diff --git a/lib/utils/mu-utils.cc b/lib/utils/mu-utils.cc
index 0cfae303..1702ddca 100644
--- a/lib/utils/mu-utils.cc
+++ b/lib/utils/mu-utils.cc
@@ -413,7 +413,7 @@ fixup_month(struct tm* tbuf)
 
 
 Option<::time_t>
-Mu::parse_date_time(const std::string& dstr, bool is_first)
+Mu::parse_date_time(const std::string& dstr, bool is_first, bool utc)
 {
 	struct tm tbuf{};
 	GDateTime *dtime{};
@@ -442,12 +442,20 @@ Mu::parse_date_time(const std::string& dstr, bool is_first)
 		return Nothing;
 
 	fixup_month(&tbuf);
-	dtime = g_date_time_new_local(tbuf.tm_year + 1900,
+	dtime = utc ?
+		g_date_time_new_utc(tbuf.tm_year + 1900,
+				      tbuf.tm_mon + 1,
+				      tbuf.tm_mday,
+				      tbuf.tm_hour,
+				      tbuf.tm_min,
+				      tbuf.tm_sec) :
+		g_date_time_new_local(tbuf.tm_year + 1900,
 				      tbuf.tm_mon + 1,
 				      tbuf.tm_mday,
 				      tbuf.tm_hour,
 				      tbuf.tm_min,
 				      tbuf.tm_sec);
+
 	t = g_date_time_to_unix(dtime);
 	g_date_time_unref(dtime);
 
diff --git a/lib/utils/mu-utils.hh b/lib/utils/mu-utils.hh
index 0854c599..be2afe94 100644
--- a/lib/utils/mu-utils.hh
+++ b/lib/utils/mu-utils.hh
@@ -146,7 +146,7 @@ auto mu_join(Range&& range, std::string_view sepa) {
 }
 
 template <typename T>
-auto mu_time(T t, bool use_utc=false) {
+std::tm mu_time(T t={}, bool use_utc=false) {
 	::time_t tt{static_cast<::time_t>(t)};
 	return use_utc ? fmt::gmtime(tt) : fmt::localtime(tt);
 }
@@ -253,10 +253,11 @@ static inline bool mu_print_encoded(fmt::format_string<T...> frm, T&&... args) n
  * so 2018-05-05 is equivalent to 20180505.
  * @param first whether to fill out incomplete dates to the start (@true) or the
  * end (@false); ie. either 1972 -> 197201010000 or 1972 -> 197212312359
+ * @param use_utc interpret @param date as UTC
  *
  * @return the corresponding time_t or Nothing if parsing failed.
  */
-Option<::time_t> parse_date_time(const std::string& date, bool first);
+Option<::time_t> parse_date_time(const std::string& date, bool first, bool use_utc=false);
 
 /**
  * Crudely convert HTML to plain text. This attempts to scrape the