In the vibrant tapestry of modern pop music, New Hope Club stands out as a beacon of youthful energy, tight-knit camaraderie, and evolving artistry. Hailing from the bustling streets of the United Kingdom, this trio—Reece, George, and Blake—has been captivating audiences worldwide for nearly a decade. Recently, they opened up about their journey, creative process, and future aspirations in an insightful interview with us that offers a glimpse into the heart and soul of the band.

“We’ve been best friends since we were kids,” Reece begins, setting the stage for a story that intertwines lifelong friendship with a passion for music. Formed in between Manchester and London, New Hope Club has grown from local performers to international sensations, their bond only strengthened by their shared experiences and relentless pursuit of their craft.

Blake chuckles as he shares a quirky tidbit: “Every time we’ve been to New York, we’ve stayed in Times Square. Yeah, it’s tragic.” The comment sparks laughter among the trio, highlighting their down-to-earth nature despite their growing fame. “We love Times Square,” Reece adds, while George humorously remarks, “It is, it’s a big forest,” showcasing their playful dynamic that has made listener’s quickly fall in love.

Describing themselves to new listeners, Reece encapsulates their essence: “We’re alternative pop. We’re a band, but we make music for everyone.” Over the past eight years, their sound has matured, influenced by diverse genres and their own personal growth. George notes, “The music definitely evolves through age groups,” emphasizing how their experiences shape their artistry.

Their latest single, “Trouble in Paradise,” marks a significant milestone in their musical journey. Inspired by an inside joke among friends, the song blends reggae elements with their signature pop sound. “We’ve never explored reggae before,” Reece explains. “We’re big fans of The Police and Sting. Having that element in one of our songs is really cool.”

Blake adds, “With every release, we have more control over the sessions and the messages we want to convey.” This newfound autonomy allows them to infuse their personality into their music, creating a more authentic and relatable sound. “It feels like a little sneak peek into our mindset and our brain at that moment in time of writing a specific song,” George reflects.

In a lighthearted exchange about their ideal paradises, the band members revealed their personal preferences and favorite songs. Reece envisions “the English countryside” with Paul McCartney’s “Heart of the Country” as his soundtrack. Blake contemplates the allure of Joshua Tree and U2’s iconic “Joshua Tree” album, while George dreams of Jeju island, imagining a beachy tune like The Eagles’ “Take It Easy” or a Beach Boys classic to complement the serene landscapes.

When asked about the songwriting process, George shares, “We get inspired through a lot of different things. It can be a conversation with a friend or something random you hear on the street.” This openness to diverse influences keeps their music fresh and authentic. Reece adds, “We’ve grown up a lot over the course of the last eight years, and we’ve toured a lot. I would urge anyone new to come and see us live because I think that’s the best way of understanding who we are and what we’re about.”

Blake highlights the importance of collaboration: “When we were first starting out, we were in a lot of sessions with amazing writers and producers. Now, we’re able to be more in control and make the music and message that we want.” This balance of collaboration and creative control has allowed them to refine their sound while maintaining their unique identity.

When discussing what success means to them, Reece emphasizes the joy of turning their passion into a profession: “Being able to do something that we love and have that as our job… we’re always looking for ways on how to improve ourselves and get better at our craft.” The trio acknowledges the challenges of the music industry but remains steadfast in their commitment to personal and artistic growth.

George adds, “You’ve got to have that drive and that understanding that you’re starting out, it’s not going to be perfect and it’s not always going to work out.” This resilience is a testament to their enduring friendship and shared vision. “We’ve been best friends for so long, and having that shared experience is something you can’t really replicate,” George reflects, underscoring the foundation of their success.

With eyes set on the future, New Hope Club is determined to push boundaries and stay true to themselves. Blake shares, “We want to try and be as unique as possible and also be ourselves at the same time.” This commitment to authenticity ensures that each new release offers something fresh and unexpected, keep fans eagerly anticipating what’s next.

Reece echoes this sentiment, highlighting the importance of making music for themselves rather than to please others: “You’re not doing it to please anyone else but to make art that you love.” This philosophy not only fuels their creativity but also fosters a deep connection with their audience.

As the conversation wrapped up, Blake extended his gratitude to their supporters: “If you’re listening and you’ve been a fan, thank you, and if you’re a new fan, thank you for being a new fan.” This heartfelt appreciation cannot go unnoticed, both on and off the stage, reinforcing the band’s inclusive and welcoming spirit.

New Hope Club’s journey from childhood friends in London to international pop icons is a story of passion, perseverance, and unwavering friendship. Their ability to evolve musically while maintaining their core identity sets them apart in a crowded industry. With their latest release, “Trouble in Paradise,” and a promising future ahead, New Hope Club is poised to continue making waves, both in the music scene and in the hearts of their fans worldwide.

