Loud George | Matt Connarton Unleashed

0:00 Speaker 1: I love it. That is such a great track. That is Nicole. The band is Loud George. I'll tell you that sounds like it's right out of Seattle, but it's not there. From the UK. And let's see who we have. Via Microsoft Teams, Loud George remembers of Hey, Hey, what's up, guys, Welcome to the show. Tell me who each of you are and what you do in the band. Please.

0:23 Speaker 2: So I'm Eric, I'm the singer and the guitar player. I'm I play bass on Shout in the Round.

0:32 Speaker 1: Okay, I'm a Nick.

0:33 Speaker 3: I played drums, So I am actually the loudest George. I think you'll find gotcha?

0:38 Speaker 1: Gotcha? Well, welcome guys. So it's just the three of you. Are you a three piece?

0:43 Speaker 4: Yeah?

0:43 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, you guys make a lot of noise for three guys. That's amazing. So no, I'm really excited to talk to you. Welcome to the show. I do love that song, Nicole. We also have Monolith, which we're gonna play at the end of our segment. Another great track. But where are you guys from exactly?

0:58 Speaker 4: We're from?

0:59 Speaker 2: Well, we're not from Manchester, New Hampshire, from Manchester, England. Yes, I don't know which come first. We can we can debate about that.

1:07 Speaker 1: Well, No, I think we know which camp we are. Not the original Manchester clearly, but uh uh. Part of why it's so interesting to me is so obviously you know, I made this the Seattle reference of course Seattle, Washington here in uh in the United States.

1:20 Speaker 3: Uh.

1:21 Speaker 1: You guys a very heavy grunge sound. I would assume that when that song was plain that our listeners had no idea that you guys were from the from Manchester, UK as they're hearing that song. So it's very I'm really curious about that. Uh, the the grunge influence. It sounds like, like I said, it sounds like nineties Uh Seattle. Tell us about that and is that kind of I did listen to you know, your other songs as well online. Yeah, some great some great stuff on band camp, and it seems like that's really the vibe with this project.

1:56 Speaker 5: Loud George, Yeah, I think originally so when we got together whilst we were in Uni and the general consensus was that we'd make a band that was like Nirvana without the Nirvana.

2:10 Speaker 3: Yeah, it was kind of The energy level was definitely so like all the guitars were turned up to eleven and there was a lot more screaming back then. Yeah, but we came back and met up after UNI and stuff, and none of us had ever played in a band that was as good as what we were doing back then, So we sort of retoured all the old songs and you can really hear it all there. But on this new album that's coming, I think the whole album drops on the thirteenth okay, and thirteen tracks of it, and we've still got a bit a bit more progue with, Like there's tricks, some weird time signatures and stuff going on, some mad stuff that Eric's doing on the guitar.

2:47 Speaker 3: We were trying to make it as inaccessible to the.

2:54 Speaker 4: Inn old age we've got.

2:56 Speaker 2: Yeah, as Nick was saying, I think originally we came from like that Nirvana, Ben and I think that was when we were young and care free. That was what we wanted. But yeah, it's definitely less apathetic. I think when you think about grunge, it's very apathetic and very very young and spirited to a kind of like nihilism. And I don't think we're there anymore. I think we're a bit older.

3:19 Speaker 4: Yeah, kids.

3:20 Speaker 3: Now everything is fine.

3:25 Speaker 1: Everything all as well. You guys have been around for a while, right, was it twenty ten when when you started originally this project?

3:31 Speaker 2: Yeah, twenty ten was when we met up at Uni, okay, and then we had a few years and then we broke up just after UNI finished and I had to work on mc donald's and.

3:45 Speaker 3: For a bit.

3:49 Speaker 4: Tell us about the Ferris Wheel, Sam, Oh.

3:51 Speaker 3: It was lovely.

3:51 Speaker 6: He just looked force people to take their picture and then take money out of their pockets a basis.

4:02 Speaker 1: So how long was the break for you guys? How long were you not together?

4:06 Speaker 2: Ten years? It basically coincided with COVID. Yeah, COVID happened and we I sent a message from both just saying do.

