Last spring, when my friend Drew and I set up a show for Hotline TNT at a firehouse that daylights as a cardboard sculpture explosion, a kid asked me “how the hell did you get Pitchfork’s favorite band to play here?” Truth be told, they barely fit. Hours before doors, a line began to snake down Hiawatha. Within 5 minutes of opening, we were spinelessly attempting to shoo people away, easily defeated by age or travel-distance based excuses. We ran cup after cup of 20s upstairs, stacking bills til I was faced with more cold hard cash than I’ve ever seen in my life. Playing on the floor besides a life-size replica of a box truck, the current darlings of the indie rock world delivered a worthy show to the fire hazard set before them.
Needless to say, the next time Hotline TNT came to town, they needed a bigger room. In this case, it was the 21+ Turf Club in St. Paul. The crowd leaned boozier, more macho, and big into push pit flailing. Without the kids, there was undoubtably something missing. This is less a critique and more to say that the music industry is an unnavigable behemoth driven best by those with dumb luck and stand-out attitudes. Still, the Turf Club bill was stacked and each band brought it. Madison, WI’s DISQ and their gawky rock variety set stole the show for me. As for the headliners, they proved a polished unit after a year of heavy touring with a steady line-up, and the professional sound system allowed intricacies in their live sound to shine. A notable set highlight was a block of songs of their first few EPs, recorded during the band’s germination period here in the Twin Cities.
Will, Hotline TNT’s engine and sole consistent member was kind enough to answer some of my questions as the band drove to the show. The following transcription has been edited for length and clarity.
WMCN: Do you want to introduce yourself and say who you are and what you do?
Will Anderson: Yeah, my name is Will Anderson. I sing and play guitar in the band Hotline TNT.
WMCN: You guys have been on tour a whole bunch since Cartwheel came out. What keeps you sane on the road?
WA: Well, we have a great group of people in the band and we support each other, for the most part. We get into our little arguments and get sick of each other but we also do a lot of self-care and group therapy. Check in with each other, that helps a lot. I also like to buy fresh socks every time I go on tour which is a nice way to keep myself sane. Pretty much every single night I’ll throw on the AirPods and listen to some warm, fuzzy, cozy music to help center myself. Those are my main three things, I guess.
WMCN: There’s been a lot of line-up changes in the band, yeah?
WA: Historically, yeah, but it’s been the same for about a year now.
WMCN: Oh awesome. It must be nice to have found that stability.
WA: Yes. I’m very happy to have the right people around me now.
WMCN: Playing these songs night after night, are there any from the last record that have evolved?
WA: Yeah, “Protocol” kind of came together in a live way that is different than the record. I mean, all the songs we kind of notice little things we’ll do in practice or at a show that are kind of like “ooh I like when you did that! Let’s emphasize that and do it more pronounced.” Little things. All the songs from the new album we’ve found stuff we try to underline and bold and italicize when we play live.
WMCN: I’ve read that GarageBand is a big part of your recording and writing workflow. What’s kept you loyal to that DAW?
WA: I’m not a huge tech nerd. I’ve tried other recording software and none of it has really made sense to me. I think Logic is like the step up from GarageBand but even that I’m just kind of like “I don’t really get this.” You have a few extra steps that you have to do whereas GarageBand you can really just plug in and put the riff down on paper. Or computer screen, I guess, and start multitracking right out of the box. It’s worked for me. I’ve made entire records through GarageBand. At this point it’s more for demos.
WMCN: You had two different producers on the last record, right? How did their roles differ?
WA: There was one guy who did one track, but mostly two. Pretty much Aron (Kobayashi-Ritch) and Ian (Teeple) did the last record. Ian and I worked together in Kansas City. I flew there and workshopped the songs and did some writing in the studio with him. That was a bit more hands on. Whereas with Aron I had the songs all ready do go, didn’t do as much songwriting with him. He did a great job. It was more of a “Let’s get the songs recorded.” They were already in the can by the time I got to him. That was a bit later, closer to the release.
WMCN: I don’t know if you guys remember playing at this firehouse in Minneapolis last spring. That’s the spot where I book shows, and I remember you saying that that was probably the last run where this project could do DIY shows for the foreseeable future. What has that transition to bigger stages been like?
WA: Yeah, I mean, it’s been cool. It has been true. I think this tour right now is the first US tour that I have not booked a single show. We brought a booking agent in two or three years ago and even when he was booking tours there was always a handful of shows that were DIY we would just book ourselves. But for this one it’s just entirely been booking and agent. And it’s fine. I have fond memories of doing DIY shows and playing spaces like that, they’re always really fun and kind of crazy and anything can happen. So it feels a little bit… a little bit more… I don’t want to say “sterile” doing clubs all the time but also when we wanna just sound as good as possible and loud as possible. Hold on a second, anyone else have thoughts on going from DIY shows to club shows? I feel like Lucky you can say something.
Lucky: To me, it almost feels like the same thing. The same kids from the DIY shows are at the club shows. It’s not like an inaccessible thing. So it feels like the band is still being true to it’s roots even if we are playing in a spot that can hold 350 kids instead of 50 kids.
WMCN: In some ways it’s more inclusive to let more people get in the door, because last year we turning people away.
L: Right, that’s a big part of it. Accessible even in terms of sometimes its easier for a kid to convince his mom to drop him off at a local venue that you can actually find on Google Maps rather than some warehouse in a part of town that your parents don’t want you going to.
WMCN: Hotline TNT originally started in Minneapolis. Could you tell us a little bit more about the origins of the band and what the scene was like then?
WA: I moved to Minneapolis in 2016 and I started the band a year or two later, I think early 2018. I was just screwing around on guitar in my room. I’ve told versions of this story before, but I was basically ready to move on out of being a musician, which has been the main feature of my life up until I moved to Minneapolis. I had no plans other than “maybe I’ll start another band in Minneapolis.” I had a couple friends in the Twin Cities who were down to do short regional tours and play on a 7″ with me. I’ll be honest, I didn’t really feel like I had a lot of contemporaries musically or sonically in the Twin Cities at the time. I had a few good friends but there weren’t, as far as I knew, a lot of bands that sounded like what we were doing at the time. We played with punk and hardcore bands but I didn’t take it too seriously until I was in New York. I was definitely still excited and happy and passionate about it.
WMCN: Are there any underrated Minneapolis bands from when you lived here that you’d like to shout out?
WA: From my days, I was pretty into Aquarium. They were friends of mine. That was like my favorite, they were a local band at the time. I wouldn’t say the Uranium Club is underrated but I love those guys too.
WMCN: Yeah, that band is great.
WA: I’m trying to think, who else was a Minneapolis band at the time? I’m sitting next to my roommate from the Minneapolis days and racking my brain. Groove Domestic Products. They were pretty short lived but they were really cool. Night Shading (Editors note: Knive Shaving? Couldn’t quite catch this one) was good.
WMCN: I’ll have to check those out, thank you. That’s about all I had, is there anything else you’d like to say?
WA: I miss Minneapolis. I kind of wish I was still living there. I miss it, I might move back at some point. Excited for the show tonight.
