Robin Hawkins (born 11 February 1986) is a

vocalist Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...

and

bassist A bassist (also known as a bass player or bass guitarist) is a musician who plays a Bass (instrument), bass instrument such as a double bass (upright bass, contrabass, wood bass), bass guitar (electric bass, acoustic bass), synthbass, keyboar ...

. He was a member of Welsh band

The Automatic The Automatic (also known as The Automatic Automatic in the U.S.) was a Welsh rock band. The band's last-known lineup was composed of Robin Hawkins on vocals, bass and synthesisers, James Frost on guitar, synthesisers, backing vocals and occas ...

Personal life

Rob studied at

Cowbridge Comprehensive School Cowbridge Comprehensive School is a secondary school in the town of Cowbridge, Vale of Glamorgan, near Cardiff, Wales. The school has approximately 1,500 pupils, 1,200 of whom are in the secondary years and 300 in the sixth-form years studying f ...

, completing his

A-levels The A-Level (Advanced Level) is a subject-based qualification conferred as part of the General Certificate of Education, as well as a school leaving qualification offered by the educational bodies in the United Kingdom and the educational aut ...

and going on to take a chance with The Automatic in his gap year. Originally Rob was more interested in playing

flute The flute is a family of classical music instrument in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, meaning they make sound by vibrating a column of air. However, unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is a reedless ...

, joining the Cardiff and Vale Youth Orchestra, however later, at the age of 12 after buying a bass from Automatic guitarist

James Frost James Martin Frost (born 22 August 1986) is the guitarist, keyboardist and backing vocalist of Welsh band The Automatic, and guitarist and backing vocalist for Cardiff-based band Effort. As well as his musical duties for The Automatic, Frost ha ...

, he taught himself to play and eventually saved enough money to afford his Fender USA Jazz Bass. Hawkins speaks

Esperanto Esperanto ( or ) is the world's most widely spoken constructed international auxiliary language. Created by the Warsaw-based ophthalmologist L. L. Zamenhof in 1887, it was intended to be a universal second language for international communi ...

as a hobby. He graduated from Cardiff University with a

first-class honours degree The British undergraduate degree classification system is a grading structure for undergraduate degrees or bachelor's degrees and integrated master's degrees in the United Kingdom. The system has been applied (sometimes with significant variati ...

in Computer Science. His final year project was an investigation of musicality perception in an evolutionary context, the results of which were published in ICMC'14.

Musical career

Lead vocalist and bassist, Hawkins also has been seen playing a variety of other instruments for The Automatic, most notably the

during the band's performances of

Gold Digger Gold digger is a term for a person, typically a woman, who engages in a type of transactional relationship for money rather than love. If it turns into marriage, it is a type of marriage of convenience. Etymology and usage The term "gold ...

and the

synthesizer A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and ...

during performances of "This Is A Fix".

Notable appearances

On 9 January 2007, he and former band-mate

Alex Pennie Alexander Gregor Pennie (born 14 December 1985) was previously in Welsh band The Automatic from the Vale of Glamorgan, South Wales, where he provided backing vocals as well as playing synthesizers and keyboards for the act. Pennie left The Au ...

stood in for

Zane Lowe Alexander Zane Reid Lowe (born 7 August 1973) is a New Zealand radio DJ, live DJ, record producer, and television presenter. After an early career in music creation, production and DJing, he moved to the UK in 1997. He came to prominence thro ...

BBC Radio 1 BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It specialises in modern popular music and current chart hits throughout the day. The station provides alternative genres at night, including electronica, dance, ...

, in a series of stand-ins whilst

was on holiday. The line-up also included fellow band on

B-Unique Records B-Unique Records is a London-based record label, and publishing company founded in 2001 by Mark Lewis and Martin Toher. B-Unique's current roster includes John Newman, Kodaline, James Bay, The Mispers, Darlia, Benjamin Francis Leftwich, Luk ...

Kaiser Chiefs Kaiser Chiefs are an English indie rock band from Leeds who formed in 2000 as Parva, releasing one studio album, ''22'', in 2003, before renaming and establishing themselves in their current name that same year. Since their formation the band h ...

, as well as The View,

Snow Patrol Snow Patrol are a Northern Irish–Scottish Rock music, rock band formed in 1994 in Dundee, Scotland. They consist of Gary Lightbody (vocals, guitar), Nathan Connolly (guitar, backing vocals), Paul Wilson (musician), Paul Wilson (bass guitar, ...

, and

The Zutons The Zutons are an English indie rock band, formed in 2001 in Liverpool. The band are currently composed of singer, songwriter and guitarist Dave McCabe, drummer Sean Payne and saxophonist Abi Harding. They released their debut album, '' Who Ki ...

Equipment

Rob predominantly uses a Fender USA Jazz Bass. He has used and purchased various bases, however prefers his Jazz bass to other models he has used. * Ashdown bass amps * Fender USA Jazz Bass *

Boss Boss may refer to: Occupations * Supervisor, often referred to as boss * Air boss, more formally, air officer, the person in charge of aircraft operations on an aircraft carrier * Crime boss, the head of a criminal organization * Fire boss, a ...

Bass Overdrive * Boss Chromatic Tuner * SansAmp Bass DI (x2) * Dunlop .73mm Plectrums * Musicman Stingray Electric Bass

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hawkins, Robin Welsh bass guitarists The Automatic members Living people People from Cowbridge 1986 births 21st-century bass guitarists