Cade Hoppe is an indie singer-songwriter based in New York. After the release of four singles, including 'Afterparty' and 'On My Way Down', Hoppe has released his debut EP titled 'Tell Me How It's Worth It' featuring a brand new track 'Borrowed Time'. The indie-pop artist blends storytelling lyricism with sounds influenced by the work of artists like The National and Taylor Swift. I had the pleasure of catching up with Cade to discuss the recording process behind the EP, the meaning behind the track 'Borrowed Time' and the challenges faced by independent musicians.
Hi Cade, how are you?
Hi Keiko, I’m doing really well. It’s so exciting and such a relief to finally have this EP out in the world. You’ve been so supportive of the singles and I’m happy it worked out to do this interview for the EP release.
Could you introduce yourself to our readers?
Hi everyone, I’m Cade Hoppe—pronounced hoppy. I’m a 21-year-old New York indie pop artist originally from Northern California near Sacramento and I just put out my debut EP, Tell Me How It’s Worth It.
Thank you for taking the time to do this interview, what have you been up to other than
making music?
It’s my pleasure and thank you for taking the time, as well. I’ve been really busy, honestly. I took a year off school last year and now I’m back at NYU studying finance again—I’m also working as much as possible at a restaurant in the East Village as a server. Between work and school and music, I don’t have too much free time, but I like to multi-task by watching Netflix while I do schoolwork. I also spend a lot of time with my girlfriend, Maddie Regent; we love going to concerts and movies together whenever we can.
For those who may not have heard your music before, how would you describe your sound
and musical style?
My quick elevator pitch is: imagine The National made a Taylor Swift record endorsed by Jack Antonoff, Chris Martin, and Ben Folds—then essentially have a Cade Hoppe record. I strive to be an eclectic and versatile artist without just one genre, but if I had to classify my music in a genre then it’s definitely indie pop. You’ll also hopefully hear in my music that I care deeply about my lyrics, because that’s what all my greatest musical influences taught me to do.
I first heard your music when you contacted me about your single ‘On My Way Down’ and
now you’ve released your EP. How does it feel to finally share your EP with your listeners?
I think anytime you put out a project like this, it’s a relief to release it more than anything. Between writing, recording, marketing, making visuals, etc. there’s been so much time and money that’s gone into this EP over the past year; it’s just exciting that these songs are out on streaming platforms and not just in my files app on my phone. And then obviously, I really hope people connect with it.
The EP is titled ‘Tell Me How It’s Worth It’ and features your previous singles alongside a
brand-new song ‘Borrowed Time’, could you tell us a bit about the EP and the recording
process?
This EP is a collection of five songs written in a period of heavy transition in my life and its title comes from a recurring line in ‘Borrowed Time’. The theme of the overall EP is leaving something or someone behind for what you really want and even if that ultimately pays off, there are challenges that it brings. It’s hard to leave anything, hard to start something new, hard to be in that middle grey area—pretty much all of it is tough—so even if you know it is worth it, I think there are a lot of moments where you have to reconvince yourself that it is. This past year I went through a difficult breakup, started a new relationship, took a year off school, went through two new jobs, moved to Brooklyn and back, and put everything I had into music for the first time in my life; if you asked me now, I’d tell you that that was all extremely worth it and the music has benefited greatly, but when I was in it, there were many times where I wondered if it really was worth it. I wrote a lot of songs as I went through those feelings and experiences—many of which will never be recorded and released—and ultimately I chose songs that meant the most to me to bring in to my producer Harper
James, and then we would choose which ones to produce from those.
You worked with Harper James who produced the EP, what was it like working with him and
did you face any challenges with the recording process?
Harper is the best—he’s just a really talented producer and awesome person. Working with him, even in the very beginning, has always been really natural and I’m grateful to be able to have him as a friend and mentor. The biggest challenge we ever faced was deciding what to order for food on any given day.
Do you have a favourite song from the EP?
I think my favourite song is probably ‘Afterparty’; that was the last song I wrote and the last song we recorded/produced and it’s the best songwriting and production on the EP, in my opinion.
During your recent performance for The Rooftop Series, you described ‘Borrowed Time’ as
being the focus single from the EP, a song that is about a relationship breaking down with
both individuals reluctant to give in and end the union. Could you tell us a bit more about the writing process behind this single, and why it is the focus of the EP?
