Cody Pope | Matt Connarton Unleashed

0:13 Speaker 1: I've been in up days. Mine's amazing ablaze. I've been catching figu since before the twelfth grade. I had this desire, but couldn't get out of my way. Now I'm double the age, still reminded the days. Can't believe what all I've done. I'm still looking back, been cleaning up, but still remember the cooking crack. The strength I had for the needle, never quite took it back. Some days I still find that I'm quite shook. In fact, the light keeps going out. Maybe that's a.

0:38 Speaker 2: Sign for me.

0:39 Speaker 1: I have accepted that one day will be time for me, someone's revenge. I suppose that it's fine with me. Nothing in life often happened when the time is sweet. All I can do work to build a good now, and then staking the under makeup for days is shrouded in Dean's I am the howling man standing upon the howland winds, night of the hunted, the preacher upon the proud again, not perfect, not even a right. Can't remember the last time I slept all night. I'm open, but I need another hour. I just fell asleep off any time for the shower, no sugar added, no sugar added.

1:11 Speaker 2: I just need water.

1:13 Speaker 1: Mentally I can padded no sugar added, no sugar added, somewhere between.

1:18 Speaker 2: Be get happy and Madden.

1:19 Speaker 1: Apocalypse, now anxiety and alarms again. Hope my horrible ways could never harm a friends. Some men crossed me again. I saw them again. Even a heathen nor demon can fall from a sin Who called it again? I'm not sorry to them. Drowning in my own flood, I hardly can swim. Then I stopped too late. How could I be so selfish? Do the superdis things? But know that I'm not helpless? Bad patting habits I need to learn to break. I'm mad scattered this matter. If I need to learn to shake, We'll to extinguish every light, the match to burn the lake.

1:50 Speaker 1: Every roll of the dice is the one determined fate, slipping into the void for just a few hours to do it my vest and not flip. I got no new flower. My dreamscape is a place that I do scalo.

2:01 Speaker 2: This search advance is like how I could bet a used powwoom. Not perfect, not even close to all right.

2:06 Speaker 1: I can't remember the last time I slept all night, but I need another album. I just fell asleep off Freddy Tom for the shower. Wook, no sugar added, no sugar added. I just need water. Mentally, I am padded, no sugar added, no sugar added.

2:22 Speaker 2: Somewhere between be Get Happy and Madden.

2:33 Speaker 3: I Love It.

2:34 Speaker 4: That is Cody Pope and Byron g No sugar added from the album Giant Steps in Gates City. And we have Cody Pope here with us in studio. We're gonna speak with him in just a moment. But welcome everybody, if you are listening live on Saturday, we have entered our number three New Marrow trace of Matt Connerton unleashed.

2:52 Speaker 3: We are live from the studios.

2:54 Speaker 4: Of w m n H ninety five point three FM and Glorious Manchester, New Hampshire. Jenny is here, of course at the News and it is a Saturday, August thirtieth, and I hear the doorbell. Oh my goodness, are we expecting company? Jenny is going to, uh, well, that's very strange. Let me get this mic on here. Oh, actually we switch to to the other mic.

3:16 Speaker 3: There we go. Cody popas here, Hi.

3:18 Speaker 5: Cody, good morning, everybody.

3:20 Speaker 4: Welcome back. Yes, I don't know why the doorbell is ringing up. It's occasionally I don't know. If you know this, we've probably told you this. You probably know this used to be a bus station. Yeah, and uh, occasionally people will come here trying to buy bus tickets because I think if you look it up on Google, it still shows this is a location where you can purchase bus tickets in Manchester.

3:42 Speaker 5: It's funny that all the big signage outside that says like radio and TV doesn't sway them away.

3:49 Speaker 4: And they're literally I told someone this once and I think they thought I was kidding. There's actually a sign. I don't know if you've seen the sign on the building that actually says we do not sell bus tickets here.

3:58 Speaker 6: No, that's so good.

4:00 Speaker 3: Yeah, it's on the building.

4:01 Speaker 4: I don't think people notice it, as evidenced by the fact that people still come here to buy bus tickets. But yeah, there's a sign of the building that says we do not sell bus tickets here.

4:09 Speaker 6: That's like wild.

4:10 Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, pretty crazy.

4:11 Speaker 4: But no, I love that track now, that Giant Steps and Gate City that was out the last time you were here, right.

4:18 Speaker 5: So I think we were here before. I think we might have been here before it came out, right, but we were like in the run of getting ready for that to come out.

4:26 Speaker 3: That's right, that's right.

4:27 Speaker 4: Yes, Okay, I recall now and you're still now you're you're working with Byron g still right, but he's got something else he's doing as well. Yeah, so you guys are kind of working separately but still still together with Hellhound Publishing.

4:42 Speaker 3: Correct.

4:43 Speaker 5: Yeah, so Hellhound is still running full steam. Byron and I have a bunch of music in the vault, I want to say a little earlier this year. Anybody that's like been to any of our shows, obviously you know Byron, but you also know Patrick. Patrick are live sound engineer for a number of years.

5:03 Speaker 4: Uh.

5:03 Speaker 5: The two of them have actually started a new company called six Zho three Beat Collaborative, Okay, and they do live audio, they do engineering, podcasting stuff for big corporate events, all sorts of stuff like that. So they've just been killing it and doing a lot of of the like initial groundwork of getting that all up and running. And uh So while they were doing that, I just figured I should keep keep the bus moving, keep the hell Hound thing going.

5:32 Speaker 3: Yep.

5:32 Speaker 5: They you know, they have families and kids and things that occupy a lot of time. I have the I have the position in life to be a rapper with a cat and a fiance, So it affords me a little more flexibility. And so I'm just uh taking the torch and running with it and uh trying to keep things moving until uh, you know, until everything settles down.

5:53 Speaker 4: Yeah, you don't have any kids, No, isn't it nice? I'm also childless?

5:57 Speaker 5: Yeah, it's it is. It is a very fortunate position.

6:01 Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely.

6:02 Speaker 4: I mean, don't get me wrong. People with children always look really happy and everything.

6:05 Speaker 5: Yeah, that's the thing is, like I'm kidding, but I imagine that, like parenting could be cool. Like I'm sure there's people who.

6:15 Speaker 3: Like, yeah, Jenny has a son.

