Lo-Fang’s recent in studio performance was a bit of an eye-opener.
Matthew Hemerlein is a classically trained musician who’s cerebral approach to his music re-shapes normal acoustic and electronic elements.
It’s one part Andrew Bird, a little bit Emily Wells, lots of classical influence and a mix bag of sounds from his travels around the world where he wrote most of his debut album “Blue Film”
His set on Morning Becomes Eclectic started out with a song that may be familiar to KCRW listeners and DJs called “Boris.” A track that was originally written and recorded by the Swiss-German female duo, Boy.
Matthew tells the story of being in Berlin at a festival where he was asked to play with some heavy weight acts. He heard Boy play the song and decided he wanted to re-work it and tinker with it.
Fast forward a few months later and a few thousand miles away to Capitol Records Studio in Hollywood and there’s Matthew recording his re-worked piece.
On a short recording break he steps outside where he sees Valeska Steiner & Sonja Glass of Boy walking into a nearby venue. Overcome with some excitement he ran down to great them and tell them about his experience and what he’d been working on, only to be received as sort of a rabid fan (hey, it’s Hollywood, you gotta be careful)
None the worse for wear, Matthew brushed jokes that he must have seemed a bit crazed but he asked that if we ever come across them in the future, to let them know he had good intentions.
We’re glad he stayed with the song, check it out here and listen to his whole set here. It’s incredibly beautiful and worth your time.