Having previously released three EPs during their first four years together, Perth based all-girl four-piece The Tommyhawks unleashed their long awaited debut album ‘Underground Raptor’ on Saturday 9th March at The Navy Club in Fremantle. The Tommyhawks have been building a strong reputation as an energetic live act during that time, with almost 30 festivals & a dozen or so trips to the east coast of Australia under their belts already. After the album launch night the girls fly out of WA for another thirteen-show jaunt, with gigs in all the major cities before returning to Perth almost a month later to play Lucy’s love Shack on Friday 5th April. The Rockpit had a chat with guitarist & vocalist Addison Axe about the new album, songwriting & influences within the group and life on the road with her bandmates…
Sean: Hi Addison, how are you?
AA: I’m good, how are you doing?
Sean: I’m great thank you. How was the weekend for you all?
AA: It was awesome. We were at the Nannup Festival…
Sean: And then down to Augusta? I saw some great photos on The Tommyhawks Instagram page.
AA: Yeah that’s right we did both those gigs on the same weekend. It was beautiful there and so much fun.
Sean: There have been some exciting times recently for The Tommyhawks, with Hotter Than Hell down in Dunsborough among other things. How was that?
AA: That was incredible. What an amazing line-up they had. It was so good to be a part of it.
Sean: It certainly was a great line-up – I was gutted I couldn’t get down there to see the likes of Spiderbait, Jebediah, Magic Dirt, 28 Days and you guys. I see it was a complete sell out too, which makes it even better.
AA: The organisers did it so well. There was just the right amount of people, the weather was good…it was just great.
Sean: We need to talk about your fantastic debut album ‘Underground Raptor’ released on Saturday 9th March – it’s got such a good vibe to it. It’s chilled here and there, and then it picks you up and gently puts you back down again. I have had it on all week and I love it.
AA: Awwww… That’s so good to hear. Thank you so much.
Sean: I could go through every track and talk about what I like about them but we wouldn’t have time. At the moment ‘Always Wanting More’ is sticking out for me…
AA: Oh really?! Oh, cool, I’m glad.
Sean: And the album opener ‘Fighting the Times’ in another real high point for me. It may be an unfair question but have you got a favourite track on there?
AA: Probably ‘Fighting the Times’ would be my favourite but also it’s such a fun one to play live as well. Even though it’s kind of the same all the way through it makes you want to hit harder into those choruses. Sometimes when a song is fun to play live it automatically becomes a reason a reason to love the song more.
Sean: Talking of live, have you managed to play any of these new tracks in your set?
AA: Yes, so basically we have tried to play some of the songs in our recent live sets but we only really finished the album recently so the songs are still quite fresh and new so we have been doing lots of practicing. We managed to play quite a few of them for the very first time at the gigs in Nannup & Augusta – so we debuted a few of the tracks there in time for the album launch on Saturday (9th March). We want to play the whole album that night so we didn’t want it to be the first time we were playing the songs [laugh]
Sean: I’m hoping to get to that gig Saturday because I want to hear how these sound live. I’ve heard so many good things about you girls & your live sets…
AA: Oh, wicked. That’s would be awesome. It’s going to be such good fun and its free entry as well which I’m hoping will get people in an even better mood [laughs]
Sean: And free entry means that people should have more cash to spend at the merch desk and support local music, which is so important.
AA: It’s very important. Our new vinyl has just arrived this week which has been really exciting for us.
Sean: I saw a photo of you holding the vinyl and I have to say, I love the album cover. It’s great to see an inner sleeve with the handwritten lyrics on it is fantastic.
AA: When I was growing up I always loved reading the sleeves of my dad’s records and I would read every word. I loved when they were written in the real handwriting too, so that was something that I really wanted to do on this album.
Sean: Where did the album cover idea come from?
AA: The chicken on the cover is actually one of Ness’s (bass) chickens who goes by the name of Mildred 2. We knew we wanted one of the chickens on the cover, so I went round and took a whole bunch of photos and then picked the most fearsome looking one [laughs] then took it from there.
Sean: It’s pretty striking. It would certainly get people talking about it…
AA: That’s what we want so thank you for saying that.
Sean: The main thing I notice with ‘Underground Raptor’ is that you guys don’t seem to be a band that wants to get pigeon-holed. There’s a lot going on the album and it works terrifically well. So, as a band I’m guessing you all have very different influences to bring to the table.
AA: One of the things that help us achieve that is that all four of us have very different tastes in music. We all listen to completely different music and we all come from very different back grounds & approaches to playing music too. Because of that, we don’t have to think about not sounding like something in particular. If one person is pulling in one direction then inevitably someone else is pulling in the other direction. In terms of the diversity, I was a little bit nervous about that on the album – the songs just come and they certainly weren’t planned but I was worried there was too much different stuff on there. Did we have enough upbeat ones because that’s what people like live? But you know, after a while we were just like, “it’s our album, not anyone else’s. We are going to put the songs on we want on there.” So either people will like it or they won’t and that’s that really. So, we just picked our favourites and they have just ended up being that ones that feel quite different. I always think that with a band, because it’s the same people, no matter how different the sings are you kind of always know it’s the same band.
Sean: I know what you’re saying there – you can pick a U2 album up from 30 years ago and then listen to their latest one and you still know its U2. They have a certain ‘thing’ about them and their music…
AA: Exactly. Because we made a bunch of EPs already, not speaking for the others, but for me I didn’t want it to be a longer version of what we had already done before. I wanted it to be an opportunity to step things up and really push ourselves, to make things more exciting and maybe a little bit more experimental for us at least. There are songs like ‘Shame’ which we wrote them in the studio and used loops and things, which we’ve never done before so that helps give us a bit of a different vibe.