As they aptly put it, “We make music for everyone,” and indeed, their universal appeal and genuine artistry ensure that their music will resonate for years to come.

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TRANSCRIPT:

Sabrina: So, can you start by introducing yourselves, your role in the music industry, and then share a fun little fact for our viewership?

Reece: Hello, my name is Reece, I’m in New Hope Club.

George: My name is George, and I’m also in New Hope Club.

Blake: Hi, I’m Blake, and I’m also in New Hope Club.

Blake: Fun fact, every time we’ve been to New York, we’ve stayed in Times Square. Yeah, it’s tragic.

George: It is, it’s a big forest.

Reece: We love Times Square.

Sabrina: You guys are British?

Blake: We are, yeah.

Reece: Yes, we are British.

Sabrina: You guys have, it’s typically what? What’s the spot in London? 

George: Piccadilly Circus.

Reece: Piccadilly, yeah.

Sabrina: That’s Times Square.

Blake: Exactly.

George: But it’s a lot smaller than Times Square.

Sabrina: Yeah, I visited over the summer.

Reece: Yeah, it’s good, yeah, I do like it.

Sabrina: So, for those tuning in who have never heard of New Hope Club before, how would you guys describe the band to a new listener?

Reece: Well, we’ve been a band for about eight years. We started in England, in London, and yeah, we’ve been writing music for a very long time together. We’ve been best friends since we were kids now, and we- 

George: The music definitely evolves through age groups.

Blake: Yeah, the early ones are interesting.

Reece: We’ve grown up a lot over the course of the last eight years, and we’ve toured a lot. I would urge anyone new to come and see us live, because I think that’s the best way of understanding who we are and what we’re about. And yeah, it’s alternative pop. We’re a band, but we make music for everyone.

George: I think you did great.

Reece: Thank you.

Blake: I agree. I concur.

Sabrina: As you mentioned, you guys have been writing and performing together since you were teenagers. So, how has your songwriting process evolved as you’ve grown both personally and professionally? How do you remain inspired over such a long period of time?

George: I think we get inspired through a lot of different things. It can just be from a conversation with a friend, or just hearing it randomly on the street and you kind of think, oh, that’s a cool song title. We’ve actually had, with our most recent release, somewhat of an inside joke that we used to say between our friends and us. We used to say, oh, Trouble in Paradise for NeverSmith would just be a little bit wrong or something. And then now that ended up becoming our single that came out this month. So, I mean, yeah, we’re continually inspired by each other, things that go on around us. And obviously growing up, we actually also recently, probably just less than a year ago, around a year ago now, we moved to LA. So we kind of uprooted our life in England and kind of moved out stateside. So we’re kind of still adjusted, and that is a big change, obviously being away from family and stuff. But we do still have each other, and we are basically family at this point. So I think having us as our support system for so long has been so, so good. And I think our bond together is great. And I think that kind of shows in our music and stuff on stage when you come and see us, I think. Yeah, I mean, that wasn’t really much about songwriting.

Blake: No, I was going to say, the only thing I was going to add was I think that when we were first starting out, obviously we had a lot to learn and a lot to, so we were in a lot of sessions and trying to take in these sessions because we were writing with some amazing writers and amazing producers. And now we’ve grown up and we still write with other people, but I feel like we’re able to be more in control of our sessions and make the music and the messages that we want to make.

Sabrina: So congratulations on the release of Trouble in Paradise, kind of a fun question for you guys. If you could each pick a paradise to escape to, where would it be and what song would be on your repeat?

Reece: Oof.

George: That’s a good question.

Blake: I think I would choose the English countryside. And I would play Heart of the Country. Yeah. By Paul McCartney. Yeah.

Reece: That’s a good one. Where do you want to go, I’m trying to think.

George: I was going to say English countryside, but I thought I’d mix it up a bit.

Blake: Boo. Don’t say that again.

Reece: I think, oh, it’s tough, isn’t it? Maybe like Joshua Tree, like the Palm Springs area. I think it’s kind of like, there’s no way I really like that, like it’s fully a desert, but it’s got that cowboy feeling. I love this, no, no. And I would play like, I don’t know, what’s a good song for like, Palm Springs. There you go.

Blake: Heart of the Country.

Reece: Yeah, the whole U2 Joshua Tree album.

