Open Mike Eagle Interviews Sam Herring on “Secret Skin”

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Sam Herring of Future Islands. Photo by Joe Perez.

Did you know that for $35,000 Open Mike Eagle will come to your house , play video games with you, subsequently beat you, buy you pizza and whisky (that he’s promised to pay for once he’s paid), and then proceed to help you figure out your life? That’s just one of the many insights available to you after listening to this weeks episode of “Secret Skin.” Secret Skin is O.M.E’s weekly podcast during which he serves up intimate interviews with various Hip-Hop artists and fans. About what? Whatever’s good to talk about.

This week he interviewed Sam Herring, the lead singer of Future Islands and maybe the best dancer you’ve ever seen. Herring, if you didn’t know, raps under the name Hemlock Ernst and in actuality has bars for days. O.M.E and Herring discuss everything from getting cut from his high school baseball team, being 15 and getting super stoned before freestyling in front of a bunch of college kids, dancing, substance abuse, critiquing the world of high art using his alter ego “Art Lord,”and of course, the origins of Future Islands.

Give their conversation a listen. O.M.E legit calls it “a story out of an independent movie.”