Hemlocke Springs on TikTok Fame, K-pop, Hangout Fest, and More

Ana Peralta Chong

Hemlocke Springs wasn’t exactly expecting to go viral when she posted a clip of “girlfriend,” her GarageBand-crafted song about growing increasingly obsessive with a potential flame, on TikTok in October 2022. Promising the “weirdest bridge you’ll ever hear in your entire life,” the video featured a deadpan Springs, dressed as Dionne from Clueless, dancing goofily to a zippy new wave soundscape that was equal parts Marina and the Diamonds, Missing Persons, and Kate Bush. As promised, it was weird, and it resonated with a whole lot of people — especially enigmatic young Black listeners who felt seen. Online, the song was dubbed the “awkward Black girl anthem.”

“People would say, ‘Where were you when I was a little Black girl?’ Like, I’m here now! To be able to resonate with people has been incredible. I feel very blessed,” Springs, real name Isimeme "Naomi" Udu, tells Teen Vogue about the growing “community” surrounding her quirky brand of vulnerable, out-of-the-box bedroom-pop.

Springs’ music is difficult to define, which, truthfully, is part of its undeniable charm. Embracing percussive ‘80s new wave, springy early 2000s electro, plus a unique mix of nostalgic twee and indie sleaze — a term she had never even heard of until she began drawing comparisons to the era online — Springs’ colorful, campy songs simultaneously sound like something you’d hear on the radio in 1983, or in a sticky, underground music venue in 2007.

It makes sense, then, that Springs, 25, takes inspiration from a diverse catalog of sonic references. She credits YouTube for exposing her to different kinds of music when she was in high school. For one, it’s where she first stumbled onto Bonnie Tyler’s “Total Eclipse of the Heart.” That music video introduced her to ‘80s pop — an era that still gives her a euphoric “feeling [she] doesn’t get from any other music” — which you can hear on the wacky, DEVO-esque “stranger danger!” or in the theatrical synth-rock of “sever the blight.”

Clicking around on YouTube also pulled her into the glistening wonderland of K-pop. She counts EXO as the very first K-pop group she ever listened to, thanks to a friend’s recommendation, but her standom knows no bounds today. “I have BTS as my screensaver right now, and I’ve been really into ATEEZ and STAYC lately. I feel like I’m mostly a fan of second- to third-generation groups, so I really like SHINee, Wonder Girls, and Girls’ Generation,” Springs shares, adding that she recently started getting into TWICE.

While it’s difficult to pinpoint Springs’ singular genre, publications and playlists have thus far organized her under the alt-pop umbrella, but she doesn’t mind. “I embrace being called an alternative artist because a lot of the artists that I enjoy also fall under that category, so for me it’s like a stamp of approval.” Though she herself makes what she considers off-kilter pop music, she laughs when asked if she feels like a pop star. “Pop star? No, never!” she exclaims, before catching herself. “Let me stop saying ‘never’ … I just reluctantly started calling myself a musician. I hope to get to the point where I’m like, ‘I’m a pop star!’ But I have to build up my confidence to that point.”

As a first-generation American born to Nigerian immigrant parents, Springs’ version of the American Dream initially meant going into the medical field. Hailing from a small town in North Carolina, Springs was attending grad school and studying medical informatics when she suddenly blew up on TikTok. She never meant to pursue music as a legitimate career path, but after notching millions of TikTok views and tens of millions of Spotify streams with the songs she had dreamily concocted on her laptop in her childhood bedroom, she shifted gears, putting her goal of earning a PhD in biology on the backburner.

Still, social media virality came with its own set of complications, as Springs traded research papers for audience engagement strategies. “Going viral, a lot gets hurled at you, and it can feel very overwhelming,” she says. “It comes with good and bad, as everything does. It can be manufactured or it can be based on very extreme luck. But it's not necessarily the viral moment that matters as much as what happens after, because if you haven't built a core fanbase, it could just dwindle. You’ve got eyes on you right now, but how are you going to retain them?”

