B.F. Raid (Boston's Final Raid) shorter version | Matt Connarton Unleashed

B.F. Raid (Boston's Final Raid) shorter version | Matt Connarton Unleashed

Setting the Stage for BF Raid

0:25 Speaker 1: Whiz kid on the new grid One night I won a high bid I cashed in my silver tongue before the night was done In an alley or a condo Living somewhere I don't know I made my way back home by the first light sun.

0:52 Speaker 2: You're trying to delete.

0:54 Speaker 3: My past All of your outfits.

0:57 Speaker 4: Are way too fast I left my mark on these dirty streets And every blade of grass beneath your feet.

1:12 Speaker 2: In the boneyard we.

1:14 Speaker 4: Drink Lost it alone to think About how unfair the deck life dealt was stacked We hit Holloway, New Hall on Lisbon Punch drunk on wisdom Punching above my weight and always punching back.

1:43 Speaker 2: All of your outfits are way too.

1:45 Speaker 4: Bad I left my mark on these dirty streets And every blade of grass beneath you.

2:41 Speaker 2: Thank you.

3:01 Speaker 4: And my disorientation.

3:03 Speaker 3: Stepping back in time, I'm thinking about every obligation.

3:07 Speaker 2: I take a drink with obstinance at the graveside of my innocence.

3:11 Speaker 1: A eulogy of insolence directed at their ambivalence.

3:16 Speaker 2: Ambivalence.

3:27 Speaker 4: There was no way to bluff You had to stand tough Ignoring all the insults.

3:37 Speaker 2: They would pelt Thank you. Thank you.

4:30 Speaker 5: Oh yeah, if that doesn't get you moving, check your pulse, you might be dead. I love it. That is Punch Drunk. The band is BF Raid, Boston's Final Raid. And we've got a couple of the guys from the band here with us. We're going to talk to them in just a moment. But welcome, everybody. Let's get these mics on. So we've got Bruce Owens returning to the show and Jamie Forbes with us as well from the band, BF Raid, Boston's Final Raid. How are you doing, guys?

4:53 Speaker 6: Doing well.

4:53 Speaker 7: What's up, Matt?

4:54 Speaker 5: Welcome, welcome. Combat Zone. So this is very new.

The Birth of "Combat Zone"

4:57 Speaker 5: This just came out end of July, correct?

4:59 Speaker 1: Yep.

5:00 Speaker 5: The album Combat Zone? Fantastic. Yeah, I listened to the whole thing. Really good.

5:04 Speaker 6: I love it.

5:04 Speaker 5: Oh, and I got, of course, the package you sent with the flash drive and everything.

5:08 Speaker 8: It's funny because since the new album came out, and I didn't tell Jamie yet, I was checking out our merch.

5:17 Speaker 6: Logs, and our merch is blowing up. Good.

5:20 Speaker 5: Excellent.

5:20 Speaker 6: Big time. I mean, numbers that are really impressive, so.

5:25 Speaker 7: I think with the shirt, whether you like the band or not, it's an effing cool shirt.

5:29 Speaker 5: It is a cool shirt. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, absolutely.

5:32 Speaker 7: And what we had to do to, or what Bruce had to do to get the image. Yeah.

5:37 Speaker 6: You were involved in a lot of that too, man. Well, no, I mean, you had to get that.

5:42 Speaker 5: What did you have to do to get the image?

The Journey of Album Artwork

5:43 Speaker 8: Well, when we first started looking for the album art, Matt is big against AI.

5:50 Speaker 5: Okay.

5:50 Speaker 8: So we were like, okay, we're going to use a photograph. And we found a photograph of, LaGrange Street in the 1970s with a 70s car on one side. It was daybreak, so there was a prostitute walking down the street, ending her shift, and a blue-collar guy walking in the other direction, starting his.

6:11 Speaker 6: We thought it was perfect.

6:14 Speaker 8: It took me a month to hunt down the guy that owned the rights to the picture. And he wanted us to pay pretty much a recording budget to license the picture.

6:29 Speaker 7: Was this the MIT professor?

6:31 Speaker 8: Yeah, I don't even want to say what school he's from, but he wanted a lot of money. So we kept hunting. We found a picture we liked in the City of Boston archives of a theater in 1963. City of Boston said, go ahead, use a free album for free.

6:49 Speaker 5: Oh, no kidding.

6:50 Speaker 9: Excellent.

6:51 Speaker 6: Yeah, we were like, great.

6:53 Speaker 8: We put it on some of the merch and it started getting rejected because there was a woman on one of the posters in the theater that was scantily dressed.

7:04 Speaker 5: Okay.

7:05 Speaker 8: And AI kept saying, oh, that's a naked woman.

7:09 Speaker 6: Oh, okay. And it kept bouncing it.

7:11 Speaker 8: So we were like, we don't want to upload the album cover to platforms and have the same problem because it isn't a human looking at it and the album's getting rejected.

7:22 Speaker 1: Right.

7:23 Speaker 8: So we finally found the cover art we're using from this guy, Robert Post.

7:27 Speaker 7: Okay.

7:28 Speaker 6: He was awesome. He worked with us. He gave us a great price.

7:31 Speaker 5: Yeah.

7:32 Speaker 8: So the Post artwork's on the front. City of Boston artwork is in the back. And another guy gave us artwork for the inside of the CD.

7:45 Speaker 5: Okay. Okay. No, it came out great.

7:48 Speaker 1: Yeah.

7:48 Speaker 7: Absolutely. Wasn't there any problems? Wasn't there some problems with this platform-wise? In the beginning?

7:53 Speaker 6: Yeah, well, now they got bounced because of the City of Boston picture.

7:58 Speaker 7: No, this one that we have now.

7:59 Speaker 6: No, it's been smooth, yeah.

8:01 Speaker 5: Oh, good, good.

8:02 Speaker 7: So it was a process just to have the art.

8:04 Speaker 6: Yeah.

8:05 Speaker 7: But we were dead set on Combat Zone.

8:08 Speaker 5: Yeah, well worth it.

8:10 Speaker 7: Everybody says, oh, the naked eye.

8:12 Speaker 8: Yeah, and even if you don't know the band, I don't think there's any T-shirts out there with the naked eye in the Pilgrim Theater on it.

8:19 Speaker 7: Right.

