W e e k e n d e r l i v e . c o m

The year 2000 has seen elder-statesmen of the Taunton music scene Hawaii undergo a major rejuvenation. Fantastically received live shows and with a new album in the pipeline, things have never looked brighter. Weekender caught up with the sunshine boys to talk about the past year, and their plans for 2001. The Old Library public house, purveyors of house anthems and flavoured cocktails over the weekend is not Hawaii's favoured haunt, but here on a bitterly cold Monday evening things are a little quieter, and thus the boys are more at home.

This year has seen quite significant personnel changes in the band's line-up, with Duncan Mckay re-joining. What impact do you think this has had?
"It's less lead guitar-based, its got more of a folk angle, very laid back"
Your style has changed dramatically this year; the band seems to have lost its indie-guitar feel.
"I think it was a complete reaction to how we fell apart. Both Andy and Duncan have had an influence on our sound, Duncan's not a big rock guitarist and Andy drums a lot quieter than Roger did. A lot of the new songs were written at rehearsal, when we just had acoustic guitars, without bass and drums"
Have you re-written your entire set, since Roger left the band?
"When we first started playing again everything had to be brand new. After a while we realised how good our old songs were, and how they would adapt to an acoustic setting - we brought four old songs back"

So, the band has changed direction and style, how has that worked in the live environment? "At the old gigs people couldn't but hear us, if you are playing songs purposely at a low volume then you hopefully draw people in to listen. We did a gig at Sloanes where we played after Psycadeliasmith, the kids were jumping around to them, and we honestly thought when we came on we would only get away with a couple of songs and three quarters of the audience would leave - but it was really surprising, most of the audience sat down and started watching, even though it was so far removed from indie rock I suppose."
Your new style isn't exactly in line with the Nu Metal punk scene in Taunton?
"We don't place Taunton that highly in defining the current trends, we don't place that much emphasis on playing gigs all the time - it's more about actually getting an album out. Nu Metal is gonna go soon enough. I just don't get it, the guy from the Eels called it date-rape music."
So tell us about the new album?
"We are going in the studio in December, it might take until the middle of January. We want to record an eleven-track album; it might take a sleigh bell edge! I want it to sound really warm and quite organic. The opening track is called 'The Desperate Stare of the Single Man', when we finish it, we may try to hawk it around to a couple of people."
So what is the goal of producing an eleven-track album?
"I think it's something we've just got to do. We've done it so many times in the past, where we've written a good set of tunes and we've forgotten them and suddenly a set of new songs come along and we prefer them. I guess we just want to get it all down, while it's fresh the album itself could be quite conceptual, although we don't really know what the concept is!"

2000 was undoubtedly a good year for Hawaii. 2001 offers even more promise and arguably more positive direction than before. The album presents a chance to cement their credibility on the local music scene. Who knows - it could be Hawaii who pick up the 'Best Newcomer' award at the Brits next year. Although they probably hope not!

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