Field Dispatch
Kyle Gordon | Matt Connarton Unleashed
Speaker 1: That is She Chose Me by Kyle Gordon. I love
Speaker 1: everything about that song. That is a perfect song. I
Speaker 1: think we have Kyle on the line, Kyle are you there?
Speaker 2: Can you hear me?
Speaker 3: Yes?
Speaker 1: Yes, welcome to the show, my friend. That is so good.
Speaker 1: I love that song so much. I love everything about
Speaker 1: it absolutely.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 4: I haven't heard it in the Wow it's sounding good.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you got a little bit of a like in
Speaker 1: the chorus there. You got a little bit of a
Speaker 1: motown thing there. I love the so that guitar solo
Speaker 1: is perfect. Everything about it. It's just it's a perfect song.
Speaker 1: There's there's nothing you could do to that to make
Speaker 1: it better. It's it's perfect. I love it.
Speaker 2: Well.
Speaker 4: That means a lot, thank you. I had very little
Speaker 4: to do with that solo. I was I was blissfully
Speaker 4: out of the room when that happened, my very good friend. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 4: I'm not I'm not like a I'm not a great musician.
Speaker 4: I'm just more of a songwriter.
Speaker 3: Okay.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So when we were in.
Speaker 4: The studio that was this is this this album that
Speaker 4: for the first song off the album is the first
Speaker 4: time that I ever got out of my own way
Speaker 4: to not do all the instrumentation on a song. All
Speaker 4: I'm doing on that song is the drums and the guitars,
Speaker 4: I'm sorry, the acoustic guitars. I'm doing all the singing. Ye,
Speaker 4: but my very good friend Nick Whitson is doing the
Speaker 4: bass and the guitar, and then Chris, my friend Chris Simsen,
Speaker 4: is also doing some bass.
Speaker 2: So a lot of that.
Speaker 4: Instrumentation is just so beautiful and I'm I'm proud of
Speaker 4: it because I had absolutely nothing to do with it.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Man, I think that's that's when collaboration, you know, is
Speaker 4: at its finest. So yeah, thank you so much for
Speaker 4: playing it, and I haven't heard.
Speaker 2: It in a little while, and I really enjoyed it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's really good. Do you uh? Do you perform
Speaker 3: that live? Do you play out?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 4: I play out, but not as not as Kyle Bordon yet.
Speaker 4: My career is kind of been a weird.
Speaker 2: Yeah. As right now, I'm.
Speaker 4: Playing under two names, Mama Bear and Anthems. Okay, I'm
Speaker 4: going this new Yeah, this new project, Anthems is it's fantastic.
Speaker 4: It's a rock project. But the Kyle Gordon stuff kind
Speaker 4: of represents songs that I write that that don't see
Speaker 4: the light of the day my rock and roll projects.
Speaker 2: Okay, so because I write all.
Speaker 4: Kinds of music, man, so this to me what I
Speaker 4: like about the Kyle Gordon project. It's a lot slicker
Speaker 4: and a lot more refined than all my other projects.
Speaker 4: And a lot of that, again has to do with
Speaker 4: the fact that I'm not doing most of the instrumentation anymore. Okay,
Speaker 4: I just yeah, I come into a studio with a
Speaker 4: song idea, I record what I think is the song,
Speaker 4: and then when we're done with it, it's almost it's
Speaker 4: almost unrecognizable. And I know you and I have never
Speaker 4: really spoken. You don't really know anything about me. But
Speaker 4: I've been making music for twenty five years. I'm sup yeah,
Speaker 4: and I'm super proud of this album because it represents
Speaker 4: something I've never done before. And the whole maxim was
Speaker 4: is the only rule was we can't do what we've
Speaker 4: done in the past, right, you know, Like there's like
Speaker 4: no big, huge, booming electric guitars, you know, or so
Speaker 4: I'm not screaming every point.
Speaker 2: I have to make a lot more.
Speaker 4: Crooning and stuff like that, and just trying to flex
Speaker 4: muscles that I've never flexed on a studio before. So yeah, man,
Speaker 4: it's a I got a lot of really cool songs
Speaker 4: to show y'all. This is just the first one, and
Speaker 4: I'm so excited. It's nice to meet you.
Speaker 2: How's your dad one?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Very well, very well, thank you. No, I've been looking
Speaker 1: forward to talking with them because, like I said, I
Speaker 1: love that song so much. Is it important to you
Speaker 1: to because you've got other projects too? Is it important
Speaker 1: to you to have multiple things where you can kind
Speaker 1: of explore different genres or different different approaches to creating music.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I like to compartmentalize things, like Mama Bear is
Speaker 4: my little indie project, okay, and I'll always I'll stick
Speaker 4: like two artistic songs on it, but the rest of
Speaker 4: it's just like a very indie garage rock project. And
Speaker 4: then Anthems I'm creating with my very good friend Houston B,
Speaker 4: who was in a band called Heavy Mojo and they
Speaker 4: were very popular, kind of like this rap rock thing.
Speaker 4: And B is such a good songwriter, So he and
Speaker 4: I are doing stuff with Anthems, and it's like we
Speaker 4: call it industrial strength.
Speaker 2: R and B.
Speaker 4: Interest is kind of like punk and R and B
Speaker 4: mixed together.
Speaker 2: And so and I grew up in Atlanta.
Speaker 3: I'm sorry, Oh, I just said, really that that sounds interesting.