8:19 Speaker 8: So anyone who's like, a Bostonian just like sees the shirt and they love it.

8:25 Speaker 5: Oh yeah.

8:26 Speaker 1: Yeah.

8:26 Speaker 5: No doubt. No doubt. Awesome.

8:28 Speaker 7: I've had several people like, again, like, you know, friends of ours that are not into the band be like, I want that shirt. Yeah. That's great. You know, like an NWO shirt, you.

8:36 Speaker 5: Know what I'm saying?

8:37 Speaker 6: I had one.

8:39 Speaker 7: I almost wore one because I heard you were into it.

8:42 Speaker 2: Yeah.

8:42 Speaker 7: It was, I was like, uh, well, anything.

8:44 Speaker 5: Kiss related is a good choice too. My favorite band.

Boston's Changing Landscape

8:48 Speaker 8: And the cool thing about having that naked eye on the cover is, is um naked eye was on washington street in boston okay its address was 666 washington street oh no kidding yeah the most evil notorious club in boston.

9:06 Speaker 10: Yeah 666 oh wow oh that's cool um i work in the seaport so like i i took a stroll over there a couple of weeks ago just to yeah try to feel it yeah.

9:17 Speaker 7: I mean there's still some structure there but it's like The seaport alone was parking lots 13 years ago, and now it's a whole city. Oh, yeah. But the ghosts are there in the combat zone.

9:29 Speaker 5: Right, right. Yeah, no doubt. No doubt. So is that kind of the theme of the album? I mean, tell us about the album.

9:36 Speaker 8: So not really by design, but it evolved to be what I call an audio documentary about Boston.

9:46 Speaker 5: Okay.

9:46 Speaker 6: Because a lot of the songs are really autobiographical.

9:50 Speaker 5: Yeah.

9:51 Speaker 8: With the exception of Bullets from the Board. But even the songs that Billy wrote are really about his past experiences.

10:08 Speaker 8: Punch Drunk is about our hometown.

10:10 Speaker 7: Ultimately, it starts in our hometown. Yeah. On our block that Bruce and I grew up on and Billy on the other side. Yeah.

10:18 Speaker 6: We grew up in the same neighborhood.

10:19 Speaker 5: Oh, you did?

10:20 Speaker 7: Yeah.

10:20 Speaker 6: But Jamie's younger than me.

10:22 Speaker 9: Yeah.

10:23 Speaker 8: So, you know, we didn't really meet each other until a little bit later. You know, when I was in my early 20s, Jamie was in his late teens.

10:33 Speaker 7: Yeah.

10:33 Speaker 6: So we grew up with the same kind of experience.

10:36 Speaker 5: Right.

10:37 Speaker 8: And people so... Punch Drunk is about, I was driving through Malden and in its core, it's a very crude song.

10:48 Speaker 7: Yeah.

10:49 Speaker 8: But I've hidden the crudeness of what it's about, but I was driving through Malden and I was remembering an encounter with a young lady as I was driving by her house.

11:00 Speaker 5: Yeah.

11:01 Speaker 8: Then I get a couple blocks away and I can remember an encounter with another one a few blocks down and then I drove by our old rehearsal studio, and I'm looking around, and I can still see that the city has totally changed.

11:18 Speaker 6: But there were like little places where.

11:19 Speaker 8: I could remember maybe a fight here or a kiss there and still kind of left my mark in the city.

11:27 Speaker 6: So our hometown has totally changed.

11:30 Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah.

11:31 Speaker 7: Just three days ago, I was on the phone with them, because my family house is still in that town. Yeah. And I was like, Bruce, what do you... I went to all the areas that are mentioned in the song that are all... But I was just sending him video footage, just like clips.

11:49 Speaker 1: Right.

11:49 Speaker 7: Because he was trying to put together a video and he did end up using some.

11:53 Speaker 5: Okay.

11:54 Speaker 7: But like the boneyard is mentioned in the song. Bruce, was the boneyard the graveyard or was it in back of the graveyard?

12:03 Speaker 1: Yeah.

12:04 Speaker 8: It was a graveyard. If you left out high school... There were train tracks right there.

12:10 Speaker 7: Yeah.

12:11 Speaker 6: Which had a live train back in the day.

12:12 Speaker 5: Oh, okay.

12:13 Speaker 8: So you come out of the high school, go by the tracks, and there was a hole that probably the generation before me had ripped in the chain link fence.

12:22 Speaker 6: You could go into the graveyard.

12:23 Speaker 7: Oh, okay.

12:24 Speaker 8: And you were hidden away and people could smoke various things or drink beers back there.

12:29 Speaker 7: Yeah.

12:30 Speaker 8: And it's so funny that like we would, it was called the Boneyard because they, free roll was called a bone back then.

12:38 Speaker 7: Okay.

12:40 Speaker 8: And people go to the boneyard and like Jamie was like younger than me. And by the time I had moved on and I was hanging out in clubs, him and his teenage friends were drinking in the boneyard.

12:54 Speaker 4: Yeah.

12:54 Speaker 8: And it was like a past dawn kind of thing from, yeah. And I'm sure this kids that are drinking in the boneyard right now.

13:01 Speaker 1: Right.

13:01 Speaker 5: Right.

13:01 Speaker 8: So it's kind of, um, a cool little area, but it's right in the middle of downtown.

13:05 Speaker 5: No kidding.

13:06 Speaker 8: And the cops can definitely see what's going on, but they just kind of leave people alone.

13:10 Speaker 5: Oh, really?

13:10 Speaker 1: Yeah.

13:11 Speaker 6: We know where you are. You're not causing trouble.

13:13 Speaker 5: Right, right.

13:14 Speaker 6: Yeah, I don't know.

13:15 Speaker 7: Yeah, yeah. It's turned into a condo haven, you know what I mean? Because it's right next to the Orange Line, so it's just like the workforce.

13:22 Speaker 5: Oh, that makes sense.

13:23 Speaker 10: Yeah.

13:23 Speaker 7: In our day, there was generations of families that have been there for 50, 60 years.

13:29 Speaker 1: Yeah.

13:29 Speaker 7: That's no more.

13:30 Speaker 5: Yeah.

13:31 Speaker 8: Our dads and Billy's dad went to Malden High before we did.

13:34 Speaker 5: Oh, really?

