Ecce Shnak | Matt Connarton Unleashed

0:00 Speaker 1: All right, that is Katie's wart. The band is E

0:02 Speaker 1: K Schnock. We'll see if I'm pronouncing that correctly when

0:05 Speaker 1: we talk to our guests in a moment. But welcome everybody.

0:08 Speaker 1: We have entered our number three New Marrow trace of

0:10 Speaker 1: Matt Connorton unleashed and we are live from the studios

0:14 Speaker 1: of wm NH ninety five point three FM in Glorious Manchester,

0:17 Speaker 1: New Hampshire. You can stream the show from anywhere. I

0:19 Speaker 1: go to Matt connorton dot com slash live for all

0:22 Speaker 1: of your live streaming options, social media links, contact info,

0:25 Speaker 1: show archives, et cetera, et cetera. Today is Saturday, March

0:28 Speaker 1: twenty eight, twenty twenty six, and I believe via WhatsApp

0:32 Speaker 1: we have David Rausch from K Schnack.

0:35 Speaker 2: Hello David, Good morning met and WMNH listeners. Great to

0:40 Speaker 2: speak with you, guys.

0:41 Speaker 1: I'm excited to have you on. This project is really interesting.

0:45 Speaker 1: So let's clear this up right off the bat, though,

0:47 Speaker 1: am I pronouncing the name anywhere close to correctly?

0:51 Speaker 2: You are absolutely close. You are totally perfect at K Schnuck.

0:56 Speaker 2: You could not be closer perfect pronunciation.

0:58 Speaker 1: At K Schnock. Okay, wonderful, wonderful. Well, well, so let's

1:01 Speaker 1: get this out of the way. What does the name mean.

1:05 Speaker 2: In a combination of Latin and personal nonsense? AKA, schnock

1:11 Speaker 2: means hey, look at this. In Latin, the word ek

1:15 Speaker 2: means behold, and schnock is a word I made up

1:19 Speaker 2: when I was a young dude that means whatever you

1:23 Speaker 2: want it to. So aka schnock means hey, look at this,

1:27 Speaker 2: or hey check this out.

1:29 Speaker 1: Okay, okay, oh wonderful. So yeah, I'm really curious to

1:33 Speaker 1: ask you about this. I mean, what, how do you

1:34 Speaker 1: describe How do you describe your music? Because this is

1:37 Speaker 1: not something that fits into a particular genre. Obviously, you know,

1:41 Speaker 1: there's elements of metal. When you hear the guitars, you know,

1:44 Speaker 1: that becomes clear. The lyrics are are very unique. And

1:48 Speaker 1: is that you singing? Are you the lead vocalist?

1:51 Speaker 2: Yeah, so that you know, I want it to sound

1:55 Speaker 2: like a weird, scary old lady. So we just pitched

2:00 Speaker 2: my voice up a little bit, but that is me.

2:04 Speaker 2: So yeah. And the music I think of it as

2:09 Speaker 2: an art rock style that has three basic qualities. Like

2:15 Speaker 2: you said, heavy music, there's you know, also pop music

2:19 Speaker 2: broadly defined and classical music too. It's kind of a

2:26 Speaker 2: nephew of Frank Zappa or Queen. So it's an art

2:34 Speaker 2: music with those three main qualities heavy music, pop music,

2:39 Speaker 2: and classical music.

2:40 Speaker 1: Okay, okay, and yeah, So you're really genre blurring there,

2:44 Speaker 1: which is cool because you know it gives you. It

2:46 Speaker 1: gives you an ability to sound like something that's unlike

2:49 Speaker 1: anything else anyone has ever done. I honestly can't think

2:52 Speaker 1: of anything that sounds quite like this project. And is

2:56 Speaker 1: that important to you? I don't know. I don't know

2:59 Speaker 1: if you've done other projects that were more sort of

3:01 Speaker 1: mainstream for lack of a better word, But is it

3:04 Speaker 1: important to you as an artist to really do something

3:06 Speaker 1: that's unique and to stand out and not just be

3:09 Speaker 1: kind of following whatever whatever trends are out there.

