There are bands who sit down with a guitar, a notebook and a vague idea of what they want to write about. And there are bands who carefully construct songs around a concept, a lyric, a riff or a particularly good cup of coffee. And then there is Hide and Shine, the Kingston, NY indie rock outfit whose songwriting process apparently begins somewhere considerably further outside the building.

The band’s third album, 9 Seconds Before Revolution, released August 26, is the latest product of a creative process that sounds less like conventional songwriting and more like receiving transmissions from somewhere you probably shouldn’t have a phone number for.

It began in 2020, when Chris Kelly, the band’s NYC indie-rock mainstay, experienced what he describes as a “psychic download” of around 50 songs. Rather than questioning the sanity of the universe, Kelly recorded rough sketches and took them to drummer and producer Michael Chambers. The material eventually became Soft Machines, the band’s debut double album, with the late Steve Albini helping shape the recordings. If that sounds like an unusual way to start a band, Hide and Shine clearly saw no reason to become more conventional with age. Continue reading →