Jesse Rutstein & Caleb Dyer | Matt Connarton Unleashed

0:00 Speaker 1: Let's see, we've got Jesse Rutstein and Caleb Dyer here from of course, uh Hatchet Acts and Saw Records. Hey guys, Hello, Hello, Hello, I learned how to say the name of your label without tripping over it. So yeah, I did my homework this time.

0:13 Speaker 2: Just too many syllables.

0:15 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, welcome back, guys. It's good to see you. Although you know, unfortunately I'm under some uh troubling circumstances because of the what happened recently in Nashua. We should probably, uh should probably talk about should we talk about that first? And I know there's another part to it we might circle back to at the end, but but you know, I'm sure people are tuning in wanting to know uh more about what happened and then the aftermath and how you're moving forward through that.

0:45 Speaker 3: And uh, yeah, it's been it's it's been a crazy end to twenty five for us.

0:50 Speaker 1: Yeah, sorrowing.

0:52 Speaker 2: Yeah.

0:54 Speaker 3: Last time we were here, we were talking about getting getting rolling with H and S and uh and we're still rolling.

1:00 Speaker 2: Yeah.

1:00 Speaker 4: Oh yeah, some minor setback.

1:03 Speaker 2: Train slowed down a little bit, a little bit. Yeah, yeah, it's uh, you know, we're making the best of it. We're doing what we can.

1:11 Speaker 1: So for those who don't know what happened exactly, I mean, obviously there was a there was a fire.

1:16 Speaker 4: So there it's two streets Ash Street.

1:21 Speaker 3: There was an apartment complex that caught fire, and there's rumors I don't want to get into like rumors of how it all happened. But what ended up happening was that fire, which absolutely destroyed this apartment building spread over to the warehouse where Tree Streets Inc. Was located. Tree Streets Inc. Is the studio that Hatchet Accident Saw works out of, ok and it's where we, you know, keep all of our equipment. It's where we do all the recording. My record was supposed to last time we were here, we were talking about my record dropping on December seventeenth, and obviously that didn't happen.

1:58 Speaker 3: So the fire spread over to the warehouse and it like was you know, engulfed in flames. It was a big story and it was just pretty it's it's just pretty crazy. We I I was literally down in the studio until about two am the.

2:18 Speaker 4: The day of or the night before the fire.

2:21 Speaker 3: Yeah, working on the title track of the record, and.

2:28 Speaker 4: I literally wrapped on it.

2:29 Speaker 3: I couldn't wait to call Caleb and say, hey, it's done, ready for you, ready for you to step in, ready to master. And I went home around two in the morning. I had been working all day. And I got the call a couple hours later from somebody else that used to work in the studio. And it was six thirty in the morning. And this is a true story, six thirty in the morning. And I answered the phone and I'm like, I said to this kid, something something better beyond fire if you're calling the Surly, and he goes, I really.

3:02 Speaker 4: Wish you didn't say that. And we get to the scene.

3:07 Speaker 3: I got I got to the scene, I called Caleb, and when I got there, I just I just watched everything.

3:15 Speaker 4: Everything was on fire.

3:16 Speaker 3: Like it's a weird expression that we use all the time, everything's on fire, you know, but everything's everything was on fire. I had worked so hard, we had all worked so hard at this record Superhero Toys that was supposed to drop on December seventeenth. Yeah, and everything was on fire. And I call Caleb. I'm like, I don't get down here. I don't know what to do. First thing we did was round up the people that we knew might have been in the building. Nobody got severely hurt, which is which is the main focus on everything that we've done since this, this these few minutes that I'm talking about.

4:02 Speaker 3: Yeah, Connor Coburn from No More Blue, Tomorrow's Tom philbrook Ivan, too many to name, but we just made sure everybody was okay first, all right, everybody's okay. Now we can now we can start being sad, right, Yeah.

4:20 Speaker 2: Yeah, I think the worst was like smoke inhalation with someone on one O eight or one ten ash. I think that was really Yeah, we're just just very fortunate that just everybody got Yeah, everyone was just.

4:30 Speaker 1: That is that is lucky considering the magnitude of the fire, that that no one was under lave.

4:35 Speaker 2: Property can be replaced life camp right, exactly right?

4:39 Speaker 4: Wow?

4:41 Speaker 1: So now so does that mean, like, is everything you worked on for the album? Is that? Is that all gone?

4:48 Speaker 3: So this story is this story is like crazy because the last time we were here we were talking about how the album came to be. I had a turbulent I had a turbulent year, and then Caleb and I decided that we were gonna make the record. I turned everything around. I kept things positive, and I'm still keeping things positive.

5:10 Speaker 4: Yeah.

5:10 Speaker 3: But the we were on the bottom floor, so everything that the only damage that we received was water damage because they stopped the fire at the top. So some of the other studios that were in the building they lost everything. The people who were in the apartment building they lost everything. Yeah, I lost or thought I lost my music. Oh so I am.

5:36 Speaker 4: I completely was like, don't worry about me.

5:39 Speaker 2: Ye.

5:39 Speaker 3: You know, we've done three benefit shows for the folks who have been displaced. We've raised over seven thousand dollars so far, between a solo show with me, a show at Peddler's with Connor, and then down at Bad Burger. They they hooked us up and we did a great show and we've raised so much money for the So I'm not accepting any donations or doing and he go fund me. I was really sad about my music because when we finally were able to get down there, the computer that everything was on was under three feet of water, and and some of it's backed up, some of it's not.

6:13 Speaker 3: But even the stuff that's backed up, like, there's no way we're going to be able to release a record, you know. Yeah, So and we didn't even know what was on the hard drive. It's literally been a week since our executive producer, Dave Patterson texted me and told me that the hard drives all set, everything is still there. We can still release the record and like like that. That's when I told people like you want to see me cry, That's that's what you're going to see me cry. I got my stuff back, Ye, I got my stuff back.

6:43 Speaker 3: We're not releasing the record. What we're going to do is re release the EP that we released in July. But we're gonna do it with the same kind of same approach that we were going to take at the record. We're gonna do CDs, shirts, stickers, maybe posters, and just get out and start playing. But instead of being ten songs, it's going to be five. And then we'll once we figure out a location to set up shop to start mixing the record, that's when we're going to go forward and start working on that. You know, Eleanor and Andre down at Terminus, they're volunteering some space.

