Montreal’s The Last Mile released their second full-length album Holding On To Hope on April 11 via Thousand Islands Records and Pavones Records, marking a shift in both sound and subject matter. Recorded with longtime producer Jesse Gander in Vancouver and mastered by Jason Livermore at The Blasting Room, the record leans into a denser modern hardcore direction while maintaining the band’s punk framework.
The album’s artwork was handled by John Yates (Stealworks), a name closely associated with era-defining records from Lifetime, Jawbreaker, and Bad Religion.
The album is rooted in personal loss, existential unrest, and the politics of everyday survival. Chris Snelgrove, one of the band’s vocalists, tackles themes ranging from cultural nostalgia and disillusionment to caregiving and emotional suppression. “Why is everyone so obsessed with the past?” he asks on Give It A Name, questioning the romanticization of history at the expense of the present. It sets the tone for a record shaped by conflict between memory and immediacy.
Stephanie Cole, who shares vocal duties and songwriting, brings a parallel lens focused on systemic gender inequality and personal resilience. On Hot Box, she writes from the perspective of a woman navigating the punk scene. “There’s a persistence of inequality between men and women in music, and how we are treated that’s incredibly frustrating,” she explains. “Women have to prove themselves for their spot.”
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Both songwriters use their respective tracks to address the helplessness and exhaustion that come with illness, injustice, and emotional repression.
Carry The One tells the story of a hit-and-run fatality witnessed by a friend. “There is no making sense of this,” Chris says. “Life is not fair.” The song’s lyrics are drawn directly from messages his friend wrote in the aftermath.
Written In Water deals with his mother’s dementia, using water as a metaphor for emotional concealment: “I used the metaphor of the water to disguise my tears because I never wanted her to see how worried and sad I was.”
Stephanie’s closer, Spun, echoes those themes of care and powerlessness. “When someone you love is sick you can become a caregiver overnight… The constant struggle to gain a sense of control is omnipresent and overwhelming.”
Elsewhere, the band pushes back against the hollow discourse of online culture (No Never), and the emotional shutdown ingrained in masculinity (Broadstrokes). “We, as a species, all genders, have not been properly taught how to express ourselves in a positive and healing manner,” says Chris. “Things are getting better, I think, but there is still so much more work to be done.”
Holding On To Hope is built around this tension: a world spiraling further out of control, and individuals grasping for meaning, honesty, and connection.
The full track-by-track commentary by Chris and Stephanie is available below and provides further insight into the stories behind each song.
The Last Mile will celebrate the release with a hometown show in Montreal and tour Europe in July!
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Give It A Name (Chris) – Why is everyone so obsessed with the past? I understand that maybe it represented a different or “better” time in their lives but it’s unnerving that people would rather live in the past than focus on the present. And it has become big business. Selling nostalgia is a booming industry. Don’t get me wrong, there has always been a reflection on the past and, in theory, we’re supposed to understand the past to appreciate the present but there seems to be a lack of interest in our current reality. And probably for good reason, the world is a mess. But, truth be told, like the lyrics state, we have rose coloured glasses on when we reflect on the past. It’s always easier to rationalize and empathize with things once they’re far enough behind us. Things were not always easier or better in the past.
Farewell For Now (Chris) – This is a love letter to music, touring, and the amazing people we are fortunate enough to have met through music. For me, playing music has always been a stable thing in my life since I was 17, and it has helped me through literally everything. Most of my closest friends are from music. When I get to play, everything else in the world just melts away for that time. I feel like the luckiest person alive to be able to do it and I genuinely believe in that moment that everything will be alright.
Water Mary (Chris) – I don’t like organized religions. You can believe in whatever you want, but don’t preach about it, don’t throw away this world and planet because you’ve been promised a better life in the next one. The lyric, in the song, of the praying person drowning, is from a small church that we visited in Italy that had suffered water damage due to flooding from the ocean and there was a visible line all around the church, inside and out, showing how high the water had risen that was about 1 meter high. It made me think of someone who was praying for the flood to stop and becoming submerged under the water; the water created by their god.
Anything (Chris) – It often feels like we’re constantly being beaten down, and it’s getting harder to want to participate. It’s a rallying call to help inspire those who are feeling lost or forgotten. There was a time when people believed that they could be anything they wanted, but that feeling is waning and people are feeling helpless. It’s time to believe in ourselves again.
Hot Box (Stephanie) – I’ve always had the urge to write about my experience as a woman playing in the punk music scene. There’s a persistence of inequality between men and women in music, and how we are treated that’s incredibly frustrating. Women have to prove themselves for their spot. The feeling of struggling to climb out of this box that is built around us can get exhausting. While there has been a lot of growth in the scene with more women in bands, and the help of male allies, I still experience the wrath of inequality. It’s hard to forget and move on when it still happens.
Carry The One (Chris) – This one is tragic. A friend of mine witnessed his partner get hit by a car while she was on her motorcycle on the highway. He doubled back to help her and the driver of the car sped off and was never apprehended. The lyrics are mostly made up of texts that he wrote trying to make sense of everything. There is no making sense of this, life is not fair.
No Never (Stephanie) – This song is about the echo chamber that is the internet. It can be a swamp of attention seekers telling people what to do. The intense egotistical ideology that is “what worked for me must work for you” without any nuance is the death of communication and understanding.
Broadstrokes (Chris) – Why is it so hard for men to be honest with themselves and express their feelings in a healthy manner? Why do we feel like we have to be outwardly “tough” and not acknowledge that we feel pain very deeply? This song is about trying to create a line of communication before things get too far gone. We, as a species, all genders, have not been properly taught how to express ourselves in a positive and healing manner. Things are getting better, I think, but there is still so much more work to be done. I don’t want to see another suicide because the world wasn’t listening when someone was in pain. We can be better.
Written In Water (Chris) – This song is about my mother and how she was suffering from dementia due to a stroke. I have had control issues my whole life, and the fact that I couldn’t help her really broke me. It’s so isolating for the person going through this because it gets worse over time. They have a grasp on reality and then it’s gone and it’s usually accompanied with paranoia and anxiety and then lucidity may come back, but it’s never guaranteed. I used the metaphor of the water to disguise my tears because I never wanted her to see how worried and sad I was. I wanted her to know that I was always there and ready for whatever would happen.
Spun (Stephanie) – When someone you love is sick you can become a caregiver overnight. You stop thinking about yourself and focus solely on nurturing them. The constant struggle to gain a sense of control is omnipresent and overwhelming. Spun encompasses that feeling.
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