Premiere: Hembree’s ‘ATM’ is the summer kickoff you need to hear
Hembree. // Courtesy the artist
While the members indie-pop rockers Hembree might all be comfortably ensconced in the confines of Los Angeles, we’ll always consider them local artists. To that end, we are beyond thrilled to premiere their newest single, “ATM,” just ahead of their performance this weekend at Boulevardia–which is Saturday, June 17, at 3:45pm on the Visit Missouri Grand Stage, FYI. The song is a perfect summer jam, with a guitar line evoking vibes of “next to the pool in the summer of 1988” in the best possible way.
When we hopped on the phone with the band’s frontman, Isaac Flynn, last week to talk about “ATM” and what’s been up with the band, he was even more excited than we were to be releasing new music and getting back on the road.
“It’s been a complete whirlwind of getting this new stuff ready in time for shows,” Flynn marvels. “All of a sudden, it’s June.”
As far as the new song (and future singles) go, it just didn’t feel quite right for Hembree to go out there and play off the same record they toured on last year, even though the last record is not very old, Flynn continues.
“Everything just cycles so quickly,” continues the singer. “We’ve been working so much together, it was just like, “All right, let’s make some new material and get it out there into the world.” The shows this summer are fantastic. It was just time to put music out into the world again.”
The reason the band’s been working together so much is because they’re all basically in the same space these days, as opposed to being spread out, and that’s really benefited what Hembree can do, musically.
“It’s been so wonderful to work together as a band,” Flynn says. “This new stuff is very much a band record and sound, and I think that’s just out of the desire to work together after having made a record during the pandemic.”
For 2022’s It’s a Dream!, Hembree only had three proper days in the studio and even then, it was very clinical, says Flynn, because it was still in the heart of the pandemic. The band was fully masked-up and testing regularly, and while that record is still damned good, the process of making it wasn’t exactly fun at the time.
“It was just really nice on this last batch of tunes to be able to be a band and collaborate with each other,” Flynn enthuses. “We’re having such a good time, man. The energy between all of us is just really great right now.”
That said, Covid did have somewhat of an influence on “ATM” and the other new tunes on which Hembree’s been working. Flynn says that these songs are influenced by classic records he had time to dig into and really dive into over the pandemic.
“I just got really influenced by Tom Petty, Dire Straits, the Pretenders, Prince, Bruce Springsteen,” lists the frontman. “Just truly classic, iconic artists and bands. I think those records sound so organic–people playing together and everything.”
They’re nostalgic feeling, the new songs, but they still have a hint of that modern production twist and stuff that Hembree likes to do. Given that both guitarist Alex Ward and keyboardist Eric Davis are both producers, that’s not surprising. In the end, though, these new songs and forthcoming tour are just the band really hitting its stride.
“It’s thriving,” says Flynn of Hembree’s current status as we wrap up. “That might be an overstatement because we’re not buying mansions or something off of our band, but everyone’s finding their way out here. It sounds so obvious, but it’s so nice to be able to call your band mate and be like, ‘Do you want to come over and work on this?’ It’s just a very obvious statement but yeah, working together has been incredible.”
Hembree plays Boulevardia on Saturday, June 17. Details on that show here.