7:23 Speaker 3: They've been instrumental, especially Eleanor, like what a person like ye, just instrumental in organizing the community to come together, and that is the biggest piece of all of this is that our music community came together for this like immediately, and I couldn't be I couldn't be more proud to be a part of it, you know what I mean. Like, there's so many different genres of music in this area, and that's what Hatchet Accent saw I really wanted to focus on, and that's what we wanted to do. We wanted to put everybody out there, and they came to our aid like immediately.

8:02 Speaker 3: So I'm very proud to say that that I'm a part of this southern New Hampshire music community because.

8:08 Speaker 4: Because we're we're awesome.

8:10 Speaker 2: Yeah, people showed up, man, Yeah, question absolutely.

8:15 Speaker 1: Now what about music? Were you in the midst of working on anything else for any of the other artists associated with the label or we we.

8:23 Speaker 2: Had been working on one it it kind of it was fallen through for for some reasons, but there was also more that was going to be coming with Santino that it just kind of started that that hadn't fallen through. We just oh, Crank and Wagon. Crank and Wagon had literally weeks before the fire, We had just started and we had gotten tracks drum tracks on our self titled tune. We had started one of the other ones too, and yeah, man, there were some projects that that were but but still still it started.

9:02 Speaker 2: In fact, you can go and you can check out the Facebook reels that I think Paul published of him doing the the Ambulance sound with the guitar. Yeah, it's just just some fun stuff we were doing with that tune. But you know, we had stuff that was in the works that I think really would have knocked your socks. It still will. I mean, this week, we gotta you know, we gotta make the time and right now get in the real estates the big block. Dave and I Dave and I are we we're looking. We're scouting options.

9:36 Speaker 2: But it's kind of hard to replace what we had there because the one the one thing, man, we are two things. We had the electricity included in the cost of the rent, Yeah, which I mean for a musician, holy crap. Yeah, was like, yeah, it's just and then on top of that, as if that wasn't good enough, we also had it twenty four loud down there, which is just I mean, what more can you ask for? You know, if you if you can work all hours of the day and night and and have power included in your rent.

10:13 Speaker 3: Oh yeah, like I would get I'd get out of work at nine, shoot down there and just be there all night working on the music, whether I'm working on one of the projects or.

10:22 Speaker 4: My own stuff.

10:24 Speaker 3: It was just it was too good to be true that space. But you know what, we learned a lot down there in the last In the last five years that I've been working with Caleb and Dave, I've learned so much about myself as a musician. I've learned how how it all goes together. And it's not easy, like you know, I mean, and I still like need Dave and Caleb to come down and do the mixes and stuff like that.

10:53 Speaker 2: How do you put a song together? How do you put show together?

10:57 Speaker 3: I grew so much as a musician because one fifteen Vine, I've been a musician since I was seven. I'm forty five years old, and in the last five years, I I can now be like really proud of who I am as a musician, And a lot of it has to do with Caleb, Dave and one fifteen Vine. Yeah, no doubt a brief detour, because I truly don't think we're just Jesse myself. Dave even just dead like other bands in the basement, dead time, you know, good good friends and folks and incredible musicians. We're just one small piece, small recent piece of the history of that building in the music community.

11:40 Speaker 3: I don't really, I don't think people truly understand.

11:42 Speaker 2: It goes back decades. Oh really that yeah, that that that building in the like early two thousands, it was the home for a bunch of bands. I mean one one band. I remember when I was in middle school and going into high school. There's a band Voyagers, my buddy Eddie and uh Rusty the uh the guitar players and then trying to remember but they I mean Eddie, I'm pretty sure he used to live in that building.

12:14 Speaker 4: Yeah.

12:15 Speaker 2: And you know now now he's he's married, he's got a got a kid, and he's doing great. He's kind of gotten out of music. But I mean that that whole building for decades was a generator of original music of you know, people doing it honestly, you know, for for real, and and and it's it's truly it's hard to explain to people that we were just the latest custodian exactly. That's it. We we were, we were just the most recent and and I mean I I remember, uh some years ago some guys, I think they're from the New York area, but they had a studio all the way up here in Nashville in that building.

13:00 Speaker 2: Perspective A lovely hand to hold. Oh yeah, they were.

13:03 Speaker 4: They were a.

13:04 Speaker 2: Fantastic band, and they had an incredible studio that was on the second floor, and they had moved out some years ago. But just to explain to people that there were so many, even people who weren't affected by the fire, but just so much music came out of that building.

13:24 Speaker 3: Over the last five Over the last five years, when I say, oh yeah, I'm at one fifteen Vine, I could be talking to some some band that I was playing with in Conquered Oh.

13:33 Speaker 4: Yeah, right, yeah. The Warehouse, oh yeah, that everybody.

13:37 Speaker 2: It gained, It gained a notoriety of just yeah special place. Yeah, musicians come out of there. And you know, if you if you had the gumption, if you're really were putting in time and really doing it, you could do it.

13:52 Speaker 4: Yeah.

13:52 Speaker 3: It wasn't pretty on the outside, but when when you walk through those doors, it was just any given day, I'd be going down to work on one of my love songs and I'd hear a hardcore band rehearsing upstairs, yeah, and and it there's just something about that. And then you'd run out to the guys that everybody's going to their car and stuff, Oh, you guys sound good, And then this hardcore band'll be like, oh, I heard you mixing downstairs. This sounds good, you know. And and just like the amount of respect we all had for each other.

14:20 Speaker 4: It was.

14:21 Speaker 2: It was really like the community within a community. Yeah, yeah, for sure, just you know, and and that hopefully that community will I mean, it's clearly remaining strong. I mean the bad the bad Yeah. The Bad Burger benefit was just it was incredibly well attended, you know, and just uh, it's it's very heartwarming to see it.

14:45 Speaker 3: That was That was a fun show too, because I I had just I didn't even know Ash she does the booking down there, and I saw that she was putting on a show this is in with within like two days of the fire, and so I shot her message, shoot, you know, shoot your shot.

15:01 Speaker 2: I'm like, hey, my name is Jesse Rudstein.

