In the modern alternative scene, hearing the term “midwest emo” and not immediately thinking of Hot Mulligan is almost impossible. The Lansing, Michigan natives have become one of the most talked about bands in the genre since their arrival over a decade ago. Tades Sanville (lead vocals), Chris Freeman (rhythm guitar, backing vocals), Ryan Malicsi (lead guitar), Jonah Kramer (bass), and Brandon Blakeley (drums) continue to make their mark on the scene with their twinkly guitar riffs, ridiculous song titles and bone-chillingly honest lyricism.
Now with the release of their fourth studio album The Sound a Body Makes When It’s Still, the group deliver their most hard-hitting project to date as they dive into themes like existential dread, paranoia and grief like never before. From dealing with the death of a loved one to grappling with alcoholism, Hot Mulligan has crafted an emotionally resonant record that unfolds with a vulnerability that is both deeply personal and universally cathartic.
The emotional depth found on the album showcases the band’s growth as artists and their ability to put unspoken concepts into the spotlight. With lyrics that are almost sure to make you shed at least one tear, the group found themselves in a more evolved spot as they sat down to write these new songs. “I think it’s more mature and more dynamic,” Freeman says. “The lyrics have a lot more depth to them this time around than the previous releases.” With an equal amount of sonic shifts and return to their roots, the self proclaimed “#1 Hot New Band” explore new parts of themselves as artists and build upon their past projects on their newest release.
The record also dives deeper into two opposite ends of the sound spectrum that Hot Mulligan had yet to truly explore, the softer, more tame side of the genre and the heavier, grittier side. “Musically, [the album] extends in every direction we’ve gone before with the heavier parts being heavier and the softer parts being softer,” Freeman says. “I think we’ll continue to push the envelope a little bit moving forward.” This approach is seen throughout the album from its softer moments like “Milam Minute” and “My Dad Told Me to Write a Nice One for Nana So This Is It,” to the heaviest, guttural screams on “Slumdog Scungillionaire.”
The album’s intense title, which was pulled from a lyric in “Cream of Wheat of Feet Naw Cream of (feat.),” became a no-brainer to the band as the group was brainstorming ideas. “The word ‘sound’ was appealing to us to try to create some sort of visual to go with that, which is the headphones on the mannequin that’s on the cover,” Freeman explains. Every detail matters with a Hot Mulligan album, and the correlation between the title and visuals on The Sound a Body Makes When It’s Still offers a powerful illustration of this sentiment. “It came down to us trying to find a way to work multimedia into the imaging of everything,” he adds. “On the last record, Why Would I Watch, we used a little viewmaster to send out to fans with the record. So for this record we really wanted to do something with sounds.”
What kind of a song name is “Cream of Wheat of Feet Naw Cream of (feat.)”? Not shockingly, that’s not the craziest song title on The Sound a Body Makes When It’s Still, let alone in Hot Mulligan’s catalog. “I mean, they’re all just inside jokes that we’ve been putting in a notes app that we think will be funny for song titles later on,” Freeman laughs. The rest of the record includes some ridiculously funny titles, too, including “Monica Lewinskibidi,” “It Smells Like Fudge Axe in Here,” and “Monster Burger and a $5 Beer.”
Despite their humorous titles, these songs deal with some heavy content. From death and questions of the afterlife to paranoia, self-deprecation and deep-rooted fears, each track disarmingly tells the story of some deeply personal experiences and thoughts. In terms of the contrast between their wacky song titles and heavy lyrical content being intentional, Freeman admits that “it was never really specifically meant to be that… It was something we did when we first started being a band because we didn’t think anyone would listen to the songs or that it would matter at all. Then we just never stopped doing it.”
Continuing with their signature song-naming strategy wasn’t the only thing that kept this record feeling like an authentic Hot Mulligan effort. The group sought out to make a record that intertwined the highlights of their previous releases with new techniques to push their sound further. “I would say we just got in there and jammed like we normally do,” Freeman says. “Just live instruments playing as a band and seeing what happened. Naturally that sounds like Hot Mulligan and whatever expansion comes from that is rather organic.”
This approach was what made the process of creating the LP feel like second nature, yet also entirely new. “It came down to us wanting to play with a new instrument or a new sound on a track or try something we haven’t done before, and everyone being down to commit to doing that.” Freeman further explains the difference between working on this record in comparison to their third album, “On The Sound a Body Makes When It’s Still we were all willing to wake up earlier and actually perform and write the songs live. On Why Would I Watch, most of the songs were written on a guitar first and pieced together afterwards. But this one was written with everyone all at once, and I think that paid off for us.”
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