Field Dispatch
Matt Connarton Unleashed 10-30-23
Game Plan
w/Charles Richardson, Eazy-G
You are listening to w U n H Command God, don't get so greenly
Matselthank you, Hey, everybody, Welcome, Happy Monday. It is that
time again, Matt Connorton Unleashed and we are live from the studios of w
m n H ninety five point three FM and Glorious, very rainy and dreary
downtown Manchester, New Hampshire. I do not like this weather, not two
days in a row. Also on Comcast Channel six if you're in Manchester.
And hello to all of our online listeners across the nation and around the globe.
You can go to my website Matt Connorton dot com for all of your
live streaming options, social media links, contact info, show archives, etc.
Etc. Today is Monday, October thirtieth, twenty twenty three. Nice
have you all with me. We've got a great show coming up in the
second hour today, We're going to be joined in studio by the band Heavy
America and they are one of the bands who is going to be performing this
Saturday at Swarmyfest. Jenny and I will be there, of course, representing
the program in an official capacity of course, but really looking forward to this.
Let me tell you just briefly. Swarmy Fest. Yeah, this Saturday
at Jewel Jewel Music Venue here in Manchester, actually not far from here,
actually very close to where our new location is going to be for the radio
station. When we make the move will be like spitting distance anyway, new
after an Each Booking presents Swarmy Fest twenty twenty three, two stages featuring Sepsis.
Of course, that's how this whole thing started. Swarmy Fest with the
band Sepsis. They're gonna be here on Friday. Also on the show,
A Simple Complex, Carpathia Trading Tombstones after the Winter Paradise is canceled, Dark
Rain, My Last Mile, DC Wolves, Heavy America who are coming in
today and in the Wind. It is eighteen plus thirteen dollars advanced tickets,
a fifteen day of show and yeah, that all starts at six pm,
two stages, I believe this year, so we're looking forward to that.
So Jenny and I will be there. You can come down meet us and
say hello, and there's gonna be some great bands there. A Simple Complex
they're coming in later this week. I've known them forever, so it'll be
really good to see them and get caught up after the winter. They were
on a number of weeks ago with us DC, Wolves was on Recently,
My Last Mile was on Recently and Heavy America. They are going to be
on with us today in the second hour and it will be the world radio
premiere of their brand new single called Pretender. Really great track. Nobody has
heard this yet. You'll be hearing this for the first time today on the
show, but we're going to save that for the second hour when they join
us live in studios. So really looking forward to that. These guys are
unique, They've got a I'm really looking forward to talking to them about influences
just because they've got such a unique sound. So that will be coming up
today in the second hour. Also, I think EZG is going to be
calling in with an entertainment report, so we can get caught up on what
Amanda McCarthy, Katie Dobbins and April Cushman have coming up, let's see and
what else? What else We should say hello to everybody in the Facebook live
chat, but let me give the phone numbers and everything if you'd like to
get in with a quick call before EASYG joins us UH six O three two
five O six seven is a studio line six O three two five O six
oh seven. You can also text me at six one seven nine one seven
four four seven six. I'm on social media at Matt Connerton. You can
email me Matt at mattconnorton dot com. And of course you can interact end
Opine in the Facebook live chat. But the best thing to do so that
we can hear and enjoy your dulcet tones. Oh, actually I think this
is uh, this might be EASYG on the line now, Hello, hello,
hello, hello, hello. All right, well it looks like his
phone number, but he doesn't seem to be there now. Tomorrow is Halloween,
so it's possible that that was the phantom. We do occasionally get calls
and it could have been the phantom using Easyg's number. You know, you
can spoof numbers. You can make it look like you're calling from any numbers.
So it might have been the phantom using eg easy He's number to fool
us. Uh. Let's see, perhaps it's the phantom Gourmet. That would
be fun Eric. Are you there? Yes, I am. He He've
been tell you that I'm digging that new entrance song for your show. Yes,
yes, Jerry and the Scumbags. The intro to the Supreme Leader of
Jerry's Rock and Roll Army, Jerry Robinson's rock and Roll Army, they called
Scumbags. Jerry m the Scumbags. That's the name of the band. Oh
that's what ms itself? Your favorite scumbag? Yes, that is. Last
night Jenny and I watched M J F versus Kenny Omega for the A E
W World title and it was an incredible match. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
We found it on Twitter now known as x. Yeah. You're find
things all over the place on that worldwide web. You sure it can't easy,
g you sure can. What is that? Uh? Now? What
is that sound that I'm hearing on the phone line? You sound like you're
calling, uh from the nineteen eighties? Uh? With that that sound on
on the uh on the phone there? You can't heard me. I can
hear you. It's just there's an odd sound that goes with it. You
sound like you're calling from another time? When? Uh, when another time
in American history when phones just generally sounded where here where phones just generally sounded
horrible? Is that the time? Is that the top phones? I put
the volume all the way out called volume all the way out. Uh huh.
Well that's good, so you can hear everything they did destruct Uh huh.
I don't know whoa what's going on? Now? It got worse?
Hello, Hello, I can hear you find Yes, you're cutting in and
out. Let me call you back. Maybe that'll back okay, all right,
yeah, uh that's great. I actually hope it sounds even worse when
he calls back, just because it'll be fun to see if it's possible.
Now, didn't it sound like he was calling from another time? Like like
that's that's what phones used to sound like, like in the nineteen forties or
something, when they first invented the telephone. If you called someone on the
phone, that's what it sounded. No, now, I'm now I'm being
I'm exaggerating a little bit. Sorry, I'm back any better. Well,
it's a different sound now, it kind of it almost sounds like there's a
are you running a hair dryer in the background, No, just the heats
on. The heat's on. Ah. Are you holding the phone directly in
front of the heater? No? No, no, down on my bed,
the heaters on the back of the room. All right, Well,
would you like to do an Entertainment report eazyg Yeah as well before people can't
people, people can't think I hear right, No, we can here,
we can hear you. It's just a terrible phone connection. So uh maybe
we'll uh maybe we'll make it, uh you know, an amended version.
But here let me go ahead and hit the theme music here for you Around
the Way? Easy? You want to know about stock market crashes? COVID
nineteen, drive buys, celebrity gossip, easy, geez, gotcha? Entertainment
reports stamp Wow, because they ain't letting but a jeep bank? Are you
that? Let's find out? Let's go? Are you? I could hear
the whole the whole entrance song. Are you using? Yes? Go ahead?
The Halloween call it all all? Uh huh this report to Susie and
Summers. It just died a while back, Susanne Cyrus Company. Yeah,
did you like that show? Backing today? Come and Knock on a Door?
Apparently I know the theme song? Yeah, I like that. Actually
a funny thing about that show when I was a kid, and I don't
know if my dad will remember this he listens to the show, But when
I was a kid, I remember having a conversation with my father where he
told me he didn't want me watching that show. He felt it was too
adult, you know, the humor and so forth. But as I got
older, he was cool with it, and he and I ended up watching
it together when it was like in its final season or something. Although they
tamed it down too, they did, they did. They tamed it down
over the years too. I remember toward the end of the series it was
it wasn't it wasn't as risque with the humor. Shall we say, yeah,
yeah, yeah, yeah, oh yeah, I have. I'm gonna
go back to a new ultimate movie of the week I started the other day
on my television, Jurassic World, Jurassic World, the Alligator. But they
got yeah yeah, those let's folks back way back in the day. We
used to make those animals, way back in the day of the dinosaur Scarolis.
At the same time, ez G. Do you believe, Dina,
Do you believe the dinosaurs and humans co existed? I don't think so,
No, good, I do not. I strongly suspect our new speaker of
the house believes that. But that's another subject. Yeah, go ahead,
yeah, crazy yeah, And we're gonna have a song of the week too,
I threw you, I give you the little song for the week,
MANA McCarthy. We heard of that girl? Ah, yes, yes,
I've heard of her, and I imagine we'll be hearing a lot about her
during your report. Yeah, we've got some local dates coming up to coming
around the Horn this week, coming around the Horn anyways. To get to
that the uh oh yeah, don't forget to check out City Cupcakes. So
safety is not really one hundred of green sauce that I might taste pretty well,
but they can't go today as a close, so they open tesday Saturday.
Now, by the way, uh easyg Rob Dyon is in the chat
room, and he is lamenting that your theme music is so much cooler than
his, as he is also an entertainment reporter. And and Melanie, uh
of course from the Great State of Vermont, is questioning are alligators technically dinosaurs?
I would not have thought so, although, uh, you find alligators
I believe in the state of Florida, and there's a lot of people there
who might be old enough to remember where there when there were dinosaurs. You
see what I did there, easygo well, I made a joke and look
for something to do tomorrow. I'm a trick a treat here in Manchester six
to eight. They want a bundle out to be a little chilly out and
then we got the oh another event and the people should check out that's coming
up November eleventh, Thevesman's stay paraded. It kicks off around eleven o'clock am.
Then they stop at the Veteran's Hall, I mean City Hall at eleven
eleven eleven and he played a taf and then they go over to Veterman's Park
for like thirty minutes. The Merrill Steak and some other dignitarias very good.
