Interview with Australian Pianist: Fiona Joy Hawkins

Today I am so excited to be conducting my first music interview. Those of you who have been with me for a long time or have browsed my blog I'm sure you would have gathered that I love music. And it is my pleasure to help in anyway I can to get the names of those in the arts out there.

Fiona has kindly agreed to be my first subject. There is something to be said for Facebook friendships which is where I met Fiona. Fiona take it away:

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Fiona what is your musical background?

I started playing piano when I was 8 years old.  My Mother was 17 when she had me and so my Grandmother moved in to look after me.  With her she bought a 100 year old piano and I instantly fell in love with it.  I asked my parents for lessons – and it started from there.  Right from the word go I wanted to write music but realised I had to follow the syllabus for long enough to be able to play to the standard I could write too – ones writing is never more sophisticated than their ability to play, so scales and years of practice had to come first!

What made you decide to turn your early interest into a music career?

I think that a career in music chose me!  There is a drive that comes from somewhere that I can’t even explain, the need to follow this crazy pursuit and keep writing music.  Writing comes out of the pores of my skin and its something I have to do.

What musical genres do you play in?

I never understood what a genre was until about 15 years ago – music was music and I either liked it or I didn’t.  Then I learned that I fitted neatly into New Age, but with a bent towards World, Classical and Jazz.  I love to listen to Folk music in my spare time.

Tell us about the musical instruments are you accomplished at and to what extent do they feature in your music?

My first and main instrument is piano, I learned a little violin but not well enough to use in my career.  I can play some guitar and I also sing.  I’m OK at percussion.

As a composer, what music, books or experiences influenced you while writing your most current album? 

My most current album is actually two albums.  I recorded them both at the same time!  I did Christmas Joy – which is half original and half covers and I also recorded 600 Years in a Moment.  In some ways I put experience from across my whole life into an album.  I have to draw inspiration from thoughts, images, places…………the landscape and my own experiences.  I’m a conceptual writer, so I need subject matter.  Whatever is happing in my life at the time, or whatever I’m looking back and reflecting on will be the subject of the day!  To give you an idea, I wrote Earthbound after a 2 year break when I had left a 25 year marriage and my 2 sons and my life had been shattered.  I had moved in with someone I loved very much and the first time I sat at the piano in this new house, Earthbound poured out like a direct response to the trauma I had been through.  Six months later I wrote Running on Joy, which I like to claim is about nothing more than being happy.  Once I asked Will Ackerman “what will happen if ever I get happy, will the well of music dry up”, he said “No, you will just discover the major key” – and so I did.  I do still write a lot of sad things in the minor key, but they are less a reflection of my own inner self and more of a way of storytelling or taking on situations outside my own life and expressing them as music.  Telling ones own story gets boring after a while, so you have to look to other people to get subject matter.

 I recently sent a link of Flight of the Albatross to a friend who loves classical music (which I must confess I am not well versed in). In his very complimentary feedback he said he could hear some Chopin influence in it, what would you say to him in response?

I have had many people say I have influences from Chopin………..actually that is the most common.  I’m very flattered.  Please thank your friend.  If I were to name the composers who have influenced me I would say Prokofiev, Ravel, George Winston and Michael Nyman – the two latter are contemporary composers.

What generally inspires creativity in you?

The sun, the moon, moods, landscapes, thoughts, images, emotions – I am a story teller.  Music is just the medium I use to convey the story.

I find your music to be beautiful, tranquil, ethereal and earlier you spoke about your early interest in music. So I deduce that current results must be influenced by years of practice but can you elaborate on how you achieve this effect? 

As a child (from age 7) I used to lie in front of the speakers and put Ravel’s Bolero on and listen for hours and hours – I used to deconstruct it in my mind and listen to how the instruments come and go.  To this day industry people tell me I’m the ‘queen of the build’ – that’s where it comes from.  I then went on to listen (for hours and hours) to Andrew Lloyd Webber – mostly Evita and Superstar.  And then Prokofiev Peter and Wolf.  Other teenagers were out doing whatever teenagers were doing, I was lying in front of the speakers soaking it all in, or dancing around the house day dreaming as far into the music as I could go.

What do you feel when you play?  

That varies – but I know I’m in the zone when I finish and forget even playing.  If I truly let the music take me away then I am able to go where the piece of music came from in the first place.  I know I have performed in a concert well when I finish and forget there is an audience there, the audience can feel it too.  I wish I knew how to do that every time, but I don’t.    I use the piano as meditation in my life – when I’m angry, sad, lonely, happy…………….I go to the piano.   The piano keeps me balanced, answers all my questions, gives me an outlet to pour my feelings.

What response do you want your music to evoke in an audience when you are on stage?  

I tend to make people cry.  Fortunately I’m a bubbly person, so I make them laugh when I talk and cry when I play – that’s the main thing I hear after a concert – which tracks made someone cry. 

Do you do musical concerts and such appearances

I love doing concerts – I just played a whole pile in the US – I even did one with Liz Story – that was amazing.  I’m about to go on tour in Australia, starting at the Brisbane Jazz Club and going as far as the Promethian in Adelaide.  It’s for six weeks and its called 2Grand I’m Yours – I’m touring with another pianist ‘Trysette’.  We have very different styles.  She is a singer songwriter in the pop genre and I will be playing and singing in the New Age style.  Its great cause our performances compliment each other.

So far what has been the most memorable performance for you?  

I enjoyed playing the David Friend Recital Centre in Boston………… and also the Basement in Sydney on a Stuart and Sons piano.  There have been a lot of wonderful concerts – I also love the Q Theatre in Sydney – where I recorded a live album.  Its due out next June and its called LIVE at the Q.  I recorded it with the Blue Dream Ensemble, and I’m really looking forward to getting that out.

Who would you love be on stage with?  

George Winston

If you were stranded on an island and had to choose one artist for company, who would that be and why?  

Liz Story – I really like her, she is warm, funny and brilliant.  Also Sting, he is a very deep person and would be interesting to spend enough time with to talk about deeper issues than the surface.

What have been your greatest achievements in your musical career?  

Recording with Will Ackerman, meeting Bob Ludwig and watching Corin Nelsen move into a producing role on my new Christmas Joy album.

What do you have in the works at the moment and what can your fans expect in your next album?  

I’m about to release Christmas Joy, and next year in June LIVE at the Q and next October sees the release of 600 Years in a Moment.  I’m also brining out SACD versions of both the albums.  I’m waiting to hear on several film scores, about to go on tour and running my record label.  I am juggling a lot of balls at the same time!

Last question, who you are outside of work and with your family?  

Just Fiona Hawkins.  I forget I even know how to play piano sometimes.  The daily grind of keeping a house, cooking dinner, dealing with children is very sobering in the middle of an international music career, awards and recording studios.  The reality of life is that we all get up in the morning, take a shower, get dressed and eat breakfast before we do anything else.  The day just deviates from there – some days its great, some days it’s a hard dreary slog.

Thank you for taking the time to accommodate my interview Fiona, I look forward to the upcoming albums and know they will be as superb if not more than your current.



Note to readers:

To find out more about Fiona's music, concert schedule and ticket sales go to her website for more info.

Website: Fiona Joy Hawkins