Speaker 3: I want to hear some of that. Definitely.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's really good.
Speaker 4: In the middle of finishing an album and an EPA,
Speaker 4: they put out an ep last summer and we're torn around.
Speaker 4: We're going to go to England next year with it,
Speaker 4: and I'm super stoked about that.
Speaker 3: Excellent.
Speaker 4: But yeah, man, so I compartmentalize my music so that
Speaker 4: so the Kyle Gordon stuff is kind of like I
Speaker 4: look at indie pop thing. I guess you could call it, yeah,
Speaker 4: and I like, I like making pop music.
Speaker 2: Who knew? Yeah?
Speaker 1: What's the music scene like? I mean, obviously, so you're
Speaker 1: in Atlanta? Now, did you grow up there?
Speaker 2: I did?
Speaker 4: Yeah, Yeah, I did all my formative years here in Ato.
Speaker 1: Okay, okay, what's the music scene like there? I would imagine.
Speaker 1: I would imagine it's a lot of different kinds of things,
Speaker 1: which which is probably why you're into, uh, you know,
Speaker 1: making different kinds of music and compartmentalizing it.
Speaker 3: I assume.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Is that?
Speaker 4: Yeah, Well, growing up in Atlanta, you know, hip hop
Speaker 4: is very pervasive. I grew up in the early nineties,
Speaker 4: so I remember I remember hip hop, I remember R
Speaker 4: and B, and then I remember Nirvana. Yes, my mom
Speaker 4: raised me with the Beatles, and so I think all
Speaker 4: those like the the aggressiveness and the accessibility of Nirvana,
Speaker 4: I'm coupled with the brilliance of the Beatles, and then
Speaker 4: like just the rhythm, the rhythm heaviness of hip hop
Speaker 4: was a huge influence on me because I think if
Speaker 4: you're writing a song and people aren't moving around to it,
Speaker 4: then you didn't You didn't you miss the point, right,
Speaker 4: you know, Like it's it's great to connect with people
Speaker 4: through lyrics, it's it's awesome to do all that, but
Speaker 4: if they're not moving their body like that's unless it's
Speaker 4: unless it's classical, or it's not just to do that,
Speaker 4: you know.
Speaker 2: I think that's.
Speaker 4: What's cool about music is it just gets inside you.
Speaker 4: You don't know why you're moving, but you're just moving
Speaker 4: and it feels city I'm good to do it. So yeah,
Speaker 4: like Atlanta, the music scene in Atlanta has always been
Speaker 4: very vibrant, like you're talking about, and I'm sure every
Speaker 4: town could say the same thing. I don't think that
Speaker 4: Atlanta is better than the other town, but I do
Speaker 4: think Atlanta is very unique in the sense that when
Speaker 4: I was going up, like all kinds of bands blew
Speaker 4: up on a national level that I knew personally, you know,
Speaker 4: they were doing their thing. And so Atlanta has a
Speaker 4: very vibrant, rich scene. I'm currently I'm raising two little kids,
Speaker 4: so I'm kind of not in the scene anymore. Okay, Yeah,
Speaker 4: I'm mainly just recording and playing shows these days.
Speaker 2: But I mean there's those kids are still there.
Speaker 4: On there messing stuff up and breaking things in the.
Speaker 2: Right way they're supposed to do, and God bless them.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you're only You're only in your in twenties for
Speaker 4: a short amount of time. So out there and find
Speaker 4: out who you are and make your name, you know,
Speaker 4: find out who you are and do your thing.
Speaker 2: So yeah, man, music is in Atlanta's.
Speaker 4: It's very important. Don here does Yeah, and a lot
Speaker 4: of a lot of people in the world listen to
Speaker 4: Atlanta musicians. They may not even know it, but right
Speaker 4: and in Atlanta's cool because it sucks. It sucks everyone
Speaker 4: in from a uh you know, you could say, there's
Speaker 4: a there's a cup around the math of Atlanta. And
Speaker 4: if you didn't move to Nashville, you came to Atlanta.
Speaker 4: You know, if you're in the Midwest, you go to
Speaker 4: Chicago or Nashville, but everyone in the South coalesces into Atlanta.
Speaker 2: I was the same way.
Speaker 4: I was a suburban kid. I didn't grow up in Atlanta.
Speaker 4: I moved down to Atlanta to be cool and be
Speaker 4: seen C and BC and et cetera.
Speaker 2: You know. Yeah, so yeah, Atlanta, Atlanta. Love Atlanta.
Speaker 4: Yeah, where you're you're up in New Hampshire.
Speaker 3: We're in New Hampshire.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Manchester, New Hampshire where it's a little little chillier
Speaker 1: by a.
Speaker 4: Bear in the white mountains of New Hampshire.
Speaker 1: When I was thirteen, Okay, please please sell, please, yeah,
Speaker 1: please tell that story because I'm very, very interested to
Speaker 1: hear this.
Speaker 3: Yikes.
Speaker 2: My dad.
Speaker 4: My dad was like, I got a man, this boy
Speaker 4: up and was like he was in New Jersey my
Speaker 4: whole life.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's like a man, this boy up.
Speaker 4: Take him out of the mountains. So we go hiking.
Speaker 4: It's like six days and I'm like the most tenderfooted
Speaker 4: person you ever met.
Speaker 2: I'm so soft and so you know, I'm.
