Matt Connarton Unleashed 11-30-24 hour 1

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6:00 Speaker 6: Maxill Coving, Good morning, everybody, here we go.

6:36 Speaker 1: It is that time again. Matt Connorton unleashed and we

6:39 Speaker 1: are live from the studios of w m n H

6:43 Speaker 1: ninety five point three FM. Inglorious of Manchester, New Hampshire.

6:47 Speaker 1: Of course, you can stream the show at Matt connorton

6:50 Speaker 1: dot com slash live and you can go there for

6:51 Speaker 1: all your live streaming options, social media links, contact and

6:54 Speaker 1: fosshow archives, et cetera, et cetera. Today is Saturday, November thirtieth,

6:59 Speaker 1: two thousand, twenty twenty four and I am not alone.

7:10 Speaker 7: Jen morning.

7:15 Speaker 1: Jenny is here as well at the news table. Yes,

7:19 Speaker 1: we have a great show for you today coming up

7:21 Speaker 1: in just a few minutes. We're going to be joined

7:23 Speaker 1: by phone by our friend Isaac Sierra, also known as

7:26 Speaker 1: Truth also known as True Rhymes. And then on the

7:29 Speaker 1: second hour, let's see, second hour, we've got Tony and

7:32 Speaker 1: Martin from the project Naked Without It. They're going to

7:35 Speaker 1: be skyping in from the UK. And then in the

7:37 Speaker 1: third hour today we have a Vice's Ink returning to

7:41 Speaker 1: the show and this time they're going to perform live.

7:43 Speaker 1: They're from Portland, Maine and they drive all the way here,

7:47 Speaker 1: which we appreciate totally. That's gotta be what hour and

7:50 Speaker 1: a half I'm Portland, yeah, baby, So welcome everybody, and uh,

7:56 Speaker 1: let's see, well if you had a great Thanksgiving by

8:00 Speaker 1: the way we are going to I think it's the

8:01 Speaker 1: world radio premiere of Isaac's here as new track bar

8:04 Speaker 1: none where it's kind of new. It's been out for

8:05 Speaker 1: a little bit, but we have a radio edit of that.

8:08 Speaker 1: We're going to spin to open the interview. Let's see.

8:12 Speaker 1: I want to remind everybody today if you don't know,

8:17 Speaker 1: is a Small Business Saturday and our great sponsor, the

8:21 Speaker 1: Sister Witch Company, they've got a great event. I'm looking

8:27 Speaker 1: for the tab. Did I close that tab? Well, they've

8:31 Speaker 1: got I'll reopen the tab but on the computer here.

8:35 Speaker 1: But today they've got a great event going on at

8:37 Speaker 1: the Manchester Masonic Temple here it is the Magical Market

8:42 Speaker 1: Small Business Psychic Fair. This begins at eleven thirty am

8:47 Speaker 1: and goes to six pm today. This is from their website.

8:50 Speaker 1: Come join us on Small Business Saturday from eleven thirty

8:53 Speaker 1: to six where you will find some of the most

8:55 Speaker 1: amazing vendors and they're handsome arts and they're handsome items

9:00 Speaker 1: and art. This will be a packed event, one floor only,

9:04 Speaker 1: with a separate room dedicated to our readers and healers.

9:08 Speaker 1: This is the time of year where small businesses need

9:10 Speaker 1: you more than any big box store. As I like

9:14 Speaker 1: to say, you know, Walmart doesn't need any more of

9:16 Speaker 1: your money, but small businesses do. Come out and meet

9:19 Speaker 1: us and watch us light up when we make a sale.

9:22 Speaker 1: This is being held at the Manchester Masonic Temple, which

9:24 Speaker 1: is at fifteen oh five Elm Street in Manchester. So

9:27 Speaker 1: that's happening today. They've got another one too, by the way,

9:31 Speaker 1: coming up on December twenty first, from noon to five pm,

9:35 Speaker 1: which will also be at the Masonic Temple. But today's event,

9:38 Speaker 1: of course, like I said, small Business Saturday, please support

9:42 Speaker 1: your small local businesses. It is so important and so

9:45 Speaker 1: vital to the economy. And you know, yeah, those big

9:48 Speaker 1: box stores they're going to be just fine with or

9:52 Speaker 1: without your patronage, so we don't have to worry about them.

9:55 Speaker 1: But Sister Witch Company a great small business who I

9:58 Speaker 1: suggest you support. They've been on the show and they're

10:01 Speaker 1: great people. And I actually participated in one of the

10:03 Speaker 1: events that they had at Sister Witch Company. Hey, welcome

10:08 Speaker 1: back everybody. It is Matt Connorton Unleashed. We are live

10:11 Speaker 1: on Saturday Morning. Our guest is m I A. So

10:14 Speaker 1: we are moving on.

10:16 Speaker 8: But here we go.

10:18 Speaker 1: So on the program, when that on the rare occasion

10:22 Speaker 1: something like that happens. You know, the good thing is

10:25 Speaker 1: we always have other things to talk about. We do

10:27 Speaker 1: have great guests coming up later in the show. Of course,

10:30 Speaker 1: second hour we have Tony and Martin from the project

10:33 Speaker 1: Naked Without It. They're going to be skyping in all

10:35 Speaker 1: the way from the UK. And then in the third

10:37 Speaker 1: hour we are joined live in studio by Vices Inc.

10:41 Speaker 1: A great, great band from Portland, Maine, and they've been

10:44 Speaker 1: doing a lot of a lot of really big stuff,

10:46 Speaker 1: so looking forward to talking with them. They have some

10:48 Speaker 1: new singles and they even well actually I have something

10:51 Speaker 1: else too from them, but that's a surprise. So lots

10:54 Speaker 1: to do on this Saturday morning. But you know, we

10:57 Speaker 1: do talk. We know a lot of people in the

10:59 Speaker 1: industry listening to the show, in the music industry, and

11:01 Speaker 1: we like to like to talk about things going on

11:04 Speaker 1: in the music industry. Unfortunately, a lot of what does

11:07 Speaker 1: go on in the music industry that is particularly fascinating

11:11 Speaker 1: is it often has to do with people suing each other.

11:14 Speaker 1: You know, I had put way back, remember when we

11:18 Speaker 1: did the segment about Don Henley, uh suing someone because

11:21 Speaker 1: Don Henley is very litigious. That segment I had, I

11:27 Speaker 1: had clipped it and put it up on YouTube, and

11:30 Speaker 1: that is by far the most listened to segment that

11:33 Speaker 1: we've ever done on the show. That still gets views

11:37 Speaker 1: on the YouTube, uh, on our on our YouTube channel.

11:41 Speaker 1: But what is uh, what has been happening, So there's

11:44 Speaker 1: a little bit of new information here on this particular subject.

11:47 Speaker 1: You know, the band Limp Biscuit, they were they first

11:52 Speaker 1: got very big in the nineties, and you know, they've

11:54 Speaker 1: had a resurgence and they do very well when they tour.

11:58 Speaker 1: And that that song was that song Dad Vibes maybe

12:03 Speaker 1: a year ago, maybe maybe longer, maybe two years ago

12:05 Speaker 1: now that I really like it was kind of kind

12:07 Speaker 1: of a comeback single, maybe a year and a half ago.

