Mark Winters | Matt Connarton Unleashed

0:24 Speaker 1: Well, baby, life has its twists and turns Times when you're feeling down And when you want to give up And throw it to the ground Yeah, I've.

0:40 Speaker 2: Been there before Lord only knows it's true.

0:47 Speaker 1: Gave up a few times myself.

0:51 Speaker 3: And didn't pull it through.

0:54 Speaker 2: Looking back, it's clearer now.

0:57 Speaker 1: All that I've been through makes a great road sign for you.

1:02 Speaker 4: Hold up your head now, baby. Hold up your head now. Eyes on the prize. Get across that finish line.

1:13 Speaker 5: Strong when I watch you grow trying.

1:37 Speaker 2: Hard to find your way.

1:40 Speaker 1: Falling down and Looking around, what should I say?

1:47 Speaker 2: Looking back, it's clearer now.

1:50 Speaker 6: All that I've been through makes a great road sign for you.

1:55 Speaker 2: Hold up your head now, baby.

1:59 Speaker 6: Hold up your head now, eyes on the prize. Get across that finish line.

2:06 Speaker 7: Strong.

2:10 Speaker 2: What should I do? Be strong.

2:13 Speaker 8: Yeah.

2:14 Speaker 7: What should I do?

2:15 Speaker 2: Make it tough for no reason.

2:17 Speaker 4: No.

2:18 Speaker 2: What should I do? Be strong.

2:20 Speaker 4: Yeah.

2:21 Speaker 2: What should I do? Save you first, give you easy.

2:25 Speaker 9: No.

2:25 Speaker 2: What should I do? Be strong What should I do?

2:30 Speaker 7: Show the way, cast a shadow What should I do?

2:34 Speaker 2: Be strong What should I do?

2:38 Speaker 6: Make you strong.

2:42 Speaker 10: Looking back, it's clearer now All that I've been through makes a great road sign for.

2:49 Speaker 4: You Hold up your head now, baby Hold up your head now, eyes on the bright. Get across that finish line.

3:01 Speaker 7: Strong.

3:05 Speaker 2: Hold up your.

3:06 Speaker 7: Head now, baby.

3:07 Speaker 6: Hold up your head now, eyes on the bright. Get across that finish line.

3:16 Speaker 2: Strong.

3:40 Speaker 11: Welcome, everybody. We have entered our number three Numero Trace of Matt Connerton Unleashed, and we are live from the studios of WMNH 95.3 FM in glorious Manchester, New Hampshire. And, of course, you can stream the show from anywhere. Go to my website, mattconnertonunleashed.com, for all your live streaming options, social media links, contact info, show archives, et cetera, et cetera. We just heard Strong by the great Mark Winters, who is here with us. We're going to be speaking with him in just a couple of minutes, and he's going to play live for us.

4:10 Speaker 11: So really looking forward to that. By the way, do you need a ride? Check out Xtrilly, now available in New Hampshire. Booking is simple, and the price you see is the price you pay online. One clear price, no surprises. So whether you're going out for the evening or you just need a ride across town, give Xtrilli a try. I'm going to spell that for you. It's X-T-R-I-L-L-I. X-T-R-I-L-L-I dot com slash ride 953. If you want to sign up, and I suggest you do, we are very honored and pleased to have them as one of our official sponsors of Matt Connerton Unleashed and our roster of great sponsors here at WMNH 95.3 FM.

4:52 Speaker 11: That is Xtrilly.com slash ride 953. And I am going to go ahead and get these mics up. Now, we're using the other microphones because... He's going to be playing live for us, but let's see. Let's see here. Mark, go ahead and say something.

5:13 Speaker 2: What's going on, Matt?

5:14 Speaker 11: I can hear you.

5:15 Speaker 8: That is Connerton Unleashed, brother.

5:17 Speaker 11: That is excellent. Welcome back, my friend. You were on with us before, but I feel it was a while ago, right? It had to be at least a year ago.

5:24 Speaker 12: Yeah, I was thinking about the same thing. It's been a minute for sure. Many roads, many miles on the roads since the last time we had a chance to chat.

5:34 Speaker 11: Yeah, have you been touring pretty nonstop?

5:37 Speaker 12: Yeah, I do a spring and a fall tour, so I do about 150 shows in total.

5:46 Speaker 8: This is the tail end of my fall tour here for 2026.

5:49 Speaker 11: Oh, wow.

5:50 Speaker 8: I probably have at least.

5:54 Speaker 12: Maybe 40,000 miles between the last time you and I chatted. So lots of experiences and amazing people out on the road.

6:02 Speaker 11: That's incredible. So where were you before you arrived in Manchester? Where did you play last night?

6:09 Speaker 8: So Buffalo, and then.

6:13 Speaker 12: That's a good question. In between Buffalo and here, Buttonwood. I can't remember the name of the city for Buttonwood. They have this amazing arts collective that I played, Buttonwood Tree.

6:24 Speaker 8: Last night. So about maybe.

6:27 Speaker 12: Five hours a day I drive and catch a show most nights. So it's been a great experience so far.

6:34 Speaker 11: Is it challenging? I mean, I don't know if you've noticed, but gas is a little expensive right now. Is that a challenge when touring?

6:41 Speaker 8: It's a thing.

6:41 Speaker 12: It's a thing. Last year, I was touring in an SUV in a trailer. That was my first year of touring. And I really love being out and being off the grid on the trailer. It's really an amazing experience. But the expenses, uh, just the gas and the towing and the parking for the thing. It just became like untenable. Uh, so I did a pivot and this year I'm in, uh, I'm in a Toyota Sienna that I've converted. Um, so I still can stay off the grid if I need to. Uh, but, uh, it gets 40 miles to the gallon brother.

