Berlin's HAWK are headlining our St Patricia's Day Fest this Saturday 17 March at DIY Space for London, and we can't wait! We asked frontwoman Julie 10 questions ...

1. Who would you most like to cover one of your songs?

Prince.

2.  If you could add one member to your band – any person, living or dead, musical or otherwise – who would it be, and what would they play?

Erik Whitacre. He would conduct our 200 strong backing choir, naturally.

3. If your music could have a superpower, what would it be?

Bullshit detection.

4.  What’s best: playing a big venue full of strangers, or a small pub full of friends?

Put your hands together.

5.  Recommend a record and a book that you think our readers might not have heard of.

Slow at Work by Aoife McElwain. I’m a work nerd and this book at been the saviour of my 2018 so far. It’s all about slowing down, working more healthily and still getting results while living a balanced life (see my current unending list of projects).

6. One for the guitarists … bore us with the details of your set-up please.

Matt plays a Fender TC90 usually with a Fender Deville 4×10. We both get a lot of stares due to the sheer amount of pedals, but each one has its important moment. As a three-piece we need the guitar and bass to fill a lot of space so we have a good range of pedals to do the job – you might not notice all of them, but you’d notice if they were gone. (I’m defintiely quoting Matt there!) He uses three different distortions, four reverb pedals, a POG octave pedal, a digital delay, a bit crusher and a few other toys… too many toys. The combinations give him the ability to have huge epic reverbs and brutal crunchy distortions. I am new to the bass but freaking adoring it. I play a short scale Gretch with a few drive pedals, as well as a RAT and tremolo pedal for special moments.

7.  What’s the best thing about being in your band?

We have a shared level of nerdiness about the kind of music we love and it means we bring a lot of different influences to the table, but we’re also enthusiastically obsessive over everything to do with our sound. This only works if you’re all on the same page.

8.  What are your band goals?

It’s all early days at the moment, but our first album is definitely what we’re building towards right now. Long term, we want to be able to do this sustainably, to get on the road and to continue to see our sound grow throughout our releases. But I also think that working in music is becoming a more fluid career for me than solely being in a band. While the major label industry is in a bit of a flux, I see so much potential in music community, which is even more exciting when you consider the access we have to technology. We all have projects outside of the band, whether it’s other productions, our label Veta Records, or my own design and events work with artists. If we can build those things and continue to grow the core band project, that would be amazing.

9.  What’s the most important thing we need to know about your band right now?

We’ve got a new single, Keeps Me Out, coming out at the end of March. And a sparkly new video!

10.  Give your top 5 contemporary bands.

Party Fears – Our Berlin buds. Their songwriting is so strong and their performances are really energetic and raw. Plus a sense of humour and not giving a fuck.

Sleater Kinney – I love everything they touch. Their evolution as band inspires me so much.

Kendrick Lamar – Incredible story-telling and characterisation on top of amazing production.

Mitski – She’s so fricking smart and honest, and her music surprises me with something new every time I listen back to it.

tUnE yArDs – Nobody makes me want to sing and dance and stand up for myself like Merrill.

---

Catch HAWK live at our St Patricia's Day Fest this Saturday 17 March at DIY Space for London