There's always a good idea to check that out for your vestmans. And then
next month about months when now I get signed up early and you get a
discount. You go to the Facebook page of the fisher Cats and you having
to Thanksgiving their run, I believe it or not in November twenty Thanksgiving.
It's a charity. It's a last year. I think it was last year
of the year before they was horrible, whether it's like cleaning out and raining,
but they still have people come out. Believe it or not. I
believe it now I guess believe and now believe this or not easy. G
Melanie uh has shared some information in the Facebook live chat. She says,
I looked it up. Alligators are not dinosaurs, but they, along with
other crocodilians, are the closest living relatives of dinosaurs apart from birds, which
are dinosaurs. Although alligators are neither dinosaurs nor the descendants of dinosaurs, they
are more closely related to dinosaurs and therefore birds, than they are two other
living groups of reptiles, such as snakes and turtles. Boy, I hope
you wrote that down. Well, we gat some events come up with this
new arena uh new arena age. You get all the ticket information in right
around the corner and the remember fourth uh oh, yeah, what it's coming
up the omberforeth Myers at Edic Walk, it's Pa Cassa and Grain and Ali
state children. All the money's gonna go for them. And speaking of Jurassic
law as I remember, Attendant twelve, what is that the this? I
noticed the sound on your phone changes when you're counting, ezyg. Have you
switched to a different cordless phone from the year nineteen eighty eight because you suddenly
sound very far away? Vera again? Yeah, you sound like. Uh,
it sounds like you put the phone like you put the phone on a
table by the door and then walked back to your bed, and now you're
just sort of speaking in the room and the phone on the table by the
door is sort of picking you up a little bit. That's what it sounds
like. Would you like to hear though, some Crocodile Rock by Elton John
since you weretioning, uh, crocodiles and dinosaurs. Personally, I prefer Tiny
Dancer. Are you still with us? EZG? Yeah, more things,
wrap it up. Yeah, that's a good idea because we can barely hear
you. Yes, for of course mean December for us Friday at seven thirty
at the Rex Theater with Shandon Clark and the Sugar and you go to Peli
State Dot for tickets, so you can go to the box office right here.
So we go six o three six, six eight five five eighty for
tickets. Uh huh and uh. Moving on to Katie Dobbins, he's gonna
be playing remember a free event Hadrick pub and go got the right the time.
So that's pretty sad, EAZYG that November thirty is going to a free
event at the Cure Gully at five and she's at the Songwriters Round Up pronounced
at seven pm with Morris and to Horror and that's it for her right now.
Talk about that right now, right right that. Amanda McCarthy's he's coming
to town this Thursday into Woven Soul Boat with concert series and New Bedford,
Massachusetts and duo assuming it must be with Tom the Drummer Boys. Tom the
Drummers. He's doing eleven five right here in Hudson this Saturday, five days
at the bar, and he's going right over to Manchester for nine. Easy
G. Are you choking on your phone? It sounds like you're choking on
your phone right now. I think this might be the most disastrous entertainment report
yet. Uh not not because of Easyg's performance, but because we can't hear
him. And I don't think he knows we can't hear him, all right,
that that's unlistenable. I didn't hang up on him. He's still there
and we'll check back with him in a few seconds. But I can barely
hear him, which actually, interestingly enough, now some people might not know
this unless you unless you're someone who has broadcasting experience. But if you have
someone on the phone and you can barely hear them, it doesn't make for
necessarily the best radio. Now, let's see if we can hear him.
Now, let's see if he's still there and we can hear him. Easy
G, are you there? Wrap things up? Okay, very good?
All right, We're gonna wrap things up with EASYG. Yeah. I can
barely hear him. No disrespect. We love EAZYG, but we can't hear
you. Okay. He did request a song, however, and we will
honor that request. I have not heard this song yet, so this might
be a world radio premiere. Actually, let's give this a listen and then
we'll come back and I have a subject I want to talk about and we'll
say hello everybody in the chat room. But this is called normal apparently.
This is a new track from Amanda having Babies that I went down now row
nine years ago getting married. Still see his lack fable brokenhearts? O love
it now? I'm not if I'm no normal baby, I normal want to
be called been a pushing for the last wee reality of sad in all this
fantasy that I'm riding my own fairmited I now a normal means me. Some
people go to college. I dropped out for three content the truth. It
may not be with some the TV A mother, superficial pathos out of the
king for my baby. If I'm my normal baby, I don't want to
be called to be a bush And for the last three realities money outside of
all this fantasy, and I'm banning my fairys and no normal means to me?
Why he's a green of crow when you could chase some neverse slad?
Can you even find a beauty in avent? Need you bad? Thats wow?
I'm not normal, but I don't want to be. I have been
breaking down a very since nineteen ninety three. On the outside, there's a
bunning my own erity. But now we're normal mes normally very nice. That
is called normal. That is Amanda McCarthy. That is the track that our
friend EAZYG requested for today. Yeah, Amanda has such a beautiful voice,
and I think she's going to be in the area doing a show. I
think I heard EZG mentioned something about that. It was a little difficult to
tell because easygh. I think he was calling us using a tin can and
a string, uh while posted up behind a radiator. So it's a little
difficult to understand most of his report. I really didn't understand much of any
of it, but except that he did dedicate this week's report to Suzanne Summers
of Three's Company who passed away and the thigh Master commercials. I was surprised
he didn't mention the passing of Matthew Perry that was over the weekend. Was
that yesterday or Saturday, age fifty four from the television sitcom Friends, and
he had he had some other shows after that too, But yeah, that
was wow. He I mean, I was never a big fan of the
show Friends. I saw it a few times. It was funny, but
it was just to me, it's just kind of your standard sitcom. I
was never into it, but standard nineties television sitcom. But I know he
had a lot of problems. And yeah, Jenny and I were talking about
it, and you know, she had commented and I thought the same thing
that when she heard that he had drowned, that you know, maybe he
had fallen unconscious in his swimming pool, you know, because he had a
lot of substance abuse issues, and and I thought the same thing. And
it turned out it was actually in his hot tub. So yeah, he
must have he must have fallen unconscious. Uh, I don't know if they've
released an actual cause of death. I mean, obviously he drowned, but
you know what would what would cause you know, a fifty four year old
man. You know, I have to assume that it was something he had
ingested that had caused him to be unconscious. Perhaps he overdosed on something or
who knows. But uh, yeah, Uh, Matthew Perry aged fifty four,
So that was that was too bad. But uh, six oh three
two five O six o seven is the studio line. If you'd like to
join us today on the program six O three two five O six oh seven.
You can also text me at six one seven nine one seven four four
seven six. I'm on social media at Matt Connorton. You can email me
Matt at Matt Coonnorton dot com, and of course you can interact endo Pine
in the Facebook live chat. But the best thing to do so that we
can hear and enjoy your dulcet tones is to give us a call at six
O three two five O six oh seven. We have a great musical guest
coming up today in the second hour, Heavy America. UH will be live
in studio with us, and they're gonna be playing this Saturday at Swarmy Fest,
but they're going to be coming in today to talk to us, and
we have the world radio premiere of their brand new track, Pretender, so
looking forward to that. We'll go ahead and say hello to everybody in the
Facebook live chat. Let's see here. Charmaine Davis Elliott joins us and says,
Hey, Matt, Happy Monday. Hello Charmain. Easyg is in the
Facebook live chat. Hello, Easy Beat Flash. Who I'm going to go
out on a live here. I suspect very strongly in fact that Easybeat flashes
from Greensboro, North Carolina. And Easy Beat Flash says, hello, Matt
Connerton. We say to you from us, and it's a awesome from us
to you, sir. We are from Greensboro, North Carolina. Sometimes I
wonder if I am in fact clairvoyant. Easybeat Flash also says Matt Connerton.
We sing and dance from us. I feel like everybody in Greensboro sings and
dances. Carol's a Warwitz is in the chatroom. Hello, Carol. Also
Mike from Queen City Cabinetry, one of our great sponsors here at WMNH and
every Friday night I get to hang out with Mike along with Pauly C and
DJ Steve for Retro Spectrum Radio with poly C right here at WM and H.
This past Friday, we celebrated our third anniversary of doing that show here
at this station, so always a good time. J Fed joins us and
says, good afternoon everyone from the great state of Vermont, as well as
Melanie allat Liberty. Mariam Bannis joins us and says good afternoon. Easybeat.
Flash says, we say is rest in peace, Matthew Perry, and we
say are a good actor. We always watch you on reruns of Friends TV
show from us. Very nice. Rob Dian, of course I mentioned is
in the chat room. Rob is, of of course part of the WM
and H family. He hosts his own show called Through the Stage Door,
which airs Tuesdays and Thursdays right after this show, and I think it airs
on Sunday as well, and then Rob Thursday Mornings does a segment on the
morning show name that Tune and does his own entertainment report as well. Let's
see, I just want to make sure we don't miss anybody in here.
Jenny, of course, is in the Facebook live chat, says shill Oam
peeps might be everybody so far, and I'm having difficulties scrolling down. Facebook
is being Facebook. Oh, EASYG just said Matthew Perry will take whoops.
