HAWXX talk music as mindfulness, knitting, cat worship & being birds that prey 🦅

💖 What’s HAWXX about?/ Where did the name come from/How did you set up?

Anna: Our name comes from the bird of prey & we added the XX to symbolise the female chromosome.

The band started in 2018. I had a solo project & wanted to form a band so I set out to find musicians.

Hannah was the first person I met at Alaska studios. She was working there as a manager & engineer & we had a jam which was amazing.

We then started the band together & met Iman, & Jess joined later in the year. 

💖 What inspires you to play music?

Anna: Music is a reset button.

Music is kind of like a parallel universe. You can be going through a really bad time but you experience it in a new way when you play/ write music.

Writing songs & performing them reminds me of my strength & helps me step into a new frame of mind.

Hannah: Yes, it’s quite mindful.  

I’d never thought of it like that before. Mindfulness was a thing, but you can’t really think about anything else while you’re learning an instrument – you’re just doing it for you. & it’s cool! 

Jess: I can relate to music being a reset button, it’s a time where you can put all energy & emotion into focus & clear your mind.

It’s not always conscious, more of a natural need like breathing or eating.

Without it – all falls apart!  

Iman: My aunt was the first to inspire me when I was 3 & I used to watch her play her violin. It was the beautiful sounds that I enjoyed & wanted to recreate.

So now what inspires me is that same creation of sounds that resonate within me in a spiritual way. Even playing dirty riffs! If I connect with it, then everything in the universe aligns for me!

Writing songs & performing them reminds me of my strength & helps me step into a new frame of mind.

💖 Who are your main influences in music/life?

Anna: Patti Smith, Kate Tempest, Anna Calvi, Gojira, Meshuggah, Devin Townsend. Also the anarchist.

Greek folk singer Arleta – legend. 

Hannah: Metallica, Trivium, Simon & Garfunkel, classical & soundtrack music.  

Iman: Deftones, Björk, Daughter, Incubus, System of a Down, Cory Taylor, Chino Morino

Jess: King Crimson, Black Sabbath, Meshugga, Gojira, Tool 

💖 Tell us about your aesthetic

Anna: In the last few months we’ve thought about how our image should represent our music.

Our bass player Iman is generally the stylistic visionary in the band & she came up with the idea of wearing feathers on stage.

Makes us all feel like savage birds of prey 😉 🦅

💖 When you’re not doing band stuff what do you get up to?

Hannah: think about band stuff! 

Anna: practicing, thinking about lyrics & riffs, knitting & worshipping my cat Moses. 

Iman: I’m generally writing music or trying to throw in some bass practice.

I also have this small business with my mum where we create art, resin objects & upcycle furniture. It’s more of a hobby that we sometimes get paid for!

💖 What does feminism mean to you? /What 1 thing could everyone be doing to make the scene a better place?

Anna: To challenge stereotypes & to keep recreating & questioning.

The rock scene is full of stereotypes & we want to bring diversity & empowerment to the rock/metal scene. 

Hannah: Feminism to me is just equal rights, which seems like a no brainer.  

We’ve been on some great lineups that are either all female or female led, & essentially that’s creating a whole scene in itself! Which is amazing, but I’d personally like to see more mixed lineups. 

Jess: I think more mixed lineups would be great. We are often lumped in with other ‘girlbands’ that we don’t necessarily have much in common with musically.

For me I like to watch a show of music that inspires me, regardless of gender.

For me I like to watch a show of music that inspires me, regardless of gender.

💖 Tell us about the single, what’s the feeling to it/what’s it about?

Hannah: Our new single is DOGMA & it just won Track of The Week on Classic Rock Mag which we were so chuffed with! 

It was recorded with Larry Hibbit (Marmozets, Dinosaur Pile-Up).

Anna: I was talking with a friend who at one point quite freely said ‘Ugh I just hate myself’. 

It got me thinking how normalised it is for us womxn to hate ourselves, & to always wish we were different somehow. 

We are constantly caught between two messages. We are either not enough or we are too much. Its revolutionary to say ‘I’m content with myself exactly as I am’. 

In the end, the idea that ‘if I was more like this, I’d be happy’ is a massive lie. It’s ultimately disappointing & it’s sedating our power.

DOGMA is a call to action. Don’t let anyone else tell you who you are.

Its revolutionary to say ‘I’m content with myself exactly as I am’. 

 💖 The artwork is incredible! What was the concept behind it?

Anna: Thank you! Eleni Parousi is our band photographer.

She has created all our artwork & she is insanely talented. I love that she pushes boundaries & isn’t afraid to do something really weird.

Hannah:  We actually had a whole other concept for the artwork, but then we couldn’t meet up to shoot it because of Lockdown! 

For the singles on this EP, the theme that links everything is the mind. So we had this idea about the mind as a landscape.  So within the brain image, there’s this barren landscape that we call ‘Deadlands’.

 💖 What’s next for you guys?

Hannah: We have another single coming out next month & then it’s the EP release! 

We had a EP launch gig planned but we think we’re going to stream a gig online instead to celebrate it’s release so follow us @hawxxmusic for updates!

You can listen to our 6 singles on all platforms but it would be really helpful if you could buy downloads/ physical copies at hawxxmusic.bandcamp.com.  

Because we can’t gig at the moment, times are pretty tough. So bandcamp is a more direct way for us to get your money haha, rather than 0.004 per stream on Spotify. 

We have a good merch game there as well if you want to help fund our next recordings! 

💖 Links to any social media 🙂

@hawxxmusic on every platform! 💥

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