“Cannons” by The Hawk in Paris, Sunday, May 15, 2022
When you’re the lead singer to one of the biggest Christian Rock acts of all time and you want to start a new, completely different musical project, what do you do? In 2009 Dan Haseltine came up with a new electronic pop concept. Unlike the beginning of their career, Haseltine’s other band Jars of Clay was becoming more and more boxed into the Contemporary Christian scene. The band played churches and had a guaranteed income from fans. However, when Haseltine gathered together two of his friends, Nashville CCM/ Country producer and multi-instrumentalist Jeremey Bose and former Jars of Clay guitarist Matt Bronleewe forming the group The Hawk in Paris, Haseltine was free to go in whatever lyrical direction he wanted to.
IF YOU LEAVE ME NOW, YOU’LL LEAVE ME BETTER THAN I WAS BEFORE. Taking their name from a 1957 album by saxophonist Coleman Hawkins, The Hawk in Paris is Dan Haseltine’s experimentation with pop music. According to Halestine when he talked with Frank Jenks on the Listen In podcast, the singer-songwriter was reacting to what he thought was superficiality and over-sexualization in pop music, which arguably has gotten worse in 2022. The Hawk in Paris released their first EP in 2011 His + Hers and their only full length, Freaks, was released in 2013. The band released two more singles after Freaks, “Frozen Heart” in 2015 and “Dream with You” in 2016, and haven’t been heard from since. Although the head-scratching lyrics on the eponymous song “Freaks” (“Boys and the girls and the freaks in the middle”) may not have aged well, today’s song, “Cannons,” examines conflict that escalates between a loved one. It’s the conflicts that arise that turn love to hate. It’s the intelligence gathered when the loved one was most vulnerable. What used to be a tool for good, now is a weapon for harm.
MUST BE BITTERSWEET TO BELIEVE SOME HALF-HEARTED TRUCE. “Cannons” explores a war metaphor as both sides have come to a truce. The war may be over, but now the relationship can go one of two ways: it can heal or end. Haseltine admits, “If you leave me now, you leave me better than I was before,” acknowledging the good that person has left on the speaker. He leaves the decision up to the other party. As far as I know, Haseltine doesn’t cite a specific conflict that “Cannons” is about. It could be about a marriage or a business decision. The universality of music allows us to apply a song about a marriage to a business conflict and vice versa. Career musicians often have conflicts with people they trust the most, whether it’s bandmates, producers, label executives, or others who establish a longstanding relationship with a band and are invested in their success. But when those relationships go awry, the cannons come out. Everything that was said is used as a weapon. Sometimes the conflict goes to court and an outside party has to resolve the conflict. Does that solve the problem? Rarely. Today’s song talks about the merits of simply walking away from the conflict. Empty your cannons, spill your ammo. Surrender. You win. What’s next?
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