What did Hawk do 2009?

Well, the short answer is.....lots.... much more than we ever imagined, its been the busiest and most exciting year we've had as a band.....heres the long answer....

Having only released our debut album at the end of 2008 it seems an age since we were the 3 piece that recorded those songs, we are a different band now, for a start theres 4 of us, we've now played close to 100 gigs with Matt.

2009 encompased us releasing our music on many different compilations including our first release on Brew and Dance to the Radio, major party giggle power 20000.....


Nasa vs Esa Video - Februrary
In February we began planning and filming our first ever music video. With Roach productions at the Helm we created the space themed video for ‘Nasa vs Esa’ from our debut album. The video turned out to be a lot of fun to do, we made most of the props ourselves from many Blue Peter style weekends and we were more than happy with the result....



We also went to Scotland for the first of 3 visits with the more than delightful Errander

I Hate this, do you like it? Zombie Video

Shortly after we'd completed the 'Nasa vs Esa' video Danny North got in contact with us, he said he had a copy of our album and would love to take some photos of us...somehow this spawned into him making his directorial debut for 'I Hate this, do you like it?' which would eventually end up being released on our 'A. Or Not?' Ep in September.
The whole experience was a lot of hard work but ridicoulous fun, from planning out the logisitics, to the 100+ extras that came down for filming to the silly amounts of Jam and Jelly that were used.......take a gander at some of the photos from the filming........






To say we were pleased and excited and happy with the outcome is an understatement, Danny, Roach, Make Up Artists all the extras we're amazing and we really can take little credit for this video.




Kong Tour - July


In July we toured with our now label mates Kong, this was in support of their new album 'Snake Magnet.' We played our asses off on this tour and i think we really rose to the challenge, this tour was a lot of fun and we are very thankful to Kong for opportunity to do this....good people...good band....



Leeds/Reading Festival - August
In August we played Leeds/Reading festival which was ridiculous fun and culiminated in us being mentioned 3 times in one issue of NME, odd, yes….










We were also featured on the front cover of a magazine for the first time, Leeds' very own vibrations magazine were kind enough to put our ugly mugs on the front, photography by the genius of Danny North:



A. Or Not? released - September
Our first release as a 4 piece was our ep ‘A. Or Not?’ This came out on 9th September, we had a delightful release gig with the mighty Blacklisters, These Monsters and Godzilla Black, this also marked the premiere of the zombie themed 'I hate this, do you like it?'



Recording diary with Jason Sanderson in Barnsley:
part 1


part 2


part 3




Crossfire Massacre - Halloween - October
On 31st October (Halloween) we played at the Crossfire Massacre, which was a massive party in a random car park in London……. Cue insanity and people kicking the crap out of each other.



Video Diary of Halloween Crossfire Massacre:




Scorpieau - Dance to the Radio
In late July Dance to The Radio asked if we would like to contribute a song to their 4x12 series, a resounding yes was uttered, especially since heavy bands dont tend to get released on DTTR




Us and Them compilation


In November Gavin Lawson of Yes Boss fame released a compilation CD funded by Leeds Art Council entitled ‘Us and them’ the basic premise being DJs remixing bands songs and Bands doing versions of the DJs songs, our contribution being ‘Reverse 2012’ ….have a goosey at Gavs video remix of ‘I hate this, do you like it?’

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkmJqqbrEcQ

Recording diary of 'Reverse 2012' at Ghosttown Studios:


Fall of Troy Tour
In November we joined Fall of Troy for part of their Uk tour, really nice chaps and a thoroughly lovely time was had.....
A full diary of those gigs is here:

http://chickenhawkpecks.blogspot.com/2009/11/gigs-with-fall-of-troy-so-far.html

New album recording begins - November/December
Since Matt joined we've been constantly writing new stuff but with the ridiculously busy year we've had there hasn't been much time to concentrate on purely writing for our next album however during November and December we began writing and recording the album at Ghost town studios with Ross Halden.

The particular aim being to push ourselves, try new things and not repeat what we had done previously. What we have recorded so far in my opinion blows everything we have done before out of the water, diversity will be the real key to this next album and we're all really looking forward to hearing the final thing once we get there....

oh yeah new email: chickenhawkband@googlemail.com

Hawk

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