Now Hear This: Hot Milk's Jim Shaw on the best new rock, emo-pop and arty-punk

I've always been on the lookout for new songs and new artists. I'm forever going down the list on New Music Friday, I'm all over it. I'm just a big music lover and I love to discover new sounds and ideas. I've got such a broad taste in music that I don't tend to look in genre-specific worlds, so I get things thrown up from all ends of the musical spectrum. There's nothing really linking these artists I've picked, apart from the fact that they're all making music I think deserves to be heard by a lot more people…

I discovered this band about three months ago and absolutely fell in love with them. It just makes me want to put on a big, baggy jumper and smash the shit out of a TV! Every single song they've brought out is so good, and it gives me that good grungy, Britpop feeling, kind of throwback but with a bit of a modern-day spin. The production is super lo-fi and it really suits the aesthetics that they're going for. The overall saturated sonics combined with raucous guitars reminds me of the Pixies or noisy Blur – that kind of vibe.

I actually found this via Philip [Strand] from Normandie’s Instagram. It's proper dark, synthy gothic pop and I think he's co-written and produced it. It's really cool, I think she only has one song out for now called Into The Dark and it feels like some sort of underworld-induced dream state. It cultivates an air of tension through floaty vocals and ambient production but it also delivers shitloads of power through the chorus with soaring vocals and a proper dirty middle 8. I don't know if it's just me but I feel it could really be a Bond song. It's like Billie Eilish had a baby with the gothic side of Halsey!

I first heard their song Halloween and it really grabbed me because I used to listen to bands like Closure In Moscow, Dance Gavin Dance and I The Mighty, and they all had that theatrical feel in the notation and the sonics. When I heard this band it was like a proper throwback to my early teens and I thought, 'I've not heard anything like this in ages.' So I did a bit of digging and listened to more songs and, yeah, this is a bit of me! The singer, Ffin Colley, his voice is ridiculous. Some of the notes he can get to… his pipes are insane. We managed to play a few shows with them on our headliners this year and they're a lovely bunch of guys as well.

I don't actually know too much about her but she has a song called Death Wish and that's been on repeat for a while. I think she's from Toronto and it's the kinda emo sad pop that I'm an absolute sucker for! She also brought out an EP called overkill and I've been blasting that for a couple of weeks as well. It's pretty sick, it reminds me a little bit of Chelsea Cutler with more of a pop-punk vibe and I'm dead into that.

I've got a lot of admiration for this band. I actually met Zak [Pinchin] a little while ago because he shot our video for Split Personality. I started listening to Modern Error and watching their videos off the back of that and I just love the way he's really taking control of their whole sonic world to create something really interesting. Their recent song Truest Blue has Nine Inch Nails vibes, that ’90s industrial vibes but with a clean, current feel as well. The videos are really well shot and super-arty and I think it's a really complete and well put together package. It just looks and sounds great.

Watch Hot Milk kick off the new season of The K! Pit with Dead Man's Fingers Rum: