HotWax reflect on their rocket ship of a 2023

Words: Callie Petch

In the British music scene last year, there was one name on most everybody’s lips.  Off the back of two shit-hot EPs released within five months of each other and a relentless gigging schedule, HotWax have become the kind of band which have people at their gigs rapturously exclaim that they are “the most exciting new band in a long time.”  Several dozen such fans hung around for up to half-an-hour after lights up at the band’s headline show in Manchester’s Deaf Institute last Wednesday to say so to the mildly bewildered faces of Tallulah Sim-Savage, Lola Sam, and Alfie Sayers.  Every single one of them pegging the trio for bigger things very soon.

It’s not hard to see why after the show they performed.  HotWax are the kind of three-piece who make gritty, knuckle-dragging, swaggering rock music designed to induce body-flinging pit-starting parties.  The Dead Weather as fronted by Live Through This Courtney Love.  Songs which almost function like rollercoasters, swooping unexpectedly in and out of drag race sprints, tension-building climbs, and drops you feel in your stomach.  The first time I heard them, it was when they released “Treasure” and that initial unexpected handbrake turn into the pre-chorus, where the 4/4 charge of the verse swerve into the headbanging power chord climb, followed by a Wile E. Coyote-esque plummet into the chorus was the fastest I went all-in on a new band in a hot minute.

The rest of the A Thousand Times EP displayed a similar innate yet slightly unconventional understanding of the raw thrills of rock music, and follow-up Invite me, kindly provided strong evidence it was no fluke.  Even with the recordings being excellent, the live stage is really where HotWax shine.  If being a rock star wasn’t a job or recognisable archetype, these three would have to invent it.  Sim-Savage and Sam strut and preen across the stage with total command and confidence, sneering out lyrics, ripping out riffs, and slinging their instruments every which way; whilst Sayers pounds on his kit with animalistic power but professional control.  These songs could feel disjointed in lesser hands – one new cut aired that night starts with a moodier creep before exploding without warning into a punk thrash – but the trio are always in such lock-step with each other that every shift is a surprise which somehow makes total sense.  By the time of closer “Rip it Out” (the one which most demands any Hole comparisons), crowd members were practically fighting to get through to the moshpit up front.

This is the part where I am obligated to inform you that none of the band are of legal drinking age in America, where they spent the end of 2023 touring as openers for Royal Blood and were a constant presence at this year’s SXSW.  On stage, their youth (both as a band and as people) only really makes itself known through a befuddlement in seeing the crowd go crazy for their songs; the most stage banter they could manage was a string of sheepish “thanks so much” between tracks.  Off stage, it’s more apparent, particularly as they loosen up during our pre-show interview.  Sim-Savage and Sam spend the entire talk leaning across each other, exchanging asides, and finishing sentences when the other is struggling for words, just like the inseparable best friends from school they started as.  Sayers mostly keeps to himself, interjecting only when he feels necessary and even then preferring non-verbal nods and shrugs, like the older brother of the band.  At one point, during a sidebar about the erroneously-named “West” and “East” Main Stages at Reading & Leeds, Sam and Sayers are able to instinctively point to where north is relative to their dressing room, which blows Sim-Savage’s mind.

Throughout, HotWax are keen to stress that they had no real plan going into 2023.  That opening for Yeah Yeah Yeahs, being signed to the same label as Courtney Barnett (Marathon Artists), or even just headlining a venue nearly 300 miles away from their hometown are all already way more than they ever thought they’d get to do.  Right now, their ambitions solely relate to making a great debut album, which they’ve started writing.  Anything afterwards is a bonus.  Given their current track record in studio and on stage, they might want to prepare for a hell of a lot of bonuses coming their way.

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This interview has been lightly edited for flow.

How are you guys doing?

Lola Sam [bass/vocals]: Real good.  This is our second night of the DIY Tour.  We were in Birkenhead last night, that was real fun.

Still early enough to avoid road exhaustion.

Lola: It’s only five gigs as well, so we’re gonna be fiiiiiine.

You two [Tallulah & Lola] met in school at a talent contest, I believe?

Lola: Yeah, we got put together in a group for a thing.