15:04 Speaker 3: I'm a member of the community that that was affected. I'd like to get on the bill just knowing that it was a benefit show, and she's like, yeah, sure, she threw my logo on the poster, and funny thing like, apparently my logo looks like everybody else's logo that was on the poster. But they were all hardcore metal bands and yeah there's me singing my love songs some serious.

15:29 Speaker 4: It was awesome, that's cool. We had a really cool show.

15:33 Speaker 3: But but I with everything that was going on, I didn't really have a chance to check out all the other bands that were on the bill. And then when I did, I'm like, oh no, I mean myself on a hardcore show.

15:46 Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean yeah, yeah.

15:48 Speaker 4: Knowing the other bands were great. The whole show is very, like Caleb said, was very well attended.

15:53 Speaker 2: Yeah, very well and people really did show out.

15:56 Speaker 1: Good, good, excellent. If you're just joining us, we've got Jesse I's seen in Caleb Diler tire sorry from Hatchet Asensaw Records. See now I can say the name Hatchet Accessaw Records, but I can't say your last name apparently, but uh yeah, we were talking about the fire at one fifteen Vine that was the address.

16:15 Speaker 2: Yeah, and also want to wait in one ten ash. I think that time. Yeah, at least in the music community. We we focused on one fifteen. Fine, but there were there were like thirty people this placed from there.

16:27 Speaker 4: Oh my god. Wow.

16:29 Speaker 2: Yeah, that's the scale of it was just yeah, that's awful.

16:34 Speaker 1: Remark remarkable though that in all that no one was seriously hurt or killed. I mean that's incredible. Yeah, with that many people, you know, early, well, what time was this?

16:43 Speaker 3: Like six thirty was when I got the phone call? Yeah, I got there at about eight. Yeah, I called Caleb around seven. When I got down there, it was like, where's Ivan, Where's Connor, where's Tom?

16:56 Speaker 4: You know? Yeah, people, where is everybody? Is everybody? Okay? Yeah?

17:01 Speaker 3: And then so then I call Caleb and and of course it was the first really big snowstorm of the season. So yeah, then its dark snow. I'm sitting there like watching the fire department. This is a five alarm fire. So hats off to I'm gonna I'm gonna remember them all this time. Uh, Lowell, Nashville, Hollis, Tingsboro, and Hudson. Yeah, so those are all the fire departments. I think that's right. If if I missed a fire department, sorry, guys.

17:33 Speaker 2: I think Merrimac. Also, I think there's six something like that.

17:37 Speaker 3: I don't know the first hats off to the first responders for sure, but I'm watching it and I'm like, and you know, my mind is always going, I'm an overthinker, and I'm like.

17:49 Speaker 4: Oh, maybe the snow will help.

17:52 Speaker 3: Ye, frost and water falling from the sky, and then all of a sudden, there's all these flames everywhere, and these guys like like, there's some great photos and not they're not great photos, but some really uh captivating photos of of like this guy on one ladder and this guy on another ladder, like those guys one of the Actually there were three injuries, minor injuries, two people from the apartment building and one The only other injury was to a member of one of the fire departments. Okay, and everybody but like everybody's okay, No nobody got seriously injured.

18:24 Speaker 3: But those were the only reported injuries throughout the whole thing, so I would be uh, I got to say, thanks to the fire departments.

18:36 Speaker 4: Yeah, strictly the fire departments.

18:40 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

18:43 Speaker 2: But as soon as I remember it distinctly, as soon as the scene was kind of cleared, I went home. I as soon as I got to the scene and that fire burning, I was just kind of like, I don't need to be here. I don't need to watch my my life burn away. Yeah, I just went home and I was like, all right, well, time to make some plans, like what are we going to do about it?

19:07 Speaker 4: I couldn't take my eyes off it. And then so, well you gave me a call at what time.

19:13 Speaker 2: I don't know when it exactly it was, but it was sometime the afternoon, and you're like, hey, they're gonna be letting people into the building, and you were. You ended up being one of the first people in the building to tell a little bit about that. And then I'll explain when I got there and what I did to because you.

19:29 Speaker 4: So you want to you want me to tell a story.

19:32 Speaker 2: Well, I mean tell like, whre's another shot down in there? Like you saw you saw it in the original state, you saw it before even I.

19:41 Speaker 3: Got I was I was the first one in the building. So so we're sitting there, everything's burning, and the news crews show up and our good friend Connor Coburn, really close friend of mine, he lead singer for No More Blue tomorrows Uh. He's the one who put on the benefit that's raised them house money for the victims so far. But he sees the news crew show up and he looks over and he goes, Jesse, there's some cameras over there. I'm like, all right, I'll see you guys later. And I went and I did some interviews and on local and national national news about the fire, which was on the street right next to the building.

20:22 Speaker 3: And so that happened. Caleb's like, I'm out of here. You know, everybody's kind of dispersed. One of the great coincidences about the location of this place is that my ex wife lives right down the road. So even throughout all these years, I'll be at the studio. Then I, you know, see my kids. My kids would just come down and jam. You know, my sons are they play and you know they would they would you know, I would be able to just run over there, have dinner and go back and work on stuff.

20:50 Speaker 4: Yeah, nice little coincidence.

20:52 Speaker 3: So I set up shop at my ex wife's house.

20:56 Speaker 4: I called her. Obviously she knew what was going on, she could see it from her wind.

21:01 Speaker 3: And I was kind of like gonna be the point person to be able to walk down there and see what was going on throughout the day. So at around eleven am, after everybody had left, we had some food.

21:16 Speaker 4: I don't even know if it was.

21:17 Speaker 3: It was one of those days where it wasn't lunch, it wasn't breakfast, it was just we have food. And I walked down there again with my son and we went to go check it out and I saw the police, I'm sorry, the fire chief, and he brought me in the building with him. This is after the fire was out, and I was like, I just I just want to know what's going on downstairs. And he walked down half the stairs and he goes, there's like three four feet of.

21:43 Speaker 2: Water down there.

21:45 Speaker 3: That's how much That's how much water it took to put out this fire. But we're in the basement of a warehouse, so there was nowhere for the water to go.

21:53 Speaker 4: So that I called.

21:54 Speaker 3: Caleb, I let him know that, and I go back to go back to the point. And a couple hours later I walked down the street again. This time there was police tape up, like they had put like tape up, and this is the same street I had been walking down all day. There's actually a video of me and my son coming back from that visit where the Mayor of Nashville was taking a video saying how tragic it is on this street.

