Mark Winters | Matt Connarton Unleashed

0:00 Speaker 1: Singer songwriter Mark Winters this year. Hello, Mark, what's shaken? Matt, Welcome to the program.

0:06 Speaker 2: Oh, I love loving it here. It's so beautiful in the area. And I have to say I really love the tagline unleashed for your show.

0:13 Speaker 3: That's pretty awesome. It's got a big, good story behind that.

0:16 Speaker 1: Well, yeah, I don't, oh, you know what it was? So when back when I started, because I started it as a podcast in twenty eleven and then in twenty seventeen, I had the opportunity to bring the show here to WM and h been here ever since. But originally it was just I called it unleashed because I was used to being a co host on other people's shows and now is starting my own show. So it's gonna be where I'm just gonna do, you know whatever, say whatever opinions I have, et cetera, and people can like it or lump it.

0:42 Speaker 1: You know, I'm gonna be truly unleashed.

0:45 Speaker 3: I love that unleashed.

0:47 Speaker 2: Yeah, that's I feel like sometimes I'm in the same boat. I'm all about the positive vibes. Yes, those singer songwriters are a little more moody than I am. Yeah, so I have to control how much I'm leashed all my positive energy?

1:02 Speaker 1: You know, right right, you're currently on uh you're on a How how long is your tour? You've you're going all over the place for I.

1:09 Speaker 3: Has sixty five days of awesomeness.

1:12 Speaker 1: Okay.

1:12 Speaker 2: The Good Vibes Highway Tour headed east out of Houston, Texas, down the Gulf Coast and then up the Eastern Seaboard up into Canada and then back down through the Central US to to Texas.

1:25 Speaker 1: Okay, Wow, where do you live?

1:27 Speaker 3: Based in Houston Town?

1:28 Speaker 1: Based in Houston? Okay? Yeah? Is this your first big tour like going as far as you are?

1:34 Speaker 3: My second?

1:34 Speaker 2: So spring of this year I did a West Coast tour, first time going out that direction as well, and uh kind of learned the whole tour culture and how to be on an extended tour. And this is the second one that I'm doing here in the fall, and I loving loving being out on the road, loving sharing the energy with everyone that I meet. It's it's an amazing way to see the United States.

2:00 Speaker 1: Yeah, no doubt, no doubt. We're glad you're here. Well, so you've got your guitar and you're gonna play in a couple minutes, but I think we're gonna play this. This is the new single, right, Man in the Sky.

2:08 Speaker 3: Man in the Sky.

2:09 Speaker 2: Yes, it's about one of my daily rituals. I wake up in the morning with a cuff of coffee. I love to watch the sunrise. I love to be out camping and nature. It helps me set my mind right for the day before I turn my TV on, or before I watch my phone or anything else. And I get a certain pep I pick me up in my step if I start my day that way. And the track and the vibes and the lyrics are all about just enjoying that fresh moment, you.

2:39 Speaker 1: Know, yeah, outstanding all right, So let's play this. This is called Man in the Sky, and this is Mark Winters.

2:56 Speaker 4: This morning with the sky is my guy.

3:00 Speaker 2: It's that still biding in my mind somewhere in the clouds call them mea look up, looking look out the journeys all around, even.

3:20 Speaker 4: When the clouds are passing.

3:22 Speaker 5: Bottle talking to the plan of below sky.

3:40 Speaker 2: In the meadow, green sol bast answerines were daisy bloom and the air so clean, Standing on around, getting ready take a wall, look up, looking look out the journey's all rounds.

4:05 Speaker 4: Even when the.

4:05 Speaker 6: Clowns are passing bays, talking to the plan up in the sky, talking to the man up in the sky,

4:22 Speaker 6: feeling like song.

4:24 Speaker 7: The old Crown.

4:42 Speaker 5: Oh, even when the clouds are passing byways, talking to the man up in the sky, talking to the.

4:59 Speaker 1: Man that is man in the sky, and that is Mark Winters. And we have Mark Winters here with us alive in studio on this Saturday. Great track, very very catchy. I love all the music you sent us. And we have another song too that we're gonna play at the end of our segment today, another great studio track. But before we go any further too, for those who are watching online on your platform of choice, whether it be Facebook or YouTube or even we even stream on LinkedIn. But I want to show off for the camera this this rubber bracelet or what's the term's wristband?

5:51 Speaker 1: Thank you. I was blanking on the name, So tell us about this so that it says think like a proton always positive, which I And it's got your it's got your name on it, of course, Mark, good good branding. But but but yeah, tell us about that.

6:06 Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm you know, I'm uh my undergraduate degrees in aerospace engineering. I took a left turn at Albuquerque and became an artist instead, but I did practice for a little bit, and my brain has always lived in both the world of poetry and science. And so when I think about, uh, you know the world a lot of times, I think, you know through those both of those lenses, And and when I rolled out, the glass was always like half full. For me, I always see the world in a positive way. When I meet people, I look for the good in them.

