Get to Know: New Hope Club

Features

Yasmin Duggal / Photo: APB PR

08 Apr 2018

Meet Britain's most exciting new boyband

Tucked away in a green room, an hour away from their free fan gig at Manchester Academy 3, George Smith and Blake Richardson prepare themselves for the fan hysteria which awaits them. Having released their debut EP a year ago, and having had worldwide success touring with friends The Vamps, New Hope Club are now ready to hit the road by themselves. Currently midway through their 'Road To The Empire' fan fest tour, and with an unexpected missing member from the band this week, spirits remained high as we sat down for a cosy chat...

It’s been a year since the debut EP Welcome To The Club was released – what’s life been like since then?

Blake: It’s been incredible. We’ve not really stopped touring. We did a world tour with The Vamps, a two month US tour with Sabrina Carpenter, we did Asia – it’s been non-stop. We released some new music, did a Christmas song which was fun, had two songs in the film Early Man. We haven’t seen home a lot.

How was it supporting The Vamps? Aren’t you going on tour with them again soon?

George: Yeah, our arena tour with them starts on Saturday in Sheffield. We finish our tour there the day before, then the day after is theirs.

Blake: It’s always so good touring with them ‘cause we’re actually really good friends, so there’s a chance to play football, have a laugh, and it’s always an amazing experience playing to so many people. We do a lot of writing with them – we actually did a song two weeks ago with them, and we always meet up for food and stuff.

George: Connor [Ball] played in our set in Birmingham two days ago as obviously Reece isn’t here.

I saw he’s been poorly - what’s happened?

Blake: Reece was feeling unwell before the London show, and I think the adrenaline brought him through, but then he got back to hotel and basically he had appendicitis, so he had to go to hospital and get it removed.

How’s he doing now?

George: He’s doing ok, he’s out of hospital and he’s just chilling in London for a bit.

Please tell him we wish him a speedy recovery!

Blake: We will do, thank you.

For people who don’t know you (which doesn’t seem to be many judging on the crowd of screaming girls outside), how would you describe your sound?

George: Well we all play guitar so it's obviously instrument-driven. We have a lot of fun onstage and we want our fans to leave feeling like they’ve had fun as well

Blake: Yeah, I think we write music from inspirations like The Beatles and bands that write their own music but we also think about the stage. We have music that’s energetic so when we come out we can have a dance with everyone and don’t let every song become a ballad.

What’s the kind of musical plan going forward – obviously you’re on tour – but can we expect an album soon, or more EPs?

George: So we’re always writing on tour, and we’ve got loads of unreleased songs which we hope to get out soon. We like to keep people listening to new music. We’re playing two new songs on this tour, and to hear people singing back to songs they heard two days ago is amazing.

Blake: Well technically we’re playing four new songs on this tour - two we’ve already played live, but four unreleased tracks.

How did these free fan gigs come about then?

Blake: We hadn’t done anything in the UK of our own and they’ve stuck with us since October 2015, so we thought as a thank you we would get all round the UK and give everyone the chance to come and see us. We thought it was a nice, intimate thing and it’s all leading up to the Shepherd's Bush shows which are June 1st and 2nd – quick plug there! We want everyone who experienced the fan fest to then come and experience the big show.

George: We’ve actually had a lot of European fans – we had a girl come from New York so it’s great people are coming that far to hear us play.

Obviously, you’re a member down today…

Blake: He’s here in spirit!

…but how are you feeling about the show today? Excited?

Blake: We just wish him a speedy recovery. Yeah, we can’t wait. It felt different yesterday without Reece but the fans were singing even louder, and we could still do the show so we thought ‘let’s do it’.

How do you deal with the crazy fan base?

George: We do a meet and greet after the show, so we get chance to talk to fans and ask them if they enjoyed the show.

Blake: I think the crazier they are about the music and the performances, it helps us vibe off each other. It’s great to see that everyone likes our music and likes us as people – well, we hope! Yeah, it’s a very surreal feeling to come out to so many people.

What your favourite track to play live or what are you most excited about playing today?

Blake: A new song called ‘Start Over Again’ – it’s fun, you can have a dance to that, and it came out on Friday.

What are you listening to at the moment? Who would you recommend people to watch this year?

Blake: Personally, I would recommend people go and see John Meyer. We watched him in Nashville when we were on tour and it was so cool. Also Bruno Mars – he’s an amazing performer.

Finally - top 3 biggest musical influences?

George: The Beatles.

Blake: Bruno Mars, McFly. I used to stay up and watch their videos from when I was like 11-14, and seeing them live was what really made me want to be in a band.

Thanks so much for chatting to us guys!

Thank you! We’d just like to say a big thank you to our fans – Shepherd's Bush goes on sale 14th April – we’ll definitely have Reece back by then, so come and see us!

You can catch New Hope Club at O2 Shepherd's Bush Empire on 1st and 2nd June 2018.