A Hope For Home
Pondering The Post Hardcore Age
By: Christian Cipollini (Posted By: Bear Frazer)
Last updated May 27th , 2010

Sometimes tragedy brings people together and sometimes it's just meant to be.  In the case of the prog rock experimental band A Hope for Home, their formation was a product of fate and faith, both underscored by the final wishes of a close friend.

Guitarist and co-vocalist Matt Ellis recalls the band's beginnings. "We all started out in local bands in high school.  I stopped playing music and went off to college, but the guy who I was always playing guitar with called me up and said he had terminal cancer. He said I should move home so we could start a new band. I suddenly felt like I would much rather be playing music, and that's what I was supposed to do.  So, I moved back home and we started A Hope for Home."  

Once Ellis returned, the band did what was necessary to accommodate their friend Kyle so he could participate in the early writing process.  "We wrote all of our first songs with him while we were packed in this tiny little room in his house.  He was hooked up to morphine.  Basically half of our first album was with him. He died a couple months later, and things were a little crazy, but we found our hearts were all in the right places."  

A Hope for Home went on to record two albums independently, gaining notice from Facedown Records in the process.  Their third album, Realis, is the first on their new label and, as Ellis explains - a little unusual when compared to the music of label-mates. 

"We're one of the weirder bands on the label, so it's nice that Facedown is supporting of us and encouraging.  They don't try to change us to a usual Facedown band, and just letting us do what we do," he says with regard to the band's progressive and ambient musical style in comparison to the metal and hardcore roots of Facedown. "We're not on an independent booking agency, so we only tour with Facedown bands.  I love them all, but we are sort of like the sore thumb.  We stick out sometimes good and sometimes bad.  We all just want to open some doors."

Although A Hope For Home's Realis may sound more in line with albums from bands in the ilk of, say a Mastodon or Baroness perhaps, they are a certified Christian based band and their message can be both enlightening and provocative. Lyrically, the band does more than preach; they ask the who, what and why of it all too.

"Every band on Facedown is Christian, and this isn't directed at any one band in particular, but we've done a lot of festivals and there's a big Christian music machine," Ellis says of the band's observations within this particular scene.  "This is the first time we've ever seen what the kids see and what's expected of a Christian band.  For me personally, I like to express myself through music, so I wanted to write from the heart and people will hear.  I wanted to write something that's not saying anything negative about Christian music, but to say something different."

The band isn't out to conjure resentment or heresy by any means, but a natural desire to learn more should never be out of the question. He goes on to detail the concept of Realis, "A lot of the record is about questioning faith.  It's something everyone goes through, but it gets demonized a lot in the Christian music industry and that really kind of sucks.  If you're just told to ignore questions, how real is your faith?  If questioning is completely discouraged, I think that is unhealthy.  That's what the record is about."

Matt Ellis says the album title captures these ideas, though the early Latin word actually has no solid modern translation.  "It basically combines the concepts of existence and reality – an affirmed existence sort of thing."  So then, what would A Hope for Home like people to take from this record?  "I would say go in and listen with an open mind.  I think there's musical stuff to get without the lyrics and lyrical stuff to get without the music.  You may hear something that other bands in our corner of the industry don't have."



To check out or purchase Realis, click here.

[Tags] Metal, Rock

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