White Willow release Future Hopes video

White Willow
White Willow (Image credit: Dagfinn Hob\u00e6k)

White Willow have released a video for their song Future Hopes exclusively with Prog.

It’s the title track from the Norwegian outfit’s upcoming seventh album, which will launch on March 31. It will be their first studio release since 2011’s Terminal Twilight.

Guitarist Jacob Holm-Lupo tells Prog: “I actually wrote these songs a couple of years ago, and the title is ironic, seeing as even at that point I felt there wasn’t that much future hope.

“I grew up in an age of scientific optimism – the 70s and 80s – and I was an avid reader of science fiction. As I have grown up and seen the future come and go, I feel that ‘future’ is a term that doesn’t quite hold the magic it used to.

“The whole album is really about that. How do you cope with a future that seems hopeless? The question becomes more apt each day. To me, interpersonal relationships, the human bond, is the thing that gives us hope and keeps us moving into the future. Love, basically, both platonic and romantic.”

He continues: “The actual song Future Hopes is that kind of love song, a bit hopeless and hopeful at the same time. The video is really just an atmospheric collage of images of a future/present where there is both happiness and sadness, beauty and decay.”

Future Hopes is White Willow’s first release with new singer Venke Knutson, who joins core members Holm-Lupo and Mattias Olsson. The band are completed by flautist Ketil Einarsen, keyboardist Lars Fredrik Frøislie and bassist Ellen Andrea Wang.

The Future Hopes cover

The Future Hopes cover

White Willow Future Hopes tracklist

  1. Future Hopes
  2. Silver And Gold
  3. In Dim Days
  4. Where There Was Sea There Is Abyss
  5. A Scarred View
  6. Animal Magnetism (Bonus)
  7. Damnation Valley (Bonus)

White Willow: Ignis Fatuus

Scott Munro
Louder e-commerce editor

Scott has spent more than 30 years in newspapers, magazines and online as an editor, production editor, sub-editor, designer, writer and reviewer. Scott joined our news desk in the summer of 2014 before moving to the e-commerce team in 2020. Scott maintains Louder’s buyer’s guides, scouts out the best deals for music fans and reviews headphones, speakers, books and more. He's written more than 11,000 articles across Louder, Classic Rock, Metal Hammer and Prog and has previous written for publications including IGN, the Sunday Mirror, Daily Record and The Herald, covering everything from daily news and weekly features, to video games, travel and whisky. Scott's favourite bands are Fields Of The Nephilim, The Cure, New Model Army, All About Eve, The Mission, Cocteau Twins, Drab Majesty, Marillion and Rush.