By Indi Tejeda — September 13th 2026
Following a period of creative exploration apart, Silver Cup has returned with STILL SILVER, a seven-track EP that captures siblings Hadley and Logan James Hope during a new period in both of their creative journeys. Rather than revisiting the sound that first introduced the Utah-born duo, the project reflects who they have become through time, distance, and individual growth.
During the band’s hiatus, Hadley developed her solo project HADS, discovering a stronger sense of confidence as both a songwriter and storyteller. Returning to Silver Cup meant bringing that newfound perspective back into the room alongside Logan, resulting in one of the duo’s most personal projects to date.
Almost Famous caught up with Hadley on release day to discuss writing openly from a queer perspective, finding her voice outside of Silver Cup, and how STILL SILVER became less about returning to the past and more about embracing who the siblings are today.
Q: Since you’ve always created from a queer perspective, how does STILL SILVER reflect where you are right now as a queer artist compared to earlier eras of the band?
Hadley Nelson: There is a song on this record that is quite literally about my first queer relationship, my first queer experience, and that’s “Shallows.” I wrote it around a year before we went into our hiatus, and that year was huge for me when it came to my identity and discovering queer dating for the first time.
Although there are definitely sapphic yearning themes in older Silver Cup songs, they are very subdued and not really the true intention of those songs. I would say that “Shallows” is the gayest Silver Cup song to date.
I also have to pay respect to my solo project, HADS, because those songs are really gay—very, very gay. “Shallows” was the first song I truly wrote as a queer woman, from a queer woman’s perspective, about queer relationships and those first relationship dynamics. I have to give it its flowers.
Q: During the hiatus, what side of your individual voice or perspective came out that couldn’t have surfaced without taking that time apart?
Hadley Nelson: So much. It was a really important developmental time for me as a songwriter. Silver Cup was the first time I had truly made original music, finished it, and put myself in that vulnerable setting of songwriting.
I became attached to making music with Logan, and I used to say, “If it’s not Silver Cup, if I’m not making music with Logan, then I’m not making music.”
During our hiatus, I missed making music so much that I started collaborating with other people, writing on my own, and actually completing songs. It made me so much stronger and more confident as a songwriter.
It’s also a little easier to write about certain themes, especially relationships and romance, when it’s not your older brother that you’re working with. Coming back together after that time apart, I felt like those barriers had broken down. I feel so much braver as a songwriter now, and I’m really grateful I got that time to develop those skills.
Q: Was there a specific moment during the break where your solo writing naturally started steering back toward a Silver Cup project?
Hadley Nelson: Absolutely. The biggest difference between my solo work and Silver Cup is the vocal style. With HADS, I was writing for my voice to shine. That doesn’t mean my voice doesn’t shine in Silver Cup songs, but it is a different style that comes from the Silver Cup sound.
There wasn’t a HADS song that felt like it should have been a Silver Cup song, but “Shallows” was the opposite. I originally intended to release it under my solo project. I thought I would take the stems from Logan, finish it, and put it out. Then Logan and I had a conversation and realized, “No, this is a Silver Cup song. It can’t be anything else.”
Q: Silver Cup has such a unique name. Where did it come from?
Hadley Nelson: It’s actually very meaningful to us. Our great-great-grandfather founded a fish feed manufacturing company in rural Utah called Nelson and Sons Silver Cup. It was passed down through generations before my dad eventually sold it when we were kids, so Silver Cup as it once was ceased to exist. We are essentially carrying on that family legacy in a different way.
Q: How did your lyric-writing dynamic with Logan shift once you both brought your solo experiences back into the same room?
Hadley Nelson: I think we were both in this new place of vulnerability, and a lot of that came from the solo time we spent apart. A lot of it also came from getting older, maturing, and healing.
We’re siblings. We fight. My family is my family and they’re my rock, but that doesn’t mean we haven’t had our moments. We’re also artistic and business partners, which adds another layer.
Before we decided to take space, there was some tension that made it harder to get really deep and vulnerable with our lyrics. With “No Longer Love,” I remember writing it in a more guarded way. I wrote the lyrics by myself, brought them to Logan, and we would tweak them together.
I think that process is going to be completely different moving forward.
Q: What core theme or emotion within STILL SILVER feels the most vulnerable for you to share with listeners right now?
Hadley Nelson: There are a lot of different themes from song to song, but I think this record contains some of the most vulnerable moments in the entire Silver Cup discography. Some songs are very much Logan’s experiences, some are mine, and others are shared themes we’ve carried into adulthood because of the way we grew up and the lives we expected to lead.
Growing up in suburban Mormon Utah, if you had asked either of us ten years ago where we’d be today, we never would have imagined this life. I know fifteen-year-old Hadley would be shocked, and Logan would say the exact same thing.
That’s really the overarching theme of the record. These songs reflect who we were before the hiatus and who we’ve become since. Looking back on some of those older demos is painful, but it’s also interesting because they capture that period of growth.
For Hadley, STILL SILVER represents more than Silver Cup’s return. It’s the product of two artists who gave themselves room to grow before finding their way back to one another. The record is shaped less by nostalgia and more by honesty, embracing vulnerability, identity, and the evolution of both siblings as writers. Rather than recreating the past, STILL SILVER introduces the next chapter of Silver Cup; one built on who Hadley and Logan have become, both individually and together.