Hollow Hand, the project of Brighton’s Max Kinghorn-Mills, steps out of the bedroom on Wish Road South, recorded live as a trio after touring with MJ Lenderman and Caitlin Rose. The album comes out on the 4th of September through those purveyors of excellent taste, Loose Music /Soundly. And then there is the matter of the single which is out now: I Turned My Back On The World, which could be described as a homesick reverie through childhood and the Cornish sea, it’s Loaded-era Velvets and Modern Lovers looseness pulled quiet, all through a Brit-folk filter, but don’t let us tell you, judge for yourself from the self directed video at the bottom of this article. The album is available to pre-order here.
“When I sing this song, I think of the sea, my parents, my brother & sister,” Kinghorn-Mills explains. “Cornwall, our orange VW camper van, reading fantasy books & comics with my brother in camp sites. Bodyboarding in the sea, the salt, the air, the sun going down gently on a Cornish street. If I think about it too hard, it seems to make me sad, so instead I let just a little of that into my life when I need it most.”
Since releasing 2023’s Your Own Adventure, Kinghorn-Mills found himself collaborating with Caitlin Rose, Aoife Nessa Frances and supporting MJ Lenderman on a European tour. When Kinghorn-Mills came back, he was seemingly inspired and bursting with a newfound creative zeal. “Seeing all these different types of bands play, it just made me reflect,” he says. “It makes you step up your game, and it creates a feeling that you want to do better. I don’t want to ever feel like I’m going through the motions, so I decided to start again.”
Hollow Hand has always been a vehicle for Kinghorn-Mills’ songs, and it remains so, but having felt the spark and connectivity of being around more bands, he decided to change tack. “The way I’ve made albums previously has usually been huddled away in the tradition of a bedroom producer, but with this one I expanded my horizons, and it made me realise there’s so much more to playing, and being in a band, than just recording the songs.”
Along with Oliver Newton (drums) and Leo Clarke (bass), they got together in their new studio space in Brighton and tracked the songs live as a band. “With three of us being involved from the beginning, and all invested in it together, it feels like a group effort, which is a new thing for us,” Kinghorn-Mills says. “Our studio became really important as a creative space and, while it’s not Abbey Road, we were really able to up the production value.”
Max Kinghorn-Mills will be talking to Keith Hargreaves on the Americana UK Podcast in the next few weeks. We’ll let you know when the time comes, but in the meantime catch him on tour in the autumn – tickets are available here.
Hollow Hand UK Dates 2026:
Sep 12 London, UK – Rough Trade Denmark Street
Sep 15-19 Nashville, TN – Americanafest
Oct 13 Leeds, UK – Hyde Park Book Club
Oct 14 Sheffield, UK – Delicious Clam
Oct 15 Manchester, UK – YES
Oct 16 Glasgow, UK – The Old Hairdresser’s
Oct 17 North Shields, UK – Three Tanners Bank
Oct 20 London, UK – The Lexington
Oct 21 Bristol, UK – The Louisiana
Oct 22 Newport, UK – Le Pub
Oct 23 St Davids, UK – St Davids City Council Hall
Oct 27 Southampton, UK – Heartbreakers
Oct 28 Margate, UK – Where Else?
Oct 29 Ipswich, UK – The Smokehouse
Oct 30 Brighton, UK – A L P H
