Lydia Reddy | Matt Connarton Unleashed

0:00 Speaker 1: That is Turn This Town Around, the debut single from Lydia. Ready here and this is Matt Connorton Unleashed. We are live from the studios of w m n H ninety five point three FM and Glorious Manchester, New Hampshire, and of course you can stream the show from anywhere Matt connorton dot com. Slash Live. Jenny is here as well, of course and joining us via Microsoft Teams. Let's see Lydia. Are you there? Yes, Amia, Hello, Hey, welcome to the program. Good to speak with you.

0:27 Speaker 2: Thanks for having me.

0:28 Speaker 1: Absolutely absolutely so. I love that song, very very catchy. Of course, turn This Town Around. And this is your debut single, correct, Yes, it is very good. And where are you from.

0:41 Speaker 2: I'm from Blackburn in England.

0:43 Speaker 1: Okay, wonderful. Yeah no, there's there's so much great music coming out of that part of the world and I'm curious too. So this is are you? I was listening to a podcast of you being interviewed on another show. Now, are you currently in school as well? Are you in college? Yeah?

1:02 Speaker 2: I'm in college but we've just started some holidays.

1:04 Speaker 1: Oh okay, okay, very good. So you've got a lot going on, You're you're obviously very busy, uh, you know, with your education and the music career.

1:13 Speaker 2: Yeah.

1:14 Speaker 1: Uh, but it's cool that, uh, you know, you come out of the gate with a very strong track, and like I said, it's very catchy. But I also I'm curious to know more about the lyrics because you know, the first time when we first got this song, I was listening to it, it's like, oh yeah, it's really catchy, it's fun and whatnot. But then the second time I listened to it, I was paying a little bit more attention to the lyrics, and it sounds like there's there's a deeper meaning to this, you know, and you're expressing some some concern about things.

1:38 Speaker 1: And I wanted to ask you about about what the song really means because I I kind of feel like it might not necessarily mean what I thought it meant the first time I listened to it. If that makes sense, Yeah, okay, So the song.

1:54 Speaker 2: Is about making a difference.

1:56 Speaker 3: The sound that you hear about in the chorus is actually a metaphorical sound. It's kind of a call to action, and it's pretty much shay in stop how you live your day to day life and try to live in a way that will help the earth rather than hinder it.

2:11 Speaker 2: So that's kind of the message behind the song.

2:14 Speaker 1: Yeah, I like that, and I like that very much and when you say that too. But so when you say help the earth, do you mean in a general sense in terms of what you put out into the world. Are you talking specifically environmentally or maybe both or maybe a myriad of things. I don't know, Like when you expand on that if you would a little bit like when you talk about helping the earth.

2:35 Speaker 3: Yeah, So when I originally wrote the song, I had the idea of, like the lyrics, lights of blurring into one and our eyes are blinded. That's kind of the lights are lights from all this technology around us, and our eyes are being blinded because of that to the bigger impacts that living in this way has on the earth. So it is mostly environmental, but it's also thinking about how you can change in ways that you may not think will affect the environment, and just become more knowledgeable about the earth in general and what's harm in it.

3:07 Speaker 1: What I think is interesting about that is because that's a pretty serious message, but it's a fun, catchy song and I I feel like that's that's a pretty effective way. Historically, you see this in music where uh, if you can, it's almost a trojan horse because maybe somebody, maybe somebody thinks they don't want to hear a serious, important message, but then they hear a song that is catchy and kind of infectious, and so they're getting the message without realizing that they're getting the message, and they're you know, sometimes you'll you'll hear you'll hear something that's kind of fun, but but there's there's a serious message in there, and and so by by it's sort of a I think, an effective delivery system for getting someone's attention and saying, hey, here's something I want you to think about.

3:55 Speaker 1: It's in It's in a package that's gonna get stuck in your head. You know, you're gonna once you hear the song, you're going to be playing it over and over in your mind because it's so catchy. But there's some pretty important information here that you're also getting, if only on a subconscious level. Right, I mean, is that is that kind of your approach to creating a song like this, or you're going into it thinking, Okay, I've got I've got something important to say here, but I'm going to deliver it in a way that people are going to be open to receiving it.