3:14 Speaker 2: Not in its own sake. I don't have a goal

3:20 Speaker 2: to do that for itself, but I've always struggled to

3:27 Speaker 2: keep my creative instincts. In one vein, I remember that

3:34 Speaker 2: actually a band I love. I don't know them super well,

3:37 Speaker 2: but but what I've heard of them I really love

3:40 Speaker 2: Will Go. I think the bassist in an interview said

3:44 Speaker 2: something like, you know what, will Go? Albums will sound

3:50 Speaker 2: like we have our our universe that we work in

3:55 Speaker 2: and we're going to stay there, and you know, we'll

3:59 Speaker 2: we'll we'll push its boundaries here and there, but you know,

4:04 Speaker 2: the the the things we do broadly speaking, which is

4:13 Speaker 2: totally respectable, totally that's great if that's the way, you know,

4:20 Speaker 2: you end up becoming creative world. For me personally, I've

4:25 Speaker 2: never been able to exhaust my interests as a songwriter

4:30 Speaker 2: by staying in one genre. So I jump around from

4:36 Speaker 2: one genre to another, like I'm playing with boats in

4:41 Speaker 2: a lake, and you know, jumping in one boat and

4:46 Speaker 2: then letting a friend capsize it, and then jumping in

4:50 Speaker 2: their boat and capsizing theirs. I look at them more

4:53 Speaker 2: like that instead of a space that if I leave

4:58 Speaker 2: my spacesuit, my eyes explode or my blood vessels burst

5:03 Speaker 2: or whatever happens in that circumstance.

5:04 Speaker 1: So right, Yeah, it sounds like you would kind of

5:07 Speaker 1: get bored if you were in a project where it

5:09 Speaker 1: was like you had you had certain parameters that. Yeah,

5:12 Speaker 1: that's always interesting too. When artists they obviously as they

5:15 Speaker 1: become more successful and they kind of develop a formula

5:19 Speaker 1: for what seems to work for them. Commercially and that

5:21 Speaker 1: does create sort of those parameters, and some artists can

5:25 Speaker 1: push the boundaries. Some artists have to stay locked in,

5:27 Speaker 1: you know, like if you know ACDC, just as a

5:30 Speaker 1: random example of that, right, you know, they've got a formula,

5:32 Speaker 1: They've got a template, and if they venture out of that,

5:35 Speaker 1: people are going to be very confused. But it sounds

5:38 Speaker 1: like it must be very exciting to approach it the

5:39 Speaker 1: way that you do it, And I'm curious kind of

5:42 Speaker 1: drilling down on that with this project. Do you go

5:47 Speaker 1: when you do this your approach to creating these songs,

5:50 Speaker 1: do you consciously think I have to do something that's different,

5:55 Speaker 1: I have to do something that's unique that's hard to define,

5:58 Speaker 1: or is it more just sort of We're gonna see

6:02 Speaker 1: what comes out here. I'm gonna I'm gonna create this song,

6:05 Speaker 1: but I'm not trying to be different or weird or

6:09 Speaker 1: however people perceive it. I'm just trying to create whatever

6:12 Speaker 1: is in my head that I think is going to

6:14 Speaker 1: sound good.

6:16 Speaker 2: I think it's more the second one. I can't guarantee

6:23 Speaker 2: that everything I make people will love. I hope everybody

6:29 Speaker 2: loves it, but I make it to move people in

6:35 Speaker 2: some way or another. It's not too achieve some arbitrary

6:43 Speaker 2: thing of like I did something out or genre defying

6:49 Speaker 2: or whatever like for its own sake. I think it's

6:52 Speaker 2: more I kind of look at it the way I

6:57 Speaker 2: look at life generally. You know, there's such a range

7:01 Speaker 2: of kinds of experiences one can have, from incredible sorrow

7:08 Speaker 2: to joy, to rage to terror to boredom, you know,

7:14 Speaker 2: and everything in between and other stuff. And I've always

7:18 Speaker 2: thought of the genres as each like kind of paints

7:25 Speaker 2: or something, colors of different paints in that whole picture.

7:30 Speaker 2: And so you know, there's certainly compelling folk music about anger,

7:38 Speaker 2: like Bruce Springsteen or Patti Smith or whatever. Plenty of

7:42 Speaker 2: those songs are pissed off. But you know, in terms

7:48 Speaker 2: of just the raw emotional color of rage, death metal

7:54 Speaker 2: is the angriest to perform. On the other hand, there

7:59 Speaker 2: are converge songs that are love song. It sounds doesn't

8:04 Speaker 2: sound like it the most, you know, maybe the most

8:08 Speaker 2: immediately to some ears anyway, loving sound is something softer,

8:16 Speaker 2: maybe like a folk song or soul music or something

8:19 Speaker 2: like that. So I think of the genres more as

8:24 Speaker 2: just different ways of showing the vast array of experiences

8:29 Speaker 2: we can have. So that's how I use them.

8:34 Speaker 1: And how did this How did this project start? This

8:37 Speaker 1: is it true? That started at Temple University in Philly.

