Hot Milk

Hot Milk always knew that when the time came to make their debut

album, they had to be ready for it. It would be their loudest

statement yet of who they are and what they stand for, an

opportunity to launch themselves into the upper echelons of the

British rock scene. It had to be right – after all, they only had one

shot at it.

They took the scenic route towards their debut, letting themselves

blossom over the course of three EPs – 2019’s Are You Feeling

Alive?, 2021’s I JUST WANNA KNOW WHAT HAPPENS WHEN I’M

DEAD and 2022’s The King And Queen Of Gasoline. This constant

stream of releases meant that Hot Milk were never away from the

spotlight – or the stages they call home – for long. Their rise kept

accelerating, taking them to stadium support slots with Foo Fighters,

the Reading main stage and, most recently, a pair of headliners at

London’s iconic Koko and the 1,500-capacity O2 Ritz in their

hometown. Crucially, however, they were giving themselves space to

find themselves as artists.

“We used the three EPs to learn what we were good at, what we

liked, what we didn’t like, what we were good at, and what we

wanted to explore,” explains co-frontman and guitarist Jim Shaw.

“We always wanted to do a trilogy of EPs that would explore different

sides of us,” adds fellow co-frontwoman and guitarist Han Mee. “We

did a lot of growing up, I think, [since] the first EP and we're

completely different people now.”

The irony is, however, that when the time came to make their debut,

the band almost weren’t in the state for it. They had just spent three

months on the road in America hoping to connect with the grassroots

fanbase Han had noticed rapidly growing on social media (and

squeezing in a spot on Jimmy Kimmel along the way).

It wasn’t exactly glamorous, however. “The three months weren’t

easy,” Jim notes. “There were hiccups all the way through.” While

they were feeling the love from the shows, it wasn’t quite enough to

silence their impostor syndrome or quell their steadily mounting

homesickness, and inevitably, such a long stretch of shows took an

equal toll on their bodies as much as their minds.

Still, they needed an album. They were warned that the momentum

that they had spent years building could falter if they didn’t put out a

debut that would consolidate it. Despite that, and despite the years

they had invested into readying themselves for making the album of

their lives, they were both emotionally and physically spent, and the

pressure of doing themselves justice on their debut further weighed

them down.

“I went into a session in LA when we were starting writing and I got in

there and I cried my eyes out,” Han recalls. “I was saying to my

manager, ‘I need to go home. I'm burnt out, I've done three months

on the road, I've not been home, I don’t know what I'm writing

about. I've not had time to think about this album. I was ill because I

was so run down.”

Lying on the sofa in tears, Han emptied out everything she was

feeling to Zakk Cervini, who lends some co-production on select

tracks, including her worry that she didn’t know what she was going

to write about. Jim however, saw differently. Instead, he saw a

reservoir of thoughts and emotions that the band could pour into

their music. All the inspiration that they need was right there, waiting

for them.

The first song that spawned from their LA writing sessions was

‘Breathing Underwater’, a song, in Jim’s words, about “feeling like

you’re absolutely swamped, drowning in your own self-doubt,” which

captures Hot Milk, and especially Han, at their lowest ebb.

“I wanted to run away. I felt like diving into the sea and never coming

back up. I was like, ‘I don’t want to die, but I don’t want to be alive’,”

she explains. “I didn’t want to feel anymore – it was all too painful to

feel. I felt like a failure but I also felt a lot of pressure and I just didn’t

really know what to do or where to put that.”

Creating art from that darkness, however, turned out to be a silver

lining. “We got a beautiful song out of it. “That’s why art is really

important – it allows you to get all those feelings out there.”

That mindset also inspired the title choice. A Call To The Void is the

English translation of the French phrase l’appel du vide, referring to

the brain’s trick of spotting opportunities to die. It’s the eerie jolt that

is felt when you stand waiting for a train and the thought that you

could jump, and end your life in a heartbeat, intrudes in your head.

It’s that brief moment of being reminded of the fragility of existence.

Writing ‘Breathing Underwater’ enabled Hot Milk to break through.

While still in LA, they wrote three other songs in the space of three

days, and all of them, including ‘Breathing Underwater’, ended up

being chosen as singles. In a way, this sudden reversal of fortune was

typical for them. “We don’t do things the normal way,” Han asserts.