13:34 Speaker 7: Yeah. Oh, wow.

13:35 Speaker 1: Yeah.

13:37 Speaker 5: No kidding. No kidding.

Recording Process and Studio Inspiration

13:38 Speaker 5: Um, so where did you record this? Because this, this album took a long time, right? Like it seems like, like.

13:43 Speaker 7: Almost two years and you got, yeah.

13:45 Speaker 5: And you guys really, and part of why I know that is because you guys were really documenting it on, on social media as you were recording.

13:51 Speaker 7: Well, as soon as we finished rated again, we went right to work. It was almost like having a second child before thinking about it. It's like, if we don't do this now, we might not do it. So like we were just committed to it, you know, we're not spring chicken. So we just, um, we went right to work on the second one.

14:08 Speaker 5: Yeah.

14:08 Speaker 7: Right after rated again was released.

14:10 Speaker 1: Wow.

14:11 Speaker 6: So we used the same studio, um, the record co.

14:14 Speaker 7: Okay.

14:15 Speaker 8: And, um, we liked the place. It feels like home to us. And we used the same engineer who is a.

14:23 Speaker 7: Genius.

14:24 Speaker 4: Yeah.

14:24 Speaker 7: If it wasn't for the engineer, you know what I mean? It wouldn't have been an automatic. We would have went back there, but yeah, since he, you know, he was like the fifth member.

14:34 Speaker 5: Okay.

14:34 Speaker 9: Yeah.

14:35 Speaker 7: And it was just like, He knows our nuances, knows our moods. Yep, yep. But most important, he knows my drums. Like, he'd mix my drums better than any project I've ever been in. Yeah. Because he's a drummer.

14:49 Speaker 5: Oh, perfect.

14:50 Speaker 7: I had that, like, advantage.

14:51 Speaker 5: Perfect, yeah.

14:52 Speaker 7: Yeah.

14:53 Speaker 8: He really knows us well and what we want and how to communicate with us. And I'll give him a shout-out. He actually just opened up his own recording studio.

15:02 Speaker 5: Oh, okay.

15:03 Speaker 6: And Walt damn called him. One Horse Recording.

15:07 Speaker 8: It's the old Woolly Mammoth Studios that was owned by David Minaham from the Neighborhoods.

15:13 Speaker 5: Oh, no kidding.

15:14 Speaker 8: So he bought that, and it was one last track I had to do. And I went over to the new studio to do that track.

15:23 Speaker 7: Yeah.

15:24 Speaker 6: And it's beautiful. It's really nice and was easy to work in.

15:28 Speaker 7: Well, you can't leave out where the record co was.

15:32 Speaker 1: Oh, yeah.

15:32 Speaker 6: So that was the inspiration for a lot of the album, too.

15:35 Speaker 5: Yeah.

15:36 Speaker 7: Right in the heart of Methadone Mile.

15:39 Speaker 5: Oh, really? No kidding.

15:41 Speaker 7: Right, you're in the middle of it.

15:43 Speaker 4: Yeah.

15:43 Speaker 7: It was like this little, you know, gem in this, you know, dark place.

15:47 Speaker 5: Yeah.

15:48 Speaker 7: And it did inspire, you know, a lot, you know, a lot of the attitude, the nastiness, you know, the ugliness of the world, too.

15:56 Speaker 9: Yeah.

15:57 Speaker 7: But it's really in the middle of Methadone.

16:00 Speaker 8: The greatest show really was kind of born... during the Rated Again sessions because there's these giant windows in the recording studio that look out right at the middle of Mass and Cass, and we could watch drug deals every day.

16:18 Speaker 7: All day. Oh, I had some recorded. Bruce was like, no, no, no, no.

16:21 Speaker 5: Really?

16:22 Speaker 1: Yeah.

16:22 Speaker 7: Like, stuff that would go good with a video, but it would have been in poor taste.

16:25 Speaker 9: Yeah, yeah.

16:27 Speaker 8: And one of the things was we would see, you know, these young prostitutes, like, 20 feet away from us on the other side of the glass.

16:37 Speaker 6: And at first you have this voyeuristic kind of thing.

16:40 Speaker 7: Yeah.

16:41 Speaker 8: And then after a while, you kind of get sick to your stomach because these girls are whacked out on drugs. They can barely stand up. There's strangers picking them up. And that's what really got me to write the greatest show in town because, you know, these girls, they're treated as adult entertainment.

17:01 Speaker 5: Right, right.

17:02 Speaker 8: And I know some people have the libertarian idea about prostitution and people can do with their body what they want to do.

17:09 Speaker 7: Yeah.

17:10 Speaker 8: But most of these girls that are out there aren't doing it because they want to do it.

17:15 Speaker 7: Right.

17:15 Speaker 6: A lot of times they're being forced to be out there.

17:17 Speaker 5: Trafficked, yeah.

17:18 Speaker 8: And what really hits me the hardest, and I kind of make a point of it in the song, is probably like 90% of these girls have been victims of sexual abuse.

17:30 Speaker 7: Mm-hmm.

17:31 Speaker 6: And it hits me.

17:32 Speaker 8: Hard that when they're young girls and they're abused, all of us want to get the pitchforks, grab the abuser and drag them out and do whatever to them.

17:42 Speaker 7: Right.

17:43 Speaker 8: They hit 18, they kicked out of the system, and they end up on the streets, and now they're a cautionary tale. A lot of people drive by and point and laugh, and it's like, well, why did you care so much about that girl two years ago when she was 17 years old? 16 but now that she's 18 19 now it's a joke and it's not.

18:04 Speaker 5: I mean that's a really good insight you know.

18:06 Speaker 8: They're in rough shape and uh and not all of them look like junkies either like somewhere in the early stages that you would you'd.

18:15 Speaker 7: Wow you know what i mean right right i think the thing that disturbed me the most about those visuals was um you know those addicts having no control of their body you know and having you know they would just Yeah. I know what you mean.

18:31 Speaker 5: Yeah.

18:32 Speaker 8: And the freaky thing was, it was a Ford 150 at Boston Police, if you're listening, that would pull up in the alley across from the studio every day.

18:45 Speaker 6: At 10, I mean, 11 a.m. on the dot.

18:48 Speaker 5: Really?

