Page 26 - Black Velvet Rock Magazine Issue 109

BV109 pg 22-27 The Hot Damn! Interview.qxp_BV109 pg 26 08/12/2023 19:11 Page 5

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Lzi: When I was on my way to work, my friends apart. I was still in Scotland, and then, took the to this, and, hopefully, we’ve got quite a few
on my little WhatsApp group kept saying, ‘Be plunge and moved down. But I wouldn’t have shows next year, playing in front of a wider au-
careful of the Elizabeth Line. There are bed moved down if I didn’t love you guys. That’s a dience, it’ll be really interesting to see, because
bugs on the Elizabeth Line.' Oh, shut up! They life-changing thing, I think. So, just believing in we haven’t really played to non-rock fans before,
were like, ‘You can’t sit down on public transport each other. so it’ll be interesting to see what Fozzy’s
anymore. It’s 7 o’clock in the morning, I want to Josie: I think the album’s turned out, I’d say, bet- wrestling fans make of it.
sit down.’ ter than I ever thought it would. Lzi: And Fozzy’s metal fans.
Josie: The irony is, the only time I’ve been bed Lzi: We’re so arrogant, aren’t we? Our album’s Josie: We like to think that we’re very loveable
bugged on tour was when Gill booked us into a great. and everyone should fall in love with us.
nice hotel in Carlisle with a swimming pool. Josie: We had the studio time booked, and, I Lzi: But metallers are very loveable as well.
Gill: It was supposed to be a nice hotel! think, two months before the studio time, I think Don’t let those beards and tattoos fool you.
Josie: It was a posh hotel and we got bed we maybe had about four completed songs. We Josie: Everyone deserves love.
bugged, so we stick to Travelodges now. had quite a lot of work to do and not a lot of time. Lzi: Love is love.
Lzi: Those little robo hoovers, what are they And it’s always a bit, ‘Are we going to pull this Gill: ‘All you need is love.’
called? off or are we going to waste a load of money All four girls start singing ‘All You Need Is Love’
Laurie: Zoomba? No? recording stuff that’s not going to be anything and swaying side to side.
Lzi: Roomba. Zumba is a very energetic dance. anyone loves?’ I dunno, we have this way of,
Laurie: The energetic, dancey one. kind of, just pulling it off. It all just comes to- BV: Are there any songs on the album that
Josie: We do Zumba onto stage. gether. I’m not ashamed to say I’m really proud will make fans laugh?
Lzi: Those Roombas are cool though. Those of this album. Lzi: ‘About Last Night’. ‘About Last Night’ was
Roombas would suck up a bed bug. actually… we went to see a gig. Josie wasn’t
Laurie: Why are we paying more for somebody’s BV: When’s it coming out? there, I don’t think. It was my friend’s band. We
job to be replaced by a robot though? Laurie: Next year. I want early next year. I think went pretty hard on it.
Gill: I think we’re on a tangent here! we all want now, but you have to do the plan, Laurie: Me and Gill kept saying ‘Spicy’ through-
Lzi: Welcome to The Hot Damn! and management says. We said to manage- out the whole set.
Laurie: Laughing each minute though. ment, ‘We want to just get it out before. We’ve Lzi: We got a bit spicy, didn’t we? And there was
got the Fozzy tour next year, get it out for then, a karaoke night afterwards. Laurie came back to
BV: Who else makes you laugh? and that way people will know our music, be- the table with this grin on her face (Lzi is in hys-
Laurie: Alaska Thunderfuck. cause it’s really hard to only have four songs, terics) and she’s like, ‘I’ve done something!’ I
Josie: Ohh, we like Alaska. now, and the rest of the set, nobody knows. We think I instantly knew what you’d done. ‘You’ve
Laurie: Yeah, drag queen Alaska Thunderfuck. put that forward to them and they were, ‘Well... found our songs on karaoke, haven’t you?’ And
Lzi: I thought Sean Lock was very funny. I had a No.' that had been what’d happened. And our song
weird crush on him, so did my friend. Gill: We need six months to launch a pre-album. came on and we got up and sang our own songs
Josie: What?! Laurie: Blame them! at the Amersham Arms in New Cross.
Lzi: Yeah, I had a crush on Sean Lock. Laurie: And then we got a round of applause at
Josie: I low-key fancied Jon Richardson. BV: Have you witnessed any moments of the end of it.
Gill: That’s weird. love that really impacted you? Lzi: And one new Spotify subscriber! Every day’s
Lzi: Who’s your weirdest crush? Laurie: Our blossoming love for each other. a hustle!
