Update in Offenbach

Today, we played at Hafen2 in Offenbach, Germany. It’s this backyard stage and nonprofit smorgasbord. WIth like, animals and sheep and roosters that keep crowing and coffee and cakes and sandwiches and food and all that good stuff.

We played for an hour on a big ol stage for a bunch of people enjoying their Sunday afternoons. The sound was great, the children were dancing, and the weather was the perfect bit of windy.

We talked to a few people after. Max had cool glasses and a great hat. He bought a record.

Klaus found our music online, watched a stop motion video that I made in my room, then decided to come. He bought a CD. He said he enjoyed the show, and he’s sharing it with his girlfriend; she’s handicapped, so she couldn’t come.

We talked to Felix, who mentioned that he’d like to hear Lua in a comment on Instagram. We started out the set with Lua, and he sang along to all the words. He bought a record.

And this is all even before mentioning Andrea - the head honcho here, and matriarch of what seems like an army of people doing good things well. From music to movies to food to farming - she’s made a place that sustains art in every form. She also set us up in the most charming little converted trailer home we ever could have hoped for. Dan and I will be sleeping in ~separate rooms~ and on ~separate beds~, so yes, we’re living the life of luxury.

Even our taxi driver was a poet - we’re facebook friends now after he let us pay in Danish Krona - the only cash we had on us. He says his manager will work it out. Then he wished us luck, one writer to another.

Tomorrow, we’ll wake up and eat breakfast here. Then, we’ll pick up a rental car. Then I’ll learn to drive on German roads. Then, hopefully, we’ll get to the next gig. And the next. And the next.

An audibly disgruntled rooster just marched by me. A few people stared as it puttered through, then we returned to our conversations.

We’re meeting a lot of good people. We’re meeting people who like songs and music and all that. We’re meeting great songwriters like Wayne Graham. We’re meeting people who laugh when I mention Ohio for the fourth time in a set. We’re finding our legs. And we’re hoping that the road ahead is good.

I’m finished with my tea, and it looks like rain. I’m not sure what’s to come, but I’m glad we came.

We’re not in Ohio anymore

We landed in Iceland early today. We walked around streets with multicolored buildings and cute little houses. We made friends with a seagull who posed like he was the best model bird on the island. We ate lamb soup from these hardy ass bread bowls and felt like Vikings. We found a big church with a Viking statue in front of it.

In a few hours we’ll wake up and get on another bus, then get on another place, then get to Copenhagen. Then, a few hours after that, we’ll play our first set of the tour.

Three cheers for the Wright Brothers. Three cheers for airplanes. Three cheers for Ohio far from Ohio.

Jack Doran is a talented songwriter for Keating and also the keyboardist for Hello Emerson and for that I am thankful

This is a general thank-you note. Jack Doran is a few different things to me and to other people.

while you read this, listen to his new song here

His band is called Keating. That’s his middle name. Emerson is my middle name. We both have middle name bands.

Jack was the first people I met at an open mic who wanted to play music together. He started on drums. And then he switched to keyboards. And he singlehandedly saved a song from the trash bin by sending me a voice memo of him painting some piano melodies over it. And that ended up on a record. And he’s been a great and helpful friend since.

Hooray for Jack. Proud of you. You’re a great songwriter, and I’m happy to hear this.

"Ohio" is out in Europe! Watch the music video!

Over a few weeks, with over two thousand photos, and over five years of handwritten notes, I made a music video in my room.

And since "Ohio" was released TODAY as a single in Europe by K&F Records, I'm sharing the video with you!

Watch the video here!

And learn about how we made it just below the sweet, behind the scenes photo.

Hi again! I want to share a few things about the video that are special and meaningful to me.

Thing one: All of the paper that's used in this video has my handwriting all over it. I transitioned most of my long-term notes and such into my writing app on my phone and laptop, but I still write most everything out longhand first. I always carry a notebook in my back left pocket, and a blue and black pen in my front left pocket. And I'll always reach for that if I need to write something down. Throughout undergrad, I took longhand notes on a big ol blank A4 notebook. I just love writing and taking notes and doing all that stuff with paper. But, eventually, it either becomes irrelevant, or I type up digital versions of the stuff.