18:49 Speaker 8: And it would pull in in a linewood form, and they would just start selling things.

18:55 Speaker 7: Really?

18:56 Speaker 8: And it was every day at, and I'm like, if I can see this, and the police station is down the street, why don't they see this?

19:02 Speaker 5: Right.

19:03 Speaker 8: And every day at 11, the guy would pull into the same alley. Everyone would line up. Noontime, he'd do another loop around the block and boom. And he was also coming back and checking on the girls.

19:16 Speaker 7: Okay. Wow.

19:17 Speaker 8: Whether he was supplying them with fentanyl or he's trafficking them. But it was like this one truck. And then we go back to the studio months later, same truck, 11 o'clock on the dot.

19:29 Speaker 7: Wow. So mind you, this is the environment we recorded both these records. Yeah.

19:35 Speaker 5: Yeah.

19:36 Speaker 6: And the inside of the studio is gorgeous.

19:38 Speaker 7: Yeah.

19:39 Speaker 6: But you're looking through that glass and it's like, wow.

19:42 Speaker 5: Wow. That's incredible. I think we should play another.

The Greatest Show in Town

19:47 Speaker 5: What do you guys want to play?

19:48 Speaker 7: You you can pick on the subject what the greatest show fit there for what we were just talking about yeah.

19:52 Speaker 8: You might as well play the greatest show since we were just talking about it and what it's about and um it was also inspired loosely on the robin benedict murders okay so robin benedict got murdered in the combat zone okay by a tufts professor It was a huge case in Boston in the 80s.

20:12 Speaker 6: Okay.

20:12 Speaker 8: So part of the song is about the last verse. It's about how these girls are kind of nameless and throw away, and they just disappear.

20:20 Speaker 7: Yeah. Okay.

20:22 Speaker 5: All right, let's give this a spin. This is the opening track on the album, by the way. The album is Combat Zone by B.F. Raid, Boston's final raid, and this is the greatest show in town.

20:52 Speaker 2: Speaking from lands unknown. This is no illusion. This is your once in a lifetime chance. Like a traveling salesman, you drag your.

21:00 Speaker 3: Way from town to.

21:12 Speaker 2: Town. Making a fuss on the back of the bus Just waiting to touch down.

21:27 Speaker 3: Maybe write a letter Let them.

21:30 Speaker 2: Know you're doing fine.

21:33 Speaker 4: But instead you drift away With a bottle of truck stock wine.

21:39 Speaker 11: Screaming like a carnival barker Working.

21:47 Speaker 2: Off your latest marker Gentlemen who gather round To see the greatest show in.

21:55 Speaker 9: Town Puppies are for remembrance But they can also help you forget.

22:05 Speaker 2: They can even hide the shame and pain Of what's not happened yet.

22:12 Speaker 4: Your eyes try to force a tear Once you've cried yourself dry years ago So you climb aboard another bus that moves another.

22:23 Speaker 11: Day away from home.

22:26 Speaker 2: All alone. Screaming like a carnival barker.

22:31 Speaker 1: Working off your latest marker.

22:33 Speaker 2: You're the best deal to be found. And the greatest show in town.

23:17 Speaker 9: Working off your latest marker.

23:22 Speaker 2: You're the best deal to be found. I'm the greatest show in town.

23:29 Speaker 4: Hey, babe.

23:30 Speaker 3: Looking for some fun tonight?

23:34 Speaker 9: You looking to party?

23:35 Speaker 2: Let me put on a little show for you.

23:38 Speaker 3: Back at the hotel.

23:42 Speaker 2: People's beauty. Thank you.

23:50 Speaker 3: Or the damage is deeper than they outwardly see.

23:56 Speaker 9: They don't know she's suffered years of brutality.

24:02 Speaker 3: People get in touch with the argument.

24:18 Speaker 11: Somewhere along the road Well, no one's.

24:24 Speaker 3: There to shed a tear They would have dead only.

24:27 Speaker 9: Known Everyone that use you up Moves on without a soul A.

24:36 Speaker 1: Soul, a soul.

24:39 Speaker 2: Not you, you're staying put, cause you have nowhere left to go. Oh no, oh no!

24:44 Speaker 3: You scream just.

24:46 Speaker 9: Like a carnival barker, and your maker has your final marker.

24:53 Speaker 2: You were the best in town, and the greatest show in town.

25:11 Speaker 5: That is the greatest show in town. That is the opening track of the new album, Combat Zone, from BF Raid, Boston's final raid. And we've got Bruce and Jamie from the band here with us in studio. And I know we were kind of talking off air. That's a very strong, strong opening track. And Bruce, you were just telling me, too, that listeners might, fans might recognize that voice from the first album, the voice of the female band. In that song.

25:37 Speaker 8: Yeah, so on the opener for Rated Again, Hollywood with Snakes, we used a friend of ours, Jen Cosgrove. Shout out to Jen. And she's an actress. She's been in, I don't know if you've seen Blown Away with Mark Wahlberg.

25:53 Speaker 1: Oh, yeah, yeah.

25:54 Speaker 5: She's in that.

25:54 Speaker 6: She plays the nurse.

25:55 Speaker 5: Oh, no kidding.

25:56 Speaker 8: She's been in a bunch of stuff, but she does voiceover work and she DJs. So she has that great voice. So, yeah, we brought Jen back to do the voice.

26:03 Speaker 7: I didn't know that. Now I have to watch the movie. Yeah, yeah.

26:06 Speaker 8: She's the nurse that gives Mark Wahlberg the aspirin with the thick Boston accent.

26:11 Speaker 5: Okay.

26:11 Speaker 6: Yeah, yeah.

26:14 Speaker 5: Jamie, we were talking off air, too.

Wrestling World Exposure

26:16 Speaker 5: Well, actually, Bruce was telling me about this before you got here, because you got here a little bit before you, about you've been getting some, the band has been getting some exposure on the Coach and Bro Show.

26:26 Speaker 7: Yes, yes. Vince Russo and Jonathan Coachman. I mean, I've been friends with Vince for probably about a decade.

26:33 Speaker 5: Oh, no kidding.

26:34 Speaker 7: And it all started, because you know the heat he gets.

26:36 Speaker 5: Oh, yeah.

