The Pill Interview – Making Mischief and Embracing Fun
On Escapism, Online Trolls, and the Perils of Afternoon Bathing
Oct 25, 2024 Photography by Mimi Massey
“Subtlety isn’t really for us. There’s no grey area—you get what you see,” says guitarist and vocalist Lily Hutchings. “I mean, releasing a song with us singing, ‘I’m a blonde bitch. Bimbo, butthole, tits,’ was definitely a bold choice,” laughs bassist and co-lead vocalist Lottie Massey. “We basically beat everyone to it,” Hutchings adds, grinning. “And it looks great on a T-shirt.”
Now making waves as The Pill, Hutchings and Massey are the latest dynamic duo to emerge from the Isle of Wight. Their debut single, “Bale of Hay”—a ferocious, tongue-in-cheek grunge-pop track about the struggles of being blonde—appeared seemingly out of nowhere. Yet, their story stretches back to when they met when they were both 14 years of age, at school, becoming “besties” and then later starting an Instagram account for The Pill with little more than a vague idea. “The Pill started as a joke. And probably still is one,” Hutchings laughs.
The duo’s account and enigmatic online persona seemed to pique people’s interest, and they eventually realized they may have to take it further. “People started asking, ‘Who are they?’” Massey recalls. “So we thought, ‘We might actually have to follow through—write some songs and do a set.’” That was six years ago, and while their journey has been sporadic—mainly due to the pandemic—The Pill has persisted.
Hutchings briefly attended the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts, but Covid lockdowns brought everything to a halt. “It was all shut down,” she says wistfully. “The only thing I experienced—was my room and four walls.” After catching Covid herself, she decided to leave the course.
The Pill slowly began to take shape, and eventually, they decided to self-release their debut single “Bale of Hay,” a song about the difficulties of being blonde.
“I mean, it’s obviously so silly,” Hutchings laughs. “I’m blonde, and honestly, being blonde is the least difficult part of my life. So, we thought it’d be funny to act like it was this huge challenge.” Massey, a natural brunette, chimes in with her own experience. “That’s where it all started,” she laughs. “I bleached my hair, and it was so damaged it looked like a bale of hay. We got talking about how everyone’s going blonde, and Lily mentioned it wasn’t all it’s cracked up to be.” Hutchings grins, “It’s the lack of eyebrows, really. That’s actually the line that kicked off the whole song.”
Despite the playful premise, they decided to release it as a single, although they didn’t think people would take much notice. “Yeah, a couple of people told us, ‘This is going to be a bit Marmite,’” (referring to the UK slang for something divisive—you either love it or hate it, like the famous yeast spread of the same name). “And we were like, fine by us. I’d rather it be Marmite than peanut butter.”
It would probably be an overstatement to suggest the song went viral, but it certainly got the duo noticed, for better or worse. They soon discovered that when you’re in the spotlight, you can also be in the firing line. The duo immediately seemed to attract the ire of a certain type of person: the misogynist keyboard warrior.
“Quite often, it’s the angry white, bald middle-aged man—clearly, they’re really, really upset, about something” laughs Massey. “And I will say, definitely not all men are like that, just, it seems, the ones in our comments. Some I couldn’t repeat; they’re disgusting. But I think my favorite was, ‘This is why women shouldn’t be allowed out of the kitchen.’ Fair enough. To be honest I was probably in the kitchen when I was reading that. Yeah, they were spot on with that one. I love cooking.”
“She does,” Hutchings laughs. “She’s a proper little chef, but some of the comments have been a bit intense.”
“All press is good press,” Massey quips, “even if they say our song would only sound good if they were pissing in our faces. That one was a real humdinger. Or when they say, ‘I’d rather listen to my nan’s death rattle than this.’ Wow, what a bold choice of insult!”
Hutchings adds, “But then you question them, and they suddenly get scared and delete their comments, completely unaware that we’ve already seen it all. You click on their profiles, and it’s essentially often the same people every time. It’s bizarre.” The band clearly wields humor to reclaim power from those who leave such comments; ridicule can be a potent weapon. Massey admits that, at first, she would have a few glasses of wine and angrily respond. “Yeah, like, what’s so threatening about my hair? I really don’t know. I think they just freak out at the sight of a woman doing anything.” Hutchings chuckles. “Some people took it seriously too, saying things like, ‘Oh my God, she thinks it’s so hard being blonde.’ Which is just sad. If I believed that, I probably wouldn’t have written a song about it—that would be embarrassing!”
Sadly, in the age of social media, sexist trolling seems to be on the rise, emboldened by anonymity and toxic bellends like Andrew Tate. Hutchings reflects, “I mean, it happens to a lot of people we know, but it still does take you by surprise when it comes your way.” Massey adds, “Yeah, it’s a bit pathetic! Like when I’m watching YouTube with my boyfriend or something, and then a little message notification pops up saying, ‘I literally hope you die.’ I’m like, ‘Oh, OK!’ But we do try to find humor in every situation. Even something as pitiful as this and we usually end up laughing about it. If you don’t laugh, you’ll cry.” Hutchings chimes in with a laugh, “So we spend all day crying!”
