The Hopefuls: Four Years Later

I knew in writing about The Hopefuls that I was writing an incomplete story. As long as Erik Appelwick, Eric Fawcett, Darren Jackson, and John Hermanson keep making music, there’ll be more to tell. In that spirit, I’ve decided to continue to compile and document their ongoing adventures, and release updates every couple of years.  

Believe it or not, it’s been four years since I sent The Hopefuls: Chasing a Rock ‘n’ Roll Dream in the Minnesota Music Scene off to the publisher, so that means it’s time for the second update, covering mid-2020 to mid-2022. The first update, covering mid-2018 to mid-2020, is available here.

Appelwick

With one major exception, these two years were quiet ones for Erik Appelwick. In January 2022, he signed with Castle Rock Music, an L.A.-based agent that represents independent artists for licensing. The next month, he released Paradise, the sixth album from Vicious Vicious. The songs were recorded at Pachyderm Studios with engineer Nick Tvietbakk. Adrian Suarez, who last worked with Appelwick on 2007's Parade, played drums. 

The album is very much a continuation of the sound Appelwick has been perfecting since 2016's Tropical Depression album, Islands. Bethany Parks, who duets with Appelwick on the song "Candy Gone Lately," cannily described Paradise as: "cosmic tropical nostalgia synth wave." Lyrically, it's a loose concept album, focusing on falling in love and the way the accompanying feelings create a blurry distinction between fantasy and reality.

Erik is also still somewhat involved with Parks in Citrîne, working on a handful of new singles in late-2020 and early-2021, though her 2022 singles under the Citrîne name have been collaborations with Swedish producer Anders Gukko.

Fawcett

After spending nearly two years doing graduate work in marriage and family therapy, Eric Fawcett began working as a practicum intern therapist at Edges Wellness Center in September 2020. He wrote on Facebook that this is his "greatest dream job of all: that of sitting in a room (or a Zoom) with fellow humans and doing my best to help them navigate life's biggest challenges." 

In late 2021 he formed his own therapy practice, Attune Relational Wellness. The name, he points out, is a playful reference to his musical past. But it's also a bridge from that past to the present. Since Fawcett's entire musical career was centered on collaboration, his focus is on the emotional value of being tuned into our own wants and needs, and how those interact with those closest and most important to us.

This, perhaps not coincidentally, is the same career path taken by his former Spymob bandmate John Ostby.

Darren

In December 2020, Darren Jackson released the sixth Kid Dakota album, Age of Roaches. Per his typical process, several of the songs had been in the Kid Dakota repertoire and at different stages of completion for several years, waiting to find a proper home on the right album. Age of Roaches was featured on 89.3 The Current's Local Show, received glowing reviews from several indie music blogs, and got an endorsement from Low's Alan Sparhawk, who wrote: "Darren Jackson has always been a songwriting inspiration to me, but this record is just pure awe."

In late-2021 and the first half of 2022 Darren resumed playing live shows, performing at the likes of the Aster Bar, Sociable Cider Werks, and Palmer's Bar with new drummer / guitarist Lars Oslund, of the Minneapolis band New Primals. The write-up for the Aster Bar shows claimed Darren was at work on a double album called MICD, to be released in 2022.

For the 2020-2021 school year, Darren continued to remotely teach music in his hometown of Bison, South Dakota. At the same time he was enrolled as a graduate student in the University of Minnesota in the Masters of Music program. In February 2021 he declared his intention to once again devote himself to music full-time. He is no longer married to Brieanna Watters, but continues to live in Northeast Minneapolis with his dogs, Dante and Diva.

Johnny

In late November 2020, Storyhill released Bethlehem, their first holiday album. Far from a traditional Christmas album (the only well-known Christmas songs are "O Come O Come Emanuel," "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear," and "Silent Night"), it's instead a meditation on the season. As the guys put it, Bethlehem "weaves together the themes of hope and yearning of the Advent and Christmas seasons as well as songs of import and action for the times we're in."

Plans to support the album were curtailed by COVID-19, so the duo did virtual shows instead. Chris and Johnny were able to bring Storyhill Fest back in August 2021, with a line-up that included Connor Garvey, Carrie Elkin, and Danny Schmidt. In October, the band announced that Johnny, following the dissolution of Egg Music, had moved back to Bozeman "to reconnect with the Rocky Mountain lifestyle and increase [his] focus on the music and opportunities of Storyhill." On Brian Oake's podcast, Johnny said of the move, "I feel like I'm alive again!"

And as a result, Storyhill have matched the level of activity of their college days, if not in recording than definitely in performing. Between fall 2021 and spring 2022 they have played in Montana, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Oregon, and Washington, and done a series of weekly "Live from the Living Room" online concerts. They have used these online shows to begin to work out material for their next album, which would be their first record of all-new, all-original songs since 2010.

In December 2021, Jim Kowitz stepped down after 15 years as Storyhill's manager to spend more time with his family and to focus on his career at Ernst & Young. Jim guided Chris and Johnny through some of their most difficult years, and deserves great credit for ensuring the duo didn't lead separate lives permanently. Tara Morrison has taken over as manager and booking agent.

Now more than ever, Johnny seems at peace with the fact that folk music and Storyhill are his legacy. He told Brian Oake that he's too old for indie rock, but in folk music, he's just getting started. 

Honorary Hopefuls

• In October 2020, Alex Oana's Audio Test Kitchen debuted. It was nominated for a 2021 TEC Award, the North American Music Merchant (NAMM) sponsored awards to honor technical excellence and creativity in audio and sound production.

• In late 2021, Hopefuls superfan (and brief replacement member) Leo Vondracek's band Hot Freaks, who had gone their separate ways a few years earlier, discovered that their 2013 song "Puppy Princess" had become a favorite for TikTok creators. As a result, they signed a one-song deal with Elektra records, and reunited to record new songs "Lovely" and "This Time of Year."

• In early August 2022 jMatt Keil's Kubla Khan will perform a "rare, one-time" reunion show at Icehouse MPLS.