Speaker 4: Like a mess the whole time. We have a water filter.
Speaker 4: We've got this try free food. We're like legit camping, right, yeah,
Speaker 4: and so on, like the sixth day we land at
Speaker 4: this free walled cabin and I'll just never forget. It
Speaker 4: was the White Mountains of New Hampshire, god knows where.
Speaker 4: I guess that means something to you, yeah and or yeah.
Speaker 4: So anyway, this bear named Brutus was a black bear
Speaker 4: and there was a little polaroid of him above this clipboard.
Speaker 4: And I imagine the clipboard was there just to kind of, oh,
Speaker 4: you could leave a note for someone that you saw.
Speaker 4: Oh hey, I remember, I remember specific like Jim I
Speaker 4: beat you summer ninety five. Oh, yeah, you know whatever. Yeah,
Speaker 4: And then I saw things there's no Brutus.
Speaker 2: Good. Oh, I was like, what does that mean. I
Speaker 2: look up.
Speaker 4: There's a picture of a black bear and there's a
Speaker 4: little note saying this is Brutus. He's the predominant black
Speaker 4: bear in this area. He's never hurt anyone, don't see him.
Speaker 2: YadA, YadA, YadA.
Speaker 4: Later that day he chased three campers up onto that
Speaker 4: three walled cabin I mentioned earlier, and then he came
Speaker 4: right into our campsite ate our lemonade, chased me into
Speaker 4: a tent almost collapsed the tent. My Dad's trying to
Speaker 4: scare him off with these two little pots he brought
Speaker 4: to boil water.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and so I've never camped since, not once.
Speaker 3: Wow, that's intense.
Speaker 2: I mean, yeah, it was really intense.
Speaker 4: And the way I look at it now is like
Speaker 4: the bears, like they live in the woods, that's there Atlanta. Yeah,
Speaker 4: they get that, Like I don't. I don't go there anymore.
Speaker 4: Like that's theirs and they they deserve it, they should
Speaker 4: have that. And I don't go there anymore, exact because
Speaker 4: I don't want to travel with a gun. I ain't
Speaker 4: gonna get eaten by bear.
Speaker 2: No.
Speaker 3: I like that. I can kind of relate.
Speaker 1: I mean, I've never had an intense experience like that,
Speaker 1: But the lack of interest in camping I can relate to.
Speaker 1: I grew up here, but I've never But people are
Speaker 1: surprised when I tell them this. I've never been camping
Speaker 1: in my life, and I'm never going to go. I
Speaker 1: don't want to go out. I don't want to be
Speaker 1: in the woods. I don't want to I don't want
Speaker 1: to risk encountering something that could eat me.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 3: I'm terrified of deer ticks. Deer. You know, deer ticks
Speaker 3: are very common.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, you don't want that lime disease, man.
Speaker 3: No way exactly. Oh, I've I know so many.
Speaker 1: I've met so many people who have lime disease because
Speaker 1: they went out in the woods and came into contact
Speaker 1: with a deer tick.
Speaker 3: Yeah. So I'm with you on that.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 4: No, I like hot showers and uh you know, like
Speaker 4: take out food.
Speaker 1: Yeah, oh yeah, concrete and steel, concrete and steel, That's
Speaker 1: that's the way to go.
Speaker 4: But I will say this, I do recall the White
Speaker 4: Mountains being of New Hampshire if I refer to it.
Speaker 3: Oh, very much. So.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it was absolutely beautiful.
Speaker 2: But there's there's yeah, brutish. I wonder British is still alive.
Speaker 2: I don't know. I mean this is like like thirty
Speaker 2: years ago.
Speaker 4: Man, I don't know how long it was thirty years ago.
Speaker 2: It was nineteen ninety five. Man.
Speaker 1: Oh, just be just be careful with the We're on
Speaker 1: FM terrestrial radio, so just be careful with what you say.
Speaker 3: Oh that's okay.
Speaker 1: We're on an eight second delay. So I caught it, no,
Speaker 1: no problem, but yeah, got you yeah yeah, but uh yeah,
Speaker 1: so I don't yeah, I don't go into the woods.
Speaker 1: But did you always did you always live in Atlanta
Speaker 1: or did you live anywhere else in the US at
Speaker 1: any point?
Speaker 2: I was born in Texas.
Speaker 3: I went to Texas.
Speaker 4: My mother and father split when I was one, so
Speaker 4: my dad moved in Jersey. My mom moved to Atlanta,
Speaker 4: where she had like a family.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 4: So I was either in Atlanta or New Jersey my
Speaker 4: whole life, Okay, but mainly Atlanta. Did all my schooling
Speaker 4: down here, so I consider myself with Georgia.
Speaker 3: Boy, gotcha? Gotcha? Now?
Speaker 1: So what is you know, you've got multiple projects going.
Speaker 1: Is there one that's kind of the biggest priority for
Speaker 1: you right now? Is that the Kyle Gordon project? Or
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, because you've got Mama Bear and
Speaker 1: you've got Anthems, and I mean it sounds like you're
Speaker 1: doing a lot.
Speaker 3: Is there a hierarchy to priorities?
Speaker 2: Is the most important to me?
Speaker 3: Okay?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 4: Anthems is the most important because it's a it's a
Speaker 4: it's a functioning band.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 4: The you know, there's four of us. We were all
Speaker 4: writing for it, like we all creator and parts for it.
