Inside “Hope House”: me n ü Share the Tracks Behind Their Sound

Sister duo me n ü have a name for music that feels like a memory before the night is even over: “hope house.” The Chicago-born twin duo coined the term to describe a melodic, feeling-first take on house built around sunsets, nostalgia and the moments that stay with us.

Fresh from a standout performance at Beatport Fridays at Marquee Dayclub in Las Vegas, the pair are opening up about what that phrase means in practice. Rather than leaning on oversized drums, their productions leave room for melody, texture and carefully layered elements to shape the mood.

Below, me n ü dig into the thinking behind hope house and share a mix of their own records and outside favorites that capture its emotional pull.

Our sound, in a few words, is sunsets and nostalgia. It’s all about the little moments that stay with us long after they’re gone – the late-night drives, the festivals with friends, the sunsets on the beach. As music listeners, our favorite songs are the ones that scar us and leave us a little bit different from who we were before we hit play. Every time we hear those songs, we’re taken back to moments in time as if never left. As artists, making something like that is what gives our project purpose, and the sound we’ve created for ourselves is how we feel we best attempt it.

We’ve been calling our music “hope house” since we started. We think it really encapsulates what we do – obviously because we are making house music, but also because it touches on the idea that we make music to make you feel. Whether it’s hopeful, nostalgic, euphoric… that’s up for grabs. We tend to shy away from loud drums and percussion – something you’ll notice is that we have tons of layers that sit with each other very specifically, but we have very few elements that dominate the soundscape. We like to think that’s something pretty unique to our production style, as it helps us create very specific dynamics to fit however we want the song to feel. We also love melodies and lots of musical texture – our music is very musical as opposed to driven by beats.

We are self-taught producers, so we are more feelings-based than technically trained. For us, it’s about the core elements being brought to life by a bunch of layered sounds. Everything comes together for a reason and that’s to hopefully transport the listener back in time to a better place. Listen to our Beatport playlist of some of our favorite tracks, both ours and others that we feel encapsulate the essence of hope house. 

Explore their full chart below: