Tunes Tuesday: Christopher Principe

Christopher Principe. Photo by Anna Briggs.

What were some projects you worked on before the ten-year break? I know you were in a few bands. Hooray For Earth was…

Before stepping away, the biggest project I was part of was Hooray For Earth. I was a founding member and played bass in the band. We started out of the Boston music scene and eventually toured pretty heavily — the U.S., Canada, U.K., Europe, Scandinavia — and had some real momentum for a while. We were covered by outlets like Pitchfork, Stereogum, SPIN and Rolling Stone, and one of our singles, “No Love,” was A-listed on BBC Radio 1.

After Hooray For Earth, I also toured as a bassist with Family of the Year for a couple of years.  I also helped them start demos for their next upcoming album. Before all of that, my earliest bands were in the Worcester/Grafton area, including a high school garage rock band called Gas Food Lodging. That’s actually where I first met Noel Heroux, who later became the singer and creative force behind Hooray For Earth. So a lot of my musical life traces back to those early Central Mass friendships.

Why is now a good time to return?

I don’t know if there was one perfect moment where I said, “now is the time.” It was more that the songs started showing up again, and I finally felt healthy, grounded, and confident enough to follow them.

For a long time, music was tied up with ambition, identity, chaos, and a version of myself I didn’t totally know how to manage. Stepping away gave me time to build a life outside of that — getting married, becoming a father, finding steadier ground mentally and emotionally. Eventually, music started to feel like something I couldn’t ignore anymore.  It felt like something I needed to do to feel like my full self again.

Also, the world feels pretty fractured right now. These songs came from trying to process that. It felt like I finally had something honest to say.

You’re releasing two songs, “Us Vs. Them” and “Judge & Jury,” as your return to music. What can you tell us about those songs?

They’re both dealing with division, but from slightly different angles.

“Us Vs. Them” is the more hopeful of the two. It’s about the way people get trapped in bubbles, online and otherwise, and start seeing everyone outside their group as the enemy. At the center of it is this very simple idea: it’s not actually us versus them, we’re all in this together.  Most people are likely scared, lonely, trying to belong, trying to make sense of things, just trying to get by and make ends meet. It’s my attempt at trying to remind people of their shared humanity.

“Judge & Jury” is a little sharper. That song comes from the feeling that hatred is often learned. Someone taught you to fear certain people. Someone taught you to resent people who are different from you. But the song is also saying: you’re not trapped there forever. You can change. You might be better than the worst ideas you were taught to hold onto.

Musically, they also show two sides of what I’m doing. “Us Vs. Them” is more of a floating indie-pop ballad with acoustic guitars, synth, and strings. “Judge & Jury” is more direct and driving — distorted guitars, big choruses, a little more of that rock-and-roll protest energy a la Frank Turner, Green Day, or Dropkick Murphys.

Are there plans for an album after the songs release?

I definitely have more music coming. These two songs are the first baby steps back into releasing original work, and I see them as just the beginning.

Some of the newer material continues in this socially aware direction, but I don’t want to box myself into only writing those types of songs. I’m interested in telling my story and honest songwriting, wherever that leads me.  I think the next release you’ll see from me will be an EP with 4-5 tunes.

You had stepped away from music to focus on your mental health, start a family and get married. How do those life updates translate into the new singles?

After stepping away, getting married, becoming a dad, and really looking at my mental health, I became a lot more interested in whether a song was true than whether it sounded impressive or not.  I just want to be honest about my life and connect with people through these stories.

These songs are political in some ways, but they’re also personal. “Us Vs. Them” is about division in the country, but it’s also about isolation. It’s about wanting people to look up from their phones and actually connect. That feeling comes from knowing what it feels like to be disconnected from yourself and others.

“Judge & Jury” also comes from being a little older and realizing that people aren’t born full of hate. They’re shaped. They’re taught. And if people can be taught to hate, maybe they can also unlearn some of it.  I know I did, I grew up in a small town in Massachusetts, I didn’t grow up using the most PC language and automatically understanding everyone that lived differently than I did.   That comes from life experience and the willingness to learn about others.

You have a release show on June 19 in Worcester at Boland’s. Any plans for a show in Rhode Island?

I’d love to do something in Rhode Island, I’m speaking to a few different Providence venues right now.  That’s definitely happening in the very near future, Summer/Fall.

Worcester made sense for this first release show because I grew up in the Central Mass area and still play a lot around Worcester. It feels like part of my musical origin story. But Rhode Island is home now. I live here, my family is here, and I play a lot of cover gigs around the state as a working musician.

What’s been a highlight since returning to music?

One of the biggest highlights has been rediscovering my love of singing and performance, I also come from a theater background and I’ve always loved throwing all of my emotions into a play or a gig.  It just feels so good!  It’s also been really heartening that the new songs are connecting with people.

The Providence Journal putting my story on the front page was surreal. But even beyond the press, the most important thing has been the personal responses — people telling me the songs made them think or feel something, or that the message really landed with them.

Another highlight was collaborating with Noel Heroux again on “Us Vs. Them.” Noel contributed the synth bassline, and that felt really special because our musical relationship goes all the way back to high school. Having him be part of this return, even in that one specific way, meant a lot.

Preorder the songs now by clicking the link here.