Germany Tour Blog 6: A walk through Nuremberg with Jens and Etta

After the show in Fürth, Jens offered to show us around his town of Nuremberg after picking up his three-year-old daughter Etta from Kindergarten the following day. So, we met up by a big beautiful fountain in the shadow of an enormous church in one direction and an enormous castle in the other.

Jens named his daughter Etta. Think music, think Etta James — popular in the states, but very uncommon in Germany. Most people pronounce it with soft T’s (like “Edda”) but it should be pronounced with sharp Ts. Jens says that it’s a typical thing in Franconia to pronounce T’s as D’s and P’s as B’s. (On top of everything, “Edda” itself used to be a popular name in Germany, completing the linguistic chaos loop.)

He said that he rarely visits this part of town, and that he wouldn’t be able to be a great, well-informed tour guide despite being a local. “See that church, it’s fucking old! That castle, fucking old! Fountain, old!”

We walked up the steep walkway to the main castle, taking in the beautiful day while Etta heard her dad speaking a language she didn’t know (she was just starting to have her first exposure to English in Kindergarten — she thinks it is very cool).

Jens would translate back and forth between the three-year old on his shoulders and us three walking next to him, and she would chime in the conversation in German when she saw things, mostly ice cream and ducks. I would look at her when she was speaking, doing my best to listen while still having to wait for translation from Jens. Interestingly, Jens shared that she thought that I was listening and understanding her as she was speaking — and seemed to like that. We were an odd little group, stitched together by Jens’ dad superpowers.

We went our separate ways after having some ice cream in the sun. Later in the car, Etta said just a few words between getting buckled up and falling asleep: “Beautiful, it was. Wasn’t it?”

It was, Etta. It sure was.

Germany Tour Blog 5: “Community Not Competition” in Fürth

Our show in Fürth was on a Sunday. It’s a hard day to get people to come out to shows already, but it was also Mother’s Day. And it’s a hard day to get people to come to shows if you’re an out-of-towner at our level, and so far from home no less. That’s where our friend and opener on many of these dates, Jens, comes through yet again. Something like 75% of the people at the show were friends of his from nearby Nurnberg.

Jens makes music under the name “John Steam Jr.” He used to play a lot more punk and hardcore music, and is active in a scene that includes a lot of more straightforward folk-punk as well. This solo project of his seems to aspire to be a bit quieter, a bit more melodic, a bit more straight singer-songwriter — all while still retaining a punk ethos that’s willing to call out bullshit in the world and the people who support it.

Jens is all about “community not competition.” And it shows. I was getting some electrical noise in my signal chain for my guitars, and he intuited that I needed a ground lift. So he let me borrow a DI to use on the tour. He noticed that I needed to use a guitar strap for the electric guitar that I borrowed, so he brought one for me to use the next day. He noticed that a guitar stand would behoove me — so he provided one. And all of the best photos from this tour are from his little camera, snapping away as we hang out between soundchecks, sets, and meals. He talks the talk, and walks the walk.

Among his friends, we saw Julia Laura who opened up a show for us last tour, talking briefly about how to balance making music with making life in general. We also saw Eric from Jens’ band who we met playing a short solo set at BTM guitars last tour. We met Sabine who runs Kopf und Kragen — she has a history in Social Work and several decades of rock and roll under her belt. Timo behind the bar shared this is was one of his favorite shows in two years — and as a more of a hardcore/metal/punk drummer, that strikes me as a compliment of the highest order.

I dropped Jack and Dan at our little hotel room after load-out, then searched for street parking at midnight on a Sunday, finding a spot after twenty or so minutes. I soaked up the stillness of this old city of stone buildings on the walk home.

Germany Tour Blog 4: From Instagram to Real Life in Karlsruhe

I think often social media prioritizes metrics that reflect temporary distractions over real-world action. People may see one post that is memorable after several minutes of scrolling in a stupor, then hit follow, then continue to scroll in a stupor. I’m not saying there isn’t a place for slipping into a stupor — it’s been a gift to have some pockets of nothingness on tour — but I think social media is incentivized to put us all into a stupor for much too much time to be healthy. But this night in Karlsruhe let me spend time with several remarkable people I never otherwise would have met. So, grey areas.

We’ve played in Karlsruhe two times before, both at Cafe NUN — it’s a community-run bar that hosts music and performances pretty regularly in the neighborhood, and it feels just like home at this point.

