When you’re Hawk spawn

Riley Hawk’s earliest rock memory was attending Boom Boom HuckJam, the extreme sports/music tour launched by his dad Tony Hawk in 2002. “I was 9 or 10,” recalls the younger Hawk. “At the time I didn’t really understand how massive it was. But it was packing stadiums. I was super proud. I got to meet a lot of cool people.”

As one could imagine, meeting a lot of cool people comes with the territory when you are Hawk spawn. It surely didn’t hurt when it came to the younger Hawk getting sponsored by Baker Skateboards, Lakai Shoes, Independent Trucks, and Spitfire Wheels.

But his interest in the heavy psychedelic scene was cradled by the other heavy-hitting local acid crushers such as Earthless, Sacri Monti, Harsh Toke, and Joy. Hawk is the frontman singer/guitarist in Petyr.

“I think it all has to do with the fact that I grew up around these other bands,” Hawk says. “I obviously looked up to those guys. Plus there was [now closed] Thirsty Moon Records. That’s where I got into records by all the psych bands from the 70s like the Groundhogs. When you start discovering one obscure psychedelic band, it leads to another. It’s like falling down a rabbit hole. It’s super easy to get lost in that world.”

Petyr includes bassist Luke Devigny, drummer Nick McDonell and newest member Holland Redd who sings and plays guitar and keyboards. “I met him on a skate trip to Salt Lake City in 2014. He was in UFO TV which was one of their heaviest psych bands. He wanted to get out of Salt Lake, so he moved down here.”

East Coast-based Outer Battery Records just released the second Petyr album, Smolyk. “They put out like 350 copies on vinyl,” says Hawk. “I think they all sold out. We recorded it at Lost Ark Studio in Pacific Beach. It’s this super cool analog studio that you would never know is there. They have no signs out front.”

The largest Petyr gig so far was in April at the four-day Roadburn Festival in Tilburg, Holland. “There were six bands from San Diego,” says Hawk about the annual experimental metal festival that draws 5000. “We called it the San Diego takeover.”

“The Dutch government forked over a $20,000 cultural grant to pay for 32 guys from San Diego to fly over from San Diego to play this festival,” says Dave Sweetapple who is one of the principals of Outer Battery Records.

The irony that San Diego has become the home of heavy stoner psych rock, even while the city itself does not pay much attention, is not lost on Sweetapple. “I remember when I first met Earthless ten years ago,” recalls Sweetapple. “They told me ‘Nobody here gives a shit about this music.’ The perception worldwide is a lot of people think San Diego is the epicenter with this type of music. Because of all these bands, San Diego’s presence is overpowering.”

Hawk, 25, says he is recovering from recent ankle surgery due to skating injuries. “They took out a piece of chipped bone. My ankle was beat up pretty bad over the years.”