DAWK turns a deceptively breezy indie-rock track into something quietly devastating.
Queensland has long been good at turning out punk, garage rock and sun-baked alternative noise.
Lo-fi indie rock is a slightly less obvious export, which makes DAWK’s ‘Wasting Away Here With You’ feel all the more welcome.
The Gold Coast project of 23-year-old Daniel Hawken, DAWK opens the track in familiar slacker-indie territory.
The first few seconds carry the warped intimacy of Alex G and the loose cassette warmth of Mac DeMarco: soft guitar, dreamy vocals and just enough fuzz around the edges to let you know you’re firmly in lo-fi land.
Then the track kicks in.
That little shift is one of the smartest things about it. What starts out feeling loose and grainy suddenly reveals itself as a genuinely great indie-rock song, with MattyMadeit’s production the guitars brighten, the groove settles in and Hawken lands on the kind of hook that feels obvious only after someone has written it.
“I sit here waiting” will lodge itself in your head before the first listen is over, and like me, you will find yourself waiting for it to come back around again almost immediately.
For an emerging artist, that kind of instinct is a very good sign.
Underneath the easygoing groove, though, ‘Wasting Away Here With You’ is considerably sadder than it first appears.
Hawken initially wrote the vocal hook and guitar chords at home before taking the song to MattyMadeit, where the pair developed the final version earlier this year.
The story follows two people looking back across a life spent together, before gradually revealing that one of them is sick and running out of time.
Suddenly, the title ‘Wasting Away Here With You’ stops sounding playful and starts carrying considerably more weight.
There’s something quietly old-fashioned about Hawken’s songwriting in that sense. Not dated, but patient. He seems interested in melody, storytelling and letting a song unfold rather than trying to announce everything in the first 15 seconds.
Whether that comes from his influences or he’s simply got a few extra years on him in musical soul, it works.
The guitar choices are great throughout, the vocals stay dreamy without disappearing into the mix, and a lovely piano outro gives the song one final little emotional turn before it leaves.
DAWK describes the project as a place to dance, chill out, have a boogie or simply “be a DAWK”, with influences stretching from Wilco and Red Hot Chili Peppers to Dominic Fike. ‘Wasting Away Here With You’ suggests Hawken is already beginning to find the bit between those references that belong to him.
There’s a lot to like here, and even more reason to be curious about what comes next.
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DAWK will launch new single ‘Highhorse’ at Iron and Resin Garage in Currumbin Waters on Saturday, August 15, alongside Tegan Clark and FRIENDS WHO CARE.
If ‘Wasting Away Here With You’ is any indication, it might be worth getting in early.
