L.A.-based indie pop five-piece Grouplove
(Christian Zucconi, Sean Gadd, Ryan Rabin, Hannah Hooper and Andrew
Wessen) just embarked on a big North America headlining tour and they've
been kind enough to share their dispatches from the road. Here, frontwoman Hannah Hooper tells us about hanging out backstage at Coachella, crowd-surfing in the pit and eating ice cream after a very, very long -- and very, very stoned -- wait in line. And be sure to check out their new track, "Let Me In," off of the upcoming flick, The Fault In Our Stars, starring Shailene Woodley.
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This shot is of Christian eating this massive ice cream cone. It was the night before we played Stubb's in Austin. We got really stoned and were in line for ice cream at this place, Amy's, for an hour and a half in the sticky heat. It was so victorious when we finally got the ice cream.
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Here we are at Inner Ear Studios in DC hanging out with the guy who runs it, Don Zientara. He produces every Minor Threat record, Fugazi stuff. It was insane being in that space where you know all those albums were made. We recorded our track for The Fault In Our Stars in there while we were in DC to play three shows.
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This is when we played Coachella during the first weekend. I think it was, like, 105 degrees. None of us felt the heat though because we were so overwhelmed...it was insane. I couldn't see the end of the crowd and I pretty much blacked out during the whole set. After our set, I found this amazing agave margarita stand that became my best friend that weekend. Everyone was like, "Where's Hannah?" "Oh, she's probably at the margarita stand." Christian and Andrew got to meet Beyoncé and Jay Z...I'm bummed I wasn't there for that! I was probably getting margaritas.
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This is us doing press but I can't remember what we were doing it for...radio probably.
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This is the band right before we went onstage at Coachella. Before every show we all huddle and do this weird chant and put our arms around each other and go, "Yes, Yes, Yes!" and it pumps us up. It started as a joke but it's become our thing.
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Christian always goes out into the crowd for our song "Bitin' The Bullet" and the crowd took him really [far]. Everyone's so strong. He had a long mic line, thankfully.
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We got these bouncy castle-type things in the shape of a "G" and an "L" and right before our set at Coachella, Christian and I took 50 cans of spray paint and sprayed them. They looked so dirty and awesome by the second weekend.
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This shot is of Christian eating this massive ice cream cone. It was the night before we played Stubb's in Austin. We got really stoned and were in line for ice cream at this place, Amy's, for an hour and a half in the sticky heat. It was so victorious when we finally got the ice cream. 
With typical tour life, you end up parking your bus on a day off somewhere in a mall. In this photo we're outside of Nashville, which is fun because I watch the show, as do some of the other band members who will go unnamed. We tried to go to the Bluebird Cafe, which is a real music venue around the corner from the mall, but it was so popular that it was sold out for a week so we went and hung out with the Easter bunny instead.
Here we are at Inner Ear Studios in DC hanging out with the guy who runs it, Don Zientara. He produces every Minor Threat record, Fugazi stuff. It was insane being in that space where you know all those albums were made. We recorded our track for The Fault In Our Stars in there while we were in DC to play three shows.
This is when we played Coachella during the first weekend. I think it was, like, 105 degrees. None of us felt the heat though because we were so overwhelmed...it was insane. I couldn't see the end of the crowd and I pretty much blacked out during the whole set. After our set, I found this amazing agave margarita stand that became my best friend that weekend. Everyone was like, "Where's Hannah?" "Oh, she's probably at the margarita stand." Christian and Andrew got to meet Beyoncé and Jay Z...I'm bummed I wasn't there for that! I was probably getting margaritas.
This is us doing press but I can't remember what we were doing it for...radio probably.
This is the band right before we went onstage at Coachella. Before every show we all huddle and do this weird chant and put our arms around each other and go, "Yes, Yes, Yes!" and it pumps us up. It started as a joke but it's become our thing.
Christian always goes out into the crowd for our song "Bitin' The Bullet" and the crowd took him really [far]. Everyone's so strong. He had a long mic line, thankfully.
We got these bouncy castle-type things in the shape of a "G" and an "L" and right before our set at Coachella, Christian and I took 50 cans of spray paint and sprayed them. They looked so dirty and awesome by the second weekend.
This is me hanging out with the lead singer of the Naked and the Famous (Alisa Xayalith) and one of the Dum Dum Girls (Malia James). We're "Naked Dumb Love."
We got sent this photo from a fan. I sang into the camera for one of the songs during our set and someone took a photo of it. I'm just glad they didn't get a photo of the weird pelvic thrust I did at one point.
PART 1 OF GROUPLOVE's TOUR DIARY
PART 1 OF GROUPLOVE's TOUR DIARY