8:40 Speaker 2: Yeah, that's right, Okay. So I had been actually to

8:46 Speaker 2: go on this thing about the different emotions and emotional

8:51 Speaker 2: experiences and whatever we can have as people. Originally I

8:55 Speaker 2: thought I was going to be a psychotherapist, and I

8:58 Speaker 2: had got and out of college, went to Skidmore College

9:04 Speaker 2: and I graduated in two thousand and seven studying psychology

9:08 Speaker 2: and philosophy, and I had a job as an intake

9:11 Speaker 2: worker in a behavioral healthcare center in South Philly. I

9:17 Speaker 2: saw every major and supporting role of the diagnostic statistic

9:22 Speaker 2: manual of mental disorders schizophrenia, major depression, bipolar disorder, addictions,

9:30 Speaker 2: and you know, kids in a lot of circumstances, in

9:36 Speaker 2: really great despair. And I had thought I was going

9:42 Speaker 2: to do that career, and I had this intake worker position,

9:49 Speaker 2: which I really at first, you know, it was hard,

9:52 Speaker 2: but I got I ultimately, I was able to do

9:56 Speaker 2: it at first because I believed that the world as

10:02 Speaker 2: it is can help these people with a system that

10:06 Speaker 2: we have. And then over the next year, I just

10:11 Speaker 2: got ground down about like, holy crap, this system in

10:16 Speaker 2: which we live is really pitted against people, whether we

10:20 Speaker 2: are people who need care or people who are giving care.

10:26 Speaker 2: And I just got my ass worked and roasted by it.

10:31 Speaker 2: And then meanwhile, I had been writing this weird music

10:35 Speaker 2: as a little twenty three year old guy. And when

10:42 Speaker 2: I eventually said, oh crap, I can't do this anymore.

10:45 Speaker 2: I gotta be on my way and try music out.

10:52 Speaker 2: I went to Temple University and I met a really

10:56 Speaker 2: fantastic number of musicians and still friends to this day.

11:02 Speaker 2: That started the first version of the band with me

11:05 Speaker 2: in twenty eleven. So the beginning of A. K. Schnock

11:12 Speaker 2: was a transition from great uh you know, kind of

11:19 Speaker 2: a personal psychological political crisis, from one walk of life

11:25 Speaker 2: to another, and then meeting like minded thinkers and feelers

11:31 Speaker 2: and musicians at that at Temple University, where I went

11:35 Speaker 2: to study classical guitar, when I changed the course of

11:39 Speaker 2: my life.

11:40 Speaker 1: Okay, okay, by the way, yeah that is interesting to

11:43 Speaker 1: me and I I I know a little bit about

11:45 Speaker 1: what you're what you're talking about, how the system is

11:48 Speaker 1: U is pitted against these people who so desperately need help,

11:51 Speaker 1: and it sounds like you got uh, you know, there's

11:55 Speaker 1: a lot of burnout in that field obviously. Yeah, and

11:58 Speaker 1: it sounds like you you kind of you had the

12:00 Speaker 1: foresight to see what was coming for you if you had,

12:03 Speaker 1: if you had stuck with it. So so that that's interesting.

12:08 Speaker 1: And then I assume so at Temple and you were

12:11 Speaker 1: studying it was classical guitar, Is that correct?

12:14 Speaker 2: Yeah?

12:15 Speaker 1: And that obviously shaped I assume shaped what you're doing

12:21 Speaker 1: today because you know it in terms of being able

12:24 Speaker 1: to do things that are very technical. Obviously, that classical

12:27 Speaker 1: training is very helpful. And then so that was where

12:32 Speaker 1: the original iteration of the band formed, the first lineup

12:35 Speaker 1: formed at Temple.

12:37 Speaker 2: Yeah, okay.

12:39 Speaker 1: And then and that was, oh, so this project has

12:42 Speaker 1: actually been around a while. Then, so that was you

12:44 Speaker 1: said that was twenty eleven.

12:46 Speaker 2: Yeah, it's been a long time.

12:48 Speaker 1: Long time. So how was I mean, I assume the

12:50 Speaker 1: sounds changed and evolved over time or I mean, were

12:53 Speaker 1: those early songs that you did, were those also very

12:56 Speaker 1: much genre bending or did it start out a little

12:59 Speaker 1: more conventional?

13:00 Speaker 2: Well, also genre bending, I've been in one project that

13:08 Speaker 2: was more uh, stationarily just one project. I was in

13:14 Speaker 2: an indie rock band that I played drums in and

13:17 Speaker 2: that was I loved that group. But anytime I've ever

13:23 Speaker 2: written music in my own personal musical language, it's always been, uh,

13:32 Speaker 2: you know, the shape shifting sound that it is for

13:35 Speaker 2: better or for worse.

13:37 Speaker 1: So yeah, and then when did you start releasing music

13:41 Speaker 1: with ak Schnack now butchering it you're perfect ak snack

13:48 Speaker 1: all good?

13:49 Speaker 2: When when?

13:50 Speaker 1: When when did that begin? As far as your your

13:52 Speaker 1: first output with the project.

