Justin and Dan Hawkins of The Darkness look back: ‘People are terrifying of us. And rightly so ‘| Darkness

Justin and Dan Hawkins are the Lowestoft brothers behind the rock band The Darkness. Piercing the gentle mainstream of the Dido and Keane era of the early 1990s with their stadium rock and low-cut cat suits, their music had a brief period of mockery before their debut album, Permission to Land. , sold 3.5 million copies. At the peak of their commercial powers they won three Brit Awards, an Ivor Novello, and wrote the modern classic Christmas, 2003. Christmas time (don’t let the bells run out)). The band broke up in 2006 after the release of their second album, but have since reformed and released five more albums. They are currently on tour.

Justin hawkins

Based on this image, I wonder if my parents looked at our physique and temperament and decided to try and equip us for what they thought would be our career paths. They saw me as the office junior and Dan as the sports hero. Or maybe I’m dressed so smartly because someone had died. Although I look a little too cheerful and my tie is too wide to be respectful.

Growing up, Dan and I were never bored. We had a moped and we were shooting guns and arrows. We really love music, because our parents loved it. They were in the right place at a particularly exciting time in the 1960s; Mom has stories about Brian Jones and my Dad has stories about Peter Sellers. They were always having parties. We heard the bass pumping through the walls: Mom liked reggae and the Stones, and Dad liked dad-rock. As a result, Dan and I were fans of old artists: industrial bands, hair rock, Aerosmith, and Fleetwood Mac.

From a very young age, around 12, we would be rental guns in groups of other people. Finally, I joined one with Frankie [Poullain, the Darkness’ bassist] and Dan, but as a peripheral character in the dynamics. We had a really good singer, but he didn’t know how to connect with the audience, so I ended up talking to them, even though I was hidden in the back, I must have sounded like a disembodied voice echoing from the side of the stage. In the end we fired him; There was a pivotal moment when I did a special Bohemian Rhapsody dance and Dan realized it could entertain people. Unfortunately, he didn’t seem like a leader then. He had been writing music for commercials in the 90s, for Ikea, Mars bar and Tango. But I never thought I would be a rock star, so I didn’t take care of myself. I drank beer all the time and just sat there useless.

When the Dark formed correctly, Dan was a driving force in terms of ambition, while I did it defiantly: “What’s the point of doing the same as everyone else? Let’s do something inspired by the music we loved when we were little! “We’ve always been drawn to absurd masculinity. Plus, I wanted to piss off some people by not caring about the ‘cool’ house of cards built during the ’90s. Dan’s drive was a little clearer: to win an Ivor Novello. We both managed Our goals. But the latter was really significant. When we won the Ivor Novello Composer of the Year award in 2004, we were surrounded by people we adore and our parents were there. We spent the whole night looking at each other and saying, “Yay!”

At that time, everything I did was determined by drug addiction. It was really harmful; We would have accomplished so much more if I could have held it together. I can remember doing interviews and just holding on to being mindful. I was pale and it affected all my relationships, the most important was that of my brother. When I went into recovery, I had to leave all the infrastructure around the Dark, the lifestyle and the people; everything was a trigger. My heart would have exploded if I hadn’t. My brother and I went through a two-year period without really speaking. That was after I left the Dark. The news was not well received, which is fair enough. But blood is thicker than water; They all knew that we would be alright We just needed a little time.

These days, my relationship with Dan is scary. We are the Hawkins brothers. People are terrified of us. That’s right.

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You can see how different we are from the picture. We have been like this all our lives. That’s why we get along so well. Physically, we are not the same, and Justin is an extrovert, while I have moments of an introvert, although on a great night out, you probably won’t realize it.

In school, Justin was two years above me. We were teased for having long hair, but Justin and his friends were tough too. It was a strange situation where geeks ruled. He protected me, but most of the time we didn’t get along. It was like a boiling pot.

Between the ages of 14 and 16, I did not speak to my parents, other than some grunting. Typical teenager, playing loud music in his bedroom. Justin, however, got along very well with Mom and Dad. When he left home at 16, we became partners again. The pressure was gone, and I was visiting his little dump in Lowestoft and making music.

At one of our first Darkness gigs in London, it was the first time Justin wore a white catsuit with lightning bolts on his legs. He put it on in the bathroom backstage. We all thought it looked amazing. Within three minutes of the first song, he had sweated to the end. You could see everything.