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<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nOn February 24, Babes in Canyon<\/a>, a new Seattle band made up of music scene veterans Nathan Hamer and Michelle Nu\u00f1o and keyboardist\/vocalist Amanda Ebert, released their airy, transporting indie debut, Second Cities<\/a><\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Babes in Canyon, which was born from a particularly thrilling, stormy night Hamer and fiancee Ebert spent without power in a cabin in the Washington woods, represents a new creative phase centered on unfiltered expression, defined by their connection to the environment of the Pacific Northwest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hamer has long been on the Seattle music scene as a member of the folk-pop band, Kuinka, which he formed with his brother in 2013. With Kuinka, Hamer toured and performed for years, and while he’s still in the group now, he’s been looking for other musical outlets recently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “During the pandemic, I just really felt the calling to write some in a different style. Something a bit more raw. I just needed to express some emotions I had been feeling,” remembers Hamer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hamer and Ebert met during their college years at Pace University, and in 2018 Ebert moved to Washington so they to be together. As Hamer toured and played with Kuinka, Ebert, who works in film production, watched from the sidelines, all the while missing playing and singing herself. <\/p>\n\n\n\n “I was in a band in high school that I was very into. I played keys and sang,” says Ebert. “It had been 15 years since I had been in a band and I always really wanted to do it again, so when Nathan and I reconnected and I moved out to Washington and we started writing music together.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n One weekend during the pandemic, they decided to retreat into a cabin in the woods of Acme, Washington, for some focused songwriting time. While they were there a major windstorm hit, felling trees and knocking out their power. Stranded in the cabin, the pair wrote new songs by candlelight and decided to form Babes in Canyon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “A whole different [creative] process came out of that night, being trapped in that cabin,” says Hamer. “I instantly found it incredible that I could have these melodies in my head and hum them and then suddenly Amanda has pages of lyrics that fit so perfectly. I felt like I had a superpower in partnering with Amanda. It was so quick and easy and free.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n