You know what time it is: time for another convo with a hard-working band that makes awesome music. Today we sit down and shoot the breeze with a Fuzz Rock quartet from Barrie, Ontario by the name of AAWKS. They were featured in the very first Canuck Spotlight here on the blog and I’ve also reviewed their sizzling hot upcoming debut LP, Heavy on the Cosmic, which will be out on June 10th through Black Throne Productions.
Harbinger
of D.O.O.M.: First off, congrats on making such a brilliant
album! It flows marvellously from beginning to end. I’m sure you get asked this
question all the time—and I know the answer to this one—but for all the people
out there who wonder: where does the name of the band come from and what does
it mean?
AAWKS:
Thanks
man!! When I was in high school an “Awk” was a slang term for a big, socially
uncomfortable, oaf of guy. I’ve always felt like a bit of an alien in social
settings so it’s really kind of a metaphor for being OK with “being the
weirdo.” I also like the way that it’s sounds like the animal ‘Ox.”
Harbinger
of D.O.O.M.: I hear a wide range of musical styles and a
soundscape that feels retro, yet modern all at once on Heavy on the Cosmic. How did you go about deciding which direction
to take musically and what genres/bands influenced you the most collectively to
define the band’s unique sound?
AAWKS:
Collectively
we listen to a really wide range of stuff but I think we all agree on a few
bands. I’d say Fu Manchu, Black Sabbath, Melvins, Pink Floyd, O.R.B. (Australian
band) and Jeff the Brotherhood would be the top bands collectively but others
like Electric Wizard, Sleep, Mephistofeles, Deep Purple, the Stooges, Windhand,
Hawkwind, Conan, 1782, Monolord, Sonic Demon, Ufomammut, the Sword are
definitely a big influence on our stuff; there’s so many great bands it’s
impossible to mention them all. I agree with the idea that music is a
psychoactive experience that quite literally changes our brain chemistry,
hormones and perceptions and ultimately, our reality so I’m really inspired by
anything that takes me somewhere mentally and also makes me bob my head and
gives me ‘the stankface.’ Good music or sound defies genre or parameters in my
opinion; sometimes it’s a combo of melody and harmony or an interesting rhythm
or even just an interesting timbre like with Sunn O))), John Cage or Merzbow or
even birds chirping or the distant sound of a church bell when I’m out on a
walk. Lyrically, our themes refer a lot to psychedelic experiences, fantasy and
sci-fi. My Dad was into muscle cars and choppers and, growing up, our family
had a groovy old, bright orange boogie van with a psychedelic patterned carpet
on the walls and ceiling and a bed in the back. Some of my first childhood
memories are family trips to the drag strip or car shows. So that culture has
always influenced my lyrics. Or, sometimes I write about what I’d imagine the
story to a Roger Dean, Robert McCall or Frank Frazetta painting might be.
Harbinger
of D.O.O.M.: How long did it take you to write and record Heavy on the Cosmic? Did the pandemic slow
down the process or did it have the favourable effect of giving you more time
to play together, rehearse, and write music?
AAWKS:
Heavy
on the Cosmic took about a year and a half from conception to final product in
total. I’m constantly writing stuff all the time, I bring ideas to the band and
then we flush it out as a group in our practice space ‘the PoolHaus.’ The
pandemic definitely slowed things down for us. We were just getting off the
ground in 2019-20 and we had all of our gigs cancelled. It also hampered
rehearsals for the first year or so as we kept things locked down and isolated
to try to curb the impending plague. I work in healthcare so I’ve been well
educated on the history and cycles of worldwide pandemics long before COVID.
According to some, we’ve been overdue for a worldwide pandemic for sometime so,
despite all the horrible outcomes of COVID, I’m glad it wasn’t something like
Bubonic Plague or Spanish Flu. We recorded the album over the course of 7 days
during the fall of 2021 with Zack Horvath at Z Hollow Studios in Hamilton.
Harbinger
of D.O.O.M.: With life slowly getting back to normal, are you
guys excited to be playing live again? What does your touring schedule look
like and where can fans see you in concert this summer?
AAWKS: Absolutely, we love playing live! We’ve got a bunch of dates coming up and more being planned all the time. I mean, ideally, we could all quit our day jobs and hire full time travelling Nannies to watch our kids but between the four of us we manage to gig as much as 2-3 times per month. Some of us are in other projects as well which takes time away from AAWKS but eventually I’d love to branch out and tour further outside of Ontario. So far, we’re playing these shows (below) but check our social media as we’ll be booking more shows:
June 10 - Hard Luck Bar Toronto
with Black Budget, Ol’ Time Moonshine and Lousy Riders
July 9 - Doors Metal Bar Hamilton
with Astral Witch, Old Ceremonies, Sun Below
July 17 - The Queens Barrie with
Ethereal Tomb, The Sickneeds, Torque to Yield
July 29 - The Cat on Q Toronto
with Ethereal Tomb, Lousy Riders, Sun Below
Harbinger
of D.O.O.M.: You guys are from Barrie, Ontario which is a
relatively small city in Southern Ontario. What is the current music scene like
out there? Any famous alumni from Barrie?
AAWKS:
There’s
a ton of great bands in Barrie and a great musical community of many different
styles and genres. There’s not many bands that do the “Stoner/Doom/Fuzz/Psych
etc” thing. Indian Handcrafts are a well established and killer, local
Stoner/Metal band and Ethereal Tomb is an up and coming band that does an
amazing nasty blend of Doom/Metal. Peace Reaper Records puts out Ethereal
Tomb’s stuff and they also work with the bands Loose and Overcrook. Some good
friends of ours run a tape label called Tarantula Tapes and also make some killer
punk rock in the bands Heavy Petter, the Speed Humps and Angry Spells.
Unfortunately, we lost our local live club ‘the Foxx Lounge Rock Bar’ during
COVID which was the epicentre of our scene and a place we really loved.
Barrie’s post COVID scene is starting to pick up again and shows have been great.
I’m hopeful that things will continue to pick up again for Barrie and we see
another good live venue that caters more to the underground scene that we all
love here.
Harbinger
of D.O.O.M.: Thank you all for answering my questions. I wish
you much success with the album and on tour. Is there anything else you’d like
to share about the band?
AAWKS: We’d like to thank Harbinger of D.O.O.M. for the killer review and opportunity to chat and also our amazing promo team and management at Black Throne Productions. If you dig the sound of our Heavy on the Cosmic, make sure to hit up Zack Horvath at Z Hollow Studios and please check out the super talented Strange Matter Lightshow for his excellent liquid lightshow skills. Also, keep your eyes peeled for the Doomicorn.
AAWKS’
Official Website in the works
AAWKS on
Bandcamp
AAWKS on Twitter
AAWKS on
Facebook
AAWKS on Instagram
AAWKS on YouTube
No comments:
Post a Comment