{"id":5185,"date":"2012-04-30T00:00:24","date_gmt":"2012-04-30T00:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=5185"},"modified":"2012-05-10T00:13:09","modified_gmt":"2012-05-10T00:13:09","slug":"feature-hawkwind-04-12","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/feature-hawkwind-04-12\/","title":{"rendered":"HAWKWIND – Onwards And Upwards (April 2012) | Features \/ Interviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

HAWKWIND – Onwards And Upwards<\/strong><\/span>
\nAnthony Morgan<\/span>
\nApril 2012<\/span><\/p>\n

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Hawkwind (l-r): Tim Blake, Niall Hone, Dave Brock, Mr. Dibs and Richard Chadwick<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n
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\nEnglish space rock outfit Hawkwind cut April 2012 studio full-length Onward<\/em> at the group\u2019s own Earth Studios, its issue handled by Eastworld Recordings. The outing features soundtracks for internet warfare, mantras for self-realization and electrical systems checks. And as well, the album touches upon ancient prophecies, aligning constellations, urban violence, and touchy feely robots, not to mention unfolding harsh primordial soundscapes heralding a new green millennium.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnward<\/em> includes general topics of what\u2019s going on in the world,\u201d elaborates Dave Brock, longtime vocalist, guitarist, synthesist and founder of Hawkwind. \u201c\u2018Computer Cowards\u2019 is about people who sit behind their computers constantly slagging people off, and even causing some kids to commit suicide. Everyone will tell you who\u2019s involved in any part of the music business, they\u2019re constantly slagged off. Yeah, topics of what\u2019s going in the world. We\u2019re still in touch with what\u2019s happening, you know (laughs). \u2018Southern Cross\u2019 I think was inspired by Tim\u2019s trip to Australia. \u2018The Prophecy\u2019 is about the Rama. A shaman spoke a prophecy\u2026 Oh yeah, that\u2019s an interesting track… It\u2019s about the coming of Christ, all these sorts of different figures that people look up to. There\u2019s quite interesting lyrics on that. <\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018Electric Tears\u2019 is an instrumental, and \u2018The Drive By\u2019 is an instrumental about drive-by shootings. \u2018Howling Moon\u2019 is a short bit, a connecting passage from one to the other I think. \u2018Trans Air Trucking\u2019 is a jam that me and Tim did actually. \u2018Deep Vents\u2019 leads into \u2018Green Finned Demon\u2019, and all the proceeds from \u2019Green Finned Demon\u2019 go to a charity we\u2019re involved with (Sea Shepherd Conservation Society). We\u2019re involved in quite a few things; people need to stand up for something or another in this day and age.\u201d<\/p>\n

Onward<\/em> is the 25th Hawkwind album to mainly consist of studio compositions. \u201cYou do one album, and the first one is always a great achievement,\u201d the singer muses. \u201cYou then do another one, and then another one. Basically it\u2019s like painting pictures, but just doing the same thing with sounds. If you can constantly make things interesting and all that, then yeah. We\u2019re artists, that\u2019s what we are. Artistes (laughs).\u201d<\/p>\n

Albeit a milestone, the occasion hasn\u2019t overwhelmed Dave. \u201cIt\u2019s another day in the life,\u201d he reckons.<\/p>\n

