The previous second album paradox. It’s plagued artists who’ve made a splash with their debut report so long as there have been debuts. Deliver extra of what put you the place you’re, or problem your self and ask those who cherished your first album to return alongside for the journey?
In the case of Minnesota’s Hippo Campus, it wasn’t only a profitable first LP — final 12 months’s Landmark — that they needed to dwell as much as, however a collection of addictive singles and EPs that preceded the full-length, courting again to 2014. Their components — lead with an insistent riff, roll in intelligent verses and bursting, sunny hooks that belied usually conflicted observations — proved rattling close to irresistible for a large, passionate and closely feminine fan base. But it additionally boxed them into one thing of a nook. Hippo Campus had achieved a signature sound, however when confronted with that sophomore fork within the highway, with the encouragement of their go-to producer BJ Burton (Bon Iver, Low), they veered left.
“BJ asked us, ‘Do you want to make another Hippo Campus record? Or do you want to make a record under the name Hippo Campus?’” recollects guitarist Nathan Stocker. “And that was an important distinction. Were we going to do what we were ‘expected’ to do, and maintain a certain sound? Or did we just want to be creative people, harvest what we can during this period of growth — and move forward?” The result’s Bambi, the boys’ sensational second album, out Friday (Sept. 28). While not a tough left — this isn’t MGMT doing Congratulations or Fleetwood Mac’s Tusk — it blows a gap in the concept this can be a one-trick Hippo. With a brand new embrace of synths, layers and nuance, it’s concurrently bolder and extra tender, with guitar jangle giving strategy to light grooves, and frontman Jake Luppen’s use of falsetto extra intensive and efficient than ever.
There’s no higher proof of the flip than the album’s title observe. Released final month and accompanied by a beautiful, Kyle Sauer-directed surrealistic video, “Bambi” is a soulful musing on “serving” oneself — opening as much as these closest to you — that’s particularly significant to the band. It’s named after Luppen’s aunt, whose cabin-styled lake home has figured prominently in Hippo Campus’ historical past, as a spot for writing, recalibrating, and mending fences when there was band strife occurring. Dealing with internecine rigidity — giving voice to papered-over points throughout the band and in Luppen’s personal romantic relationship — figures prominently on the report. Hippo Campus have by no means been shy about coping with “big” questions — rising up, masculinity, misogyny, divorce and even loss of life have all been explored in previous songs — however a Midwestern reticence for heart-on-the-sleeve sharing has stored Luppen, till now, from delving too deeply into relationships, of the large and small “r” varieties. That’s modified, on tracks like “Doubt,” “Honesty,” “Why Even Try” and a remarkably atmospheric, nearly post-rock opener “Mistakes.”
Ten days earlier than Bambi’s delivery, Hippo Campus got here to New York for promo and an intimate album preview gig. We sat down with the band’s “core 4” — Stocker, Luppen, bassist Zach Sutton, and drummer Whistler Allen, together with their de facto fifth member, horn participant DeCarlo Jackson — and simply as we started a wide-ranging dialog at Brooklyn watering gap Spuyten Duyvil, what track ought to come on, however Mott The Hoople’s ageless anthem “All The Young Dudes.” Perfect.
Guys, welcome. How completely different does the lead-up to this second album really feel? Jake, I noticed you lately evaluate it to having a second little one — that you recognize what to anticipate now.
Jake Luppen: I feel Landmark was a extremely massive studying course of for us. We spent a extremely very long time on it, like a 12 months and a half making it, and there was lots of second-guessing. So when this course of got here round, we wished to expedite issues, work faster, not second-guess ourselves. So this report was made in 4, 4 and a half months. We deliberately stored it shorter. I feel we simply discovered easy methods to use our time extra correctly. We knew easy methods to work with BJ. It was the second report we’d made with him, so we type of had a language established, and it was simply simpler to speak this time. The onerous stuff was actually simply balancing emotions and feelings throughout the band.
Was there a second the place you decided to take probabilities, use synths, be extra expansive, and never simply ship extra of what may need come to be thought-about the signature Hippo Campus sound?
Nathan Stocker: Yeah that was a factor. We spent these 4 months identical to going, going, going, and the music that we made we actually felt like mirrored us throughout that point. And that was what we would have liked to do to be most trustworthy with ourselves. To say, “This is us. We like this, and we need to do that.” Which is to not say we don’t love our previous sound, but it surely’s only a fixed factor of shifting ahead.