Josie: Jon Richardson. They all laugh.
Laurie: Is he funny? Lzi: We ARE arrogant, aren’t we? BV: You also mention ‘Learn!’ in ‘Live Laugh
Josie: Yeah, he’s really intelligent as well. He al- Gill: I love it when people propose on stage. You Love’ and sing ‘Learn! Or the Uni of life is
ways gets the Countdown thing in two seconds. go to Download and bands let them do it in front gonna clever you up’. What are you glad
I’m like, 'Ohh.' Who’s your weird crushes? of hundreds of thousands of people and I just you’ve learned?
Gill: I’d need to have a little think. think, ‘Aww!’ ‘cause it’s quite special for them. Laurie: To play music. Without music, I don’t
Lzi: I had James May as a weird crush once. Josie: We need to write a love song. know what I’d be doing right now.
Laurie: Ohhh no. Laurie: We’ll write a wedding song, so we can Gill: I think, just being brave enough to follow
Gill: We’re getting deep in this now. be on people’s wedding anthems. We’ve done your own path. I think my parents pressured me
Lzi: But my mate, my best mate from school, the ‘Hate You’, we’ve done ‘Live Laugh Love’, into getting a real job and it was never my M.O..
yeah, Ruth, I’m totally going to name-drop you, we’ve done dancing. It was never what I wanted to do, so I just think,
she totally fancied Max Branning from Easten- Gill: All the emotions. ‘No, I’m going to do this, because I think that I’d
ders. Josie: We’ve done the hungover song. really enjoy this.’ I mean, I’m not there yet, but
Laurie: Oh no. Oh no. That’s not OK. Laurie: We’ll do a wedding song. hey, I’m having fun and I’m enjoying life. I’ve
Gill: After the pie song. learned to just learn to trust your instincts.
BV: Love – Tell me about your love for The Laurie: Why are we doing a pie song? Josie: Trust your gut. Normally, when you feel
Hot Damn! Are you loving how things are Gill: We thought about it, last night. It seemed something, it’s right. For whatever reason, your
going at the moment? Are you loving what like a good idea. gut is telling you something that your brain can’t
you’ve created so far? Lzi: I mean, we all like pies. quite work out.
Gill: I think we are. I think we big ourselves up Laurie: We do like pies.
too much. I think our heads are going to ex- BV: Is there anything else in life that you
plode. BV: Who do you think will most love your think we should all do, other than live, laugh,
Josie: We love ourselves more than anybody album? love and learn?
else does. Lzi: Us, by the sounds of things! Josie: Subscribe to The Hot Damn! on YouTube,
Lzi: We’re our own biggest fans. Josie: We’ll have it on repeat. follow us on Spotify, go and buy some merch
Laurie: We did question ‘Are we arrogant?’ in the Lzi: We love sniffing our own farts. from our online store, and pre-order our album.
van today? Gill: I think people who don’t always choose to Lzi: And stop wearing stage blacks all the time!
Gill: We passed our merch lady, ‘Tell us, do you wear black T-shirts. Josie: That comes under ‘buy some merch’.
think we’re arrogant, ‘cause we’re great, aren’t Lzi: Fun people. Lzi: That does come under 'buy some merch.'
we?’ Gill: People who’ve got a little bit of an open Josie: But not these hoodies (they’re wearing
Josie: I think you have to be creating something mind. We’re a bit different. We do bring a bit black).
you’re really proud of, to be doing this. more fun and cheer. Lzi: And also, don’t take yourself so seriously.
Laurie: I think we do believe in it. We’ve worked Josie: We kind of thought, when we first came Be fun. Be more Hot Damn!
really hard to get it to where it is now. It has out with the tie-dye T-shirt, ‘Oh God,’ you know, Gill: Explore colour. Spice up your life.
taken a long time and it’s nice to finally start see- because we were quite lucky to carry over some Lzi: Every boy and every girl.
ing the results of what we’ve been working on, of the fans from our previous bands. And we Laurie: Taking over the world!
because it has been drawn out for… Covid was thought, ‘Oh God, they’re going to hate this new
at the beginning, we had to find out who we band with our bright colours,’ but they’ve loved Visit www.thehotdamn.com for more info.
were a little bit as a band, work out what songs it and embraced it.
we wanted to write. Laurie: We had to keep them. Words By Shari Black Velvet
Gill: We had to have time to gig as well. We had- Josie: They’re along for the ride and that’s
n’t been in a room. We all lived maybe 300 miles amazing. But I think there’s a much wider appeal
THE HOT DAMN!