6:43 Speaker 2: When I sit in a songwriting circle, I look for the best of everyone to try and combine it together. I've always had that sort of positive view of the world, and it's hard for me not to put it in my lyrics. And so when I show up to play a show somewhere, my goal is to create more positive energy for everyone who's attending a show for me. And if I've done that, then I've had a great day. Yeah, and uh, I feel like I've contributed to the universe. Uh. And my grandma would be proud of me for making the world a little writer.

7:15 Speaker 1: Yeah, that's outstanding. Can you tell us you a little bit more about your background? And by the way, so I am someone who you know, Jenny was talking earlier about how she's not good at things like math and science. I'm the same way. Although Jenny's better at math than she realizes because she does that amazing macrima. And I always say, what's that? It is math? It is math, it's me. It's geometry, Am I reometry?

7:36 Speaker 3: It's applied physics?

7:37 Speaker 1: Yes it is? Yes? See correct? So there you go, there you go.

7:41 Speaker 3: An expert is master Jenny?

7:43 Speaker 1: Yes? So so she's and she's incredible at doing that. But like I can't, you know, I was always math and science were always very hard for me in school.

7:52 Speaker 2: You know.

7:52 Speaker 1: I excelled more with with reading, comprehension and writing and things like that, and history I was good at. But math and science I was always terrible at. But what what is it that? So obviously you're you know, really good at those things, But what is it that that brought you into into music? And because you're you're doing this as your full time career now.

8:10 Speaker 2: Right, it's my it's my thing. Yeah, it's my vibe.

8:13 Speaker 4: Yeah.

8:14 Speaker 2: So in twenty eleven, I wanted to do something musical and never had done anything artistically. My grandmother when I was five, had taught me to write poetry. Okay, So my whole life I've been writing poetry, which is amazing. I think that created the sort of juxtaposition in my brain of all these thoughts because I started with her. My my inclination was math and science, and so in twenty eleven, I put it on the list I'm going to do it. I bought a guitar from a local guitar shop and on the on the sly I learned to play a song for my wife for anniversary.

8:50 Speaker 1: Okay, and I thought, oh.

8:51 Speaker 2: Three months, there's plenty of time to do. Go from nothing like no musical experience to performing a song for my wife.

8:59 Speaker 3: Yeah, which was.

9:00 Speaker 2: Quite a bit to bite off, I find out later. But the guitar shop guy was really cool. And I used to get my daughter to sit in the fourier with me and practice UH while my wife was out working UH to get ready for the for the performance. And then we went out to dinner at our favorite place for anniversary, and I said, I forgot something in the car and I went back and got my guitar and she's like, what.

9:24 Speaker 4: Are you doing?

9:25 Speaker 3: So she had no idea, had no idea guitar. I had nothing.

9:28 Speaker 2: It was all all you know, right on the spot. Yeah, a nice little intimate place. Everybody, the whole crowd that was there, pulled their chairs around, made a little audience. And I had a giant anniversary card because I couldn't remember the lyrics and the chords all at the same time. And my daughter had helped me be dazzle it. And so, you know, a long winded way to say when I when I performed that song for her, it was so amazing, so emotional, the connection. I want to write poems for someone it's personal, and I read it to him, it's more personal.

10:01 Speaker 2: When I sang it was like, this is what I meant to do. And so from that moment forward, I became obsessed. My wife would say, was teaching myself music. So I bought a bunch of online music courses online, taught myself to write music and read music and compose. And along the way, I put a cover band together and I found, I guess I didn't write at first the cover band. I just wanted to play some shows with them. And I found as I was singing, singing other people's words, they wouldn't say what I wanted to say.

10:35 Speaker 2: I started changing the lyricsd and my wife was like, you can't change the lyrics.

10:40 Speaker 3: I'm like, well, that's what I want to say.

10:42 Speaker 2: That led me to writing my own stuff in twenty eighteen and put my first album out in twenty nineteen, started touring behind that, and of course COVID, like everyone else, kind of interrupted that whole experience. And so when COVID was happening, I went online because I wrote a four piece rock band format for my first album, Soft Rock.

11:05 Speaker 1: Yeah.

11:06 Speaker 2: And when I went online and started doing charity fundraisers, zoom ticketed charity fundraisers to learn how to be a singer songwriter proper, yeah, and rearranged all my music and started writing in that lane. And and I haven't looked back. It's been amazing. I just love the journey that I'm on and the people I get to meet.

11:25 Speaker 1: You know, it's music theory must have been pretty easy for you, right, you know it was.

11:29 Speaker 2: It's very mathematical, That's what I'm thinking. Yeah, Yeah, there's a very mathematical element the part, believe it or not, the instrumental part was fairly I'm pretty dexterous, and so I play sports and whatever else. And so between the math and and the hand eye coordination, the instrument part was was much easier. Yeah, the vocal part I had no reference and so I didn't even sing in choir, right, I really yeah, right, And so just to learn to control your voice is such a whole other experience.

12:05 Speaker 2: Yeah, and that was the hardest journey.

12:06 Speaker 3: And I started.

12:07 Speaker 2: I got a vocal coach in Houston, and that that helped me a ton. Ok, it's really much easier to learn from someone else.