Yeah, ‘Borrowed Time’ is a song that I always wanted to write because it’s about a feeling I’ve felt a few different times and never known how to put it into song. I’m really bad at saying goodbye and letting people down because I was raised to be a people pleaser, but over time I’ve learned that in order to have certain things that you want, you have to say goodbye to other things. Saying goodbye and hurting the other person feels like it makes you the bad guy, but it’s better for both of you to just be honest and say goodbye when it’s time to say goodbye, rather than moving on in your head before it’s officially over. Trust me, I know from experience. I wrote this song chronologically and very quickly, which isn’t always how I write songs, but I’ve found that the songs that really need to come out of me are usually written that way. This was also actually the only song that I brought into Harper, already dead set on a specific production idea—the vocoder effect in the chorus. Usually I’m very open-minded when we start the production phase, but it was immediately very clear that that needed to be a big part of the song. And honestly (besides the fact that this song feels to me like the thesis of the EP) it’s the focus single because the master came back and Harper and I were really excited about how it sounded, which gave me a lot of confidence about this song being hopefully well-received by listeners.
Thematically, the EP charts the highs and lows of being in a relationship with someone, from
the initial dizziness of falling in love to the mental hardships of having to part. Did you intend
to make this EP have a specific theme, or was it a coincidence that the singles fell into place
and complemented the stories being told?
I’ve known for a long time that this would be the theme of the EP, but part of the reason that theme made the most sense is because these are real things that I went through. It’s kind of like asking Taylor Swift or Adele if Red or 21 were intended to be breakup albums—they probably weren’t planning on going through a breakup, but at a certain point I’m sure it became clear that breakup songs would be the bulk of the content. But once I figured out what the main theme of this record was going to be, I will say that it did dictate a couple song choices of what to record. So, the short answer is that it was a combination of both premeditated and coincidental.
Are there any plans to release visuals for the songs featured on the EP?
Yeah, actually. I just shot a music video for ‘Borrowed Time’ that I plan to put out in a couple weeks or so. This was the only video for this EP, but I’m really excited about it and plan on doing more visuals for my next project.
If you could collaborate with any musician in the world, who would it be?
This is a pretty easy answer—either Taylor Swift or Jack Antonoff. And it may seem like a long shot now, but the way I see it, that long shot gets shorter every single day.
Do you have artists who you look up to for inspiration? And if so, could you share some of
your favourite songs by that artist?
There are so many artists I look up to, so I’ll just go ahead and name my current favourite songs by my favourite artists right now: ‘Chinese Satellite’ by Phoebe Bridgers, ‘right where you left me’ by Taylor Swift, ‘Chinatown’ by Bleachers feat. Bruce Springsteen, ‘Perth’ by Bon Iver, ‘Coloratura’ by Coldplay, ‘Silk Chiffon’ by MUNA feat. Phoebe Bridgers, and ‘In The Car Outside’ by The Killers. Some of those are newer than others, but those are the ones off the top of my head that have been inspiring me to write and produce better music.
"It’s hard to leave anything, hard to start something new, hard to be in that middle grey area—pretty much all of it is tough—so even if you know it is worth it, I think there are a lot of moments where you have to reconvince yourself that it is."
As an independent artist you have been honest with the hardships you’ve faced in terms of
battling self-doubt and the opinion of others when it comes to your music. What advice
would you give to someone who may be struggling to overcome those challenges?
If there’s one thing in this world that you have to believe in, it’s yourself. I think any self-doubt I’ve ever had has originated from someone else who told me I couldn’t do something, and one day it suddenly clicked that the only reason anyone ever says you can’t do something is because they don’t want you to do it. And usually them not wanting you do to it has nothing to do with you and everything to do with their own jealousy and insecurity. So my advice to someone struggling to overcome all of that is to just do it anyway. Betting on yourself in order to do what makes you happy will never be something you’ll regret.
What do you think it means to be successful in the music industry?
Right now, success to me is progress—as an independent artist early in my career, the one-fan-a-day mentality is crucial. Ultimately, my definition of success in this industry will evolve into being able to support myself off of my music because that’s how I’m going to stay in this industry for my whole life. Being present is the best way to guarantee the brightest future, in my book.
If you could change one thing about the music industry, what would it be?
I really wish TikTok weren’t given so much weight, to be honest. I think the algorithm values the wrong things in music and it’s forcing the industry to place more value in those things as a response. It’s a great marketing tool and I’m doing my best to figure out how it can best benefit me and my career, but it is frustrating when all I want to do is make music and play shows. The world evolves and we have to evolve with it though—the show goes on.
What is the best advice you have received?
The best advice I’ve ever received is to do what you love because life’s too short to do anything else.
Thank you for taking the time to answer my questions and congratulations on the release of
‘Tell Me How It’s Worth It’!
Of course—thank you so much for such a thoughtful interview!
Check out Cade Hoppe's debut EP 'Tell Me How It's Worth It' in the links above or hear the EP in full on my Spotify Featured Artists Playlist (link in bio)