22:20 Speaker 4: But now there's tape there.

22:21 Speaker 3: I didn't really think anything of it, and I walked around and Officer Jonathan Earnhardt decided to start yelling at me. Rightfully, so I crossed the tape. Sure, sure, I did a bad thing, he said, But but he was a meantiing I'm gonna rest you.

22:36 Speaker 1: I mean, you probably weren't even thinking about it, right, It's not like you consciously did that.

22:40 Speaker 4: Yeah, I just walked the route that I've been walking for five years. Yea.

22:45 Speaker 3: And I like he's he's threatening to arrest me, and I'm like, I'm like, dude, seriously, Like I am just like one of the victims here.

22:52 Speaker 4: I'm just checking in. I was literally in the.

22:54 Speaker 3: Building with the fire chief a little while ago, and he's yelling at me and doing his little cop thing, and I'm I'm not nice. I'm not nice when people. I've always had a problem with authorities. Sure, sure, but at this at this point in the game, like.

23:07 Speaker 4: I wasn't doing anything.

23:08 Speaker 3: I literally did a news I was on TV on the place I was standing, so I didn't think it was a big deal.

23:13 Speaker 1: And you were dealing with a lot emotionally, right, I mean, this is a traumatic thing.

23:18 Speaker 4: I am losing my mind not knowing what is going on.

23:22 Speaker 3: So I walked back to my ex wife's house and I told her what happened to.

23:26 Speaker 4: Hanging with my son.

23:26 Speaker 3: We're playing Minecraft, you know what I mean, just just trying to forget about what's going on. Finally four o'clock rolls around and I'm like, you know what, I like what Caleb did early in the morning, Like I'm calling it today. We'll figure all this out. Nobody needs me either, so and I I didn't you know, dried. I had to get an uber to get home, so I ordered my uber, but because of the police vehicles on the street, the uber couldn't get in.

23:54 Speaker 4: So I walk down Ash. I walked three blocks.

23:58 Speaker 3: I walked down Ash around back to Vine to you know, to not cross the line, because I complied when he told me not to cross the line. And I get to the building and he's on the other side of the building because he was literally parked on the other side of the building. There's a couple of cop cars there and another officer was like, where.

24:17 Speaker 4: Are you going. I'm like, I'm just trying to catch my uber. He's over there. Can I go? And he's like, yeah, sure.

24:23 Speaker 3: And then I noticed people going in and out of the building. The cops had started letting some of the musicians, and I started seeing my friends going in and out of the building. Ye. So I turned to the officer respectfully, I'm like, you're letting people in there.

24:34 Speaker 4: This is my building.

24:35 Speaker 2: Now.

24:35 Speaker 3: Keep in mind, I've been calling this my building for five years. It doesn't belong to me, but you know, it's like say in my house.

24:41 Speaker 2: Right right, Yeah, of course belongs to Hinch Crowdy, right right.

24:46 Speaker 4: So the officers like, yeah, you're one of the musicians. Yeah, I can go ahead.

24:50 Speaker 3: So I cancel my uber and I go in and we start ripping guitars out of there. Like I'm on the stairs. These other guys are all wading through the water. They're giving me the computer they're give Devin was like, what do you need. I'm like the computer, you know, get me the strat, get me the this case, this case, brown case, you know. And we're just pulling instruments up for about a half an hour, and the pitch black.

25:12 Speaker 4: I'm soaked.

25:13 Speaker 3: Everybody's you know, and I cancel the uber and my dad called me and he's like, hey, do you want some help. I'm like yeah, because because he was out and whatever. So he drove down, parked behind the officers, and I was just gonna start loading up some guitars into his car. And the first guitar that I grabbed was the Stratocaster and it belongs to Caleb.

25:36 Speaker 4: Well, well, it belongs to the studio, doesn't belong to me.

25:40 Speaker 3: I was the one about it. I didn't grab my guitar first. This Strata is on every track. It's a very important sentimental piece, but it's also one of the best guitars in the studio. So I grabbed that one first, mainly because like, carrying two was like carrying one hundred pounds.

25:58 Speaker 4: Yeah, no doubt.

25:59 Speaker 3: And then I'm carrying it towards my I see my dad, see the cop cars, and then all of a sudden, I hear where's your uber? And it's the officer from earlier in the day, Jonathan Earnhardt. He he starts yelling at me. He's like, where's your uber. I'm like, dude, I canceled my uber you're letting people in the building. I'm at this point, I'm like I don't want to deal with this. I can feel my blood getting hotter. And he goes, you lied to him and you said you own this building, and you lied and you said you were getting I'm like, dude, please, oh yeah.

26:35 Speaker 3: It was crazy. And he looked. He literally looked at me. He's like, listen, I've had a really long day.

26:41 Speaker 1: Oh my god.

26:45 Speaker 4: So this is yeah my blood.

26:50 Speaker 3: This is where my blood went from boiling to just like overflowing the pot. And and I was like, you've had a long day.

26:58 Speaker 4: And I said, and I started.

26:59 Speaker 3: Runn my mouth and I shouldn't have run my mouth. And when I run my mouth, it runs. And then so he's like, you're on body cam right now, I'll arrest you right now. He had no reason to arrest me.

27:08 Speaker 2: I was.

27:08 Speaker 4: I wasn't threatening.

27:09 Speaker 3: So what I did was I leaned the stratocaster case on my leg and I put my hands up and I was like, go ahead and arrest me. If you're gonna arrest me, go ahead and just do it. Like he had no reason to, so he couldn't. And he grabbed the guitar, and he threw it toward my father's car. Oh,

27:28 Speaker 3: in defense of this officer, mister officer Earnhardt, I will say, in his defense, he didn't know what he was throwing. No, Like he shows up to a you know, cops have a hard job. They show up to like like scenes all the time. Like this guy's getting thrown out of his house. Grab his suitcase and get out of here, you know. So So in his defense, he didn't know what he was throwing, but he threw. Doesn't make it okay, though, And that's the point of this story. So he throws the guitar and that's when I lost my mind.