13:55 Speaker 2: I think our first EP was released in twenty fourteen, Okay.

14:03 Speaker 2: It's a tiny, little eighteen minute EP called Letters to

14:12 Speaker 2: Herrmann Vasquez Rubio, which I don't think is on our Spotify,

14:16 Speaker 2: but it is on band camp, okay. And then it

14:21 Speaker 2: was another five years or so before we put out

14:24 Speaker 2: the second two releases, So we have big old gaps

14:28 Speaker 2: between releases.

14:31 Speaker 1: Okay. Yeah, Shadows Grow Fangs as that's your first since

14:35 Speaker 1: twenty nineteen, correct, that's right, okay? And what was the

14:38 Speaker 1: spark that brought this to fruition in terms of because

14:42 Speaker 1: obviously you do take long breaks between recording. What what

14:46 Speaker 1: brought this? Uh? What what brought this to light? Wanting

14:49 Speaker 1: to do the CP.

14:52 Speaker 2: I always you know again, for better or for worse.

14:57 Speaker 2: Some I take a long time to get the full

15:04 Speaker 2: picture of what I wanted a release to be. In fact,

15:09 Speaker 2: let's see Shadows of Fangs the Internet three. Almost all

15:15 Speaker 2: of the songs on that EP are about as old

15:19 Speaker 2: as the story I was saying, Like, I started writing

15:26 Speaker 2: the title track Shadows Grow Fangs on a bike ride

15:30 Speaker 2: home from my job as an intake worker. So I

15:35 Speaker 2: take a long time to finish stuff, and so I

15:43 Speaker 2: think in terms of what compelled it, I was like, Okay,

15:47 Speaker 2: you got to just put this out already. Let's just

15:50 Speaker 2: put these songs out on this EP and make this happen.

15:56 Speaker 2: So I guess the answer is do it. Gosh darn it, David,

16:02 Speaker 2: do it already. Put it out already. You know, you

16:05 Speaker 2: could have a you could have a kid graduating high

16:08 Speaker 2: school with this record. Put it out right.

16:11 Speaker 1: So well, you know, good things take time, right, you

16:16 Speaker 1: know you're correct?

16:17 Speaker 2: Correct? Easy? Yes, yes, I got to go easy on myself.

16:20 Speaker 1: There, there you go, there you go. I also want

16:23 Speaker 1: to know more about your connection with EMF, and yes,

16:27 Speaker 1: EMF for for people who don't remember, unbelievable. I mean,

16:30 Speaker 1: that's like the song that people remember the most. You're

16:33 Speaker 1: unbelievable from EMF. And of course I'm not sure how

16:37 Speaker 1: much music they've released, and I know they have probably

16:39 Speaker 1: quite a bit, that they've been around a long time obviously,

16:42 Speaker 1: but tell us about your connection with EMF and the

16:43 Speaker 1: touring and all that.

16:46 Speaker 2: Yes, so we met them on our West Coast tour

16:52 Speaker 2: this past June, and like you say, I had heard

17:00 Speaker 2: that song and I'd always loved it. I probably heard

17:04 Speaker 2: it when I was ten years old, and you know,

17:10 Speaker 2: hadn't heard the other music until I was put onto

17:15 Speaker 2: it by the fact that we were going to be

17:16 Speaker 2: touring with them. Had no idea what they would be

17:22 Speaker 2: like as dudes, but they were absolutely lovely, lovely you know,

17:31 Speaker 2: to use a British term, lovely books. And that tour was,

17:39 Speaker 2: you know, fifteen days, but it felt like one big day,

17:46 Speaker 2: the best day of our lives, I think, and just

17:51 Speaker 2: you know, constant warmth and laughter and you know, and

18:01 Speaker 2: they're much more seasoned than we are, obviously. Yeah, but

18:08 Speaker 2: we just had so much fun with them, and they

18:13 Speaker 2: saw that we were taking what we were doing seriously

18:16 Speaker 2: and we were supportive in terms of just the brass

18:21 Speaker 2: tacks of people collaborating on a tour and being dependable

18:25 Speaker 2: and all that. So, uh, and we're on this. We're

18:29 Speaker 2: on the same booking agency as they are, and so

18:32 Speaker 2: that's how we, like the simplest way in which we

18:35 Speaker 2: got connected. Our manager pitched to the booking agency that

18:40 Speaker 2: we'd be the opening act for that tour, and they

18:44 Speaker 2: took us up on it, and we proved ourselves and

18:47 Speaker 2: the rest is history. So we're on tour with them

18:50 Speaker 2: this May in on the East Coast for nine days

18:54 Speaker 2: and then six dates in England June.

