Samuel T. Herring, also known as Hemlock Ernst, is an American singer and rapper from Baltimore, Maryland, best known for being the frontman of the synth-pop band Future Islands. He was also a member of Art Lord & the Self-Portraits, The Snails, and Trouble Knows Me.
Born in Carteret County, North Carolina, Herring grew up in Newport and Morehead City. He began rapping at age 14 at freestyle battles and cyphers. In 2002, he enrolled at East Carolina University. In 2003, while attending East Carolina University, Herring and other colleagues started the performance art band Art Lord & the Self-Portraits, which lasted until 2005. Some of its former members started Future Islands in 2006, and the band relocated to Baltimore, Maryland in 2008. In 2013, Herring took a break from the band's touring in order to spend more time on his solo rap project, writing more, and doing more shows.
Parallel to Future Islands, Herring continued rapping either solo, under the moniker Hemlock Ernst, or with his brother as Flesh Epic. Hemlock was his original writing name on an on-line music board when he was in the 9th grade, from a poem he wrote about Socrates taking the hemlock poison. Ernst comes from his character in Art Lord & the Self-Portraits who was named Locke Ernst-Frost: a reference to John Locke the religious poet, Max Ernst, the artist and Robert Frost, the American poet.
In 2015, Hemlock Ernst teamed up with producer Madlib for a new rap project called Trouble Knows Me. Entirely produced by Madlib, the self-titled EP was released via Madlib Invazion on September 1, 2015. It was pre-sold at Madlib's show at The Mid in Chicago, Illinois on July 17, 2015, as well as Rappcats' website and a Rappcats popup shop. On March 24, 2016, British musician Four Tet sat in for Benji B on BBC Radio 1 and played "Rings in the Coffee", an unreleased track by Trouble Knows Me.
On October 25, 2019, he released a rap album, Back at the House, via Ruby Yacht under the moniker Hemlock Ernst. It was entirely produced by Kenny Segal.
Herring is also an actor. He stars in the Apple TV+ drama series The Changeling (2023).
