(Taken from Bio)
Council Ring is the story of a band that formed in late 2020 while the mood of a lot of the world was very unsure as to what the future may hold. Guitarist Ty Mattox started writing songs and became dedicated to finding the missing pieces to help bring the music to life. Originally from Alabama and being relatively new to the Charlotte area during a time when going out anywhere was not an option, Ty had created online wanted ads for band members.
Shortly after the ads were live is when bassist Matt Kavanaugh reached out, just to see where it would take them. At the time, Matt was also relatively new to the Charlotte area from Mississippi. He had a history of producing music for different artists during college and being involved with music for several years prior to meeting Ty. They began exchanging ideas and very quickly realized that they could really be on to something. Thus Council Ring was born.
Ty and Matt were renting a rehearsal space in Charlotte and after a couple months of them getting together is when they met drummer, Quint Gallaher, who is originally from Florida but had recently moved to North Carolina, through another online ad. A quick phone conversation between Quint and Ty resulted in the trio meeting up a couple days after first contact. Ideas Ty and Matt were actively working on were presented to Quint and things felt very cohesive, very quickly.
They realized they needed to add a voice to the music and began searching for a vocalist.
By chance, several weeks later Quint met current vocalist/guitarist, Chris Jan who at the time had also recently relocated to Charlotte from New York, at a mutual second job. The two got to talking and eventually Council Ring was brought up in conversation. Plans were made to come down to the rehearsal space just to see if it was something Chris would be interested in. Sure enough, he instantly fit in and the 4-piece began bringing a voice to the music.
A couple months of regularly meeting a few times a week was proving to pay off as the band started to have several original songs and several more covers ready. However, there still seemed to be this empty void of sound the band was yearning for.
In June of 2021 through another online ad, is when Council Ring found keyboardist, Ian Hirsch, who also was new to the Charlotte area from a couple hours away in Raleigh. After the 5-piece consistently practiced through the summer is when the band’s catalog of music really started to grow and they began playing some of their first live shows around Charlotte at the end of 2021; writing their own brand of rock and doing so with no walls built around them. After a couple years with Council Ring, in early 2024 Ian decided it was best to step away from the band to focus on school but was still helping write the second album and playing shows until a replacement was found. This was a task that was sure to be difficult but not impossible. Tomi Gulden (keyboardist for Charlotte based funk band, Akita) was familiar with Council Ring after attending a couple shows and hearing about them throughout the music community.
His band Akita was planning to take a break from playing shows for a bit and that’s when he officially joined Council Ring in April of 2024. Two albums later with a third on the way, the band has since established themselves as a live experience described as “Pink Floyd on steroids” with no two shows ever being the same, so you get something a bit new each time. As they continue to play shows all over North Carolina as well as into Virginia and South Carolina, their freeing and intense form of rock music has grown into something amazing as they continue to evolve all the time.
Their new album, Confluence is available for streaming and download on most major outlets.
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