4:17 Speaker 4: You want to redo that?

4:18 Speaker 2: We basically recorded the album originally ten years ago in Uni. Obviously taking it wasn't the greatest recorded thing in the world.

4:28 Speaker 4: It was done in like a week age.

4:30 Speaker 3: You could hear the alcoholic.

4:31 Speaker 5: Oh yeah, so we just saw the COVID.

4:35 Speaker 2: I basically I was bored and I said, do you guys want to do it again?

4:39 Speaker 4: And we'll jump and get together and have a gore.

4:42 Speaker 3: And I said no, I don't like you. This is why I've been avoiding you.

4:47 Speaker 1: So you basically re recorded the album.

4:49 Speaker 3: At that point, yeah, hope last album.

4:52 Speaker 6: Yeah, well we all had home studios by that point, so yeah, kind of remotely, Yeah, redid the bits and then start messing around with a rewriting a few little parts. I mean, the lyrics from ten years ago when we were all twenty are all very much just I'm so sad for me.

5:12 Speaker 3: And this rhymes with me.

5:14 Speaker 4: Yeah.

5:14 Speaker 3: Yeah, but it it's like being able to do it remotely. I mean it speaks like we didn't actually meet up until we were doing a music video, a music video that we never actually used for the first one that was off the first album. We ended up doing a couple of videos for that. But on this album that's coming out now, we've done three or four and it's all been again. It's DIY recording.

5:36 Speaker 1: Yeah.

5:36 Speaker 3: I just think it speaks out that, like we were able to do that first album. We rewrote the lyrics over on like meetings with each other. We rewrote everything like in band lab and stuff a couple of times, use some Midia examples, and then recorded everything ourselves and the album was done.

5:54 Speaker 2: That first album took us ages because we're doing it song by song by song. And what's funny is the equipment got better. So when we started out, Nick was recording on bin leads, So jelly Bean from the first album was recorded on like instead. The symbols were awful. They were actual dustin leads. Really, would you call them garbage candleads? Garbage candleads? So yeah, they were pretty awful. And as it went along, we got better equipment, and then we did this album.

6:23 Speaker 3: Yeah, you can hear it get better as it as it comes out. But I think with this new one, like we're all tooled up with the stuff that we needed. We're actually in person. I mean, we've been recording loads since then, and some stuff hasn't hasn't made it on the album, but we've had some really good experiences, like just going over to Whales. Have we've got such nice countryside out here? Yeah, just going in a cottage, no soundproofing or anything, just blasting a load of music out.

6:48 Speaker 1: Yeah, the original recordings, I assume the original album that you recorded. Is that available anywhere online or have you kind of hidden that from from the world.

6:57 Speaker 4: Yes, you can find that on Spotify.

7:02 Speaker 3: Yeah, there sound Claus, we can't log in. We would hide it.

7:11 Speaker 1: For real.

7:14 Speaker 4: They all have different names.

7:15 Speaker 2: But then I think, like, so we really like Lightning now, but like Lightning back then was called like some I think it's something about four D TV or something.

7:23 Speaker 1: I'm yeah, I'm curious because you know, like I said, I listened everything that you have on band camp, and but it would be interesting, Uh I think just to go back, I might, I might check out your SoundCloud and just see it. Would it would be interesting to hear the original material. You know that the way it was originally done, just out of curiosity makes you I'm kind of a nerd for that kind of thing. Plus, you know, it almost sounds like the original might be more considered more of a demo recording, and I love listening to that kind of stuff.

7:52 Speaker 1: I think it's really interesting.

7:54 Speaker 3: There's a really there's one good one on there, which is a cover of sale. These boots are made for walking.

8:01 Speaker 6: Oh really like a demo quality cover of that, which is quite that was all recorded live, wasn't it.

8:08 Speaker 5: Yeah?

8:08 Speaker 3: Yeah that was good. Oh wow, Yeah, quite a lot of stuff. Back then we used to get about just in like a tiny little one lead car. I don't know how we fit everything and all the people in there, because we had like people that were coming to the gigs in the car with us as well, going from Manchester's crew like down South and stuff, but doing it all in one car. And do you remember we played with that Harry Styles. Yeah, you know how.

