Semaphore is a post-shoegaze band based out of Brooklyn led by Siddhu Anandalingam on guitar/vocals (bassist of NJ post-hardcore band Gatherers), along with Emmett Ceglia on drums, Jay Kohler on guitar and Niko Hasapopoulos on bass. Founded in 2013 by Anandalingam, Semaphore released its first album, All Too Robot, in 2016, establishing the band’s scene-bending fusion of shoegaze, post-hardcore, and impressionist classical music. “It’s somewhere between My Bloody Valentine, Glassjaw, and Debussy, with a top note of angry teenage boy.” Their forthcoming release, I Need a Reason to Stay, develops and complicates that premise: “so much of the music made for young people is very blunt and on-its-face. Our mission is to take the music that was foundational to us as both people and artists and evolve it into something sophisticated and inviting.” Semaphore’s unique sound luxuriates in the shifting tonalities, airy melodies, and lush orchestration of their greatest musical influences, incorporating songcraft and vocals in a decidedly un-shoegazey way. “It’s the music I would have wanted to listen to in high school.”