7:13 Speaker 12: So it's way better than the big tour rig. Um, so it's, uh, yeah. So I think gas is super expensive. Um, You know, just whatever.

7:24 Speaker 8: I mean, life is expensive, right? Groceries, everything's more expensive.

7:27 Speaker 11: That is true.

7:29 Speaker 8: It's the world we live in, you know?

7:30 Speaker 11: Yeah, just need it to stabilize. Need it to stop going up. Not necessarily lower. You know, people always say, oh, I want prices to go lower. Actually, not necessarily, because then you have deflation. You just want them to stop going up.

7:44 Speaker 8: Yeah, or you want your income to go up more than the cost of the thing, right?

7:47 Speaker 11: Exactly. Exactly. 100%. 100%. Well, I'm dying to hear you play, so if you want to play something for us, then we can come back and talk some more. As we were saying off-air, and for people who don't know, who may not have heard our previous conversation, you've got a really interesting backstory. At least I think it's interesting, so I'd like to go over that again with you.

8:07 Speaker 8: It's definitely a bit quirky.

8:09 Speaker 12: I used to be an aerospace engineer, and I picked up a guitar to sing a song for my wife for our anniversary, and... um, just fell in love with the connection. It's my first experience doing anything musical other than maybe playing the recorder in elementary school. Um, so, uh, yeah, so I've been on a tear ever since I lean in more and more in, and, uh, I became a professional, uh, singer songwriter and touring artist, uh, a couple of years ago and, uh, have been just, you know, going all in and, uh, having a great time.

8:43 Speaker 12: Um, my science background sort of still influences my music.

8:48 Speaker 8: Uh, As well as my native positivity.

8:51 Speaker 11: Yes, yes.

8:52 Speaker 8: So those are kind of my things.

8:54 Speaker 12: One of the things I love to do, and the first song that I'll share with you today is when I'm out, I love just to find the beautiful spots in the world and go hiking or rollerblading or whatever and get out in the world that way. And I was out hiking with my wife in Zion National Forest.

9:16 Speaker 11: Um, and where is that?

9:17 Speaker 8: Uh, Zion's in Utah.

9:19 Speaker 11: Okay.

9:19 Speaker 12: And so it's a, it's a, it's a beautiful, if you get a chance to go to just one national forest, I would say that's probably the best one. They have all the, all the biomes there and everything's centrally located and easy to access. And so you can pretty much roll out of the lodge and get to any kind of trail you wanted.

9:37 Speaker 7: Yeah.

9:37 Speaker 12: Um, you know, uh, super amazing. And, uh, my wife, she comes out like a week out of every month I'm on the road. And so, we get a chance to catch some national forests along the route and have a good time.

9:50 Speaker 8: And so we're out doing our thing. It's the amazing.

9:53 Speaker 12: Beauty of these beautiful cliffs and forests and a couple hours in, I looked up from my revere, looking at all the beautiful things around me, and I had lost my wife.

10:10 Speaker 13: Oh!

10:12 Speaker 8: I was like, oh my God, where is she?

10:14 Speaker 11: How does that even happen? Is she very quiet?

10:19 Speaker 8: She is very quiet. I'm tall, she's short.

10:22 Speaker 12: But what happened, I think it's very easy to get distracted by the world around you. And so she had stopped to take some pictures. I'd kept walking and both of us were sort of lost in the moment, I think. But she did not get eaten by a bear or a mountain lion or anything. It took me about 15 incredibly long minutes to find her.

10:42 Speaker 11: Oh, geez.

10:43 Speaker 12: But when I did, you know, and after I apologized for, you know, sort of losing her, I found, you know, myself thinking, you know, you got to be more mindful, Mark.

10:56 Speaker 8: You know, you're tall, she's short.

10:58 Speaker 12: You got to be more mindful not to just stride off and leave somebody. You know, and so I started thinking about that and the concept that, you know, life is better when you stay in the rhythm with the people around you, so you experience life at the same time.

11:12 Speaker 14: Right.

11:13 Speaker 8: And that turned into a song.

11:15 Speaker 6: Okay.

11:16 Speaker 12: Well, a poem first, because I love to write poetry, and then it turned into a song. Yeah, it's a song about being in that rhythm together.

11:27 Speaker 11: All right. Mark Winters, live in studio.

11:30 Speaker 8: How's our volume?

11:32 Speaker 11: Ooh, that guitar sounds nice. Yeah, really good.

11:56 Speaker 2: It's all in.

11:56 Speaker 3: The rhythm, all in the rhythm, all in the rhythm of this life.

12:10 Speaker 1: Pine needles and blue skies, your way up ahead.

12:17 Speaker 15: Gotta run to catch up with you And baby.

12:21 Speaker 1: Hold your hand It's all in.

12:26 Speaker 3: The rhythm All in the rhythm.

12:32 Speaker 16: All in the rhythm of this.

12:35 Speaker 17: Life Crickets singing a love song Your perfume's in the air I want to stay in the moment, sometimes.

12:49 Speaker 2: It's hard to be there. It's all in the rhythm, all in the.

12:58 Speaker 3: Rhythm, all in the rhythm of this life.

13:22 Speaker 7: Rain taps on my shoulders. Drops dance on the ground.

13:29 Speaker 2: You are one to.

13:30 Speaker 15: Get closer to and get lost in the sound It's.

13:37 Speaker 3: All in the rhythm All in the rhythm All in the rhythm.