Speaker 4: Whereas like Mama Bear is Mama Bear. I created Mama
Speaker 4: Bear in twenty thirteen after yet another one of my
Speaker 4: bands I believe in broke up, right, Oh, and that
Speaker 4: back then there wasn't internet radio, if you you know,
Speaker 4: if you didn't other than my Space in early Facebook,
Speaker 4: you know. So these bands, I'd be in this band
Speaker 4: for two years, we'd make an album that we all
Speaker 4: really believed in. It was frankly really good because I
Speaker 4: have I like to think of myself as artistically intell like,
Speaker 4: and there's integrity in it. Like I'm not just banging
Speaker 4: out stuff to be heard, because that's not the point,
Speaker 4: like I want to. I want to enjoy it myself, right, So,
Speaker 4: like I'd make an album with these guys and then
Speaker 4: the band would break up and it was like it
Speaker 4: never happened. And so after a while, after like the
Speaker 4: third band breaking up, and this is like seven eight
Speaker 4: years of my life, I was like, you know what,
Speaker 4: I'm just gonna make now by myself the way I
Speaker 4: want because I can play every instrument to some degree already.
Speaker 4: So I formed Mama Bear to just be an outlet
Speaker 4: for my songs. Yeah, And the reason I chose Mama
Speaker 4: Bear was because it's a it's a word or a
Speaker 4: phrase in the lexicon of every Western speaking person. Everyone's
Speaker 4: heard the term mama bear. It was easy to remember.
Speaker 4: And then two it was also kind of cheeky and
Speaker 4: sarcastic because I'm not making soft music right so I
Speaker 4: but I also think it was kind of it kind
Speaker 4: of worked against me too, because like even my father
Speaker 4: would be like, there's a terrible name. I'm like, you
Speaker 4: just don't get it. But so anthems means the most
Speaker 4: to me because it's a it's a functioning, living organism
Speaker 4: where Mama Bear.
Speaker 2: I haven't really recorded.
Speaker 4: Anything under the name of Mama Bear since I got
Speaker 4: back from England and twenty three and so the Kyle
Speaker 4: Gordon project is kind of I'm just like, I've been
Speaker 4: sitting on these songs for a little while because I
Speaker 4: really liked them and I wanted to do it right.
Speaker 4: I wanted to promote them correctly, and I hooked up
Speaker 4: with some people in Wales, Ian and Ange of we believe. Yes,
Speaker 4: they're a husband wife's team and they are just the
Speaker 4: salt of the earth's best people. Ian's Ian's one of
Speaker 4: my best friends in the whole world, and they're they're
Speaker 4: the one the reason you and I are talking is
Speaker 4: because of them.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 4: So they They've been a huge Mama Bear fan. They've
Speaker 4: toured me around the UK twice and then they hooked
Speaker 4: me up with Big pr which hooked me up with you.
Speaker 2: So I'm just I'm just.
Speaker 4: Thankful, man, Like I just I don't even remember your question.
Speaker 4: I think I've just been wandering off.
Speaker 3: No, that's my words. No, that's okay.
Speaker 2: No.
Speaker 1: I was curious if there was a sort of a
Speaker 1: priority or a hierarchy in terms of what is most
Speaker 1: most important right now.
Speaker 2: But I just thought.
Speaker 4: On the success if I get me. You know, all
Speaker 4: the projects have something cool about them. Yeah, and I
Speaker 4: believe in all three of them. And the Kyle Warden
Speaker 4: project is is the newest in terms of just like
Speaker 4: in my world, the sexy thing because it's new and
Speaker 4: outside of my wheelhouse. But one thing, I want to
Speaker 4: make a piano album next. Really, I think that'd be
Speaker 4: really fun. Yeah, make like a piano like Sunday Afternoon music.
Speaker 4: And then I met this guy that plays really awesome
Speaker 4: jazz in Atlanta and I were kind of messing around, like, Okay,
Speaker 4: I got to make a job.
Speaker 2: It's just while I'm alive.
Speaker 4: I want to make as much music as I can
Speaker 4: before I'm gone.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's a good policy, definitely.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I get I get morbid like that. I'm like, no,
Speaker 2: I got this idea in my head.
Speaker 4: I got to get it out. What if I die?
Speaker 4: You know, I just it may not be the best
Speaker 4: idea in the world, but I believe. I believe in
Speaker 4: it's that girl, that's beautiful.
Speaker 2: I'll be done in that.
Speaker 3: Okay, that's okay, no worries.
Speaker 1: I'm curious, what was your first instrument, because you mentioned,
Speaker 1: because obviously you play multiple instruments.
Speaker 3: What did you start with?
Speaker 4: I started with the trumpet in really sixth grade class,
Speaker 4: and I wasn't I wasn't inspired or very good. It's
Speaker 4: just it was what I started with.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 4: I grew up listening to music with my mother, and
Speaker 4: I remember, like it's.
Speaker 2: Kinda step outside.
