Darren Jackson of The Hopefuls

The Hopefuls charged into local-scene prominence in the spring of 2004 with the release of their debut album, The Fuses Refuse To Burn, an insanely catchy collection of shiny power-pop that stands comfortably next to predecessors like The Cars and Big Star as well as contemporaries like Fountains Of Wayne and Weezer. The band quickly became a hot-ticket draw known for high-energy shows and costume-related hijinks, routinely performing in track suits and headbands. Ensuing years brought protracted record-label struggles, shifting membership (drummer Matt O’Laughlin was replaced by Eric Fawcett of Spymob, and co-songwriter and guitarist Erik Appelwick joined Tapes N’ Tapes), and even a name change forced by the U.S. Olympic Committee who made them shorten the original Olympic Hopefuls moniker. As the band’s gigging schedule diminished over the last year, it was tempting to wonder whether a sophomore album would ever see the light of day. But the long wait ends this week with the release of Now Playing At The One-Seat Theatre, a looser and more expansive record, but every bit its predecessor’s melodic equal. Vocalist and guitarist Darren Jackson talked with Decider about The Hopefuls’ evolution, how it differs from his other band, Kid Dakota, and how he connects with his inner adolescent in song. The Hopefuls play a CD-release show on Dec. 20 at First Avenue, with openers Chris Koza and One For The Team.

Decider: The Hopefuls’ first album was a two-man basement recording project started on an eight-track. Now Playing At The One-Seat Theatre is the product of a full band working in real studios after years of gigging extensively. How did the change in circumstances affect the new record?
Darren Jackson: The process was actually surprisingly similar. With the last record Erik and I worked in our different little home studios and pieced it together when we had time. This time around Johnny [Hermanson, vocalist/guitarist] and Eric [Fawcett, drummer] have their own home studios and also work over at Modern Music downtown, and I have Shortman Studio at my house. So it was that same thing of people recording separately.
D: Were you ever all in the same room during the making of the album?
DJ: I think for just one day of recording the drums and that was actually by accident.
D: Given those circumstances it’s a remarkably cohesive-sounding record. Did you have to spend a lot of time in the mixing process to keep it from sounding disconnected?
DJ: Piecemeal creation is really the norm these days so I don’t really feel like we were doing anything that out of the ordinary. Ninety percent of records are tracked that way. What made our situation different is that typically a band will set aside three weeks in the studio and just do all the sessions and overdubbing in one block of time. We didn’t have that kind of luxury, so we recorded when we could over a much longer stretch of time.
D: When Erik Appelwick left in 2006, why did you continue with the dual songwriter approach and have John Hermanson step in to that role, rather than just continuing with one songwriter?
DJ: It was always my intention for The Hopefuls to be a band with lots of different songwriters in it. As soon as we had the live band together, Johnny began contributing tunes, even when Erik was still in the band. So when Erik left to do more work with Tapes ’N Tapes it seemed really natural for Johnny to step up and fill that role. This is definitely a “band” band as opposed to my band. Fawcett’s been doing some writing that I hope will turn up on the next record.
D: How does Appelwick differ from Hermanson?
DJ: Johnny and Erik are very different songwriters. Erik is into more R&B kind of funky stuff, which is evidenced in his work with Vicious Vicious, although maybe not so much on the songs he wrote for the first Hopefuls record. Johnny’s stuff is a little heavier, but still pop. I think it’s also thematically a little bit weightier. They have very different singing styles. Johnny has a really high tenor voice and a great range and Erik has a range more similar to mine.
D: If The Hopefuls is a “band’s” band, is Kid Dakota more of a “my” band?
DJ: I think it’s that creative democracy—not to be confused with Chinese Democracy—that’s the real difference. Everybody brings something different to the table and it’s not any one person making the decisions on how things are going to go. That’s very different from Kid Dakota, where I essentially call all the shots. It can be difficult to give up that control at times. Often I’ll write and record all my parts for a song and send it off to Johnny and then when he gives it back to me I’ll be like, “Wow, that’s not what I was expecting.” It’s initially shocking, but in the long run it’s great. I think the best music is usually a collaborative effort.
D: In a 2004 interview just prior to Fuses’ release you described The Hopefuls’ sound as “fun music for happy times.” Nearly five years later, do you feel that description still fits? Are the Hopefuls still hopeful?
DJ: I definitely think it still fits, but we’re also expanding our palette beyond just the three-minute pop song. I think we’ve improved as writers over the last four years. Some of the things I did then I’d do differently now. There’s a broader range of emotions on this record and not as many of the same sort of repeated arrangement ideas that were on the first record.
D: You’re 36 years old, yet a lot of your Hopefuls songs, like “Virgin Wood,” are written from an adolescent perspective. They have a degree of naïve optimism and brash defiance that stands in stark contrast to the dark and cynical material you write for Kid Dakota. Do you find it harder to write from that perspective as you age?
DJ: As you get older, you become more nostalgic. In a certain sense it’s easier to write those songs even through you’re not really dealing with those emotions or experiences anymore. When you look back at something it’s always a little more glowing and charged with emotion than maybe it even was originally, like Bryan Adams’ “Summer of ’69.” [Laughs.] It’s almost easier to capture that emotion being further from it.
D: The Hopefuls debuted in orange track suits which subsequently became blue track suits, then black, before going away altogether. What happened to the band uniforms? Any chance of a new “look” for the sophomore album?
DJ: The change from orange track suits to blue was basically a result of the track suits not fitting very well. We had some people design new track suits for us. Eventually we ended up back in normal street clothes because we all sort of felt that we played the uniform thing out. In a lot of ways we had no intention of taking it that far to begin with. The track suits took on a life of their own. [Laughs.] There has been talk amongst the members of having some sort of unified look again, though. Maybe we’ll come out dressed as elves for the release show.