A lot of generosity goes into every Studio Milwaukee Session — from the Radio Milwaukee members in the room who give us financial support to the artists who give time that is so precious when you’re on tour. Recently, two bands upped their unselfishness by not only performing for us, but also sharing brand-new music.
Three months after Hippo Campus played selections from their soon-to-be-released Flood, Hotline TNT visited for a Saturday afternoon session and capped the performance’s broadcast portion with “Candle,” which had been introduced to the wider world just three days prior.
The track’s very existence is a “bad news, good news” situation due to the reasons behind its release: The devastation in North Carolina from Hurricane Helene. To help raise money for recovery efforts, Hotline TNT joined literally dozens of other artists on Cardinals at the Window, a 136-track compilation available on Bandcamp.
Sharing “Candle” as an act of goodness was appropriate considering the track’s creation stemmed from frontman Will Anderson’s then-burgeoning relationship.
“That was back in February. We were actually out on tour with Wednesday when this song came to be,” Anderson explained, noting Wednesday’s deep connections to North Carolina. “[‘Candle’] just kind of felt like the most ready to go. The song came together quite quickly, and this is the demo version that came out on the compilation. It was all kind of in the can but hadn’t been officially released. I thought it might be a song people would actually want to hear.”
Based solely on the reaction of our Studio Milwaukee audience, he was right. It was a high-energy capper to two straight days of sessions — following a Friday visit from Nada Surf’s Matthew Caws — and a seamless addition to the first two song’s of Hotline TNT’s set, both of which came from their enthusiastically received sophomore album, Cartwheel.
You can use the player at the top of the page to listen to the entire performance and hear about Wisconsin native Anderson’s many connections to the Badger State (including summer camp with Justin Vernon). If you want to join us for our next Studio Milwaukee Session, jump over to our membership page and see how to score a guaranteed invite to every performance.
Studio MKE: Hotline TNT set list
- “Son in Law”
- “I Thought You’d Change”
- “Candle"
