Hawley Shoffner is a Wichita-based songwriter who claims comic books and Thin Lizzy as influences. She says that it’s easiest to write songs from the perspective of someone else. “They’re best,” she says, “when written from the perspective of Gena Rowlands or a vampire in sunglasses.” With a full length album behind her she has a new EP, called Tiger, that she’s eager to release.
My name is Hawley Shoffner. I am a songwriter. I play the ukulele, and the guitar and the piano and a 12-button accordion.
I think the first time I wrote a song was when I got my heart broken when I was 16. I called the guy who broke my heart because he brought a different girl to the dance. So, I wrote a song for him and called him and played it for him. And I think that that’s the first real song I ever wrote.
They usually just write themselves. I read a lot of comic books and usually that lends itself to some songwriting.
Thin Lizzy is my favorite band—probably next to Fugazi. I don’t know. They might share Number One. I think Phil Lynott has the best voice of all time. I like to put on really slow, sappy Thin Lizzy songs before I go to sleep. And I’m thinking about releasing a ukulele covers record of just Thin Lizzy songs, ‘cause I have, like, four down.
