How Hembree keeps making its pop dreams come true

Dreams are tricky currency in pop music.

Fleetwood Mac mines the gap between their sparkling visions and living, breathing, aching reality, hoping to put dreams of loneliness up for auction. The Eurythmics sift sweet substance, declaring dreams are made of this — whatever "this" is. And to The Cranberries, dreams are a source of surprise; "never quite as it seems," but made manifest in a lover's presence.

For Hembree, a band whose members stretch from Los Angeles to Kansas City, dreams keep coming true. But as their Irish forerunners testified, they materialize in unconventional, unexpected ways.

Earlier this month, the band took the stage at Kansas City's Uptown Theater to play Thundergong!, a benefit for the Steps of Faith Foundation, whose mission is "turning prosthetics into possibilities for uninsured amputees." Also on the bill: "Saturday Night Live" alums Jason Sudeikis, Will Forte and Fred Armisen as well as Wynonna and members of British band The Darkness.

Performers banded together to form a community in miniature, Hembree singer-guitarist Isaac Flynn said, their collective gaze fixed on aiding Steps of Faith.

But that atmosphere also lent shape to one of his rock-star visions. Flynn has daydreamed about playing "SNL." Having Sudeikis introduce the band, and other comic luminaries watching the show, brought that ideal close.

"In a sense, this felt like a version of that coming true," Flynn said.

And the band's latest record, released in February, fulfills its title. The making of "It's a Dream!" involved a number of tricky maneuvers, the band creating around pandemic shutdowns. But a chance to slow their perpetual rhythm and really dig into the process yielded an album that inspires abiding pride.

"In a way, we were able to craft our dream album because we had so much time to discuss every little detail," Flynn said.

Columbia listeners can hear the band's dreams exist in the real world early next month when Hembree plays Rose Music Hall.

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How Hembree made a dream-pop gem

"It's a Dream!" sounds like the end of a very lovely thought experiment: What would Talking Heads sound like if they came after artists such as Bon Iver and Tame Impala?

The record whirs to life with "Reach Out," the band striking a perfect balance between thick chords and a gliding feel. The title track follows, a swerving, anthemic ode to starting over.

Elsewhere, the band delivers an R&B hymn with "I'll Be on Time" and a summer song for all seasons on the sublimely catchy "Close to Me." "I Don't Believe You" achieves a darker Daft Punk sensibility, while cuts like "Panic" possess a blessed hum, burrowing into listeners' worlds.

The record's every zig and zag endears itself to listeners, a danceable set that leaves room to breathe and to wonder. Gorgeous interludes such as "Luna" and "Present" — which last between 60 to 90 seconds — exist as "tunnels in between the longer songs on the record," Flynn said, complete fragments that reward listeners who experience the album front-to-back.

Flynn initially wrote 15 songs for the record. But with time expanding toward indefinite ends, he penned another set of 15. The band engaged in "friendly battles" over long text threads, discerning and determining what would make the cut, he said.

Making "It's a Dream!" upended Hembree's musical norms. The band typically engages in a most pleasant form of market research, road-testing new songs before carrying them into the studio. With touring suspended due to the pandemic, that built-in layer of certainty faded.

Working out a way forward, Hembree also worked around conditions that kept them apart — sometimes recording separately but utilizing audio technology that allowed members to eavesdrop on each other's sessions, Flynn said.

With time on its hands, they worried less about how the album sounded live, chasing the textures that satisfied them. This approach allowed delightful sonic adventures, like recording drums to tape at a studio in Burbank, California, before importing the sessions back into Pro Tools software, Flynn said.

Getting back to the road, Hembree learned to "reinvent the live show," Flynn said, seeking faithful ways to present songs written when playing for people seemed like a far-off wish. Sometimes this involved pit stops — to a Guitar Center store in Akron, Ohio, for example, to purchase a mandolin that was on the record but isn't usually part of the band's touring gear, he added.

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A band of (at least) two cities

Hembree's dream pop is made of, by and for people of the West Coast and no coast. The band's reach is realized on the record, in part, through the appearance of Bodye aka Marty Hillard on the track "Operators."

A longtime friend of the band, the Kansas-based musician has played with indie-rockers Cowboy Indian Bear and currently leads the omnipotent hip-hop outfit Ebony Tusks.

"Operators" is buzzy and funky, an impossibly electric boogie. As the song approached a Gorillaz feel, the band called in Hillard to take a verse, Flynn said. The MC is completely himself but also slides into the mix like another instrument.

Hillard's appearance resonates beyond the four minutes and 31 seconds of "Operators." He is a collaborator on and off the microphone, regularly checking in with and cheerleading Hembree, Flynn said. This spirit embodies the band's true dream — creating a community of like-minded artists.

This dream means calling Kansas City and its close cousin, Lawrence, Kansas, a true home base while feeling comfortable in California. And it means spreading out to cover areas like Chicago, where several members have lived, and even Columbia — Flynn is currently producing music with Post Sex Nachos, a band that started here.

"The key to success is just having one of us live in every major city for at least a year to build a community," Flynn joked.

Making itself at home in nearly ever setting and situation, Hembree isn't far off.

Hembree plays Rose Music Hall with Little Hurt and Elephant Foot at 8 p.m. Dec. 3; tickets are $15-$18. Visit rosemusichall.com for more details.

Aarik Danielsen is the features and culture editor for the Tribune. Contact him at adanielsen@columbiatribune.com or by calling 573-815-1731. Find him on Twitter @aarikdanielsen.

This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: From Kansas City to Los Angeles, Hembree makes dream pop come true