Will Anderson is a DIY lifer. A native of Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin — he grew up next door to future indie-Americana luminaries Brad and Phil Cook — he played in the underground sludge-rock band Weed in the 2010s before starting a new shoegaze-leaning project, Hotline TNT, at the end of the decade. Up until the release of his breakout 2023 album Cartwheel, Anderson was content playing all-ages shows in basements for small but passionate audiences.
But with Hotline TNT’s latest record Raspberry Moon (due Friday), Anderson admits his ambitions have changed. I met him recently at one of the country’s best record shops, Electric Fetus in Minneapolis, where his band was doing an in-store gig before opening for the indie-pop band Hippo Campus at a large outdoor venue for thousands of people. I wondered whether his inner punk found that sort of environment unnatural.
“Unfortunately, it does feel natural,” he told me later. “I don’t think Hotline TNT is true outsider music. It’s not hardcore, it’s not punk, it’s not even shoegaze in my opinion.”
What Hotline TNT sounds like on Raspberry Moon is the last thing any music critic likes to classify something as these days: A rock band. On Cartwheel, Anderson worked closely with co-producer Drew Auscherman to create a furious, blown-out sound that nearly overwhelmed the canny melodies buried in the murk. On the new record, however, Hotline TNT worked more as an actual live unit, a byproduct of the constantly changing lineup finally solidifying during the Cartwheel tour cycle. Under the guiding hand of producer Amos Pitsch from DIY heroes Tenement – they recorded Raspberry Moon in Pitsch’s (and my) hometown of Appleton, Wis. — Anderson both streamlined and beefed-up Hotline TNT’s sound, sacrificing some of the gritty character of Cartwheel for extra anthemic power. You can hear it in the single (and one of the year’s best songs) “Julia’s War,” which has a “na na na” chorus I can imagine inspiring massive sing-alongs live.
“Even back two records ago, I wanted to make the most badass-sounding riffs I could,” he said in a recent Zoom interview, “and I envisioned myself playing those songs in front of big rooms with lots of people and everyone’s ready to go crazy. That sounds like the most fun thing for me.”
In our interview, we talked about the making of Raspberry Moon, not being a shoegaze band, and also not being an “NBA band.”
When I saw you at Electric Fetus, I was amazed by how much your lead guitar player was shredding. I didn’t really pick up on that aspect of the band from the records.
Anytime you use the word shoegaze, it’s like you have the idea of the wall of sound, where we’re all playing the same chords at the same time. But with this album, I think this is the first honest-to-God guitar solo that’s ever been on a Hotline record
How did you settle on this current lineup?
The hardest part of having a band is keeping the same people. These are the four people who were willing to put themselves through the torture of being a touring musician six months out of the year. Until we’re millionaires, you have to be okay with some abuse, for lack of a better word. It’s hard. It’s a hard life, and it’s an awesome life, too. We love it for sure. But even people who think they really want to do it, once you’re actually out there on the road, it can quickly become a different story.
What’s the hardest part of touring?
I’m kind of speaking for the group at this point. I love every part of it. I’m addicted to it, no doubt about it. Now that I’m in a relationship, I will say that I get it a little bit more, the desire to be home. But before now, I was ready to go 12 months out of the year.
Okay, what do you love about touring?
I just think it’s a really amazing way to meet new people, and it’s the truest form of expression that I’ve found for what I want to do. There’s still stuff that I hate that we’re doing, but I’m 36 now, it’s just part of what has to happen if you want to keep touring and playing at this level.
You told me that playing 21-and-over shows, as opposed to all-ages shows, was hard for you.
It was hard. The first few years of Hotline, we refused. That’s just a holdover of my youth, and an ethical belief that I held onto for a long time. But again, now that I am 36, sometimes I almost feel weird about it. Why do you want teenagers to be at your show so bad?
Literally, this has become my job. I don’t have a day job now, and I have to pay for my chihuahua’s dog food and my rent in New York City. There are certain lines that I won’t cross. But I guess I have crossed some of them already.
The new album is produced by Amos Pitsch, who’s also from Wisconsin. Was it your shared ‘sconnie heritage that brought you together?
