Holding Onto Hope | Giving It All Away
ou don’t have to tell these dudes what dedication is. Selling off everything they owned to fully and whole heartedly follow their dreams, Holding Onto Hope is the epitome of what their label, Come & Live, promotes; live simply. These are some of the most solid and honest guys I’ve seen take the stage in this scene. Vocalist Cory Okeefe and I sat down at a recent festival to go over the band’s history and why they have chosen to start down this potentially rough road.
Tell our readers a bit about how Holding Onto Hope got started and what you guys are all about.
Cory Okeefe: The band had been around for a little awhile. About three years ago some friends got together to play as Holding Onto Hope. A lot has transpired since then. There are no original members from that band. It pretty much started over as a new band in August 2008. We were going re-name the band but we thought it was pretty relevant to what we’re doing as a band so we kept it. We started fresh in August and wrote the EP we have now Of The Sea in August 2008 and recorded it in January. So the band is only about a year old.
What is your mission statement and some of your overall goals?
CO: This band is 100% for the people. The label we’re on, Come and Live, it fits exactly what we want to be. People, kids, whoever likes music can have our music for whatever price they want and it means something to them to come to shows and vent the problems of their life. I think we are for the people, we legitamently want to love people and give as much of ourselves as we can and show an ounce, even a hair of the love that Jesus has for us. I think that’s what we want, give people music for whatever they want to pay. If what I can write can apply to their lives and we can have that friendship and bond, that’s what music in general should be about. Its become very jaded over time.
What kind of response have you seen from your album?
CO: Good, we’ve seen a cool response. We recorded it in five days, it’s a bit rough around the edges and there are things we’d like to change but overall I think we’re pretty happy with it. I think people get it. As far as our sound I think that its still being found and established with new members in the band and stuff. I think its went over well. We’ve gotten a decent amount of interest. God has done some cool stuff in people’s lives. People have given us some cool testimonies about it.
Tell us a bit about how you came to be on Come & Live?
CO: I’ve known Chad (Johnson) for four or five years now. My old band played for Tooth N’ Nail back in the day and it didn’t really work out but God’s plan really worked out. We kept in touch over the years and right in January when he left Tooth N’ Nail I was hitting him up about what I was doing. We had just released the EP so we sent it to him. It’s a pretty crazy story, I was going to school full time and I also got offered a really cool job for a label in LA. So I either had to leave school and do the job or stick with school. I was praying super hard like “God if you want me to leave music I’ll give it you, if you want me to drop school…what do you want me to do?” That day it was just like a weight lifted off of me because I gave what was most important to me away like “God, if you want to take it take it.” The next day Chad called me and said he wanted us to be a part of Come and Live. It was just crazy ‘cause its like God saying “Here’s what you’re supposed to do.” So since then, we’ve all sold our stuff and we’re all ready to do it full time. Its awesome.
What are your current plans for HOH?
CO: A lot of the money for Come and Live is just getting their feet off the ground. For us, we’re not stopping a bit. We’re working twenty times harder like we’re slowly selling our possessions to get money. We’re on this first tour, we’ve been out for a month, we just want to tour nonstop. January, tentatively, is when we’ll start writing for the full length album. We’re really excited to do something and do a real record. All God willing of course.
stoked on it.”
Tell us a bit about how we can acquire your record and why you’re doing it that way?
CO: Like all Come and Live bands I feel so strongly about this and its one of the coolest things as a band that we’ve been able to do. So many kids don’t want to pay for music and they’ll download it illegally or whatever. It’s been such a blessing to us because there are people who will pay like a cent for it but they’re so stoked on it. I would so rather have that one person have our CD and enjoy if they like it than worry about the ten bucks I didn’t get. I think art in general should be so freely given, art in general but music especially. People have definitely given us some money for it and we’re so stoked to be able to put our hearts and money and ask “What is it worth to you?” Music should be so much more centered around that than money. I’d rather impact people’s lives than worry about money.
Come & Live is label but not a label so walk us through your band’s through process when it came to signing with them? Was there any hesitation as far as maybe holding out for another more traditional label?
CO: That’s a good questions man, we were struggling with that. Its so low key you know? But those guys’ hearts are so amazing. But from the early stages we’d had a peace about it. We have shopped, we have had interest from other labels and stuff and it’s been tempting to go that route and make something happen. But these last few months we’ve just been praying and we’ve been more stoked on it than anything. I think the do it yourself gives bands such a good idea of hard work. I think that when a lot of bands sign to labels they lose a lot of that drive and they think its going to be smooth sailing. Come and Live has such a huge potential for growth that it makes us want to work so much harder. We want to work super hard with it and bring it up with us. We don’t want to rely on it to bring us up, you know? God’s provision will let it go to where it wants to go rather than some label saying “Okay you’ll be on this super trendy label and you’ll go from the bottom of the line to here and you’ll stay here for five years then break up.” There is so much of that that happens.
But back to the question, with Come and Live it was definitely tough at first but I think we all still, to this day, like I’ve never felt so confident about anything in my life. This is where God wants each one of us. This is like the future of something even when it seems impossible at this point.
You can catch Holding Onto Hope on tour with Ascend the Hill as well as this winter on The Wake Tour winding its way through the Southwest. They will be working hard on writing a new record before heading back out on the road in March.
