Songfacts®:

• Singer Stephen Garrigan and guitarist Mark Prendergast both grew up in Swords, near Dublin airport, and met aged eight when they were the only boys in the school choir. They were later joined by drummer Vinny May Jr., who also lived a stone's throw away, and bassist Jason Boland. Originally calling themselves 21 Demands, the quartet made chart history in March 2007, when their debut single "Give Me A Minute" topped the Irish Singles Chart; becoming the first independently released track to achieve the feat. The band changed its name to Kodaline in 2011.
  The Dublin-based quartet released their debut extended play, The Kodaline EP, in September 2012. One of four tracks featured on the disc, "All I Want," was picked up by BBC Radio 1 as well as being featured in the season 9 episode of Grey's Anatomy.
• This was released as the lead single from Kodaline's debut studio album In a Perfect World. The song was made available as a Digital download on March 15, 2013 reaching #1 in the band's native Ireland.
• The song's music video was directed by Stevie Russell and features Irish actor Liam Cunningham (Game of Thrones) as a man attempting to commit suicide.
• Garrigan writes most of the music but insists the rest of the band contribute. "It's intensely personal stuff," he told The Independent. "'High Hopes' was written just after I dropped out of college and had no direction whatsoever. Everything was going badly but I tried to stay positive. It's all based on experience."
• Garrigan wrote the song at a time when the band didn't have any direction. "We were doing our own thing and I was sitting at the piano and going through a tough time and wrote that song about just trying my best to think positive," he told Radio.com. "As cliché as it is, music is therapy. It's like venting. You're getting it off your chest and it feels good."