GenerationZ | Matt Connarton Unleashed

0:00 Speaker 1: The track is Seance, the band is Generations and we're gonna be talking with them in just a moment.

0:05 Speaker 2: Welcome everybody. We have entered our number three.

0:07 Speaker 1: New Marrow trace of Matt Connorton Unleashed and we are live from the studios of wm NH ninety five point three FM and Glorious Manchester, New Hampshire. And of course you can listen to the show from anywhere. Go to Matt connorton dot com slash live for all of your live streaming options, social media links, contact info, show archives, et cetera, et cetera. If you are listening live. It is Saturday January ten, twenty twenty six. Jenny is here, of course at the news table present and let's get the band in here.

0:36 Speaker 1: So I've got the level up here, I know we have we have Jen Are you there?

0:40 Speaker 2: Can you hear us?

0:42 Speaker 3: Yes, we can hear it.

0:43 Speaker 1: Oh excellent, let me I gotta boost the volume on this end. But so yeah, so welcome. So we have gen X from the band and you've got your cohorts with you. Because I can see I don't think you can see me, but I can see you on the on the screen. Why don't you go ahead and introduce everybody if you would, or they can introduce them elves, however you want to do it.

1:02 Speaker 4: Pricey playing guitar, Michael ever.

1:06 Speaker 5: And we're MIAs one because he's working today and he could make Anthony and he plays.

1:10 Speaker 4: Guitar as well.

1:11 Speaker 2: Gotcha? Gotcha?

1:12 Speaker 1: All right, So tell us about I'm curious to know how this band came together because you're you're in an area you're in?

1:22 Speaker 2: Is it Springfield, Missouri?

1:24 Speaker 4: Yes?

1:25 Speaker 1: So not exactly known as a hotbed for metal, shall we say? But I have no idea what the music scene is like there. How did this band come about? And are there I mean, is there a strong scene there where you are.

1:39 Speaker 4: Think it's not too bad? The story on how we get together is kind of funny.

1:42 Speaker 6: I actually know Daniel for a long time and hit him up and even playing music different bands for twenty something years.

1:49 Speaker 4: Now, and I was like, maybe why do we Why have we never jail?

1:52 Speaker 3: He's like, I don't know.

1:53 Speaker 6: We went ahead and got together to the Little Jamon and just turned into what we have.

2:00 Speaker 5: To go on?

2:00 Speaker 7: Then?

2:02 Speaker 2: So is this is this a relatively new project?

2:06 Speaker 3: Yeah, well it's been going for about three years.

2:08 Speaker 5: So when we formed it, we had an original singer and then we lost him for the health reasons, and then we went through about a year and a half of just going through different vocalists, you know, trying new things vocally, and then we blessed to run into this kick over here.

2:25 Speaker 4: That's the fun from there. I mean you hear amazing?

2:29 Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely absolutely so. And having a you know, a female fronted band is still it's weird. It's it's you. You would almost think it'd be it wouldn't even be a big deal at this point, right, But it seems like in the industry when you have a female fronted metal band, it still kind of turns heads. People say, oh, isn't that interesting, even though there's been many many female fronted bands. But I mean, jen X, I'm curious how how you feel about that And is that something that you really kind of try to push to the fore in terms of how the band is marketed and perceived or do you think about that part or is it just this is what it is, or how do you approach that.

3:09 Speaker 3: So I've been doing this a long time. Springfield, you know, is probably not well known, but Branson is, oh yeah, well known. My parents were entertainers there for twenty years. I was a child.

3:22 Speaker 7: Entertainer there growing up. Oh wow, professionally performing since I was five. Okay, so classically because growing up there it's mostly country. I did a lot of country. But this is this is me. This is the music that I love. I remember screaming at the top of my lungs to Offspring when I was like nine years old.

3:48 Speaker 3: Does genuinely love it?

3:49 Speaker 7: But I didn't have that opportunity to express myself that way growing up. Yeah, so this is this is me taking that opportunity. I stepped away from performing for about twenty years. Oh wow, because I growng up with you know, entertainer parents. It's just a different lifestyle and I just wanted something different from my kids. And so this is this is me coming back out in my own way, authentically myself and.