George: We’ve heard about this a lot. We go to Korea a lot for like concerts and stuff. And our friends over there say that Jeju Island is meant to be like amazing. So I think we’ve never been and that’d be amazing to like end a tour there and go like chill there. And then I don’t know, song wise, I feel like it’s got to be, I guess like a beachy song. I don’t know, I kind of want to listen to an Eagles, Cake by the Ocean by DNC. No, I do like Eagles, Take it Easy by the Eagles. I think that’d be a great beach song. Thank you.

Blake: Or Beach Boys song.

George: Oh, yeah, well, we would be Beach Boys, wouldn’t we as well? So it’s only fitting.

Blake: God only knows, 

Reece: wouldn’t it be nice?

George: That’d be good. Okay, before we get on a tangent.

Sabrina: But can you share the inspiration behind Trouble in Paradise? What do you guys hope you guys take away from the single, what is the message of the song?

Reece: Yeah. Like G was saying, this song did first come about because of like an inside joke that we have with our friends. And we would always be like, oh, if there’s a small argument between our friends, we’d be like, oh, Trouble in Paradise. And it’s something that we just said for like years. And then, I don’t know, we always just wanted to make a song like Trouble in Paradise because it has that like reggae feel, which we’ve never explored before. We’re big fans of Police and Sting. So to have that like element like in one of our songs, I think is really cool. And it’s also refreshing for us to release a song like that. And also like with the live show, like it’s kind of unexpected when we play that song. Everyone’s like, when the chorus comes in, it’s like, whoa, what’s this? Which is so cool. Like, that’s what we want from our releases and new hope of like not ever expecting what’s coming next. So yeah, I mean, behind the actual lyrics, obviously, Trouble in Paradise, it’s just about a relationship that what you initially thought was something perfect is slowly coming undone. And it’s not as well perfect as you thought it was at the start, which, yeah, I think it’s obviously a relatable situation, and one that we’ve all experienced ourselves as well. Yeah, I think I’ve said it all.

Sabrina: I know you guys think it’s a joke, but I actually think that’s a cute little name for Trouble in Paradise. I’m going to start using that.

Blake: It’s good, isn’t it?

Sabrina: It’s interesting you said the Police and Sting thing, but I felt like this was definitely more like a rock feel for you guys. I feel like you were like writing it down in a more authentic headspace.

Blake: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think more and more with every release that we do, we have, like Blake said, more control over the sessions, more influence over what we release, and also I think when we were younger we didn’t fully understand the weight of releasing a song and weren’t as involved as we would actually like to be, whereas now we make all the decisions of the music video and everything about it, the whole tone of the release and everything we do, it has us knitted into it. 

Sabrina: In advance of getting to my next question, actually, I was going to ask how Trouble in Paradise compares to Know Me Too Well and Love Again, two more popular releases from your discography.

Blake: Hmm. How they, are you saying how they… I think how they’re different, how you felt going into the session compared to the other sessions.  Yeah, I mean, like Reece was saying, I think the earlier songs Know Me Too Well and Love Again, as much as we love those songs, I think we, you know, we weren’t trying to please our fans, but I think that at that time it just made sense with the demographic and the age we were and what we were trying to achieve. I think we were still experimenting, I mean, Know Me Too Well definitely has more of a almost Spanish kind of influence, which like we’d never tried something with Trouble in Paradise, we’d never tried a Spanish kind of thing with Know Me Too Well. So I think we never want to box ourselves in and I think slowly, as the years go on, we have been able to build our sound and where we are now and the stuff that’s going to be coming, I’d imagine, next year is going to be as honest as we’ve ever been. 

George: I think also like Sonically as well, we always kind of want to try and be like one step ahead. I feel like we don’t really ever want to kind of, you know, like copy what people are doing and obviously take inspiration from what people are doing and that’s the only way, obviously people better themselves and you know, you kind of keep pushing, but I think for us it’s like we do want to try and be as unique as possible and also be ourselves at the same time. Like we do draw a lot of inspiration from older artists and people back in the day or whatever, but yeah, I think it’s important for us to take that inspiration and kind of sprinkle our own little bits of New Hope Club, our own personality on it and I think, I mean I hope that the fans can hear that in the songs that we release and it’s also exciting for us just to like kind of give away a little piece of ourselves every time we do put a song out and it kind of feels like a little sneak peek into our mindset and our brain at that moment in time of writing a specific song. 

Blake: I think also it makes the live show more exciting, like imagine just kind of every song that we released was like an acoustic and like imagine if we just released like, go does both like 20 times, everyone would be like oh I’ve seen this song, the whole set, it’s kind of nice to kind of mix it up, do more of a rocky one, do more of like a pop one, a dance track or yeah, it’s definitely exciting and I think also that shows our versatility in the way that we write and also our influences as well, I think that’s just exciting. I mean I love going to shows where it’s different, every song like has it’s own little pocket you know. 

