HOPE OF THE STATES ///
TEXT AND PHOTO ARYE DWORKEN ///
DATE JULY 22, 2004 ///

It is pouring a relentless rain in New York City. As I get to the Thirty Thirty Hotel in Midtown Manhattan, where Hope Of The States is staying, I am stressed out, tardy, and drenched. Upon entering the caf?© of the hotel, I meet the five members of the unfortunately abbreviated H.O.T.S. and begin to talk about, of all the clich?©d topics, the weather. "Eh, we're used to it," says the low octave-voiced lead singer, Sam Herlihy. "This isn't really rain."

If Sam means that metaphorically speaking, well then he's right. The Chichester quintet has indeed seen gloomier days than this one. While recording their debut album, The Lost Riots (Epic), at Peter Gabriel's Real World studio, their guitarist (and Sam's best friend), Jimmi Lawrence, hanged himself from a wooden beam, without a note or an explanation. To this day, the lot still can't figure out the reason for this tragedy. After all, they had a great deal to be optimistic about; their band had significant buzz off of their independently released epic single "Black Dollar Bills;" they were pursued by and signed to Sony UK; and, furthermore, they were in the midst of recording Riots with Ken Thomas, the man behind Sigur Ros's glacier-esque beauty. Nevertheless, despite the promising future, Lawrence opted out and Hope Of The States were off to a heartbreaking beginning.

While losing a founding member is enough to discourage creativity, the band collectively decided to move on and bring their Hope to the world. And it has only just begun. The night before our interview, the group played their first live show in America.

H.O.T.S.' self-described 'psychopathic rock 'n' roll' at the Bowery Ballroom evoked the climaxing orchestral maneuvers of Godspeed You Black Emperor!, accompanied by the rousing pomposity reminiscent of The Verve. Their songs' lyrics were rife with bumper sticker sentiments ("keep your friends closer/your enemies won't matter in the end," "all the money in the world won't save you") and disillusioned political attacks ("fairy tales for lying cheats/they're lashing out"). Throughout the night, haunting visuals and synchronized animation were projected in the background (again, much like Godspeed) creating a full-on experience for the attention deficient.

Now, the day after the States are introduced to the States, Sam sits before me with his weathered eyes and oily brown hair - the appearance of someone who's been up for days. He admits that they were nervous before getting onstage, but in the end, felt confident with their performance. We sat down to talk to this band about coming to the States and where they hope to go next.

Is this your first time in the City?
Simon: As a band, yes. This is our first show in America. We just did our biggest headlining gig in Camden at the Electric Ballroom where we had people crowd surfing during acoustic songs. We've never had that before.

Your sixth member of the band is a violin player -
Mikey: I met these blokes in college after I answered an ad for a violin player. I'm not from the same town as them [Chichester]. I'm the only member of the band from Manchester.

Did you guys grow up on the Britpop? A lot of critics compare the sound of a band like The Verve to yours.
Sam: In my house, we listened to Captain Beefeheart and Tom Waits growing up. I'd like to think that they're the most influential. But most of us, like all British youth, followed a healthy dose of Britpop. But we did really enjoy the Verve and Richard Ashcroft, so it's a good comparison.

All the vocalists you mentioned are unconventional singers. People say that your vocals are also unconventional-not necessarily polished, ya' know?
Sam: Well, we never listened to the Beatles in my house. It was singers like Syd Barrett. My dad thought that listening to the Beatles when he was a kid was like listening to Britney Spears. So I had unconventional examples.

So without rolling your eyes, your music feels to me really heartfelt, both lyrically and musically.
Sam: Now, why did you say that? 'Rolling your eyes?' Why would we roll our eyes? We were afraid of being sincere because people would think we were being trite but then we realized what's wrong with being heartfelt?

Nothing. I'm all for heartfelt. I commend that aspect of your band.
Sam: Thank you. I think that sounded heartfelt.

Your previous guitarist, Jimmy, killed himself just a few months ago. You mention that these songs were written years before but the words seem like samples of dialogue in a conversation with someone who is suicidal-"keep your friends close..."
Sam: Each song is about 500 different things. Each line references its own thing. I would hate for people to associate our songs with depressing subjects. It's very far from what we had in mind.

But a lot of your lyrics are political. Are you getting labeled as such? Take the song, "The Red, The White, The Black, The Blue."
Simon: I read an article about us that said that we are a political band but without the smoke and mirrors.
Sam: That song in specific is not literally 'Bush is a cunt, Blair is a cunt but it's a rant against apathy. Screaming at myself more than anything to stand up and do something. I also think the song is about flags - there's something quite beautiful about someone waving a flag. And now there's such a backlash against that because there's this need to rebel against the government. Your political resentment should have nothing to do with your land itself.

Do you consider yourself proud of your country?
Sam: Well, I love my home. It's where my friends are from. I have a rock band there. There's a lot of things fucked with the world but we still have great things happening in our immediate world.

Is this feeling of disillusionment a band feeling or is it Sam's personal feeling?
Mike: Yes, I would think we all feel the same. Even being from a different city, I can say the sentiments are the same. Don't you find that everyone regardless of where they live feels disillusioned?

True. I guess that's accurate. Have you all seen Fahrenheit 9/11 yet?
Simon: I can't understand why people are surprised by it. If you've been following the news all along, then nothing should be a surprise.
Sam: You know, that movie came out at a perfect time and obviously, that was intentional. But this time, with the election coming up, this is a very tense time. That's why people are labeling us as being political. It wasn't a conscience decision to be like a Rage Against The Machine. We're not militant. That's how we were interpreted. I won't fight it because if that's what you want to see, well, that's a good thing.

Considering what the press says about Hopes Of The States, were you surprised that the major labels were interested? In the UK, you're signed to Sony and here you're signed to Epic.
Anthony: Yes, we were very surprised. We sent it out thinking it would be piled on an ignored stack of demos.
Sam: We first sent it out to Constellation which is Godspeed's [You Black Emperor's] label but we never heard back from them. That band is so influential on us. When they played a show in England, Efrem, [lead composer of Godspeed] started giving a political speech and the audience started yelling, "fuck you." And he kept on talking. Then one guy yells, 'John Kerry for President' and he says back, 'no you don't get it. It's just going to be the same thing.' But that's what you get when you see a Godspeed show. I mean, you're not going to see Oasis.

Is there ever a concern that when this album comes out in the States, people will think that you're criticizing us and looking down on America?
Sam: Yeah. We hope its not seen as criticism of America. It's a criticism of everyone including myself. Our first show here went really well.
Simon: If you haven't heard us before - which a lot of people from last night did not because the album is not out here yet - people come to shows and expect packaged songs with a verse/chorus formula. I can only assume that our music is a bit of a headfuck.

Do you mind when I bring up Jimmi in this interview?
Sam: We know people are going to ask us about him. How could they not? And we do miss him terribly. But it was his dream, as well as ours, to be in this band so we kept recording, we kept playing.

Again, the songs and lyrics were written before his suicide but when you play the songs now and when you sing them, do they take on a new potency or a new relevance?
Sam: I don't want to make this amazing thing that I see as a hopeful and positive message and then mix it up with a tragic thing like Jimmi. I want to keep the two things completely separate. The album is dedicated to him but the songs and lyrics are not. The songs belong to us and the people who listen to them. Their optimism and their hope. The songs are for them. ///