6:18 Speaker 5: Yeah, so that's the thing, is, like parenting as cool as you want to be as a parent, yea. And for me, I'm just too selfish, yeah, and too caught up on this whole creative endeavor in life.

6:32 Speaker 4: That's always been my thing too, to have that degree of responsibility for another human being. I don't even know how anyone affords it.

6:38 Speaker 5: Yeah, exactly now, especially nowadays. Yeah, things have tripled, are almost quadrupled in price in my adult life.

6:45 Speaker 4: Oh yeah, oh absolutely absolutely, Jenny. My curiosity is killing me. Why was the doorbell ringing.

6:52 Speaker 7: Somebody looking for a bus for real?

6:55 Speaker 3: That is that is what it was.

6:56 Speaker 7: Yeah, yes, it was somebody looking for a bus to Boston. I did my best to try and explain how to go to New London, North London to get a bus to Boston. Yes, because I don't know any other way.

7:07 Speaker 6: Yeah, it's either that or Nashua.

7:09 Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, take an uber to North Londonderry.

7:12 Speaker 2: I'm so sorry, sweetie, there's.

7:14 Speaker 3: No bus here. Yeah. Oh that's funny.

7:16 Speaker 4: Wow all right, yeah, I mean I said it half kidding, but apparently that is what it was.

7:22 Speaker 3: Well, very good. So why locked?

7:28 Speaker 6: Yeah I can understand that.

7:30 Speaker 3: Oh yeah, because I don't know.

7:32 Speaker 7: Probably says it online, still does it.

7:34 Speaker 3: Well, that's the thing I was.

7:35 Speaker 4: I was telling Cody that if you look online, it still says you can get bus tickets here.

7:41 Speaker 3: Yeah.

7:41 Speaker 4: When we first when we first moved into this building, because you were at the yeah, you were on the show. We were at the old the old place. I know that at first, if they left the door unlocked during the morning show on weekdays, people would just wander into the building, you know, thinking they were gonna buy bus tickets.

7:56 Speaker 3: So, yeah, stranger walking in now so Giant Steps and Gate City. So this is this is your newest release.

8:07 Speaker 5: Yeah and then that is the second full length but fifth project from Byron and I.

8:14 Speaker 4: Okay, okay, wow yeah, Now who who are you working with these days? Because I saw so you've got a band that you perform with sometimes.

8:22 Speaker 5: Now yeah, so back in. So it's it's interesting how it all kind of came to be. But big shout out to DJ Myth and the shasking Oh yeah, DJ Myth. DJ Myth and Sean Caliber, great artist from around the way to the two of them do an event called sound Off Saturdays at the shaskiing once in a while, I think it's like once a month and it's always a different theme. And so they had the theme of like rappers with a live band. Yeah, and they had, if I understood correctly, they had two acts, but then one of them had to drop or maybe they just had the one act and they needed to fill up the other slot.

9:01 Speaker 5: So in me and Myth's like usual conversation, I just was like, look, I can't promise that I can pull this off, but if you really don't have anybody, I was like, I certainly know people in bands, I can try and pull this together for a show, and I did the Facebook solicitation thing. I had a really great drummer who I think you actually have met before. A big shout out to Axel from Dead Harris.

9:25 Speaker 3: Oh of course.

9:26 Speaker 5: So Axel hit me up, and then a childhood friend of mine hit me up as well, who played guitar, and we all met at a jam space in Nashua and Axel and I hit it off really well. The guitar player ended up having some family stuff and things that he had to deal with, so it just like wasn't a good time, so he kind of stepped out of the picture quick and so it was like Axel and I and we were kind of like, look, we just need to do this show. So even if it's just the two of us, like we can you could just drum over the music, We'll do the show to help them out and.

10:02 Speaker 6: I appreciate it.

10:03 Speaker 8: Yeah, a week before the show, maybe like a week and a half, a guitar player hit us up, who I don't know.

10:11 Speaker 6: Are you familiar with the band Volley?

10:13 Speaker 3: Yes, we've had them mine.

10:14 Speaker 6: Yeah.

10:15 Speaker 5: I love these guys, so shout out to them. Dane from Vali reached out and he was like, look, I'm going on vacation with my family this week. He's like, if you don't have anybody on I think it was the show was on the tenth, and I think he was coming back from his vacation on the third, and he was like, look, if you don't have anybody by the third, send me the music and I will do my best to learn it. And I was like okay. So we got together that Tuesday, I think it was like the fourth. We had one practice for a couple hours and just like worked out a set, went and did the show that night and absolutely like crushed and we had so much fun.

10:51 Speaker 5: The audience. It was like playing to all new people. It was a way different audience than I usually played too. Yeah, they were super receptive. We we sounded great, we felt great. So like after the show, I was like, oh man, we did it, Like, thank you guys so much. And they were both like, well we should just keep doing this, ye like, and I was like, well what a dream, you know, Like I was just gonna be happy if we did it for one show, and the fact that they wanted to keep up with it, I was so ecstatic.

11:23 Speaker 5: So now we've set so we have two shows in September now and we're currently on the search for a bassist and a keyboard player. Nice kind of fill things out.

11:34 Speaker 3: Very cool.

11:35 Speaker 4: Yeah, now, what's it called Cody Pope and what.

11:37 Speaker 6: Cody Pope and the Keyholders and the Keyholders?

11:40 Speaker 3: I like that. Yeah, yeah, that's very cool.

11:42 Speaker 5: So people that are that are into the Cody and Byron stuff. We have a song from one of our projects called the Keyholders Theme Song, and that kind of ties into us being from Nashua because Nashua is the gate city and sense, you know, culturally, there's lots of talk now more than ever about gatekeeping and the idea of gatekeeping. And I'm not a huge fan of gatekeeping person Like I understand it to a degree, but I also am kind of of the challenger of the ilk of like, look, I could give you all the resources that I have, but you're not gonna do what I do.

12:18 Speaker 5: Like, you know, it's like you can give two people a paintbrush and they're gonna make a different thing, right exactly. And so Keyholder just be kind of came this thing of like I'm happy to share my tools with the right people, Like if you. If you're on this path for real and you really care about the craft and what you're doing, and I have some something that I can share with you, I'm happy to do that if it's for the right reason. Yeah, Like I'm not afraid of sharing game, but I do understand protecting the culture too.

