a few thoughts on ”sun in an empty room” by the weakerthans (and a cover video)

“The things we need to say
Have been said already anyway
By parallelograms of light
On walls that we repainted white”

I met my bandmates in a mid-sized midwestern city by going to an open-mic near the campus of the state school that essentially drives our local economy through some combination of football and healthcare. I learned how to share songs and listen well, talk too much and settle down, and make a few friends. Jason was the host at the time, never far from a glass of red wine, and traditionally starting off the night with some fingerpicked folk. He played a Weakerthans cover somewhat often which took me probably over a year to figure out wasn’t his own song. It was just a gorgeous song that he played beautifully.

I found other songs by The Weakerthans after I got used to them sounding closer to The Hold Steady than Sufjan Stevens, which is sort of how it sounded when Jason played them (again, beautifully). This one always struck me. At a time when I and my friends were orbiting around campus from dorm to apartment to duplex in all sorts of roommate arrangements, I found some peace in packing my things into boxes, knowing that everything that I had could be distilled into something concrete. And the rooms left behind were sad but lovely. I always imagined that I had to say goodbye to songs that were left in that room that never got written, but hoped that other people might move in, find them, write them, and bring them to the world.

The song shares a title with an Edward Hopper painting from 1963. It’s an oil painting of sunlight hitting the walls and floors after streaming through a window. There aren’t any characters or people in it, but the light fills up the space. It makes me feel like I’m in my early twenties, starting to think I could figure it out some day. Maybe I would have time once I moved into the next 9-12 month lease.

I’m sharing a cover of this song this week from my orange couch, but I also cut a video using Hopper’s artwork paired with the song. I hope it finds you well.

Sam + Hello Emerson

A post about our use of social media

tl;dr we’re using it more now 
(but you still don’t have to)

I’ve been spending a bit more time trying to find consistent ways to share meaningful things on social media in a way that isn’t toxic to me or the world at large. I have felt a smoothie-like combination self-conscious and foolish and excited and comforted during my little experiments over the past couple months, but I think I am finding a relatively healthy way forward. So far, this looks like…

1. Taking time lapses of my morning journals

(mostly posted to TikTok so far, but considering tossing those on Insta as well). I do this anyway, and I know it’s good for me, and strangers on TikTok are asking questions about it. I’m putting our music into the videos as I overdub some thoughts and answer people’s questions. It’s no more than a 40 second clip every day. I think it’s relatively healthy!

2. Taking nice photos at shows

I’ve been learning basic photography for about five years now, and I’m starting to be more comfortable taking photos at shows that I’m at. I share those with bands, then share those on social media. I feel like it helps me contribute to highlighting musicians who make great songs while also learning how to do new things. So… invite me to you shows in town? I’m loving hearing new bands right now.

3. Covering songs that I love

I’ve been recording at home more often, along with learning how to shoot and edit little videos. These are songs that I’ve held dear for a long time, or new songs from new discoveries. Especially when we’re playing with someone great, I aim to record a cover to act as a promotional thing for the show. But I also get to spend time doing my favorite thing, instead of spamming promo posts. It’s a win win. Those get posted in full on our YouTube page, and cut into little <60 second snippets for our IG and TikTok pages.

You can still access most things fully through our website and blog — I still aim to post everything at the website, then cut and scribble bits out to social media. However you’d like to stay in touch (or not) is fine by me. And I’m still shipping out free stickers to anyone who wants them. All links are at www.helloemerson.com/linktree.

We’ll have a new record come out in the Spring, so I think that this is time well spent. It’s like trying on a whole bunch of different pants to see what is the right combination of comfortable and functional while still feeling like me. I appreciate your patience and support.

Sam

PS…

So much thanks to Superviolet & Mukiss for putting out some of the best songs in the city

Like, for real. Have you listened to “Infinite Spring” by Superviolet? Have you listened to Mukiss’ new single “The Wildness”? We live in a remarkable place for songwriters to make great art. That all happened at my favorite show of the year at Rumba Cafe a few weeks or so ago. My god what a world of beautiful songs we live in.

“Children with the Blues” comes out on February 24th — pre-save it today.

We are releasing our first new song in three years. This is what the art looks like.

You can help us out for free by “pre-saving” it. Here’s what that means.

Spotify playlists are one way that our music finds new ears. They (‘they’ meaning some odd combination of algorithms and playlist editors… I think?) have the ability to put new music onto popular playlists, sharing that song with many new listeners. Some will not like our music, and others will. That’s just how it goes.

