Peep This: The Promise is Hope Premieres “Brother” Video
The Promise is Hope is a New England based indie-folk duo. Their songs are lined with rich vocal harmonies, often times interweaving into one collective and solitary sound of 2 guitars and 2 voices. With their sophomore release on the horizon in the next few weeks we caught up with the to talk about a brand new video for the song “Brother” off of that album.
The performance of the song itself is simple. A live take of two acoustic guitars, two vocals in an empty old church. Sparsity seems to be the key and it would seem that in terms of the choices for this particular video it was really important for the group to let the song breath.
Eric L’Esperance said of those choices, “The video was shot with a lot of intentionality. In contrast to our debut album (which featured full band production), our new album is sparse and intimate to reflect the content and the season of our career we are in. The Promise is Hope truly is a two-become-one sound; and we have been working to focus on the dynamic of our two voices and two acoustic guitars. Our new material is navigating a season of pain, sorrow, and disillusionment. The empty church felt perfect — it’s a baron place but its emptiness is so beautiful. The vast stone structure allowed for a wonderful reverb that supported our vocals and guitars, and yes it really let the song breath. You’ll notice that Ash is wearing all dark and shadow, and Eric has pops of color, and the light filters through the window to shine on this color. It speaks to the tension of beauty in pain and light in the darkness.”
When talking about the themes of the song itself, it is sometimes the disparity between that beauty and emptiness of the space they performed it in the mirrors the feeling. “‘Brother’ is a song about experiencing family outside of your family of origin. As strange as it is, often times belonging can be difficult to find in our own families,” Eric told us. “This is about a particular friend who is like a brother to us. It covers a lot of ground as he wrestled to navigate his family splitting and had to ask about belonging himself. It deals with Ash being an only child and longing for connection. Also, this particular friend literally rescued Eric from almost drowning in a waterfall on a camping trip…it was such a close call. The brevity of life is there, and the reality that it all can be taken away causes us to recognize the love that we have now and be grateful for it.”
When we happened upon the beginnings of the group, L’Esperance continued, “Ash and I first sang together at an impromptu song swap. We did an unrehearsed take of ‘Hallelujah’ by Cohen. We both felt something really surprising and special — a chemistry and energy that may be once in a lifetime. The raw material was there for us to work with!“
Raw material that they would work on combining from each of their own aesthetic as artists into that singular output. “Honing it over the past several years has taken some intention but has been very natural from a vocal perspective. The instrumental piece of things has taken more work. We started with an acoustic and an electric. Eric would play with lots of delay and reverb to create space. We recognize now that we were using those effects out of insecurity that the two of us alone was not enough.”
And it was that realization in their exploration that led them to the hollow cavern of an old stone church. “In the last year we decided to drop the electric, and be more vulnerable. In general, this video is a single-take, vulnerable presentation of who we are — two real people with our voices and guitars. The songwriting and performance needs to be good enough to stand on its own without a crutch. That’s our goal.”
Check out the video for “Brother” below and hit their website to pre-order the new record “Every Seed Must Die”.