12:48 Speaker 5: And so that's kind of where the idea of like the keyholders came from. Is just like we've kind of made our like where a part of hip hop as a greater thing, but Hellhound is very much like its own kind of like unity and subculture, and like we have a lot of people that come out specifically to our stuff and that specifically rock with us rather than like the greater culture the way we love it, right, And so we look at that as like something we've cultivated and something we have to protect too. We want to grow it and continue it to blossom, but we have to like protect the sanctity of these people that come and really appreciate this thing.

13:26 Speaker 5: You know, they come and they feel safe, they feel like they can express themselves, they can be vulnerable, they can cry and dance and laugh and have fun and whatever. And so it's like we want to make sure that that always stays a part of the ethos of what we do.

13:43 Speaker 6: Yeah.

13:43 Speaker 4: No, I think that makes sense and it's very positive. And how long is Hellhound existed?

13:48 Speaker 3: Now?

13:48 Speaker 5: So we started Hellhound in twenty I started Hellhound in twenty eighteen.

13:52 Speaker 3: Okay, okay, and then Byron became a part.

13:55 Speaker 5: Of it in twenty twenty two.

13:57 Speaker 4: Twenty twenty two, okay, Yeah, so it did already existed for for a while.

14:00 Speaker 3: Yeah.

14:01 Speaker 5: Yeah, So it was like a very interesting time period. So when we had met, I think we talked about this before, but you were doing local outbreak at the I forget the name of the place, but it was like a vintage store in Laconia, And that was the first time we had met. That was around the time that I had just kind of started linking up with Bizza too. I think Bizil was the one who introduced us. And I had started a record label called Vatican Life back then, and the last record that I put out on Vatican Life was my album called Not Having a Good Day, which a lot of people that's kind of like the thing they know me for.

14:44 Speaker 5: But coincidentally, as well known as the song has become now, when the album came out, it didn't do very well in terms of like just selling the album, and then I did like a short tour to promote the album, and most of the shows on the tour did not go very well, just like Low attended weak Night kind of like didn't seem like people cared kind of thing. So I just became very disillusioned, and I was like, man, all the artists that I put out records for have like, I don't want to say fallen off, but kind of chosen to not pursue music anymore.

15:25 Speaker 5: And life dealt them other cards, and I was in this weird place where it was like, man, I had built up such momentum, and somehow I'm looking at my last album thinking like, oh I got covered in the Hippo, I had more people at the release show, I sold more CDs, Like what did I do wrong? I'm so proud of this album. I thought it was such a tremendous body of work. But I think I had just burnt myself out and I think that I was Yeah, you know, I just I was applying too much in the wrong places. Yeah, I needed to step back and learn how to like do more for myself in like the creative sense, the marketing sense, like how to just be more self dependent.

16:06 Speaker 5: And one of the things that I had started kind of coming to grips with at that time was, I don't know if I'm going to be able.

16:15 Speaker 6: To do music forever. I want to.

16:17 Speaker 5: I hope that I always have the privilege of doing so, but you just never know. The culture could dictate that your time has come, your audience could be exhausted with what you've done, You could have some sort of something could happen that could prevent you from executing your craft at the full level. And so I realized it was like, I need to be able to do other creative endeavors and still have a platform for the music as well. And one of my big influences in life has always been Henry Rawlins.

16:51 Speaker 5: I grew up a punk rock kid. I loved Black Flag, but I found that when I was like about twelve or thirteen years old, So it was like a very pivotal time in my life, and I had like, I don't want to like drag on the story, but basically I had been like a punk rock fan already. I used to go hang out at Barnes and Noble all the time because back then Barnes and Noble was open till eleven o'clock at night. They had the Starbucks, so it was like a place you could just take the.

17:19 Speaker 6: Bus and go hang out.

17:20 Speaker 5: Yeah, And I was there one night and I liked, I've always read like I'm a big fan, like the hell Hound logo is a book in flame, Yeah, like it's very much a part of my ethos as a person. But I was just looking through books and I found a book and it's and it had Henry Roland's name on it as like the author, and so like thirteen year old me is like, I picked it up and I opened the first page. It was the book it's called Sillipsist. I don't know if if you've ever seen it, but it's like it is as raw as it comes.

17:54 Speaker 5: The very first page is just like raw, unfiltered, honest discuss with the things that he's seeing at the time. And I didn't think books could be like that, Like, I didn't think books can say that kind of stuff. And then it was like, oh, the guy from Black Flag writes books and like puts out And then I saw the record label that he had and they put out books and they did concerts and they put out spoken word albums, and so it just made me realize that like maybe I had boxed myself in too much, like ye I write.

18:27 Speaker 5: You know, it's not that I write raps. You know, I started off as a punk rock kid. I played in hardcore and metal bands. Like, I've played numerous instruments, I've written poetry, I've done all these other things, including rap. Rap is a skill set that has taken me the furthest of all of my skill sets. But doing hell Houn publishing was like, look, we're not calling this just records or music group or whatever. This is now the entity that we can do everything through. It's the cultural ethos that brings all of this art together, you know.

19:02 Speaker 5: It's being raw, being vulnerable, being honest, not feeling like you have to play Kate two societal standards or even industry standards, just being comfortable carving your own lane at whatever that costs. And so I kind of so the dissolution of Vatican Life was also the start of my hiatus as a rapper, and I ended up taking the next like almost three years off wow, and didn't really I think. I think I put out like an EP and I played like one show or something, but I didn't really do anything. I had put all of my energy into this hell Houm publishing project, and the first things that I was working on were podcasts.

19:46 Speaker 5: I had written like a radio play, so I wrote like a whole script. It was like eight thirty minute episodes really, and this very like film noir based like old school radio play style thing. I had cast a bunch of voice actors wow, brought them to my studio and was like producing this thing. And a few months in I just realized I was like way in over my head in terms of doing a production of that magnitude. But I knew that I was like on the right path. I knew that I was, like this is why I made hell Hound, chose to do.

20:17 Speaker 6: Things like this.

20:18 Speaker 3: What was the radio play about?

20:20 Speaker 5: So it's called Gates and I based it in like early like nineteen fifties Nashua, And it's really like a mix of like a sci fi murder mystery kind of thing where I took a lot of those like like the Raymond Chandler stories, like those kind of like detective mystery things, and I tried to imbue that with my love of sci fi, like how would people react to science fiction scenarios in that time in the fifties without the lack of technology that we have today. So it was really fun and I still have a lot of the stuff like in the vault, and I'm just trying to figure out Now it's like, all right, I finish it.

