Interview: Hawxx (Written/Audio)

What a year it’s been for Hawxx, and the four-piece alternative heavy punk rock band ended it with a bang, as part of a huge tour alongside alternative act, Halocene. One that has seen them play all over Europe, before returning to the UK and ending the tour in the capital city, London.

They might only have around 30 minutes on stage, but they make every single part of that count. You can read our full review of the show here. Before they took to the stage, we sat down with the four , and you can read an edited transcript of this interview below or listen to the full thing via the follow formats:

Soundcloud | Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTube

Thank you so much for taking the time to speak with me. It is an absolute pleasure. So, first things first. Last night of the tour, how are you feeling?

Anna (Lead Vocals/Guitar) – Fantastic. We’re excited because it’s the last show. Part of us is kind of missing the comfy beds and comfy life because touring is intense on the body, on the mind. But there’s such a buzz before you get on stage, and it’s a lifestyle that’s easy to miss when you go back to normal life, I think. And we do enjoy spending time with each other. We haven’t killed each other and been together three weeks on the road, so that’s quite an accomplishment.

How’s the tour been overall? Has any particular show stood out?

Everyone at once – Paris.
Jess (Drums/Backing Vocals) – Completely unexpected.
Anna (Lead Vocals/Guitar) – It was like a Tuesday or something.
Jess (Drums/Backing Vocals) – We thought, you know, Paris, I don’t think it’s known for, like, metal. I might be wrong, but it was just mental. We loved it.

Just a super energetic crowd, super into it?

Anna (Lead Vocals/Guitar) – A very giving crowd. That’s what makes a show magic, when it’s like this give and take and you’re in it together and it’s not like we are here to do a thing and you’re here to watch us do it. It’s like, no, this is a collective experience and it’s chaotic and amazing.

Did you find across the entire tour that there were a lot of people turning up early to see you?

Hannah (Guitar/Backing Vocals) – Yeah, there were a lot of people turning up.
Julia (Bass/Backing Vocals) – Packed. It was every time.

Hannah (Guitar/Backing Vocals) – Yeah. There didn’t seem to be, like people kind of coming in halfway through. Like people wanted the whole night of entertainment, which is really good.

We had a lot of people coming up to us and saying – oh, I’ve never such an experience. So, I think we won a lot of people over, maybe not necessarily knowing what they were going to get. Which I like as well as a fan, I like kind of experiencing and having a surprise.

So, expectations or demands from London tonight. What do we have to give you for you to walk away satisfied?

Julia (Bass/Backing Vocals) – Energy. You play gigs where sometimes you feel like you’re giving more than what is taken and it’s not an equal exchange. Luckily, there haven’t been many of them in our life as Hawxx, but we have experienced them, of course. So it would be great to get the energy from the crowd and get that exchange and get that enthusiasm and participation. When you tell the crowd, clap those hands, like, give us those hands and those ‘woahs’.

It’s nice when that works, and the relationship is there and you can trust each other to have a good time and sort of go through the set together rather than us doing the thing and perform. We don’t get much back. It’s just energy at the end of the day.

You got faith in London, right? You know the city, right?

Anna (Lead Vocals/Guitar) – My mum’s coming and my mum, because she lives in Greece, hasn’t seen us play since 2019 and that feels like quite a big deal for me.

It’s going to be emotional. Talk to me about touring in Hawxx. Specifically, how you make it as comfortable as possible for yourselves?

Hannah (Guitar/Backing Vocals) – (to Anna) Your blanket was good.

Anna (Lead Vocals/Guitar) – We screamed a lot in the van on the way here. Like, real pain, bellowing, and that felt amazing because everything about a tour can feel very confined and contorted. It’s like the only time you get spread out is on stage. So to be able to just voice some of that contortion and let it out, that was really good. It was quite disturbing.

Hannah (Guitar/Backing Vocals) – Very freeing.
Julia (Bass/Backing Vocals) – Should we do a collective one?

Everyone screams – very loudly!

Yep. That wrecked the levels. I love it. It has been an incredible year for you. So many highlights. , the tour our with Tremonti across Europe, endorsements, awards, and of course, the release of the debut album; Earth Spit, Blood and Bones. Not too shabby, I reckon. What are some of your particular highlights of 2023?

Anna (Lead Vocals/Guitar) – Well, the release of the album. I mean, that’s big one. First child. Getting the vinyl pressed of the album.

Jess (Drums/Backing Vocals) – It just seems so legit now.
Anna (Lead Vocals/Guitar) – It’s proper. Also festival was awesome.