26:37 Speaker 7: Judy bagwell on a pole match right he gets blamed for the death of wcw so like he gets attacked a lot yeah on social media yeah so i used to go in there and defend him because i thought his creative and his writing was great yeah and after due time he started taking notice and he was like hey hey thank you i appreciate that next you know he's following me okay next thing you know i'm in his fantasy baseball league or whatever and like you know so we we've corresponded over the years yeah He collects albums.

27:08 Speaker 7: He likes music. He likes Kiss.

27:10 Speaker 5: He's a big Kiss fan.

27:11 Speaker 7: Yes. So we just... I would talk to him about non-wrestling things.

27:16 Speaker 1: Yeah.

27:17 Speaker 7: So he started this show with Coach about a year, year and a half ago.

27:23 Speaker 4: Yeah.

27:24 Speaker 7: And they're the ones who don't glaze. They're constructive criticism where WWE, AEW, they want people to just... Put them over.

27:37 Speaker 9: Yeah.

27:38 Speaker 7: So they have an objective show. So Coach got fired from Sirius, from Busted Open, and now they're in the process of trying to do their own radio show. But through the connection, I sent them some merch and some albums and the music, and they said, we're going to use this. So before the show starts, they run it through. And then they mention us all the time.

28:03 Speaker 5: Oh, fantastic.

28:04 Speaker 7: So with the new album they've been waiting for, so as they keep growing, we're going to be their music people because it's not going to cost them anything for one. But they're also helping. Vince is helping me out. He was here in May, did some convention, and I went out and met him. Yeah. And he's working with ICP, with JCW right now.

28:24 Speaker 9: Yep.

28:25 Speaker 7: And they're trying to get that. So if they come to Boston... We could end up being on a show with ICP.

28:31 Speaker 5: Oh, that's cool.

28:33 Speaker 7: With those juggalos, they're crazy.

28:34 Speaker 5: Right, right.

28:36 Speaker 7: But they got quite a following. So I'm trying to keep that content. Bruce does all the promotion.

28:42 Speaker 4: Yeah.

28:42 Speaker 7: So I try to do it from a different angle.

28:44 Speaker 1: Yeah.

28:45 Speaker 7: So that way we can complement each other. Yeah. And just work different avenues. So Vince and Coach have been really big supporters of us.

28:52 Speaker 5: Oh, that's excellent.

28:53 Speaker 4: Yeah.

28:53 Speaker 7: If you watch the show, there'll be mentions.

28:55 Speaker 9: Yeah.

28:55 Speaker 5: I'll have to check it out.

28:57 Speaker 7: Because I go by an alias. I work at a law firm, so they don't want me using my real name on socials.

29:03 Speaker 5: Oh, no kidding.

29:04 Speaker 7: So I'm JimmyFingers19. Okay. That's my alias. No kidding.

29:09 Speaker 5: Oh, wow. That's cool.

29:10 Speaker 7: That's cool.

29:11 Speaker 5: Very good.

29:11 Speaker 6: Very good.

29:12 Speaker 5: Yeah, I'll have to check that out.

29:13 Speaker 7: That's awesome.

Promotion Strategies and Merchandise Success

29:16 Speaker 5: Any other unusual sort of avenues for promotion that you guys have done?

29:21 Speaker 6: Oh, yeah. You know, My background is pretty much marketing.

29:26 Speaker 1: Yeah.

29:27 Speaker 6: And that's been since, like, high school.

29:29 Speaker 8: I worked in a print shop in high school, so BFRA always had the best flyers and stickers and things of that nature.

29:36 Speaker 1: Yeah.

29:36 Speaker 6: So we've been....

29:41 Speaker 8: Blessed, you know, as far as radio promotion. A lot of the local shows like New England Rock and Metal Radio and the WNES just picked us up.

29:56 Speaker 7: Good.

29:57 Speaker 8: And then a lot of the international stations are now picking us up. And we got picked up by another station in Mexico this week.

30:04 Speaker 7: Oh, excellent.

30:05 Speaker 8: That contacted us out of the blue. And it's a pretty big show that's been around for 40 years.

30:10 Speaker 6: So it's funny.

30:12 Speaker 8: Two years ago when we sat here, a friend of ours was in Paper Jam and said to Sheila and Tony, hey, you should check out this band, Be Afraid.

30:23 Speaker 6: Yeah.

30:24 Speaker 8: And they did the write-up on us. And they said, oh, you should check out Matt's show. And your show was the first show we did.

30:31 Speaker 6: Yeah.

30:31 Speaker 8: So it was just like a project from us for us. And then after we did Paper Jam and You, people started contacting us.

30:40 Speaker 6: And we're like, wow, what is this? And it just started to take off.

30:43 Speaker 5: Yeah.

30:44 Speaker 8: And now with the second album, the momentum is kind of crazy because our streaming stats are beyond what we expected.

30:53 Speaker 6: That's great.

30:55 Speaker 8: Like I was telling Jamie earlier, our merch sales are through the roof, and it's good and it's sad because we put merch out there for pretty much at cost.

31:05 Speaker 6: We make nothing on merch.

31:06 Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah.

31:07 Speaker 8: So we want to just make it available, and I'm like, wow, you know, if I mark that up a little bit. You know, but it's just good that people are buying shirts and mugs and listening to the music and stuff. So, yeah, we use every avenue you can think of.

31:20 Speaker 7: So speaking of the merch, like now my Jeep is– filled with shirts yeah and i'll pop them out you know and other um wherever i'm at you know people say hey you got that shirt because because what we do on our site is we take pictures of people holding up our shirt and now that library is getting big yeah so that people want the shirt yeah but back to this you know talking about the promotion part like that he's got all of the music thing going so outside of the wrestling thing going i a big fantasy football player so like i have friends over at serious on the football shows they got the stuff nice every now and then they'll play a cut and transition and that's outside the music room but it's still promotion because someone's gonna say who was that yep yeah absolutely they're gonna be able to tell it so like we're complimenting each other by doing different things once again you know what i mean yeah he does way more than i do but i try to help him yeah by doing something different yeah the same thing It's excellent.

32:22 Speaker 8: Jeremy is the one guy in the band that will, like, jump in and give me a hand with the marketing and the promotion, and I can bounce stuff off of him.

32:29 Speaker 7: Yeah.

32:30 Speaker 8: And he'll say, yeah, I like that, or can you change this, can you change that? So it does help having someone to work off of.