12:09 Speaker 1: But yeah, you know I was I was kind of

12:12 Speaker 1: a fan of Limp Biscuit back in the day. I

12:17 Speaker 1: was in a band called I was in a band

12:19 Speaker 1: called the Jinx and wait was it in the Jinkster

12:23 Speaker 1: in My Life Crisis. Our singer Rhino Ryan Pope, he

12:28 Speaker 1: would well, at one point we were covering the song

12:31 Speaker 1: break stuff, and I wasn't a big fan of doing

12:33 Speaker 1: covers in the bands I was in because I felt

12:36 Speaker 1: that our originals were strong enough, we didn't need to

12:38 Speaker 1: do a lot of covers, but they talked the guys

12:40 Speaker 1: talked me into doing break stuff. And the breakdown in

12:44 Speaker 1: that song where Fred Durst gets really intense and like

12:48 Speaker 1: really angry, Ryan would like would like turn red. He

12:53 Speaker 1: would get so into it and get so into that

12:55 Speaker 1: part of the song. It was fun. So anyway, So

12:59 Speaker 1: part of why this is so fascinating to me is

13:01 Speaker 1: this is not an uncommon tale. What we're going to

13:03 Speaker 1: talk about if you don't know about about this, Limp

13:06 Speaker 1: Biscuit is suing their record label, UMG Universal Music Group

13:12 Speaker 1: for two hundred million dollars in unpaid royalties. Now, artists

13:19 Speaker 1: having to sue their record label for unpaid royalties is not,

13:24 Speaker 1: in and of itself a new story, but for two

13:28 Speaker 1: hundred million dollars is pretty staggering because what has happened is,

13:34 Speaker 1: according to Fred Durst and his representation, Universal Music Group

13:43 Speaker 1: never paid Limp Biscuit anything after selling millions and millions

13:48 Speaker 1: and millions of albums.

13:50 Speaker 7: But they're claiming.

13:52 Speaker 1: That's not true UMG, Well, of course they are.

13:55 Speaker 7: UMG says they paid lymp Biscuit one point zero three

13:58 Speaker 7: million dollars in back royalties in August of twenty twenty four. Yes,

14:03 Speaker 7: after uh after wait after the fact, yeah yeah, backwards.

14:07 Speaker 1: After after Fred Durst spoke up and said, hey, uh,

14:10 Speaker 1: I think you guys owe us some money. Yeah, so

14:12 Speaker 1: they finally, but olymp Biscuit is alleging they owe they

14:16 Speaker 1: owe them two hundred million or or a lower number

14:20 Speaker 1: plus damages however that works out. Now. Unfortunately, this is

14:25 Speaker 1: not an uncommon tale though. There's a there's a term

14:30 Speaker 1: I learned recently, spaghetti accounting, and it's a way that

14:35 Speaker 1: these big labels and you know, and you even hear

14:38 Speaker 1: stories with smaller labels, independent labels, but hopefully a lot

14:42 Speaker 1: less because you don't you don't want to hear those

14:44 Speaker 1: stories because uh, those stories are unpleasant, you know, because

14:51 Speaker 1: you know, especially in a venue like this, we always

14:53 Speaker 1: advocate for artists. But but it's not unusual for record

14:59 Speaker 1: labels and other entities within the music industry to use

15:02 Speaker 1: some creative accounting, shall we say, or spaghetti accounting. That's

15:07 Speaker 1: a term that I just learned recently. And I learned

15:09 Speaker 1: that term for me. Yeah, oh, spaghetti accounting, Yeah, yeah,

15:12 Speaker 1: I mean, I like spaghetti but I don't think I'm

15:14 Speaker 1: a fan of spaghetti accounting, must accounting when I think

15:20 Speaker 1: that's the idea, So that way it's hard to figure out, uh,

15:24 Speaker 1: where all that money went. I learned that term from

15:28 Speaker 1: there's a YouTuber that I really like, uh who we've

15:30 Speaker 1: talked about taught music attorney and or law tuber. That's

15:35 Speaker 1: another term I learned recently, which is a a lawyer

15:38 Speaker 1: who YouTube's does youtubing.

15:41 Speaker 2: What is it?

15:42 Speaker 1: Law tuber?

15:43 Speaker 7: Law tuber.

15:44 Speaker 1: Yes, there's a lot of law tubers. They're they're lawyers

15:46 Speaker 1: who do we have to keep making up new works

15:48 Speaker 1: like the Might's Touched that, like the Might's Touch Network,

15:51 Speaker 1: which we're fans of. You know, they're law tubers. So yes,

15:54 Speaker 1: there's always new term. Young people are always coming up

15:57 Speaker 1: with new terms. Anyway, what was the one that I knew?

16:02 Speaker 1: There was a term that I knew that that DJ

16:06 Speaker 1: Reckless didn't know, and I was like, how do I

16:08 Speaker 1: know this? And you don't remember what it was?

16:11 Speaker 7: Oh?

16:11 Speaker 1: It was thought th h O T And I'm not

16:14 Speaker 1: gonna and I'm not gonna say on the air what

16:15 Speaker 1: it means. But I was stunned.

16:19 Speaker 7: I don't even remember.

16:22 Speaker 1: I'll tell you off. But I was stunned that he

16:24 Speaker 1: that he didn't know what that meant, and I did.

16:26 Speaker 1: But anyway, but it's not it's not a nice uh

16:28 Speaker 1: it's not a nice term. But and it's not yeah, yeah, right,

16:35 Speaker 1: right exactly.

16:38 Speaker 7: But uh u m G at this point is trying

16:41 Speaker 7: to say this whole thing should be thrown out because

16:43 Speaker 7: they're making it up.

16:44 Speaker 1: Right.

16:44 Speaker 7: Oh, of course making this up, that's what they're saying.

16:48 Speaker 1: Of course, now what they also claim, So people who

16:53 Speaker 1: don't know how this works with major labels, when a

16:56 Speaker 1: major label signs you, they give you. When they sign

17:00 Speaker 1: you and they're gonna release your album, they give you

17:03 Speaker 1: they give you an advance on that album. So say,

17:06 Speaker 1: for example, we'll use nice, big round numbers because I'm

17:10 Speaker 1: not good at math, so it makes it easier for me,

17:13 Speaker 1: But it also makes it easier to explain these concepts

17:15 Speaker 1: for people who don't know how this works. So because

17:19 Speaker 1: I think people outside of the industry have this idea

17:22 Speaker 1: that a record label signs you and they give you

17:26 Speaker 1: tons of money up front, and now you're suddenly a

17:28 Speaker 1: millionaire and you're being flown out to LA and you're

17:33 Speaker 1: put up in the Playboy mansion or something, and you're

17:37 Speaker 1: surrounded by supermodels all day and everything. I think, at

17:41 Speaker 1: least I think there was a time when that was

17:42 Speaker 1: the general perception that people had about how this music

17:46 Speaker 1: industry works.

17:47 Speaker 7: And it's not.

17:50 Speaker 1: The money that you're giving up front is actually an

17:52 Speaker 1: advance so they give you. So say they give you

17:55 Speaker 1: a million dollar advance. And again I'm using big round numbers,

17:58 Speaker 1: but let's say they give you a million dollar advance.

