We spoke to High Hopes to find out about how they formed, what to expect from their upcoming second album ‘Sights And Sounds’, and how they feel about signing to Victory Records.
Hi guys! Firstly, for people who aren’t familiar with High Hopes yet, tell us about your background. When, where and how did you form?
We formed off the back of another band that wasn’t really heading in a direction we were happy with. We decided to take a step back and completely re-brand ourselves and work on fresh material. After around a year we announced all the changes and pushed ourselves to be the best band we could, I think it worked pretty well if I’m honest. Couldn’t be happier with how far we’ve come.
You’re about to release your second album, ‘Sights And Sounds’. What can people expect from it?
They can expect something similar but completely different at the same time. With this record we really dug deep and shut ourselves off from the outside world, just writing music that we really felt passionate about. I feel ‘Sights And Sounds’ offers something for everyone: we’ve written some of our heaviest music to date and also written some of our most melodic at the same time.
Is your recent single ‘The Greater Plan’ (feat. Garret Rapp from The Color Morale) a good example of what to expect from the rest of the album or is it quite diverse? How was it working with Garret?
Garret is one of the most genuine humble people we’ve ever had the opportunity to work with: he brought so many ideas to the table in terms of his vocal part in the track. We just gave him a rough idea of what we wanted to do and kind of let him have free reign on it. I think he was more excited about working on the track than we were! Haha. We definitely tried something a little different with this track in respect to the rest of the album: I really think we managed to pull it off and it sits quite nicely with the rest of the songs.
How does your new album compare to your older material? Do you feel like you’ve changed much as a band?
We’ve definitely grown and matured as artists: constant touring and life experiences will always have a massive effect on how and what you write as a band. Tastes and perceptions on music change on a daily basis and that’s what’s great about it. We just write music that we would enjoy listening to. I mean, you never know, three albums down the line we could be playing stadium rock and I wouldn’t have an issue with that.
How would you describe your sound in general?
I think it’s quite hard to pinpoint exactly what our sound is. ‘Sights And Sounds’ has been labelled metalcore, hardcore, melodic hardcore, post-hardcore and more. Personally I’d just label it as music. Everyone perceives things differently and that’s what I love about music, everyone can relate to it differently and perceive each song in their own way. It’s a beautiful thing.
Who or what are your influences as a band?
We all draw different influences, but collectively I’d have to say Counterparts and It Prevails hit the nail on the head with melodic hardcore and I know both bands are huge influences on our guitar writing.
You’ve recently signed to Victory Records. How did that come about, and how are you finding it so far?
The label have been nothing but helpful and supportive. It’s great to have such solid backing, pushing us in the direction we want to go; it’s all a bit of a childhood dream come true for all of us. We’ve been listening to albums released by this label since we were in school and now they’re releasing ours, it’s crazy!
What are your plans for 2016 after releasing the album? Will you be doing much touring?
We’re gonna be on the road for the majority of this year, visiting some new places and some of our favourites that we haven’t visited for a while. We can’t give too much away but I can say there’s going to be a lot of waiting around in airports this year…
What have been some of your favourite experiences as a band? Any particular favourite touring stories etc?
Getting to tour with amazing bands and meeting new people. Meeting people that care about our band that we’ve been in contact through our band page is always great, we are so humbled that anybody would give us the time of day so we always make sure that they know we appreciate them fully. Without that we would be sat at home, probably working a normal 9-5.
Finally, where would you like to see yourselves in five years? What’s your main aim as a band?
I don’t want to think about five years’ time. Who knows where we will be and what we will be doing. I just know want to enjoy the ride, write amazing music, visit places and have some incredible life experiences with my best friends.
Check out High Hopes’ new video for ‘Manipulator’ below:
LAIS MW