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“Are we enough?” asks frontman Mathew Cartlidge on the manifesto ‘Today’s Gonna Be Our Day’, the second single released from the London sibling duo’s fizzing debut album ‘Wasted On Youth’. It’s a question that plagues their generation but The Molotovs aren’t here to wallow. There’s a point to prove, a good time to be had and “there’s no waiting for tomorrow”.
The London duo might be in their teens – Mathew is 17 and sister Issey is 19 – but The Molotovs aren’t an industry plant overnight success story. Sure, they’ve shared stages with the likes of Sex Pistols, Blondie and The Libertines – as well as being shouted out by Green Day and their “icon” Paul Weller – but that’s come from whipping up a storm over the course of 600+ gigs.
“You see a lot of bands these days just explode onto the scene,” says Mathew. “You think, ‘Where did you come from?’ There’s a lot of talk now about putting the hard graft in before going into the studio – to build a fanbase and do it the proper way. I’ve got a lot of admiration for that. We know how hard it is to do that.”
The graft started young. Mathew and Issey both got into music in their earliest teens, inspired by their parents’ record collection (The Buzzcocks, The Undertones, The Jam, The Specials, Madness, Elvis Costello, Dexys Midnight Runners, all “quintessentially British acts”) before they started playing together around 2020. Then lockdown hit, and there were no venues open, so they’d busk anywhere and everywhere. “We’ve played every sort of gig situation under the sun,” remembers Mathew. “We’ve done birthdays, we’ve done weddings, we’ve done funerals, street parties. In lockdown, we played a six-year-old’s birthday – we set up on their street so they could watch from their window.”
Issey continues: “We were frantically playing anywhere that would take us. Moving on from busking and pubs, we began to gain attention from our heroes – people like The Libertines, Blondie, Green Day, and The Sex Pistols. They saw in us what they saw in their youth: this DIY attitude to music, in creating gigs where there weren’t any. We shared that punk ethos, and they were quite drawn to it.”
With their sharp look, feral live shows and songs about growing up, standing out and fighting back, there’s something in the chemistry of The Molotovs that sets them apart. “There’s definitely a sibling rivalry and this ping-pong ricochet of energy between us,” admits Issey. “That was there from the start: this need to play live and put this out.”
A yin to a yang, Issey describes brother Matt as “the natural songwriter of the band with a strong sense of lyricism and melody – he’s got this rebellion and disregard for any authority, along with a strong sense of individualism. He stays true.” As for his sister, Matt replies: “A lot of people like Issey. She’s a vibrant figure and just has something that people can latch onto. I can be a difficult person to deal with, and she calms that down.”
“People say that Matt’s always lighting fires, and I put them out,” Issey laughs back, but the truth is their combined chemical compound is something volatile that burns bright, attracting a cross-generational cult of superfans to their live shows. “You get the old geezers who miss that energy, the mod influence, and all that sort of thing from their day,” says Matt. “With the new kids who come on the scene, there’s a big swarm of bands at the moment who just disregard melody and stick on the fuzz pedal, and that’s enough for them. That’s not what we’re about at all. Melody will always sell, and it will always be important to people. Kids just love that, and that energy.”
However, this ain’t no retro outfit. “Matt’s the only mod in The Molotovs,” asserts Issey. “‘Mod’ is short for modernism, and it’s about progression. That’s the spirit of it. That young people are playing music is modern in itself.”
They may draw on influences from across time, but The Molotovs’ music lives very much in the now. Their debut album, Wasted On Youth, out in January 2026, was produced by Jason Perry (Don Broco, Trash Boat) at The Marshall Studio and mixed/mastered by Blair Crichton of Dead Pony. Wasted On Youth is a life-affirming burst of new wave, punk, indie and garage that speaks of ambition to lost youth.
“This album is what we’ve been doing for the past four or five years,” says Matt of the record as a document of their personalities and of the times. His lyrics come from the direct feelings and impulses that arise from situations. For a snapshot, check out the rumbling indie sleaze of ‘Rhythm Of Yourself’. “That’s about my experience in the music industry as a young person – how people want to snap you up, but also change you and do their ideas,” he recalls. “Why would you follow the ideas of a middle-aged man? Why don’t you just let this new and exciting thing be?”
You see the vision when you see The Molotovs’ fans changing as they return to their gigs – finding their fashion, their voice, their identity, their tribe. “It’s individualism and doing things for yourself,” says Matt, “being single-minded and not letting people get in the way of you.”
Are they “destined for greatness from the get-go” as Matt spits on the fiery garage rocker ‘Come On Now’? That’s not the end game. He’s more set on “exploring and growing this sound, being more open-minded and rounded as a musician and a thinker”. That, and living in the now, reflecting the times, and not taking any crap.
As they preach on ‘Today’s Gonna Be Our Day’: “Keep on fighting, keep on marching, keep sticking it to you – because what happens when you’re 42?”
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