However, I still keep this literal plastic garbage bag of crumpled up paper in my closet upstairs. And I don't have a bunch of like, closet space in my apartment. So, every time I travel, I literally have to move this garbage bag of notes and paper off of my suitcase to get it out and pack. It's irrational and stuff. I know. But I always wanted to make something out of it. Because over five years of handwriting just feels really neat. It looks cool. I guess I'm a sap about this stuff.

Anyway, I dumped that bag of notes onto the floor. And started to try to figure out the story of these two fellas. I'm not sure if I found their story, but I think they got something out of the experience. I mean, they didn't exist before, and they seem pretty real to me when I watch the video now. So that's worth something.

[Oh, also, you can read a bunch of the shit written on these notes in the video. Please screenshot some and hit us with them on FB and Twitter. I'm trying to use Twitter, and this seems like it could be for it. @hiemersonmusic.]

Thing two: I've never done this before, and it reminded me that learning how to do new things is really fun. Like, so much fun. I did so much wrong and had a blast figuring out how to fix it along the way. This all happened because I had a bad idea for a real video ass video, it went poorly, and I had to find another way to make a thing. I'm really really happy about that. So watch it.

Thing three: This makes me excited to do other things I haven't done before, like play a couple dozen shows in Germany in like two months. So, like, here are the dates. More will be added to the end and the beginning in a few weeks. If you have any pals out there, hip them to our songs. 

++ 26.08.18 Offenbach – Hafen 2
++ 27.08.18 Chemnitz – Inspire Chemnitz
++ 28.08.18 Hamburg – Freundlich & Kompetent
++ 29.08.18 Berlin – Ä 
++ 30.08.18 Berlin – Art Stalker (with Wayne Graham) 
++ 01.09.18 Annaberg-Buchholz – Alte Brauerei
++ 02.09.18 Dresden – The Sound of Bronkow Music Festival
++ 04.09.18 Bayreuth – Sübkültür
++ 05.09.18 Marburg – Q
++ 06.09.18 Düsseldorf – Zakk
++ 07.09.18 Karlsruhe – Nun Kaffehaus (with Wayne Graham) 
++ 08.09.18 Freiburg – Swamp (with Wayne Graham) 
++ 09.09.18 Hof – Dachbodenkonzert
++ 10.09.18 Münster – Pension Schmidt

So that's about it for today. Drink water, learn a new thing, and revel in how great it feels to draw on real paper with a real ballpoint pen.

That's all,
Sam

A Short Story Explaining Why My Face Is On Vinyl Records in Germany

Hello. My name is Sam, and I like to write songs. Here's a little story about why there are vinyl records with my face on them in Germany.

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One time, I moved to Columbus, Ohio after spending a year attending the wrong college in Nashville, Tennessee. Ohio was a better fit for me, and English Lit was a better major for me. I had studied Music Business, but that was just the pits for me.

I wrote some songs and made the walk from my dorm at Baker West to Kafe Kerouac most Tuesdays for the Open Mic there. Jason runs a tight and supportive ship.

I helped open up a refugee benefit show there for The Gentle Lurch. They're a band from Dresden, Germany. Lars and Neli were over here for OSU as well. But they were nice enough to come to our cassette tape release show with Field Sleeper in the fall of 2015. After that, Lars and I became buddies and shared a beer at Dicks Den from time to time. When we threw our record release show in the US, it was a refugee benefit again. I think that will continue to be the case for release shows going forward.

Wow! CDs! And Grandma Bodary's quilt that she made for my high school graduation is on the CD! Hooray!

They invited me over to come visit when they went back to Germany, so I did. Last year, I spent about a week and a half adventuring, meeting nice folks and playing nice shows. The Sound of Bronkow Music Festival was the highlight; I finished my set while the church tower above me sounded for 8pm. I nearly made enough money to pay back the plane ticket! This shit is seriously the dream.

They were nice enough to reach out about giving the record a proper release through K&F Records in Germany. I recently got an email with nearly four weeks of shows. So that will happen in August. And I'm intimidated and don't know what to expect, but work is supportive and friends are supportive and I might even have one or two Hello Emerson members along for the ride.

Fingers crossed we can make back our plane ticket money, and make Lars and Neli some diaper money (they had a baby!)

So, this news doesn't mean a lot to you United Statesians - you all can already listen to the record. But we're excited about our tour and distribution deal with our friends in Germany.

Let me know if you want a vinyl - they're up on the store for North America and will arrive in June. If you're in Europe, I'll be seeing you in a couple months.

