First off, what’s the meaning behind the name “The Hope Conspiracy” and were there any other names that you guys were throwing around?
the name “the hope conspiracy” doesn’t have any strong meaning really. It’s basically just a name that we thought sounded very ‘uncategorizable’, if you know what I mean. We could see many different types of bands with that name, so we went with it. As far as other names we were throwing around goes…two things…1. That’s a great question, and 2. if we wanted people to know the other names we were throwing around (and how much they sucked!) we would have used one of them! ha!

I personally have yet to hear any bad comments, read any bad reviews, or see anything negative about “Cold Blue”. I personally think it’s one of the best albums this year, but from the frontline how has the response to been?
so far everything seems to be going great. The LP has been out like 8 months and we are only about to leave on our second tour to support it, so that makes it a little hard to tell. Thanks so much for the comment though, it’s things like that that make me confident that the response has been great.

How did you guys hook up with Equal Vision, and are you happy with the way things are panning out with them?
we hooked up with EVR because some of us had kind of known Steve in the past, and liked the way the label was run. When we finished our demo we sent them a few and they seemed to dig it. They came and checked us out at a few shows, and the rest is history. We signed contracts pretty soon after that. We are definitely happy with the way things are going with them. I’d say we have working relationships and friendships with everyone who works there. It’s great because it’s less than three hours from where we all live. It just makes it easier if something needs to be done, whereas if we were on a west coast label-that’s just sooooooo far from us and it doesn’t seem very personal.

How many albums did you sign on for, and are you going to be putting out another release (of any form/format) anytime soon?
we have two more records to put out with EVR. We will have a new release soon, however it will be on bridge 9 records. It’s going to be a 2 song 7″ and a 6 song CD EP The cdep is the new 7″ plus our original CD EP on one disc, with new layout and mastering. It’s just going to be a much better deal, sound and lookwise. We really weren’t happy with the way the first EP was handled so we gave the songs to Chris bridge 9, and told him we wanted to do a new EP with these songs included. That should be coming out in the early fall…

You guys have been playing out alot and doing some extensive touring recently. How was it touring with Sick Of It All and Boysetsfire?
I couldn’t be happier with the tour we just did. I’m not saying that to butter up any of the other bands either, no lie. Sick of it all, boysetsfire, and death by stereo were all great tourmates. It was awesome because the bands were all so different that we had kids of every type at most of the shows. Of course it was also a great opportunity for us to play some big shows, so that doesn’t hurt. We opened the show every night, and there were tons of people who had no clue who we were. For the most part that really worked out fine though. It can be bit scary going into a situation of that type, but it really was great. I can safely say that I have no reason whatsoever to complain about the tour. In fact, it was all I could’ve hoped it to be.

From an insiders standpoint, what it is like touring for months non-stop? Like take us through your average day of being out on the road from dusk till dawn.
haha, I can’t say I know about months of non stop touring because my life has really never been like that. As far as the day to day goes it always depends. Generally, a good chunk of the day is spent doing something glamorous such as driving. Take our tour this summer for example…i think the average drive is at least six hours. That’s a good part of the day being wasted! oh well. However, on the tour with SOIA we shared a bus. In a situation like that, we sleep all night while the driver drives. Then we get to the club and clean up a bit and if we are in a good area, we hit the town a bit. Sometimes that isn’t the best though. We got stuck a few times-we were at clubs soooo far away from anything that we had to just sit around on the bus or inside the club all day. again, I can’t complain-but it does get a bit tedious at times.

I’ve heard people say that just cause three members are from Harvest you guys automatically kick ass, without them even listening to any of your material. It also seems in a lot of reviews out there, about 90% of them always bring up Harvest in at least
the hope conspiracy has one thing in common with Harvest…three members. Yeah, I know, that’s three things- f off. Our songs are much more hardcore or punk based in my opinion. mu shorter, faster, catchier, and honestly i think they are heavier and much more raw. I think the songwriting is much more mature and up to date also. I don’t think it’s up to us to break out of that cliché. I know that in our minds we did that a long time ago. I can’t remember ever being the one to bring this situation up in interviews. It’s always the person asking the questions. Not to harp on you (honest!) but it’s questions like that, that make it difficult for a band like us to break that mold. Serious. I could go 5,000 interviews without even saying the word Harvest. Too bad people won’t let it be like that, haha. I’d hope that some day we can be seen how we are, the hope conspiracy. Not”the hope conspiracy is dudes from harvest”. to use a fucking ridiculous saying- “we’re so over ! that”

Besides everyone playing in the band, what does everyone do as far as means of making money?
I work shitty office jobs from time to time if I can’t scam money for rent somehow, haha. Aaron is a guitar tech for the vandals, which he doesn’t have nearly enough time for now, but he does fit it in enough to pay some bills. Kevin works graphic design with Jake bannon of converge/atomic! design fame. Adam does legal research, which means he rides his bike to different buildings all day. Dan, well I’m not sure what exactly he does, but I know he’s married though.

As anyone or does anyone currently go to school and if so what for and where?
no one in this band goes to school currently. We’ve all actually taken breaks from school at some point in the past few years to concentrate on bands we have been in or are in now…

What are you views on the internet and the hardcore scene? Like webzines for example. Do you think webzines are a positive aspect of the scene, or do you think they’re just a waste of time?
I think they are a totally positive part of the scene. If someone is willing to put forth the time and effort to help people find out about bands they may have never heard and shows they may not here of otherwise, that’s great. Obviously they can be used for devious things like talking shit on people/bands/etc…honestly though, that’s child’s play. I don’t think anyone should let the shit talk get to them because most of the people who talk shit online are just hiding behind their computers.

What’s the deal with your websites? I’ve found two of them, one being the site on www.xmulletx.com and the other being www.thehopeconspiracy.com. Both sites are very outdated. Are you guys working on a new site?
good question. I have no clue what the deal with the websites are. The site on the mullet page was kind of temporary because the guy who does thehopeconspiracy.com offered to do it. The dot com page is our official site and it should be way past where it is now. Yeah, I know, it’s getting fucking ridiculous. Don’t worry, we are on your team. We want a website too!

What’s next for The Hope Conspiracy?
we leave for our summer ’01 tour in a few days. That’s 27 shows around the country. When we get back from that we have a few weekend shows, and our 7″ on bridge 9 will be released. After that we’ll have at least one more US tour in the fall, then we’ll settle down to get cracking on a new record-hopefully to be recorded next winter. Thanks for taking the time out for Keroscene. It means a lot to us all.

Anything you’d like to add?
thanks so much for the interview! good luck to you. We’ll see everyone soon. Checkwww.equalvision.com for our tourdates and even check out www.thehopeconspiracy.com if you’d like….later.