Speaker 4: I remember like listening to music with her, and you know,
Speaker 4: now we call it the hook or whatever that part
Speaker 4: of the song is they grab you. I remember as
Speaker 4: a little kid, I I couldn't wrap my head around music,
Speaker 4: and whenever the songs felt really good, I would I'd
Speaker 4: feel it really deep, and I asked my mom, what
Speaker 4: is that? Why does that feel so good. Yeah, and
Speaker 4: I thought that every song utilized the same thing. Oh,
Speaker 4: it's just that feel good part. So I think music
Speaker 4: just kind of struck me like it was intriguing. I
Speaker 4: couldn't wrap my head around it, and in particular twelve Silverhammer,
Speaker 4: when I would listen to that song as a kid,
Speaker 4: I was like, this sounds like a cartoon. It sounds like,
Speaker 4: you know, like Saturday morning cartoon music. And so, you know,
Speaker 4: just just this idea that something you can't hold, taste,
Speaker 4: feel or see it has such an impact on you,
Speaker 4: like never really left me. Yeah, And eventually, I guess
Speaker 4: I started playing trumpet just as an extracurricular thing from school.
Speaker 4: It wasn't like, oh, I'm going to be the neck
Speaker 4: where the big trumpet guy is at showing my ignorance
Speaker 4: right now. It wasn't like that. It's more like something
Speaker 4: to do. But my my real first instrument was a guitar,
Speaker 4: like every other jerkey, just figuring it out. And I
Speaker 4: was terrible for a long time, and to this day
Speaker 4: I'm just I'm kind of okay at it. It's insane
Speaker 4: how I've been playing guitar for a million years now
Speaker 4: and I'm i consider myself a very middle guitar player.
Speaker 4: I don't make it scream.
Speaker 2: That ain't my job.
Speaker 4: My job is to I was always really intrigued with
Speaker 4: the songwriter of the band. You know, it wasn't the
Speaker 4: it wasn't the front man, or it wasn't the good
Speaker 4: looking girl that could sell it, which God bless her,
Speaker 4: we need her, we need him. But I was always intrigued,
Speaker 4: Like I love Oasis, but I'm the no guy, Okay,
Speaker 4: who wrote the song that makes you, that changed your world?
Speaker 4: Forget who sung it, but who wrote it. I'm a
Speaker 4: big I'm a big fan of the writer of the bands.
Speaker 3: Yeah, no, that makes sense. That makes sense.
Speaker 1: And then so you also play it turns me on
Speaker 1: you mentioned too, you play drums, and I assume you
Speaker 1: play bass.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, I play all I play all that.
Speaker 3: And keyboard, I assume, right, yes I do.
Speaker 2: I bought it.
Speaker 4: I didn't buy I got a piano off Craigslist about
Speaker 4: three years ago. It's simering my sun room. I sit
Speaker 4: around and I'm yeah, and I knew how to play,
Speaker 4: you know, first position major and minor chords, up and
Speaker 4: down the keyboards because it's just twelve notes, right. But
Speaker 4: now I'm learning second third position. I'm trying to get
Speaker 4: some separation between my right and my left hands.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I go.
Speaker 4: While they had their hand go. And so I'm trying
Speaker 4: to learn all that and it's a lot of fun.
Speaker 4: I love to just sit there and tinker on the piano.
Speaker 2: It is.
Speaker 4: It is very liberating.
Speaker 1: I've heard so many, uh so many music professors and
Speaker 1: instructors say that whether you're just starting out or whether
Speaker 1: you already play other instruments, you know, being at least
Speaker 1: somewhat proficient on the keyboard will help you with literally
Speaker 1: everything else that you play.
Speaker 4: Oh dude, Yeah, Well it's so linear, you know, like
Speaker 4: with the guitar, it's slightly metaphorical. You've got half steps
Speaker 4: as a.
Speaker 2: Fret, whole steps, two frets.
Speaker 4: Okay, my mind's already kind of bobbled by that, and
Speaker 4: then the B string is half step off, so then
Speaker 4: you got that one key little string. Now the keyboard
Speaker 4: it's just ABC des all the way down the line, repeat, repeat, repeat,
Speaker 4: And so yeah, it's very linear. And when I play
Speaker 4: the piano, I play it much differently than I played
Speaker 4: the guitar. Yeah, and it's just because I've developed the
Speaker 4: style of the guitar, and so now I'm trying to
Speaker 4: figure out what's my style on the piano. Yes, and
Speaker 4: it's intriguing and it's fun, and I wish I had
Speaker 4: learned twenty years ago.
Speaker 2: I had taken it.
Speaker 4: Way more seriously, because I'm way more artistic on the
Speaker 4: piano than I'm on a guitar. Okay, So, but the
Speaker 4: good news is I hopefully I still got some life
Speaker 4: left in me and we'll get something out of it.
Speaker 2: Sooner or later.
Speaker 4: I said I want to make a piano album. I'm
Speaker 4: just I got to learn how to play the piano.
Speaker 3: Right, right, of course, of course.
Speaker 4: I guess I got to learn to walk before I've run.
Speaker 3: Now, what is the So you mentioned an album?
Speaker 1: So you're going to do a full album of Kyle
Speaker 1: Gordon of that project specifically.
Speaker 2: Okay, it's already made. It's done.
Speaker 3: Oh, it's done. Can Oh excellent?
Speaker 4: Do you have any kind of an I'm going to
Speaker 4: put out each song individually.
Speaker 3: Oh.