21:01 Speaker 5: Because I was I was like, I think, coming from like CD culture and concert ticket culture, it's like I have this very way of thinking that was like I need to get all eleven voice actors to the studio to like play off of each other, and how do I record that all at the same And it's like people just don't have the time for that, you know.

21:23 Speaker 5: And it was just like technological stuff that it was like I need to figure out how I could produce this better.

21:29 Speaker 2: And now I have.

21:30 Speaker 5: But then in that time the music stuff kind of picked back up so much that it was like, Okay, I understand now I have a better understanding of how to charge forward. And it's that doing the music is the thing that shines a lot of light into what I'm doing and provides me the leverage to take risks on new creative ventures like a radio play or doing a podcast or writing a book or whatever, or it may be. Yeah, and so I think as long as I stay steady doing music and not compromising, that people will also take risks on me doing new things.

22:11 Speaker 5: And the band was kind of an example of that too. Yeah, we're constantly trying to bring new elements into what people see as like a hip hop show. And like the flyer I gave you, you'll see, we're doing an unplugged show at the end of September, so we're basically all acoustic and percussion stuff, and we're going to be doing all new renditions of some of my songs oh wow, and stuff that was like I was like very inspired by like Incubus, Alice in Chains, yeah, stuff like that. That it was like, how do I bring that kind of like goose bump inducing energy and still use my like the spinal chord of the music that I'm making right right now?

22:51 Speaker 4: I think that's really cool, and you know, to have the music as the nucleus, but but to not limit yourself, you know. Yeah, now, I think that's I think that's excellent if you are just joining us. Cody Pope is here with us on this this Saturday morning, and so when is the next, when is the next show that you're doing with the band with the Keyholders?

23:11 Speaker 5: So the next Keyholders show September fourteenth, we're going to be at the Shaskiing Okay, We're going to be doing like a regular like electric, pretty high energetic set for rap night.

23:22 Speaker 3: Yeah.

23:22 Speaker 5: And then September twenty seventh, we're doing our Unplugged Acoustics show at the Spot in Nashua, Newhamshire.

23:29 Speaker 4: Okay, Oh that's very cool. Yeah, all right, excellent, excellent. Do you want to So we had talked off air about you were going to wrap something a cappella for us.

23:37 Speaker 6: Yeah.

23:38 Speaker 5: Yeah, I had a couple of songs that I so like we were saying before. With everything that's been going, you know, I've been so fortunate to have the band, i had, buyer In, I had bus, I've always had people to bounce off of creatively when I'm on stage. But the only way that I got any of those people to mess with me in the first place was by just being up there by myself. And so I'd been so far removed from that that for this show that I did about a week ago, I was kind of like tied into just celebrating my birthday, Like, what else would I want to do besides the thing I love?

24:12 Speaker 5: And so I put together this hour long set and I picked songs that I some I had never performed before, some I hadn't performed in like ten years, Some were like unreleased songs, and then of course some of the stuff that people have come to know and enjoy. And it was just like I kind of just built this night around celebrating my catalog and the work that I've done, and it was like very cathartic. A lot of like old friends came out, a lot of new people that had no idea who I was just happened to like buy tickets because they liked the venue.

24:46 Speaker 5: And it went really well. So I thought that it would be cool to kind of pick a couple songs from throughout the catalog that I could do acapella because nobody's ever heard them like that.

24:57 Speaker 3: Yeah, very curious.

24:59 Speaker 5: Yeah. So the first one that I was thinking of doing is from the Cody and Byron collection. This is a song. We've been opening the show with it a lot because I feel like, subject wise, it's kind of how some people think about or start the day or whatnot. And so this song is called gratitude. This is one of the closing songs from the Giant Steps and Gates City album.

25:21 Speaker 3: Okay, Yeah, Whenever You're ready, Cody Pope live in studio.

25:24 Speaker 8: Some days I wake up and I wish I had it.

25:31 Speaker 8: I hate that I'm sad, but my loved ones feel so glad. Then easily tripping, don't know why I'm so mad? Man, Got a lot to be grateful for even when I'm damn bad man. Some days I wake up and I wish I had it. I hate that I'm sad, but my loved ones feel so I'm glad, Then easily tripping, don't know why I'm so mad man, Got a lot to be grateful for even when I'm damn bad man. Wake up in my brain already feeling dark, Hit the couch, already, chase a spark, contemplating in my sick of unhealthy? Is this depression of karma for unwealthy?

26:28 Speaker 8: Enough clarity to know that I'm the end of me, the one destroying me, the one should be defending me. Gotta take time enough to know you can't make time, So make mind filled with the things that shape lives. What you heard on the grapevine might not taste right, so you don't gotta make wine. You'll still make flights. Plant that seed that gone way to your family. We the real money tree. Life's obstacle, standard fees. Still days, I'm fighting to get through it, but I survived when I've remained my truest.

26:59 Speaker 8: When the fight come at your door, you can't be truant. You missed that chance. Might as well except your ruins.

27:05 Speaker 2: Some days I wake up and I wish I had it.

27:12 Speaker 8: I hate that I'm sad, but my loved ones feel so glad then easily tripping.

27:20 Speaker 2: Don't know why I'm so mad.

27:22 Speaker 8: Man, got a lot to be grateful for, even when I'm.

27:28 Speaker 3: Down bad man.

27:31 Speaker 5: Some days I wake up, hmm, thank you?

27:38 Speaker 3: Very cool? Very cool?

27:40 Speaker 4: Is that is that difficult to do? Like to do that acapella without? I mean, or do you just kind of play the beat in your head or how do you do that?

27:47 Speaker 5: I think I do kind of play the beat in my head, and I just like try to black out a little bit because it is definitely like nerve racking, you know. It's like I can like even feel myself now a little bit, being like, oh boy, I don't know, I never I've done that before, but I think it's just one of those things that I need to be able to do because I thrive in the live atmosphere, right, That's very much my comfort zone. I love performing. But what happens is everybody experiences the live show differently.