Matthew Perry will take a couple of weeks to find out how he died.
Matt I didn't know that, EASYG. Thank you. That's why EZG is
such a great entertainment reporter. He's able to explain how long it takes before
you know how someone died. Yes, thank you. Eric. Speaking of
Eric, by the way, the other Eric, of course, Eric Pilcher
from Cedar Rapids, Iowa. He is going to have the classic film review
tomorrow. That was originally supposed to be last week, but it's for Halloween,
the movie Halloween, and Eric had the idea that we should save that
for actual Halloween Day, so that will be tomorrow. We'll run that during
the first hour, and of course we have a great musical guest tomorrow in
the second hour, and so that will be very exciting. But let me
give the studio line one more time. Six oh three two five six seven.
Jay fed says there are a lot of murders in Greensboro. Is that
true? Oh my goodness. Eric Street just joins us in the Facebook live
chat, and Eric says, as of November thirtieth, it will be ten
years since Paul Walker passed. Yes, Paul Walker of the Fast and Furious
franchise. Wow, that was a decade ago that he died. That's incredible
to me. Where does the time go? And I believe this is our
friend to Charles Richardson on the line, Charles is that you Yeah, that's
me? How you doing good? And I'm doing pretty good? And greetings
to all the fifty thousand people that are in North Carolina listening at this moment.
Yes, he them in Greensboro, the entire population of Greensboro. Exactly
in Greensboro where the entire population is a team hop bands and did you know
this, Charles? Did you know this? They sing and dance. They
also use hashtags quite a lot. Yes, I noticed that how they communicate.
What I wanted to touch on Matthew Perry for a couple of things.
Sure. First off, my wife and I are were actually my wife more
than me, very big in the Friends. So we watch it almost all
night when we're trying to go to sleep. Because we'd like the TV on
so playing like almost all of them. But I actually got turned on to
it too. It's like it was actually kind of a it was a cool
comedy number. The first thing that's been potentially when they first broke out,
it was an apparent drowning. We wasn't sure. Then they're saying that he
had a heart attack, Oh nosto, and he said he went out for
pickleballing earlier that day. He normally is an avid pick a ball player.
Apparently in his teenage years he was a ranked tennis player. And they're saying
that, you know, he got home, you didn't feel really well,
you know, felt tired, a little bit out of breath. He apparently
he has an assistant in his house, sent the assistant off, Aaron went
to the hot tub and baboom, there you go. Then the rest is
history. So yeah, I'm sure when you've been addicted drinking and drugs for
that long, even if you're trying to get sober, you know it's still
gonna it's it's gonna beat you up inside. Yeah, and I don't know
if that's ever anything you can get over. Well, Yeah, eventually gonna
take a toll. Yeah, that's the thing. I mean, obviously,
fifty four is young, uh for a heart attack. But but you're right,
Charles, I mean, all that abuse that you do, if you
abuse yourself in that way with drugs and alcohol, it does, Yeah,
it wears down those uh you know, your internal organs uh. And your
heart is vulnerable to that obviously, and so yeah, it would not surprise
me if that is. Again, fifty four is awfully young for that still,
but I think the average I looked it up once. I think the
average age for a heart attack for men, for a first heart attack is
sixty eight maybe in the United States, So fifty four is still pretty young,
but it is. But yeah, he'd be it's young. It's young
to die too, for fifty four, I mean, that's that's still very
young. Yeah, it's terrible. I mean he did, he did climb
the hurdle and pass it over. He was sober for two years back in
twenty twenty one, claimed he was sober and for the past few years.
But again, like I said, you know, you're fifty two when you
were sober, and god knows how long you've been doing drugs and alcohol.
He said through the whole time he was on friends, he did it.
Oh really, we got to go to the assumption. That's a long time
and you know, finally getting sober, that's good and all. But again,
like I said, the after effects of probably probably weren't very good,
and he probably didn't look after himself very well. That's probably why we see
a lot of these photos where he was just gray out and kind of looked
a little bit disheveled. And you know, he wasn't the healthiest looking person
during that time period. But you know, he made he made a commitment
to it and he got over it. But just it just you know,
I think if somebody was there, or I think I was somebody was there,
I think there may have been a chance he would have survived. But
you know, when he died, it was really hard breaking because not only
as Matthew Perry, this is a guy who's done. He was a tremendous
personality he had. He was very funny, he could do many different roles.
You know, he was definitely a guy in Hollywood that I think everybody
would have looked up to. You take a look at it, and you
know, you've got when this death happened, When it was reported you got
like five or six cop cars over there, you got the helicopters roaming around
his house. I mean, listen, why don't you guys. I know
he's a star. I know he's a Hollywood superstar, and I know he's
you know that there's no privacy in Hollywood. My god, can't you just
guys give these people a break and get some privacy. I mean, Okay,
he passed away, that's very sad. We all grieve. No need
to go ahead and do like an inside edition right away, once you give
some time. I'm over here seeing the helicopter fly over his house. Yes
I'm watching, I get it, but I'm almost just seeing a lot of
people just making these comments. But I'm seeing it. What isn't exactly a
luxurious mansion or anything like that. I mean, yeah, it was a
nice house right there on the shore, almost on the shore of the beach,
But by no means was it like, you know, a fifty eight
or a lot. And it didn't look like anything huge. It looks like
it was a very modest for somebody of that fame and caliber that that passed
away. I mean, yeah, but again, just why can't you guys
just leave it alone. And then of course the people making early jokes on
memes. I guess he died in the hot tub. I guess nobody was
there for him making reference to the song. Yeah, yeah, but that's
so clue, that's so heartless. Well, I would say this Charles,
so I would not be comfortable making those jokes myself. I don't tend to
do that, but I'm not offended when I see other people do it because
I think I think for a lot of people, that's especially when it comes
to death, you know. I think for a lot of people that's how
they deal with it is with dark humor, you know. So I don't
make any judgments about it, you know, but I guess that's one way
to look at it. I don't know. I just I just don't see
it though. I just see it like listen, wait, yeah. You
know when everybody tries to make a joke and you hear you, especially a
stand up comedian, and they go, oh, you know, they start
jeering, That's how I feel. It's like, all right, you're making
a joke. It's you having time to pass. You know. There's some
nice memes there with another friend of the the cast as they were doing the
show. One of them was like Joey, one of his closest friends and
roommates during the show, on scene of course, taking a look at another
recliner. He had two recliners death the show is known for. He's looking
at the other recliner of bear and dose. The caption over. So it's
like, you know that, that's I've seen that. I like those type
those sentiments. Yeah, you know, I like those. You know,
it's just you know, it's it's it's it's a it's a sad day.
Because that this was a good actor. I enjoyed some I enjoyed several of
his films. One of them is uh with that one sick. I forget
the name of it, but he's like a construction worker knocks up one chick
in the bathroom and has to marry her in front of her parents. It's
like, uh, But I mean he he had a lot of good roles
and a lot of TV roles, and I think he just, you know,
he needs to be memory. He needs to be remembered, I think
in a in a more uplifting manner. I think so, I mean again,
he just battled or just got over the battle of alcohol and druggism,
which you know, that's a mistake, but he did it, and unfortunately
he just didn't have long enough left apparently. Yeah. Yeah, no,
it's uh, it's it's uh. It's too bad. He didn't he didn't
have any He didn't have any children, did he he? I don't know,
Actually, I couldn't tell you. I don't I know. He was
like, you know, he he dated like you know, uh uh,
pretty woman. I forget her name. Oh my god, I cannot talk
today. Yeah, Julia Roberts. Apparently he did Julia Roberts for a little
bit. He had a lot of high profile relationships. I don't know if
he had any kids. I mean, that's something actually would probably not be
a bad idea to look up. Scott Robinson says in the chat room,
I do believe that Matthew Perry got his first big break as a character on
Beverly Hills nine O two one. Oh. That's actually good. That's actually
a good thing if that's the case. M I don't know, he doesn't
say anything in regards to kids. I mean, I'm looking up his Wikipedia,
which that can be true, you know, but yeah, yeah,
that's it doesn't say any kids. Chris Uh. Chris from the band Edgewise
in the chat says, if helicopters and TMZ surround my house when I go,
uh, when I go, i'd be psyched. Most of us,
most of us will go unnoticed. That's well, that's a good way to
look at it. But listen, trust me, if I go and helicopters
around my house, it's because I'm hiding a whole bunch of heroin or something.
Ain't gonna be because I'm dead. Are you saying your high No,
never mind, Chris h yeah, yeah, yeah, no, never mind.