Speaker 4: I don't know if you're aware of this, but people
Speaker 4: don't buy music anymore, so I'm just going to put
Speaker 4: out singles and then eventually I'll just put them all
Speaker 4: out under the name, under a name, and the goal
Speaker 4: is to get back in the studio. I've already got
Speaker 4: a my buddy, and I've already got a follow up song,
Speaker 4: a couple of follow up songs to the album. So
Speaker 4: it's mainly just like governing what project gets what very
Speaker 4: few finances I have at the time. Sure, and as
Speaker 4: of right now, Anthems is a functioning band. We just
Speaker 4: played a show last week. They went really well and
Speaker 4: and uh we're recording that, so kind of like my my,
Speaker 4: what I have financially right now is going into Anthems.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, understood, understood, But uh, but I do look
Speaker 1: forward to hearing more of the well, I'll check out
Speaker 1: the other stuff too, but I look forward to hearing
Speaker 1: more of of the Kyle Gordon project.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Man, it's it's I mean, I really believe in it, dude.
Speaker 4: I've been sitting on it for a few years because
Speaker 4: I've wanted to. Uh, I wanted to be in a
Speaker 4: mental place where I could just focus on it. And
Speaker 4: I guess it doesn't make much sense, but what I
Speaker 4: mean is, uh, like I just knew I had something
Speaker 4: kind of cool and different, and I'm not And to
Speaker 4: answer your question earlier, I'm not playing it live because
Speaker 4: I would need like eight people, you know, to reproduce
Speaker 4: that sound on stage. So I have done a few
Speaker 4: solo Kyle Gordon shows where I just show up with
Speaker 4: an electric guitar and I was saying and all that, Yeah, and.
Speaker 2: It's cool, it's cool.
Speaker 4: But I'm not like a I'm not like a super
Speaker 4: stellar solo guy.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 4: I have a lot of respect for Ed Sheeran. For example.
Speaker 4: I don't like his music, but damn if I don't
Speaker 4: respect darn if I don't respect him.
Speaker 2: Like.
Speaker 4: I could say the D word, that was okay, so
Speaker 4: because yeah, he can sell it.
Speaker 2: I don't like what he's saying.
Speaker 4: But but man, I got respect because I've tried to
Speaker 4: do it and it ain't easy. So yeah, it's not
Speaker 4: my bread and butter. I'm much better with an ensemble.
Speaker 4: I can lean into stronger musicians than myself. In fact,
Speaker 4: I have a maxim and it's if I'm on stage,
Speaker 4: I have to be the least talented person, and if
Speaker 4: I'm the least talented person on stage, We're gonna have
Speaker 4: a great show.
Speaker 3: There you go. I like that. I like that a lot.
Speaker 1: And by the way, I agree with you on Ed share,
Speaker 1: and I feel the same way about him. You know,
Speaker 1: I respect him. I respect the hell out of him.
Speaker 1: You can say hell too, but uh but I don't.
Speaker 3: But I don't know.
Speaker 2: I don't like what he says.
Speaker 4: But yeah him, if he's not really good at doing it.
Speaker 4: I don't buy into the whole Oh he's not cool.
Speaker 4: I mean screw that stuff.
Speaker 2: Like, I don't.
Speaker 4: I dipped out on that whole like cool scene a
Speaker 4: long time ago, because cool just means insecure, you know,
Speaker 4: it just means you're so insecure. You're gonna let everyone
Speaker 4: know how insecure you.
Speaker 2: So.
Speaker 4: Let Ed Sharon be Ed, whatever the hell's name is.
Speaker 4: Let him be him. He's not in your way, he's
Speaker 4: not hurting you. He's just crushing his short life. You
Speaker 4: have a problem with that because you have a problem
Speaker 4: with yourself whatever.
Speaker 3: Yeah, well said, I agree.
Speaker 4: I don't care about the cool stuff like that. To me,
Speaker 4: it's I've got two kids right now, and they're very young.
Speaker 4: They don't understand anything I say yet, but I'm teaching
Speaker 4: them that like cool is actually just understanding quiet wisdom
Speaker 4: and acceptance. That's what makes you cool. Not saying a
Speaker 4: bad word because you think bad.
Speaker 2: Words are cool, big kids say bad word.
Speaker 4: You know what I'm saying, Like, I know, I'm kind
Speaker 4: of breaking it down, But it's the same with music
Speaker 4: and the whole identity people put into music. I feel
Speaker 4: kind of diminishes the power of the music. Like forget
Speaker 4: your suit. You know, Oh you're a metal guy, so
Speaker 4: you dress like a metal guy. Okay, cool, I get it.
Speaker 4: What you only listen to metal or this or that?
Speaker 2: And right? You know?
Speaker 4: And another reason I really don't like pop is because
Speaker 4: it's so unreal. No one's cool. Everyone, everyone smells bad,
Speaker 4: everyone wakes up feeling weird, like no one is cool.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 4: This image we're pushed on with pop music and the
Speaker 4: sleek side of music is so false and so fake.
Speaker 3: Sure, so absolutely, yeah, Okay.
Speaker 4: I'm gonna get off my soapbox. I'm sorry.
Speaker 3: No, No, it's good though. No, No, it's good though.
Speaker 3: I like.
Speaker 1: I like what you're saying. Absolutely In terms of in
Speaker 1: terms of the Kyle Gordon project, I mean, are you
Speaker 1: does is there an image that will that will take
Speaker 1: shape with this.
Speaker 3: Or or or are you?
Speaker 1: Are you just completely not worried about that part and
Speaker 1: it's more just about just putting out the songs putting
Speaker 1: out the music.