13:46 Speaker 10: Of this life Whoa.

13:50 Speaker 2: All in the rhythm.

13:54 Speaker 6: All in the rhythm, all in the rhythm of this life.

14:04 Speaker 3: All in the rhythm, all in the rhythm, all in the rhythm of this life.

14:30 Speaker 11: Very nice. Mark Winters is here with us live in studio and outstanding. So I want to go back to, you know, because you talked about it a little bit. You were a scientist or are a scientist. You're always a scientist, right? And then you decided, like, can you tell us more about, and again, for people who maybe didn't hear our previous conversation when you were on the show last time, about making that transition? Because that's not, you know, I mean, I don't think James Taylor started that way.

14:59 Speaker 7: You know what I mean?

15:00 Speaker 11: Like, that's a big shift.

15:03 Speaker 8: You know, I don't know. I guess a couple of things.

15:08 Speaker 8: You know, I've always.

15:10 Speaker 12: love just trying things out, you know? And so I have a, you know, a long history of just, you know, something new. I want to learn to paint or I want to go surfing or whatever, you know, I just try the new things. And so most of my life I've just been very exploratory in that way. And, you know, I wasn't really looking for a change in careers, right? I mean, I was, I love math. I love science. I love solving problems. I mean, you know, aerospace engineering, I love building aircraft and, You know, it's I Love Flying.

15:40 Speaker 12: You know, all that stuff was sort of, you know, part of a culmination of just growing up with those loves. But, you know, I wanted to try something musical. That was kind of the idea. And so I said, you know, I put it on my list. I'm a big list checker offer. I don't know if you're a list checker offer yourself, Matt.

16:00 Speaker 8: But I put it on the list.

16:02 Speaker 12: I'm going to do it this year. And it got to be May, and I hadn't done anything musical.

16:06 Speaker 8: So I'm like, okay. let's get with it.

16:08 Speaker 12: And so I decided, all right, well, uh, let me just buy a guitar and sing a song for my wife for our anniversary.

16:14 Speaker 5: Yeah.

16:15 Speaker 12: Um, and so I, I found a local guitar shop and, and, uh, bought the guitar from the guy who agreed to teach me to play a song cause I didn't have any music experience.

16:24 Speaker 16: Yeah.

16:25 Speaker 12: Um, and then when we got out in our favorite Italian restaurant, I surprised my wife by bringing my guitar in and singing a song to her, you know?

16:34 Speaker 8: Um, There's a long story that goes with that.

16:37 Speaker 12: But, you know, the important bit for me was when I was playing the song for her, it's like the world vanished. It was me and her, even though everyone in the restaurant had pulled their chairs around.

16:50 Speaker 8: Like an audience.

16:50 Speaker 7: Oh, no kidding.

16:51 Speaker 8: Yeah, it was pretty cool. But like the world vanished.

16:54 Speaker 12: And it was just me and her in this musical moment together, like we were riding a wave at the same time.

17:00 Speaker 8: It's like, oh, my God. This is an amazing feeling.

17:03 Speaker 11: And just to be clear, she was cool with it? Because some women would be mortified.

17:08 Speaker 8: She had no idea I was going to do it.

17:10 Speaker 12: Yeah, yeah. So when I went out, I said, I left something in the car. And she's used to me surprising her with flowers or whatever else. So she thought it was something like that. I came in with the guitar.

17:19 Speaker 8: She's like.

17:20 Speaker 12: what the heck is that? Are you going to rob the place? Uh, but, uh, she was cool. Uh, it was definitely weird cause she didn't know I was practicing. She didn't know I'd bought it.

17:31 Speaker 11: Nothing.

17:31 Speaker 8: It was all a surprise to her.

17:33 Speaker 11: Okay.

17:34 Speaker 8: Um, but she was cool.

17:36 Speaker 12: Um, and she always, she's good at like reading the intent of a thing I'm doing.

17:41 Speaker 16: Okay.

17:41 Speaker 8: And so she knew it was me honoring her.

17:43 Speaker 6: Right.

17:43 Speaker 11: Yeah.

17:45 Speaker 12: Um, So, you know, this feeling I got afterwards was like, oh, you know, I'm thinking to myself back in my normal day, like, wow, that was really incredible.

17:57 Speaker 8: What was it? Was it the guitar? Was it the song? Was it her? Was it the restaurant?

18:03 Speaker 12: You know, what was it that really gave me that, you know, I don't know, transcendent feeling I had never had in my life? And so I got on this journey. Okay, I started playing guitar. I met some other guys. We put a band together, started doing the thing. And I found over time that, you know, it was, you know, the words, when I'm singing, the words matter to me. And so when I was singing, that's where I was starting to get some of that feeling when I put it together with something I was playing, piano or guitar.

18:38 Speaker 12: And so I started on this journey. But I wasn't writing original music at the time. I was teaching myself music. I was playing covers.

18:45 Speaker 8: And I found I couldn't sing words that I didn't agree with.

18:50 Speaker 11: Okay.

18:51 Speaker 13: Right?

18:51 Speaker 12: And so that sort of led me to starting to write my own music. But, you know, you don't know if you can do a thing. You pick up your guitar, you're playing, hanging out.

19:00 Speaker 8: You're like, okay, well, it's fun.

19:03 Speaker 3: Right?

19:03 Speaker 8: But I didn't think about it. as a career.

19:07 Speaker 11: Um, I want to stop on that for a second because I'm curious about something. I don't know. I don't know if I asked you this before. Um, being a scientist, what do you feel that that helped you learn to play guitar? Because I mean, music theory is math. Um, probably why I don't know any music theory. I'm a, I'm a bass player, but I just, but I, you know, I just play, but, but music theory is math. Do you think that, do you think that that was helpful to you, your background in science?