I'm sorry. Bleep me out please, oh Chris. Also, Chris
also said, yeah, it is sixty eight for a heart attack. That's
that's the average for a first art attack for men, he said, gives
me ye. But you've got to realize that's probably in a semi healthy,
you know, lifestyle. Well, you're you're your age agent. Wait appropriate,
Okay, maybe you know you're not eating the healthiest, but you got
taken to consider alcohol and drug factor in there, and you got it's not
good. It's just not good. Yeah, yeah, no, I I
assume the more you abuse yourself with drugs and alcohol. I would imagine the
more likely you are to have while something catastrophic happened to be at a heart
attack or anything else. But Chris also said, gives me hope I can
enjoy my love for steak and cheese subs a bit longer. That's it's funny
when when I eat something that's bad for me, I can relate to that
because I when when I eat something that I know isn't necessarily healthy for me,
I have the same thoughts. It's like, I'm still a long way
away from having to worry, but when in reality, it's those things that
cumulatively over time catch up with you unfortunately, although they catch up with you
less when you're young, like if like if you're you know, geez,
when I was in my twenties, I was eating Burger King every day,
and it's like, she's if I did that now, I'd probably be dead
by now. But uh, anyway, yeah, I listen to this.
In two thousand and two, he estimated that he spent nine million dollars on
his addiction, including fourteen stomach surgeries, fifteen stays in rehab, and therapy
twice a week for thirty years. I believe that how long that was.
That's just crazy. Fourteen stomach surgeries. That's gonna definitely go down that that
in your lifespan of Come on, he spent two weeks in a coma and
used the colostomy bag for nine months. Oh my god, I didn't know
because he had a gessional profriation ohation twenty eighteen. He Yeah, I didn't
know all this. That was crazy. I did not. Being admitted to
the hospital, doctors told his family that Perry had a two percent chance of
survival. Oh my god, he was connected to an ECMO machine. I
don't know what that is, you cmo. So he did have a lot
of medical issues and apparently becau I'm not sure if this is because of them
of the alcohol and drugs, but safe bet apparently it was. He had
a lot of He had a lot of stomach and digestional issues too. I
did not see. I didn't know all that. I didn't know. I
just always I mean, I knew everybody knows. And again, I never
really paid that much attention to him. But you know, I think everyone
knew that. Uh well, let me put it this way. I thought
he was your standard celebrity with a substance abuse issues. I had no idea
that he had had some pretty close calls there and it had been a yeah,
I didn't know about all of that, which and again I don't say
this to sound callous or anything, but now hearing about all of that,
it's not a surprise at all that he's gone at fifty four. I mean,
oh my god, I did not know all of that. A lot
of going in. Yeah, he had fourteen stomach surgeries, yeah, esz.
So just to clarify, eighteen seventy nine television role on nine two four
zero Dash Robert, I don't have no idea what that is, but that
was his first acting role, okay, in television. His first film,
A Night in the Life of Jeremy Reardon in eighty eight. Nine years later,
Mike from Fools Rush In, that was the one, and he was
in the whole nine yards, in the whole ten yards with Bruce Willis.
Okay, I've seen Fools rush In. I thought that sounded kind of familiar.
Now, Mike from Queen City Cabinetry set in the chat room, so
that that machine you were referring to before, it's uh, extra it's extra
core, corporeal Jenny would know how to say this extra corporeal membrane oxygenation.
He says, it pumps, It pumps and oxygenates a patient's blood outside the
body, allowing the heart and lungs to rest. I think Keith Richards has
had that done. I've heard of that. Okay. Yeah, so it
almost sounds like it cleans you out really good. Yeah yeah, yeah,
like it like it cleans your your blood if I if I understand it correctly,
which I probably don't, but that's heavy duty stuff. Wow. So
he really he did a lot of damage to it. Yeah, yeah,
I mean honestly, again, and this and this was after Friends. This
is definitely after nine oh two one oh, which he was only in one
episode, by the way. Okay, so but this is after everything.
He was on the Good Wife, he was on the Odd Couple. Uh.
Of course. The last thing he ever did, looks like was Friends
of Reunion. Oh was it? Oh? Yeah? Yeah, yeah,
I think I remember seeing something about that. Yeah. His last movie role
was seventeen. Again, that was in two thousand and nine. So he
wasn't really a huge film guy. Yeah, but he did serve in a
few good films. Sure, Sure, I mean, obviously Friends is what
he's most known for because that that series was such a massive, massive hit.
Couldn't get away from it, definitely almost ten years it was. I
mean, listen, I understand if you're not a fan of Friends. It
was probably just like one of those you know of scoofy sitcoms that I'm telling
you. That thing made a splash in American TV, like you know,
like Home Improvement Band, you know that that was like one of the most
watched things back in the day. Massive and they had that you know that
song, not that I liked the song, but that I'll Be There for
You by the Rembrandts. You know what. I remember. This is just
an odd, random thing. It has nothing to do with Matthew Perry,
but I remember seeing a story about that on I think it was on Entertainment
Tonight. I don't know if that show even still exists anymore, but back
then it did. It does, it's just labeled as ET now, gotcha.
So I remember seeing a segment on that show about that song, and
it was all about the rem Brands, and there was an interview with the
Rembrands and it was all about how this was their first big hit and their
big break, you know. And I remember sitting there watching this segment and
the entire time I'm thinking this, this is completely inaccurate. This is not
their first hit song, and it really bothered me because their first hit song
was a song called I think it's called The Way It Is, which was
also a big hit. But for some reason in this segment, they're acting
like, oh, the Rembrands, there's this hot new act that nobody ever
heard of until now, and I'm like, they just had a big hit
song a couple of years earlier. Do you remember that song the Way It
Is? Baby? That's just the way it is baby? Yeah, yeah,
yeah, that was a bit. I remember hearing that. I think't
that's the reason why they're Lincoln I'll be There for You is because that thing
that's still collecting royalties beyond belief. I mean, yeah, the way it
Is, that's still that's still being played like on like oldies radio and satellite
radios. But I'll be There for You. That's just iconic, that's known
for a lot more than just you know, the I know, I know
that. It's just I'm just saying though back then, though, back then,
when I saw that this would have been back when Friends was just becoming
a hit. And I saw that segment and at the time, I was
like, am I witnessing the death of journalism? They already had a big
hit. This, this entire segment is completely wrong that there's no accuracy here.
Wait, just the way it is released in nineteen ninety and I'll be
there for you as in ninety five, those five years between hits. Yeah,
but they already are those hits, I should say, yeah, they
were already, they were already famous. And in this segment they're like,
oh, I even remember at the end of the segment, whoever was Mary
Hart or whoever? She's like the rem brands one hit and counting, you
know, And I'm like, no, that's not that they have two hits.
This is their second hit. I'm very much a stickler about that kind
of thing, Charles. I don't like it when artists are labeled as one
hit wonders when they're not. It really bothers me. As you can tell,
I got very exercised about it. Yeah, well, well as all
as you being a fellows this, and of course you're gonna go ahead and
feel a certain type of way. It's like Hey, No, that's bs
right. No, you're you're gonna stick to those facts. But when you
going ahead and you're gonna be you know, filming something for an article or
a show or or something like that, nobody's gonna remember that one. You're
gonna see you all. I'll be there for you. That's gonna be the
song that everybody's gonna cling to. You may have to think about the other
one a little bit longer. But you don't want people to watch and listen
and think no, no, no, you just want them to watch and
listen. You want them to think me and you will think mm hmmmm m
exactly. So that's what's wrong with America. Yes, I think the next
time we get a president, there he does the thinking for us and we
just listen. Yeah. Oh that would be paradise. Everything would be so
easy. That's you know what the next president should be, somebody that's evolved
in round. AI. Get an AI president. I think everything will be
perfect. Yes, yes, oh that's a wonderful idea, Charles, I
like it. I think so I think I should run for president just for
getting that idea. Yeah, but that would defeat the you're not a I
so that would defeat the purpose. Yeah, well, how many ideas have
other presidents come through that I'm gonna do this, this and that, and
they never do right. Well, that's true. So you're saying, that's
that's my lock and key right there. So you could you could live up
to that standard, is what you're saying easily as as president. Oh hell
no, no, no, no no, I'm just gonna make people think
I can. Oh right, well, yeah, that's that's what I mean.
Yeah exactly, Yeah, yeah, yes, I can. I can
live up to San Matt. Yes, yes, they better work on my
line. I'm not there yet, right right, You'll get there. You'll
get there. I mean you're gonna have to if you want to be president.
Yeah, definitely, I gotta. I gotta throw that bs out there,
really thick and steamy. Yeah, yes, well, very good.
All right, Charles, wonderful dear from you, my friend. Yep,
take care all right, bye bye. All right. That was our friend
Charles Richardson from the great state of Florida. Here's what we're gonna do,
as I see out in the hallway musicians, So we're gonna get them in
here. I'm gonna play a track of theirs. This is called The Fall.
We've got the world radio premiere their brand new song. We're gonna hold
off on that though, until they're in the room, but we're gonna play
this track. It's called The Fall. I really like this a lot.
The band is Heavy America. We'll listen to this. We'll show some love
to our amazing sponsors, and then when we come back, Heavy America will
be here with us live in studio. Don't go anywhere. There's plenty more.
Matt Connorton unleashed, coming right up, stand like a bone. He
do to spell side let me watching, then didn't dispell. Oh no,
look now we've done it. Cracks falling There one more ship to step back,
freepell for the pall He stop ball calling dab dam Bell's confusing to sans
were else? Oh no, the system is falling. The cupboards up it
one mom ship to step back, three pair for the fall happen. I
take her and got a thousand night. No one left here to care.
