THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “One of the most acclaimed proponents of the witch house movement, White Ring blend heavy, distorted electronics with eerie, unsettling vocals. However, their new material pushes the boundaries further, subverting genre ideas and mashing them all together, with industrial, metal, rave, chopped and screwed, rap, grunge, neo-folk, post-punk and new wave all in the mix. As Bryan Kurkimilis explains; “We treat our influences like tools to create a certain feeling. We are interested in covering more ground than sticking to a certain formula.”
Bryan and Kendra Malia originally met on Myspace in 2006. He lived in New Orleans and she was in New York, and they didn’t even meet face-to-face until 2008, after they had already released a few singles. In 2010 they released the EP Black Earth That Made Me, a collection of songs mostly recorded before they met in person. The record confounded expectations by selling out immediately on pre-order, making it very rare and highly sought after, with copies going on Ebay for upwards of $100. It was reissued in 2011 and still continues to sell in voluminous amounts.
They started playing live in 2009 and rapidly grew a reputation for their captivating performances, usually bringing their own lighting equipment and putting on a spectacular laser show. They have played for crowds of over 800 people in their hometown of N.YC. and toured the U.K. in 2010 in support of their sold-out split 7″ with oOoOO, playing their first shows outside of New York. They have shared the stage with Cold Cave, araabMUZIK, Liturgy, Blank Dogs, Gatekeeper, Blondes, Clams Casino and others. In 2016, Adina Viarengo joined the band as a second vocalist. Malia died in 2019.
Dwelling on the outskirts of pop music, White Ring grew up in the Internet age and were exposed to a huge range of music. They have developed a unique style based more on the idea of achieving certain feelings of loss and acceptance while pushing the boundaries of accessibility and musical genre. They have created a piece of art that is brimming with symbolism and underlying tensions, that seduces and scares in equal measure.”