18:58 Speaker 1: Oh, fantastic. That's excellent. Yeah, you know, and it sounds

19:01 Speaker 1: like you're having a great experience with them and how

19:03 Speaker 1: they are as people, which is great because obviously you

19:05 Speaker 1: don't always know going into a situation when you're opening

19:08 Speaker 1: for somebody what the headliner is going to be, like,

19:10 Speaker 1: how they're going to be as people, how they're going

19:12 Speaker 1: to treat you, And it sounds like it sounds like

19:15 Speaker 1: they're like legitimately really good people. So that's that's wonderful.

19:19 Speaker 2: Yes, yeah, it was awesome. And right there's you know,

19:24 Speaker 2: like life is a mix and people are a mix.

19:30 Speaker 2: Each of each one of us is a huge mix

19:32 Speaker 2: of virtues, flaws and mediocrits. So, like you say, you

19:38 Speaker 2: never know what that mix is going to look like

19:41 Speaker 2: in an individual, in a group of people, in a

19:47 Speaker 2: set of experiences you can have. But with that relationship

19:53 Speaker 2: was just very lucky or blessed however you look at it.

19:59 Speaker 1: Yeah, now that's fantastic. And did you also collaborate on

20:02 Speaker 1: a song.

20:03 Speaker 2: With them, Yes, so on tour they had this basically

20:12 Speaker 2: complete idea for a song that's you know, if people

20:20 Speaker 2: don't know their sound generally, it's it's party music with

20:26 Speaker 2: a little bit of more and sometimes more than a

20:29 Speaker 2: little bit of punk rock energy and tenacity and and

20:34 Speaker 2: then even to some extent, some political import too. So

20:40 Speaker 2: they have dear friends like most of us do, who

20:44 Speaker 2: are in the queer community, and you know, in this

20:50 Speaker 2: troubled world, the queer community is under great attack all

20:56 Speaker 2: the time. And so they wrote a song of solidarity

21:02 Speaker 2: with them called LGBTQ plus Lover. And they had this

21:07 Speaker 2: song that they were gonna premiere on tour, and they

21:10 Speaker 2: did the first two nights, and then when they saw

21:14 Speaker 2: us and heard my singing and the other singer in

21:18 Speaker 2: my band, Bella, this incredible contralto. They said, Holy, holy heck,

21:25 Speaker 2: these this guy and Gal are are really good singers.

21:30 Speaker 2: And they have the beginning of the song basically sounds

21:34 Speaker 2: like a big choral pad, and they had they have

21:37 Speaker 2: a synth pad on the tracks, usually live and on recording.

21:43 Speaker 2: But they're like, why don't we have the opener the

21:47 Speaker 2: two singers from the opening band come on and join us,

21:51 Speaker 2: which we did from the third all the way to

21:54 Speaker 2: the last eleventh show of the night, and then after

21:57 Speaker 2: that because we had so much fun and because audience

22:01 Speaker 2: has really appreciated it, they memorialized that relationship by having

22:08 Speaker 2: us on the on that recording. Uh So, the song

22:12 Speaker 2: is called lgbt Q plus lover and again it's a

22:17 Speaker 2: song of solidarity with gay, transgender, transsexual, non binary other

22:24 Speaker 2: other folks who are under attack and need our allyship.

22:31 Speaker 1: That's extremely cool. I fully support that, and I actually

22:35 Speaker 1: pulled it up. I'm kind of scanning through the lyrics,

22:37 Speaker 1: just making sure that I can play it, because I might.

22:39 Speaker 1: I might play it later in the show. We do

22:41 Speaker 1: have another track of yours that I'm going to play

22:43 Speaker 1: at the end of our conversation, but after that, I

22:45 Speaker 1: might sneak this one in two. I'm just scarning. I'm

22:47 Speaker 1: just scanning through making sure there's no uh no language.

22:50 Speaker 2: And I don't think we have any naughty words. That

22:52 Speaker 2: he does say the word boo hoo. So depending on

22:56 Speaker 2: your audience's sensitivities, maybe I should. Maybe I I'm a

23:00 Speaker 2: potty mouth for saying that.

23:02 Speaker 1: I can assure you I have a highly insensitive audience,

23:07 Speaker 1: so I think. So what I'm going to do is,

23:09 Speaker 1: I'm at the end of our conversation, I'm gonna play

23:11 Speaker 1: another track of yours, and then immediately after that, I'm

23:13 Speaker 1: gonna play this m F track because I found it online.

23:17 Speaker 1: So I think that's awesome, and that's so cool for

23:20 Speaker 1: you like that. That was probably a huge surprise, right

23:22 Speaker 1: when when they asked you to do that. I assume

23:25 Speaker 1: it was.