28:18 Speaker 5: Some people are feeling the music, some people are seeing your action and reaction to stuff. Some people are processing what you're saying. Some people might miss entire lines and segments of what I'm saying because it's just a different kind of atmosphere. And so being that what I do is so rooted lyrically, it's cool to have opportunities like this where it's like, hopefully people can kind of be like, oh, you know, I've heard that song fifteen times and hearing it that way really hit home what he's talking about or what he's trying to say, And you know, that's the best I could ask.

29:00 Speaker 4: Yeah, No, that's really cool. So have you have you done that live? Just acapella like that and in front of an audience? Oh no, this is the first time.

29:06 Speaker 5: Yeah, oh wow, well yeah, we just we we always play it at the shows. The album came out because it's just such a cool thing. Yeah, and I usually open with it because doing some of those vocal inflections, it's like, if I try to do that at the end of the set when I've wore you know, the show gets a little rowdy at times.

29:24 Speaker 3: Yeah.

29:24 Speaker 5: Yeah, it's like you got to get some of the more challenging vocal vocally nuanced stuff out of the way.

29:31 Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, no, that makes sense. We had talked about playing let's see studio track clipped wings.

29:39 Speaker 5: Oh yeah, this is a this is a cool one. I'm glad that we're playing this because when we put the album out, we that album release show is the only time we played the album top to bottom. Oh okay, And so after that show, that song has just yet to have fit into a set list really. Yeah, And it's not it's a great song, but it's a little longer, and it's a it's a little more of like a serious subject matter kind of thing. So it's like you can't just like play that at every you know, it's it's not as fun as doing not having a good day and everyone's jumping around and singing along.

30:16 Speaker 5: So it's cool when we were you know, but when we were off air, I was like trying to go through the the new album to pick some songs that I figured hadn't been as widely picked.

30:27 Speaker 6: Up on or talked about or whatever.

30:29 Speaker 5: Sure, and this is definitely one that, like I don't want to say, has gone unrecognized, But it doesn't get the kind of conversation that like, you know, no Sugar Added or some of the other songs on the album. People of our gratitude. People really gravitate to these songs, and that's also because we've exerted a lot of energy pushing them. So Clipped Wings is really cool. It's kind of the the idea behind it is essentially not allowing yourself to be stifled where it's for situations to dictate or for circumstances to dictate how much room you have to do X, Y and Z. And ultimately it's like you can accept those terms or you can create a new way and not allow yourself to feel so beaten down.

31:19 Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, I like it. All right, Let's give this a spend.

31:21 Speaker 4: This is Cody Pope and Byron g It's from the album Giant Steps in Gate City and Cody Pope is here with us live in studio. This is called Clipped wings.

31:43 Speaker 1: So called kings want me to clip mouth wings. Don't like a how I sing and still do my thing? If you the type did not leave the house. We just don't believe your mouth. You can discuss anything with no ouns what you're talking about and in the down and dirty, with the dirt in my nails, ice back recovery from the of my fails. Nice that people loving me. Sure I feel swell. They're lifting dead weight that want to burn me in hell, had a list of change of mad insame brain, the talking to me more than the store with the range different missions.

32:14 Speaker 1: When you're missing what you never had been doing this most by life. It was never a fat been here for kids, never stifferent, not to fear. No man can program me different that clear searching for clever and sometimes I've made it differently to keep on this hunt.

32:29 Speaker 2: It's not something you'll have to dabby.

32:32 Speaker 1: Making mountains out of mow hills. But I'm still climbing. They c lit my wings, but you'll see I'm still rising. Probably needs every people. At least I'm still rhyming. I hope you find the thing that helped you make the most of timing. Making mountains out of mohills, but I'm still climbing. They c lit my wings, but you'll see I'm still rising. Probably needs every people. At least I'm still rhyming. I hope you find the thing that helped you make the most of timing. I'm on a mission to make sure that my circle eat no more betray from these sucker arkle peeks.

33:02 Speaker 2: We on the meeting tip to ards the.

33:03 Speaker 1: First of the week, working right after work again, no hurt in my feet, certainly deep on the path that we've been coughing out. Always say she ain't in hunger, but still sotften now so looking me like a martian, I'm not offfing now. When you evolve, you gotta leave behind the laugh and now, even if you not be ritual, think of karma. How again, disrupt and derailed, don't work you while the bout climbing.

33:27 Speaker 2: Ladder is easily lead, Just look and fall you get your shot. How we used to leak?

33:31 Speaker 1: Can you grip the ball? Hit the wall lights flash time to say nothing? If you win a jam, don't give them the turkey stuff and the recipe stay locked up like eleven spices, even if it puts you down for eleven lights, making mountains out of bowhells, but I'm still climbing. They lit my wings, but you'll see I'm still rising.

33:50 Speaker 6: Probably needs ever be the least.

33:52 Speaker 2: I'm still rising.

33:53 Speaker 1: Hope you find the thing that helped you make the most of the time and making mountains out of.

33:58 Speaker 2: Mowhells, but I'm still climbing. Think that my wings. But you'll see I'm still rising.

34:03 Speaker 1: Probably needs to ever be the least. I'm still romming. Hope you find the thing that helped you make them most of the time, and.

34:12 Speaker 4: That has clipped wings. That is from the album Giant Steps and Gate City. That's Cody Pope and Byron g And we have Cody Pope here with us, alive in studio, and Uh, Mike McDowell, also known as the Healer is uh is in the chat room.

34:26 Speaker 6: Hello much love brother.

34:27 Speaker 4: Yeah, he's been on the show. I really enjoyed talking with him doing He's doing a lot of great, great stuff.

34:32 Speaker 5: The first time we connected was the last time that we were here.

34:36 Speaker 6: Mike was on the.

34:37 Speaker 8: Show before us, right, So he was headed out of the building as we were headed in. Oh yeah, and he stopped us and was like, hey, what's up, Like you guys are going on like da da da da da. And that's when we started keeping in touch.

34:51 Speaker 3: Oh wow.

34:52 Speaker 6: He let me know about the.

34:53 Speaker 5: Spot and and he's been a huge advocate for me on this, you know, as I talk about this next chapter of what I'm doing. Yeah, he's been a huge advocate for me already, letting me do the solo show and like we that was really kind of the foundation of like how I want to put shows on again.

35:11 Speaker 6: So we have we have obviously we're gonna be back there with the band.

