NEW SINGLE ‘CATERPILLAR’ADDED TO BBC 6MUSIC PLAYLIST
“Post-punk-informed pop with whooping vocals and driving bass”
Mojo, April 2021
“Hamish is such a natural storyteller, both in life and in his music. His way with words is something that admire and envy in equal measure.” Charlie Cunningham
22.02.2021: ‘Caterpillar’, the new single from Edinburgh musician Hamish Hawk, has today been added to BBC 6Music’s B-List. A nervy shiver of monochrome Post Punk-slash-New Wave pop, ‘Caterpillar’ has also received spins on Radio X (as John Kennedy’s X-Posure ‘Hot One’), BBC London (Gary Crowley), Amazing Radio and BBC Scotland (Roddy Hart/BBC Introducing Scotland, Vic Galloway). The track is the first to be lifted from Hawk’s new album ‘Heavy Elevator’, due later this year, produced by Rod Jones (Idlewild) and recorded at Jones’ Post Electric Studio in Leith.
“As far as vocals and lyrics were concerned, I was going for the intrigue of Marianne Faithfull’s ‘Broken English’, the unrelenting intensity of Joy Division’s ‘She’s Lost Control’, and the sensuality of Amanda Lear’s ‘Enigma (Give A Bit Of Mmh To Me)’,” says Hawk of ‘Caterpillar. “I was aiming for the jugular.”
Referencing surrealist painters and with a nod to ‘Stop Making Sense’ era David Byrne, the video for ‘Caterpillar’ features a mesmerizing physical performance from the wildly charismatic Hawk. The video was directed by Ellen De Faux of LS Productions, who has been nominated for a 2021 GRAMMY as one of the producers of Harry Style’s ‘Adore You’ video.
Rich of voice and even richer of imagination, Hamish Hawk creates musical pen-portraits as vivid in lyric as they are in melody, chamber pop songs that have swallowed both a dictionary and a compendium of modern urban (and island) fairy tales. And Hawk does all this with considerable wit, inspired by artists like Leonard Cohen, Morrissey (the olden days version), Jarvis Cocker, Randy Newman, and Stephin Merritt of Magnetic Fields.
Discovered by Kenny Anderson (King Creosote) and mentored by Anderson and Jones, Hawk has been making music for several years, though ‘Heavy Elevator’ marks a huge leap forward for the graduate of St Andrews University. For the first time Hawk has written with Andrew Pearson (guitars) and Stefan Maurice (keys, drums), who form the core of his band, to create ten tracks packed with characters, incident, emotion, geographical/artistic references, and tunes to hang your coat on.
The next single from Hamish Hawk is ‘Calls To Tiree’, available April 16.