When your love for all things Kansas City merges with rocking out to five natives with a gift for singing and songwriting, you’ve got melody magic. In case you haven’t met, let me introduce you to Hembree, a local band made up of five members with the majority now residing in Los Angeles, thanks to a thriving music career that got its start in 2015.
Hembree might be a humble band formed by friends from the middle of the map, but the guys quickly were thrust into the airwaves and onto the road, traveling far and wide into international waters thanks to a handful of early hits.
Hembree consists of Isaac Flynn and Eric Davis who originally hail from Lawrence, brothers Alex and Austin Ward from Fort Scott, and Garrett Childers from Kansas City.
Their first single titled Holy Water made waves in 2016 when it was featured in a Super Bowl LII ad. In 2018, they participated in SXSW (South by Southwest) which led to signing to their first Nashville music label.
It was soon after that the band realized the music industry’s close attention to them and the path to soon materializing into a “real touring band.” Simultaneously, two band members decided to leave to focus on their personal lives, and thanks in part to social connections, they picked up brothers Alex and Austin Ward whom they had known for years, both jumping at the invitation to join on drums and guitar. With the band rounded out again, they locked their first booking agent and were well on their way.
Their first studio album titled House on Fire was released in 2019, featuring the single "Culture" and going “viral” via SoundCloud and on the Netflix show 13 Reasons Why. “It’s an alternative rock album, but we fused melodic indie music with electronic elements. It has a lot of youthful energy, and it also opened a lot of doors for us.” It also landed on SiriusXM and them on the Alt Nation tour, which naturally opened up even more doors.
The energy and excitement from House on Fire led them to begin creating the next album right away. But, a little thing called the pandemic hit and changed the trajectory of both their inspiration and their timeline. “It turned out different than what we originally intended, resulting in more of a long-form, experimental album.”
There were many things the pandemic influenced on it including Issac’s deep dive into the band Talking Heads and watching their concert film Stop Making Sense. Titled "It’s a Dream!," the 2022 album “became a bizarre art project of sending ideas to one another over Dropbox and having seemingly endless time working alone.” Once they were finally able to get the band back together, they were determined to push themselves harder than ever, resulting in great artistic growth artistically.
Their third album is titled Better Days and will be played in totality at their next local performance at the Crossroads Hotel rooftop bar, Percheron on August 14th and 15th. The band has historically sold out their shows here, thanks in part to Percheron’s one-of-a-kind panorama. This time around they decided to add a second night playing different sets with different opening acts on each night.
“It’s become our favorite show of the year; the hotel team is amazing and you can’t beat the views. And, Kansas City is a special spot. Everyone has embraced us, and the fact that the shows still sell out and people continue to be fired up about new music makes us so appreciative,” says Alex.
With new music ready to land into the ears and eyes of the world, the guys are also ready to level up and fill up even larger venues, like The Midland Theatre. “Our live shows are all about having a really good time and throwing a party. We never take any one show for granted, and always go out of our way to make it a celebration, especially when back for hometown shows.” They say they pull out all the stops for their fellow Kansas Citians and lean into making their shows an experience where you can forget about the wild world we are living in and turn your attention to a carefree and exuberant place.
Keep up with Hembree’s ongoing announcements, new releases, and more at hembreemusic.com and @hembreemusic on Instagram.