ONE ON ONE: AN INTERVIEW WITH HOT MILK!

I’M DANNI BAKER, THIS IS HIVE MAGAZINE AND TODAY I’M AT 2000 TREES WITH HOT MILK!

Han: Hi Danni Baker!

Jim: What’s going on? Hello Hive!

Han: Hi – ve. Hi Hive.

SO FIRSTLY, HOW ARE WE DOING? ARE WE GLAD TO BE BACK AT TREES?

Han: Yeah, what a lovely day in the Cotswolds it is. A bit posh for me. We've never really been down here other than trees, do you know what mean? Oh look at all these nice buildings. No, I drove down this morning with all my mates in the car because I'm staying tonight like camping, right, because it's the last night of our tour –

Jim: It’s a little holiday isn’t it!

Han: – like, we've been on tour since April so we thought, well I thought, fuck it, I'm going have a blowout. How's he sure? My car's parked over there, ready for a little boogie later.

Jim: I gotta get back for the dog. My little dog.

Han: Little baby, I was thinking, I can't wait to watch headline and I was like, it's me, fuck.

I MEAN, IF YOU’RE STAYING OVER, YOU’LL GET TO WATCH SOME OF THEM RIGHT?…

Han: I might go tomorrow night, I'm supposed to go tomorrow night. We'll see.

Jim: We've got Oasis on Friday.

YOU MANAGED TO GET TICKETS, THAT’S INSANE.

Jim: Last minute.

Han: It'll be a boogie, that. Very naughty dance.

Jim: It'll be great. Let's leave it like that.

SO YOU’VE HAD A REALLY BUSY COUPLE WEEKS. FIRSTLY. YOU’VE HAD THE ALBUM RELEASE. CONGRATULATIONS ON THAT!

Han: Do you like it?

INCREDIBLE ALBUM. INCREDIBULE ALBUM.

Han: Danny Baker likes it. What would we do?

I WROTE A WHOLE REVIEW ON IT!

Han: Did you? Yeah. What did you get?

FIVE STARS OF COURSE, I HAVE NOT SHUT UP ABOUT IT.

Jim: Hell yeah.

Han: I've seen one bad review and I looked at who it was and it was like a 60 year old man and I was like well it's not for you is it? Like, shut up.

I mean this is why I do what I do is because I am the demographic, I enjoy writing about it.

Han: You're the perfect one to be able to do the questions right now, which we should get to.

SO YEAH, AGAIN, MASSIVE WEEK. GREEN DAY AS WELL.

Han: Favourite band in the world.

I WAS GOING TO SAY, I KNOW YOU’VE POSTED A LOT ABOUT IT BEING A BIG THING — JUST TALK TO ME ABOUT IT. HOW’S IT BEEN?

Han: How's it been, Jim?

Jim: For like the week before she was just insufferable of being like “What am gonna wear?”, “What am I gonna say to him?”, “What am I gonna do?”, “What song should we play?”, “right if he comes in the dressing room let me speak first because you'll ruin it” – “Well, what I don't know where to.. if I sit here do I invite him over?”. I like just fucking chill

Han: I'm just a bit of a control freak when it comes to things that are important. Situations. and I was just like, I don't know, just, we didn't end up meeting him because they were like, if you stick around, they want to meet you. But I was like, I'm not waiting. Like, he's coming to me. Since I was 11 years old, he's gonna knock on my door, right? And I'm gonna keep it like that because I think I don't want to meet someone that I've idolized for many years on an unlevel playing field. Do you know what I mean? And I think if it wasn't the time, it wasn't the time, but the shows were sick because I've seen Green Day 50 times, right? And I know what they like because I am them. So when I was playing that gig, I was like, you are me. And so I think they really felt that.

Jim: mini Billy over here.

Han: Yeah, I mean, I steal bits from him. I steal bits from Freddie. I borrow from Freddie, borrow from Joe Strummer, borrow from Johnny Rotten, borrow a bit from Billy Joe. But honestly, the gigs were like a dream.

Jim: They were really sick. The crew were dead sound, it was fucking rammed, absolutely rammed. We played with them at a festival a couple of years ago and everything went fucking wrong and a bunch of them were watching us. You were having a meltdown.

Han: It's the only time I've ever thrown my guitar on the ground out of frustration.

Jim: Which you regret now

Han: Well I threw it at my guitar tech and I went to him, it wasn't at you. It was just out of pure like, we've just been on the flight for three hours and we've come and played this and we were good but the tech broke. And when the tech breaks it's just frustrating.

Jim: It’s not fun.

A CONTROL KIND OF THING

Han: Yeah just like, nightmare fuel like an actual nightmare you would have.

Jim: So it's nice to come back and it all go like swimmingly.

Han: Swimmingly!

Jim: Swimmingly! [boop]

Han: What a good simile that is. Swimmingly is a great simile.

Jim: I couldn't say that. That's like the fucking sympathy symphony.

Han: Jim has a lisp

Jim: I've got a list. I know. – I can't even speak now.

