Hot Milk‘s Han Mee and Jim Shaw guide us through the creation of the band’s second album, ‘Corporation P.O.P’, out on June 27 via Music For Nations.

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England is burning – and Hot Milk are here to douse the flames. In an era of mass desensitisation and commodified misery, the Mancunians are unleashing ‘Corporation P.O.P’ onto the world, a rip-roaring burst of socio-political alt rock condemning the insidious realities of corporate control. It’s Hot Milk’s most political feat to date – and one they insist was a long time coming.

Spearheaded by the outspoken Han Mee and industrious Jim Shaw, the rambunctious pair have been harbouring political resentment for years. 2025, however, has tipped them over the edge. Everywhere you look, human rights are being overlooked in favour of profit, “We had no choice, really,” Han says with a frown. “We just had to say something – what else was I going to write about?”

While their 2023 debut, ‘A Call To The Void’, focused on more internal affairs, unravelling the intricacies of anxiety and self-doubt, ‘Corporation P.O.P’ was a necessary shift of focus. With an obsessive and ever-growing fanbase, the band felt it was about time to step up onto their soapbox and make a difference. And Han’s dad would serve as the final straw, spurring the frontwoman into action.

“My Dad just said to me once, ’does anyone even care what you’re moaning about?’” she recalls, laughing to herself. “It made me think… ’Y’know what, fair. I’ll comment on the things that really matter.’”

What else really matters? Well, Manchester, of course. Following on from Han’s short stint living in LA, the frontwoman has doubled down on her Northern pride. Upon realising that the American dreamland felt too fake, she returned to her roots – the allure of gritty cornershops, rough-around-the-edges pubs and a proper pint was too much to resist. Throughout, ‘Corporation P.O.P’ also sprinkles in plenty of Mancunian pride, from music videos set in Salford to ‘Swallow This’ paying tribute to Manchester’s rave scene.

With a rock-solid sense of self and ample corporate fury, this record showcases Hot Milk at their most mature – well, kind of. While the record toys with three part harmonies, sweltering waltz movements, and arena-worthy riffs, there’s still plenty of cheeky, unpretentious lyricisms. Its punk rage served with a side of snot-nosed defiance, Han and Jim balancing eye-rolling sarcasm and sharp fury throughout each track.

So, without further adieu, let’s dive into the heart, soul and socio-political whirlwind of ‘Corporation P.O.P’.

THE SOUND

As opener ‘(How Do I) Make The Devil Fall Asleep’ booms into life, ‘Corporation P.O.P’s end-of-days gloom unfurls with a vengeance. Urged on by a foreboding bassline, the track serves as the record’s mission statement; we “can’t rely on lullabies” to soften 2025’s nightmarish political turmoil, so the only answer is to confront the issues head-on.

It’s an unflinching way to make an entrance – and one that instantly distances Hot Milk from the bright and breezy connotations of the pop-punk genre. Despite the pair consistently striving to keep their palette diverse, blurring the lines between emo, EDM and power pop, they’re yet to shake the pop-punk associations. “We’ve never liked the label of ‘pop-punk’,” frontwoman Han Mee asserts. “We’re more punk. Everything we do is more in your face and gritty than those wet-lad pop-punk bands.”

It’s a testament Han’s partner in crime, Jim Shaw, firmly agrees with, noting how even their introspective 2023 debut, ‘A CALL TO THE VOID’, was scattered with political undertones. Hopefully, the punk rock ethos of ‘Corporation P.O.P’ should do the trick; placing the group’s mature, sobering political observations under a magnifying glass, the record feels like Manchester’s answer to ‘American Idiot’. It’s a whirlwind of sturdy rock, rave-ready synthetics and rambunctiously British quips, trudging through the grit of reality and forcing you to take note.

“Whether it was a huge rock song or an angry punk track, we wanted the sound to be as raw as possible,” Jim explains. “Everything was recorded analogue, because we wanted it to feel like one of our live shows.”

