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Ringlets: Excerpts From The Fountainhead

Ringlets: Excerpts From The Fountainhead

Blending thoughtful post-punk with their own new take on new wave, Auckland quartet Ringlets range from vibrantly bright to ragingly angry across their energetic and articulate second album, ‘The Lord Is My German Shepherd (Time for Walkies)’. Guitarist László Reynolds and bassist Arabella Poulsen talked about the new release with Richard Thorne.

Ringlets’ vocalist Leith Towers seems to keep missing NZM interviews; like the one with members of Marlin’s Dreaming back in 2020, the one ahead of Ringlets’ self-titled debut album back in late 2022, and now this one, in the back of St Kevins Arcade on Auckland’s K’Rd, for their sophomore LP with the wildly long name.

There’s good reason though, he’s in Hastings where he currently lives and works. In his absence guitarist/music instigator László Reynolds and bass player Arabella Poulsen make a good team, and maybe save the conversation from being tugged away in endless different directions – like that german shepherd allusion in the new album’s sprawling, angular showcase track, from where the album gets its name.

I Was on That Roof Once circles the drain of sincerity, belief, and our better natures gone a bit mouldy,” was Towers’ summary for the single’s press release. “The video features door dancing, a lost Irish tradition we’ve likely misremembered, pitched somewhere between ceremony and bluff. It’s a nod to ritual, balance, and the ways we try not to spill ourselves.”

With the coffee orders in Reynolds and Poulsen are fortunately more direct. Though he lives in Tāmaki Makaurau, drummer Arlo Grey is also unavailable due to work. Reynolds describes him as the glue that holds everything together for the band.

“Arlo’s the pulse, and that allows Leith to kind of just exert his will. And we’re kind of intermediaries.”

“That’s a good way to put it,” nods Poulsen. “I think Arlo is like a drummer through and through, he just holds it down and always has this great energy.”

Promoting the release of their first album, Reynolds told NZM that Ringlets want to be poppy and immediately recognisable. “We don’t want to be too serious, and we don’t want to be too silly.” Three years on, does that still represent the band’s musical intent?

“Probably, yeah. I kind of feel like being more silly now, but I don’t think the sound of the music reflects it. I think it’s almost a bit more serious this time. I can’t really square that, but maybe the silliness comes out more live?

“Sometimes I hear people who have made something incredible, and then they talk about what they were trying to do, or their intentions, and it’s always so wrong to me. So I’m kind of fine with my message getting scrambled, because if it hits for someone, it can hit in any way that is out of your control. I’m happy that people are even kind of, digesting it at all. Sometimes people mention a band that it reminds them of and I’ve never listened to them in my life at all!”

“I get that all the time,” Poulsen lights up. “People telling me my basslines are very Tool-like, and I’ve barely listened to Tool, I couldn’t name a song of theirs!”

From the outset Ringlets held up their individual musical differences as being to be integral to their music. They are the kind of fluently eclectic band that earns multiple enthusiastic comparisons precisely because they change tone and dynamics with ease. So, rephrasing the question, is there a more serious intent behind ‘The Lord Is My German Shepherd (Time for Walkies)’, despite the frivolous title?

“I don’t know if it’s so much like a seriousness, it’s more just a kind of organic maturing and energy,” she continues. “Also just being a lot more solid in how we work together, what our parts of the band are, and how we collaborate. I wouldn’t say it was taking it any more seriously, that’s just like evolved, naturally without talking about it.

“We are all pretty independent and I think that has worked. We’re very different, living different lives, into different music and coming from different musical backgrounds – but then we’re just very lucky to have this solid creative chemistry. We love making music together, and once we’re in that room it’s great, but it’s not really something we ever plan or talk about.”

One notable point of difference between albums is that Towers (aside from Poulsen’s song Sucking on a Surly Pout), has taken full charge of the lyric writing and lead vocals, as Reynolds points out.

“It was a conscious decision for Leith to become the lead singer, because half the first album was stuff that I had already made and showed, so we shuffled around. Then it was just a natural progression from that, but there was a point where he just was earnestly, like, ‘Can I be the singer and have control of that part?’”

The curious song titles, in some cases, are simply the result of Reynolds giving the demos names that stick. Others, like Posh Girl Holds a Whip, are because they fit the lyrical background, in this case the gentrification of kink.

“Most of our songs start with László bringing in an idea, and we all just mix that up together, and look after our own parts from there,” Poulsen explains. “Guitar and bass start it off, and then the three of us will jam it out. Then Leith will come in with some great words and vocals. Everything comes together quite quickly, so I don’t think we even fully understand our own process.”

