( Part 1 )
** Hawksley Workman performs at the Chicago Cultural Center, ( 312 ) 744-6630, on Aug. 8 and on the Belmont Stage/North Halsted Market Days @ 7:30 on Aug. 10
Hawksley Workman has been compared to a lot of people. Leonard Cohen, fellow Canadian Rufus Wainwright, and the late Jeff Buckley, are just a few. Comparisons aside, Workman is his own young man. Still something of a secret in the U.S., Workman deserves a much wider audience for his theatrical, yet edgy pop songs. Unabashedly sexy, with a voice that induces goose bumps, his live shows are said to captivating.
You can get a taste of his magnetism on his Web site ( www.hawksleyworkman.com ) on which you can find a link to his Canadian record label and a pair of mesmerizing music videos.
Gregg Shapiro: On the song 'Sweet Hallelujah,' from your debut disc For Him & The Girls, there are echoes of both the late Jeff Buckley and your fellow country man Leonard Cohen. Would you consider either of them to be influences on your work?
Hawksley Workman: I would definitely consider Leonard Cohen to be an influence. In France, they like to compare me to Jeff Buckley. I think it's more that I'm a boy who sings like a girl and there's only a few of those. Jeff Buckley wasn't a part of my listening experience growing up. But Leonard Cohen certainly was. To this day, Leonard Cohen is the benchmark of lyric writing. In the back of my mind, I'm always trying to compare myself to that guy. Really, there's no one that tops him. If you can stay within the same planetary radius as Leonard Cohen, I think you're doing OK.
GS: Songs such as 'No Sissies,' 'Striptease,' and 'Jealous of Your Cigarette' have a bold and brazen sexuality to them. Is it important to have that component in your work?
HW: Yeah, I think so. For me, the sexual aspect of the music is kind of my way of getting back at feeling guilty about sexuality for the better part of my life. Growing up in a puritanical society like we have grown up in, you have all these latent feelings, especially when you are a kid, and no amount of Sex Ed in school is ever going to acquaint you with any feelings of comfort, when it comes to lust or masturbation or any of these sorts of things. I was well into my adult years before I started to realize that if I was going to continue to feel that I was bad or broken or sick or wrong, I'd probably jump off a bridge eventually. Because these things figure quite prominently into the architecture of society, it was important for me to have them watershed in the songwriting part of what I do.
GS: You have just completed your third ( non-holiday ) album Lover/Fighter, which is due for release later this year. Does it have much in common with your previous albums For Him & The Girls and ( Last Night We Were ) The Delicious Wolves or is it a departure?
HW: It's a departure for lots of reasons. It's more focused. The other records took three weeks to make. This one took eight months to make. There's a lot more patience. I hate to think it's because I'm that couple of years older that I took the time, had the patience, but it's a focused effort. I didn't want it to sound as scattered as the last records. In some ways, the scattered quality was part of the charm of the last couple of records. I wanted this record to speak with a unified voice. That's the singular difference from the other material.
GS: I think that 'charm' is a good word to describe that characteristic, because it sounded like you were saying, 'This is all the stuff that I can do,' on the first two discs, presenting the different styles in which you work. It makes sense, then, that you would want to make a more cohesive album. Did you choose one particular style in which to work?
HW: I chose at least one bucket, instead of 10 buckets. I think you're very astute. When I was making my first record, and into my second one, I didn't have a record deal. All I had was a homegrown fan-base, both here ( in Canada ) and in Europe, that I won over through the live shows and critical acclaim. I was young and I wanted to say, 'OK, I don't have a record deal. But I'm a hot-shot show-off who can do this, this, this and that. And you should really listen to me.' Making this record, I felt like I didn't have to prove that this time around. What I wanted to prove, maybe even more to myself, was that I could have the patience and insight to make a cohesive collection of songs that didn't rely on the eccentric bombast that my other ones did.
GS: I hope that you saved some of that for the new record.
HW: Are you kidding? ( Laughs ) I'm still me. I can't avoid that.