One massive great big lie, a head injury and tales of a band member eating a biscuit in such a bizarre way it will never not be funny (thanks mainly to lead singer/guitarist Simon Gee’s timeless impression)… There’s much more to Molly Karloff than their modern rock with a sexy little twist, as we found out before their headline set at a packed B2 in Norwich…
But let’s talk about the music first. What does 2026 look like for the band?
‘Plans for this year are to get the gig diary fuller than it is,’ says Simon. ‘We’re going more DIY, and I’m going to go back to making my own bookings. I’m also working on putting something else together – like an agency run by the bands, for the bands, kind of like a cooperative. We’ve spent over a year looking into how we can play in Europe without being financially screwed from the outset, for example.
‘We’re writing our second album at the minute,’ Simon adds. Oooooh, that’s exciting. This will be the follow up the boys’ debut ‘Breaking Out’, which was unleashed in 2023. He continues, ‘With any luck that comes out towards the end of the year – we’re getting ready to go into the studio.’ And there’s the possibility of a podcast too which, trust me, would be well worth listening to. Because I swear to God, no band has made me laugh so much in an interview as Molly Fucking Karloff. King Kraken made me snort, Matt Bigland (Dinosaur Pile-Up) made me scream, but Simon’s impression of bassist Tyler Murphy eating a biscuit in rehearsals the night before our chat will never not be hilarious. Oh, and Simon also sustained a head injury at this rehearsal too – having been attacked by a random frame as he tried to fix some equipment.
Right, back to the music… So how’s the album sounding boys? ‘It’s definitely a bit angrier and a bit heavier,’ says Simon. ‘Eighty per cent of the stuff I write I throw away because it doesn’t sound like Molly Karloff, so I only keep the Molly Karloff stuff. We’re currently working on 21 tracks and they need to be whittled down to ten or so.
‘We had 23 tracks for the last album. We had a voting system which got us down to 13 tracks, then our producer decided which other three tracks to throw away – and we were fine with that!’
The band had to deal with some pretty shady shit in 2025, but it’s so far so good in 2026 – with the B2 venue busy tonight and video to new single ‘Faceless’ hitting 24k views in just five days.
But we just need to know one thing before we let the lads crack on and headline their own show - who the fuck is Molly Karloff??? And here comes another reason why an MK podcast needs to happen, because this is also bloody hilarious, and Simon recounts the story better than yer girl ever could. But we’ll have a go. You’ve heard of Boris Karloff, right? He was an English horror icon who’s probably best known for playing Frankenstein’s Monster way back in 1931. Go on then Simon. ‘At some point in the past I said, as a joke, we were named after Boris Karloff’s great granddaughter, who was a tearaway socialite, a rebel, and so on.’ Despite the fact there is no such person – and Boris Karloff isn’t even the actor’s real name. Simon explains, ‘The BBC of all people, were the ones whose researchers picked up on this conversation I’d had somewhere joking about why we’re named Molly Karloff. Then they presented that to us in an interview live on the radio (both BBC Oxford and BBC Kent)!
‘The real reason is I’ve always liked bands that are named after a person,’ Simon admits. ‘Franz Ferdinand, Alice in Chains, Juliet’s Not Dead, Florence Black… and I love the idea of us having a female name when we’re all male. I like things being not what you expect.’
They look like smouldering long-of-hair, tight-of-trousers rock gods. They interview like mates you’ve known for years. And on stage tonight their intense riff driven rock sounds edgy, energetic and is enhanced by the boys’ easy interaction with their audience.
Molly Karloff exceed expectations.
​
