Here’s what Justin Hawkins has to say about “Last Of Our Kind”, The Darkness’s new record !
Hello Justin! How are you?
Justin Hawkins (vocals/guitar): Not very well. Well I’m enjoying being in France but my health isn’t the best (laughs) just an allergic reaction to a new suit that I bought specially for this journey. It came from Korea so it has some chemicals I think, I should wash it; nearly killed me. (laughs)
Your new record will be released in June. First, what does “Last Of Our Kind” stand for? Is it like a statement about today’s world?
J: Oh yes for me, when we say “our kind” it’s like “us” “bands like us” and the people who like the kind of music we like which is not mainstream but it’s making you feel good basically it’s not shit, so people who like quality. For some reason it’s weird that this isn’t mainstream because mainstream is mediocrity, it’s pop, disposable and it’s meaningless. Unfortunately I’ll include the recent output of the bigger bands so we need to stick together because it’s killing rock.
Why was the working title “Cliff-hanger”? Why did you change it?
J: It was only a working title and we had a lot of working titles just based on things that we thought sounded good and “Cliff-hanger” was the best of them as hard as it’s hard to believe. We found the music outgrow the title and there’s no need to call it “Cliff-hanger” ’cause it sounded more like a triumphant opening than the end of a story so it didn’t suit after all and we had to change it.
After “Hot Cakes“, in which creative mood was the band?
J: I think even when the touring wasn’t finished we were thinking about working on the next album. The last thing we did for the “Hot Cakes” campaign was a brilliant UK tour which was in small venues and weird places where bands don’t usually go to and we found that really rewarding but it went clear that we weren’t on the same page as the label, the management and we wanted to completely start fresh. So we sacked everybody and just decided to not do any live work in 2014 and just concentrate on making a record. We were just really desperate to gestate a body of work that we really feel comfortable with.
Where do you find those lyrics ideas? We have: Viking invasion, Moorish invasion, love, tectonic plates.
J: I don’t know really. They lead into each other. It always starts with the same thing like “Open Fire” is really depressive in the lyrics but in the verses and then totally defines a chorus so there’s always some sort of battle sometimes it’s a literal one and sometimes an emotional one. But they are connected they always start from the same point, some kind of fiction but we don’t really know from where it’ll come.
How did the recording process go? Dan was in charge of the production for example.
J: Well there’s less people in the room it’s the main difference really. Dan is very accomplished he knows how to do what a producer is supposed to do (laughs). When I sing a song in the studio, with most producers you’ll sing it five times and then you choose the best bits of it and that’s not how I like to do. It’s more organic here and it’s all about how it makes you feel no how perfect it is. Actually it takes courage to produce that because everybody wants to sound the best and unfortunately everybody sounds the same by doing that. Dan is at a brilliant point in his music production career, he’s concerned about making something great and not just sounding great.
The first single “Barbarian” is also the first track. Why did you release this one as a single and why does it launch the record?
J: It’s not really a single but more of a teaser. We didn’t manufactured any CDs or didn’t service it to radio stations but I wanted to be the first single because I think it’s the best thing we done for ages and it’s not gonna be a hit because it’s about Vikings. It has a great guitar solo in it, a dramatic monologue, screamy chorus, huge riffs and the verses sound a little bit like Genesis. It has so many elements and it’s hard to ignore it that’s why it’s the best one to introduce you to the album.
You launched a Pledge campaign for this record. Why and how did this decision happen?
J: Actually the idea came from Kobalt label services. They suggested it because it’s a good way to reinforce the sense of ownership that the fans has with the project and we didn’t really need to fund the album but it’s more like giving something extra to the people.
You also involved them in a digital choir.
J: I had nothing to do with that (laughs) ’cause my job was already done but afterwards a webmaster gave a small section of the song to people who wanted to contribute and they filmed themselves singing along to the part and we got hundreds and hundreds of videos and the whole thing became a choir. Some of them took the harmony, some of them remain, some shouted, one had his dog barking in it (laughs).
What will please the fans on this new album?
J: I don’t know. (laughs) This is the thing that I’ve learned, we can’t really think like that because that’s how you get it wrong because we always imagine about what they’ll like about us and we don’t know. It’s just something and it’s different things for different people so that’s why the successful The Darkness albums are, more diverse so I think there’s plenty of diversity and I think it’s a confident record
Which are your 3 favourite tracks and why?
J: “Barbarian”, “Roaring Waters” and “Hammer & Tongs” probably.
What do you think of today’s rock n’roll scene? Any bands that did keep your attention recently?
J: No (laughs) there really isn’t but that’s not because they’re all rubbish just because I haven’t paid any attention to the music. I think that a culture has emerged since the 90s where mediocre things are celebrated. I always found it more rewarding to discover what friends or people are recommending to me for that reason I ignore all media, even social media and I don’t pay any attention to Youtube or whatever. I just wait to hear it in a more organic way. Recently I didn’t heard of anything interesting to me. I’ve got very excited about a couple of things years ago like Die Antwoord or Foxy Shazam but my interest in both of those is waned somehow.
What about your next plans?
J: We have a few festival appearances and then we’ll tour at the end of the year probably going to America, Australia and Europe. I hope we’ll play in France again, I really love it here and I had a French girlfriend for years (laughs) but now I have a Swedish girlfriend so. (laughs) I love France and I don’t say that in every country I visit (laughs) you can check me on that.
Were you ever tempted to sing in French on a song or?
J: My French isn’t good enough to but I’d love to do any invasion song in French, I’m not quite sure, I’ll have to read up on it and do some history research and find a good example of that. Well actually I had a French song called “Pistolet à patate” (laughs) which is about spud gun, firing potato and it sounded like a spy theme and was like : “quand le soleil se lève” (when the sun rises) “en usant mon cerveau comme un canon, je te bombarderais de petits fragements de mon crane ” (using my brain like a canon I’ll bomb you with little pieces of my skull) (laughs) and then “si tu es méchant, je te détruirais à l’aide de mon esprit” (if you’re naughty I’ll destroy you my mind). (laughs)
Finally we are “RockUrLife”. So: what rocks Justin Hawkins’ life?
J: Wow. What rock my life? What kind of thing people say to that?
It can be anything: family, food, games (laughs)
J: What rocks my life is travel, travelling history those or the things that rock me. Music third, family fourth. (laughs)
Website: theactualdarkness.com
