Love Letter
Claire Campbell understands. She sees the opportunities for her band;
she sees the potential for her audiences. In the year since Hope For
Agoldensummer released the debut album I Bought a Heart Made of Art
in the Deep, Deep South, the local group has - thanks to an adamant
refusal to limit itself and to adhere to strict expectations - relentlessly
expanded its fanbase and its touring range. For the first time, the band has plans to head out of the Southeast. June will see a small East Coast tour, through Philadelphia and up to New York, and in July, the band heads through the Midwest. "I really just can't wait to get out of town, and out of the Southeast," says Claire. "Because it's so fun to be on the road! It's my social life. It feels good to play for new faces. It's hard to explain. I'm never nervous to book shows with punk bands or whoever, because somehow we kind of appeal across the board. I mean, good music's good music. Even if you're a hardcore anti-country person, a good country song's a good country song." In late summer, Hope For Agoldensummer heads to California as well as to Montreal, Canada for a new international festival called Pop Montreal. Hope For Agoldensummer also plans to start a full-time national campaign promoting I Bought A Heart. The band has sold approximately 1,400 copies of its independent release, currently on its third full pressing; though the group has flirted, says Claire, with labels like Warm, Daemon and Red Eye, plans are to keep everything in-house, although they're getting help booking shows from Jimmy Hughes (Fairmount Fair, Elf Power). "The fact is that national promotion's really, really expensive," she adds, "and as far as labels go, we're not interested in anything right now where they can't help us on promotion. So we'll see where things go." Most bands in town tend to stick within the safety zone of known quantities. The hard rock bands play the same clubs with other hard rock bands, the jam groups noodle in the same clubs, the punks, although in theory open to different music, still end up sharing gigs with other punk acts. Hope For Agoldensummer bucks that trend, acknowledging that most people eager to see live music have broad tastes. "When I go see a show," says Claire, "if it's three pop bands or three rock bands, for instance, I tend to get bored for a while, even if they're really good. So at our shows, I like to mix it up." And the benefits aren't only limited to an audience's perspective. "As a performer, [playing with a variety of bands] opens up huge possibilities for collaboration between bands, like somebody just jumping up on-stage to help out with a band," she says, referencing her band's Valentine's Day performance with abrasive math rockers We Versus the Shark, where the bands united to cover Outkast's "Happy Valentine's Day." "It'd be really unexpected… you learn each other's songs. I listen to all my friends' albums all the time, and so I come up with harmonies and stuff for their songs in my head. And if they ask me up on-stage, I get to get everything that's in my head out in front of an audience." For art to wholly succeed, it must appeal to more than one aspect of what it means to be human. Heavier local bands - Jucifer, for instance - appeal on an emotional and physical level, but leave little for the intellect. Then there are the more risk-taking artists like Paul Thomas, whose music often appeals solely to the intellect but lacks a resonating core. I Bought a Heart covers all corners; it is compelling on a physical level, as the songwriters understand the need for music to possess a visceral aspect, and the way Taylor bows his cello low, for example, affects a primal desire. Hope For Agoldensummer's music is also intellectually challenging; the band's songs are interesting, surprising and discriminating. The bag of tricks from which the musicians pull is full and wide-ranging, and there's a lot that goes on in each song. The music is emotional without being maudlin, honest without being tritely sentimental. The power of Davis' guitar walkabouts are just as full of pathos as any of the words that erupt from the Campbell sisters' throats. And in addition to being physical, intellectual and emotional, the music on I Bought a Heart resonates on a higher, overarching plane - simply put, it has soul. And hell, maybe it even has a soul, that's how vivid it is, how honest. It's completely human music. "Well, it's nothing we were specifically aiming for," says Claire, "but I guess nobody wants to write music that's so personal that nobody can relate to it. I mean, that person might be in the audience! But I do think that any good writing needs to touch on universal things, and I think we all do that." While I Bought a Heart is truly powerful album, it's live and in front of an audience where the band truly shines. Whether in a cappella performances, in fragile ballads or in thundering marches, the affection for music the bandmembers hold is evident. Claire naturally falls into an exultant pose when she performs, head tilted, her voice aiming far beyond her crowd. Page has small feet that she likes to stomp loudly and a big voice that seems to course through her. Davis is nothing less than an ancient blues guitarist; it's easy to forget that there's no cigarette dangling from her lip, a Mississippi Delta in her background. Shepard is restrained in the execution of his percussion, but his ideas seem manic, unpredictable and surprising. It's Taylor's cello that both anchors and lifts Hope For Agoldensummer. Without it, they'd be an interesting band; with it and the way it interlaces and accents every song, they are unique. When talking to each other on-stage and in practice, Claire and Page have an affinity for smuggling hip hop language into otherwise straightforward sentences. It's easy for a pair of white girls dropping urban lingo to come across as ironic and insecure about their own passions; it's not like that for the Campbell sisters. Their banter leaves the impression that at the core of the two women is a pure love of language and its multiple possibilities for expression. It's rare for performers to exist so comfortably within themselves, and that something like usage of the word "yo" can communicate both playfulness and sincerity is satisfying. It's also indicative of a willingness to try something - anything - to express a point of view in the most precise way possible, a Campbell strength that shows up in their music. Should this be a violin or slide whistle part? Do we try this on piano or on banjo? Fuck it, toss a kazoo in the mix as well. More than anything, it's passion for sound that characterizes the music of Hope For Agoldensummer. "We've always been a musical family," explains Claire. "My father played in an R&B-type cover band - still does - weddings and stuff, that kind of thing. My mother doesn't play piano anymore, but she used to. So we've always been comfortable around each other and around music." And that comfort level isn't particular to the Campbell sisters - it extends to the entire ensemble. If it serves the song, Claire will walk over to Page's guitar to beat on it for a while as her sister strums. If it serves the song, Taylor and Davis will trade parts in the switching guitar and cello roles. The members of Hope For Agoldensummer are at a particularly interesting point in their careers. The band has established a strong and loyal audience, but not one that's yet reached its natural peak. Groups in town that specialize in a specific genre - reggae band Dubconscious, for instance, or bluegrass acts like 16 Tons - seem to have maxed out local potential in terms of people willing to get off the couch. Any one thing can have only a limited amount of people interested in it after all, right? That's not the case for Hope For Agoldensummer, and if there is a specific capacity point for Athenians who fall for the music, well, that point's still somewhere down the line; the band has seen constant, consistent crowd growth. "Our fans are really, really great," says Claire. "It's not just that they show up and everything, but sometimes I feel like they're family too. One big, weird Hope family." In the year since I Bought a Heart's release, word about the band
has primarily spread through that family - there's been some press
here and there, nothing major, but most reviews have been almost uncomfortably
breathless. Hope For Agoldensummer has up to this point been a word-of-mouth
band. They're the standout track of a mix tape, the catalyst for a
conversation's pause and the question, "Wait, who is this we're
listening to?" By creating intensely personal music, the band's
created an intensely personal relationship with its audience, and
like the best record your 15-year-old self ever heard, I Bought a
Heart becomes something to keep and to share and to give. All music
is a balance between silence and sound, and right now Hope For Agoldensummer
sits at the fulcrum, all aspects finely proportioned. WHO: Hope For Agoldensummer, Liz Durrett, Telegram |