12:15 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, you vocals, Yeah, vocals, You know, your voice. That's the one instrument where some people, for whatever reason, they just they just can do it without even you know, I've met so many people who just it's like, oh, did you take lessons? And they say no, they just they're just able to do it, you know what I mean. It's it's I've always been been very jealous. I'm a bass player and I can I can sing like I'm not a bad harmony singer. I can kind of find the octave and lock in. But on my own I get lost.

12:40 Speaker 1: And I went through three different vocal coaches and nobody, nobody could get me to where I wanted to be. With it.

12:46 Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a it's a it's its own journey. And I found, uh, you know, you got to put your ten thousand steps in and so you know, if you didn't grow up singing in church and choir and whatever, then you got to you got to put that time in.

13:00 Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly.

13:00 Speaker 2: And so as I've become, you know, more experienced as a vocalist, it's much more intuitive now for me. I sing in a trio back home, and I seen harmonies and so you know, and the lady asking with is very well trained and very precise, and so all the people around you start pushing you to develop your skill. And I'd say, now it's it's a lot more intuitive when I pick up a song, to pick up a guitar, to write a song, it's very easy for me to sort of craft a melody now on the fly, where you know, two years ago it was much more difficult.

13:33 Speaker 3: It's becoming intuitive.

13:34 Speaker 1: Yeah that's excellent. Yeah, that's great. Well, I'm dying to hear you play live. You want to play something live, Let's let's do it.

13:40 Speaker 2: Let's talk about one of those science meets philosophy juxtapositions. I'm gonna break through some boundaries with you, guys, with a song called boundary Layer. Computational fluid dynamics has boundary layer theory in it and particle theory. Particles approaching an object in a fluid slow down when they get near the object, and then they accelerate in a new direction. Kind of like the philosophy of breaking through a boundary in your own life. So let's rock and roll with some boundary layer, all.

14:12 Speaker 1: Right, Mark Winter is live in studio.

14:28 Speaker 2: Supersonic speed, I can see what I need.

14:34 Speaker 4: I'm soaring faster than higher, breaking through. I believe in me.

14:41 Speaker 2: We find our limits when we're young, slowing down before we've be gone. They tell me I'm too small to play and that I don't look like them at all. Or can I find the strength in me to break my boundaries?

14:59 Speaker 4: In me?

15:00 Speaker 2: Eat me see pushing that supersonic speed, I can see what I need.

15:08 Speaker 4: I'm soaring faster.

15:09 Speaker 7: And ie.

15:11 Speaker 4: Breaking through. I believe in me.

15:13 Speaker 2: Here we go now, get a job and find a life. Listen to everyone's advice. They tell me I'm too old change and that I need.

15:38 Speaker 4: To rearrange my mind.

15:41 Speaker 2: Where can I find the strength in me to preck my boundaries and make me see.

15:47 Speaker 4: Pushing at the supersonic speed, I can see what I need. I'm soaring faster inne breaking through. I believe in me.

16:00 Speaker 2: Go bring some love along the way, keep my humble minded play bound to lay us are just to test to give the strength to be my best. Bring my circle up with me, feel the love and loyalty. Boundary lay us are just to test to give the strength to be my best.

16:31 Speaker 4: Push You're not the supersonic speed. I can see what I need. I'm soaring faster and I breaking through. I belief in me. But you're not the supersonic speed. I can see what I need. I'm soaring faster and eye breaking through.

16:55 Speaker 1: I believe in Very nice, very nice. If you're just joining us, we have Mark Winter is here with us, alive in studio. He's on a tour and he is in the area. And that's what is that song.

17:12 Speaker 3: Called again, It's called boundary Layer.

17:14 Speaker 1: Boundary Layer. Very good. So now where are you in your tour in terms of like what did you play last night?

17:21 Speaker 3: Somewhere I did?

17:22 Speaker 2: I did played down in Pennsylvania last night, and then the night before I was in New York. So I'm in week number four four, Yeah, week number four of a sixty five day tour, having a great time, like a little inch worm about you know, three hundred miles a day. I drive and then I dropped my trailer International Park or State Forest, and you know, play a show and come back and get up in the morning and do the thing again. You know, it's it's amazing.

17:55 Speaker 1: And then where do you go after here?

17:56 Speaker 2: Where's your Yeah, I'm headed to Maynard. I'm playing in a festive this afternoon.

18:01 Speaker 1: Excellent.

18:02 Speaker 2: And then from there I go to Maine for a two day break to visit my dad.

18:07 Speaker 3: Uh he lives in o Gunquit, Okay.

18:10 Speaker 2: Uh so I'm gonna hang out, walk the margin away and then uh, you know, recharge a little bit, and then I'm up off into Canada.

18:19 Speaker 1: Oh nice, How many dates you have up there?

18:21 Speaker 2: I have five five shows in Canada?

18:24 Speaker 1: Outstanding. Wow, that's great. That's great. So what's been like, Has anything been a surprise to you doing that? Because you said, this is the first tour that you've done of this size, right, this many dates?