Tallulah Sim-Savage [vocals/guitar]: I was trying to Lola’s friend for ages anyway, so that forced us to be friends and worked in my favour.

I’m envisioning your teacher just looking at the two of you and going “you both like rock music, clearly you should be together.”

Tallulah: That was actually the case!  When we were in school, no one else really liked guitar music so it was easy to find each other.

Then Alfie met you both in college?

Alfie Sayers [drums/vocals]: I was in the year above.

Tallulah: I think the first time I met you was when everybody was stealing that pizza…

Alfie: At an end of year gig thing.

Tallulah, you mentioned that you were first into folk music, like Staves and First Aid Kit.  Has that influenced your approach to writing rock songs at all?

Tallulah: I think so.  Lola writes most of the riffs for the songs.  Whenever I write, it’s on acoustic, so in a way it’s a big influence on how I approach writing.

Lola: I didn’t start playing music until I was…?

Tallulah: Ten.

Lola: I originally played guitar but then moved to bass when I went to school.

Alfie: My neighbour who’d look after me, their son played drums and it started to rub off on me.

Your first gig as HotWax was early 2020?

L: No, but that must’ve been the first gig someone uploaded to setlist.fm.

Tallulah: Our first show, I think, was November 2019.

Lola: It was before lockdown, we’d only done about seven gigs.

Tallulah: Plus, until we met our manager, it wasn’t a serious thing.  Being in a band was just something we’d always done, we didn’t think of anything more than that.

So, the pandemic was more of a “well, I guess we’re on break” rather than something which stunted your start?

Tallulah: I guess.  We were 16 and just finished school when lockdown hit.  I feel like, as a band, lockdown didn’t affect us cos we weren’t exactly thinking much about it anyway.  *laughs*

Lola: We did write a couple of songs…

Tallulah: True, but I can’t even remember cos we weren’t really a band yet.

And then you came out of the pandemic and started putting more thought into it when you met your manager?

Lola: Talullah and I had been playing gigs together since 2017 in our hometown.  After lockdown was when we started doing more gigs around, then 2023 was when we got signed and did tours and stuff.  That was the year where things started going quite well.  *laughs*

I feel like saying 2023 “went quite well” is an understatement.  Two great EPs, up and down the country on tours, opening for Frank Carter and Royal Blood and Yeah Yeah Yeahs…  How many sets did you do at SXSW?

Lola: Ten?

Tallulah: Eleven?

Lola: No, I think it was ten in four days.

How do you summon the energy to do that many sets in that time?

Lola: I… don’t know!  *laughs*

Tallulah: To be honest, I thought it was gonna be more hectic.

Lola: They were shorter sets, at least.  We just had to drink through it…

Tallulah: But we couldn’t cos we were underage!  *laughs*

Lola: Yeah, but we’re in England now so it’s fine to say!  *laughs*  We’re not gonna get arrested by the American police!

What was it like when everything started blowing up last year?

Tallulah: It’s really surreal but when you’re doing it, it doesn’t feel like it’s happening.  Just doing each day as it comes, then you look back on it and go “woah!”

Lola: This is our first headline tour and I feel like there’s more pressure?

Tallulah: We’re trying to be way more sensible and serious.

Is that because when you’re a support, you don’t feel like people are there to see you specifically?

Tallulah: Yeah, exactly.

Lola: Obviously, we always take the set really seriously.  But I feel like we’re kinda the children when supporting, whereas now we can play a range of different songs and not just the hits.

How was that first night?

Tallulah: Really, really nice!

Lola: [Future Yard] was a nice venue.

Tallulah: We’ve done some headlines up north before, but it felt much more special now that all these people had come to see us.  We just kept laughing cos we were so happy!  *laughs*

Was some of that because you’ve spent so long gigging around the home area that now you’ve come north and gotten evidence that “shit, people are here for US?”

Lola: I think we were so worried about people not turning up…  If you had told us a few years ago that we’d be up here playing headline shows and people would pay to see it, I don’t think we’d have believed you.

How would you say your songwriting process has evolved from the beginning?  I know you were writing the songs for Invite me, kindly when A Thousand Times was in the middle of rolling out.