35:14 Speaker 8: Yeah, we got some really special stuff in the works. I'm very really grateful that we got connected.

35:20 Speaker 4: Oh yeah, oh that's really great. Well, you know, I'm glad that we were a part of a facilitating that.

35:24 Speaker 3: That's really cool. Yeah.

35:25 Speaker 4: Yeah, we I think when we had when we had him on, he was in the process of building up, you know, getting he wasn't open yet obviously the spot. But but yeah, we should get him back on to you know, talk about him, see how things are going. Yeah, he said in the chat, let's see he said, my man Cody Pope, morning boys, and Jenny uh and he said, love you.

35:47 Speaker 3: Homeboy, so very nice, very nice.

35:51 Speaker 4: Yeah, And it's you know, it's so important too, you know in the music business, networking and uh, you know, meeting people, getting out and meeting people and all that.

35:58 Speaker 3: So so that's that's great.

36:02 Speaker 4: Are you So what what is kind of your I mean, what are you most excited about? Because you're always doing You're always doing a number of different things, like obviously, you know, playing with you know, Cody Pope and the key Holders. That's pretty exciting. Does that like the the biggest thing or or.

36:17 Speaker 5: So that is definitely one of the things I'm super excited about. But I also keep realistic expectations because both of my bandmates are in multiple other projects. Right, it's not the kind of thing. And but that's why I'm also back doing the solo shows too, because it's like I feel like now I've put myself in a position where there's not really a room that I can't attack. If you have enough notice, I could ask Byron and me and Byron have a show that's unlike most artist producer duos, and we have a chemistry that I'm so proud of when we're on stage and on record.

36:57 Speaker 5: Obviously, as I've been talking about, I can do my solo show and I'm doing that again anytime anybody needs any size room, any place, you know, whatever. And having the band now it's like those opportunities that may require something a little different than a traditional hip hop thing. Now with the band, it brings a different live element. We can do different variations of my songs. We actually we did a cover at our first show, which, like I anybody that knows me, I kinda like, I don't want to say I hate covers, but I'm very judgmental of covers in bands that do a lot of covers and cover bands and things of that nature.

37:39 Speaker 5: But it was like one of those things where I was like, man, I haven't had a band in so many years, and we're trying to pull this show together on a week's notice, and we did a cover and it went over incredibly. People went off, and so we were like, well, was so we covered break Stuff by Olympus.

37:58 Speaker 4: Nice I was in a band a long time ago that actually covered that song.

38:01 Speaker 6: People just went bananas.

38:03 Speaker 5: Yeah, Because I knew it was going to be a different audience for that show, and so it was like in my head, it was like, oh, let's do some obscure punk rock cover, like it's something that's going to like make people smash the walls open. And then it was like, let's do something that people know, Let's do something they could easily get. And and so I've kind of found a little gravity in that where it's like, Okay, I like picking like one song that we can learn for each show. And so I think that's kind of become our thing, where like every time we do a show, we're going to have like a new cover that we do just for that show.

38:36 Speaker 4: Oh okay, Oh that's cool. That's a cool concept.

38:40 Speaker 3: Yeah.

38:40 Speaker 4: I was in a band that we covered when I was in my life crisis. We covered break stuff, and it's funny because I related. The reason I laughed when you were talking about covers initially is because I remember being in that band and I was always kind of like, guys, our originals are really strong, we don't need to be doing covers. And I resisted, but you know, I was outvoted on that, but I ended up being glad we did it because that is a fun song. I know from personal experience, that's a fun song to play live.

39:04 Speaker 4: And yeah, people people get into it, people react to it.

39:07 Speaker 5: And I think I got burnt out on like covers and stuff like that. Because I worked in the motorcycle industry for a number of years. I was doing marketing and events for different Harley Davidson dealership Okay, and so as you can imagine, like that audience is a lot different than what I normally work with. It's very much a play the hits, let's here, skinnered, let's you know, and so it's like doing that for years. It's like, man, every week, it's like we're just listening to God Smack again. We're just listening to whatever, Like butt rock band.

39:39 Speaker 2: Is like cool.

39:40 Speaker 5: At the it's like it just got so draining. It was like, I just want to hear songs I've never heard before at this point. Yeah, even if they're not good, I just want to hear songs I haven't heard yet, right right, And so uh that kind of But I think now I'm in a good place where it's like it's in doing.

39:59 Speaker 6: I don't want to call it singing. I feel like that's not.

40:03 Speaker 5: There are people who are very incredible vocal singers who are trained. I don't know what you would call what I do, but the midst of vocalizing that I've been trying to add into my like rap style is doing cover songs is like a really good challenge break stuff. Obviously not exemplary of that, but some of the stuff that we're doing now is like songs where it's like, all right, I'm going to try and like maybe work with a vocal coach to figure out how to do this song the best way, and then all the stuff that I learned in that time I can now apply to the stuff that I write going forward.

40:39 Speaker 6: Yeah, so I'm excited about it in that sense.

40:42 Speaker 4: Yeah, Oh that's really cool. The time goes quick. You want to do another, you want to do another a cappella, but I want to make sure we got another one in because I was really cool awesome.

40:52 Speaker 5: Yeah, definitely. I'm trying to think if we have if we have time for one more, should I?

40:58 Speaker 6: Okay?

40:59 Speaker 5: So I So I was working on this in the car. I was hoping I was going to get through it. It's a tough one, but I just did it at the show that this past show, and so I've only performed this song two times live now because it's from my last solo album that I did, called The Howling Man, which came out in twenty twenty one, Okay, And the song is called Moonlight, and it's really just about like losing people that have passed to drug addiction and people that have like gone young and stuff like that, and having overcome a lot of that myself.

41:36 Speaker 5: The kind of duality of yeah, like I'm so fortunate to have come out the other side of this thing, and then the like, wow, so many people that I knew didn't and like, you know, it just doesn't always feel great. Yeah, but the times that I've done this song, it's really connected with people, and it's really like brought a lot of like people out of their shell that probably wouldn't have talked to me or said anything. And so it was like, all right, maybe I gotta like suck it up and find a way to do this more often.

42:12 Speaker 5: Yeah, crack open my cheet sheet here just in case I need it.

42:16 Speaker 4: But yeah, if you're just joining us, we have Cody Pope here with us live in studio.