18:35 Speaker 2: Yeah, so spring I did the same number of days, okay, and so it kind of learned a little bit of the tour culture, you know, I think, uh, for for me, uh, it's been so amazing to get out of the echo chamber of Houston. Yeah, you're you kind of you get stuck in a situation and an environment, and your brain, I think stops growing and thinking.

18:59 Speaker 7: Uh.

19:00 Speaker 2: And so I think getting out on the West Coast was amazing for me. And you don't really know how your music is landing with people. I mean all the streaming and TikTok and YouTube and you know, the interaction you get, you know, is not as rich. And what I found when I was on the West Coast was, first of all, there's a lot of people who are science nerds, closet closet science nerds who really are viving with my music, which is really cool, excellent. And then I found this the whole positive energy element.

19:32 Speaker 2: There were so many people who came out to see a show for the positive energy experience, and they heard me on the radio like on your show, they came out to a show for me. I remember the first time that happened to me was in New Mexico.

19:48 Speaker 3: I was in Ridoso.

19:49 Speaker 2: It was a beautiful city, and a couple drove three hours they heard me on the radio.

19:55 Speaker 3: They drove three hours. They're like, we got a lot of bad.

19:57 Speaker 2: Stuff going on in our life right now, and we want an evening of positive energy.

20:03 Speaker 3: And I was so touched.

20:06 Speaker 2: Three or four of the couples heard me on the same radio station and came out for that same experience. And it was ten days into my tour on the West Coast, and it told me I'm in the right place and doing what i need to be doing right in this world. And I've still got goosebumps because i had so many experiences like that along my West Coast tour. I was just on fire the whole time. Yeah, my wife asked me. She's like, she comes out a week out of each month that tour, and she says, you know, this is.

20:38 Speaker 1: A lot, a lot.

20:39 Speaker 3: You're up every day early.

20:41 Speaker 2: You got a lot of stuff going on, you got all this stuff in email everything else.

20:45 Speaker 3: It's a lot, she said, How do you do it?

20:47 Speaker 4: I'm like, I'm.

20:49 Speaker 2: So so fulfilled by the people I meet and the experiences I'm having and the fact that my music is really making a difference in the world. Yes, you know it's no effort, Yeah, you know, it's worth it. It's worth every effort, you.

21:02 Speaker 1: Know, Yeah, absolutely absolutely. Is there anything that's really kind of surprised you or challenges that maybe you didn't expect that you've run into, you know, because it's not easy what you're doing. It's like your wife said, it is a lot, and it's it's fulfilling. So it's a lot in a good way, right, in a positive way. But it is a lot.

21:20 Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, for sure. So I had never pulled the trailer before. Yeah, And so there was the I rented a few and tried it out and kind of got my the sizing and everything the way I wanted to do in whatever. But I had never been out in the snow and mountains and whatever. So there was a whole lot to learn about being cold in Canada or in the Northern United States in the mountains that I didn't know how to. I didn't even bring warm clothes with me on the tour. Whop at Walmart and buy some sweatshirts and whatever.

21:54 Speaker 2: And then as a musician, you don't really know your music until you've been in so many rooms where the sound is just off. They've got the EQ on the monitor. Weird, you got all these all these weird things happen. You can't hear yourself, You can't hear anything. I remember I played a rock venue They're trying to develop a songwriter night, and they had the vocals compressed so much. There was no dynamics, and they had the frequencies super tight. You couldn't hear your overtones or anything. There was like nothing.

22:31 Speaker 2: And so I found I was very challenged to hear myself, right, and you and you really have to learn. You're in a big crowd, it's super noisy. How do you continue to hear yourself properly as a musician?

22:44 Speaker 1: Yep?

22:45 Speaker 2: Right?

22:46 Speaker 3: That was That was a heart lesson.

22:48 Speaker 2: It took me about maybe four weeks into my West Coast two before I had played enough rooms that I'd learned the thing. Yeah, and then something I'm still learning, how.

23:01 Speaker 3: Do you read a room?

23:03 Speaker 2: So a friend of mine is a brilliant songwriter from the Houston area, Ken Gaines. When I first started off as as a songwriter, I asked if I could just follow him around for a few of his shows, very regionally successful, and just watch what he does. And he took me under his wing for three shows and he told me his set list, in advance, and he said, but I'm going to change it, and I'm going to change the intro and the outro and the story based on the room.

23:31 Speaker 3: How do you do that?

23:34 Speaker 2: And so he's playing the show and then he would stop in the show and he said, Mark, this is for you, and he would make a change. He wouldn't tell anybody else what he was doing for you, And I knew what he was doing, right, And I'm like, okay, I got to know my music that well right to be professional, you know, to be accomplished. And so I'm still learning how to do that, you know. I think it's just a journey, you know that I'll probably be on ever, just learning how to read a room and land the story and music in a way that's gonna that's going to serve the room and the song the best.

24:07 Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, no, that's that makes sense, and that yeah, that is something you kind of that's not something anyone can It's not something you can read in a book. How to do that? You know. It's the only way you.

24:19 Speaker 3: Could, man, I wish you could in a book.

