Biography
Walking a line between post-punk tension and indie-pop buoyancy, Connections formed in Ohio as a lean, scrappy outfit whose sound relies on brisk guitars and insistent melodic hooks. The quartet extends a storied Midwestern tradition of emotionally charged indie rock, channeling the most vital traits of Gaunt, Guided by Voices, and My Dad Is Dead yet reshaping that lineage across their own catalog, most recently on the 2023 album Cool Change.
Vocalist Kevin Elliott and guitarist Andy Hempel, lifelong friends from the Dayton suburbs, launched the group in 2010 after years of joint songwriting that began in their teens. Both had earlier co-founded 84 Nash, whose two albums—1997’s Kings of Yeah and 1999’s Band for Hire—appeared on Robert Pollard’s Rockathon Records; Pollard also tapped the band to open shows for Guided by Voices.
Following 84 Nash’s dissolution, Elliott and Hempel settled in Columbus and first envisioned performing as the duo Gold Circle. They soon decided a fuller ensemble better suited their material and enlisted three more players: drummer Adam Elliott, Kevin’s brother and a Times New Viking alumnus; bassist Phillip Kim, previously associated with both Kevin and Andrew Graham & Swarming Branch; and guitarist Dave Capaldi, formerly of El Jesus de Magico.
In a single day during May 2012 the band tracked its debut EP, Private Airplane, issued that December on Anyway Records. Body Language, the first full-length, followed in October 2013; the interim yielded singles “Cindy, Jeni and Johnny” and “Tough City,” while a leftover track titled “Body Language” surfaced digitally afterward. All 2013 material later reappeared on the digital compilation Year One. Into Sixes arrived in August 2014, and two EPs—5 Imaginary Boys and Missed—closed the year in December.
Connections remained largely inactive in 2015 after Adam Elliott departed to start Long Odds. The following year Mike O’Shaughnessy, whose résumé includes Ipps, Nick Tolford & Company, and Natural Sway, took over drums. Midnight Run emerged in 2016, after which the band moved to Trouble in Mind for the 2018 release Foreign Affairs. Cool Change reunited Connections with 84 Nash alum J.P. Herrmann, who joined as a permanent guitarist and keyboardist; the album was framed as a breakup record even though no real relationship had ended. Trouble in Mind issued the set in March 2023.
Vocalist Kevin Elliott and guitarist Andy Hempel, lifelong friends from the Dayton suburbs, launched the group in 2010 after years of joint songwriting that began in their teens. Both had earlier co-founded 84 Nash, whose two albums—1997’s Kings of Yeah and 1999’s Band for Hire—appeared on Robert Pollard’s Rockathon Records; Pollard also tapped the band to open shows for Guided by Voices.
Following 84 Nash’s dissolution, Elliott and Hempel settled in Columbus and first envisioned performing as the duo Gold Circle. They soon decided a fuller ensemble better suited their material and enlisted three more players: drummer Adam Elliott, Kevin’s brother and a Times New Viking alumnus; bassist Phillip Kim, previously associated with both Kevin and Andrew Graham & Swarming Branch; and guitarist Dave Capaldi, formerly of El Jesus de Magico.
In a single day during May 2012 the band tracked its debut EP, Private Airplane, issued that December on Anyway Records. Body Language, the first full-length, followed in October 2013; the interim yielded singles “Cindy, Jeni and Johnny” and “Tough City,” while a leftover track titled “Body Language” surfaced digitally afterward. All 2013 material later reappeared on the digital compilation Year One. Into Sixes arrived in August 2014, and two EPs—5 Imaginary Boys and Missed—closed the year in December.
Connections remained largely inactive in 2015 after Adam Elliott departed to start Long Odds. The following year Mike O’Shaughnessy, whose résumé includes Ipps, Nick Tolford & Company, and Natural Sway, took over drums. Midnight Run emerged in 2016, after which the band moved to Trouble in Mind for the 2018 release Foreign Affairs. Cool Change reunited Connections with 84 Nash alum J.P. Herrmann, who joined as a permanent guitarist and keyboardist; the album was framed as a breakup record even though no real relationship had ended. Trouble in Mind issued the set in March 2023.
Albums
Cool Change
2023
Legato
2020
Foreign Affairs
2018
5 Imaginary Boys
2014
Into Sixes
2014
Body Language
2013
Private Airplane
2013
Singles
