Interview with Hopesfall

Hopesfall :: Cologne :: Prime Club . 05/01/05/ :: Interviewer: Oliver /w Jay (vocals)

Punk76: Please introduce yourself and your function in the band.
Jay: My name is Jay Forrest and I am the lead singer in Hopesfall.

Punk76: This is the first time, that you´re on tour now in Europe. So I saw, that this tour is headlined by Atticus/Macbeth. So, how did you became a part of that tour? How did those companys recognized you?
Jay: I think it´s because our manager and Tsunami Bombs manager know Atticus well. Those companys asked us, if we would be interested to play on the European Attiucs tour with Tsunami Bomb and we was totally intersted. So they helped us out to get on this tour and now it´s our first time in Europe.

Punk76: When you look into your own audience, what would you say, what kind of people join your shows?
Jay: Oh, this is diffucult. There are many people from different scenes, some are more hardcore, others more punkrock. But it´s nice to see them all combined in the crowd, celebrating.

Punk76: When did you started the band?
Jay: The band started in 98´ in Charlotte.

Punk76: And how old are you now?
Jay: I am25 and I am in the band for four years now.

Punk76: Europe is totally different in comparison to the states. It must be awesome to play in one country on one day and in another country the next day.
Jay: Absoloutely. Yeah, we have a pretty good time so far.

Punk76: What about your instruments? Do you take them with you from the US?
Jay: No, we rent them here. Our managers searched for a good deal and then we rent all those instruments.

Punk76: I often obey, when new bands come up and I watch their career, but I never heard of your band before, until I received your latest release, called “A-types”, which appears on Roadrunner records in Europe and on Trustkill records in the states. So how did you made it to a record label?
Jay: Well ok. We started off playing those rock shows with friends from our town. Then we kind of like meet other bands from other towns. Then it started like getting a little bit more serious and started to play outside of the town. We started to gain a little fan base and we put some stuff on MP3.com, when that was on. Today you find Purevolume.com instead. We slowly started to get a name and suddenly there was a couple of labels, who offered to put out some of our early stuff, but without no contract signs. In 2001 we signed to Trustkill.

Punk76: I think Trustkill is one of the biggest and well know hardcore labels from the states. Many good and well known bands like EighteenVisions or OpenHand are/was signed to that label.
Jay: Trustkill is a pretty big indie label in the states. They are very supportive to us. We´re lucky that we are on Trustkill.

Punk76: Last week I talked to Boy set´s fire and they told me, that well known emo/screamo bands like Thurday or Thrice are getting problems to sell their records in the states.
Jay: You need a label which can push you so far that you can go. You don´t need to necessarily on a major label to get your name out there.

Punk76: Hm. Maybe my question was wrong, so once again: Rumors say, that bands like Thursday and Thrice have problems to sell their records. So what do you think, is that emo/screamo thing almost done?
Jay: Yeah, might be. I think most appreciated bands goal is to establish their own sound. I mean Boy set´s fire established their very own BSF sound- not a genre specific stuff. You know so many specific styles like punkhardcore is gonna come and go, posthardcore is gonna come. I think most bands want to play music and establish their bands and our goal is to create something different inbetween those genres. We wanted to create “timeless” music.

Punk76: That´s a pretty intersting statement, because I had enormous problems to review your record. I had no idea, where to sort it in. I stated, that I am not shure, what kind of music is to find on your latest LP, called A-types. I wrote, that I don´t know, is this emo, is this hardcore?
Jay: I have a really good example to which band you find most parallels. It´s the Deftones...

Punk76: Yeah! I compared your record to exactly that band!
Jay: That´s cool. Some passages show more trippy things others are more experimental and rocking. Me personally was always looking up to a band called “Smashing Pumpkins”. It´s the same concept that I mentioned before: Whenever you hear a Smashing Pumpkins, you know this is a SP song. Their music is their language. Instead of beeing a band, that comes and go, we try to establish our own sound. We was not intersted to make money with music from a certain genre that is popular right now. We make music that we truly believed in. Our music is a little bit new and a little bit different. If we sell five records or if we sell fivehundret thausand records, it must stay music with integrity

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