32:37 Speaker 5: Absolutely.

32:38 Speaker 7: I think ultimately, Matt, what would be my dream is that, you know, again, we're not under pressure by a record company or management. We, you know... We're a little bit older, so we're doing this for the love of it.

32:54 Speaker 9: Yeah.

32:55 Speaker 7: And then if we have a professional product, which we do, maybe it shows up in a movie.

33:01 Speaker 5: Right.

33:01 Speaker 7: You know what I mean?

33:02 Speaker 1: Yeah.

33:02 Speaker 7: Or maybe sets a scene.

33:04 Speaker 5: Yeah.

33:04 Speaker 7: You know, like.

33:06 Speaker 6: Well, we don't have labor pressure, but we put the pressure on ourselves.

33:09 Speaker 7: Oh, absolutely.

33:10 Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah. No doubt. No doubt.

33:12 Speaker 7: It's not always fun, believe me.

33:13 Speaker 5: Right.

33:14 Speaker 7: We butt horns, but I think it's so far more important because the shows we've done has... Non-existent, but we have a catalog now.

33:23 Speaker 5: Yeah.

33:24 Speaker 7: So I think the next phase for us would be to now play that catalog. And within the time, people are getting to know the material. So if someone shows up to a show, they're going to know, as opposed to like, oh, here's our new song that you've never heard. Exactly. But they're hearing it in its full form now.

33:44 Speaker 5: Right, right. Exactly.

The Making of "Combat Zone"

33:46 Speaker 8: I think the most interesting thing about Combat Zone is how naive we were. heading into the studio to do 10 songs. And it was like, we actually mapped out 10 songs in the first day, which was insane. And we didn't even think, you know, we said, okay, let's do this. And it was kind of funny because we didn't think about our physical limitations.

34:14 Speaker 6: We're still thinking like we're 20.

34:16 Speaker 1: Sure. Sure.

34:17 Speaker 8: And driving home from the first day of 12 hours of playing guitar, I could barely hold my drive, my steering wheel.

34:25 Speaker 10: Wow.

34:26 Speaker 1: Yeah.

34:26 Speaker 8: From Boston to New Hampshire, my hands were like throbbing. I had to get some sleep and be in the studio the next day.

34:34 Speaker 7: Yeah.

34:35 Speaker 9: Yeah.

34:35 Speaker 7: We did two, we scheduled two back to back 12 hour blocks.

34:38 Speaker 5: Good Lord.

34:39 Speaker 6: And, During a snowstorm.

34:41 Speaker 7: Well, the first day wasn't the snowstorm, but like, you know, I had the first days of the drums, right? Yeah. So I had to pound them for 12 hours because it was like, you know, test, you know, sound levels for the first three hours.

34:58 Speaker 5: And that's the most physical instrument. You're using all four limbs.

35:01 Speaker 7: Well, I wasn't thinking about that, but then we had some friction, right? And we didn't start our first track or complete our first track till like 4.30 in the afternoon. And we were there at 10.

35:12 Speaker 9: Yeah.

35:13 Speaker 7: Oh, wow. And then once we hit our stride, we just kept going, kept going. So after the 12 hours, I'm like, what is this?

35:23 Speaker 8: Well, it's funny because I know you're not a sports guy, but I know you know the analogy of when the coach comes out to the mound.

35:30 Speaker 6: And asked the pitcher for the ball.

35:32 Speaker 7: Yeah.

35:32 Speaker 8: So after Billy had been singing for what? About eight hours? I could hear it in his voice.

35:38 Speaker 6: Okay. And I walked into the little.

35:41 Speaker 8: Booth Bill's in.

35:43 Speaker 1: Yeah.

35:43 Speaker 5: Give me the ball.

35:44 Speaker 6: I'm like, Bill, give me the ball. You're done.

35:46 Speaker 7: Yeah.

35:47 Speaker 6: And he's like, really? And I'm like, really?

35:49 Speaker 8: And he's like, okay. So he was done for the day. And then I started to work on guitar parts. And Billy and Matt had left and it's just me and Jamie. And like 1030, Jamie comes into the booth.

36:04 Speaker 6: I'm working. And he's like, Bruce, give me the ball.

36:08 Speaker 8: Really?

36:09 Speaker 6: And I'm like, and he knows me. We've known each other 40 years.

36:13 Speaker 5: He knows my playing.

36:14 Speaker 6: So I didn't even argue with him. And he's like, you know, you're off. And then. my adrenaline was going. I didn't notice.

36:21 Speaker 8: And like I said, it wasn't until I got in the car and I couldn't grab the steering wheel.

36:26 Speaker 6: I'm like, yeah, my hands are shot.

36:28 Speaker 7: Now mind you, this is, this is January, right?

36:31 Speaker 6: Yeah.

36:32 Speaker 7: And more pressure came on us because now the forecasts were in. Now we booked the double 12s.

36:38 Speaker 2: Yeah.

36:38 Speaker 7: And now we know that like the blizzards coming, but we still drove in the next day.

36:44 Speaker 5: I remember seeing this on social media.

36:46 Speaker 9: Yeah.

36:47 Speaker 7: It was like, okay guys, curfew, you guys got to leave at one.

36:51 Speaker 5: Yeah.

36:51 Speaker 7: So that kind of slowed up the process because even if Bill couldn't sing, Bruce and I could have did all our fixes.

36:59 Speaker 4: Sure.

36:59 Speaker 7: You know, sure. Ended up all on loose ends. Like there were points in time where I got the yips. Yeah. Where I was trying to play, you know, a double bass segment that was just pretty basic. Yeah. And I couldn't do it.

37:12 Speaker 9: Yeah.

37:13 Speaker 7: But it wasn't just that. It was like, I couldn't complete a role. Like, My sternum was just on fire. Yeah. And after that first night on 12 Hours, I remember talking to Jamie Rowe, the engineer, and he was like, dude, you just played for 12 hours.

37:32 Speaker 5: Yeah.

37:33 Speaker 7: Because I'm thinking, I was like, oh, my heart's going to stop.

37:35 Speaker 5: Oh, jeez, yeah.