24:21 Speaker 1: Yeah, the only way. Yeah, really, the only way you can learn is by by doing. And uh, it can be tricky.

24:27 Speaker 2: Yeah, I wish it was a journeyman process. You know, that would be great if I could like just tack on to a touring guy who's you know, a gray beard, who could show me around, yeah, and teach me some of those things. But that's just not a part of a music program that I'm aware of anyway, you know.

24:43 Speaker 1: I think that aspect is especially challenging when you're you know, a solo act, right, just you and a guitar, because if you're in a band, like if you're in a band, there's a certain comfort to that and a safety in that, you know, safety in numbers. You know, no matter what the room is, you're up there with three other guys or four other guys or whatever the configuration is, right, But when it's just you, you're vulnerable, right, it's just you with the guitar, and you've got to figure out how to read that room.

25:07 Speaker 1: When you're in a band, you kind of don't care. It's like we do what we do, right, But when it's just you, there's that added pressure of you really got to sell this.

25:15 Speaker 3: Yeah for sure.

25:16 Speaker 2: And another thing I had to learn, like I love I'm all about positive energy, and I can share a million stories, touching stories, but I have a few songs that are very personal, and I'm not used to like being super vulnerable when I'm performing. And and so another thing that I've had to learn, you know, is stories are meant to be shared. I have a song my grandmother, my my poetry pal who's no longer with me, but super influential in my life. I wrote a song because I continue to hear her voice talking to me and encouraging me.

25:55 Speaker 2: And it's it's original, real, it's her telling me things. I'm sure where she's coming from. But you know, I get so emotional when I sing that song and I tell the story, and it touches so many people in the crowd when I do that, and they come up afterwards and tell me, Hey, that that song your voice. I can hear someone from my life, Wow, that's no longer with me. And so learning how to be vulnerable is something I'm learning still. I have some more personal songs. I'm scared to play them live. They're going to come out on an album that's that's coming up next year, but I'm scared to play them live because they're sort of raw emotions.

26:36 Speaker 2: Yea and yeah, I got to learn. I've got to learn to do that.

26:41 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, Well do you want to play another live one for us?

26:44 Speaker 3: I will, I will do that. So this song is a.

26:49 Speaker 4: It's a song called signal.

26:51 Speaker 2: It's all about being aware of the energy that you're putting out in the world and the energy that you're taking in from other people.

27:00 Speaker 3: Like we're all little radio station.

27:03 Speaker 2: You know. And I like to think about my channel being sort of the positive energy channel. And have friends who live on both ends of the spectrum, which helped me write the song right, Because no matter how good or bad you are, other people's signals affect you and your perspective on life for that day and in that moment.

27:25 Speaker 3: Single. This is called signal.

27:49 Speaker 2: Waves washing out from me, sending around my energy, sometimes bright and shimmering, sometimes dark and stifling, crashing into the walls and floors, sleeping in.

28:08 Speaker 4: The minds and more.

28:11 Speaker 2: Should I keep spewing random feelings, Nope, I should focus my mind on't heeling I'm taking it in and putting it out. I should cear up any lingering time some God, dial in my signal and make it a dream.

28:40 Speaker 4: Make it my positive screen. Dial in my signal hey.

28:51 Speaker 2: Make it a dream, make it my positive screen. Changing my mind to create a layer intensity is fine if your heart is there radiating the thoughts you want the most. It's a powerful, purposeful piece of Crouse reading the vibes back from with him. I can tell the quote I'm pulling out, you get back in, not accidentious, in the nagative, bringing out the best and share that narty.

29:41 Speaker 4: I'm taking it in, putting it out. I should clear up any lingering die.

29:51 Speaker 2: So I'm going up nyl in my signal and making it a dream. Make it my positive screen. Dial in my signal and make it a dream. Make it my positive screen. Do you feel the vibes from those around you? Are you catching the meaning in your mind? Is it helping you live and smile?

30:30 Speaker 4: Or do you need to turn that dial.

30:47 Speaker 2: I'm gonna dial in my signal and make it a dream.

30:55 Speaker 4: Make it my positive screen. Dial in that signal and.

31:05 Speaker 8: Taking a dream, make it my positive stream.

31:34 Speaker 1: Outstanding. Mark Winters is here with us live in studio. If you are just joining us, it is Matt Connorton Unleashed and if you are listening live of course, today is Saturday, October fourth, twenty twenty five as we are in our first hour and starting out with some great positivity from Mark Winters. So excellent, excellent. So when you when you do this, when you play live, do you ever have anyone join you? Or is it always? Is it always you? Or because yeah, because you mentioned back in Houston, there's someone you perform with, right.

32:03 Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, so I have.

32:06 Speaker 2: I've been on an amazing musical journey and I've I've met so many amazing people in the production of my albums and such. And I met a really good friend of mine now, mister Michael Shanks, about a year and a half ago, and he was just coming back in from Spain.

32:24 Speaker 4: He was in.

