It was a chance encounter with Cowboy Kate in a second hand market in Melbourne that acted as one of the main inspirations behind local folk country troubadour Harry Hookey’s debut album Misdiagnosed. The poster, which became a notorious piece for acclaimed South African fashion photographer Sam Haskins, was hung up in the studio among other raunchy pieces in Nash Chambers Foggy Mountain Studios throughout the duration of recording the album.
“Nash throughout his studio collects portraits of nudes and a few other weird artefacts and so I saw it at this market and thought it would be great and so the poster sat on the wall and overlooked the whole session and it became a running joke that we had to make the album live up to Cowboy Kate because the photograph is so renowned. She was the goddess of the whole recording and everything had to be up to her standard. It was four boys locked in a studio for four weeks with a topless girl in the room, it became a bit of an obsession.”
Originally from Gippsland in regional Victoria, music has always been a love and main passion in Hookey’s life. In 2012, Hookey graduated in Law from Melbourne Uni and it was throughout his degree and the opportunity to open for Ash Grunwald, Tim Rogers, Doc Neeson and Busby Marou to name but just a few that Hookey decided that music was a more enjoyable career path than slaving away in courtrooms in the big smoke.
Hookey’s first encounter with music was driving back home from Melbourne in a hire car after a small car accident which the previous owner had left a copy of Sgt. Peppers in the CD, an omen of what was to come for Harry or just pure luck? “I remember putting that record on and my dad recognized it as the Beatles and so we listened to this album the whole way through and this was the first time that I think I fully understood music. It inspired a real passion inside me and that record is just incredible with great songs and weird sounds. I really like how they bookend the album with a theme.”
Backpacking through America with his brother Sam, it was the opportunity to gig around a little that allowed Hookey to live out one of his childhood dreams. Unknown to the brothers at the time, the venue doubled as a strip parlour as well as a bowling alley. Only in New Orleans right? “ When we booked it, I was willing to play anywhere and it was just for the experience of playing in the states. We rocked up to the venue that had ‘live music’ and organised the gig and they were really cool about it. We were placed down by the bowling but could see the other frivolities going on down the other end of the venue. Strangest gig I’ve played thus far, that’s for sure.”
Having gigged in a prison in WA in addition to all of the other supports, Hookey is one of the hardest and most seasoned performers in the local scene today. Playing in Castlemaine and Ballarat over the next few weeks you should go and check out this album in the full band setting for the true experience.
When&Where: 6th of June at the Bridge Hotel (Castlemaine), 7th of June at Mollonghip Town Hall, 8th of June at The Old Hepburn Hotel.
Written by Tex Miller