18:02 Speaker 1: That's to make your album. So you're going to spend

18:06 Speaker 1: that money. That's not like your money to just put

18:09 Speaker 1: into your bank account, and now you're a millionaire and

18:12 Speaker 1: you get to go make your album. But now you're

18:14 Speaker 1: you're a millionaire because you're about to be famous, or

18:17 Speaker 1: you're already becoming famous. It doesn't work that way. So

18:19 Speaker 1: that's that's actually an advance on your earnings. So they're

18:22 Speaker 1: giving you that money, they're investing that money in you,

18:25 Speaker 1: giving you that money up front for you to go

18:27 Speaker 1: and spend one making your album. Now, what some artists

18:32 Speaker 1: might do in a situation like that, they get that

18:35 Speaker 1: million dollar advance, but they're only going to spend a

18:40 Speaker 1: half a million making their album, you know, So there

18:43 Speaker 1: are ways to do that. Tom Scholz from Boston famously

18:52 Speaker 1: or infamously did something like that where the label advanced

18:56 Speaker 1: him something like the label advance some some something like

19:01 Speaker 1: fifty grand and he made the record for fifteen hundred

19:04 Speaker 1: dollars at home, in his home studio or something like that.

19:07 Speaker 1: That's awesome, yeah, so so so that that does happen.

19:12 Speaker 1: But but again it's not they're not paying you this

19:16 Speaker 1: money to keep. It's an advance, and advance is recooped.

19:20 Speaker 1: So this term recoupment is where people can get tripped up.

19:24 Speaker 1: So they're gonna get that money back. And the way

19:27 Speaker 1: they're gonna get that money back is you make the album,

19:31 Speaker 1: they release the album, they do all the promotion and everything,

19:34 Speaker 1: but they're gonna recoup that money they advanced you. That's

19:38 Speaker 1: not yours to keep and you which means you don't

19:41 Speaker 1: get anything from sales anything until that money is completely

19:47 Speaker 1: paid back. So you're not getting a check from the

19:51 Speaker 1: label until all of that advance money has been recouped

19:56 Speaker 1: by the label. So limp biscuit. So according to UMG,

20:02 Speaker 1: and again they've they've made additional statements now in recent days.

20:06 Speaker 1: But according to UMG. Back when this was first filed,

20:09 Speaker 1: their claim was, well, no, we we hadn't paid Olympus

20:13 Speaker 1: get anything because they hadn't you know, they hadn't settled

20:18 Speaker 1: the recoupment yet. Now this is this is where it

20:23 Speaker 1: really gets nuts and again. And I have an article

20:25 Speaker 1: in front of me, and I know you you have

20:27 Speaker 1: something as well. I have something from Billboard that'll explain

20:29 Speaker 1: this in a little bit bit more detail. But right

20:30 Speaker 1: now I'm just speaking extemporaneously about what I know about

20:34 Speaker 1: this so far, because I've been following it pretty closely.

20:36 Speaker 1: Feel I'm fascinated by this kind of thing.

20:38 Speaker 9: So what.

20:41 Speaker 1: What what happened at one point was so either Fred

20:45 Speaker 1: Durst or representatives of Fred Durst's management or attorneys whomever,

20:48 Speaker 1: probably all of them, at various points, tried.

20:51 Speaker 7: To sign in.

20:52 Speaker 1: It's like a record label, a big company like UMG.

20:57 Speaker 8: They they will.

21:00 Speaker 1: Create a portal like you know how for anything financial, right,

21:05 Speaker 1: you know, whether a bank account or some sort of service.

21:08 Speaker 1: You know, you have a portal that you log into

21:10 Speaker 1: and you can see all your numbers and see what

21:12 Speaker 1: your bank balance is and do all this stuff.

21:15 Speaker 10: Right.

21:16 Speaker 1: So the record label gives you as an artist a

21:19 Speaker 1: portal to sign into. But I guess there was one

21:22 Speaker 1: point where Olympus gets this sounds so we're talking about

21:28 Speaker 1: this huge, you know, multimillion dollar company here, right. But

21:32 Speaker 1: they create a portal and they give and so the

21:36 Speaker 1: artist actually gets you know, a username and password basically

21:40 Speaker 1: to sign into their portal where they can look at

21:43 Speaker 1: all their stuff. The idea being, you know, you can

21:46 Speaker 1: see what your recoupment balance is, how much is left

21:49 Speaker 1: on your recoupment, what royalties are owed to you. You know,

21:53 Speaker 1: you can compare these numbers. And I guess limpis gets

21:56 Speaker 1: portal wasn't working correctly, or hadn't been updated or something

21:59 Speaker 1: just weird stuff. Well, we're talking about a multimillion dollar

22:03 Speaker 1: company here, right, umg is a huge company, but they

22:07 Speaker 1: can't get the little things right to even make it

22:10 Speaker 1: so that limp Biscuit as a business entity, can see

22:15 Speaker 1: what's going on with their account. And but the suspicion is,

22:21 Speaker 1: well that's intentional. Of course, they make it hard because

22:24 Speaker 1: they're trying to hide things. They're trying to hide things

22:27 Speaker 1: from you. They don't want you to see what the

22:29 Speaker 1: real numbers are.

22:30 Speaker 7: And the other side of that too, that you forget about.

22:34 Speaker 7: Is that the longer that UMG has the money in

22:37 Speaker 7: their bank account, the more money it's making for them,

22:39 Speaker 7: right and exactly exactly. Insurance companies do the same thing.

22:44 Speaker 7: The longer it takes that they have to pay out,

22:46 Speaker 7: the more money they make.

22:48 Speaker 1: Yes, yeah, of course it's yeah, it's a dirty business.

22:54 Speaker 7: So makes you wonder if there wouldn't be some way

22:57 Speaker 7: to prevent that, Like, could there be some way to

23:00 Speaker 7: protect artists and in law that precludes them from being

23:06 Speaker 7: able to pulled onto money like that?

23:09 Speaker 1: We've that mic up a little bit, would you? Uh

23:12 Speaker 1: so I'm not loud enough. Yeah, there you go.

23:15 Speaker 7: This is something that we don't normally experience.

23:17 Speaker 8: There you go.

23:19 Speaker 1: But uh yeah, and that so that one million dollars,

23:22 Speaker 1: it was roughly one million that they finally paid Limp

23:25 Speaker 1: Biscuit in September of this year of this year, twenty

23:29 Speaker 1: twenty four, after after they started making noise about hey,

23:33 Speaker 1: we haven't been paid anything that that they they claim

23:38 Speaker 1: that the reason that wasn't paid, it should have been paid,

23:41 Speaker 1: but the reason that wasn't was because of a software error.

23:45 Speaker 1: So because of a software error that that one million

23:48 Speaker 1: dollars just sat there and hadn't gone to the band

23:51 Speaker 1: yet again. Universal Music Group, this enormous, multimillion dollar company.

23:57 Speaker 1: But you know, like it's it's hard. I mean, this

24:01 Speaker 1: will all.

24:02 Speaker 7: The blaming game too. It's a blaming game because UMG

24:06 Speaker 7: is saying, oh no, that this is your management's fault,

24:10 Speaker 7: that your your bit manager wasn't like keeping track of things.

