What is your full name?
Millie Millburn - singer/keys, Zac Kavanagh - drums, Dave Kavanagh - bass.
Do you have any aliases?
Miller Killer and Zac-Attack.
If you had an alias what might it be?
Dave - I used to play in a band where everybody had aliases….except me. I still don’t want one thanks.
What bands are you actively involved with?
Zac - I am in a band at school with a friend I have known since nursery school (kindergarten) and I also play in a steel pans band.
Millie - I have just started at the same high school as Zac and have just joined another band in the rock school club. I have also started doing solo stuff on GarageBand on my iPad.
Dave - Just Haq at the moment for me.
What was the first instrument that you played?
Millie - Acoustic guitar.
Zac - Drums, I got my first kit on my 6th birthday.
Dave - recorder, as is the case for most of my generation who went to school in the 1970/80s.
Tell me about one of your first musical memories?
Zac - Singing along to the Fireman Sam theme tune.
Millie - trying to fit the words of my nursery rhymes to the tune of Sabbath’s Iron Man about age 3 or 4.
Dave - Around the age of four, I was on a family holiday in Morcambe in the north west of England and we were due to go and watch the Wombles (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIxkqoNi8I4). It was bucketing it down with rain, so we all got drenched on the way to the venue only to find out that the gig had been cancelled. I didn’t actually see any music but the memory is still quite vivid and extremely painful.
What was the name of the first band you were in?
Millie - Haq123
Zac - Haq123
Dave - Plastic D.A.
Tell me about the genesis of Haq123.
Millie - I had been asking Zac and Dave for a while if we could all have a jam sometime in their music room, so one day we were all there and had a bit of free time, we did just that. It was early in 2017.
Dave - As we were going back downstairs after an hour or so of making a racket, Millie asked if maybe we could form a band. I told her that we already were a band and that we would soon be recording and playing gigs. Our first gig was four months later and our first album was released a couple of months after that.
What inspired the name Haq123?
The debate has been raging on this one for about the past three years or so…..
Dave’s version - Just before we went for our first ever jam at our house, the kids were wrestling upstairs and I overheard them counting down Haq..1..2..3 before each bout.
Millie and Zac’s version.. Dave is fake news! We were bottle flipping and before each flip we counted 1 2 3...and we were singing Minecraft parodies which had the word hacker in a lot so that's when we came up with the name Haq123.
How long did it take you to write and record 4?
Millie - about an hour to get my vocals down. We added my keyboards right at the end. That didn’t take long either.
Zac - I did my drums in a couple of hours one morning.
Dave - Not long - we don’t mess about. This one was written straight after our last album was released in April of this year. Recording is generally pretty quick too. Zac and Millie usually nail everything first take, which is a good thing as Zac can’t stand having to do things more than once. At the minute the mixing takes a lot longer as I am still learning about all that stuff. The last three albums have all been mixed on my laptop and the sound has definitely improved each time.
If you could insert yourself into any one band what band would it be and why?
Zac - Sabbath.
Millie - I would like to be baby Eddie in Iron Maiden.
Dave - 1969 era Black Sabbath. I’d like to be involved with the birth of heavy metal.
Have you ever heard a song and immediately wished you had written it? If so… What was the song and artist?
Millie - Invisible by N.C.S. It’s a trap song.
Zac - This is That - JB Scofield.
Dave - Josh!e Cotton - Do You Want It.
Do you have any non-metal musical inspirations?
Millie - I am into Trap music and some types of pop. Also Stormzy, Big Lad, Young Knives and also Anna from Dorcha has been a help and inspiration to me in my music writing.
Zac - Everything...I don’t really listen to metal much.
Non-metal song that you'd like to do a cover of.
Millie - Nah.
Zac - No.
Dave - Nothing for me thanks either. I’m not into covers at all and I hate that phrase “ooh, they’ve really made it their own”. I’d much rather do something original. Actually, ignore that - I’d like to cover “Do You Want It” by Josh!e Cotton.
What band have you played with that has really impressed you with their live show?
Millie - Big Lad, because Wayne is really good on electronics and Henry is an amazing drummer!
Zac - Big Lad, same reasons as Millie.
Dave - A band called Michael from London. Big meaty riffs, every member a great character and all the best rock star moves. As you can imagine, with the band name Michael, they are quite hard to track down so here you go:
https://michaelwebsite.bandcamp.com/releases
Do you have a favorite venue to play at?
Tied between two, both local.
Muthers Studio where we played our first ever gig and many times since. Also, Centrala which is a cool gallery space that does all sorts of stuff like art exhibitions, talks and events, music from around the world and the occasional noise gig. We have a gig planned to play there on 21st Nov, pandemic permitting.
