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Ron Hawkins

RON HAWKINS AND THE DO GOOD ASSASSINS and BOBBY WISEMAN at the Drake Hotel (1150 Queen West), Thursday to Saturday (February 5 to 7), 7 pm. $20. thedrakehotel.ca. 


Ron Hawkins does not own a cellphone. I reach him on a land line with crystal-clear reception to talk about Garden Songs (Pheromone), his 13th album. It was recorded live over half a dozen days. 

Those two facts – the land line, the recording approach à la a Stones album from 1965 – make me wonder whether he’s averse to new methods and practices. 

“I’m not a Luddite by any means,” says Hawkins, who shot to fame as frontman for 90s alt-rockers Lowest of the Low. “I pride myself on being present in my life. I see my friends distracted by the technology they’re carrying around all the time. 

“And I spend enough time on the computer and social media and using software. I’ve given up enough of my life to that.”

The reason for the off-the-floor recording approach is less philosophical. He was given a free day of tracking at super-pro, analog-heavy Revolution Recording, and it gave him a chance to see just how capable his current band, the Do Good Assassins, are at stirring up mojo and handling whatever he throws their way. 

“Also, I’m old enough to have worked with tape machines, so in my brain I’d always thought I must have done that [live approach],” Hawkins says. “But when I think about it, every record I’ve ever made has had bed tracks and overdubs except for one Lowest of the Low live record. This one’s got vibe and mojo in spades.”

Hawkins’s DGAs are one part country soul and another part leftist punk rock. Garden Songs, a collection of four new ballads and six older ones, sticks with the former, giving him a chance to let out his softer side before he hunkers down to record his next album – a rocker for which he’s already written 20 tunes.

Garden Songs’ gentle, pared-down quality keeps the focus on his exceptional, introspective lyrics and familiar vocals that sometimes bring to mind early (i.e., less over-the-top) Elvis Costello. Though it’s a left turn, it’s not as big a change as it could’ve been.

“When I started the band in 2012, I thought, ‘What would be the most obnoxious thing we could do?’ So our debut record was a double record. And then there was a documentary made about us [Luck’s Hard, screening at all three Drake shows]. 

“And then I thought, ‘Let’s follow it up with a triple record.’ I’ve got so much stuff behind me already. If people think it’s stupid or pretentious or whatever, I can just flip the bird and go, ‘I don’t give a shit. I’m making records for me.'”

He adds with a laugh, “But then this much more sensible idea came up.”     

carlag@nowtoronto.com | @carlagillis

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