Hamish Hawk, the Edinburgh-based singer of arch, epic indie anthems, is thinking about influences and inspirations. “There are so many that people would expect me to name,” he explains. “The New Romantics, the post-punks, the towering lyricists, the Leonard Cohens and Bob Dylans, whoever it might be.
“And those are all true, but Ivor Cutler’s influence is unique. I really feel an immense closeness to his work and to the way he lived his life as an eccentric, idiosyncratic, quite difficult, rum lad. He inspires and interests me, he’s irresistible.” Which is important here, because Hawk will be bringing his own personal tribute to Cutler to this year’s Edinburgh International Book Festival.
It seems an odd match; Hawk writes towering, main stage-ready indie-rock, while Cutler, who died at the age of 83 in 2006, was a wry, quirkily eccentric musician, who wrote works of surreal comedy on his harmonium and appeared in the Beatles’ film Magical Mystery Tour after befriending Paul McCartney. What links the younger artist’s work to Cutler?
“Humour,” says Hawk, “and a belief in humour to communicate something obviously true. The way he played with that was so deft, like Scott Walker or Jarvis Cocker, other songwriters that I love. He takes humdrum or kitchen sink aspects of our lives, then illuminates them, shoots them through with light in such a way as to change their aspect and turn them into something more mystical, more alive with possibility.”
Hawk, who’s 33, was introduced to Cutler at the age of 17 by Edinburgh “Fringe performer, musician, lyricist, songwriter, shambolic front man extraordinaire” Paul Vickers, on whose iPod he sampled the album Velvet Donkey. From there he tracked down as many of Cutler’s writings and recordings as possible. “It hit me like a lightning bolt,” he says. “Though Ivor Cutler isn’t much like a lightning bolt.”
When the Book Festival’s director Jenny Niven asked him to consider a bespoke project this year, Hawk’s first instinct was Cutler. “It only made sense for me to tackle what I see as his magnum opus, his most characterful work, and that’s Life in a Scotch Sitting Room (Vol.2, recorded live in Glasgow in 1977 and released the following year). It’s best described as a series of vignettes or episodes that are essentially snapshots of his upbringing in Glasgow.
“Now I can imagine some people unfamiliar with his work when he lived in England saying, ‘oh goodness, what a life he lived up in Scotland, with the haar rolling in, hugging the drystane dyke. I can hear the hiss of the wireless, I can see the monochrome, all the tweed and tartan.’ Then you hand it to a Scottish person and they go, ‘he’s absolutely having you on! He’s pulling your leg.’ So what I’m attempting to do is write my own version, my own, for want of a better phrase, fictionalised autobiography of growing up in my childhood home here in Edinburgh.”
Giving the first interview about this new work, Hawk is clearly still mulling it over in his mind. He wants, he says, to lean into the aspects of Cutler’s work which are not surrealist, not “wacky for the sake of wacky”, but rather hyperrealist. It will be humorous, as Cutler’s work was, presented as spoken word episodes with musical backing from his usual collaborators Andrew Pearson and Stefan Maurice. He will also play Cutler’s own harmonium, sourced from the director of Glasgow’s Celtic Connections festival, and both performances will be recorded and later released on vinyl.
“When the idea landed in my lap, I made the active decision that I was going to lean into how ambitious a project it might be,” says Hawk. “Ivor’s work really is so dear to me that it only makes sense to really give it a go, to not withdraw or shy away from it. It’s continuing to test me as it comes together, but I must say I’m loving it. It’s opening up all kinds of avenues in my writing, it’s really been a revelation.”
Hamish Hawk: Life in a Scotch Sitting Room, Vol. 0, Edinburgh International Book Festival Spiegeltent, 16-17 Aug, 9pm