It’s a scorching Friday afternoon in the Rutland Arms beer garden and despite the oppressive heat, Sean Hession and Liam Francis Hunter are on good form, nattering away with Exposed about crumbling seaside towns, existential dread and how their friendship turned into a fruitful music collaboration…
Sean, who you might recognise as the lead singer of Drastic//Automatic, and Liam, AKA beatmaker-rapper Muccarelli and member of hardcore band POWERDRILL, have just wrapped up work on their first joint EP, Sanitise Your Soul – a four-track mix of gritty rap beats and reflective lyricism imbued with a distinctly DIY punk spirit.
“We’ve been working in kind of unison for a few years now,” says Sean. “But I still don’t recall how we actually met. I was in a new house-share at the time, and one of the lads knew Liam from work.”
Liam picks up the thread. “I was playing in a band back then with the same drummer who’s now with Sean in Drastic, and we just clicked over punk and rap and that sort of thing.”
Their shared taste in music, hours spent freestyling together during lockdown and an inclination to broaden their horizons creatively became the foundation for their partnership. Fast forward to late 2023, and what began as hazy late-night experimentation had crystallised into proper studio sessions. “I was going through a bit of an existential crisis, to be honest, and had reams of writing to use,” says Sean.
“Liam had a studio over on Savile Street – really DIY: just one comfy chair, a toilet, burning plastic fumes from the skip outside, real Trainspotting toilet vibes. Then just us two inside going for it.”
Their first track, ‘Crystal Chalice’, emerged from those sessions – Liam’s atmospheric, crunching beats from the Memphis school of rap providing an outlet for the unused lyrics Sean had tucked away.
Switching between verses, their differently accented voices collide and complement each other, creating something both distinct and rhythmically infectious.
“I’ve always believed with creativity, when it works, you run with it immediately,” says Sean. “Our voices just gelled, even though I had to find my feet going from screaming in punk bands to actually spitting bars.”
Liam agrees. “It might seem like a proper learning curve, going from shouting to spitting. But that crossover between punk and rap’s always been there. Both come from the same place – disenfranchised people making music to reflect their reality.”
Sanitise Your Soul is the result of that shared outlook – four tracks that delve into self-doubt, nostalgia and navigating adulthood’s contradictions. The EP’s title alone nods to the disillusionment that lingered after the pandemic, when isolation and introspection became unavoidable.
“There’s a level of morbidity in it,” Liam explains, “but not in a ‘we’re miserable’ way – more observing how people hit walls repeatedly without realising why.”
A sense of existential weight runs throughout the record, explored through introspective writing and hard-hitting imagery. Often underpinning the metaphor and symbolism, there is a palpable longing for a time when life felt a little less hazardous.
“Our voices just gelled, even though I had to find my feet going from screaming in punk bands to actually spitting bars.”
That faded nostalgia forms the backdrop for their first video, ‘Spain’, filmed in Cleethorpes by local videographer JamBurrito. It’s an effective pairing – deep, syrupy beats accompanying shots of rain-washed piers, empty arcades and rusting fairground rides.
“British seaside towns have this dystopian dream energy,” Sean explains. “Failed perspectives, failed promises. Nostalgia’s constant in my lyrics, and that sort of place sums it up.”
Liam adds: “We’re two grown men still trying to enjoy the things we loved as kids, but it’s not the same. The world’s moved on, but those places haven’t.”
“We didn’t plan to make a conceptual record,” says Liam. “It just naturally came together reflecting what we were dealing with – self-sabotage, the confusion of your late 20s, that pursuit of fleeting pleasure that can mess people up.”
Despite dealing with heavy themes, both are quick to stress that their live sets are about community and big energy. An upcoming Tramlines Fringe performance at the Harlequin, supported by sharp-tongued MC Katz With A K (whose album The Fixer Liam produced and engineered in its entirety) promises exactly that.
“It’s house party energy,” Liam says. “Everyone included, everyone welcome. We just want people bouncing.”
Sean nods. “It’s punk, rap, metal – all in the same place. If you want to see what that sounds like mashed together properly, come down.”
With Tramlines Fringe, Sanitise Your Soul and more recordings in the pipeline, the duo admit that they’re still figuring things out, but they’re doing it on their own terms.
“I had ten years’ worth of lyrics sat on phones and scraps of paper,” says Sean. “This project gave them life. It’s about finding meaning from the mess.”
“Exactly,” Liam agrees. “It’s a bit like working with clay. It doesn’t look like a vase when it’s just a big fucking clump, but keep refining it and it’ll start to take shape.”
Sanitise Your Soul drops 22 July. Catch Muccarelli, Drastic//Automatic, Mother’s Day and Katz With A K at Hosted by Earwig Presents at the Harlequin on 25 July. Doors 7pm, free entry.