Han: It's alright you don’t have to, I will. I’ll talk instead. That margarita has gone straight to my head.

PLAYING THE NEW SONGS LIVE AS WELL, HOW WAS THE RECEPTION FOR IT BEEN?

Jim: It's been really good. It's taken us way, way longer than we thought because they are fucking solid. They're really hard to play. We've really tried to push ourselves on this musically.

Han: There's some we've not transposed into livedom yet. there's some obviously when you're in studio you're tracking it, you're thinking how the fuck are we going to play this live but we've not sat down in rehearsal space yet and worked some of them out because obviously me and Jim both play guitar so we have to work out who's going to do rhythm, who's going to do lead, we have to keep swapping.

Jim: What parts are you... because some of these songs have got like 15 layers of guitars on so it's like working out what we're gonna play. We're also like.. plug.. doing our biggest ever shows at the end of this year.

Han: Come to Victoria Warehouse

Jim: Yeah, come on down but we've been writing the set for like the last month and we're just gonna keep writing it and we're just like we're basically playing like the whole new album and we're going through and trying to make it like as crazy as possible

Han: There’s outfit changes!

Jim: Yeah, it's gonna be all sorts going on.

THAT’S WHAT WE LOVE TO HEAR. BUT AGAIN, I HAVE NOT SHUT UP ABOUT THE ALBUM.

Han: What’s your favourite Danni?

ASPHYXIATE, EASY. IT’S.. I LOVE THE REFERENCE BACK TO ‘AWFUL EVER AFTER’ —

Jim: You said that at Download! You did yeah.

I DID! YEAH AS SOON AS I HEARD IT AND I WAS LIKE, SCREW IT. AND THEN ANYONE WOULD WOULD LISTEN, I WAS SHOWING THEM THAT, AND THEN WAS LIKE, LOOK, LISTEN TO THIS. IT’S A WHOLE LINK BACK IT’S GREAT.

Han: When I put that in I was like “they’ll like that Jim, they’ll like that bit”..

Jim: [jokingly] Clever!

AND THEN I’VE HAD ‘WAREHOUSE SALVATION’ AND ‘CHASE THE DRAGON’ AS WELL. IT’S ON MY ON REPEAT ALREADY. WHICH IS INSANE.

Jim: It's good to know. It's like we're doing a little bit of like, it's like product research. Yeah, exactly.

I AM YOUR MARKET RESEARCH.

Han: I'm fine with that, like this is why we love talking to people about it because I'm like, we've been sat on the album for –

Jim: Yeah, we're like what the fuck is this record like is it good like

Han: We wrote it in three weeks.

EVEN SOUND-WISE YOU GUYS HAVE COME SO FAR, EVEN SINCE ‘A CALL TO THE VOD’. LIKE, IT’S SO MUCH HEAVIER, LYRICALLY AS WELL IT’S A LOT MORE UNFILTIRED AND POLITICAL. ESPECIALLY WITH EVERYTHING THAT’S GOING ON AT THE MOMENT.

Han: I mean, how can you not write about stuff like that? If you've got a conscience, I think it's important to.

Jim: I also think with having three weeks to write it, it was way more reactionary. It was like a snapshot of like where we were at the time, what was going on at the time and basically like what we like.

Han: It was just pre-US election and everything felt like just in the balance chaotic and I just think like we're now in a world that's very unnatural for human beings to be in like the democratic process itself is kind of an unnatural human thing anyway we're not really supposed to be in a capitalist society you know, we're supposed to be in tribes, and so now with the addition of the internet and so many sources and you know Twitter/X whatever you want to call it is probably the worst of that – you know people get completely brainwashed by that shit so it was kind of reaction to everything I was seeing and feeling. But yeah, we've managed to put that into one album.

EVEN IN THE LAST WEEK, TWO WEEKS, IT’S BECOME EVEN MORE RELEVANT THAN EVER. HOW DOES IT FEEL FOR YOU GUYS PALYING THAT AND HEARING PEOPLE SCREAMING THAT BACK AT YOU ALREADY?

Han: I think American Machine especially, I think people can relate to. I think, like I say, I'm not anti-American. I'm just anti the kind of way that countries... I mean, look, we've spent a lot of time there. I've been going over there since I was 18 years old, right? And I'm 32 now, so 14 years of going to and from that country. And I've seen it go from good to bad there. You know, there's so much poverty. It's just kind of like the Wild West still. And there's no wonder that it's kind of in a bit of a turmoil.

Jim: Dissaray yeah. I just hope that.. like you were saying it's more of a fear record it's everything that we're kind of scared of and it's like it's looking at the model of the US and how certain individuals especially like poor people, vulnerable people –

Han: It’s more like the healthcare system that we were attacking.

Jim: Exactly I hate for our country to follow

Han: And the war machine that they've become, are in an economy of war and they love going to war because it creates money. And that's essentially what we're pointing out. Really we're not targeting MAGA really, I mean in that song. Obviously we are in a way, but that song specifically is just to get the system itself.

