The songs feel different, says Henry LoConti. But they’re not going to stop.
The namesake and singer-guitarist of funk-rock band LoConti continues forward in his music career after his brother Michael LoConti, the band’s drummer and cofounder, died in a late-February car accident.
The loss, sudden and devastating, shook the foundations of Henry’s life and the band itself. LoConti went on hiatus and canceled its gigs in the months after Michael’s death. In the background, the bandmates gathered in their grief and, together, found solace in their music.
“It's just in us to play. We're musicians,” Henry says. “It was kind of our first and most natural response to let these songs heal us.”
LoConti decided to keep the band going, easing its way back onto local stages with a few free summer concerts. On Friday, Sept. 12, it will play its official comeback performance with a headlining show at the Grog Shop. A handful of other gigs are scheduled throughout September and October. Billy Carrick, who helped produce the band’s early recordings, joins as the group’s current drummer.
When they first formed LoConti, Henry and Michael — plus singer-percussionist Erin Donovan, guitarist Trevor Carmichael, keyboardist Jonah Benchek, saxophonist Eric Sconyers and bassist Leo Traum — found quick success in Northeast Ohio’s music scene, becoming a regular presence at local venues and building a fanbase for its beachy, easygoing original music showcased on albums Cherry Red (2023) and the heavier Reflections (2024).
The seven-piece band catapulted in prominence as it was named the Best New Artist in the Cleveland Music Awards and Cleveland Scene’s Best Band, along with Cleveland Magazine’s Best Family Band in 2024.
After all of that attention, members of LoConti funneled their energy into recording new music — the makings of a third album — at the tail end of 2024 and early 2025. Those new songs are still in the works, but Henry is taking his time with the project, allowing it to twist and morph away from its celebratory and energetic beginnings and into something that feels more reflective and right for the group today.
“The genre of these songs sometimes don't even matter to me,” he adds. “I mean, I love the songs. I wrote them with Michael.”
Michael recorded drum tracks for seven of the future album’s 12-plus songs. The remainder of the album will make use of other looped drum pieces by Michael, along with recordings of band jam sessions, to keep his presence centered in LoConti.
There is no deadline for the new release, Henry says, though he hopes to have the album out by the end of 2025. The project will be recorded and mixed in-house, like the band did on Cherry Red.
“I’m just going with what feels right,” Henry says. “I'm not rushing anything.”
The brothers grew up in a musical household, surrounded by their parents’ soul, disco, R&B and funk CDs, and around the legacy of their grandfather, Henry “Hank” LoConti, who founded and ran the Cleveland Agora for decades. They learned instruments alongside each other at the ages of 11 and 12.
Now, Henry continues to play on, with a newfound purpose.
“It makes me feel closer to my brother. It's how we got to be so close, me and him,” says Henry, “so I'll do whatever it takes to feel that closeness with Michael.”
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