Berlin avant-garde four-piece, HOPE, have plenty of admirers – from Bauhaus, Idles and Algiers to US producer Gordon Raphael. Depeche Mode are also fans and they were recently supporting the English synth-pop legends in Tauron Arena, Krakow.
…we just sent off our music to them – we didn’t hear anything until 3 months later when they contacted us and said they’d like us to accompany them on the road.
HOPE start their set with Raw, the third song from their self-titled debut album. It’s a marvellous marriage of restrained guitar and doomy keys that has echoes of the creeping dread of Radiohead’s Climbing up the Walls, the twist comes with lead singer Christine Börsch-Supan’s vocal style and delivery, oozing dark unrestrained sexuality and longing – “I got my teeth in your shoulder, got my teeth in your shoulder.”
On Cell, the unapologetic physicality of the lyrics again comes at us – “hands off my scars, you won’t lay your fingertips on these stitches tonight”. Fittingly, their debut was recorded by Olaf Opal (The Notwist) in the remains of an abandoned lung sanatorium. It’s as intriguing as it is unsettling.
Of course there will be comparisons with Portishead, particularly Beth Gibbons, but there’s something else going on here quintessentially German – clinical, unsentimental, brutally efficient and with a dark sense of betrayal and mistrust coagulating in its blood. New single Osmosis points to the direction of the forthcoming new album, stripped down but with an incessant groove that claws at your bruised heart.
“All of my shame is one word” confesses Börsch-Supan on Shame – “it still burns.” There’s a chilling candour to the delivery here and the band’s goosebump-inducing music is the perfect canvass for the vocal’s lithe paintbrush. Together it all coalesces into a thick dark cloak to either swaddle your lover in, or pull around the operating table as the incision is made. Affirmation of their talent comes when the Depeche Mode-loving crowd clap along enthusiastically much to the unfettered joy of Börsch-Supan. I have a lot of respect for these fans; too often I’ve seen fine support bands come undone by a distracted audience that gives the cold shoulder rather than the respect they deserve. Not tonight.
The band conclude with their nightmarish opus Kingdom, a curdled relationship, a twisted thought, a Grimm-like post-truth tale of desire, longing, rejection. “no don’t touch me don’t touch me.” It’s disconcerting yet mesmeric. Really looking forward to the band’s new album and what HOPE have up their sleeve. The future is bright.
HOPE: An Interview with Kraków Music conducted by Shaun O’Neill
I got a chance to sit down with some members of Berlin-based four-piece HOPE before their opening slot for Depeche Mode in Tauron Arena, Krakow, on Friday 4th August.
Christine – vocal
Phillip – guitar
Martin – keys
Fabian – drums
Shaun: How did you get to support the behemoths of dark synth-pop on this leg of their European tour?
Phillip: Yeah we just sent off our music to them – we didn’t hear anything until 3 months later when they contacted us and said they’d like us to accompany them on the road.
Shaun: That’s the stuff of rock and roll dreams! What a story. What’s been the highlight so far?
Fabian: Well, just last night in Warsaw when we played the song “Shame” the crowd just started clapping spontaneously and that was quite a moment for us.
Shaun: Have you adapted your live set in any way to cater for a primarily Depeche Mode-loving audience?
Phillip: No we didn’t change really. Of course the set is shorter but we’ve never played shows this big for like 70,000 people and this is really incredible – meeting people from all over the world who are travelling to see Depeche Mode, but who will also have an opportunity to listen to our music. Live, we just keep doing what we’ve always done.
Shaun: Let’s go back to the beginning. How did the band start?
Phillip: We are trained jazz musicians and we were all studying together. I was walking to a class and Christine and Fabian shouted after me – hey we started a band – do you want to join? And that was it. Initially, Christine started to write jazz-style numbers with German lyrics. In 2014 we made a record that was discarded but we released one single from it and that was the start of things. We knew we had something from that point.
Shaun: Your self-titled album was released in 2017, and you have a new album on the way this year. How is it different musically and conceptually from the debut album?
Phillip: It’s a record from covid. It leaves out a lot of drama. It’s more reduced. It wasn’t a concept as such as Christine wrote the songs and we put the music around it. Mentally we returned to the cave – it’s more introverted.
Shaun: What about the song writing process? How does it look?
Phillip: I might write a guitar riff/Fabian a drum beat and then Christine might write a song based on that or just compose a song on her own that we construct music around.
Shaun: How does that great city of Berlin inform your music – does it frustrate and inspire equally?
Phillip: We don’t really belong to a Berlin “Scene”. It’s a grey area. There are pluses and minuses to that.
Fabian: Berlin is a great place to meet people. It was a central point for gathering together. Many people helped us hone our sound in the city and this was a great help.
Shaun: Were you going for a different sound on the new album? You are still working with the same producer, Olaf Opal, on this right?
Phillip: Yes, he’s amazing. This time we went to a smaller space to record it. Olaf is a master of hearing and understanding what’s important. He doesn’t add anything to the music necessarily, but his contribution is vital.
Shaun: Is there any new music that is inspiring you?
Phillip: I love the new Kendrick Lamar album! I listen to a lot of hip hop.
Fabian: There’s so much great music out there today so it’s hard to choose.
Shaun: I know – there really is and I don’t agree with anyone who says that modern music is in some way poorer than that of the past. You just need to scratch the surface.
Have you any advice for younger bands who are starting off and trying to get a break?
