Hot Milk: Living The Good Life
“It’s good to be back, baby!” is the exuberant response from Han Mee of HOT MILK as we sit down, in a venue no less, for our interview ahead of their sold out show at London’s O2 Islington Academy. Eighteen months ago, as the world was plunged into lockdowns, this was unthinkable but there were glimmers of hope and, as lockdowns lifted, bands got ready to go back out on tour and share their work with the world.
HOT MILK themselves have recently released their second EP, I Just Wanna Know What Happens When I’m Dead to critical acclaim, but they’re not resting on their laurels. “We’re on two week release for tour, then we’ll go back to hibernation and cracking on with the studio,” Han remarks. It might seem a rapid turnaround but with the pandemic, it means they’ve ended up sitting on material for quite some time, unable to be on the stages they thrive on. “I mean, the first song we wrote at the back end of 2018 for [the EP]”, she explains, “then we kind of wrote dribs and drabs of it,” guitarist/vocalist Jim Shaw continues. “It’s been a blessing and a curse, because we’ve had so long to sit on it and get it exactly how we want it. We did it at my house, we’ve sat there and we recorded it all. We’ve gone through each individual part, ripped it to pieces, re-recorded it over and over again to a point where we both just wanted to fucking throw the entire thing out the window!”
Despite this and as Han quips, “we quit the band about five times!”, it’s been a remarkably successful EP, building on their previous success and winning them new fans in the process. Their fairly rapid rise hasn’t come as a total surprise to them; Han admits they spent a good year planning before launching the band and are no strangers to putting in the work. “I think we’ve got another EP to write,” Han says. “I think we want to go out to LA and write for a bit there just because I think, [being] stuck in the same place for so long, we’ve kind of milked the walls of all the inspiration. I think we need to go somewhere new, just to reconnect to the real world again.” Jim continues, “this tour’s been pretty good for that as well It’s been like. We didn’t feel like a band, we just felt like two individuals in a bedroom just writing songs that may or may not be good.”
They’re confident in themselves as a band and their aims; but this need to be out there, amongst their fans, runs deep. “Now we’re getting back into the flow of touring and seeing fans’ reactions, hearing other bands’ music and just living in the scene again, it’s like engines started,” Jim begins before Han finishes his sentence. “Like memories being made again – and that’s a big part of writing songs. I want to be in a band, I love memories, experiencing new stuff. I love new stuff, I love the people.”
Talking about their desire to build a community, but also remaining independent, she explains “you’ve got to do this around the people that you love and care about and also keep control – like, we are fully in control of this band.” As Jim explains it, “building a fanbase, we’ve done smaller bands before and it’s not really – there’s not really been a fanbase [for those bands], but with this like from the get go, we found so many people that were just, like, ready to immerse themselves into what we do.”
There’s a clear passion for building their community and being frank and open with them, giving their fans something to latch onto. Lyrically, the new EP, as many of their songs do, touch on mental health, issues with depression and self-worth (such as Woozy or I Think I Hate Myself) – as Jim describes it, “we can’t keep writing about the pandemic, this is why we need to keep living because we write about experiences,” and Han expands, “I think we’ve got nothing to hide, man. There’s not one thing we have to hide. It’s just real, honestly and I’ll tell you anything, my deepest, darkest secret. It’s yours, I don’t have anything to hide.”
They might only have been a band for a short time, but there’s clear determination behind them and a desire to build a welcoming community. HOT MILK not only have the songs, but they’ve got the desire to go far and to be an inclusive space for as many people as possible; and people are responding to them, with this sold out tour only proving that further.
I Just Wanna Know What Happens When I’m Dead is out now via Music For Nations.
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