37:36 Speaker 7: I'm like, you know, I'm a hypochondriac, so it's just like a back pain. I'm like, am I going to die out here? And he's like, dude, just go home. Yeah. Take a rest. Yeah. But I mean... But the drums have to be done first because there's a lot of gear to move. Yep. So there was just extra pressure. And the next day I was refreshed. I fixed everything that I had to fix.

37:57 Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah.

37:58 Speaker 7: And then we were kicked out. But then again, that set us back, what, Bruce, a month and a half, two months? Because we had to book again and we couldn't go back till March.

38:07 Speaker 5: Okay.

38:07 Speaker 6: Which there was another snowstorm.

38:09 Speaker 5: Oh, figures. Yeah. Oh, that figures. We should.

38:17 Speaker 7: Oh, yeah.

38:18 Speaker 5: The time is slipping away from us. But let's play another. I do want to play another studio track.

38:23 Speaker 1: Yeah.

38:23 Speaker 5: But you guys can pick whatever.

38:25 Speaker 6: How about Down But Not Out?

38:27 Speaker 5: Yeah, go ahead.

38:27 Speaker 7: Do it up. Yeah. Because that's a quickie.

38:30 Speaker 6: Okay.

38:30 Speaker 1: Yeah.

38:30 Speaker 5: Let's give this a spin. Down But Not Out. And this is from the brand new album from BF Raid, Boston's final raid, Combat Zone. Out now. But let's give this a spin. Down But Not Out.

38:48 Speaker 9: I don't know what it is that you want from my life. All I can say is that I'm trying to keep you satisfied. It's clear that things haven't gone the.

39:05 Speaker 2: Way we planned.

39:06 Speaker 9: I wish you weren't so remiss and gave it one more.

39:10 Speaker 2: Chance without you.

39:11 Speaker 9: If a brand new day without you i'm sure i'll find my way but just in case oh there is any doubt i might be.

39:21 Speaker 4: Down oh but i ain't out treasures pleasures well i could go for some maybe capture a laugh from you all We had fun, this constant back and forth Let's.

39:34 Speaker 9: Finally take it as told Like living with a never-ending case of vertigo The dreams we once had are all but gone I truly thought that what we had would be lifelong But now I know Life adds some time to reflect in your heart of stone And all your recent neglect, but just in case Oh, you have any doubt I.

39:57 Speaker 11: Might be down Oh, but.

40:00 Speaker 3: I ain't out No! Let's go.

40:51 Speaker 2: Thank you.

41:05 Speaker 9: Connection, it's now ceased to be My last wish, relinquish.

41:10 Speaker 4: A habitual grasp on me No clarity, it's blasphemy Endless fights and sleepless nights.

41:16 Speaker 9: Screaming big, you don't get two licks It's too much stress, you could care less Critical, cynical, skeptical, subliminal Radical, binatical, we're.

41:26 Speaker 2: Simply not compatible.

41:46 Speaker 5: Down but not out, and that is from the new album Combat Zone from BF Raid, Boston's final raid, and of course we've got Bruce and Jamie here in studio with us. Guys, this has been wonderful.

Upcoming Plans and Online Presence

41:58 Speaker 5: The time does go quickly. We will get in another track at the end of the segment, but what do you guys have coming up? Are you playing some shows to promote the album, or have you been busy?

42:07 Speaker 8: Everything's really focused on promoting the album right now because.

42:12 Speaker 6: Um, you know, it's been two years of writing, recording.

42:17 Speaker 5: Oh yeah.

42:18 Speaker 6: Um, and just scheduling this. So we're in a.

42:21 Speaker 7: Little burnout right now.

42:22 Speaker 1: Yeah.

42:22 Speaker 6: We're fried.

42:24 Speaker 5: Understandable. Understandable.

42:26 Speaker 8: Jamie and I work together a lot. Me and Jamie work together more than anyone else in the band.

42:31 Speaker 1: Yeah.

42:31 Speaker 8: And it's always been like that in our relationships going back 40 years.

42:35 Speaker 6: Like Jamie will just call me and say, let's work.

42:37 Speaker 8: And even when he was like, you know, 17, 18 year old kid, he would call me up and say, let's put some work in, and it would just be me and Jamie.

42:44 Speaker 1: Yeah.

42:44 Speaker 8: And we haven't even played together, which is really rare, because we're just, like, really cooked.

42:49 Speaker 4: Yeah.

42:50 Speaker 6: But I'm writing.

42:51 Speaker 5: Yeah.

42:52 Speaker 6: I bought a violin.

42:53 Speaker 5: Oh, no kidding.

42:54 Speaker 6: So I'm trying to teach myself violin.

42:56 Speaker 8: Oh, wow.

42:57 Speaker 6: And I picked up an eight-string guitar, so... Cool. There's that. So there's always the creative thing going on.

43:03 Speaker 5: Yeah.

43:03 Speaker 6: But we really haven't gotten together. So right now the focus is.

43:09 Speaker 8: Really focused on promoting the album. I have some ideas if we decided to do something live.

43:15 Speaker 9: Yeah.

43:15 Speaker 6: And I have a couple of promoter friends that have reached out to me.

43:18 Speaker 5: Yeah.

43:20 Speaker 6: But right now the focus is just like getting this music out there.

43:24 Speaker 5: Outstanding.

43:25 Speaker 6: Outstanding.

43:26 Speaker 5: Where should people go online to keep up with everything that you guys are doing?

43:29 Speaker 6: Bfray.com.

43:30 Speaker 7: Okay.

43:30 Speaker 6: So we were lucky enough to get that URL early.

43:33 Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

43:34 Speaker 8: So we have Bfray.com. go to the Facebook page, but, um, be afraid.com. You can stream the music right on our website for free.

43:43 Speaker 7: Yeah.

43:44 Speaker 8: Um, this pictures, the latest news is there. There's us on your show.

43:49 Speaker 7: You've got Instagram too, right?

43:50 Speaker 6: We have Instagram.

43:51 Speaker 8: We have X, we have linked free band camp. So almost every marketing media outlet you can think of, you can find us, but, um, I had a friend sign up for Amazon just to listen to the album this month.

44:06 Speaker 5: Oh, cool.

44:07 Speaker 8: But I told him, you don't have to. You can actually stream it for free on BeFree.com or Bandcamp. And then every once in a while, right now it's like five bucks on Bandcamp, just because a promotional company told us, don't give it away. Charge the five bucks. And then when you do give it away, it has a little bit more value.

