i | Matt Connarton Unleashed

0:00 Speaker 1: I really like that a lot. The band is called I,

0:03 Speaker 1: the track is nothing and let's see who we've got

0:07 Speaker 1: on the line from the band, Let's see al Are

0:09 Speaker 1: you there?

0:10 Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm here.

0:11 Speaker 1: Hey, welcome And do you have anyone else with you?

0:13 Speaker 1: Or is it just you?

0:15 Speaker 2: No, it's just me today and no one else wanted

0:17 Speaker 2: to get up.

0:17 Speaker 1: I got you. Yeah, it's early there, right, because you're

0:19 Speaker 1: on the West coast.

0:21 Speaker 2: Yes, yes, it's eight o'clock over here.

0:23 Speaker 1: That is understandable. Yeah. I don't want to get up

0:25 Speaker 1: at eight o'clock either, but I totally get it. I

0:29 Speaker 1: totally get it.

0:29 Speaker 2: I'm the only one. I'm the only one who's used

0:31 Speaker 2: to getting up early. So I just I got this one.

0:34 Speaker 1: I got you. Yeah. Well, I'm glad you're with us.

0:36 Speaker 1: I really like that song a lot, and and absolutely

0:40 Speaker 1: I have questions about it too, because obviously, as you're

0:42 Speaker 1: listening to it, you know, even if someone doesn't know

0:43 Speaker 1: anything about the background of the song and what inspired

0:47 Speaker 1: it and all of that, it's obvious that there's there's

0:51 Speaker 1: a message there. And I wanted to ask you about

0:55 Speaker 1: that first and kind of start there, because I think

0:57 Speaker 1: it's an important song and I think that, you know,

1:00 Speaker 1: you can reach people through music in ways that you

1:03 Speaker 1: can't reach them from just trying to explain to someone,

1:07 Speaker 1: for example, why they should care about something, what's going

1:10 Speaker 1: on that they should be concerned with. But you can

1:13 Speaker 1: reach people through a song like that. So can you

1:16 Speaker 1: kind of talk to us about that, about what the

1:18 Speaker 1: song is about and what inspired you to write it?

1:21 Speaker 2: Sure? When inspired me was kind of a funny story.

1:25 Speaker 2: I was walking out of the ninety ninth cent store.

1:28 Speaker 2: We have those. I'm not sure if you have them

1:30 Speaker 2: where you're at. They're just basically like discount stores.

1:33 Speaker 1: Oh yeah, we have them too.

1:34 Speaker 2: Yeah, Okay, I was walking out of one and a

1:37 Speaker 2: guy came up to me and asked me for spare change, and,

1:41 Speaker 2: trying to be funny, I said, dude, I just walked

1:45 Speaker 2: out of the nine ninth cent store. What makes you

1:46 Speaker 2: think I have any change? Yeah, And you know, we

1:51 Speaker 2: both kind of had to laugh about it, and I

1:52 Speaker 2: just told them, hey, man, you're fishing in the wrong pond.

1:54 Speaker 2: You need to go to like a legit supermarket. Maybe

1:57 Speaker 2: you know you have better luck. And that kind of

2:02 Speaker 2: got me thinking how someone's asking for change at a

2:07 Speaker 2: nine ninth sent story which really chows you, like, you know,

2:10 Speaker 2: and then myself, you know, getting groceries there. I honestly

2:15 Speaker 2: didn't have any change for him. So it just remember

2:17 Speaker 2: realized how close we all are to just being in

2:20 Speaker 2: each other's position, so to say. And so, you know,

2:24 Speaker 2: that's what kind of got me thinking about it. Writing

2:28 Speaker 2: the lyrics and the line I have nothing and I'll

2:31 Speaker 2: give you the same. That was literally what happened. And

2:35 Speaker 2: so that started it, and I wrote the lyrics first,

2:39 Speaker 2: you know, just I'm not a good storyteller. I wish

2:44 Speaker 2: I was. I wish I could just like make up

2:45 Speaker 2: a story about you know whatever and then turn it

2:49 Speaker 2: into a great song. I'm not, so I tend to

2:52 Speaker 2: write about experiences or things like, you know, fears or

2:56 Speaker 2: things I've been through or whatever. So that was this

2:59 Speaker 2: is exactly what nothing is. And we in LA there's

3:03 Speaker 2: a big homeless issue. Yeah, a lot of and you

3:07 Speaker 2: see a lot of it is mental illness issues. A

3:09 Speaker 2: lot of it is just can't afford to, you know,

3:13 Speaker 2: to live in a house. It's either you know, some

3:15 Speaker 2: people have jobs, but they can't afford to rent, so

3:18 Speaker 2: they live in the cars, you know. So that's what's

3:21 Speaker 2: pretty much of those songs about and how it's really

3:24 Speaker 2: shocking when you really think about it, you put yourself

3:26 Speaker 2: in their shoes, and how quickly the roles could be reversed.

3:29 Speaker 1: Absolutely, it's interesting that you put it that way because

3:34 Speaker 1: I was having a conversation with someone very recently in fact,

3:38 Speaker 1: about how, you know, I look at my own life,

3:40 Speaker 1: and you know, I'm an entrepreneur, and I've taken a

3:42 Speaker 1: lot of risks, and it's actually shocking to me when

3:46 Speaker 1: I think back of how many times I've been on

3:47 Speaker 1: the edge, like really on the edge of maybe ending

3:50 Speaker 1: up homeless or ending up not not knowing how I

3:54 Speaker 1: was going to eat. And you're right when you say that,

3:58 Speaker 1: you know, people take for granted. It's very easy to

4:01 Speaker 1: take for granted if you know, if you've had a

4:02 Speaker 1: relatively smooth ride, shall we say, right that that everything's

4:07 Speaker 1: always that is always going to be that way. But

4:10 Speaker 1: but so many people in this country are are closer

4:14 Speaker 1: to the edge than maybe they even want to realize.

