As the rhythm guitarist holding down the fort while his brother plays lead, Dan Hawkins is the Malcolm Young of The Darkness, so who better to explain why the late rhythm king was the best in the business, and how anyone would go about emulating him? Hawkins has tried, but it is easier said than done...
“It was my brother, Justin, who turned me onto AC/DC. I immediately picked out the rhythms as something I could do. I could hear this guy playing in a way that made me think, ‘Gosh, I might actually be able to do that!’ Malcolm’s approach was groovy but also angry and aggressive.
“He wasn’t playing lightly. His parts sound simple, but when you delve deeper, despite being mainly open chords, they’re quite intricate. Let’s put it this way: I struggle to play barre chords! I spent two years with the stereo panned hard left so I could only hear Malcolm.
“I did my 10,000 hours of trying to copy him. To some extent I failed, but it helped me find my own way. If you try to emulate him, it’s like sport: mess up once and the whole thing is gone.
“But Malcolm never put a foot wrong. He was always in time. If the rhythm section started to drift, he would go with it and then pull them back into line.
You can hear that on the live stuff...
it’s incredible! He’s got to be one of the most underrated guitarists ever.” “Definitely. His sound wasn’t particularly high-gain.
I went from to electric, so my brain was already quite anti-distortion, in a way. I liked t.