Art pop collective Hello Forever combine a wide range of genres in their music, including Pop, Rock, R&B, Soul, Jazz, Doo-Wop and Gospel, to name a few. Drawing their name from the desire to stay connected to people on an eternal level, the band is inspired by everything from the people they love, to the sky, ancient history, the universe and the way they feel. The collective, comprised of singer/songwriter and founder Samuel Joesph, Gabe Stout, co-founder Andy Jimenez, Joey Briggs, Molly Pease, Anand Darsie and Jaron Crespi, live together in a former nudist commune in Topanga, CA, taking inspiration from the wonder and beauty in the surrounding nature, reflecting on themselves and the challenges they’ve faced. The collective recently released their debut album Whatever It Is, which represents them as artists who create music that the universe wants them to put out into the world, serving as allegories for spirituality and representing the first chapter of what promises to be an epic narrative. Joseph learned to let go with the album and to listen to music and let it be what it wants to be. The album captures the spirit of 60s icons such as Frank Zappa, The Beach Boys and The Beatles, with the collective’s hope that the album provides a meaningful experience for the listener. You can follow Hello Forever and stay up-to-date with all upcoming news and music, as well as stream and purchase their music, via the following links:
Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Spotify | iTunes/Apple Music | YouTube
You have said that you all had to overcome the challenges of living together as a community. What were some of the greatest challenges you had to overcome when you started living together, and what are some of the benefits/things you love about it? What kind of art does everyone do outside of Hello Forever?
We all are making lots of music, inside and outside the group. It’s amazing living together, and it empowers us to stay focused and collaborate more efficiently. The greatest challenge is to put our collective intention above our individual interests, which is a bubbly practice, and evolves over time. We all have other things we love to do, but making records, and rehearsing takes a lot of time and devotion, and we love doing it together.
You recently released your debut album Whatever It Is! You’ve said that many of the songs on the album were songs you all wrote before becoming a band a year and a half ago and that you have already outgrown these older songs since writing new material. What can you tell me about the songs on the album and the sound you were going for?
We weren’t really going for a sound so to speak — we try our best not to bring any projections into the creative process, and just listen to what the music wants to be. We’re all sponges for our environment, and have been enculturated to all the music we have experienced, so that is definitely reflected in the songs.
I read that you are already working on songs for your second album! What has it been like to work on these songs together as a group? How does the new material compare to the older songs?
Whatever It Is was the first album any of us had made. A lot of the music expresses the joy we felt finding our creative voice. Which was amazing, but now that we’ve settled in, there’s more room for other emotions and experiences to be expressed through the music. The new songs are more emotional, and we’ve learned a lot through the process of the first record so the new songs feel clearer in a way.
Songs such as “Anywhere Is Everywhere” and “Colors In The Sky” are based on personal stories/experiences. Are all of your songs written from a more personal perspective?
Human consciousness experiences existence through the aperture of the individual self. Human expression is filtered through that same lens. We’re all striving to transcend our limits and come together, and sometimes we do in glimpses, but we are still vessels of our phenomenological frame. The subject is just a symbol, and symbols, although not the things they represent, are themselves too things. The songs are through us, and of us, and yet even when they are personal stories, they still aren’t fully ours. On the flip, the songs that are more selfless still carry the colors of the self.”
You all operate in a very DIY manner, having filmed music videos and released your recent album independently. What do you enjoy about operating within a DIY manner as a collective? Do you see that changing in any way going forward?
We love making music, and we want to be doing it all the time. We love making our art freely. We are open to collaborating with others. While we are fully aligned with DIY ethos, we understand that we are just starting out, but we have visions for art that requires collaboration as the project grows.
Your recent single “Farm On The Mountaintop” was written before you all moved to your current home, envisioning what it would be like to live outside of the city. What has the difference been like for you all in living outside of the city vs in the city? How has your new home influenced your creative process?
Cities are amazing and terrible and extremely complex. There’s so much to process in modern cities, which can be really inspiring for many people. We just felt distracted by the noise and traffic, and leaving the city and living in nature has helped us feel more clarity for now.
You have talked about loving the spirit and texture of analogue film and video. What are your thoughts on analogue vs digital? Do you prefer one over the other or enjoy a mix of both?
There’s no wrong way to eat a Reese’s. Do what you love. We are total n00bs in the video universe, but we know we love color and texture. We are not professional color graders… Film and video cameras have a built in color and texture that does a lot of the legwork for us, and signifies a quality we identify with. BUT if we knew what we were doing, there’s digital video looks that we feel really connected to but have no idea how to make. YouTube tutorials have forsaken us.
What’s next for Hello Forever?
We have some SUPER exciting news that we will be announcing very soon… ALSO, we are close to finishing our second album, and partway into our third. Whenever it’s safe, we will be out on the road and playing festivals as soon as possible.
