Mike Sempert is better known as the songwriter and frontman of Birds & Batteries, a Bay Area duo that fused slinky electro-pop with proggy, seventies soft rock. So it doesn’t come as much of a surprise that Serpent has scaled down the electronic contours of that project to follow a more natural sound. In the months leading to his move from the Bay Area to Los Angeles Sempert wrote the entirety of his debut full-length Mid Dream, an introspective reflection of that transitional period. It offers a faithful portrait of a hopeful transplant determined to make his move with the drifting, shimmering sounds of Americana at his side. Sempert will be playing a couple of shows in the West Coast, starting with an appearance at Hotel Cafe on April 16.
