Neu Hot Face: “Our ethos is to make music and get it out there, simple as that”

When it comes to scorching hot new artists, they don’t come much fresher than this London trio - emerging from the ether with a 10-track, 25-minute debut LP, ‘Automated Response’ manifests spilled pints, sweaty bodies and blown-out amps in audio form.

Words: Finlay Holden
23rd February 2026

Garage-punk by way of London back gardens, Hot Face have been honing their attack for a while now. Since guitarist/vocalist James Bates, drummer Sam Catchpole and bassist George Cannell coalesced around James’ solo bedroom project in 2022, they’ve been busy - as James puts it - “pissing off Sam’s
neighbours” from a garden shed. Growing up embedded in the capital’s live circuit meant venues themselves weren’t unfamiliar - but carving out a space of their own proved another challenge entirely.

“Coming up in London as a band can be pretty challenging because there’s so much going on, there are so many different scenes meeting together,” James explains. “In the early days, we’d be playing shows with a country rock band, and maybe an avant-garde electronic project, and then we’re sandwiched in the middle of that. You’re playing these shows to people who really aren’t there for a garage punk show, so there were definitely a few moments where it’s like, ‘fuck, where do we belong?’”

Any uncertainty didn’t linger for long. Through relentless rehearsing and refining their collective songwriting, Hot Face quickly learned how to weaponise their live energy. Momentum built gig by gig - often in unconventional settings. “We’ve played on a boat, we’ve played on a truck,” James laughs, “just waiting for the opportunity to play on a plane.”

It was at just their third show, however, that things truly shifted; playing Brixton’s infamous Windmill, the band caught the attention of Dan Carey. “He came up to us at the end of the show, [asking] ‘Who are you? Where have you come from?’” George recalls. “Since then, he’s taken us under his wing and showed us the ropes in the studio.”

“There were definitely a few moments where it’s like, ‘fuck, where do we belong?’ ”

— James Bates

Before long, the producer had effectively become a fourth member - debuting Hot Face on his Speedy Wunderground label and quietly championing them behind the scenes. That support culminated in a missed call after a show, which was quickly returned from the green room. “Dan’s like, ‘listen, I’ve just had this opportunity’,” George continues. “‘The guys at Abbey Road have offered for me to come and record a song in a day’. And he turned around and he’s like, ‘well, I’ve got a band that could do an album in a day’. We leapt at it.”

Few are better suited to capturing lightning-fast chaos than Dan, and Hot Face rose to the challenge. Leaning fully into their strengths, they ripped through three live run-throughs straight to tape, even inviting an audience into the room to amplify the atmosphere. “The whole philosophy was to treat this like a live show,” James says. “At the time, we were really channelling that garage punk pedal-to-the-metal stuff. We have one day? Let’s just go and tear it a new one.”

The result is ‘Automated Response’: a breathless, confrontational debut that grapples with chaotic hedonism on lead single ‘Pink Liquor’, thrashes against rejection on the sizzling 70-second ‘Bumble Been’, and rails against tyranny on ‘Cruel Tutelage’. Beneath the raw, blown-out sonic sits flashes of imagination and classic Dadaist absurdity, proof there’s more going on here than sheer volume alone.

Emerging from a surreal day inside one of the world’s most storied studios, Hot Face came away with grins on their faces and a full-length record in their hands. “It’s a big release for us,” George says. “We spent a lot of time and effort trying to bring this to life. The run-up can be quite tantalizing, you have no idea what can or will come of it, but at the end of the day you’ve just got to throw it out there. Our ethos going forward is to make music and get it out there, simple as
that.”

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