trying different things out. But ya we are beyond excited to get on the road again.

Daly: So what’s the plans after the tour? Is Comfortable going to lead to a new release?

Tom: Yeah after the tour we are going to be hopping into the studio, we’ll be hopping into the Armoury here in Vancouver

Daly: Man, SO many great artists have recorded there

Tom: Oh yeah, so that’s something we’re stoked about. We’re going to do all the drums there, and all the stuff that needs a good room, the gang vocals and stuff that really shines with a good room. And then all the guitars and vocals we’re doing at our bass player Chris’ house. He’s gone to school for recording arts & stuff and is an absolute wizard. I used to do our production but he is just straight up better than me [laughs]

Daly: Production is so important, especially for bands coming up. You hear so many bands, especially me being a radio guy, I get sent so much music, and it’s usually GREAT songs, good music, but the production just isn’t polished. It sounds rough, and doesn’t fit. It’s important to have those production values.

Tom: Totally, we get compliments on the production on our first EP all the time. I’ve had bands reach out asking if I wanted to mix their EP because of what I’ve done on ours. And it’s really flattering but it’s kind of like.. I don’t really know what I’m doing [laughs]. I got Pro Tools in High School and started messing around, learning all the insane amount of shortcuts, using a lot of YouTube tutorials. But Chris has like two years worth of education [in audio production] and can just make us sound incredible.

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As usual. we left A LOT for the podcast. To hear more about touring Canada, how Hawking found their sound, what it’s like for American Artists when they come to Canada, & a lot more; listen below or subscribe to Under The Radar on iTunes!

HAWKING

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*If you would like to have you or your band featured on Under The Radar, email Daly @ ryan.daly@timminsradio.rogers.com with the subject “Under The Radar”*

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