I sometimes think of songs like little tools. They exist to help people do something. Sometimes the purpose is just to facilitate a quiet moment of reflection, sometimes an invitation to grieve someone you lost, sometimes an opportunity to turn the fuck up and dance it all away.

Pre-saving our new single will give our little song more of an opportunity to be useful to people, from close friends to people we haven’t met yet. I am optimistic that this song may make some people feel less lonely — so I’d be eager for your help getting it to the right ears.

Consider this a long-winded invitation to click this link to pre-save our track. Or even buy tickets to the release show on February 24th at Rambling House with Eliza Edens.

Best wishes,

sam


New song on 2/24 + release show w/ Eliza Edens at Columbus' Rambling House!

We are playing a **SINGLE RELEASE** show with Eliza Edens (NYC/Boston) at Rambling House on Friday February 24th. We will be playing as a four-piece band and celebrating the first single of 2023, “Children with the Blues.” Come join us for a nice, nice time. Click for tickets.

Also, dozens parcels with stickers and merch are headed through the door and out to Idaho, Maine, Oregon, California, Utah, Wisconsin, and all across Ohio.

I managed to find a few extra mugs, aprons, and first pressings of the first record. Inventory is updated on the website — if they are listed, I’m ready to ship them to you.

A few folks ordered handwritten lyrics! I do those for any song that I’ve written. Feel free to check out examples on the website and contact me there if you’ve got other questions or requests for your *bespoke* artwork.

Stickers are still free! Up to two per order now, so we can keep it going longer! Go get em!

Handwritten Song Lyrics
Handwritten Song Lyrics

Turn your favorite song into a one of a kind art piece!

All lyric sheets are personally handwritten by the songwriter on high quality 8.5x11” white cardstock with Pilot Precise V5 Extra Fine pens. Choose to have simply lyrics, or request a few small (but relevant) doodles!

Safely ships via USPS in a manila envelope reinforced with recycled cardboard.

Song:
Would you like your lyrics with small doodles, or doodle-free?:
Quantity:
Add To Cart

Free stickers!

I’d like to ship you free stickers through the mail. No strings attached. No questions asked. No shipping fee.

Hello Emerson Logo Sticker
Hello Emerson Logo Sticker
$3.00
Quantity:
Add To Cart

Literally just free Hello Emerson stickers and a small note in a little envelope from my home to yours. Up to five per order, if you’ve got room in your life for them.

Why do I want to do this?

One: I have extra stamps, stickers, and envelopes.

Two: Social media is a fraught beast to continue feeding. In order to communicate with a lot of the people who like our music, we are cajoled by tech companies to pay them ad money to make sure you see our updates. It’s much easier and cheaper to just send you an email once in a while. In exchange for your email at checkout, you get stickers! (But if that doesn’t work for you — you can always opt out!)

Three: We would like to see where we should come play shows. As we plan out some short tours, we will be more likely to come to places where we know we have listeners — and we’ll be able to email you directly to let you know when we’ll be near your zip code for a show.

Four: I don’t really want to ask you to stay plugged in to social media to know what we’re up to — especially if it can be quietly harmful to you, like it is to me. So the website, and the email list, will always be there.

So, that’s it. I’d like to do this until the end of March. See you in your mailbox soon.

sam

“How to Cook Everything” turns three // our plan for 2023

Our second record turns three today. We didn’t know it at the time, but we released it several weeks before COVID would break out and change everything forever. I’m still proud of the record, still thrilled when people reach out with small gratitudes about its place in their life. Here’s our plan for 2023

We will release our third record in Spring 2024.

Yesterday, I received our third record first master via email. This is what it looks like. I explain the record this way.

Several years ago, my dad pulled over to help move some tree limbs out of traffic after a storm. While dragging it, a limb snapped and threw him to the ground. His head hit pavement, and he spent nine days in the ICU with a severe brain injury. He pulled through with minimal long term damage, minus his sense of smell and memory between stepping out of the car and waking up at the hospital. The record walks through my family’s experience of that week and a half, held together with interview clips from my father at the center of it all. It’s been beautifully embellished by Dan Seibert’s expanded arrangements for piano, clarinet, bass clarinet, vibraphone, and violin — played by Columbus’ own chamber outfit, Knisley.

If you know a small label that is curious about the record, send them our way. We’d love to get it to as many ears as possible.

We will release new songs throughout this year.

