Field Guides began in 2012 as the solo recording project of Brooklyn singer/songwriter
Benedict Kupstas. Thoughtful and eccentric, his music has an experimental nature to it, blending warm, jangling indie pop with a pastiche of field recordings from his various travels. His first release under the
Field Guides name was a two-song single on his Bandcamp page called There Is Always Someone Waiting Somewhere Else. Over the next two years, the project began to grow into a band as
Kupstas recruited various musicians from the local Brooklyn scene to join him. The rotating lineup includes current and former members of acts like
Helado Negro,
Cloud Becomes Your Hand,
Landlady, and
Future Wife, among others. Their debut record was recorded over several years in Brooklyn and mixed in upstate New York by veteran engineer
D. James Goodwin (
Devo,
Kaki King,
Leverage Models). Named after a Richard Brautigan poem,
Boo, Forever was released in November 2014. ~ Timothy Monger