4:16 Speaker 1: You know, they always say don't look down because it'll

4:19 Speaker 1: scare you, right, but but you know, they talk about

4:22 Speaker 1: how most people don't have enough money to handle an

4:24 Speaker 1: expensive emergency. You know, it's we're all closer to that

4:28 Speaker 1: then than I think a lot of not all of us,

4:31 Speaker 1: but a lot of us are closer to that then

4:32 Speaker 1: than people realize or want to think about.

4:35 Speaker 2: Right. I think someone heard someone say once you're or

4:38 Speaker 2: like one or two paychecks away from being homeless at

4:40 Speaker 2: all times.

4:41 Speaker 1: Oh yeah, oh yeah.

4:42 Speaker 2: A lot of us, you know, a lot of us

4:43 Speaker 2: don't have you know, the big savings or the investments.

4:48 Speaker 2: You know, a lot of us don't live that way,

4:50 Speaker 2: you know. Right, So it's like you said, it's a

4:53 Speaker 2: fine line sometimes.

4:54 Speaker 1: Yeah, and where you are, that area certainly is known

4:57 Speaker 1: for that.

4:58 Speaker 2: Uh.

4:59 Speaker 1: I think I think all the major cities in California

5:01 Speaker 1: really are known for having a terrible homeless problem. And

5:03 Speaker 1: it's it's it's but it's it's terrible everywhere. Absolutely. But

5:08 Speaker 1: I also think too, what's very relatable about the song

5:10 Speaker 1: is I think everyone has experienced that too, where you know,

5:13 Speaker 1: you're you're not in that position, but you're not exactly

5:17 Speaker 1: you know, thriving either, And maybe you're walking yeah, you know,

5:21 Speaker 1: maybe you're walking out of the dollar store, you know,

5:23 Speaker 1: or any kind of store, and somebody's asking you for change,

5:26 Speaker 1: and you're like, Nah, things are tough all over, man,

5:28 Speaker 1: I don't I don't have anything to give you. I'm

5:30 Speaker 1: you know, I'm barely making it, you know.

5:32 Speaker 2: Right right.

5:33 Speaker 1: I think that's very relatable. What's the response been to

5:36 Speaker 1: the song, Like, like, do people do people kind of

5:39 Speaker 1: hone in on the message? Do they get the message

5:41 Speaker 1: when they listen to it?

5:43 Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, it's fifty to fifty. Some people just

5:45 Speaker 2: like the groove of it, you know. Some people just

5:49 Speaker 2: like it because it says like that kind of like

5:51 Speaker 2: heavy guitar kind of metal thing to it, you know,

5:55 Speaker 2: So it really depends. Then we have some people who

5:57 Speaker 2: actually have come up to us after gigs and said like, oh,

6:00 Speaker 2: you know, and they tell us their story. Oh that

6:02 Speaker 2: was me once. The first time we played it. I

6:06 Speaker 2: try to be clever, and I got like a I

6:09 Speaker 2: found a pizza box outside and I cut the pizza

6:12 Speaker 2: box and I wrote, you know, we'll work for food,

6:14 Speaker 2: you know, just you know, And I stood there holding it,

6:16 Speaker 2: trying to be at a little dramatic during the gig. Sure,

6:19 Speaker 2: and I just threw it. I just threw it away up.

6:20 Speaker 2: I just chucked it, you know. And after the show,

6:23 Speaker 2: some guy came up with it and said like, I'm

6:25 Speaker 2: gonna hold this because that song really spoke to me.

6:27 Speaker 2: I'm going to keep this. Could you guys sign it?

6:29 Speaker 2: And it was so strange. We're just like yeah, sure,

6:32 Speaker 2: and you know, and he told us similar story. I

6:34 Speaker 2: was homeless and I was addicted and I held these

6:38 Speaker 2: signs in the corner. I just happened to be here

6:40 Speaker 2: with friends though they didn't even come to see us.

6:43 Speaker 2: They were just happened to be there. And so it's

6:45 Speaker 2: it's mixed. You know, people like it for different reasons.

6:48 Speaker 2: But there are some people who actually do listen to

6:51 Speaker 2: the lyrics and other people just like to shake their

6:53 Speaker 2: ass and listen to a groove.

6:55 Speaker 1: Sure. Sure. I also like the you know, the kind

6:59 Speaker 1: of the empathy behind it, because that's that's something that

7:02 Speaker 1: I think lacks is lacking for a lot of people

7:04 Speaker 1: when they again, you know, if you've always had a

7:06 Speaker 1: smooth ride and you don't know any better, you might

7:08 Speaker 1: not know that there could be a cliff somewhere. You know,

7:12 Speaker 1: a lot of people they like to look down on

7:13 Speaker 1: homeless people or unhoused I guess is the term that

7:16 Speaker 1: we use now, and it's you know, something that a

7:20 Speaker 1: lot of people don't realize is there's a large I

7:23 Speaker 1: don't know the numbers offhand, but there's estimated to be

7:26 Speaker 1: a large percentage of homeless people who are actually veterans,

7:29 Speaker 1: who are people who are not not to get political

7:31 Speaker 1: with it, but it is worth pointing out people who

7:33 Speaker 1: are let down by this country and are terribly broken

7:37 Speaker 1: system in terms of taking care of our veterans who

7:39 Speaker 1: have fallen through the cracks. And so, you know, I

7:42 Speaker 1: always tell people because there are people of a certain

7:45 Speaker 1: political persuasion who tend to be the ones who are

7:47 Speaker 1: most likely to go out of their way to disparage

7:50 Speaker 1: homeless people or unhoused people. And I always like to

7:52 Speaker 1: point out, you know, when you do that, you might

7:54 Speaker 1: be treating a veteran that way, you know. So you know,

7:57 Speaker 1: the people who like to.