He said something no more you and me to have not a more sail.
Oh no, look now be done. Cracks small rebell, one ball fifty
stand back rebel, No like a mountains no spell. So don't you saying
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so pretty. I must help them all. Get me freeze some off.
Come on, I cannot one and I'll break them all. They said you,
they lit at you. I know that day us cry away. I
want time you refrain, No boys breakout, said lower. Spend no time
on the place all the day, all the time that you wait. I
need the fun out on that pace. I don't wanna me this place.
I always come make it sir. You need to have a good time.
Rgi brope back to soy eyes, shut the boxes. There's not going to
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Come on down to the hop Knot at one thousand Elm Street, Manchester's
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don't get so freely maze. Welcome back everybody, as we are into our
number two numerodos of Matt Connorton Unleashed, and we are live from the studios
of WMNH ninety five point three FM and Glorious Downtown Manchester, New Hampshire,
also on Comcast Channel six if you're in Manchester. Hello to all of our
online listeners across nation and around the globe. You can go to my website
Matt Connorton dot com for all of your live streaming options, social media links,
contact info, show archives, et cetera, et cetera. Today is
Monday, October thirtieth, twenty twenty three, and we've got some musicians here
in studio. Heavy America joins us live in studio. Welcome, Hey,
thanks for having us, and uh yeah, and uh this is special because
we're gonna be doing the world radio premiere of a brand new single, which
we're going to talk about in a moment. But uh, let's Mike,
let's start with you. You're at the news desk. Why don't you just
tell us who you are and what you do in the band. My name
is Mike Seguin. I am the lead vocalist and guitarists in Heavy America.
I do a lot of the audio engineering for the band. Oh cool when
we record excellent, Uh, pretty much most of the managerial skills. Yeah,
you know that, come with it. Try to be a little bit
of everything, Try and take care of whatever needs to get done. That's
what we'll keep it all, you know. Yeah, yeah, there you
go, there you go, all right. I like that, keep it
small, keep it all. I like that. And on the couch,
you, sir, I am Dan. I am the drummer of the band.
Also a little the singing, but mostly the drummer and percussionist. Okay,
and you, I'm Bud and I play the bass all right. I'm
a bass player as well. So very nice, very nice. When you
guys are from Boston, yeah, yeah, the band's based out of Boston.
Excellent. How was your drive it wasn't too too bad. Yeah,
there was some rough spots, but yeah, this time of day it can
be a little dicey. Yeah, and with the weather too. Oh yeah.
Dan had the worst of almost two hours to get and these guys know,
I'm used to the guy always early. So we get here with a
couple of minutes. Spot right up front like you normally do. Did really
always that's our joke at gigs. I always get the spot. I got
the drums, got all equipment. I always get the spot right off front
of why it is, but we're looking for the gig. Just look for
Dan's cards. Yeah part of the gig. Yeah, well with the drums
that smart? By the way, are you? And this has been a
trend on the show recently. It seems like every band we have on the
drummers in like ten different bands. Are you in a bunch of different bands?
Are you just in this one? We are all in this one band,
no kidding, well, being in this one band. So we're dedicated
to this very cool, very cool. Yeah, this is our band.
Ye excellent, excellent and uh everything. So we played a couple of tracks
during the during the break, but we're gonna play you know a couple of
your older songs, but we have a brand new You have a brand new
single, I should say, yes, we do, called Pretender, and
this is the world radio premiere, right, nobody's uh, nobody's heard this
yet. That's correct. Yep. This is the first time it's been on
public years excellent. Just got it back from mastering last weekend. We figured
what better place to show it off than Yeah, yeah, oh we love
it. We love it great. Anything we should know about this before we
hear it? Any uh, anything you want to tell us about it?
Or uh no, no not really, Just sit back and enjoy. All
right, very cool. All right, let's give you this a listen,
and then we'll come back and talk with these guys some more. This is
the brand new single from Heavy America. This is called Pretender. Right hard
to spend my wood, notty three things, the silver spood bed down,
but either pretend that now. The wado means no surrender your come out pretenda
click hand thousand one five down the room set the world of fire to pool
with patients to spend what got I've gone everywhere? Come home, come home
that shagenda live no carender that pick the kernw my Bregenda. Joe Jane said,
tid on the other side, So it off getting near sow it up
and start all over again. Come come that Shayanda live. Now, come
pick the cantato hot. They sat like that's say the pet got lou don't
he d go hot pick? They can sid go hot mil the pick sad.
You heard it here first pretender. That is a brand new single from
Heavy America. And we have Mike, Dan and Bud here with us live
in studio and great great stuff. So where do you record? You do
this all? Mike you said you handle the audio engineering and everything. Yeah,
we do all the recording ourselves right at our rehearsal studio and bill Ricka
Mass We've been there since twenty fifteen. Yeah, so we've done a pretty
good job of you know, getting the place all soundproofed and you know,
cables run and everything and it's I mean, it's a down and dirty recording
studio, but it definitely gets the job done. And it saves us thousands,
oh no doubt. Yeah, you know, and we live in a
time and I've I've talked about this with a lot of guests on the show
over the years that. You know, we live in a time where you've
got so many different options in terms of how you approach recording. You know,
you can you can go to a recording studio, you can build your
own, you can you have a very small setup in email tracks back and
forth. I mean, it's amazing all the different ways you can do it
now. Yea, And before we go any further, by the way,
too, these guys, now, I did not open this yet or look
at it for those of you watching online or on Comcast Channel six, because
I wanted to do this on the air. Whoops. Oh there's a sticker
too. Awesome. But these guys brought me a shirt, brand new Heavy
America shirt. Oh nice, very nice. Yeah, we went with a
tan with black this time instead of a black T shirt. The last six
runs of T shirts have all been black, so no, you changed it
up a little bit. I was just thinking, I think that's cool because
everybody to black T shirt exactly, so that's something different. I like it.
Yeah, that looks really good. You can wear that to a formal
event too. There you go, there you go. Now, that is
awesome, Thank you guys. That is that is fantastic. Who designed the
logo. I really dig the logo we did. Yeah, what font is
that? It's called Madison Square in size. Okay, yeah, it took
a long time to find that it really Yeah, well, you want something
to be original and to carry the the you know, through time. So
yeah, yeah. By the way, Dan, I have to tell you
so you won't you won't know who I'm talking about. But the listeners might
appreciate this, the ones who are familiar with this gentleman. There's a guy
named Ron who a great guy. He calls the show occasionally and sometimes on
another show that that I'm on on Friday nights even sits in and or he
was on the morning show today in fact, and you sound a lot like
our friend Ron, so our listeners might might have noticed that it is.
Yeah, no, you sound a lot like him. It's funny. Now,
you guys are gonna be at Swarmy Fest on Saturday coming up this weekend.
Yep, Yeah, we're going on well ten minutes to eight I think
is that time for Swarmy Fest. But there is gonna be a lot of
good bands there this weekend. It's gonna be wicked good yep, yep.
Looking forward, Yeah, we knew some of them, but when we you
know, all of us go to see and listen to the bands before we
go out and play, and it was fun to listen through and some really
good bands. We're gonna be really good. Yeah, it's gonna be great.
God, the more you talk, the more you sound like Ron.
It's weird. We'd like to thank, like to thank Sepsis also forgetting us
on that bill. They were very gracious in having us and we appreciate that.
Yeah, we have in the chat room right now. Hans A Smith
of Sepsis is in there. Hello, Hans says, Hey Metal Matt Hello.
Yeah, I've got the full listing here. So and each booking presents
Swarmy Fest twenty twenty three. There's gonna be two stages this year, yep,
and featuring Sepsis with We've Got a Simple Complex. They're going to be
on the show later this week. I've known those guys forever. Carpathia,
I don't know if I'm saying that correctly. If it's Carpathia, Carpathia trading
Tombstones who I love After the Winter. They were on the show not too
long ago. Paradise is canceled Dark Rain My Last Mile. They were on
the show just recently, DC Wolves. They were on just recently Heavy America.
You guys are here now, of course and in the wind and that
all that starts at six pm at Jewel Music Venue. You can go to
Swarmyfest dot event bright dot com for tickets if you want to get tickets in
advance thirteen dollars and I think they're fifteen at the door day of show,
and Jenny and I will be there. Of course, people can come down
and say hello, Oh Sepsis is in the chatterman says, thank you guys
for being a part of the show here in Manchester. We can't wait to
see your set. Thank you nice. Absolutely, can you guys talk to
me about influences because it's you know, we listened to that track and then
I went and I listened to some of your others because I wanted to play
some others too, as we did during the break and hard to pin you
guys down. There's you know, you got kind of a I don't know,
it's it's raw, it's it's kind of, you know, kind of
a stripped down sound, but the melodically it gets weird. There's twists and
turns you don't expect, and it's really cool, especially that track Vacation is
a great example of that. But can you guys just talk to me about
influences and what I assume there's a lot of diversity there. Yeah, yeah,
there is. All three of us grew up in homes that were,
you know, full of music. My dad, you know, grew up
in the late sixties, early seventies, so I had access to his album
collection when I started learning how to play guitar at like thirteen, Yeah,
and so a lot of my early influences were from that late sixties early seventies.
