Dynamic Duo Hopkins Release Dreamy-Pop Track Walk Away / Wish You Well
- BUZZ LA
- Aug 23, 2019
- 3 min read
Hopkins is an eclectic collaborative duo formed by LA based musicians, Johannes Gritschacher and Connor Sullivan. They’ve toured the world as a backing band for numerous major label signed artists including Olivia O’Brien, Melanie Martinez, Liz Phair, Ryan Beatty. Connor and Johannes discovered a creative outlet writing and producing music together, that in result, became Hopkins. Hopkins consists of organic, ambient harmonies and melodies weaved together by a modernistic, electronic attitude that reflects an honest and minimalist sound that is approachable while also keeping integrity and authenticity in tact. Currently residing in Los Angeles, California, Hopkins plans to release more singles over the upcoming months and are building a steady growing fan base that connect with their fresh and conceptually relatable sound.
“Walk Away / Wish You Well” begins with the ambient, cinematic and multi-layered tones. Hopkins leads with a dreamlike delicacy, calming rhythms, and smooth, characterful leading vocals that adds a definite touch of recognizability to their work. Lyrically there’s plenty to consider here. The lyrics have a certain profound level of awareness and depth, offering honesty and vulnerability, and this is easy to connect with and feel understood by. “Walk Away / Wish You Well” holds on to those confusing and unorthodox feelings after a breakup with a more melancholic, dreamy vibe. The vocal stands back a little, the instrumental details rain down around you, and lyrical fragments of love and reflection weave in and out of the mix. It’s a fantastic addition to Hopkins repertoire.
Listen to “Walk Away / Wish You Well” here and read more with Hopkins below!
Welcome to BuzzMusic Hopkins! We love your sound. Can you tell us more about your upbringing into music? How did you get started?
Thanks so much! We both have been musically active from really early ages, and that continued all the way up to both of us going to Music schools after graduating high school, those being Berklee College of Music in Boston and the Los Angeles College of Music in Pasadena.
How do you feed your passion for music everyday?
We are both instrumentalists who tour with other artists and bands, so practicing as well as constantly learning new material for gigs is a major way we feed that every day. And on top of that, we’re always writing/producing our own stuff as well as collaborating with other artists and musicians, so we try to fill our days doing one if not all of those. Another big thing that feeds our passion is just listening to new music that is dropping every day. EveryHopkins session usually starts with us trading new tunes or artists that we’ve been listening to and that really inspires where we go and what we write.
Your song “Walk Away / Wish You Well” is amazing! We love the lyrics and melody. What inspired this song?
Thank you! We have been really excited about releasing this one. This song is inspired by a couple different things really. We came up with the guitar riff in this portable green room trailer in the dead of summer at a festival in New York a couple years back. We took a voice memo of it and didn’t touch it for a while after that until earlier this year. We then built the beat and arranged the rest of the song solely off of that loopy guitar part. The lyrics are inspired by a break up, and we tried to convey a story of how a relationship started and ultimately ended. The song feels like 2 parts to us, first shaping the walking away aspect of after things ended and then after the dust settles, wishing that person well and to find happiness in life. It felt very unorthodox writing these seemingly sad lyrics to an up beat progression and groove, but I think that is what we ended up loving most about this song. A very unassuming breakup anthem.
What’s your favorite part of the song, lyrically or sonically?
I think we dorked out most over the bridge and the ending. We really tried to not hold anything back and add whatever we felt like adding. It was challenging at first, but once we threw caution out the window, we ended up adding strings, horns and a choir of voices to support the lead vocals which took the song down a much more serious, melancholic road. As the song plateaus at the end, a new piano hook is introduced that completely re-shapes the attitude and heart of the message that is being conveyed.
What’s next for you?
We are getting ready to mix our next single that we will be releasing soon. This one is much more upbeat and in your face than the others. Other than that we are getting back to the grindstone, trying to write and create as much as we possibly can!
Keep yourself updated with the latest on Hopkins and their music through their socials below!