23:26 Speaker 2: You know, if you have a certain amount of success

23:34 Speaker 2: in any kind of creative or professional thing, it's a

23:39 Speaker 2: sort of naturally human mistake to like deify people. And

23:48 Speaker 2: I'm reminded, you know, this guy's kind of a controversial figure,

23:52 Speaker 2: I think, unfortunately, because I don't personally I think he's

23:55 Speaker 2: a heroic person. Nobody nobody's perfect, but Ralph Nader, the

24:00 Speaker 2: uh consumer advocate, you know, left this gad fly.

24:06 Speaker 1: I'm a fan.

24:08 Speaker 2: Okay, heck, yes, we've got the Ralph Nader crew in

24:11 Speaker 2: the in the building. Ralph Nader says about politicians, he

24:16 Speaker 2: just says, they're not gods. They are people that tie

24:20 Speaker 2: their shoes in the morning and brush their teeth at night.

24:24 Speaker 2: And so you can relate to them just as fellow people.

24:28 Speaker 2: You don't have to feel smaller in there. You know,

24:35 Speaker 2: they're they're You're just as powerful as they are in

24:39 Speaker 2: some respect. And uh, it's you know, it's a bit

24:43 Speaker 2: of a jump of a comparison. But basically when m

24:46 Speaker 2: F said, hey, we see what you're doing. We like

24:51 Speaker 2: it so much, we want you to join us, there

24:56 Speaker 2: was this surreal, like wait what moment of but you

25:02 Speaker 2: But you guys literally helped with with your breakout, world

25:09 Speaker 2: famous single when I was eleven years old. You helped

25:16 Speaker 2: put together the beginnings of my litteral brains understanding of

25:23 Speaker 2: what pop music is and now and now you want

25:26 Speaker 2: me to participate in the continuation of your art. So

25:31 Speaker 2: it was it was pretty surreal and beautiful and but

25:39 Speaker 2: then no, they're just people that put their shoes on

25:42 Speaker 2: in the morning and take them off at night and

25:45 Speaker 2: brush their teeth at night and whatever.

25:47 Speaker 1: So yeah, now that's that's amazing, awesome. I can't wait

25:52 Speaker 1: to I can't wait to play that. So at the

25:55 Speaker 1: end of our conversation, So, like I said, I'm gonna

25:57 Speaker 1: play two things. So at the end of our conversation,

25:59 Speaker 1: I'm gonna play Jeremy. I'm really curious to hear about this,

26:04 Speaker 1: that the Jeremy bout Them song, Jeremy Utilitarian sad Boy,

26:09 Speaker 1: tell us about this, tell us about this song.

26:12 Speaker 2: Sure. So, like I said, four out of five of

26:22 Speaker 2: the songs from Our Shadows Grow Fang's EP, which we

26:26 Speaker 2: released last October, I believe, Okay, I can't. I think so.

26:32 Speaker 2: I think that's right. Four out of five of them

26:38 Speaker 2: are very old songs in my writing history. So when

26:45 Speaker 2: I still lived in Philadelphia, and just around the time

26:49 Speaker 2: that I started going to Temple University, as I was

26:54 Speaker 2: finishing up my changing from a would be shrink into

27:00 Speaker 2: beginning musician beginning musician, I lived around the corner from

27:05 Speaker 2: this really curious, complicated museum called Eastern State Penitentiary, which

27:16 Speaker 2: was a prison. It's the North Philly in the Fairmount neighborhood,

27:22 Speaker 2: and it's this great, big brick fortress in a you know,

27:28 Speaker 2: pretty like relatively nice part of the city. There's like

27:32 Speaker 2: a couple rough spots here and there around it, but

27:36 Speaker 2: like it's sort of nice around there. But there's this

27:40 Speaker 2: but there's this prison museum. And every every Halloween they

27:49 Speaker 2: had this Haunted Prison event, and I would went to

27:54 Speaker 2: the Haunted Prison event and my friends would play prisoners

27:59 Speaker 2: who were also zombies. And then I went there the

28:04 Speaker 2: next day and I learned about this guy, Jeremy Bentham,

28:07 Speaker 2: who was this British philosopher who, at least in our

28:14 Speaker 2: troubled tradition, he was sort of a predecessor to Marx.

28:20 Speaker 2: He believed in the highest good, in the least amount

28:24 Speaker 2: of suffering, the most pleasure, the least amount of pain,

28:28 Speaker 2: for the highest number of people. And he believed that

28:31 Speaker 2: the government can play a positive and real role in that. Wow,

28:36 Speaker 2: big whoop and incredible. It seems sort of obvious now,

28:40 Speaker 2: but for his time it was an important thing to say.

