Interviewin'

Interviewin': Paul Lacques of I See Hawks in L.A.

Paul Lacques talks about I See Hawks in L.A., the art of being country and funny at the same time, and why Los Angeles is a better home for this music than it gets credit for.

February 23, 2012 / updated May 2026 /jody

I See Hawks in L.A. has been making records since 2002 and has maintained a consistent aesthetic through all of them: country rock that takes the music seriously without taking itself too seriously. The band — Paul Lacques, Rob Waller, Paul Marshall, and Victoria Jacobs — sounds like a group that has absorbed the Bakersfield and country-rock traditions and can reproduce them fluently while also finding something to say of their own.

The combination of genuine musical knowledge and a sense of humor is rarer than it should be. Most Americana artists who want to signal erudition go solemn. I See Hawks go somewhere else.

Paul Lacques spoke with When You Awake in early 2012.

You've been playing this music in Los Angeles for a decade. Do people still assume that's a contradiction in terms?

Less than they used to, I think. The Bakersfield sound was made in Los Angeles by people who drove up from the San Joaquin Valley to record. The Byrds were a Los Angeles band. The Eagles were a Los Angeles band. If you know anything about the history, you know that Los Angeles and country music have a long relationship. But you're right that the assumption persists.

The Hawks have a reputation for being funny. Is that a burden or a gift?

It's both, at different times. The humor is genuine — we're not performing humor, we actually find things funny. But there's a persistent assumption that if a band is funny, they can't be serious. That the comedy is a sign that you're not really committed to the music. Which is wrong. Bob Wills was funny. Roger Miller was hilarious. The idea that country music has to be solemn is a pretty recent invention.

What's the current record cycle look like?

We've been working on new material that sits closer to the folk end of what we do. Less electric guitar, more acoustic work. The fiddle and pedal steel are more prominent. It's a natural evolution — you spend enough time with the music and you start hearing what's underneath the rock parts.

Who are you listening to now?

We're all over the place. I've been spending time with the Hazel Dickens catalog. Rob has been deep into Guy Clark lately. Victoria is playing a lot of Bobbie Gentry. The common thread is people who write songs that hold up — you can listen to them a hundred times and still hear something new.

What do you want someone to take away from an I See Hawks show?

Ideally they go home having heard something they'd never heard before and having laughed at least twice. The music and the humor aren't separate things for us. They're both ways of paying attention to what's actually there.