Ger Eaton | Matt Connarton Unleashed

0:00 Speaker 1: What a great sound. The Time it Takes to Fall? That is Jarre Eaton and we have him on with us via restream. Hello are you there, sir? I am indeed, Hey are good, good, welcome to the show. Yeah, we played, uh, we played the Time It Takes a Fall, and before that we played I thought I had a friend, and I did warn the audience. I said, these songs are beautiful, and they really are. I love these songs, but but they are sad and uh, you know, and and we'll get into all of it. But first of all, Jared, am I saying your first name correctly is a jaar short for Gerald.

0:30 Speaker 2: You are, And I was about to compliment you for that because it's one of the things that has been a revelation to me is how easily you could mispronounce three letters. But it has been Yeah, I've been called gear and different things, but now you're bang on Jar is the one yet?

0:47 Speaker 1: Oh, very very good. I'm plaid, I'm glad. Well, I you know, I do cheat. When I'm not sure, I look it up because people might not know this, but you can go on YouTube and find out how to pronounce almost anything. You just been how to pronounce what you know, whatever it is, and I do that a lot with names. I'll find a video of someone saying the name so that I, you know, try to make sure I get it right.

1:10 Speaker 3: So, but that did that work for you? Is that what you did this time?

1:14 Speaker 1: That's that's literally what I did because in the United States, Jared is not a common name. Gerald is a common name.

1:21 Speaker 2: But my full name is Jerard Jarard and I had a I had an American uncle, uh uncle as I would have known as Uncle Jared when I when I was a kids, and he was really good to be used to send me over baseball hats and T shirts and amazing things of that. But obviously there was an Irish connection there as well. But yeah, so he was he he was a Gerard and uh was American.

1:47 Speaker 3: I gotcha, A great guy, Yeah, I gotcha.

1:50 Speaker 1: Okay, So obviously I want to talk to you about the album Season Changes, and you knows as I did say it is. It is sad, although probably a cathartic for you, I would assume, but this is about this is about the the end of a long marriage.

2:04 Speaker 3: Correct, Yeah, yeah, I mean it was. It was written.

2:12 Speaker 2: It began with with with with the first song was a thought of his friend. That was the first one I'd written a few years ago, and I had no real kind of idea that it was going to become an album at that point. It was just a song that I felt driven to write at that moment. It was how I was feeling, and.

2:33 Speaker 3: I worked with it with a close.

2:36 Speaker 2: Friend of mine, Duncan Maitland, who's actually sitting beside me right now, but he's been very quiet, all right. So we worked in that together and I didn't even release a straightaway. He sat on it for a while and uh and then released it. But yeah, I was going through breakup of of of my marriage and yeah, so that it was quite a it was a difficult time and stressful time. Everything's okay now, which is which is is a good end to the story, I suppose, But yeah, it it drove me to write these songs and in some way create I think that the best music I've i've ever I've ever done.

3:20 Speaker 1: You know, well was it? I mean, did you find it therapeutic? I always say that when you can take anything, and this comes up a lot on the show, when you can take something that's you know, traumatic or just very emotionally challenging, whatever it is, if you can create art from it, that's really kind of the best therapy, right, I mean, did you find that with making this album?

3:41 Speaker 3: I did, Yeah, I did. I think you're you're you're spot on. I think I'm always a bit kind of.

3:50 Speaker 2: I feel self conscious about using words like I'm an artist or I'm a you know, creative, But you know, I've always been a creative person. I suppose that's been it's been just it's who I It's who I am, it's what I am.

4:04 Speaker 3: And I think creative people and artistic people.

4:08 Speaker 2: They always channel everything through whatever that art is, if you're a painter or you're a musician, or you're a writer, and it's just it's it's what.

4:16 Speaker 3: You use to.

4:19 Speaker 2: To deal with happy situations and sad situations and difficult situations.

4:24 Speaker 3: So it was it was very I'm very proud of it. But it's also it's hard to listen to. I haven't listened to the album since I finished.

4:33 Speaker 1: It, you know, really interesting.

4:36 Speaker 3: Yeah, which is interesting.

4:37 Speaker 2: And I watched I watched the documentary Great, The Great documentarybout Scott Walker a few years ago, and in it, he is saying how he never ever listened to an album after he finished it, And at that time I remember watching it going Wow, that's crazy, how could he not do that?

