Dabda - "Dear Hope"
Photo by Jinny Park
South Korea's Dabda have a new single out, and if you're just discovering them, be prepared to become superfans. "Dear Hope" is a stunning single that is both epic and beautiful. It's just about as large as indie rock can get, and, despite how huge the song is, there are some strong roots in twee. As amazing as the song is when it starts out, at around the two minute mark it takes off into an arena ready powerhouse while keeping everything we loved about it intact. From there "Dear Hope" continues to morph and evolve through multiple stages and sounds. It's like a phenomenal mixture of U2, early Smashing Pumpkins, and Belle and Sebastian. Dabda are going to quickly become a favorite of ours and of yours.
Jiae Kim (vocals and guitar) says of the band's latest single:
“Dear Hope is a song that was built around a single theme—hope—from the very earliest sketches of the track. (Usually we tend to attach a theme later in the process.) ‘Hope’ is a word that feels close enough to us that saying it out loud never sounds strange. Yet, despite its dazzling brightness, it often seems to carry anxiety and restlessness along with it like inseparable companions. That contradiction never sat quite right with me, so I found myself writing and singing about the moments of anguish that grow out of hope.
"While I was exploring those feelings, our drummer Seunghyun focused instead on the brighter, more energetic side of hope, driving the song forward with powerful rhythms. (At the same time, he once joked that if hope were personified and he ever met it in real life, he might want to punch it at least once.)
"Even so, I still wish that hope could fill people’s hearts—including my own—a little more. Fleeting hope, even futile hope, is what keeps us going. And perhaps because of that, we might still be able to testify that hope exists. This song is sent to ‘Hope,’ who only truly appears when those mirage-like, shallow breaths finally become us.”
You can watch the video for "Dear Hope" below. "Dear Hope" is out now on Electric Muse. For more on Dabda, check out the artist on Instagram and Facebook.
