Life and Times

Daniel Hawks was born on the central coast of California and raised in the San Joaquin Valley until the age of 10. After his mother’s death in 1990, the family moved to East Africa. It was there that he picked up his dads ’85 Yamaha FG-345ii and taught himself to play. By 1995, Daniel was living in the Caribbean and attending a Christian academy where he jammed with friends and performed original acoustic and electric material. After returning to the States, he had written more songs, learned lessons out of magazines and performed locally. His first album was called Nonsequitur and was published in 1998 as a senior project at the end of high school. His mentor during those years was country-rock legend Jonathan T. Wild and close friend Randall Sena.

Daniel moved to Florida after high school and still wrote and jammed with friends. After a string of odd jobs he joined the military. While stationed in AZ, Hawks performed on a live compilation of acoustic artists that produced in downtown Scottsdale using his birth name, Daniel Scott. In the Air Force, he had a band and performed a few house shows and before his departure from the AF, was asked to play the national anthem on electric guitar at an official change of command ceremony.

2004 found Daniel back on the west coast and performing with an outfit called Rheostat with longtime friend and collaborator Tom Brown. After a quickly published EP, they disbanded and he once again moved east. His second collection of material was only released to close friends and colleagues in Tampa in 2005 entitled Rezelia which featured the haunting track Full Rose Moon*.. Daniel performed at local bars and clubs like the Pegasus Lounge and The Copper Top Pub but a change was on the horizon. Hawks sold his van, quit his job and bought a one-way ticket landing him in Portland, Oregon, a place he had never been with no friends just to truly pursue music. After establishing himself in the thriving open-mic scene he was asked to join a power trio headed by Caleb Coffey in 2007. They gigged all across the greater PDX Metro area playing venues like Doug Fir and Fez Ballroom. Most of his time in Portland, Hawks lived at the spooky Fairmount Hotel in NW and met and worked with several musicians like Kendal Seager and Tino Martinez eventually playing bass for an outfit called Groups of III, led by the Rev. David M. Daniels. Eventually gaining enough contacts and support he managed recording and production of the original album Mauricio’s Ghost which would end up being released in 2008.