I spent ages searching for like-minded musicians around London; the trouble is, if you don’t know what your own mind is like, how are you supposed to search for like-minded collaborators? I did learn something about musicians, though: they all seem to be convinced that no one feels things quite as deeply as them.
In 1995, a guy called Dan Hawkins replied to an ad I’d placed in Melody Maker. He was a shy 18-year-old bass player with floppy hair and a strikingly serious demeanour for his age. Shy but determined, and obviously quite talented. After my bass-playing adventure in Swing, I had developed into a cack-handed 27-year-old guitar player. We hired and fired our way through two short-lived bands before finding a suitable singer and drummer. Upon christening the outfit Empire, I switched instruments with dextrous Dan and set about recruiting his older brother Justin to play keyboards and second guitar.
Justin had a delightful childlike way about him and refused to take anything seriously, but Dan took things very seriously indeed and had fired him from both of the school bands they’d been in together. Dan was credible, whereas the older but infinitely more irresponsible Justin was, in his own words, incredible. I suppose I acted as a foil, corny as that sounds. Sweetcorn in tin foil on the barbecue of electric dreams. I made it a personal crusade to convince them to play together again, for the simple reason that bands containing talented siblings always seemed to go places.
The fact is, they were both musically gifted and appeared to be grounded individuals with a sense of honour and decency instilled into them by the archetypal loveable cockney parents (who’d raised them in East Anglia’s Lowestoft). They had character, strength of will, genuine humility and good humour. It was as though I’d been endlessly tossing a coin, always getting the inevitable heads or tails, and finally it had landed on its side – perfectly and precariously balanced. I decided that, no matter what happened with Empire, I’d like to continue working with the Hawkins brothers.