By Michael Molenda
If you believe the hype, Britain’s latest rock phenomenon, The Darkness, is bound for glory in the States. You’ve heard stories like this before. These guys won over their homeland’s pub crowds, graduated to stadium gigs by opening shows for the old guard (Metallica, the Rolling Stones, Def Leppard, etc.), logged a trio of hit singles in the U.K. (including “Get Your Hands Off of My Woman,” which put the expletive of expletives all over the Queen’s radio), and launched a number-one debut album. Here’s the point/counter-point on why you’ll love/hate them:

Jeez, they’ve photocopied ’80s hard rock bands. The Darkness definitely trades on the riffs and stagewear of ’70s and ’80s icons. But, don’t lie—you totally love that stuff.

What’s up with that singer’s voice? Justin Hawkins—who also plays lead guitar—sounds like the love child of Freddie Mercury and the Sweet’s Brian Connolly. Falsettos and stratospheric yelps are dispatched with impunity, and it almost appears as if Hawkins recorded Permission to Land [Atlantic]—the band’s American debut—in the throes of ecstasy and Kristal.

Isn’t this band a joke? Well, there’s definitely some tongue-in-cheek going on, but since when has great rock been college-professor serious? Van Halen was pretty hilarious—as was most of the ’80s—and even ’70s icons weren’t immune from a few yuckfests (check the lyric sheets of your fave old-school rock band for proof).

So there you go. The Darkness is a gang of charismatic fanatics who have assimilated beloved guitarists and bands from rock’s glorious past, and now they’re gunning to bring virtuosic guitarcraft back into the public consciousness. A joke? Who cares? Justin and his rhythm-guitar-playing brother, Dan, may just be the cats to kill off Britany, Justin, and Christina. Keep your fingers crossed.

The Rhythm Ace
Dan Hawkins
I hear you ended up with one of Jimmy Page’s Custom Shop Les Pauls.
It’s a cool story! I had asked Gibson U.K. for a ’57 Black Beauty reissue with a Bigsby, and they called me back and said, “The factory doesn’t make them anymore, and there’s a three-month waiting list at the Custom Shop. But there’s one in the office you can have. We made it for Jimmy Page, but it was too heavy for him, so he gave it back and we built him another one.” I’m actually having it set up right now. His action is extremely low, and I need to have mine as high as possible because I use thick strings and I hit them really hard. I actually Super Glue my fingers before every gig—I got bored of being covered in blood!

Elliot Easton will also be happy to hear you’re using one of his signature Gretches.
It’s the coolest guitar I’ve ever seen—just don’t tell him I took the pickups out of it [laughs]! When I got it, it sounded great, but it wasn’t quite edgy enough. I put in Seymour Duncans, and now it’s awesome—kind of a cross between an SG and a Gretsch.

Although the band draws inspiration from the ’70s and ’80s, effects aren’t a big part of your guitar sound.
If you can’t get a Marshall sounding good all by itself, then there’s something seriously wrong.

You’re also a proponent of multi-amp rigs, rather than using one amp with multiple channels.
Everything these days seems to be about efficiency and downscaling. I like a bunch of Marshalls putting out a lot of sound. I think it’s exciting when everyone in the band is cranked up and going for it—you just turn everything all the way up and have a big fight! And I like that element of doubt, when you’ve got this big guitar sound and you don’t know exactly when or where feedback is going to happen. It’s about flying by the seat of your pants, rather than having everything all turned down and overly processed. Too many kids learn to play through these effects boxes that have “metal sound” programs, and then they can’t whack the crap out of their guitars when they play through an amp.

That kind of aggression is what’s so cool about your record. It sounds as if you guys want to take over the world.
It’s quite unapologetic and noisy—which is good. You tend to hear a lot of the same guitar sounds these days—the whole over-produced, nu-metal rock rap PRS-through-a-Boogie combo thing. There’s no life in those sounds.

So is your guitar tone a reaction to that?
I’ve always played Marshalls, and I’ve always owned a Les Paul. I’m just following in the footsteps of my heroes.

Are you at all worried that American audiences might write you off as an ’80s rock boy tribute?
We’re not a concept band. It’s not like we consciously try to rip people off—we’re just playing what we love. Everything is so calculated these days. You have 13-year-old kids going to “rock school” who already know the ins and outs of record contracts, big American bands who portray processed emotions, and British bands constantly changing their sound and their haircuts to suit the latest scene. Aren’t you supposed to be pushing yourself as a musician, rather than trying to be successful? When I was nine years old, I was so into Queen it was stupid. I decided right then that I wanted to be a rock star, and I was oblivious to everything except trying to be a good guitarist.

The Flamboyant One
Justin Hawkins
Who are some of your influences?
When I was growing up, I listened to Aerosmith, Whitesnake, AC/DC, Queen, Van Halen, and ZZ Top. Then grunge happened, and I completely lost interest in music. I didn’t want to do anything for ages. And then we got this band together, and it all came flooding back in.

So what inspired you to form The Darkness after being virtually anti-music?
The frustration built up and I felt I had to do something. After grunge, it was Oasis and all the post-Jeff Buckley stuff—you know, people contriving their voice to sound like him. The whole scene was offensive, obnoxious rubbish. I just thought it would be a good laugh to do a proper rock album.

You told Rolling Stone that, as far as solos go, you can “piss all over your brother,” yet he does take a fair amount of leads. Do you have any criteria for deciding which one of you takes a particular solo?
Well, that was gracious of me! But, no, there is no plan. If one of us really fancies taking a solo, we’ll just step forward and take it. We’re quite polite about it, actually.

What’s your favorite solo on the new record?
It’s the one at the end of “Love Is Only a Feeling.” There’s a series of phrases, and the beginnings and endings of each phrase overlap with a harmonized bit. I also like the solo on “Friday Night.” It's very melodic, and it kind of reminds me of Ritchie Blackmore. I like to play fast, but I try to leave an idea of the song’s melody within the barrage of notes. It’s not really science. I’ll just play, and if I like the way a phrase works, I’ll keep doing it until a solo forms.

How difficult was it going from pub stages to having to excite thousands of people at a stadium show?
We first stepped up to the big venues when we toured with Def Leppard. We’d watch them every night, and we saw that they cover each other’s backs. For example, they’ll have someone at the forefront of the stage, and then there will be a bit of spectacle going on behind them. Those guys have a real command of the space, and watching them taught us how to maneuver without being contrived.

But can you really learn how to project yourself to a large audience?
Whether you can connect with 50 people or 50,000 is all within yourself. You either have it or you don’t.