Erstwhile guitarist Huw Lloyd-Langton guests on the number \u2018The Hills Have Ears\u2019. \u201cWe do see each other quite a lot because he doesn\u2019t live far away,\u201d the synthesist explains. He\u2019ll come over and do recordings with us.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Hawkwind (l-r): Tim Blake, Richard Chadwick, Mr. Dibs, Dave Brock and Niall
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Onward<\/em> boasts three live cuts in the form of \u2018The Flowering Of The Rose\u2019, \u2018Aerospace Age\u2019, and \u2018The Right To Decide\u2019, all of which feature the late keyboardist Jason Stuart. Jason sadly succumbed to a brain haemorrhage in September 2008. \u201cThey\u2019re the last things that Jason did with us,\u201d Dave shares. \u201cThe record company said they wanted three bonus tracks, and we thought \u2018Well, okay. Let\u2019s use some of the last we did with Jason at a couple of festivals.\u2019 Jason was a great keyboard player, and they show him playing well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Artwork duties fell to Martin Krel. \u201cHe\u2019s a very good friend of ours, and the same guy who did the artwork for Blood Of The Earth<\/em>,\u201d the axeman divulges. \u201cIt\u2019s one of his great pictures that he does. I think it\u2019s quite naturalistic, actually.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unlike many other bands off the road, Hawkwind\u2019s members spend quite a lot of time in one another\u2019s company. \u201cQuite often we spend a lot of time talking and doing nothing, as you know,\u201d Dave notes. \u201cWe then just get together and come up with some ideas. Now technology has advanced we\u2019ve all got Mac computers, so we can record instantly our ideas wherever we may be. In fact, I was talking to Tim on Skype just recently. He sent me a load of stuff onto my computer he\u2019s been doing, so I\u2019ll have to have a listen to that and see what it\u2019s like. You can play bits and pieces into computers nowadays anyway, which we do, and then we play them through big speakers and play loud rock music to it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Technology has significantly advanced in the 70s. \u201cBack then it was tape machines,\u201d the founder recalls. \u201cWe\u2019re still using similar equipment in the sense of audio generators, the guitars are exactly the same, and the synthesisers we use still. We use sequence loops which are quite fun to utilise. That\u2019s the way technology has advanced and lots of bands are doing similar things, utilising all these sounds for what you can do with them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Greater gaps separated more recent proper Hawkwind studio offerings, July 2010\u2019s Blood Of The Earth<\/em> being preceded by September 2005\u2019s Take Me To Your Leader<\/em> and 2000\u2019s Spacebrock<\/em> (though Spacebrock<\/em> is arguably a Dave Brock solo affair, despite sporting the Hawkwind moniker). \u201cA gap…,\u201d Dave begins. \u201cWas there a gap (laughs)? We always seem to be doing recordings, and nothing was released I would say. Last year, I actually finished recording four albums. We did one that the band did, three of us actually. Richard, Niall and me. There was heavy snow. Remember, last year? We all got snowed in, and because we all live close to each other… Tim lives in France, so he couldn\u2019t make it. Basically Niall, Richard and me did another album, which is called Stellar Variations<\/em>. I did a solo album which is coming out later on \u2013 Looking For Love In The Lost Land Of Dreams<\/em> \u2013 and we did a few tracks with Bill Shatner from Star Trek<\/em>. We\u2019ve done quite a lot since, but they just haven\u2019t been released. Stellar Variations<\/em> and Looking For Love In The Lost Land Of Dreams<\/em> will probably come out in the autumn.\u201d<\/p>\n

The hitherto unreleased Stellar Variations<\/em> is musically similar to Onward<\/em>. \u201cIt\u2019s very hard playing heavy space rock music like we do,\u201d the mainman feels. \u201cSome of it is quite unusual, spacey, and has lots of weird chord sequences. It\u2019s an interesting topic. We\u2019re recording one called Four Legs Good, Two Legs Bad<\/em> named after a quote from Animal Farm<\/em> (George Orwell, 1945), which we\u2019re doing now. We\u2019ve recorded four tracks for that so far. We might stick tracks onto Stellar Variations<\/em>. Who knows?\u201d<\/p>\n

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Looking For Love In The Lost Land Of Dreams<\/em> \u2013 also unreleased \u2013 is \u201ctypical Hawkwind sort of music,\u201d Dave chuckles. \u201cHawkwind is other members of the band as well, but when I do my own thing I can\u2019t help but sound like the band because I\u2019ve been doing Hawkwind for years. When we play together it sounds like what it should sound like (laughs). When I do things by myself, I can\u2019t help but play the things that I\u2019ve been playing this way for years. I can play synthesisers, keyboards, and sing, and luckily enough, with modern technology I have a six-string bass guitar where I can play six-string bass. Then Richard will hear me and say \u2018I wouldn\u2019t mind playing a bit of drums on that,\u2019 and then of course Richard plays some drums. I think there are a couple of tracks I recorded with Jason years ago where he\u2019s doing some of his great jazz stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n

October 2011 spoken word album Seeking Major Tom<\/em> by actor William Shatner (Star Trek<\/em> \/ T. J. Hooker<\/em> \/ Boston Legal<\/em>) includes an appearance from the guitarist. \u201cHe was doing an album of space themed songs like David Bowie\u2019s \u2018Space Oddity\u2019 (originally from November 1969’s David Bowie<\/em>), loads of different bands\u2019 songs,\u201d he remembers. \u201cHe wanted to do \u2018Silver Machine\u2019, so I got a phone call from a record company in America asking if I\u2019d go over. It\u2019s quite difficult to go over to America for me. I have to go to the American Embassy, and queue up for a visa. It\u2019s a real pain in the arse. He recorded with Carmine Appice (Vanilla Fudge \/ Cactus \/ Beck, Bogert & Appice) and the guy from MC5 (Wayne Kramer), and then we got another call actually asking if we\u2019d be interested in doing some more stuff. We did \u2018Sonic Attack\u2019 (from the October 1981 album of the same name) with him, which is totally different. It\u2019s a weird old album he\u2019s gone and done. You\u2019ll have to have a listen; you can hear bits of it on the internet.\u201d<\/p>\n