8:32 Speaker 2: We played with Harry Styles original band before he got them.

8:36 Speaker 3: Really we didn't realize the night wild, but I think we we definitely cover more ground now that like we're all driving and yeah, yeah, the stuff that we've got on the road with us, that's that's also growing as well as the studios, so that's good.

8:53 Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, I'm curious too, you know in terms of that classic grunge sound that you guys have, does that help you stand out in the scene. Obviously there's a lot of bands there in the area that you're in, but I assume tell me if I'm wrong, I assume there's nobody else there doing exactly what you're doing.

9:13 Speaker 3: A huge grunge scene in the UK.

9:15 Speaker 1: Is there. Yeah, that's interesting.

9:19 Speaker 3: When we went down to Camden last that, like in London there there's like there's a band there called Avoid, there's a couple of other bands like especially when we go down South, isn't it like Yeah? Yeah, like like especially like girl rock grunge bands like they sound great.

9:36 Speaker 2: Yeah.

9:37 Speaker 4: The only thing that there's a part is that we're old.

9:40 Speaker 5: Yeah, we're entering the middle age now old loud George.

9:47 Speaker 1: That's see. I wouldn't have expected that that there was such a grunge scene there. Has that always been the case or has that kind of ebbed and flowed over the years, because right here, like in the United States, there really is no I mean, there are bands, you know, they're indie bands that have that sound, but as far as I can't honestly tell you that there are a lot of grunge bands around currently in the US, and there haven't been for a long time. But has that always been the case where you guys are.

10:11 Speaker 3: Well, we're very sad and apathetic as a country. Really it leans into it. I don't know.

10:20 Speaker 6: It's kind of come full circle and I feel like I've seen it on the local scene over the last five or six years. Yeah, more, more and more bands are moving away from a kind of just like general oat rock and metal and a lot of the a lot of the younger up and Cummings are doing grungey sounding stuff.

10:40 Speaker 3: I'm wearing the clothes as well.

10:42 Speaker 6: I'm looking at her thinking I was wearing that when I was ten.

10:45 Speaker 3: It's hard to say, like when like, none of us are promoters. We don't put our own shows on and see a lot like so we stay pretty much in our niche. So we I don't get me wrong, we go to a lot of gigs and stuff, but when you're that close to the niche, it's kind of hard to see. For looking like I've always gone to grunch gigs here if I feel like it's something you've always been able to go and watch in the UK, like we love that over here. Yeah, but with bands like Wet Leg and things like that there, they might not necessarily be like a four chord power cord thing, gotcha, but it's definitely got like a grunge thing.

11:21 Speaker 3: And I remember when people were going doing nuts about going to see what's that Australian bands the Chats, Yeah, yeah, people went nuts to go and see them. They're very punk.

11:31 Speaker 2: I do think there's a lot of punky sort of stuff coming out of Australia at the moment, like a.

11:36 Speaker 3: Muse that comes out of Australia is just incredible. Yeah, big and scary and poisonous music.

11:42 Speaker 1: Interesting. Interesting, And so tell me about that song Nicole. I really love that song. Who is Nicole?

11:51 Speaker 3: Nicole is sort of a fictitious, but it's basically all of us had had friends that said that a man had told them to smile from a very young age. Like I remember talking to my friend Kate about this. I was like, what about fifteen years old? Do you think like there's a bit of patriarchy force forced than some girls? And she says, no, way younger, way younger than that. And then then we got talking about it. We had this mean riff, so we just decided to throw that in on the lyrics. So it was a good, good lyrical content for us.

12:27 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, interesting. Yeah, And then I assume that, well, is that kind of a theme because it sounds like you're going for something like you're not just you know, you're not just singing about being sad and whatnot, Like there's some real uh content there in terms of those lyrics. I mean, you know, you're you're talking about something. It sounds like, you know, the patriarchy, repression and things like that. Is that a consistent theme in your lyrics because you know, like I said, I listened to the other songs and they all sound like, you know, there's there's some genuine substances the word I think I was looking for in terms of your lyrics.

