Page 8 - Black Velvet Rock Magazine Issue 109

BV109 pg 04-09 Millie Manders.qxp_BV109 pg08 19/12/2023 13:00 Page 5

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do the research and ask other people about choanalysis and stuff like that, and it was also course, of the environmental damage,is huge
people, and to not put up with bullshit, to lay very around the time that, on New Year, we had four meat farming. It’s something that’s starting to be
strict rules down about the fact that I won’t put stabbings just in London, in one small area, and, talked about a lot more by scientists in terms of
up with anybody being mean or unkind or not obviously, the NHS has been deteriorating for a what we need to change in order to cut that
treating each person within the group as they decade or so now, but there were a lot of moves CO2, in order to replenish the rainforests and
are a close family member. And that’s how we towards that privatisation around that same time stuff. So, it felt right to have something like that
work now. Everybody in the band knows that when Theresa May was in office. And I just re- right at the beginning, to be like, ‘this is what
you treat someone like you’re married to them. member sitting there, feeling violently angry and we’re talking about’. And then, you’ve got the lit-
You would never disrespect your wife, or your completely helpless, like, just so benign, not tle thing in the middle, talking about having plas-
husband, or whatever. You’d never let them feel being able to do anything that was going to pos- tic in your lungs and stuff, that was actually me,
like they were in pain, or falling behind, or un- itively affect any of these awful changes that I wrote that and then I recorded it with a silly
supported. So, each person in the band gets were going on. We were also seeing a lot of po- posh voice like a newsreader voice into my
treated the same way as you would that person lice brutality at the time. The sort of Black Lives voice notes, and that is actually the original
that you love. And so, that’s a really hardcore Matter movement started to come around, voice note that was just mixed into the song.”
rule for me. And, if that’s not happening, then around that time. There were a lot of people of Millie has been writing songs since the age
they’re probably not right for the band.” colour being really badly mistreated by police, of 7, although it took her a while before she
and, of course, it’s still happening. Nothing that’s started writing ‘important’ songs.
he music business is a hard business to in that song has changed, so I still feel like it’s “I don’t think I really got particularly political,
Tbe in. Millie says, “It’s hard on every- benign, but my only way of expressing how at least, not that I can think of, before writing for
body. The UK music business is incredibly hard. angry I was, was to research some of the statis- the first album. For the first two EPs, I guess. I
You go over to the EU, and you get food and ac- tics that were going on around those subjects would say ‘Obsession Transgression’ is kind of
commodation, help with transport and all sorts and put them into verses.” political, because it’s talking about the beauty in-
of things. Once you get to our stage you start to Does Millie think we’ll ever have someone dustry and beauty standards and trying to move
get more of that, but, as a low level away from feeling like you have to
band, you get nothing.” “George and I have both been touched; it’s just kind of par live up to them. So that’s got a polit-
She has countless stories that for the course as a woman in the music industry, you’re going to ical edge to it, I guess. That was
she can think of where people have have horrible, unwanted attention. And, when I brought that probably around 2013/2014 that I re-
been kind on the road, and tells us to Stu at some point, he was just, ‘You tell me next time. They ally started to do stuff like that. I
about one of them. probably did write some pseudo-po-
“There’s a promoter we work will be gone.’” - Millie Manders litical stuff before that, but I don’t
with in Manchester, and, every time think I went, ‘I’m allowed to do this,
that we work with him, he goes an extra mile to running the country that does actually care I’m allowed to use my voice. I don’t just have to
make sure that… George is actually allergic to about people and those in need and making it a write pretty love songs. I don’t have to be a pop
all animal products, so she’s vegan by physical better place? artist. I don’t have to sit inside a box in order for
default, as well, and he will check every ingredi- “I think the system is rigged,” she replies. “I people to listen to my music. I have to write
ent for everything that he’s buying us to eat at don’t know what the solution is. I don’t know things that I believe in.’ I guess I started writing
the venue, and every ingredient in anything that what kind of system we should have in place or things that I believed in probably as early as
he’s getting us, drinks-wise. He’s always there, how leaders should be chosen in order to make 2010/2011/2012, when I first went solo and
like, ‘Are you guys OK?’ If anything happens in this better. I definitely think the system at this stopped being ‘an acoustic pop artist’, which I
the crowd you need to let me know.’ George and point is very rigged. I don’t think that the Labour never wanted to be anyway.”
