At this stage, where only a handful of close associates have heard the finished album, Hawk is still unsure of what the reaction might be from fans, critics, even family. He jokes that A Firmer Hand is the first of his records that his parents might not enjoy. “But the fact that it makes me nervous tells me it was the right thing to do.”
It takes only a couple of listens to be sure that it was a risk worth taking. And just a couple more to determine that A Firmer Hand is the best and boldest record Hamish Hawk has delivered to date. “It’s a bit of a coming of age record,” he says. And a record for the ages.
A Firmer Hand is the third in a run of superlative Hamish Hawk albums which began in 2021 with Heavy Elevator, and continued last year with Angel Numbers. Hawk has been making music with serious intent since 2014, when he self-released Aznavour as Hamish James Hawk. Championed early on by King Creosote and Idlewild, the following year he recorded the 10-inch Mull EP before forming Hamish Hawk & The New Outfit, a unit which morphed into his current band. He gigged incessantly, sometimes with the group, mostly solo. In 2018 he released the album From Zero To One, followed in 2019 with another EP of piano ballads, Laziest River.
There are unforgettable flourishes on all these records, but Heavy Elevator and Angel Numbers raised Hawk’s heartfelt, headstrong, unashamedly literate work to new levels of excellence and exposure. Championed by 6Music, bolstered by rafts of rave reviews, and honed by relentless touring, songs such as ‘Caterpillar’, ‘Calls To Tiree’, ‘Think Of Us Kissing’, ‘Money’, ‘Angel Numbers’ and Hawk’s signature tune, ‘The Mauritian Badminton Doubles Champion, 1973’, have by now proved their staying power. Each new endeavour has moved the story forward, creatively and commercially.
“Heavy Elevator was so exciting at the time, it felt like what we put together was really comprehensive, a considerable piece of work,” he says. “That certainly did change my life, especially at the end of lockdown; it felt like a transformation or a release of some kind. But Angel Numbers changed my life more, just because what followed has been so incredibly positive.”
In the time since Angel Numbers was released to widespread acclaim in February 2023, Hamish Hawk has barely stopped. On the UK dates following the album release, the jump in venue size from previous tours was sometimes fourfold. “I felt the pressure,” he admits, but rose to the challenge. (If you haven’t yet witnessed Hawk’s intensely physical, sometimes unsettlingly abandoned approach to live performance, you are missing something very special). There was a visit to SXSW in Austin, and a summer of festivals, including supporting hometown heroes The Proclaimers at two huge shows on Leith Links, a rare occasion when Hawk could sling his guitar over his shoulder and walk to work. A Music Venue Trust tour in August was followed by an autumn European tour. At the end of 2023, Angel Numbers appeared on several album of the year lists, including MOJO, and on the SAY shortlist.
Early in 2024, Hawk appeared at Celtic Connections as part of Roaming Roots, celebrating modern Scottish song in stellar company, including one bona fide musical hero, Tracyanne Campbell from Camera Obscura. Shortly afterwards, he joined the Scotland Sings Bacharach tour, sharing a stage with, among others, Blue Rose Code, Karine Polwart and Justin Currie. “Sitting with all these people as an equal, it was a giddy experience for me,” he says.
To top off an unforgettable 12 months, in February 2024 came a landmark event: a sold-out headlining show in front of 2000 fans at the legendary Barrowland Ballroom in Glasgow. A year after the release of Angel Numbers, the show was tangible proof that the landscape of Hawk’s career had changed irrevocably. “I’m so grateful for the opportunities Angel Numbers has given me,” he says. “It has been a runaway success, the likes of which I couldn’t have imagined.”
It left one inevitable question hanging in the air: What next?
