347 Augusta

In early December, one of my top favorite Athens bands, Hope for agoldensummer, released their sophomore album, Ariadne Thread. If you like pretty girls’ voices, Southern acoustic-y goodness, bittersweet lyrics, and eclectic instrumentation, with a strong dose of good old-fashioned DIY spirit thrown in for immeasurable fun, you’ve gotta check these ladies out. Comprised of sisters Claire and Page Campbell, along with Deb Davis, Hope for agoldensummer create music that practically demands a backdrop of a hazy summer night and a Mason jar full of ice-cold sweet tea.

Don’t let me mislead you, though- HFAGS is a little bit country and a little bit rock and roll. Ariadne Thread is on perma-repeat for me right now, and it’s just as much for the laid-back hippie feel as it is for searingly witty lyrics. The line “I’m a math metal song/ All I do is change” has had me smiling for days now. Ariadne Thread is beautifully written, played, sung, and packaged, with original artwork, hand-sewn binding, and a mythological tale penned by the Campbells’ cousin. In other words, you get a lot more than we, the music-buying public, are used to in the day and age of In Rainbows.

Claire Campbell was kind enough to answer a few of my questions to pass on to you, the enthralled reader. And how could I be surprised? This is the same lady who sometimes passes out homemade cookies to show-goers.

First of all… 2 1/2 years in the making—wow. What took so long? [Not that it wasn't completely worth the wait.]

Well, we were almost done with the album when two members of the band turned into blue puffs of steam. Right there in the studio, mid-take. We were recording a song live, all five of us the room together, and, boy, what a song. We were just kicking out this jam, all frenzied and perfect… And suddenly two of us just changed from musicians into wisps on the air. I saw it and heard it, even amidst the din of 18 strings. As the last crash of the cymbal rang out, well you know those two boys sounded just like the whine of a boiling kettle. Which is just what should happen when a being that is mostly water gets too hot.

Anyhow, three nights later we found that these cries of steam had taken to haunting all the songs we’d recorded. Were they in the tape machine or actually on the tape? We’ll never know. We scrapped it all, moved to another studio, bought a new tape reel, and took our time. Thank you for your patience.

Are you planning to hit the road anytime soon in support of the album?

Why yes. We’ve performed several Southeastern release shows and are laying low until the weather is more predictable. We travel in all directions come Spring. Up to NYC, over to California, and all that is in between. As we are deeply in debt to VISA, we plan to spend the next two months seeking a label to sponsor said tours.

This album is an all-encompassing work of art—music, writing, storytelling, illustration, design… How did these elements all come into the picture? Did you start out with an idea of everything involved? Or did it start out like any other album, but ended up gathering the proverbial moss as it rolled along?

It did gather the proverbial moss. Before we began the album, all the songs had already been written. A few months into the recording process I began reading about Ariadne & Theseus. Ariadne helped Theseus escape from a labyrinth by giving him a ball of thread to follow out. I thought this was a beautiful metaphor for one person assisting another person out of confusion & darkness. I knew I wanted this album to somehow encompass that metaphor. And as I read more, I realized that the entire story of Ariadne, and not just the bit about the labyrinth, built on this theme, and also brought in new themes of sacrifice & concession & abandonment & rebirth. As the recording process deepened, and after the gaseous demise of our band members, we realized that we were currently embodying these themes, and that, in fact, most everyone does. Who among us has not compromised for love, only to be abandoned in the end? And who has not been lifted from misery by kind hands and given a new start? We organized our songs that they might lead the listener thru the story, form beginning to end. I have had writers block many, many months, and hearing of it, our dear cousin, Wallace Cochran, volunteered to pen the retelling of Ariadne’s story. He far surpassed all my expectations. Then, taking cues from imagery in the songs & in Wallace’s writing, Page & Deb did a series of drawings to be included. In this way, we ended up with a small book to accompany our album. We are very pleased with it.

Seems like you come from quite a musical background. Were you kids singing and playing instruments practically from birth?

We wrote Jiffy cornbread advertising jingles right out of the womb, but did not take well to any of the instruments forced upon us by the Atlanta Public School System. These included: the recorder (of course), saxaphone, viola, etc. My piano instructor looked like a castmember from a Twilight Zone episode. I took up guitar when I was 16. And Page a bit later. Page enjoyed a week of wild popularity in 4th grade after she composed and performed a song at the school talent show. It was a song about bubbles entitled “Bubbles.”

And finally—your liner notes mention use of a “cookie-tin banjo.” Now… is that exactly what it sounds like? I’m totally intrigued.

Deb’s mother bought a hot-pink tin of Asian cookies. Ate them, and sent the tin to a man in the desert who outfitted it with a wooden neck, an electric pick-up, and a shoestring strap. I do not know his name, but he earns his living by this craft. I am sure you could search him on the internerd. I think he charges around $75.