Signs of Hope consists of; Paul on vocals, drummer Mario, Evan and Jon on guitars and bassist Pat.
“Hailing from Southern Connecticut, Signs of Hope is a fast and energetic old school hardcore band with a touch of melody. The band was formed in September of 2003 with the intention of playing straight to the point songs loaded with sing-a-longs, mosh parts, and an overlaying positive message. The band’s demo quickly earned them a reputation as one of Connecticut’s premier acts. The ability to establish themselves as a home state headliner off a six minute demo reflects Signs of Hope’s capability to resonate with fans and win the hearts of the hardcore scene. Now these guys have 2 releases out on Detonate Records and have toured half of the globe!”-Taken from the bands Bio on Detonate Records.
This interview was done via-email with the vocalist Paul.
Tyler: How did Signs of Hope start and what made you decide the bands name?
Paul: 10 years ago when I was 16 years old, me and a friend named Chaz decided we wanted
to start a band. We were picking through band names and Signs Of Hope came into mind, as soon as I said it out loud there was an instant “yes!” reply from Chaz so that was it. There was no particular reason we just wanted a name that the two of us liked and agreed on. That was three years before we cut our demo and Chaz has actually never played in the band.
T: Can you tell us a little bit of history about the band?
P: Sure, I started writing songs in year 2000 and finally pieced together a lineup to record our demo in 2003. We started playing shows, started touring, changed some members, toured some more, wrote a new record, changed some members, did some more touring, then even more touring, then we finished another record and changed more lineups and kept on touring. We have actually never toured twice with the same lineup. Not that I like it that way but that’s how it is. It’s too hard to keep the same five people dedicated to touring in a band where they make no money and they can’t always get time off from their jobs neither.
T: Signs of Hope has toured all over covering, Belgium, Costa Rica,England, France, Germany, Sweden and so much more. Why haven’t you guys been to Canada yet?
P: We have! I just forgot to update the list! [Laughs] I got it up there now. We did a couple of weeks in November and December. We almost made it all the way out to Newfoundland but the ferries were canceled because of the weather. So we got to do a few shows in Ontario, a few in Quebec, and a couple in Nova Scotia. We missed two in NFL, one in PEI and one in NB cause we just went home when the ferry was canceled opposed to hanging around with five days off to play two more shows.
T: How does the touring experience differ from place to place?
P: It all depends on what you have to work with. When we play the US and Canada we take my van. When we played Tijuana Mexico we walked across the border with our equipment and walked all the way to the venue. When we toured in Central America we flew in to Costa Rica and worked our way all the way up to Guatemala by taking public transportation from city to city. Sometimes we would just be sitting at bus terminals for hours in third world countries with all of our equipment, looking really out of place, and we would have no clue if the show promoters were even coming to pick us up and bring us to the places where we were supposed to play. There’s always other methods of touring though [laughs]. We got some good experiences though!
T: With all that touring, how do you guys keep busy traveling?
P: I do all the driving [laughs] so I’m never bored, when we used buses and I didn’t have the option to drive I just slept on the bus. When we get to cities early we just look for places to screw around at and kill some time, or places of interest. other times we have things we need to accomplish like if someone needs to go to the doctor, or if someone needs to find somewhere to use the internet because of something important they have to do online.
T: What’s the craziest thing to happen to you guys yet?
[Laughs, pauses thinking] uhhh… I don’t know, there’s a lot of crazy things we’ve done but the craziest to happen to us? Alright a drunk bum in Costa Rica tried to bum change from me and I turned it around and got him to give me his change, then he pulled a knife on my band members and chased them while I was yelling “stab them!, stab them!” they were so fucking scared! I knew he wasn’t going to stab them because I was outside bullshitting with him for 20 minutes before they came outside and got “attacked” so I had a pretty good read on him [laughs]!
T: On your site it says you guys have been featured on “100,000 compilations”. How does it feel to know your music is well received?
P: Well I can’t guarantee that all 100,000 copies made it to listeners and that every single one of them liked our song on there. But I do feel that our music is well received when kids are singing along in places we have never played before and it is a great feeling. But yeah, the compilations are just a form of promotion that we had to pay for and I’m not exactly sure how great of an effect it really had. But it’s cool to be on there because I found a ton of great bands from compilation cd’s when I was younger.
T: The band just released Choices Made how much time was set aside to record and write new material for it, and where was it recorded?
P: We recorded it at Dexter’s Lab in Connecticut. The studio is nearby so we just took our time in small sessions over the course of a couple of months rather then having 1 time slot for a few days straight. As for the writing, I never set aside writing time so most of the material was just accumulated in my head over the course of years and finally brought to life.
T: Can you tell us about the feel of the album, how it differs from
previous releases?
P: Its a little heavier and a little more melodic then our first record. We were a four piece until late 2005 when a fill in guitarist didn’t leave the band after a tour and stayed as a second guitarist. Since we became a five piece the writing changed accordingly so that we made use of both guitars, which is the reason for the slight change in sound from the first album.
T: Do you feel the album portrays the band well, that it’s what the band was aiming for musically?
P: Yes and no, I think we played everything too slow on the recording, at least that’s how it seems when I listen back to it now after being too familiar with how we sound live. I was happy with the pace at the time of the recording though. As for the recording itself… if I can go back in time I would definitely record elsewhere. I was never happy with that recording at all, But it sounds good! I just had better visions for it.
T: That’s all I’ve got anything else or any shout outs?
P: Yeah! Shout outs to my favorite band from your area, Envision. Check them out if you haven’t already. Thanks again for the interview too. Hopefully we can (make it out there soon).
Follow these links to check out SIGNS OF HOPE and XenvisionX!
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