“I’m excited to get it out there,” Michael Held says, “this project has been a long time coming for myself.” this was the first thing Mike told me about his new single, “Hang in the Balance”, the first song he’s made publicly available from his new project, Was and When. you may have seen/heard him play music before — he carries the bass for Snowpiler and Lighthouse, but Was and When is very different than either of those bands.
“I admire simple, vibey songwriting and though the time was right to give it a shot,” Held says. and is “Hang in the Balance” vibey? for sure. but is it simple? perhaps by Held’s other projects’ standards it is, but the single is rife with great songwriting decisions and lush production. recorded and arranged with the help of Nick Restivo (who plays drums on the single) and Tim Marzik (his bandmates from Snowpiler and Lighthouse) in late 2019, “Hang in the Balance” is the first of many more songs to come in 2020. and if Restivo and Marzik’s involvement isn’t enough to assure you that Held has super supportive bandmates, the song was recorded Gus Morales, a member from his other (more NY-centric band, Ghost Chant.
in 2019, Snowpiler and Lighthouse announced some tour dates together, with the bands rotating their lineup slightly between sets. hopefully we will soon get Was and When shows, with a similar live rotation? that trio of musicians would become a traveling three-band bill, with three distinctly different sounds and styles among them. if “Hang in the Balance” is any indication, Was and When bring dark atmospherics to post-punk. or maybe it’s shadowy dream pop? take a listen yourself, and let us know what you think!
you can stream the “Hang in the Balance” below on bandcamp right now, but it will drop on other streaming platforms tomorrow (march 27). so give it a listen + purchase now, securing your ability to tell friends “psh, ya i listened to Was and When before they were even on spotify”.
