Sam Gilbert
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Sitting at a table at Kreuzberg, CA in downtown San Luis Obispo, it’s obvious that The Simple Parade’s upcoming album is drawn from romantic inspiration.
“I’m very excited about it because it’s a love-concept album,” Cal Poly graduate and The Simple Parade member Justin Hooper said.
Hooper was previously half of local duo History of Painters. Once the band broke up, however, he felt compelled to write and make music a priority in his life.
“I felt like I had these songs that I just had to get out of me,” Hooper said. “This album is basically nine years of writing love songs.”
His current band, The Simple Parade, plans to record its album in Denver, Colo. in mid-July. In the meantime, the group has been trying to raise money by launching an Indiegogo campaign.
“You go to the website, you can watch the video and there’s a bunch of incentives,” Hooper said. “Basically, you’re donating, but it’s really to pre-order the album and a vinyl or the album and a T-shirt.”
The proceeds won’t just go toward making the album — Hooper is also partnering with VH1’s Save the Music Foundation.
“Once the album is recorded, I’m going to give 10 percent of digital and physical proceeds to that cause,” he said.
Hooper’s wife and bandmate, Kayla Hooper, is the focal point for most of his music. They will soon have been married for four years, but Hooper said he still has a lot to learn.
“It’s a work-in-progress love album,” Hooper said. “The order of it is set up so you could almost read it like a book.”
Hooper describes the first three songs on the album as a progression of maturity: The first was written before he was even in a relationship, the second is about when he was dating and the third is his entire story with his wife.
“It takes us up to our wedding day,” Hooper said. “Then it looks back like, ‘What if I lose it?’ and me struggling with how I’m supposed to show love. Then it goes into a father-and-son love and family and just a lot of different aspects.”
Though the band is focused on fundraising and hasn’t been performing locally as often as they have in the past, the folk-pop group is set to play at Higher Groundz on June 8.
“I like playing at coffee shops the best,” Hooper said. “That’s actually one of the incentives added to the Indiegogo campaign.”
If you pre-order the album, Hooper said, and have any questions about anything he has to say about love, he will treat you to a cup of coffee to talk about it.
“I know that Facebook and all of those social media websites are necessary,” Hooper said. “But I like more face-to-face interaction to talk about stuff and these kinds of connections.”