There’s lots of vibes on right here now we have by no means heard from you earlier than. That two-minute ending coda of “Passenger” would be the most stunning factor you’ve ever performed.
Zach Sutton: Oh thanks! That nearly received lower!
Stocker: Yeah there’s this bizarre technique of rejection, the place it’s a must to forcibly reject one thing that you just had earlier than — it’s like constructing muscle or one thing. And so with each track there’s an occasion the place one thing was rejected and one thing else got here out. And that had occurred loads throughout Landmark as properly, and [2017 EP] Warm Glow. But you’ve received to interrupt one thing all the way down to make it develop once more.
Sutton: We simply made a option to go a really completely different route, and make an album beneath the identify Hippo Campus. And so it wasn’t essentially, “What can we be to be totally different?” however extra like, “What does this song call for?” And the music we had been making was calling for a special sound.
Obviously while you make a major change, there are gonna be folks elevating issues, and sometimes these persons are on the label or administration facet. Do you guys expertise that?
Luppen: Yeah I feel now we have. But our standpoint on songwriting is I feel we would like folks to know us for nice songs. It’s by no means actually been in regards to the sound, it’s at all times been about nice songs. And that’s why I feel folks will perceive this report. Because sure, we’re experimenting sonically with what we’re doing, however I feel the integrity of the songs stay.
How has BJ’s position in making the information developed over time?
Luppen: It’s difficult, man.
Stocker: His position has utterly knowledgeable us on the way in which that we have a look at music now, and the way in which we have a look at studio work, the way in which that we work together with one another, and simply take into consideration palettes and every part.
Sutton: He’s actually pushed us. He has this nice talent set in getting you out of the consolation zone. And in that area you study a lot, and also you develop a lot sooner, since you’re compelled to make these choices. In that regard I feel he’s probably the greatest producers. And he additionally retains scrutinizing. He’s like, “Is this the best we can do? Is this the most creative thing we can do?”
You went off and wrote songs individually this time, then introduced them to the band, reasonably than hashing every part out collectively?
Luppen: Yeah, on Landmark there was lots of compromise, for certain. And I feel this time writing songs individually modified issues. We weren’t essentially compelled to compromise our concepts. Like one particular person might actually fulfill a imaginative and prescient.
Stocker: At least within the preliminary levels, earlier than issues received flipped round.
Whistler Allen: When we introduced them to the band they had been semi-considered considerably performed. And we type of fleshed them out a bit extra. But as quickly as we received them to BJ, or to the manufacturing stage, truly creating the album, they’d the potential for being very modified.
You’ve referred to as Bambi a extra introspective report. Which is attention-grabbing since you’ve talked about some heavy stuff in previous songs. Is it that this one is extra relationship-oriented?
Luppen: I undoubtedly would say it’s extra private. Being capable of write the songs individually I feel was a giant a part of that, the place you might actually get into that area.
Allen: I didn’t actually write any lyrics for this, but it surely looks as if the lyrics for this album are loads issues which might be occurring extra now and extra within the second, versus what has occurred in our lives up to now. We’re determining what’s occurring proper now.
Stocker: I’d say lots of the ideas on Bambi, they’re private, they usually mirror lots of what we’ve been going by means of as people, as a collective. But in addition they have for my part this sense of principled parts of humanity that we’re nonetheless coping with, as rising folks. Like, what does it imply to be in love? I imply Jake retains being pressed on this as a result of he’s been within the longest relationship, and that’s what “Doubt” offers with, and others, however “Why Even Try” — that one is extra consultant of a friendship that we had, and it asks, “if it’s broken, why try and fix it?” I feel one of many phrases we’ve used too is “relationship maintenance” and lots of what “relationship” is referring to in that phrase is us. So it’s very a lot inside us.
Sutton: I wish to assume we do an excellent job of checking in with one another, and doing that type of therapeutic course of among the many 5 of us. But these songs had been type of generally the primary time that we actually received to know what was occurring throughout the different particular person’s head. Because while you’re so shut as mates, you don’t essentially sit down and — you’d assume you’d open your coronary heart utterly, however while you’re musicians and continually touring and don’t have the time. And so one thing like “Bambi” may be the primary time that you just…
Stocker: Like, you don’t have time for that proper now.
“On to the next show, we’ll talk about it later” type of factor?
Stocker: Yeah, and that’s the place the problem of poisonous masculinity figures in, I feel, when it comes to simply holding issues in? And then we present a track to one another and we’re like, “What’s up, dude? Are you good? Are you mad at me?” You know?
