Puppy Love: The Hot Puppies

Take a trip into the magical world of The Hot Puppies, populated by talking paintings, fairytales creatures and randy sailors. Where David Bowie is on hand to dole out hugs and everyone watches silent films. Fresh from their tour with The Pipettes, Gigwise was on hand to talk to them about Germany, scary rabbits and men shagging each other…

Currently working on the follow up to their acclaimed debut album ‘Under The Crooked Moon’, Becky explains they are keen to takes steps away from their old sound. Luke explains: “We’re working on it just now, yeah this is meant to be our month off, as you can see, but we do have a lot of time off. It’s going to be considerably better than the last album, I hope.” He adds: “I think it will be quite different from our old album, less guitars, more pianos, more led from the rhythm than instruments above it. Lyrically it will be a bit different as well. A bit more upbeat rather than downbeat, I think”.

The Hot Puppies met while at University in Aberwystwyth, taking their name came from Dorothy Parker poem Luke’s Mother introduced to him. Despite their literary leanings they consider their music to be very much ‘pop’, but what they read filters through into their lyrics. As Luke elucidates his influences: “Much more so than pop lyrics, is literature, it’s Jean Jeanette at the moment, so lots of songs about men shagging each other. Sailors having sex with each other on a boat, in an upbeat manner!” 

Luke writes most of the lyrics, taking his cue from ‘strong female figures’ in his life, with the songs coming from a female point of view. Gigwise asked him about the bitter and twisted nature of songs like ‘Green Eyeliner’ and ‘Theda Baron’ and whether they’re in anyway personal; “Yeah, probably, but as well its easier to write those sorts of songs, which is why we’re not going to do that any more. I think if you have a chance to have a go at making another album, which not everyone in the world gets a chance to do you’ve got to sort of test yourselves a little bit. So far a lot of the songs we’ve got are fairly upbeat, there’s a moment that creeps into them here and there, but yeah it’s generally harder”. Beth chimes in: “It’s harder to write good music that’s happy”.

Becky has a background in acting that comes across in her high energy performances on stage. As if this wasn’t enough, Beth too was a classically trained cellist - would they ever go back to that? Becky responds: “I don’t know we’ve been in a band for so long that I can think of anything else really. Probably just be in another band”.