THEY want their music to be a force for good, a powerful source of positivity.

Since forming in 2013, Hertfordshire-based trio Fort Hope – Jon Gaskin (vocals, guitar and piano), Jamie Nicholls (drums) and Simon Rowlands (bass) – have toured with Mallory Knox, Moose Blood, My Chemical Romance’s Frank Iero and Jimmy Eat World, were nominated for Best British Newcomer at last year’s Relentless Kerrang! Awards and played the Pit Stage at Reading and Leeds Festival.

Previous single Plans was also Radio 1’s Track Of The Day.

With new EP Manne Of Lawe, the band have made their most confident and hopeful set of songs to date.

“I know it’s a cliché to use the word ‘mature’,” says Rowlands, “but over the past year or so I definitely think we’ve matured in the way we write. It’s more from the heart than our previous EPs, and that makes this a real defining EP for us.

“The three of us are best mates who are inseparable when we’re together,” explains Gaskin. “This is what we all want. We have this common goal that we can’t really shake because we’ve had to bail each other out of so much. We’ve got this bond that you can’t break!”

That bond has been there for years – the three of them have been playing together for over a decade, but with Fort Hope, their drive is now more focused than ever before.

The Band will be making their debut at this year’s Download Festival in June, to end a headline tour which starts at The Joiners on Tuesday.

See joiners.vticket.co.uk