Hello Mary Release New Album 'Emita Ox'

New York City's Hello Mary - the trio of Helena Straight, Stella Wave, and Mikaela Oppenheimer - released their long-awaited album Emita Ox via Frenchkiss Records. With a sound that finds a balance between intense distortion and ethereal atmospheres, Hello Mary's latest LP broadens their unique world of fearless, masterful alt-rock. The band co-produced the album alongside Alex Farrar (MJ Lenderman, Indigo De Souza, Wednesday, Snail Mail) in Asheville, NC. 

Speaking on Emita Ox the band said: "We are proud to finally release this album. In many ways, it feels like a debut, since it’s a departure from the songwriting and production styles of our other released music. We wanted Emita Ox to be cohesive, but our first focus was to give each song the specific attention it required. The songs being somewhat different from one another is something we may have shied away from previously, but now it feels the most true to our tastes and vision."

Hello Mary will be playing songs off Emita Ox and other fan favorites as they hit the road in support of the new album. Finishing a run in the UK this weekend which included two sold-out headline shows in London, they return stateside for a Fall of North America with dates kicking off October 4 in Seattle, WA and concluding November 2 in Houston, TX. They play at Los Angeles’ Troubadour on October 10 and New York City’s Bowery Ballroom on October 24. Additionally, the band is confirmed for Las Vegas’ Best Friends Forever Fest October 11 - 13 a show at Warsaw in Brooklyn on October 26 supporting American Football, and Austin’s Levitation Festival on November 3. All shows are listed below and tickets are available here. 

Speaking on the recording process behind Emita Ox Hello Mary said, "Alex’s production and our desire to build out the songs with new instruments allowed us to achieve the sounds we envisioned before going into the studio. Some of the songs on this album date back years, while others were written only a couple of weeks before recording. In other words, Emita Ox spans our band’s existence. It is a heavy album to us. It’s special to have the people you’ve grown up with help you turn experiences into art."

Along with the release of Emita Ox, Hello Mary have also shared a music video for the LP’s "Footstep Misstep." Speaking on the lyrics behind the track drummer and vocalist Stella Wave says: "I’ve been practising following my intuition rather than adopting what other people want me to think." She continues, "It's been a prominent recurring theme for me this year, so I was trying to encapsulate the way that feels for me in these lyrics."

"The instrumental parts are pretty involved and satisfying to play,” says Hello Mary. “Fleshing the song out in the studio was really fun since there are so many different interweaving parts." 

Speaking on the music video Hello Mary say, "The video concept was brought to us by the director and producer Isaac Roberts and Evan Arbic as a way to expand their previously created goblin universe. We loved the idea and basically let them take the reins with it."

On Emita Ox, Hello Mary push harder into heavy distortion and psychedelic dreamscapes, as they build out their singular universe of gutsy strain of rock. The LP’s labyrinthine production reflects how the band’s musical tastes have expanded from Elliott Smith and Radiohead to encompass experimental post-rock acts like Black Midi and Swans. “This album encompasses a lot of our inspirations,” says Oppenheimer. “It also shows what we're like as a trio, collectively.” 

The project reveals the band leveling up as musicians and composers. Recorded in early 2024 in Asheville, North Carolina, the band played all the instruments on Emita Ox and produced it alongside Alex Farrar (Indigo De Souza, Wednesday, Snail Mail). The members’ contributions to the songwriting and production bleed into each other, but the album is a showcase of their individual strengths: Straight’s ethereal vocal melodies and gritty guitar riffs, Wave’s emotive vocals and knotty drum patterns, and Oppenheimer’s diabolical basslines and experimentation with electronic production. “We map out all the sections beforehand, we like to write intricate parts that complement each other,” says Wave. 

Featuring songs that span from 2018 to 2023, Emita Ox is also a document of Hello Mary’s past five years together growing up as bandmates and their arrival into young adulthood. First meeting as teenagers in 2019, the band became fast friends through the pandemic—a global crisis that made coming of age feel even more weighty and complicated. “This album represents a period of time that’s very meaningful to us. The songs are related to things that we all know about, even if it’s not out on the table for everyone else,” Wave explains. “The songwriting and recording process was a very heavy time that I will never forget.” Even if the lyrics touch on serious topics, the band maintains a core sense of play and exploration: jamming is their way of working through these feelings in a way that’s “easy and fun,” Straight says.

Created amid these emotions of frustration and camaraderie, Emita Ox sees Hello Mary ruthlessly diving into a thrilling sound of catharsis. On “0%,” Wave launches into piercing screams for the first time. Oppenheimer says that her bandmate’s intense shrieks “makes the song full of energy and really exciting to play,” especially in the song’s breakdown which ends in a cacophony of noise and vibraphone. Meanwhile, “Down My Life,” which Straight says she wrote after “one of the saddest experiences” of her life, features her angelic vowels on top of warped piano and menacing bass. The band even veers towards prog-rock on songs like “Footstep Misstep,” where complex instrumentation and Wave’s dynamic vocals evoke a world in between fantasy and nightmare. 

The LP’s title, Emita Ox, is referenced in “Three,” whose lyrics sound plucked from a fairy tale. “‘Three’ was written after I’d been in a creative rut that lasted a couple months,” says Straight. “I wasn’t focused on getting any message across. My intention was just to write a full song, whether I ended up liking it or not." Though it doesn’t have an intended meaning, the imagery of the girl Emita and her ox is fitting for the band: Oxes are strong and resilient, and much of Emita Ox’s subject matter reveals Hello Mary’s perseverance, as they choose to move through life’s burdens instead of getting beaten down by them. But oxes are also dependable—much like how they see each other and their relationship. “There’s the lyric that goes, ‘Woke to the hands of three/Stitching and fixing me,’” Wave says to Straight, quoting her own words back to her. “I always picture me and Mikaela with you.” It’s a testament to how they’ve witnessed each other’s heartaches and mended each other back up—through their music and their friendship. 

Hello Mary tour dates

Sept 13 - Bristol SWX - Bristol, UK %

Sept 14 - Roundhouse - London, UK %

Oct 4 - Barboza - Seattle, WA  *

Oct 6 - Polaris Hall - Portland, OR  *

Oct 9 - Brick & Mortar (Popscene) - San Francisco, CA  *

Oct 10 - The Troubadour - Los Angeles, CA  *

Oct 12 - Best Friends Forever Festival - Las Vegas, NV  

Oct 14 - Marquis Theatre - Denver, CO *

Oct 16 - Raccoon Motel - Davenport, IA  *

Oct 17 - 7th Street Entry - Minneapolis, MN  *

Oct 19 - Schubas Tavern - Chicago, IL  *

Oct 20 - Lager House - Detroit, MI  *

Oct 21 - The Garrison - Toronto, ON  *

Oct 24 - Bowery Ballroom - New York, NY *

Oct 25 - Ukie Club - Philadelphia, PA  *

Oct 26 - Warsaw -  - Brooklyn, NY %

Oct 27 - Songbyrd - Washington, DC  *

Oct 29 - Pinhook - Durham, NC *

Oct 30 - Masquerade-Purgatory - Atlanta, GA *

Nov 1 - Andy's - Denton, TX *

Nov 2 - White Oak Music Hall (upstairs) - Houston, TX *

Nov 3 - Levitation Festival - Austin, TX

* denotes headline 

% denotes support for American Football 

Photo Credit: Hannah Edelman

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