Interview: Austin Punk Band Hotmom on What Drew Them to the Genre and the Texas Scene
The Austin-based rockers discuss their origins, their audience, and why they sat for the pledge in high school.
Written by Felix Kalvesmaki
Photographed by Matt Lewis
Over the three years since its inception, Hotmom has had many different lineups, but at the time of this interview, the band is comprised of Natalie Herz, Ethan Bernick (stage name Danny Tantrum) and Marilyn O’Leary, three Austin punks with an affinity for song titles like “Fuck You” and “Mannequin Factory.” They recently met with Afterglow to explain what’s changed about their band in 2020 and how they’re digging deeper into their sound.
Afterglow: How did you guys meet?
Danny Tantrum: Natalie and I have known each other since like, first grade. Like we're long — we're long term besties.
Natalie: We grew up together.
Danny Tantrum: Like sixth grade. (We’d) take the same bus. And so (we got) together a while later, and I was just like, yeah, you f-cking played bass. That's insane. Like in this band.
What do you think motivated you guys to make music at first? Has it always been Hotmom? Did the band go through different names?
Danny Tantrum: No, it was such a proto-name. It was my personal SoundCloud account. I didn't think it was gonna be anything at all; I just thought it was a funny username. And then we started making songs in my room. They were garage and very shoddy like demos, and (we were) just putting them out. And then eventually, I realized we wanted to throw a party and play for friends.
Natalie: Well, I wasn't into punk music at the time. You know, we're always making art together, and they gave me the push into the punk world.
Hotmom makes it evident that they are well bonded together.
What do you think drew you guys to punk? You're very politically outspoken, and I wonder if that was a part of it.
Danny Tantrum: Yeah, I feel like it just made sense from early on. The world definitely didn't make sense, and punk definitely made a lot more sense. And I was just amazed by the energy and how outspoken the community was, and a lot of the vocal members, like Kathleen Hanna, was probably a really big influence.
Natalie: Yeah, I was really drawn to the counterculture of it. I just resonated with that so much when I was introduced to it. Compared to the mainstream world I live in and reality I lived in, like, we always start on drafts, you know? I (felt) actually comfortable and like I could grow with these people and in this community.
Marilyn: I feel that: the common culture and punk making sense compared to how crazy the world is. Honestly, I don't know, we're taught a lot of stuff that's wrong in school. I remember growing up and in 2008, whenever emo kids were a thing, that kind of resonated with me. I think that's kind of where it started, but that's the peak of the iceberg. We were always the kids who sat down during the pledge, and all the teachers and other kids would shame us for it and have serious conversations about it, like, “This is so disrespectful, blah, blah, blah.” It's weird; you're like making us pledge our allegiance to a country and God?
Natalie: It's bizarre. It's like (a) cult.
How do you think growing up here has shaped your music? A lot of people who are LGBTQ+ and people who are marginalized in general flee the South, so what do you think keeps you guys here?
Natalie: I always planned to leave Texas as soon as I graduated. I was going to a school in Oregon. But we were in Hotmom. And we started playing really fun shows and got involved in a community that was so different from the one that we grew up in. I don't know, Austin just feels like a different world than the rest of Texas to me. I mean, with the exception of some towns and stuff. Where we grew up influenced a lot about the band, especially the name.
Danny Tantrum: I always thought I would leave too. And then, I did kind of leave. And I was like, I feel like I wasn't finished, like the city was still growing to me and still is. Literally, it's still growing, like new people to be met, new bands, or I'm sure there's going to be so many new bands after (quarantine). And then after seeing Denton, I realized I'm kind of where I want to be. I love Austin. I love Denton, there’s cities like that, but I don't know, I feel like they — they're just so unique. There were cities that like, drew us in and we probably would consider, like being in LA or something, but the charm of this place is just undeniable.
Marilyn: I don't know. I'm kind of on the fence about it. I think Austin is probably like the one place in Texas I’d live. But besides, that, I probably wouldn't. Maybe El Paso, but I don't know. The community there is really cool.
Sometimes they like to be a little more serious.
Who are you speaking to when you write music? Who are you wanting to hear the stuff that you write?
Danny Tantrum: At first, I feel like we're kind of just processing those things ourselves. I remember writing “Mannequin Factory” or “Fuck You,” like early songs. We were like 16 or 17, and we're just geeking out. We're like, this is so funny. And how we feel now, I definitely hope it resonates with other people, wherever they are in their progression as a person, like I just hope it maybe makes sense or maybe they're like, “I've been there.”
Natalie: Yeah. I know when you talk about “Fuck You” and “Mannequin Factory” and stuff, like when we're writing those, especially “Fuck You,” we were writing them to the adults, the patriarchy. Yeah, we are making music for ourselves to process this world and everything that we encounter and stuff, but it is such a bonus to think that at some point, it does mean something to other people.
It's been a rough year. What do you think has changed about Hotmom since this year began? Even if it's just stuff like, practicing is different, releasing music, not touring?
Danny Tantrum: Honestly, yeah, that's probably the difference. It was lowkey blurry. Because we were playing shows all the time, especially in the beginning. Just taking anything we can get, because it was like –
Natalie: Making music to play, yeah.
Danny Tantrum: So now we basically don't even consider the live aspect of it nearly as much when we're practicing and writing. Well, I guess it's not while we're writing. But when we're practicing, we're really just trying to focus on the details of the song and hone in on our tones and sound. And then we've been talking a lot about how we want it to appear, like in music format. We're now focused on the actual musical content, and how it's going to be listened to, because that's the only thing you can do, right? Like, people will just hit play on Bandcamp now.
Natalie: Yeah, it's nice to have time to really extensively practice the song that we're writing. Because before, we'd write a new song, and then we would rush to get it done to play a show or to record or something. And after the fact, we would develop the songs more, to a way that we liked it better. And so now, it's nice to have a lot of time to just try different things and like polish songs before we record or before we show it to other people.
So there's been more reflection and more fine tuning?
Natalie: Yeah, the more we practice, the more we'll try different things. We just have time to, like you said, fine tune. The goal is in fine tuning. It's more just like, we're jamming it until we get to a point where we're comfortable.
Do you guys have anything else you want to add?
Danny Tantrum: I kinda want to give a little shout out to Period Bomb and Crass Lips Records for just being radical — I'm not even kidding — and really just being something nice and helping everyone that's trying to do the same thing as them, and setting a good example in the scene. Yeah, and Dreamland Syndicate Records, because they are putting out our Stupid Vegan Band EP in Poland and London to fundraise for an organization that we really like, called Critical Resistance. It's prison abolition-based. Yeah, founded by Ruth Wilson Gilmore, and she was the person that single-handedly convinced my partner and I (that) prisons should not be a thing.
Natalie: Yeah, I would like to give an honorable mention to our other drummers as well who are not in the photos for this specific write-up, but we've played over the years with a different lineup. And we were kind of fluid with members. And then also Billy Hickey, they deserve recognition too.
This interview has been minimally edited for clarity and length.