Today’s song is “M180” by Mint. The West Marsh, Grimsby group consists of school friends Zak, Veggie, Lenny and Bambi.
The quartet formed a close bond while locking horns over their different music tastes. Guitarist Lenny drew inspiration from the avant-garde sounds of Nick Cave, The Birthday Party, and The Pop Group, while the other three members leaned towards indie classics and the harder edges of rock. They went on to study at Grimsby Institute and the idea to form a band was soon realized and became serious in 2018.
“M180” is their latest single and is also the title track of their new EP.
The song celebrates the joys and mediocrity of late teen-hood in dead-end Northern England towns. Drawing from their own experiences of late-night teenage parties, driving your first car, and trying to sleep your way through your local town, the track reminisces the fun of doing it all for the first time.
The name of the song comes from an actual road 180 (off the M180) known as the end of the line. It concludes at the barren coastal towns of Lincolnshire. It is actually the noisiest road in the country and is dark and dangerous and littered with abandoned crashed cars, trees strewn with flowers, and pictures of those that never came home. For the locals, it is the road that provides escape and hope.
The idea for the song came while the band was quarantined and they were reminiscing about all the life experiences and milestones people were missing. The band says, “We were talking a lot at the start of the lockdown about what we were missing like festivals, the big hometown gig we had arranged, service stations and new fans and realized that actually there were loads of people missing out on huge life experiences”, says singer Zak. “The ones that come once in a life like Reading festival after exam results, late-night parties in the Grimsby East Marsh Estate and fires on the Cleethorpes beaches in Spring and driving in your first car out of town to parties with your cheap runner full of tanked-up singing mates.”
“M180” is a banging rock track that brings a heavy and hard rock. Paired with infectious vocals it transports you to wild nights of days past hoping there will be fun times in the future ahead.
Listen below and for more information check out their Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter pages.