May 15th saw the release of the Hawk’s fantastic new album Fly. Under band leader David Hawkins’ stewardship, Hawk has become a full-blown supergroup with the enlistment of Ken Stringfellow of The Posies (and R.E.M. and Big Star), all-time great drummer Pete Thomas of Elvis Costello’s legendary Attractions, and newly-added Morgan Fisher of Mott The Hoople (who’s also played with Queen and Yoko Ono).

Hawk, as well as Hawkins’ orchestral folk-rock band Be, also regularly feature contributions from Jayhawks leader Gary Louris, who’s not present here due to commitments to his main gig, but is already recording his parts for the next Be album.

Recorded internationally, Fly shakes up the Hawk formula that was once described as having “the crunch of AC/DC, the swagger of the Stones, and the melodies of Tom Petty,” according to one journalist, as this time the band’s sonic explorations move into shinier, noisier, hi-tech territory that recalls early-‘90s R.E.M. on songs like “This Is It” and “She’s An Angel”, and even channels New Order and The Cure on “You Are The One I Want”, then goes right for the throat of the Trump administration on “Truth To Power” before closing it out with classic psych vibes on “Lost Our Way.”

David Hawkins is not only incredibly prolific, but also quite the interesting character who took an unusual path to where he’s at now. He’s had a successful career as an abstract painter, and is co-founder of the The Black Mountain Arts Collective, an avant-garde performance group inspired by the “happenings” orchestrated by John Cage, Robert Rauschenberg, and others from Black Mountain College in the 1950s.

Big Takeover is pleased to host the video for “I Still Want You,” a dynamic track from Fly. The video clip was directed and edited by David Hawkins and stars Hawk and Jill Hawkins. Cinematography credit goes to David Hawkins and Jill Hawkins.

The song flies by with an emphatically smacked drum beat, brisk acoustic guitar strum, supple bass underscore, the occasional whirl of wavering organ notes, and tuneful exclamations.

In the video, the band members are shown as quickly overlapping shadowy silhouettes against a white screen, playing their instruments and singing passionately while Jill Hawkins sways and dances in time to the song’s rhythm.

David Hawkins reveals details about the track, explaining, “The title says it all. This song is an emotional reaffirmation of love, written from the perspective of a ‘valley’ in a relationship, and it speaks to an intense yearning to stay together in spite of the difficulty and struggle involved – We’ve all been there. In the recording, I used the incessant rhythm, mantra-like vocals and explosive choruses to emphasize the intensity of wanting to get it right so bad you can taste it. The moral of the story? Love isn’t always easy, but it’s worth fighting for.”

He also comments on the video, stating, “The video draws its inspiration from the Velvet Underground and Andy Warhol’s classic ‘Exploding Plastic Inevitable‘ performances, combining the feel of a gritty street burlesque and a low-budget noir art film.”

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