Sisters Lily and Pearl Harnath create indie POP rock

@hotgluetheband

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'Made up of sisters Lily and Pearl Harnath, Hot Glue creates indie pop rock that pulses with a high energy guitar sound, punchy beats and catchy vocals. The band speaks of the frustrations characteristic of the lives of young adults, using music and sound to voice reinventions and release. Influences of the band include Phoebe Bridgers, Fiona Apple, Big Thief, Sharon Van Etten and Middle Kids.

The duo wrote and recorded their debut EP ‘The City’ in 2018 after Lily finished Year 12 while Pearl was just beginning to enter her final years of high school, leading to various live music performances around Melbourne alongside other local bands. The energetic drums and punchy chorus of their first single ‘Tuesday’ is an instantly recognisable song from the EP, while slow-burner ballad ‘Run’ pulls on the heartstrings of listeners, described by Triple J Home and Hosed host Declan Byrne as “angsty but packaged up in a rollicking, beautiful shell”.

The band has continued to craft and release heart-felt songs soaked in gritty guitar as they enter young adulthood, including singles ‘Way Out’ and ‘Paranoid’, showing promise for a future debut album.'

Words by Lily Harnath (she/her)

hot glue speaks about what it means to be a band in current times and their EXPERIENCE with ageism in the music industry

Hey Hot Glue! Your whole discography feels like i’m stepping into the 90’s. Did you have anything in mind when you were originally trying to find your own sound?

Hello! People often tell us we have a 90’s sound, especially at live gigs. We’ve always really focused on fuzz guitars; we just love the way they make our songs sound. When we initially started the band, we were influenced a lot by The Breeders (the first song we learned to play together was Where is My Mind by Pixies), as well as other guitar rock bands like The Killers and even bands like Fall Out Boy who we listened to in early high school. We find ourselves continuously coming back to a grungy rock sound - even now that we’re incorporating folk song writing into the band.

life has thrown a spanner in the works recently... what has changed as a band since the pandemic started?

The pandemic has been a disorienting time for us, as we were only just getting back into playing gigs when it hit. In 2019 Pearl was completing year 12 so we took a break from recording and playing gigs and were keen to get back into it in 2020. We were lucky enough to play some amazing gigs in-between lockdowns. They were great because people were just so keen to get out and support live music. We had just began recording a new EP before this lockdown, but that has also been put on hold again. Another main difference is that Lily moved out at the start of this year, so it has been the first time we can’t just go knock on each other’s doors and write a song. These setbacks have been a huge bummer, but it’s made us even more pumped to record and release new music. We think more than anything it’s made us realise how valuable the live performance aspect of our band is - it’s really what gets us excited and has made us want a career in music that much more.

you've stated that your lyrics attempt to embody the annoyance in the lives of young adults. What made you want to narrate this?

We’ve grown up with music as a very cathartic experience, or as a way of voicing what you feel. It can feel good to let out a bit of rage, have a bit of a whine and then hear people sing it back to you in a crowd. Our song ‘Way Out’ is just so freeing to play live when people scream the chorus lyrics “Where’s my way out?” with us. There’s something special about turning feelings of frustration that seem so ugly and unmanageable into big noisy, songs.

Being A young band - Have you ever experienced ageism in the music industry and/or playing live?

Ageism in the music industry is a really interesting topic we’ve seen being talked about recently, particularly by women and gender non-conforming people. As young people, we are sometimes treated as if we don’t know what we are doing, especially with the technical aspects of playing live. We find that men our age don’t really experience the same scrutiny, so it’s interesting how age and gender interact to influence our experiences. On the other side of ageism, there’s recently been a lot of talk about how older women in the music industry are criticised or excluded. In high school we were lucky to have so many great female music teachers as role models and lots of the music we love is made by older women, such as Sharon Van Etten, Emilee South, Laura Marling, Fiona Apple, Dyson Stringer Cloher and Sleater Kinney. A career in music is something we want to be able to continue pursuing as we grow older, so we think it’s so important to celebrate these musicians and to give them the credit they deserve.