4:22 Speaker 3: Yeah, that's very much far, I thought, because I'm thinking, Yeah, like you said, there's a lot of times if you think it's just going to be all serious and you're not going to want to listen to it. So I thought, how can I make this is a perfect mix between being catchy being something that kind of make it so you want to know more, which is why I kind of did the whole what's that sound?

4:40 Speaker 2: You never really know, you never get the answer.

4:42 Speaker 3: It makes you want to find out more, which would hopefully help the listener then want to engage in health in the earth more because they've had to kind of work to find out what the answer is in a way.

4:52 Speaker 1: Mm hmmmmm. No, I like that. Now, what's what's your long term plan? Because I'm curious, obviously this is your day you single? Do you intend to release more singles? Do you are are you thinking about doing an EP or on an album or are you just kind of focused on the moment with turning this down around.

5:12 Speaker 3: So I have got other songs that are going to be recorded. I'm actually in the recording studio next Tuesday and Wednesday, and I'm recording content for my upcoming single the Way We're Rolling on Monday. So I've currently recorded fight No I've currently recorded for including the one that's already out. So I'm going into a come fifth. Okay, it's going to be a five track EP that comes out. That's going to be my debut EP. There'll be three single singles on that and then two that come out separately, and then following that, I've got this big idea I'm going to do kind of the Elements is EPs.

5:50 Speaker 2: So Fire, Earth, Water, and Air.

5:53 Speaker 3: Then, for example, Fire is going to be all my rocky, angry songs. Water is going to be my sad songs, and Earth is kind of going to be my kind of togetherness songs, and I have got some more songs about the Earth and that kind of thing.

6:08 Speaker 2: And then Air, I'm not sure it'll be calm without being sad.

6:11 Speaker 3: Yeah, and then I'm gonna put them all into an album with a few extra tracks called in My Element.

6:17 Speaker 1: Very cool. So yeah, So when I asked you that question, I didn't know. I didn't know if you know, like I said, because you're you're kind of just just starting out with this, and plus you're you're also getting an education, so I didn't know if maybe you were just gonna be like, oh no, you know, just kind of feeling my way through it. But it turns out you've got a whole You've got a whole plan, which I think is great. And I think that that level of planning is going to really help you succeed, you know, because so many people and creative people, we tend to do this, will will kind of throw some things against the wall and see what sticks and just kind of try to kind of feel our way through it.

6:52 Speaker 1: But but I think to succeed in the music industry, it really helps if you actually have a plan, and you clearly have a plan, So I think that's I think that's fantastic. Do you know, I mean, do you have an ETA And maybe you mentioned it in there and I didn't catch it, but do you know, like when we'll see the next or hear the next the next bit of music that you put out.

7:15 Speaker 3: Yes, So originally I had said I'll do it exactly two months after the first song, but then I thought that's in.

7:22 Speaker 2: The middle of the summer holidays, so no one will listen to it.

7:25 Speaker 3: So I'm going to release it the first week that I go back to college, which is I'm not sure on the day, but it's the week commencing.

7:32 Speaker 2: I don't know, it's around the first September. It's that week. I go back to college on the fourth of.

7:36 Speaker 3: September, gotcha, So I'll probably release it on the fifth because that's the friday. I go back on the Thursday, So that'll be.

7:43 Speaker 2: My next song.

7:43 Speaker 3: It's a similar kind of vibe, but most people have played it to actually prefer it to the first one, so hopefully everyone likes that one.

7:51 Speaker 2: Cool, and then I'm just going to try to do them every two months until.

7:56 Speaker 3: So for my next year, on my eighteenth birthday, instead of having a big party or anything, I'm going to put on a gig, a headline one in Manchester because that's the nearest city to where I live.

8:08 Speaker 2: Okay, and yeah, I'm hoping to.

8:11 Speaker 3: Have my first EP out and on the merch Es by then, so everything will definitely be out by next April, probably with a few from the next EP as well.

8:19 Speaker 1: Oh fantastic. Yeah, you really do have a plan. That's that's excellent. I'm curious, by the way, what's your major? Is it anything music related or performance related?

8:28 Speaker 2: Yeah?

8:28 Speaker 3: So I'm currently doing two A levels and a B Tech. I'm not sure if you do them in America, but A levels I'm doing English language and psychology, and then for my B Tech I'm doing music performance.

