INTERVIEW: HotWax

When I caught up with HotWax before their headline gig at The Lexington in April, bassist Lola Sam and vocalist & guitarist Tallulah Sim-Savage both revealed that ‘Rip It Out’ was their favourite track from their upcoming debut EP, A Thousand Times. Today (17th May), the Hastings band have shared their visceral new anthem about contraception, accompanied by a riotous video shot at The Green Door Store in Brighton.

Having just returned from the seaside city after performing multiple shows at The Great Escape Festival, the trio – completed by knockout drummer Alfie Sayers – have been garnering a loyal following on their local live scenes of Hastings and Brighton over the past few years. They have a busy festival season ahead of them, which includes slots at Mad Cool in Madrid and Visions Festival in Hackney, as well as sharing a bill with The Strokes and Yeah Yeah Yeahs at All Points East Festival in August. This might seem like an intimidating schedule, but the three teenagers are taking things in their stride.

“We did our first ever mini tour recently, just to get a taste of it,” Tallulah tells me. “We’ve been gigging for years, but we’ve never gone away and played more than three gigs in a row. It was really nice spending time travelling together and bonding. Playing live is our favourite thing ever. I never feel happier than when I’m playing live. We’re just really enjoying everything, it’s so much fun.”

Tallulah and Lola have known each other for years and have the unshakable bond that comes from surviving school together. Tallulah explains that the pair played in a band called The Kids when they were fifteen years old. “I played guitar, Lola played bass and we had a singer and another drummer. When that band ended, we formed HotWax and I decided to sing. I would never sing usually, but I thought ‘I’m just gonna do it’, because we got on really well and we didn’t really have another friend at school to invite into the band.” She laughs at that last part, and I do to. It’s hard to believe that the pair struggled to find friends to play along with them, as they both seem modest, but truly passionate about being in a band making music together.

Drummer Alfie can’t remember a time when he wasn’t playing drums. It seems like an act of serendipity that he met Lola and Tallulah, completing the HotWax line-up. Together, they create the type of guitar music that other bands take years to master. Their sound is raw, but self assured, visceral yet melodic. Each time I’ve seen them play, I’ve felt an overwhelming rush of joy, because I know I’m witnessing something truly special. But maybe I’m just projecting and being sentimental? I wish I’d been in a band like theirs when I was eighteen.

So what influenced HotWax’s sound? Lola says she remembers listening to CDs in the car with her Mum – “stuff like The Beatles, Amy Winehouse and Destiny’s Child” – before she discovered rock music in her early teens. For Tallulah, it began with a love of Lady Gaga, before her Mum played Blondie’s Parallel Lines album at a family party, and she became totally obsessed with it. “I was listening to that album for a whole month,” she smiles. “I remember feeling kind of guilty about it in a way, that rock music was ‘bad’ – I don’t know why? I was quite an anxious child. I was like, ‘Oh, this feels really bad, but it’s really good!’. That’s probably when I got into heavier music and was inspired to play electric guitar, rather than acoustic.”

Through these eclectic influences and an endearing rebellious streak, Lola and Tallulah wrote the eponymous track from their upcoming debut EP, A Thousand Times. “The reason why we called the song and the EP ‘A Thousand Times’ is because Lola and I have gone through complicated relationships together, but it’s also about being just everything to each other,” Tallulah explains. “It’s sort of like we’ve had this argument a thousand times. It’s all about growing up and the things that come with that. Dramas, arguments, heartbreaks, everything. It’s celebrating us growing older and still being friends.”

The track is now a staple in the band’s live shows, but it took a while for it to sound the way that it does now. “It took us ages to record it,” Lola explains. “We didn’t record it until Alfie was in the band. The music video for it is made up of clips from then until now. So it’s like this photography project. With the song and this EP, it has been a collective effort from us and our producer as well. I’m really happy with it. I think that we went into it with the view of ‘this is what it sounds like now, live’, then we when you go into studio, you have more options of where the song can go and it can end up sounding different, but in a good way.” The band worked alongside Kid Kapichi’s Ben Beetham to bring their record to life. “He’s a great producer, he was so enthusiastic,” Alfie adds.