You will hear between 5-10 new songs this year; they are not on the upcoming record. We are recording them and releasing them quickly to celebrate the sheer joy of making things with friends that nobody asked us to make. If you followed our “song-a-day” activity on instagram, you will recognize many of them. We will be recording these at home, trying new strategies, learning how to mix, and keeping the stakes low. I am particularly excited to spend some time learning how to mix and arrange, make short videos, and dig deeper into songs that don’t take themselves too seriously.

We will play shows out of town.

We aim to spend about 4-6 weekends out of town playing shows. I’ll be reaching out later more directly about this, but I’d love to play in houses, basements, living rooms, and backyards for people who have taken a liking to the music (looking at you - NYC, Philly, Toledo, Ann Arbor, Detroit, Indy, Dayton, Louisville, Cincy, Chicago, Bloomington, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, others). If that’s you, reach out at the contact form at our website — we will come to where the people are.

I will write weekly at the blog.

I still think that spending too much time on social media is particularly damaging to me, but I think that I can start to approach it on my own terms. I don’t think my approach is terribly optimized to be particularly algorithmically engaging, but I don’t think I really want my life to be about being particularly algorithmically engaging. I’d like to grow as a songwriter, as a photographer, as a videographer, as a reader, as a writer, and as a person. I think that our plan for 2023 will allow us to do that.

Here’s to deciding how to grow and not losing yourself in the process. Wishing you all the best.

sam

(also, listen to Angela Perley’s new album — because you owe it to yourself.)

an amazing message from a stranger | a new song on friday

I’ve been reflecting on how the last record was received and trying hard not to take anything for granted as we prep for another release. I’ve been keeping two things in mind as I do this.

IMG_5899.jpg

First - more people listened to our first record than I ever thought would. I peeked into our stats and found the big number to the left - that’s amazing. But when I looked a little deeper, it got a bit more amazing.

Spotify shows you the playlists that you’re on - and the ones you’re not on. We were never put on any big Editorial Spotify playlists, but listeners put us on over 1,600 playlists. Because of that, some of the Algorithm-based playlists picked us up and shared us around - but that wouldn’t have happened without a bunch of people making playlists with our songs.

For that - I am deeply grateful. Thank you very much for listening to and sharing our songs!

Tess from instagram

Tess from instagram

The second thing I’ve been keeping in mind is based on a message I received the other day on Instagram. You can read it, then freak out like me.

“Hello! This is random but I had an assignment in class today where I had to pick an album that I never get sick of and I immediately knew I wanted to pick Above The Floorboards. That question made me realize how important your music has been to me for the past 4 years. So I wanted to thank you, because it feels like no matter what I go through I can always come back to your music and that means a lot.”

We made someone’s high school record.

We made someone’s high school record.

We made someone’s high school record.

We made someone’s high school record!!!!!

I had records that I loved in high school. I still love them, mostly for the same reasons. The records that I loved in high school carried me through difficult years and hard lessons and just plain loneliness. The records that I loved in high school shaped my love of records in general. They shaped the kinds of songs that I gravitate to today. My high school records were by The Mountain Goats, The Decemberists, Local Natives, The National, and Bright Eyes. They were by The Tallest Man on Earth, LCD Soundsystem, St. Vincent, and Jackson Browne. They were by Michael Kiwanuka, Sharon Van Etten, Arcade Fire, and Sufjan Stevens. They were by The Magnetic Fields, Frontier Ruckus, Blind Pilot, and Bon Iver. They were by Ezra Furman. They were by Fionn Regan.

Those songs helped me understand myself and songs at large. But I only had the opportunity to talk to a few of them to say thank you. So, it’s amazing to think that (1) we had that kind of impact on a real human person and (2) we would never have known if they didn’t reach out to say something.

This is where the metrics conversation breaks away and I get a little less anxious about our new release.

I care about a lot of people hearing our new record - but only because I think that 0.01% of the people that hear it might find it really important and helpful, like our high school pal on Instagram. So, heck, I’m excited to share the first song next Friday. Maybe more people will listen than last time - maybe fewer people will listen. Maybe I’ll be needlessly embarrassed - maybe I’ll be overly prideful.

Regardless, I think I’ll focus on this small message from a stranger. I think I’d like to hope that some of these songs will find long-term homes in a few people, providing some sense of solace in a hard time or sweetener in an easy time - and something to reminisce on at a later time.

Screen Shot 2019-11-15 at 8.36.44 AM.png

Wow, I love songs.

The first single of our second record comes out in exactly one week. We finished it in the Spring, and I’m just plain delighted to share it. If you like it, share it with someone or put it on a playlist.

