With Kalamazoo’s The Go Rounds mounting a full-fledged spring tour for the first time in years, we chat with frontman Graham Parsons on all the changes affecting the band and his life, with new music to come.
Back on the Road: The Go Rounds are touring Michigan and the Midwest in March and April. (Photo/Eric Stoike)
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It’s summer 2019 at the Hoxeyville Music Festival.
Dusk has fallen and The Go Rounds are huddled around the silhouette of a tired tour van, gearing up for a peculiar silent disco performance. A few feet away, under a cavernous white tent, a crowd with glowing headphones begins to form. Virtually no sound onstage. But concealed behind the closed van doors, a fleet of amplifiers buzz in secrecy.
The Kalamazoo band is about to take the stage for a silent disco performance – a unique experience where the instruments are routed directly to personalized headphones that are then distributed to the audience. With virtually no sound coming from the stage, the result is immersive, surreal and communal.
That was the last time The Go Rounds toured beyond weekend runs. Since then, the world has changed, and so has the band.
The current lineup – which includes Drew Tyner, Charlie Millard, Sam Woldenberg and Parsons (with guitarist Mike Savina joining the band for some select shows) – have been chipping away in the studio since January on a new album.
The Go Rounds: The 2026 Lineup (Courtesy Photo)
The psychedelic pop and “twang-rock” band is gearing up for a two-week tour around Michigan and the Midwest, playing Boyne Mountain in Boyne Falls on Friday (March 20), Milliken Auditorium in Traverse City on March 27, Rosza Center in Houghton on April 3 and Calumet Theater in Calumet on April 4, followed by shows in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa and Illinois. The Go Rounds return to Michigan on April 10 to play The Livery in Benton Harbor, with subsequent tour stops April 11 at The Avenue in Lansing and April 30 at Bell’s Brewery Eccentric Cafe in Kalamazoo. Get links to tickets and the full schedule online here.
Frontman Graham Parsons recently carved out some time to share his newfound excitement for the road. Speaking over the phone from his home in Kalamazoo, between gardening, cooking and music making, Parsons discusses creativity, loss and curiosity in this Local Spins Q&A.
Local Spins: How are you preparing for this upcoming tour, musically, mentally, spiritually?
Parsons: It’s a lot of appreciation and gratitude. Just just feeling like I’m looking at it through a new lens. When we were touring heavily, sometimes we’d get home, do basic maintenance and mostly just rest and recover and then you’re back out again. But now there’s been all this time to really reorient to what it means to to play music, not just with with a band and with other people but in rooms filled with strangers or with fans who know and love our music. So I’m really thankful for the sort of fresh perspective. Feeling pretty much 100 percent excitement and very little dread.
Local Spins: If you sat down with the Graham who started The Go Rounds 17 years ago, what do you think that conversation would entail?
Parsons: Reminding that younger person to stay connected to the joy at the center of the thing they’re doing. To stay connected to the inevitability of hardship, you know just that concept. That’s gonna come and you’re gonna feel defeated and you’re gonna feel like giving up. But what’s most important is just small moments. Whether it’s a skin-tingling musical moment or rekindling of a connection with a venue or with people on the road. Not getting lost in the sauce of the difficulty that is making a life out of music and creativity. Because it’s hard and I think now it’s even harder. It’s damn near impossible to make a full-time living as an independent artist. Things have just changed so much and so embracing change. Telling that person to embrace more dynamic possibilities. And staying connected to all the things I’m interested in beyond music. Remembering to always put my relationships and my friendships first. To be always making sure those are healthy because the rest follows.
Local Spins: You mentioned trying to maintain sight of joy. I’m curious if there were times you can recall where you did not feel connected to joy?
Parsons: We were touring like between 100 and 130 shows a year. It’s not that I was consciously unhappy. It’s that I was living in a more unconscious way. I wasn’t noticing myself missing the moments of joy. I think someone like me, you know my crutch at times can be to just do things. To just to fill the void a little bit. Even if they’re good things. That can still be a crutch. So just recognizing when I’m doing things because I’m motivated by excitement or a passion or curiosity versus just doing things in order to avoid some difficult feelings.
‘Fresh Perspective’ on Touring: The Go Rounds feel rejuvenated for upcoming shows. (Photo/Eric Stoike)
Local Spins: How have you changed in the span of time since The Go Rounds last tour?
Parsons: Unfortunately for me, my life has been really shaped by loss. I lost my brother at the very end of 2020, who was my closest person. And that really rattled me and made me pretty angry. But through that I was sort of offered this lesson in priorities. Focusing more on the other than I focus on myself. Then, of course, going through Gitis Baggs’ brain cancer journey and then him passing away just a few months ago. He passed away on the same day that my childhood best friend and longtime collaborator Dan Schmidt, who we named the nonprofit after. Which is just so profound to me and I was there with him and his family. I saw him take his last breath. There is a huge void and a huge sadness in it. But I’ve gained a lot of strength. And in many ways I feel a lot of gratitude. I’m less afraid of showing up for others. I’m immersing myself in what others have going on. It’s just a great practice in life in general and it gets us out of the trappings of our own sort of mundane struggles, which are gonna be there regardless of whether we focus on them or not.
Local Spins: When you’re not making music, how do you like to spend your days?
Parsons: I like to tinker around the house. I like to garden. I like to spend time with my loved ones — my partner, Holly, and her son, Ezra. I like to be with my parents and my elders as much as I possibly can up in the Keweenaw. I love to cook. I love to garden. I’m into permaculture design and models of food sovereignty. I manage a community garden in Kalamazoo and I’m starting a community nursery initiative where we’ll have events where people can come and learn about certain native plants and also take a plant home with them. We’ll offer consultation as to where to put it on their property and how to take care of it. It’s the concept of planting a tree. Symbolically for me, it’s how I think about art too. Thinking about legacy or thinking about ways that you could impact people and spaces and communities beyond your body and beyond your time on earth. Planting something that bears delicious fruit is one of one of the most radical and compassionate things you can do for people of future generations. And I think it’s the same with music, you know, I think planting those seeds, creating things that live on beyond us.
VIDEO: The Go Rounds at Irish Off Ionia (3/14/26)
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