With love and gratitude, Sam

A New Song and Tiny Desk Video

Hello and happy Sunday!

(in short; we recorded an NPR Tiny Desk Contest video with a new song here. Keep reading for words behind the links.)

I have a short list of my favorite NPR Tiny Desk Concerts. Reggie Watts is wonderful, Rodrigo Amarante is absolutely enchanting, The Tallest Man on Earth seems just effortless, and Sharon Van Etten is incredible, and on and on and on.

Dan thought that it would be fun to be a part of a thing. And Jack and I agreed. So we recorded a little video in my attic office, next to my desk, where I’m typing this message right now.
Take a listen to a new song in the making. It’s a song about smartwatches, inkjet printers, independence, and Bruce Springsteen. It’s also about other things, but I’ll figure out what those are in a few months after we arrange it and spend some more time getting to know it.
Anyway, watch the video here, and if it makes you think of someone important to you, let them know and send it along the wire.

That’s all for today. I’m going to eat breakfast out in the city and then figure out what else I need to pick up from the grocery store.

Sam

~~~

Also, a side note. After we released a record, I took some time to write thank-you notes here on our website blog. I’d like to do that more because it was a small thing that felt good and important. I’m going to be writing little notes about some of my favorite music in Columbus, Ohio. And they’ll come off as little thank-you notes, popping into your inbox and up on the blog.

If you’ve got some other Columbus music that I should listen to, shoot me an email and get me in the loop.

THANKS | Sharon Udoh

Soooooooo Sharon didn’t really do anything on this album, buuuuut was kind enough to have Erin, Jack, and I play on hers. I was in my last year of school when she had us out to Musicol to record. When I was there, I asked her how people did it. How do people make a record? 
Sharon’s answer was essentially: “I don’t know. Does it look like I know what I’m doing?”
Thanks for always being honest, and never playing the same show twice. Thanks for being the King, the Queen, and everything in between. Sharon, you make everything around you shine a bit brighter, and challenge everyone to kick themselves in the ass and get out and do better. Thanks for that.

Thanks | Alexander Paquet

Alex is one of the first people I met in Columbus at the Kafe Kerouac open mic night. He may have played a song by The National. He may have played a Cheryl Crowe song. He may have played a song by The Microphones that I thought he had written for the first few weeks. But, whatever it was, we slowly picked up a little friendship. He made me think about songs in a different way, and then I quickly returned to my old way of thinking about songs.
We moved in together in August of 2016, and my opinion of Alex has only grown in the time living together. He was always the first one up and out of the house (thanks for making some of the best coffee in the city at One Line) and always pushed himself artistically and academically. He’s studying accounting, and I’ve never seen someone so passionate about economics and numbers in such a genuine and wonderful way. 
Alex has been an inspiring and welcoming friend throughout the past months. He’s helped me understand me, and he’s helped me accept and love my domestic idiosyncracies around the house. He’s opened my eyes and ears to new things, and his ambition makes me want to push myself harder.
You’d made a friend for life, whether you meant to or not. Thanks for being the first sounds on the album.

Thanks | Tony Rice

When we play shows, I try not to be anxious about sound. If I see Tony behind the board, all my anxieties flutter away like they were never there to begin with.
Every time we were at Brothers Drake, Tony’s been there to have our back. When we played Sofar at MINT, Tony was there to make sure that everything sounded great.
We played with The Western Den and Honeysuckle at Brothers Drake just recently, and Tony sent us a recording of the show a few days after. Just because. What a lil fella. That night, Dan said that I should ask him to do sound for the release show. And wouldn’t you have it, he seemed unfazed by the number of Hello Emerson members that we were planning to have that night.
So, thanks to Tony. You make things sound great. And you don’t know what you’re getting yourself into on August 25th.

THANKS | Nick Vermilye

Nick Vermilye played tenor saxophone on the record. And man he’s great and all that. But also, I asked him to play a sax solo in Uncle. We thought it might be a good idea.
Oh no.
To his credit, he played it beautifully, and he humored me. But after listening back to this song about driving on I-75 to see a great uncle in hospice, we decided that even the most tasteful sax solo maybe didn’t fit the thematic material of the song.
But damn it was a good solo that no one will ever hear. I think I still have the audio file in the stems. We’ll see if our club remix of Uncle ever surfaces. If it does, you’ll know who’s playing the sax.