7:58 Speaker 2: Even you're able to make the money you're making is

8:00 Speaker 2: because they put their knife on the line at one point.

8:02 Speaker 1: Or another exactly exactly one hundred percent, and you know,

8:06 Speaker 1: and we just let them, We just let them fall

8:08 Speaker 1: through the cracks. We should mention the video too, right,

8:10 Speaker 1: there's a music video for nothing.

8:13 Speaker 2: Yes, that's how it kind of got Originally we released

8:16 Speaker 2: that song before we signed with Soday Records. We just

8:20 Speaker 2: kind of released our own songs. Yeah, so we had

8:22 Speaker 2: like an EP of four songs that we released on

8:25 Speaker 2: our own and that was one of the songs. So

8:29 Speaker 2: what we decided to do is we started releasing songs

8:32 Speaker 2: under Sody so they give it to push the songs deserve.

8:35 Speaker 2: So we can't re release the songs as singles again

8:38 Speaker 2: because we're already put out there, but we were able

8:40 Speaker 2: to put them out as videos, so it kind of

8:43 Speaker 2: refreshes the song and then gives the label opportunity to

8:46 Speaker 2: push the song as you know, as a video and

8:49 Speaker 2: the song itself and not just a single. So that's

8:51 Speaker 2: our little, a little loop hope we found to be

8:53 Speaker 2: able to push songs we recorded earlier.

8:57 Speaker 1: That's a great strategy. How long ago was nothing actually recorded?

9:01 Speaker 2: Originally about three maybe four years ago?

9:05 Speaker 1: Oh okay, okay, it's got you know, the sound though

9:08 Speaker 1: in the vibe of it are pretty timeless. It's not

9:11 Speaker 1: like you know what I mean, which is which is good.

9:15 Speaker 1: It's got kind of a I feel I feel like

9:17 Speaker 1: it's got kind of a grunge vibe to it. In

9:20 Speaker 1: terms of the production, I don't know if that's what

9:21 Speaker 1: you were going for. But that's that's sort of what

9:23 Speaker 1: I hear when I listen to it.

9:25 Speaker 2: Yeah, we get that a lot, and it's funny. Paul

9:28 Speaker 2: the guitarist, the guy who we got the band together,

9:31 Speaker 2: he likes to embrace that grunge sound. And me, coming

9:35 Speaker 2: up in that time, I hated that word grunge because

9:38 Speaker 2: I figured, like, it's just it's just rock, man, It's

9:40 Speaker 2: just it's that's a labeled someone put on it to sell,

9:44 Speaker 2: to sell flannels, you know. But but it's funny when

9:49 Speaker 2: we we we were asked about it. The way I

9:52 Speaker 2: explain it is that we're not kids. We're we're older,

9:56 Speaker 2: you know. So we grew up in the nineties listening

10:00 Speaker 2: just take it back. We grew up as kids listening

10:02 Speaker 2: to the same bands that the guys did in the nineties.

10:06 Speaker 2: So we grew up with The Sabbath and you know,

10:09 Speaker 2: Zeppelin and Deep Purple and you know bands the Pixies,

10:13 Speaker 2: the bands like that from the seventies. So that's what

10:18 Speaker 2: influenced us to write our music. It just so happened

10:20 Speaker 2: that the guys from Seattle also heard those bands. So

10:24 Speaker 2: therefore our sound is similar. But we never like said, oh,

10:27 Speaker 2: we need to sound like Allison Chains and when you

10:29 Speaker 2: sound like Soundgarden, we always wanted to sound like Black Sabbath. Oh,

10:32 Speaker 2: we wanted to sound like Lloyd so we kind of

10:35 Speaker 2: have the same influences. So yeah, our music would have

10:38 Speaker 2: been you know, if we would have been out there

10:41 Speaker 2: more in the nineties, our music would have fit in perfectly.

10:45 Speaker 2: But yeah, but it's not on purpose, like let's be grunte,

10:47 Speaker 2: it's just we just want to be Black Sabbath and

10:49 Speaker 2: King Zax. That's all we want to be. And oh,

10:51 Speaker 2: because it just kind of lands that way King Zax.

10:53 Speaker 1: Yes, yes, and I can hear that and that it

10:56 Speaker 1: didn't occur to me until you said it, but I

10:59 Speaker 1: can hear that. I love King Zax, as you might

11:02 Speaker 1: be able to tell from my reaction. And I'm a

11:05 Speaker 1: bass player, so Doug Pinnock is one of my heroes.

11:08 Speaker 2: We just we just supported them at the Whiskey a

11:10 Speaker 2: couple of weeks ago.

11:11 Speaker 1: Oh my god, really, yeah, yeah.

