Track By Tracks: Hot Apollo - Against The Odds Because We´re Gods (2025)

1. We're Hot Apollo:

The feel for this was our superhero cartoon theme song. I actually would like Hot Apollo to go multimedia at some point, and now we've got the theme song ready for when that happens.

2. So Toned Up:

This song was inspired by a conversation I had with a friend about a party I'd just been to, where I was standing outside, talking to some people I'd just met, wearing nothing but a sparkly scale mail harness. And this person I'm talking to asks me, "Is that your real chest?" That seemed like an odd question to me, so I asked my friend her opinion, and she said verbatim, "It's cause you're so toned up".

3. Priorities:

When I was about 15, I learned about this punk subgenre from 80s England called Oi Punk. The upbeat, irreverent energy of it instantly resonated with me, and since our drummer had a habit of doing bits in a Cockney accent during practices, I thought it just made sense for us to write an Oi Punk song. I had a lot of fun singing the whole song in that voice, too. Really got good use out of my British citizenship on that one.

4. Slayance:

Two words: Goth disco. I don't know if it's ever been done before, but we wanted to do it. It felt fitting to mix two of the 20th century's most surreptitiously subversive genres into one unusual and strangely beautiful song.

5. Baby, I'm the Beltane:

This was probably one of the first 20 Hot Apollo songs ever written, and it's just now making it onto an album. It's an ode to the vibes of spring, of rebirth and renewal, and bright, blooming energy.

6. Gjallarbru:

We decided it'd be fun to make a full-on metal song. This one was my take on one of the most metal moments in all of Marvel comics, when Skurge the Executioner, in a final act of redemption, stood on the bridge crossing the river of the dead in the Norse underworld to hold back the undead legions under the thrall of Hela, the death goddess. This is a tune to rock the mead halls of Valhalla..

7. Words:

This is one of my favorite cute romantic songs, and it's got a touch of dancey undertone. There's a bit of old school 90s alternative pop rock in it, I think, thanks to our erstwhile guitarist, March. This album's kind of dedicated to March, as they had to leave the band before its release and move across the country with their partner.

8. Stop Drop (Rock and Roll):

Our bassist and drummer were fooling around, riffing with each other, and the drummer started making like frog sounds to the rhythm. "Brahhp. Brahhp. BRAAHHHHp, buh-brahp".

9. Never Stay Down:

Exactly what it says on the tin, innit. Life's a hard road, and if you want to take it as high into the sky as we do, you've got to keep getting back up when it knocks you