4:16 Speaker 3: We are just having a blast.

4:18 Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, absolutely. So, So for twenty years you didn't perform at all?

4:23 Speaker 2: Is that correct?

4:26 Speaker 7: Some some a little bit, but not a lot, and not a lot professionally.

4:29 Speaker 3: You know, I love karaoking. I do it all the time. It's just my little extra outlet.

4:33 Speaker 1: Sure yet, but was was it always kind of in the back of your mind that you would get back to it, or that you would be doing something like this, or has this been kind of a kind of a twist in your story that you didn't necessarily always think would happen.

4:48 Speaker 3: Oh, this is a huge twist.

4:51 Speaker 7: I was so nervous coming into this genre, I you know, but everybody has just welcomed me with open arms, which which is always been great about. You know, metal heads in general, I feel like they are like the most accepting and so it's yeah, I am truly blessed with this opportunity. I could not be more grateful. I'm so excited about it. These guys just had nothing but faith in me when I didn't have it in myself.

5:19 Speaker 1: So yeah, tell me too about the name, because so the name of the band is Generations, but the way that it's spelled and Jen, I even I even asked you in an email for clarification because it's spelled Generation but I'm sorry, generations but with a Z at the end and the Z is capitalized.

5:38 Speaker 2: So what is the significance of that? What does the name mean to you?

5:42 Speaker 5: Well, when we started it, we were kind of playing on our own music, like I had two other bands going a time. When we started this thing, we were playing metal covers, rock cover like, we were playing a kind of a broad spectrum of music. So I was like, okay, we just be called Generations. Well then when we looked up Generations as a band name, there was only one of them in Florida, and it was a cover band that played you know, from like fifties, did a middle two thousands cover band.

6:08 Speaker 4: So we just changed the name that.

6:09 Speaker 5: We changed the E to A and put a Z on the end of it and put the little the time capsule deal on the hourglass on the end of it. And yeah, we didn't think about it being called generation Z un tail. It got played on rock Rage Radio the first time and they were like Generation Z playing Salence and we were like, oh snack.

6:30 Speaker 1: Yeah, I can see you can see where that would happen. But now, so tell us about the first single, Seance. Uh A great, great track and it's very and I really like too by the way, the production choice with it becomes prominent at the end, uh, you know, with with the keyboard in there.

6:50 Speaker 2: I just really like the production of the song. But but tell us about.

6:53 Speaker 1: Seance and and where that song comes from and what the meaning is behind those lyrics.

7:00 Speaker 4: Well, uh, the the.

7:02 Speaker 8: Kind of the meeting behind it is more of like a sayos that you would kind of tell yourself to kind of keep yourself centered, keep yourself focused, motivated, to keep going and to push out all the the bs that goes on and live and just.

7:18 Speaker 4: Kind of kind of keep yourself self centered, you know.

7:20 Speaker 1: Yeah, And then like like, what's the so that song was played on they played that on Rock Rage radio?

7:29 Speaker 5: Is that.

7:31 Speaker 3: It's been on a lot of things?

7:34 Speaker 7: Yeah, Yeah, we've been on some online radios in the UK pretty much daily for a couple of months now with excellent. Yeah, so it's it's it's been it's been an amazing journey so far.

7:47 Speaker 1: Well, so you're you're off to a great start then, because you know, like like we were saying that the project in this iteration is is relatively new, right, that's your first single, So so yeah.

7:57 Speaker 2: You're you're you're off to a great start. That's got to feel good.

8:06 Speaker 4: Even don't even.

8:09 Speaker 1: No, that's wonderful. And then what's the live schedule, Like are you playing a lot of shows? Are you touring or or what's what's happening there?

8:19 Speaker 3: We do have a lot on the books.

8:21 Speaker 7: We we are actually have the opportunity to play in February in Saint Louis on the road.

8:29 Speaker 3: To Point Best.

8:30 Speaker 2: Excellent.

8:31 Speaker 7: It's like a battle of the bands to try to actually get to play Point Fest, which.