24:14 Speaker 7: It's not us, because they're saying that they can show

24:20 Speaker 7: for over a year they were having good communications with

24:25 Speaker 7: this guy Paul, who's in charge of the manager, but

24:28 Speaker 7: the business manager, and that they were keeping in contact

24:32 Speaker 7: with him, and it's all about them not you know,

24:36 Speaker 7: it's interesting how they try to like go, oh, look

24:40 Speaker 7: over here, your guy wasn't keeping track of things, so

24:42 Speaker 7: never mind us, Like, look over, it's your guy's fault,

24:45 Speaker 7: he didn't keep track of things, so it's not our

24:48 Speaker 7: fault for not paying you. You know, that's like so

24:51 Speaker 7: twisted that that's what they walk in with and that's

24:53 Speaker 7: actually considered a possibility, Like how does that even get entertained? Oh,

25:00 Speaker 7: your guy wasn't paying attention, so we got away with

25:02 Speaker 7: keeping more money. So hahaha, this seems wrong. Maybe I'm

25:07 Speaker 7: reading it wrong, but that's pretty much. What it sounds

25:09 Speaker 7: like they're trying to indicate with me is we didn't

25:12 Speaker 7: conceal anything. You guys just didn't keep.

25:14 Speaker 1: Track of it, right right.

25:17 Speaker 11: This is.

25:19 Speaker 1: And sometimes it's not always necessarily malfeasance. Sometimes somebody just

25:23 Speaker 1: signs a bad deal or or people get in over

25:28 Speaker 1: their heads they don't understand how this all works. Remember

25:31 Speaker 1: when TLC, this is probably one of the greatest examples.

25:36 Speaker 1: When TLC. You know, that first album, Crazy Sexy Cool

25:39 Speaker 1: was huge. It's sold a gazillion copies, right, well, I

25:44 Speaker 1: think it was triple platinum, but it seems like it

25:46 Speaker 1: was because CLC was everywhere. It seems like the album

25:49 Speaker 1: was h you know, I think he sold three million.

25:52 Speaker 1: But they were broke with a triple platinum album because

25:58 Speaker 1: of the way the contract was structured and the recruitment,

26:02 Speaker 1: they weren't getting any royalties and they and they were

26:06 Speaker 1: very public about it, and they got their deal renegotiated

26:09 Speaker 1: because because they were very public about it, like they were,

26:13 Speaker 1: they were not shy about talking about what was going on.

26:16 Speaker 1: But they're you know, they're at the Grammys, you know,

26:19 Speaker 1: getting an award for Best New Album or whatever it was,

26:21 Speaker 1: and they're like and they're like, yeah, we we have

26:24 Speaker 1: no money and and we've sold three million copies of

26:27 Speaker 1: our album and we're broke, and and that's that's one

26:33 Speaker 1: of the most well publicized examples because I think because

26:37 Speaker 1: they were so public about it, because a lot of

26:40 Speaker 1: times too, you learn about these things later on because

26:44 Speaker 1: at the time that it's happening to an artist, they

26:46 Speaker 1: don't necessarily want to go public about it because they

26:49 Speaker 1: don't want, you know, they don't want to deal with

26:51 Speaker 1: the embarrassment of it. You know, Oh, I got I

26:55 Speaker 1: kind of got screwed here or whatever. My favorite band.

26:59 Speaker 1: Of course, as longtime listeners know, Kiss they actually sued PolyGram.

27:04 Speaker 1: They were on PolyGram. This was in the early eighties,

27:08 Speaker 1: very early eighties. This was like when they were making

27:11 Speaker 1: the transition from makeup to non makeup, and they sued

27:15 Speaker 1: PolyGram for back royalties and they got a settlement over it,

27:20 Speaker 1: although it was kind of it was kind of small,

27:24 Speaker 1: but they did get something from it. But we should

27:29 Speaker 1: look at so the other thing about this though.

27:31 Speaker 7: This isn't just Limp Biscuit. And I didn't even realize

27:34 Speaker 7: this until looking back on the notes now that there's

27:37 Speaker 7: another organization that apparently owes some of this, owns some

27:40 Speaker 7: of the copyright, the Flawless Records. It's called yeah, so

27:44 Speaker 7: apparently that's his imprint, by the way, So what do

27:47 Speaker 7: you mean is imprint?

27:48 Speaker 1: So there was this thing it started happening in the

27:51 Speaker 1: nineties where some artists would if they were on a label,

27:55 Speaker 1: the label would give the artist if they were interested

27:58 Speaker 1: in developing other artists, they would give them almost like

28:01 Speaker 1: a sub label, oh, which is part of the bigger label,

28:04 Speaker 1: and they would call that an imprint. So Flawless Records

28:07 Speaker 1: was Fred Durst's imprint, and he actually did break a

28:11 Speaker 1: couple of bands on his imprint label.

28:15 Speaker 7: Well, it's just interesting that you noted they gave Limp

28:18 Speaker 7: Biscuit a million. Well, they gave another two million the

28:22 Speaker 7: Flawless Records. But we don't really owe you any money.

28:25 Speaker 7: It's made up. They're claiming you've made this up. Yeah,

28:29 Speaker 7: but we're dishing out over three million more dollars. Ooh, sorry,

28:33 Speaker 7: you know, just some money, but we didn't really do anything.

28:36 Speaker 1: It's faked spaghetti accounting.

28:38 Speaker 7: How the heck does that work in law?

28:39 Speaker 4: Though?

28:40 Speaker 7: How do you how do you say this is all

28:44 Speaker 7: made up? And then you're paying money out the other side.

28:47 Speaker 7: But it's like it's like I'm guilty, but I'm not guilty.

28:50 Speaker 1: Right, Well, I think I think probably they would say, uh,

28:55 Speaker 1: flawless records. I mean that's a separate account from the

28:57 Speaker 1: limp biscuit account. In fact, flawless records. Probably they probably

29:02 Speaker 1: have a separate username and password for their their their

29:06 Speaker 1: big fancy portal.

29:09 Speaker 7: Two factor identification.

29:11 Speaker 1: Yes, it's probably very, very up to date.

29:14 Speaker 7: I'm sure it operates much like insurance portals.

29:16 Speaker 4: You know.

29:17 Speaker 7: It's like you want to appeal that. Okay, get a

29:19 Speaker 7: pen and paper. Let's sit down and write an old

29:22 Speaker 7: fashioned letter. Nothing electronic about this.

29:25 Speaker 1: Yeah, send us a certified letter.

29:27 Speaker 7: Meanwhile, give us your money.

29:28 Speaker 1: Maybe maybe you'll get your royalties.

29:30 Speaker 7: You don't even have to put your card and just

29:32 Speaker 7: skin it. I'll take your money very easily. Yeah, but

29:35 Speaker 7: not the other way around.

29:38 Speaker 4: So this is the update.

29:39 Speaker 1: This is from billboard dot com. UMG hits back at

29:42 Speaker 1: Olympus gets two hundred million dollar lawsuit, calls hidden royalty

29:46 Speaker 1: accusations fiction. It says here UMG is firing back at

29:51 Speaker 1: a lawsuit from Olympus at front Manfred Durst claiming the

29:53 Speaker 1: label owes the band more than two hundred million dollars,

29:57 Speaker 1: calling the allegation's fiction and demanding maybe three out of court.