27:57 Speaker 3: He's still in the air, and I'm now I'm like all the things that you could say to a cop that you're not supposed to say, I'm saying, but I'm non threatening, like I wasn't doing anything wrong. And so finally, thank god it was my dad who was there, because because I would have ended up in cuffs out there. He was like, he grabbed the guitar, he put it in the car. He got me in the car and he's like, let's just go. I'm like, I have other stuff to get and the cops like, you're not going back in that building.

28:25 Speaker 4: It's crime scene.

28:25 Speaker 2: I'm like, you're other people, they're literally literally Connor, Connor, I, everybody, whoever else.

28:32 Speaker 4: He hadn't shown up yet.

28:34 Speaker 2: No, I showed up maybe about an hour after this all happened.

28:38 Speaker 4: I called him. I went home, like, I'm like screaming.

28:42 Speaker 2: Caleb's like, Jesus, yes I know. I'm just like now I have to now go and get all of the rest of the time as much as I could carry it out.

28:50 Speaker 3: And I'm not saying like I believe that Officer Earnhardt caused the scene, but but I didn't.

28:57 Speaker 2: But I was very much part of the scene. So I get home, I opened the case.

29:01 Speaker 3: I noticed at the back of I got to the back of the neck, the guitar is damaged and it's still being looked at.

29:09 Speaker 2: It could have been water damaged, but it's it's very likely a combination of both. So I took it and this this is a shameless plug. This is a shameless plug. And then then I'll talk about the salvage operations.

29:22 Speaker 3: Yeah, let me, but before you do that, sure, I noticed the guitar was damaged, so I did the right thing, and I filed police report against this officer for damaging our property. And I get a phone call two days later from what I just think is a supervisor.

29:37 Speaker 2: I didn't know that.

29:38 Speaker 3: I was talking to the captain of the National Police Department and he told us to come. He asked me to come down, and so I immediately called Caleb, grab the evidence. Let's go, because because Caleb's first like this was an impact that it could Yeah, he'll he'll.

29:52 Speaker 4: Tell you all about how the wood is on the guitar and all that.

29:55 Speaker 3: But we get to the police department and I said, I hope you don't mind I brought U. I brought my partner with me, and he goes, well, I would have liked to heads up. And then we sit down in the chair. What this guy thought was gonna be like he thought he was gonna reprimand me for yelling and being a bad boy. Oh but and he was like, you know, he was gonna throw a couple bucks because they do have funds in police departments, like if they have to kick in a door, yeah, during a fire or during during a scene, that the state or the city or the state will take care of, like the door hinges for the landlord and stuffy.

30:27 Speaker 3: So he thought it was just gonna be like a little okay, you shouldn't have been mean, and we're gonna like pay for something. Yeah, that's not what happened, though. I was like, no, no, no, your officer threw my guitar. He goes, well, I saw you on the bodycam footage and you weren't being nice. And I was like, I know it wasn't being nice, but my hands were in the air. I was not threatening. But did you happen to catch on the body cam footage your officer throwing the guitar?

30:52 Speaker 4: He's no, I didn't see that. I haven't talked to the officer yet.

30:55 Speaker 3: He just kept stumbling over himself because he thought he was just gonna slap some stupid long hair musician on the wrist, of course, but instead he got me, so I started unloading on him, not again, not knowing he was.

31:07 Speaker 4: I just thought he was like.

31:08 Speaker 2: Yeah, Supervisor, that was not smart. I know, I think I think you've assumed too much of Officer Welsh.

31:13 Speaker 4: Yeah.

31:15 Speaker 3: In any event, Officer Captain Welsh continuously told me to not say that his officer was lying, but if his officer said that he didn't throw the guitar. He's lying, you know, Like lying is very simple. If if you know something is the truth and you say the opposite, right, then that's a lie. So I kind of got into it with Welsh and they're they're now can his head dropped. He's like, this is not how I thought the conversation was going to go. Now I have to do an investigation. And he's, you know, given the whole you know, Officer earn Hard, he's a good guy, of course.

31:48 Speaker 3: I'm like, I'm like, look man, he's a good guy, and he made a mistake. This whole time, I've recognized that it was an accident. Sure, but if I hit your car tomorrow with my car and it's my fault, I have to pay for that accident. It was a reason they call it for calling an accent. We just want the guitar replays. That's it. I hope they do the.

32:07 Speaker 2: Right thing repair replaced that. Yeah, I I don't I don't really care which it is.

32:11 Speaker 3: But but then I brought Caleb with me and he talked to the this is where Caleb can.

32:16 Speaker 2: Get So we we had the meeting with Officer welch. I I'm of the opinion it probably could have gone better, but it's all good man, And and you know, I I just I explained to him. I was like, I checked out the guitar, and I was like, some of this, Yeah, the glue was loosened up by the water, but some of it to me kind of looks like impact that case. And I mean the case showed a little bit of scuffing on the top where the headstock would have been in the case, and that's probably the crappiest parts the thing to land on.

32:53 Speaker 2: But yeah, it's a Strats, a bolt neck guitar, and it's got a skunk stripe. So it's got the piece of wood on the back of the neck that contains the truss rod in there, and that piece had delaminated and kind of twisted a little bit. And usually if and I've seen some other flood damage strats and Telly's that have the skunk stripe, and usually what happens is the glue gets loosened up a little bit and it usually uniformly delaminates on one side or the other of the skunk stripe. Just yeah, because the pressure of the wood pushing against itself.

33:29 Speaker 2: It just wants to uniformly delaminate. It had kind of twisted in there, and I'm looking at it and I'm like, man that you know, yeah, water loosened it up, But I don't think. I don't think that that neck movement happened, but just by water water doing it, because I mean, I knew the guitar. The neck was pretty stable on the thing, and strangely, even with the impact the next stage barely stable, like the guitar wasn't in tune, but it definitely it definitely bare weird, Like I mean, the body of the guitar is totally fine.

34:03 Speaker 2: It's just the neck, Yeah, just the neck that got a little bit screwed. But yeah, yeah, the guitar repair, Yeah, I just just repaired. And I took it up And this is a shameless plug to the music text here in Manchester. They're great, great guys, do awesome work. I took it up to Doug McCormick and seth oh.

34:21 Speaker 1: Yeah, and yeah, I've known Doug a long time.

34:23 Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, Doug. Doug's fantastic.

34:25 Speaker 4: Yeah.

