About

Formation-2008

The genesis of the band can be traced to a car accident founding member Noel Kelly experienced in Los Angeles, crashing into a church on Good Friday. After his brush with death, Kelly moved to Portland, Oregon and began writing the material that would become The Hush Now’s first album.

Kelly moved to Boston, Massachusetts and met Mike DiMinno, an elementary school teacher and bassist, Barry Marino, a rock ‘n roll camp counselor and drummer and Kurt Schneider, an audio engineer and keyboardist. The four-piece recorded the band’s debut in Burbank, California with producer David Newton of The Mighty Lemon Drops.

The record was self-released in October, 2008, quickly climbing independent radio top 100 charts and drawing comparisons to My Bloody Valentine, Guided By Voices, The Cure, and The Ocean Blue, among others. Blog buzz and radio play by influential BBC 6 DJ Steve Lamacq further fueled interest in the band. And “Bedtime Stories” was featured on the now defunct Eli Stone. At least in England…

2008-2009

The Hush Now found themselves back in the studio before the release of the first album. This time the band bunkered down in Charlestown, MA at Chillhouse Studios. Dave Newton flew out from LA to produce “Constellations” along with Noel Kelly and Kurt Schneider. The band survived a flooded studio on the first day of recording and persevered with an eclectic range of songs that began to intimate the breadth of material and style the band was able to conjure while still maintaining a signature THN sound.

“Constellations,” also feature several members of Kelly’s family including his sister Collete (flute/clarinet), brother Michael (piano, opera vocal), brother-in-law Joseph (trumpet) and nephew Joey (banjo). The album release would follow on the heels of the bands biggest single to date, “Wishing You a Happy Christmas,” which received extensive radio play and was called, “the loveliest recording of the season.” Constellations climbed the indie charts again, making even more ground than the debut. 2 singles from the album were released and both received play in the US and the UK including WEXP, BBC6, Nic Harcourt’s Morning becomes eclectic, Rodney on the Rock’s, and WOXY.

2010

However, prior the release of their sophomore effort, DiMinno and Schneider left the band to devote time to other projects. The lineup change resulted in three additional members: Mike Wittrien replaced DiMinno on bass and backup vocals, John Millar replaced Schneider on keyboards, and Adam Quane joined on lead guitar. In November, Mike Wittrien also left in order to pursue other interests, opening room for Pat MacDonald from The Red Telephone to join the fold. With the band’s lineup firmly established, they embarked on a tour to SXSW 2010, and played 8 shows throughout the week.

The Hush Now returned to the studio in May 2010 to record the upcoming EP, “Shiver Me Starships.” Produced by The Hush Now, mixed by Benny Grotto (Aerosmith) and mastered once again by Jeff Lipton (Arcade Fire), the new EP shows a band that has truly come into their own. “Shiver Me Starships” is was released Sep 28, 2010. The Hush Now are currently planning a 15 city tour in Mar 2011 around SXSW. And the summer will find the band back at work, writing material for their next album, which they plan to release fall 2011.