Words by Liam Stretch and Java Katzur.

The Juicy Hot Donnas is a four-person band hailing from the dirty south, Dunedin. Comprising Jacob King on rhythm guitar and vocals, Mitchell Sizemore as lead guitarist, Gene Mace on bass, and George McLauchlan on the drums – they're rather handsome too.

There seems to be myth and lore around the origin of bands; for Hot Donnas, there's an epic tale of two mates, George and Mitch, who met way back when they were 12-year-olds running amuck and jamming. A few years later, in 2016, Mitch met Gene during their first year of study at the University of Otago – they both took music classes. In second year, Jacob linked up with George via a mutual friend.

But it wasn't until George's old man asked his son to round up a group of boys to play at a good ol' mate's 50th up in Wanaka that things began to tick. So, as I alluded to before – they did have an epic beginning, and I'm assuming through playing to a bunch of boomers, surrounded by (hopefully) Speights, ham-on-the-bone and white bread buns, the spark ignited the fire that got the Hot Donnas turning.

"We really enjoyed jamming with each other and from then on decided to give the Dunedin music scene a red-hot crack and start compiling some original songs," says George.

We all know the many bands that have come from the Dirty D (Dunedin) like the Shambles and Gromz who gained massive popularity around 2016. This legacy of talented musicians helped to pave the way for Hot Donnas. And, I must say, anyone who can survive a minimum of three years at Otago without succumbing to hypothermia or cirrhosis of the liver deserves our collective praise.

Further musical marvels hailing from Brendon McCullum's hometown include Soaked Oats, Marlin's Dreaming, and Jack Berry. This lot has now been nationally and even internationally recognised. Donnas' first album 'Greek Yogurt' definitely had some essence of that indie-pop sound that is synonymous with Dunedin bands. Hot Donnas are keen to create their own, unique musical style and experience. "As we've progressed as a band, we've taken a new direction with our style, turning to heavier riffs and louder drums, however, we still try and maintain melody for people to enjoy. Full credit to the indie bands out there, but we all feel our new rockier style is a perfect fit for us and we love playing it," George says.

For Hot Donnas, the writing process is less formal; it's all about jamming together and having fun. "We usually just improvise jams and when someone hears something that they like they ask, ‘bro can you play that again’," George says.

For Gene, this approach to writing is his favourite within their musical process. "Coming up with new songs is very exciting and refreshing for us; usually after a lot of gigs of playing the same songs, when we come up with new content it always swerves us into a different direction – opening up a new chapter of where we can take our music," he says.

For the boys, some songs automatically glue together, and it becomes about fine-tuning them, while others lay around for a while. These take the form of lots of half-finished ideas waiting to come together. For Hot Donnas, this time in the studio is precious; creating music is their passion, and they aren't fucking around. "Once our songs are finished, we are eager to get them out into the public, and our aspirations are high for the next stages of the journey – recording and gigging," Gene says.

We're all about playing live shows filled with heaps of energy and getting people sweaty – we're definitely a live band. We expect people turning up aren't there to play tiddlywinks, but to dive deep in the mosh and get wild – beers are bloody good for it," George says. Anytime they get the opportunity to sip on a beverage and play some music, they will be all over it. Creating music is followed closely with jamming it out onstage.

"After playing together for a few years now, some parts leading up to the jam become a little more draining than others, but we get the chance to sweat it all out on stage – so you won't find us complaining!” Jacob says.

Having toured all over New Zealand, the boys also made their way over to Aussie, and they got a taste of what touring across the ditch has to offer. "Touring Aussie was unreal! We certainly were little fish chucked into a big pond, but we couldn't get enough of it!" Mitch says. They spent just over two weeks in Aussie touring with Aussie band The Darrans and hit the main centres. The capital of Queensland was one that stuck out from the rest.

"We had a surprisingly good turnout at most shows with Brisbane being the best. We may or may not be heading over there again soon," Mitch says. Put four 22-year-olds in a room, no doubt something foolish is going to happen. And these boys have some killer stories from touring, not all of them, of course, suitable for just anyone to hear. But of course, there are always some that slip through the cracks.

"One of the funniest things that happened on our Australian tour was when we had time to kill in Brisbane, so George and Gene decided to buy a bottle of bourbon. One thing led to another, and the bottle was gone. The boys went outside the hotel for an electronic cigarette, Gene lost his marbles and brought up his tomato sandwich lunch (which was visible) right in the middle of a Brisbane city footpath (at 5:00pm) – it was an embarrassing clean up for the guy," says Mitch.

These four boys are stoked with the music they have created; their passion shines through whilst bringing us some absolute bangers. Of course, they have been brewing away and later this year they will release a new single and a music video to go with it. Any spoilers? We wish we were so lucky. We'll just have to wait like everyone else, but they did reveal that they’ve locked down their sound now, after years of developing as a band.

"We've chucked in heaps more time and energy into our new shit; we believe it is our best work to date in all aspects by a long shot," says George.

For Hot Donnas, no dream is too big. "We'd all love to be doing this full time; I don't know anyone who wouldn't! We've all got the drive and passion to keep pushing ourselves to try to make it to the next level. There's nothing more we love doing than getting up on stage and doing our thing – we’re just going to strap ourselves in and make some noise," says George.

Succulent Sounds by The Juicy Hot Donnas