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Home LIVE GUIDE Andover Ashurst Basingstoke Blackfield Botley Bournemouth Burley Chandlers Ford Eastleigh Fareham Hythe I.O.W - Newport I.O.W - Ventnor Lee on Solent Lymington Lyndhurst New Milton Plaitford Petersfield Portsmouth & Southsea Ringwood Romsey Salisbury Southampton Winchester Festivals News Reviews Interviews contact POL Links	The making of Hem Preview by Peter Ashton         When you are young and idealistic you will do anything to achieve your dreams. Hem are an American band with the courage of their convictions - they virtually bankrupted themselves to complete their first album. The four-piece from New York are currently on a UK tour which takes in gigs in Fareham and Salisbury.         The story began In the spring of 1999 when songwriter and keyboard player Dan Messé teamed up with guitarist and recording enginerr Gary Maurer to work on interweaving traditional American music with a contemporary aesthetic. The pair recruited another mutual friend, guitarist Steve Curtis; all that was then required was a singer. An ad in 'Village Voice' eventually prompted Sally Ellyson to call initially cautioning that she wasn't really a "singer". To get her off the phone a skeptical Dan requested a demo, but the tape he received of Sally singing unaccompanied versions of traditional lullabies was utterly spine-tinglingand. The band that would now call itself Hem had found its singer.         As the "Rabbit Songs" sessions proceeded the band realized that they were creating something special. Having no record label behind them, Dan began selling off most of his personal possessions to finance the eighteen piece orchestras and the luxury of a painstaking process that involved no samples, no synths, no Pro-Tools mixing and no digital studio wizardry. 'Rabbit Songs' was to be a completely organic album.         A fragment of the home-made tape Sally made for Dan actually serves as the starting point for the album’s historical exploration of American music. Hem’s lush and diverse sound combining Sally’s crystal clear voice with backing harmonies plus evocative piano, mandolin, glockenspiel, steel guitar and strings was all that they had hoped it to be. The music press agreed, with Mojo describing it as "incredibly expressive" and Time Out In London eulogizing "rich, rare, sad and innocent, yet warm to the touch and wet with desire".         Hem bring their subtle talents to Fareham’s Ashcroft Arts Centre (01329 310600) on Saturday September 28, and Salisbury Arts Centre (01722 321744) on Thursday October 3. (©Peter Ashton 2002)

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