Hotline TNT

Past support for Hotline TNT and Raspberry Moon:

“Will Anderson amplifies everyday heartbreak with towering shoegaze and supersized power-pop anthems that demand to be played loud.” - Pitchfork 

"An instant alt classic" - The Guardian

“[‘Candle is’] a headspun fuzz-pop love song.” - Stereogum

“Hotline TNT sound bigger than ever.” - UPROXX 

“‘Candle' signals a sonic shift, moving beyond Will Anderson’s solo-driven approach to embrace the collective talents of all its members.” - Consequence 

Today, Hotline TNT - the New York-based band fronted by Will Anderson - share the new single, “Break Right”, from their upcoming album Raspberry Moon, out 20th June via Third Man Records.

“Break Right” follows two highly-praised singles “Candle” and “Julia’s War,” and is one of the tentpoles of Raspberry Moon, the band’s most sweeping and compelling album yet. Crucially, it’s also the first built by a full band. The instrumentation for “Break Right” was first written by the rest of the band - guitarist Lucky Hunter, bassist Haylen Trammel, and drummer Mike Ralston. The resulting track is lunging and moody, the guitars pulled as tightly as razor wire against motorik drums.  Anderson’s voice is brooding: “Capsize // The organ rides // Moonlight // The guitar hides // If you could suffer my bad night // The music died.”

Reflecting on the track, Will says:

“Some songs hide their meanings behind a facade of metaphors, PR quotes and half-measures. ‘Break Right’ hides nothing. This is the sound of TNT becoming a band.  Every effect has been unplugged, every sample has been deprogrammed, and every emotion has been laid bare. You’ve never heard a Hotline song quite like this before.”

Raspberry Moon was recorded in the studio of modern DIY hero Amos Pitsch. In making Raspberry Moon, Anderson confronted a burgeoning if occasionally difficult belief: Hotline TNT was now a band, and this was the band. The benefits are self-evident - it is the most texturally rich and energetically nuanced album Hotline TNT has ever made, from start to middle to finish. Some of these 11 songs deal with the sting of regret, of being left or leaving, as Hotline TNT always has. But this is a record animated by a sense of newness and possibility, of pushing back against the global sense that curtains are closing to make room in your own life for new friends. It is perfect music for looking forward, no matter how fucked the past may feel.

It’s a generationally great statement of youthful wistfulness and very adult growth that also happens to be very charming and sometimes funny. Not only did Anderson cement his touring band in the studio, but he also wrote the most direct love songs of his life, winning testaments to a relationship that has seemed to change his perspective on sweetness, sincerity, life itself. Raspberry Moon is an album where Will Anderson gives himself space to fall in love with the world around him and sing as much in songs so loaded with hooks you’ll need to choose which ones to hum at any given moment.

Hotline TNT are in the midst of a North American tour supporting Hippo Campus. Later this summer, they’ll embark on their own US headline tour, with a special rooftop record release show in NYC on June 21st, before heading over to the UK and EU for a full headline tour.