30:01 Speaker 1: The blockbuster lawsuit, filed last month in LA federal court,

30:04 Speaker 1: claimed that Durst had not seen a diamond royalties over

30:08 Speaker 1: the decades, and that hundreds of other artists may have

30:11 Speaker 1: been treated similarly under systemic and fraudulent policies. But in

30:16 Speaker 1: UMG's first response, this is UMG's they're finally responding to

30:21 Speaker 1: this officially after several months, well a couple months. In

30:24 Speaker 1: their first response on Friday, attorneys for the label said

30:27 Speaker 1: the lawsuit must be dismissed immediately because it is based

30:30 Speaker 1: on a fallacy. Writers. Rolin A. Ransom, an attorney with

30:39 Speaker 1: the law firm Sidley Austen who represents UMG in the suit, said, quote,

30:43 Speaker 1: plaintiff's entire narrative that UMG tried to conceal royalties is

30:47 Speaker 1: a fiction. Plaintiff's complaint fails as a matter of law

30:51 Speaker 1: and should be dismissed with prejudice unquote. The key problem

30:55 Speaker 1: with Durst's claims, according to UMG's attorneys, it's that documents

30:59 Speaker 1: included in his own lawsuit eviscerate his allegations. They specifically

31:03 Speaker 1: cite emails in which a UMG exec appears to have

31:07 Speaker 1: reached out to get royalties flowing, but was rebuffed by

31:10 Speaker 1: the band's own business manager. Yeah. I remember reading that

31:14 Speaker 1: part too, and that doesn't make sense, like why would

31:19 Speaker 1: that even happen, But that's that's what they're claiming now.

31:24 Speaker 1: The company also said in Friday's filing, quote, over a

31:27 Speaker 1: year before plaintiff's discovery of allegedly concealed royalties, UMG affirmatively

31:34 Speaker 1: and unilaterally reached out to Olympis guits representative so that

31:38 Speaker 1: it could begin making royalty payments to the band, and

31:41 Speaker 1: was instead informed by him that all members of Olympis

31:43 Speaker 1: Gut but one, including plaintiff Durst, had assigned their royalty

31:48 Speaker 1: shares to others and were therefore not entitled any royalty

31:52 Speaker 1: payments from UMG. Unquote.

31:54 Speaker 7: So it's not that I owe you money, it's that

31:56 Speaker 7: you're not. I don't. You don't actually have the right

32:00 Speaker 7: assume me. So even the way all your money, I'm

32:01 Speaker 7: not going to give it to you. I don't know,

32:03 Speaker 7: don't alst, I don't know. That's what it feels like,

32:06 Speaker 7: but you were right. There's another notation I just found

32:08 Speaker 7: on Music Business World that it's also involving other artists. Yeah,

32:14 Speaker 7: from that Durst did have under flawless records. Yeah, yeah,

32:19 Speaker 7: so it's not just Lumbiscuit, it's other bands music as well.

32:22 Speaker 1: Doesn't mention who are there anything it does it does

32:24 Speaker 1: It just says other because there's at least one one

32:29 Speaker 1: band that that he broke, that broke big, that had

32:32 Speaker 1: a big hit, and I can't remember who it was now.

32:35 Speaker 1: So in a statement to Billboard on Monday, Durst lawyers

32:37 Speaker 1: sharply refuted the arguments made in UMG's motion to dismiss

32:41 Speaker 1: the case. Attorney Mark Fabiani said, quote, when someone has

32:46 Speaker 1: caught red handed, their first response is often to hire

32:48 Speaker 1: very expensive outside law firms who first, as a matter

32:52 Speaker 1: of course, try anything to dismiss the suit when they

32:55 Speaker 1: are in trouble with the facts. In this case, we

32:58 Speaker 1: believe UMG is using a typical, formulaic, well trodden strategy

33:03 Speaker 1: of reaching for any escape route by desperately grasping at

33:06 Speaker 1: technicalities unquote. Durst and Lymbiscuit sued UMG in October, claiming

33:12 Speaker 1: that the band had quote never received any royalties from

33:16 Speaker 1: UMG unquote despite its huge success over the years, quote,

33:19 Speaker 1: the band had still not been paid a single cent

33:22 Speaker 1: by UMG in any royalties until taking action unquote.

33:27 Speaker 7: So interestingly, Dearth is the sole owner of Flawless Records. Interestingly,

33:36 Speaker 7: I think I may have.

33:41 Speaker 1: When I was talking about how an imprint works, I

33:43 Speaker 1: may have misspoken. It's not like it's a part of

33:46 Speaker 1: the label, but it's so because there were a number

33:51 Speaker 1: of artists who who did this. This was a thing

33:53 Speaker 1: in the nineties and into the two thousands, like I

33:57 Speaker 1: think jay Z had an imprint and some others. So

34:01 Speaker 1: it's it's like a separate record label, but the major

34:05 Speaker 1: label that the imprint is associated with handles all the distribution.

34:10 Speaker 1: So even though the imprint kind of is kind of

34:17 Speaker 1: is an independent label, in a sense, the major label

34:22 Speaker 1: that's associated with does well. The imprint gets used the

34:27 Speaker 1: major label's entire distribution pipeline and whatever other promotional resources

34:33 Speaker 1: are available. So that makes sense. And I think Gene Simmons,

34:38 Speaker 1: by you know, I mentioned Kiss earlier, Gene Simmons had

34:40 Speaker 1: an imprint label actually before it was even really a thing,

34:45 Speaker 1: in the eighties, he had an I think I think

34:49 Speaker 1: it was. It was just called Simmons Records. I think

34:51 Speaker 1: it was. It was before imprints were really a thing.

34:54 Speaker 7: But did he did he ever break anybody?

34:57 Speaker 1: No, it didn't last. Tried a lot of things in

35:01 Speaker 1: the eighties that didn't last, Like he tried producing other

35:05 Speaker 1: artists and you know, and of course he had a

35:07 Speaker 1: short lived acting career, and.

35:08 Speaker 7: You would think that would have made more money than Lunchbox.

35:11 Speaker 1: But no, oh no, well, oh no, no, no, no,

35:17 Speaker 1: it says here. The claim was something of a stunner.

35:20 Speaker 1: How had one of the biggest bands of its era,

35:23 Speaker 1: which sold millions of records during the music industry's MTV

35:26 Speaker 1: fueled Turn of the century glory days, Because remember we're

35:29 Speaker 1: talking late nineties into the early two thousands, how did

35:32 Speaker 1: they still never have been paid any royalties nearly three

35:37 Speaker 1: decades later. According to Durst, the answer was an appalling

35:42 Speaker 1: and unsettling scheme to conceal royalties from artists and keep

35:46 Speaker 1: those profits for itself. He claimed the company essentially kept

35:50 Speaker 1: Limpiskit in the red with shady bookkeeping, allowing it to

35:54 Speaker 1: falsely claim the band remained unrecouped, meaning its royalties still

35:59 Speaker 1: had not surpass the amount the group had been paid

36:01 Speaker 1: in upfront advances. In other words, the advance had not

36:05 Speaker 1: been the advances because an advance for each album had

36:08 Speaker 1: not been paid back. According But the.

36:10 Speaker 7: Bulk of the main thrust of the claim was that

36:13 Speaker 7: they sold like forty five million albums and never got

36:16 Speaker 7: a dime of royalty. Yeah until they filed a lawsuit. Yeah,

36:21 Speaker 7: then they got money. But now they're still saying, no,

36:23 Speaker 7: you made that up.

36:24 Speaker 1: Well or until they well, yeah, well until they until

36:28 Speaker 1: they started making noise about it because they got that million.