Blake: Yeah for sure and there’s also artists that do that so well and like nothing against them and I think it is amazing when artists do have their own distinct style. I just think for us we, I think just to be honest, we get distracted quite easily so I think for us it’s just exciting to go into a studio one day, write a certain song and then the next day we’re kind of like oh let’s do the complete polar opposite of that and I think that kind of keeps us on our toes and it’s exciting.

George: I was just going to say as well I think again it goes back to the age thing of starting out so young and obviously you know as humans we’ve evolved so much and changed and grown so much and just as people and then obviously with that the music then has changed and we’ve been inspired by different things and what was I going to, I was going to say one more thing but I’ve now forgotten it so never mind.

Sabrina: So this is again just a fun question for you guys, what’s your favourite song from your discography?

George: I think that lyrically Girl Who Does Bowls is like probably my favourite song we’ve ever written. 

Reece: I like that song. 

Blake: I don’t know. I like Walk It Out. I think Walk It Out’s a good like little change but I suppose that’s better when you’ve listened to other stuff. I still love Getting Better as well.

Reece: I think my favourite’s probably Don’t Go Wasting Time. I don’t know why every time I listen to that song I kind of still get like goosebumps and it’s more of like the slow ballad one. I don’t know whether you want to listen to that one first but I do think it’s definitely a good vibe and I don’t really know many songs that sound like it. I’m trying to think of other people.

Blake: It’s just very organic.

Reece: Organic yet still pop yet I think the lyrics hold a really good weight, a strong weight I guess and they mean a lot to us so I think personally I’d maybe choose that one but then tomorrow ask me again, different song.

Sabrina: I’ve only heard a few songs and I’m going to go back and listen to the rest of them. What does success mean to you at this point in your career and what are your goals?

Reece: Success, well I think just being able to do something that we love and have that as our job in a lot of ways like what we’re doing today as young kids in tiny towns in England where we’re from, I think we look at ourselves now and be so happy with how far we’ve come. I think that as a band we’ve always shared the same ambitions of just wanting to be bigger and better all the time and we’re always looking for ways on how to improve ourselves and get better at our craft. I think there’s a lot of stuff in the music industry that are out of your control and I think that we’ve learned that to reap benefits of commercial success, if that’s what you’re talking about, like bigger venues and bigger shows and more popular songs. I think that a lot of that comes from internally. I think that you have to get yourselves right and your message right and be aligned on one goal and have that set in mind, especially as a band. I think it’s harder and harder, especially for bands. If you look at popular music, there’s not been a band really that’s been commercially successful for a long time and nowadays as a band you just have to be closer than ever, which luckily we are. We’re just always working harder and trying to be better because of course we just want to be world rock stars, 

George: world leaders for sure and be prime ministers.

Reece: We want to be huge of course and we work every day towards that.

Blake: I think I saw a stat that since 2003 or something, there’s been two number one songs that are banned. One of them was the Comic Relief, it’s kind of insane. The world needs bands, the world needs bands. I don’t think you can beat a band live.

George: Also I think being in a band is important for us, looking over and seeing your best mate there. It’s just so good and we’ve had those shared experiences that even to this day we joke about and talk about at random nights and we recall all these memories that we’ve created over the last nine years almost. I think having that experience together is something you can’t really replicate that. I think for us, like we said, we’ve been best friends for so long so I think having that shared experience is important and it will last forever, which is amazing. 

Blake: Yeah, I mean if you’re just starting out in music I think it’s important that your intentions are good. I think that if you’re in it for the wrong reasons, like if you’re just trying to get famous then it’s not going to probably work out, but if you’re passionate about music and you put the time and effort into your craft then you’ve got more chance of being successful.

George: I think all the people that we look up to believe in themselves more than anyone else believed in them. I think you’ve got to have that drive and that understanding that also you’re starting out, you’re new to it, it’s not going to be perfect and it’s not always going to work out. You might release a song and think this is the best song we’ve ever done and it does nothing. It doesn’t mean the song wasn’t good, it just maybe means it wasn’t the right time for the world to hear it. I think just keep trying to better yourself and I think especially now with how easy it is to learn how to produce music and how you just need one cable into one interface and you can get it going. I think getting ahead of that so that when you maybe get into that session with the person you look up to you can have those conversations and you don’t seem like a fish out of water. Just do what you love. At the end of the day that’s what it’s for. You’re not doing it to please anyone else but to make art that you love.

Blake: Also if you’re listening and you’ve been a fan, thank you and if you’re a new fan, thank you for being a new fan. There’s a little note to the people listening.