We met a few people who knew us from Instagram too! Luisa was a fan of our music and was following us on Instagram, but hadn’t see our content for a while. After we started putting out more journaling videos, we reappeared on her feed and she found out that we’d be playing nearby! She’s involved with a group called Girls Gone International that organized meetups with women in the area — she was born in Colombia and moved to Germany later in life. At one of the events (maybe a Galentines Day style thing if I remember correctly) she made gifts for other members featuring my journaling mission statement: “I aim to ease loneliness in myself, my community, and people I may never meet. This led to a bigger conversation about journaling, how more men should journal, and being vulnerable online. She brought her partner Pablo to the show, and I loved being able to hear all about how songs and journaling brought things together for us.

I also met Bonnie in person as well — she found our music through one of the posts that caught fire recently and does music interviews on her channel from time to time. She traveled over an hour to come see the show, and we’ll set up a recorded interview when we get back to the states.

I also ran into someone I went to high school with! Blake now works at the Max Planck Institute doing some very cool stuff that I don’t understand. He and his partner both went to college in Ohio, and mentioned how nice it was to hear Ohio accents onstage during the show. It was a gift to have a beer with them afterwards as well.

Simon acted as the hostess with the mostest and Johannes made everything sound like gold. The room was cozy and full of people for a laid back show. We also met up with Jens who we met on a previous tour. He makes music under the name John Steam Jr. and has been an absolute joy to spend time with — and he makes great songs to boot. More on him later.

Germany Tour Blog 3: Fast Highways and Slow Dinners

After landing in Berlin and picking up our rental car, we made our first drive to Dresden. After driving behind some trucks at around 90kph, I took my opportunity on the autobahn to push it close to 200kph, which is around 125mph. And it was smooth, both with the rental car and the borderline perfect roads, but honestly there’s no reason that anyone should be driving that fast in their normal life — not to mention how much gas that burns. So I’m finding my middle ground bouncing back and forth between living behind semi’s and passing when it makes sense, but not really going above 80 really. That doesn’t stop supercars flying by us at 125-150mph or so, but that’s their problem.

We got to Dresden and met up with Lars, the friend who is to blame for all of our excursions in Germany. He’s behind K&F Records who we’ve worked with for our records in Germany and these tours after meeting him in Columbus when his wife was doing post-doc work at OSU, around 2016/17 somehow? He got us settled into an artist’s apartment above a theater, and we caught up over ice cream. We’re both pretty clear-eyed about the state of the small-time live music industry — tl;dr it’s unsustainable for most people. We hope to at least break even this tour, but it’s always a risk, definitely even harder now than it was four years ago. But we love the music, believe in the songs, and would like to give it our best.

Lars arranged an amazing dinner at a nearby restaurant with the whole cast of Dresden friends from throughout the past years. Hanna, Hannes, Ronny, Elmer, Annette, Lars’ wife Nelie and their daughter Ani. Ani is about as old as my niece now, and I remember getting a text from Lars when they moved back to Germany, mentioning that they were with child on their flight back home. Wild how time works.

Germany Tour Blog 2: The Fashion Designer from France

On the first flight, I sat next to a woman who was born in France who had worked in fashion in New York City for about 15 years, then moved and worked for a well-known bag company in a small town in the Midwest. She said that the culture shock of moving from Paris to New York was dwarfed by the difference between NYC and a small midwestern town. When she moved in, several of her neighbors dropped by with food to welcome them to town — something that she found absolutely wonderful, moreso than her introverted American husband.

She shared about how poverty in the US is entirely different from poverty in France, commenting on how brutal and grinding and pervasive it was. She said that it was ready for a revolution, or at least if people were experiencing the same thing in France, there would no doubt be one — she mentioned that they are quite passionate about causing a ruckus.

She was returning to France to see her mother, who is nearing the end of her life. Her siblings still live in the country, and it seems like it could be time soon. She bought a ticket last minute, joining me in the back row of the plane. After talking for about 90 minutes, I did my best to fall asleep in the middle seat, tucking a pillow into the front part of my shirt and just pitching my head forward. I wasn’t sure if I had actually fallen asleep. Before landing, she assured me that I had slept quite well.

Germany Tour Blog 1: Flying out of Detroit

If you didn’t know, we’re on tour in Germany — and I’m doing my best to write down what we’re experiencing! Feel free to read on if you’re curious.

The last time we were on an airplane together as a band, it was January 2020. Four years later, it feels a bit surreal to walk through the same steps and have them feel so different. Similar landmarks, airport terminals, cities, venues, but on the other side of the pandemic that radically changed travel and live music (along with pretty much everything else).

This time, we flew out of Detroit — spending an extra few hours in the car to save an extra couple hundred bucks. We got to my Aunt Jenny’s home right by the airport (next to the house that my dad grew up in), picked her up, and got to the terminal. She’ll keep our car at their’s until we return.

