Vaults: Chicken Hawk
Chickenhawk is a political epithet used in the United States to criticize a politician, bureaucrat, or commentator who strongly supports a war or other military action, and actively avoided military service when of draft age, says Wikipedia.
Chickenhawk are a band from Leeds who cheat death, rock hard and definitely don’t get naked in public. Their epic debut album is a progressive nightmare (in a good way, obviously),available now on Sound Devastation records, says Shut.
You’ve just come off tour, how was it? Debaucherous? Or do you read a lot?
Rob (guitar) : I would officially say all we did every night was have a cup of tea and go to bed, nothing bad happened, nothing weird happened. Everything is fine.
Mat (drums) : Absolutely none of us took our clothes off at any point in the evening, none of us!
Paul (guitar/vocals): All garments remained in the correct place.
Ryan (bass/vocals): We didn’t alienate ourselves at all, honestly…
You locked yourselves away for a long time to do your album. How was the whole recording process for you?
Rob : I loved the recording process, it gave us a chance to really experiment with different ideas, different layers and try and cut the fat a little bit from our previous efforts. We ended up recording the album in three different places, as always with Chickenhawk we underestimated how anal we would be about it. You should really appreciate the few seconds of music just after the first line in ‘The pin’. It’s about 4 seconds long and we spent about an hour on it, I think you’ll totally agree that it transcends all sorts of musical boundaries in a totally apocalyptic fashion, the likes of which have not been heard since the big bang.
Ryan : It was quite drawn out and at times frustrating but we’re really pleased with the outcome. I guess what you put in you get out, like Rob said we initially underestimated how precious we were going to be about it and once you start in a particular fashion it would be a shame to not see it through to its full potential. Chris (Fielding, producer) and Jason (Sanderson, producer) were great to work with as well and managed to put up with the idiot factor far longer than we imagined was possible. We’re looking forward to working with Jason again on the next recording we do.
We’re always looking to progress and push ourselves however we can. Mat coming into the band just seemed a very natural move for the next stage I guess.
Why did you make the decision to change to a 4 piece? Was it hard finding the right man for the job?
Rob : To be honest there has always been talk of transforming into a four piece, since the album was completed. Paul really did a splendid job with the vocals and I think there was a general consensus that we wouldn’t be able to replicate it live if he was behind the kit. On most of the songs there are multiple guitar tracks too, so it just seemed to fit. Phil Collins also told us to do it. It was surprisingly easy to find a new drummer, Matthew was fresh from Whores x 3 splitting up and was in Ryan’s other band, The Grand March. I think one practice Ryan mentioned we were looking for someone and Mat was totally up for it. We were primarily concerned with finding the right person, we aren’t the easiest of people to be in a band with and there’s a certain mindset required to be in Chickenhawk.. Matthew is definitely of the Chickenhawk ilk.
Ryan : Like Rob says, it was all about being able to convincingly replicate the album live. Mat’s addition has also breathed some new life into these songs that we slaved over for so long, as he has a different style to Paul and doesn’t play the parts exactly as they are on CD. Also the knock-on effect with new material is that the writing process is slightly different and we have a new set of influences and talents to draw on. We’re always looking to progress and push ourselves however we can. Mat coming into the band just seemed a very natural move for the next stage I guess.
How has the new band dynamic affected the live show?
Rob : I think its improved it 104 fold, Matthew is a ridiculously talented drummer. Our live shows are tighter and the new stuff we’ve been writing as a 4-piece kicks the shit out of the old stuff. Everything is better, better, better, better, better, bed wetter.
Paul : It’s meant that I can personally concentrate on the vocals and feel more comfortable on stage. Previously I had always done vocals and/or guitar in bands I’d been in and only started playing drums literally at the first Chickenhawk practice, and as such it never really felt natural to me.
Ryan : I think we’re a lot louder and heavier due to the simple fact we now have two guitarists on stage. It just works better basically and I think that comes across in the live performance as a more complete package.
Whats next for the ‘Hawk then ya bastards?
Mat : We’ve just finished filming a video for a single/ep – ‘Nasa vs Esa’ off the album, this will be backed by 2 new tracks we’re recording in a couple of weeks time, again with Jason Sanderson. There will be a second video for one of the new songs that Danny North is co-directing with Kyle Spooner, all to be released on Brew Records….
Rob : After that, mega mega touring by ourselves and possibly with Kong later in the year….where we will continue to go to bed straight after each gig and not take our clothes off at all. Plus a new album on Brew Records hopefully next year. We are very busy boys, come and have a lovely time with us.
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