The Obelisk Questionnaire is a series of open questions intended to give the answerer an opportunity to explore these ideas and stories from their life as deeply as they choose. Answers can be short or long, and that reveals something in itself, but the most important factor is honesty.

Based on the Proust Questionnaire, the goal over time is to show a diverse range of perspectives as those who take part bring their own points of view to answering the same questions. To see all The Obelisk Questionnaire posts, click here.

Thank you for reading and thanks to all who participate.

The Obelisk Questionnaire: Jennifer Israelsson of Hot Breath

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How do you define what you do and how did you come to do it?

Composing feelings and thoughts, that’s probably how I define what I do. I discovered early on that it was a way for me to get out of all the hard and sometimes difficult feelings and thoughts and leave them there, in the song. Just like therapy with a melody that I can (and want to) share.

Describe your first musical memory.

It’s hard to remember a first memory of something I always somehow lived in.

But one of many strong memories is probably still when me and dad sat in the car a few days a week, on our way to figure skating training (yes this was a long time ago) and listened to the Kiss Destroyer album. Just as much goosebumps every time the intro to “Detroit Rock City” kicked off.

Describe your best musical memory to date.

In today’s situation, it really feels like a luxury problem to be able to barely choose your favorite memory of something you have seen or experienced. But one of my absolute strongest memories is probably when Honeymoon Disease played at Speedfest, in Eindhoven, 2015. It felt so unreal to stand on that big stage and play our own songs for so many people. I can still remember that surreal, but amazing, feeling.

When was a time when a firmly held belief was tested?

(Do not know if I understand the question right now, but will try to answer anyway.)

In Hot Breath, we try to challenge ourselves (both in genre and in mind) all the time in our songwriting. One of us may come up with an idea that from the beginning does not feel quite right for all of us, but we test it anyway, and I would still say that in nine cases out of 10 that idea develops into a song or a riff that we can use later on.

Where do you feel artistic progression leads?

Artistic development means everything. I mean, development in any area is important, but of course you always strive to be able to develop more all the time in the form you are passionate about.

How do you define success?

I think success is when you feel happy.

What is something you have seen that you wish you hadn’t?

Interesting question, haha. Can’t think of anything actually, so I probably suppressed it pretty well.

Describe something you haven’t created yet that you’d like to create.

I’d like to create the world’s best ’70s-inspired disco band.

What do you believe is the most essential function of art?

To be able to express oneself in something completely different than in speech. We have so many other senses that we do not think we can use, but once we do, the expression becomes so much stronger and, in my opinion, much more honest.

Something non-musical that you’re looking forward to?

I wish I could be free from work and be able to enjoy a hot, nice summer with my friends.

(A very telling answer for how everything is right now. Just two years ago I would probably have laughed at this answer and I hope for everything in the world that I can laugh at it very soon again.)

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Hot Breath, “What You’re Looking for, I Have Already Found” lyric video

Swedish classic heavy rockers Hot Breath will release their debut LP, Rubbery Lips, on April 9 through The Sign Records. The long-player — and no mistake, it is a long-player in the classic model thereof — follows their 2019 self-titled debut EP (review here), which The Sign also released, and it presents 10 tracks in an air-tight ’70s-inspired groove-led form. From the outset “Right Time,” four-piece fronted by guitarist Jennifer Israelsson with Karl Edfeldt also on guitar, Anton Frick Kallmin on bass and Jimmy Karlsson on drums make a vital argument for themselves, taking unabashedly poppy hooks and transposing them on songs like “Magnetic” and the careen-chugging “Last Barang,” speedier in that highway-at-night fashion but still willfully catchy.

And that argument leaves little room for disagreement. Because they’re a band with some measure of pedigree — members having served the cause in outfits like Honeymoon Disease, Hypnos and Mamont over the last decade — it’s not necessarily a surprise their first album should find them in such a having-their-shit-together state, but in accord with their will and ability to bring their aesthetic to life, they also answer back that the songwriting prowess demonstrated on their EP was no fluke.

“What You’re Looking For, I Have Already Found” is the penultimate track on side A, and that puts it in a transitional role ahead of “Who’s the One,” which rounds out the first half of the record and is the only song to top five (or four, for that matter) minutes long. It is a pop-heavy rock epic in pre-’80s fashion, kind of a piece out of time but grown out of the same impulse toward retro-ism that drives the surrounding boogie. As the riff and soon-joining bassline of “What You’re Looking For, I Have Already Found” make plain, one way or the other, Hot Breath have no time to waste; their 34-minute total runtime on Rubbery Lips is further testament.

Suitably, side B of the record gets down to the business of having a good time in clear, concise and effective fashion, launching with “Adapted Mind” and boasting cassingle-ready proto-metal in “Turn Your Back” with a ready B-side in the subsequent “One Hit (To the Body)” and as the four-piece continue the thread of no-nonsense fun. They’ve already done a video for closer “Bad Feeling,” and fair enough, but “What to Do,” which appears just before, is no less striking in its catchiness, and one can say the same of any number of the cuts here. In a time without touring, Hot Breath have no shortage of tracks worth highlighting throughout.

And yet, Rubbery Lips — for being a collection of individual songs — isn’t without an overarching flow, as shown when “What to Do” gives over to “Bad Feeling” and of course elsewhere too. That may seem incongruous, but it’s not when you actually listen. Likewise, I’ll argue that despite their affinity for late-’70s/early-’80s rock and roll, Hot Breath are nothing if not modern in their accessibility, born as that is through the unflinching sense of structure that fuses the songs.

I would have no trouble believing Hot Breath have a marker-board in their rehearsal space where they plot out verses and choruses, since the resultant material throughout Rubbery Lips comes across as so worked on and thought through. And that is a modern ideal, since on the whole, the album is still short enough to play in its entirety even to the most fleeting of 2020s-era attention spans. Want a single? Here are 10 of them. Take your pick.

It’s February, so I’ll spare you speculation about where Rubbery Lips will sit among the year’s best debuts, but in its composition and execution, Hot Breath give life to the kind of party one doesn’t want to miss, and of course, which one misses greatly.

Lyric video for “What You’re Looking For, I Have Already Found” premieres below, followed by more from the PR wire.

Please enjoy:

Hot Breath, “What You’re Looking for, I Have Already Found” lyric video premiere

“What You’re Looking for, I’ve Already Found” is the third single from Hot Breath’s debut album “Rubbery Lips”, released on The Sign Records April 9, 2021.

Lyric video by Oscar Hansen (Urbanslug).

Hot Breath is back and will release their debut studio album “Rubbery Lips” during the spring of 2021. With a foundation built on dirty riffing, memorable hooks, and a nononsense attitude, the new album contains 10 tracks of energetic and catchy garage rock ’n’ roll. With their minds firmly set on releasing nothing but killers, Hot Breath has pushed themselves into perfecting the sound that they presented on their 2019 self-titled EP. The result is a straight-shooting album, guaranteed to twist your hips.

“Rubbery Lips” is recorded and mixed by Mattias Nyberg (The Soundtrack Of Our Lives, The Datsuns). The cover artwork is made by Anders Muammar. The album will be released on The Sign Records on April 9, 2021, on digital, vinyl, and CD format.

Hot Breath are:
Jennifer Israelsson – Vocals and Guitar
Anton Frick Kallmin – Bass
Jimmy Karlsson – Drums
Karl Edfeldt – Guitar

Hot Breath, “Bad Feeling” official video

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