11:13 Speaker 2: It was great. We've been trying to get on that

11:15 Speaker 2: gig for years every time they come to town, and

11:17 Speaker 2: this time we found the right promoter. We we cooked

11:20 Speaker 2: us up and we're able to to support them at

11:23 Speaker 2: the Whiskey. It was it was one of those they

11:26 Speaker 2: say not to meet your heroes, but yeah, that's wrong.

11:28 Speaker 2: We got to meet the guys and they were great

11:30 Speaker 2: and they were cool to us, and it was cool

11:32 Speaker 2: to play with the King Zax fans. Yeah that we know, like, okay,

11:36 Speaker 2: they're they're they're probably gonna appreciate what we're doing. And

11:38 Speaker 2: we had a great rapport with them, and you know,

11:41 Speaker 2: we you know, we sold merch and n CDs and

11:44 Speaker 2: you know, we got a bunch of new fans out

11:47 Speaker 2: of it because you know, they listen, they love King

11:51 Speaker 2: Zax as much as we do and make sure, you know,

11:52 Speaker 2: King Zachs should have been huge. They should have been

11:55 Speaker 2: like the biggest fan in the world. Because it wasn't

11:57 Speaker 2: for them, a lot of this ninety stuf wouldn't ex

12:00 Speaker 2: you know, agreed, But so when they play a club,

12:04 Speaker 2: everyone there is a hardcore King z X fan. So

12:09 Speaker 2: it was like it was one of our like we

12:10 Speaker 2: got to get on that gig. So yeah, we only

12:13 Speaker 2: agree on two bands when we got together. We you know,

12:15 Speaker 2: you know, you do the whole who are you influenced?

12:17 Speaker 2: When I first met Paul, Yeah, we only agreed on

12:19 Speaker 2: two bands, King z X and Black Sabbath No Kill.

12:22 Speaker 2: You know. Yeah, so that's that's the way it worked

12:24 Speaker 2: out for us.

12:25 Speaker 1: Those are those are great choice of Sabbath is also

12:27 Speaker 1: one of my favorites. But yeah, I met King Zax

12:30 Speaker 1: a long time ago. Well she's like literally decades and

12:36 Speaker 1: I got to interview Doug Pinnock. I think he might

12:38 Speaker 1: have been the first musician I ever actually sat down

12:41 Speaker 1: and interviewed now that I'm thinking about it, and uh,

12:44 Speaker 1: what an amazing guy. I mean, just so so gracious.

12:48 Speaker 1: I wasn't the only one there participating in the interview,

12:50 Speaker 1: but he gave us a lot of time and and yeah,

12:54 Speaker 1: it was, it was. It was just just really incredible.

12:58 Speaker 1: But yeah, but I but I can hear all that

13:00 Speaker 1: in that's in that song that you know, King Zax

13:03 Speaker 1: and Sabbath, you know, with the guitar tone and everything

13:05 Speaker 1: just just just really really good. It's funny too, because

13:08 Speaker 1: you know, you don't like the term grunge, and I

13:11 Speaker 1: totally get it. I I I reflect back now on

13:14 Speaker 1: that time and it's like grunge kind of became the

13:16 Speaker 1: catch all term for you know, anything that came out

13:19 Speaker 1: of Seattle. And if you you know, if you think

13:21 Speaker 1: about the bands that were big at that time that

13:23 Speaker 1: got labeled as grunge, they all sound very different, like

13:25 Speaker 1: Alison Chains doesn't sound anything like Pearl Jam, which doesn't

13:29 Speaker 1: sound anything like Nirvana, you know, and all these bands

13:32 Speaker 1: got put in this box.

13:34 Speaker 2: Right That's always my argument. But you know, it's like

13:37 Speaker 2: it's always our argument. I lose because you know, it's

13:40 Speaker 2: it just it. Grunge is a thing now, like a

13:42 Speaker 2: new wave or you know, like hair metal. It just

13:46 Speaker 2: kind of became a thing and it's a it's a

13:48 Speaker 2: real term now, you know. But I did my best

13:51 Speaker 2: to fight it off, but I guess I lost that one.

13:54 Speaker 1: It's huge right now in the UK. We have a

13:56 Speaker 1: lot of guests from the UK, and apparently grunge is

13:59 Speaker 1: is very much the big thing over there right now.

14:02 Speaker 1: Oh really, Well, yeah, surprised me. Surprised me, but but

14:06 Speaker 1: but yeah absolutely Now, So tell me about the history

14:10 Speaker 1: of the band, because I did I originally form in

14:13 Speaker 1: the nineties. Am I understanding that correctly?

14:16 Speaker 2: Yeah? Yeah, we were kids. Paul and I first started

14:19 Speaker 2: out in the nineties and we had a short run

14:21 Speaker 2: just doing like local There was a small scene in

14:23 Speaker 2: East La Montabello area, and we played there for a

14:26 Speaker 2: few years with two other different bass player and drummer,

14:30 Speaker 2: and we you know, we did our run and you know, nothing,

14:35 Speaker 2: nothing happened for us. And then eventually we just kind

14:37 Speaker 2: of like you know, went our ways. I got married,

14:41 Speaker 2: had kids. Just you know, Paul, he's always been a musician.

14:45 Speaker 2: Uh like right now, he's in Chicago. Uh he plays

14:48 Speaker 2: bass for Vinnie Appassy. Oh wow, his Sabbath band. So

14:52 Speaker 2: he tours vin with Vinnie Nice as a bass player,

14:55 Speaker 2: but he's actually a guitarist. But like you know, bass

14:58 Speaker 2: player gigs are waysier to get the guitarist. Oh.

