Brodie Milner confronts faith, fanaticism and modern chaos on ‘A Hateful Song’

Brodie Milner isn’t afraid to go dark — he just refuses to stay there. On new single A Hateful Song, the Hull-based songwriter dives headfirst into the psychology of extremism, crafting a fictional character who twists faith into something far more dangerous. It’s one of the starkest moments from his upcoming EP Holy Ghost Survivors Group (Part 1), a narrative-driven project built on fractured identities, moral ambiguity and a world that feels like it’s lost its centre.

Sonically, Milner continues to blur lines — pulling together alt-folk intimacy and jagged electronic textures — while lyrically he’s just as likely to reference internet absurdity as he is existential dread. It’s a balancing act that mirrors the world he’s writing about: chaotic, contradictory and constantly shifting.

Following the viral momentum of final thoughts from inside the machine - demo, Milner is carving out a space that feels both literary and unfiltered — part character study, part cultural commentary, all delivered with a sharp, self-aware edge.

Below, he breaks down the origins of A Hateful Song, the EP’s wider narrative world, and why humour might be the only way to process it all.

1. A Hateful Song’ explores fundamentalism through a fictional character — what drew you to telling that story, and how much of it reflects real-world observations?

A lot of my best work is inspired by the hit CBS Copaganda show Criminal Minds. I can recite almost every scene from memory. Like this one scene in Season 2 where Gideon confronts a religious extremist. He says ‘You have perverted your faith to justify murder’. I was reciting that and I thought it would be a great character for a song. I’m not sure if it reflects a real world observation. But it does reflect my observation of the hit CBS Copaganda show Criminal Minds, which I have observed quite a lot.

2. Your upcoming EP feels very narrative-driven, almost like a series of interconnected stories — how did you approach building this world across Holy Ghost Survivors Group (Part 1)?

I find, on balance, that writing songs from my own, singular, autobiographical perspective to be limiting. In truth, I’m just not that interesting. I prefer to write songs from inside of characters and see how they interact with each other. There’s a lot you can do narratively with that. It’s these characters that build the world of the EP. It gives me license to shapeshift and interrogate feelings and beliefs I don’t necessarily hold myself. It also gives me license to cosplay as an actor, which makes me feel really important, like Timothee Chalamet or something.

3.There’s a striking contrast in your work between dark themes and moments of irony or humour — why is that balance important to you as a songwriter?

I am a notoriously bad sleeper. I wake up 3 to 4 times a night, and in those pockets of insomnia I self medicate with excess screen time. Before 6am I’ve seen a missile strike on a hospital, a compilation of Moe Szyslak’s best moments, an advert for an AI art exhibition, a deconstruction of the defence budget, an expose on Kenneth Copeland, a training drill for a school shooting, a tier list of UK supermarket meal deals, a slide show titled ‘which frog looks like your girlfriend’, an argument against human rights, and a clip of Limmy creating a Techno version of Vera Lynn’s ‘We’ll Meet Again’. We are surrounded by tragedy and comedy in equal measure, so getting the balance right in my songwriting is a way of navigating that tension between the two.

4. Sonically, the track blends alt-folk with more experimental, electronic textures — how did you and your producers shape that sound, and what were you aiming to capture emotionally?

The process was particularly grueling. Not for me, as such. But for Matt and Jolyon who, on one unfortunate afternoon, were trapped in the studio live room and forced to listen to every Ben Howard and James Blake record in order of release through the talk back microphone. Once I felt they had properly digested the source material, I let them out and we got to work. The atmosphere was especially tense after that, but I think that simmering anger translated well to the narrative of the song.

5. Your lyrics touch on everything from religion to internet culture and modern identity — what themes or questions were you most interested in unpacking while writing this EP?

You’re right. It’s covering a lot of ground. I have a lot of thoughts about a lot of things. There’s a lot of information available, all of the time. And a lot of that information is quite extreme. And I’m interested in extremes. And I’m interested in the disparities of those extremes. And I have a lot of questions about those extremes. We are living in extreme times. Times that look like the centre and right-most panel of ‘The Garden of Earthly Delights’ triptych. Have you seen that? It’s quite extreme and I have a lot of questions about it.