HAWKE a.k.a. GAVIN HARDKISS
interviewsofrecordingartists.com
Born in Johannesburg, South Africa, Gavin Hardkiss resides in
San Francisco. While primarily known as an international DJ,
jetting around the world for raves in elite night clubs or parties in
exotic locales, Hardkiss also has composed music under the name of Hawke.
"Heatstroke" is Hardkiss's new album recorded as Hawke.
The musical statement on the album, features his signature "Coastal Breaks and Classic Californian" sound, that bridges the realms of contemporary dance with disco, funk, house and backbeat music, all framed within an electronic sound.
In the following interview Gavin Hardkiss talks about his new album, the international dance and rave party scene he has performed within and the potential he views for his music, along with the "message" he believes that he can deliver through the his craft.
(Q)- How far do you believe the music on your new album "Heatstoke" can possibly make inroads within the mainstream American pop culture?
Gavin Hardkiss (A)- I don't think I can with what I'm doing. The opportunities are few.
(Q)- Why?
(A)- Because I think mainstream America is mostly pop trash. And, I can't change that. I like that stuff at times, but I also like something with a bit more depth and a lot more development and "high taste". When people make something that sounds somewhat different from everything that you've heard before. Most of America like to hear the same sounds over and over again, rehash of rehash. But, I don't think that I'll ever be true to mainstream America, unless it is something like the bootleg mix I just made of The Beatles "My Sweet Lord" (George Harrison). Nothing gets into mainstream America but reintroducing things that the masses already know in a modern context. It's hard to get to mainstream America just with electronic or non-pop art.
(Q)- Yet America is very high technology oriented at this time.
(A)- America is numb man! America is numb to new ideas! (laughs) I think in a way it is kind of a country in which the lowest common denominator,
dominates. So, no one is trying to transcend anything here. They're trying to be like the lowest common denominator. While that does differ somewhat around
America, in other places around the world, artists and cultures try and transcend what they just did before. If that is architecture in Holland or fashion in Belgium, it (abrupt change) just doesn't really happen here (USA).
If you're growing up in the American system, then you're in a daze. If it's the American school system, college system, it's a haze and you've just walking it. And I really want to help people, like I did for myself years ago, snap out of it, even if it's for just an instant. Then, you can kind of see that there's more.
(Q)- And there is hope.
(A)- There's lot's of hope! The human race is incredible! We give ourselves hardly any credit man, we're incredible. I have found that similar attitude
in the friends I've made in every country I've been to in the world.
(Q)- Although, change in pop music and pop culture, does come to the USA, even if it is at a slower rate then some other cultures.
(A) Here, new ideas always infiltrate slowly and then come into American culture slowly. Like in the hotel here in New York where we I'm staying, there is electronic music in the elevator. And, that's a beautiful way to get through to people via the subconscious. So, change and electronic music is getting through to people in America in a way that they don't seen to realize. That's the thing I like about electronic music is how one man can be a band and how one person can create something that previously would have taken a studio of musicians let alone sound engineers and sound operators, to help that one man in doing whatever it is that they want to do musically.
The kind of music I enjoy the most is the electronic music that has an uplifting spirit to it. It offers a sort of sweet kind of emotion. I like that because you're not really getting that from any other musical source. You're not getting that from pop, hip-hop, or rock and roll. That is what I'm trying to do with my records, give people a real warm music to disappear into for seventy minutes or so. That to me is kind of important. People need that more then ever. I'm only thirty-three. I think that after ten to fifteen years, people need that so badly. If they didn't need that up until they're thirty years old, then they eventually do really need art to stir them up to ask the question, "OK, I'm living, why am I living? What is this world all about?" You need art to kind of wake you up to your everyday life. And, this (electronic) music does that when it's at it's best. Look at Orbital. The song "Belfast". Everyone should have a copy of that for listening.
(Q)- Your new song off of "Heatstroke", titled, "Party People (We're Gonna Change The World)" with SIR ADAMSMASHER, stresses the need for unity and a solidarity for strength in numbers. It is also a call for peace. How did that song come about?
(A)- That song was recorded in May 2001. It's an idea that we put down long before the events of September Eleventh. It was something that we felt people needed to hear last year and we put it together on (generic) white labeled records by July Fourth and then sent the records to DJs around the country. This album "Heatstroke" is a subconscious message of, "Everything is going to be OK."
I think as far back as ten years ago the people I was working with and some of the people in San Francisco felt a sense of urgency as at oftentimes a lot of people do, who are counterculture. They feel a sense of urgency for change. And, you have that sense that something has got to be done. That is where my music comes in. It has been a work in progress to get to this point. The music on this album would have been valid eight years ago but it makes more sense in the world right now.
(Q)- Do you ever think in terms of radio for you music?
(A)- I never really think in terms of radio. Only club DJs. I work in a nightclub, rave and party environment. So, that's who I send records to, that's who I deal with. There are not too many radio DJs (in the USA) who will even play this kind of music. So, we sent it to DJs in places like Denver, New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Las Vegas, just to name few. And we thought that was a huge, but very simple and powerful statement. But now, that song has a whole new context as people really need to feel unity and they need to come together and seek solace and joy as a unit. Instead of disappearing
into their own miserable existence.
