by Jess Luther and Annie McCance

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“So much of the way we operate as a culture is…binary. It’s up or it’s down, it’s black or it’s white, it’s right or it’s wrong,” posits Kit Hamon outside the Whiskey Ring on a breezy Friday night. But the individual human experience, we all agree, is mostly the exploration of contradictions and gray areas. We’re joined by Hamon’s musical and life partner, Beth Bombara, and things have gotten serious around our little four-top. “Hey,” he says through a smile, “In music, I don’t feel like deep thoughts always have to be quiet and contemplative.” We are, after all, present to discuss We’re Both Right Now, the highly danceable, debut LP Hamon is releasing this weekend as solo artist Stacey Winter.

Photo by Nate Burrell 

He builds and repairs instruments, records and produces music in his home studio, tours with national acts as a tech and band member, and (we assume) sleeps occasionally. Hamon is still a young man, but hard work and frenetic creative energy have elevated him to St. Louis veteran artist status.

We’re Both Right Now is a rollercoaster ride through Hamon’s eclectic musical influences; it’s a mostly completed puzzle that frames bits of lyrics, heavy thoughts, and dark humor that the musician has been collecting and organizing as far back as “the Old Lights days.” And despite having written the songs over several formative years, Hamon is quick to clarify: “There’s no sense of nostalgia in there for me, it’s just that the meanings of the tunes have changed through the course of time.” An admitted detail-oriented perfectionist, it was a combination of gentle prodding from Bombara and a renewed focus on solo work that finally pushed the record out of the dark and onto vinyl.

When tasked with selecting a song to represent the record overall, ‘Process’ was an easy choice for Hamon. “Ideologically, the bigger notion of ‘process’ is the thread that ties this whole album together,” he explains. Lyrically, the track acknowledges the many anxious and necessary relationships one maintains with work, technology, and other people. Musically, it’s a bouncy little number that makes you wonder what you were so worried about to begin with.

Listen here:

Much of the reward for Hamon in releasing We’re Both Right Now has been, simply, the experience of creating then sharing with an audience this body of work. Chances were taken. Musical experiments were conducted. A live band was formed and a coloring book (by artist Allison Sheldon) created. Lastly, the vinyl release show was planned with STL heavy hitters Middle Class Fashion and new-to-towner Nate Henricks.

So while the Stacey Winter story might have just recently gone live, the ones and zeros have been lining up for years.

Events Details: 

Friday, 9/1 – Stacey Winter Listening/Coloring Book Party
Tick Tock Tavern, 3459 Magnolia Ave
5:30 – 8:30 pm

Sunday, 9/3 – Stacey Winter LP Release 
Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave
7 pm doors, $10