Hotline TNT’s domestic and sonic bliss

Anderson and his band are in the early days of a US tour with Hippo Campus, and Anderson is thoughtful and genial on the phone when asked about the intensity of the tour, stating that the intention for their tremendous new record, Raspberry Moon, is to “push the van as far as it will go.”

“We’re really lucky to be in this position, to be honest,” Anderson muses. “Before this, we were hobbyists, and it’s very possible that we’ll be hobbyists again – although in a different way. We’re all happy to push this as hard as we can presently.”

It’s a fairly charming summation of Hotline TNT’s ability to grasp the nettle in a way that goes beyond their tireless work ethic. Raspberry Moon represents an evolution for the project, in the sense that previously Anderson had written and recorded all of the material himself, whereas he’s invited touring guitarist Lucky Hunter, bassist Haylen Trammel, and drummer Mike Ralston to become part of the recording process this time around. Anderson attributes this, quite sweetly and self-deprecatingly, to it being “just a matter of having the right people in the right place for long enough.”

But Anderson is emphatic that he never wanted Hotline TNT to be a solo project. The fact that his two previous records were a one-man-band operation is an unfortunate “matter of circumstance” that was required in order to keep things moving, and he’s effusive about the current line-up: “I want these four people to be part of the process in absolutely every way!”

Raspberry Moon was recorded with DIY hero and fellow Wisconsinite Amos Pitsch. Pitsch’s Crutch Of Memory studio sits within a stone’s throw of the village in which Anderson was raised, adding a poetic layer to the nostalgic warmth of the songs on the record. Naturally, Anderson and Pitsch have moved in similar circles, but this is their first time working together. Through the confluence of geography, mentality, and ideology, Anderson calls Pitsch the “perfect fit” for the record, having the shared sensibilities Anderson anticipated.

Along with the openness to allow the group to contribute, Anderson’s whole approach to the record was more egalitarian than ever. He turned up to the studio with the songs 70-to-80 per cent finished, allowing Pitsch’s input and to give the compositions space to breathe. Pitsch was invited to put his fingerprints on the record, but Anderson admits that, by the end of the recording, he’d had significant influence on every song.

“By the time we’d racked up all our work with him, I told him I wanted him to take a pass at every song,” Anderson explains. “Please put down your thoughts on everything! So there are tracks of him playing piano and singing… he mostly gave us the distance we needed to complete the songwriting as a unit, but if decisions needed to be made and we needed somebody to be a tiebreaker for an idea, he’d often come in there too.”

This tone of gratitude is all over the record. Open-handed and open-hearted love songs pepper the Raspberry Moon – love songs to oneself, to other people, and to situations. Particularly arresting is “Candle”, a tremendously optimistic and romantic slice of distorted impressionism. Throughout the record, you can practically hear Anderson batting away insecurities and neurosis, like on the gorgeous “Dance The Night Away”.

Anderson attributes this to the security of his personal situation: being in a loving and healthy relationship. In his mid-thirties, Anderson acknowledges that this time of his life represents a perfect point for what the songs embody. There is still an atmosphere of youthful exuberance, albeit one celebrating the securities and perspectives which arrive as one approaches middle age. It’s also this factor that has influenced the group’s incredible work ethic.

Anderson speaks candidly and discerningly about where they’re at as career musicians: “We’re reaching a point in our lives where we kind of have to grow or die. We can’t really keep grounding it out as a DIY band. We’re at this point where we are thinking, are we career musicians or are we hobbyists? Don’t get me wrong, both are awesome and equally valid. We are pushing it very hard this year to take the van as far as we can. I was a hobbyist for ten-plus years doing this. We’ve been successful in a very small way, in a way that I never expected we would be.

“If we had to go back, it would be a different kind of hobbyist… by which I mean the days of subletting our rooms are nearly over. We all love music and touring, but inevitably, it’s all getting harder and harder to maintain economically.”

Should Raspberry Moon be the vehicle for Hotline TNT to expand past this hinterland, it would be a worthy one. Crucially, in increasingly desperate-feeling times, Hotline TNT have produced an ecstatically beautiful and positive record, one that speaks to the magic of interpersonal relationships and presence. It’s a record about being at peace with yourself and at peace with those around you, and speaking to Anderson, I get the impression that the joy of making the record with the right people in the correct circumstances contributed to this glow.

Ever unassuming, Anderson reiterates that his MO emerges from a pure love of pop music, “put through a distortion pedal and cranked up to ten, but pop songs all the same.” With Raspberry Moon, Hotline TNT have created their strongest collection of earworms with their most generous, open-hearted lyrics, and somewhat fittingly, a beautiful testament to friendship, love, and trust.