hemlocke springs plays pretend

hemlocke springs appears in our Winter 2023 Issue with cover stars Green Day, 070 Shake, Militarie Gun, and Arlo Parks. Head to the AP Shop to grab a copy. 

hemlocke springs marches to the beat of her own drum, to say the very least. Seemingly effortlessly, she’ll swing with abandon from a self-proclaimed “anti-capitalist” anthem like “stranger danger!” to “heavun,” an ethereal track whose anti-hero yearns for deep pockets. And while hemlocke springs, the artist, has a tendency to take the stage in full costume, whether it’s an anime character or an unexpected new shade of neon hair, the way she follows pure gut instinct along a path of unpredictability is as true to her spunky stage person as it is to Isimeme “Naomi” Udu. And so are the costumes.

This morning, Udu, a first-generation Nigerian-American immigrant from North Carolina, smiles back at me with a mischievous, Cheshire grin, framed by a unicorn’s mane of rainbow hair. She has a raucous, effervescent laugh that is nothing if not contagious — and frequently, Udu laughs a lot.

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Today, she’s gearing up for a string of sold-out shows in New York, Los Angeles, and London, celebrating her debut EP. But it wasn’t long ago that she was on an entirely different directory. Just months prior to our meeting, Udu completed her studies at the prestigious Dartmouth College and received her master’s degree in quantitative biomedical sciences. While the obvious next step, both to the educational system and her Nigerian parents, would have led her to pursue her Ph.D., things obviously didn’t go as planned. Because along the way, Udu went viral. And with a single track, hemlocke springs’ bouncy, glitch-core bop “girlfriend,” her entire trajectory shifted. 

Cut to the present, where Udu, shy and fairy-like, flutters before me, unfazed by the success that she’s seen in such an impressively short period of time, and endearingly shy about her swiftly growing fanbase that includes Grimes and Steve Lacy. This was never her plan, and the gratitude and humility emanate from her in haphazard interjections — each quip offers the refreshing realization that Udu and hemlocke springs are one and the same. They both love anime, they’re both shocked and pleased to be here, days before the debut EP release, and neither takes the moment for granted.

“Oh, gosh. I’m feeling a bit nervous, but definitely glad for it to be out,” Udu notes, with a chuckle. “Now, aside from touring, I don’t have to listen to the songs! That sounds bad, but I just hate hearing my voice so much with a passion. I will run out of the room, ears closed, very dramatic. I was at rehearsals yesterday, and even then, they were playing back the recording, and I ran out of the room. I can’t do it. I can’t do it. It’s like, ‘Please don’t show me.’ But I’m very excited for going…going…GONE! to come out and very grateful.” 

However, while this may not be the place Udu would have predicted to be in, and parts are still less than comfortable, she’s taking steps to lean in, build confidence, and accept the reality that she’s ascending. “Honestly, this week has hit like, ‘Oh, you’re kind of a musician now, Naomi,’” she tells me. “I definitely still do have those moments like, ‘What am I doing here? What is going on? I don’t even know.’ Like, ‘What’s happening? Tell me the tea. How’d we get here?’ I have to do a recap sometimes. But definitely, as we’ve neared towards the release of the EP date, I’ve had more moments of, ‘OK, well, this is it. This is putting it on the resume.’ Or not. I don’t know if people still do that. Do people do resumes still?” 

She claps her hands and closes her eyes for a moment. “I’ll break it down for you: I’m like, ‘Yeah, I’m a person who does music.’ It’s like, ‘So you’re a musician.’ I think, as time goes on, I’ll grow more accepting but still be a bit like, ‘Whoa.’” Though she’s played massive venues, opened for MUNA, and has a European tour with Ashnikko on the horizon, I tell Udu, hoping that this will be a reassurance and not the alternative, that most musicians, however big they get, cringe to label themselves as such. And this humility, it seems, is what keeps them, like Udu, tapped into the deepest and most authentic form of their imagination. 

From top to bottom on going…going…GONE!, hemlocke springs holds the listener’s hand while skipping full-throttle down a rabbit hole. But Alice isn’t in Wonderland — this time, she’s tumbled into a twisted pop playlist that ranges from MARINA to early Solange, glitching into the stickiest parts of Grimes before diving into a hefty dose of K-pop, finished off with a whirling, eerie Kate Bush wail. It’s dramatic and emotional, without being romantic or sappy. What MARINA’s fierce, falsetto-ridden The Family Jewels did for Tumblr-era girls like me, ones who dreamed of a femme new-wave hero, hemlocke springs is doing for the TikTok generation, and more. More, because hemlocke springs isn’t always the hero. 

When it comes to style, Udu continues to lean in. To herself, her style, and the spirit of spontaneity. If anyone takes the word “whim” seriously, it’s her. “For the last three shows, I was just like, ‘I’m going to dress up as characters and call it a day.’ So the first show was Violet Evergarden, which was my favorite anime and the main character from it. Then the second show was Strawberry Shortcake because I just said I wanted strawberries one day, and I’m like, ‘Oh, Strawberry Shortcake.’

“Then the third show was Barbie, and I think that’s been my favorite look out of all three.” She pauses, before laughing some more, “Also, I feel like I don’t really have style. OK, I’m not going to harp on myself. I do, but I just never thought of it in a performance sense. But I’m just going to do whatever I want to do, because I guess that’s how it should be. I’m still figuring it out… A lot of the costumes are just spur-of-the-moment stuff, but I think that’s how everything has been up until this point, and it’s just very exciting that way.” 

At one point in our conversation, Udu says, “I’m really excited on just showing people what I’ve been rehearsing and what I’ve been doing and presenting a new side of hemlocke.” And as I look at the bubbly, stylish young woman before me, who so embodies this extraordinary music, I ask her, where does she think the separation is? Where does Udu end, and hemlocke begin? And the answer is plain, although the context is anything but.

“What you see is me,” she says. “What you see is what you’re getting. I don’t deviate much from what you see on TikTok and Instagram. But, definitely, onstage, I feel like she’s a little bit more fierce, and I think she’s becoming a little bit more of an alter ego, which is why I’m referring to her in the third person instead of just saying me. It’s interesting building that out, building that character, and it’s still early stages, so hopefully I’ll be here for some time, and so it’s just seeing how hemlocke will grow as a character. I’m eager to find out.” As are we.