Hawksley Workman

Hawksley Workman biography

Ryan Corrigan (born March 4, 1975), better known by the stage name Hawksley Workman, is a Canadian rock singer-songwriter who has garnered critical acclaim for his blend of cabaret pop and glam rock. Workman has released eleven full length albums throughout his career. He is a multi-instrumentalist, playing guitar, drums, bass, keyboards and singing on his records and often switching between those instruments when playing live.

Workman is a prolific artist, usually writing, recording, mastering and releasing entire albums in the span of a few weeks. He explains, "A lot of artists I know they get a year and a half away from a record they've just made it's like ... 'Oh ... it's terrible I hate that thing,' ya know? When I record a record, I never take more than a day per song... so by the time the record is mixed, finished, complete, done... I'm still in a honeymoon with the record ..."

His music has been featured on the television shows Scrubs, Being Human, Falcon Beach, Queer as Folk and Whistler.

Workman produces and engineers much of his own recording, and has produced albums for other artists as well.

Periods and albums

Beginnings (1998)

Corrigan was born in Huntsville in the Muskoka region of Ontario, attending Almaguin Highlands Secondary School and later Huntsville High School. He later moved south, to Toronto, to pursue his musical career.

In 1998 Workman says he was, "just beginning to find my voice." He recorded first in the front entrance of a friend's studio, then moved his studio "to the basement of a friend's recently deceased grandmother on Hillsdale Avenue" - this basement is where he recorded his early albums For Him and the Girls and (Last Night We Were) The Delicious Wolves, as well as material that was released several years later on Before We Were Security Guards and Puppy (A Boy's Truly Rough).

In that studio, Hawksley Workman engineered and produced albums for other musicians. He worked with many artists during this time, which played a role in the development of his production skills early in his career.

Hawksley Workman released his first album in 1999 on his own label, Isadora Records. This album, titled, For Him and the Girls, earned him comparisons to the likes of Tom Waits, Rheostatics and Harry Nilsson.

Workman has been known for his unusual and creative promotional materials as well as his music. Around the time of his debut release, he published a number of letters to "Isadora", a fictional lover, in the classified section of Toronto's NOW. (These letters were later published as the book Hawksley Burns for Isadora.)

In 2000, Workman collaborated on an album called Chrome Reflection, credited to a band named Bird which also featured fellow Canadians Jason Collett and Andrew Cash. The album also featured performances by most of Workman's then current live band.

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