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CADE HOPPE on his newest singleLabels
interview
WORDS by Tessa Swantek TALENT Cade Hoppe PHOTOS by Will Shelborn PR°Tallulah Pr
In Cade Hoppe’s new single, “Labels,” he sings, “I’m getting comfortable with being unstable,” a sentiment that showcases an innate strength in will and self-assuredness. When I asked Cade Hoppe to recall a distinct childhood memory, he recounted performing a Ben Folds song in his middle school talent show. Even though he admits to singing poorly and being teased, he says, “One of the reasons I love that memory so much is because I don’t remember thinking for one second that I was bad or being embarrassed, I just remember feeling proud that I’d done it in front of all those kids. That memory was the first time I was truly tested at shrugging off criticism and continuing to do it anyway because I kept playing those talent shows every year getting better and better.”
At a young age, Hoppe learned to let go of the idea that your external environment can be controlled. Years later, while studying finance at NYU, a major he did not enjoy, he listened to Ben Folds perform his song “Evaporated” live and told Folds that he wanted to pursue music to which Folds replied, “That’s exactly what you’re supposed to do, now just keep going and keep doing what you love.” In the song “Evaporated,” Folds sings, “Maybe I'm a kite that's flying high and random/ Dangling on a string.” Like a kite being pushed and pulled in the wind, there is no controlling life’s push and pull of us. Passion, however, can anchor a kite or fill a dangling balloon with helium, giving it a weight and force that acts against the wind’s mercy. So while music’s environment is blustering, there is weight in passion. While studying finance, Hoppe was deflated - weightless and at the will of the environment surrounding him. Now, honest songwriting and storytelling pumps him with helium, making him able to rise in the atmosphere, no matter how tumultuous. In many ways, Hoppe is getting back to his childhood self standing on stage, unwavering, in front of his class.
In our interview with Hoppe, we talk about his pursuit of music, memories, and his newest single, “Labels.”
Before getting into “Labels,” I want to ask a few more general questions. I like to ask people a vivid childhood memory that they would love to revisit whether it be for the feeling they felt at the time, the people they were surrounded by, the nostalgia, etc. So, for you, what memory would you want to revisit and why?
One memory I look back on fondly is the first time I played piano and sang for a really big audience at my middle school talent show in 6th grade. It was first thing in the morning at like 8:30am and there were just under a thousand kids there in this outdoor amphitheater and I was absolutely terrified. I played “Landed” by Ben Folds and I sucked—my piano was a lot better than my singing but I was not good and people weren’t afraid to tell me that. On top of all that, no one knew the song, so a bunch of people thought I was singing about our friend Landon, singing, “I’m Landon,” instead of, “I’ve landed,” and people relentlessly teased me for it. But one of the reasons I love that memory so much is because I don’t remember thinking for one second that I was bad or being embarrassed, I just remember feeling proud that I’d done it in front of all those kids. That memory was the first time I was truly tested at shrugging off criticism and continuing to do it anyway because I kept playing those talent shows every year getting better and better. No one starts good at anything—but there’s not a single thing you can’t get better at with practice.
On a similar topic, I would like to ask you our signature question. Since scent triggers memory, what three scents would you want to bottle that remind you of certain memories?
I honestly think that I remember smells that remind me of bad memories more than of good ones. Like the smell of Chipotle brings me back to when I worked at one for a year a couple years ago when I was first fully pursuing music—and those are not good memories. But as far as smells that remind me of good memories… I love the smell of the Mexican food at the local taqueria in my hometown back in California (a very different smell than Chipotle), the smell of my mom’s chocolate butterscotch Rice Krispy treats, and the synthetic smell of orange trees as they blast through the vents on Soarin’ Over California at Disneyland. Those are the first three that come to mind that I would bottle up.
I know that before you decided to fully pursue your passion, you were studying finance and playing basketball at NYU. One of my favorite artists is Dermot Kennedy and he originally wanted to be a professional soccer player and often compares music to sports in terms of there being a physical and mental fitness aspect to both. For you, what “muscles” in songwriting/ singing are most important for you to train and grow?
Yeah, I definitely still think about growing up playing basketball and how that relates to what I’m doing now with music and I think there are a few muscles to strengthen. In basketball, both individual and team practice is important and you’re constantly trying to add moves to your game and implement them in practice, so when the game comes you don’t even have to think about it. So I think the muscles you want to strengthen when it comes to music are usually the ones that you don’t even think about when you’re actually doing it. Living life and really understanding your own view of the world as you experience it is one of the most important things to strengthen in my opinion, because in order to say something you’ve got to have something to say. Then some other important muscles are your ability on the instruments you play, your writing, and your singing, which all just get better by practicing and doing it every day.
You wrote on your TikTok once that you are 6’8” which made me really curious if you’ve ever felt that your height has affected the way you are perceived or the way you perceive yourself. I ask this only because I am quite short and find that it has really affected the way I am perceived by others.
