Pete Hawkes is an Australian composer, musician and luthier. There are over 1200 recordings by Hawkes, covering a wide range of genres. He has collaborated with Bert Jansch, Joe Cocker, Phil Emmanuel, and Dave Swarbrick. He is an accomplished fingerstyle and slide guitarist and has won multiple awards over the years. Hawkes has been featured in a number of music and guitar magazines and some of his musical works have been kept for preservation at the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia. Hawkes has chromesthesia, a form of synesthesia where he sees sound in colors.
Early life
Hawkes was born in 1965 at Lake Macquarie, Australia. He learned to play guitar on an old waterlogged guitar, nicknamed "The Paddle" because his father used it to paddle home one night when he was drunk. He learned guitar by listening to old albums, citing influences as diverse as blues guitarist Robert Johnson, English guitarist Davey Graham, and Bartók.
Career
Hawkes started playing electric slide guitar in Chicago-style blues bands, at clubs and pubs in and around Lake Macquarie and Newcastle when he was seventeen. He was invited to work as a session musician across Australia. In his early 20s, he moved to Tasmania, where he trained as a luthier. After returning, he got a degree in pure mathematics from the University of Newcastle and moved to the Australian Capital Territory the following year. In the mid-1990s he recorded his debut album, Secrets Vows and Lies, with English folk violinist Dave Swarbrick playing on a few tracks. The album was released by Festival Records and was critically well received. Hawkes toured Australia and supported Steeleye Span and Bert Jansch, but the tour was largely unsuccessful. Afterwards, Hawkes moved to London. Secrets Vows and Lies was released in the UK by Select Records and he started playing in small clubs and hotels throughout the UK. He briefly reconnected with Dave Swarbrick in Coventry and supported him and Martin Carthy and in Scarborough, North Yorkshire with violinist Sue Aston. He then moved to St. Petersburg, Russia, and for several months played jazz with Russian and Romani musicians. In Beijing he became involved in the underground jazz developments in the city. Performing at venues such as the East-Shore Jazz Club, he encouraged Chinese musicians to play jazz rather than traditional music. But jazz was not acceptable to the Communist Party of China, and Hawkes was asked by the local authorities to return to Australia. After returning to Australia, Hawkes released Unspoken Riddles, Melancholy Cello, and Double Diversity. He then concentrated on composing and arranging. In 2006 he released Witchcraft, an orchestral suite, and The Jazz Chronicles. In 2009 he released The Lost Souls Entwined, a gothic rock album recorded with electric guitarist Phil Emmanuel. Hawkes has created over 1200 recordings covering folk music, jazz, jazz fusion, classical, world music, rock, ragtime, blues, ambient, and baroque. He has collaborated with Bert Jansch, Joe Cocker, Phil Emmanuel, and Dave Swarbrick. Music journalistBruce Elder has compared his folk-blues style to Nick Drake and John Martyn. Hawkes has been featured in a number of music and guitar magazines. Some of his works have been kept for preservation at the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia. He is a member of the Australian Performance Rights Association. In 2017 and 2018 he worked for the University of Newcastle as a data analyst.
Awards
In 2002, Hawkes won the ABC Newcastle Songwriter of the Year Award, and in 2009 he won another ABC award for his instrumental works. In 2012 he received a MUSICOZ Legend award. In 2017, Hawkes won the Festival of Original Music Award from the Song Writers, Composers & Lyricists Association. He was a finalist at the Australian Songwriters Association Awards in 2001, 2012, 2014, 2015, and 2016.
