Hamish Hawk

Hamish James Hawk[1] (born 27 October 1991)[2][3] is a Scottish singer-songwriter. Hawk released his debut solo album Aznavour in 2014, which was followed by From Zero to One with backing band, the New Outfit, in 2018. His third album, Heavy Elevator, was released in September, 2021, to critical acclaim.

Hamish Hawk
Born
Hamish James Hawk

(1991-10-27) 27 October 1991
Edinburgh, Scotland
Citizenship
  • United Kingdom
  • New Zealand
Alma materUniversity of St Andrews
Occupation
  • Musician
  • singer
  • songwriter
Musical career
Genres
Instruments
  • Vocals
  • guitar
  • piano
Years active2014–present
Labels
  • Boer
  • Epifo
  • Assai
Associated acts

Hawk was nominated for a Scottish Alternative Music Award for best Acoustic Act in 2018.[4]

Early life

Hawk was born in Edinburgh, Scotland and grew up in the district of Fairmilehead. His father is a former graphic designer from New Zealand, and her mother worked as a midwife and later as a postmistress. Hawk has two older siblings, a sister and a brother. His interest in performing and songwriting started as a child: "from an early age whatever I was going to do it had to involve a stage. I was into acting at school and applied for drama school. And didn’t get in, thankfully." He first started writing songs at age 14.[5] Hawk went to study International Relations at the University of St Andrews; whilst he was there he started playing gigs. Hawk met musician King Creosote (Kenny Anderson) when he performed at the university, and after the gig gave him a CD of his songs, recalling: "About 45 minutes later, he emailed me and said, ‘[...] I’ve listened to it twice and I love it. What are you going to do with it?’ I said, ‘I don’t know.’ And he said, ‘What are we going to do with it?’".[6]

Career

After a while Anderson became a mentor, and asked Hawk to support him on several occasion through the Kingdom of Fife. Anderson would later also be involved in the release of Hawk's first vinyl record, Aznavour.[7] Aznavour was independently released in 2014, and was quickly followed by Hawk's first release on King Creosote's Alter Ego Trading Company imprint, Mull, in 2015. Three of the four songs on the EP would be re-recorded to feature on Hamish Hawk & The New Outfit's From Zero to One.

Hamish Hawk & The New Outfit

In 2015, as means of bolstering his live performances, Hawk formed backing band the New Outfit, composed of guitarist Andrew Pearson, bassist Alex Duthie, drummer Barry Carty, and keyboard player John Cashman.[8] Hawk would write the songs and later present them to the rest of the band: "I’ll come up with the words and basic structure for a song and bash it about a bit until I’m confident it has legs. After that, I’ll get the band involved and usually it sprouts all kinds of other limbs. It’s important for any song to be able to work on a solo level." In 2018, they released From Zero to One on Assai Recordings. The record was well received by critics.

Heavy Elevator

Following the release of Laziest River in 2019, Hawk started work on a new record. Heavy Elevator was recorded in September, 2019, over two weeks at Rod Jones's Post Electric Studio in Leith, Edinburgh. [9] Hawk composed the songs with New Outfit guitarist Andrew Pearson and Laziest River multi-instrumentalist Stefan Maurice. Hawk felt his songs became "bigger and bolder and more fully formed."[10] Recording continued through the pandemic, "... the band and I completely rallied and were sending demos back and forth, doing a lot of writing. There was this purple patch in the middle of last year, summertime, where we were constantly writing." Hawk said of this period.[11] Heavy Elevator was released on 17 September, 2021.

Influences

Hawk has cited Morrissey, Leonard Cohen, Randy Newman, Nick Cave, Dory Previn, Jack White, and Stephin Merritt of The Magnetic Fields as influences.[12]

Discography
  • Aznavour (as Hamish James Hawk) (2014)
  • Mull (as Hamish James Hawk) (2015)
  • From Zero to One (as Hamish Hawk & The New Outfit) (2018)
  • Laziest River (2019)
  • Heavy Elevator (2021)

References
  1. "Hamish Hawk Discogrpahy". Discogs. Retrieved 9 October 2021.
  2. Jamieson, Teddy (11 September 2021). "Hamish Hawk: Scottish singer could be the next big thing". The Herald. Retrieved 9 October 2021.
  3. "It's my birthday so click here to give me an undeserved present". Twitter. Retrieved 9 October 2021.[self-published]
  4. Dunn, Jamie (9 October 2018). "Scottish Alternative Music Awards reveal nominees". The Skinny. Retrieved 9 October 2021.
  5. "haverin' PRESENTS Hamish Hawk". YouTube. Retrieved 9 October 2021.
  6. Jamieson, Teddy (11 September 2021). "Hamish Hawk: Scottish singer could be the next big thing". The Herald. Retrieved 9 October 2021.
  7. Jamieson, Teddy (11 September 2021). "Hamish Hawk: Scottish singer could be the next big thing". The Herald. Retrieved 9 October 2021.
  8. Corcoran, Emma (13 December 2015). "Sunday Sessions 2 - Hamish Hawk". Start Magazine. Retrieved 9 October 2021.
  9. McKeown, Rory (17 September 2021). "Hamish Hawk interview: Edinburgh storyteller on creation of spellbinding new album Heavy Elevator". The Daily Star. Retrieved 21 November 2021.
  10. Jamieson, Teddy (11 September 2021). "Hamish Hawk: Scottish singer could be the next big thing". The Herald. Retrieved 9 October 2021.
  11. Jamieson, Teddy (10 September 2021). "on lockdown and creativity". The Herald. Retrieved 21 November 2021.
  12. "Interview: Hamish Hawk shares his reccomendations". You Wanted a List. Retrieved 9 October 2021.
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