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Interview: Hopes Die Last

Posted 03/01/2012 06:19AM by Jake Oliver as Interview

03/01/2012 06:19AM

Let’s get right down to it. Please tell our readers who you are and what you do in Hopes Die Last.

Daniele: Hi to all the readers! This is Daniele, the screamer of Hopes Die Last.

So you guys have just released Trust No One. What’s the response been like so far?

Daniele: Well... first impressions are positive, sales are surprisingly going well, and we are very satisfied. I really want to say thanks to all our fans for their support. It’s sweet to see people still believing in music as a form of art that is worthy to be bought and not stolen or freely downloaded.

I saw on your Facebook page you have plans to tour in support of the record. Any updates on potential destinations or other bands on the bill?

Daniele: Yes, we are planning new tours to promote Trust No One, and I can already tell you in advance that Russia in May and Japan in June are some of the destinations.

I also read you toured the UK with Attack Attack! How was that?

Daniele: Yes, it happened last year. I still remember that tour as one of the coolest we’ve ever done. Touring with them has been insane. Attack Attack! are really nice guys and we’ve spent some quality and unforgettable time with them. Not to mention Bury Tomorrow; they are awesome kids.

Some of the song titles on Trust No One could be described as dense or perhaps have some kind of embedded meaning. Could you perhaps give us some insight into their meanings or what inspires you to come up with the names of your songs?

Daniele: Some titles come directly from the meaning of the lyrics and we only try to summarize it in a nice name, some others instead don’t have anything to do with the song itself, and there’s no deeper or hidden meaning behind them. Titles are chosen depending on whether we like the way they sound or not.

Do you see Trust No One as a step forward or a step in a different direction from your previous material?

Daniele: Trust No One is that kind of hard-won effort and high quality work that makes you feel more mature and one step further from the past. The type of work that makes you proud of yourself and clearly lights up all the mistakes or the missing things in your previous works. With this record we’ve decided to experiment as much as possible, in search of new musical boundaries, sometimes very far even from our genre. We know this can be risky; radical and unexpected changes can amaze as much as disappoint people, but we’re just curious and we hope to reach a lot of people all around the world and gain new fans, their respect, and their trust.

Who would you say are some of Hopes Die Last’s main influences?

Daniele: There are no bands in particular that are influencing us. The music background of each of us is pretty varied and we are now focusing on seeking a way to be unique and original. We have no role models, we just try to mash up all our personal tastes to find a good balance and put it into music.

Back to names. Hopes Die Last. What inspired it?

Daniele: I think I won’t be able to be exhaustive because the name was chosen years ago, before I joined the band. I only know that it has something to do with a common obsession which is to write always three words sentences/titles (Trust No One, Six Years Home, Air Raid Siren, Hopes Die Last etc..). It’s more an obsession rather than an against-bad luck ritual.

I’ve seen the tag post-hardcore thrown around a lot in reference to your band. Is this something that bothers you, or do you not pay any attention to that kind of stuff?

Daniele: We don’t care about the way people label us. We don’t do that to ourselves. The music we play is no particular genre for us; we just write what we like. If people want to call it post-hardcore, that’s fine. We are not bothered.

How about negative press? Is that easy to ignore?

Daniele: We care a lot about negative comments... if they are constructive ones and they can help us to become better musicians, not stupid fuss about our look! Thanks to that feedback, we understand what we do wrong and in what we don’t put enough attention. It’s a good way to mature, grow and improve as a band.

You guys are from Italy. What would you say the scene is like there for our readers who hail from different parts of the world?

Daniele: To be honest, the feeling that shows through here is quite depressing. It’s been a few years since our local music scene got inexorably stuck, or almost absent. It’s suffering the same crisis as all the rest of the fields in our country. Just a few daredevils have survived; they’ve never given up on their music and have kept working. But they are a few.

Okay, last question. Why the Katy Perry cover?

Daniele: Man, this is something we’re asked a lot. So here’s the truth: we’ve chosen to make a cover of Katy Perry because she has huge boobs. If it was the contrary we would have never chosen to make a cover of one of her songs, hahaha!