(Q)- Growing up in Johannesburg, South Africa, what would you say that you learned from that culture that you maybe bring to your experiences today as a DJ and recording your own original music?
(A)- There's a lot. Growing up there, there were tanks on the corners of the streets at certain townships. You had to go through metal detectors to get into the mall.
(Q)- So to you, what the direction which the USA is possibly heading with increased "homeland security" is nothing new by growing up in Johannesburg, South Africa?
(A)- No it isn't anything new for me. That kind situation kind of protects you and makes you aware of your environment and your surroundings. The thing I love about South Africa and Africa is that people have really positive attitude. In Africa man, they completely transcend what's happening at the moment. And, if bad things are happening at the moment, they're always really positive about the future. And South Africa hasn't had as easy time since Independence. Since
Nelson Mandela came to power. But if you speak to people there or when I speak to the people there, they recognize the growing pains that the country is going through now is going to one day help their grandchildren. They like to think in terms of the future and the possibilities for the next generation. It's not so much the in terms of just a four year cycle and ,"OK. Now what's this president going to do?" No. It's more like," What about my children in twenty years time. How is this all going to be for them?". Growing up in South Africa, you grow into that kind of thinking. I mean, in the next few years, it's not going to get any easier here in America. The events of September Eleventh is a wakeup call that America is getting right now.
(Q)- Do you feel electronic and dance music along with the rave culture is a beginning of a worldwide youth revolution?
(A)- I think what is happening every weekend, around the world, simultaneously without government interference, without anyone's agenda, is already reprogramming the minds of youth worldwide. Now, sometimes that's hedonistic.
Sometimes that is enlightening. It is an experience that the whole world is going through. If you go to a club where there's a party or a rave in London, Berlin, San Francisco, or for that matter Sydney Australia, you're pretty much in a similar space that you could be in anywhere else. It's like an international free zone. And that's a wonderful thing that is happening.
Government cannot stop that. It's an international thing that is going on in front of our eyes. I was there at the beginning of the process and now, I don't know if it's peaked or not, but it's definitely getting more popular in America. It's morphing all of the time. It's already a huge thing globally. And, I don't know if today rock and roll has that element within it anymore. In the era of the Late Sixties, with Flower Power and all of that, that was very regional, it wasn't all that global. So today with the dance and rave culture, I think we're bigger then we actually know or realize that we are. It's like a multidimensional experience, you're not going to get rid of this culture.
End.
interviewsofrecordingartists.com
Born in Johannesburg, South Africa, Gavin Hardkiss resides in San Francisco. While primarily known as an international DJ, jetting around the world for raves in elite night clubs or parties in exotic locales, Hardkiss also has composed music under the name of Hawke. "Heatstroke" is Hardkiss's new album recorded as Hawke. The musical statement on the album, features his signature "Coastal Breaks and Classic Californian" sound, that bridges the realms of contemporary dance with disco, funk, house and backbeat music, all framed within an electronic sound. In the following interview Gavin Hardkiss talks about his new album, the international dance and rave party scene he has performed within and the potential he views for his music, along with the "message" he believes that he can deliver through the his craft.
(Q)- How far do you believe the music on your new album "Heatstoke" can possibly make inroads within the mainstream American pop culture?
Gavin Hardkiss (A)- I don't think I can with what I'm doing. The opportunities are few.
(Q)- Why?
(A)- Because I think mainstream America is mostly pop trash. And, I can't change that. I like that stuff at times, but I also like something with a bit more depth and a lot more development and "high taste". When people make something that sounds somewhat different from everything that you've heard before. Most of America like to hear the same sounds over and over again, rehash of rehash. But, I don't think that I'll ever be true to mainstream America, unless it is something like the bootleg mix I just made of The Beatles "My Sweet Lord" (George Harrison). Nothing gets into mainstream America but reintroducing things that the masses already know in a modern context. It's hard to get to mainstream America just with electronic or non-pop art.
(Q)- Yet America is very high technology oriented at this time.
(A)- America is numb man! America is numb to new ideas! (laughs) I think in a way it is kind of a country in which the lowest common denominator, dominates. So, no one is trying to transcend anything here. They're trying to be like the lowest common denominator. While that does differ somewhat around America, in other places around the world, artists and cultures try and transcend what they just did before. If that is architecture in Holland or fashion in Belgium, it (abrupt change) just doesn't really happen here (USA). If you're growing up in the American system, then you're in a daze. If it's the American school system, college system, it's a haze and you've just walking it. And I really want to help people, like I did for myself years ago, snap out of it, even if it's for just an instant. Then, you can kind of see that there's more.
(Q)- And there is hope.
(A)- There's lot's of hope! The human race is incredible! We give ourselves hardly any credit man, we're incredible. I have found that similar attitude in the friends I've made in every country I've been to in the world.
(Q)- Although, change in pop music and pop culture, does come to the USA, even if it is at a slower rate then some other cultures.
