INTERVIEW

AN INTERVIEW WITH MILLIE MANDERS AND THE SHUT UP

Credit: Tina K Photography.

Words By Emily Jade Ricalton

Millie Manders and The Shut up, a four-piece band fronted by the lead singer Millie Manders, are the epitome of modern day punk rock. Outspoken and truthful, this band isn't afraid to destroy social normalities and expose unnecessary behaviour. With a genre that fuses together both rock and ska music, Millie Manders and The Shut Up are by far one of the most interesting bands to date. With a strong stance on veganism and advocate for both trans-rights and women’s rights, Millie saw an opportunity within music to stand-up for those who experience issues with inequality. Inspiring to say the least.

With the release of their new album Wake Up, Shut Up, Work and an upcoming UK tour, I was fortunate enough to sit down with Millie and discuss the inspirations, meanings and the overall purpose of her music. 

Let’s start off with the basics, what you started in music and what made you want to get into the industry?

M: Well, I’ve been playing instruments since I was five years old, so I've never not done music, whether this was playing instruments or being in musicals at my local theatre. I was often in shows as a kid. I was always interested in dance and drama, so I never had an inkling that I wasn't going to play music. I then started playing in bands from my early teens, and just went on from there really. I always had retail jobs and bar jobs, all of that sort of stuff, so that I could continue doing music around it, but it did get to a point where I was just like, if I don't quit everything and try to do my music, I'm gonna regret it. So that's what I did.

What actually made you want to form a band? Obviously, you did the band thing when you were younger, what made you want to continue this onwards instead of continuing into acting?

M: I always just found it more interesting. I was writing poetry from a very young age, so lyricism, I wouldn't say I'm the best lyricist in the world, came naturally to me. Just to rhyme words and enjoy that part of it, that creative part of it, to be able to spill imagery out as words onto a page. I was also very interested in music that my parents had in the house. They, you know, introduced me to classic music, as well as R&B. My dad then introduced me to more popular culture stuff from the nineties. There were really cool bands that had just hit the big time, like Cypress Hill, The Prodigy and The Red Hot Chili Peppers. So yeah, I enjoyed dance, drama and being in theatre, but I always lent more towards being a musician. My dad had certainly influenced me into rock music and I needed to be part of that energy.

For you personally, what genre would you say your music defines as or is there one at all?

M: I mean, we get pegged into pop punk and ska punk quite a lot, but I always sort of said cross genre punk. I genuinely don't think it really matters. Like somebody tell me what genre they think I am, and if that suits their tastes and they're enjoying our music, then I don't really mind. That's for somebody else to decide for themselves. 

I understand where you’re coming from. People love to put you to one certain objective nowadays and you, and your music, have to be defined by that. I think it can be quite restricting. If you can mix and match different genres then I think it's a lot better, because you can then identify and engage with a range of different people. 

M: Definitely, it just makes it more interesting to listen to. For me,  I've always needed eclecticism with the music I listen to, or I get really bored really fast. Yet, I do also understand that people need to pigeonhole because if you want to go find someone in HMV, they're going to need to find us in pop/rock, or metal or pop, or whatever. Do you know what I mean? And we might fit into several of those, but I would say they probably just lump us straight into pop/rock, because it would be easy to find, wouldn't it? 

With this, your music has a lot of political messages behind it, and I find it refreshing. You just say it as it is, and I think especially from a female's perspective it is all very relatable. What is the general purpose you want to achieve from your music? Do you want to empower people and make people relate to it?

M: Selfishly, from the forefront of where I write is catharsism. It's to process my own anger and my own trauma. Second to that, it's so if people listen to it and relate to it, they can feel like they're not alone, because so often, especially as women throughout the world, it feels so deeply alone because we're taught to be alone. We're the only one that can fight that battle, and you know, it's us against the world. So, there's this need for community and camaraderie that we're taught we're not allowed to have, right? And I think if there was much more community between women, rather than pitting ourselves against each other, we'd probably get more done. 

When it comes to writing your songs and looking at them from a female perspective, what's that like to translate into your music? Can this be difficult for you?