36:31 Speaker 1: UMG finally gave them that million back in September, but

36:33 Speaker 1: the suit was actually filed in October.

36:35 Speaker 7: No, but the motion to dismiss they filed was November

36:38 Speaker 7: twenty second, So that just happened. You just filed the

36:42 Speaker 7: motion to dismiss.

36:44 Speaker 1: Right, they're just now responding.

36:46 Speaker 7: But quote unquote, because the complaint is based on a fallacy,

36:50 Speaker 7: how do you say that after you just handed out

36:52 Speaker 7: three million dollars? Like, I don't get that, Well, how

36:56 Speaker 7: is that a viable motion after you just handed over

36:59 Speaker 7: three mins?

37:00 Speaker 1: Well, but I think they're saying that's all that's all

37:02 Speaker 1: they were owed, you know, the million, the million to

37:06 Speaker 1: um Biscuit that's all.

37:07 Speaker 7: Then the two million to the record to the label.

37:09 Speaker 1: Yeah, well that's kind of a separate thing the sub label.

37:12 Speaker 7: Yeah it is, but it isn't because there's is a

37:14 Speaker 7: Stone owner, So technically he's the dude on both ends. Yeah,

37:18 Speaker 7: he's getting the three mil. It's just under two different names.

37:22 Speaker 1: Yeah, it is strange that his imprint label would have

37:24 Speaker 1: more money coming to it than you know, the band

37:28 Speaker 1: he's in that sold for forty five million records, right yeah.

37:33 Speaker 7: Yeah, well it because goes to back up everything we've

37:35 Speaker 7: been talking about. Ye, how these companies really have ripped

37:39 Speaker 7: off artists for a really long time. Yeah, I mean

37:42 Speaker 7: what do they artists get? What's an artist get these days?

37:44 Speaker 7: If they're streaming like less than a quarter of a

37:48 Speaker 7: penny or something like that, Like they there's no they

37:53 Speaker 7: have to have a ridiculous number of plays before they

37:56 Speaker 7: can even make enough money to pay for a meal.

37:58 Speaker 1: Yeah, it's barely anything. Spotify doesn't a lot of art.

38:01 Speaker 7: Yeah, they won't put their stuff on Spotify because it

38:04 Speaker 7: is a big rip off for them. Yeah, they don't

38:06 Speaker 7: get anything out of it. But on the other hand,

38:09 Speaker 7: if everybody's using Spotify and you don't put your music

38:11 Speaker 7: on there. You know, it's a catch twenty two for

38:14 Speaker 7: an artist. You want to be heard, but you also

38:16 Speaker 7: want to get paid, you know. It's kind of the

38:20 Speaker 7: part of the point. Yes, sharing music is wonderful, but

38:22 Speaker 7: it's also about getting paid as an artist. To everything

38:25 Speaker 7: you bring to the table.

38:29 Speaker 8: There is there is this.

38:34 Speaker 1: There is a certain truth though. So another thing people

38:38 Speaker 1: probably don't know who aren't in the industry is that

38:42 Speaker 1: it's really always been the case to some degree that

38:46 Speaker 1: artists don't make that much in simple royalties in the

38:52 Speaker 1: sense that like I remember I remember Meat Loaf talking

38:58 Speaker 1: in an interview once about how you know, like like

39:01 Speaker 1: when Bad Out of Hell, which I have no idea

39:04 Speaker 1: at this point, how many millions of uh. I mean,

39:07 Speaker 1: it's probably surpassed one hundred million albums sold by now,

39:11 Speaker 1: But I remember early in his career he was talking

39:14 Speaker 1: about how little money he got, you know, like like

39:17 Speaker 1: pennies per units sold The Bad Out of Hell. But

39:21 Speaker 1: the truth is the real money, for a very long time,

39:28 Speaker 1: the real money has been in touring. You know, you

39:31 Speaker 1: can you can make a lot of money on tour,

39:34 Speaker 1: a lot more money on tour than actual than actual

39:36 Speaker 1: sales as as albums right, which is why some artists

39:42 Speaker 1: tour so much. For example, when Jerry Garcia died. I

39:50 Speaker 1: remember I was never a big dead head, so I

39:51 Speaker 1: didn't I didn't even realize this. But when when Jerry

39:55 Speaker 1: Garcia died, I was reading about how because people I wondered,

40:00 Speaker 1: why why did he keep touring so much? Because apparently

40:03 Speaker 1: toward the end of his life there were people close

40:05 Speaker 1: to him who wanted him to stop because his health

40:08 Speaker 1: was failing, and people wanted him to take a break.

40:10 Speaker 1: They wanted him to stop touring, whether it was with

40:13 Speaker 1: The Grateful Dead or the Jerry Garcia Band, and he

40:17 Speaker 1: just kept going because you sometimes these artists get to

40:21 Speaker 1: a point where they can't afford to stop, because you

40:24 Speaker 1: stop and then the money stops. And if you have

40:29 Speaker 1: an entire organization to pay for, you're not just supporting yourself,

40:33 Speaker 1: but you've got managers and lawyers and got many jobs

40:38 Speaker 1: there many people. You know, these organizations become bloated, and

40:43 Speaker 1: you know, you might have touring staff who you want

40:46 Speaker 1: to keep on retainer even when you're not touring, so

40:49 Speaker 1: that they don't go off and work for somebody else.

40:51 Speaker 1: When you're not touring, and then you can't get them

40:53 Speaker 1: back for your tour, so you might be paying them

40:55 Speaker 1: all year round, even when you're not active.

40:57 Speaker 7: So I thought that way.

40:59 Speaker 1: Yeah, So a lot of artists, you know, they tour

41:04 Speaker 1: so much because it becomes a situation where they cannot

41:08 Speaker 1: afford not to, like they can't get off of the

41:10 Speaker 1: road because it ends up costing more to be off

41:13 Speaker 1: the road than on the road.

41:15 Speaker 7: That makes sense, It certainly doesn't make sense because that's

41:18 Speaker 7: where you're gonna make your money. Ye, not just ticket sales,

41:21 Speaker 7: but march.

41:22 Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, and now touring has become more expensive,

41:28 Speaker 1: and so it's kind of become a situation now where

41:33 Speaker 1: it's it's hard to tour, it's harder to tour. So

41:38 Speaker 1: look at now the money's made more with merch than anything.

41:41 Speaker 7: Look at the guests we had recently, Green and Yellow, right,

41:45 Speaker 7: they're constantly touring. And not only are they constantly touring,

41:49 Speaker 7: they try to keep their expenses down, Like they have

41:51 Speaker 7: actual school busses that have beds in them so they

41:55 Speaker 7: can actually sleep on the road, and there's other vans

41:58 Speaker 7: and the equipment that goes along, so they can keep

42:01 Speaker 7: their costs down, but they're like constantly touring. They might

42:04 Speaker 7: get to take a small break of maybe a few

42:07 Speaker 7: days or you know, but you go check them out

42:11 Speaker 7: and they're constantly going all around the country Canada. They're

42:15 Speaker 7: constantly on the move, and you know, you can imagine

42:18 Speaker 7: it's it would be hard for them to stop because

42:20 Speaker 7: then the money stops. How do you put gas in

42:23 Speaker 7: the car if you're not touring, you know, you can't

42:26 Speaker 7: afford to have the money stop. So it is it's

42:28 Speaker 7: a vicious circle. You have to really love what you're doing,

42:31 Speaker 7: that's for sure, which obviously those guys do.

