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Interview with Tiggi Hawke

We get to know Tiggi Hawke following her gig at Nottingham Trent.


How did you start making music? Almost as an accident! I started writing music properly when I was 15, I did some work experience with a company in London and everything just kinda started from there. I still work with the people I met back then, 2 of them are still my mentors! I continued writing while I was at school and uni, but I left uni to focus on my own music and start my own singing career. The rest, as they say, is history! My parents have been so supportive of my decisions, I really couldn’t have done anything so far without their and my mentors’ support.


Who would you say have been your biggest influences? I’d have to say a bit of everything! I have a really eclectic taste in music, I love discovering new artists from different genres to listen to. My parents listened to quite different music, my mum likes rock music and my dad was more of an American Pie kinda guy so I got a good mix of music growing up. I loved Johnny Cash (I still do!) and I really like to take inspiration from his writing skills. He can tell a WHOLE story in about 3 minutes without leaving out anything important or getting distracted, something I really aspire to!!


Would you say you prefer being in the studio recording new material or playing live shows? Ah that’s a tough one! I mean I guess I wouldn’t have one without the other but at a big push I’d say when I’m performing my songs I can see the final product in action and that’s such a special moment for me. It does take a long time for a song to go from its inception to being a ready-to-play track so to see it at the end of its work is incredibly rewarding for me. It’s like a culmination of all the work from lots of different people. That said, I couldn’t give up writing, I don’t know what I’d do!


What was the first music festival you went to – as a fan or indeed as an artist? I’ve always wanted to go to Glastonbury but I’ve never been able to get tickets! I’ve been really unlucky trying to go to festivals, it’s never really worked out for me, usually to do with work! I did go to EDC in London a few years back and that was mental! I played at the Great Escape in Brighton this year which was a great experience, I’d love to go back next year.


Do you have a favourite venue/city to play live? (They don’t have to be the same!) I really enjoyed playing at Camden Assembly in London, it’s such a cool venue and has an amazing atmosphere. London has so many different and unique venues, I think it’s definitely my favourite city to gig in.


If you had to only play festivals or headline sets for the rest of your career, which would you prefer? These questions are super hard! I really don’t think I can choose! I think they’re both incredibly different and I love both and I really hope I can do more of each in 2018.


Do you have a favourite song to play live? Of my own songs, it’d have to be either Neon Dancer or Dangerous Behaviour, they just cannot be sung without energy so it’s impossible to slack off at all and I really enjoy that. I love the covers we do as well, it’s so much fun to see people realise what they are at various points in the songs! I definitely look around to see when the penny drops!!


What are your ambitions for the future? I feel so lucky to be able to do what I’m doing surrounded by the most amazing people I’ve ever met that my main ambition is to keep on going! I’m really looking forward to releasing new music and seeing where that takes me… I know it sounds like I don’t have a plan but I have a rough one!


And finally.. If you could have written one song in history yourself, what would you have preferred it to be? It’s have to be one of my favourites, Walking in Memphis by Marc Cohn. I NEVER get bored of that song, I can shower karaoke it forever! That said, I reckon my cat hates it now he’s heard me butcher it so many times…


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