With their debut EP released in just a few days (May 19th), some stellar live shows lined up, and their recent signing to Transgressive Records, I ask how the band are feeling about these impressive feats. Tallulah is quick to respond: “It’s weird. It’s all I’ve ever wanted and I’m so happy, but everything’s happened so quickly. It’s kind of hard to process it and not to feel the pressure a bit. We’re writing our second EP and it’s like ‘Oh, people are actually going to hear these songs now,’ it’s a weird shift from just being a small town band. Yeah, it’s quite overwhelming sometimes.”

“It’s not just us that we have to impress anymore,” Lola adds. I caveat that with the fact that people seem to already be deeply impressed by what they do, which they smile at. We close our conversation with some recommendations on what to listen to. They all chime in enthusiastically, especially Alfie: “There’s a band called Lime Garden who we really like, they’re from Brighton. Kid Kapichi are really great. We’re good friends with a band called Mindframe, they’re really cool. Our local music scenes are great. We also love a band called Congratulations and Honey Badger too!”

Watch the video for ‘Rip It Out’ below.

HotWax Live Dates 2023
17th May – Brighton, The Prince Albert (Pearl Harts tour)
18th May – Portsmouth, The Edge of the Wedge (Pearl Harts tour)
19th May – Bristol, The Lanes (Pearl Harts tour)
20th May – Hastings, Printworks (support from Snayx and Borough Council DJ set)
1st June – Manchester, 33 Oldham St (Alien Chicks support)
2nd July – Newport, Rebel Fest
7th July – Madrid, Mad Cool Festival
22nd July – Hackney, Visions Festival
25th August – London, All Points East Festival
9th September – Torquay, Burn It Down Festival

Follow HotWax on bandcamp, Spotify, Instagram, Twitter & Facebook

Photo Credit: Holly Whitaker

Kate Crudgington
@KCBobCut

 

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WATCH: SPIDER – ‘America’s Next Top Model’

Taking aim at her critics via abrasive riffs and candid lyrics, London-based, Irish musician & producer SPIDER has shared a video for her latest single ‘America’s Next Top Model’. Written in response to the backlash she received, and the whitewashing she witnessed on popular online platforms, SPIDER chooses to thrive in the face of adversity on her new track.

Born and raised in Dublin, SPIDER harnesses the strong feminine energy of the arachnid she’s named after in order to explore her own emotional resilience. Creating music provides her with an outlet for her most unfiltered thoughts, with her genre-blending debut mixtape, C.O.A. (Coming Of Age) (2022), establishing her narrative of growth and self-autonomy. Now, with ‘America’s Next Top Model’, SPIDER has channelled her vitriolic energy into another gritty, empowering anthem, which acts as a defiant cry for better black representation in alternative music scenes.

“I started ‘America’s Next Top Model’ after a conversation with my friend Earl Saga about how safe music can feel right now,” SPIDER explains about the context of her new track. “We found it really interesting that in a time where artists have the most freedom to make the most opinionated art, it sometimes feels as a collective like we are shying away from it.” These thoughts are reflected in the accompanying visuals for ‘America’s Next Top Model’, which feature SPIDER expressing herself without fear, surrounded by characters who personify the online voices who are attacking her artistry.

“The video is about my own experiences online, and accepting the fact that if people already feel the need to get rid of me, that means that I’m doing something right,” she continues. “I’m asking the people who target the content of minority creators, ‘why the fuck are you so scared?’ People don’t feel the need to silence something that’s not making an impact. So while it hurts and it’s confusing and it’s scary and slightly scarring, it’s only an indication that the message is being received. I hope ‘America’s Next Top Model’ stirs that revolutionary spirit, and is a big hit of confidence for those who need it.”

With the release of her cathartic, necessary new anthem and a homecoming show at The Road To The Great Escape Festival in Dublin on May 9th, it seems that SPIDER is going from strength-to-strength, and she has our full support!

Watch the video for ‘America’s Next Top Model’ below.

Follow SPIDER on Spotify, Instagram, Twitter & Facebook

Kate Crudgington
@KCBobCut

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WATCH: Pretty Happy – ‘Conn Boxing’

**Trigger Warning: mention of sexual assault and rape culture**

Reiterating the vital outrage behind their original track ‘Conn Boxing’, today, Cork art punk trio Pretty Happy have shared a new video to accompany their ominous creation. Lifted from their EP, Echo Boy, released via Foggy Notions in 2022, the band have directed and produced the visuals to coincide with Imbolc (Saint Brigid’s Day), to hammer home the disturbing idiosyncrasies of rape culture in Ireland and further afield.

