Hot Springs

“A lot of our songs are pretty dark, lyrically,” says Spencer Lere, drummer and co-writer for Hot Springs – a band, which, at first listen, is a lush, electro-pop outfit, with upbeat tempos and sunny melodies. But give songs like “Nothing New Under the Sun” and “Wayfarer” a second listen, and you’ll hear a much weightier narrative. 

Spencer, and keyboardist/co-writer Joe Renolayan began collaborating in college, but Hot Springs didn’t fully take shape until after graduation. Envisioning a female voice to helm the trio, Spencer and Joe added Alyssa Deering, a recent transplant from Ohio, as the front-woman. 

The trio, often joined on stage with a bassist and guitarist, maintains a collaborative writing process. Aside from manning the synths, Joe typically writes the melodies, puts together the arrangements and records the trio on his laptop. “Whenever I think there's a catchy melody or chord progression in mind, I hum them discreetly onto my phone or scribble them on my notebook,” explains Joe, “The sounds and timbres of Hot Springs are then realized after spending lots of time tinkering with synthesizers.” “Joe’s the wizard,” proclaims Spencer, who writes the majority of the lyrics with Alyssa.

At the heart of Hot Springs’ songs are cultural observations – the fleeting connections of modern, cosmopolitan dating, as illustrated in “Nothing New Under the Sun; the bubble of privacy that engulfs modern life, in “Be Mine;” the hard truths of a breakup, in “Niagara;” or the misapprehensions of Hollywood, as observed by newcomer Alyssa, in track “Illusions.” First single “Wayfarer” tells the tale of an American traveling the world to find culture, and to fill a void in his life. But he learns a bigger lesson in doing so—best summed up in the lyric “You’re a third world big gun playing survivor for fun.” Spencer elaborates: “Survivor is a game show here in America, but you go somewhere else, and it’s their real life.” 

But it’s not always that weighty. “Whenever we have some serious decision to make or important things to discuss, we meet at Spencer's house and hang out in his hot tub. Hence,” jokes Alyssa,  “where the band’s name fits in.”