Hopewell is a five piece hailing from New York City perhaps best known by the company they keep. Lead singer Jason Russo formerly played bass for space-rock pioneers Mercury Rev. Hopewell’s acclaimed album “Hopewell & the Birds of Appetite” was produced by Dave Fridmann (The Flaming Lips, Mercury Rev and Sleater-Kinney) and Bill Racine (Rouge Wave, Phantom Planet). They’ve played shows all over the world with tour mates like the Brian Jonestown Massacre, British Sea Power and former RIDE frontman Mark Gardener, and even recorded their own Peel Session. Russo and drummer Jay Green took time out of their busy tour schedule to answer some of DCist’s questions via email before their gig Friday at the Rock n’ Roll Hotel with Falcons, Longwave and Travis Morrison as part of the DAM!fest. We don’t really know why Jay Green felt the need to yell all of his answers … maybe he’s just a loud talker.

You don’t hide the fact that you have ties to Mercury Rev. How do you walk the line between dropping their name and making your own?

Jason Russo: Generally we let the people who’s job it is to sell us mention Mercury Rev. It gets fairly annoying when it is in every review, every interview etc. But, I have made some peace with it. It was a formative time for me and it was a pretty life changing thing so it’s worth mentioning…

Your sound doesn’t fit in with the traditional New York Scene (as the press describes and/or labels it). Has this worked for you or against you. Are you part of the New York Scene? Is there a scene in New York anymore?

JR: New York is huge. There are many many scenes. If we spent time trying to fit into one or the other we would inevitably lose our minds and start flinging feces at each other in the rehearsal space. One thing we are that I am proud of is dramatic. Somewhere along the line it became cool to act uninvolved and unaffected, this is not our working model, we are desperate men with troubled lives and onstage it’s a battle. A joyful battle, one we involve the audience in.