Why Grandhour Were Concerned With Musical Diversity

Grandhour's debut Bombs & Bullets has been a long time in the making. Frontwoman Nicole Hawkins and her husband/lead guitarist, Jason, spent seven years building their own recording studio, Rock Hawk Records, before forming Grandhour with band members Mark Hawkins (Jason's brother), Chris Lugton and Jerome Smith. They recorded in their own private studio, produced by Nicole and Jason, then sent B&B to LA mix engineer Paul David Hager (Goo Goo Dolls, Hoobastank) who split mixing duties half and half with Jason. Finally, the album was mastered the legendary Stephen Marcussen (Foo Fighters, Audio Slave, Led Zeppelin). Altogether the process took another three years, resulting in an album as explosive as its name.

Though they didn't write the album with an overarching theme, they did want it to be "empowering and thought-provoking", says Nicole Hawkins. "The songs cover topics from social and political (Bombs & Bullets, Beneath The Surface) to inspiring and uplifting (All In Or Nothing, Come Fighting, Scar By Scar).

"The album songs were shortlisted from a large body of work written over a long period of time. Some newer songs made the cut, some very old song made the cut. We were more concerned with musical diversity and topic on the record than how old a song was!"

For inspiration and (as a reference point) "We listened to a lot of world class classic rock" and then hit the studio with a combination of technical brilliance, gut instinct and determination to capture something polished but powerful. "We aim for emotion and feeling, then use the most perfect take that has these attributes. If we don't have the take, we do it again until we do!"