Luke Hemmings' recalls of longing for the past, falling in love, and the struggle of grief on his new EP 'boy'
Pouring his heart and emotions into his newest EP, Luke Hemmings has brought another personal, diary-like record to the table. boy is for the people that get stuck in their heads, engulfed in a sense of loneliness and longing for the past. Hemmings has always written very personal music, painting pictures of his life so beautifully. “These songs are a snapshot of my inner workings and the way I see the world. They’re not intended to be consumed as autobiographical facts, but as an overly dramatic, cathartic, poetic stream of my consciousness. As if you’ve opened my diary and can only read a line from each page,” Hemmings said, when talking about the record on release. Collaborating again with producer Sammy Witte, the pair pulled out the synthesizer again and created boy.
”I’m Still Your Boy” is a look back at childhood, reminiscing and wishing things could be that simple again. With Hemmings spending his teenage years in the spotlight with his band 5 Seconds of Summer, he longs for the feeling of being a kid again and reflects on how he struggled as a teen. The song opens with a simple acoustic guitar riff, building with anticipation, then finally flourishes for the chorus.
The lead single ‘Shakes’ paved the way perfectly for the EP. Spacious, airy vocals carry you through the love song. Hemmings has this vocal style that just wisps you away.
The third track “Benny” (which is Hemmings’ brother's name), talks of the struggles of living so far away from home. Moving away from his home of Australia at a young age, Hemmings now resides in California. “Will I be saying goodbye from a dark hotel room / Living on the sidelines / What am I supposed to do?”, he opens up about the fear of something bad happening to his family while he’s living on the other side of the world.
Opening with a twinkling synth and upbeat drums, “Close My Eyes” is the second single off the EP. “Now I don’t want to close my eyes / See everything I’ve ever done / I never got to say goodbye / I won’t look back until it’s gone” a common theme throughout the Ep is the fear of life slipping away and not being in the moment.
Photos by Sam Nixon
“Garden Life” was born on a park bench when Hemmings’ realized some of the best things in life are just simple. He compares himself to alcohol flowing through his lover’s system, lulling them to sleep.
”Close Enough To Feel You” dives into struggling with grieving, seeing something as simple as the person’s sweater and it sends you into a full mental breakdown, holding onto the thought of that person. “This song is about the willingness and desire to live in that pain in order to feel close to who or what you lost, rather than moving on,” Hemmings recalls about the track.
Love is powerful, so much so it can make you see the world through a different lens. Hemmings sings of how before he fell in love he was a pessimist. Now having a positive outlook and seeing in color, love changed the way he viewed life entirely. ‘Promises’ is the last track on the EP, and actually features Hemmings’ wife, fellow musician Sierra Deaton. The pair have collaborated quite a bit on music before and they harmonize flawlessly.
On release day, Hemmings took to Instagram to talk about the record saying “I can’t believe it’s here.. After all the hours spent in hotels, planes, studios, and at home to get to this point. I poured so much heart into this project and all the visuals surrounding it in hopes that you can feel and see the music as much as you hear it.
“The songs on this EP are jumbled lines of my diary, bits and pieces of my chaotic mind, and fogged up windows into my life.” boy is now available on all streaming platforms, marking Luke Hemmings’ second solo project. You can catch him on tour this summer at a city near you.
