New Hope Club

Words by Sara Salamat

Photography by Emma Sophia Valles

Sara got a chance to meet up with the New Hope Club boys before their sold-out headlining show at the famous Troubadour. She sat down with Reece, Blake, and George a couple of hours before showtime and chatted about the songwriting process, reflecting on how much they’ve accomplished.

Okay, I have to start with this question: Have you guys seen Rocketman?

Blake: No.

Reece: No.

George: I have!

So, you know that one Troubadour scene? How cool is it seeing that in theatres, knowing that a legend like Sir Elton John played here almost 50 years ago and now you guys sold out a show here?

George: So like, when it was in the cinema, obviously I don't really know a lot about Elton John, but watching that film was great. And I saw that he played the Troubadour, and I was sitting next to my mum and I was like "We're playing there! We're playing there!"

It must be surreal you know? To see that and then you're like "Oh sht. That's our name up there." But speaking of seeing your name up here, how do you feel about selling out the venue?"

Reece: It's mad yeah. Obviously, when we put on the tickets we did not think it was going to sell out. It's pretty cool and like...it feels good. You know we came here to watch a friend, Bea Miller and she came on stage and was like “We sold out the Troubadour!” And I was like that'd be so cool⁠—if one day we could do that. And finally, it happened!

It's a big deal because it's the first venue before you start playing the bigger ones too.

Reece Yeah, I think The 1975 played here?

Yeah! It was years ago. They're awesome.

George: They're great.

I know you guys are known for your covers as well, so if you could perform one live duet with any like any of your covers who would you pick?

Blake: Well, we did a Beatles medley, so I guess that would be it!

Did you guys, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr perform together the other night at Dodger Stadium?

Reece: Yeah!

George: Yeah, that was so cool.

Can you tell us anything with upcoming music maybe? Any features that you might have?

Blake: Yes. We have two features coming out which is really exciting because we've never really featured on something before, so it's quite fun for us to try something new. The songs are quite summery and I think we just wanted to try something different, you know?

For sure. You get to tell your own story when you write, which is really cool. So, because you guys started young, do you ever feel pressure in this kind of career?

George: I don't think so. I think we were young and so we needed to gain the experience and put ourselves in situations with professional people.

Reece: We were like 15 when this started, and now I feel like we've got a grasp on it. We know what we want to write about. We know the kind of music we want to make. Now we can start making the final decisions, and then start writing songs together and get in the studio to get it done.

Do you write lyrics first or do you guys start jamming in the studio and go from there?

George: It can happen either way. Someone could have a title or lyric in their notes, and someone else has a guitar riff on voice notes, so you can take both of those into a [studio] session like, "Oh, I've got this cool idea". Sometimes, the song turns out completely different than how we expected them to. The end products are sometimes good and sometimes they could be better.

Blake: Honestly we do both.

Yeah, do you see that Eagles poster over there? The guy in the middle is Glenn Frey. He used to room with Jackson Browne, an incredible songwriter. There's this famous quote that he told him and it was "You're going to write a lot of bad songs, but eventually you might write a good one." You know what I mean? Trial and error.

George: You never know, you know? You just keep writing songs.

Blake: I think that’s important, to be able to keep on writing and knowing you’re going to have some bad ones.