28:44 Speaker 2: And he precedes Marx, so this is all good. But

28:47 Speaker 2: he had this weird idea, which was the idea of

28:51 Speaker 2: solitary confinement. So if you're familiar with the horrible things

28:58 Speaker 2: we do to prisoners. Yes, sometimes we're so brutal as

29:04 Speaker 2: to black people in closet sized rooms and leave them

29:11 Speaker 2: there indefinitely. I have a friend, in fact, named Keith

29:16 Speaker 2: Lamar who has been in solitary confinement for thirty five years.

29:20 Speaker 2: He's an innocent man on death row in Ohio. He's

29:26 Speaker 2: got ten months until the scheduled execution. But you know,

29:36 Speaker 2: so he's an example of this complete disaster of let's say,

29:46 Speaker 2: good intentions creating horrific nonsense. So the song is an

29:56 Speaker 2: exploration of how did you how did you miss? How

30:02 Speaker 2: did you forget to carry the two on this cute

30:04 Speaker 2: little moral calculation you had, Jeremy Bentham. You know your

30:09 Speaker 2: highest good for highest number, you know, kind of imagining

30:18 Speaker 2: something like the social safety net, and these are all

30:23 Speaker 2: good ideas and making sure people have food and housing

30:27 Speaker 2: in basic livelihood and human rights on it. But now

30:31 Speaker 2: you have this idea of locking people in closets indefinitely.

30:36 Speaker 2: Where'd you go wrong? Weirdo? Right? And then the funniest,

30:40 Speaker 2: the last weird coincidence about his story that comes up

30:44 Speaker 2: in the song and the lyric is that he had

30:48 Speaker 2: this idea that when you die, you don't have to

30:53 Speaker 2: worry about death. You can grieve the people that have died,

30:57 Speaker 2: but death is not a harm to the person that

31:00 Speaker 2: dies because they're no longer. There's no harm to somebody

31:06 Speaker 2: who doesn't exist. So don't fear death. And then in

31:11 Speaker 2: relation to the body, well, what do you do? What

31:13 Speaker 2: do you tell people about what to do with your

31:16 Speaker 2: body when you die? He said, I want to he said,

31:21 Speaker 2: basically taxidermy me, put me in my seated position. He

31:26 Speaker 2: was a professor at an Oxford in London or sorry

31:31 Speaker 2: in England, and so he said, just put me in

31:36 Speaker 2: my cool hat with my cane and my professor le

31:39 Speaker 2: garb make me look swell or whatever, and have me

31:43 Speaker 2: seated with a big smile on my face, and just

31:46 Speaker 2: let my body be an image of you know, the

31:52 Speaker 2: the body as a stale instrument was his phrase, like

31:57 Speaker 2: a thing that just comes and goes and no big deal.

32:00 Speaker 2: And you know, my former students, you can even laugh

32:03 Speaker 2: at me or whatever. So there's kind of like this

32:05 Speaker 2: light heartedness, right, but there's also this this weird, grotesque

32:12 Speaker 2: accident where like he's putting his dead body in this

32:18 Speaker 2: in this cell for his students to muse ad and

32:22 Speaker 2: to love him after he's gone, or to laugh at him,

32:25 Speaker 2: or to be growth gross soud or whatever. Right, And meanwhile,

32:28 Speaker 2: his confused, absurd philosophical tradition ends up putting living people

32:35 Speaker 2: in cells. And and those are those bodies are not

32:41 Speaker 2: stale instruments at all. Those people are living people with

32:47 Speaker 2: hopes and dreams and fears and emotions and lives they

32:52 Speaker 2: want to live. So uh. And then that's the story

32:57 Speaker 2: of Keith Lamar. Is another important thing that if we

33:02 Speaker 2: speak again, I want to tell you about. But for

33:06 Speaker 2: folks who need inspiration and want to help with an

33:12 Speaker 2: important cause, check out Keith Lamar dot org.

33:17 Speaker 1: Okay, and.

33:19 Speaker 2: You can hear about his story. He's an imprisoned man

33:24 Speaker 2: on death row wrongfully who is an incredible philosopher, writer

33:30 Speaker 2: and fact musician too. So Keith Lamar dot org. And

33:35 Speaker 2: I'm sure you'd be interested in that as well. I

33:38 Speaker 2: really love this conversation and it seems like you are

33:42 Speaker 2: curious about the right things.

33:43 Speaker 1: Oh absolutely. And I'm also someone who my entire life,

33:46 Speaker 1: I've always been very much opposed to the death penalty.

33:51 Speaker 1: One of the few things my dad who passed away

33:53 Speaker 1: not too long ago. It's one of the few things

33:55 Speaker 1: that he and I actually agreed on all the way

33:57 Speaker 1: to his end is politically, one of the few things

34:00 Speaker 1: we agreed on was that the death penalty is egregious

34:04 Speaker 1: and wrong. So yeah, I'm gonna look that up. I

34:06 Speaker 1: am curious to know more about that, and I would

34:09 Speaker 1: like to have a follow up conversation with you on

34:11 Speaker 1: that subject in the future. Definitely. Yeah, that'd be very interesting.