I have both been touched; it’s just kind of par for leader at the moment is anything more than a
the course as a woman in the music industry, soft Tory. I think the Green Party has some good oving up to more recent times, Millie
you’re going to have horrible, unwanted atten- policies, but we’ve never seen them in power, MManders and The Shutup released
tion. And, when I brought that to Stu at some so I think there are a lot of trust issues there as ‘Rebound’ earlier in the year. It’s described as
point, he was just, ‘You tell me next time. They to whether or not they’d be able to manage their ‘the anti-Valentine’s Day anthem we all needed’.
will be gone.’ He even gets called Uncle Stu by way out of a paper bag in terms of actually lead- Millie sings, ‘I said you’re cute but you’re getting
everybody. It’s just a thing, because he’s just so ing the country. And Lib Dem are just so on the way too warm, sending pics but I just wanna
lovely and attentive to everybody’s needs. fence and a bit wet lettuce in my opinion, that I talk’, and then, ‘Is that your real name?’ Does
She has discovered other females in the don’t think they’d make any difference either. So, Millie think there are too many guys or people
music industry that have helped make it a great I feel like it’s got to the point where it’s a bit like who go on dating sites using fake names just to
community too. “We all hype each other up on- America, the lesser of two evils will be voted in, find a girl to just use in some way?
line. We talk to each other. We respond to each and that’s if we’re lucky. If we’re not lucky, we’ll “I don’t think they’re all necessarily using
other’s posts. There’s a lot of kindness there as be back to more Tories, more racist, homopho- fake names. I think there’s definitely a contin-
well, and I’m seeing more of that spread out- bic, transphobic people like Suella Braverman gency of people who put weird pseudonyms on-
wards in terms of some of the festivals we work and Rishi Sunak running the country still. So, I line because, that’s instantly a red flag, isn’t it, if
with. Rebellion, for example, now has safe wish I had a more positive outlook on it, I don’t you can’t even be honest about your real name?
spaces, for anybody feeling overwhelmed by see how to get out of the hole that we’re in in There’s something you’re hiding immediately. I
crowds, or uncomfortable in a room, or for any order to see a way forward where people are at did dating apps for a while and, for me, it was
reason whatsoever, you can go up to one of the the forefront, as in general people, people who just like the seventh level of hell. I went on sev-
stewards and be like, ‘Can you take me to the are poor, people who are needing access to ed- eral coffee dates and things and the person was
safe space?’ and you’re given a safe space. So ucation and healthcare, are at the forefront of never the same as the person in the picture.
yeah, there’s lots of examples of kindness in the our leader’s thinking.” There was always something odd or off - or they
music industry. Of course, there are also lots of would be on a rebound. They would quickly do
examples of the other way, but there are defi- nother song we need to mention is the affirmation thing, want you to commit to
nitely lots of positive moves forward right now.” A‘Panic’, which is an environmentally- them, and then, a few weeks later, be like,
conscious song, which mentions ‘the oceans ‘Yeah, nah, I’m not interested’. And it’s like, ‘Hm,
ne song on ‘Telling Truths, Breaking crying out’ and ‘trawl the bottom ‘til marine life is somebody’s just got out of a long-term relation-
OTies’ that a lot of people, particularly in all gone’. The intro is interesting, with a clip of a ship, haven’t they?’ and they’ll admit it later. I felt
the UK, can relate to, is ‘Poor Man’s Show’, butcher trying to sell lamb chops and chicken. I wanted to do something a bit funny with it, poke
which mentions how our country is run by The video also includes some meat production fun at it, rather than be all sad about it. I’d rather
wealthy cavemen. Millie sings about the home- images. take the piss, basically.”
less and the cost of living crisis and the cuts to Millie tells us that their previous drummer,
healthcare. Such an important song. This is a Alex, captured the intro. “He now works in sound he band’s latest single is ‘Shut Your
prime example of how we need people to speak and film. He was studying a degree in sound TMouth’, which is about fair-weather
up and shine a light on matters such as this. and film at the time and he captured that at a friends, who only reach out when they want
Millie remembers back to writing the song. market, and, when this song was in develop- something.
“It was around the time that Theresa May was ment, it felt right that, because we were talking Millie says it was about “somebody you’ve
talking of replacing police on the force with about environmental issues in this song, to have known for ten years or whatever and the only
iPads and having more special officers on the something that was the opposite of that. The time they get hold of you is because they literally
streets, rather than trained policemen, with psy- thing that was causing it. The biggest cause, of want your guestlist. The lyrics, ‘I haven’t really
MILLIE MANDERS & THE SHUTUP