8:35 Speaker 4: Is one of the which we never heard of that looked at.

8:38 Speaker 5: Point Fast in Saint Louis, massive, massive festival.

8:43 Speaker 4: Yeah, it's yeah, geared.

8:45 Speaker 7: Up and excited for that. And we have another local show at Moontown Sound.

8:52 Speaker 4: And Springfield is really awesome. And then then we have a show in Columbia.

8:58 Speaker 3: Oh yeah, we well we've got so further out.

9:00 Speaker 5: Yeah, out in the area, and we have stuff in August and Columbia and that's We've got Texas coming later in the year as well. Yeah, it's a it's getting pretty wild.

9:13 Speaker 3: We are geared up and ready to get out there.

9:15 Speaker 2: No, that's excellent.

9:16 Speaker 1: And then so in terms of the live show, because so far, I mean, do you have other material that you play live that you haven't recorded yet?

9:24 Speaker 3: Absolutely? Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, we got a lot of music.

9:28 Speaker 4: We have a lot of music given.

9:29 Speaker 1: The whole album, oh fantasy, So you're working on an album now, that's that's another thing. I was gonna ask you, because you know, there's so many different ways to release music now. A lot of artists will do an album, some will do an EP, some will just release singles that eventually coalesce into an EP or an album. But so you've got you're working on an album currently, yep, excellent, excellent. For the next song, yeah, okay, okay, fantastic, same same studio where you recorded, uh Seance and something Wicked or.

10:07 Speaker 5: Seance shot to my bud Kevin Dunn and Mercenary Studios. We tracked that song with him. The next batch of songs is done with Jess Smith at Studio twenty also amazing engineer.

10:21 Speaker 3: Okay, something Wicked studio. Oh yeah, because he's got.

10:29 Speaker 4: We just released that.

10:30 Speaker 3: Yeah, we we just released that yesterday.

10:32 Speaker 1: So yeah, so something Wicked that hasn't Is that not been heard? Is this the first time that will be on the radio that track?

10:40 Speaker 7: Yeah?

10:40 Speaker 4: Sure, we just released it last night.

10:43 Speaker 3: We just released it last night.

10:44 Speaker 2: I was gonna say, yeah, that's very new, hot off the press. Well that's one off.

10:47 Speaker 1: I'm glad we're going to be the first radio station to play it. That's very cool. I can I can play my uh, my world premiere bumper We Love We Love the World premieres around here.

10:58 Speaker 2: That's great. No, that's another great track, very very strong. I really like that a lot.

11:04 Speaker 1: And then what what's kind of the long term trajectory. I mean, you've got a lot going on, You're working on the album, you're you're, uh, you've got some some shows lined up. I mean, what what what do you feel is in the future for for generations. What's what's kind of the the big goal?

11:21 Speaker 5: Well, the goals is like any other band, you know, they're trying to do professionally, get it where we can financially swap over to make enough money making music and everything else that comes along with making music to you know, feed our families and all that fun stuff.

11:34 Speaker 7: Yeah, I love performing, Like I said, I mean, it's it's just it's it's my space.

11:41 Speaker 3: But for me, I'm just excited to perform. And then then when I realized I get to make money doing it as well, I'm like, oh yeah, that's cool. That's a bonus for me. But like just being able to perform and connect with people and just that's my favorite.

11:53 Speaker 2: So yeah, absolutely, Now what should we know? So in a moment we're going.

11:59 Speaker 1: To play this act something Wicked will well when we wrap up our conversation, we'll play that to kind of end the segment. But I mean, what should we know about this before we play it? You know, we talked about Sunds, but again, people are gonna be hearing this for the very first time on the radio.

12:15 Speaker 2: What should we know about this song? Something Wicked?

12:18 Speaker 4: It was?

12:19 Speaker 8: It was actually kind of inspired. We were sitting around Darley Spring. We had some real nasty weather, tonic weather coming through, and we just sent in our group chat text and back and forth and I just probably said something wicked this like comes and jumpeditions like that one makes some.