M: I don't think so. I think you just have to be honest. It's honesty, and my relationship with my music has to be exactly the same way. Yeah, anything that I put down has to be deeply honest, even if it's traumatic for me or painful for somebody else. If anybody else is trying to translate our experiences, our trauma, our pitfalls, our community or our strength in standing together, it has to be deeply honest. We have to be deeply honest about ourselves before it can be completely honest for somebody else. 

Would you say one of your main goals as an artist is to make people aware of the troubles within the world?

M: Yeah, I mean I was already talking about animal rights and having hunt saboteurs on tour with us. I was also raising money for trans charities, because the turf movement is terrible, and I continue to do that as well as a sideline. Our splatter vinyl, just as an example, is going to raise £1500 when it's sold out for a trans charity, because I want to do everything I can to put positivity out where there's hate. We have also donated £3600 to a Palestine charity called ‘Mercy Without Limits’, and we're continuing to raise money through our merchandise. I think that anybody that has a platform, anybody that has a heart, should be using this to speak out. I have a duty to be talking about this.

With this, the name of the album, where was the influence from that? It’s very straight to the point and very direct. 

M:  I wanted it to follow on from the first album's title, Telling Truths, Breaking Ties, which in itself is basically stopping yourself from being associated with people who refuse to think in different ways. So, with Wake Up, Shut Up, Work it feels like that's what we're told to do by society. Wake up, keep your mouth shut, accept everything. Get to work for 60 hours a week. Don't have a community, because community is dangerous, and so on. Right now, we've got a massive movement of people who are realising that what do I actually get for my 60 hours a week? I can barely pay my rent or eat still. I don't have any spare money at the end of the month to go and have fun, and even if I did, I don't have time. So what are we doing it for? What does it satisfy, other than, quote, unquote, the man. 

How would you say this album is musically different to the first album that you released?

M: Well, for a start, two members of the band are different, so that's always going to bring different influences straight away. You know, for me, people come and go in any job, and that's the same with the band. Second of all, it's collaborative. Everything was written in the period of three weeks at three different writing retreats. We had three weeks of being in an intense environment where we just wrote songs together, which gave us the ability to really explore ideas, get to know each other as musicians. This album is still going to have a whole bunch of influence from the previous album, because that's how I write. That's why I do lyrics and melodies. I've tried to explore my vocal further in this album and put some more of my classical training in there, because I think that's quite different on a punk album. To bring that to light when I was classically trained as a vocalist. George, our bassist, has definitely come out of her shell with the way she's writing bass lines. This time around, she's really gone for it in exploring how to use the spaces between notes to give some really elaborate, beautiful melodic baselines as well. 

With regards to the new album, what are your favorite tracks? 

R.I.P is my favourite, because I wrote it in conjunction with my patrons to show them one of my ways of writing lyrics. It’s got that connection for me, but also I just find it really fun to sing, and I love all of the extra instrumentation in it. I really like listening back to Halloween, because I got to explore my classical side. I'm proud of Me Too, and Can I Get Off?. I wouldn't say they're my favourite on the album, because that's a really hard thing to describe when both songs are so tragically connected, but I'm proud of the way that we have communicated those messages musically. 

Obviously, you’ve got a few live shows coming up, is there you're really excited to play?

M: Rebellion is always a good one for us, because we're well established there. We always have a great crowd. People know our songs. People are excited about the new album, and it's like a working holiday. We'll be selling our merch all weekend, and seeing loads of people that we recognise,  so it's a bit of a punk Christmas. The other one I'm super excited about is Vegan Camp Out. I've wanted to play that for years.

If you can name five albums that have influenced you, what would you say they are?

M: Stoosh by Skunk Anansie, Tragic Kingdom by No Doubt, Rage Against the Machine by Rage Against the Machine. There's a trio of albums by Scroobius Pip and Dan Le Sac, and I'm just going to have to lump that in as one album, because each of them have different politically charged, brilliant lyricism and influence. And, I'm gonna go out there and this is going to be mad, but Glenn Miller, Greatest Hits. 

Listen to Millie Manders and The Shut Up’s new album Wake Up, Shut Up, Work here.