In Han’s mind, the raw, live quality should help lure in the masses. “This record can be a rally point for people,” she says. “This is our mouthpiece, it’s our megaphone. We really wrote for the live show – I think that’s where the heart of Hot Milk lies – and I can’t wait to see how people respond at shows. Hopefully it gives the others the ability to want to pick up a megaphone as well. We just want people to free their minds and think about things in a more critical way.”

THE LYRICS

While ‘Corporation P.O.P’ amps up Hot Milk’s political agenda, frontwoman Han’s fury has been brewing since her teen years. Weaned on the likes of The Replacements, Dead Kennedys, and Bad Religion, the bold, outspoken Mancunian has been gearing up for a record like ‘Corporation P.O.P’ all her life. “It feels natural for us to do this – I grew up on political punk music, it’s part of my DNA,” she says. “I went to university and studied politics because of the music I grew up with – it was about time we wrote a record that looked more outwards.”

Throughout ‘Corporation P.O.P’, Hot Milk drop verbal grenades then run for cover. From ‘The American Machine’s commentary on corrupt pharmaceutical companies that profit off of perpetuating sickness, to ‘INSUBORDINATE INGERLAND’’s jeering footie chants mourning the downfall of “Grave Britain”, the record wants to get people thinking. “Sometimes it feels like critical thinking skills are at an all time low,” Han explains. “With the record, we’re trying to comment on it in a tongue-in-cheek way. I just want to bring some issues to the table, spark a conversation.”

It’s a sentiment she even coyly voices on ‘INSUBORDINATE INGERLAND’; “Listen right, it’s a social commentary – calm down!” she sighs. Han follows it up with a cocksure proclamation of, “come and have a go if you think you’re ‘ard enough!”, but it’s a bravado she hopes people take with a pinch of salt. Essentially, don’t shoot the messenger – it’s not her fault England is fucked.

Though, England does have one thing going for it – at least it isn’t America. “I’m a bit worried about how Americans might respond to ‘The American Machine’,” Han says, anxiety drenching her tone. “I hope people know I’m speaking about the government, not Americans. I’m pretty scared about not getting let into the country again… Y’know, if you say certain things about Trump on Twitter, it can cause problems. But it’s an important song, because we’re commenting on a super capitalist society – they put profit over health. I hope it doesn’t become like that over here.”

“I’ve been to places like Portland, Oregon, and it really does put it into perspective,” she continues. “They’ve let the homelessness situation gets so out of hand – they’ve put water fountains in the street so that when it gets really hot, the homeless don’t die of dehydration. It feels like a way of avoiding having to mop up dead bodies. And they have no safety net for people… people shit on England’s Universal Credit system, but at least we have it. It’s the reason why our country still has a level of peacefulness and safety, I think.”

“We’ve seen all that happened under Tory ruling, with people trying to siphon off things and privatise everything,” Jim chimes in. “It doesn’t work. People should be watching America, studying it, and realising we should not follow in its footsteps.”

‘Corporation P.O.P’ also assesses the damage caused by the internet, with the consequences of information overload already beginning to impact society’s perception of reality. “The pillars of ‘truth’ have gone completely,” Han mourns. “While it’s great that we can hear from all sides, it’s getting to a point where there is so much information it’s difficult to figure out where the truth lies. It’s getting harder to be objective because some information isn’t even real; Sometimes I speak to my mum, and she’ll be like “Have you seen that video?” And I’m like, Mum, that’s fully an AI video, it’s not true.”

Alongside false articles and digitally rendered videos muddying the waters of truth, the record’s opening track also notes how our “Demise is televised” at every turn. ‘The American Machine’ further cements the idea, noting how we “Watch [people] suffer on tiny screens”; everything is filmed and put online nowadays, and it’s resulted in a total “Lack of compassion”, Jim argues. “You look at your phone, see the most awful thing you could possibly imagine, then get on with your day,” he says. “Everyone is desensitised.”

THE ARTWORK & TITLE

As ‘Swallow This’ unravels with a thump of rousing EDM and slick riffs, the track focuses on how the media and government “inject” thoughts into the masses, forcing people to “swallow” down information designed to keep them satiated and desensitised. This notion is foundational to ‘Corporation P.O.P’, with the album title implying that the consumption of corporate lies is as widespread and customary as drinking tap water.