Speaker 4: Okay, when I heard your question, what I heard was
Speaker 4: I I pictured like, am I gonna go full Zeggy
Speaker 4: Star does this? Or something like I don't have any plans. Yeah,
Speaker 4: Like at this point, I'm very comfortable with who I am. Yeah,
Speaker 4: I'm a very flawed person, and I bring those flaws
Speaker 4: onto the stage. Yeah, and I think that's what makes
Speaker 4: me relatable.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Yeah, And so no, I don't really have any plans
Speaker 4: with the Kyle Gordon project because I'm not even sure
Speaker 4: it's ever getting heard, you know what I mean, Like
Speaker 4: at this point, like I stopped making music videos about
Speaker 4: five years ago, really says for one, yeah, I for one,
Speaker 4: I hate making them. Two it's a lot of work,
Speaker 4: a lot of time. And then three, no one really cares.
Speaker 2: And that's fine, Like, you know, I get it.
Speaker 4: You know, they upload like seven million things a day
Speaker 4: on YouTube. We're just going to get lost of that.
Speaker 4: And if you're not willing to give a billionaire a
Speaker 4: few extra bucks, you're just going to get buried in
Speaker 4: the UK. And then so once I realized that there's
Speaker 4: a gatekeeper society with music, it's all been monetized to
Speaker 4: the point where you can't even do anything anymore. No,
Speaker 4: I don't have any projects and any idea on how
Speaker 4: I'm gonna sell this thing other than the fact that
Speaker 4: I'm just going to slap my face on it and
Speaker 4: be honest. Yeah, I've got a really good friend named
Speaker 4: Ben Underwood that lives in Asheville, North Carolina, and he
Speaker 4: makes the most delicious creative collages. Like the stuff he
Speaker 4: comes up with is so cool, and he's been so
Speaker 4: nice to create two covers for me. Yeah, I just
Speaker 4: send them a batch of like selfies I took, oh
Speaker 4: my hair looks good today clip, So I send him
Speaker 4: that and he just slaps my face onto one of
Speaker 4: his collages. And that's what she chose me as one
Speaker 4: of his collages. And yeah, so in terms of the presentation,
Speaker 4: I'm gonna go with that kind of look. Yeah man, No,
Speaker 4: no star in the eye. I'm not gonna stuff as
Speaker 4: stock in my pants. I'm just gonna go out and
Speaker 4: and I don't even have any plans to play it live.
Speaker 4: It's who want to and there's a demand, then I'll
Speaker 4: figure that out. But you know, like, uh, the like
Speaker 4: she chose me as actually getting more radio play than
Speaker 4: I've gotten in years, but my day to day hasn't
Speaker 4: changed in the least, you know. I mean, like, yeah,
Speaker 4: it's it's it's still just a wonderful It's Saturday, right,
Speaker 4: It's a wonderful Saturday, you know, And so if something
Speaker 4: comes of it, then you know, I'll put a little
Speaker 4: more effort into it. But yeah, in terms of the
Speaker 4: way I look at it is I just I really
Speaker 4: want to make a follow up to it, to be
Speaker 4: honest with you. Yeah, so right now I'm just kind
Speaker 4: of like writing songs with anthems, coming up with ideas
Speaker 4: of my own, and just kind of dreaming.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 4: This is like the this is the part where things
Speaker 4: are slow and you're just kind of figuring out what's next. Sure,
Speaker 4: and then get in the studio and then that's the
Speaker 4: real magic is just watching a song evolve in the studio.
Speaker 4: Is It is an intoxicating feeling. I've never gotten tired of.
Speaker 1: It's cool that you like that, though, because not everyone does,
Speaker 1: you know. I mean a lot of musicians love being
Speaker 1: in the studio, but a lot of musicians too, as
Speaker 1: as you know, are like, oh, I just want to
Speaker 1: be on stage and they and they actually dread being
Speaker 1: in the studio, you know, So it's cool that you're
Speaker 1: able to embrace that, because not everyone can embrace.
Speaker 2: That kind of like, that's that's your that's your right.
Speaker 3: I was just gonna say, it's kind of like camping.
Speaker 1: You know, not everyone can embrace it, and uh, you
Speaker 1: and I do not embrace that, and people think we're
Speaker 1: weird for embracing that.
Speaker 2: But I've worked with a I work with a really
Speaker 2: great guy down here land.
Speaker 4: I mentioned him earlier. His name is Chris Sampson. Yeah,
Speaker 4: and he's worked with everyone from the Beach fifty two's
Speaker 4: to me, and he's very well known. He's extremely talented,
Speaker 4: and he's like, he's not gonna lie to you.
Speaker 2: And he and I have known.
Speaker 4: Each other for a long time, so we're very close
Speaker 4: friends as well. So when we're recording, he'll be like,
Speaker 4: that was terrible. You can do better and just shoot
Speaker 4: it straight at me. And I really have learned to
Speaker 4: embrace like the vagueness of the studio.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 4: The songs I can't stand that I wrote the most
Speaker 4: are the ones that I had all planned out and
Speaker 4: then I executed them exactly how I planned.
Speaker 2: And then I got exactly what.
Speaker 4: I wanted and I hate it.
Speaker 3: Oh wow.
Speaker 4: So yeah, with the Kyle Gordon project again, we just
Speaker 4: came up with a few rules in the beginning. It
Speaker 4: was like, for one, we're just going to try it.