Yeah it’s funny, being so tall used to get in the way a lot less than it does now. I used to be playing basketball all the time and hanging out with my teammates, so being as tall as I am definitely used to feel more normal. But now, I’m making music and waiting tables and everything I need to do is so much lower to the ground—my height is much less useful to me. And I do think that people see me and the first thing they see is my height and maybe that intimidates them, or it makes them laugh because it looks awkward, or they don’t really think anything of it besides the fact that I’m tall. But it usually surprises people that I make music and I have to think that part of that is that I look more like I should be playing basketball than making music. At the end of the day, though, I love being tall because it’s a part of who I am and I hope to be everyone’s tallest favorite artist.
"Living life and really understanding your own view of the world as you experience it is one of the most important things to strengthen in my opinion, because in order to say something you’ve got to have something to say. "
Moving into music, I know you started writing because of Ben Folds. You have said in other interviews that he played “Evaporated” which really stuck with you. The lyrics in that song are beautiful, what about it resonated with you? In general, what about music tends to resonate with you?
Yeah, I love that you brought this up. I do have kind of a long history with Ben Folds and how he ultimately inspired me to pursue my passion. As I said earlier, I played “Landed” and a couple other of his songs at my first few talent shows. Then when I was 14, my dad took me to see him with the San Francisco Symphony, which was the first concert I ever went to, and I wrote my first song a few weeks later (a waltz about a hotel desk clerk named Paul who worked the night shift at Holiday Inn, basically ripping off Folds’ “Fred Jones, Pt. 2”). A few years went by and I saw him a few more times with my dad, then I was having a really miserable summer working an unpaid finance internship in the city after my freshman year and I got to meet him at a book signing for his memoir. On my way to the signing, I was listening to “Evaporated” which was my favorite song of his and I’d never seen him play it in the 4-5 shows I’d been to and he just happened to play it that night and it was exactly what I needed to hear. I’ll remember that forever. Then when I met him I told him that I wanted to do what he did and that my first song I ever wrote ripped off “Fred Jones” and his eyes got huge and he was just like, “That’s exactly what you’re supposed to do, now just keep going and keep doing what you love.” That was the tipping point that led me to start putting music first and I’m really grateful for that moment.
“Evaporated” being the song that moment is centered around seems more and more fitting in retrospect. As you said, the lyrics in that song are beautiful and so special to me. “I poured my heart out/It evaporated, see?” and, “I’m sure back home they think I’ve lost my mind,” and, “I’ve faith that there is a soul somewhere that’s leading me around/I wonder if she knows which way is down,” are three of my favorites. That song is so simple musically and really lets the lyrics do their thing, and I think that’s one of the songs that’s made me love lyrics as much as I do. For me, lyrics make or break the song and are easily the thing that resonates with me the most. That song made me feel something so special and I can only hope to give someone even a glimpse of that feeling with my music one day.
I know you have worked with producer Harper James on your music for quite some time now. Your songs are very honest and I would imagine it would be somewhat hard to open yourself up so intimately with those working with you. Did you ever struggle with that? If not, was there ever a time when you felt it nerve-wracking to share your music?
Harper’s the best! It’s honestly so hard to believe how much I lucked out connecting with him a couple years ago because I literally found him in an Instagram ad he was running. I think as far as opening up to him goes, it was a very natural progression. Part of what makes working together so great is that we never tried to force a friendship or force talking about things we weren’t comfortable sharing. We’ve just worked together a lot and talked about things we wanted to talk about. He’s very supportive of authenticity in songwriting and I’m a huge believer in that, so I’ve never really been nervous to share a song I wrote, especially if I think it’s honest and good. And honestly, my most vulnerable songs have often happened to be my best work, so when I’m playing him something I wrote that was a little scary to put in a song, I’m actually more excited to play it than nervous because I’m thinking he might like it and be excited to work on it together.
Shifting to “Labels,” I know you often mention musical influences and the journey to finding your own sound, so what aspects of this song do you think are quintessentially you?
I think that the lyrics in this song are definitely very “me.” There’s also a lot of piano and saxophone tucked in there which I played, and those have been a part of my life since elementary school. I’m just very happy with how much of myself I was able to fit into this song and that the production resulted in one of the productions I’m most proud of.
The song is about lacking reassurance or a label in a relationship. Can you tell us a little bit more about the writing/ideation process for the song?
The song takes on the metaphor of a romantic relationship, but when I was writing it, I started with writing about pursuing a career in music. This song was the product of staying up very late to write a song and then giving myself an honest check-up in regards to trying to get my “big break.” It’s about wanting so badly to know for sure that things are going to work out for me and my artist career and knowing I’ll never actually know for sure—but that’s not enough to convince me not to give it everything I have anyway. It’s like the song says: “I’m getting comfortable with being unstable.”
Last question- some songwriters try to write with universality in mind while others write with extreme specificity. I have always thought that extreme specificity is often universal in its own right. What are your thoughts on that?
I absolutely agree with you. 100%. I’ve never really had a preference in my own writing—sometimes my songs are more general, sometimes they’re more specific, but every song has a mix of both. My instincts just lead me towards the honest feelings I’m having and those are sometimes more specific than other times. But at the end of the day, the complete song finds itself being very specific to me, and so when there are other people out there that completely relate to a song that’s specifically about me and it works on a more universal level. That's pretty cool, but usually entirely unintentional.
Thank you for the interview!
Absolutely, thank you so much for taking the time to have me!
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