13:05 Speaker 1: It's not just you know, we're grunge, we're sad, whatever. It seems like you're really going for something there.

13:11 Speaker 6: I would say, it's not not really a theme that we've hit on that, but we've definitely you're writing saying that we've tried to get more substance into this round of songs.

13:22 Speaker 3: Yeah, where Yeah.

13:24 Speaker 6: I think we've really tried to create or start with a story or a strong concept. So there's a song, the title track sextieth, which is the one that's coming out with the album, that's about a man being buried alive underground willingly so that he can enjoy the sensation of being eating alive by insects because that is his fetish.

13:49 Speaker 3: Oh my, yeah, yeah, it's nice and happy this one.

13:53 Speaker 5: Yeah.

13:55 Speaker 6: On Animals, there's a song about a butterfly eating and and there's a lot.

14:01 Speaker 3: Of nature, a lot of death. The whole album revolves around that, that sort of rotting.

14:07 Speaker 6: Grotesque kind of Ye, it would be the theme of the album is grotesque imagery.

14:14 Speaker 4: Yeah, we're trying to be gross.

14:17 Speaker 3: We're being profound all the time. Signatures were gross, so like, yeah, why not make everything else minging. There was a four minute track of just audio of lyrics. Throwing up was the song that was originally seven minutes long, that it's not a single. We played it live once the full seven minutes set over. We don't have more time. No one enjoyed that we did.

14:45 Speaker 2: It was like the job was Spinal Tap, the jazz odesty we made a jazz obviously was.

14:52 Speaker 1: I was thinking about Spinal Tap when you know, when you were saying, you know, the songs about you know, death, I was thinking about Sir denisat and Hog when he says, you know, every every film and every cinema is about death, death cells.

15:04 Speaker 4: Yeah, it does. Well.

15:05 Speaker 2: That's why today we were discussing writing a new album, but we're all all going to be on bass, and then we were discussing the Spinal Tap.

15:17 Speaker 1: This is Spinal Tap is my favorite movie of all time, by the way, So.

15:21 Speaker 3: There's another one that's just come out, you know.

15:23 Speaker 1: Yeah, Jenny, Jenny and I did watch the sequel. It's all right. I mean it doesn't have the magic of the original, but it's okay. But I've seen the original a thousand times. I don't think we're gonna watch the sequel again. But okay, here's the obvious question. Where does the name loud George come from?

15:40 Speaker 3: Oh?

15:41 Speaker 6: My my girlfriend at the time ex girlfriend now said it in her sleep at two o'clock in the morning.

15:49 Speaker 3: Just woke up and said, oh, George, really, that's quite good. It's healthy that that was your thought. It wasn't like it. That was my second right, right. No one called George apart from whoever she was seeing.

16:06 Speaker 1: My goodness. Well, whoever whoever George is, I hope he knows that there's a band named after him.

16:14 Speaker 3: Did we find another, like a company called loud George?

16:18 Speaker 2: Well that was when you When we designed the logo, Nick wrote the LG logo.

16:23 Speaker 3: Do you remember that?

16:24 Speaker 4: It was like the L inside the G.

16:26 Speaker 3: I don't think do you have LG over there? Life's good the tech brand LG.

16:31 Speaker 1: We have LGE.

16:34 Speaker 2: When we were making the logo for it, Nick described the LG logo, it was like we should have the L inside.

16:47 Speaker 3: That my brain was suped.

16:51 Speaker 1: So so is that like, have you used that actual logo?

16:56 Speaker 6: Okay, there have been a few logos over the years, but no, we didn't just completely rip off.

17:03 Speaker 1: I was gonna say, there might be a season desist letter in your future if you did.

17:06 Speaker 3: But yeah, they shout that down straight away, those two they didn't like my logo.

17:10 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, well that's all right. Well it's a cool name. So so what's so refresh our memories again? So the it's not in a full album, right, it's an EP Sex Teeth, No, it's.