Onward<\/em>\u2019s material will prominently figure in forthcoming Hawkwind live concerts. \u201cWe\u2019re doing five or six new numbers actually, like \u2018Seasons\u2019, \u2018The Prophecy\u2019, \u2018The Hills Have Ears\u2019, and \u2018Southern Cross\u2019,\u201d Dave confirms. \u201cThat means we have to practice hard to make sure they sound right (laughs). \u201cRehearse and refresh I think is what you have to do (laughs). It\u2019s one of those things. Someone in the band will say \u2018Why don\u2019t we do blah blah?\u2019 and I will say \u2018I can\u2019t remember how to play it. I\u2019ll have to go and listen to it.\u2019 That\u2019s what we normally have to do \u2013 have a listen \u2013 and then it\u2019ll all come back. \u2018Ah, yes. I remember how to play it now.\u2019 I have to find the words, and learn the words again (laughs).\u201d<\/p>\n

Hawkwind\u2019s forthcoming live performances will inevitably include multi-media. \u201cThe dancers and the light show, that\u2019s what we\u2019d normally be doing,\u201d the frontman agrees. \u201cWe\u2019re doing some new stuff with the light show and the dancers. We actually have a lot of the stuff worked out on computers by Martin, the guy who did the front cover. He\u2019s done quite a lot of computer technology wizardry which we use in combination with some of the old stuff that we\u2019ve got. <\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018The Awakening\u2019 (from December 1972\u2019s Space Ritual<\/em>) for example says \u2018I would rather the fire storms of atmospheres than this cruel descent from a thousand years,\u2019 so is about being strapped into your tube, undertaking a very long trip into space, and then waking up. On the screen behind us there\u2019ll be the spaceship and inside the tubes and stuff, and the dancers come through from that at the beginning of the show. We have quite a lot of working out actually to make it look good; we have a lot of rehearsals to do to get all this together. It\u2019s quite a task really. We use a lot of black and white stuff as well, a lot of black and white spirals. It\u2019s hard to explain what we\u2019re doing (laughs). You\u2019ll have to see it really.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Hawkwind with dancers Steff Elrick (left) and Laura McGee (right)<\/b><\/em><\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n
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Hawkwind\u2019s tale spans over four decades, suggesting a Dave Brock autobiography would be a fascinating opus. The prospect doesn\u2019t particularly enthuse the vocalist, though. \u201cNo, but I\u2019ve been asked to quite often. I\u2019ve been offered quite a lot of money to recount the adventures that we\u2019ve had (laughs), but I won\u2019t be doing that. It\u2019s invasive of your privacy in a way, and there\u2019s lots of things we\u2019ve been involved with we don\u2019t want to tell anybody about (laughs). You\u2019ll have to read the history of Hawkwind first to get the gist of everything (laughs). There\u2019s plenty of colourful stories mind. You would have all these wonderful stories of different things that\u2019ve occurred over the years. There are lots of them, lots of ups and downs in life. Is the band on an up at the moment though? Yes, that\u2019s why we called this record Onward<\/em>. We\u2019re doing quite a few festivals this year. In fact, we did quite a lot last year; we toured Australia and Singapore. After doing this for so many years, you get used to travelling around. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe did a few in Europe as well last year, didn\u2019t we? We played at a really nice festival in Spain. We did quite a lot last year, and we\u2019ve got quite a few nice things this year. We were about to undertake a tour of Japan when the earthquake occurred. In fact, our manager (Kris Tait) was on the phone to the manager of the place where we were playing and the phone got cut off. Funnily enough, I was watching Japanese MTV and then all of a sudden they said \u2018There\u2019s been this terrible earthquake.\u2019 I watched it all live. They had all their cameras going to various places around the country. Of course, we got told we had to cancel going there because of the earthquake, the tsunami and all that. We might be going there this year instead. Mind you, there was an earthquake recently. I think if people live on fault lines though, this is what you come to expect really.\u201d<\/p>\n

Onward<\/em> was released on April 30th, 2012 through Eastworld Recordings.<\/p>\n

Interview published in April 2012.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

HAWKWIND – Onwards And Upwards Anthony Morgan April 2012 Hawkwind (l-r): Tim Blake, Niall Hone, Dave Brock, Mr. Dibs and Richard Chadwick Pic: Melvyn Vincent English space rock outfit Hawkwind cut April 2012 studio full-length Onward at the group\u2019s own Earth Studios, its issue handled by Eastworld Recordings. The outing features soundtracks for internet warfare, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,272],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5185","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-features","category-hawkwind"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5185","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5185"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5185\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5802,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5185\/revisions\/5802"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5185"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5185"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}