Hemhora And The Glass Band – ‘BMX’

Coming out of Batavia, Illinois, Hemhora And The Glass Band are a band project, comprising musicians who are still active members of other bands. The main members are Chris Otepka and Steven Mitchell who have been writing and performing together for nearly 10 years in The Heligoats, and Hungry Mountain, but effectively the group is a conglomeration of artists, including the revolving members of The Heligoats, related projects in the Chicago area, and friends.



The band have been performing together fro the past two years or so, and for their latest project, the recording of their debut EP, ‘Helix Pattern Blues’, Otepka and Mitchell called upon Hungry Mountain bandmate Dylan Dresch, and Brad Showalter, from Kiwi Audio. Showalter additionally mixed and mastered the album, with Jarrett Pryzgoda, completed in 78 hours – from recording to end – at Kiwi Audio. ‘Helix Pattern Blues’ is set for release on December 7.

Latest release from the EP, ‘BMX’, is a psych style, guitar-led track with some ethereal feedback rhythms, particularly towards the middle of the song. It’s vaguely creepy; a gradual layering of guitars over top of a mesmerising drum line it sends chills down the spine. But looking a bit more deeply into it, there’s a nostalgic element to it as well: the lyrics are pulled out slowly, each syllable treated with as much importance as every other one. Thoughts come to mind of a more pure, more gentle time, where young people dreamed of owning the latest BMX bike, and riding it all day on those long hot summers we all seem to remember but probably didn’t really exist.

You can find out more about Hemhora And The Glass Band online on their official website, Bandcamp, Twitter, and Instagram pages.

About the author

Lisa has been writing for over 20 years, starting as the entertainment editor on her university newspaper. Since then she's written for Popwrapped, Maximum Pop, Celebmix, and ListenOnRepeat.

Lisa loves all good music, with particular fondness for Jedward and David Bowie. She's interviewed Edward Grimes (Jedward), Kevin Godley, Trevor Horn, Paul Young, Peter Cox (Go West), Brendan B Brown (Wheatus), Bruce Foxton (The Jam), among many many more. Lisa is also available for freelance writing - please email lisa@essentiallypop.com