In Conversation: Neeraj Kane of The Hope Conspiracy
At the heart of Neeraj Kane's love for hardcore is the unconditional acceptance he received as a kid—a reprieve from the judgment he felt elsewhere. It's a practice that, he says, must be preserved.
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To hear Neeraj Kane tell it, the Hope Conspiracy have never broken up. In the fourteen years that have elapsed since the release of their most recent EP, True Nihilist, in 2009, the band simply existed in some sort of suspended animation that left him with the freedom to explore: Neeraj moved around the country some. (“Usually after a romantic break-up,” he laughs.) He spent several years working as a teacher. He played sporadic shows with The Suicide File and made records with Holy Roman Empire, Godcollider, and Hesitation Wounds (alongside Touché Amoré’s Jeremy Bolm) whenever he could fit them in. When things for the Hope Conspiracy “clicked” again, he says, the decision to make a new album—their first new full-length in eighteen year…