Do you have a pre-show ritual?
Nah.
What’s the weirdest experience you’ve had at a show?
Zac - Stagediving at Supernormal festival and being carried around for ages by the crowd.
Millie - When we played Supernormal we had a green dancing alien and a huge Grim Reaper who nearly took a few heads off with his scythe.
Dave - Mild terror, turning into total joy. One time we decided to do a one song gig - a stretched out version of Mind Control from our second album. We hadn’t really rehearsed it in full and just had a set of fairly loose instructions to work to which everyone said they were ok with…...until half an hour before the show, when both Zac and Millie were telling me that they were unsure of this that and the other and maybe we should just do a normal gig with the usual songs. We persevered however, the show went really well - the audience was fairly spellbound and it ended up being possibly the best gigging experience I have ever had in thirty odd years of playing live.
The year is 2003. Where are you at and what are you listening to?
Millie - I did not exist.
Zac - Same.
Dave - Lots and lots of 1970s roots reggae music, much of it on a local Birmingham radio station. Favourite show was the sadly now defunct Rice and Peas Show with Yellow Pages and Daddy Studio One.
(Interviewers note… I forgot to go back and edit this question after Dave told me that Millie & Zac would be answering too. DOH!)
What advice would you give young musicians that are just starting out in the music business?
Zac - Practice makes perfect.
Millie - Be brave and go for it!
Dave - Have fun - there is no point in doing it otherwise.
What is an absolute band killer?
Millie - All the band being killed. And boredom.
Zac - Millie.
Dave - Zac.
What’s the longest time you’ve gone without bathing?
Zac - Probably about 5 days.
Millie - 4 days
Dave - Ages. When I was at Polytechnic (college/university), I was pretty rank and could go a long time between washes. Students used to house share and no one I ever lived with was a big fan of housework. As a result we lived in pretty squalid conditions and the bathroom wasn’t a particularly good place to actually get clean in anyway.
(Interviewers note… Jesus! Dave….)
You are writing a book about your life thus far. What is the title of that book?
Zac - Fire Pig
Millie - Earth Ox
Dave - Metal Dog
What is your favorite song by The Cure ?
Zac - Don’t know what you’re on about mate.
Millie - Who's that?
Dave - not a massive fan but probably that one about the spiderman.
Conan or UFOMAMMUT (if you had to pick one)?
Millie - Don't know either but UFOMAMMUT has a weird name so it wins.
Zac - Same ‘cos Conan sounds boring.
Dave - bit of a tricky one for me - I ended up joining a band called Evil Blizzard after I filled in for a friend who couldn’t make the gig when they supported UFOMAMMUT. After that gig I was with them for about 8 years or so.
When Jon from Conan first started with his valve amp obsession a decade or so ago, I sold him an old 1970s Orange slave amp - wonder if he still has it? Also, a few months after the UFOMAMMUT gig, Blizzard supported Conan in Birmingham.
I’ll go with my countryman and pick Conan.
Favorite band t-shirt you own?
Zac - Haq123 - Rats T-shirt.
Millie - Young Knives.
Dave - a Dokken T-shirt from the first gig I ever went to in about 1985 - still fits me! Not really a massive fan of the band but the design is cool - Tooth and Nail album cover.
Favorite meal?
Millie - Pie and Chips or Beef Massaman Thai curry, finished off with cheesecake or cookie dough.
Zac - Sunday roast - but only one that is cooked and eaten on a Monday.
Dave - Either Jamaican curry chicken or veggie chilli that my wife/Zac’s mum makes.
Favorite book?
Zac - The Phantom Tollbooth.
Millie - I like the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series and Skullduggery.
Dave - One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, very bleak reading.
Favorite movie?
Millie - Ready Player One and Back to the Future.
Zac - Fight Club.
Dave - Always changes but at the minute I’ll say Full Metal Jacket. I have stolen the logo font for all the typography on our latest album.
Favorite album?
Zac - I don’t have any albums, I just mainly listen to stuff on Youtube.
Millie - No Tourists by The Prodigy.
Dave - Albert Ayler - Spiritual Unity.
I got several good laughs out of this interview. Thanks mucho to Dave, Zac & Millie for taking the time to answer my questions. I appreciate it. I encourage everyone to click on over and listen to Haq123 immediately if not sooner. They are cranking out some of the finest experimentally mad sounds around and I’m immediately inspired and energized whenever I listen to them. Additionally, their latest album “4” will be dropping on October 30th.
~El Pedo Caliente (aka Uncle Jameson from the Fistful of DOOM show)
https://haq123.bandcamp.com/album/evil-spirits-who-prowl-about-the-world-seeking-the-ruin-of-souls
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