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Tauschke, Steve, 1998, 'The Hekawis - Sweet Soul Music', Beat Magazine
Now this is the fun rock fiesta this summer has been thirsty for, a mostly live (save for a few tracks) recording that recalls about a hundred sixties garage bands with large dollops of instro dabbling and surf. If you don't mind careless production and if you dig the Barracudas, early Hoodoo Gurus, Fleshtones, Dictators, et al, then saddle on up to the sound of "I'll Do Anything" or the harp-driven "On this Day".

Tauschke, Steve, 1997, 'The Hekawis', Beat Magazine
Brisbane outfit The Hekawis (the kooky Indian tribe out of F Troop to answer the question) is in town this week to help launch the surf music compilation "Remember the Beach". Bassist James chats with Steve Tauschke
Beat: You pretty much started out as a party band didn't you?.
James: "Yeah, we started playing parties and then saw how easy it was to get gigs and we got offered a few and thought we'd take up a couple."
Beat: You mentioned you've been to Melbourne a bunch of times already...
James: "Yeah, doing the surf stuff and all kinds of things. We do surf, soul, rhythm 'n' blues and a bit of garage-y stuff too. It's a mix so we don't try to stick to any type of music... Basically our sound is based around the fifties and the mid sixties. We don't really get too much into the late sixties. We're not into any scene. We're with the tomahawk set!"
Beat: And touring with the Hoodoo Gurus too.
James: "Yeah, we sent them a demo, a couple of singles, which they actually listened to while they were on the road. And they really liked it! They grabbed us before the show and said 'you guys sound just like we did when we started out!' Brad Shepherd and the bass player really got into it. We even did "Sam the Sham" cover for them by the Pharoahs."
Beat: I'm imagining your surf music tastes to run deeper than the Beach Boys.
James: "We're right, into the traditional side of things, to get as close to that sound as possible."
Beat: Does that include using vintage equipment?
James: "We've got really good gear. I think any band in the world would be happy to use our gear. We've got a nice farfisa organ with an old wooden Lesley cabinet they used to use in churches, it's got the horns on top that spin around and spit the sound out. Booker T and the MGs used to have one, that sort of organ sound. Our guitarist uses all Fender equipment and I've'. got a nice big Ampeg bass stack and our drummer uses a 60s Ludwig. And it's not just old gear for the look, it actually works and sounds better. The old value (valve?) gear warms up and reallu cranks it out. The warmer the gear, the better it sounds. It gets louder and fuzzier."
Beat: Has is ever gotten too hot, too fuzzy?
James: "During recording that happened to me once, my bass started to get a bit too much. But I like that, I like that overdriven bass sound!"
Beat: You've done an instrumental on this compilation. Is that a big part of the live set?
James: "We do about one third instrumentals. The one on the "Remember the Beach" compilation is "Yokozuna" and he was actually one of the wrestlers who was out here just the other week, that won all the matches... the sumo thing was originally supposed to come to Brisbane but for some reason the Government decided they didn't want it and then they tried to get it back when Melbourne got it. I was actually down there when it was on so I got to watch it on TV. Anyway, the song is pretty topical at the moment but it was written a long time ago. We recorded it especially for this CD."
Beat: What other releases do you have?
James: "We've got three EPs and a new single out. We've got "Yokozuna" and a track on another compilation on Corduroy Records. The single you'll be able to get at the shows."

Tauschke, Steve, 1999, 'The Hekawis', Beat Magazine
Blending garage, surf, soul and straight up rock influences, Brishane's Hekawis present a new album "Back To Mexico", and according to main man lames, a round of dates in town this weekend.
Beat: You recently toured with the Hoodoo Gurus. How was that?
James: "They didn't play around with us too much back stage or anything. We had separate dressing rooms and stuff but they were pretty good blokes. There was nothing too wild to talk about, they were probably too stuffed after every gig to get up to any antics. We got to see them about fifteen times all up. I couldn't get "Axegrinder" out of my head. It became the Hekawis theme song for the tour."
Beat: You don't realise how many good songs that band has until....
James: "Until you bear them all in the one set, yeah.'Beat: The Hekawis have released singles and EPs on a stack of different labels. Is it basically a case of whoever will have you?
James: "I think we've got the new one (Wiped Out label) which is French and the Telstar one in America and the othertwo are Corduroy and Giant Claw which are both Melbourne labels. Those last two both approached us so we've been pretty lucky really cos we haven't sent a lot of demos and stuff overseas. In fact I don't think we've hardly sent any. Actually Brett, our old guitar player, sent off the one to Telstar that got us the deal. But usually it's them I inding out about us through one of our records or a magazine interview."
Beat: Has the band built up much of a profile in the independent press, the fanzine scene?
James: "We always get reviews, for instance, in Bad Trip, a Texas fanzine,they always give us good reviews. They interview everyone from the 60s, 70s and 80s. The Telstar Records release got a tot of airplay on college stations over the States and reached 28 or something on the charts. But you know, any review or records on small labels, it all helps."
Beat: And they're all labels highly sympathetic to your sound too.
James: "They are. I can't see Sympathy for the Record Industry or Sub Pop or anyone like that wanting to put out the Hekawis'. I reckon that stuff's pretty commercial now."
Beat: Your sound is still very much an underground thing isn't it?
James: "Yeah, the surf thing came back with Pulp Fiction but I think all we got out of that was a bunch of bad surf bands. We've been slagged off a bit for apparent saying we're a surf band. I mean we don't even do that many instrumentals anymore. It depends on our lineup too, the last guys who were in the band were really into that stuff I the surf sound whereas now the instrumentals are more soul-based."
Beat: Tell us more about your new album "Back To Mexico"?
James: 'It was mostly recorded to OPM studios in Brisbane, which is where we record a lot of our stuff. We go in and do it live usually. We recorded about six or seven songs with overdubs and the other five are reel to reel which we did ourselves in the same way we did "The Spook" and a couple of those earlier records ... we used the old reel to reel tape from the 50s which gives you a really nice traditional rock n roll sound."
Beat: Reverby?
James: "A lot of reverb and a natural room sound. Very mono with one microphone over the fluorescent light. It's very low lo fi but actually sounds really good. There's a song on there "Monkey Woman" sounds just like something off an old Chess recording."
Beat: Seems like a natural way to record for the Hekawis?
James: "it's the best way to get the sounds of the instruments and the sound of the band live as well."
Beat: And I know you guys use the old vintage gear don't you?
James: "We've still got our old gear, the old wooden cabinets and the old Fender gear. And you can see a lot of bands are coming back using that gear now cos you can get good sounds."
Beat: Speaking of things old, are you still thinking about doing some Sam The Sham covers?
James: "Well, we've done a few Sam The Sham and the Pharaohs covers. We're doing "Ring Dang Do" and "Sorry About That", we used to jam those two. There are so many good Sam the Sham songs out there. Everyone's a winner."
Beat: Where's Sam actually from?
James: "He was from Memphis, just playing in bars there in the late 50s and he sort of developed his own trademark sound and was kind of oblivious to the British invasion."
The Hekawis play the Public Bar on Friday and the Dan O' Connell on Saturday.


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