Since 2004, music lovers have enjoyed a real camaraderie with rising pop-rock band Hawk Nelson, helping the quartet sell nearly half a million albums, land personal appearances on major television and motion picture projects, and gain high-profile song placement ("Bring 'Em Out") with NBC's NFL Sunday Night Football campaign.
Now the true bond of friendship between the group and others continues to strengthen, mature, and be more overtly celebrated than even before with the Canadian-originated act's third Tooth & Nail release, “Hawk Nelson Is My Friend.”
Refreshingly, Hawk Nelson doesn't rest on its youthful success and had no problem reaching past the pop-punk core to create something uniquely enjoyable for its audience.
"We don't want to be that band whose record sounds just like the last one," Biro explains. "It's great to work with people who have so much experience and can help us grow."
Essential to the all-around appeal of “Hawk Nelson Is My Friend” are the contributions of guitarist Jonathan Steingard and drummer Aaron Tosti. In talking about cuts like "One Little Miracle" and "Not the Same," Biro describes the remarkably dynamic and highly melodic and muscular guitar parts as being "so good I could cry." And it was Tosti who set the energetic tone for the entire record, laying his confident, seasoned rhythms down first alone in the studio when a time crunch required the rest of Hawk Nelson to stay out on tour with a fill-in stickman.
For all of their adventures and successes thus far, the members of Hawk Nelson still see themselves as "four guys just trying to make it," says Dunn. "We'll always be working toward that, trying to write the best songs possible."
“Hawk Nelson Is My Friend” most definitely lives up to that goal. Their friends will love it.