H. Hawkline

Name?
H. Hawkline

Where are you from?
Wales

What do you do?
Rip-off.

Describe your style in three words?
White and navy.

If you could make a record with anyone from history?
Jean-Claude Vannier and Jeff Lynne, what a meeting of minds. I’d float like an amorphous cloud of graphite shavings between their humming magnets. The strings would slither, the snares be tight and the 13 tracks of strumming acoustics would guarantee a hit.

What’s the best gig you’ve ever been to and why?
I played bass for White Fence for a tour a few years ago and Jessica Pratt supported, I’d met her but never seen her play live, the first night I saw her play I felt as if I was watching a musician entombed in amber, I think she’s one of the best.

I’m going to have to pick two gigs, Super Furry Animals, Cardiff International Arena, 2001, I was 16, they meant everything to me, I went on my own and I left on my own. 

If you could spend an hour with anyone from history?
Tove Jansson and Tooti Euroopassa, I’d sit with them on their island, smoke cigarettes and learn.

Which British subculture means the most to you?
Goths.

If you could share the bill with any British band in history?
The Cleaners From Venus, so I could clear out their merch table and ask them how they made their records sound the way they did.

What music did you listen to growing up?
My old school friend Iwan Simpson had an older brother with an extensive collection of mixtapes that we would borrow, it covered pretty much all the bases that need covering at that age (12). One of our favourite songs was Kraftwerk – Pocket Calculator, it was insanely catchy, it made us laugh, it seemed completely ridiculous. Unfettered by the ballast of all the useless things you learn as you grow shorter, with no idea of their importance as the progenitors of electronic pop music, through the opalescent eyes of two 12-year-olds, it was the ideal song to east to. By pressing down a special key, it plays a little melody.