42:34 Speaker 1: I mean, if you've never.

42:34 Speaker 7: Seen Green Jello when they come back around, you have

42:37 Speaker 7: to see them. They're amazing in person. They just freaking

42:39 Speaker 7: amazing and so much fun. If you want to go

42:43 Speaker 7: to a show that's joy, go see Green Jello. It's

42:47 Speaker 7: just joy. I know. I thought, you can't help but

42:50 Speaker 7: feel good at walking away from one of their shows.

42:52 Speaker 7: But they're constantly in motion, and that constant motion comes

42:57 Speaker 7: with a lot of expenses because I'll see, oh, what

43:00 Speaker 7: was it? There was something that went recently. It was

43:02 Speaker 7: like their their starter and one of the buses went,

43:06 Speaker 7: so they were fundraising to get the starter repaired because

43:10 Speaker 7: they're in the middle of a tour, you know. Yeah,

43:13 Speaker 7: it's a vicious circle. And these guys, especially nowadays, you

43:16 Speaker 7: don't make you're not making the money off of streaming.

43:19 Speaker 7: Certainly right now, there is something to be said for

43:21 Speaker 7: physical media. You know, there can be some money these days.

43:26 Speaker 7: Records are coming back CD. Yeah, but it's not gonna

43:30 Speaker 7: be It's never gonna be like it was when we

43:33 Speaker 7: were younger, no where. The only way you got the

43:36 Speaker 7: music was to go find it in a store in

43:39 Speaker 7: a record store and bring it home, or sit in

43:42 Speaker 7: front of the radio with your fingers ready on record

43:46 Speaker 7: so you could try to record the song off the radio.

43:49 Speaker 7: Oh yeah didn't Yeah, we all did, right That was

43:52 Speaker 7: that was how you got to hear your song, or

43:54 Speaker 7: you had to wait for it to come back around.

43:56 Speaker 7: Now we have instant gratification music through streaming. It's just

44:01 Speaker 7: it's never going to be that again. It's instant gratification.

44:05 Speaker 7: So really the artists are limited on where they're going

44:08 Speaker 7: to make their money. It really is in those live venues,

44:11 Speaker 7: in selling merch at the live venues, and that's really

44:15 Speaker 7: the only way they're going to sustain themselves off their art.

44:18 Speaker 1: That's why a lot of artists get into podcasting too,

44:21 Speaker 1: although you see it more with stand up comics than

44:24 Speaker 1: you do with musicians necessarily, but there's you know, if

44:28 Speaker 1: you're that's the thing, if you're even a tiny bit famous,

44:32 Speaker 1: you can start a YouTube channel and monetize it, get

44:34 Speaker 1: monetized quickly and create content that way. Justin Hawkins is

44:40 Speaker 1: a great example of that from the band The Darkness.

44:42 Speaker 1: You know, he has a very popular podcast called Justin

44:46 Speaker 1: Hawkins Rides Again and and it's it's really good. It's

44:50 Speaker 1: a lot of fun, and it's also very informative because

44:53 Speaker 1: he delves into a lot of these music industry issues

44:55 Speaker 1: as well. So that's another one I would recommend if

44:57 Speaker 1: you're interested in this stuff, Justin Hawkins Rides Again. But yeah,

45:01 Speaker 1: so a lot of people in the industry have had

45:03 Speaker 1: to seek other revenue streams, and it's in.

45:09 Speaker 7: That really these days, it's in that live concert. It's

45:12 Speaker 7: in moving those bodies into a venue that you're going

45:15 Speaker 7: to make the most money.

45:17 Speaker 1: Yes, indeed, yes, indeed, and that and that's.

45:20 Speaker 7: Harder, it's harder on artists, and it certainly benefits people

45:24 Speaker 7: like UMG, yeah, obviously, but I really it just kills

45:29 Speaker 7: me that they pay it all out and then they suddenly, oh,

45:34 Speaker 7: this is made up. How do you do that? I

45:38 Speaker 7: don't know. Is it just me that I find that flabby?

45:43 Speaker 7: It's awful to see what these lengths companies will go

45:46 Speaker 7: to to rip off the artists that they're making their

45:49 Speaker 7: money off of.

45:52 Speaker 1: Absolutely. So, we are approaching the top of the hour

45:55 Speaker 1: and I think I think our guests are in the

45:58 Speaker 1: queue on Skype. So while we're gonna do is, we're

46:01 Speaker 1: gonna go ahead and show some love to our amazing sponsors.

46:04 Speaker 1: We'll take a quick break and we're gonna play this

46:07 Speaker 1: track spinning from the duo Naked Without It, who are

46:10 Speaker 1: skyping in all the way from the UK. I love

46:13 Speaker 1: the guy, Yeah, absolutely so. And then so we'll play

46:16 Speaker 1: that and then we'll bring them in via Skype and

46:18 Speaker 1: talk with them. So looking forward to that. So we

46:22 Speaker 1: are crossing the bridge in our number two. Matt Connorton Unleashed.

46:25 Speaker 1: We are live on wmn H ninety five point three

46:28 Speaker 1: f M Matt Connorton dot com slash Live. We'll talk

46:31 Speaker 1: to you in a few minutes.

46:33 Speaker 4: W m n H riponomas.

46:43 Speaker 9: Well, we'll coup this morning now he wasnd some will

46:53 Speaker 9: be shining m low you just degree.

47:02 Speaker 8: But all my mistress, but still not sure whether they

47:11 Speaker 8: will take me.

47:15 Speaker 12: Look cure.

47:19 Speaker 5: Well, I'm sorry if I hurt you. I knew this

47:23 Speaker 5: had to be done. You could be and everybody's doctor.

47:32 Speaker 10: Or anybody's something brother next they fixing me, someone's got up.

47:42 Speaker 5: Pay well.

47:47 Speaker 8: You came around the corner and my robbins wearing a

47:51 Speaker 8: wig because its beads beda be dead.

48:00 Speaker 11: Spineers speede spine boat some spinis spinis spinny.

48:09 Speaker 8: Spine spine is spina.

48:13 Speaker 11: Well, as you dance in the road, as you dance

48:17 Speaker 11: in the streets, I should dunce till my fingers burn,

48:21 Speaker 11: my skips a beet, I should dance till I say

48:25 Speaker 11: you can't find a betty.

48:27 Speaker 8: As you dunce till you say.

48:30 Speaker 10: Be spinning to the yamis a spinech spinis.

48:36 Speaker 8: Who has some spinechs spinis spin.

48:43 Speaker 10: I didn't know about your sister, I didn't know about

48:48 Speaker 10: your car.

48:52 Speaker 8: I didn't know what you were like. Where now so

48:56 Speaker 8: you from a bar?

49:01 Speaker 5: You came out of the dots jumblelonial man.

49:10 Speaker 8: Ah shum, you ain't seen nothing of this kind. Spine

49:21 Speaker 8: speed speedy.

49:24 Speaker 9: Speede speed speed who way some SPEEDE sped speed.

49:33 Speaker 8: Speedis speed speedy.

49:41 Speaker 1: That is quite catchy. Indeed, that is Naked Without It

49:45 Speaker 1: from the UK, and we have these guys on with

49:48 Speaker 1: us via Skype. We're going to introduce them in just

49:50 Speaker 1: in a moment. This is Matt Connorton Unleashed and we

49:52 Speaker 1: are live from the studios of w m n H

49:55 Speaker 1: ninety five point three FM and Glorious Manchester, New Hampshire.

