Photo Credit: Ryan M. Clark

Stephen Hamm Theremin Man – Five Questions With

Jenna Melanson·December 5, 2023

Stephen Hamm Theremin Man Releases Rocking Advance Single “Sagittarius A-Star”

Vancouver’s Stephen Hamm Theremin Man has just announced his sophomore release with the advance single “Sagittarius A-Star” and accompanying video. “Sagittarius A-Star” is the first single from the upcoming Theremin Man Album, Songs for the Future, recorded with producer Felix Fung (Pointed Sticks, Colleen Rennison, Mode Modern) and Drummer Shawn Mrazek (Flash Bastard, The Evaporators).

The new track layers theremin, synths, bass, guitars, and melodic vocals with the end result being a heavy psychedelic aural dream that references the black hole at the center of our universe; Sagittarius A. Stephen describes the new track “Sagittarius A” as “…an invitation to a fantasy escape, shrugging off convention and letting our minds wander into a deep space fantasy.”

Regarding the video he continues, “The question this video asks is what happens when you enter a black hole? Physical objects are crushed, dimensions and time stretch and warp. In a hallucinatory daze, you find yourself in a tunnel with strange beings, a drummer, Shawn Mrazek, and the Theremin Man!” The video was shot by Vancouver’s R.D. Cane, whose film career has spanned from CBC television series’ The Beachcombers and Switch Back, to making music videos with Art Bergmann and Maurice and the Cliches among other notable Canadian bands.

First off, care to introduce yourself to our readers?

I’m Stephen Hamm, I call myself the Theremin Man because my main instrument these days is the theremin. If you’re not familiar with the theremin you’ve probably heard it in old sci-fi and horror movies or in the theme for the Simpson’s Halloween special. It has an ethereal electronic voice like no other. I’ve been around for a while, I used to play bass with protogrunge band Slow, Tank Hog, and then Nardwuar’s band the Evaporators. I was Big Hamm in the musical burlesque duo Canned Hamm and for the past few years, I’ve been tripping in outer space with my theremin and some synthesizers doing this psychedelic solo act called Theremin Man.

Tell us a bit about your most recent release.

Last year I went into Little Red Studios with my producer Felix Fung and drummer Shawn Mrazek (Flash Bastard, Notes From the Underground, The Evaporators) and laid down some bed tracks for my sophomore album I’m calling Songs of the Future. My first solo album ‘Theremin Man’, was released in 2017. Sagittarius A-Star was inspired and named after the black hole at the center of the Milky Way Galaxy. I wanted to write something rock’n’roll, trippy, and fun to kick off the album. This is a single leading up to the album which I hope to release in the spring of 2024.

Do you have any upcoming shows you’d like to tell us about?

I’m gonna hold off but plan to tour Canada and the U.S. in the spring of 2024 when the album comes out.

If given the chance, which Canadian artist would you love to work with in the future?

I’ve been really lucky to work with a lot of Canadian artists already in my career. I’d really like to jam with Daniel Lanois or maybe Neil Young one day. I also would love to collaborate with Tanya Tagaq. I like artists who approach things from different angles of creativity. Oh ya I’d like to work with Devours, but I feel like that will probably happen at some point!