Hot Milk: “This is a family that we’re building. I genuinely feel connected to our fans”

“Oh for fuck’s sake, he’s asking about the fucking name.” The sofa in the repurposed Manchester mill is currently a noisy mess of laughter, shouting and faux indignation. On the left side of it, Han Mee is letting out a big, bold, north-west of England cackle. On the right cushion, Jim Shaw screws up his face in an exaggerated, exhausted wince. All we did was ask about the provenance of Hot Milk, a band name neck-and-neck with Pupil Slicer as the most horrible to appear on the cover of Kerrang! for some time. Some enquiring minds are more in the gutter than ours; in America, apparently, the question often comes with a guess. “Oh,” mocks Jim, ​“Does it mean… jizz?” “Everyone in America thinks it’s jizz, and they think they’re really funny when they reckon they’ve worked ...