17:24 Speaker 4: It's a thirteen tracker year.

17:26 Speaker 1: Oh it is.

17:27 Speaker 3: Yeah, I think about seven of them have come out and oh, the latest to being Nicole and Monolith. Okay, and then on the thirteenth of March, we've got a thirteen track album coming out, so there'll be what like four or five songs that people haven't heard.

17:45 Speaker 1: Oh fantastic.

17:46 Speaker 3: Yeah, it was a blast to record it, honestly, excellent, very weird, weird time signature is very fun. Listen.

17:52 Speaker 1: Yeah, oh that's fantastic. Okay, So that's coming out March thirteenth. Excellent, excellent. I can't wait to hear that. So, guys, where's the best place to go online for people to keep up with everything that you're doing. Where should they go to keep up with loud George in Instagram?

18:07 Speaker 4: We're very active on Instagram.

18:08 Speaker 2: We do want to promote the band camp ever get on the bank, Yes, we love go to the bank, cap.

18:15 Speaker 3: T shirt on the.

18:18 Speaker 4: Don't order a medium with now.

18:20 Speaker 1: Okay, I'm a big I'm a big proponent of band camp because the thing that people might not realize about band camp too is that you get a very high quality file. You know. It's it's much better to get your music from band Camp than to say, you know, if you're streaming it on YouTube, which a lot of people do, you know, because it's so easy, or or even Spotify. If you get it from band camp, you're getting the highest quality file that is available typically, And so I'm a big proponent of band camp.

18:50 Speaker 3: Yeah, everything that we've got up on there is like it's all webs like it's the highest we could bounce ours and we do all ourselves as well. So that's that's the great thing. Like when when Eric finished master and everything, and we just make sure that we've got all the tags done, but like the whole first CD the things that we saw our gigs and there are all WAPs. It is as much as we can get.

19:12 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, no, that's excellent, excellent. Well, guys, thank you so much for joining us in a moment. We're going to hit this track Monolith. What should we know about this is there? You know we talked about Nicole. Is there a story with Monolith or what? What should our listeners know about this before they hear it?

19:28 Speaker 2: Well, this is so this is Eric again. So what happened was his Nick had wrote four thousand songs.

19:33 Speaker 4: And we're trying to contribute songs to it.

19:35 Speaker 2: I bashed it out in my garage in like a few hours and then sent it and was.

19:39 Speaker 3: Like, is this is this weird enough?

19:42 Speaker 4: Yeah?

19:42 Speaker 3: So yeah, we then workshopped it.

19:46 Speaker 4: Yeah, but yeah, this is this.

19:49 Speaker 3: This song was like basically Eric having a panic, a panic.

19:52 Speaker 2: And I really love it. It's it's great, it's weird. It's Monolith is one of my favorites.

19:57 Speaker 1: Okay, it was.

20:00 Speaker 3: It very nearly ended up on the fridge. No all, Eric is a great no, great song though, and again weird time signatures, but like I feel like what me and Sam are bouncing around with you can you can still like move to it even though it's in an odd number. Yeah yeah, really really weird vocals though from from from our Eric. In terms of what the actual lyrical content is, I think it's just just a synopsis of what the whole album is about again, just the whole death and weird things that we wanted to write about.

20:39 Speaker 1: Right right, very good, very good. So we're gonna play this, but we'll let you guys go in the meantime. But I really want to thank you all three of you for being with us today. This has been a lot of fun. Like I said, I listen to everything that you have available on band camp and I really like it. Can't wait to hear the full album and we will definitely do this again as you guys are releasing new music. We'd love to have you back in the future. Brilliant absolutely all right, we're gonna play this track, so we'll let you guys go.

21:06 Speaker 1: But again, guys, loud George, thank you so much for joining us today and we'll talk to you soon. All right, guys, take care. All right. That is all three members of loud George and check this out. This is called Monolith, and I really like this a lot. And remember sex Teeth coming out on thinking about what the song's about, coming out on March thirteenth, so very very soon next week. But here it is loud, George. This is called Monolith