Interview: Goldhawks

It’s very rare to meet a band that’s not totally infatuated with East London, and so when we sat down with Bobby from West London band Goldhawks, we could finally let out a sigh of (belated) relief.

Named after the road they grew up on, brothers Bobby (vocals) and Jack Cook (guitar), started Goldhawks in 2009 alongside friends Colin Straton (bass), Graham Smith (drums) and Nick Mills (keyboard). After a two year solo stint in the London folk scene, vocalist Bobby decided it was time to step it up; that next step was the five piece Tom Petty inspired rock n’ roll band known today as Goldhawks.

With vocal crooning that reminds you of Bono and the anthemic scale electric grandeur, they’ve come to sweep away the electro synths and revive the British rock band phenomenon. Bobby Cook gives us the lowdown on Goldhawks, the band from West London town.

So you must be pretty excited to get into the whole festival circuit?

Definitely. We’re playing Big Chill and I’m excited about Reading and Bestival.

Are there any bands you‘re a fan of?

I’m a massive Big Pink fan and Local Natives were good as well.

How do you feel about bigger venues compared to smaller ones? You’ve played in Brixton Academy, how was that?

In a weird way it felt quite normal. Our songs are so grand that I think it was the best way for our songs to be heard. We’ve always struggled playing in smaller venues because the sound system can’t really take it. Brixton Academy was the perfect size. I think our songs are best suited to an arena size.

How long has the band been together as Goldhawks? Because I know you yourself had your own solo project going on.

As musicians playing together we’ve been together for almost four years under other names. But we’ve been together as Goldhawks for a year and a bit. It’s no longer a solo project; everyone contributes but it was a very natural transition.

Your debut album Trick of Light will be released in September. How long was that in the making?

We recorded it with Gil Norton at a farm in Wales. We’d been wanting to record our debut album for such a long time so finally getting the opportunity, the funding and being signed was amazing. Everything about it was wicked. Working with such a big producer who's got Dave Grohl on speed dial – it’s just like ‘wow’.

How did the collaboration with British record producer Gil Norton, whose worked with Pixies, Echo & the Bunnymen and the Foo Fighters, come about?

Just through the label and contacts. Gil Norton just seemed to have a real passion about him. He’s quite good at doing big songs and we needed that production for our debut.

You did two shows in New York. How was that?

We did the CMJ Festival in October 2009 with Temper Trap and others. It was great. I mean any gig that we need to catch a plane to do is awesome!

What took you over to the USA before really getting into the show circuit in the UK?

Well those two dates weren’t proper headlines. We felt quite spoilt.

Is there a difference between the UK and US crowd?

The Americans were really good. They greeted us with open arms. Compared to London where the crowd is more reserved and moody...

At the beginning of the year you had a four week residency at Ginglik. How was that permanent residency compared to one off gigs?

Everyone in the area knows the venue. It actually used to a public toilet. It was great because the whole mission behind it was to get a good fan-base. We got all the Maccabees come and DJ. We definitely got some grounding.

Goldhawks had quite a bit of publicity from very early on. Including having your song “Keep the Fire” played on Jonathan Ross. That must have been an amazing feeling?

I was watching it in bed and I have a really shit TV with bad signal so hearing my voice and our song through that was quite weird but brilliant!

You also played at a Twilight fan party? Did that give you good exposure?

That was very very weird. We found out the night before that we got this gig. We’re not actually on the soundtrack; we literally have nothing to do with Twilight. We were playing with all these bands that have songs in the film but it was amazing. Here we were playing to like 3000 people and it was like Beatle mania. Once Robert Paterson took to the stage it was ballistic. Watching young girls screaming and crying was odd, but we got a good reception from them.

Interview by: Jasmine Phull

Watch videos, view photos and find all the latest Goldhawks news here. 

Read our recent review of Goldhawks at The Camden Barfly here.