LOS ANGELES, CA- There are certain artists whose creativity seems almost impossible to contain within the boundaries of genre, and hemlocke springs is quickly becoming one of those artists for me. I was already impressed by her artistry when I caught her at the El Rey Theatre earlier this year. With “gloria!,” I’m beginning to think that trying to neatly classify what she does might be missing the point entirely.
On paper, “gloria!” could probably be called art-pop. But that description feels woefully inadequate once the song gets moving. There are elements of indie and alternative rock, electronic textures, choral flourishes and passages that feel almost theatrical in their scale. The song shifts between them with a restless energy, never seeming particularly concerned with whether all of these ideas are supposed to coexist.
Somehow, they do.
What impresses me most is that all of this musical exuberance surrounds some genuinely heavy subject matter. Hemlocke describes “gloria!” as a song about persevering through the seemingly endless personal and global difficulties that life throws at us. Her advice is appropriately theatrical: get back up, grab your sword and keep going.
That imagery is all over the song. There are bruises to shake off, battles to fight, a mighty sword to pick up and an unknown future that must be confronted rather than avoided. But underneath all of that fantasy imagery is something remarkably ordinary and universal: sometimes life beats the hell out of you, and eventually you have to decide whether you are going to get back up.
That is where those repeated refrains of “Gloria!” really hit me.
Hemlocke uses them almost like a call and response. The voices swell around her, emphasizing the passages and giving their messages additional weight. At different moments, the refrain feels like a choir, a rallying cry and perhaps even a celebration. There is something wonderfully excessive about it. Hemlocke takes the simple act of persevering and transforms it into something worthy of warriors marching into battle.
The video, directed by Jackie! Zhou and shot in the Mojave Desert, might be one of the best illustrations yet of why I find hemlocke such a fascinating artist. The characters become increasingly unhinged, but rather than feeling disconnected from the song, that visual madness feels completely apropos. The music itself seems perpetually on the verge of flying apart. Electronic sounds collide with guitars, voices rise together like a choir and “Gloria!” keeps crashing back into the song as though everyone involved has collectively decided that restraint is overrated.
Yet the madness never obscures what hemlocke is saying.
That might be the quality I admire most about her artistry. She doesn’t require serious subject matter to look or sound serious. Fear, uncertainty, loneliness and resilience can exist alongside humor, absurdity, color and characters behaving completely out of their minds. If anything, that juxtaposition makes those heavier ideas feel more human.
Having seen her perform somewhat recently makes “gloria!” even more intriguing to me. At the El Rey, I watched an artist who seemed completely comfortable turning the stage into an extension of her imagination. Now she has created a song built around battle cries, call-and-response vocals, shifting musical textures and the idea of picking up your sword and marching back into whatever life throws at you.
How exactly does hemlocke springs bring something like this to life onstage?
I genuinely don’t know.
And with an artist this creative, that’s precisely why I want to see it.
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HEMLOCKE SPRINGS LIVE
September 17—Phoenix, AZ—The Van Buren*
September 19—Austin, TX—Moody Amphitheater*
September 20—Dallas, TX—The Bomb Factory*
September 22—Nashville, TN—The Pinnacle*
September 23—Atlanta, GA—The Eastern*
September 25—Philadelphia, Pennsylvania—Skyline Stage at Highmark Mann*
September 26—Washington, D.C.—Merriweather Post Pavilion (All Things Go Festival)
September 27—Queens, NY—Forest Hills Stadium (All Things Go Festival)
September 29—Pittsburgh, PA—Stage AE Outdoors*
October 1—Boston, MA—Roadrunner*
October 2—Boston, MA—Roadrunner*
October 4—Columbus, OH—Kemba Live! Outdoors*
October 6—Toronto, ON—The Queen Elizabeth Theatre*
October 7—Detroit, Michigan—The Masonic Temple Theatre*
October 9—Chicago, IL—The Salt Shed Fairgrounds*
October 10—Madison, WI—The Sylvee*
October 11—Saint Paul, MI—The Palace Theatre*
October 16—San Diego, CA— The Rady Shell at Jacobs Park*
October 17—Santa Barbara, CA—Santa Barbara Bowl*
October 18—Stanford, CA—Frost Amphitheater*
October 21—Morrison, CO—Red Rocks Amphitheatre*
*with MUNA
