Hemlock Ernst | |
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Sam Herring - aka Hemlock Ernst - on a Future Islands’ performance at the Kosmonaut Festival 2015
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Background information | |
Birth name | Samuel Thomson Herring |
Also known as | Sam Herring |
Born |
Carteret County, North Carolina, United States |
April 13, 1984
Origin | Baltimore, Maryland, United States |
Genres | Alternative hip hop, Underground hip hop, synthpop, alternative rock, indie pop |
Occupation(s) | Rapper |
Instruments | Vocals |
Years active | 2010-present |
Labels | Madlib Invazion |
Associated acts | Rapdragons, Milo, Madlib, 83cutlass, Curse ov Dialect, Busdriver, Open Mike Eagle, Serengeti, Cavanaugh, Kenny Segal, Scoop DeVille, Paul White, Future Islands, The Snails |
Website | www |
Hemlock Ernst is the rap moniker of Samuel T. Herring (born April 13, 1984), an American performer from Baltimore, Maryland, better known for being the frontman of synth-pop band Future Islands.
Born in the Carteret County, North Carolina, Herring grew up in Newport and Morehead City. He began rapping at age 14 at freestyle battles and cyphers.
In 2003, while attending the East Carolina University, in Greenville, North Carolina, Herring and other colleagues would start the performance art band Art Lord & the Self Portraits which would last until late 2005. In early 2006, some of its former members would start Future Islands, and the band would relocate to Baltimore, MD, in 2008. In 2013, he took a break from his band’s touring in order to spend more time on his solo rap project, writing more, and doing more shows.
Parallel to Future Islands, Herring continued rapping either solo, under the moniker Hemlock Ernst, or with his brother as Flesh Epic. Hemlock was his original writing name on an on-line music board when he was in the 9th grade, from a poem he wrote about Socrates taking the hemlock poison. Ernst comes from his character in Art Lord & The Self Portraits who was named Locke Ernst-Frost: a reference to John Locke the religious poet, Max Ernst, the artist and Robert Frost, the American poet.