21 hours Ago
2000-capacity auditorium, the guilt ghost of animals cruelly paraded in Victorian times. It feels like the set of an old movie, a sense of history firmly present. And yet, we are here for a very in-the-now reason, to meet up with Edinburgh's Hamish Hawk on a run-up-to-Christmas tour with fellow Scots, Travis.
It's the third time within months Hamish has visited the Liverpool region, this venue the biggest so far, flat out promoting third album A Firmer Hand. He's had substantially more press interest with this one, he confesses as we settle down to talk. A regular presence on end of year lists, and a 6 Music album of the 2024 thanks to long term champion Steve Lamacq, he's fattened out his audience both on his own and touring Europe in support slots.
Not bad going at all. Hamish Hawk is both a man and a band these days. Hamish firmly in charge of the lyrics and he, drummer Stefan Maurice, guitarist Andrew Pearson and bass player Alex Duthie co-songwriters on the music.
And what a wholesome bunch they are, with a rider of Walkers crisps and a Lindt chocolate advent calendar each. The bonding of the group as a brotherly unit enabled Hamish to put down the guitar and become the physical up front performer he is today. Go to a Hamish Hawk show and you will witness a man working that damn stage with no mercy.
He denies he dances, but we really must insist he is wrong on that point. A Firmer Hand, though. Much was made over the summer of it as a deeply personal record.
Pivotal. Honest. Darker.
Big change. The songs themselves conceal nothing, but coyness in coverage was noticeable. Even the press release accompanying the album did not state in black and white that, after a decade of growing considerable songwriting chops with romantic, warm pulse poetic lyrics, Hamish presents in A Firmer Hand an album of dramatic, unambiguous songs exploring his relationships with men.
Writing about the carnal in song is always – um – hard, I put to him. Artists like Jacques Brel,..
. Cath Holland.