15:00 Speaker 1: Absolutely.

15:02 Speaker 2: So he's always been a musician. He's always played covers

15:05 Speaker 2: and tribute bands his whole life. That's something. And then

15:08 Speaker 2: I would say a good fifteen years past and then

15:12 Speaker 2: we just kind of run into each other again and

15:15 Speaker 2: we just started talking and we said like, hey, let's

15:17 Speaker 2: let's start writing again. You know, there's no expectation, let's

15:19 Speaker 2: just right just to you know, do something. You know,

15:22 Speaker 2: I just want I just wanted to reconnect with him,

15:25 Speaker 2: and I knew that's pretty much the only way we're

15:26 Speaker 2: going to reconnect. And then yeah, so we started putting

15:30 Speaker 2: music out and we got contacted by Sam from Sodey

15:33 Speaker 2: who was interested in signing us. Which is funny because

15:36 Speaker 2: when you're a kid, that's all you want to do, right,

15:39 Speaker 2: you just want to get signed, and you know you're

15:41 Speaker 2: thinking about like back in the days, you get signed,

15:43 Speaker 2: you get a bonus, you get the road, and you

15:46 Speaker 2: know it's different. Now, we weren't even looking for that.

15:48 Speaker 2: It just kind of happened. We're just like very grateful, like,

15:50 Speaker 2: oh cool, he wants to sign us and put us

15:53 Speaker 2: on his label and distribute to us. So it kind

15:56 Speaker 2: of happened backwards for us, but we're very grateful. So yeah,

15:59 Speaker 2: we started early and then took a break and started

16:02 Speaker 2: up again. Yeah.

16:03 Speaker 1: I always laugh about the miss misconceptions and misperceptions people

16:06 Speaker 1: have about how I don't think this is largely the

16:09 Speaker 1: case anymore, but there certainly was a time when people

16:12 Speaker 1: assumed that, you know, if you got signed, it meant

16:14 Speaker 1: that you were Now you were flying on a private

16:16 Speaker 1: jet out to LA and hanging out with supermodels and uh,

16:20 Speaker 1: staying at the Playboy mansion and now and driving a

16:23 Speaker 1: Lamborghini and.

16:25 Speaker 2: All that, and it's not the eighties and Motley Crue anymore.

16:28 Speaker 1: Right, right, And and let's be honest, it wasn't even

16:32 Speaker 1: that way for Motley Crue until they started to really

16:34 Speaker 1: sell some records and sell some tickets. You know, it's

16:37 Speaker 1: not it's not you know, people think, oh, you know,

16:39 Speaker 1: you get signed and you're suddenly rich. It's like no,

16:42 Speaker 1: and you have to explain things like recoupment and all

16:45 Speaker 1: of this. It's uh, the economics of it are much

16:47 Speaker 1: tougher than people realize.

16:50 Speaker 2: You have. There's still a lot of work to do. Absolutely,

16:52 Speaker 2: you saying that that contract, Yeah, absolutely.

16:54 Speaker 1: Now. So when when you guys kind of put the

16:57 Speaker 1: project away the first time, it was it always kind

17:01 Speaker 1: of in the back of your mind that you might

17:03 Speaker 1: revisit it someday or or at the time, did you

17:06 Speaker 1: feel like, I'm done with this, moving on getting married,

17:09 Speaker 1: focusing on that.

17:11 Speaker 2: You know. I can't speak for Paula. For myself, yes,

17:14 Speaker 2: not just specifically this band, but just being creative. See,

17:18 Speaker 2: I have bipolar disorder, Okay, I didn't know until I was,

17:22 Speaker 2: you know, almost thirty. So being able to be creative

17:27 Speaker 2: and to be able to like, you know, just purge

17:29 Speaker 2: whatever's in my brain and put it into into music

17:32 Speaker 2: or just you know, writing it down poetry or just journaling.

17:36 Speaker 2: It was always helped me. And I left that thinking, Okay,

17:40 Speaker 2: that's the past. Now I'm just gonna you know, you know,

17:43 Speaker 2: be married and raise kids and you know, have you know,

17:46 Speaker 2: not be a musician anymore. But it bit me in

17:48 Speaker 2: the ass because it just it that creativity was wasn't

17:52 Speaker 2: there purposely, I purposely put it away. Yeah, and it

17:56 Speaker 2: just it really just didn't work with me. It kind

17:59 Speaker 2: of made me a monster at times. So so yeah,

18:03 Speaker 2: I did think about it, and I did miss it,

18:05 Speaker 2: but I really didn't realize that was the key to

18:07 Speaker 2: my sanity, yeah, if that makes any sense. So yeah,

18:10 Speaker 2: so soon as they had the opportunity, like during that time,

18:13 Speaker 2: I did like a couple of cover projects, like Hey,

18:15 Speaker 2: we're gonna go a party, you want to play some

18:17 Speaker 2: cover song? Stuff like that, And that's when I realized, like, okay,

18:19 Speaker 2: you know, I still I still I missed this. I

18:22 Speaker 2: missed the rehearsals and the guys and the songs and yeah,

18:25 Speaker 2: so yeah, for myself, yeah, it was always in the

18:28 Speaker 2: back of my head. I just didn't realize how much

18:30 Speaker 2: I needed it until you know, all hell broke loose, right,

18:32 Speaker 2: I realized there's something missing in my life and that

18:35 Speaker 2: was it.

