HOT MILK have released the third single to precede their debut album, 'A CALL TO THE VOID' set for release 25th August 2023 on Music For Nations. Pre-order the album HERE.
On the surface, 'BLOODSTREAM' boasts all of the usual masterful pop-rock veneer, stadium-filling melodic ambition, and musicality full of the impish spark the band have long since honed. But here is also a despairing love song, one that’s lyrical soul searching delves to the depths in order to understand the feeling of connection so strong it can come as a detriment.
Lead singer Han Mee explains the song came to them, instead of being chased down through long hours in a studio and was written “in its entirety in the haunted early hours in Los Angeles. We started it in the early hours just as it was home time... immediately we knew that this song was something different for us yet had come from nowhere. One of them rare moments where the song jumped from the ether and wanted, nay needed to be written”.
That feeling of necessity, a song almost undeniable and inescapable, mirrors the feelings of unhealthy adoration, themes of chasing short-term thrills and how those situations can lead to self-loathing, and as Han puts it “unhealthy adoration comes in many forms, the short term thrill for the post-high collapse can create an abusive relationship. You think it's love, you think you're in control, you think you can say no if you needed to but you're not the one in the driving seat anymore.”
'BLOODSTREAM' premiered on Clara Amfo's Radio 1 show and you can stream it HERE or watch the video below:
For some, it might feel like a long time coming but Hot Milk always knew that when the time came to make their debut album, they had to be ready for it. It will be their loudest statement yet of who they are and what they stand for, an opportunity to show the world what they are made of.
Tracks on the debut album 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.
The first single ‘HORROR SHOW’, boisterously ushered in a new era of Hot Milk, one that is bolder, brasher, and more impactful than ever before. Premiering on Radio 1’s FUTURE ARTIST show Jack Saunders commented that “The odds are pitted against this band, it’s not often a traditional emo breaks through, but Hot Milk have fought the whole entire way to make their mark, find their way into your top tens, become a favourite for you, and Horror Show’s the best yet.”
The band have blossomed over the course of three self-produced EPs, this constant stream of releases has meant that Hot Milkwere never away from the spotlight – or the stages they call home. Their rise kept accelerating, taking them to stadium support slots with Foo Fighters, the main stages of some of the best festivals Globally, an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel in the US to tours with bands like Pale Waves and their own headline sold-out shows to over 50 million streams of the EPs alone. Crucially, however, they were giving themselves space to find themselves as artists.
The band recorded the album between Manchester, Los Angeles and Stockholm with the bands very own Jim Shaw at the Producing helm for the majority of the record, much like all previous releases. An element that has become so important to the band and allowing them to control just exactly what they want to be as artists.
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.
The more alt-pop inspired ‘BLOODSTREAM’, meanwhile, was made for creating moments on the big stages the band have always aspired to reach. 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 church for us.”
HOT MILK recently completed a tour of South America, a run of East Coast headline shows in the US ahead of their appearance at Adjacent Festival and have played various festivals this Summer including UK's legendary Download Festival. They will be appearing at Pride in Brighton and Reading + Leeds festivals in August, before hitting the road for their largest UK headline tour to date with Witch Fever and Modern Error in the fall. They then head to Australia to support The Foo Fighters on select stadium dates in December and were recently announced as support on the London and Birmingham dates of The Foo Fighters UK Stadium tour in June 2024.