Tallulah: Our writing process was so much slower in the beginning.  It would always be in a rehearsal room.  I had to learn to write quicker whilst we’ve been concepting the album.  We’ve been writing a lot on Logic cos it’s not so loud and you can see what’s going on…

Lola: It does require more brain, which is stressful.  *laughs*

Tallulah: I also overthink a lot less now.  For ages, I’d be fixating on individual words, even just “and,” going “THIS IS NOT RIGHT!”  Now, I just try to write exactly what I’m feeling and leave it.  Obviously, if I hate it we won’t use it.  But we’re less overly picky in a good way, where we’ll lean on “let’s see where this goes” more.  We’re learning to be less obsessive.

You’ve also said that you like to write songs based on what’s fun to play live, so I’m guessing having more shows and more soundchecks and stuff has helped in that regard?

Lola: Yeah.  We’re trialling three new songs in our set.  We haven’t had many new ones in our set for a while and one of them is a lot more mellow than what we’ve done before.  So, playing that on-stage, seeing how it feels and how people respond, is really going to help when it comes time to record.

Tallulah: Cos everything we write, we want it to be fun to play.

Lola: And doable.

Tallulah: That’s always hard with three people.

Lola: As we’ve moved on with our band, it’s tempting to add something that you can’t physically bring with you to play.

Since you mentioned it, have you been thinking about The Album yet?

Tallulah: We’ve been writing for it.  When it comes out?  One day?  It will be an album next, it won’t be another EP.

I feel like asking that made me sound kinda greedy.

All: *laughs*

Last year, you basically gave us an album’s worth of songs and here I am going “MORE!  ANOTHER!”

Tallulah: But it’s weird that’s how it works now.  It feels like you’re always supposed to be releasing something.  It’s unnatural, but that’s just the way the world is.

What pie in the sky ambitions do you have as a band?

Tallulah: Me and Lola have been saying recently there’s nothing that we really wanna do.  No big gig or anything.  We just want our album to be good!  It’s all we’re thinking about, to be happy with the music.  That’s the only ambition.  I dunno if it’s kinda shit, but that’s it.

Lola: Oh, and we wanna headline Glastonbury next year.  *laughs*  Small goals!

How did you get to Marathon?

Lola: Our manager sent our stuff over, they came to a few of our gigs and really liked it.  We already had A Thousand Times finished and ready to go before we got signed…

Alfie: We were just gonna put it out.

Lola: And our manager was like “NOOOOO!”

Tallulah: “STOP!”

Lola: “Get signed and then put it out!”  We thought that was something which happened to crazy-big people…

Tallulah: We didn’t know anything about the process!

Lola: …and we’re really lucky to work with both of them.

We’re all joking, but it really does seem like you had absolutely no clue about anything until your manager came in and went “OK, you need to do this, this, and this…”

Lola: No plan at all!

Tallulah: I absolutely love our manager, but the first time she offered to manage us, I was all “no, this is too much!”

Was that a sort of fear of it becoming Real?

Tallulah: I think so.

Lola: It’s definitely real now, it’s full-time, like my whole life.

Tallulah: There was an initial “AGH!” but then it was followed by the realisation that it’d obviously be stupid to not go for it.

What music are you all listening to?

Tallulah: I’ve been listening to a lot of Cat Power and KT Tunstall.  And what was that cool song we’ve been listening to a lot recently?  *looks up on phone*  Suzanne Vega, “Blood Makes Noise.”

Lola: I’ve been listening to a lot of Courtney Barnett.  She’s cool.

Alfie: The song I’ve had most recently is “Turn to Stone” by Electric Light Orchestra.  That fuelled my trip when we were in America last.  And Cool Steps by DJ Patife.

Did “Turn to Stone” make driving along through America staring out the window look more cinematic?

Alfie: Yeah!

Tallulah: Apart from all the Trump signs.

All: *groan*

Tallulah: It is really beautiful, just delete those from the frame.

A Thousand Times and Invite me, kindly are available now via Marathon Artists.  HotWax will be playing several festivals throughout the Summer, dates for which can be found here.