From the inception of STATIC’s online presence, to my personal discovery of New York’s burgeoning underground scene, to the resurgence of shoegaze in the modern zeitgeist of independent rock– Will Anderson and his ever-changing band seem to have been at the root of everything. Hotline TNT (now with a permanent roster and signed to Third Man Records) have been touring their latest album, ‘Cartwheel,’ across the globe and recently made a stop in Chicago at Pitchfork’s Music Festival. We caught up about generator shows, video games, nostalgia, and police encounters.
Note: This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.
Could everyone say their name and what you do in Hotline TNT?
Lucky: My name’s Lucky, I play guitar.
Will: My name’s Will, I play guitar and sing.
Mike: My name’s Mike, I sing and play the drums.
Haylen: My name’s Haylen, I play bass and I do a little bit of singing as well.
So, Will and I have been in the midst of an email chain these past few months… We’ve been going back and forth about generator shows. What is everyone’s best advice for putting on a good [generator show]?
W: It’s really hard, and it’s funny because someone recently asked me to help with a show in New York the day before we left for a month-long tour and I was like man, I wouldn’t do that on the laziest day of the year for me. The day before, it’s like the most stressful thing in the world to throw a generator show. It’s getting more and more rare as I get older but, they’re very fun and when they go off they’re awesome. But, yeah, it can get torn apart in a heartbeat if the cops show up. All of your work can just be… blown up.
L: So… what do you do if the cops do show up?
W: They’ve never shown up for me, so, I don’t know! I just hope for the best.
L: Wow!
W: What, you’ve had that happen?
L: Cops show up to the show? Yeah! A couple times.
W: Actually, just in general you’ve had some police encounters. Would you share?
L: I have had a lot of police encounters. This is my biggest tip, the key to success is running as fast as you can. You always get away. Those guys? They’re not athletic.
M: Never look back!
L: You see the police and you turn your back to them and you keep fucking going!
W: And, honestly, just to pivot a little bit– when you’re choosing band members, you should be choosing people with a fast land speed to be in the band.
M: And stealth. You need stealth in a band.
H: What are we talking about?
Generator shows!
H: Ah, generator shows, okay. Location, location, location. It’s all about the location. If it’s under a bridge somewhere, that’s cool. If it’s in a tunnel, that’s even cooler. If it’s in the middle of a park that’s… pretty cool. That’s what I have to say about it. You want it to be in a really awesome place.
L: One other big thing. You’re throwing a generator show, I know as technology improves, we’ve got these electric, rechargeable battery pack generators. That’s not punk! Gasoline and fossil fuels are punk! No matter what anybody tells you, you wanna hear that thing running in the background of the show or else it’s not cool.
Since the last time we spoke, Cartwheel came out. You’ve been doing festivals, huge shows, lots of touring. How have you been dealing with the change and what, if anything, has changed about your outlook on making music and the band as a whole?
W: We’ve been waiting for a long time, not waiting, we’ve been working… Mike why don’t you jump in, you were there right before Cartwheel.
M: I mean, I think the outlook on making music has stayed the same.
W: Yes.
M: The only difference is that now it’s a group of people that are kind of pooling together. I feel like if anything we’ve just been trying to hit it hard, play a lot of shows. I guess that the record has influenced that because if we didn’t have a record to tour on we probably wouldn’t be playing as much.
W: We pretty much made a decision that we would die for it.
M: I made that decision long ago.
W: Yeah, but we doubled down on it. Like Mike said, it is definitely– I think we’ve solidified and fossilized this crew as a four piece that’s been way more collaborative than it ever has been. So, that’s a change.
H: I joined the band, I think, like, a month after Cartwheel came out and my first time actually seeing Hotline TNT before I was in the band was the Cartwheel record release show. So, I feel like everything that I’ve seen so far and on that first tour we went on together was people seeing the post-Cartwheel shows live for the first time.
M: The actual touring and playing shows feels the same as it did before.
W: Yeah, I don’t think our attitude will ever really change. We’re trying to keep the same energy–which is simultaneously very humble and very cocky.
M: We know what we’re good at, we know our strengths.
So, is this lineup permanent now? Forever?
L: If one of us is out, it’s over. So, if any of you are reading this– say your prayers at night.
W: I don’t think you’re ever going to get to join the band. That window is closed. No one is joining the band ever again.
M: I’ve played through injuries so, don’t even count on that. Broken arm? I’ve done it.
W: I was on my deathbed for the whole Cartwheel tour! It’s not going to change.
L: We thought about replacing Will on the Cartwheel tour as well.
W: We did vote Matt–our last member, who left the band– we had to vote him off. That was just kind of a “the weakest link” situation. But, other than that, that’s it! No more changes!
Does this mean that everyone will be working on the next record together?
W: Yes.
L: Yes.
H: Uh, Yes.
M: Yes… I think so.
I know this was a little while ago now, but there was a video game for the release of the third single for Cartwheel– “Out of Town.” Where did the idea for that come from, how did that come about?
W: I’m just a big video game person. I think actually Camille might have been the one that hatched that one. She works at Third Man. She’s our awesome A&R person from London. She knows we’re into video games and streaming and stuff and thought it’d be a fun way to premiere our single.
M: It was cool for me, too. I got to make a little song for the ending. A little bleep-bloop song. I made it in Garageband, on a tour just in the van.
W: Yeah, and there was a chiptune version of one of our old songs “Stampede,” as the intro music… we just love doing goofy crap like that.
In terms of aesthetics too with the video game and even your website– what about that particular sort of late-90s-old-technology style are you drawn to? How does that inspire the music you make?
W: I mean, it all goes hand in hand. We’re ‘90s kids, right? I would say that we all just have a very high level of respect for nostalgia. It feeds everything we do artistically. My guy Haylen is a big into-nostalgia type of dude…
H: Yeah, almost to a fault. I feel like I like it a little too much.
L: I actually personally feel that nostalgia is poison, but I’m also personally addicted to it.
W: Especially during the pandemic, I felt like there was almost no present going on, so we had to live in the past. We had no choice. It kept me warm! That’s really what nostalgia is, it just gives you warm fuzzies. Like a Norah Jones song, you know, something like that.
L: I think that with a lot of older technology and video games and stuff like that, everything was more analog and tactile. You have more of a physical connection to those things that you don’t have with some stuff now.
W: Web apps, mobile games–
L: Yeah! There’s just more of an actual, physical, personal connection to [older technology]. That’s what I look for in music too.
It’s been about a year since I talked to Hotline TNT last… where do you think you will be one year from now, as a band?
W: I’ll tell you one thing, we ain’t going to be playing the first slot on the blue stage next year. You’ll see us on the top! On the top of the chart!
H: The record we’re cooking… can I talk about this?
W: No, but go ahead– for Shannon, yes.
H: The record we’re currently cooking up right now, is gonna transcend us. We’re going to transcend rather, is what I meant to say.
L: We are going to transcend feeble little horse playing directly after our band. We will be playing many slots ahead of them!
W: Yeah, if you were here this year, I hope you enjoyed it because it’s the last time that’s going to happen!