12:34 Speaker 6: Really cool song lyrics. I'm like, bet so, I said, down, start jumping some stuff down And then it kind of morphed into what we got here. But it all started to get news feed about talking about the weather.

12:45 Speaker 5: Yeah, we really wrote these song's lyrics in our band chat.

12:48 Speaker 2: Oh no kidding, Oh that's cool.

12:51 Speaker 4: Yeah.

12:52 Speaker 3: Well, and I was telling Daniel earlier or something I really appreciate.

12:55 Speaker 7: About this project and this group of people is that we are just comfortable with each other. It's where we give each other the space to be ourselves individually creatively.

13:08 Speaker 3: And then we come together and it works.

13:11 Speaker 7: And so when it comes to some of the meetings for the songs also, I think that it resonates differently with each of us.

13:20 Speaker 3: I was for something wicked.

13:24 Speaker 7: I have also had some mental health struggles throughout my life, and I still struggle with PTSD.

13:30 Speaker 3: So I am having a PTSD episode sometimes.

13:35 Speaker 7: That turns into like inner rage that I have to cage.

13:42 Speaker 3: At the song there, and.

13:46 Speaker 7: So for me, that's the something wicked, and so this song particularly.

13:51 Speaker 3: Is kind of coping for me. Yeah, that breakdown is so special. I just love it.

13:58 Speaker 2: Anyways, No, I'm glad, I'm glad.

14:00 Speaker 1: I'm glad you explained that because something that comes up on the show a lot is you know, we talk about taking, taking trauma, taking PTSD, taking you know, anxiety, depression, whatever it is, all these things that we deal with from a mental health perspective. When you take something like that and you create something out of it, you know, you're taking something that's negative, but you're creating art, So you're creating something positive out of it that not only not only does that process help you to deal with it, but it potentially helps other people who also then hear the song or or look at the painting or whatever kind of art it is that you're creating, Right, if other people can also get something out of it, then you've not only you've not only helped yourself, but you've helped others and you've done so with something that comes from from pain and trauma.

14:48 Speaker 1: So I think that's I think that's always a wonderful thing when you can do that. So I'm glad you explain that well.

14:54 Speaker 7: And art I think is the greatest form of self expression. Yes, obviously is my favorite, but I also think that it's the greatest form of self expression. And of course it's something that all human beings relate to, and that's what I do it for. That's what I love so much about it, and these guys too.

15:15 Speaker 6: And so you know, while we're here, well, then you also get to make those connections with people that you might not have made any other way.

15:21 Speaker 1: So I mean, look here we are talking with you exactly exactly. Well, so I'm looking forward to playing that track and sharing it with everybody. But before we let you all go, so where's the best place to go online to keep up with everything that the band is doing.

15:37 Speaker 2: Where should people go online?

15:40 Speaker 7: Nope, pretty much everywhere. The band's on Instagram and Facebook. Of course, we have our YouTube page. I have personal pages on TikTok and Twitter or I guess it's x now and Facebook, Instagram.

15:56 Speaker 3: You'll just find us anywhere.

15:58 Speaker 6: Okay, we'll all go all the platform that for us, the YouTube music Spotify.

16:03 Speaker 4: Where do you get band or so?

16:04 Speaker 3: We do have a website too.

16:06 Speaker 2: Oh yes, I'm looking at that now. Yeah.

16:09 Speaker 1: Generations dotnoisyard dot com. You can find everything there. A lot of good information about the band there actually, so that's great, and your music is there too, outstanding.

16:21 Speaker 3: Our YouTube videos you can purchase Merge.

16:24 Speaker 7: Well, we haven't got it set fully yet, but eventually you'll see all our shows like everything Generation.

16:31 Speaker 2: Yeah, excellent, excellent.

16:33 Speaker 1: All right, So in a moment, so we'll let you go so we can hit this track again, the world radio premiere of Something Wicked, the brand new track from Generations. But I want to thank you all for joining us this morning. It's wonderful to talk with you, and uh, we'll definitely do this again in the future as you're releasing new music. We'd love to have you back on you absolutely you got it all right. We'll talk to you soon. Take care, bye.