Jonny Welburn Tom Stedman Jane Lane
Kes C Rachael Townend Philip "Fizz" Lane
The voice of Hookstick. Unique, powerful and engaging vocals and a mesmerising performance. Kes delivers impact every time with every ounce of her personality and body. In "Who You Are" she drifts seamlessly from the tender and soft delivery of a soul ballad to a raging gospel style chorus. In other tracks such as "Serious" and "Watch This Space" Kes C shows all the command of an Aretha Franklin or James Brown. A great front person with amazing audience interaction....she truly owns whatever stage she's on.
Hookstick music is written around the bass. Many tracks originate with a bassline and Rachael's virtuoso abilities make her ideal for the part. Whether on 4, 5 or 7 strings, a perfectionist streak and a fantastic fluidity mean that our pop funk sound gets conveyed perfectly. Bass and vocals often work off each other particularly in our reggae-based tracks such as "Love Dream" and "Sparkles". Rachael also has a great stage presence, working beautifully off the guitar and drums to produce a super tight rendition where it counts. Some great performances which audiences are unlikely to forget.
Keyboards are critical to Hookstick tracks, particularly in these early days, adding brass, strings and some electro sounds. It's a band ambition to play with all these instruments live, but in the meantime the keys are the glue, giving us that awesome funky and real time feel. Phil's also our producer, keeping the band on track and making sure the live sound matches the great recordings.
Tom is a world class guitarist with a background in metal and fingerstyle guitar, which gives him an enormous range of techniques to call on for Hookstick music. Astoundingly versatile and another perfectionist, his funk rhythms and jazz style inflections create a level of brilliance to tracks such as Discovery and Love Dream, and everyone remembers his fantastic solo in "Serious" when he breaks free of the funk for a breathtaking minute to do his own thing....or when he duels with Kes for the lead line during "Watch This Space" .
Jonny is the Hookstick drummer and second vocalist. A dynamic and creative drumming style suits the funky and slightly idiosyncratic style of the band, he keeps the energy flowing in a great and consistent way, also adding in mellow and inventive backing singing which has become the Hookstick trademark.
Jane writes the majority of Hookstick tracks and also works on the production as well as playing keys and piano on the live versions and recordings. It's never straightforward. Songs are laid down using keyboards and Cubase, with the lyrics getting devised at the same time. Jane often writes in a number of key parts in her track building, and her "living basslines" feature quite strongly in some tracks.
Jane also makes a good cup of coffee if you can wait long enough.
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