4:54 Speaker 3: And I found myself exactly the same place. Yeah, I don't know. I think it's a number of things.

5:03 Speaker 2: You know, you put so much, you listen to it so much when you're making it at every stage of the way, and then you're never one hundred percent happy with us. You know, I'm really proud of it, but I'm not one hundred percent.

5:13 Speaker 3: Happy with it.

5:14 Speaker 2: But you never are right you don't listen back and hear the things that you that argue about it.

5:18 Speaker 3: I think it is part of what it is. You know.

5:20 Speaker 1: I've often heard actors say something similar to that, you know, I've I've heard many many actors say I don't I don't watch my own films. I can't. I've even heard directors say that, so, you know. But but yeah, I think it's less common with musicians. And that's why that struck me as surprising when you said that. But I but I get it, you know, because once it's done, uh, and once it's out, once it's out there in the world. Uh, you know, anytime you go back and listen to it. Yeah, it's it's natural as a creative person to think, you know what, may maybe I would have done this differently, maybe this mix should have been different, whatever it is, but.

5:54 Speaker 3: You can can't change it at that point.

5:56 Speaker 2: So that's that's I think that's that's exactly it's me when you when you've once you've signed off on a up until that point, intire you can always change something. But once you've once you've given the green light of that guy, that's it. Then we're gonna go with that. You cannot change it anymore. So you don't want to hear something that you wish you could change. And I think that's that's probably it. Plus you just move on to the next right, which which I which I've done and and you know, so that's that's the other side of you just you just have to move on to the next thing.

6:27 Speaker 1: And this is but by the way, this is your debut solo album, correct, I mean obviously you know you've you've worked as a musician for for a long time, but this is this is your first solo album.

6:37 Speaker 3: Yeah, first solo album.

6:38 Speaker 2: I mean, I mean, I'm you know, I've been I've been in bands and making music since I was you know, probably about fifteen, and I would have released you know, a few few albums with projects of my own where I would have been the singer, but there were always band band names. But this is the first time it's and I even feel a little bit. I don't know, it made this some kind of an insecurity in me in saying it's a solo album because I've got so many amazing friends and musicians, you know, Duncan here beside me, and everybody else has played on it with me, so I do feel it's like a collective of musicians.

7:19 Speaker 2: But it is my name on the front, so it is. It is a solo album. I've said it it's a solo album, but yeah, so.

7:28 Speaker 3: Yeah it is.

7:29 Speaker 2: It's the first solo album, although it's the biggest band I've ever had right around me. You know, we launched it with a fourteen piece band when we launched the album last late last year.

7:43 Speaker 3: So yeah, it's the biggest band I've ever had on a solo artist.

7:46 Speaker 1: How daunting is that because you know, obviously, and you know, listening to those two songs, our listeners know just from hearing those that you know this isn't just you sitting down with an acoustic guitar. You know, this is a wash production to say that. List.

8:02 Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that's the other thing that's been Really,

8:06 Speaker 2: It's been a wonderfully.

8:12 Speaker 3: The last couple of years for various reasons.

8:14 Speaker 2: Obviously the personal stuff I was going through, but just as a musician, I faced a lot of fears for myself, which included going on stage on my own with my guitar, which was always a fear I had on something I ran a mile from for years and years and years. But I've faced that fear and I do that now, and I do it with still a little nervousness, but I look forward to it. I've done it with just my flawtist, which sounds very very push. We've done gigs just the two of us. We've done it as a trio with double bass as well.

8:53 Speaker 2: We've done it with up to the fourteen pieces, so we've done about everything, and so I've become very comfortable with reworking the songs. I'm not a backing track person and never would be. And people would say to me, you know, when you hear the strings on the album.

9:11 Speaker 3: Oh yeah, you could you know?

9:12 Speaker 2: You can have the strings on backing tracks, and I'm like, no, no, no, no. If if the gig isn't big enough for the string section, we do it a different way. Songs can live and breathe in many different ways. I think the emotion in the songs and the passion in the songs is what makes them for me, makes them special for me, and you hope that that makes them special for the audience member too. And I think I know back in tracks work for some people, but as a musician, I'm always very conscious when I go to see somebody if there's backing tracks, my year goes to that and I go, who's playing?

