Fifteen years ago, Paul Hashemi made the difficult decision to leave his music career behind. Broadsided by job loss while being his family’s main provider, he had to focus on providing for his wife and two toddlers. Playing music was relegated to strumming and singing at preschool Christmas parties.
Fast forward to the pandemic lockdown of 2020; with the security, stability, and time that was missing years before, and lockdown time on his hands, he set up a home studio and began writing, recording, and releasing new music under the name Faint Halos, favoring an ethereal, electronic pop-rock feel with an emphasis on synth sounds and atmospherics.
Now, on Faint Halos' upcoming debut album "I can see a million lights", he is shifting to a more organic feel, with songs that translate to live performance, punctuating the songs' emotional and narrative arcs with lyrical lead guitar melodies and nuanced rhythms. Each track showcases multiple crafts as Paul handled all the album’s singing, instrumentals, production, and mixing, with one exception close to his heart - his daughter adds beautifully breezy harmony vocals on select tracks.
Next up, Paul is in rehearsals readying his band for gigging, and as he prepares to take this music to the stage, he’s pensive and hopeful. “I feel this urgency to share these songs with the world. They have messages people need to hear, now more than ever,” he says.