Faint Halos

Songs have their own gravity. A great song is a star, drawing people and associations into its orbit, creating entire solar systems with an invisible force that we can intuitively feel, but can hardly understand.

After more than a decade away from music completely, Paul Hashemi started carving out new songs from the aftermath of a worldwide pandemic; from the cracked psychic fissures left by social media culture; from constant political and societal turmoil that feels at once deeply personal and overwhelming in its inhumanity. Songs about loneliness to make people feel less alone.

He released those songs under the Faint Halos moniker, and started to perform around his adopted hometown of Philadelphia. And over the last year, the songs drew in three other musicians: First versatile and lyrical bassist Miguel Padro, another transplant to Philadelphia; then powerful drummer Bill Hallinan, a seasoned veteran of the local scene; and finally, pyrotechnic guitarist Matt Cieljka, himself a recent post-pandemic arrival to the area after travel the world performing for a decade. 

But gravitation runs both ways. Just as the musicians were drawn to the songs, so too have they pulled the songs in new directions. The songs have grown and changed, going beyond the original versions in myriad ways, evolving from the electronic bedroom pop-rock of the first Faint Halos releases to the Americana-inflected 2024 album I can see a million lights to the raw, unfiltered energy of their upcoming releases, their first songs recorded as a group, in Fall 2025. 

The band’s passion and chemistry burns through in riveting live performances, and their willingness to take risks and try something new in every show makes each one a must-see event - every song perfectly and constantly adapted to the room, the crowd, and the mood, every show uniquely its own. Inviting the audience into its orbit, and being changed by the process, like all great forces of nature.

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Recommended if you like: The National, The War on Drugs, Glen Hansard/The Frames