Cambridge based ‘The Hot One Two’ discuss 2023 plans, their explosive, high energy shows and catchy hard edged rock songs

Interview by Mark Lacey

Cambridge based, The Hot One Two are certain to become a household name in 2023 for their explosive, high energy shows and catchy hard edged rock songs. Founding bassist, Nick Blackburn, and vocalist, Simon West talk about their touring plans and a debut album oozing deadly sins.

MGM: Anybody coming across you for the first time, is going to see your logo and presume you’re selling hot chilli sauce. How would you describe the Hot One Two?

Nick: It’s funny you say that, because we’ve thought of about a million ways that we can brand ourselves either with hot sauce, or the hot one brew tea, or the hop one two beer, hot one moo milkshake, whatever. We’ve all grown up listening to the classic rock sound of the seventies, and eighties, and our music is quite deeply rooted in that, although there’s our own modern spin on it. I’ve done a lot of the music writing ….. I’m terrible with lyrics, but pretty good with music, I like to think. My two favourite bands are probably Motley Crue and Pantera …. there’s some pretty heavy riffs in there, so I think you’ll hear quite a bit of that in our music.

MGM: Talking about your sound, it’s quite hard to pigeonhole you, which is a good thing, but are there any notable comparisons?

Simon: There are a few bands … but it’s nice that we don’t follow anything exactly. I think that comes to our influences where there are the heavy rock influences but there’s also Queen, for example. It’s not just the music. It’s the trying to put on a show and bring the whole thing together. So, I think it’s quite hard to pinpoint it and actually say. I don’t think even we fully know who we sound like.

Nick: Yeah, it’s difficult. I don’t like people that love to say “we’re like nothing ever before, man; we’ve totally reinvented the wheel”, because I think it’s quite difficult these days to do that and still be something that people actually want to listen to. I might be wrong.

MGM: Moving on to the origins of the band, Nick, I gather you, Nick Manners and Joe Chivers were part of the original line-up, and you took a bit of time to find Simon and Kev.

Nick: It all started with myself, Joe and Manners. Joe and I have known each other since we were 11-12 years old and started playing our respective instruments at about the same time. We played in so many bands …  some of them good, some of them not so good. It’s all a sort of rite of passage, isn’t it? We ended up going to ACM in Guildford around 2010. We had a great time there, met loads of great musicians, honed our craft, and we met Nick Manners, who previously lived in Milton Keynes. We kept in touch with him, and he came to hang out with us for quite a while doing work on the function and wedding circuit for about three or four years. We didn’t really want to carry on with that. It was a great experience whilst we were doing it, but we really wanted to go back to roots and start playing our own music. So, we formed the Hot One Two, basically. We had a couple of other musicians that came and started the band and we had some great gigs with those, and that ran its course, and then Simon joined us in 2018.

Simon: I saw an online ad looking for a singer that liked literally a list of everything that’s on my iTunes. I had similarly been doing the wedding circuit with multiple different bands, but just wanted to do my own thing. We met up, and did an audition, and I think even after the audition, as I was leaving, they were jamming a song and I said, “do you mind if I just sit in on this, just to learn the process”. And that’s when we wrote the main chorus and hook to ‘Tie Me Down’. From there it just snowballed; not only was it a good musical relationship, but it was just a good friendship, and that’s just worked really well ever since. After that we had a couple of guitarists come and go, then we had the pandemic, and we stopped trying to find another guitarist, and just work on the music. When we were ready to start gigging again, that’s when we found Kev. He’s just slotted in with the rest of the band and has the same mentality as us, and the same desire to succeed and play music.

MGM: It’s really explosive watching you guys on stage. Every single one of you is really giving it out. And of course, Kev is the master of the funny faces, and his on stage spinning around. It’s a surprise he doesn’t knock more of you over during the show.

Nick: We’ve had a few very close calls!

MGM: You’ve had quite a bit of success with your live shows over the last year supporting the likes of Wicked Smile, Marco Mendoza, and playing a number of the festivals. How did that work out?

Simon: After the pandemic and we started gigging again, we did SharkFest in April. That’s where we met our manager, and he has the same vision we’ve had. I think with every single one of those shows, we’ve just looked at ourselves and gone, this is it. We need to make our mark, play the best we can, and put on the best show we can. And every time we’ve done that, something has further unlocked the door from there. It’s just snowballed and each gig seems to be getting bigger and better, which is fantastic.

Nick: I think that maybe the whole pause that everyone was forced to go through throughout COVID has reignited a flame for live music, both for musicians and for spectators as well. People want to come out and see gigs now. We’ve had a lot of luck; we’ve had a lot of busy shows, and everything we’ve done since COVID has worked out really well for us.

MGM: You’ve also had a couple of EPs out, and have predominantly gone down the route of releasing different singles, which can be found on Spotify. ‘Tie Me Down’ was the first one that you wrote together. But do any of those other songs pre-date Simon’s arrival to the band?

Simon: The ‘Come Whatever May’ EP tracks are pre my arrival. It does have me vocally on it, but those songs were penned before me. But ‘Tie Me Down’, ‘Playing With Fire’ and the most recent EP ‘Unrestrained’ … that’s the current line-up.

