PAUL HAWKINS & THEE AWKWARD SILENCES release their new double CD album "Apologies To The Enlightenment" on 19 April 2010 through Jezus Factory Records. The first single will be "Every Word I Say To You Today Will Be A Lie" released a week earlier Monday 12th April.
PAUL HAWKINS & THEE AWKWARD SILENCES began in 2006 as a collaboration between antifolk songwriter Hawkins & former DEATH IN VEGAS guitarist turned producer & drummer Ian Button in order to develop Hawkins' then mostly-acoustic songs into the compelling, twisted outsider pop that existed in Hawkins' imagination. Over the next few years they evolved into a six-piece & gained a fearsome live reputation as one of the most original & uncompromising live acts in London supporting the likes of BLOOD RED SHOES and WRECKLESS ERIC and gaining slots at the Latitude & Swn festivals. Debut single "The Bigger Bone" was the UK Student Radio Association's track of the week & was followed by a glut of critically acclaimed singles and their 2008 album "We Are Not Other People", which was crammed with wickedly twisted pop songs contrasted Hawkins' distinctive snarl & bleakly humorous lyrics with insanely catchy singalong tunes. The band have been championed by the likes of Radio 1's Huw Stephens who rejoiced in their "energy, individualism & off-kilter rock n' roll" and have drawn comparisons with outsider punk champion IAN DURY, the melodrama of NICK CAVE and the uncompromising post-punk of THE FALL, PIL and THE POGUES but have a take that is uniquely their own.
With their sprawling new double disc, "Apologies To The Enlightenment" PAUL HAWKINS & THEE AWKWARD SILENCES have produced at once their most challenging & their most accessible work to date. Opener "The Beasts In The Upstairs Bedroom" buzzes with menace & delves into the heart of a Suburban subconscious nightmare, "I’m In Love With A Hospital Receptionist" scrapes the romantic fantasies of a hapless hypochondriac against an almost jaunty rhythm section, the CRAMPS-esque "Monkey Serum" bounces on a wonky harpsichord and communal shoutalong chorus and the fuzz-pop of "Stop Making A Scene" sees Hawkins turn his frustration with the modern world on friends, inanimate objects and all else in his path.
Hawkins said "it’s an album about frustration, confusion & loss of direction. About realising your qualifications are meaningless, you're doing a job you hate, you're no closer to any kind of meaningful long-term relationship, you've no idea where your life's going and you live in a society guided by a large-number of irrational and illogical systems that you know full well make absolutely no sense but nonetheless have to abide by if you're going to in any way exist as a functional human being. And it's about trying to dive into that irrationality and emerge with enough misplaced hope & misguided optimism to get you through."