19:32 Speaker 12: Ooh, you know, I've had this discussion with lots of friends of mine who are sort of in music or in the sciences. So I think the answer is probably yes for the physical instrument. So when I started learning to play guitar or piano... even when I started, I bought some college classes online to teach myself music theory.

19:57 Speaker 12: For $ 10 these days, you can buy a full college course on music theory one. I taught myself music theory one, this video course. What I found is music theory and the instrument and the discipline needed to play an instrument, right? Those go hand in glove with someone in the sciences because you have to have a kind of a disciplined mind, right, in the sciences. And so I found a lot of help on the guitar, on the piano, and compositionally from my science background. But singing was the polar opposite of all of that.

20:36 Speaker 11: Really? Interesting.

20:37 Speaker 8: It's like, okay.

20:39 Speaker 12: When I started singing, what's my experience? Singing Happy Birthday, I don't know, Frere Jacques, whatever, right?

20:46 Speaker 8: Nothing normal.

20:48 Speaker 12: And so when I started singing, in the beginning, you're just sort of belting it out. You're like, well, why don't I sound good?

20:54 Speaker 11: Right, right.

20:56 Speaker 12: And so you watch some courses. I bought a couple of courses online trying to take the same approach.

21:03 Speaker 8: Terrible. It's a terrible way to learn to sing.

21:05 Speaker 18: Interesting.

21:06 Speaker 12: Singing is like this... body, body experience, a mind and body experience. And it has nothing to do with math and science. And so you have to.

21:17 Speaker 8: Flush that out of your mind.

21:20 Speaker 18: Yeah.

21:21 Speaker 6: Right.

21:21 Speaker 11: Yeah.

21:22 Speaker 8: Um, now the discipline part is super helpful.

21:25 Speaker 11: Yes.

21:26 Speaker 13: Right.

21:27 Speaker 8: Um, but the rest of it, not.

21:28 Speaker 12: And so I found, actually I found a vocal coach, local vocal coach and started learning, which was phenomenal. Um, and so for me, uh, That part was just not math and science oriented. And then I think maybe when you're composing music, you know, like I start with like an emotional intent when I'm writing.

21:52 Speaker 11: Yeah.

21:53 Speaker 8: And that sort of manifests itself.

21:54 Speaker 12: Maybe in some poetry or maybe some free text that I write against the topic to kind of organize my thoughts. But there's an emotional intent behind what I'm preparing.

22:05 Speaker 16: Yeah.

22:06 Speaker 12: And it iterates as I'm writing the song or whatever, but, uh, you know, just getting the emotional elements into the melody and the words is a very non-scientific thing.

22:20 Speaker 11: Yeah. Right.

22:21 Speaker 12: So you're like, you know, I went to a songwriting retreat, um, my first formal education about three years ago in Austin, this gal, Andrea Stolpe. Uh, she's a really amazing writer and teacher. Uh, she does seminars throughout the U S uh, but I went to this retreat, for a week.

22:37 Speaker 8: And I learned a.

22:40 Speaker 12: Ton about writing and professionals and everybody there was a professional and I learned a lot about what a professional songwriter or artist, what's the skill that they possess that allows you to sort of create. And I found you have to have the mastery of your instrument, your physical instrument, your guitar, your piano, whatever. You have to have a mastery of your voice and And you have to have a mastery of lyrical writing, and you've got to be able to do them all simultaneously.

23:11 Speaker 13: Right.

23:11 Speaker 6: Right?

23:12 Speaker 12: And so I learned a lot about where the gaps in my preparation were and what I.

23:17 Speaker 8: Needed to learn.

23:19 Speaker 12: And once I kind of got all that stuff together, when I start writing now, it's a very organic process.

23:24 Speaker 11: Okay.

23:25 Speaker 12: So maybe three years ago when I wrote a song, I would be sitting in front of my computer, and I would put the parts in, and I would do them one at a time and here's the chords and here's the drums and here's the lyrics and here's the melody. And I would be sort of like a Frankensteining a song together. And it took me like a while.

23:43 Speaker 11: Yeah.

23:44 Speaker 8: I don't know, three or four weeks to write a song.

23:46 Speaker 11: Okay.

23:46 Speaker 14: Right.

23:46 Speaker 8: It was a lot.

23:47 Speaker 18: Yeah.

23:47 Speaker 7: Yeah.

23:48 Speaker 12: Um, now today, uh, having figured out what it's, what I, what's the best for me. It's like, okay, I sit down with, uh, my iPad, uh, and my voice recorder on my phone and, I just start playing and getting through it.

24:05 Speaker 8: And three hours later, I got a song.

24:07 Speaker 18: Yeah.

24:07 Speaker 15: Wow.

24:08 Speaker 17: Right.

24:09 Speaker 12: And so you don't know if you can do a thing. The math and science helps me learn it.

24:17 Speaker 18: Right.

24:17 Speaker 12: But it doesn't, you know, in my mind, it didn't really tell me that it was a good career choice.

24:25 Speaker 18: Right.

24:25 Speaker 11: Right.

24:26 Speaker 1: Okay.

24:26 Speaker 8: I'm starting to learn that I can do the thing.

24:28 Speaker 11: Yeah.

24:28 Speaker 12: And I started playing out more. I played a showcase at South by Southwest, I think in 23. And that's, I got some great feedback from the showcase. It wasn't just your mom or your friends telling.

24:42 Speaker 8: You, you know, you got it.

