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Filling The Void With HAN MEE And JIM SHAW From HOT MILK · HEAVY Music Interviews

• 0:00
  I handed it from Hot and we're from Manchester. We I mean, do
• 0:05
  we do? We're not a typical Chester band. Loud and aggressive and emotional,
• 0:12
  chaotic. Yeah, just all all of the above. That sounds like
• 0:17
  everything I've ever heard about every main Chester person ever. It is true.
• 0:21
  I think we are in essence the same as other bands, but in output
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  perhaps not. Yeah, dressed up a little different, just dressed up in
• 0:29
  different clothes. I'm glad we've got that established straight off the bat. So
• 0:35
  Hot Milk are currently on tour and destride with Food Fighters. I believe one
• 0:39
  show gates Hew was it? I mean great? I mean we changing the
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  set because we got angry at ourselves, but you know we were. It's
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  like it's one of them. It's like when you're playing with the foods,
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  you know you have to just do your best, have a have fun doing
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  it as well, because you know you've got to absorb those moments. You
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  know, it's kind of the stuff dreams are made of in it really,
• 0:59
  so we're we had fun. We had fun. That's what's the important thing.
• 1:02
  I want to go back into that angry at yourself? What do you
• 1:03
  mean you got angry at yourself? Just we're perfectionists and we didn't. We
• 1:10
  didn't play the best set that we could play like. We didn't. We
• 1:12
  didn't play like it flowed. So we just taking some songs, putting some
• 1:17
  in and like that's more because we basically came off the back of the headline
• 1:21
  top. We have time about what we want to do for the food fighters,
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  we kind of just did like strip back version of that, and then
• 1:26
  we realized, actually, we need to we need to do something specific for
• 1:30
  this crowd and specific for the for the food. So when we were ill
• 1:34
  as fu as well, Yeah, we got so ill on the flight over.
• 1:38
  And it's just when we don't play like the show we want to play,
• 1:41
  we get angry. Yeah, we get really presed off. And it
• 1:46
  must be a pretty surreal feeling, like being so far away from home with
• 1:49
  one of the biggest bands in the world ever, Like you must just sort
• 1:53
  of look around and man, this is pretty cool. I think you can
• 1:57
  feel too much the world. Yeah, you've just got to kind of turned
• 2:00
  it off a little bit, because I feel like if you get so distracted
• 2:02
  like that, then you know, you kind of become a bit over overbearing
• 2:07
  with it, or you know, it can kind of become a bit intimidating.
• 2:08
  So I feel like I'm actually kind of proud that we've just kind of
• 2:10
  taken it on. It on its on its head. I guess, right,
• 2:14
  yeah, just gone. It's just it's a rock show in it.
• 2:16
  Let's just do what we do. I think we've always tried to play the
• 2:19
  same show, no matter like who it's to, where you know, where
• 2:23
  we're playing it, how big the crowd is, it's always like it's a
• 2:27
  hot milk show at the end of the day. Were because we're a good
• 2:29
  band, and then let's show them we are. It's true. Well,
• 2:31
  I reckon talking about the food fighters because I don't need any publicity. But
• 2:36
  you guys have your own headline show last night. It wasn't your first ever
• 2:39
  headline show in this country at the guest Hometer in Melbourne. How was that?
• 2:44
  Yes? It was great. Yeah, it was open, We had
• 2:46
  an open it was sick venue. Yeah, yeah, went off. It
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  was I think it was over capacity to it. It was ridiculous. Yeah,
• 2:55
  it was ridiculous. Felt very full, but you know, we had
• 2:59
  a great time and everyone was like, just just get gearing for it.
