fm premiere
Brooklyn’s Hand Gestures drop their latest single Once it Starts to Kick In — a track pulsing with urgency but anchored in heart. It’s the first look at their self-titled debut album, landing October 31 via Campers’ Rule Records.
The band doesn’t shy away from unpacking what the song means:
To me, this song is about anticipation. Aching for something, then waiting for something truly significant to happen. However, waiting in earnest, and not overhyping it or looking past the importance of fully living through the waiting, isn’t easy. Like Tom Petty said, ‘the waiting is the hardest part.’ Sometimes we build ourselves up only to let ourselves down. As a kid, you’re waiting in line for a ride at a carnival, or for a prize in the mail after 25 cereal box tops. What’s more fun — the anticipation or the payoff? Perhaps the waiting is an integral part of the overall experience.
I thought about different drugs and spiritual quests, all with that ‘kick in’ period. We’re sold versions of change that rarely deliver, but maybe that’s because humans are fueled by hope. On the other hand, the song is also about friendship — finding that one person to walk through the unknown with. You’re stronger together. And sometimes, it’s just yourself you’re waiting for to kick in. You already know what to do. If you can let yourself get there, you can break down walls and shake the whole town. The real kick in is believing in ourselves.
That kind of raw self-interrogation is baked into the DNA of Hand Gestures. Born in 2022 from Brian Russ’ restless need to keep creating (“I can’t stop making music”), the band started as late-night voice memos on a kid-sized guitar during a family road trip. Slowly, songs became an album, and then a band: drummer Sal Garro, guitarist Bryan Bruchman, keyboardist Courtney Smotkin, bassist Ryan Belski, and Russ at the core.
Recorded in Brooklyn bedrooms, bathrooms, and even a sludge-adjacent warehouse, the record was built the old-school way — after hours, piece by piece, until it clicked. And click it did.
Hand Gestures’ debut arrives this Halloween, limited to 100 vinyl copies via Campers’ Rule. Once it Starts to Kick In sets the tone: a song about hope, hype, letdowns, and the fragile beauty of waiting — not for some external change, but for the courage already inside.