Hot Dress is Showing the Parts: A Q&A
photo by Brea Yumiguano
New Jersey-based alt-rock four-piece Hot Dress released their first single after a two-year hiatus.
ES: Hot Dress has been releasing music since 2021. What made you decide to begin making music? How did you meet? What made you want to start a band?
Hot Dress: We all grew up in the same home town of East Brunswick, New Jersey, never really interacting until high school. In 2020, Max and I (Andrew) were in one band, and Jason and Caleb were in another. We were the only two bands in the school at the time, so as “rival” groups we naturally disliked each other. But, in proper high school band fashion, both groups lost members over time and sort of just broke up. It was really hard to find people who cared as much about music as Max and I, but I could tell that Jason and Caleb had a similar passion. So, I reached out to Jason, who I had met through mutual friends, and asked if he, Caleb, and Max wanted to get together to jam some time. We hit it off quite nicely and continued playing music together, eventually landing on the name, Hot Dress. At first we were just running covers of our favorite bands to get our footing, but even then we knew that making our own music was the goal.
(Fun fact: Our first two releases, “Supermodel” and “At Its Best” both came from leftover half-written songs that our respective high school bands had never finished.)
ES: “Show Me The Part” (SMTP) is your first single in two years– why does now feel like the right time to reemerge as a band? Why is SMTP the song to begin this next era of Hot Dress?
HD: Over the past few years we’ve been working diligently behind the scenes, writing a bunch of material and honing our sound in. We want our music to be reflective of us as a band rather than certain songs feeling like they belong more to one individual member. We wanted to share a taste of what that’s been like for us as well as showcasing the more polished sound that we’ve developed. This is also the first song that we tried working on with producer Connor Hanson.
ES: Hot Dress has been through a few phases throughout the years, what would you say has been a common throughline or essential theme of the band that has remained unwavered / is there one?
HD: We have certainly been through quite a bit together over the years… Though we have amicably cycled through a few bassists (we love you Cecil, Nate, and Matt), the heart of the band in terms of writing and creative direction has remained within our core four members: Andrew, Jason, Max, and Caleb. We love music and it’s something that we all have grown to love together. Getting to share this passion and dedication to the art form with each other over the years has been a privilege that we’re very grateful for.
ES: What was the inspiration behind SMTP? What made you start writing/producing/ideating the single?
HD: Max does this thing every once in a while where he’ll shadow drop a demo none of us had ever heard before into the group chat. He usually won’t say anything but the file name will have some nonsensical title like "Artifact Dog” or “DoorDash in Hell”. I believe SMTP’s initial title was “You know who else writes bad songs?” (a reference to Muscle Man from Regular Show). We thought it was a really cool starting point and it sounded vaguely similar to another demo that we had hit a dead end with a few months prior. So, over the course of the next few weeks we blended the two and wrote new portions to better suit the tone of each part. What we ended up with was an instrumental and some loose vocal ideas that alternated between softer drawn-out verses and dancey energetic choruses. I wanted the vocal direction to play into this back-and-forth feeling and so I landed on a theme of fleeing confrontation that is presented through an internal dialogue of exhausted, confessional verses and frustrated, amped up choruses.
photo by Brea Yumiguano
ES: Is SMTP a part of a larger project?
HD: No, it isn’t intended to be. We went into Connor’s studio with SMTP in an effort to familiarize ourselves with his workflow and production style. Safe to say we had a blast recording with him and appreciated his creative contributions. Since SMTP was recorded, we may or may not have returned to his studio to record songs that may or may not exist as one fully imagined project (wink wink).
ES: What are you looking forward to most following the release of SMTP (shows, audience perception, etc.)?
HD: Honestly we’re just really excited to have some new recorded material to share with our audience. We’ve been consistently playing shows during this two-year release gap and our setlists often consist of songs off of our 2024 EP, ‘Room For None’ and various unreleased songs of ours. To release something that feels more reflective of what we’ve been writing recently feels really rewarding.
ES: Is there a story behind the single art?
HD: We decided on the work of a Canadian artist named Cody Turple for this single. A few months ago we stumbled upon some of his work and thought his style fit the song really well. We connected with him and purchased a piece called “BOUNDERS” that’s got a graphic of 3 outlined figures framed by jagged digital streaks. We were delighted to receive his blessing and collaborate on this release.
ES: What did you learn about yourselves throughout producing SMTP?
HD: I think the main thing was just learning how to collaborate with someone new, especially in a producer setting. Previously, we’d only worked with recording engineers whose role was more so just to get things sounding good rather than provide further insight into the songwriting itself. It was kind of uncomfortable at first giving someone outside of the band more agency over the song’s direction, but we are really happy with how the song came together and Connor was a great collaborator.
ES: Did you have any goals in mind while producing SMTP?
HD: Not particularly. We just wanted to give it our all and try to bring something new to the table. I feel like that’s always an unspoken goal of ours in making music. We’ve learned a lot over the years through trial and error and we wanted to document a tight performance that shows what we’ve learned, as well as what Connor was able to bring to the table with his vast knowledge of production in the indie/alternative genre.
photo by Brea Yumiguano
ES: Describe Hot Dress in five words.
HD: Happy, fun, giggles, laughter, smiles
ES: Is there anything you’d like to add or share?
HD: A couple zeros to the old bank account wouldn’t hurt. Nah just kidding, we’re freaking loaded and our dads own Microsoft. Kidding again. Stay up to date on future shows, releases, and other awesome announcements through our socials, @hotdressmusic or on our website (hotdressmusic.com). We love and appreciate all of you and thank you to Evie and the Disaster Mag team for chatting with us!
