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about
Ring Road’s infectious chorus and energetic production make it the perfect song for your summer playlist. Hard-panned acoustics, a rolling baritone guitar, soft trumpets and a bubbling floor tom support Okay Mann’s cutting vocals. Recorded at Vancouver’s 12th Street Sound studios, the track was then volleyed back and forth between the artist and long-time collaborator, London-based producer Chris Hewitt. Hewitt’s depth of experience in studio and as a live engineer brought a fiery spirit to the reflective lyrics.
“I wrote the song after a relationship came to an end, we each reacted very differently. I became stuck in an emotional rut, and she cycled solo around the Ring Road of Iceland - the well known highway which runs around the country. I was happy and proud for her, but a small part of me had the selfish desire to drag her down to my level, emotionally.”
The track acknowledges that sometimes, it takes a while to move on. It works through the frustration and difficulty of trying to look to the future with two feet planted firmly in the past. In the word’s of Big Thief’s Adrienne Lenker, “There’s only so much letting go you can ask someone to do.
lyrics
Lyrics:
All the birds in every tense, they’re singin’ just the same except for you
Half of my words they make no sense, but I’ll sing them so the sane will get to you
And I’m filled with all these questions like how the winter kept me in and how the hands of time keep flying by so fast
I hope the field won’t argue that I’m picking just for rind because the taste of fruit was sweeter in the past
If you’re blind and I’m deaf and dumb let’s run together: little rivers towards the sun
If you’ve forgotten then you’re free, and I just want to lock you down here with me
Pay no mind: this ain’t no recompense because the letters I received are single-paged
You’re on the ring road. No need to second guess: I’m just smiling to deceive and disengage
Well it’s hard to stop this feeling dear from rickling my pines without pulling every needle for my arm
This won’t be the last one, yes I’m trying to change my mind but slow and steady dear, I’m trying to do you no harm
If you’re blind and I’m deaf and dumb let’s run together: little rivers towards the sun
If you’ve forgotten then you’re free, and I just want to lock you down here with me
If you’re blind and I’m deaf and dumb let’s run together: little rivers towards the sun
If you’ve forgotten then you’re free, and I just want to lock you down here with me
credits
released June 20, 2019
Music & Lyrics: Katlin Mathison
Engineered by: Anthony Cenerini at 12th St Sound in Vancouver
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