Hiding Places Release New Single “One Hand” From Debut Album, ‘The Secret To Good Living’

Today, Brooklyn-based indie rockers Hiding Places release their latest single “One Hand,” alongside a dramatic, DIY-style official music video featuring vocalist Audrey Keelin. Their debut album, The Secret To Good Living will be released 3rd April on Keeled Scales.

A gentler tune than their previous singles, “One Hand” opens with a repetitive acoustic guitar, which breaks only for a moment into heavy riffage between verses and what may be considered a chorus. The acoustic influence harkens back to the band’s earlier songs that expound their folk influences, like Merce Lemon and villagerrr.

“One Hand” is a meditation on how we can be so hard on ourselves in the face of keeping up long-distance relationships and friendships. It is hard to give grace to oneself when, for example, taking “too long to call for some reason.” This song is very hypnotic to play live and cuts into heavier, more intense, distorted moments at seemingly random times. In recording, we separated the main riff into three parts (Left, Right, and Center) and played it with three acoustic guitars, Nicholas, Michael and I each being responsible for playing one section of the riff, recording live in stereo. If listening in headphones, the achieved effect is a riff that dances spatially around the listeners head, increasing the hypnotic experience,” songwriter and vocalist Audrey Keelin explains.

The deliberate production choices demonstrate producer Michael Matsakis‘ attention to detail and intentionality in building the sonic world of Hiding Places.

“I wanted to separate the riff in the stereo image, but I did not want to do anything too noticeable, like panning a guitar around. So I approached Audrey and Nicholas with the idea of splitting the riff up across three guitars. That way, I could just set up a pair of microphones as if they were someone’s ears, and we just sat down and performed the song to their left, center, and right sides. This created that sense of space and matched the hypnotic nature of the riff as if it were a pendant swinging in front of the listener,” Matsakis says.

It makes sense that the band formed while three of its members were DJs at their college radio station at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. They embrace music as a means of communication, identity-forming, and deeper understanding of human nature. Songwriters/guitarists Audrey Keelin and Nicholas Byrne alternate between fronting the band, sharing lead vocals and lending the 10-song record the tone of an intimate conversation with room for silence and deeper concentration. Rounded out by a rhythm section of drummer Henry Cutting and bassist/producer Michael Matsakis, they’ve developed a forward-thinking sound with a sense of nostalgia built into it: a blend that draws from the collage-like indie rock of Yo La Tengo, the elegant slowcore of The New Year, the riffy story-songs of Drive-By Truckers, and the analogue hum of The Microphones.

The Secret to Good Living, which bridges their fuzzy home-recorded demos with their first experience in a professional recording studio, helps translate their humble beginnings to the big stages for which they seem destined. It’s the product of hermetic late-night sessions, collaborative writing retreats in Athens, Georgia, and an evolving perspective on their singular dynamic. After years of working remotely, this record marks the collective result of the quartet living together in a city for the first time—an experience that amplified the band’s creative bond and connected them with fellow North Carolina transplants in the city.

“We’ve built a Southern home in New York and simultaneously get to experience the cultures of the world that collide here,” Byrne says of their tight-knit community and enduring connections to their hometowns, where they frequently return. “Within 24 hours, I could be at Myrtle Broadway and then in rural Georgia sighting in a hunting rifle. Living between Southern landscapes and New York, and carrying those lessons and experiences with us, has been the story of this band.”

On The Secret to Good Living, Hiding Places follow this thread, navigating their mid-to-late 20s and using songwriting as a portal for self-discovery and exploration. Tellingly, the concept raised in the title arrives not in a prescriptive philosophy but as an ongoing inquiry: “Oh, what’s the secret to good living,” Byrne and Keelin ask in unison. “How was I supposed to know?”

Each element of the band’s sound is poised for maximum emotional impact, a strength they’ve developed from years on the road. The band formed during a fruitful period for independent music in North Carolina, and Colin Miller (MJ Lenderman, Indigo De Souza) produced the band’s previous release, 2024’s Lesson EP. Since then, they’ve shared stages with influences and peers throughout North America including Wednesday, Little Mazarn, and Friendship’s Dan Wriggins.