Trio plays catchy tunes
James Malson, Ben Malson and Adolph Goetz comprise the band Telehope. Photos submitted
By Tom Victoria
Ben, Adolph and James have a promising future in music. The indie pop band performs cool tunes with a vibrant energy.
Two of the trio, Ben, 28, and James, 24, Malson are brothers. Their friend Adolph Goetz, 26, rounds out the roster of the Cincinnati, Ohio, band Telehope.
Ben, lead singer and guitarist, described Telehope’s sound.
“We're like indie pop, indie rock,” he said. “Like what you would hear on the radio, but a little more positive and meaningful lyrics. We try to write something meaningful, but upbeat.”
Ben belts out a tune.
Even the band’s name is optimistic.
“We made up the name Telehope,” Ben said “It’s a crossover between telescope and hope. We believe that hope is always in the distance, no matter how far it may seem. Grab onto it and pull it near.”
The group, which has Adolph on vocals and guitar and James on drums and the keyboard, draws upon life experiences for inspiration.
“I would say it's definitely a mix of things that happen in our personal life or observations of another person's relationship or another person's life, or sometimes even a story that you create and write in your head, but almost always is based off of personal experience,” Adolph said.
He explained writing a melancholy song comes easier than a cheery one.
“It's a lot easier to write a good and compelling sad song than it is to write a not cheesy, upbeat and uplifting song,” Adolph said. “So I definitely think that writing a happy song is 100 times as difficult in my experience.”
Adolph strums the guitar.
According to James, a song’s tone is often tied to which instrument is used initially.
“It depends, too, where you're starting from,” he said. “I love the sound of a grand piano. But when I play piano, I notice I can play the most happy song that I remember listening to on Spotify, but I can make it sound sad super easily on the piano. I bet if I did start a song on guitar, it would be easier for me to make it sound more upbeat.”
Ben said he feels each new song the band puts out is the one that turned out best.
“For me, it's always the next song that we're writing is the one I'm most excited for,” he said. “We just got out of a writing session right before this, and we were working on two songs that I'm like, okay, these are my favorite songs we've ever written. But with the ones we have released — we released two last year — I Believe in Me and Wanna Be Someone, those are the vibes that I want to give people of hope and just encouraging and giving them an excitement for living life.”
James hits the keys.
The bandmates cited their musical inspirations, which include avian night owls and mythical beasts.
“For me, my all time inspiration is Owl City, who wrote the smash hit Fireflies,” Ben said. “Also more modern, the band LANY and Twenty One Pilots, Imagine Dragons, bands like them.”
Adolph favors bands from across the pond.
“I love The 1975 and Coldplay,” he said.
Adolph unknowingly stole his bandmate’s choices.
“Those were my two that I was going to say,” James said.
Adolph also cited other influences.
“I'm super influenced by a lot of R&B stuff,” he said. “A lot more like bluesy stuff, like kind of blues pop, maybe more like John Mayer. I also love rap and hip hop. I listen to everything honestly. I'll even draw something from country that you would never know was drawn from country music, but works its way into my musical vocabulary and ends up in a pop song.”
James also likes jazz.
“I would say my biggest influences are what Adolph said: The 1975 and Coldplay,” he said. “Ben and I are brothers, and our dad was really into jazz. I grew up playing saxophone and piano. I would do some classical stuff, but I would also play jazz. Not a lot of people know that Charlie Puth is a classically trained pianist. He played jazz piano. I love any pop that can kind of incorporate a jazz feel. I love gospel music, especially gospel drummers. They're my favorite just because of the sense of rhythm that they have. Also, the chords are just always so different than the traditional four chord pop song. Anytime I can kind of throw in some cool sevens or something like that, that's what gets me going. I love that stuff.”
The group took a hiatus from touring.
