The Spin

Eirikur Hauksson / Eric Hawk was born on 4th.of July 1959 in Reykjavik, Iceland. At the age of 15 he started his singing carrier in his home country, performing with various coverbands for five years before recording a L.P. with his band “Start”. His own song “Sekur” (Guilty) from that album was voted “Song of the year” in 1981, and at that point Eirikur became a household name throughout the country. In 1983 he formed his own band, calling them “Drysill” wich means a small teasing demon. “I was really going against the wind that time”, Eirikur says. “New-wave was in and metal was out! But we gained a strong following and had success those couple of years we kept it going”. Drysill’s only L.P. product “Welcome to the show” was released in 1984. 1000 copies were made and sold, wich is pretty good in Iceland for a band who had no label and played music too heavy for the radio stations. Unfortunately the masters are now completely lost, so to those of you who might have a copy; this is already quite a collectors item. While touring intensely with his band, Eirikur also did many guest appearenses for other artists. In 1985, as the members of Drysill were breaking up, he suddenly found himself on top of the charts with the two most popular songs of the year. He was now the most popular artist in Iceland.

And when Iceland, in May 1986 participated for the very first time in the Eurovision Song Contest, Eirikur was hired to do the job with two other lead singers. “This was a crazy period” he qoutes. Suddenly I was doing maybe 3-4 performances a day five days a week and was literally dancing in the spotlight. It was the typical rock-star life, being headhunted by young schoolgirls and driving limousines, you know all that crazy stuff. I remember the feeling of being a “hooker” sneaked in every now and then, but what the hell; at least I was an expensive first-class one” One can say for sure, that it came as a shock to most people when Eirikur announced he was leaving this life “of fame and fortune” to yet again lay all his cards on Heavy-Metal, as a member of a completely unknown Norwegian band called “Artch”. Eirikur moved to Norway in September ’88, just after the release of the first album “Another Return To Church Hill”. Artch stayed together untill 1993 and managed to come up with a second album as well “For The Sake Of Mankind”. Eirikur is still living in Norway though and is a professional musician based in Fredrikstad. He is a so called “freelancer” doing various stuff all around the country. Heavy Metal is still what he wants to do the most, and currently (autumn 3003) he is fronting “Wild-Willy’s Gang” with Willy Bendiksen on drums, Morty Black on bass, Ronnie Tekrø on guitar and with the guest-appearance of Brian Robertson (“Thin Lizzy”). “I am really quite happy with the way things are going for me, although I must admit that I sometimes miss not having a band of my own. I’ve tried with some mucisians after “Artch”, but it just hasn’t been the right thing for me, not yet anyway. As a “freelancer” Eirikur is “for hire”. You should check out this great singer if you get the chance.