BACKSTORY: A mid-twenties newcomer who turned her back on a career in medicine to make viral bangers about the human condition
FROM: Raleigh, North Carolina
YOU MIGHT KNOW HER FROM: The TikTok-conquering alt-pop anthems “gimme all ur luv” and “girlfriend”
NOW: With her just-released debut EP going…going…GONE winning critical acclaim, she's now gearing up for a string of fall tour dates
In a parallel universe, Naomi Udu—a.k.a. hemlocke springs—is happily delivering babies instead of bangers. After all, the North Carolina native was well on her way to becoming an OB/GYN when fate (and TikTok) intervened, and she suddenly found herself with a viral hit. At a crossroads, springs decided to give pop stardom a go and started crafting her defiantly eclectic, unabashedly off-kilter debut EP, going…going…GONE. Over the course of seven alt-pop anthems, the newcomer dabbles in everything from grunge to ’80s new wave—all while coming to terms with the cataclysmic shift in her life. “The plans I had for my future are completely gone,” springs says. “So much of this EP is about the fact that I don’t really know where I’m going.”
While the destination remains unknown, it’s fair to say that her musical adventure is off to a very promising start. For a song made to beat the COVID blues, the aforementioned viral hit “gimme all ur luv” exceeded expectations by every metric. Holed up in her room, the convalescing springs had a mini-existential crisis. Uninspired by academia, she turned—as she had so often in the past—to her computer and decided to record a song. “That’s just what I do when I’m stressed,” springs says. “In high school my friend showed me GarageBand, and then in college I switched to Logic.”
A day and a half later, “gimme all ur luv” was finished. “I was in a silly, goofy mood, so I posted it on TikTok,” the songwriter remembers. “I didn’t think anybody would see it—my plan was to upload it and then delete it later.” Instead, springs woke up to thousands of views and a celebrity admirer. “A lot of people kept on saying that ‘gimme all ur luv’ reminded them of Grimes,” she recalls. “Then it showed up on Grimes’s For You page and she left a comment.”
“I’ve gotten very solid reactions particularly from Black women who come up to me and say, ‘I’m reliving my teenage years right now, I’m just so glad to have somebody like you.’”
Despite her (quite literal) overnight success, self-doubt weighed heavily at the time. “Music was never presented as a valid pathway in my family,” springs says. “When I expressed interest in science, they were like, ‘Thank God, she’s going to be a doctor!’” With her PhD on hold, she brought her analytical mind to music. When “girlfriend,” the followup to “gimme all ur luv,” failed to take off on TikTok, she conducted an experiment: “I promoted [a sample of] it for a month with no luck, so I switched to a different part of the song.” And it dutifully blew up.
The reaction to springs' music has been overwhelmingly positive, but she’s very aware of being a Black artist in a predominantly white genre. On the advice of colleagues, she stopped poking around online. “I got warned that if you go a little too deep in this direction or that direction, then you’re probably going to find some racist stuff,” she says. “Unfortunately, it’s part of the job.” However, the response from her community more than makes up for the trolls. The 24-year-old’s retro synth-pop sound has been critical for fans who felt excluded from the genre. “I’ve gotten very solid reactions particularly from Black women who come up to me and say, ‘I’m reliving my teenage years right now, I’m just so glad to have somebody like you,’” springs shares.
Defying expectations comes surprisingly easily to her, and she’s adamant about following her muse wherever it takes her. “It’s interesting how boxed-in things can become based on your skin tone,” she says. “It sucks because in my mind I’m just creating music.” While springs is happy to be breaking down barriers and reshaping alt-pop, she’s equally determined to bring a little fun and absurdity back to the genre. “I went through a period where I thought I had to be this serious artist,” she admits. “And then I thought, ‘Fuck that!’ I really enjoy doing weird things with my voice. Even if I’m writing something really depressing, I want to have fun sonically.” Her pining for levity also comes through in her wacky aesthetic. “A lot of people ask me why my song titles are lowercase,” she shares. “And as stupid as it sounds, it’s a dumb reminder for me to not take myself too seriously in this industry.”
A perfect example of springs' ability to operate outside of the box is EP highlight “enknee1,” which finds her begging for love. “I was depressed and ovulating,” she laughs. “I’m not even gonna front, I was having a bad period, and I was like, ‘Nobody loves me.’ I was in the corner of my room and I started to feel like Gollum—just eating my oatmeal and typing on my computer before I got the demo.”
“I went through a period where I thought I had to be this serious artist. And then I thought, ‘Fuck that!’ Even if I’m writing something really depressing, I want to have fun sonically.”
Equally unfiltered—and unhinged—is “pos,” which finds springs envisaging a conversation with God. “I grew up in a really Christian household,” she says. “From my experience, church has a tendency to make you feel like you’re literally the bottom of the barrel.” So the songwriter imagined how she would express that to the Almighty Father. “I think I would say, ‘You see the mess I am right now? That’s on you! You made me this way.’”
Sonically, the track finds springs trying out grunge. “I had just listened to Beck’s ‘Loser,’ and I wanted to get that laid-back slacker feel.” Her ability to blur genres is a defining factor on the EP, but it’s simply part of her process. “I never know how a song is going to sound until I finish it,” she says. Perhaps unsurprising, given her larger-than-life approach, the ’80s loom large over the project with Kate Bush, Tears for Fears, and Mr. Mister listed as major influences.
With going…going…GONE now out in the world, springs has to contend with the realization that making music is now her profession. “It’s a little bittersweet,” she muses. “The future is kind of killing off the past, and I don’t know where I’m going, but that’s OK.” After all, we’re all in the same, rickety boat. “I’m about to turn 25 and I realized nobody knows what’s going on. We’re all just living, man.” FL
photo by Angella Choe
