Features : Hold the Light brings Hopeland’s talent back on the stage

For almost exactly half of its three-and-a-half minute run, the heartbreak beautiful single “Hold the Light” is just the French Canadian artist Hopeland and his acoustic guitar softly singing goodbye to someone.

When you’re awake you’re my

Golden hour

And you get all the smiles

When it gets dark you

You kill the fires

that were still inside of you

Halfway through a quiet bass drum and soft strings come in behind the guitar, and the song turns. The loved one is gone and the singer is talking to his own grief.

Oh no, I know

It’s a battle that you have to win somehow

But it’s inside me now

When your delusions take control

I’ll hold the light

Hold the light for you

That’s one interpretation.

The song makes the listener feel, and that is why Hopeland chose it as the featured single to help introduce the album of the same name, even though the other 13 tracks are full of inventive alternative pop rock beats, rhythms and instrumentation.

“I know it’s a weird choice of single,” said Hopeland, “but it’s a song that I think has the most powerful feeling because you just hear the voice and the guitar, and you have to listen to the lyrics.”

“And,” he said, “I know that this song has a meaning. Anybody can find their own meaning on it, but for me it’s the feeling of losing someone.”

For years, Hopeland was big in the French-Canadian music world and was moving into the U.S. market.

“My career went well. I went to LA, like, four times, met a lot of great producers. I did a lot of things. I had a lot of placement in MTV, in ‘So You Think You Can Dance’ and a couple of other shows. But when the pandemic arrives, we cannot make shows and I had a bad time. Right now, everything is good, everything is fixed. I just want to go back in the game and play shows again, make festivals, doing the thing that I love the most in my life.”

He i wants to get “back on the map.” Hold the Light, the album, should get him there. The music is rich in songwriting and performing talent. The songs offer a wide variety in Hopeland’s vocals and in tone, style and content.

The album includes one of his songs in French, “Au Bout des Doigts,” featuring LANISA.

Hopeland’s voice ranges from a hard, clear, powerful rock tenor down into a soft, intimate baritone, as on “Hold the Light.” Some songs, like “Set My Heart on Fire” and “Give Up,” have both.

“I work a lot on my voice,” he said. “I can change it for the song, for the feeling of the words on the song.”

“I want to promote this album because it’s awesome,” he said. “I worked a lot on it. I love all the songs, and I’m ready to play it live on shows.”

He and his co-writer, David Rancourt, wrote all the songs.

“For me, I think the song will be better if you have another brain with you, another type of person, because my partner is completely different. He’s a producer in real life. That’s his job, and he works with a lot of artists. He has a lot of experience, a lot of input with other people and good taste in music.”

Hopeland has a lot of music, some in process, and, he says, “My project is just writing more songs.”

He wants to put out more singles and a deluxe album with demos and alternative versions of songs, and perhaps an EP and more videos.

And he wants to perform.

“Where I want to go is just to go back into my thing. I don’t care where I’m going to play, but I want to play. Okay? I want to play shows. I want to meet the people. I want to sing the songs for everyone, just to feel again, because when I play shows, it was always a connection. I love to do it, not for fame, I don’t care about that. I want to play my songs.”

To play his songs, connect to Hopeland on all platforms for new music, videos, and social posts.

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