(A) Here, new ideas always infiltrate slowly and then come into American culture slowly. Like in the hotel here in New York where we I'm staying, there is electronic music in the elevator. And, that's a beautiful way to get through to people via the subconscious. So, change and electronic music is getting through to people in America in a way that they don't seen to realize. That's the thing I like about electronic music is how one man can be a band and how one person can create something that previously would have taken a studio of musicians let alone sound engineers and sound operators, to help that one man in doing whatever it is that they want to do musically. The kind of music I enjoy the most is the electronic music that has an uplifting spirit to it. It offers a sort of sweet kind of emotion. I like that because you're not really getting that from any other musical source. You're not getting that from pop, hip-hop, or rock and roll. That is what I'm trying to do with my records, give people a real warm music to disappear into for seventy minutes or so. That to me is kind of important. People need that more then ever. I'm only thirty-three. I think that after ten to fifteen years, people need that so badly. If they didn't need that up until they're thirty years old, then they eventually do really need art to stir them up to ask the question, "OK, I'm living, why am I living? What is this world all about?" You need art to kind of wake you up to your everyday life. And, this (electronic) music does that when it's at it's best. Look at Orbital. The song "Belfast". Everyone should have a copy of that for listening.
(Q)- Your new song off of "Heatstroke", titled, "Party People (We're Gonna Change The World)" with SIR ADAMSMASHER, stresses the need for unity and a solidarity for strength in numbers. It is also a call for peace. How did that song come about?
(A)- That song was recorded in May 2001. It's an idea that we put down long before the events of September Eleventh. It was something that we felt people needed to hear last year and we put it together on (generic) white labeled records by July Fourth and then sent the records to DJs around the country. This album "Heatstroke" is a subconscious message of, "Everything is going to be OK." I think as far back as ten years ago the people I was working with and some of the people in San Francisco felt a sense of urgency as at oftentimes a lot of people do, who are counterculture. They feel a sense of urgency for change. And, you have that sense that something has got to be done. That is where my music comes in. It has been a work in progress to get to this point. The music on this album would have been valid eight years ago but it makes more sense in the world right now.
(Q)- Do you ever think in terms of radio for you music?
(A)- I never really think in terms of radio. Only club DJs. I work in a nightclub, rave and party environment. So, that's who I send records to, that's who I deal with. There are not too many radio DJs (in the USA) who will even play this kind of music. So, we sent it to DJs in places like Denver, New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Las Vegas, just to name few. And we thought that was a huge, but very simple and powerful statement. But now, that song has a whole new context as people really need to feel unity and they need to come together and seek solace and joy as a unit. Instead of disappearing into their own miserable existence.
(Q)- Growing up in Johannesburg, South Africa, what would you say that you learned from that culture that you maybe bring to your experiences today as a DJ and recording your own original music?
(A)- There's a lot. Growing up there, there were tanks on the corners of the streets at certain townships. You had to go through metal detectors to get into the mall.
(Q)- So to you, what the direction which the USA is possibly heading with increased "homeland security" is nothing new by growing up in Johannesburg, South Africa?
(A)- No it isn't anything new for me. That kind situation kind of protects you and makes you aware of your environment and your surroundings. The thing I love about South Africa and Africa is that people have really positive attitude. In Africa man, they completely transcend what's happening at the moment. And, if bad things are happening at the moment, they're always really positive about the future. And South Africa hasn't had as easy time since Independence. Since Nelson Mandela came to power. But if you speak to people there or when I speak to the people there, they recognize the growing pains that the country is going through now is going to one day help their grandchildren. They like to think in terms of the future and the possibilities for the next generation. It's not so much the in terms of just a four year cycle and ,"OK. Now what's this president going to do?" No. It's more like," What about my children in twenty years time. How is this all going to be for them?". Growing up in South Africa, you grow into that kind of thinking. I mean, in the next few years, it's not going to get any easier here in America. The events of September Eleventh is a wakeup call that America is getting right now.
(Q)- Do you feel electronic and dance music along with the rave culture is a beginning of a worldwide youth revolution?
(A)- I think what is happening every weekend, around the world, simultaneously without government interference, without anyone's agenda, is already reprogramming the minds of youth worldwide. Now, sometimes that's hedonistic. Sometimes that is enlightening. It is an experience that the whole world is going through. If you go to a club where there's a party or a rave in London, Berlin, San Francisco, or for that matter Sydney Australia, you're pretty much in a similar space that you could be in anywhere else. It's like an international free zone. And that's a wonderful thing that is happening. Government cannot stop that. It's an international thing that is going on in front of our eyes. I was there at the beginning of the process and now, I don't know if it's peaked or not, but it's definitely getting more popular in America. It's morphing all of the time. It's already a huge thing globally. And, I don't know if today rock and roll has that element within it anymore. In the era of the Late Sixties, with Flower Power and all of that, that was very regional, it wasn't all that global. So today with the dance and rave culture, I think we're bigger then we actually know or realize that we are. It's like a multidimensional experience, you're not going to get rid of this culture.
End.