34:25 Speaker 2: And and Doug wasn't the one who looked at the strat really he he's going to handle another restoration project. It's actually the second time he's taking on this this guitar, because it's the second time it's been in total disrepair unfortunately. But the the fender, he uh or Seth looked at the fender and he was like, yeah, we can at the very word, you know, at the very worst, we'll just pop a new neck on it. Yeah, and then that'll be fine. And I'm sure he'll find a neck that's like, you know, within ninety percent similar.

34:56 Speaker 4: To to it.

34:57 Speaker 2: The one thing that we'll kind of suck about that we won't have the uh, the serial number on it. It was a it was a two thousand, two thousand neck, and you know, even if we replaced the neck, it permanently devalues the instrument. It's no longer you know, I mean that was it. Literally in twenty twenty five, that guitar became a VINTAGEY guitar twenty five, you know, crazy, Yeah, it's really really weird. I bought it a couple of years ago, you know, just as a used strat, just because the studio needed a strat.

35:28 Speaker 2: We needed something that was serviceable and was gonna last a long time.

35:32 Speaker 4: Yeah, got on every track. Really, it's every one of my tracks.

35:36 Speaker 3: Yeah, a ton of tunes. I can't think of one song, Yeah that I didn't. I mean, the strat is the most first stile guitar in the history of guitars.

35:45 Speaker 4: Arguably I disagree.

35:46 Speaker 2: With it well of course, but I mean it's most most certainly is one of one of the most iconic. I mean every you know, if you've ever heard Sweet Home Alabama, you've heard of Stratocaster.

35:58 Speaker 4: Yeah, there's a picture. Jimmy Hendrick's right there with.

36:01 Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, you're right.

36:02 Speaker 4: You're right.

36:03 Speaker 2: Some of the most iconic songs you've ever heard. I recorded on one of them. And you know, I'm not even really a strat guy. Neither of us are. We just we just need one in the studio, you know.

36:17 Speaker 1: If you're just joining us, we have Jesse Rutstein and Caleb Dire. I almost sit it again, whatever, I just say Jesse and Caleb from records.

36:30 Speaker 4: So I didn't mean to we didn't. I'm sorry.

36:32 Speaker 3: No, I don't mean to get so off on that part of the story, because that is such a minuscule piece of this puzzle. Yeah, we just hope Nashvilla PD does the right thing, because I'm doing a lot of shows right now, and like the Bad Burger show that came out like they they just came out swinging. They don't they're not even they weren't even really associated with us. And he came out swinging, and then Peddlers came out, and then San Francisco Kitchen and Nashua. So between those three shows alone, we've done over seven thousand dollars.

37:06 Speaker 3: Yeah, and uh, you can donate through the Salvation Army, just so everybody knows. Eleanor from Terminus New Hampshire Underground set up a link where people can donate and between our contributions and people that have been coming to the shows, and we've raised all this money and we have a really big one coming up on February, February seventh, and and that's going to be at the Backstreet Bar and Grill. That's going to be like an all day festival style with some really great bands to be announced.

37:40 Speaker 3: So we haven't gotten confirmation on every band, but we do know that obviously I'm going to be there, The Faith and Band is going to be there. No More Blue Tomorrow's is going to be there, and and and if I'm I'm missing I know I'm missing people and I'm sorry dead Harrison.

37:54 Speaker 4: I'm wearing it. Yeah, shirt nice. They're going to be down there too. I would love to get that.

38:00 Speaker 2: I'm on that bill.

38:00 Speaker 3: Yeah, we're working with them. And then on the is it the sixteenth this month or seventeenth? See I had it already the sixteenth? Uh lazy who I am is putting on a show at Photies and she's having me come down and we're going to do a show at Photis that weekend also to benefit So excellent. The thing is, like, I just I really want to focus on because I'm not accepting any donations. Jesse rudstein Brand is not accepting any donations.

38:33 Speaker 4: No gofundmes. I didn't lose what other people lost, right.

38:37 Speaker 2: You know, we we are indirectly, we are taking donations. If you would like to donate Tree Streets, yes, if you If you would like to donate to the effort that we're putting on, it's through a Zephi link. Okay, not not a go the gofundmes that are out there, and please do donate to those as well if you are able. Those are all to benefit individual musicians. That we're in the building or bands or what have you. But the the only one, the only formal operation was us. We were the only one that had like some formal governance structure in any way, shape or form, And so we're trying to use that nonprofit status to receive donations, try to help people who donate to us, give you a tax receipt, you know, help you outcome tax time.

39:24 Speaker 2: But you know, uh so if you if you want to donate, we've got a zephy link we can point you to that. You can find it not only through Tree Streets stuff, but you can also find it through New Hampshire Underground and Ellen Orchishu was the one who set it up, but that any money given to that benefits Tree Streets Incorporated, which is David Patterson myself and where you know, if if you want to see where all the money's going, well, you know we're publishing that.

39:50 Speaker 1: So excellent good but yeah, it's we're doing we're doing some good, you know, and and it stinks that we have to.

39:58 Speaker 3: That's like, that's do Sorry, I'm getting like I wanted to release my record and start gigging in twenty twenty six to support it. Yeah, I couldn't wait. I couldn't wait, and a little bit of a delay. Well, but the amount of exposure that I'm getting from this fire is probably more than I would have got from the record. So I'm not trying to I'm not trying to capitalize on a horrible thing. I just it feels good to do right by the folks, absolutely, you know.

40:29 Speaker 4: And I just wish I didn't have to do that because.

40:32 Speaker 2: They they It's strange how the world works.

40:35 Speaker 4: It really is, man.

40:36 Speaker 2: I mean, we just you know, but we keep on keeping on, just.

40:41 Speaker 3: Keep it, keeping it all positive and looking looking to the future. Hatchet Action and Saw is not dead.

40:48 Speaker 4: We just burned. We just got burned. On a positive note.

40:51 Speaker 2: On a positive note, I have happy news to report about the equipment. So, as Jesse articulated earlier, we really didn't suffer any fire damage. In the basement. It's pretty much all water, so there was a lot of stuff that was submerged. However, one thing that is pretty good about some of these old electronics is that they're actually fairly resilient water damage, especially if you just let it dry out for a whole long time. So, yeah, the computer was toast, which sucks. However, the SSDs, we were able to rip them out of the computer and process that information onto a new machine excellent.