8:43 Speaker 1: Okay, so it sounds like what what we would call in America. That's you know, one is your major and the other is your minor. So you're so you're you're majoring and what did you say it was?

8:52 Speaker 2: Again, it's not it's not really like that.

8:54 Speaker 3: You just kind of do the three and then it's at university you specialize in something.

8:58 Speaker 1: Oh, I see it.

9:00 Speaker 2: College it's all a bit different.

9:01 Speaker 1: But yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm kind.

9:04 Speaker 3: Of doing all three equally. Oh when I got to the university. I'll start university next year. So this time next year, I'll be getting ready to go and I'm hoping to go on to do PR and journalism.

9:15 Speaker 1: Oh good, good, Okay, I get it. Okay, very cool, very cool. That's that's excellent. Yeah. Yeah, And now in terms of recording, uh, where did you where did you record? Turn this town around? Because again, we live in an era where you know you can you can record in so many different ways. As I know just from talking to other guests who we've had from over there, that there's, you know, no shortage of recording studios, just like in America there's there's recording studios you can or you can record at home, or you can do it.

9:43 Speaker 1: You know, you can send tracks back and forth with somebody. How did you record Turn This Town Around?

9:50 Speaker 2: So?

9:50 Speaker 3: Turn This Town Around was recorded at Clubhouse Studio. When I actually recorded turnis Town Around, they were in the process of move into a new studio space, so at that time they didn't have a permanent studio, so we actually recorded it in they're called Imogen and James. We recorded it in a shed in their back garden. That was their temporary studio. Oh wow, but she'd never know because you hear that compared to the other songs I've got from them, and they all sound the same. Yeah, but yeah, we recorded that one in a shed, But then the other ones they've got their permanent place now in Blackburn.

10:24 Speaker 2: It's absolutely incredible.

10:26 Speaker 3: They've got the studio that they run, and then they're also hiring out another little space to another recording engineer. That the people who have recorded all of my brother's songs in the past for years and years now, so we know them really well and they're really good at what they do.

10:41 Speaker 1: Now, I didn't want to ask about your brother too, because I was listening to a podcast that you were on and you were talking about your brother. And it's funny because when the subject first came up, my first thought was, and I don't know if I'm the first one to ever say this to you, but my first thought was, oh, is this a Billie Eilish kind of thing where your brother, you know, does a lot of the production in places, the instruments and whatnot. But but I but actually, but then listening to it further, it sounds like you work separately, right or maybe not?

11:07 Speaker 1: Is he involved? Is he directly involved in anything that you're doing musically?

11:11 Speaker 3: So we don't write the songs together. But he is a better guitarist than me. He can play bass, he can do pretty much any instrument. He's a little bit better than me. So he goes the recorded studio and always records the instruments for me, just apart from the drums. We have James who worked at the studio or he's a professional drummer, so he always puts the drums on my track.

11:32 Speaker 1: Is it helpful having having your brother involved in the sense that because your siblings, you know, sometimes siblings have kind of a an intuitive connection when it comes to music. I mean, do you do you find that with him? Like, like, if you're trying to convey an idea to him, is it is it easy for him to get it because he's already kind of thinking, you're kind of thinking on that same wave length.

11:57 Speaker 2: It usually is quite easy.

11:58 Speaker 3: I'll just kind of sometime I'll have something in my head, and it's the same with some of my mates who are musicians.

12:04 Speaker 2: I'll go, right, I want it stud like this, do do do? Do?

12:06 Speaker 1: Do? Do do do?

12:07 Speaker 2: And then they just play it on guitar and I'm like, how did you do that? I can only play chords?

12:11 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I know what I mean. But yeah, no, that that's great though. That that now does he also he also does his own music, correct, he does?

12:20 Speaker 2: Yes?

12:21 Speaker 1: Yeah? What kind of music does he do? Is it more of a kind of a rock thing or what?

12:26 Speaker 3: So for years he's been doing kind of indie pop rock. But he's started university last year. So what he's done is he's kind of taken a year off music properly just to kind of get into UNI. But now he's got two years left at you and he INDI's properly going for.

12:41 Speaker 2: His music again.

12:43 Speaker 3: He's on a music management court and he's got the opportunity to manage himself so he can do a lot of it during his class time as well. So he's decided to do a new vibe of music because he's always kind of liked his songs, but it's never been.

