In 2023, after a few years apart, living in Seattle and Nashville, respectively, Connor and Spencer, knew that the time was right to rejoin forces. Although we were not entirely sure what our band would sound like, we knew it would be special and mean the world to our family if we gave it a try. Spencer (AKA Young Nasty Man) had not played bass since the Res Publica days and was focused on his songwriting for “Wicklund”, but quickly remembered how powerful/fun playing bass was, and started working every day to get a little better. Meanwhile, Connor (AKA Dizle) was better than ever at guitar, having played with his brothers from “Speak Easy” for years on the West Coast. We started writing music remotely and through trips home to Michigan to visit our family and then it became very obvious to each of us that it was time to move home to Lansing. That decision changed our lives forever.

Dizle began testing his mettle with vocals, guitar, and foot percussion, and Spencer immediately dubbed him a “one-man-band”. Dizle’s hard work on learning how to multi-task on several different instruments inspired Young Nasty Man to truly grind on bass like he had never done before. For anyone that knows Spencer or has watched him perform, it is clear that he fell in love with bass. The Brothers Ralph were beginning to find their footing and began writing new songs each time we jammed. We played our first show in Uncle Randy’s living room and had the time of our lives. The Brothers Ralph were back…and boy did it feel good. 🙂

Fast forwarding a year later…

The Brothers Ralph delivered our signature “old-school, brand-new feel” in The Chronicles of Ralph, which was recorded in two live takes at Troubadour Studio in Lansing. As a duo, we wanted our album to reflect exactly what we sound like live so no overdubs or additional instrumentation was included. Just vocals, acoustic 12-string guitar, electric bass, and foot percussion.

Since releasing The Chronicles, we have been working on our follow-up album and have expanded our musical horizons with upright bass, electric guitar, flute (check out our 2024 NPR Tiny Desk Contest submission featuring Ivo Shin de Souza), and plan to potentially include string section instruments and organ in the future. No matter what happens, we know it is going to be a ton of fun. We are living the dream, making music as brothers.

Music provides us with a sacred escape from the noisy, outside world. We hope that you find that same escape in our music.

Much love,