Written by Josie Reaney
Millie Manders and the Shut Up are getting set for the ‘Shut Your Mouth’ tour in October. Their infectious punk will soon be gracing our local venues with a bang, coming to Sheffield’s Yellow Arch Studios on the 3rd November.
I was delighted to have the chance to speak to frontwoman Millie, via a zoom call. I could have chatted to her for hours. We covered changes in the industry, diversity, mental health, and ‘the specials’.
You started the band in 2014, how much has changed?
In terms of my music, it’s become more politically focused, more socially conscious. I have voiced a lot more of my anger on injustices in the world in general, but also become a lot more internalised in the way that I write. It’s not just love songs and petty hates, it’s mental health and youth angst.
And what about change in the music industry?
The industry will have big blow outs where things change dramatically, and we saw that with the rise of the MP3 and with downloading and streaming. It’s the actualisation of the machine. Since then, it’s been very much DIY, you have to work much harder in order for anyone to take you on. You have to be successful as a commodity before the music industry takes interest to further that money making machine.
Pop singers focusing on mental health, the pop industry being less body image focused and more body positive which is a huge thing because we know that the pop industry since its inception has been young and beautiful.
I think, outwardly, the gender balance has started to shift too- female led production, festivals making moves for gender balance on the line ups. There’s a lot of positive, beautiful things coming into effect and growing.
Do you feel like that’s almost a token gesture, to add women to the festival line ups? The big men behind the scenes just playing up to what they know they need to do now?
I think that I don’t give a shit. Those token gestures become culture and that’s the most important thing is that people are having to do it. The audience become exposed to more balance across the board and then the ball starts rolling- we start to see more black people in punk (Bob Vylan), non- binary and trans (Noah and the Loners). So keep giving those token gestures out because we’re going to see more and more people who aren’t just cis male.
And thank God for that!
So, your music is self -described as genre punk, you incorporate a lot of influences, hip hop, metal, dance, ska. How do you take all these influences and build them into a cohesive set of music? How do you make it work?
There’s no method, it’s just who I am. When I was writing for myself I think a lot of that becomes cohesive with the right producer. And my voice is my voice- that’s part of the glue. And the punk, the difficult subjects and the underlying aggression in the feeling of the music ties it all together. There’s this level of we’re not gonna have fear. We’re standing in our space, we’re taking up our space and playing what we love first and foremost and fuck you if you don’t like it.
Speaking of influences, you’ve worked with Horace Panter of ‘The Specials’ for Tonic Mental Health. Tell me all about that- what was it like to work with him?
He’s just such a humble lovely man. I read his biography off of that and reading about how hard The Specials had to work to be recognised made me realise that just because there was a golden era in the music industry in terms of how much money there could be thrown at an artist, it didn’t mean that they didn’t have to work just as hard. They sat on amps in the back of vans and carried equipment up and down countless staircases. Horace came from a working- class background; he did the working- class tours, they slept in crazy places and he’s humble for it. Getting stories from them is always enlightening.
Your music is honest, you have direct engagement with metal health culture. The conversation can get a bit muddied when you have TikTok; self-diagnosis and oversaturation with messages i.e. ‘it’s okay not to be okay’ signs plastered every way we turn (as you clearly nod to in the song not okay). I think you get across the brilliance of living in such an open culture as well as the frustrations of it. Do you feel it’s your duty as a writer to speak about mental health in this climate?
I don’t think I have a duty to speak about anything, I just write what’s close to me at the time regardless of what that subject matter is. Yes, I still think the conversation around mental health is very important, I think it’s becoming more complicated with social media. You’ve still got a real stigma around certain types of mental health like autism and its gender gap- women express symptoms very differently because we are taught to hide everything so well. There’s so much misinformation and lack of education. So yes- it’s important to talk about metal health, but I don’t see it as my duty. I only talk about it if I feel triggered enough to write a song. Once something becomes your duty as an artist it becomes uninteresting and often contrived and so there has to be a real line between that passion for the subject or writing something because you think you should.
So your songs about mental health are always somewhat of a vulnerable introspection then?
Yes. I was outpouring all of these songs that were really majorly dark, on a level I knew that something bad was coming. It wasn’t until after we released the album that the wall came down. The creative part of the brain is an incredible indicator of what’s going on inside even if you haven’t recognised it yourself.
Is it cathartic for you to play such personal music to a live audience? I can imagine playing a song like ‘Bitter’ would be such a release!
Not so much these days, now I just really enjoy it and connecting to the people who are connecting to those songs. There isn’t any feeling like that. It’s much more emotional hearing why people have connected to those songs for me these days. But in the beginning, writing and performing these songs was massive catharsis for me. I had so much anger and rage and that all came back in the music.
The Shut Your Mouth tour starts on the 19th October. Seventeen dates across the UK over four weeks. You’ve spoken of your song burnout as an ‘ode to burning out while perusing your dreams- but it’s worth it!’ is that the feeling you’re expecting with the next tour?
*laughs* Absolutely! That’s my way of life. That’s what I want to do- as long as there’s a comfy bed at the end of the night, I’m stoked!
Me and my friend will be coming to the Sheffield gig at Yellow Arch Studios. What can we expect?
‘Shut Your Mouth’ and ‘Rebound’, the two singles from this year, will be played and a song from the new album which is definitely a hard hitter. It comes with a trigger warning. You’ll find that out when you see it live. We’re hoping to create even more of a show, coming with all guns blazing. We want it bigger and even more exciting and engaging.
And beyond the tour, what can we expect from Millie Manders and the Shut Up?
*with a wide grin* I’d say keep your eyes peeled for album announcements.
Millie Manders and the Shut Up will be playing at Yellow Arch Studios on 3rd of November.
You can buy tickets here.
Jarred Up 
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