Or just send a message my way.

three reasons i play shows | three reasons i never close them with “hallelujah”

Once upon a time, I agreed to play a house show. Some weeks later, I was caught off guard to see ads billing it as an exclusive venue with high ticket prices. In the future, I’ll ask more questions when I get a strong guarantee.

At the show, the booker said that it had been tradition to close with a sing-along of “Hallelujah” by Leonard Cohen. I said that I would be very uncomfortable doing that. He politely dropped it, so we didn’t sing it.

This all felt a little gross, but I had trouble understanding why. So, I journaled a bunch, reached out to friends, had a frank chat with the booker, and then journaled some more. All this reminded my why I play shows in the first place and why I chose not to use “Hallelujah” as a sing-along.

This is what I learned in the form of a listicle. (omg! you won’t believe number three!)

one reason i play shows: for fun (or something like it)

Playing shows can be fun, but they’re a strange kind of weighty, exhausting fun.

ahead.png

Shows are places we can gather to celebrate songs and the people who love them. And making something out of nothing is a damn miracle, especially because it’s always easier to not make anything at all. And even after something is made, it’s easier to not care about something than it is to care about something.

So, playing a show is a basic celebration of both performer and audience choosing to care about something instead of nothing.

That’s fun.

Shows are places where we can say things to strangers that don’t come up in everyday conversations. And you can kick up a bunch of dust without causing a fuss. Or cause a fuss, kick up dust, and own the fucking room for about a half hour.

And shows can be a source of community with a little dash of risk and potential rejection - that can be more rejuvenating than your favorite facial scrub.

That’s fun. 

Shows are how some people make meaning - asking questions, making proclamations, and raising attention for the problems they want to solve together.  

When you put three bands on a stage together who ask different questions from different perspectives using different sounds and different instruments, you create a space where no one has a monopoly on meaning. And then we all get to be properly challenged/unsettled/delighted.

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That’s fun.

At their best, shows can give you a little bit of hope on the bad days when your job feels like it scrapes out your insides, plops the goop down on a scale, and direct deposits that to your bank account. And they still give you energy on the good days when it feels like your goop is endless and worth its weight in gold.

But that’s all a bit much. It’s easier to just call it fun.

one reason i’ll never close with a “hallelujah” sing-along: with great power comes great responsibility

“Hallelujah” is a song written by Leonard Cohen and released in 1984 on the record Various Positions. You’ve heard it, but maybe not the original version.

“Hallelujah” is a case study in what a song is, how it moves through people and time, and how it changes clothes, popping up in unexpected places with different things to say each time you run into it.

Malcolm Gladwell spent 40 minutes digging into the song on a podcast. A book called The Holy or the Broken: Leonard Cohen, Jeff Buckley, and the Unlikely Ascent of "Hallelujah" came out in 2012.

“Hallelujah” is a powerful song, but that power wasn’t immediately apparent. It didn’t make it on the original Leonard Cohen album that it was written for. He apparently wrote 80 verses to get to the original version of the song. It was quiet and hid for a long time before John Cale covered it in 1991 for a Leonard Cohen tribute album.

This movie came out 17 years ago you guys. That’s wild.

This movie came out 17 years ago you guys. That’s wild.

Cale reached out to him for lyrics, and Cohen faxed him all of them, even the ones that never made it into the original recording. From that, Cale built the version that most people cover today. Then, it took until 1994 for Jeff Buckley to cover it on Grace. And it didn’t become a big hit until after Buckley died in 1997.

It’s almost a fluke that we ever heard it in the first place, but this is a song that is so quietly powerful that it continued to move and shift patiently over decades, from Cohen to Cale, from Cale into Buckley, from Buckley to hundreds of others.

Now that we all have “Hallelujah,” we have to decide how and when we use it.

another reason i play shows: to build and share a space with heroes

this is what happens when you google “spiderman with a guitar”anyway, here’s spiderweb

this is what happens when you google “spiderman with a guitar”

anyway, here’s spiderweb

Local heroes. Traveling heroes.

Quiet heroes. Friendly heroes.

Surprisingly unpleasant heroes who quickly stop being heroes. Strangers who become heroes when you see how well they treat people.

The heroes behind your favorite songs who ask your favorite questions and do things that you could never do. Heroes with superpowers who push you to ask more from yourself.

I feel indebted to a growing list of these people, and shows are a way to celebrate them, their songs, and the many ways they make the world a more interesting place to be. If an out-of-towner reaches out to play a show and I believe their songs will challenge/unsettle/delight a room of people, then it’s on me to help muster up a show to make that happen.