44:31 Speaker 7: Right, right.

44:32 Speaker 8: So there's some Bandcamp Fridays where we'll take that five bucks off of there.

44:36 Speaker 10: Oh, okay.

44:38 Speaker 8: And people can just download it for free. But even when it's there for free, I'll see friends throw us like 10 bucks here and there, which is nice because it covers PR a little bit.

44:49 Speaker 4: Yeah.

44:50 Speaker 7: And the Facebook page has like most of the current pictures and the the video documentation and the videos Bruce have been creating for it. So like definitely there's a lot of traffic there. Okay. That you can see more visually.

45:06 Speaker 5: Yeah, absolutely.

45:07 Speaker 6: There's a lot of dumb stuff on there too, which is great.

45:10 Speaker 1: Yeah.

45:11 Speaker 6: You know, that's fun.

45:12 Speaker 7: That's fun. I should have recorded the fights because I could have just set up the phone and not recording.

45:22 Speaker 1: Yeah.

45:22 Speaker 7: There was some good ones.

45:23 Speaker 3: Really?

45:23 Speaker 7: Yeah.

45:25 Speaker 5: Well, guys, congratulations on the album. Really, really good.

45:28 Speaker 7: Yeah.

45:28 Speaker 8: Appreciate everything you and Jen have done for us.

45:32 Speaker 7: Yes, man.

45:33 Speaker 5: Oh, glad to do it.

45:34 Speaker 1: Yeah.

45:35 Speaker 6: The greater music community in New Hampshire.

45:37 Speaker 7: You make us feel famous, man.

45:38 Speaker 5: Oh, I try. Thank you. Thank you very much. And thank you for all the goodies, too.

45:43 Speaker 7: Yeah, no problem.

45:44 Speaker 5: You guys are by far the most generous guests I've ever had on the show. By far. My God.

45:49 Speaker 7: You're thinking bullets.

45:51 Speaker 6: Yeah, let's go with Bullets.

45:53 Speaker 7: Bullets is a composition, dude. Yeah? And there's songs within the song, and you can try to figure out the lyrical content, what's it about, but it's the....

46:04 Speaker 8: This is the only song on Combat Zone that really isn't about Boston or growing up in Boston.

46:11 Speaker 5: Okay.

46:11 Speaker 6: It's about the shootout at the OK Corral. Oh, really?

46:14 Speaker 7: Okay.

46:15 Speaker 8: And if you get into the history of it, and it's too long to get into... But it was actually funded by J.P. Morgan and Wells Fargo. And they were paying Wyatt Earp to go around and shoot all these people.

46:29 Speaker 3: Really?

46:30 Speaker 8: Because they were robbing the stagecoaches that Wells Fargo owned.

46:34 Speaker 2: Oh, wow.

46:36 Speaker 8: And it went all the way up to President Chester Arthur. He was involved.

46:40 Speaker 5: Any of this.

46:40 Speaker 6: He gave the pardon to Wyatt Earp.

46:42 Speaker 9: Yeah.

46:43 Speaker 6: And the Rothschilds and the royal family were involved, too, in Europe.

46:47 Speaker 4: Wow.

46:47 Speaker 8: Because they wanted to invest in America, but they wanted it cleaned out.

46:52 Speaker 5: Right.

46:52 Speaker 8: So, yeah, Wells Fargo, which was two men, Wells and Fargo, who owned American Express, were paying Wyatt Earp to kill these people.

47:04 Speaker 5: Oh, wow.

47:05 Speaker 7: It's all behind the scenes, all the contracts.

47:07 Speaker 5: Right, right.

47:09 Speaker 7: So bullets from.

47:09 Speaker 8: The board is how, like, the board of directors of these companies were paying for the bullets, right? for Wyatt Earp to just go out and kill people with no.

47:19 Speaker 6: Judge or jury.

47:20 Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah.

47:20 Speaker 6: Just to go out and blow people away.

47:22 Speaker 7: All factual. All factual stuff there.

47:25 Speaker 6: That is wild.

47:26 Speaker 5: That is wild.

47:27 Speaker 6: We thought so, too, so we had to make it a song.

47:29 Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah. Well, great way to end the segment. And, guys, thank you again so much. Of course, I have Bruce Owens and Jamie Forbes from the band BF Raid, Boston's Final Raid. We're going to spin that in a second. Bullets from the board from the new album, Combat Zone, brand new from BF Raid, Boston's Final Raid. And again, guys, thank you so much.

47:49 Speaker 6: Yeah, thank you.

48:16 Speaker 2: Change in a moment Life can turn in a flash.

48:24 Speaker 4: Trying to glimpse your future It's distorted by your past.

48:31 Speaker 2: Trying to cling to morals As they slip from your grasp.

48:39 Speaker 3: Revenge and anger drive you Like a rapid collapse.

48:53 Speaker 2: There's dust in your face. And a flash in your eyes.

49:02 Speaker 2: You stand alone, disgraced.

49:07 Speaker 3: As they all fall and die.

49:18 Speaker 2: Paid with comfort, comfort. Your bullets from the board.

49:26 Speaker 4: Dropping everybody While Spago catapult Tantamount to murder Defrost.

49:37 Speaker 2: This was ignored But as the bodies dropped.

49:44 Speaker 3: The markets quickly soared.

49:54 Speaker 4: There's dust in your face And a flash in your eyes Or you stand alone disgraced.

50:08 Speaker 2: As they all.

51:18 Speaker 3: There's dust in your face And a blush in your eyes.

51:27 Speaker 2: Oh, you stand alone.

51:29 Speaker 3: Disgraced Last day of fall and night.

51:43 Speaker 2: Well, only J.P.

51:44 Speaker 4: Morgan Stop all this pain.

51:50 Speaker 2: He slammed his shift on the table.

51:53 Speaker 4: And upped the ante on the game But when the dust had settled.

52:00 Speaker 9: Nothing stayed unchanged.

52:06 Speaker 3: Another poor man died Like Corbyn from this game.

52:53 Speaker 2: They can wrench you, but.

52:54 Speaker 11: They cannot own you Till the day you die in California Bullets from the.

53:08 Speaker 2: Board Strikes an evil chord Cowards run and hide They all wanna die