Wield Your Hope Like A Weapon

The Exeter-based trio Soot Sprite have emerged as one of the UK’s most compelling underground acts, blending shoegaze, emo, and dream pop into something that feels completely of-the-moment. Across their debut album, Wield Your Hope Like A Weapon, frontwoman Elise Cook leads with raw lyrical candour, untangling grief, self-doubt, and resistance, veering from soft, tender passages to enormous walls of noise.

Starting as Cook’s solo bedroom project, Soot Sprite quickly expanded into a fully-formed live band, and earned critical nods for their lush guitar work and vulnerable songwriting, but Wield Your Hope Like A Weapon, released earlier this year on Specialist Subject Records, is a major step up, capturing a life of small emotional earthquakes and quiet acts of strength.

The band have just concluded a tour of the UK in support of the album, hitting intimate venues where community matters, and their fanbase is growing with every gig. We caught up with Elise Cook to find out more:

Wield Your Hope Like A Weapon is such a powerful title - can you unpack it for us?

The title was inspired by a novel by Rebecca Solnit called “Hope In The Dark”, it explores themes of hope being the fuel behind activism and real change and how that has persisted. There was a particular quote that stuck: “Hope is not a lottery ticket you can sit on the sofa and clutch, feeling lucky. It is an axe you break down doors with in an emergency”

Both the message and the imagery struck me, hence the artwork! 

What was the writing process like for the album? Is it a collection of songs that have existed for a while or are they all responses to more current themes?

It’s a bit of both! It took years to write fully but finding a common thread through it all helped with things massively, if you dig into your feelings about how the world looks around you there’s patterns to be found. I wanted to write about hope but from an honest place, where hope is not easily found, and feels impossible sometimes, not just preaching this idea without the truth of the matter. So I left it all in, the moments of despair in ‘Doomed’ and moments of strength in the title track.

Are there any particular artists or albums that you’d point to as an influence?

When it came to writing it’s tricky to pinpoint influences, but coming up to recording there were definitely some records we were honing in on, Wednesday-  ‘Rat Saw God’, Ovlov - ‘Buds’ Drug Church had been releasing tracks from ‘Prude’. A big record that always stuck with me is The Joy Formidable - ‘The Big Roar’, it’s one of my all time favourites, Ritzy Bryan is a bit of a hero for me.

How did you find the crowd reactions on tour?

Tour was really beautiful, seeing how the album had connected with people and there were nights I could hear people singing every word back and that is WILD to me. 

How do you hope people feel listening to the album or seeing you live?

I think I just hope people feel understood, and we’ve received so many messages that say just that. I wanted to capture how it feels to live now, in a world where we have a genocide live streamed into our pockets to be told “That’s not what you’re seeing” to have our rights stripped away piece by piece and be told it was a privilege we ever had them, it’s righteous anger and despair but all is not lost. And you’re certainly not alone, and that’s what I want people to feel ultimately.

We noticed you make an appearance on the excellent new Regal Cheer album ‘Quite Good’. How did that come about, and are there any other bands or artists you’d like to shout out?

We’ve been pals with those boys since I played a solo set with them when I was touring with Shit Present, so when they asked me to appear on a track it was a no brainer. They recorded their album the week before we did with Tom Hill at The Bookhouse so I literally just spent 15 minutes doing a couple takes when we were in, it was easy peasy and lovely! We’re really fortunate to have bonded with so many other DIY bands, Don’t Worry, SUDS, I Told You I Would Eat You, Fortitude Valley. I could definitely just go on forever. 

What are your favourite venues in the country?

Myself and Sean cut our teeth at The Cavern in Exeter, but some other favourites would have to be The Hope & Ruin in Brighton, The Grove in Nottingham and The Exchange in Bristol. 

Can you tell our readers a bit more about Specialist Subject Records?

Specialist Subject actually started out in Exeter just above the Cavern, I had played in a band with Kay so when I had this new project and it had some legs they felt like a natural choice to get in touch with. They’re a really small operation and just really give a shit about DIY and some of their roster and alumni are crazy (Jeff Rosenstock, Martha, Muncie Girls). They run a record shop and their general operations just above The Exchange, being connected to a community owned venue like that is absolutely perfect for them.

Do you feel optimistic about DIY culture in the UK right now?

Yes and no, yes in a sense that our scene is amazing and full of talented and kind bands all lifting each other up and cheering each other on. No in a sense of the general economy really. Selling tickets for shows is a nightmare in terms of presales because people are living month to month, gig fees are the same as they were in the 90’s so if you need to rent a vehicle and cover petrol then a £100 fee doesn’t touch the sides. Or as we experienced on this run, one promoter actually paid us nothing, so that’s a massive loss! If we hadn’t done so well on merch this tour we wouldn’t be able to afford to go back out again in August for our next tour because we too are often living paycheck to paycheck. Arts are one of the UK’s biggest exports yet they are so underfunded and constantly being cut at a grassroots level that make you question the longevity of it. None of us expect to make money off this, but for the amount of work that goes in, I do wonder if it can continue to come at quite the cost it does. So if you’re wondering why your favourite artists or venues are disappearing, it’s no secret as to why.

What is the ultimate goal of Soot Sprite?

I think ultimately to just keep putting our big feelings into big songs, keep playing shows and being a part of the scene that we love so much. As much as I can lament of the question before this one, we really just love it at any level. It’s hard to imagine ever not doing Soot Sprite as my life has revolved so solidly around it for seven years now & I owe many of my most precious friendships to it.