Sean: I’m looking forward to travelling back through the EPs to where you all started musically with The Tommyhawks.
AA: A backwards listening experience, how cool. I love it when I get to do that with a band.
Sean: As fans we don’t always get to do that. We follow that band as they grow and buy their new albums so it’s nice occasionally to get to do that. So I’ll try grabbing a couple of the EPs at the show at the weekend if you have any there.
AA: Would you believe we sold the very last vinyl EP on Sunday in Augusta, which was our very last gig of the weekend, which ironically was the last gig before the album launch.
Sean: Wow so the album release is almost like a complete new chapter. It’s been about four and a half years since you formed as a band. How do you feel you’ve grown as a collective? Have you felt there has been much that has changed?
AA: We’ve all become really close friends. We didn’t all know each other before we started playing together. We all knew we all wanted to play but I didn’t know any sax players for example. And with Jess our drummer, I just remember seeing all these amazing photos of her playing live on Facebook. I just thought, “Oh my god I’d love to play in a band with her!” So when we all got together we didn’t really know each other that well so it could have all gone really badly [laughs] but over the years we’ve become like family. It’s been an amazing experience for us all and I’m sure it’s contributed to our writing. Right at the start I’d written some songs and we started playing those but now we have a much more collaborative process and everything happens a lot more organically. So I reckon our biggest journey has been with each other.
Sean: One thing I’ve noticed is the quality of musical artists around the country at the moment. Obviously Melbourne has always been known for its music scene but Perth has some fantastic original bands out there right now.
AA: Yeah, I think the Perth music scene is unlike anywhere I’ve been before. One thing that makes Perth so strong is that as bands I don’t feel we are competing against each other anymore – it has more of a community spirit to it. And that’s what I think makes it so amazingly special here in Perth right now.
Sean: Taking you a bit further afield and out of WA I can see there are plenty of east coast shows during March & April with you playing in all the major cities; Hobart, Canberra, Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane. Is it camper van style touring again?
AA: Previously when we’ve toured we’ve had a camper van and we’ve all slept in the back but this time we are in a small van but not sleeping in there. It’s going to be more a gear van and we’ll be sleeping in hostels and motels. We are away quite a long time this tour so we decided we needed a break away from the camper van [laughs]
Sean: Well hopefully Jess will be getting to do plenty of driving as there is a new Rival Sons album out…
AA: [laughs] I have a feeling we are going to get to know that one rather well! She is obsessed with that band.
Sean: I can report the new album ‘Feral Roots’ is fantastic…
AA: I’ll get ready. I won’t listen to it before we leave. That way I won’t get sick of it [laughs]
Sean: You said earlier that you all have very different tastes musically, so who are your influences?
AA: I’ve got so many; Ani Di Franco, Neil Young, The Police… That sort of vibe – there are so many. Songwriters mainly but also a bit of punk & rock music as well. My tastes are much more punk whereas Jess’s would be much more heavy rock. Like you just said about Rival Sons, when we are on the road we take it in turns to choose the music and it’s just so funny how different each of our collections is. We’ll scroll through each other’s iPods and not even know who most of the artists are [laugh]
Sean: And that’s one of the wonderful things about music – you may hear something that makes you go back to listen at a later date to something you never would have picked yourself. So, I have a few questions I love to wind things up with and the first is who would you like to invite to have dinner with you? They have to be from the world of music and can be dead or alive… and you can invite three guests. Who would you choose?
AA: Oh my gosh, that’s a hard one. I get social anxiety so I feel the idea of sitting with people I don’t know a bit terrifying. So I’d probably have to pick my own band mates…
Sean: There is nothing wrong with that answer, in fact that’s the first time anyone has ever said that to me so it’s a pretty cool answer. What was the last album you listened to?
AA: The last album I listened to? I was listening to quite a lot of music on the way down to Nannup but the last album… let me think… it may have been Stevie Wonder. No, I’ve got it… it was Sister Sledge’s Greatest Hits. They are one of my favourite bands of all time.
Sean: I’ll have to listen to them now. So, if you could pinch anyone else’s song and credit it as your own, what song would you pick?
AA: Say a Little Prayer by Aretha Franklin…
Sean: What a classic. I love this question because it throws up some great answers. I have a little playlist I’m putting together with these answers and it’s very diverse.
AA: That song to me is just utterly sublime songwriting.
Sean: Great song to finish with so thank you for your time Addison. All of us here at The Rockpit wish you and the girls all the best with the album & the tour and hope to catch up when you get back to Perth in April.
AA: Thank you so much. See you when we get back. Make sure you come and say hi.
Sean: For sure.
TOUR DATES
Thu 14/3 – Crown and Anchor, Adelaide SA
Fri 15/3 – The Loft, Warrnambool VIC
Sat 16/3 – The Bridge, Castlemaine VIC
Sun 17/3 – The Tote, Melbourne VIC
Tue 19/3 – Republic Bar, Hobart TAS
Thu 21/3 – Frankie’s Pizza, Sydney NSW
Fri 22/3 – Smith’s Alternative, Canberra ACT
Sat 23/3 – The Great Northern, Byron Bay NSW
Sun 24/3 – Flow Bar, Old Bar NSW
Thu 28/3 – Vinnies Dive Bar, Southport QLD
Fri 29/3 – Sol Bar, Maroochydore QLD
Sat 30/3 – Lefty’s Old Time Music Hall, Brisbane QLD
Sun 31/3 – Eddie’s Grub House, Coolangatta QLD
Fri 5/4 – Lucy’s Love Shack, Perth WA