34:16 Speaker 1: So we're going to in a moment, We'll let you go, David,

34:20 Speaker 1: and we're going to play We are going to play

34:22 Speaker 1: Jeremy Utilitarian sad Boy to at the close of our conversation,

34:27 Speaker 1: and then, like I said, I am also going to

34:28 Speaker 1: play that E MF track LGBTQ plus Lover. Very curious

34:32 Speaker 1: to hear that as well. But I want to know,

34:35 Speaker 1: please share with our listeners where's the best place to

34:37 Speaker 1: go online to keep up with everything you're doing, everything

34:39 Speaker 1: ak Schnack is doing, how to spell it for people

34:43 Speaker 1: who don't how to spell it, and and anything else

34:46 Speaker 1: you want our listeners to be aware of in terms

34:48 Speaker 1: of finding you online.

34:50 Speaker 2: Great, yes, for better or for worse. I chose a

34:55 Speaker 2: funny name for this act. I often think of the

35:00 Speaker 2: hip hop artist talib Quality. You know, he could have

35:04 Speaker 2: he was, He's obviously very creative guy. He could have

35:09 Speaker 2: chosen a much more straightforward name for himself. But for

35:12 Speaker 2: whatever reason, some of us, you know, just get attached

35:16 Speaker 2: to challenging names. And he has a whole song about

35:22 Speaker 2: you pronounced the name quality, any questions whatever, So he's

35:26 Speaker 2: making kind of making fun of his of that choice

35:29 Speaker 2: of his own. For me and our band, Uh, the

35:34 Speaker 2: name is spelled e double c e e c c

35:39 Speaker 2: e space s h n a k schnock k schnock

35:47 Speaker 2: e double c e space s h n a k

35:53 Speaker 2: And we got to update it, so bear with us

35:57 Speaker 2: on the on the website. But but certainly websites are

36:01 Speaker 2: are an old school thing to do, so you can

36:04 Speaker 2: check it out there. But in terms of the most

36:08 Speaker 2: immediate things, I think Instagram is the best medium to

36:14 Speaker 2: get the totally most up to date AH updates about

36:22 Speaker 2: us and any any streaming platform of your choice. To

36:28 Speaker 2: check out the music, and then we can certainly send

36:33 Speaker 2: you merch if you fall in love with the music

36:37 Speaker 2: and want some want a vinyl or a T shirt

36:39 Speaker 2: or something. We have a store for that two. And yeah,

36:47 Speaker 2: so I think the the maybe for for Eve, for

36:53 Speaker 2: an odd band, we have more humdrum, mediocre ways of

36:59 Speaker 2: listening to us.

37:01 Speaker 1: So yeah, you know what, though it occurs to me

37:04 Speaker 1: it does make you very googleable, as I like to say,

37:06 Speaker 1: because if someone googles your name, and you know, assuming

37:10 Speaker 1: they spell it correctly, there's not gonna be any confusion.

37:12 Speaker 1: Oh is this is this the correct at? Do I

37:17 Speaker 1: have the right one? You don't have to worry about that.

37:19 Speaker 1: So that's a good thing. Absolutely, Thank you. Well, so

37:24 Speaker 1: we're going to to in a moment. We're gonna play

37:26 Speaker 1: this track Jared Jeremy, I don't know. I have so

37:29 Speaker 1: much trouble with it. Jeremy utilitarian, sad boy. I need

37:32 Speaker 1: more caffeine this morning. But David, thank you so much

37:35 Speaker 1: for joining us. This has been a wonderful conversation. Fascinated

37:38 Speaker 1: by your music. I really love it. Check out the

37:41 Speaker 1: EP Everybody Shadows Grow Fangs really really good and we

37:44 Speaker 1: will definitely have you back. Man, this has been wonderful.

37:46 Speaker 1: Thank you so much for joining us today.

37:49 Speaker 2: Thank you so much, man, and peace and love to

37:52 Speaker 2: w M n H listeners so much. Gratitude to you,

37:57 Speaker 2: and hopefully we'll see you on the East Coast tour.

38:00 Speaker 2: Boston might be the nearest where you guys are I

38:03 Speaker 2: think so, uh so. Yeah. Much love and gratitude to

38:09 Speaker 2: everybody in the w M n H universe. Piece and

38:12 Speaker 2: love Davy.

38:14 Speaker 1: All right, talk to you soon, my friend, take care,

38:16 Speaker 1: Bye bye. All right. That was David Rausch. The project

38:19 Speaker 1: is k Schnock And check this out. This is called

38:23 Speaker 1: Jeremy Utilitarian Sad Boy from the ep Shadows Growth. Thanks