Feel is Hope & Social‘s 5th studio album, a band who very much enjoy throwing themselves into impossible challenges and exploring new ideas and ways of working. While the Yorkshire lads’ previous albums have been built on old-school foundations of getting together in a room and playing, “Feel” was always going to be something of a departure. A more abstract approach; layering, adding, taking away.
As part of their on-going commitment to collaboration, the Boys in Blue Blazers have commissioned nine videographers to produce one video for each of the songs on the album, culminating in a world-premiere event at Yorkshire’s favorite indie-cinema, The Hyde Park Picture House, on the 22nd of October. Watch their latest for London below which was created by Duncan Robson.
Fletch explains “For this album, we wanted to do something special. Something more than simply release a record. We put out an open call… £500 per song to anyone who wants to make us a video. I was expecting we’d have to beg people, but instead, we ended up choosing our nine video makers, from nearly 100 amazing applications, so we’re releasing the album as nine videos too!
The filmmakers chosen are (in keeping with the Hope and Social ethic) a diverse bunch as Rich tells us “there’s a real breadth – our long time collaborators Sodium, through Virpi Kettu, the lead animator of Radiohead’s “Burn The Witch”, to Richard Shaw, a videographer who wrote to tell us how the stop-motion animation project for young people he’d been running had its funding pulled – when we read “I’m not interested in taking a fee myself, so every penny would go towards getting their project back up and running”, we didn’t hesitate. En masse we all agreed “well, he’s a definite”. Now we’re just hoping that they can all come to the premiere, see the reaction to the thing that they’ve made. That is going to be a special moment.”
“Feel” – the album is out now
‘Feel’ Album Tour
Brudenell Social Club, Leeds – Thursday 20th October
“Feel – The Videos” Premiere – Hyde Park Picture House, Leeds – Saturday 22nd October
Town Hall, Hartlepool – Friday 28th October
The Bedford, London – Thursday 3rd November
The Tin at The Coal Vaults, Coventry – Friday 4th November
Ropetackle Arts Centre, Shoreham by sea – Saturday 5th November
Gullivers, Manchester – Tuesday 8th November
The Lion Inn – Blakey Ridge, York – Thursday 10th November
Bilton Working Men’s Club, Harrogate – Friday 11th November
Fibbers, York – Saturday 12th November
Photo Credit: Barnaby Aldrick