32:26 Speaker 2: There studying at Berkeley. He's an amazing guitar player and just an amazing human being. He and I were talking with a producer that was working on a song for me, and so he and I started playing when he was there. I just loved his energy and I said, hey, you know, when you're actually back in town, you want to hang out together, maybe play a few songs. Next thing, you know, we struck up a great friendship. I started inviting him out to play at shows with me. We have this you know, I'm competent on the guitar.

32:56 Speaker 2: I played lead guitar, but you know, I'm just sort of competent. He's phenomenal, okay, And the fact that he can do it on an acoustic guitar was what I was looking for. Creates great energy, and so we started playing together. We play percussion back and forth on the guitars and lead and rhythm and everything.

33:15 Speaker 3: It's really amazing.

33:15 Speaker 2: And then my vocal instructor I was telling you about earlier, you know, he I told him I'm looking for someone to sing harmonies with, and he said, hey, I've got just the lady. She's looking for someone to do the same. She doesn't play out a lot, and so she and I had coffee and then I invited her to sing with me at a show of mine that I had coming up. And if Lady Gaga and Adele had a baby.

33:40 Speaker 3: That's her voice.

33:41 Speaker 2: It's just meso soprano, richness and amazing, and if you tracked her, she's like like perfect when she's tracking her vocals or just like really like right down the middle. And so we started hanging out, playing singing duets to gather and so that became my trio okay, and we're really tight. I love working with those guys. I'm teaching her how to write songs. So we've written four songs together now, wrote the first one just for her. There have been harmonies or duo work for us, and so we play out a lot around town.

34:19 Speaker 2: But she has kids that are in middle school and isn't portable to be out on the road. And she's still developing herself as an artist independent artists new and so I'm hopeful to have her and Michael both out on the road as I get back through the area here, maybe next year. I'm still developing a following that makes it worthwhile for everyone to come out. You know, if you don't sell enough tickets, it doesn't work for people who have families to feed. So so I'm working on developing us as a trio more.

34:54 Speaker 2: And you'll hear her singing harmonies and background vocals on some of the songs in my Acoustic Me album. That's the live sound between the three of us. That's what I capture. That is all three of us performing and that on that Acoustic Me album.

35:11 Speaker 1: Oh cool, very nice, very nice. So how many how many albums have you recorded at this point?

35:16 Speaker 2: So there are three albums that are out yea. The first one is called Slipstream, which is a scientific principle of being like tucked behind someone like a duck. The person up front's working harder than the people behind them, Okay, And I felt like I was sort of drafting off of a lot of amazing musicians who are helping me create that album.

35:39 Speaker 3: Yeah.

35:40 Speaker 2: And so that's the first album I put out kind of a four piece light rock band format. And then I put out Boundary Layer, which was my album on the other side of COVID, still four piece rock.

35:54 Speaker 3: Light rock.

35:56 Speaker 2: And then I started leaning more heavily into the singer songwriter and so I rearranged a lot of my music to be singer songwriter formatted acoustic me album. I was telling you about it, sort of reimagine. It's got a few new songs on it. Yeah. And then I just put out Equal SIMC Squared, which is my latest batch of songs that a friend of mine, John Edward Ross, helped me produce. And I'm working slowly with these two new singles that I've just put out, Fake Gravity and Man in the Sky are part of an album that's going to release next year called the Science in Me, and so that would before into when that album comes out, that'll be the fourth album.

36:40 Speaker 1: Okay, so where do you record?

36:43 Speaker 2: You know, it's a I've I've recorded my very first album. I met a guy. I went looking for a producer. I'm pretty thorough guy. So I interviewed a bunch of producers and told him, look, I'm the new guy. I don't know anything. I'm gonna be annoying to work with because I'm gonna want to be in the middle of everything because I'm learning. Yeah right, yeah, And so I look for a producer who was friendly for that, and Mark Townsend showed that his studio was in Houston, and so he and I were talking. He had a Houston number or whatever.

37:12 Speaker 2: Well, he had just relocated to LA.

37:13 Speaker 3: Six months or earlier. Oh like, okay, well how do we do this?

37:17 Speaker 2: And he's like, well, you know, why don't we just have a he has a bunch of contacts.

37:22 Speaker 3: I said, why don't we?

37:22 Speaker 2: He said, why don't we just meet in Nashville and record your first album the bones of it there, yeah, and then we'll come out to La do the vocals. And so he did pre production in Houston, with me, and then we did the bones in Nashville at the House of Blue studio there and then did the vocals.

37:40 Speaker 3: Out in California.

37:42 Speaker 2: So the first one I did with him, and then I learned a ton he was so he was such a great mentor and he's so musically gifted. He helped me a ton to grow and learn. And then I was looking for someone more local for the second album, and so I worked with Derrek Haymes in Hugh and sugar Land actually uh and did my second album. It was a bit The process for that one was it was much more difficult for me because he's kind of a live sound person and so he wanted me to show up, do the thing live and then okay, you know, he'll clean up some stuff and they're done, which is not how I'm wired.

