Today we’d like to introduce you to KP and Johnny Hawthorn.
KP and Johnny, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
Our band, The HawtThorns came about recently. We decided to team up, we are a married couple, each of us with extensive experience in the music biz and both having been in several bands and solo projects.
KP Hawthorn, having come recently from a five-year run with LA’s CALICO the band and prior to that a solo project that culminated in hundreds of music placements on tv and film. Johnny Hawthorn toured with many acts over the past years including a ten-year run with Toad The Wet Sprocket, Everclear and more.
The HawtThorns is all new music, focused on fun, guitars, melodies and great productions. It is a California sound to be sure, jangle included.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc. – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
The music business is always full of challenges. The way that people consume music today is ever changing. We have gone away from the physical product to downloads and now streams. Also, the climate in the music business which is primarily run by men tends to see women as a novelty.
Our best advice to any young woman finding her way in the biz is to find yourself and who you truly are as an artist, don’t make excuses for it and try not to be anyone else but yourself. Also, remember that it is work and needs to be treated as such, deadlines, no excuses, positivity, etc. Nothing replaces hard work and talent, no matter what sex you are.
So, as you know, we’re impressed with The HawtThorns – tell our readers more, for example, what you’re most proud of as a band and what sets you apart from others.
As our project is new, we are discovering it as we go along. We have both been rooted in solid productions, we love producing other artists as well.
KP has recently co-produced the new Alice Wallace record Into The Blue which came out this January to much acclaim. Johnny creates productions for TV and Film on a regular basis for quite music libraries.
For us, it is about solid songwriting, great arrangements, and performances.
Sounds are also very important. We started our new record, which is complete now, and we weren’t sure what we would get as each of us have very different strengths. Johnny being a tremendously strong guitar player and arranger and KP being a melodist and songwriter. We are so proud of the way it sounds, its own unique, California sunshine saturated piece of art, full of depth and meaning. The album is titled “Morning Sun”, after a track on the record about new beginnings.
Were there people and/or experiences you had in your childhood that you feel laid the foundation for your success?
We were both brought up to work hard. The differences in our upbringing have a lot to do with time period and area of the county, JH being a Philly boy and KP being a California girl. Both of us had our own family struggles but come from very loving backgrounds. That combination tends to nurture strength, pushing through and also compassion and artistic leaning.
Contact Info:
- Website: Www.thehawtthorns.com
- Email: kphawthorn@gmail.com
- Instagram: Www.instagram.com/kphawthorn
- Facebook: Www.facebook.com/thehawtthornsmusic
- Twitter: Www.twitter.com/kphawthorn
- Other: Www.kphawthorn.com
Image Credit:
Adrienne Isom, Xotic Gutars and Effects
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