lots of hands + Sundots

lots of hands

into a pretty room — lots of hands' debut on Fire Talk Records — exists in the tear-stained early mornings of adolescence, a collage of reworked demos, session standouts, and instrumental electronics. Solemn yet hopeful, it occupies the space between tragedy and triumph, offering a touching rumination on grief, loss, growing up, and letting go.

Billy Woodhouse and Elliot Dryden first connected in a Newcastle school music program at 16. After releases in 2021 and 2023, into a pretty room marks their first truly collaborative effort, written and recorded in Woodhouse's bedroom studio. Woodhouse's contributions ache with loss — instrumentals written for family through monumental grief, whispered ballads sung with loved ones — while Dryden's unearthed demos bring their own wry melancholy, including the Hank Williams-inspired lead single 'game of zeroes.'

Together, their first joint compositions transform youthful anxiety into explosive anthems and quiet rural reverie. Anchored by a decade-long friendship, into a pretty room is a decidedly hopeful record — crafted between two people who have spent years supporting each other through life's challenges.

Sundots

With the humble beginning of a demo showcasing his first moments picking up a guitar and finding his voice in 2019, longtime experimental music composer Drew Collins stepped into the next phase of his songwriting career as Sundots. Joined by familiar faces of the Connecticut DIY scene, friends Jake Fucci, Austin Traver, and Nick Restivo have been a fundamental part of the band’s journey in translating their bedroom 'studio' songs to a live setting.

The music combines the feelings from freak-folk and ambient to slowcore and indie-rock in a way that comes across as both sincere and playful. Many of the songs showcase Drew’s heart on his sleeve, with an almost stream-of-consciousness approach to lyric writing. Honeyspot, the band’s most recent record from 2024, displayed a newly refined direction while reflecting on themes of youth, maturity, love, and fantasy. Paying homage to the previously mentioned demo tape, appropriately named ‘room’, Drew has a collection of five more solo recordings on the way, due sometime this summer.