Did that occur with any track specifically?
Stocker: I feel that it’s continually occurring. And it’s due to this tendency to maintain issues in, hold it bottled up, you recognize?
Hippo Campus is just not a band that lacks in feminine consideration. I imply I’ve seen you reside and I haven’t performed a gender rely of the gang, however…
Allen: I’ve seen the stats on Spotify. It’s very feminine, for certain.
So how do you assume that impacts the folks view the band, individuals who write about music, as an example?
Luppen: Yeah, properly I feel the trade as a complete — I imply there have been so many articles written about this…
Allen: It’s like there’s a regulation the place it’s like, “We’re not allowed to like a band whose fan base is like 90 percent female” or one thing like that.
Sutton: Like, “That’s a chick band.”
Stocker: Yeah no it’s only a wrongful affiliation, and it’s one thing that’s been performed earlier than. I imply the whole “boyband” side — I imply, we’re a band of boys.
Allen: It’s probably not one thing that we will…management?
Luppen: And I feel what folks usually overlook too is {that a} younger lady’s relationship to her music is likely one of the most stunning issues. It’s so intense, it’s so private. Very weak.
I got here throughout a bit that truly used the phrase “indie rock’s answer to a boyband.”
Stocker: About us?
Yeah, speaking about you guys. And I used to be like, “Wow…”
DeCarlo Jackson: Aren’t all indie rock bands boybands? Or am I tripping?
What they imply was 5 cute guys who…
Stocker: Like a One Direction sort of factor.
Right, who appeal to a sure viewers, and say “Oh, he’s the Harry Styles, he’s…”
Stocker: Be cautious of who you assume I’m! [Laughs]
I’ve nothing in opposition to them! Or him!
Stocker: But I imply, desirous about all the opposite bands that do what we do, and they’re approach prettier than we’re!
[Laughs all around]I feel a few of your hardcore followers may disagree with that.
Stocker: But it’s a bizarre — I don’t know. It’s out of our management. But we don’t thoughts that our viewers is that this. We assume they’re one of the best. And anybody that doesn’t need to take heed to us as a result of younger ladies take heed to us — no matter, perhaps they’re jealous.
Somewhat associated — it’s been nearly precisely a 12 months for the reason that Harvey Weinstein story broke and lit a spark that took us into what we name #MeToo. We’ve seen Hollywood males, politicians like your former senator Al Franken, musicians from R. Kelly to Tekashi 6ix9ine, to Louis CK and now a Supreme Court nominee dealing with a reckoning. How has this second affected you guys individually or as a band?
Sutton: For the Women’s Foundation of Minnesota, we did this little merch drive and donated no matter earnings we needed to them they usually invited us to this occasion. And there was this speaker there who works with [women’s advocacy group] A Call To Men, and he gave this nice speech on all these folks you talked about, Al Franken, R. Kelly — they’ve all performed issues which might be type of signs of a bigger prognosis, which is — and these are his phrases, simply poisonous masculinity. Objectifying ladies, treating them as sexual objects, like even saying, “I want to hit that!” is a typical factor. So, in saying that, you bodily demean them, and also you objectify them. And we had been like, “Okay, that’s a great starting point for us to, you know, proscribe the way that we should act.”
Luppen: For so lengthy it was so dangerous that it actually must be uncovered at a excessive stage, in order that there’s not any tolerance — I imply we haven’t taught youngsters about this. We haven’t performed something to make it higher till now, and it’s solely as a result of it’s blown up like this.
It’s a elementary reset for a lot of guys on how they view and work together with ladies.
Stocker: Yeah. We hang around with lots of ladies, and each one, each fuckin’ one has a narrative. It’s horrible! Everyone is both, “I was raped,” or “I was sexually harassed” — and it doesn’t matter to what diploma, everybody has one thing to inform.
Jackson: Even if it’s being catcalled!
As far as catcalling, I don’t even know what being catcalled would really feel like, and I feel lots of guys may surprise why it will really feel dangerous.
Jackson: That’s as a result of like, being a person, you don’t have for use to being persistently and systematically like, degraded. I used to be speaking to my girlfriend about this truly, and it was like — males can’t even really feel the results of one thing like catcalling, as a result of if a woman simply yelled out at me one thing about how I seemed, I wouldn’t be inherently like, mad.
You may probably be flattered?
