<http://schema.org/articleBody>
"FacebookPinterest\n\nPhoto by Jace Lumley\n\nAt 30 years old, Matt Hemerlein's musical career is a testament to artistic evolution and perseverance. As Lo-Fang, he dropped his debut album, Blue Film, on 4AD Records last month. Classically handsome\u2014with high cheekbones, soulful eyes, and a perennial five o'clock shadow\u2014Hemerlein's also a classically trained musician. He can play six instruments (among them: piano, cello, guitar, violin, and the upright bass) and speaks with a deep, rugged timbre that contradicts with the haunting, high-pitched falsetto heard in his music.\n\nIt's safe to say that serendipity struck when Grammy-winning artist Lorde asked him to perform with her on tour. Sure, you could say it was luck, but unlike his 17-year-old touring mate's viral career trajectory, Hemerlein's put in a lot of work to find his voice, hone his craft, and really make an album that speaks to his personal and musical journey. We sat with Hemerlein to talk about Blue Film, his upcoming tour, and also how he gets his hair to look that damn good.\n\n\n\nGQ: You can play six instruments. How long have you been studying music?\n\nMatt Hemerlein: Studying's a difficult word, I've been playing music. It's like, are you studying English when you start talking? I started playing music when I was five or so, probably even younger. Because my brother was playing earlier and so you're messing around and stuff. I think about it in terms of playing string instruments that are tuned in fourths and fifths and then piano, and from that you can cover a lot of ground. It's like being able to speak a romantic language well.\n\nGQ: So music's a family thing?\n\nMatt Hemerlein: My father plays the piano. He doesn't play professionally, but he has great ears. I have an older brother and a younger sister, and they're musically inclined as well. We were all homeschooled so my mom was really active in our education from a young age. You know, carting three kids \u2014with cellos and violins\u2014to private music lessons every week is a big commitment. So she was kind of like an Italian tiger mom or something.\n\nGQ: Does having a really focused and good understanding of the theory behind it help with the electronic stuff? \n\nMatt Hemerlein: Definitely. It's like if you understand Latin well, it's going to help you understand etymology of words and using things in a more precise manner. Then you also have the freedom to use those things imprecisely, and you can do things that are totally feel-based, primal, and satisfying, and then go back and take a look at what happened. You can see what you liked, what you didn't, and what's serving the message of the song and the production. It's like trying to find the overlay of different truths through different layers of music, because there's a lot of ways to think about music. You can think about music lyrically, you can think about it sonically, and you're also dealing with harmony and melody in order to think about what a song is trying to convey.\n\n GQ: I first heard your music five or six years ago, when you were living in Washington, DC, playing shows with people like US Royalty, Kelela, and Tosin Abasi of Animals As Leaders. What were you like as an artist back then?\n\nMatt Hemerlein: I had just gotten out of a pretty interesting struggle with Lyme Disease right I dropped out of college. So then I was teaching music and I was poking back into the rest of the world and I luckily met a couple people that I'm still really good friends with. Seaton Smith is one of them. We would hang out at places like the Palace of Wonders, and now he's opening for Bill Burr and does like, all this amazing shit in comedy.\n\nGQ: There was a time you had this music/comedy variety show going on. I think that's one thing that people don't expect. You have a great sense of humor.\n\nMatt Hemerlein: I wasn't necessarily funny in those shows, but I enjoy humor and I think that it has a relevant place in society as a way to critique certain things and make things better at the same time. So I really love it. And some of my best friends are tweeting like Seaton, Rory Scovel and my good friend Kate Berlant. She has this kind of incoherent, but totally crystal clear amalgamation of comedy that I think is excellent. We've done a bunch of shows together and she's toured with Reggie Watts. It's just really cool when you have something that feels really fluid and musical and you're like making music with words and ideas. That's what I'm fascinated by.\n\nGQ: Is there an ironic or comedic approach some of the covers that you've done? Like how you took a Grease song (\"You're the One That I Want\") and made it your own?\n\nMatt Hemerlein: I actually just like that song a lot. I wasn't trying to be ironic or funny. I think that what I like about it, and why I left it on the record, is that it's really divisive. It really hits people in the and they're either like \"fuck this!