Today, LGBTQ-led band Hemisphere has released a video to accompany the song “America”, which is included on their most recent album American Dreams.
The video was shot in early September of 2020, and every precaution was taken on site to keep everyone safe at Studio West in San Diego.
'America' was born to encourage unity, diversity, and equality. Founder and band leader Rob Shinno tells the story behind the song:
“20 years ago, Don Bowman (vocals/sax), Max Zape (keys), Nathan Brown (bass) and I were wrapping up the Destinations album and I had an opening to a song in my head that I had played over and over. It had the jangly soaring feel that I always admired from Pat Metheny and yet it was only three chords and clearly not a complete song. I played it as Peter Sprague, our engineer (a San Diego musical icon) was mixing one day, and Peter turned to me and said 'What was that?' We explored several ways to turn it into a complete piece, but nothing seemed to work. So, it laid dormant for 20 years, then a desire to write 'American Dreams' and reassemble a new version of Hemisphere in 2019 happened. So, like all good things, it became the opening piece that I felt would become a re-introduction to Hemisphere.”
