Mallory Hawk, Double Double Whammy

💭 Thoughts on living through the AI-without-regulation era, Serj Tankian’s Down with the System, and letting the universe work its magic.

Mallory Hawk is a lifelong music obsessive who quit her corporate job to move to NYC and start working in music in 2017. She began working part-time at the indie label Double Double Whammy, eventually growing into the full-time Label Director position which has a heavy focus on marketing, project management, and A&R. She also is a musician and a writer so she tries to put the artist’s perspective and artist’s rights in everything she does. When not working or playing guitar, she’s usually watching RuPaul’s Drag Race, playing video games, or dwelling in cafes reading celebrity memoirs.

🎯 Current focus

I am working on so many things. I’m relocating from NYC to North Carolina this summer and I’m already getting carried away with the new influx of time and money that I’ll have. I just booked studio time to begin recording my solo album at the Headroom in Philly and I’m currently picking apart my demos and finding the proper production influences for each song. I love the research phase (aka smoking a spliff and zoning in on snare sounds with my studio headphones on). I’m also toiling away with a few other projects, a book of essays, a podcast with my music-obsessed parents, guitar pedal tutorials that don’t make women feel like idiots, etc. I’m also doing much more touring this year and I love touring, I think it’s an incredible privilege. It’s gonna be a busy few years!

🪐 Dating app culture & just letting the universe work its magic

I’m really excited to see people starting to spit out dating app culture. I think it’s really harmed the way we treat one another in the sphere of love and sex. We morphed our most vulnerable selves into our most robotic selves. I’ve always been against them and felt continuous pressure from friends to get on them. I’m a DM slider, or a phone number on a receipt kinda girl. I like asking people out. I’ve honestly failed more than I’ve succeeded but I’ve never regretted it. The character-building of it all is really humbling and human, plus the sensation of a real human crush is so much more fun. I think we’re supposed to let the universe work its magic by putting people in like-minded spaces, not forcing two puzzle pieces to fit together because someone looks good in a bathing suit. You can’t game-ify love, it’s something mankind has spent years trying to define. Everyone has their own definition.

📚 Serj Tankian’s Down with the System

I have been punishing people at parties about Serj Tankian’s new memoir Down with the System. I’m so blown away by the level of activism that System of a Down were able to achieve with their music through a major label system. That shit would not fly today, and they did it in one of the most politically-charged times in America (Toxicity hit #1 on 9/11/2001). I love that they forced these major label suits to air music videos about the Armenian genocide and war crimes. Every member of the band was Armenian and they were making them millions. These “music moguls” were backed into a corner. Plus, making your music 70% activism and 30% humor is the ultimate fuck you. I found myself laughing on the train at the brilliance of Toxicity while it blasted through my headphones. 

🤖 Living through the AI-without-regulation era

I’m a bit spooked about living through the AI-without-regulation era (I literally have nightmares about it) and I think we should all stop overthinking and curating our social feeds so much. My friend and I were doing deep dives on our instagrams to try and find an old photo and we were kinda blown away at how little we seemed to care. Everything will eventually be so “curated” and airbrushed that I’m more intrigued by letting people back into the less glamorous parts of life and seeing the humor in that. Instagram has become “agonize over a post for 3 days”-gram, nothing instant about it. It’s seemingly the social network that will last the longest and I value the information I find and share there. But I also want to have fun with it. Social media will end one day, which is hard to fathom now, but it is true. You never know you’re living in the golden age of something until you look back.

🔥 Consistently elevating women with earnestness and realism

I’ve honestly had a lot of trouble finding any role models in the music industry because such a large chunk of it is jaded dudes. It wasn’t until I started writing essays on my substack that people were sending me pieces by Jessica Hopper. Since then I’ve kept up with her work as a writer and a director. I’ve always been a proponent of running with the boys, not at them. It’s important to tell the minorities of music the reality of the world they’re entering, and that the joy of playing music is what should sustain you, because “sound guys” and the bands you play with will treat you differently. Jessica Hopper has provided some of the most cutting rock criticism and consistently elevated women with earnestness and realism. I hope to achieve half of what she’s done in the music industry!

🌇 Final summer living in NYC

It’s my last summer in NYC and I’ve turned into a total “yes man.” NYC is really beautiful when it’s not your problem anymore haha. I’m excited to go to shows with the fervor of a teenager and sit on rooftops with my friends. I’m planning to play a few intimate house/roof shows too and those are always special. I love when the noise of the city mixes with someone’s live performance.

🧢 The key to good skin care 

I can't live without a baseball hat and a sunscreen stick! I don’t leave the house without them. Even in the wintertime. I’m glued to my Roland camo trucker hat right now, it’s become my personality. I tried to buy a backup and they’re sold out already! City living has made me practice good skin care on a daily basis. As Johnny Knoxville once said before putting on a helmet — “gotta protect the money maker.” 

Follow Mallory on Instagram, Linkedin, Substack, and Bandcamp.

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