24:44 Speaker 12: You know, it was people like professional people telling me, okay, yeah, you got something in there.

24:49 Speaker 11: Well, was that, was that kind of the moment where you thought, okay, this, I can do this.

24:54 Speaker 14: Yeah.

24:54 Speaker 8: It was the moment where like, okay, I'm, I'm out.

24:58 Speaker 13: Yeah.

24:58 Speaker 12: You don't, you don't really know, I'm going to call it like these journeyman professions, right? Where you don't really know you can do the thing, right? Until, you know, you've done it enough.

25:10 Speaker 11: Right.

25:10 Speaker 18: Right.

25:11 Speaker 13: Right.

25:11 Speaker 12: To know that, you know, okay, well you could write a song, but did people actually like your song?

25:16 Speaker 8: Right. And it was unique enough, you know, to have a brand around it.

25:21 Speaker 7: Yeah.

25:21 Speaker 12: And so you start learning some of these things. And so I think for me, uh, that was sort of when I knew, okay, uh, I mean, I could, I could play cover songs around town. I knew that, but you know, here's my original set and people liked it and they came up afterwards. And then, you know, a couple of people asked me to, you know, get to book me for a tour. Uh, and so it's like, okay, well there's something there.

25:46 Speaker 6: Yeah.

25:46 Speaker 12: Um, and so, uh, for me, that was the moment. That was the moment I knew like, okay, well I can do this professionally.

25:52 Speaker 11: Yes.

25:52 Speaker 8: Um, and, uh, and here I am, whatever, three years later, right? Doing the thing.

25:57 Speaker 11: You are, you are.

25:58 Speaker 13: Absolutely.

25:58 Speaker 11: Absolutely.

25:59 Speaker 3: Yeah.

26:00 Speaker 11: Absolutely. Do you want to play another song for us? Yeah, yeah, yeah. If you're just joining us, Mark Winters is here with us live in studio.

26:09 Speaker 8: So my wife, she married an aerospace engineer.

26:20 Speaker 18: Yes.

26:20 Speaker 7: You know what I mean?

26:22 Speaker 2: With a.

26:24 Speaker 12: Regular job and a regular paycheck.

26:27 Speaker 6: Yep.

26:30 Speaker 8: And she had to put up with me pivoting. Lots of stories in there for sure.

26:35 Speaker 12: But to say thank you for sticking with me now that I have an irregular job and an irregular paycheck, I wrote her this nerdy little love song, which when I played it for her the first time, she said, oh, that's pretty nerdy.

26:57 Speaker 6: Really?

26:58 Speaker 11: Yeah.

26:59 Speaker 8: I was like, okay. But it is, it's a profession of love, so I'm going to put the song out anyway.

27:07 Speaker 11: Okay.

27:07 Speaker 12: And it became one of my top streaming songs on Spotify. It's about the forces of attraction and how they are stronger than physics.

27:24 Speaker 8: I put as many nerdy little Words in it as I could.

28:08 Speaker 15: Standing on a cliff looking down at the ocean's brink. I feel a new weight pulling down.

28:15 Speaker 2: Something's changed.

28:17 Speaker 15: If everything's black or white, why do neurons fly through my mind?

28:21 Speaker 1: I can feel our worlds collide when you whisper close.

28:25 Speaker 15: I'm accelerating out of reality.

28:30 Speaker 2: Maybe gravity's fate.

28:35 Speaker 15: You hold me down, it don't make sense But it's truer now than any force on earth Too strong.

28:45 Speaker 10: To break And if you're really real, maybe gravity's fake.

29:09 Speaker 15: Vertigo can take a back seat You make me lose control You like.

29:13 Speaker 19: Too much of a good thing And I won't let go If the full moon changes the tides Let it pull your body to mine I can feel our worlds collide When you whisper close I'm accelerating Out of reality Maybe gravity's.

29:32 Speaker 9: Fate You hold me down It don't make sense But it's truer now Than.

29:42 Speaker 15: Any force on earth Too strong to break And if you're really real Maybe gravity's.

29:51 Speaker 7: Fake Ooh Ooh.

30:09 Speaker 15: Like metal to a magnet it's like air but I can grab it and I'm down with the static I stay shocked by the way you.

30:20 Speaker 2: You lift me up you.

30:23 Speaker 15: Hold me down it don't make sense but it's truer now than.

30:32 Speaker 7: Any force on earth too strongly And.

30:36 Speaker 10: If you're really real, maybe gravity's fake.

30:46 Speaker 20: And if you're really real, maybe gravity's fake.

31:16 Speaker 8: Maybe gravity's fake, man.

31:18 Speaker 11: Very cool, very cool. Mark Winter is here with us live in studio. And, well, hopefully she's listening.

31:25 Speaker 8: Well, I'm hopeful.

31:27 Speaker 12: She's heard that one. That's another thing you have to kind of get used to. I never had to worry about that in engineering. I never came home and talked about calculus when I was at home, right?

31:35 Speaker 11: Right.

31:36 Speaker 8: But, you know, I guess in the world of the arts. Your family gets exposed to your art often.

31:45 Speaker 11: Oh, yeah.

31:47 Speaker 12: I had a really good buddy of mine, one of the gray beards who helped me sort of learn the singer-songwriter ways, Ken Gaines. And he shared with me a ton of amazing little tidbits for the career in music. And one of them was, do not expect your friends and your family to be your fans. Which is, it took me a year to process that, Matt. It was like, what, what does that really mean? Um, cause the first time I create art, right. I mean, my, my earliest artistic experience was my grandmother teaching me to write poetry.

