Hippo Campus have released a new VR video via the Creator’s Project for “western kids”. The track is off the band’s current release Hallmark, now out on Grand Jury. Hippo Campus start their tour on July 8th in Duluth, MN.

“We really liked high school,” bassist Zach Sutton notes, laughing. As their backstory unravels, it’s easy to understand why: The four young men in Hippo Campus first met while attending the St. Paul Conservatory for Performing Artists, a rigorous charter school in downtown St. Paul, Minnesota that prepares music students for the fast track to college conservatories and it quickly positioned music at the very center of their young lives.

“Music is such a vague thing. It’s very subjective, it’s very sentimental, it’s very abstract,” Nathan muses. “So a lot of people probably don’t have any sort of training to actually talk about it, you know. And so going to a conservatory, we were able to develop our tongue, I guess, so we could communicate more easily. Not necessarily when we jam, because that’s all feeling. But when we’re trying to decipher what it all means, that’s where the language can come in handy. It’s a pretty mutual understanding.” Nathan, Zach, and drummer Whistler Allen all participated in the school’s jazz program, while Hippo Campus’s lead singer, Jake Luppen, studied classical music and developed his voice by singing opera.

“Studying classical music allows you to adjust your voice to get multiple tones, similar to a guitar or any other physical instrument. It’s like another way of singing.” Jake notes. Anyone who has heard Luppen sing knows exactly what he’s talking about: he approaches melodies in swooping lines, making octave jumps and sudden high notes look effortless. The playful elasticity of his voice is at the very center of Hippo Campus’s bright, optimistic, and emotionally resonant sound, and his melodies play a starring role.

“There were a lot of questions when we were writing Bashful Creatures,” says Jake. “I think we were asking a lot of questions through the songs, and just with ourselves in general. Is this what we’re doing? Zach and I were in college, figuring a lot of stuff out. It was just a very formative time, and a lot of those songs represent those growing pains. There are a lot of themes in there with brotherhood—that was a big part of us banding together and writing this music, to kind of push through this really crazy, formative time in our lives to just be like, This is what we want to do.”

Hippo Campus
Tour Dates

JUL 8 SAT
BAYFRONT PARK
Duluth, MN

AUG 2 WED
Reggie’s Rock Club
Chicago, IL

AUG 3 THU
Grant Park
Chicago, IL

AUG 6 SUN
THE MID
Chicago, IL

AUG 9 WED
Levitt Pavilion
Denver, CO

AUG 12 SAT
Mishawaka Amphitheatre
Bellvue, CO

SEP 9 SAT
Loufest 2017
St Louis, MO

SEP 22 FRI
Life is Beautiful
Las Vegas, NV

SEP 22 FRI
Life is Beautiful
Las Vegas, NV

SEP 24 SUN
Downtown Las Vegas Events Center
Las Vegas, NV

SEP 30 SAT
Tunnel
Milan, Italy

OCT 3 TUE
Privatclub
Berlin, Germany

OCT 4 WED
BITTERZOET
Amsterdam, Netherlands

OCT 6 FRI
Ancienne Belgique
Brussels, Belgium

OCT 7 SAT
Les Etoiles
Paris, France

OCT 9 MON
The Fleece
Bristol, United Kingdom

OCT 10 TUE
Nottingham Rescue Rooms
Nottingham, United Kingdom

OCT 12 THU
Koko
London, United Kingdom

OCT 13 FRI
Gorilla
Manchester, United Kingdom

OCT 14 SAT
Academy 2
Dublin, Ireland

OCT 15 SUN
G2
Glasgow, United Kingdom

OCT 26 THU
Castle Theater
Bloomington, IL

OCT 27 FRI
HEADLINER’S MUSIC HALL
Louisville, KY

OCT 28 SAT
Deluxe
Indianapolis, IN

OCT 30 MON
George’s Majestic Lounge
Fayetteville, AR RSVP

OCT 31 TUE
ACM Performance LAB
Oklahoma City, OK

NOV 2 THU
Trees
Dallas, TX

NOV 3 FRI
Mohawk
Austin, TX

NOV 4 SAT
White Oak Music Hall
Houston, TX

NOV 6 MON
Saturn
Birmingham, AL

NOV 7 TUE
40 Watt Club
Athens, GA

NOV 9 THU
Club Downunder
Tallahassee, FL

NOV 11 SAT
High Dive
Gainesville, FL

NOV 13 MON
9:30 Club
Washington, DC

NOV 14 TUE
The Jefferson
Charlottesville, VA

NOV 15 WED
Mr.Smalls
Millvale, PA

NOV 17 FRI
MAGIC STICK
Detroit, MI

NOV 18 SAT
Beachland
Cleveland, OH