What is it like to lose yourself in a place that doesn’t love you back?

Maybe it’s waves crashing on a cold beach after the tourists have gone home. Echoes from an old community center, the backdrop to ill-fated dance lessons. The hum of the world passing by as you stare out the window of the commuter train. Before We Begin, the debut full-length from Night Hawk, lives in this unsettled soundscape where childhood memory flickers, choices crystallize, and windows and doorways are as vital as the paths behind them.

Emerging from Portland, Maine, Night Hawk began as a songwriting experiment between Colter Adams (Indigo Boulevard) and Peyton Semjen to compose songs inspired by the painter, Edward Hopper. The band quickly drew the attention of Northeast artists and audiences alike, culminating in collaborations with the Whitney Museum of Art and the Edward Hopper House. With Before We Begin, Adams and Semjen expand the scope of their music beyond Hopper’s world, but remain fixated on his aesthetics: thresholds, isolation, and interplay between illuminating light and clouded intention.

Produced by Colter and Colin Miller (Indigo De Souza, MJ Lenderman) in Asheville, N.C., Before We Begin features recorded contributions from Emma Chun (violin), Courtney Burnett (drums), Alex Kozic (guitar), and Shea Sewall (bass). The album is out on all platforms on August 7, 2025. The band’s East Coast tour will begin in Portland, ME on August 7 and conclude in Nashville, TN on August 30.