Hemma

Hemma’s music comes from her deep experience as musician, student of dance and art and life. Hannah Hebl, whose nom de music is Hemma, Swedish for “home," spent much of her childhood with her family’s band, The Hebl Family Singers, and learned the ins and outs of recording studios, performing, songwriting and guitar and piano. For the young Hannah, her big ears for music took in Prince, Joni Mitchell, Broadway musicals, Los Angeles folk rock, and much more.

After beginning her career as Hemma over a decade ago, she cut her debut EP, Hallelu, with producer Jaime Hansen, whom she credits for pushing her into doing what she was meant to do. She was 20, and the following years took her to San Francisco to study art, Montreal for dance, with songs being written at a constant rate.

Her latest full-length album, Abalone Sky, continues in the soul-searching mode with the first three single tracks from the album, “Grief,” “Lullabies” and “Homebody.” With production from Sean Carey and Brian Joseph at Brian’s Eau Claire, Wisconsin studio, hive. Hemma’s new music is modern folk-rock-pop with a big heart and lots of nuance.

Americana Highways writes, “In modern terms, Abalone Sky is similar to the more Nashville-centric progressive folk of Sarah Jarosz. Like Jarosz, whose recent work with producer and songwriter Daniel Tashian expands the sonic palette of folk rock, Hemma tweaks the arrangements and sonics on Abalone Sky with production that pushes at the edges of folk-rock orthodoxy.”

Hemma says of Abalone Sky: “During a moment of skygazing on the central coast of California, there came a swirling sensation of both awe and calm—being overcome by the beauty of what appears to be the underbelly of a shell in the sky.” It’s the next step in Hemma’s journey after the mastery of her 2019 EP, Tomorrow River, and a prayer for the kind of lightness of being that keeps us afloat in the current of time.

Tomorrow River, a six-song EP that ranges across pop electronica and Brian Eno-esque songcraft, Joni Mitchell-style jazz-inflected folk, and much more. Cut in Neenah, Wisconsin at Honeytone Studio with Shane Leonard producing, Tomorrow River shows off the prowess of a great musician with those big ears mentioned earlier—Joni, Andrew Gold, Prince and Eno would approve of the subtly twisted chord changes of “Cary” and the electronica pop of “101.” VolumeOne Magazine said of the EP: “Tomorrow River feels like the culmination of a lifetime seeking out music as a means of understanding and making peace with the greater world around her.”

Along the way, Hemma has opened for artists like The Vagabonds, Marika Hackman, Mike Kota, S. Carey, Humbird, and The Cactus Blossoms, enlarging her presence in the Midwest music scene. Hemma has also become known as a superb backing vocalist who’s sung with many of the artists in the vibrant Eau Claire-Twin Cities, like Pieta Brown, Wendy Lewis, and Rachel Ries. Her versatility extends to the recording studio and to the stage, in equal measures.

Hemma continues to push the margins of pop-folk on Abalone Sky, released in April 2025. It’s a ripening and crystalizing of her sound—a sonic signature that serves as an artist’s mission statement.