41:33 Speaker 2: So there's an immediate win. That's why we're going to be able to re release or release anything that we will be able to do come this March. In addition to that, I've been going through test and amplifiers. I just last night played a gig with a V four B that we had down there, very very nice base amp costs quite a bit of money, and two by fifteen, a vintage acoustic two by fifteen cab based cab, and that base rig absolutely slams. And that head was totally completely submerged, no kidding, totally submerged water, totally underwater when I when I grabbed it out of the basement, there were at least three inches of water on top of where the handle was.

42:16 Speaker 2: Oh my god, you know, yeah, so it totally submerged in that amp. When I turned it on yesterday before I went to or I should say two days ago testing it for yesterday. When I played the gig, it just fired up.

42:29 Speaker 4: That's amazing, fired.

42:31 Speaker 2: Right up, and and man it you know, thumped all the same that's incredible. And I'm expecting that most of the amplifiers, given that I've given them about four weeks to dry out, most of the amplifiers I think are going to turn on. I haven't tested them all. I've tested the the an amplifier that we literally bought in three days before the fire.

42:55 Speaker 4: Oh really yeah, yeah.

42:56 Speaker 2: It was a nineteen sixty eight La Fayette is a nice old vintage jamp. I bought it out in Swansea off of a guy who was an AMP technician, and he knew what he had, but he was just like, yeah, I'm willing to I'm willing to let this go and and go to go to a good home. And I had put it down there, I had, I had play tested it, and you know, and then the fire happens and I'm thinking, I hope that thing survives. The way that the amp is designed, it's like taller than it is wide, so the amp never actually saw water.

43:28 Speaker 2: Actually fire didn't. The speakers did. The lower speakers saw water, but the actual amp was totally untouched. And I that was one of the first amps that I tested and it just fired right up. There's a lot of stuff like that. Some stuff that's a little more questionable. Unfortunately, both of my keyboards were totally submerged even in their road cases. The b X three, which is a vintage eighties like Cord BX three very it's yeah right, literally can't be replaced. They stopped making them, and it can find what it costs more than yeah, yeah we should be spending on yeah, more than what we should be spending on that.

44:13 Speaker 2: And that thing got soaked and it's still buried in rice right now. Yeah, so I'm gonna have to go and vacuum that all.

44:20 Speaker 1: Oh so in theory there might be hope still, so so.

44:23 Speaker 4: No matter, that seems to be the theme.

44:25 Speaker 3: Yes, yes, it's it's miraculous that all these things are surviving.

44:30 Speaker 2: I followed all of the procedures and protocols for for salvage and electronics. Man, so there's there's a high likelihood that it will turn on, okay, even if it doesn't work one hundred percent. Because this thing was built in like nineteen eighty three in Japan. There was actually some Japanese person that point to point wired this whole thing, so you know, it's not built like a modern PCBU board equipment. So it's it's it's definitely only salvageable no matter what. It's a matter of how much money do you want to sink repairing it.

45:05 Speaker 2: But those sorts of things are worth putting it into. The The other major thing which I got a shout out to my my father, Mitch Dyer. He he came down in a couple of days and he helped lug out the HAM and B three that we had down there, and that that if if I mean, if listeners out there, no ham and B three under normal circumstances, generally takes about four people to move it safely, and to have one that's water logged and all kinds of screwed up. Yeah, it was rough. However, because my father is a mechanical genius, we basically were able to do it with two people.

45:46 Speaker 2: Yeah. The way we rigged it up, you know, we locked on the tone wheel and did all we had to do to get ready to move. But we we rigged up a chain fall and we just we we took in the building. There's some four inch cap iron pipe that's just like hanging for for drain lines and stuff. Yeah, just old old cast iron pipe. It's stuff that guys wouldn't use today. But it was perfect for us because we could rig up all kinds of like toast wrapping and chain fall up there and we could support the weight of this organ.

46:15 Speaker 2: Just oh my god, that four inch cast iron pipe with the hang.

46:18 Speaker 4: Oh yeah wow.

46:19 Speaker 2: So so it only took two of us to to actually move it up and out. Do you have video of that?

46:23 Speaker 4: Did you take video?

46:24 Speaker 2: Yeah? So we didn't take video, but we we we got pictures of the rig and it kind of surprised people because we did put out a call to help. That morning, I put out a Facebook post like, hey, if anyone has extra time this to make this safe, you know, really even just a pair of eyes or what have you. But but no, we we got it done, just just the two of us. Amazing and yeah, we we we absolutely did make it out of there with that B three within a couple of days that that that thing is uh, it's gonna get rebuilt.

46:58 Speaker 2: It's going to go down. And here's another shameless plug to someone who doesn't get nearly enough recognition in the Keys community, Tyler dre Bick down in Somerville at Boss, Oregon. He's actually originally from up here in New Hampshire and he does incredible work. He's he's probably and I mean I think he knows this. He's one of the foremost Hammond organ techs in the world. He you know, he does ham and teching for you know, touring act guy guys in touring acts, you you know, and he's gonna be the one who's gonna be taken on the job.

47:34 Speaker 2: I get to deliver the organ to him at the end of the month, end of January or maybe beginning. It kind of depends on when his space exactly frees up.

47:43 Speaker 3: But one of the one of the most amazing things about this situation that just landed in my lap five years ago being a part of Tree Streets Incorporated, Uh, not only just the support from Dave and Caleb, but the fact that we had things like a Ham and B three with a Leslie rotating cab at our fingertips. Nowadays, when you hear organ in the song, if you hear organ in the song, it's it's usually just like a setting and it's fine, like that's what we do when we play live. But on Lost in It All featuring Faith in the single that's the single that's uh that we're trying to get rolling.

48:23 Speaker 3: Yeah, that's a real organ on Dear Baby Gene, which which is a a what didn't start as as a song that was going to be prominently organ driven. It's a real hamm. And it's like, it's like what raymn Zeric used on those Doors records.

48:39 Speaker 2: Well, no, he used a vox but yeah, stop correcting me.

48:43 Speaker 4: Not that wasn't it. That wasn't a B three.

48:47 Speaker 2: No, No, he used a Vox Continental but no, kidding, show my ignorance and a Fender Rhodes based baby. I knew about the Fender room.

48:56 Speaker 3: But in any event, it's the fact that we had all these wonderful instruments and what Caleb and Dave put together.

