Words By: Sophie Gurwitz
We sat down with Reece, Blake, and George, of the breakout UK pop trio, New Hope Club, to chat about their recent double releases “L.U.S.H” and “Walk It Out,” and to talk about everything coming with the latest New Hope Club era. Since the release of their first EP Welcome to the Club, back in 2017, the band has since culminated almost 1.5 million monthly listeners, and over 2 billion streams across their full discography. They’ve climaxed with a top 5 debut album in the UK, and have headlined shows around the world, with UK, US, Europe, and Asia.
Describe Lush in 3 words
Urgent, intimidating, saucy
What is your favorite song you’ve written and why?
Blake: There's a song that we wrote that we played live which is on the new album. I don't know if it's my favorite song, but it really captures our relationship with each other. It's just very fun sounding and there's a lot of imperfections in it which for me makes it more perfect.
George: My favorite is probably “Getting Better”, I think that one started the whole project for us, it encapsulates what this whole album is embodying.
Reece: I think my favorite song to write and record was “Walk It Out”. It was just one of the last songs we wrote on the project and I just remember the whole day was really fun, everyone was throwing ideas around and everything was working out, it was just a really fun song to write.
If you could only listen to one song for the rest of your life what would it be and why?
Blake: I feel like they’re all going to get a bit annoying after a while, but I’m gonna go with “How Deep Is Your Love,” by Bee Gees.
Reece: I’m gonna go for one that has a lot of different parts. I think “A Day In The Life” [by The Beatles] would be good because it's not gonna get old very quickly, there's different sections.
George: I think I’d go “September” by Earth Wind and Fire
How would you describe this new era of New Hope Club?
Reece: For us I think we’ve been asked a lot about the change in our sound and how New Hope Club’s changed. I don't think it's really a change, it's just us getting back to who we are. Instead of changing and figuring that out we wanna do what's more real. We didn’t write every song on the first record and we’ve been very open about that, but this second record is completely written by us. I think the only change in the new era is that it's more real and more personal than ever.
Your sound has evolved immensely since the release of your debut album 2020, how would you describe your sound today vs. the sound of your debut album?
Blake: The sound on the first album was a good sensation of walking into the industry at 15 years old. We worked with a lot of great and talented people, but that probably wasn’t great for consistency. The first album was a collection of the best songs that summed us up at the time, but this new period is very honest and very real. We didn’t want to hold anything back.
If you guys had to get matching tattoos, what would they be?
Blake: We actually want to get a #1 when we get our first number one song, or our little club logo.
You recently finished your U.S tour this summer. What was that like? What was your favorite moment?
George: That tour was amazing. Obviously we have not been able to play shows in the US for 3 years so it was so nice to come back out and see all the fans again. Every night on stage there's always that pinch me moment so we’re just very thankful for the fans.
Reece: It was our first real tour so it just felt like a celebration. The tour and gigs are the payoff for the work of creating the album.
Blake: It just always felt like such an electric feeling in the room.
Are there any artists you would like to tour with in the future?
Blake: We just did a run in Korea and met so many amazing K-Pop artists. I think jumping on a K-Pop tour at some point would be very fun.
Are there any pre-show routines you have?
Blake: Need a kettle, some honey, lemons, and ginger. That's crucial.
George: A beer.
Reece: A glass of red wine maybe. And then we get in a huddle and give ourselves a pep talk, and then three way high five.
Keep up with New Hope Club here.
Keep up with Sophie Gurwitz here.
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