Speaker 4: We're not going to do anything we've done in the past. Yes,
Speaker 4: and that's very liberating. That means I'm no longer tied
Speaker 4: to the things that I didn't enjoy in the past,
Speaker 4: which opens up the door to all kinds of cool
Speaker 4: opportunities and new ideas. Sure, but they never even like,
Speaker 4: never even fathomed. So with his push that oh you
Speaker 4: can do better.
Speaker 2: You can do better or and.
Speaker 4: Then then the happiest one went is like oh yeah,
Speaker 4: and he starts getting real excited. I'm like, okay, now
Speaker 4: I'm cooking, you know, yeah, and we're going to focus
Speaker 4: on this thing now.
Speaker 2: So No, I love being in the studio. I love
Speaker 2: being on stage.
Speaker 4: The one the only thing I don't like about being
Speaker 4: a musician is hanging around a venue for like five
Speaker 4: hours way into play. Yeah, I hate that stuff. I
Speaker 4: hate it. I hate it.
Speaker 2: I hate it.
Speaker 4: I get so bored and it's like the whole hurry
Speaker 4: up and wait thing. That's that's one of my least
Speaker 4: favorite but when you're on tour, it's a little different
Speaker 4: because at least I'm in a place I've never run
Speaker 4: at and often or i'm revisiting, I can walk around
Speaker 4: the neighborhood, you know, like that's great. I love that.
Speaker 3: But no, I can relate though, so I don't play
Speaker 3: it more.
Speaker 1: But I used to be, you know, I was in
Speaker 1: a bunch of bands and whatnot before I decided to
Speaker 1: focus more on the radio and podcasting part of what
Speaker 1: I do. But yeah, I always I used to really
Speaker 1: struggle with that when you're when you're waiting for a
Speaker 1: really long time to play, it's like it's my.
Speaker 4: Least favorite thing absolutely, especially my own hometown, you know, like, yeah,
Speaker 4: it's yeah, so.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's that's that's that's to me, the least favorite
Speaker 2: for it. But everything else is fun.
Speaker 4: I love the community, I love meeting people. I love
Speaker 4: the energy exchange between the crowd and the bands.
Speaker 2: And yeah, dude, it shows me. I didn't. I didn't.
Speaker 4: I had no idea this is gonna be my life.
Speaker 4: As soon as I got into it, it's you know,
Speaker 4: it's the only thing I really stayed on too, you.
Speaker 1: Know, yeah, yeah, well, uh, Kyle, the time goes quickly.
Speaker 3: We got to begin to wrap up.
Speaker 1: But before we do, and by the way, at the
Speaker 1: end of our conversation, I'm gonna play, I'm gonna cheat
Speaker 1: and play she shows me again because I love that song, dude.
Speaker 3: Like I said, it's perfect, It's just perfect.
Speaker 1: But before we do that, let's make sure that I
Speaker 1: want our listeners to know where's the best Where are
Speaker 1: the best places to go online to keep up with
Speaker 1: everything that you're doing, not just the Kyle Gordon project
Speaker 1: of course, Anthems and Mama Bear and everything.
Speaker 4: Yeah, the only, the only, like social media. I really
Speaker 4: play with his Instagram, Okay, I don't you can find
Speaker 4: all the projects I think across the board you were
Speaker 4: streaming on Apple YouTube or all the things Spotify, all
Speaker 4: the things. Anthems is spelled A N, T H M
Speaker 4: Z okay.
Speaker 2: And then Mama Bear.
Speaker 4: I don't know if it's an Atlanta thing, but all
Speaker 4: my bands are spelled on purpose. Mama Bear is one
Speaker 4: word M A M, M A D E A R.
Speaker 4: Okay there because Mama has two m's in it. I
Speaker 4: don't care who I'm Southern. I like to put in
Speaker 4: extra continents and sounds. So and then Kyle Gordon is
Speaker 4: just my name. So you can find me streaming down
Speaker 4: the musical rivers on the internet wherever you want to
Speaker 4: find me. And then if you want to stay hi
Speaker 4: or something, hit me up on Instagram. And I hope
Speaker 4: everyone has a great day. And I really appreciate your time.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much.
Speaker 4: Sorry for saying the word earlier.
Speaker 1: That's okay. Like I said, we're on a delay. It's
Speaker 1: not even a big deal. I caught it. It's no
Speaker 1: big tru trust me. You are not the first.
Speaker 2: It's good.
Speaker 3: It's all good, my friend.
Speaker 4: I didn't invent the word that cheers.
Speaker 2: Man.
Speaker 3: There you go, there you go.
Speaker 2: Well.
Speaker 4: I really really appreciate your time, man, Yes much.
Speaker 3: Thank you, Kyle.
Speaker 1: We appreciate you joining us. We will definitely do this
Speaker 1: in the future. And I can't wait to hear I
Speaker 1: can't wait to hear the next uh, the next Kyle
Speaker 1: Gordon song. Absolutely, but uh, we'll.
Speaker 2: Let you go. We're gonna hit the today.
Speaker 3: Okay, all right, you got it, my friend. All right, Kyle,
Speaker 3: take care.
Speaker 4: I have a nice day, everybody take care.
Speaker 3: Ye bye bye. All right.
Speaker 1: That was the great Kyle Gordon and we're gonna play
Speaker 1: this again if you missed it, and if you didn't
Speaker 1: miss it, you probably want to hear it again because
Speaker 1: it's so good. I love this song he Chose Me
Speaker 1: And this is Kyle Gordon
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