“Corporation pop is what my granddad used to call water from the tap,” Han explains. “So it’s this corporate thing that comes in and infects everyone’s households. P.O.P also stands for ‘Payment of Pain’, because it feels like everything in life comes with this necessary payment of pain… so we’re also saying pain has become as common as water.”

Of course, that doesn’t mean this is a ‘pop’ record. Again, Hot Milk are putting a wide berth between their pop and punk sides – but it’s something their label was initially quite uncertain about. “They didn’t like the name, and the whole record is kind of the antithesis of what they expected from us,” Han laughs. “So I guess that’s an extra layer to the name, because we wrote what we wanted instead of what a corporation expected from us. We don’t bend to trends, it’s just us artistically expressing our concerns.”

Hot Milk’s team were also wary about the record’s artwork – a shot in an ominously dark alleyway, the sole source of light being a fully ablaze wheelie bin. The scene is topped off with an English flag, hanging out of the top, the red and white of the Saint George’s cross scorched by flames. As Han puts it, it’s essentially commenting on how England is in the bin, and it’s up to us to change that. “We’re not saying we’re going to burn all flags or anything,” Han laughs. “Just pointing out that there’s something wrong here – let’s fix it!”

Shot in a back alley near Jim’s home in Manchester, the original plan was just to photograph a burning bin. The flag was a last-minute addition – but it was a stroke of fate, perfectly and poignantly capturing the meaning of the record. “I tried to take a few photos, they didn’t really come out right,” she says. “So, I scanned around the alley, and I thought ‘let’s put this England flag in the bin’. It felt right – like commenting on nationalism in a way that’s thought provoking.”

THE FUTURE

Another way Hot Milk were able to tackle English nationalism came in the form of a collaboration with Frank Skinner. While Jim is quick to insist Skinner is a “lovely chap”, the comedian starred in the video for ‘90 Seconds To Midnight’, embodying the “archetypal British man” brainwashed by dystopian levels of corporate control and governmental lies. As Skinner walks around in a daze, he is blind to the reality of an impending doomsday – and, considering he helped write a song often associated with national pride, the football anthem ‘Three Lions’, the role was suitably ironic.

Skinner’s role sees him wandering through the streets of Manchester before wolfing down a full English in a greasy spoon. And he was happy to provide his services. “He came and spoke to us after our set at 2000trees, and we got chatting for ages,” Jim recalls. “He told us he loved our music, and his son loved us. When we were planning our music video, he was a perfect fit. We were thinking ‘He’s never gonna fucking do it…’ but, two days after we sent him an email, he said he’d do it if we bought him fish and chips and covered his train fare.”

Moving forward, Han, Jim and the Hot Milk gang are hoping that ‘Corporation P.O.P’ encourages people to take action, before its too late. “This album is just everything I’m scared of,” Han admits. “Like, ‘Hell Is On Its Way’, it’s about oncoming nuclear, and ‘90 Seconds to Midnight’ is similar, essentially saying that it’s a ticking timebomb before everything just explodes.”

“We just want people to free their mind a little bit, think about things in a more critical way,” she continues. Jim nods in agreement, adding, “I want people to listen to it and become more forward thinking, less insular. If it changes even one person’s opinion, then that’s great.”

Despite the devastating realities we’ve been dissecting, Han does note one source of “English pride” that has never let her down. “Don’t get me wrong, I do like listening to people who have absolutely ridiculous opinions sometimes,” she chuckles. “In ‘90 Seconds To Midnight’, there’s a lyric: ‘Three pints down, and I bet you think you’re Rousseau.’ That’s one of the best things about English pubs – talking to loads of old blokes that think they’re new-age philosophers. They’ve all got their completely wrong opinions, and I love listening to them.”

Before we part ways, Han has a final instruction for anyone tucking into their new record: “Listen, have a bev, and open your eyes.”