Artist Profile: Black Hawks Dawn

I make no effort to hide my affinity toward lo-fi and melodic music. There’s little better to me than amazing artists cutting rough recordings and really proving their musicianship to you. If you can sound great on a lo-fi record, then you will sound great no matter what. This is what drew me to Black Hawks Dawn, a Norwegian couple creating some amazing lo-fi country folk music.

The simple near monotone vocals of June and Jack Hawk are enigmatic and pull you into the song’s lyrics. Noisy drums and melodic guitars contrast the vocals quite perfectly. The couple does a very interesting cover of Dolly Parton’s “Jolene”. I am used to Parton’s incredibly emotive vocals, but June’s are in the band’s signature monotone style and still seem to emote the pain of the lyrics quite well. The harmonies between June and Jack are a joy to hear and reminds me of The Velvet Underground. In fact, June Hawk’s voice is so similar to Nico’s, it’s uncanny.

I appreciate the return to a lo-fi and stripped down recording process Black Hawks Dawn invokes. If you are looking for some country folk with a nice twist in recording style, check out Black Hawks Dawn.

Black Hawks Dawn are an unsigned band and you may find their music on Myspace and NRK*.

*NRK is a Norwegian music magazine written in Norwegian and the band’s music is split into 4 different pages of the site, if you’d like some translation help to navigate the site, let me know.