Pete Hawkes

Pete Hawkes (born 28 May 1965) is an Australian composer, poet, musician and luthier. There are over 50 recordings by Hawkes, covering a wide range of genres. He has collaborated with Bert Jansch, Joe Cocker, Phil Emmanuel, Steeleye Span and Dave Swarbrick.

Hawkes has been featured in a number of music and guitar magazines and some of his musical works have been kept for preservation at the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia. Hawkes has chromesthesia, a form of synesthesia where he sees sound in colors.

Early life Hawkes was born in 1965 at Lake Macquarie, Australia. He learned to play guitar on an old waterlogged guitar, nicknamed "The Paddle" because his father used it to paddle home one night when he was drunk. He learned guitar by listening to old albums, citing influences as diverse as blues guitarist Robert Johnson, English guitarist Davey Graham, and Bartók. The album was released by Festival Records and was critically well received. and he started playing in small clubs and hotels throughout the UK. He briefly reconnected with Dave Swarbrick in Coventry and supported him and Martin Carthy and in Scarborough, North Yorkshire with violinist Sue Aston. recorded with electric guitarist Phil Emmanuel.

Hawkes has created over 50 recordings He has collaborated with Bert Jansch, Joe Cocker, Phil Emmanuel, and Dave Swarbrick. Some of his works have been kept for preservation at the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia.

He is a member of the Australian Performance Rights Association (APRA).

Hawkes has also worked as a data analyst at the University of Newcastle.

Awards In 2002, Hawkes won the ABC Newcastle Songwriter of the Year Award, and in 2009 he won another ABC award for his instrumental works. In 2017, Hawkes won the Festival of Original Music Award (FOOM) from the Song Writers, Composers & Lyricists Association (SCALA). He was a finalist at the Australian Songwriters Association Awards in 2001, 2012, 2014, 2015, and 2016.