\" or \"I fucking love this.\" There have been some really strong reactions to it.\n\nGQ: It's a mixture of nostalgia and that familiarity, but takes a darker turn.\n\nMatt Hemerlein: Right, it's taking the familiar doing a retelling of it. It's not that different from what Tim Burton and Chris Nolan do with Batman. One of my favorite bands ever is The Bad Plus and they do some really weird and interesting versions of songs like \"Iron Man.\" So, I think it's just playing with ideas and keeping your own spontaneity alive. I genuinely like that song, I genuinely like the way I made the F sharp major chord and have the dominant seventh there. It creates a much bigger separation and then makes the song a little bit more intense.\n\nGQ: When did the name Lo-Fang hit you?\n\nMatt Hemerlein: I had a song called \"No Fangs\" and then I was driving cross-country, and I knew I wanted to go by something that wasn't my birth name, and Lo-Fang just popped up and it just made a lot of sense. \"Lo\" relates \"soft and soothing\" and the strings and kind of the way I sing, and the \"Fang\" element is more like the harsh, electronic sounds and the bass. It also describes my hands, in a way. My left hand has no nails on it whatsoever, but my right hand has like sharpened nails so I can play guitar and use them as picks, so it just made a lot of sense. And also it's kind of like \"Wu-Tang.\" Wu-Tang was the first show that I ever went to growing up. It was at Merriweather Post Pavilion and they were playing with Rage Against the Machine--and then I got involved with Daoism a little bit later on and so many different forms of Tai Chi, like The RZA.\n\nGQ: You worked with Fran&amp;amp;#xE7;ois T\u00E9taz on Blue Film, a producer who's got indie darlingss like Gotye, Kimbra, and Architecture In Helsinki under his belt. What was the dynamic like while recording?\n\nMatt Hemerlein: He was huge, as a friend and as a great collaborative mind to have involved. It just wouldn't have been the same without him. We're really close still and he's just awesome, and thinks about music in a lot of different ways.\n\nGQ: Did he help facilitate how Lorde got introduced to your music?\n\nMatt Hemerlein: Sort of. It's all kind of connected. My publisher sent her producer Joel Little the record. Then he and Fran&amp;amp;#xE7;ois met up and Joel said really liked the record and knew that we'd worked on it, He asked me if I could send it to Ella [Lorde] and that was the beginning of it.\n\nGQ: While working on the album, did you have any idea that it would lead to all these opportunities?\n\nMatt Hemerlein: Definitely not, I was about to put this out for free! I think it speaks to the way that the creative nucleus of the record took place. Where just following the right energy and working with people that I genuinely had a strong connection to kind of focusing on creativity.\n\nGQ: You just made your national television debut, performing \"#88\" on Letterman. How does it feel, and how was that experience different from previous gigs?\n\nMatt Hemerlein: It feels good to be honest, it's one of those things you're glad to do, you're glad when it's actually happening, and you're glad when it's finally over. When it's occurring, it's cool. It feels good, I'm surprised at the same time and I'm happy. If somebody had told me a year ago, \"You're going to do Letterman on the day your record comes out I would have been like, \"We'll see.\"\n\nGQ: Your hair looked great, by the way. I think that with time \"Lo-Fang hair\" will be a trend\u2014it's definitely one of the most noticeable thing about you. Like, people will see it in concert and be like: \"Wow. That's a beautiful head of hair.\" Do you have a grooming routine that goes along with that?\n\nMatt Hemerlein: Well, I believe in your body's pH should be right. That's actually the biggest factor you know. But beyond that, I use Koba oil on most of my body in general, it just does really well for me. I get my hair cut Sweeney Todd's Barber Shop, which is like an institution in LA. It's in Los Feliz and it's awesome, they have this great thing called Black &amp;amp; White pomade. It's this old school product and just a little bit of it works really nice. When my hair's super clean, I work it in and give it a little bit of play. I wear a baseball hat a lot, though. That kind of helps give it a messy look.\n\nGQ: So what comes next for you? Do you have a five-year plan?\n\nMatt Hemerlein: I have a five-year plan definitely, but I don't want to necessarily um divulge that right now. I will say it's more of a six-year plan, though. When I'm 36, that's going to be a really strong year.\n\nSee Lo-Fang on tour with Lorde through May 7."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.gq.com/story/lo-fang-interview-lorde-tour-hair-tips>