49:06 Speaker 2: It's if you build it, they will come, and I did.

49:10 Speaker 4: Yeah. But so so we.

49:14 Speaker 3: Dug into the computer computer's fried hard drive is okay yet means we have all the stems for all the songs.

49:21 Speaker 4: Good.

49:22 Speaker 3: And so the title track of the of the album that was meant to be Superhero Toys and it's a song about my son, my son's actually and they were on the track, so I like, I don't want to give too much away about the song. But at the end of the song, we repeat the chorus and all the kids are on it, and we do some like Pink Floyd's style, like recordings in the background of kids, like like stuff throughout the years. So but one thing that was really special to me was Junior's my son. He's twenty. He's a marine, so he's not around, and he wanted to take I have my son Jackson on the track.

50:06 Speaker 3: The last verse is about when he's born and how me and Junior now like it's our job to make him a man. And he sang on this track two years ago when we started it, and we just kind of never finished it, but we decided to add it to the record and it ended up becoming the title track, and so Jackson sang on it again when he was fourteen. So that's the kind of stuff I was scared to lose, having him at eleven singing on the track, and then having him at fourteen, so both of those voices were there, like, I can't get him at eleven again, I can have him redo the track tomorrow we set up.

50:44 Speaker 3: So those are the things that I was thinking about, and honestly, I felt selfish every time I thought about it, because these people lost their homes. I lost some songs, but I got a roof in a bed, which is one of the main reasons why I was like laser focused on making sure people knew that I wasn't taking money from this. I want to make sure people know that we are doing everything we can to help the folks that no longer have a roof in a bed, like they were getting put up at the old the old middle school, Elm Street, that's where that's where they were staying.

51:19 Speaker 2: Like I was staying in my room, you know what I mean?

51:22 Speaker 4: Like I was. I was cooking breakfast the next day in my kitchen. You know, so so I.

51:28 Speaker 3: But but now that we are making sure that in the Salvation Army has been great. I forget the gentleman's name that was the contact. I believe it's Dave something. But he's working closely with the families to make sure that that all our donations are going through and good. Now now that and I jokingly said, like the first week after all this, because any anybody who sees me, so you have the news, you know what's going on with the fire all, I like, I'm like, I'll be sad next month about my music because I thought it was gone, and now it's my month to be sad about.

52:03 Speaker 3: You know, I could be a little bit selfish. And I get a text from Dave the other night. I was literally out having a couple a couple drinks at the blues Blues bar, and I look I looked down at the phone and Dave sent me a message with all my folders.

52:19 Speaker 4: Yeah wow, man, I cried. I cried at the bar.

52:24 Speaker 3: I don't even yeah wow, just like tears filled my eyes and it's all there.

52:30 Speaker 4: It's all there. You don't know when we're going to mix it.

52:33 Speaker 3: I'm gonna put a I'm gonna put a date on it at some point. But right now, what we're going to do is we're going to re release my EP with merchandise and start getting out there and playing it live. So the re release is uh for me personally, this is this is this is just my plug, not a not a benefit. My re release is on February ninth, we're re releasing the EP, and then on March seventh at Bad Burger, we're doing a record release party or an EP release party. My full band will be there and we have two wonderful bands that are gonna be on the bill as well.

53:11 Speaker 3: The tumble Toads and the Faith and Band are gonna also be there on the seventh of March at Bad Burger and we are gonna that's gonna be a party. It's gonna be a ticketed event. There'll be money at the door and merchandise, so if you want a shirt with my ugly mug on it, you can come down and check it out. But we're really really excited to I'm excited to be releasing it. Wanted Superhero Toys to be on it. Like the seventeenth of December was when it was supposed to come out, my son's birthday.

53:43 Speaker 4: Oh yeah.

53:45 Speaker 3: Every one of my releases has has a meeting, even February ninth.

53:49 Speaker 4: I'm like, I want to release in February. What's a good February date? We'll it have.

53:52 Speaker 3: February ninth happens to be the sixty third anniversary of when the greatest band of all time appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show and change rock and roll, you know, and and and pretty much made me want to do.

54:05 Speaker 4: What I want to do, you know, yeah, through my father and stuff. Yeah, excuse me.

54:10 Speaker 3: So everything, everything has a special date, but I really wanted to come out on the seventeenth. Yeah, it's not gonna but buckle up, everybody. Twenty twenty six, we're we're ripping.

54:20 Speaker 2: It and you might even get a single release of one of my originals that made it through nice. Yeah, yeah, yeah, there's some uh some music of mine that is as of yet unheard by the words. Okay, okay, I absolutely wonder this. This fire has kind of made me realize that I should probably just publish it.

54:40 Speaker 1: Yeah, good, good, Well we look forward to that, guys. We're almost out of time. I'm thinking, uh, I was going to close out the segment, we'll play Lost in It all. I know that single with faith and got that cute up and ready. Anything you want to just remind people before we wrap up the hour, what what they should know about what's coming up?

54:56 Speaker 2: Well, if you'd like to catch me tonight, I'm actually gonna be playing it ten pm tonight.

55:02 Speaker 4: Yep.

55:03 Speaker 2: I'll be with the brad New Bay Bands. Kind of a weird bill. It was like two metal bands and then a blues band in the middle of it. Okay, you know, but if you want to catch forty five minute set of some some Ripping Blues tonight ten pm. Nice also, uh, actually no, that's it, never mind.

55:21 Speaker 3: I would love to end the segment by saying thank you to everybody who supported me, from family, friends, other musicians, are our community, our music community in.

55:31 Speaker 2: Southern New Hampshire is uh is really special.

55:35 Speaker 4: Agreed?

55:35 Speaker 3: And and you know you got Gary coming in next and there is in the hallways. That guy's in every single band in the music community.

55:44 Speaker 1: I always say he's the busiest musician I know.

55:46 Speaker 2: I really be playing with Gary soon. Yeah, excellent, another week.

55:50 Speaker 3: So I want to say thank you to the bands, to Eleanor and Terminus Underground. I want to say thank you to to family and friends who have supported us, anybody who's donated, and and everybody that's keeping this, keeping this rolling.

56:05 Speaker 1: Thank you, absolutely, thank you, well said guys, thank you, thank you for coming in. And this has been this has been wonderful.