Julia (Bass/Backing Vocals) – But also the video for Death Make Sisters, I would say. I think it’s our most powerful video. We got all these people involved, women, non-binary, and it’s such a powerful video. You have to go and watch it. It’s on YouTube. Death Makes Sisters also, and I don’t want to spoil it, but we built something together and then at the end of the video, you can see there’s like an aerial shot of what we built together, showing the title of the song, and it’s really, really powerful. And we got some of that energy as well from these shows during this tour. The people who come to us after the gig and talk to us sometimes, I think should have been in the video, they would have enjoyed it. It’s the same family.

The video is incredible. Have you been surprised by the boom year that has been 2023? I think the right word for it is a boom year for Hawxx.

Jess (Drums/Backing Vocals) – I mean, we all expect the best because if we just keep trying our best and keep just doing what we’re doing, we hope that eventually it will just grow.

Hannah (Guitar/Backing Vocals) – Yeah. I guess when you’re in it sort of day in, day out, it’s hard to take perspective. Maybe at the end of the year we’ll kind of look back and be like, oh, actually we did this and this and this. Yeah, you’re just kind of taking it one step at a time. When you’re in it, that’s hard to get the the big picture.

Jess (Drums/Backing Vocals) – Each phase just becomes normal, but then if you look back, you are like, wow, we were just like playing to ten people down at Fiddler’s Elbow not that long ago.

Anna (Lead Vocals/Guitar) – That is true.

Hannah (Guitar/Backing Vocals) – But then we’re sort of consistently, relentlessly humbled because we’ll have like two pounds in the bank . Sometimes, it doesn’t feel very boomy and then other times it’s like, oh my God, we just played . This is a life dream. So, yeah, it comes in roundabouts.

Long may it continue. What is it about Hawks, do you think that is connecting with so many people?

Anna (Lead Vocals/Guitar) – I think it’s that we come as we are and we’re real people, but also I think we’re real people with a clear mission and inclusivity and transformation and collective joy, collective rage. I think, yeah, we know what we want to put out there and every gig is like another world we’re creating. I think people feel that because we’ve had some really special responses after shows. I think we’ve been unlocking some things in people.

You know, there’s been some real like – I just needed that and I just felt so seen and I felt heard and like I’ve been hiding myself and now I feel like I can be out there in the open.

Yeah, I think that’s just something that metal needs. We’ve always said that metal, it is the music of the rebel and the outcast and everything, but through being that has become quite a traditional specific thing for men in the pit. Big guys. so a lot of people feel side-lined, but that intensity can be channelled into feminist rage, it can be channelled into queer rage and queer joy and liberation and just like, I want to be seen for who I am on the inside and just manifest that on the outside.

I think, yeah, if we can make people feel that, that’s just the best thing in the world.

Jess (Drums/Backing Vocals) – Yeah, it’s crazy. It’s like we all get so emotional. When someone comes up to us and Is like – oh my God, I feel like I can be myself now. It’s just like… what? But now that we’ve heard that, we’re like, wow, this is what we need to do.

Anna (Lead Vocals/Guitar) – Literally two occasions we’ve been, like crying at the merch stand with things people have said. it’s been really intense.

Julia (Bass/Backing Vocals) – I think it tested our professionalism in a way because there was one particular occasion where we just burst into tears because there was such an intense emotional exchange with this person who came up to us and then 2 seconds later, there was no time for that because someone came up to us and can we have a picture? Yeah, of course you can have a picture, and then you compose yourself. You can’t go into that place. You go to that place for a little bit, but then you have to come face the present and we have to be strong.

Hannah (Guitar/Backing Vocals) – Deal with it later kind of thing, but it’s hard.

Julia (Bass/Backing Vocals) – But you don’t forget those things. I think I’ll some of the stories that people have shared with us, possibly forever. I know it’s a bit cliche, but it’s true. It’s big stuff that people deal with.

It’s incredible. I can’t imagine what that is like. I’d make the argument that you’ve not experienced a full Hawxx experience until you’ve seen you play live. Is that a fair summation?

Hannah (Guitar/Backing Vocals) – Of course. I think when we were writing a lot, if it’s been a while since a gig, then we get back on stage and everything makes sense again. It is this, it’s the live experience. It’s releasing all of those emotions live. It’s that kind of cathartic. Yeah. Screams.