“Stuff comes out of the woodwork out of nowhere in a way that I

don’t understand sometimes. I’m not going to argue with it.”

The rest of the singles walk on a tightrope between the humorous

and the serious, brimming with what might be called positive

nihilism. They’re not so much finding the light in the dark as they are

laughing because if they don’t, they’ll cry. Take the thunderous

‘Horror Show’, for example. “This is kind of like an admittance of ‘You

know what, might not be everybody’s cup of tea. Who cares?’ It’s

celebrating the weird,” says Han. That defiance, however, doesn’t

necessarily come from a place of self-love. “What’s the worst you can

think about me?” she continues. “I’ve already thought that about

myself.”

‘Party On My Deathbed’, meanwhile, fizzes with life but is ultimately

powered by a sense of reckless abandon. “It’s the idea that you only

live once, so you might as well live it to your absolute fullest,” begins

Jim, before Han elaborates on the idea that wanting to party till you

die might not just be celebratory but destructive.

“At the time that I was writing, I was becoming really involved in the

underworld of Manchester and staying out till God knows what time

in the morning. You don’t care anymore, you don’t care about

yourself or what happens to you. You just keep going.”

Despite this, however, it’s characteristically tongue-in-cheek, with a

proudly British sense of humour too inspired by some of the band’s

more left-field influences. “Some of the older Slowthai and AJ Tracey

lyrics are quite clever in the way they say stuff using very British

slang, with twisted metaphors around everyday British life,” says Jim.

“That’s kind of like what we’ve explored.”

The more alt-pop inspired ‘Bloodstream’, meanwhile, was made for

creating moments on the big stages the band have always aspired to

reach. “I love that song, I just think it’s a party,” Han says. “It’s my

favourite because it makes me feel happy. It’s a feel good song – it’s

something we’ve never done before. I felt proud of that; we really

pushed ourselves with it. I think it’ll be fun to play live.”

The rest of the album was written in two other locations. Some of it

was put together in a shipping container in Manchester (“We can

rent them out really cheap!” Han chips in), including one of the

album’s goofiest songs, ‘Alice Cooper’s Poolhouse’, which features a

skit at the end from the Godfather of Shock Rock himself.

“We were sat in the studio and we had the idea of ‘Let's do all the

verses with all the names of his songs, ‘Poison’, ‘Bed Of Nails’, [et

cetera],” says Jim. It was intended as a joke, but wound up turning

into a better song than they expected. Thanks to a few handy

connections, they got him to record the skit for the end – and

happily, he rather liked the track as well. “It was a mushroom trip

that never ended,” Han jokes.

Other parts were written in Sweden, with a producer with a

background in dance music brought on board. It enabled the band to

explore elements of EDM and drum and bass that had fascinated

them for years and integrate them more fully into the Hot Milk sound

– rather fitting, considering their roots in a city with strong ties to the

genre. Jim has a background working in warehouse projects, while

for Han, raves are a major part of her Friday nights. “I would say I’m

more into dance than rock music at the moment, but rock music will

always be my first love, but I think it’s really important for our music

to reflect who we are now as people.”

Another major aspect of Hot Milk’s sound that has helped them to

hone their sense of uniqueness is Jim’s role behind the production

desk. Originally, it was a role he took up out of necessity, with the

band writing their earliest songs were written in bedrooms where

they had limited resources, but over time, it became something he

embraced. Consequently, he’s produced everything Hot Milk has

released, including A Call To The Void. Although, nowadays, they’ve

worked alongside other producers, they’ve found that nothing

sounds quite like Hot Milk as when someone from Hot Milk is

steering the ship.

Of course, it comes from a place of passion too. “I’m just a bit of a

nerd,” he says with a smile. “I love fiddling with things and learning

how things work. I absolutely love doing it.”

The most important thing for the band, however, is that these songs

are written to scream from the speakers of the stage, and for their

refrains to be screamed back at them by the adoring, tight-knit

community they’ve built. “Live is where I’m happiest, live is where it’s

home,” says Han. “We wrote songs with the intention of people going

off, making you feel good, opening the pit up, letting go, crying,

getting on your mate’s shoulders. It’s been like, ‘What do people

want to feel at a show?’”

She smiles. “It’s church for us.