10 years later, Wildcat Hawkins finally debuts his beautiful record, "Rough Diamond"
Review by Austin Sher
After being withheld for nearly 10 years, Wildcat Hawkins has finally decided to release his fantastic “new” album, Rough Diamond. Please read with us as we dissect our thoughts on the record, as well as a bit of insight into the artist himself.
Born in Lexington KY in 1984, Hawkins, also known as Matt Keig,moved to Minnesota when he was five. He started singing as a boy in a first grade boy's choir and picked up guitar at 14, writing songs immediately. While playing odd gigs here and there, and making liberal use of a four track tape recorder, he didn't truly pursue music until later in life, starting to gig regularly in 2019. Now a staple of the Eau Claire, WI music scene, Wildcat is expanding his vision and meeting new fans on every continent. With a strong desire to play various styles, hip hop production, alt country stylings, jazzy indie, jam and mellow acoustic pop all factor into his overall vision. One thing you’ll gather from the music is Hawkins is very much a visual artist.
Our immediate thoughts after listening to Rough Diamond were why wasn’t this beauty of a record released immediately after it was recorded, produced, and released. Obviously it’s difficult to get into the head of a musician who can be hesitant with their work, as they see it much differently than the listener, but we were astounded with what we heard.
We got a chance to catch up with Wildcat Hawkins on the release and he let us know, “This album has a lofi sound but I put a lot into the production. It's basically a bedroom recording sound that was a little too good not to release. I was prodded into releasing this by musicians in Eau Claire after I shared the unmastered mixes to demonstrate what I wanted to do. I've been involved in mental health and suicide prevention causes because I have issues with depression. Those issues factored into my decision not to release these songs for ten years. I didn't really want to have an audience to answer to or any community involvement. Now that I'm trying to get better myself and I have real friends in the music scene I'm willing to give music a shot. I'm finding that I actually love interacting with people and sharing my music and visual art.”
After hearing that important information, it all kind of came together as to why exactly this piece of work was withheld. The amount of confidence you have to have to release personal work has to be unbearable, there’s so much possible inevitable rejection to face. Let us fill you in though, we wish this was released when it was recorded, because there’s so much to uncover and discover here! Thankfully though, it’s out in the world and being listened to, as it should have been intended.
The album comes in at 12 songs at a 44 minute runtime, and while it’s obviously super difficult to pick and choose which songs we enjoyed most, we do have our favorites. This isn’t to say we enjoyed certain songs less, but “Burned Out Star”, “Teenagers”, “Crimes”, and the album closer “Cascade” really spoke to us. Listening closely to the lyrics and stories that are being told, it’s never been easier to get into the head of the artist here. Making a comparison to Eau Claires natives Bon Iver is a little too easy, however, those are the feelings we got from listening here.
Breaking down each song would honestly be too difficult, which is why we implore you to take the time out of your day to sit down uninterrupted and listen to this in full. Seriously, you will not be disappointed. If you’ve got a nice set of headphones available, you’ll notice all the subtleties in the instrumentation that you otherwise might not have. We’re not big fans of ranking albums out of 10, so let’s just say the record ranks in the upper echelon of numbers, take that information and do with it what you will.
For all things Wildcat Hawkins, to listen to Rough Diamond, and to keep up with all future releases and information, please check out the following links below.
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