Another difference is that their second album has been released by Flying Nun Records, the band signing to the label last year. Reynolds describes the relationship as being contractually a pretty light affair, predicated largely on the marketing side of things.

“They’re quite hands off, which I think is a blessing because we do have full control over how we want to do it, and how we want to present it. Then they just kind of send their tendrils out to people here and overseas. It’s a pretty fortuitous agreement.”

Super supportive Christchurch indie label Leather Jacket Records are again associated with this release, facilitating the vinyl pressing of 500 album copies. That’s a step up from the 300 copies of ‘Ringlets’ they printed, and Reynolds seems a little bemused by that.

“Where they’re going to go I don’t know!” he offers drolly, though not as a reflection on their audience or quality of product. “We went down to Wellington the other week for the release of the album, and played an instore, at the Flying Nun record store there, and it’s 60 bucks for a new copy of the album! I don’t want to discourage it, but I’m not gonna buy any LP for $60, I’m gonna download it – and the file won’t ever degrade!”
They both laugh, Poulsen adding she doesn’t have a turntable and the value of vinyl escapes her too.

As with ‘Ringlets’, the new album includes just 10 tracks, and was recorded at The Lab in Auckland. [Read NZM’s review here.] Reynolds describes recording their first album as being like a 100m sprint.

“We had two and a half days to record, and we just blasted through everything – what’s on the album that was all we had. So, if one song didn’t come out right then it would have been a nine track album!

“This time, we had more than twice that amount of time, so we recorded 13 songs, and left three of them off.”

The band are as practical as they are efficient in the studio. In May 2024 Ringlets released a between-albums single titled New Life. That song had received NZ On Air New Music backing in November ‘23, funding for a single they used to record the second album with.
“Yeah! What you have to do…” Poulsen laughs.

Ringlets are named as album producer along with former Mint Chick Michael Logie, whose role largely involved providing helpful guidance.
“Rather than changing what we were doing, he just added an extra layer of something…” says Poulsen, her smile hinting that memories of the five long days spent in the studio are a bit blurry.

Reynolds explains that Logie was busy the week they recorded, so couldn’t make more time available.
“But he was also keen to not take over, because he had heard the first album, and he heard our demos, and he had some idea that what we were doing was already effective enough and he didn’t want to get in the way too much.”

As with pre-production the subsequent post-production work mostly fell to him to complete.

“That was very long, because it’s that 80/20 thing. Like we knocked out 80% of it in 20% of the time, and then there was this excruciatingly long tail of adding bits of backing vocals and synth pads and the like, so that wasn’t finished until nearly the end of last year.”

Pragmatic can be added the list of praising adjectives their eclectic songwriting and dynamic musicianship earns. Reynolds and Towers were variously involved in producing, directing and even filming of the music videos of the album’s three singles to date. That may well be a long tail of the metal and hardcore punk phases the pair shared as teens, musically evident in regular bursts of screaming anger and high octane thrashing crescendos.

“I think that when we’re writing a song, and fleshing it out, however it starts we just want to make it like it will be really great to play live,” suggests Poulsen. “Speaking for Arlo and myself, those angry parts are really exciting!”

Promo of the album has made mileage of the fact that final mixing was done at Abbey Road Studios in London. Reynolds attended Western Springs College with the fellow Kiwi responsible, Isaac Keating.

“I didn’t know him well while we were in school, but his prowess as an industrial music producer was shown to me by a friend of mine, who’s an old friend of Isaac’s. He is an incredible producer, but he’s also quite secretive. I heard some things that he was working on and I was really impressed by how crisp, and heavy, and loud he was. It was just good timing, because he was finishing his course in music production at Abbey Road, and he was keen to sort of bite into some projects. So it lined up quite well, we sent him the album and he did a great job with the mix.”

The album will be promoted with a nationwide tour planned for August, and in early September Ringlets will perform at the Bigsound music industry showcase in Brisbane, building their first ever tour of Australia’s other main east coast cities around that.

Beyond that push, what happens this year is quite unforeseeable at this point according to Reynolds.
“We’re going to play it by ear.”
Poulsen says she’ll be starting at wine school in a couple of months, with the goal of becoming a sommelier.
“Career alcoholism!” she jokes.

Living in each other’s pockets has never been the Ringlets way, and with ‘The Lord Is My German Shepherd (Time for Walkies)’ they’ve shown that living in the same city isn’t even necessary. Serious or silly, the band’s evident chemistry and pragmatic efficiency deliver in spades.