The band have just released their second single, “Scaffolding Man,” another powerfully playful slice of Pill-style humor, blending a propulsive Riot Grrrl riff with sharp, sarcastic lyrics inspired by a cringe-inducing incident. Massey picks up the story:
“The embarrassment I felt that day—I’ll never feel anything like it again. I thought I’d treat myself to a little 2 p.m. bath. I was in my flat, three floors up, so I thought, no need to close the curtains, right? It’s daylight; I’m going to bask in the sun. So, I ran the bath. Two seconds later, there’s a knock on the window. ‘Having a nice bath, love?’ said this bloke on the scaffolding outside the window. I was absolutely mortified. I cried. I ran. It was so bad. And he was there all week. Every morning, he’d come by, knock on the window, and ask, ‘Having a bath today?’ I was like, ‘you really don’t need to remind me’. It was awful, honestly.
“And It gets worse” adds Hutchings “It turned out he was my mate’s Dad!”
“The only way I could process this was to reinvent it as if it had been some weird Shakespearean romantic scenario. “Massey continues.” A ‘What builder lurks at yonder window?’ scenario “So, I turned it into a ridiculous song—” Scaffolding Man”, which was the really inventive name we went with. But we’ve moved on. To curtains. Yeah, I shut the curtains now, but I can’t have a bath.” “She stinks!” laughs Hutchings. “It’s been five years.”
The Pill certainly aren’t set to release a concept double album based on the tyranny of technology or Arthurian legends just yet—they’re here to have a good time and poke fun at the absurdity of modern life.
Another as-yet-unreleased song, “Woman Driver,” continues in the same off-the-wall vein, highlighting their self-deprecating, acerbic wit. “I am actually okay at driving,” says Hutchings, “but when I nearly hit someone’s car I thought, oh, I bet they think I’m just like a ‘ woman driver.’ Which, I mean, I literally am. Yeah. I’m a woman that drives, but… it’s an insult that’s thrown around so frivolously all the time. They don’t realise it’s so literal.” “I mean, why is that an insult?” Massey ponders. “Mind you if I take my car to the garage, I’ll definitely get ripped off by the mechanic because I’ll believe anything they say. I don’t know what a car part is. I’m a girl, and I don’t care about cars. And it’s about owning that. And that’s also okay.”
The funniest thing is, the only actual car accident we’ve been in—we got hit by a lorry, and a man was driving it.” “Yeah, your boyfriend. It was my car, though,” adds Hutchings. “There you go, what a ‘man driver’. We’re just going to go through every form of driver and will write a different song for each scenario. And then you’ll see us doing the theme tune for Top Gear next.”
Obviously, coming from the Isle of Wight and being a female duo, the Wet Leg comparisons are inevitable. Hutchings and Massey take it as a compliment while noting how female artists are often evaluated and pitted against each other.
“I think Wet Leg have been amazing for the island scene, especially in showing that you can do it. They’ve definitely sent people from the industry looking this way,” says Hutchings. “We understand the comparison, and it doesn’t help that we’re blonde and brunette. That just happens to be the case. We started around the same time, and, like, I’m a massive fan of them. I think what they do is super cool. I’d say our music is slightly different, but for women, especially in the music industry, you’re immediately compared to other women.”
“Yeah,” agrees Massey. “I think there are lots of male bands that don’t get judged in the same way. But I think, as a woman, you’re immediately associated with someone who could be a completely different genre. But honestly, being compared to them is a massive compliment because they’re super cool and absolutely smashing it.”
And what about “industry plants”? If any band were willing to write a sarcastic song about that nonsensical conspiracy, surely it’s The Pill.
“Oh, my God,” laughs Hutchings. “We actually have one in our notes. What’s it called, something … Greenhouse?”
“Industrial Greenhouse,” Massey adds. “Basically, yeah. So we were grown there. We were born there.”
The thing that comes across when talking to Hutchings and Massey is their sense of fun and almost telepathic way of finishing each other’s sentences before collapsing into laughter. Their off-the-wall approach has paid off, as evidenced by a record deal with AWAL. “That was insane,” says Hutchings. “We are so happy to be working with them, but we could never have imagined this happening when we set up that Instagram account years ago. We just don’t take anything too seriously, I guess. I don’t think we’ve ever done that in our lives. I mean, obviously, really horrible things are happening in the world at the moment. I mean, take that seriously… Oh my God, yeah. But our music is all just about having fun. I can’t think about sad things too much, because it’s too overwhelming.”
“I can be sad a lot of the time,” adds Massey, “and sometimes it’s good to just be like, here’s a song about being a bad driver. Let’s all laugh and have a nice time. I think that’s also what music can be a lot of the time. It can be a release, an escape, you know? Go to a show, have a really nice time, have a laugh, and then you can be serious tomorrow.”
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