I think Dan too, Yeah, And I came from a musical family
and my brother was always in a band ahead of me, in one of
the big bands. And where I grew up in Connecticut, so growing growing
up in all that classic rock. So it was definitely a classic rock thing.
The funny thing with us is we never really sit down even when we
did this and talked about sound influences. Yeah, it's an odd thing.
We just kind of brought the music and we never spent a lot of time
saying, you know, what do we need to sound like? Or who
who really came from where? It's kind of an amalgamation, so we we
tried to avoid it. And you know, we're all pretty seasoned musicians.
We've been around for a little while. And I mean it's not just music
that's an influence, you know, in your music, meaning other music,
but it's it's everything, you know, It's all all things you come across
on a daily basis can influence you in some way. So yeah, I
I never liked the idea of pigeon holding yourself to one thing, you know,
And we a few years ago got described as every genre of rock by
a review that was done of us, and I saw that on your website.
I kind of liked it. Yeah, I was like, that's true,
you know, and that it's when you played Vacations that mentioned that that's
kind of quirky. And that song when we released it that the guy person
that did the review on that song tagged us as psychedelic, progressive hot Brock
And I like that too. I think that's pretty good too. But you
know, we do we like to we like to stretch our own talents too,
you know, So we were always challenging ourselves as musicians. So if
you hear one of our songs go off on some wacky key change or time
signature change, it's because we probably decided to challenge ourselves. Yeah. Yeah.
Has the sound changed over time or has it always been a little bit
Yeah, Yeah, it's it's become more us. Yeah, you know,
you can still hear all of our you know, our influences, but it's
our sound is becoming more us, you know. I'd say in the past
probably two or three years, we've really started to get our own sound,
and that was the goal. Yeah. I think the other thing where we've
become much better at building songs. We might Mike is obviously our our fearless
leader when it comes to bringing music, but sometimes it can start at a
rehearsal. Right, we can we come up with stuff, but a lot
of times Mike comes with a couple ideas. But the three of us really
contribute. But I we you know, I think more lately now than we
did in the beginning. We spent a lot of time building a good song.
I think earlier on is what it's whatever came to you and you kind
of accepted that and then you you might have tweaked it, but we spent
a good amount of time working through songs now to make sure the parts fit.
It's interesting, listenable and uh yeah, and then we're proud of it.
Yeah, and they never really done you know, like we've gone back
and we just did it for Swarmy Fest. We took a song that was
eight years old and chopped a minute and twenty seconds out of it. Oh
yeah, just because we didn't like that part anymore. Yeah, you know,
but we're not you know, we're not afraid to hack up our own
music. And well, it keeps it interesting, right, It kind of
renews something that's that's uh, you know, if you take an old song
and you kind of do it just differently, it's like it's a new song.
Yeah. And plus you know you've improved as a player and you want
to put you know, you want your new chops in your old songs,
right right. Uh. Chris from the band Edgewise says, I heard some
big Elf in their Great Bay Side band. Do you know them Big Elf?
I don't much. I don't think I do either. I don't know.
It sounds kind of familiar, but I'll have to check them out though,
I'm curious. Has it always been the three of you in this band.
Interesting enough, We started as we need to start as this band as
a four piece, but we were a four piece and we started together on
a project together. These guys would known each other forever, okay, they
knew somebody else that I'd been playing drums with. We started out on a
project to do a studio recording of old songs they had done way back when
it kind of resurrects under them. And then after that we three wanted to
stay on and continue on. That's how you know I was born. Yeah,
but we you know, at that time we had it was a singer
and Mike wasn't singing. And then Mike said, now I'm picking up singing
dudies. We're like, okay, let's let's see that goes. But we
love a three piece. That's our that's our bag. Yeah. It's when
you can it's hard. I mean you can execute and record what you know,
play what you recorded, and like saying, singing lead and playing guitar,
and it works. It's great. Yeah, yeah, I imagine.
I mean it's easier in some ways too, right if you have if there's
only three of you, Because the bigger the band, the more you have
to work around, you know, the more people whose schedules you have to
work around for rehearsals and for shows, and so the three piece that must
be pretty streamlined. I would think, yeah it is. Yeah, and
you know, we we all think the same when it comes to music,
and I don't. We've never had an argument. Yeah, in the eight
years that we've been in a band together, we've never had an argument.
It's it's just it's beyond that, you know. I think that's what about
You know, when you're talking about adding another person, has it come up
like a couple of times, could you imagine if we had a keyboard player
or something like? No, because that the relationship we have just works.
So it's just not worth even screwing with. Yeah, it makes sense.
Chemistry is too good. Yeah, Yeah, why we're ye, Are any
of these songs difficult to to recreate live? Do they change it all live?
Because what you've recorded is difficult with just the three of you? Or
no? We we we always try whatever we put on record, we we
try to make sure that we can replicate that live. And we and we
don't use any backing tracks. When you see us, it's literally you're hearing
the three of us raw playing no backing tracks. Well, we we want
to make sure that we can reproduce, you know, live, So there's
there's a few small things like if you're hear in the fall, uh,
there's a little piano key thing in the back. But you know, there's
little accents that we may do in the recording studio, but we'd never record
or use any instruments that we can't use live. Okay. Chris from Edgewise
just shared a link to big Elf in the chat room. I want to
see if it. I want to see if it loads up here. It's
for some reason my internet here is running very slow. But yeah, I'm
just curious to hear just a little bit of this because you guys are are
unique and I couldn't think of anyone you sound quite like. So it's it's
interesting that let me see here, turn this up, see what we get
here. There's no reason just buy. Let me go a little further in.
Oh, there we go. That's a song. That's a song called
money. It's pure evil. Listen to that later. It does sound interesting,
Yeah, it does sound interesting. I'd have to listen a little more
myself to try and hear us. Yeah, do you guys, how many
songs do you have because you've been together? What eight years? Just eight
years? We got right now? I think twenty eight originals. Okay,
okay, do you do any covers or no covers? But we do a
medley of of some covers? Oh okay, yeah, but with no vocals?
Well really yeah, and it's just the hooks. Yeah, you know,
but it's about thirteen or fourteen different songs that we just took all the
hooks of them and jammed a minute one six and a half minute long.
Yeah. Now it's free break is the way Mike. You know, we're
not doing it this weekend, so it's fine. I can talk about it,
not taking away the surprise. But the way Mike always explains is,
you know, we could tell you what our influences is but are, but
instead we're going to show you. Yeah, and literally we all contributed,
like here's three songs I want to do, three I want to do.
We kind of cobbled it together and they're all snippets and the hardest part was
sewing them a all together. And it's it's it's every time we get done,
everybody just says that's freaking genius. Yeah, and it's it's a highlightment.
But you know that's our covers, you know. Yeah, yeah,
very nice. We should, Uh, I'd like to play another song.
So I listened to obviously, you know, we did, we premiered the
new song, but I also listened to a bunch of your other your other
songs online, and uh, I think we should. We should get one
more in and then we'll come back and talk. We'll come back and talk
some more. But I already played the fall that was That was pretty cool.
Oh crushed. We Uh I like Call You Tomorrow a lot, but
that does a swear in it. But yeah, but we're too bad.
It's a killer. But yeah, that is a great track. If I
actually, if I had time, I would have made a radio edit of
it, because uh, I'm pretty good at that and that is a great
track. But uh, I also really like this song. Crushed. That
song did well in Europe, did it? Yeah? Yeah, we got
a lot of press out of London. Oh no kidding with that song.
Yeah, most it did way better over in England than it did here in
the United States. I mean, we were obviously have rock stars or anything.
It got a lot more press and online play and terrestrial play in England
than it did here. Interesting any idea, why do you know, do
you have any idea what it is about it that caught on there or I
don't. I mean we released it in the summer, which is it does
have kind of that bouncy summary type feel maybe, and I guess it does
have a little hint of English mixing, like you know, the the tones
in there are a little bit more British than than probably didn't you'd hear it
here. But yeah, we're just happy people liked it. I don't know,
I don't care if you're from Zimbabwe if you like that, so it's
great with me. Man. By the way, Melanie said in the chat
room, that must be annoying being more successful in another country. Yeah,
no, it's pretty cool that. I mean, I don't know, I
think it's cool that. Uh. And again it's the time that we live
in too, you know, whereas you know, pre internet, you know
that that really would be pretty unlikely or if something like that did happen where
you have something that catches on somewhere else, you might not ever even know
about it. You know, if your band has a good online presence.
