(Left to Right) George Smith, Blake Richardson, Val, Reece Bibby
Back in February, I had the pleasure of attending a radio panel for the British band, New Hope Club, who released their debut self titled album. Reece, Blake, and George performed acoustic versions of “Love Me Again,” “Let Me Down Slow,” “Permission” and “Give Me Time.”
Before they were a band, Reece recalls they were posting videos separately on YouTube and booking pub gigs. Blake was still in school. The three of them come from very small towns in England according to Reece. After spotting each other, they began meeting at George’s house every weekend and hung out watching films, playing video games, and every now and then writing a song.
“Some of them have ended up on our debut album which is very cool for us. From then, the Vamps took us on tour. After a world tour and an album, here we are,” Reece said.
In regards to their connection with the Vamps, they have the same management and the first cover they uploaded as a band in 2015 was “Wake Up” by the Vamps.
Blake remembers the first conversation he had with George on the phone included the most random topics like pigmy goats. Both had sheets of questions in case the conversation didn’t pick up, needless to say George and Blake got on really well from the start.
New Hope Club’s sound and lyrical content has evolved as they have grown older. For the songwriting process, Blake notes they have been writing every day and naturally with repetition comes improvement.
“We just love writing as well. Being creative and being on tour, it’s such an escape from a busy day. You can maybe take an hour to just write a song. It’s just so cool that some of those songs we wrote on tour are on the album. Some of the songs we wrote over last Christmas are going to be on the next album,” he said.
Credit: Catherine Powell
George even teased that they already had enough songs for half an album finished back in February. He also admitted he originally learned to play the guitar for a crush.
One of their major musical influences is the Beatles and they have paid tribute to them in previous shows before. While they were currently performing “She Loves You” for the radio panel, Blake’s favorite was a mashup they did in New York which included all the hits and some of the Beatles’ back catalogue as well.
“We take a lot of inspiration from many bands. Our favorite band to go see live right now is Catfish and the Bottlemen. We like quite a lot of rock bands. Our music is quite pop but our live shows are more crazy and rock because of our influences,” Reece said.
All three of them note that their inspiration to make music started with their parents appreciation for music. Reece’s dad was a drummer, Blake’s dad was a singer, and George’s mom played the piano.
“There was always music in our houses growing up,” Reece said.
New Hope Club has kept busy during quarantine by releasing two music videos “Worse” and “Just For Love,” a YouTube tour documentary, multiple covers including acoustic versions called the JukeBox Sessions, and completing a virtual world tour. The music video for “Worse” was actually directed by Bailee Madison and produced by Blake Richardson.
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