Hi! Spencer – Memori

“Sometime years ago I lost myself (…) Today I am closer to myself than I ever was before.
I never was before.” These lines come from the new single “So schön allein” and
sing Hi! Spencer not only from the soul – they are also the essence of their new EP
memori, which will bring color to the record rule in April 2022. Because in addition to strong indie pop-
rock punk, visually powerful lyrics and the typical touch of melancholy is the new
record is one thing above all: colorful!

Diversity – hardly any topic occupies the social discourse of recent years as much as this. Who am I? Who are we? These are questions that the guys from Hi! Spencer have dealt with intensively – each for himself; and together as a band. Because in music, too, there are these pigeonholes into which one is often supposed to fit as clearly as possible: Pop, rock, punk or indie? Hi! Spencer have been hanging somewhere in between for years. Today they know: That’s perfectly okay.

Because everything and everyone is made up of various set pieces. Their new EP memori stands for exactly this realization and for everything that Hi! Spencer as a band: great openness and friendship that reaches back to childhood. Memory and self-discovery are the elemental themes found in the six new songs – and “memori” is the term that unites both. “Who needs more than just himself?” is the question of questions. By staging the single “So schön allein” as a duet with Nicholas Müller/Jupiter Jones and a pub choir singing along to the chorus, it quickly becomes clear that here, too, the answer lies somewhere in between.

“So schön allein” is behind the lyrics above all a song in which the personal background shines positively. In February 2020, Hi! Spencer’s singer Sven Bensmann outed himself as homosexual in private. According to his own feelings, it is rather late, as he reports in a guest contribution in the queer podcast Busenfreundin, with Ricarda Hofmann, in the winter of 2021 for the first time publicly. In the same year, Sven loses 40 kilos of body weight. In addition to sports and a healthier diet, Sven states that his outing triggered a previously unprecedented self-care thought.

“So Beautiful Alone” is about self-discovery and the things that are worth overcoming for that,” he says, adding, “For everyone, it’s something different that we have to overcome. For me, it was my long-delayed outing. What’s desirable is a little more self-love for everyone out there.”

The reason for his late outing was due to many circumstances, he said. “Above all, growing up in the country, I often lacked a point of reference, a role model who would have suggested to me that being gay is okay and even fits into the place I love along with my people and where I would like to stay.” He himself says he has known he was gay all his life. However, outside influences have led him to close himself off completely and not tell anyone about it. He cites the stage, i.e. music and comedy, and overambitious work in youth ministry as compensatory factors. When he finishes with youth work in 2018 due to age, this omission tears an enormous hole in his life. “My coming out was the turning point, and it was all uphill from there!”

On the April 2022 release of the Hi! Spencer EP “memori” you can find exactly this emotional world between the lines in some songs. While the previous album “Nicht raus, aber weiter” was still about fears and insecurities, “memori” is about the positive aspects of self-discovery and self-appreciation.

memori will be released on April 8, 2022 on the label Uncle M. And for those who don’t want to listen to the record with just themselves, zuendstoff Booking will send Hi! Spencer on club tours throughout Germany in spring and fall and on various festivals in summer. Come around! It will be colorful.

The EP was recorded with house and farm producer Tobi Schneider at DocMaKlang Studio Osnabrück. For the mastering Alex Kloss was engaged again, who has made a name for himself with his work for Leslie Clio, the Blackout Problems, Jennifer Rostock and many more. The graphic concept comes from the pen of the Osnabrück creative team kraem: memori is the idea to play the content leitmotif of self-loss and self-discovery (in reference to the children’s game memory®) in a new way. To show that an inner dualism does not necessarily have to exclude each other, but rather can complement each other. In this sense, the artwork works in Bauhaus style with different shapes and colors that complement each other to always new. Clear; and yet changeable.