Hardcore Week: CHICKENHAWK

This week we're banning indie weaklings from the pages of Artrocker.TV and delivering you a profile a day of the best hardcore acts around.

If that wasn't enough, each profile comes with an exclusive print out-and-keep Top Trump card of the band! Now you can do battle with your favourite speed-rock groups in the comfort of your own home.

Today: ear destroyers Chickenhawk discuss their origins in the Leeds hardcore scene of the late 90s



Name, age and occupation?

Chickenhawk, a combined age of 11,001. Creating / Manufacturing / Packing / Palletizing / Stock controlling / Despatching the 'riff'.

What's your own personal definition of hardcore?

Hardcore to us is a maluable medium. There are plenty of hardcore bands out there that stick to the straight and narrow sound of what you associate with the genre, which is fair enough, but for us I think its a form of music that is very open to new ideas and mixtures between other styles.

It's obviously aggresive in many aspects, but it also opens its doors to experimentation and variety. It can be politcal as well as a load of nonsense at the same time - perfect for Chickenhawk.

What was your earliest experience of hardcore?

My personal first experience of hardcore would have to be within the 'scene' of Leeds back in 1998. What I took from it was that every person at a hardcore gig felt a connection between each other and everyone shared the same interests. Like a unified group of enthusiasts for what seemed to be a very niche life choice.

Venues are dirty places to hang out most of the time and it can sound like a very bleak existance, but the characters within the scene made you see beyond the grimey walls and sodden toilets. This still applies today more than ten years on.

What's the most intense on stage experience you've ever had?

One that springs to mind recently was a gig we did for Crossfire in an old warehouse in Shoreditch. The room went apeshit from the first note we played. There was no stage, so we played on the floor which fast became part of the 'pit'. Before any of us knew it, Rob was stood playing inbetween a 'wall of death' before it was about to close in on him. It was chaos, but the fun kind!

What's your band's weirdest private habit?

In-jokes. Our in-jokes are getting darker and more disturbing everyday. What wierds me out the most about the whole thing is when a specifically dark in-joke leaks out in front of someone outside of the group mentality of Chickenhawk, and that person unfortunate enough to hear the utter shite spewing from our mouths is like 'what the fuck was that!'. I kind of like it when that happens secretly though.

Is hardcore misunderstood?

I'm not really bothered if it is or isn't. We like it, and I suppose anyone that doesn't understand it simply hasn't given it the time of day which is fair enough. It doesn't concern me to be honest, but I'll answer it with another question. If hardcore is misunderstood, then how do you think jazz feels?

BONUS MATERIAL: CHECK OUT ARTROCKER.TV NEXT WEEK FOR AN EXCLUSIVE CHICKENHAWK VIDEO TOUR DIARY! YOU CAN ALSO CATCH CHICKENHAWK AT NEW HEAVY SOUNDS NEXT MONTH DETAILS CAN BE FOUND HERE