• 3:01
  Weren't people sort of saying to you that they only came because I saw you
• 3:07
  with the Free Fighter they hadn't heard of you before or no, not not
• 3:10
  many. Actually, I think we've go We've been cultivating a fan base,
• 3:14
  you know, across the world for a number of years. You know,
• 3:16
  the internet does that thing now where you just can go anywhere, Like we've
• 3:20
  never been to Tokyo before. We just sold out a show there, so
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  I feel like, you know, we had a lot of people that you
• 3:25
  know, just found us from different places, you know what I mean,
• 3:28
  radio, whatever, and actually didn't because we played the Foo Show the night
• 3:31
  before, but the show was already sold out, So I don't think anyone
• 3:34
  actually came from the foods, So maybe next time they will. So essentially
• 3:40
  went from playing an outdoor arena with tens of thousands of people, we're playing
• 3:44
  in a more intimate pub gig. So describe the different emotions that was sort
• 3:46
  of come over you going from that to that, Like I think it's like
• 3:53
  that they're nerve, no nervous, a small one. You know, if
• 3:59
  they're not, you're going to go straight away. Whereas you know, studium
• 4:02
  it's just like a massive body you just have to do it and you can't
• 4:06
  really think about your watching because if they're so far away, I just don't
• 4:10
  really become people that it's just an entity. No, I don't know.
• 4:15
  I'm although playing stadiums is fucking sick as like as a band, it's something
• 4:18
  you always dream to do. Like I actually think I prefer playing the sweat
• 4:23
  eat clubs because it's there's just some if you've got like a good crowd and
• 4:28
  a good band. It's a headline show, it's different. Headline shows are
• 4:31
  just different because energy is just like it's income incomprehendible. Yeah, and you've
• 4:40
  got another headline show tonight in Sydney at Mary's Underground. So this guy as
• 4:45
  nervous, like now you know the people here are actually getting India, you
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  know, Like nervous is a bit more pressure. No, I feel like
• 4:50
  there are people, aren't they Like they're therefore us and I see them and
• 4:54
  I understand them and we have a connection. So when we go out,
• 4:58
  I feel like, don't get nervous at headline show with my brothers and sisters,
• 5:00
  you know what I mean. You don't have to win anyone over there
• 5:06
  for us, So I just feel like it's like seeing old friends. I've
• 5:10
  got to say, I've only spent about five minutes with you guys, and
• 5:13
  I can already see why this is so universally respected. Like he's got a
• 5:16
  good attitude, guys, really really good. So they are I'm familiar with
• 5:24
  Hot Milk. Give us a bit of a history, tell us bit of
• 5:26
  excels. Well, I mean, we obviously met. We met in Manchester.
• 5:30
  We started writing tunes because we were born in January and a rainy like
• 5:34
  Friday night over a bottle of wine, and we're you know, we lived
• 5:39
  together and we've been through a lot together, haven't we as friends first?
• 5:42
  Or we were even in Hot Milk. So I think our bond is kind
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  of what kind of is the center of this this band, that's you and
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  me, That kind of is the glue that keeps it together. And I
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  think we just kind of wanted to run away from life and Hot Milk became
• 5:56
  that vessel and it kind of snowballed and here we are and we don't really
• 5:59
  under than how or why, but we're going with it. We might create
• 6:02
  like a great family with you know, Tom and Della, you know,
• 6:06
  a drummer and Bassis for the rest of our crew and you know, like
• 6:11
  mad to say, worldwide fans, it's it's fucking sick. Like more.
• 6:15
  The more people we meet, the more proud I guess we are of like
• 6:19
  starting the band and pursuing this stupid career that no one ever says that you
• 6:25
  can do. Yeah, our parents weren't exactly happy when we said we quit
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  our jobs to do this. Put it that way. So there's been a
• 6:31
  lot of people that told us we couldn't and we shouldn't, you know,
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  and a lot of people that would ship all over us. When we first
• 6:38
  started bringing out songs, people, you know, our peers were like,
• 6:41
  what the fuck are you doing? And you know, people in the local
• 6:44
  scene, you know, take the pace and all that. But you know,
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  you've got to overcome and move forward. And you know, I'm proud
• 6:49
  of it. Five years later, where we're at, I'd like a bit
• 6:54
  more money. But today album are called of the Boy back in August,
• 7:01
  So how's the reception been to that. Well, people are telling me it's
• 7:05
  a success, But I don't know, Australia, you're doing something right,
• 7:12
  you know. It's weird. It's just so strange that songs we wrote that
• 7:15
  were personal songs that we wrote in a tiny little shipping container in Manchester.