Jackson: Yeah probably. I like getting compliments, so I’d be flattered.
Stocker: But that’s not a mirrored image of a…feminarchy? I don’t even know what you’d name it.
Jackson: Yeah completely, trigger there’s none of that. There’s no approach that that one woman who yelled at me from out of her window is all males as an object to be fondled. But a person doing that to a lady is all ladies as an object to be fondled.
Allen: And us being within the place that we’re in professionally, it’s — I don’t need to use the phrase “scary” as a result of what do I’ve to be frightened of? But we should always all be speaking about this, and questioning and feeling issues about it. And in our line of labor, it must be a subject that’s thought-about in our songs, in what we painting, it must be part of what we do.
Back to “Bambi”—it’s one of many nice movies of the 12 months. It’s so easy, however bizarre and makes you surprise what’s occurring. Kyle Sauer directed it. It appears to me to be every of you type of coping with your personal points, symbolically.
Stocker: My dependancy to trash.
Well. It’s onerous to know fairly what the rubbish factor is all about.
Stocker: No yeah, it’s that — it’s symbolic of all these anxieties — these bizarre like, indulging in issues that aren’t wholesome for you, and the way that each one relates to one another.
Did you every select your personal “thing”?
Stocker: We received to select from a storyboard, like what we had been all gonna be. But instantly although, I used to be like — rubbish! I need the rubbish! I simply really feel soiled. All the time.
Luppen: There was a component of apraxia, which is the place folks have a look at an object and overlook what it means? And how that’s associated to “Bambi” is that we spent lots of time making an attempt to put in writing this track that was tremendous troublesome to put in writing and determine. So once I have a look at the cleaning soap and I don’t know what cleaning soap is…it’s like that.
Sutton: We simply type of divvied it up. He prompt that somebody take a plant, and I stated, “I’ll take a plant.”
DeCarlo, you’ve received these books and pages flying throughout?
Jackson: Oh, I truly simply have telekinesis. So I solely needed to activate my powers! So it was an excellent scenario for me.
[Laughs]And Whistler, you recognize it’s dangerous luck to stroll beneath a ladder.
Allen: You know, I didn’t even understand that till I used to be doing it, after which I believed, “Technically, that’s bad luck.” But that’s type of the stuff that I do! It matches me.
So Jake, you stated one thing lately that was spot-on about the place the band matches in — or doesn’t — within the music panorama. You stated, “indie people think we’re alt, and alt people think we’re indie.”
Luppen: Yeah.
Jackson: Aren’t they the identical factor?
To some folks, yeah, and it’s all subjective. But when, say, programmers assume “alt” they assume Imagine Dragons, Walk the Moon — whereas “indie” tends to be like Vampire Weekend, who you bought in comparison with early on…
Sutton: Mitski. Car Seat Headrest.
Sure, sure, to be extra present. But you guys do type of straddle each worlds, no?
Luppen: Yes, and I feel that’s what permits us to make a report like this. Because an alt band wouldn’t make a report like this and I don’t know if an indie band would make a report like this. So I feel us present type of outdoors of these two issues simply permits us to do regardless of the fuck we need to do. And I feel there’s additionally like, what we had been speaking about earlier than, a component of misogyny the place prefer it’s onerous for folks to wrap their heads round us having primarily younger feminine followers and taking us severely.
And Nathan, your remark about how being “confused” and never having all of the solutions is okay, was good to see, in a time when everybody is anticipated to be perpetually “on-brand.”
Stocker: Right, I feel that’s been an emphasis of what we do for the reason that starting. Like with “The Halocline” [their epic, WU LYF-recalling 2015 signature song] which is the right image nonetheless for what we do, surprisingly sufficient, I don’t know fucking why, it’s just like the phantasm of air, however why? It’s not this or that. It’s a continuing human battle to determine that out. And we really feel dangerous after we don’t know — however why? What, any person’s gonna determine it out sometime after which every part shall be tremendous? No. That’s not how this earthly expertise works. And I feel embracing that is step one in realizing the higher a part of your self. There is not any finish aim. It’s simply to get — the assertion is that there isn’t a assertion. It’s only a fixed snapshot of wherever we’re. These are the moments that influenced us, and that’s it. And I’m not saying there isn’t a assertion for the report, I used to be extra speaking about humanity. Fuck music!
Hippo Campus’ Bambi is out Friday. The band’s fall tour begins Oct. 5 in Milwaukee.
