“For each of these songs, I just sent over a lead vocal and a piano and Hammock reinvented these songs in way that only they could do,” explains YELLOWCARD vocalist/guitarist Ryan Key about A Hopeful Sign, the new collaboration with the Nashville-based post-rock duo.
Set for release on via Equal Vision, the new album revisits some of the alt-rock band’s most memorable tracks and reimagines them in a neo-classical and ambient space, deconstructing the songs and rebuilding them as a whole new aural experience. The first single from the album, “Ocean Avenue,” takes the band’s signature hit and metamorphosing the song from a pop-punk anthem to a contemplative and delicate piano-led ballad.
“Yellowcard is in a new place where we are collaborating with other artists more than ever before,” says Key about this new musical partnership. “I have found Hammock in my top three most played artists every year for nearly a decade now. Hammock are one of the defining and most pioneering artists in the post rock and ambient space. We have taken so much inspiration from their work over the years so first becoming friends, and then unexpectedly getting to work together on new music were dreams come true.”
Reflecting on the tracklist on A Hopeful Sign, he adds, “I still can’t quite believe it’s real, that we were able to create an entire album with a band that has had such a massive influence on us. Whether it is one of our well-known songs or a deeper cut, these versions bring with them completely new interpretations and meanings for listeners who have lived with them for so many years. During the six years that Yellowcard was apart, I was constantly searching for ways to continue my career as a musician and producer. I had the idea to basically do Yellowcard covers featuring friends and artists I’ve had the pleasure of knowing throughout my career. The first artist to reply and complete a collaboration was Hammock with their reworked version of ‘Empty Street’.”
The nine-track album pulls tracks from 2003’s Ocean Avenue (title track, “Only One”), 2006’s Lights And Sounds (“Waiting Game”), 2007’s Paper Walls (“You And Me And One Spotlight”), 2012’s Southern Air (title track, “Telescope”), 2014’s Lift A Sail (“Transmission Home”) and 2016’s Yellowcard (“Empty Street”, “A Place We Set Fire”). “It is such an honor to have worked on ‘A Hopeful Sign’ with such talented humans, and this record will be something we cherish forever,” says Ryan.
