If you are a regular listener to BBC Radio 1 in the evenings, then you would have heard of Hawk Eyes or at least Chickenhawk (the band has changed name). The Leeds based rock band started to grow on me and I became curious. Who were they? Everytime I would hear their song on the radio, it would usually be followed by Zane Lowes Oceanic accent driveling on about how excited he is and then mention 'Pulled Apart By Horses'. So I thought, lets find out a bit more about them. Here's the results of a funny and slightly sarcastic interview. Enjoy:
'Scorpieau' seems to be the song getting a lot of attention lately. What is the song you look forward to performing the most?
With making a new album and not having played any new songs live,
I'd say something off the new album. Its not finished yet and most of
the songs have working titles so let's say - 'Nigel'
It seems hard to find an interview where Pulled Apart By Horses isn't the band your compared to, what are your thoughts on this?
Perhaps because we are both from Leeds and a guitar band, we're
both riffy but sometimes journalists can be a little lazy with
comparisons, we've had endless comparisons in the past including Amen,
Castrovalva and Slayer!!! PABH are however an excellent band, my
favourite is Rob. He also has an excellent name.
Your style is quite unique; how would you describe it and who are your biggest influences?
Probably the sound of 4 people trying to pull the songs in
different directions apparently working together but secretly doingbattle. Dillinger Escape Plan, Melvins, Duran Duran and Danny Elfman
are some influences. A good dose of pretending we know what we are
doing always helps too.
We have had a few peoples opinions on the best alternative music scene and it seems that overall Manchester and South Wales are leading the way. What is the music scene like in Leeds and would you recommend going to see any particular bands?
Biased perhaps but the Leeds scene for me wins everytime, not
basing bands on success but quality I think the list from Leeds is
both long and ridiculously varied. Top of my head: Antares, False
Flags, These Monsters, Normal Man, Canaya, Mucky Sailor, Monster
Killed by Laser many many many more. Concentration Champ should've
been massive, hunt them out...
You are currently writing a new album, give us the low down on it.
We've written these songs over the last 18 months, I've
scrutinised the songs so much that I've lost touch on reality with
them, one of the engineers we are working with said it doesn't sound
like the same band as the first record, in a good way. I personally didn't want
to make Modern Bodies part 2. I don't know why I'm saying personally
as the others didn't either.
If you had to be a cover band, who would you cover and why?
Queen, so I could play songs by Queen. Music should've stopped
being made when Freddie Mercury died. I realise how silly the
statement is, thanks in advance just incase.
What's the funniest thing to happen to you as a band?
Luckily as a band we laugh quite a lot, the funniest things
hopefully will remain in our minds, being booed for not being
Alexisonfire was pretty funny though. Being in Europe in crack den
central was also funny but only once we were a long distance away.
That place was a massive advert to never take drugs, scary.
Finally, what are the Hawk Eyes goals for the future?
Goals, hmmm. Its hard to say without sounding like an idiot. 5
years ago the goal was to play a gig, we'd like to accomplish more and more but if the band split up tomorrow, I think we'd be pretty happy with our lot. My main goal now is to make an album better than Modern Bodies.
Cheers gents.