“We haven't actually toured in a couple of years,” Ben said. “It'll be two years this spring. We hit a wall where we wanted to hit some certain social media numbers, some streaming numbers before we went out again, just to make it more financially viable, because touring is financially tough, for sure. We wanted to make it worth it financially. It's always worth it from seeing the fans and hanging out with them and sharing our music, but there is a line where you got to be smart with your financial decisions. We've been hunkered down writing an album, and we have a lot of goals for this year and a lot of social media goals that we've been working on real hard. We're hoping to go back out soon.”
Adolph said performing live and the producing stage both have their merits.
“Those processes couldn’t be much different from one another,” he said. “Songwriting/producing is a super vulnerable and honest space shared between your closest friends. Performing/interacting with a live audience is also vulnerable, but in a super energetic and fun way. I love both for different reasons and they kind of balance each other out.”
Ben cited the advantages of social media in getting the word out about Telehope.
“Social media is awesome,” he said. “We've learned to embrace it because in this industry, in this day and age, you have to or you get left behind. We've been embracing it and consistently posting our music, posting little skits or whatever that are trends and get people more viewers. We've been doing that a lot the past month, really getting into it. It's been great. We've had a lot of growth and a lot of success with that.”
The Malson brothers have known Adolph since they were kids.
“We were all home-schooled,” Ben said. “We went to church together, but we were in a home-school speech and debate league that we really hung out at. At the time, it was just me and Adolph and another guy. Actually, you guys asked me.”
Adolph continued the tale of Telehope’s origins.
“We were like, dude, we should make a band,” he said. “We all fell in love with music at the same time, so we all started learning instruments at the same time. One thing led to another, and it was like, oh, I think we're a band now.”
After some turnover, the band eventually settled into its current form.
“That was over 10 years ago now,” Ben said. “We got together. Then through the years, a few member changes, and we've been a three-piece for the past five years now. We like it like this.”
James eventually became the third member.
“I was kind of thrust into the role a little bit,” he recalled. “They, unfortunately, had to part ways with their previous drummer. I had drummed a little bit. My brother had a drum kit when I was younger, and I just kind of naturally gravitated towards that. I didn't take lessons. I didn't have any formal training. But then they were like, hey, you might want to start learning drums, just in case. I worked really hard. I had some natural ability, but it definitely took a lot of practice to get to where I am.”
Ben said his brother was being humble in his recounting.
“He's being a little modest because after we parted ways with our drummer, I was like, James, we need a drummer,” he said. “Can you learn the drums? And he said: I got you and spent what, five hours every single day?”
James confirmed it was daily work.
“Four or five hours every day for two months,” Ben said. “Just learning our songs, and he totally killed it. We had our first show.”
James said that show was three hours.
“Three-hour show,” Ben said. “He was awesome. The next week, went on our first tour with him. I think you asked everybody, every drummer you met, you're like, how long do you think I've been drumming? And everyone was like, oh, years. A long time. I was always so proud because he just took it up three months ago.”
“We rotate a lot for specific songs.”
-Adolph
James previously played piano and sax.
“I grew up playing piano mainly,” he said. “I didn't really care for piano, so then my mom had me try saxophone, which I liked more. But then later, when I was 15 or 16, suddenly, I liked playing the piano again. So I got back into playing the piano. I love piano. I love playing saxophone. Those are fun.”
Ben started out the same way.
“I started out playing piano,” he said. “I hated it also. Then I learned the banjo. I took up producing, so I produce all of our music in this room, actually. But with that comes piano. I learned to love the piano and the keyboard, learning how to play all synthesizers and everything. So that's instrumentally, that's typically what I'll stick to. I play little guitar as well, but our lead singer left our band a couple of years ago, and I was like, well, we could either get a new singer or we could sing ourselves. We're like, let's sing ourselves. I love performing, and I love being a front man and singing. I kind of came into that role and I just decided I love this.”
James said it’s a benefit being in a band with a family member.
“It’s easier for me,” he said. “I’m used to doing things with family, and I love having things like this to keep me close to them.”