32:26 Speaker 11: Okay.

32:26 Speaker 12: Um, and so I remember when, uh, when I wrote my first poem, I wanted to read it for her.

32:35 Speaker 11: Yeah.

32:36 Speaker 13: Right.

32:36 Speaker 12: And we became poetry pals and there was an understanding, right. Um, That was my first thought when I write a new song. Hey, I want to share it with my wife, right? And I want to share it with everybody that I know, all my friends, right? And Ken was like, no. They may not like your music. They may not like your genre of music, right? You didn't become a friend of theirs for them to listen to your music.

33:03 Speaker 8: Now, if they just happen to like it, then that's okay, right? Uh, but there is.

33:10 Speaker 11: Something weird about that though, right? Like, like the, it's like, you know, you would hope that it's funny because, so I won't say who it is because I cannot remember if this was an on air or an off air conversation, but there's a, there's a cohost on another show here at the station. And I won't be any more specific than that. Who, um, who's a very talented singer songwriter. And while we actually play plays mostly covers, but I think he's written his own stuff too, but he's like, he said one night on, on that show, again, I'm not sure if it was on air or off air, but he said, um, yeah, my wife's never, she never sees me, she never comes see me play live.

33:43 Speaker 11: She takes zero interest in it, in what I'm doing with music. And it's like, when I hear someone say that, it's like, really? Like, it just seems odd.

33:54 Speaker 8: Doesn't it seem odd?

33:55 Speaker 12: Okay, so, but my wife and I, you know, I guess, interestingly enough, I'm an adult coming into this career pivot. And so, you know, the change... is more visceral for both she and I, right? So it's like, okay, well, you know, I never would have come to her saying, I need your validation in this airplane design or this business deal, right? And that wasn't, that's not the thing, right? And so, you know, as I'm writing music, you know, I'm learning a ton about friendships and boundaries in friendships because, you know, the first thing I want to do a share, but it's like, okay.

34:37 Speaker 12: So I, I following my friend Ken's advice, it's like, okay, people, if they want to join my email list or they want to follow me or they want to come to a show, you know, that's awesome, but it's never a requirement and I don't talk about it.

34:51 Speaker 11: Right.

34:51 Speaker 12: Unless they talk, they bring it up to me. Like, I'd love to come to a show. When's your next show?

34:56 Speaker 11: Right.

34:57 Speaker 13: Right.

34:57 Speaker 12: And that, and my, my friendships are, are much more healthy today than they were when I first started.

35:02 Speaker 8: Cause I was just, you know, obsessed.

35:04 Speaker 12: And then the other thing is, You know, my wife had to deal with me, you know, learning all the stuff and whatever.

35:09 Speaker 8: And I think.

35:11 Speaker 12: When you're creative, there's a passion element in what you do. And if you're not careful, your partner can get neglected or your partner can be jealous, right?

35:28 Speaker 5: Oh, yeah.

35:28 Speaker 7: Both.

35:28 Speaker 18: Oh, yeah.

35:29 Speaker 9: Right?

35:29 Speaker 8: And so for me, like, keeping....

35:34 Speaker 12: My obsession in its box was a journey that my wife and I had to go on together. Like how much time, because I'm learning. And so I have to go through all the 10,000 steps of learning. And so I had to go through this journey with her. Like, how do I keep it in its box so that it doesn't just eat up every moment of my consciousness? And she was super helpful and sometimes the carrot, sometimes the stick.

36:02 Speaker 11: Right, right. Yeah, yeah.

36:03 Speaker 8: But she was super helpful in helping me dial that in.

36:05 Speaker 11: Yeah.

36:06 Speaker 12: And I think that's an important element. And so, yeah, now she, my understanding with her is like, don't come to a show.

36:15 Speaker 11: Really?

36:15 Speaker 8: Don't come to a show unless you really want to come because she knows about them all.

36:21 Speaker 7: Yeah, yeah.

36:21 Speaker 12: Or if you really, if I really need you there for some reason, I'm going to tell you. Like, this show, I really need you to show up for me, to support me. And it's like an emotional support element, not I need you to.

36:34 Speaker 8: Buy a ticket.

36:35 Speaker 11: Right. Right.

36:36 Speaker 6: Yeah.

36:36 Speaker 7: Right.

36:37 Speaker 8: Um, and so that's been, that's been great.

36:39 Speaker 12: Uh, so I've grown a lot and our relationship has, has evolved to allow for those kinds of things to happen. Uh, but yeah, it's, it's kind of weird because, uh, like my friends, when they're doing something artistic, because I'm thinking with the mind of an artist, right. I want to, I want to greet their project wherever it is, and I want to give them some feedback.

37:00 Speaker 8: Like, oh, Matt, this is cool. Look at this cool drawing you just did.

37:03 Speaker 11: I love it.

37:03 Speaker 8: Here are some things I like about it.

37:05 Speaker 12: And so it's like I'm receiving it as an artist and giving you some feedback on it.

37:12 Speaker 14: Right, right.

37:13 Speaker 8: So, yeah, an interesting journey. I never had to do any of that in engineering at all.

37:16 Speaker 11: Right, right.

37:18 Speaker 8: But it's been a fun time for sure.

37:20 Speaker 11: Do you ever miss anything about your, this I do remember asking you last time, but I mean, obviously you're very happy doing what you're doing now, but is there ever any part of you that misses what you used to do?

37:30 Speaker 12: Yeah, you know, I think I have lots of podcasts, you know, Science Friday and Discovery Weekly. So I listen a lot to what's happening in the world of the sciences.

37:42 Speaker 11: Yeah.