I learned that my her daughter Elise, a cousin on my dad’s side, had written an essay about our most recent record for a class in college. She got full marks for it. I am eager to read it.

The flights were relatively easy — about 6 hours to Iceland with a short layover, then about 3.5 hours to Berlin.

“Folk music is just storytime for adults”

Listen to a 22 minute WAMC NPR feature on our new album — and stream a performance and interview on WCBE today at 11AM.

I’m thankful for public radio stations. I listened regularly to WYSO out of Yellow Springs as a kid, and they offer such a window into art and music, particular the stuff that’s just a quick jog off the beaten path.

I’d like to appreciate Sarah LaDuke from WAMC NPR out of Albany, New York. She took a liking to our album and reached out to feature it on their airwaves that reach half a million people a month in the northeastern US. I took the interview, during my lunch break at the library no less.

I was impressed by her thoughtful approach and desire to highlight b-sides — Sale Today and Couch Song — that were not highlighted as singles. We had a lovely talk (which became a 22 minute feature!!) about the intersection of Toddler Storytime and folk music, how work at the library allows me to make art more freely, and some additional details about dad’s accident at the center of our new record.

If you want to hear us on an NPR station in our hometown, tune into WCBE (or stream it on their website) at 11am. We’ll be playing live and chatting about our big release show tomorrow at Rumba cafe.

I imagine that this will be the only time we play the album in its entirety with a 7-piece band. If you want to be there, I’d suggest buying a ticket online post-haste.

With appreciation,

Sam

our new album is out!

It’s here!

I’m so thrilled to share this album with you. I could say many things, but I’ll leave it at this. I am proud of what we made. It helped me grow through a difficult time and come out a better person. And I am thankful for the family and friends by my side throughout it.

For context on the album, I suggest reading this amazing article by Columbus Monthly. I was floored by how thoughtfully it was written and how thoroughly it was researched. Hard recommend.

I think the album pairs well with a comforting drink of your choice, a comfortable place to sit, and about 40 minutes of sustained attention (for me, that’s a decaf irish coffee on the long mustard-yellow couch in front of my stereo). But that’s just me — you can enjoy it however you’d like to. (If you want it on CD, LP, or want some merch, it all ships for free today.)

Are you going to play these songs at some shows? — Yes!

We are celebrating with a release show in Columbus, Ohio with a seven-piece band at Rumba Cafe. It is on Saturday, April 13th and doors open at 5pm. We’re not night owls, so come join us for an early show, opened up by Chamber Brews.

We are also playing in Chicago on Saturday April 27th at Judson & Moore Distillery with Holy Joke and Marvin Stumbles.

After that, we’ll go to Germany to play a bunch of shows.

What comes next?

We’re lining up other shows after we return to Europe — reply to this email if you want us to come to where you live. And if you have any thoughts you’d like to share or questions that arise, send me a message through the website. I’d love to hear what you have to say

Wishing you well — I hope you get to see your family and friends this weekend (that is, if you want to see you family and friends).

Cheers,

Sam & Hello Emerson

new single and music video out now!

It has my first guitar solo. So like, let me know how I did?

But seriously, this is the climax of our newest album, due out on 3/29. I am incredibly proud of the whole album, and this song in particular. If you’ve liked our singles, be sure to share them with someone you think may enjoy them, and pre-save the whole album.

We also made this beautiful music video with our generous friend Kyle Lowry. We hit it off after he heard our song “Ohio” and we made this video together. I think it walks the line between mundane and magical — which is essentially our brand more often than not. I hope you enjoy.

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Special thanks to the Greater Columbus Arts Council!

We were generously awarded a grant last year to help us produce and support this release. If you’re an artist, you know the strange space that this work can take up — always existing somewhere between vocation, hobby, career, passion, small business, frustration, joy, life-purpose, and productive distraction from day-to-day life. It takes money and time to make any kind of art and still live a balanced and sustainable life. We are so thankful for their support — and encourage you to apply for their 2024 Funds for Artists. They have rolling applications awarding up to $500 per artist. Please check them out if you are in Central Ohio.

Ok that’s all! Thanks for listening!

Sam & Hello Emerson

Germany tour dates + Pre-save our FINAL single

Hey there. Hope Tuesday is ok for you — I have two updates.

1. Our final single comes out on Friday.

Consider giving it a pre-save here — it’s a free way to help it find other strangers who might love our music if they had the chance to hear it. And it will help you not forget to give it a listen when it comes out! Dubs all around.

2. We are touring as a trio in Germany in May.

Be sure to check the dates and add us to your calendar — and let us know if you’re coming! (I will be bringing my journal with me in case you want a closer look.)

Sending you my best,

Sam & Hello Emerson