Hawk have released their brand new album ‘Fly’. Out on the 15th May the band ed by the American artist David Hawkins, have released their highly-anticipated new album, Fly, featuring the all-star lineup of Pete Thomas (Elvis Costello, Johnny Cash, Elliot Smith) on drums, Ken Stringfellow (The Posies, R.E.M., Big Star) on bass, vocals, keyboards, synths and guitar, keyboardist Morgan Fisher (Mott the Hoople, Queen, Yoko Ono) and Hawk and Be guitarist Aaron Bakker. Hawkins, also leader of the orchestral folk-rock band Be, is an acclaimed abstract painter and co-founder of the avant-garde ‘happening’ group The Black Mountain Collective.
Fly is the follow-up to Hawk’s acclaimed albums Bomb Pop, I’m On Fire, Princess America (which featured a cameo in voice and word by Lawrence Ferlinghetti) and college-radio sensation Rock n Roll. “Somehow I ended up in one of the best bands in the world,” laughs Hawkins when talking recently about the band, “I’m really grateful.
To have these guys playing with me is like a dream. I can finally capture the songs the way I hear them in my head.” Hawkins and Stringfellow have been recording together steadily since 2016 when they collaborated on the second Be album, You, and Stringfellow has now played on over a hundred of Hawkins’ songs. “He’s such a great player,” Hawkins says, “and musically we’re right in sync.
It’s been such a blast. We’ve already recorded a ton of material.” The legendary Elvis Costello drummer Pete Thomas joined Hawk in 2017 before the Bomb Pop sessions, along with Gary Louris of The Jayhawks, and the press-coined ‘power pop supergroup’ moniker stuck. Already surrounded by some of his musical heroes, Hawkins welcomed another hero, Morgan Fisher, to the group on keyboards last year. Fisher, of Mott the Hoople & Queen fame, recorded his parts in Tokyo in between tour dates with Mott the Hoople.
A true international effort, Fly was recorded all around the world, including at ‘Dave’s Room’, the late David Bianco’s studio in L.A., (Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, AC/DC, LL Cool J), Wonder Valley Sky, Hawkins’ secluded off-grid retreat deep in the California desert near Joshua Tree, Hawk Studios in Venice, CA, Ken Stringfellow’s studio in Tours, France, as well as at Fisher’s Morgan Salon in Tokyo and Mars Studio in Seattle.
Louris was busy recording the new Jayhawks album at the time, so he doesn’t appear on Fly, but he has already recorded some vocals for Hawkins’ upcoming 3rd Be album, slated for an early 2021 release. Hawkins mixed Fly with his longtime collaborator Mike Hagler (Wilco, My Morning Jacket) at Kingsize Sound Labs in Chicago, and Hagler mastered the album.
website: http://hawkmusic.net/