We didn’t really start circling each other until I left the area. I moved to Vancouver for college immediately after I graduated, and I started doing DIY touring up there. When I finally made it to Milwaukee, there was this band called Technicolor Teeth he was in. We played with them two times, and both times, they were the best band I’ve ever seen live. So that was my introduction to him, and that was probably 10 years ago now.
When it was getting time to write this new record, I wrote him a letter. We weren’t even, like, reply guys of each other. We wouldn’t even talk online or anything. I just wrote him a letter to the Crutch Of Memory address, and I said, “Hey, love for you to work on a new Hotline TNT record, what do you think?” And he actually called me back. Once we actually got in the room together, I mean, we’re both Wisconsin guys, it just felt like we were old friends.
You live in New York but do you still consider yourself a Midwesterner? Or are you just a New Yorker now?
I don’t think of myself as a New Yorker. I ended up here randomly, to be honest. I started the band in Minneapolis, and I was there for about three years. And then when I moved to New York, it was not related to music at all. As I’m getting older, too, pretty much every time I come through the Midwest, it’s harder and harder to leave. I am pretty much dying to move back to the Midwest, and that is kind of my long-term goal. But in the meantime, I have liked living in New York a lot, and it’s been great as a musician, and I’ve found some really good people to play with. But I don’t feel super connected to the scene here.
When I saw you play at Electric Fetus, I kept getting Hüsker Dü vibes, which I feel like are even more pronounced on the new record than on Cartwheel. I don’t hear that comparison come up with Hotline TNT. You’re usually classified as a shoegaze band.
Bob [Mould]’s music is my No. 1 influence. Not just Hüsker Dü, but a lot of his stuff. But I didn’t really get to know it until I left. When I got to college, I started working at record stores and got some history lessons. Growing up, my favorite Minneapolis favorite bands were The Jayhawks, and a little bit later I was super into the 12 Rods and Halloween, Alaska scene.
You said earlier that you don’t consider Hotline TNT a shoegaze band, but critics seem to view you as one anyway. What’s your relationship with that genre?
The antagonist in me is kind of like, “Okay, you guys think this is what we are? This is what we are then.” People ask, “Where do you think shoegaze is going next?” And I’m like, “Well, wherever we go, that’s where shoegaze is going. We are in charge of the movement.” But I don’t think we sound like classic shoegaze bands at all.
Coming at it from a music critic perspective, I think there’s a weird reluctance to just call something a rock band. It always has to be shoved into a subgenre, like shoegaze or hardcore. But it over-complicates things. Sometimes a rock band is just a rock band.
I think when people hear “rock band,” their mind immediately goes to like, “Okay, so you’re like Foo Fighters?” But I know exactly what you mean.
I can’t let you go without some NBA talk, since I know you’re a fan. What’s your opinion on the current state of NBA discourse? I feel like the NBA is second only to the WNBA for having the worst conversations in sports right now. I don’t have ESPN, but I see clips in my social media feed and it’s always about who’s the face of the league, or, “Who’s the GOAT, LeBron or MJ?” Even when there are actual games of consequence being played. Who in the world wants to hear Kendrick Perkins talk about the face of the league during the NBA Finals?
Anyway, do you have any thoughts on this?
I have a lot of thoughts on it, especially as it relates to indie rock. One thing I love about the NBA is that it’s kind of an equalizer. I can talk to the UPS guy, I can talk to teachers, I can talk to so many people in different walks of life about sports. And that’s what I think is so great about sports overall, is that it can bring us all together.
It’s the last form of monoculture.
Right. But it sort of got hijacked by indie rock bros, like myself and Jake Lenderman. And now I find it kind of cringe that I’m so into it. I don’t like talking about it that much.
Oh man, I’m sorry I brought this up.
No, it’s fine. You can bring it up. But you know what I mean? It’s like, now every time a new poster artist wants to do a flyer for our tour, it’s like, “All right, let’s get you some NBA stuff up there, right? You guys love basketball, right?” I’m like, “No, stop. We’re not the NBA band.”
Raspberry Moon is out 6/20 via Third Man Records. Find more information here.