And then, if the show goes well, the list of heroes grows.

another reason i’ll never close with a “hallelujah” sing-along: songs can be used in good faith or in bad faith, and it’s hard to tell the difference

what a cute fella

what a cute fella

Over time, the song “Hallelujah” has become a tool. It’s like one of those screwdrivers with a bunch of different tips. Across many contexts and in many situations, this song can be emotionally resonant. And if you’re not trying to do anything more specific than elicit a vague Big Emotion, than this will get the job done.

It’s Cohen’s view that many different hallelujahs exist. Some are melancholy. Some are fragile. Some are uplifting. Some are joyous. Some are sober. Some are sincere. Some are orgasmic. Some are purifying. Some are about the disappointment of desperately wanting to be something more than human. Some are just disappointing.

If you’re in a rush, you could just describe it as “authentic.” But that misses the point.

The Edukators is a favorite movie of mine from high school. It’s also kind of a bad movie, and “Hallelujah” plays over the final scene. It’s heavy-handed, but I still tear up as Buckley’s cover plays through the ending.

The song has become a means to an emotional end. It often deployed as a direct appeal to “emotion” - not a specific emotion, just “emotions.” At its worst, it feels like a last-ditch effort at unspecific catharsis when everything else has failed.

It can become a song of manipulation. Some songs have the power to access certain feelings. And when people eventually discovered that power, “Hallelujah” showed up in talent shows, television dramas, and Shrek. And each time the song was used to emotionally heighten a scene, it lost a bit of its magic.

It can also still make for a wonderful performance (and it wasn’t bad in Shrek), but I’m wary of why and how people choose to perform it.

the last reason i play shows: money

You can’t pay rent with two free drinks, unless they’re really really good drinks and your landlord is a super weirdo. My landlord’s just a normal weirdo because he only takes cash or physical checks.

You need money to pay rent for the place that you live and write songs in. And you need money to buy food that will keep you alive and healthy. And maybe you can even put aside money for when unexpected bad things happen. Maybe even health insurance? What a world!

Then maybe when you’ve met most of your baseline needs, you can spend the time and energy it takes to make something out of nothing. And maybe you’ll even buy an instrument.

I don’t make my living from music - I’m happy as a clam to work a day job that can support me and this peculiar hobby/passion/obsession/self-care tactic. That being said, if I can pay for a day in the studio by playing a gig and dodging a “Hallelujah” sing-along, I’ll consider it.

the last reason i’ll never close with a “hallelujah” sing-along: the surest way to ruin a song is to try to make your voice heard over the voice of the song (but sometimes even that won't work)

This reason is one of Ezra Fruman’s tenets of songwriting. This is Ezra’s face.

This reason is one of Ezra Fruman’s tenets of songwriting. This is Ezra’s face.

Even in the wrong setting, “Hallelujah” is powerful enough to mean something.

And even if a singer sings it with the calculated passion of a high schooler trying to get laid at a party where someone forgot to lock up the acoustic guitar, it can still be strangely beautiful.

But using it too much starts to feel desperate. Hallelujah is a song of desperation, but that’s different than using it desperately.

It’s a song that people have pointed to as “real” or “genuine” while those words increasingly cease to mean either. It’s a song that some people sing to woo the people they’d like to fall in love with the idea of.

But it’s also still a song that asks serious questions about love. And sometimes, somehow, I can still hear someone cover that song and love every second of it.

But there’s a big difference between someone covering that song and someone covering up that song.

so what?

I can see how someone might lean on a “Hallelujah” sing-along for some kind of reliable catharsis at the end of a show. Maybe some people would even feel moved, like I was in high school at the end of The Edukators. But to me, turning “Hallelujah” into a sing-along prioritizes a cheap, unrisky attempt at “emotions” over anything you can really sink your teeth into.

But I’m probably taking this too seriously. Maybe songs are just songs and people sing them together sometimes. It’s not like this is some Fyre Festival shit. I was paid for my set. And my desire to abstain from an “Hallelujah” sing-along was respected. But it all still feels gross.

leon.jpg
“That’s what it’s all about. You’re not going to be able to work this thing out. There’s no solution to this mess. The only moment that you can live here comfortably in these absolutely irreconcilable conflicts is when you embrace it all and say, ‘Look, I don’t understand a fucking thing at all - Hallelujah!’”
— Leonard Cohen

Sometimes people try to make their own voice heard over the song they’re singing. That doesn’t give me faith in the singer, but maybe the song can still do some good. I’ll keep rooting for songs.

Anyway, here’s wonderwall.