Violent Mae was never something Becky Kessler and Floyd Kellogg intended on creating, yet fate had other plans for them. Kessler studied jazz studies at Boston’s Berklee School of Music before moving to Connecticut with the intention of starting an organic farm. Meanwhile, Kellogg was running Warrenton Recording Studio in Hartford while simultaneously fronting his garage-electronic act You Scream I Scream.
A mutual friend connected the two as Kessler took a break from farming and sought to record her debut solo record. The connection between the pair was readily apparent, and their musical chemistry morphed Kessler’s solo album in to a full-blown band, Violent Mae. They released their self-titled debut in 2013 and their bond grew as they ravaged the New England area with their formidable indie rock tracks. The band would later return to Kessler’s farm to record what would become their sophomore album, Kid, out November 20th via Telegraph Recording Company. Now, they’re sharing a beastly new track from the record called “In My Ring”.
“I wrote ‘In My Ring’ on Floyd’s acoustic bass guitar [that] I’m indefinitely borrowing,” Kessler tells Consequence of Sound. “I had to practice singing and playing with the heavy tremolo on the guitar because it’s kinda like playing to a metronome that you can barely hear. The song is very rhythmic and danceable; to me, it feels like our inner Michael Jackson track.”
They’re inner MJ is much darker than the original, though, as the song is one of the heaviest tracks the band has unleashed thus far. Kessler’s pulsing bass guitar sounds thunderous over Kellogg’s sparse and looming drum parts. Her voice pierces over the gloom like a saber cutting through the fog. The weight of the track feels always on the brink of total blackhole collapse, but the band pulls through and tames the unrelenting energy. It’s a hefty song, showcasing the brute, dance-inducing force of the duo.
Listen in below.