18:36 Speaker 1: Well, especially too, where you're someone who and again you know,

18:39 Speaker 1: we talked about the song nothing, You're you're someone who

18:41 Speaker 1: clearly has something to say that you need to express.

18:45 Speaker 1: So I can see where it makes sense to me

18:47 Speaker 1: how you explain that, how you realize that that was

18:50 Speaker 1: missing from your life and you needed to get that back.

18:55 Speaker 1: So what's the with the current lineup of the band?

18:57 Speaker 1: Is it? Is it the same the same four of

19:00 Speaker 1: you or.

19:02 Speaker 2: No, No, it's just Paul and I are the originals.

19:04 Speaker 2: And then we David the drummer, is actually Paul's nephew

19:09 Speaker 2: who at the time when we were getting back together,

19:12 Speaker 2: he didn't have any any project at the time, so

19:16 Speaker 2: he just kind of sat in with us and it

19:18 Speaker 2: just kind of clicked. So we just kind of said, well,

19:19 Speaker 2: guess guess what they're playing with us too, you know

19:21 Speaker 2: what I mean, because he's a lot younger than us.

19:22 Speaker 2: He's like in this this late twenties or maybe that

19:25 Speaker 2: might be thirty by now, okay. And then PAULI the

19:28 Speaker 2: bass player, he's someone that Paul's known for a long

19:31 Speaker 2: time and played in a lot of bands with back

19:34 Speaker 2: in the day. So we just recruited him and same thing.

19:36 Speaker 2: We said, hey, we're doing this show. We just need

19:39 Speaker 2: someone to sit in with us. He learned the songs

19:41 Speaker 2: and we just kept saying, hey, we have another one.

19:43 Speaker 2: You want to do it, Yeah, you got another one,

19:45 Speaker 2: And now he's just we just kind of tricked them

19:47 Speaker 2: into just hanging around. So yeah, it's nice.

19:50 Speaker 1: Is nice when it comes together organically like that, you know,

19:52 Speaker 1: instead of yeah, instead of saying, okay, we're gonna we're

19:55 Speaker 1: gonna hold all these auditions and do all this stuff, but.

19:58 Speaker 2: Well then we just spend hours talking about some auditions.

20:02 Speaker 2: We try to have their their nightmares and they're hilarious

20:05 Speaker 2: at the same time. It's rough. Yeah, it's rough. Not

20:10 Speaker 2: just the plane, but like you know what we say,

20:12 Speaker 2: like the guys who get all the gigs because rule

20:15 Speaker 2: number one, don't be an a hole. And you'd be

20:17 Speaker 2: surprised how many guys you meet who are auditioning and

20:20 Speaker 2: they're just like arrogant or a hole or you know,

20:24 Speaker 2: and not to mention whether they could play or not.

20:26 Speaker 2: But it's a right. Yeah, there's there's there's there's some

20:29 Speaker 2: stories there with the audition, so luckily we didn't have to.

20:32 Speaker 2: We did it for a bit until we realized it's

20:34 Speaker 2: just start tricking guys into playing with us. There you go.

20:39 Speaker 1: Maybe some of the guys who are auditioning, maybe they

20:40 Speaker 1: thought they were going to get the private chat and

20:42 Speaker 1: hang out at the Playboy mansion and all that it

20:45 Speaker 1: could be. So does the the early material, because obviously

20:51 Speaker 1: you guys have have a history, does the early material

20:53 Speaker 1: survive or or are you focused on on writing and

20:57 Speaker 1: recording just new stuff or how does does that work.

21:01 Speaker 2: We brought with us believe two two, maybe three songs

21:07 Speaker 2: that we recorded that we played three songs that we

21:10 Speaker 2: played back then the other ones we just you know,

21:13 Speaker 2: they we either they either morphed into something else or

21:17 Speaker 2: you know, Paul used them with other projects, you know,

21:19 Speaker 2: as far as the ideas. Yeah, but three songs we

21:22 Speaker 2: brought with us that we we felt still kind of had,

21:25 Speaker 2: you know, enough, you know, fit with what we're doing now. Okay,

21:29 Speaker 2: really isn't much different, but yeah.

21:31 Speaker 1: Yeah, and then what is the plan for these? I mean,

21:35 Speaker 1: are are you going to continue to release singles or

21:38 Speaker 1: will these coalesce into an EP or an album or

21:41 Speaker 1: what what's kind of your your strategy?

21:44 Speaker 2: Yes, so our next release is the thirteenth of August,

21:49 Speaker 2: and that'll be our new single Circle, but it will

21:53 Speaker 2: be released in an album because we have enough. We

21:55 Speaker 2: released a bunch of singles now, so we're gonna combine

21:58 Speaker 2: them into an album. Okay, So it'll be the album's

22:01 Speaker 2: going to drop on the thirteenth, and it will have

22:04 Speaker 2: the new single Circle on it.

22:06 Speaker 1: Oh wonderful. And you did send us that one, which

22:09 Speaker 1: we're going to play at the end of our conversation

22:10 Speaker 1: so our listeners can get a sneak peek. Has this

22:13 Speaker 1: been played anywhere on the radio before?

22:16 Speaker 2: So we've played it. We've played it live a couple

22:18 Speaker 2: of times, or actually just once. We just played it

22:21 Speaker 2: once at the king Zex because we had to do

22:23 Speaker 2: some rewrites on it. So the way it is, the

22:27 Speaker 2: way we recorded it. We only played it at the

22:28 Speaker 2: King Sex Show. Oh been played anywhere? Oh?

