The Third Eye

Not too long ago, The Third Eye wrote about a new orchestral art-rock album by David Hawkins’ project, Be. The album – Here – was released on October 6th and is the third album for the Be project, the first in seven years. In between Be albums, bandleader David Hawkins released two records from his rock outfit Hawk, including 2020’s Fly, which Billboard praised as “topical, political, riffy, hard-rocking, and poignant.”

Hot off the heels of releasing Here, Hawkins is back with an excellent new video for “Can Dreams Come True,” a track off the record. The Third Eye is proud to present the premiere of the video, which you can watch below:

The video for “Can Dreams Come True” was conceived, directed, shot, and edited by Hawkins, who also handled the FX. “I’ve loved North Indian Classical music ever since George Harrison’s raga-influenced Beatles songs led me to Ravi Shankar’s music,” Hawkins says in a quote about the video. “It opened me up to a whole other world; it was esoteric and mystical and I would (and still do) listen to it for hours on end when I’m working on art or writing. It’s also been a part of my yoga and meditation practice for years, so eventually its influence started to find its way into my music.”

Hawkins adds: “This song imagines the Divine as a lover, much the way Rumi does in his poems, a recurrent theme in my work. I’m fascinated with the archetype of the Goddess and the symbolic (and literal) power of the Divine Feminine as a transformative force and one that I think is much needed in the world right now. The yearning in the song is as much for human connection and union with the One as it is for transcendence, and I think we captured that feeling in the recording.

“In the video, I wanted to create a moving mandala; like a centering and meditative prayer, to match the song. I created layers by stacking several kaleidoscopic images and applied visual and color effects until they came to life. It was really mesmerizing to work on and I love the way it turned out. This whole album has been so much fun and I’m really grateful to be able to make music and to play with such luminaries. And if I had to answer the song’s question, it would be a definite yes.”

That’s really beautiful sentiments there, and as I mentioned in the post about the album, it’s an excellent antidote to our current cynical era.

Hawkins played with some awesome collaborators on Here, including Jayhawks frontman Gary Louis, Elvis Costello drummer Pete Thomas, and Mott The Hoople keyboardist Morgan Fisher. Also joining on the record are Brian Wilson’s musical director Paul Von Mertens on woodwinds and horn arrangements, and trumpeter Max Crawford (Wilco, Willie Nelson, The Waco Brothers).

Here has been praised as a “real headphones record that unabashedly channels and honors many classic rock pillars,” and it has a dream-like otherworldly quality that’s rich and orchestrally stacked, bringing the classic Beach Boys album Pet Sounds to mind. If you enjoyed the video for “Can Dreams Come True,” check out the whole record and support Be on Bandcamp.

Check out Here by Be on Bandcamp.

Support Be by finding them on Bandcamp, social media (Instagram, Facebook), or see all of their links here.

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