9:52 Speaker 2: I can't see anybody playing that? What's going on? And then once I've twigged that, I think it just sort of taints the whole experience for me a little bit. Sure, So I would never do that. Yeah, it's like so I do do it sometimes on my own and and but I love doing it. The most recent gig in Droublem, we did with the quartet string quartet flute, and then Duncan was on a piano and twelve string guitar and I was on six string guitar for some of the songs and that that was a beautiful way doing songs as well.

10:24 Speaker 3: It was it was that felt very special too, you know.

10:27 Speaker 1: Yeah, I would imagine it's kind of liberating to be able to perform these songs in different configurations. Yeah, you know, because you know, you mentioned backing tracks, and some artists who try to do that, especially you know, arena acts who want to try to replicate what's on the record as closely as possible. But I've always looked at it, and I don't have any objection to that. Some people like some people have an ethical and actual ethical objection to that. I don't personally, but I've always looked at it as you know, if I go to see you live and you're not able to reproduce what's on the record because you know, you're not using back in tracks and you don't have all these people on stage with you, and so what ends up coming out is something a little more stripped down, maybe raw, more raw, you know whatever.

11:09 Speaker 1: That's cool to me. I like that. I don't need to hear exactly what's on the record. I want that live experience, however you choose to bring it forth, you know what I mean exactly?

11:19 Speaker 2: Yeah, and I've liked the idea recently and the gigs that we've done that I kind of feel, I once, every time we do it to be a different experience for people, so that they don't feel like they're just getting the same gig each time they come along. That's you know that they will go away and go got I just I equally enjoy that with the smaller lineup or as I did with the bigger lineup, and knowing that the next time is a gig that go, we're gonna go again because what way is he going to do with this time?

11:51 Speaker 2: You know, we don't know, we don't know what it's going to be each time we go. And I like that idea, you know. But when it comes to back in tracks, I love that. The one playing with backing tracks that I love is as Keith Moon when he played with the Who way back.

12:08 Speaker 3: I don't know what ear that.

12:10 Speaker 2: Would have been when he was trying to play along with that, but that was that's crazy and they were through headphones on Keith Moon trying to stick with a backing track is just the funniest things.

12:26 Speaker 3: But that's that that I find that that was acceptable.

12:34 Speaker 1: Now I have to ask you this regarding the album season changes. Uh, you've probably been asked us. I assume it seems to me like an obvious question. But has your ex? Do you know if if your ex has heard the album?

12:49 Speaker 2: Yeah, no, we're we're we're still on great terms, good with each other, you know. Yeah, so no, everything is cool in that way. So yeah, no, she has, she she's she's she's come to see me perform only recently. I did a little festival here last weekend and she she was, she was watching med me doing a better half an hour set of the songs. So yeah, yeah, I know, it's it's all good. I mean, like I think I think what I've said in in in other chats about as much as it's an album about about the breakup, but there's no malice or venom or anger.

13:34 Speaker 2: Yes, I think it's it's it's regrets and it's acceptance and

13:43 Speaker 2: you know, thinking about the kids and how they would feel, and it's it's about those sides of things.

13:49 Speaker 3: It's not an angry there's no blame being thrown around, you know.

13:55 Speaker 2: So so if it was, if it was that kind of an album, you know, one wouldn't be talking to each other and two, I don't think you'd sit and listen to that if it were you know, so so no, it's not, it's not. I don't know how she feels, you know, listening to them. But yeah, no, no, no, we're we're in a good place.

14:12 Speaker 3: Yeah.

14:13 Speaker 1: Good, No, that's good to hear. Excellent, excellent. And by the way, so you call this, I was reading you call this renaissance pop, and I'm curious what that What does that term mean to you?

14:25 Speaker 2: But I suppose, you know, brock pop will be a term that is much more kind of used for music like what we've done with the record in a way at brock pop is normally just pop music that uses classical.

14:44 Speaker 3: Instruments and and and so on.

14:47 Speaker 2: But for me, like for me, renaissance is like the whole Renaissance movement would have been about rebirth and.

15:01 Speaker 3: Trying to do something new with something old.

15:05 Speaker 2: I suppose, yeah, it just seemed like a term that was that made more sense.