42:23 Speaker 5: So this song is called Moonlight. This is from my album The Howling Man. All Right, Candle's burning out, staring at the moonlight, wondering if I'm gonna make it through another spoon light. Piano man five bucks if you play this tune right. Trying to see my friends, let my spirit sort of new heights, heart hurts lone survivor of my friend's past. Why this needle make me feeble but not end fast? Only longevity I seek is that my pen last drive my car a buck fifty and then crash. Can't explain death's desire to those who love life.

42:57 Speaker 5: It's way more than money in having a love life. Brain operate different when you're drained of your thinking. This command visions way more than what you're drinking. Yo, It's hard to think of all my friends gone, forget the ones who abandon them. People bend gone. I know in all life, plenty of times I bend wrong. Wish I knew how to speak instead of this song. It feels, it feels. It feels that.

43:21 Speaker 8: I won't make it, can't take my soul and feel that I'm still naked. Nah, brother, you can fight this battle, just another war, nothing that we haven't overcome when we seen before. It feels it feels, it feels that I won't make it, can't take my soul and feel that I'm still naked. Nah brother, you can fight this battle, Just another war. Nothing that we haven't overcome when we seen before. I can't take it, can't seem to suppress the fall. My body hurts, brain, tire, depressing. Y'all you feeling stressed, Hit the gym and go find a brawl.

43:54 Speaker 8: All in all, there's a million ways to survive, my dog. This world needs you, even that it's most feeble, Even when you feel like God and the devil both deceive you. You got brothers, you got sisters. We all receive you. No matter what you gotta say, We're gonna try to believe you might have strength. Something you gotta fight for takes training, takes time, takes a life's work. Hard to see illumination when your light pours, blinded by the grinding of your shine and in your fight sores, save my number in your phone as never given up.

44:24 Speaker 8: No matter what I'm doing now, I'm about to give it up. Struggle runs deep. Please, No, I know you did enough. Please don't ever worry about if you did enough. It feels it feels, It feels that I won't make it. Can't take my soul and feel that I'm still naked. Nah, brother, you can fight this battle just another war. Nothing that we have and overcome when we've seen before.

44:48 Speaker 3: Hmm.

44:48 Speaker 4: I like it, thank you. I like that line, save my number on your phone has never given up. I like that a lot. Yeah, I think that's that's really cool. That's really cool. Cody Pope are with us, alive in a studio. And so what is the next what what's the next big show you got coming up?

45:05 Speaker 5: So I got so November sixth, November, Wow, September sixth, I'm gonna be in Northampton, Massachusetts at the Phoenix Rising Art Gallery. Oh cool, Yeah, I'm excited about that. Now that'll be a solo show. September fourteenth, I'm gonna be at the Shaskiine with the Keyholders for our Electric live set. We're gonna be playing at RAP Night, so it'll be a little late Sunday night gig.

45:30 Speaker 3: Yeah.

45:31 Speaker 1: Then on the twenty seventh of September, it's going to be me and the key Holders again. We're gonna be doing an unplugged acoustics show at the Spot.

45:39 Speaker 6: In Nashua, New Hampshire.

45:41 Speaker 3: Yeah.

45:41 Speaker 6: So that is kind of this month in a in a nutshell. Yeah.

45:45 Speaker 5: In addition to uh I've been doing I don't know if we had talked about it the last time I was here or not. But I've been doing a podcast every Monday. I do a live stream podcast on YouTube as well.

45:55 Speaker 3: I'm glad you brought that up. Ye, I was curious to ask you about that.

45:58 Speaker 6: Yeah.

45:58 Speaker 5: So it's called Cody Central. We're almost forty episodes deep now, Yeah.

46:04 Speaker 3: Cool.

46:05 Speaker 5: It's been awesome. It's I so every week we essentially bring on a new guest. We've had chefs, we've had musicians, we've had athletes, we've had life coaches, trauma survivors, all sorts of different people. Nice and Uh, it's been really cool because it gives me a chance to use my platform to let other people share their stories the way that like people like you guys give me a chance to share what I'm doing, you know, And so that's like, how could I contribute back to the community.

46:34 Speaker 6: That I ask so much of.

46:36 Speaker 3: Oh, that's really cool.

46:37 Speaker 6: It's been really cool.

46:37 Speaker 5: Yeah, I've been really privileged to have so many impactful and like really impressive people come on and share their stories.

46:45 Speaker 3: That's fantastic.

46:46 Speaker 6: Yeah, you do so lot.

46:48 Speaker 3: Stream excellent, excellent. So it's Monday is what.

46:50 Speaker 5: Every Monday eight pm on YouTube outstanding. Yeah, so it's it's been really cool. Yeah, we'll definitely have to have you on the seat sometimes.

46:58 Speaker 4: Oh I would love it. Yeah, I would love it. And it called Cody Central yep. Okay, okay, yeah, I remember seeing the logo for it. I dig the logo, but I'm gonna have to check out the show now that I know what it's about.

47:07 Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah, that's really cool, very good, very good.

47:11 Speaker 4: Let's see anything we didn't mention that you want us to know about. You got a lot going on, so I want to make sure we don't leave anything unturned before we run out of time.

47:17 Speaker 5: No, I mean the biggest thing is just kind of letting the world know that that I'm back at it in whatever form you need me to. You know, this was since Giant Steps in Gate City came out, things slowed down, you know, because of life and everything that happened, and I obviously was part of that. So I'm just trying to like kind of get the momentum going again. Yea, and next year we're hoping to go back on tour next year, but in the meantime, I'm just trying to kind of fill up with as many regional dates as I can.

47:49 Speaker 5: I really just want to get the performing wheels going. I have a ton of new music in the vault right now. I guess me and Byron have a bunch of stuff. I want to release that stuff soon, but I want to do it with him, so so I'm kind of waiting until he's ready and got the time. When he has the window, we're going to run it and do that stuff. Hopefully we're going to do the holiday stroll together this year too. That's been a big tradition of ours for the last three years, so I'm hoping we're going to do that.

48:20 Speaker 5: But I also have I have an album with eight Visa in the vault that we're going to do soon.

48:24 Speaker 3: Really.