Adolph also started with piano, but found his ideal instrument before long.
“I started taking piano lessons as a young child,” he said. “I also hated it, and I did not stick with it. But my dad played a couple of chords on acoustic guitar, and he taught me those, and I just fell in love with guitar. I can play everything a little bit, but I would only call myself a guitarist who can also play ukulele, piano, drums, bass, whatever else. In our shows, we even like to rotate. During the course of one show, I'll primarily play guitar, but I'll also play keys, ukulele, drums. James plays saxophone during our show, sometimes piano.”
Ben also moves around.
“I'll play piano, guitar, drums as well,” he said. “We'll switch.”
Adolph said they will do more of that down the road.
“We rotate a lot for specific songs, and people love that and we love that,” he said. “We've never done this, but we always talk about it and I'm sure we'll do it in the future is say we're going to play our next song and then ask the crowd which one of us should play what instrument, and then just let the crowd build our band for that song.”
Each member of the trio keeps busy outside of Telehope.
“Ben does some awesome woodworking, produces a lot of other people’s music and programs light shows for other bands,” James said. “Adolph does some marketing contracting part-time, but also has his solo project which is more R&B that’s called Drew Winters. I work part-time for my dad’s software company, and I also am working on getting a lot better at producing, drums and some other stuff.”
The trio is game to take their act to the top.
“Absolutely,” Ben said.
“That'd be cool,” James added.
Ben said achieving that level of success is the goal.
“It's always been my dream to play stadiums,” he said. “First off, play sold-out clubs, theaters, arenas and then stadiums. I want to go all the way and be the next Coldplay or Taylor Swift.”
Ben said the band pays heed to who digs their music.
“We do know our audience and our target market,” he said. “They're liking our things, and they're following us on social media. Pretty much every follower we get, I click on their profile and briefly make a mental note of this kind of person is... And people generally line up in one or two different categories.”
Adolph said students are big fans.
“We've traveled and played a lot of colleges,” he said. “We've had a lot of success in a college market. Those people especially need uplifting and positive music, especially with it being such a stressful time, both as a human and then also just everything they're studying and going through.”
Telehope has been the opening act and the headliner, depending on the show.
“We've done some headlining tours where we're the last band, but we've also done some tours where we're the first band or the second,” Ben said. “It's always different vibes.”
James said there’s less stressful to play first on the stage.
“It's the least amount of pressure, depending on when doors open or when people are engaged,” he said. “It can almost feel like you're playing to either nobody or you're playing to a lot of people. You really don't know what's going to happen. So in a sense, there's really no pressure in that case.”
Adolph agreed.
“A lot of times if you are first and people have no idea who you are, then the bar is set at zero,” he said. “If you go way below that, who cares? They already didn't know who you are. I love the challenge of can I get this room full of hundreds of people to get into our music that they've never heard before? It's so fun where at the beginning of the concert, nobody cares, and then towards the end, everybody's jumping around and having a great time. You walk off the stage and mission accomplished. That was awesome. It's super fun to have your own show and headline, but I like the challenge of trying to turn a room full of nobody cares to the end when they're all into it and having a good time.”
Adolph said the musicians’ passion keeps them motivated.
“We are all very disciplined people,” he said. “We have a pretty strict writing/rehearsing schedule and it’s pretty easy to stay motivated because we absolutely love writing and playing music together. When it gets difficult, we always remind each other that consistency is key and that keeps us on track.”
Adolph offered advice to aspiring musicians.
“My advice would be to set attainable goals with deadlines and hold yourself to them,” he said. ”There are so many bands that are going to release an album someday. Don’t wait. Do it. Finished is better than perfect. Also, don’t expect immediate success. I think about this quote often: ‘It took us 10 years to become an overnight success.’ Don’t find your sense of self-worth in numbers and keep doing what you love.”
Telehope’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/telehopeband/
Telehope’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/Telehope
Telehope music: https://linktr.ee/telehopemusic