Attacking the fact that a local boxer’s reputation and trophy cabinet are more respected and revered than a local woman’s safety, ‘Conn Boxing’ calls out the deeply ingrained misogyny and double standards in both the sporting and wider social spheres. “They don’t even have a women’s bathroom,” counters vocalist and guitarist Abbey Blake about the boxing gym, between the repeated refrain “Conn Boxing has been producing superb/unbelievable/amazing/elite athletes for years.” Bassist Arann Blake’s simmering bass lines and drummer Andy Killian’s skittish percussion all contribute to the palpable sense of frustration underscoring the track, which gradually edges towards its nerve-shredding conclusion.

The visuals, which were filmed in the famous Linehans sweet shop in Shandon, Cork, also star actor Niamh Santry, who appeared in the band’s previous video for ‘Boots’. The conveyor-belt of sweet production seemingly personifies the production line of predators from the Conn Boxing gym, highlighting how women have to conceal their rage and attempt to move on in the overwhelming aftermath of sexual assault.

Along with the new video, Pretty Happy have also announced a string of UK & Ireland live dates, including tour support with Canadian post-punk band Preoccupations. Full dates can be found below.

Watch the video for ‘Conn Boxing’ here:

Pretty Happy UK Tour Dates 2023
09 February – New Adelphi Club, Hull (supporting Preoccupations)
10 February – Brudnell Social Club, Leeds (supporting Preoccupations)
11 February – Cork Opera House (supporting The Sultans of Ping)
12 February – District, Liverpool (supporting Preoccupations)
16 February – London Scala (supporting Preoccupations)
18 February – Windmill, Brixton

Follow Pretty Happy on bandcamp, Spotify, Instagram, Twitter & Facebook

Photo Credit: Celeste Burdon Photography

Kate Crudgington
@KCBobCut

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Track Of The Day: Brutus – ‘What Have We Done’

An urgent, cathartic anthem fueled by the need to “dig deeper and go the extra mile,” Belgian heavy trio Brutus have shared their latest single ‘What Have We Done’. Taken from their upcoming third album Unison Life, which is set for release on 21st October via Hassle Records/Sargent House, the track is a powerful combination of raw vocals, candid lyrics, commanding riffs and powerhouse drumming, that reflect the overwhelming need to break the cycle of repetitive thought patterns.

“‘What Have We Done’ started with just the guitar, the Moog synth (playing the bassline), and one verse of the lyrics. But we felt this was something special that we needed to take the time to get right,” explains vocalist and drummer Stefanie Mannaerts. “When we continued working on this song, there was this unspoken pressure to go further musically…to finish the track.

For some reason, this new piece of music felt like both a turning point and an intersection. In our history of being a band, this feeling came only a few times before, with the songs ‘Bearclaws’, ‘Justice de Julia II’ and ‘War’. Key songs such as these are challenging, but also feel like coming home at the same time. They define who you are as a band. The song embodies what was going on at the time of writing, in the middle of the pandemic. It is about suffering for too long and you have had enough. The verse echoes the mutual feeling we sometimes have as humans with too much going on in our heads and getting stuck in the same loop.”

Dissecting the darker parts of the emotional spectrum was the focus for the songs that formed Brutus’ upcoming album, Unison Life. “I wanted every song to feel like the last song we’ll ever write,” Mannaerts comments about its conception. “It killed me inside because it’s almost an impossibly high standard, but that was my personal goal for this album.” This version of “better” has manifested itself in Brutus’ knockout singles ‘Dust’, ‘Liar’ and ‘Victoria‘, with latest cut ‘What Have We Done’ continuing to hit the “impossibly high standard” that the band originally set for themselves.

The new single is accompanied by a video, shot by Jonas Hollevoet, showing the band doing what they do best whilst performing at two of their favourite festivals, Rock Herk and Lokerse Feesten.

Watch the video for ‘What Have We Done’ below.

Pre-order your copy of Brutus’ new album Unison Life here

BRUTUS UK Tour Dates 2022
16th Nov – Bristol, The Fleece
17th Nov – Manchester, Rebellion
18th Nov – Glasgow, Audio
19th Nov – Leeds, Lending Room
21st Nov – Brighton, Patterns
22nd Nov – London, The Garage

A full list of Brutus’ European dates for 2023 can be found here

Follow Brutus on bandcamp, Spotify, Twitter, Facebook & Instagram

Photo Credit: Kemizz

Kate Crudgington
@KCBobCut

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