22:32 Speaker 1: Wow? So this will be a world radio premiere. I

22:34 Speaker 1: love it. I love it.

22:35 Speaker 2: We there you go. I like that. Oh we put

22:38 Speaker 2: that on our on our website. Oh world radio premiere, please.

22:42 Speaker 1: Do please do no. We we love to get to

22:44 Speaker 1: do this that's great. That's I'm very honored that you

22:47 Speaker 1: sent us sent us that. Then I didn't realize that

22:49 Speaker 1: it wasn't coming out until August. That's that's fantastic and

22:52 Speaker 1: it's a great track. I really really like it a lot.

22:55 Speaker 1: Thank you, absolutely absolutely. So I haven't asked you the

22:58 Speaker 1: most obvious question yet, Where does the name come from? I?

23:03 Speaker 2: Okay, So when we were coming up with band names,

23:06 Speaker 2: I came up like, you know, and but we wanted

23:10 Speaker 2: to do it in a way that said, in this

23:12 Speaker 2: big scheme of life, we're not that important. You know,

23:16 Speaker 2: we think we are, but we're not that important. So

23:18 Speaker 2: when you read or write the word I, it's always

23:21 Speaker 2: capital because you're talking about yourself. So we figure like

23:23 Speaker 2: we're just gonna make it, you know, lowercase I, and

23:30 Speaker 2: you know, just to at least for our entertainment. It

23:32 Speaker 2: tells us like we're not that important, you know, we're

23:35 Speaker 2: in there's bigger things to worry about than us. So

23:39 Speaker 2: we just went with a lowercase I.

23:41 Speaker 1: Okay, okay, interesting, and I like the is so and

23:47 Speaker 1: it is lowercase. And then I see the image of

23:51 Speaker 1: the UH is your official logo. The eye in front

23:54 Speaker 1: of the hand is that.

23:57 Speaker 2: Uh No, the original logo is just the oka the

24:01 Speaker 2: hand is that's my wife's hand. She uh yes, we

24:05 Speaker 2: uh if you have a minute. She she had some

24:09 Speaker 2: cancer scares with her. She has she had a rare

24:12 Speaker 2: uh tumor in her kidney called a feel. We call

24:15 Speaker 2: it a feel, but I forget what the full name is.

24:17 Speaker 1: Okay.

24:17 Speaker 2: So there was times where, you know, where we didn't

24:20 Speaker 2: know if we were going to have her around and

24:23 Speaker 2: you know, uh if she had her surgery it was

24:25 Speaker 2: during COVID, So I the day I dropped her off

24:29 Speaker 2: at the hospital, I couldn't go inside with her. And

24:32 Speaker 2: then she had a fifty to fifty chance on the table,

24:34 Speaker 2: so I didn't know that was the last time I

24:36 Speaker 2: was ever gonna see her, you know. So it was

24:38 Speaker 2: a lot of stress. So luckily, you know, she she

24:41 Speaker 2: made it through and stuff. So I just had this

24:44 Speaker 2: thing where I wanted to get her hand tattooed on

24:46 Speaker 2: me somewhere. So I had her put you know, through

24:48 Speaker 2: the whole paint on a piece of paper and then wow,

24:51 Speaker 2: something just kind of clicked, and I'm like, I'm gonna

24:53 Speaker 2: put the eye right in the middle of it and

24:55 Speaker 2: use it as a logo, and actually when we play

24:57 Speaker 2: our gigs, I have a shirt that has her hand

25:00 Speaker 2: with the eye on it and stuff like that too.

25:02 Speaker 2: So so it's the official logo is just the eye,

25:05 Speaker 2: but the hand's been very popular, so we're probably gonna

25:07 Speaker 2: roll with that for a while. Yeah.

25:08 Speaker 1: I like it. No, it's a cool image and thank

25:10 Speaker 1: you for sharing the story behind it. And so, so

25:12 Speaker 1: how is she now at this point? Is she good?

25:16 Speaker 2: Yeah, she's good, I mean good. It's still it's one

25:18 Speaker 2: of those the the tumor being on her on her

25:22 Speaker 2: adrenal gland. I mean, I said, Katy apologize. Her adrenal

25:25 Speaker 2: gland wrecked havoc in her body. Ye, because it was

25:27 Speaker 2: constantly releasing adrenaline. So they removed the tumor and the

25:33 Speaker 2: adrenal gland. So now she's joining on one adrenal gland. Okay,

25:36 Speaker 2: so you know, so it's been a couple of years,

25:38 Speaker 2: but it's still like, you know, her body's getting used

25:41 Speaker 2: to having only one adrenal gland. So some days good days,

25:44 Speaker 2: bad days, and the bad day is usually like fatigue.

25:46 Speaker 2: But yeah, she's she's she's doing.

25:49 Speaker 1: Good, good, good. Glad to be glad to hear that yeah, yeah,

25:52 Speaker 1: that's a that's a very very scary thing. Now the

25:56 Speaker 1: the track circle will will there be a video for

25:59 Speaker 1: this as well eventually.

26:01 Speaker 2: Yeah, we're we're we haven't thought, we haven't talked about

26:04 Speaker 2: it yet and uh, but it's that video. It should

26:07 Speaker 2: be fun because the whole song revolves around a Plato's cave.

