We had a chance to catch up with New Hope Club, who recently put out their new song “Getting Better.” As always, the three-piece’s harmonies are on full display, and it was clear from the way they kept looking to each other and joking around that they are as close with one another as ever. We asked the members of New Hope Club about their journey over the past two years of trying to find happiness in a time when it felt as though the world had stopped, what they’ve found in themselves recently and what they see for the future. There were two answers they kept coming back to: their music and their fans.

It’s been three years since you last visited Korea.

Reece: I think we’ve just missed the general vibe of Korea. It’s definitely one of our favorite places we’ve ever traveled to. Although we’re really far from home, it kind of feels like home when we’re here. Korean fans are so lovely and amazing. We had a lovely experience and I think we just want to travel around more and see more of the city.

Reece, you’ve become a hot topic because you get a new tattoo every time you visit Korea.

Reece: I already got two more tattoos yesterday. (laughs) My favorite tattoo artist lives here, so every time I come to Korea, I always make sure I get one.

You finally get to meet your Korean fans at Haus of Wonder. What do you want to show the audience through this performance? [Note: This interview took place on August 4.]

George: We’ve seen them online through social media like Instagram posts and Weverse, but to actually see them in person is going to be really nice. We just want to give all of them a big hug. It’s going to be fun to finally play all the songs we’ve been working on over the last two years, which has been a long time.

Blake: Well, we’ve just finished our US tours, so we’ve had a lot of practice for this show. We’re going to be playing lots of new songs. We’ve got a few surprises for sure, but we don’t want to give anything away until the show. (laughs) We really hope Haus of Wonder can be a special show for everyone because obviously there hasn’t been many shows since COVID-19 happened. We hope it can be a happy time for everyone to celebrate being back together. It should be a good show.

You released your first new single in a very long time. “Getting Better” has a positive message, saying life is getting better the way you wanted it to.

Reece: Being in the pandemic was such a weird experience for us all. It hit us pretty hard because we were just about to go on tour with the album that we’d released, but then it just put a halt to everything. It was strange because I don’t think we’ve ever had the time to sit and just reflect on everything. For us it was a big time of reflection, which now that we look back on it, was filled with quite positive things. We wrote “Getting Better” at a time when there wasn’t a lot of positivity in the world, and we felt like we could spread a little bit of it with this album. We’ve written this album that we’re very proud of, which is probably the best project that we’ve ever worked on. We hope this song gives our fans a nice, happy feeling when they hear it.

This single in particular feels like a modern reinterpretation of old-school music.

George: Ever since we started the band, we’ve always been influenced by a wide range of music, but we’ve always drawn on an older style of music. A lot of our old music hasn’t really come across that way, but I think now that we’ve been able to get involved with every part of the production, whenever we put anything out, it’s truly 100 percent of us. Literally, when we put anything out, it’s the most honest we’ve ever been with ourselves, with our fans and with the world. A little nerve-racking, but it’ll be a very exciting experience for us. We’re looking forward to the next year, and the future. Going on to the next album, after this one. You know, just keep going.

In a Weverse post, you said it took about two years to prepare for this single. What was the toughest part of the process?

Blake: I think the hard part at first was probably the environment we were in, because we’ve never had so much time off before. But I think we actually spent that time finding ourselves. The only thing that really gave us happiness was from writing music because that was everything we could do. It took us a long time, but the toughest part was experimenting, trying to find what truly was New Hope Club.

George: Once you start a project like that, writing songs, you have no idea where you can go. So you just experiment, and try many different things. You find things that don’t work, then you just say, “Okay, that didn’t work. Maybe another time.” Then you write another song and say, “Okay, that’s it.” Then you go down that road for a bit.

Reece: Our new album is almost ready for release now. I think you can hear from the two songs that our style has changed a lot, and that’s not because we’ve rebranded so much—it’s more so that we were very young when we released our first songs. During this two-year period of lockdown, we’ve decided to write music that we like. We’ve written, produced and recorded everything ourselves, making every decision on the project together, so if there is a big style change, it’s because this is the New Hope Club, and that’s how we like to sound.

What was it like to use a platform like Weverse to communicate with your fans?

Reece: I think Weverse is really unique, and there’s everything New Hope Club-related in one place! I love how you can check our top fan posts and see what they’re talking about. We’re gonna be way more active than we have been, honestly. (laughs)

How you communicate with your fans on various platforms like Instagram Live, YouTube, and TikTok is impressive. What do fans mean to New Hope Club?

Reece: The fans are the whole reason we do what we do. We just came back from a whole US tour, and we wouldn’t have been able to do any of that without the support of our fans. They’re just incredible. As soon as we formed the band, we posted covers on YouTube. Our fans have been there from the very start, instantly giving us so much support. We owe pretty much everything to them.

Blake: We’ve seen quite a lot of artwork and drawings. That’s always really cool. It’s so surreal because I used to grow up drawing famous people. It’s amazing to see pictures of us that fans put so much time and effort into. We also love seeing people do covers of our songs. We started our band by doing covers of different artists, and we still do covers. It’s really heartwarming to see our fans learn our songs and post them on Weverse.

Blake, you said on your social media account that you would like to collaborate with V from BTS, who you recently met at a fashion show. Why do you want to collaborate with him?

Blake: V initially mentioned that he was a big fan of New Hope Club and played a lot of our music on live streams. And obviously, we love the music of BTS. We have huge respect for their success and the hard work that they put in. When I met him, he was super nice and told me that he was a big fan of our new songs. I definitely hope we can do something together in the future.

“Permission” is becoming popular among Korean fans as a great summer tune. Do you have any other songs of yours that you would like to recommend to your fans for this summer?

Blake: We were actually in a shop yesterday, and it was playing. (laughs)

George: “Getting Better,” of course!

Reece: I think the next two songs that we are about to release are genuinely good. If I were to recommend some New Hope Club music to somebody, it would be the next two.

Blake: They’re also definitely perfect summer songs!

How are you spending your spare time during this world tour?

Reece: On this tour, we’ve gone bowling a lot. We love bowling.

George: I think we’ve got a day off in Korea. We would love to go bowling here. We also love karaoke bars! We should go bowling and karaoke. (laughs)

Now, you have two shows remaining, one in Seoul and one in Jakarta. What do you want the Getting Better Tour to mean to your fans?

Blake: I think concerts are such a great place for people to let loose, forget all their worries and just enjoy some time with friends. On our Getting Better Tour, we want to bring back positivity to everyone, bring back being all together. We hope this tour can be a celebration of coming out of the pandemic.

Performing in various countries must have been a new opportunity for your growth in terms of music and things other than music, too.

Blake: I think touring generally opened our eyes from a very young age. It’s honestly incredible to experience different cultures, different food, different everything. We’re very lucky to be able to visit various countries. It really is an honor. I think it’s one of the best perks of our job.

George: I think it also pushes you outside your comfort zone, in a way that you try something you never would have tried before. If it wasn’t for the tour, I’d just be in my same world, doing the same old thing. But now, it’s just so different from what it could have been.

Any last comments for your Korean fans?

George: Thank you very much for all the support you’ve shown us. Keep being so lovely and sweet!

Blake: Spread the word! We’re so grateful to be able to keep coming back. We promise we can’t wait to come back already. It’s so sad that we have to leave. Honestly, we would stay here for a whole year. We love it here so much!

Reece: Thank you so much for everything. Seoul is one of our favorite places ever. I can’t wait to come back. Hopefully it's not too long this time. Saranghae!