Last week, we spoke to New Hope Club ahead of their Road to the Empire fanfest tour about all things new music, touring and The Vamps. Here’s what George, Reece & Blake had to say:
You’ve just sold out all of your fanfest shows which is amazing, how excited are you to begin performing?
George: They start tomorrow which is very exciting, we can’t wait! We’ve got some new songs to play which we might actually post a snippet of today so you get a little idea of what the songs are going to sound like. Yeah we’re very excited, it’s going to be a lot of fun.
Essentially the fanfests are going to be like one big road trip for you guys, what songs are going to be on your road trip playlist?
Blake: Dreams by Fleetwood Mac.
Reece: It’s always different, our music taste changes all the time.
Blake: Right now, we’re really into Fleetwood Mac, the whole Rumours album is great.
George: Rex Orange County is great, just all of their songs, especially the Best Friends tune.
Reece: We’re really into a band called Band of Horses right now, they’re so good!
Speaking of road trips, from your Instagram’s I can see you’ve done a lot of travelling recently, which is the best place you’ve visited and why?
Blake: My favourite show of the tours was in Manila because it was just kind of crazy.
George: We did three shows there and they just got bigger and bigger – they were crazy.
Reece: I think the whole of the Asia tour because when we were planning it everyone from the label was like ‘yeah, we don’t know how well they’re gonna do’, you don’t know if a small amount of people will turn up, we didn’t know. Every show was sold out, it was like more than sold out, there were people around the mall watching, it was just insane.
George: There were people watching from inside restaurants, through the windows.
Does it feel different when the crowds get bigger? Is it more nerve-wracking?
Reece: I prefer it when there’s more people. The worst thing for me, and I think you two will agree, is playing to like three people. This right here would be the worst!
George: They’re looking into your eyes and you can’t really look anywhere else/
Reece: When there’s a bigger crowd, you can look over there and look there, it doesn’t really matter.
Can we expect to see anymore video diaries or even club cams from the fanfests?
Reece: Yeah definitely, 100%. Our videographer Josh Tanner is going to come on tour with us and film lots of good stuff and i’m sure that will be going up.
Blake: It’s going to start at rehearsal and then go on through the tour.
We did like the club cams you used to do, you should bring them back!
Reece: They’re old school now!
George: We might do, who knows.
All your fanfests are leading up to your two first headline shows at Shepherd’s Bush Empire, obviously a lot of fans are going to be there, so what do you want them to take away from the experience?
Reece: We just want them to have fun! New music is going to be played so we want them to enjoy that and get excited for the release. Hopefully there will be lots of dancing and they’ll go home sweating and in a hot mess!
Blake: Hopefully just smiling and wanting to come back.
Can you tell me a little bit about your new single Start Over Again and how it came about?
Blake: We actually wrote this a long time ago, maybe like two years ago.
Reece: We’ve been waiting to release it since we wrote it!
Blake: It’s all about first dates going really, really wrong and all the stuff you wish you didn’t do on the first date.
Reece: All the fans know it now.
Have you got a lot of experience from bad first dates then?
All: Yeah
George: In the video, you see all the stuff that goes wrong, and a lot does go wrong in that video. We love the video, it’s great!
If your year wasn’t busy enough already, you’re supporting The Vamps on tour again. What’s been your funniest memory you’ve had touring with The Vamps so far?
George: It’s gotta be the microphone stands!
Reece: They play a prank on us on the last show of every tour so on the last two tours it’s been our mics. They were tiny the first time and we came on stage not looking and they were all the way down. Then, the next tour they were ridiculously high up, way above our heads and we had to jump and get the mics.
George: You jumped and almost hit your head when you pulled it down!
Reece: So I released it, and it came shooting down and just about missed my face and I didn’t even know!
Surely that’s a bit of a hazard?
Reece: Yeah, we’re gonna have to sue them, take them to court!
George: I don’t know what they’re going to do this time, maybe no mic stands or a mic on the floor.
Reece: We’re just going to be stood there with no mics.
Are there any of The Vamps songs you wish you could have written for yourselves?
Reece: Yeah, we love The Vamps’ songs! They’re very talented writers, especially the new songs they’ve got coming out. They’re very, very good.
Blake: I really like Can We Dance or Wild Heart, they’re ones that get everyone jumping. They’re the fan favourites so to have something like that would be really cool.
If you could’ve been a member of any band past or present, which would you choose?
All: The Beatles
George: I would say Dire Straits but nah, I wouldn’t get in that one, not on guitar!
As well as your own concerts, are you seeing any other artists this year?
Reece: There’s a few festivals that look insane!
George: There’s the Catfish and the Bottlemen one with Blossoms on our Shepherd’s Bush show, it looks mad!
Reece: If it wasn’t on the day of our show we’d definitely be going to that.
Blake: We haven’t actually got any concerts booked.
Is there anyone you want to see?
Reece: We wanna see Paramore.
Blake: I wanna see John Mayer again.
George: John Mayer is good!
Reece: We’ve seen him in Nashville so it’s never going to be as good.
Blake: I just wanna see him again!
When you go on all these long tours, what do you miss the most about home?
Reece: Probably just family.
George: And pets!
Reece: My own bed, because there’s nothing like your own bed.
Blake: Just the usual stuff like chilling at home with my family.
Reece: My Xbox
George: My terrible Wi-Fi!
Reece: Yeah, George’s McDonald’s Wi-Fi, it’s literally so bad!
What is one thing about each of you that fans wouldn’t know and would be surprised to find out?
Reece: I had a Joe and the Juice today.
George: I had breakfast today.
Blake: I’m excited for the tour.
Reece: Blake had his haircut finally. The fans have been asking for that for a while so they’ll be happy to know that!
Keep your eyes peeled for the second half of this interview with New Hope Club on CelebMix where we ask them your questions and have a special video message from the guys for CelebMix readers!