“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times” has earned its hoary immortality in Memeville.
That’s how it was from February 2020 onward. That’s how it hit I See Hawks in L.A., who played their final live show at Ben Vaughn’s Wonder Valley Festival. The evening was charged, Ben and the Hawks (as ISHILA is otherwise known) pushing against the unknown at the edge of the desert night.
I See Hawks in L.A. — who will release their first post-pandemic album, On Our Way, on August 27th— tell the rest of story in their own words:
And then, well you know. Le lockdown. For I See Hawks in L.A., it was disruptive, but we’re drawn to disruption, we create disruption, it’s a creative source, and here it was handed to us writ large by global fate. How do little old us ride this floodwave?
Well, we dove in, digitally. Without ever playing music together. As was near universal for musicians, reality was the all-embracing screen, vivid cyber images that sang and played drums and guitar.
Rob Waller and Paul Lacques went on an uncharacteristically locked-in songwriting schedule, every Friday Facetiming it at the crack of 4 p.m., quite a challenge (you can’t play guitars at the same time) — but also an oasis from chaos. Pure strange joy. We cranked out an album’s worth of songs, with big contributions from drummer Victoria Jacobs.
Social and eco commentary have always marked our lyrics. This period of genuine global and American crises have made pontificating particularly perilous and delicate. How do you state your views without exploiting genuine suffering? We went historic and oblique, with songs about Geronimo, Muhammad Ali, the Faulknerian dilemma, in language sometimes more abstract and mirroring than narration. (We take some rambles, but there are also classic Hawks two-beats and country rockers about Marin wiccans, London markets, and the [un]certainties of love and broken hearts.)
Then began the studio game, ProTools trial by error, error in abundance. Why don’t these tracks line up? Can we use an iPhone recording? (Yes.) Rob sends a vocal and guitar. Paul and Victoria cut drums, Paul Marshall cuts bass and vocs. We recut. Okay, sounds like music. We got beautiful guest performances from our compadres Danny McGough, Brantley Kearns, Dave Zirbel, Richie Lawrence, Rich Dembowski and Woody Aplanalp (Old Californio), Joe Berardi, Marcus Watkins and Marc Doten (Double Naught Spy Car), and James Combs and Ed Barguiarena (Great Willow).
There are always silver linings. A big one for us was the realization that we need music far more than it needs us. Singing and playing, even locked into computer recording, was a life raft. It seems to have gotten us to shore: some hopefully classic vibe Hawks and some new sonic directions born of the limitations and possibilities of the studio only universe. A lurch into modernity.
I See Hawks in L.A. are Southern California’s leading alt country/Americana/folk rock band. Noted for their lyrical celebrations of earth and ecosphere, odes to the endless highway, and wry social commentary, they’ve gathered a loyal and global tribe from many U.S. and Europe/UK tours, consistently rave reviews from critics, and a serious presence in the Top 10 of the Freeform American Roots chart, the Americana Chart, and the Euro Americana chart.
The Hawks were formally spoken into existence in 1999 by Rob Waller and brothers Paul and Anthony Lacques during a philosophical discussion and rock-throwing session on an East Mojave desert trek.
To accompany the album announcement, Glide is premiering the special director’s cut music video for the band’s new tune “Mississippi Gas Station Blues.” Awash in feedback and slinking organs, the song is a slow crawling blues number that finds every band member laying down supreme instrumentals to come together in one down and dirty number. There are elements of Dylan to be savored, but there are also more avant-garde influences that come through in the strange instrumentation and vocal stylings, all of which culminates in an eerie violin solo that makes the choice of archival footage even more intriguing.
Paul Lacques describes the inspiration and process behind the song:
“’Mississippi Gas Station Blues’ was a creation of the cracked mindset and isolated recordings of the Covid Era. Throw in the ghost of William Faulkner and stir. A mono iPhone track of drums and guitar jam was overdubbed with vocals, bass, and some wild keyboards from Danny McGough. Lead singer Rob Waller’s family has deep roots in Mississippi, and Faulkner looms large in the psyche of songwriters Waller and Paul Lacques, and in the song — not overtly but in the shifting point of view of the singer. The modern white bluesman/intellectual wants the love of his life back, and a mention in the Southern Review, the minor holy grail of the great Hipster Aspiration.
But he’s really got the blues.”
WATCH:
