Hot Milk Tickets

If Hot Milk’s 2023 debut album A Call To The Void was the band’s high-octane mission statement, the world isn’t ready to meet its fierce, rough-and-ready older sibling.

Roaring into their next era, Hot Milk now proudly present Corporation P.O.P. – an extravagant, uncompromising assessment of the perilous world around us, examined through a sharp British lens that is both witty and universal.

“We were looking at American Idiot, The Black Parade – albums that felt like a whole piece,” reflects guitarist and co-vocalist Jim Shaw. “American Idiot is a 21-year-old album that is incredibly present,” adds frontwoman Han Mee. “It still makes sense – you can interchange Bush for MAGA. Humanity lives with an innate selfishness in us, so the feelings are always going to be there.”

Snapshotting the gloom of the present and unloading very real fears for the future, the sentiment behind Corporation P.O.P. might feel locked inside a time capsule. But fast forward two decades, and time will surely prove why this record carries the hallmarks of something timeless. Since Han and Jim first met inside a bar in Manchester’s Northern Quarter (“Born in Preston, made in Manchester”, as Han neatly sums up) and started the band – who are completed by Tom Paton (bass) and Harry Deller (drums) – Hot Milk’s story so far has already confirmed their status as the city’s unlikely alternative success story. “I wanted to be purposely annoying on this record,” grins Han. “I want posters around Manchester saying ‘The new sound of Manchester: Hot Milk’.”

Gracing the cover of Kerrang! (numerous times) and receiving acclaim from the likes of BBC Radio 1 and Rock Sound, A Call To The Void propelled them into the international arena. Meanwhile, global rock titans are queueing up to book Hot Milk as their openers. Whether it’s stadium shows with Foo Fighters in the UK and Australia, discussing aliens with Tom DeLonge on Blink-182’s stateside run or warming up Limp Bizkit fans on the English seaside, Hot Milk’s bucket list is going to need a few extra pages.

This summer, they’ll open some European shows for Green Day, who Han has seen 55 times – and that’s not including the goodnight kisses she used to blow to her poster of Billie Joe Armstrong. “They [inspired] me to do a politics degree,” she says. “Since day one, I've always said that Billie will come to me. He needs to knock on my door and I’ll go, ‘Y’alright?.’ That’s my narrative arc."

You can sense Hot Milk’s killer instinct throughout Corporation P.O.P., a result of the intensive writing process in LA and then Manchester, where all 14 songs that were initially written for the album now prevail in the final form. In an age where bands often whittle down the cream of the crop from hundreds of songs, any shackles are well and truly off here – the band are making the music they want, with unified trust and zero outside pressure.

Previously adopting a heavily digitised approach in Jim’s bedroom, the primary focus this time was on real amps and pure sounds – which is where producers Zach Jones and KJ Strock came in handy.

“They have 20 synths! I think we spent two days pedal shopping,” beams Han. “We’re not internet people. The record needed to feel raw… and match the way that [playing] live feels to us.” After that intensive stint in LA, Hot Milk returned to Manchester, unable to shake that innate DIY mindset. The album was finished on home turf, under the watchful production eye of Jim, bringing things full circle. “Lo and behold, I ended up doing so much – again!” he jokes.

Armed with their primal, larger-than-life live show, Hot Milk’s headline slot on the Kerrang! stage at Slam Dunk Festival was but one more live highlight among a career which is earmarked to be littered with them. Bulldozing their way into the future, they’ve kicked and scratched their way to the forefront of the UK alternative scene. Corporation P.O.P. may yet be their catapult to the summit.

“We just roll with the punches, we don’t take anything for granted,” concludes Han. “I cannot understate how far away this world felt as a kid.” She signs off with that ever-present glint in her eye, the same glint that we see pouring out of their lyricism and personalities. “It’s silly that we’re here… the side quests are complete. The main quest continues.”