I mean, chances have more than eighty percent of your fans are going to
be from somewhere else, right, right, you know, it's it we
made. We knew the importance of that, like real early. I mean,
you can you can play your local scene, and you should as much
as you can. Yeah, but I mean it's not like the nineties where
that's what you were limited to, right, or like you had to physically
leave to get people to know you. Right, you can you write a
song now you can the whole world can hear it exactly. And we chose
a different path. I mean, yeah, we've all played out in bands
and played out and done. You know, we're more into getting our music
heard now than just going out and playing clubs around here. And Mike's done
an amazing job of figuring out how to get your music out there, so
we got you know, Mike's got the numbers and we were reviewing. Sometimes
you're amazed where your music gets played, and I just think getting it out
there and having people listen to it is what makes us happy less than not
less than you know, playing outs great, and we'll do it, we'll
do it whenever. But knowing that people are listening. You're getting hits around
the world. Is pretty cool. Yeah, yeah, that is that is
well, let's let's give this a listen. So this is called Crushed,
and then we'll come back and talk with these guys. Some more Heavy America
is with us live in studio. But this is Crushed. Love it card
one. You just don't have the demp cor flee Jesus up, say a
word I'll say. You gotta promise you come real soon. No lockast sleep,
don't turn it on it too deep it up, flee Jesus up past
one way, no think about thing, no day to forget it out to
s come to me. I can't something I don't You should see about fat
time show me on the show. You fair sweet Jesus an one way,
no thing about my idea. They didn't know me, sir. Crush please
Jesus out. Wish you can see is out Crush. You're making me sell
you no where, say send no word company live it, send you no
word no company. Crush. Yeah, that is catchy. That is Crushed.
The band is Heavy America and they are with us live in studio.
If you have any questions or anything for these guys, the studio line is
open six oh three two five oh six oh oh seven, six oh three
two five oh six oh oh seven. You can also text me at six
one seven nine one seven four four seven six. I'm on social media at
Matt Connerton. You can email me Matt at Matt Coonnorton dot com. And
of course you can interact endo Pine in the Facebook live chat. But the
best thing to do so that we can hear and enjoy your Dulca tones is
give us a call at six o three two five six seven, six o
three two five oh six oh seven. Uh. Tom Blanchard is in the
chatterman says, good song, cranking it up. You guys were we were
talking off air, there's a there's a video for that that, Uh you
said was was pretty fun to shoot or interesting to shoot. I haven't.
I haven't seen the video yet, but I guess all your singles have videos.
Yep. Yeah, every every song that we published we do a video
for, which is why Pretender hasn't been published yet because we're doing the video
for it right now. Oh excellent. Yeah, then once that video is
done, then that song will be published. But yeah, we we try
and shoot a video for every song, we work with a videographer who's a
great friend of ours, does an awesome job. His name is Frank Avini.
If anybody's looking for a good videographer, look him up on Facebook,
Franke Avini. But yeah, that the song Crushed. We actually did that
video ourselves. Oh okay, and it was fun. If if you watch
the video, we're all laying on our back wearing like white it out smart
center stick wearing whited out costumes and we kind of green screened it, so
there's all this activity going on like through our bodies and in the background while
we're playing the song. And it was it was a lot of fun to
shoot. And we edited it, uh, did all the editing ourselves,
and so that had a learning curve, but it was fun. Yeah,
that is cool. I'm I'm looking at it now. Yeah, that's pretty
cool. Yeah, trying to you know, you read about green screen that
we lay down this tarp and were lying on our backs and the camera.
You know, how do we get the camera above us and it's just the
three of us and you're you know, you got some help from your family.
We got an extension ladder with the camera tape duct taped to a broomstick.
You know, fun, you do a ladder hang out. It was
fun. Now, so what was the process like of I've never worked with
a green screen? Do you? How do you get? You? Pretty
much just in the editing software. You choose the color that you want to
mask. Okay, and we wore white and we had so, but the
tarp that we were laying on was blue, So we masked all the blue
and that became, you know, the essentially the green screen. So anything
that was the color of that tart just gets replaced with whatever background image you
put on it. Yeah, because of the suits that we were wearing,
it kind of bleeds through the arms and legs, and yeah, it was
it was just kind of an anomaly we didn't plan on happening. Yeah,
we didn't plan on it, but it just added a cool effect, you
know. Yeah, that is really cool. Yeah, I recommend everybody checked
this out. Heavy America crushed. Look up the video on YouTube. Not
right now, wait till after the show, but yeah, you got to.
You gotta look this up. That's pretty cool. That's pretty cool.
So you so it's interesting though you're used to working with a videoographer, but
when but this one. You guys did yourselves, yep, ye, and
it came out pretty amazing. Yeah yeah we we. Uh during twenty twenty
when everything shut down and you know, nobody was doing gigs, we invested
in a really good Nevo live streaming camera okay, and got you know,
some nice soft editing software to go with it. And that thing. It
shoots in four kh but it also it's got a two hundred and eighty degree
field of view and it actually has three different lenses in it, okay,
so it looks like whatever you shoot was shot by three different cameras from three
different angles. But it's only one camera. Interesting. It's really really cool
and it'll do it all on its own. You can just pre set for
it to find faces and follow faces and really yep, you set it up
and just hit the top and do your thing and it it zooms in and
out, pans and does all kinds of cool stuff. Yeah, oh by
itself. Oh that's really cool. Yeah, it was. It was well
worth the money. I don't even know if they make that camera anymore.
Really. Yeah, it was real short lived, but it was it was,
you know, worth the money for sure. Wow. Hans Smith of
Sepsis, says Heavy America. I can't wait to see you on stage.
Yeah, we we missed you guys that lived Love Laugh. You guys were
playing Saturday. We played Friday night. But and that was where was that?
That was in Lebanon, Maine. Oh, at the end of August,
the end of this past August. What was the venue? Charlie Hill.
Charlie Hill, Okay, and a lot of people can't out. You
can do a two day festival there, and some people stay on if we
wanted to stay on, so sorry, we have to stay there overnight camp
out. It was rainy and muddy, so we left and the next day,
I guess was beautiful. But yeah, I've been hearing a lot about
Charlie Hill. That's uh, it sounds like a lot. It sounds like
a lot of people are playing there. Yeah, yeah, yeah, very
good. Do you guys play out a lot? Are you doing a lot
of shows? Uh? Not really. We probably do about a half a
dozen a year, okay, you know locally. If we have an opportunity
to travel, we will, But if we're just playing locally, it's usually
about you know, six times a year, okay, every couple of months.
Yeah, what's uh. Now, do you guys have a full album
or do you just release singles? No? We we did release a full
album in twenty seventeen called now Oh Okay yeap. Before that, Oh here
it is Yeah. Yeah. Our first release was a five song or five
or six song EP, yeah, just self titled. That came out in
twenty fifteen. Okay, in twenty seventeen we released a nine song album and
then from then on we've been releasing singles. Okay, And what goes into
that, because that's another area too, where it's like, you know,
you've got so many different options nowadays, you know where you know, growing
up, it was like, you know, you put out an album and
then you go on tour, or you put out it or maybe an EP,
although I don't remember a lot of EPs grown up, but you know,
somebody might put out an EP and then go on tour and then make
another album or something. But now there's so many different ways you can do
it, and and a lot of artists. Actually, really common trend that
I've noticed when talking to people on the show is artists will put out a
series of singles, like maybe one a month and then and then at a
certain point, those singles become part of an album. We did. We
did that, did you ye? But the album is only off or well
it's a it's a physical CD, so okay, you can get it on
our website or at our shows. But it's uh, it's just that it's
uh nine of us singles. Oh okay, I'll put on one disc.
Okay. We talked about it early on, like how should we approach it
after we did those albums and we and you just called out, you said
before it's it's a different time. So we land that on a focus on
you know, coming up with anytime six songs as we know that are new,
come up with a release plan. We probably do one every two months
three months now, yeah, I think, and uh, and really focused
on good recording and good solid releases, give them some air, yeah,
and then move on to the next. But no more big releases of all.
We learned an important lesson with that album. When we released it.
It took us ten months to you know, not including writing the songs,
but just just for the recording and the mixing and the mastering and all the
artwork and you know, everything that goes into releasing an album. It took
us ten months. Yeah, and uh, what we found was we released
that album six weeks later, it was old news, you know, yeah,
and ten months of worse work should go a lot further than that,
you know. Interesting, So we we we figured out real soon that it
doesn't matter if it's an EP and album or a single, it's it's gotta
it has a very short longevity, you know, where where you have maybe
six to nine weeks like from release date to really grab people's attention with this
thing. So instead of just you know, shooting it all off on one
album right away, we we learned that if you just released one single,
you stretch it a lot further and it keeps your band relevant a lot longer.
Yeah, because every three months you're back in the press, right right,
Yeah, that makes sense, especially you know in the social media era.
You know, it's like you got to feed that machine steadily, so
short exactly worth giving them everything all at once, right bit, Yeah,
no, that makes sense, that makes sense. And and the videos too,
you know. You know what's funny too about about that is I don't
know if you guys ever run into this, but there are there's some people
who, uh, if you talk to them. Maybe they don't know much
about the maybe they don't pay much attention to the music industry or whatever.
But some people think that there there are no more music videos because you know,
MTV v H one they haven't played videos and so long, and and
and a lot of people think it's it's kind of a dead medium, the
music video, and they don't realize that actually there's more music videos than ever.