15:11 Speaker 3: I mean, barock music to me, as.

15:16 Speaker 2: I'm doubling in in more of that kind of stuff, but the currents that I'm doing weirdly, but yeah, barock music,

15:26 Speaker 2: it's it's it's a different kind of form of music. So I don't know, brock pop maybe just rolls off the tone better, but renaissance pop. I just thought I needed to create my own genre.

15:35 Speaker 3: You know.

15:35 Speaker 1: Yeah, no, that that makes sense. That makes sense. And it is like I said, you know, the production is very lush, and it's just it it's got a sound that well you certainly don't hear on American radio. I don't know about there, but you know here, you know, it's unlike anything that I've heard recently, and it's it's really it just kind of pulls you in because there's so much, there's so much going on and and just sonically it's it's just so interesting. So and I'm also curious about the recording process of this, because I would imagine it was it must have taken a while to do this again because of the complexity of the production.

16:13 Speaker 1: It's not just you with an acoustic guitar, or it's not just you playing in a punk band. This is there's a lot of moving parts here. Obviously. How how long did it take to make this album?

16:25 Speaker 2: Well, it took a while, but it took a while for for different reasons. I mean, probably mostly back to what I said, earlier wrong where you know, I wrote the ones, the first.

16:34 Speaker 3: Song, and we recorded that. I had no.

16:38 Speaker 2: Plan to make a full album at that point, so so it did kind of happen song by song, to be honest with you. So like we did the first song, then we recorded Hollow and again the first song was me and Duncan.

16:50 Speaker 3: The second song, we brought in another friend of our, Sean.

16:53 Speaker 2: Coleman, who is from Virginia in the US there and he's he just does a lot of the kind of studio stuff. He's an incredible Musician's part of the live the Big Live band as well. So it became three of us, and then on the next song we brought in the brass and so it kind of grew. So the the musicians and the division I think grew as we went along, So it took longer because of that.

17:21 Speaker 3: I think. Really, whereas now.

17:24 Speaker 2: With what's going to be the second album, I think I've pretty much got it written because all the musicians are already there, and I know we've got the string players, we've got the glass players, we've got the wood with players. So this time it'll be a lot quicker. First time, it was a growing and expanding project as we went, so I think that's why it took longer. But yeah, you know, it's all recorded by ourselves, you know, in either our studios. The only time we used anywhere that wasn't our own, I think, was with the string quartet because we just needed a little bit of space.

17:55 Speaker 2: Sure, we went to a friend studio that let us use the space there. Everything else is done in our own you know, whether my house Duncan's house. Sean says, so, yeah, So it's it's a it's a big sound, you know, and we we work combination of someone too tape, someone to you know, on the computer, depending on so we combine the formats. We we like to use tape as.

18:23 Speaker 3: Much as we can.

18:26 Speaker 2: We're practical and yeah, so it's it's fun. I think we we we enjoy all of the main people involved. I think we all we're all of the same vintage and we we love the same music and we're influenced by the same sonically as well with the same kind of artists. So it's it's very.

18:53 Speaker 3: The direction is kind of understood, so it's an enjoyable you know.

18:57 Speaker 1: And and and by the way, for our listeners who might not you know, I'm enough of a recording nerd I think I know the answer to this. But for listeners who don't, when you talk about using tape, I assume that's because you want the warmth, which you definitely capture on this album, but you want you want the warmth that comes with tape versus digital in terms of the sound.

19:17 Speaker 3: Yeah, just the warmth certainly is the main thing. And then also I think.

19:21 Speaker 4: The focus on getting the take and the performance rather than you know, the thing with digital is the editing possibilities, and you could sing something twenty times and pick words from each bit and put them all together. There's something about the focus of trying to get a take a.

19:47 Speaker 3: As in entire as possible.

19:52 Speaker 2: And I think all artists that use tape will will kind of voice that that it kind of focuses their folks them to really try and capture something in that moment, you know, because it's it's better the more you can get down in in in single takes, the better, you know.

20:13 Speaker 1: Right right, absolutely absolutely, And then so you're already working on the next one. What's what's the next album about?

