On a cloudy Friday afternoon, I sat down with punk rock band HotWax over Zoom to discuss their debut album and upcoming Scottish tour. I wanted to get to know about what makes them so truly unique, their origin story, musical influences, and favourite spots in Edinburgh. Whilst they only recently released their first album, HotWax have been making music for years, and have even graced the stages of mainstream festivals like Reading and Leeds. It was recently announced that they would be performing at Mad Cool festival in Spain, alongside huge names, from Foo Fighters to Lorde, to Pulp. It was a great opportunity to get an exclusive interview with Lola (bassist) and Tallulah (lead vocalist) before their inevitable blow up. Lola’s orange hair instantaneously brightened up the gloomy afternoon, and Tallulah’s cool vibe and eccentric charm was contagious. I started the interview by asking what they’ve been getting up to.
SHENICE: Hey guys, so nice to sit down and chat. What am I interrupting? What does a usual day look like while you’re prepping for a tour?
TALLULAH: This morning I woke up at Lola’s house because last night we were in London writing, and then we got quite drunk. So we woke up quite hungover. And then today… (her connection is interrupted)
LOLA: We were making candles to sell for our merch
SHENICE: Oh that’s so cute! What were you writing about in London?
LOLA: We’re just writing new stuff really, all the time. Got new songs that will hopefully be coming out this year or coming soon. So we’ve just been doing that and preparing for our tour. Like rehearsing songs and just getting ready really. It’s our biggest headline tour yet.
TALLULAH: And we love coming to Scotland so much as well, I’m really excited for Edinburgh and Glasgow. It’s gonna be really fun. I definitely like playing up the country.
SHENICE: That’s lovely! Okay so let’s talk about your music a little bit. I’ve been a HotWax fan for a while. I saw you guys at Reading Festival, back in 2023 I think. You were great. I’ve always liked your music, back to when ‘Barbie (Not Yours)’ came out, it’s one of my favourites.
LOLA: Wow you’re an OG!
SHENICE: Yeah seriously! That’s why I was so excited to do this interview. And ‘A Thousand Times’ as well, I really loved that song.
TALLULAH: Thank you!
SHENICE: HotWax, to me, has curated such a unique and precise sound, I can tell from the first few seconds of a song if it’s yours or not. How do you manage to balance having such a specific sound without your songs sounding similar or repetitive? Every song on the album sounds completely different, but it still sounds like HotWax.
LOLA: Thank you, I think that we just try to make it so that we can replicate it live. We try our best to make sure it’ll sound good live. I don’t know, I guess we like a hooky chorus, hopefully. Also I play a distorted lead sounding bassline and Tallulah goes between lead and rhythm guitar, and Alfie’s drumming style is influenced by so many things, not just rock. All those coming together, and the fact that we’re a three piece as well is how we get our signature sound, I guess. Whilst keeping it interesting.
TALLULAH: Yeah me and Lola have been writing music together for so long now, since we were like 12 years old. So we’ve grown up together and had all of the same influences growing up. You know how it is, you have your best mate and you’re obsessed with this band, then you find another band and you go through the cycle of finding new music together. So we’ve had the same influences equally fed into us. It’s what’s created the sound that we make.
SHENICE: Yeah I love that, who do you think your biggest music influences were when you were students?
TALLULAH: When we started HotWax we loved bands like Pond and early Tame Impala, and a lot more psychedelic
LOLA: Yeah when we were at school we listened to a lot of that and a lot of Deep Valley who we actually managed to go on tour with which was great, Queens of the Stone Age, stuff like that got us into playing guitar.
SHENICE: Those are really good choices, I love Queens of the Stone Age.
SHENICE: Next up I have a bit of a fun question: if you had to pick an animal to describe the HotWax sound, what would it be?
LOLA: Hmmm, I would say maybe some kind of coyote or something.
TALLULAH: Yeah I was thinking something furry for sure.
LOLA: Like a vicious raccoon.
TALLULAH: No, we’re not that sharp, we’re a bit more kind but protective.
SHENICE: I think that’s pretty close to what I had, after listening to the album I put down snow leopard/wolf. So we’re on the same page for sure.
LOLA: Oh wow.
SHENICE: For this interview, I really want to talk about your collab with Music Venue Trust, as someone who works with music charities myself. I wanted to ask what you think is an important message for the students reading about supporting local venues and grassroots events?
LOLA: It’s the most important thing you can do to support bands. Most of these grassroots gigs are only the price of a couple of drinks that you’d spend down the pub anyways. And every venue is in danger of shutting down, especially if they don’t own the building. You’re never gonna regret going to a gig, you’ll always have a fun time. There’s no way bands can get anywhere without those essential stepping stones.
TALLULAH: Yeah and another massive thing for people our age is, do we want somewhere we can hang out and see our friends, drink, watch bands, and express ourselves? If we do want those spaces and that live music culture, then we need to support the venues and gigs. Pubs, clubs, they’re all going to go and then what about the generations below us? Even for us it’s already getting quite scary.