OBVIOUSLY YOU’VE GOT ‘AMERICAN MACHINE’ AND THEN YOU’VE GOT ‘INSUBORDINATE ENGERLAND’ AS WELL, IT TOUCHES ON THE STATE THE COUNTRY IS IN, BUT THEN ALSO HAS THOSE ICONIC BRITISH REFERENCES. YEAH. IT’S A MIX OF BOTH.

Jim: Exactly, it's kind of from the point of view chorus is like a the gammon point of view of just being like

Han: Some people it went over their heads because they went, oh I'm England till I die, what are you talking about? I'm like yeah just listen to the whole song, like read the lyrics, like you know when Johnny Rotten said God save the Queen is that what he meant? No it's fucking not, like we're saying like oh you're England till you die, look at how ironic that is, you know and so some people didn't really get it, you know and that's alright because it's not for people that are thick.

I SAW YOU TWEET LIKE THE DAY BEFORE IT CAME OUT, I WAS LIKE I KNOW THIS IS GONNA.. PEOPLE ARE GONNA HAVE SOME STUFF TO SAY..

Jim: It's divisive, but like… everything's fucking divisive and we shouldn't be riding the line of just kind of like what's what we should be doing –

Han: We’re not people pleasing are we

Jim: Exactly like I'm kind of like I mean you be careful about what you say now because you see you know certain individuals being cancelled and dropped and etc through through kind of speaking out about exactly what and certain news outlets that that are prevalent in the in the British society but you know if you if you ride that line of like what you're told. It's happened before, it's fucking happened before in Europe and it ended badly.

Han: I just want to see less suffering, more humanity, as everybody should.

SO STILL KEEPING WITH THE THEME OF ‘INSUBORDINATE ENGERLAND’, BUT ON A SLIGHTLY LIGHTER NOTE. YOU’VE GOT YOUR BITISH CULTURE REFERENCES INCLUDING THE ICONIC “CUP OF TEA, MUSHY PEA” LINE, I MUST SAY—

Jim: The stupidest line to ever enter a fucking song!

I LOVE IT, AND EVERYONE’S GOING TO SCREAM IT AT THE SHOWS, YOU KNOW IT. BUT I WANTED TO ASK, WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE BRITISH POP CULTURE MOMENT?

Jim: I still love that from Manchester that fucking picture you know the one New Year's Eve where there's a fat guy with the reaching for the pint there's a bunch of people getting arrested I just think that sums up like Manchester and like the north and like a really funny..

Han: I like when John Prescott got egged. Either that or you know when Fingy Smith from Cure was like on the red carpet and she was like, we're excited to be here and he was like, not as excited as you. I was like, yeah, fair mate, fair. Great question by the way!

Jim: What's yours? What's your favourite?

WE CAME UP WITH SO MANY — IT’S ALL KIND OF LIKE, YOU KNOW YOUR BIG BROTHER AND LIVE ISLAND, AND ALL THAT KIND OF STUFF.

Han: David’s dead!

That was one of mine! That was one of mine!

Han: When David Bowie died and they thought it was David Gest –

Jim: I saw him 15 minutes ago!

Han: Well I saw him a few weeks later, I saw David Gest in a cafe in Manchester in the Hilton, he was sat there and I was like, you’re not dead though are you. But he is now. Sorry.

Jim: Well there we go. Fucking hell.

ARE THERE ANY UP AND COMING BANDS AT THE MOMENT YOU’RE LOVING THAT YOU WANT TO GIVE A SHOUT OUT?

Jim: I've just seen one, Unpeople.. They're gonna be huge. They're gonna be absolutely massive.

Han: Sick riffs, good people. I like Last Hounds, they're a great band. Really like them.

Jim: Silly Goose

Han: Silly Goose, they're sick. Anything with a riff, we're into at the minute. Shout out to South Arcade for just being good people as well.

I’VE KNOWN THEM A COUPLE OF YEARS NOW AND IT’S INSANE WATCHING THE WAY THEY’VE BLOWN UP. IT’S SO DESERVED.

Han: I just love them as people as well, I'm so glad that they're nice. It's good to see.

MY FINAL QUESTION FOR YOU GUYS, WHO WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE HEADLINE 2000TREES IN 2026?

Han: Hot milk.

Jim: Easy question.

Han: Why not? We’ll do it.

IT’S ALREADY HAPPENING…

Han: Yeah but this isn’t proper is it, It's Wednesday. Like, let's do Friday.

Jim: Give us big stage. We like running around.

Han: We like running around. Who do we want to see headline trees? It's got to be a UK band, hasn’t it? Like, I think you know, homegrown talent is what is needed in this country. Like, sorry Americans, but it's our turn. Brit punk's back. That's what I'm saying. Brit punk's back. Hot milk, Brit punk. Let's have it.

Jim: Oy, oy.

Han: Oi oi, ogee ogee ogee ogee ogee

WELL, THAT’S A GREAT NOTE TO END IT ON. THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR BEING HERE WITH ME.

Jim: It’s all good thanks for having us!

You May Also Like:

Featured