Hemlocke Springs didn’t plan for any of this to happen. She might be the most unlikely emerging pop star of 2023—that is, at least, if you ask her. A year ago, she was still in school at New Hampshire’s Ivy League institution Dartmouth, pursuing a master’s degree in medical informatics and working at the library. After graduating, she figured she’d work in a lab and go for her PhD next.

Even within her own family, the now 24-year-old—whose real name is Isimeme Naomi Udu—admits she wasn’t the most musically inclined. Her brother was a band member turned SoundCloud producer, while Hemlocke believed from an early age that she’d be a doctor. Growing up in North Carolina, she’d listen to her parents’ Christian music at home, then took an interest in EDM in middle school and K-pop in her 20s. 

In college, she got “hyperfixated” on GarageBand and began recording DIY pop songs for fun. She considered it nothing more than a hobby, but when the pandemic hit, she had a thought that would change the course of her life: “Well, you have these songs—what do you want to do with them?”

Starting in 2020, she’d upload music to SoundCloud, then delete the songs soon after. Eventually she got comfortable enough to leave them up. The first uploads got positive reactions from a handful of strangers on SoundCloud, but the punchy, playful, ‘80s-flavored bop “gimme all ur luv” was different. The song’s online life started similarly to the others—a few comments, but nothing out of the ordinary. She left it up on SoundCloud, and also decided to share it on TikTok. 

Hemlocke remembers seeing a couple of early listeners say that the track reminded them of Grimes, and she thought about deleting it like she had with so many other songs. But she didn’t. Instead, she went to bed and woke up to tens of thousands of views and a comment from Grimes herself. “That’s when everything started building,” Hemlocke explains. “I pinpoint it to that moment.”

Things snowballed quickly. Within months, streams climbed into the millions, social media followers grew exponentially, and today Hemlocke Springs is experiencing things reserved only for a class of few fortunate artists: major label meetings, interactions with famous artists that she once looked up to, and coverage from major press outlets like Rolling Stone, Pitchfork, and NME.

Hemlocke admits that she still doesn’t really know what’s going on, or what to expect out of the future at this point—understandable, considering that just last month Steve Lacy reached out through DM and told her that she “made a classic.”

Hemlocke admits that she still doesn’t really know what’s going on, or what to expect out of the future at this point—understandable, considering that just last month Steve Lacy reached out through DM and told her that she “made a classic.” At the time of this interview, her father doesn’t even know that her music career exists.

But so far, the forward momentum has only grown stronger. Her second single “girlfriend” ended up being more popular than her first, and with millions of new fans awaiting her next move, she’s planning on releasing her debut album in 2023. 

“I think I’m aiming for a release pretty soon,” she says. “I have it in my mind for April, but please don’t take my word for it. Quote me, but also don’t quote me. It might not happen. But definitely 2023.”

As Hemlocke now knows, things don’t always go as planned, and sometimes that’s for the best.

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