MGM: ‘Bleed on Me’ and ‘Chains’ on the new EP are epic. How do you approach the writing process, and deciding what topics to base your songs on?

Simon: Lyrically, Joe used to be main lyric writer until I joined, and then Nick does most of the music, or at least the main structure or main riff. We’ll send voice notes back and forth of melodies or lyric ideas. ‘Chains’ was very much about the time during lockdown. We’ve got a song on the new album coming up, which is all about Robert Johnson and the blues, and then there’s references to Nashville. Most things come from that little hook that we get in our head. But then other times, it can just be you’re feeling frustrated about something, or maybe about having a good time and making the most of life. There’s no set path, but everyone collaborates and we all get stuck in.

MGM: There’s lots of different component parts to your music. It’s not a Dream Theater or an Opeth, but it’s dynamic, and you can’t predict where it’s going to go next. You can definitely feel the bass guitar and drums influence, and that strong partnership as a rhythm section.

Nick: I think that comes from being mates and playing our instruments together for so long; it must be 15 years that Joe and I have been playing almost exclusively together as a rhythm section.

MGM: You mentioned the new album. Is it fully written, and recorded now? And what are the plans for release?

Simon: We wrote our album during lockdown, and then we found that issue of, when do we release this album? We didn’t have any shows, and our management said, let’s push the album back a little bit … get the gigs under your belt, get a buzz around you and build a following that will buy your album, instead of just releasing a vanity project. I think that’s worked, especially with each gig getting bigger and better.

Nick: We had the final mixes back over Christmas. It’s going for mastering this month, and then we’ll start the campaign to get it out there. There’s a couple of crossover singles, but the vast majority of it is brand new songs.

MGM: You’ve recently been posting on social media about some video collaborations with Kris Barras too. How did those come about?

Simon: I think it was just a Facebook post. We just saw the other work that he had done and was just like that’s exactly what we would like to do. Every video we’ve done so far has always been self-produced. So, it was just a nice thing to jump on. He was incredibly humble, kind …. and we had a meal with him and took every opportunity to ask every single question we had about the music industry and a band of that level. And he was happy to answer all of our questions which was nice.

MGM: you guys just finished the year with a sold out show at the Six Six Bar in your hometown of Cambridge; a city better known for its university than its musicians, with perhaps the exception of David Gilmour and Matt Bellamy. How was that show? And what gigging plans do you have for the rest of 2023?

Simon: Come to Cambridge. I’m ready for the blue plaque on my door.

Nick: The one at the Six Six is a local one. It’s a small local venue, but that was probably the second or third time that we’ve played there. They’re just really nice guys. It’s a rock / alternative bar, which Cambridge desperately needs, because it’s got the reputation of the university. It’s a bit high-brow and stuff like that. The music scene around Cambridge is OK, but we go to places like Wolverhampton where they’ve got KKs, which is incredible. And then there’s obviously quite a cluster, like the Giffard, and then we’re playing at the station in Cannock, just up the road. And then just a bit further on you’ve got Eleven in Stoke, and the Rebellion in Manchester, amongst a whole other load of great venues.

MGM: You’re involved in quite a few things this year, including Call of the Wild, and HRH Sleaze. The Dementia Awareness show in Wolverhampton on 14^th January also has a great line-up. What’s the touring strategy? It seems like you’re pushing for the festival shows rather than trying to do UK wide support slots with larger bands. Is that deliberate or is that just how it’s played out?

Nick: We want to get a foothold in various pockets around the country. We’re thinking long term as well. We’ve got the album coming out and of the back of that we’ll be able to really hit touring hard in 2024. So, we’re trying to get to as many places around the country as we can throughout 2023 to build up some fans in those areas.

Simon: A lot of the tours we’ve done so far, like Wicked Smile, have been very last minute because a band dropped out and we’re taking any opportunity we can. So far, it’s worked out very well, so we’ll keep doing that.

MGM: Just going back to the album, have you got an intended release date for the album?

Simon: we’re looking at the end of the year, late November / December, but we’re going to be doing six singles throughout the year to keep the momentum going. We’ve got the theme of the seven deadly sins, so each single is related to a sin, and that’s leading up to the final sin, which will be the album.

The Hot One Two will be playing across the UK throughout 2023.

For more information about The Hot One Two, check their website

www.thehotonetwo.com

www.facebook.com/thehotonetwo/

January 14th: The Giffard Arms, Wolverhampton

January 28: The Station, Cannock

March 25th: Rock Den, Hatfield

April 9th: The Giffard Arms, Wolverhampton

May 27th: Call of the wild, Lincoln

July 1st: SOS Festival, Manchester

August 25th: HRH Sleaze, Sheffield

September 30th: Tap & Tumbler, Nottingham

October 12th: Trillians, Newcastle

November 4th: HRH XVI, Great Yarmouth

The Hot One Two are:

Simon West, – vocals,

Nick Blackburn, – bass guitar & backing vocals,

Joe Chivers, – drums,

Nick Manners, – lead guitar & backing vocals,

Kev Baker, – rhythm guitar,

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