Founded in 2002 by Holly Brewer and Matthew McNiss, HUMANWINE has had a long history of rotating lineups of supporting musicians.

In recent years, the band has primarily performed and recorded as a duo, as heard on their 2016 four-volume release "aether".

[12] Their name is said, with tongue in cheek, to be an acronym of the phrase, "Humans Underground Making Anagrams Nightly While Imperialistic Not-Mes Enslave",[13] a reference to the subtly-coded lyrics that comprise most of their songs.

For this album and tour, rather than using their primary drummer of Nate Greenslit (who went on a personal hiatus), they recruited Brian Viglione,[20] Holly Brewer's childhood next-door neighbor from Greenville, New Hampshire.

Holly Brewer and Mat McNiss left the rest of the band behind and trained local musicians that they knew on a show-by-show basis, resulting in a different lineup and feel for each performance.