48:25 Speaker 5: Yeah, we've been working on it for like the last two years or so, and once again it's just a timing thing, and uh, we're gonna we got plans to do that soon. I have an EP with a producer from Maine. His name is Suede Breaks, and it's really cool. He's a music teacher and so he actually played all of the instruments on the record and made these songs and gave them to me. And I've had these for a while too, and so I'm gonna that's that's another project that we've gotten the vault.

48:55 Speaker 6: Uh.

48:55 Speaker 5: There's a producer from Maine named Graphic Melee if you've heard of him. Yeah, he's a multi instrumentalist, producer, DJ rapper, but he's from Portland and he hosts a show called Stereo Dreams every month that's like a producer showcase. Cool, and he sent me a batch of beats. So him and I have a really cool project that's going to be coming out as well. Yeah, the band and I are writing some music that like so right now, the band, we play like songs from my catalog that we're working on writing some new music that'll be like indicative of just the band.

49:29 Speaker 5: Okay, So we got that stuff coming. And then I also have a project that's going to be coming out. I don't know if it'll be late this year or next year, but I have an album coming out. It's called Cranberry Cody and I'm going to be playing most of the instruments on that. Oh, it's going to be a little more of like a indie rock alt rock kind of instrumentation with my like rap vocal stylings.

49:53 Speaker 4: Oh, very cool to it. Yeah, yeah, No, you got a lot in the pipeline. That's fantastic exactly. And where should people go on line to keep up with everything you're doing?

50:01 Speaker 5: So everything is Cody dash Pope dot com, c O. D Y Dash, p O p E dot com or Hellhound Publishing dot com. But that Hellhound is the universe.

50:12 Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, excellent, excellent. Hey, it's great to see you man, Thank you so much, thank you so much, so much. I'm so grateful.

50:18 Speaker 5: You guys have given me a platform so many different times. So it's really cool that.

50:22 Speaker 7: I love having you come in.

50:23 Speaker 3: Absolutely.

50:23 Speaker 5: You know, it's like New Hampshire is a small place and there's not there's not many radio stations like this where you can just go and pop up and perform and talk and promote yourself and and you know, it's it's really special what you guys do. So I'm grateful to be part of it for sure.

50:39 Speaker 3: Oh, thank you.

50:40 Speaker 4: Well, we're happy to have here. I appreciate that very much. Absolutely. And Jenny, you've got a big week ahead of you. You want to plug your website so people know where to keep up with everything you're doing.

50:49 Speaker 7: Good luck, Yes, come check me out at gencopy dot com. J e n n C O f f uy dot com. You can check out the article from my new first byline on Common Dreams. Yeah, up there on the blog and yeah, I might be doing some stuff this week, so you might want to, you know, check it out maybe midweek or so.

51:08 Speaker 4: Absolutely, yes, yes, definitely good. And if you are listening live on Saturday, coming up at three pm today, this is not on the radio station. This will strictly be online, but a bonus fourth hour of Matt Connorton Unleashed that will strictly be online, so keep your eye on the social media. I'll be interviewing a Senate candidate, Karishma Manzur.

51:31 Speaker 3: Yes, she is gonna be norster and I think she's wonderful.

51:35 Speaker 6: Yep.

51:35 Speaker 4: We're gonna be doing a stream with her today at three pm live, so keep an eye on the Matt Connorton Unleashed social media channels. And if you don't get to see it live, it will be in the podcast feed. And again that is completely separate from the radio station, so that is online only, and then also online only a little bit later in the day, I'll be doing a live episode of Tough Bumps with Eric Pilcher and we'll be talking about the Rajah Jackson situation. That whole debacle attempted in my view, but seriously, but hey, but Eric and I are going to talk about that later today.

52:04 Speaker 4: So a lot's going on, but I'm gonna sneak in this track layers I think from as Cody Pope and Byron g from Giant Steps in Gate City and we'll we'll play us out with that. But Cody again, thank you so.

52:19 Speaker 6: Much, Thank you guys.

52:20 Speaker 4: Absolutely, and we'll talk to you a little bit later. Bye everybody, Bye bye.

52:48 Speaker 2: Legas.

52:49 Speaker 1: I'm complicated like a game of multiple plaguas. Everybody Kilway's got the talking on a faith get they needs and barely got time to seek you later that you expected to be up and out to Wagan not the dig if my brain mostly got for the deep end. It's all the same, no looking to what's the weekend? Pretty judgment to my monst. I got some weak friends hate then I see the cat went inside of these men. Never could settle when I know I could do better dead or the debt is still chasing me with burrettos.

53:17 Speaker 2: Hot is the kettle. The water won't stop to settle.

53:20 Speaker 1: Metal, the letters and dead on the slow pedals past that Nick now pragmatic with us a grand year making moves to what I do le Sasa dancers althready. You know we could be New Hampshire's answer, but someone brock with us till we making cures for cancer legas. Why it all gotta be so complicated by my brain cave when I know that I should make it PLoP maps for others for stuff on my feet, naked legus upon legers, The puzzles are deep and singers. Why it all gotta be all so complicated by my brain cave when I know that I should make it plot maps for others to stuff on my.

53:54 Speaker 2: Feet, naked legus upon legers, the puzzles on deep of singers.

53:58 Speaker 1: The brain is a machine that's a labor red like trying to draw a map well inside a labyrinth. Emotional roller, coastic kinky can't involve standing stronger.

54:07 Speaker 2: Some days it feels like man O fall hard.

54:10 Speaker 1: To teach when life's a race on the learning curve, I'm trying to reach the peak with how I'm burning words.

54:15 Speaker 2: Always seek to speak something to see the light.

54:18 Speaker 1: Also, my own darkness can always be the right one in the argument often so what's down USh and communication gets so off we started monishing Administer bren Hayt instead of seeking to understand while we hate another, instead of lending the hand. Damned if we don't break the cycles that We've been chained by, the same mistakes that I've made, I've been drained by, been so long since I can say. I was saying, Man, I know there's legas in my brain. Need to change plays legas?

54:44 Speaker 2: Why it all got to be so complicated? Why my brain cave when I know that I should make it?

54:50 Speaker 1: My maps for others with stuff on my feet, naked legus upon legos. The puzzles are deepest sagris. Why it all gotta BeO so complicated? While my brain cave when I know that I should make it, can PLoP maps for others, but stumble my feet naked legas upon legos, The puzzles are deepest sacred. You're listening to mattconnorton Unleash wm n H ninety five point three