Matthew Jordan Hemerlein[1] (born 20 October 1983),[2][3][4] better known by the stage name Lo-Fang, is a singer-songwriter and classically trained musician.[5] His stage name came to him while he was driving through Sedona, Arizona on his way to Los Angeles.[6] He chose it mainly because of the symmetry of the letters and his attempt to balance the feminine and masculine elements in his music.[6][7] As he sees it: " '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."[8]
His debut album Blue Film was released on 25 February 2014, by 4AD.[9]
Early life
At age 5, Hemerlein began playing the violin.[7][10][11] His father plays the piano and his older brother and younger sister are both musically inclined.[8] He is classically trained and can play a number of instruments including:
piano, cello, guitar, violin, and string bass.[8]
During the latter years of the 2000s, Hemerlein began teaching music to children and performing in galleries and museums.[5][12] He had been with his sister Mallory to perform as part of the Family Hemerlein, a variety show featuring musicians and comedians.[12]
Career
In 2010, he self-released an album under his birth name that was recorded in a month with the help of a grant from DC Commission on Arts and Humanities called 'Hot Nickels' [10] and in spring of 2011 opened for British folk duo Smoke Fairies in London.[5] A friend put Hemerlein in touch with a European booking agent who praised Hemerlein's music to promoters in Belgium and Germany. He was booked for a number of appearances, including solo performance in Berlin and opening for James Vincent McMorrow in Cologne. He was subsequently offered a publishing contract by EMI.[5] He then received offers to collaborate on sessions in London and Nashville.[5]
Lo-Fang signed with 4AD in late September 2013. He wrote Blue Film as he traveled around the world to Cambodia, Bali, London, Tokyo, and elsewhere. While developing Blue Film from a mixtape to a full-fledged album, Lo-Fang collaborated with Grammy-winning producer François Tétaz.[13]
He was the opening act for Lorde in the Spring of 2014,[14] who picked his song "#88" as her second favorite from 2013.[15] He also made a cameo appearance as a singer in the ABC drama Revenge.[7][16]
In the autumn of 2014, Lo-Fang was selected by Baz Luhrmann as the singer in his latest 'mini film' advertisement for Chanel No. 5. Throughout the film, he sings his slower, romantic, cover rendition of "You're the One that I Want", the classic from the 1978 film Grease.[17] This video has been viewed more than 15 million times on YouTube.[18] He released a mixtape entitled Every Night, which became available both to stream and purchase on 20 October 2014. Lo-Fang also toured with Rhye and a performed a handful of solo shows in the US and Mexico during the autumn.[19]
His song "You’re The One That I Want" was used in the Netflix original French film I Am Not an Easy Man in April 2018. In summer of 2018, he released a single, "The Whole Summer".
Personal life
Hemerlein is the middle child of three. He and his siblings were home schooled by their mother until age 13[5] at their Columbia, MD farmhouse surrounded by a menagerie of chickens, dogs, cats and eight bee apiaries. His father was employed in the family's steel manufacturing business. Hemerlein drove forklifts during summers until he was knocked unconscious by a chain binder while working on the loading docks.[5] He attended Wilde Lake High School and graduated in 2002.[12] He attended Loyola University New Orleans but after contracting Lyme disease, returned to his home in Maryland, where he started teaching guitar and piano to children in Baltimore.[6][12]
Discography
Studio albums
List of studio albums, with selected chart positions
