Daily Discovery: The Alluring Hue of “Blue Iris” by Enumclaw

Tacoma, Washington-born band Enumclaw is as buzzy in the music scene as it is in the recording studio.

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The band, which is set to go on tour in October and calls itself the best band since Oasis, is self-assured and smile-inducing. But it all started with a sense of superpowers.

“As a music fan,” says frontman Aramis Hamer, “the song always stood out to me more than to production. For a long time song writing always felt like some kind of superpower. As a superhero fan when I decided I wanted to make music I knew I wanted to write songs too.”

But with great power comes great responsibility, so Hamer makes sure his music today incorporates at least two things. “I think looking back on it,” he says, “I’d say it’s vulnerable and simple just like the best things in life.”

The new song, in this vein, is, well, “about a houseplant,” Hamer says.

He adds, “I was seeing someone and we went to visit some of their friends from college and their old roommate had been watching their house plants and one was gifted to me. After we broke up it just sat in my room. It was the only plant I owned and I wanted to write a song about how that plant made me feel.”

But even a song about a plant can have a big message. Says Hamer, the song is about not holding back—”just don’t wait too long,” he adds.

To wit, his favorite lyric is: I always wait too long, before I say what’s wrong.

And why?

“I think it’s so true,” Hamer says. “We as people can often be so indirect when a problem arises.”

Photo by Colin Matsui / Courtesy Terror Bird