Springs currently has a “love-hate relationship” with the app on which she found overnight fame. “I underestimated how much mental work TikTok takes,” she admits. “I don't mean that in a bad way, but it's like, you shoot something, and then you gotta edit it, make captions, and by the time that’s done, it’s been a couple of hours because I’m not a professional. You have to do that every day, or this many times a week… My initial reason for joining TikTok wasn’t necessarily to promote my music as much as it was just, ‘Oh, look at this cool song that I made!’ But even that can be very exhausting, because if people don't like it, then that sucks.”

Springs has unfortunately, though perhaps unsurprisingly, faced her fair share of online bullying. In an age where trolling, posting hate messages, and sending unsolicited criticism to strangers has become so prevalent on social media that it’s hard to believe there are real human beings behind the vitriol, Springs has decided to take a sticks-and-stones approach.

“What people think of me, regardless of whether it's good or bad, ultimately isn't my business. I try to focus on the positive comments, and how the people I care about, like my family, feel,” she says. “You can’t take to heart a comment from somebody you’re never gonna see in this lifetime. What's the point in spiraling over somebody you're never even going to meet?” Another one of the ways the singer-songwriter protects herself is by employing Hemlocke Springs as a public persona — not so much an alter-ego, but as an amplified version of herself. “Naomi's a little hermit, but Hemlocke’s a lot more open about, like, ‘This is how I'm feeling! Can anybody relate!?”

Springs’ openness about her insecurities as a young woman navigating a harsh world is just one of the reasons both she and her music are so approachable. (Just listen to “enknee1,” her tug-on-your-heartstrings synth-pop anthem about yearning and existential introspection.) Still, she’s experienced some very not-so-relatable moments, such as getting shout outs and support online from the likes of Grimes, Bella Hadid, and Doja Cat. “I never thought I would interact with them in my entire life, so seeing that they enjoy the music, or just seeing them sharing my stuff, has definitely been a whirlwind. Hearing that the people you look up to or listen to like the stuff that you put out [gives] you a sense of confidence.”

Despite currently being suspended in that era of her career where she’s still referred to as an “emerging artist,” over the past year Springs has appeared on magazine covers, opened tours for MUNA and Ashnikko, and become a veritable music festival pro, having performed at a number of fests both in the U.S. and abroad. For Springs, gearing up for festival season means hitting the treadmill: “It’s mainly for my breath support, so I can walk and sing at the same time.” Even though she doesn’t consider herself a proper “dancer,” she’s been honing her stage presence in front of the mirror, too. “I try to dance in front of [my mirrors] a little bit. A jumpscare of me performing came up on TikTok and I was like, ‘Oh my God, you gotta work on your facial expressions, girl!’”

She’ll put her practice to the test on May 19 when she hits the stage at Hangout Music Festival in Gulf Shores, Alabama. “It’s on the beach so it’ll be fun, and I won’t have to worry about allergies too much, so I’m very happy about that,” she jokes. “I think after my set I’ll probably try to catch Reneé Rapp’s set. Festivals are nice because after I perform I have a chance to be a fan; go to other artists’ sets and jump around and be in that space.”

In June, Springs will open for Doja Cat on the European leg of the rapper’s Scarlet Tour, marking yet another surreal footnote on her expanding résumé as a musician. “You know it’s serious when management wants to call you on the phone. When they said, ‘We want you to open for Doja Cat,’ I refused to believe it at first. But then when the offer came through, I was like, ‘Oh, they were being deadass.’ I’m a bit nervous but also really excited and very grateful,” she says.

The tour stint will hopefully prelude new music to come this year. “I’ll just say I’m not doing drugs or taking anything recreationally. Uh, that’ll make much more sense when it comes out,” she coyly teases. “I'm still silly, goofy, quirky me, but I’m having fun redefining my sound and exploring a new side of myself. Things get really interesting when I’m not in my comfort zone, so I’m excited-slash-nervous to hear people’s response to it.”

If her 2023 debut EP, Going… Going… Gone!, was an earnest coming-of-age record, the music Springs is currently working on is ultimately about embracing the chaos and perpetual uncertainty of adulthood. “Hemlocke is of age now, and she still doesn’t know what’s going on,” she says, bursting into infectious laughter. “She’s older and she’s finding out that more people are also just like, ‘Well, this is how it is. Welcome to adulthood!’ I learned that everything changes and nothing changes at all.”

Originally Appeared on Teen Vogue

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