FEATURES
Boston-based alternative rock band Hands of Spite is bringing the energy, creativity and quality of a prolific new band ready to make the world sing and build a powerful musical future.
Hands of Spite released its first EP, a five-track album called “Inchoate,” on Jan. 24, showing off a “thunderous rhythm section” of Zac Stein on drums and vocals and Nate Belton on bass, along with the creative song-writing forces of Austin Bullock and Sam Gelston, who both play the guitar and sing.
“We are a pretty fresh group, we’ve been in this formation for about a year so I think this album is a testament to what we have going for us as a group,” Stein said. “I think we’ve done a tremendous amount of work and we’ve made a lot of strides in that time just to be able to jive as people, musicians and artists.”
The word inchoate isn’t commonly used in the English language, but it means not fully formed or developed.
Sam Gelston said he chose that name because their band is new, and they believe, not fully formed.
“I felt like it was a really good first title because this is just the sampler,” Gelston said. “We’re still growing, still learning who we are as a band. Not individually as musicians as much, but we’re learning how we play as musicians together. I think it’s pretty fitting because this is just the tip of the iceberg, we have so much more to go.”
The four musicians in Hands of Spite were all connected in some way to a bar in the Jamaica Plain neighborhood of Boston called the Midway Cafe.
Sam Gelston was working there when he met Austin Bullock, who was playing at the club.
Gelston asked Bullock to help him start a band. Gelston then met the band’s drummer, Zac Stein, through a co-worker and Stein brought in Nate Belton, the bass player, who had been friends with Stein since middle school.
“I think all of us coming together from these kind of built-in roots have helped us click so quickly,” Gelston said. “I think especially because of the strength of our rhythm section that it’s made the rest of us better as songwriters. Just for myself as a guitar-player and singer, it’s made my job really easy. These guys are really on the same page, it doesn’t matter what riff we bring in, whatever it is, they’re good to go.”
The first single from the album to be released, a song called “What Do You Say,” was one of Bullock’s creations.
He said the song is question and an answer, with the question being in the title and the answer in the song.
“The chorus of it is meant to feel like things you can question things, you're not sure about things, but it also has almost like a keep things moving feeling to it,” Bullock said.
“What are we shooting for? Where are we moving? What’s happening with us” the song asks, inviting the listener to wonder the same.
While technically, Gelston and Bullock do most of the writing, all four band members are deeply involved in the creative process.
“We’ve definitely been finding our footing with the songwriting and in-progress is a good moniker for this EP because we’ve really been finding our footing on how we bounce off of each other, where each of us will fit in each of these songs,” Belton said. “You see the foundations of our sound in this EP, but there’s so much more to come. It’s evolved a lot already since then.”
Stein called the EP a “super-hearty care package of intense, good-sounding music.”
“I think it’s a really fun way to come out in full force,” Stein said. “We’ve been a band for about a year and we come out with a full-fledged good product. These songs sound good, they make you feel good and it’s just the beginning. It’s loud, it’s aggressive, it’s fun and I'm proud of it. I just hope people will like it and are ready for more because we’ve got more coming.”
Make sure to stay connected to Hands of Spite on all music streaming and social media platforms.
Websites:
Hands of Spite
Spotify
Apple Music
Socials:
Instagram
Facebook
.png)
