M
ike Ring has a surprisingly energetic aura. Even after a long night shift at work, Ring agreed to sit down and discuss the new EP from Mike Ring and the Connection, To Your Sisters and Brothers, which releases May 10th. The man radiates passion, and that passion feeds directly into the music of The Connection. With influences ranging from Fun’s Aim & Ignite to River City Extension, Ring’s music is diverse and sprawling, and not short on intensity. The name “The Connection” originated with one of the band’s founding members, bassist Carter Jackson Sheppard: “The Connection was something that was not for me, but to bring out my voice. When I first started it was just Mike Ring Band. [We] talked for a while on the name. I told him I wanted to be more than just a band. I want to be a movement. I want to be a community. I want to be a style. I want to be everything that surrounds being a band and not just a band. So Jack came up with ‘The Connection’ because we’re all connected through the music.” This idea resonates with the band’s malleable lineup. In addition to Ring, the
members currently consist of Pie Lombardi on percussion, Ryan Black on bass, Desmond “Motown” Washington on drums, Noel Billups on keys, Jordan Lobato on guitar, Claire Rumery on backup vocals, and Jesse O’Brien on MIDI. The band has, in its couple of years of operation, gone through multiple exchanges on every position, and each one that comes and goes, as Ring puts it, has given a new feel to the band. One song that the band will occasionally play during a concert is a cover of the Miley Cyrus hit “Wrecking Ball,” which has amusingly been mistaken for an original composition by more than one person, no doubt due to the intense passion with which Mike Ring and the Connection delivers the song. “We don’t do covers. It’s just not us. ‘Wrecking Ball’ is Miley’s ‘coming out’ song, and you either love it or hate it. We covered it to get a response…if people booed at the end of that song it would be awesome. But usually people are laughing at the beginning, and singing along by the end,” says Ring. The Connection’s original songs are easy to sing along to as well, with a clean stadium feel tempered with subtler MIDI tones. The
band’s songs let all of these elements breathe of their own accord when they’re not being satisfyingly blended together. Whether it’s one of O’Brien’s MIDI bits jumping in between lines, a keyboard interlude from Billups, or the excellent vocal interplay between Ring and Rumery, the group exemplifies its frontman’s mentality of his band being a community. Speaking on To Your Sisters and Brothers, Ring once again sought a very personal core for the EP. His family adopts children with physical and mental disabilities, and not too long ago Ring lost two of these younger sisters in the same year. “You know the feeling when you lose someone,” he asked me, “and the next morning you have to get up and just be normal? I remember my mom and I were sitting in the kitchen…we told little jokes. We were worn the hell out and were just trying to get back into the world of the living.” The core theme of the album is vulnerability, too: tearing down the walls and preconceived notions built into us since birth. “The second you pull down those walls, you can start learning and living.” After we were done talking, Mike finally showed me To
Your Sisters and Brothers all the way through. Fans of Mike Ring and the Connection have much to look forward to; the EP, which draws from some gospel elements and occasional hints of R&B, is a very strong release that showcases a huge sound, and if there is one thing that disappoints, it’s that the album is over before you’ll want it to be. “I wish I could personally show this to everyone,” he said. “That’s how personal this album is.” Indeed, the music, particularly album closer “When My Mind’s Made Up” is intensely emotional and feels like it comes straight from Ring’s core. What’s next for the band? Ring sips his tea for a moment as he thinks. “The pipe dream of The Connection is becoming larger than Mike Ring. Never have I seen music that grows larger than the band. But this music is more than just one lineup.” Whatever Ring is cooking up with that cryptic comment, followers of Mike Ring and the Connection should be handsomely rewarded for their dedication when that pipe dream is fulfilled. In the meantime, don’t miss To Your Sisters and Brothers, which drops May 10. It’s worth the wait.
Chris Sheridan BandWagon Magazine
photos by Kendra hamman