Interview: Hopesfall

bst interviews hopesfall. by eduardo moutinho and rob tatum Recently, bst had the chance to interview Jay Forrest, the vocalist of hopesfall, during the band's recent show in Boulder as part of a tour with Coheed and Cambria. Along with asking him questions about touring itself, and recording the band's latest album, The Satellite Years, we made sure to touch on a number of other topics such as the band's recent member changes and their relationship with Trustkill Records. The following is a recap of the interview. If you are interested in learning more about and hearing hopesfall, visit the band's official website, their mp3.com site, and Trustkill Records. This interview took place on February 7th, 2003 at Tulagi's in Boulder, CO. bst: How has touring life been? Is that tour bus outside for you guys? Jay: (Laughs) Dude, that tour bus is for Reverend Horton Heat. Those guys are playing next door. I dunno, they play that kind of rock... Rockabilly. That's it. Yeah, that bus is definitely not for us. Touring is awesome. It’s great to be out with Coheed and Cambria, as well as onelinedrawing. It seems like every tour gets better and better. So far it’s been a lot of fun. bst: How did it feel like replacing Doug (former hopesfall vocalist) as the new singer? How did the other members deal with the changes the band has gone through recently? Jay: The band is better than ever. We all get along really well. I couldn’t have asked to take over for a better person than Doug, and we still keep in touch. I mean, he lives across the street from me. I see him all the time. Even though we've gone through all these changes, the band hasn't missed a beat. In the last six months, we have toured more than the band did altogether in its existence. bst: You guys have been referred to as a Christian band, how do you react to that? Do you want to be known as a Christian band? Jay: We are not a Christian band. Bottom line. We don’t want any labels at all. I just hope that people can take whatever they can from our music. We are here to write creative and inspiring music, and if people find something spiritual about it, then great. But it’s not our goal. Labels like that are forms of segregation. bst: Any tour horror stories? Jay: Not from this tour. However, on our last tour with Atreyu, we were outside of Portland, and we had changed hitch balls earlier in the day. We were going up a hill, and the trailer came off, luckily the chains held it on long enough to get to the top of the hill before it went off the road. Our equipment survived. bst: What are your initial impressions of the Colorado scene and of the state itself in general? Jay: The first thing we said today was that we want to live here and that we should move here. This place is beautiful. It’s really impressive. There is a good cultural feel. It’s really good to see this many kids at a show in a town we have never been in that know our music and can sing along. It’s the most incredible feeling. I mean, sometimes we play much bigger cities, and not as many people show up. There seems to be a really solid scene around here. bst: What have you guys been listening to lately? Jay: Uh... On, Failure, Year of the Rabbit, Coalesce, Minus the Bear. We always listen to Hum, The Smashing Pumpkins… Chad rocks Tom Petty. We give him a lot of crap for that. bst: Going along with the topic, what are the band’s main inspirations? Jay: Space rock… The Smashing Pumpkins and Hum. bst: So you guys don't really have any hardcore bands that inspire you? Jay: Well, of course we do. It's really hard to pinpoint our exact inspirations. We're out here to do our own thing. bst: When do you guys plan on hitting the studio next? Jay: Nothing is planned for now, we have a lot of touring ahead of us. The song-writing process never stops, so we have a few new ideas here and there. We may hit the studio in the late summer or the fall. Maybe we'll have something to release in December. bst: What was it like recording The Satellite Years with Matt Talbot from Hum? Jay: It was really awesome. Amazing... Matt is really down to earth and one of the nicest people I have ever met. It was a really cool experience for all of us. And I want to make sure to mention this, Matt coaches little league football during his spare time. How cool is that? bst: What are you tour plans after this tour? Jay: Well, first off, we are going to head to the northwest and Canada with Snapcase and the Juliana Theory. After that we have two major tours planned. The first of which is a headlining tour with The Beautiful Mistake, Brazil, and Celebrity (Ryan, the old guitar player's new band). Then we're doing a co-headlining tour with Every Time I Die. After all of that, we are heading to Europe with a band called Sikth, from England. That's gonna be sweet. bst: What is like being on a record label like Trustkill? Jay: It’s awesome. We can actually see the work that is done. They push our record, and we see the results. We find our record in stores, and when we come to places we have never been to, we know that kids have access to our music. We really like Trustkill. We couldn’t have asked for a better fit. bst: How has touring affected your personal lives? Jay: Obviously we get homesick, but there are positives and negatives. We are all away from our loved ones, so we have all had to adjust and so have they, but at the same time, I am 22 years old and I have toured the US three times. It’s good to go places and see familiar faces in other towns. Also, our families, girlfriends, and other friends all support us. It makes things a lot easier when you have that support with you. bst: What are you thoughts about the internet and mp3’s? Jay: I think it’s great, honestly. I think it helps bands more than it hurts them. It’s a great source of exposure. Smaller bands can only benefit from it. I’m sure it helped us, and I know it has helped some of the other bands from our hometown (Between the Buried and Me, Codeseven, Beloved). I mean, some people don't want to go out and look for our stuff. But with the Internet, we can put our music out there and people listen. We come here, and there are people who know the lyrics to our songs, some of those people had to have gone to our mp3.com site. note: Someone walks up and asks Jay to autograph his CD booklet. bst: How does that make you feel when people ask for autographs? Jay: It’s really weird, but it’s humbling. It’s great to see people love our music that much. bst: So, what is the real story behind the cancellation of the show you guys were supposed to play here in September? Jay: A couple of shows got cancelled on the West Coast, and we essentially got stuck out there. Bands pulled out. Without playing shows, we were losing money fast. We didn’t play any shows for five days straight, and we decided that we would have to drive straight home or else we wouldn’t have the money to get back. We felt bad about it, but we are trying to make up for it with this tour. bst: Thanks a lot for taking your time to speak with us. note: Jay made sure to mention that hopesfall should be back around April, as part of the tour with Every Time I Die. listen to .hopesfall. .hopesfall. official site