20:21 Speaker 2: The next album is a pretty currently it's a pretty dark, tending record. I think I've already I think it's going to be called Mask. I've got an exclusive now. I've just told you that we're beout. We're better to start recording again. Towards the end of making the first album, I met a he's become a great friend now. And Andrew Keeling is his name, and he's he's an orchestrator and the ranger. And he heard he heard the title track Season Changes when we released that and just maybe contact with me online.

21:01 Speaker 2: He really liked what we were doing. And he's worked with like people like Robert Fripp and fustrated with him and stuff, and so he's become a really he plays flute. Now when I do just duo gigs, it's me and Andrew. So he's come on board. So as I've been writing now, he's just been frustrating the strings as we've gone. So like that's why I'm I'm it's much quicker this time, and I'm really ready to get started recording. But it is quite dark. It's quite dark.

21:32 Speaker 3: I think it's it's dealing with a lot of the idea of the of the Mask. For me, is it's just that feeling of.

21:44 Speaker 2: The exterior image that we give give outwardly and the real what's really going on, you know, for for for all of us, I suppose we are in a world now where everything.

21:58 Speaker 3: From social media to who you know, I'd be very cynical about that stuff. You know, what people put up.

22:06 Speaker 2: Somebody puts up a post about their amazingly happy family life, you know, and all these wonderful photographs.

22:13 Speaker 3: For probably the opposite is true.

22:16 Speaker 2: Maybe maybe not, Maybe there are a lot of happy people out there, but yeah, I think it's kind of looking yeah, somewhat at that kind of side of of of our personalities. And so yeah, I think there's some I think there's some great songs on this second. Right, I'm excited to get it done. I want to do it quickly, own a recorded more like a batch of like how albums should be recorded, where the songs are all written and then we start recording, rather than right first one was one song at a time, you know, I'd rather you know, Yeah, I feel like, got all the songs and let's let's go, you know.

22:55 Speaker 2: So I think I think that's where we're going to.

22:56 Speaker 1: Be right now.

22:57 Speaker 3: That makes sense.

22:58 Speaker 1: Yeah, No, She's like, I can't wait to hear it. Like I said, I love the h I love the current album. Of course, Season Changes. In a moment, Jared, We're gonna let you go, and it's been wonderful to talk with you. But I want to ask you well to two things. One is what song I'm gonna put you on the spot here? What song from the album should we play at the end of our conversation. I'm gonna let you pick.

23:25 Speaker 2: H is it is it gonna close your show or no, that won't be closing the show.

23:31 Speaker 1: Well, it's gonna it's gonna close our segment. Yeah, but not the full show.

23:36 Speaker 2: Probably the probably the title track. I think it's got it's it's the title track. I mean it's a long track.

23:41 Speaker 1: So oh that's fine. Oh, jurors frozen. I'm looking over at the screen and not only do I not hear him, but his his picture is frozen. So we might have to end it there. Well, well I'm gonna I'm gonna keep talking. We'll see if he unfreezes. But yeah, he completely frozen on my screen. But the album is called Season Changes. It is on band camp, by the way, And you know, if you're a regular listener of the show, you know I'm a huge proponent of band camp. Love band camp. It's very artist friendly. I'm glad this happened at the end of our conversation, at least with with JR, because I've really enjoyed ja rather.

24:19 Speaker 1: I'm sorry, Jerr, I gotta get used to saying that. See, that's not in America. I've never met anyone with that name, you know, just just Jare short for Jerald er Gerard or Jared I think is how he said it. But anyway, jare eaton. The album is on band camp. But of course you can look him up online. Just google him again Jare' spelled g e R and then of course eton E A T O N. Check out the album Season Changes. I listened to the whole thing and it's really really great. But yeah, we'll go ahead and we'll give this a spin.

24:50 Speaker 1: We'll listen to the title track and Jerr, I don't know if you can hear me. I cannot hear you, as I said, you are completely frozen on the screen. But thank you so much, or if you listen to this later, thank you so much for joining us today. This has been wonderful. If you are listening live on Saturday, stick around. I think the guys from the Melted Chapsticks have arrived and they will be joining us in our number two New Marrow Dose. So we have plenty more to go today on this Saturday morning here on Matt Connorton Unleashed live from the studios of WMNH ninety five point three FM and Glorious Manchester, New Hampshire.

25:26 Speaker 1: Here it is the title track from the album Season Changes by Jared Eaton.