I think it's we all agree it's a necessity. Yeah, I mean,
YouTube is the number one search engine for music. Yep, you know,
and our publisher automatically sends our you know, posts on music to our
website. But it's just the audio. It's up to us to create the
video content. But it's so important when you you can release your song,
and a lot of bands do. And there's nothing wrong with just a stagnant
image of your you know, CD artwork or a lyric video, yeah that
lyric video. But you know, we want to keep it a little more
interesting. And you know where we we save a lot of money doing our
own recordings, so we're able to spend a little bit of money to get
a good video done. Yeah. Yeah, but you know, it's also
important to have a promotional budget too. You know, we we plan on
any time we release the song, it's anywhere between one thousand to fifteen hundred
dollars. We a lot for promotion of that song across a whole bunch of
different mediums, you know, YouTube, Spotify, getting press, social media
boosts and advertising and all this other stuff. It's you got to invest a
little bit if you want to get your reach right right, So yeah,
no doubt. How did you guys get involved with Swarmy Fest? If you
did Stepsis reach out to you, do you? I actually reached out to
them. We followed each other online a couple of years back. We started
following each other because you know, we're same look music scene pretty much,
and you know we try and support everybody we can. And I know those
guys are phenomenal and supporting other actsents. Yeah, oh yeah, and so
yeah, we we you know, just watching each other's bands kind of grow.
And I saw a posting from New Hampshire Booking saying they was still looking
for a couple of bands for Swami Fest. So I reached out to Melissa.
Yeah, and I asked her if he's still looking for another band,
and she said yeah, yeah, we'd love to have you, so it
was. It was just a post I saw online. I just got there
first. Yeah, excellent, excellent. And how long is your set on
Saturday? Do you know? Twenty five minutes? Yeah, twenty five minutes
yeah, yeah, cool, cool. Do you guys play obviously you've been
around a while, you said, what eight years? Eight years? Yeah?
Do you play songs that go all the way back to the beginning of
the band, yes, yeah, yeah, yeah. We we rehash our
set list constantly at our rehearsals. We get together once a week, but
it's for four hours. Yeah, and we you know, we'll take like
a half an hour dinner break usually in the middle, but we'll plow through
fifteen eighteen songs in a night. Yeah, And we try and keep it
all fresh, because just because the song's eight years old doesn't mean you don't
you know, you shouldn't play it anymore. It's a great song, right
right, Yeah. Yeah. We love curating a new set list, or
at least set list used for a period of time, and then we work
hard on rehearsing a set list to make sure we can get through it right
right time, that it flows. We just enjoy doing that and then rehearsing
that. Yeah, literally, that's set a couple of times, you know.
Yeah. One of the songs we're doing at Swarmy Fest is actually was
on a twenty fourteen demo. Oh no kidding. Yeah, that song's you
know, nine years old. We're gonna play it. Yeah, cool,
cool, Yeah, Hans says, Sepsis is about discovery. That's the most
powerful thing ever. Yeah, very cool. And hello to Adam Slim in
the Facebook live chat and anybody in there I might have missed. Now,
what's up next for you guys after Swarmy Fest? Do you have another show
for later this year? We're working right now with another band, trying to
book some a show in the Austin Brighton area, but we were unsure of
the of a date just yet, but that that'll be sometime probably end in
November, beginning of December. Okay, okay. And then now there's oh,
I think you mentioned it earlier. I can't remember if it was on
air or off air, But you guys are working as your videos for all
the singles. You guys are working on a video now for Pretender? Is
that correct? Yep? Excellent? Yeah, Well, the song. We
just got it back from mastering. Yeah, so you know, we've decided
we're happy with it. Yeah, so we're gonna go ahead with the video
production. But we haven't even broke round with that yet, and that usually
takes anywhere between four to five weeks to complete. Wow, okay, are
you going to be working with the same videographer? Probably? Yeah, if
we don't shoot at ourselves, we'll be working with Frank Evitie again. Yeah,
okay, okay, I'll have to check out your other videos. But
I don't know. When you do it yourselves, it does seem to work
out pretty well. I don't know what rushed video is awesome. I don't
know if you played the song tales earlier, but I know it's one of
the tracks that I sent you. But Frank shot that video for us back
in twenty nineteen or twenty twenty. That one we haven't played. Well,
we'll probably end with that one. Actually, that that to this is still
my favorite video. Yes, you got to watch that because I just I'm
proud he did such a great job. He did. He did an amazing
job on that. Mike Mike, Mike game a great storyboard, and you
wonder how it's going to be consumed and executed, and we knew where we're
going to do it, but just Frank just masterfully helped us get that,
you know out there. He's real good at pulling the idea you have it
in your head out and being able to understand it. Yeah, you know,
which is tough sometimes, you know, like you're trying to you're trying
to explain to someone a storyboard that they have no idea. He didn't even
hear the song, you know, Okay, yeah, you know, they're
like, yes, what we want to do, and right away he got
it. Oh that's cool. Yeah, when you say storyboard, what do
you mean exactly? For people who don't know, well, the lyrics of
a song usually tell somewhat of a story, you know, and so you
we try and come up with a storyboard, uh, if you will like
scenes to go along with the lyrics in in the video. Yeah, Tales
was is a song about desperation, you know, and and solitude and and
you know, just having no hope and uh he did a great job of
capturing that emotion with the video. And so like the the Crush video,
obviously that's that has a long storyboard you know that that song. To edit
that was crazy because that's a whole story. Yeah, Mike, you did,
you did, You did a real storyboard, and you did the animated
video. Right, we hired a young animator and in Generation we hired uh
this, when we did the video for the song Generation Lane, we actually
hired a local animator to do a minute in forty six forty eight seconds worth
of animation and that took almost three months because it's all hand done. Yeah.
Yeah, and so we we really had to wait on that. Oh
wow. And then you know, on top of all the other video clips
that get edited into it and everything. I mean, and it's a long
song. It's like almost five minutes long, so it's it's like a mini
movie. Yeah wow. Yeah, I'll have to check that out. That
was one of the early ones, right, Generational Yeah, that came out
in twenty twenty. Okay, oh twenty twenty okay, okay, cool,
cool, we are we are almost out of time and we are gonna we
are gonna finish up with Tails, so I'll we'll play that at the end.
But I want to remind everybody you can see these guys heavy America.
They will be at Swermyfast on Saturday at Jewel right here in Manchester, not
far from here. It's kind of down and around the corner. It's funny,
I was commenting earlier when the radio station is going to be moving probably
in January, and the building that we're going to be moving to is like
in almost spitting distance of Jewel. It's like right down there. But let's
see. Yeah. NH Booking presents Warmyfest twenty twenty three, so these guys
will be there. Sepsis will be there obviously, also a simple complex Carpathia
trading tombstones after the Winter Paradise is canceled, Dark Rain, My Last Mile,
DC Wolves and in the Wind, and Jenny and I will be there
of course representing Matt Connerton Unleashed. So we're looking forward to that, looking
forward to seeing all the bands, and I'm really looking forward to seeing you
guys live. It's gonna be Yeah, we can't wait. It's gonna be
a blast. It's gonna be very cool. And of course the website too
for people who want to keep up on with everything you guys are doing.
Heavy America dot us correct, yep, that's correct. You can find us
on Facebook Facebook slash Heavy America. We're on Instagram, where where everywhere?
By the way, where does the name come from? It's a cool name.
Is that the name of any meaning? Or you know? I actually
was not there when the name was conceived. Dan was, so Dan's going
to have to tell you the story it really comes from. We're at rehearsal
at some point in Everett, and uh, it's basically the same incarnation of
the band. But we went outside, sat on a stoop afterwards, and
some kids said, you know, I forget whether he said do you have
a name or whatever? And a kid blurted out, he said, you
sounded like like Heavy America. We're like, what does that mean? Yeah,
like, what does that mean? It was just a joke. We
just brought it back as we could never settle on a name. And I
said this kid said that, you know, yeah, yeah, and uh
we loved it. Yeah, yeah, like that's where it came from again
and went on his way. Yeah. I guess it was hope he doesn't
come out of the wood. I guess it was meant to be. It
was fate. Yeah, No, it's cool. It's a cool name.
Is there any significance to the a at the end also being capitalized, or
it just syesthetically looks better. Yeah, no, it's cool. It's cool.
All right, guys, thank you so much. It's wonderful to meet
the three of you. I can't wait to see you live on Saturday.
Mike, Dan and Bud from Heavy America. And we will end with this
track. And if you miss any part of our discussion or any part of
today's show, it'll be up in just a little bit at wmn hradio dot
organ at my website Matt Connerton dot com. And we'll end with this track,
Tales. And if you miss it again, go back and listen you'll
hear the world radio premiere of Pretender from Heavy America, the brand new single.
But we'll end with this, gentlemen, thank you so much. This
is one so much, absolutely and I will see you Saturday. And here
it is Tales from Heavy America. Never day anymore, never nothing more.
This is what you've waited for, beginning back to basicgain. I happy you
you let me lose by friend. You're waiting watching through the trees, back
the box, eat the keys one you what heavy written food, I've dragged
my knees got and see I can barely breathe. So fun, so fun.
You're killing flag, but the pound ball you wait, faw, that
doesn't fall. It's a shot off. Bobo comes in twos and trees the
only one, the one gets the fun. You're John Jay up number.
God is no. I can't fairly dream s
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