Topanga, California, group Hello Forever are led by Samuel Joseph. They live together, in this pastoral setting high above the Pacific Ocean – not far from where Neil Young recorded After the Gold Rush or Captain Beefheart laid down the tracks for Trout Mask Replica. The group are constantly expanding, with members coming and going as they please while adhering to a stringent five day a week rehearsal schedule. They fuse elements of the 60s West Coast sound with a DIY approach to music and creativity, which resulted in their debut full-length, Whatever It Is.

Hello Forever members, a revolving cast that includes, at various times, collaborators drummer/co-founder Andy Jimenez, Molly Pease, Jaron Crespi, Joey Briggs, Anand Darsie and Lina Kay. Walking into their communal compound, the first thing one sees is a copy of the late Baba Ram Dass’ counter-culture classic, Be Here Now, perhaps the best description of the collective’s philosophy of life, creativity, art and music.

Samuel Joseph on Everything Is So Hard

“It’s difficult to know what to say about this song. It changed how we think about what we can play, and it brought us closer together — because it came from a very raw place and deep suffering. A lot of our songs emerge through a narrow aperture of a very specific experience that drags up a feeling with broad roots — so everything is so hard kinda revealed itself in a moment when I was in a relationship that wasn’t working, but It hurt too much to leave. You know when you want to stay, even though the sadness you feel starts to taint even the good moments? Getting to the end of it feels like a death. I fear death. It kills me sometimes — the dread of the unknown can suck the life out of the beautiful moments that I love so much as to cause me to fear their ending in the first place. It’s a paradox, loving life, fearing death — my life can sometimes be framed by that suffering despite my best intentions. But still I worship it. I cling to it. Somewhere deep in me loves it all through the fog of fear and pain and grief and cruelty and desperation. In the rare spectacular moments, I get caught up, and I go through the fog and get to really get a glimpse of life, and it’s a blessing. It brings me home and sets me off. But it can’t erase the suffering.”

Hello Forever
Everything Is So Hard
Tracklisting

1. Some Faith
2. Anywhere Is Everywhere
3. Farm On The Mountaintop
4. Colors In The Sky
5. Created For Your Love
6. Rise
7. Natural
8. Get It Right
9. Yeah Like Whatever
10. I Want To Marry You
11. Her Everything
12. Happening
Additional New Singles Included With CD / LP
+ Everything Is So Hard
+ I’m Feeling It