WorldFest is thrilled to have Kansas City natives, LA-based indie rockers Hembree’s funky looseness and hip-shaking jams light up the stage with their joy and energy. With a genre-averse pop-rock style, these rockers are poised to lift people up with their positive vibe and big festival sound. No need to pinch yourself, it’s not a dream to have their kaleidoscopic music refresh the soul with a technicolor burst of sonic, highly danceable invigorating flavor at WorldFest.
Since Hembree released their first album House on Fire back in 2019, they hit the road and came off a stretch of touring ready to channel that energy into their next artistic statement. Before the pandemic, work on what would become It’s a Dream! Was halfway done—and when the world shut down, it gave the band an opportunity to look inwards and refine their own sonic approaches while embracing a newfound maturity.
Featuring guest vocals from Devynn Carter, the title track uses sprightly guitar and a driving rhythm to dive into that all-too-recognizable feeling that things might not be quite right in the world around you: “It was written pre-pandemic, but I think people were feeling these things for a while, too,” Flynn laughs. Elsewhere, Hembree fall into a lush and sinister groove on “I Don’t Believe You,” while closing track “Time to Leave” slows things down as Hembree launch into new territory for them with a beautiful, glowing ballad that addresses, in Flynn’s words, “Seeing someone in a situation they need to get out of, but they’re just so immersed in their world.”
Ironically, It’s a Dream! represents new levels of sonic immersion for Hembree as an artistic entity—practically a window into their creative minds, really, as they explore and incorporate new textures into their rapidly-expanding worldview. “This album is a fully-realized vision for the band,” Flynn explains before offering his own vision of the band’s future: “I want this record to lift people up, and for the music to be a positive experience in their own lives.”
