photo credit Victoria Renard
Seattle WA – HOT HAIL! combines classic synthpop sensibilities, modern darkwave maximalism, and fierce post-punk politics to create a powerful synthesis of horror, humanity, and humor. Featuring songwriter Billy Sigil (they / them), and DJ Emilio Cerrillo (he / him), Hot Hail! is the perfect music to drive, cry, or dance to.
In a dramatic break from the feral darkwave of their debut album, Hope In Hell, runs screaming into the arms of anthemic, ultra-catchy synthpop, sliding the bitter themes of the album’s lyrics under the listener’s door in an envelope made of pure ear candy that evokes the spirit of Tears For Fears, Simple Minds, New Order, and Cyndi Lauper.
Hope In Hell features guest performances by a number of luminaries from the Seattle indie-rock / synthpop community, including Kim West (Smokey Brights, Megacat), Sammy Skidmore (Dining Dead), Henry Mansfield, Frankie Champagne (Seaside Tryst) and Avery Kanode (Seaside Tryst).
Featuring photography and artwork in collaboration with Seattle artist Lain (Instagram @alayynay) the release evokes the spirit of 80s pop artist Patrick Nagel, whose clean lines and glamour provide an aesthetic counterpoint to the apocalyptic anxiety and emotional messiness of most of the album’s subject matter.
The result is an intensely personal, sometimes messy attempt to grapple with how we maintain some sense of hope, joy, and faith in the future when so many different kinds of madness and destruction are bearing down on us from all sides.
Hot Hail! arrives less as a continuation of the synth-pop/dancefloor tradition, but more as its savior. Too seductive to be labeled merely synth-pop, too aware to be simply dance music, too relevant to be post-punk, and, sadly, perhaps a bit too smart to go mainstream, ‘Hope in Hell’ is as unexpected as it is brilliant.” – The Big Takeover
“For Hot Hail!, joy can feel less like comfort than a kiss blown at oblivion with one hand on the detonator. Billy Sigil writes like a kid who stole the keys to the apocalypse and tore down the hillside in eyeliner, heels, and a heap of chrome with the radio jammed forever on 1985.’Hope In Hell’ is synthpop as emergency broadcast, queer survival manual, glitter-bombed panic attack, political séance, breakup autopsy, and back-alley joke told while the sirens get closer.” – Post-Punk.com
“HOT HAIL! performs a cinematic backward-leap out of a burning world, middle fingers extended, all while wrapped in the shimmering, high-contrast glow of 80s New Wave. ‘Hope In Hell’ is a defiant, manic shrug in the face of the abyss. It’s an admission that art might not save us, but in the ruins of the world we thought we knew, these songs are the faint, flickering lights worth surviving for.” – CVLTNATION
“With ‘Hope In Hell,’ Hot Hail! has gone from being a promising underground act to achieving something few electronic artists manage: a truly organic sound without abandoning the wires. It’s an album that demands to be listened to alone, yet vibrates with the energy of a collective catharsis. In a world that often feels like a maze of dead ends, it offers us a map made of rhythms and neon to find our way back home. This is not just an album; it’s a manifesto for survival in the age of constant stimulation.” – GLOBAL-POP Magazine
“Under vibrant neon pop lights, Hot Hail! transforms the collapse of the world into irresistible anthems where hope trembles but never breaks. ‘Hope In Hell,’ is an album that rejects emotional purity. Here, everything is contaminated: joy by fear, melody by anger, gentleness by an almost painful lucidity. Hot Hail! doesn’t offer an escape; It offers an aesthetic of survival, a way of dancing in the ruins without ever looking away.” – ExtraVaFrench
“This is the sound of modern darkwave, and it’s as exciting as it can get.” – Julie River, New Noise Magazine
“Like lightning in a jar of blood. In Hot Hail!’s deft hands, pop delivers both pleasure and political provocation. If you’re looking for the musical zeitgeist in these troubling times, Hot Hail! delivers.” – Alice Teeple, Post-Punk.com
Website: https://hothailmusic.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hot.hail.music/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@Hot-Hail-Music
Bandcamp: https://hothailband.bandcamp.com
Tidal: https://tidal.com/artist/53051205/u
Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/artist/hot-hail/1788804661