37:43 Speaker 12: So I have a curious mind still. You know, I think there's so much more depth in music that fits me more naturally so the creative side there's a lot of technical elements in music building a career it's like it's a 90 hour a week thing in the arts it's so competitive it's so difficult to learn all the right skills and tools Well.

38:19 Speaker 11: Like you said, it becomes an obsession because it really has to.

38:22 Speaker 12: Yeah, and so how do you keep it in its place? How do you do everything you can to sort of give yourself every possible opportunity or chance? So, yeah, I don't think I miss... I guess I'm a challenge-oriented person, and I like to grow and be stimulated in new areas. And so music has so many more of those benefits bits than engineering. I don't know if I miss it. At this moment, I haven't missed it yet.

38:52 Speaker 8: How about that?

38:53 Speaker 12: That's good. So you maybe miss the regular paycheck that comes with it. Maybe that's the thing you miss the most. But yeah, it's been a great transistor for me thus far.

39:04 Speaker 11: If you're just joining us, Mark Winters is here with us live in studio. Mark, this is probably a this might be foolish to ask you this question this late in the show, but because you are a scientist, um, I'm, I am very curious. Um, it's a big subject. That's why I say I'm asking this question very late in the show, but as you probably, guess what i'm about to ask you uh ai in music any any thoughts oh my goodness.

39:29 Speaker 12: Uh yeah so a couple of things uh one is uh i'm very involved in the songwriting association back in houston and we've had good many many a debate.

39:43 Speaker 11: I can imagine about this topic yeah.

39:45 Speaker 12: Um And I think from my days in engineering, I learned a lot about, you know, sort of technology washing through an area. And what do the remnants look like, right, as it washes through? And so I have this perspective because I've seen it sort of just have these humongous changes in industry, in the sciences in particular. And so I have two views. So the engineer in me is like, yeah, AI is here.

40:18 Speaker 8: It's coming.

40:19 Speaker 12: It's going to wash through everything, right? Where do I think everything is going to go is an important part of that conversation.

40:25 Speaker 8: I'm sort of thinking about that.

40:26 Speaker 12: And so the scientist in me has this observational element to it, and I can sort of see it and see what it's good at and what it's not good at. As an example, I use AI to help with.

40:40 Speaker 8: Tour routing, tour booking, what hotel am I going to stay at? It's phenomenal.

40:45 Speaker 11: Oh, yeah.

40:45 Speaker 8: It's way better than I ever was at all that sort of thing.

40:48 Speaker 14: Sure.

40:49 Speaker 16: Right?

40:49 Speaker 12: And so just simplistically, maybe I got back an hour and a half a day of my time just with tour logistics and, you know, where am I staying, management, all that stuff, right?

41:04 Speaker 7: Oh, yeah.

41:05 Speaker 12: So it's really given me a lot of time back. On the creative side, the poet in me, The philosopher in me is like, okay, well, you know, we used to do this.

41:15 Speaker 8: We used to do that. We used to do the other.

41:18 Speaker 12: Now AI is doing that and it's doing, you know, seemingly better in many aspects.

41:24 Speaker 8: And so I guess I'm torn on the AI front. And in our.

41:31 Speaker 12: Songwriting association, we sort of had this debate about what is songwriting in particular.

41:38 Speaker 11: Yeah.

41:39 Speaker 12: In my mind, lyric and melody, maybe a meaningful hook, that's the songwriting part. And so if it's not that,

41:49 Speaker 12: then as a writer and an artist, I have less skin in the game for production, as an example.

41:59 Speaker 1: Yeah.

41:59 Speaker 18: Right?

42:00 Speaker 8: And so there's so many cool tools now.

42:04 Speaker 12: As a writer, I can write my music and arrange it And I can use lots of AI to help me in the production phase to play around with different production, you know, to find the best version of the song.

42:17 Speaker 7: Right.

42:18 Speaker 8: It would have cost me thousands of dollars.

42:21 Speaker 11: Yes.

42:22 Speaker 12: Around every song to try to find the right vision for the song.

42:27 Speaker 1: Right.

42:27 Speaker 8: And so, but my friends who are producers are like, ah, AI production, that's terrible.

42:32 Speaker 18: Right.

42:32 Speaker 8: I don't care who wrote it. That's their view.

42:35 Speaker 7: Right.

42:35 Speaker 11: Right.

42:35 Speaker 12: Yeah, I can write it, but I want to produce it. And so I think it's like we all have our own little bias inside.

42:41 Speaker 11: Yeah, of course.

42:42 Speaker 12: My own personal view is the creative element that's important to me is the writing of the lyric and the melody and the general arrangement. And so for those things, I do them all myself, right? And so I have my, I told you my writing process earlier, I do the thing. And then once I'm through the thing, you know, this year I've been taking those and playing around a little bit in Suno with them to see how, what kind of arrangement I might like.

43:11 Speaker 6: Right.

43:11 Speaker 12: Uh, but I've yet to do anything more than like exploratory. All my songs, you know, humans played all the instruments and all the things I've released. Everything's been sort of a human final product, the masters and whatnot. Uh, but, uh, yeah, I said, and I wrote a song about the dichotomy in my brain about this very topic.

43:31 Speaker 11: Really?

43:32 Speaker 8: Uh, yeah, yeah. It's called, uh, what does it mean to be human?

43:36 Speaker 18: Okay.

43:38 Speaker 11: Do you want to play it? Yeah, let me do that. We have time.

43:41 Speaker 8: That's a good segue into that.

43:43 Speaker 11: Yeah, I'd love to. I'm super curious to hear it now, especially given that conversation.

