CURRENTLY // Bashful Creatures [EP] by Hippo Campus

Crisp, clean, and with a surprising amount of musicianship for such a young band, Hippo Campus' debut EP, Bashful Creatures is one of the most unique sounds you'll hear. The band was formed in 2013, as the four teens were graduating high school in Minnesota. Released in 2015, Bashful Creatures is the simple yet creative, familiar yet fresh, charming indie rock you've been looking for.

The six song EP starts off with "Sophie So", which sets the perfect vibe to get the album rolling. Jumping right into the crisply toned guitar lines that fly throughout all six songs, while lead vocalist Jake Luppen's incredibly unique voice leaps from edgy rasp to effortless falsetto. Mesmerizing harmonies are a constant throughout the EP, as each song seems to just grow with layers as it goes on. Each song features guitar work that you normally just wouldn't see on the first release by a band that just got out of high school, with "Little Grace" and "Bashful Creatures" as prime examples. Rhythm is really what makes music go round, and songs like "Souls", where the bass and lead guitar fit together like two pieces of a puzzle, are where Hippo Campus shines. The band has such a fresh, upbeat, positive sound, born from an astonishing lack of experience.

Hippo Camus [Whistler Allen (drums/vocals), Jake Luppen 
(lead vocals/guitar), Zach Sutton (bass), Nathan 
Stocker (lead guitar/vocals)] for VEVO DSCVR in 2016.

The lyrics are really where Hippo Campus' youth is exposed. The EP's lead single, "Suicide Saturday" is bursting with youthful bliss. Guitarist Nathan Stocker describes the song as being about "finding a balance with society and with yourself" in an interview on BBC Radio 1 in 2015. With the repeated lyric, "She could try, she could try it", this song perfectly paints a picture of what everyone goes through at some point in their teen years - experimenting and trying to figure out just who you might be. Meanwhile, "Bashful Creatures" boasts lines like "Kids don't care at all", "I do not care who you are, or the company you keep", and "I do not care who you are, I don't care what you wear", further enforcing that Hippo Campus are really just a bunch of kids having fun. Some of my personal favourite lyrics from this EP come from "Souls", like "Girl, I swear, I've never seen you look so alive" and "We sung our songs of youth and promised that we'd never lose it". Finally, "Opportunistic" sums it all up with "Some things are better left in the adolescence of youth". Hippo Campus are an extremely young band, and they're not afraid to show it, embrace it, and even share some words of wisdom about it.

Hippo Campus are yet another up and coming indie rock band, and with a new album, Landmark, coming out in February, they're about to get bigger. Set up for success with musical talents way beyond their years, charmingly youthful lyrics, and amazingly mature live performance skills, Hippo Campus are bound to be the next big thing.

Find "Bashful Creatures" by Hippo Campus on Spotify and iTunes, and watch their simply blissful performance of the title track at Rock the Garden Festival 2016 in Minneapolis, Minnesota.