SHENICE: Exactly, those are very important points!
SHENICE: Lola, and Tallulah actually, I’ve just noticed all the cool art you have up, would you like to tell me the story of the art in your rooms?
LOLA: That’s quite funny because Tallulah has a photo of us behind her!
(Tallulah points the camera towards a black and white framed photograph of her and Lola, they’re both sitting on the floor facing each other, cross-legged. It resembles something of a movie poster.)
TALLULAH: I also have a poster of Debbie Harry and another poster of the band Pond.
SHENICE: Omg I love Debbie Harry!
LOLA: I’ve got a Deep Valley poster, their Farewell tour which we went on as support. The other side is a photo my friend drew of me as a fox. Funny we were just talking about animals!
SHENICE: That’s so cute! I also wanted to mention that I saw you’re on the lineup for Mad Cool festival in Spain, which is an absolutely insane lineup! If you had to curate your own festival, including yourselves, who would play it?
TALLULAH: Ooo, for sure we would have St Vincent, Ty Segall.
TALLULAH: PJ Harvey, Queens of the Stone Age.
LOLA: Radiohead. All of the bands, it would be a very expensive festival.
TALLULAH: No it would be free!
LOLA: Yes haha, free to attend but expensive for us to pay for the artists.
LOLA: Also the local bands that we play with, friends like the band Slag that are coming on tour with us and Jeanie and the White Boys who are also coming on tour with us. They’re great.
SHENICE: That’s so exciting. Tallulah, I have a question for you. I wanted to ask what your vocal inspirations for the album were?
TALLULAH: Definitely PJ Harvey for this album, for sure, especially on songs like ‘In Her Bedroom’
SHENICE: ‘In Her Bedroom’ is one of my favourites on the album!
SHENICE: Lola, I have a question for you too, as a great bass player, what do you find the difference to be between playing in a studio and being able to fine tune your work versus playing live for an audience?
LOLA: I normally really like to go over things and get lots of takes. But we recorded a lot of it live so playing with Alfie (drummer) and doing that live a few times until I felt like it had the best feel. Definitely when I play live, playing my bass is probably one of the last things that I’m thinking about, I’m running around, singing, keeping up with what everyone else is doing. You kind of just let go and your body takes over. Then in the studio you can really think about things. I think I love being in the studio equally to playing live to be honest.
SHENICE: Oh interesting! That makes sense because in the studio you do get to hone your craft more .
SHENICE: I also saw that you guys were touring with Nova Twins, such a great band, I’ve seen them live a few times. How did you find touring with them? What were the highlights?
TALLULAH: Well we shared a bus with them, we’re from the same town so we’ve got to know them and see them at different gigs. We used to see them at really small venues in Hastings, and then they blew up and have had an amazing career so far. But yeah on that bus we really became a family, you know like when you hear people say that on tour it sounds kind of cringe, but it really is true. It was really amazing to be with other women. The whole team and everyone was incredible, we went to some amazing places. Countries we hadn’t been to yet as well.
LOLA: And meeting all their fans, that have now become some of our fans. It’s amazing, I’m really excited for this tour coming up too. Hoping we see a few familiar faces from the Nova Twins tour.
SHENICE: What’s your favourite Nova Twins song, if you have one?
LOLA AND TALLULAH: ‘Bassline Bitch’.
SHENICE: I think that’d be my pick too, good song.
SHENICE: When you guys come to Edinburgh, do you think you’ll have much time to explore the city? Are you excited?
LOLA: Yes definitely, we love coming to Edinburgh, it’s nice to go back somewhere recognisable, we walk up to the castle, good food. Do you have any recommendations for good vegetarian places?
SHENICE: I’m actually vegetarian too so I have lots of recommendations! The Meadows Tap for sure, it’s a pub but they do great burgers and stuff, everything there is vegan! Also Paradise Palms do really good vegan food but they’re changing their menu on Sunday so I don’t know what it’ll be. But you should go anyways because they also do drag shows and karaoke nights, it’s great. And The Dog House, not sure if you guys have been, it’s a very maximalist pub/bar, they have vegan fish and chips.
LOLA and TALLULAH: Oh wow, that sounds so good.
SHENICE: You came to the right person for veggie recommendations.
SHENICE: I have one last question for you guys, unless there’s anything else you want readers to know?
TALLULAH: When you get a ticket to our show you can donate £1 to Music Venue Trust!
SHENICE: Absolutely. Okay, last question: if there’s one thing you think people should know about HotWax, what is it?
TALLULAH: That we are best friends who love playing live and…
LOLA: … are true to ourselves, everything we do is real…
TALLULAH: …from the heart.
LOLA: We hope that people can feel like they can be real at our shows too.
“HotWax in May 2025” by Duk3L1xon is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.