38:23 Speaker 2: And so I found another guy in town in Houston, Johnnybold Ross, and he and I have been working together, and Michael Shanks, my guitarist, is a producer as well, and so that there there are the two that really are the people who get me the best. And so we're on a journey together and we've written this where we produced this whole next album together that's coming out. And so I like people, you know, I like someone I can sit down and talk to you, like you like, Okay, let's work on this together, right, that sense of collaboration.

38:59 Speaker 2: I'm it's much more difficult to be the sort of remote you know, send me your vocals and send me the guitar part and put it all together remotely.

39:08 Speaker 3: I don't get the energy out of that.

39:10 Speaker 1: Sure, sure, yeah, it's funny. Uh there was a time when when people just generally were kind of turned off to that idea, and then COVID. COVID forced a lot of people to work that way. But then, you know, and a lot of people still a lot of people still work that way. But I would imagine it I understand your perspective and that I would imagine it would be challenging to work that Like obviously, we have the technology to you know, send tracks back and forth with Dropbox or you know, or OneDrive or whatever service you want to use.

39:38 Speaker 1: And it's sometimes some of the guests we have on the show, you know, these bands come in and they've got they've got music that sounds like it was all recorded together. You know, it sounds like a live band in the studio, you know, and then you find out no, they they've used a lot of technology in different studios and sending tracks back and forth and whatnot. But but the way, the way of doing it, the kind of the old school way, which is what you're doing, it sounds easier in a lot of ways because you're you're able to get that energy of directly collaborating with people.

40:12 Speaker 1: Right. Yeah, it sounds. It just sounds. That's how I mean. I'm a musician and I've recorded some stuff, but I've never not not to the extent that you have. And I would rather do it the way you're doing it, I think, than the way that some other people are doing it. If that makes sense.

40:26 Speaker 2: Yeah to me, I think there's Uh, it's kind of like it's like co writing. I started co writing two and a half years ago, never done it before, And there's a certain level of competence that you need to have to co write and to correcte well. And if I show up in the right room, my co writing sessions produce a completed song in three hours. Okay, So all I need is either me instrumentally or someone else on an instrument. Yeah, and you know, two people is if you pair me with a person who's used to writing melody, especially, then I can do everything else, so we can really produce a song really well, and there's an organic element to it.

41:12 Speaker 2: And I'm good. I've written co written with a lot of people and I'm good at it. And I can remotely work on zoom with someone.

41:23 Speaker 2: Because of the transport lag, I can't play a thing with you in the room, right, And so I have the same problem with production. I've done it enough that I can do it. I've done a track. I did a Christmas track with a remote producer. It was all back and forth remote and so I know how to do it, and I do my own vocal track and get home.

41:42 Speaker 3: I have a studio for that.

41:44 Speaker 2: But when you're creating an arrangement and you're listening to something, listening to a mix for the first time and trying to get everything dialed in, it's so difficult because of the lagginess of it.

41:58 Speaker 6: Right.

41:58 Speaker 2: I find it the most difficult when I'm writing, and the second most difficult when I'm in the final production phase and I'm trying to hear like the producers like let me turn the base up or the bass down or this or that way, you're not in the room with them.

42:14 Speaker 3: It's so hard.

42:16 Speaker 2: So my process with John Edward is we can do certain amount of things. We do the arrangement live, me and him and Michael in the room, and we do the thing and we get it the way we want it and the way it's the structure, and so we've got the genesis of the idea is now done and it's down and we've got that, and then.

42:34 Speaker 3: We we do the parts.

42:35 Speaker 2: We can put them all, you know, Frankenstein it together, the parts around that arrangement. And then when we get back to when I put my first set of vocals in, okay, we need to sit down and listen to that live, and then we do the final mix.

42:49 Speaker 3: We need to do the live.

42:50 Speaker 2: So I think there's there's moments in the songs genesis that you really need to be live to give it its best effort. And then after for that you can be you know, sort of remote. That's just my personal experience.

43:03 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, absolutely, Well you want to play one more live one?

43:08 Speaker 3: Yeah, let's let's let's do it.

43:09 Speaker 2: Okay, So this next tune I'm going to play for you is all about me getting out of a bad mood.

43:18 Speaker 1: Okay, So even when.

43:19 Speaker 2: I'm writing about a bad mood, I have to put a little positive spin on it. I was in a bad mood about it two years ago. And you know, I have a lot of crazy hobbies, you know, surfing and rollerblading and motorcycle racing and whatever, anything that my hair is on fire for. Yeah, and that usually gets me out of any funk i'm in.

43:38 Speaker 3: H Usually just a run does.

43:40 Speaker 2: But I got in a bad mood that I couldn't get out of it, And I said, you know, you're a songwriter. You should write a song about it, at least share the fact that you're in a bad mood, and ultimately ended up helping me get out of the bad mood. It's called seven Deadly moods.

43:55 Speaker 1: All right, Mark Winter is live in studio.

44:13 Speaker 2: I've got these bad moods living in my head, snapping and biting, n putting me on edge. It's like a hydra spitting with seven hairs, sneaking around and trying to spread. Ben said, and this got a hold on me. What's it gonna take to make you leave? My mind's tied up in a punking moods got me on edge?

