Watch Hope Of The States’ video for epic comeback single ‘Long Waits In A & E’
Hope Of The States have made their return with the sprawling ‘Long Waits In A&E’ – their first new song since 2006. See the video first exclusively on NME below.
The ’00s Chichester post-rock veterans revealed that they’d be returning to the studio and the stage earlier this summer, and have now shared the 11-and-half-minute ‘Long Waits In A&E’ – an emotional art-rock slow-burner that travels from Ennio Morricone to Godspeed You! Black Emperor and back again, after frontman Sam Herlihy sets the scene of a world of “acts of random violence by train line wire fences“.
The track comes accompanied by a video made by director Ed Emmerson, formerly of regular visual collaborators Type2Error.
“It’s more than 15 years since I last made a music video, so I was coming at it from a bit of a standing start,” said Emmerson, “but since HOTS split and I gave up music videos to move into the world of documentary graphics, I’ve remained close friends with Sam so it was good to knock out some ideas with him once he ran me through the themes of the track – and then quietly let me know it was over 11 minutes long!
“Aesthetically it’s a real mix – birds of prey, pylons, a bunch of test footage from a film Sam never finished called The Astronaut, hurricanes, forest fires, radars, satellites, and the existential dread of deep space – all historically very Hope Of The States.”
He went on: “An intelligent writer could say it’s a music video exploring themes of survival, resilience, and the search for meaning in an increasingly tumultuous world, an exploration of humanity’s struggle against the backdrop of a vast, indifferent universe culminating in a convergence of visceral visuals; inviting viewers to contemplate their place in a world where beauty and chaos coexist. But in more simple terms, it’s textbook Hope Of The States fayre just with the dial turned up to 11.”
The band achieved cult status in the early ’00s off the back of their two acclaimed albums: 2004’s ‘The Lost Riots’ and ‘Left’ from 2006. They split just a few months after the release of their second record at Reading & Leeds festival that summer, saying at the time that they felt “cursed” by bad luck. They had earlier lost their guitarist Jimmi Lawrence to suicide in early 2004.
Now, the band are back for their first tour in 18 years alongside a remastered vinyl reissue of their debut album and news of brand new music being recorded with producer Jolyon Thomas (U2, Soft Play, Daughter). Jolyon is son of the late Ken Thomas (Sigur Rós, Wire, M83), with whom the band made their first two records. They’ve been busy recording new material in The Libertines’ Albion Rooms studio in Margate.
“The new stuff we’re making is really good,” Herlihy told NME earlier this year. “To be in a room with those boys and be on stage is exciting, and I’d like to just enjoy it. There is so much of it that we didn’t enjoy [in the past]. We had a blast, but there was such a ‘thing’ around it all that we didn’t appreciate it like we should have. To be able to do this with a smile on our faces is all you can ask for. There’s a real sense of gratitude to be able to do this again.”
He continued: “If the songs weren’t good, then I wouldn’t do this. As fun as it would be to to play the shows and give something back to funs would be lovely, it wouldn’t be enough to just play the old stuff. I genuinely believe that it’s as good if not better than the old stuff.”
The frontman added that the lyrics of their new songs were “all tied up with our friends, our girlfriends, the kids we went to school with”.
“It’s about those moments when you were a kid and just fucking inspired by stuff! Going to Our Price to buy The Beta Band CD so you could play it on your Discman, that time the NME put Godspeed on the cover; those things take the back of your head off. We’re looking to that time and what music meant to us,” he revealed.
“Lyrically, all the songs are about that: being a teenager. It’s bizarrely specific to me, but I’ve been playing the songs to people I didn’t even grow up with and they’ve been like, ‘Fuck!’ People pick it up. No one forgets those moments or those people. It’s not being tied up in ghosts, memories of nostalgia, but that’s where we came from. We’re taking it all and making a movie version of it. It’s loud, it’s messy, and has all that heart in it.”
‘Long Waits In A & E’ is available digitally now, and will be sold on limited edition vinyl at the band’s upcoming December run of shows, with dates below. Visit here for tickets and more information.
DECEMBER
04 – Deaf Institute, Manchester
05 – Stereo, Glasgow
06 – The Dome, London
07 – Metronome, London
The post Watch Hope Of The States’ video for epic comeback single ‘Long Waits In A & E’ appeared first on NME.
Andrew Trendell
NME
