In this interview, we speak with Swedish alternative pop collective A Hope For The Future about their newest project, influences & motivations, and more.
Full Q&A, links, and a stream of Peace below.
Let’s dive a little deeper into You, the artist and your music. What attracted you to this genre(s) or style(s)?
As a 5-piece band we have always had a diverse musical range and interests which is not always easy to combine. However we feel that within this genre we all connect and have similar taste and it really fits well creative wise. We will probably never be dead set on a specific genre even though we will always be within the indie field we don’t feel restrained to repeat the same style over and over.
How long have you been creating and sharing your music with the public?
We formed the band 2013 when us as members crossed paths in Barcelona, Spain. We released our first demos in 2013 and then our first two singles “Loaded Gun” and “Moontrips” in 2014. We played a few shows in Sweden that same year and followed it up with the release of our first EP “Catalonia in 2015”
Who or what influences your playing and/or writing? Also, what motivates you to keep going?
Our influences are several and from a very wide range of music styles, everything from Massive Attack to Fleetwood Mac and Coctau Twins. We try to gather as much influences as we can and make our own mark and personal style which lands somewhere in the landscape of modern indie pop with 80’s and 90’s influences. The writing is a mix of self lived experiences as well as dreams, imagination and a general observation of the world around us. Our motivation to keep going is that we feel like we always evolve and learn new things and we have so many songs yet to be released that show even more of our range as a band.
Were you trying to accomplish anything specific on this new project? Creatively or otherwise?
With this new release “Peace” we wanted to show our listener base a more up-tempo and playful track whilst keeping with a mellow and quite dramatic lyrical content revolving around the never ending theme of love and difficult relationships.
What was the last song you listened to?
M83 – Reunion
Which do you prefer? Vinyl? CDs? MP3s?
Listening-wise vinyl is very nice but as a band sprung out of the new modern era we are extremely happy about how easy accessible music is nowadays and we probably listen mostly though MP3s or even streaming.
How about this one…. Do you prefer Spotify? Apple Music? Bandcamp? Or something else? Why?
Being from Sweden we have to be quite partial here and say Spotify, also because they revolutionized the way we listen to music today and they keep evolving their service and let unknown bands have great ways to get their music out.
Other than the digital era overwhelming us with access to an abundance of music, what are one or two of the biggest challenges you face when trying to attract listeners to your music?
As we mentioned earlier we are extremely excited to live in the era where we as an unknown band can get our music out in such an easy and accessible way to the whole globe. The hard part is cutting though all the noise and attracting listeners to our music. In this sense, blogs and music writers are great ways to get listeners to find us, so for that we are very thankful.
Do you gig, tour or perform? Do you ever live stream? Where can music lovers see you live?
This year we have not had any gigs as of yet due to the fact that we have been in the studio recording two songs, “Peace” being the first release and then another indie rock song coming later this fall/winter. For the time being we are mostly doing shows in our native of Sweden, but hopefully we will broaden our horizons as we find more listeners worldwide
Where is the best place to connect with you online? Discover more of your music?
You can find us on basically any social media and where we are most active is our Facebook page. Below are some links:
Any last thoughts? Shout outs? Words of wisdom?
To all new and upcoming bands out there, don’t hesitate to rock on and get out there with your music, you never know what might happen! We never thought we would even have 1 listener when we started 3 years ago!
