When The World Stops Turning: How Connor Bracken and The Mother Leeds Band are Keeping Rock and Roll Alive

   There are some acts you see and then some acts you experience. With a sound that’s loud, bluesy, raw and full of endless energy, Connor Bracken and The Mother Leeds Band have a presence that’s hard to ignore and the band are currently enjoying the momentum off of their latest single “Read On You” released via Telegraph Hill Records. 2018 was quite the year for Connor Bracken and The Mother Leeds Band, in addition to singing to Telegraph they embarked on a tour down south and still made time for regular appearances in their hometown of Asbury Park. Watching the Mother Leeds Band perform, the ensemble feels seamless and operates as a precise machine. However, the road to where they are now wasn’t without hinderances and roadblocks and as Bracken and I sat down to discuss the band’s upcoming direction, the narrative of the Mother Leeds Band’s steady ascent comes into play. 

    At an early age, Bracken stumbled into music which then lead to a full-on obsession.  “I loved records growing up, I really wasn’t a normal kid to what my brain ingested.. I was obsessed with anything I could get my hands on including my dad’s record collection” Bracken recalls of the early days before he even ventured into playing a instrument or booking any shows. “It was even bigger in my head then I thought it was when it came to songwriting and on my first EP I found out pretty quickly things were being forced” Bracken states of his early days attempting to form a band.  In-between Bracken recruited various members all of which eventually left due to personal reasons  and struggled to hit upon a signature sound and style. Eventually after some false starts and numerous line-up changes, the current version of The Mother Leeds band finally took shape.  A big component of the band’s success came from their 2016 release Light in the Day which was notably recorded almost entirely live.  “I’m really proud of that record it definitely needed to happen for sure” Bracken tells me of the response to their previous album which also helped establish their presence in the Asbury Park music scene. 

Now the band are hard at work on their upcoming release which promises to expand their traditional sound and usher in a new era for the group.  Speaking on the new record’s sound Bracken expresses that “These new songs are very different from what we’ve been doing previously so I’m curious to see what people think, there’s gonna to be a lot of different elements, it’s the first time I’ve really delved deep into a record so I’m very happy about that.” When It comes to songwriting this time out there’s been a notable progression in their approach to crafting and releasing material. “The 10 songs we had for the last album were just what we had, for this record I wrote about 50 songs.” Bracken states of the current recording processes for their upcoming LP.  The songs here are very much inspired by their time in Asbury Park with many of the songs having been debuted live particularly stand-outs such as “Photographs of Johnny Cash” a song directly inspired by the Danny Clinch Gallery. “There’s just a coolness of being able to do everything, I feel like there’s all these influences coming together and being honed into one particular sound.”

   As a group, The Mother Leeds band value naturalism and that can be witnessed in their energetic live shows which build intuitively off their crowd and the organic interplay between each member. Regardless of their setting, Connor Bracken and The Mother Leeds band invest a tremendous amount of visceral energy live and Bracken himself fully commits each time. Whether it be standing on the drum kit, performing solos in the crowd or throwing a party on stage, Bracken and his band know no bounds when it comes to creating an experience for their audience. As frontman, Bracken has learned quite a bit about how to manage a group effectively to achieve said goals, “Learning how to work a band has been a huge part of it all, also learning how to keep your mind open and not let distractions get to you and just let yourself get lost in the song.” The dedication to craft and performance  is a large part of The Mother Leeds Band’s current success but at the end of the day it’s the audience that truly matters to them. “At the end of the day they’re the most important part because if they don’t show up you’re not playing to anybody… You wanna be the best night of someone’s life the crowd is the most important part of it all” Bracken expresses.  

One of the biggest takeaways from our discussion is how important it is for bands to create work that is truly worthy of their audience’s time. For Bracken, each show has the same level of significance or energy whether it’s on stage at famed Asbury Park Venue The Wonderbar or a basement show tucked away in New Brunswick. “You gotta work at your art to make it great and worth people’s time, other people’s time is so important.” On what he hopes the new record will feel like Bracken states that “ I want it to feel like a reason for celebrating and a reason to come together, I want it to invoke feelings everyone feels in their day to day.”  The upcoming Mother Leeds LP hopes to indicate the band’s future while opening up it’s possibilities and showing it’s true personality. “I wanna take this as far as we can and not give ourselves a glass ceiling, when this is released I want this to be a seminal album we really wanna get ourselves out there locally.” 

   At the end of the day though Bracken is thankful for the opportunities that pursuing music has brought about. “I consider it an honor to be able to perform in Asbury Park and to be able to tour. The fact that people want to come see us and dig us I’m grateful for that.”  Describing how he envisions the future of his music Bracken reveals that “I think this upcoming album is gonna be the true colors of this band and show people what we’re really about not just what they think we’re about, I think this album is going to be the start of many possibilities for this band.”  Ultimately the process of creating the latest Mother Leeds release has taught Bracken much about himself as well, “When I started out I didn’t really even know who I was and by letting my guard down and working with my  armor off I think we found out more of who we could become.” This motto of embracing change is in line with Bracken and his band’s current mission statement of being the absolute best group they can be.

 Regardless of what the future holds for them  Mother Leeds will continue to forge a sound and experience all their own.  In the meantime they’ve got some big plans in the works with talks of new singles on the way and a headlining show at the Stone Pony end of the month. Most importantly Connor Bracken and The Mother Leeds are dedicated to keeping rock and roll alive in the purest manner possible. Now that’s something we can all get a read on.  

*Check out the link below to Connor Bracken and The Mother Leeds Band’s latest video Read On You below and be sure to catch them March 29th at The Stone Pony!