Scotland’s Hamish Hawk is set to release his latest album, A Firmer Hand, August 16 via Fierce Panda. Having come out of the gates firing on all cylinders, he continues his momentum with the record’s third single, “Men Like Wire.”

Hawk spent last month on tour across the UK and Europe supporting Villages. With a run of headlining UK dates and in-store performances set for August, Hamish has been announced to support Travis first in the EU late August/September, before a UK run in December [all dates below].

“In ‘Bakerloo, Unbecoming’, I wrote ‘essentially it comes down [again] to the limitless mysteries of other men’,” notes Hamish. “‘Men Like Wire’ is a deeper excavation of that idea. In short, it’s about men. Men I have and haven’t known, men I’ve seen, heard, loved and lost. Men I’ve been seated next to at weddings, bus stops and dinner parties, on trains, beds and park benches. They’re all in there, for better, for worse.”

The song is paired to a video directed by Andrew Pearson, the guitarist in Hamish’s live band and co-songwriter. Containing all manner of besuited men, some like wire, some arguably less so, it’s a tailor-fitted companion to the ruminations of the song itself. 

Of his new album, Hamish says: “Writing this album, I opened up my closet, and a skeleton came out. The thing that links all of the songs is a sense of the unsaid, whether out of guilt, shame, repression, embarrassment, coyness, whatever it might have been. I realised: I am going to say these things, and not all of them are going to make me look good. The album made so many demands, and I just gave myself over to it.

Once I’d given myself over to the idea, I thought, I have to stick to this. I can’t hide anything from it. I can’t clean it all up for consumption. It felt uncomfortable for me – and that’s exactly how it should feel. That’s a really strong position.”

Through the writing of “Machiavelli’s Room,” followed by the arrival of songs such as “Milk an Ending” and “Juliet as Epithet,” A Firmer Hand came into focus as an album directed towards Hawk’s relationships with men: friends, lovers, family, colleagues.

“I thought, this is the body of the record. The fact that it makes me nervous tells me it was the right thing to do.”

It takes only a couple of listens to be sure that it is a risk worth taking. And just a couple more to determine that A Firmer Hand is the best and boldest record Hamish Hawk has delivered to date. “It’s a bit of a coming-of-age record,” he says. And a record for the ages.

Tour dates [tickets]:

07/21 – Reading, UK @ Englefield Estate (w/ Elbow & Villagers)

08/03 – Newport-on-Tay, UK @ Lughnasadh Festiva

08/04 – Barnsley, UK @ Underneath The Stars Festival

08/13 – Kingston-on-Thames, UK @ PRYZM

08/14 – Leeds, UK @ The Wardrobe

08/15 – Manchester, UK @ Night & Day

08/16 – Bristol, UK @ Rough Trade

08/17 – London, UK @ Rough Trade East

08/18 – Nottingham, UK @ Rough Trade

08/19 – Liverpool, UK @ Rough Trade

08/20 – Oxford, UK @ The Jericho Tavern

08/21 – Portsmouth, UK @ The Brewery

08/22 – Brighton, UK @ Resident
08/23 – Kettering, UK @ Green Belt Festival
08/24 – Birkenhead, UK @ Future Now Weekender

08/26 – Amsterdam, NL @ Paradiso ^

08/28 – Barcelona, ES @ Razzmatazz ^

08/29 – Madrid, ES @ La Riviera ^

08/31 – Bern, CH @ Bierhübeli ^

09/01 – Paris, FR @ Le Trianon ^

09/03 – Cologne, DE @ Live Music Hall ^

09/04 – Berlin, DE @ Huxley’s Neue Welt ^

09/05 – Hamburg, DE @ The Docks ^

09/23 – Glasgow, UK @ Assai at St. Lukes

09/24 – Edinburgh, UK @ Assai at Liquid Rooms

09/25 – Aberdeen, UK @ Assai at Tunnels

10/19 – Cardiff, UK @ Swn Festival

12/05 – Leeds, UK @ O2 Academy ^

12/06 – Manchester, UK @ Albert Hall ^

12/08 – Liverpool, UK @ Olympia ^

12/09 – Wolverhampton, UK @ The Halls ^

12/10 – Nottingham, UK @ Rock City ^

12/11 – Margate, UK @ Dreamland ^

12/13 – London, UK @ O2 Shepherds Bush Empire ^

12/15 – Bristol, UK @ Beacon ^

12/17 – Eastbourne, UK @ Winter Gardens ^

12/18 – Sheffield, UK @ Octagon ^

12/19 – Newcastle, UK @ O2 City Hall ^

12/21 – Glasgow, UK @ Ovo Hydro ^

^ Travis