• 7:19
  People are shouting back in Australia. It's a bit of a mad concept,
• 7:24
  but yeah, it's people. People said they liked it, and you know,
• 7:27
  that's all we can ever ask for. Yeah, so the next one
• 7:30
  is not pil of ship, just make you think it's happening. Like you
• 7:33
  may mentioned the fact that you've written personal songs and now the world's getting intur
• 7:38
  of like, in a way, does does it make any less personal once
• 7:41
  they get out there to the world and people start singing them back A No,
• 7:46
  I don't think that's the only way. Unexpectedly it's been hurting. I
• 7:49
  think it's the fact that every night there's one particular song that every time I
• 7:53
  sing it, I have to reopen that wound that is it. Some people
• 7:57
  like it is a cathartic and I'm like, actually, in the moment,
• 7:59
  it's not actually really painful. So it's a very strange one cause a lot
• 8:03
  of them are still kind of ongoing because it's such a recent kind of it
• 8:05
  was written quite recently, so no, it's still very personal for sure.
• 8:13
  So prior to releasing a chord of the boy did you release three successive EPs?
• 8:16
  Was that a playered leading to release in the full album? Did you
• 8:18
  want to sort of go through the steps? Yeah, totally. I think
• 8:22
  you know, we we started Hot Milk and kind of went straight out the
• 8:26
  at the gates, and we really didn't want to go straight to that first
• 8:28
  album, not understanding what Milk was and you know what it sounded like.
• 8:33
  So we kind of wanted to make our mistakes, you know, find our
• 8:39
  strengths, find out what we like to play, find out what, you
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  know, how we play it live. We wanted to do all this in
• 8:45
  EPs rather than being like, here's you know, the flag in the stand,
• 8:48
  here's our first album. I look in years and be like like,
• 8:54
  yeah, I think as James produced a lot of it as well, he
• 8:58
  needed to be better as so as well. We weren't there. Yeah,
• 9:01
  I think it's like it's you know, you're always learning, That's what it
• 9:07
  was, and you know it allowed us to kind of, I guess test
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  the water, tell you what our debut album wouldn't been a top forty album
• 9:15
  on it three years ago. Yeah. So along those lines, like what
• 9:18
  sort of things did you learn about yourselves and your music over the course of
• 9:22
  those three that your character to the album. We love guitars that I think
• 9:26
  that was a big thing, Like we some of the earlier songs were more
• 9:33
  synth driven, and practically it's not you know, we can't afford to have
• 9:37
  multiple session musicians and whatever at this rate, so you know, we all
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  want to just be on stage playing as much as of the songs we can't
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  rather just having shiploads of track and just standing around doing nothing. So I
• 9:48
  think like that was very clear we wanted to play more guitar. We wanted
• 9:54
  it to be a little bit heavier. We started off with it being quite
• 9:56
  you know, a little bit lighter, a little bit kind of poppier,
• 10:01
  and I think we've just think of life's gone on, it is going to
• 10:03
  become a bit of a darker place. So yeah, and I think that's
• 10:05
  just what we enjoy live. We like shows that have just got like ball
• 10:11
  get from people, right, that's what you want. So I think that's
• 10:13
  kind of what we've kind of left drift towards, and we will continue to
• 10:18
  drift dow. I think we'll all wait on the line of acceptibility. But
• 10:20
  heaviness is important too. They're looking forward what's twenty twenty four and beyond old
• 10:28
  for that bal yet finish a little holiday over yet? I mean, honestly,
• 10:33
  I can't talk about a lot what we've confirmed so far, but a
• 10:35
  new album and just keep this train going, man, for as long as
• 10:39
  people give a ship and you know, I just I want to write some
• 10:43
  stuff. I'm really proud. I want to push myself as a musician and
• 10:46
  personally I want to try to find some happiness. Well, well, thanks
• 10:50
  very much for you Tom guys. It's been absolutely pleasure geting. To be
• 10:54
  honest, I wasn't sure I had this will be a go, but you
• 10:56
  guys rock. How can I how can I get these shirts to you?
• 11:01
  Like, I'm not going to be able to jump up on stage because people
• 11:05
  I'll speak German. I'll getting there and I'll bin his in the shirt down.
• 11:09
  He's going to become honorary mullets. All right, enjoy your shirt.
• 11:13
  We'll see him Friusie next week. Yeah, take care of it, have
• 11:16
  a good one. You'll do that way