Last July during Summerfest, Nathan Stocker and Jake Luppen from Hippo Campus joined us for a Studio Milwaukee Session that proved memorable for a couple reasons. One was the unreleased music they shared with us. The other was how candid they were during the mid-set interview.
Hearing them talk about an extended break and what the band learned collectively while taking time apart was an emotional moment from their visit — one made all the more joyful by the fact that they came through the other side with new music to play: Flood, the album released last September.
This Wednesday, we all get the chance to hear those songs (and a few older favorites) live when they take the stage at the Riverside Theater for a show supported by Mei Semones. Stocker spoke with 88Nine’s Arya Ahmadi recently about the band’s previous visit to Milwaukee and their drizzle-enhanced Summerfest performance, as well as how Hippo Campus strives to imbue their music with real meaning and extend the impact to all of their live shows.
The following responses have been lightly edited for length and clarity.
Interview highlights
On the band’s 2024 Summerfest experience:
We had several German-style brats and kind of just walked around the festival. It was a light rain, which had that natural disco-ball effect. It was just so magical, these perfect conditions for having a beautiful set. It was so sick closing out that stage. I love Milwaukee. I love just walking around that festival. It’s a trip.
On the band’s — and his own — current state of mind:
Just pure, 100% coasting right now, my friend. Feet off the pedals. No brakes. [laughs]
There's the sophomore record, there's the third record, there's the fourth record … and, yeah, it's difficult to wake up and be like, “Where am I? What has happened over the last 10 years? What aspects of myself then apply to myself now? What kind of goals do I have outside of the band?”
For me, that's been a really tough journey cuz I soaked my identity in this thing for 10 years. Now in my 30s — two-and-a-half years dry — try my best to live as well as I can each day. And not just for myself, but for the people around me. And to share that love that I get with the ones who love me and and the ones I love back. Multiply that by everything going on socially, I don't know, it's a weird thing.
But I think there's no less beauty. I think it's just more difficult to really sift through all of the muck and kind of get to that distilled thing that makes life exciting and valuable. At the end of the day, it's people, right?
On the importance of live music:
I was just talking to somebody about how live music has never felt more crucial for me personally, even though I don't go out to shows really, I don't stay up that late. But these nights for me and for the rest of the band are more and more visceral and real because of all of the external factors: our individual lives, sobriety, our partners, our fiances.
It’s very much that sacred space we want to protect and that sacred space that we want to share with whoever's willing to venture out into the night and just be like, “You know what? I'm putting everything that's happened today on hold and everything that I've been worrying about, and I'm gonna give to this band that's on stage and let them take care of me hopefully.”
That's kind of like that's our main focus right now. … I’m just grateful to still be doing this. We all are. And we don't want to waste this opportunity because time really is running.