26:11 Speaker 2: I don't know if you're familiar with that one, So

26:13 Speaker 2: it's kind of a yeah, it's a you know, Plato

26:16 Speaker 2: has a lot of Plato's cave is the whole theory

26:19 Speaker 2: of they you're stuck in a cave and your captors

26:25 Speaker 2: put like a little like to say, like a like

26:29 Speaker 2: a little symbol of a of a horse or like

26:32 Speaker 2: a soldier, and then they put a fire behind it,

26:35 Speaker 2: so it makes a shadow on the wall of a

26:37 Speaker 2: soldier and and things you fear. So you're stuck in

26:40 Speaker 2: this cave because of these shadows, not realizing if you

26:44 Speaker 2: just turn around, you don't realize it's not a real soldier.

26:46 Speaker 2: It's just a little stand with the reflection on it. Yeah,

26:49 Speaker 2: so that's the whole that's the whole Plato's cave I thing. So,

26:54 Speaker 2: so I'm thinking that should be a pretty fun video

26:56 Speaker 2: to make. You know, Plato's not around anymore, so don't

26:59 Speaker 2: think we'll get sued, but.

27:00 Speaker 1: Right right, yeah, it's probably okay to to use his

27:04 Speaker 1: intellectual property. Yeah, yeah, no, that's great. I love the concept.

27:09 Speaker 1: That's that's really cool.

27:10 Speaker 2: That's really cool. Yeah, that should be a fun one

27:12 Speaker 2: to make.

27:13 Speaker 1: And then what's the obviously you know you mentioned Paul

27:17 Speaker 1: is very busy obviously, but I mean, what what is

27:19 Speaker 1: the live situation like going forward? Do you have more

27:21 Speaker 1: shows coming up? Are you gonna be touring or do

27:23 Speaker 1: you have to wait for him to get back or

27:25 Speaker 1: how does that work?

27:26 Speaker 2: Well, he's only gone for like a week at a time,

27:28 Speaker 2: so that you know, yeah, then he doesn't just go

27:31 Speaker 2: on the road for you know, yeah, for he goes

27:33 Speaker 2: off for a week. That's that's a okay. The shows,

27:36 Speaker 2: we have nothing schedule now. Like I said, we just

27:38 Speaker 2: put all our eggs into the Kings X show. We

27:40 Speaker 2: were just like really hyped up about that one. So

27:44 Speaker 2: right now we have nothing. Nothing said. We're going back

27:47 Speaker 2: in the studio two uh next week to uh work

27:51 Speaker 2: on two more singles to put out. We try to

27:54 Speaker 2: be we try to be very busy, you know. So

27:57 Speaker 2: he keeps us focused. Yeah, we asked Sam from the

27:59 Speaker 2: lab will like, hey, give us five dates next year,

28:03 Speaker 2: and he will give us five dates. So we know,

28:04 Speaker 2: like there's our carrot. That's what we got to do.

28:08 Speaker 2: So our main focus is you know, delivering songs or

28:12 Speaker 2: videos to the label, and in between we go like,

28:15 Speaker 2: hey let's do a gig. So we have a few

28:17 Speaker 2: places we play often, but right now we have you know,

28:20 Speaker 2: there's nothing on the books right now, Okay. If when

28:23 Speaker 2: when there is, it'll be all over our socials and

28:25 Speaker 2: our website for sure.

28:26 Speaker 1: Okay, okay, outstanding, and we'll, like I said, we'll let

28:31 Speaker 1: you go in a moment and we'll hit that track circle.

28:33 Speaker 1: But where al where is the best place for people

28:35 Speaker 1: to go online to keep up with everything that the

28:38 Speaker 1: band I is doing?

28:40 Speaker 2: Uh? If you want like a one chop stop, it's

28:43 Speaker 2: our website, which is ibandofficial one dot com okay, and

28:50 Speaker 2: and that that has all the links to all our socials,

28:53 Speaker 2: our I g our Facebook are, our YouTube. We have

28:56 Speaker 2: a lot of videos on YouTube live and also you

28:59 Speaker 2: know regular videos on there. Yeah, so that's like the

29:04 Speaker 2: go there and you can find everything. But also if

29:06 Speaker 2: you just want to go straight to our ig. That's

29:08 Speaker 2: I band official one at ig and if you like Facebook,

29:12 Speaker 2: it's I band official on Facebook.

29:15 Speaker 1: Okay, okay, outstanding, well, Algernados from the band I, thank

29:20 Speaker 1: you so much for joining us. We're going to hit

29:21 Speaker 1: that track circle and and oh and I encourage everyone

29:25 Speaker 1: to check out after the show, go to YouTube check

29:27 Speaker 1: out the video for nothing. It's it's really cool and

29:31 Speaker 1: it's it's an important subject. So I really like that

29:34 Speaker 1: song a lot too. But Al, thank you so much

29:36 Speaker 1: for joining us today, and we'll definitely do it again

29:38 Speaker 1: in the future as you're releasing new music. We'd love

29:40 Speaker 1: to have you back. And I really like the band

29:42 Speaker 1: a lot, so we will. We will definitely do this again.

29:46 Speaker 2: Great, thank you, Thank you for having me. This was fun, all.

29:48 Speaker 1: Right, Al, thank you, take care, bye bye bye bye.

29:51 Speaker 1: All right. That is Algernados from the band I and

29:54 Speaker 1: right now, because this isn't coming out until August, sometime

29:58 Speaker 1: in August, but we you're a here first the world

30:01 Speaker 1: radio premiere of the new track from I. This is

30:04 Speaker 1: called Circle.