Hemmingway Lane – Why Do The Flowers Die?

Hemmingway Lane is an Indie Rock group based out of South Eastern Michigan. They just released their newest EP, Let The Flowers Die, on 4/5. I sat down with Elijah, frontman for the band, to get some insight into the lore and production of the EP.

[This interview was recorded by audio and transcribed to text. It has been edited down for this interview.]

Serg

Talk to me a bit about the structure of the EP.

Elijah

The first two tracks are very much like what we’ve done before. And then the last three were kind of different. Like Wisconsin. We were writing in Wisconsin, and I like that kind of bouncing back and forth between the A and the E string with, like, walk downs. It’s like old country. When we were playing in Wisconsin over the summer, sitting in the parking lot of a Culver’s and we were just kind of naming things that were in front of us. Freestyling over that kinda bounce back and forth. And then it turned into an actual song that we all really enjoyed. And so I was more than happy to throw it on the the E.P.

Serg

Those last three songs, those electronic elements, is that your first foray into that?

Elijah

This is the first time that we’ve really kind of leaned into the more electronic side of music. For our first album and then for Dug Out, it’s two guitars, bass, drums. Not much else. And so it was fun to kind of get to sit in the studio and and build these sounds with Steve, and trying to figure out how we could make it work and, like, even then replicate it with the same setup, just like, two guitars, bass and drums. I don’t want to lug around a piano. The synth line in our song, Wisconsin. That song is, like, super inspired by a song called Snowbank Blues by the Backseat Lovers. It was fun hitting one note on the piano and switching through to find the perfect one.

Serg

Have you ever played Stardew Valley? That song feels reminiscent of it.

Elijah

Since becoming more a part of the community within our music scene, I think every single person that I’ve ever talked to has talked about that game, but I’ve never played it that much. Is that on switch only?

Serg

No, no, it’s on everything. At this point I think you can even get on your phone.

Elijah

Okay, then I got to. I’m falling behind.

Serg

So for this E.P. you’re saying you’re getting more electronic elements. So what could people expect in the future?

Elijah

Right now I think we’re kind of just throwing things at the wall and hoping something sticks. It was a very fun part of the process, messing with the synths and even just different drum sounds. Steve and I spent a long time sending songs back and forth to try to figure out how we wanted the drums to sound for this because we’re like, “Hemmingway is a little bit of a different band than what Steve usually does.” I feel it feels pretentious, but I didn’t want the same things that he got from Alt Account and from Love Songs I Hate About You. He and I spent a lot of time in pre-production, kind of figuring things out and sitting down and talking through what we wanted to do. A lot of the stuff that we did on Let The Flowers Die, I think that it’s going to stick.

The process for the first album was just songs that we had written that were like, “Okay, we have 11 songs. Let’s record an album.” Whereas this is, we’ve grown as songwriters and as musicians, and so it’s exciting.

Serg

What are some of the biggest differences that come to mind when you say it felt like a different process this time?

Elijah

As far as what we had prepared going in, it was like the structure was there. Steve was very cool with us figuring out specifics while we were sitting there with him, and his input is all over this EP, just as much as the four of us and Hemmingway.
Our first album was, except for “Dugout and our song “From My Heart to Yours”. It was all recorded live. There was just no people in the room with us because I at the time could not play to a click.

There was not much pre-production. First album was like us playing the songs live and figuring out the songs. Then we’d do four takes of it, and then our our producer Gabe, He would take what was best. It was a learning process for sure. But the process to this time was completely different. And I enjoyed it a lot.

Serg

What’s the lore with this EP like? How do you put the EP together in terms of overall presentation?

Elijah

I write all of our lyrics and the rhythm parts for the songs. “Burning Room”, “Is Anybody Else Scared?” And “Flowers” all came after I lost my grandpa. My grandpa passed away in August of 2023. I want to say I finished it like beginning of October. It was just that moment where I was like, “Yeah, he’s gone.” And there’s only so much time that you can give to, like, being sad about it. The entire EP can kind of be attributed to me grieving and getting through it.

Serg

So more in the sense of that the flowers have to die. Eventually.

Elijah

Everything passes and everything moves on. From that, something beautiful comes. Being okay with where you’re at, pretty sure that’s a Summerbruise line. Learning to be happy. I can’t remember what it is,

Serg

Where you’re at.

Elijah

Summerbruise is kind of like one of the bigger influences for the songwriting. I’ve only spoken to them four or five times. After PUG Fest, I got really into them. I admire that Mike can be so blunt with what’s going on in the words that he’s saying.

Serg

What are some of the other musical influences for this EP?

Elijah

The Backseat lovers are always going to be a big one for me because when I first started writing music, I found their music and I was like, “This is what I want to sound like”. Pine Grove is a big one. I don’t know anything about that band other than that. Like, they’ve got some bangers that kind of the same thing. I feel like sometimes for me personally, I get wrapped up in, like, trying to be super sly and what I’m trying to say in a song. But sometimes you just have to be like, “Dude, I’m just sad.”

Serg

How often do you pass on songs?

Elijah

I would say That one out of every like, five doesn’t even make it to the guys.Or if we’re just trying to force this song so bad, then we usually just put it on the backburner. I have probably an entire album’s worth of songs that
just need to be revisited.

Serg

If it’s fair to say I feel like you all do have a different sound at least in terms of like what they call D.I.Y. Emo how do you how do you feel about that?

Elijah

I like to call us an indie band. I was talking to Julien from Brown Maple. Yeah. And, and they were like, “Hemmingway’s like in such a weird spot because you’re too indie for the emo kids and too emo for the indie kids.” We fall into this kind of limbo, which I like. We fit on every single bill. I love it.
I wasn’t super into emo when we first started playing music. I knew the big names like Remo Drive, Mom Jeans, Modern Baseball. I was not good enough at the guitar to do some of the things that they were doing. It’s cool to have our own thing going on while also being super accepted by by the community. It makes me, I don’t know. I feel very thankful. One of our first shows over at the Ottawa Tavern was a hardcore bill that Zach Jacobs put us on. He was like, “This is going to be perfect for you guys, I promise.” In the moment I was like, “What are we doing here?” But in hindsight it was very fun.

Serg

What, what are your plans after this EP, anything in particular that you want to talk about?

Elijah

Traveling. We want to tour more than we have in the past. We’ve got one in May that I’m excited for. In July, I think that we’re hitting the road with Brown Maple. We’ll start recording again for our second album. August ish, maybe, maybe September. I have a delusional faith that this is going to work.

Serg

What do you mean?

Elijah

I said to people sometime, “No, no, no. Hemmingway. Hemmingway. You’re not going to forget that name.” And most people are like, “Well, yeah, there’s already a famous person named Hemingway.” But I just, I don’t know. It’s fun to tour. It’s fun to be on the road.

Serg

What do you do for tour downtime?

Elijah

A lot of Instagram reels because my dad and I send them back and forth. It’s only ever like UFC fights where somebody gets knocked out in the craziest way.

Serg

What is the Hemmingway Lane starter pack, like what are some other pieces of media that are good companions for your music?

Elijah

So through and through we’re a Fortnite band. Fortnite is just like the go to, especially because Logan and Josh both live like 2 hours away from me. Fantastic. Mr. Fox, the movie. That’s the band favorite.

Serg

Any last parting words that you want to that you want to give here?

Elijah

You got to watch out for the bees. That won’t make sense until the Snoopfest Serg video comes out. Thanks for listening to our music. It means a lot, and we’re all very appreciative. I guess that’s my send off message.