Photo by Ally Schmaling
Every week, we’re here to remind you of the local artists we love and think you oughta know.
I don’t suspect that one finds their perfect musical partner often—maybe once in a lifetime, if you’re lucky. Suffice it to say that when you find a good match, you stick with them. You’ve got to keep your connection burning. You’ve got to douse your little flame in lighter fluid.
That’s exactly what Taylor Holland did when she cancelled her cross-country move in 2016, and stayed in Boston to finish what would become her first project with bandmate Heather Scott. That summer, the two formalized their contemporary folk duo Hawthorn.
This summer, the weekend after what would have been Newport Folk Fest (*cue banjo-tinged sobbing*), it’s only fitting that we feature a true blue local folk band for this episode of our recurring series. Hawthorn makes the kind of music that will at once silence an entire room, while simultaneously bringing audience members together. Holland and Scott’s voices juxtapose each other in essential ways—sparking on different notes and cues, taking turns heating up and cooling off during alternate verses and bridges—so that when they come together in harmony, listeners feel that familiar folky warmth.
Hawthorn’s last LP, Maggie Willow (named after a character Scott and Holland imagine as a shared ancestor) dropped over a year ago, in March 2019. On it, they weave nature and country-life imagery in with themes of watershed moments to create songs that each radiate with their own unique storylines.
Hawthorn was kind enough to chat with Allston Pudding, and talk about these recent releases, along with music that we can look forward to, and how they’re currently taking action during COVID. Read all about it below.
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Allston Pudding: Tell me when and how your latest releases, “Bridges” and “The Current,” were made?
Hawthorn: These songs were both written in 2019—”Bridges” in the spring, inspired by a revelation Tay had while driving on one of our long touring days, and “The Current” in the summer on a friend’s property in New Hampshire. We wrote “The Current” outside and got the worst sunburns, but it was totally worth it! At the end of last year, we weren’t ready to record an entire album yet, but we had been playing with our band for a full year and wanted to document the new sound. Working on a smaller, two-song scale also allowed us to focus on just being with each other and enjoying the process, with less pressure to complete a large-scale project. In an industry that can be really draining to navigate, it’s important to work in a way that feels exciting and fulfilling. We worked with Sean McLaughlin at 39’ Studios, and we were so happy to have some of our favorite Boston musicians on these songs: Kathleen Parks of Twisted Pine on fiddle, Max Ridley on bass, Kevin O’Connell on drums and keys, and of course Justin Nash Fisher on guitar.
AP: How have y’all been coping and collaborating in the last few months? Any upcoming releases?
H: To be totally honest, we’ve both been burning the candle at both ends for the last couple years—running a band and supporting ourselves is a lot of work! So we’ve been using this time to rest and reflect, to re-center our writing process and our relationship, and generally just take stock of ourselves and the world. Singing, movement (Heather loves long bike rides, Tay has a near-obsessive yoga practice, and we both adore a kitchen dance party), our amazing creative roommates, exploring new hobbies, and outdoor socially-distanced friend time all help us cope.
AP: What are some topics you’d like to cover on your next album?
H: To name a few: Destruction of capitalism, queerness, joy as a political statement, gaslighting, emotional resilience.
AP: What has inspired you this month? (Music/art/sounds/sights); What’s your favorite imagery to include in your songwriting and why?
H: We have been obsessed with The Chicks’ new album Gaslighter since the first single by the same name came out at the beginning of March. Our friends Eleanor Elektra, Naomi Westwater, and Anjimile all have new releases that we’ve been loving.
Favorite imagery—this is a hard question! You never want to feel like you’re relying on any kind of lyrical tool, so we’re always challenging ourselves to grow our verbal comfort zones! We try to write really directly from our feelings, and when we do turn to metaphors they often come through nature (especially elements like water and fire), astrology, and other mythic archetypes.
AP: What’s your personal history with folk music? When and how did you start playing music in general?
H: Both of us grew up with a lot of folk revival legends—Joni Mitchell, Peter Paul and Mary, Gillian Welch, Simon and Garfunkel. Later we dove deeper, loving artists like Nick Drake, Vashti Bunyan, The Tallest Man On Earth, Alison Krauss, Brandi Carlile, and the Weather Station. We also listen to a really wide variety of genres—driving home from gigs we often put on ABBA or Destiny’s Child to unwind, and we both indulge in offbeat indie ambient music when we’re home alone and want to unwind. We also love pop! Heather has a pop and pop-punk obsession and knows all the words to too many Carly Rae Jepsen and Motion City Soundtrack songs; Tay spent too much time in high school listening to pop-country radio and stadium rock, and you should definitely ask her to DJ your next road-trip through big-sky country. When we’re thinking about Hawthorn sound, we turn to icons like Bonnie Raitt and Stevie Nicks, plus newer artists like Lucius and Maggie Rogers. Bands we really look up to are the Indigo Girls and The Chicks, both for their music and their activism.
AP: Any virtual gigs or events coming up you’d like us to promote? Any causes you’d like to specifically talk about?
H: We’re so privileged to have been able to put out multiple releases over the past four years, so if you dig our sound there’s a lot out there to listen to. Right now we’re keeping our work internal, focusing on our purpose and writing rather than releasing and promoting. If you’d like to join us in activism: we’re currently donating to The Okra Project and The Loveland Foundation, Tay is currently reading: Pleasure Activism by adrienne maree brown and The Body Is Not An Apology by Sonya Renee Taylor, and Heather is currently reading They Can’t Kill Us Till They Kill Us by Hanif Abdurraqib and listening to the podcast Code Switch.
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Listen to Hawthorn’s March 2020 release, “The Current,” streaming via Bandcamp below.