44:49 Speaker 4: Why do I do? I said, I'm mooding. I need my things around me with dance. So night set up res feet singing a songs. I want to change my tongue. Seven deadly moon's gonna turn to go.

45:11 Speaker 3: Here comes those bad moods creeping back in.

45:14 Speaker 4: It's lonely and quite, just sitting on my cow. No one's around.

45:23 Speaker 2: They help me out, shameful, depressing and mercury thoughts, constricting and squeeze and I'm hit it south anger and sadness, So saiding, what's it.

45:40 Speaker 4: Gonna take to make you leave? My mind's side up in a punker moods? It's coming on it?

45:49 Speaker 7: Wow do I do?

45:50 Speaker 2: I said, I'm moody, handing mppons around me with dance all night, said our world street singing our.

45:59 Speaker 4: Songs, gonna change my tone. Seven deadly moves gonna.

46:04 Speaker 2: Turn to go, I said, turning turn turning to go,

46:26 Speaker 2: Seven deadly moves sitting in my head. H I S S I N G love and light and camarader read If I S S I G.

46:41 Speaker 4: Take those moods and loosen their whole K I S S I G. Seven deadly moods gonna turn to go? I said, turning, turning, turn it to go? That said the mood, and I need muffins around me, would dance on. I set up singing a songs, going to change my tone, seven deadly moves, going to turn to go, I said, turn it, turn to go.

47:19 Speaker 1: Wonderful. Mark Winter is live in studio. Mark, thank you so much. This has been wonderful. Where are you gonna be next? You know we're in Manchester, but we have listeners online all over the place. Where's your next show? Yeah?

47:30 Speaker 2: I'm headed up to Maine to hang out with my dad for a couple of days along the Marginal Way, okay, and then I'm headed into New Brunswick, so that's next on the list. And then I'm looping around from there west and then back south towards Texas.

47:47 Speaker 3: So come catch me.

47:49 Speaker 2: On the Positive Vibe Highway, surfing along with me and my trailer.

47:53 Speaker 1: Outstanding, outstanding, And where should people go online to keep up with everything that you're doing? Where's the best place to go?

47:58 Speaker 2: Yeah, Mark Winter's music dot com is the place to join the Positive Vibe tribe. Hop on that email list and keep track of all the the places I'm visiting and maybe catch a show live and pick up some positive energy in your life, you.

48:14 Speaker 1: Know, outstanding. So to close out this segment, we're gonna play this track Strong. What should we know about this before we play it? Anything you want to tell us about this?

48:24 Speaker 4: Yes, my h.

48:25 Speaker 2: So I'm I'm extremely competitive in athletics. So if we're out running a race together, Matt and I saw the finish line and you're standing next to me running, I'm like, Matt, I'm about to beat you coming across that finish line. And so anything athletics, I'm like that guy, super competitive, but in other parts of my life not so much. And so I wrote a song to remind myself and my children both to be aware that finishing strong can have a big impact in your life. And so the song it's all about finishing the strong.

49:02 Speaker 1: Baby all right, very good. So we're gonna play this, and if you are listening live on Saturday, sick Around coming up in the second hour, we have the Gray Curtain in studio, but we're gonna close out this hour with this. This is Strong by Mark Winters and Mark thank you again.

49:17 Speaker 3: Thanks Matt.

49:43 Speaker 2: We'll baby like this twist stenter times when you're feeling down.

49:50 Speaker 4: And when you want to give her and throw it to the gownd.

49:58 Speaker 2: Ab Baby, Lord only knows it's true. Gave up a few times myself.

50:08 Speaker 4: Help and didn't pull it through. Looking back is clearer.

50:14 Speaker 2: Now that a Pinto makes a great road sand for you.

50:21 Speaker 4: Hold up your head now, baby, hold up your head now, eyes on the press? Did a concert finish line?

50:32 Speaker 7: Strong?

50:44 Speaker 6: Yeah?

50:48 Speaker 2: And when I watch you grow trying hard to find your week bawling down looking around?

51:03 Speaker 4: What should I see? Looking back is clearing now? All that appears to makes.

51:10 Speaker 7: A great road? Time?

51:18 Speaker 8: Now on my brown, get across that finish line?

51:25 Speaker 7: Strong?

51:28 Speaker 4: What should I do? Be strong? What should I do? Make it tough for nobodas?

51:35 Speaker 8: Now?

51:36 Speaker 4: What should I do? Be strong? What should I do say if you first give you easy? How should I do be strong?

51:47 Speaker 1: What should I do?

51:48 Speaker 4: Show the way? Cast a shadow? What should I do? Be strong? What should I do?

51:57 Speaker 7: Make you strong?

52:01 Speaker 1: Back?

52:01 Speaker 2: It's clearer now that a pen who makes a great broad sam for you?

52:09 Speaker 4: The word now be of the ride?

52:16 Speaker 8: They're a quoted Finnish lie, stry, what of your herd?

52:24 Speaker 5: Now?

52:25 Speaker 4: Bead on the ride? You're a quoted Finnish lie.

52:35 Speaker 5: Try