43:49 Speaker 8: Yeah, it's.

43:55 Speaker 12: Certainly my brain's thought around using AI, but then wondering, okay, What's next for the human race?

44:09 Speaker 11: Right, right.

44:09 Speaker 8: For me in particular.

44:10 Speaker 6: Yeah.

44:19 Speaker 15: What does it mean to be human anyway? What does it mean to be human anyway?

44:35 Speaker 13: Just make it easy for me And tell me what to say Take all the steps for me And show me where to pray.

44:50 Speaker 14: Just tell me how I should think How to scroll and make the best link How to break the ice, cause I never learned Yeah.

45:02 Speaker 2: That would be nice.

45:09 Speaker 7: Take my troubles away.

45:12 Speaker 15: Help me to connect Tell me what to say Electrons take me.

45:18 Speaker 2: Closer But I feel further.

45:21 Speaker 10: Away Take my troubles away.

45:26 Speaker 21: Help me to connect Tell me what to say What to do Why I should stay And not just drift.

45:35 Speaker 10: Away What does it mean to be human anyway?

45:44 Speaker 7: What does it mean to be human anyway?

45:48 Speaker 18: Think I'll just put it down Walk away and find some peace What.

46:01 Speaker 7: If I miss the sounds?

46:04 Speaker 2: Will you be there for me?

46:08 Speaker 7: Take my troubles away.

46:11 Speaker 21: Help me to connect Tell me what to say Electrons take me closer But I feel further away.

46:22 Speaker 7: Take my troubles away.

46:25 Speaker 21: Help me to connect Tell me what to say What to do Why I should stay and not just drift away.

46:36 Speaker 7: What does it mean to be human anyway?

46:43 Speaker 2: What does it mean to be human anyway?

46:48 Speaker 16: If electrons took me closer What would I miss?

47:01 Speaker 6: If electrons took me closer What would I miss?

47:24 Speaker 7: Take my troubles away.

47:26 Speaker 2: Help me to connect.

47:28 Speaker 7: Tell me what to say. Electrons take me.

47:32 Speaker 15: Closer, but I feel further away.

47:37 Speaker 7: Take my troubles away.

47:40 Speaker 21: Help me to connect. Tell me what to say, what to do.

47:45 Speaker 18: Why I should stay and not just drift away.

47:50 Speaker 7: What does it mean to be human anyway?

47:57 Speaker 15: What does it mean to be human anyway?

48:01 Speaker 9: Oh, very cool.

48:02 Speaker 4: I love.

48:05 Speaker 7: It.

48:13 Speaker 11: I love it. Mark Winter is here with us live in the studio. This has been wonderful. It's great to see you. Great to have you here. Where do you go next after this?

48:23 Speaker 12: I'm headed to Boston. I've got some shows in the Boston area for the next two or three days.

48:28 Speaker 11: Outstanding.

48:29 Speaker 12: And just enjoying being out on the East Coast here. Then I drop down to Florida, and I have a final run down the.

48:38 Speaker 8: Gulf Coast area.

48:39 Speaker 12: Uh, back to Houston, November 10th is the last, or I guess November 9th is my last show.

48:44 Speaker 2: Okay.

48:45 Speaker 8: So it's the 10th. I'm back, back home in, uh, in Houston.

48:47 Speaker 11: Okay. And then, uh, back home for how long? Like how long do you take between, uh, between runs?

48:53 Speaker 18: Yeah.

48:54 Speaker 12: You know, it's been, uh, uh, like a, a, a March, late March start for the tour. And then I take a break for the summer. So about 70 days on tour.

49:03 Speaker 11: Okay.

49:04 Speaker 12: Um, and then I take a break. So I'll be on break in the fall until, uh, March, like middle or end of March.

49:11 Speaker 11: Yeah.

49:12 Speaker 8: And then back out on the road again, headed west.

49:15 Speaker 12: So my spring tours west and north.

49:17 Speaker 18: Okay.

49:18 Speaker 8: And not fall tours is East and North.

49:20 Speaker 11: Okay. Very good. Very good. And where's the best place to go online to keep up with everything that you're doing?

49:25 Speaker 18: Everything.

49:26 Speaker 8: Mark Winters.

49:27 Speaker 13: Yeah.

49:27 Speaker 12: Uh, markwintersmusic.com. Uh, you can find everything there. You can find me under my name, uh, on any of your favorite, uh, listening platforms. Um, and, uh, If you want a little extra positive energy in your life, you can join the Positive Vibe Tribe, which is my email group.

49:47 Speaker 11: Okay.

49:48 Speaker 8: Get updates there as well.

49:49 Speaker 11: Okay. Outstanding. Outstanding. Mark, thank you so much. And thank you to everybody who joined us today on the program. We had a very busy show. Elizabeth Ropp and Jeff Davis were here. And then we had, let's see, then Adam Zane. Oh, I'm sorry. And then Gods Go First and then Adam Zane. And then, of course, Mark Winters. This is a busy one today, Mark, but this is a perfect way to end the show. Thank you so much, my friend.

50:09 Speaker 8: Matt, thank you so much for having me, man. I really appreciate it.

50:12 Speaker 11: Absolutely. And if you miss any part of today's show, it will be up in just a little bit. You can find it at WMNHradio.org or at my website, MattConnerton.com or the new website, MattConnertonUnleashed.com. And that is it for us for now. We'll talk to you all a little bit later.

50:26 Speaker 18: Bye, everybody.

50:30 Speaker 11: You're listening to Matt Connerton Unleashed on WMNH 95.3.