Anna (Lead Vocals/Guitar) – We’re a complicated band.
Jess (Drums/Backing Vocals) – We let it out on stage.
Anna (Lead Vocals/Guitar) – There’s a lot going on, but somehow the stage, it funnels everything into this thing that is just like ridiculous and powerful and hilarious.

Your message is clear. You can read about it on your website. You can follow you on social media, watch your videos and all this stuff, and you can learn a lot about you, but then taking that and adding it to the live show and seeing a little bit more of the chaos in that regard, it feels like that’s the full picture.

You’ve talked about the treatment of women, transgender, non-binary, other minorities, and things are improving, but there is a long, long way to go. Do you see improvements within the scene generally?

Anna (Lead Vocals/Guitar) – Starting to happen, I think. Yeah, there are some amazing bands out there. Like Pupil Slicer, Witch Fever, Thou. Yeah. I think there is a good queer scene on the fringes, but it would be nice to see that come more into the centre.

What more needs to be done, in your opinion? Not just to encourage anyone and everyone to find a place within the rock and metal scene, but to see it as a safe space.

Anna (Lead Vocals/Guitar) – I think it’s the responsibility of artists to hold that space and create that space because an audience will feel what is coming from the stage and I think if we want to see the change, we are the ones that need to hold that, it’s our responsibility and that’s a hard thing to do. We’re still figuring it out.

Julia (Bass/Backing Vocals) – The moment a band becomes political and starts voicing opinions, it’s a risk that the band takes, of course, because we all know that the moment you take a side, you are potentially not appealing to a large number of people. But how can you not, is the question. I really don’t understand how bands can just be completely neutral and never be political. Everything is political. You need to have strong opinions about certain things because if you don’t, then you’re potentially on the wrong side. If you don’t voice your for minorities, for example, whose side are you on? So, I think it’s a responsibility, like you said, that bands have to do that and we are doing that and I think it’s important to have uncomfortable conversations as well and to welcome any uncomfortable questions and stuff. I think it’s important to go there and things will hopefully keep improving, but it’s a slow up and down. The sort of progress is not like a straight line upwards or anything like that. It will take some time for sure.

Hannah (Guitar/Backing Vocals) – We don’t have all the answers as well. Like we’re figuring it out and we’re just trying to set a certain tone at our gigs to kind of promote our message and get that inclusivity but I mean, yeah, it’s a stepping stone. We’re figuring it out, we’re kind of navigating it and hopefully we’ll get there.

Hopefully, yes, we all will get there, but how do you deal with cynicism that comes from your statements, beliefs and what you want to encourage?

Anna (Lead Vocals/Guitar) – It’s just so nothing, you know what I mean? It’s just like, there hasn’t been a lot of cynicism, to be fair, but if there has been, it feels incredibly unfounded and like someone’s just a bit irritated that maybe they might not be feeling so relevant right now. I think it’s really water off a Hawxx’s back.

Jess (Drums/Backing Vocals) – Yeah, I think we just laugh at some of it. We haven’t had much, but when we do, you read it to anyone and most people think, oh, that sounds like he’s just a bit ignorant.

Anna (Lead Vocals/Guitar) – Because the thing is, we’re not doing something that’s just, like, extreme radical. It’s actually like we just want women and queer people to feel safe at gigs and feel seen at gigs, because that’s what we are.

Julia (Bass/Backing Vocals) – If someone is against that, I mean, how can you even take that seriously? That’s just ridiculous.

Hannah (Guitar/Backing Vocals) – Yeah, you’re a problem, right? Or they’ll be like, oh, it’s not very fun, is it? It’s not very fun. I was like, well, not everything has to be fun, and the songs are still amazing. The songs hold their own. You don’t have to take a political message away from it. They’re still amazing songs.

You can rock out to them.

Hannah (Guitar/Backing Vocals) – Yeah, so it’s like, you can take it or you can leave it, I suppose. But, I mean, to be like – oh, that message isn’t very fun…

Anna (Lead Vocals/Guitar) – The thing is we are fun!

Talking of fun then, it’s December, the festive period. What does a Hawxx Christmas look like?

Everyone – Pa rum pum pum!

Anna (Lead Vocals/Guitar) – When I say Pa rum pum, you say Pum! Pa rum pum!

Everyone else – Pum!!

Anna (Lead Vocals/Guitar) – Pa rum pum!

Everyone else – Pum!

(They would do this during the show too and get an immense response)

Jess (Drums/Backing Vocals) – Pa rum puming all the way to January. Pa rum puming all over the shop!