12:54 Speaker 2: The kind of thing he'd listened to.

12:56 Speaker 3: He was trying to appeal to an audience, but now he's decided to write the stuff that he listens to, which is Oh Sammy, random People, kind of sleep, Token, Bring Me the Horizon, Don Broca, Anti Shikari.

13:12 Speaker 2: He's saying that he's.

13:13 Speaker 3: Doing folk metal, which has never really been done before. He's trying to merge those two genres. So it's kind of frank ternery but also kind of metal, and it sounds really really cool.

13:24 Speaker 1: Oh I'm curious, Yeah, very interesting, very interesting.

13:27 Speaker 2: I've never heard anything like it.

13:30 Speaker 3: I've seen heard bits like it, but never anything like that that he's come up with, So it's really impressive.

13:36 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, oh, excellent, excellent. Now are you are you again? I know this is your first single, but are you performing live at all? Are you? Have you done this song live or is that? Is that part of your plan down the road?

13:51 Speaker 2: So yeah, I've performed it live a few times.

13:53 Speaker 3: Earlier in the year, I played it after All Festival, which is the biggest grass grassroots festival in Manchester, and that was really cool. I didn't expect anyone to turn up because I was quite early in the day as it was my first ever set of all originals, but I actually ended up having sixty to eighty people in the room and quite a few people that I knew as well, which was really nice who came to see me who were doing their own sets later in the day.

14:19 Speaker 2: So I've performed there. That was the main one.

14:21 Speaker 3: But then also I get to do a lot of college performances and various pub gigs. If they something, I usually stick to covers at pubs, but if they seem like they'd be nice and let me do one of my own, then I'll stick that in.

14:34 Speaker 1: Oh that's cool. Do you So when you do that? Do you do? You do covers and then you you also include this song or how does that work?

14:42 Speaker 3: Yeah, so I'd say the average gig is two forty five minute sets, so usually put one original in each set. Well, sometimes if you can tell it's one it's a really hyper audience that just wants to hear bangrafter bang of songs that they know that they can sing along to.

15:00 Speaker 2: Then now just call it the originals.

15:01 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, no, I yeah, I understand. Yeah that makes sense. Now, by the way, is there a video for Turn the Sound Around or is it just the single?

15:13 Speaker 2: No, there isn't a video for that one.

15:15 Speaker 3: We're thinking we'll get a video for one of the songs from the EP, but I'm not sure which one yet.

15:20 Speaker 1: Yeah, I think I might.

15:22 Speaker 3: I might make a YouTube channel and do a lyric video for it, or maybe just even record myself lip syncing. So there's something there, but nothing proper.

15:30 Speaker 1: I think doing a lyric video for turn the Sound Around is a really good idea, because again, that's that's a way too. Like I said, if somebody likes the song and then they watch the lyric video and then it's like, you know, like we were talking about earlier, they're kind of getting the message. There's an important message there being conveyed through a song that's that's kind of fun and catchy. So I think that's great. So Lydia, I really appreciate you joining us this morning. We'll let you go in a moment, and I think we'll to end the segment.

15:54 Speaker 1: We'll give turn this Town Around another spin for for people who are just joining us. But please tell us where is the best place for people to go to keep up with everything that you're doing, so they can keep an eye out for new music as has come in. Like I said, you've got a lot of new stuff coming up in the future, so we want to make sure people know where should they go online to keep up with Lydia Ready.

16:15 Speaker 3: So to see myself, I've got an Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok all under Lydia Ready music ready to.

16:23 Speaker 2: Spell r E D d Y.

16:26 Speaker 3: I do have a Twitter, but I barely have a post on it, so maybe don't go on there.

16:31 Speaker 1: Understood, gotcha? Very good? Very good? All right Lydia. We will let you go again. Thank you so much. We will definitely do this again in the Yeah, we'll definitely do this again in the future as you as you release new music. So love what you're doing. And we will close this segment with again we're gonna play Turn This Town Around, your debut single, and Lydia thank you so.

16:50 Speaker 2: Much, thanks for having me seling you got it all right.

16:52 Speaker 1: Bye bye, all right. That was Lydia ready and here it is if you missed it again, this is called Turn This Town Around.