Meet The Molotovs: The London punks going off with a bang

Issey Cartlidge has just sauntered into the room in a Union Jack dress and bright red knee-high boots. After all, if you’re playing London’s Electric Ballroom to a shade over 1,000 people before even putting out your debut album, you might as well dress for the occasion.

Her brother Mathew got the brief, too, flanking her in a burgundy suit. A girl named Celine in Paris made Issey’s dress, but as for Matt?

“My clothes are mostly from Vinted!” he laughs.

They may have a taste for sharp, colourful threads, but The Molotovs are absolutely not ones for style over substance. With identical musical DNA from growing up together, raised on everything from The Jam to The Kinks with a splash of ’00s indie greats like The Libertines and Arctic Monkeys thrown in for good measure, they sound like a time capsule opening to an age of unadulterated old-time rock’n’roll.

“That older music was ingrained to our memories, because that was what was played in the car since we were kids,” says Matt. “That’s how we gained the love for that sort of music, all those bands from the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s, and then explored it properly on our own.”

After starting the band together in lockdown, when there was nobody to jam with but each other, they took to the streets and racked up live experience through busking. To this date, though they’re only 17 and 19 respectively, they’re in touching distance of their 600th gig. They’ve played with Sex Pistols, have just finished a run with Vegas dandies Palaye Royale, and next year they’ll grace arenas for the first time with YUNGBLUD on the UK leg of his massive Idols world tour.

“You play to loads of people that you wouldn’t have picked up otherwise, because you can’t expect loads of people to buy tickets when they’ve never heard you before,” says Matt, perched on a leather sofa with his sister. “But as soon as we started getting into venues, we realised that all these people we played to while busking started coming. I think people like the humility of starting out busking, because you’re playing to everyone, and there’s nothing exclusive about it.”

Busking also helped the pair skirt around the problem of venues’ age restrictions.

“That’s partly the reason we’re always dressed up, because people just assume we’re older,” remarks Issey. “No-one expects a 13-year-old in a full suit!”

As The Molotovs brought their gigs indoors, they unlocked an opportunity, not to be constrained by age restrictions but to dart around them. They played benefit shows at cheap prices in unconventional locations, even Wimbledon Library. Ever since, they aspired not just to be the soundtrack to their generation’s adolescence, but to be their fans’ gateway to live music.

“There’s not enough third spaces,” Issey continues. “There’s not enough youth centres, not enough community centres. A lot of kids reject secondary education. They don’t find their place there. There aren’t enough places for young people to connect.

“What we wanted to do with our gigs was to have that space where it’s accessible, it’s affordable and it can be all ages.”

The Molotovs have already started a fire. Now watch as it gets bigger and hotter, and everyone starts to feel it.

Wasted On Youth is released on January 30, 2026 via Marshall. This interview originally appeared in the winter 2025 issue of Kerrang!.

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