A Hawk and a Hacksaw: Notes from the Danube

Along with Beirut, A Hawk and a Hacksaw [AHAAH] provide a musical travelogue far deeper, more reverent and relevant than any Lonely Planet or Rough Guide could ever hope to achieve. Traversing the world, they amalgamate sounds, styles and musical disciplines, making them their own, without ever degrading or patronising them. This is world music, but not in the sense of some crass, bland categorisation, more as an approximation of the heart beat of the common soul found throughout the globe. “We don’t pretend to be an authentic folk band,” says Heather Trost, one half of the band (completed by former Neutral Milk Hotel drummer Jeremy Barnes). “There are so many traditions we try and learn or just play for fun. The ones we end up recording are the ones we are able to make our own, or add our own melodies to. Sometimes there’s a certain melody or song we just fall in love with playing.”

Many could be forgiven for thinking that the music of AHAAH falls into the ever bludgeoning renaissance of Eastern European folk music – simultaneously mournful and celebratory – most of which ignores the rich heritage of the music for a quick buck on a snappy melody. This is the true music of the outsider and of the downtrodden, a far cry from the glossy mainstream.

“We were playing our music long before this trend came about,” Heather explains. “By ‘our’ music I mean that while we do play some traditional songs, most of the songs we play are written by us, but influenced by the music we love and listen to, whether it be Romanian or Turkish influenced. I think often what becomes popular in the mainstream has its roots in underground and fringe culture. The mainstream takes artistic and fashionable cues from the ‘other’. Take for example high fashion taking stylistic ideas from ‘gypsy chic’, or ‘boho’. The mainstream takes what is beautiful about outside cultures and tries to put it in a nice package for Western audiences. Hopefully people will take this sort of tip of the iceberg interest in Eastern European music and Gypsy music that is being celebrated in popular culture and really take the time to investigate it further. If people want to listen to authentic folk music, they should listen to the records that influence us, and if they want to listen to us, they can listen to us.”

As seasoned travellers, the band continue to search out new sounds while on tour. “We are totally inspired by our surroundings and travels,” says Heather. “It's nice to feel that surge of creative energy that comes from finding yourself in a new exciting place, surrounded by new people. We usually get to meet a lot of people from the different places we play in, and sometimes nice people put us up, and so in a way we probably get to see, taste, try and hear things that most tourists with a Lonely Planet don't get to, which we feel very fortunate to experience."

This fearless embracing of exciting and moving music, regardless of roots or locale, has served AHAAH in making a wonderful concoction of a boisterous and magnificent songbook, the fifth chapter of which arrives in the form of Délivrance this month. “Our songs are also very influenced by stories,” suggests Heather, particularly of the surreal march of Vasalisa Carries A Flaming Skull Through The Forest towards the end of the new album. The song is based on a Hungarian folk tale revolving around a young girl sent out to the forest by her cruel stepfather to gather wood for the fire, accompanied by a magic doll who comes to life and helps her when fed crumbs of bread. She is captured by a wicked witch who intends to cook and eat her. She tricks the witch and escapes with the aid of her doll, stealing the perpetually burning skull which heats the witch’s cottage to scares away her stepfather and keeps herself warm with. “It is a very theatrical fairy tale, and I wrote the melody with this story in mind,” Heather says. “But I decided I liked it as an instrumental better.”

For travellers, clubbers, romantics, folk diddlers or the just plain curious, AHAAH’s music is a treat to be appreciated by all. “We are just doing what we love,” says Heather coyly. “And hoping that someone else might get something else out of it as well.”