49:59 Speaker 1: Of You can stream the show at Matt connorton dot

50:01 Speaker 1: com slash Live. Jenny is here as well at the

50:04 Speaker 1: news table, president account and joining us via Skype. We

50:10 Speaker 1: have Tony and Martin from Naked Without It. Hi, guys,

50:14 Speaker 1: can you hear me?

50:15 Speaker 4: Hi?

50:16 Speaker 1: We've got yeah, awesome, awesome. It's always a little nerve

50:19 Speaker 1: wracking with a transcontinental Skype call because it doesn't always

50:23 Speaker 1: work out, so it's nice when it does. But great,

50:27 Speaker 1: great to have you guys here with us this morning.

50:29 Speaker 1: So what what do you each do in Naked Without It?

50:32 Speaker 1: What are your roles respectively?

50:36 Speaker 4: And I play rhythm guitar and I sing okay and

50:42 Speaker 4: I'm Martin. I play all yellow guitar and do a

50:45 Speaker 4: bit of BVS as well.

50:46 Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, okay, very good, very good. Now that song

50:50 Speaker 1: spinning is it's very catchy. And I noticed all your

50:53 Speaker 1: songs are are like that. They're very easy to kind

50:56 Speaker 1: of sing along to. Has that always been? Has that

51:00 Speaker 1: always been kind of them? Is of naked without it?

51:03 Speaker 1: Have you always written songs that are, you know, just

51:06 Speaker 1: very accessible and just kind of get stuck in your brain?

51:08 Speaker 1: Has that always been been kind of the approach? Yeah,

51:11 Speaker 1: we do.

51:11 Speaker 12: We do like a chorus and we do like a

51:13 Speaker 12: sing along, So we do like a sing along when

51:15 Speaker 12: we play live. And we started when we started out,

51:20 Speaker 12: well restarted out a few years ago. We did an

51:25 Speaker 12: online interview during COVID, So we did an online interview

51:30 Speaker 12: and I can remember, I always say, I can always

51:32 Speaker 12: remember Martin saying to me at the time, just wait,

51:34 Speaker 12: we're the entertainment. So it sort of dawned on me

51:38 Speaker 12: then that, you know, our job really was to entertain

51:40 Speaker 12: So I've always sort of found there was no point

51:42 Speaker 12: doing heartfelt songs that people aren't going to catch out.

51:47 Speaker 12: I suppose there's a place, but but for us, it

51:49 Speaker 12: doesn't really work. So we're here to entertain, really, and

51:52 Speaker 12: I think a big chorus is a way of entertaining.

51:55 Speaker 1: Yeah, oh absolutely, I'm interested in So these songs that

52:01 Speaker 1: we're playing, these are from an album called Singles Club.

52:07 Speaker 1: Now tell me if I have this right. And there's

52:09 Speaker 1: a specific reason why this is so interesting to me.

52:13 Speaker 1: This is a series of Did you release these each

52:15 Speaker 1: individually as singles and then compile them into an album

52:20 Speaker 1: called Singles Club?

52:21 Speaker 2: Is that?

52:21 Speaker 1: Was that your approach to this?

52:23 Speaker 4: Yeah? You did, Yeah, Okay.

52:26 Speaker 1: The reason I'm so curious about it is because this

52:29 Speaker 1: has been a topic of conversation on the show. You know,

52:32 Speaker 1: I'm old enough to remember, and I suspect you guys

52:35 Speaker 1: are too. When there was really kind of a standard

52:38 Speaker 1: way of doing things. You know, you've got an album

52:40 Speaker 1: coming out, first single goes to radio maybe six to

52:43 Speaker 1: eight weeks before the album's coming out. Then the album

52:45 Speaker 1: comes out, then you have the second single and so forth.

52:48 Speaker 1: And it was, you know, everybody released albums. Somebody might

52:51 Speaker 1: occasionally release an EP, but that's sort of the old

52:54 Speaker 1: record company model. Now we live in an era where,

52:58 Speaker 1: because of the Internet, there's so many different ways you

53:00 Speaker 1: can approach it. You can release albums, you can release EPs,

53:02 Speaker 1: you can just put out singles forever and never release

53:04 Speaker 1: an album. But I've noticed, especially in the past couple

53:09 Speaker 1: of years, a lot of the guests that we have,

53:11 Speaker 1: their approach is, rather than putting out an album and

53:14 Speaker 1: a series of singles, releasing a series of singles that

53:17 Speaker 1: eventually become an album. And it seems like you guys

53:21 Speaker 1: have kind of taken it to a new level where

53:23 Speaker 1: it's like, that's clearly what this is, because you're calling

53:26 Speaker 1: the album Singles Club because it's literally a collection of singles,

53:30 Speaker 1: And I think that's very interesting that you've taken that approach.

53:33 Speaker 4: But yeah, exactly.

53:34 Speaker 12: We back in twenty twenty two, we were talking about

53:38 Speaker 12: what we were going to do because we'd done one album.

53:40 Speaker 12: We did a first album, Habits Far Too Bright, which

53:43 Speaker 12: was along the same lines, along the normal lines. You know,

53:45 Speaker 12: we got it all together, we released it as you

53:47 Speaker 12: should sort of think, and then I sort of we

53:50 Speaker 12: had a conversation and just sort of said that music's

53:52 Speaker 12: a bit more immediate now. Nobody sort of wants to

53:55 Speaker 12: wait for anything. Everything is done straight away. So we

53:59 Speaker 12: sort of thought, well, we'd we'd we'd instead of instead

54:02 Speaker 12: of holding things back, what we would do is we

54:04 Speaker 12: would plan to release a single every six weeks and

54:08 Speaker 12: then at the end of it we did add the

54:10 Speaker 12: intention of putting out like the Hard Hard CD version.

54:14 Speaker 12: Of course, we didn't actually realize because we didn't work

54:15 Speaker 12: this one out very well. Is that when we decided

54:18 Speaker 12: that in twenty twenty two to do twelve singles, it

54:21 Speaker 12: was going to take us seventy two weeks, So we

54:24 Speaker 12: didn't realize we were actually committing ourselves to a year

54:26 Speaker 12: and a half's work, which was right recording, you know,

54:30 Speaker 12: we've got a recording releasing, you know, or the artwork, publicizing,

54:35 Speaker 12: et cetera, and then we're on to the next one

54:37 Speaker 12: and on.

54:37 Speaker 4: To the next one. But yeah, we did it. We

54:39 Speaker 4: got we got a little bit random every every now

54:41 Speaker 4: and again.

54:42 Speaker 12: But yeah, seventy two weeks later we ended up with

54:44 Speaker 12: with the Singles Club album, So yeah, and we're really

54:47 Speaker 12: happy with it.

54:48 Speaker 1: Was that Was that a difficult decision for you both

54:51 Speaker 1: because obviously, you know, we're all or we all were

54:56 Speaker 1: used to doing it the old way. I mean, it

54:59 Speaker 1: was this something did you a lot of thought into

55:01 Speaker 1: is this really the right way to approach it, or

55:04 Speaker 1: maybe it instinctively just felt right and obvious to you.

55:07 Speaker 1: I mean, was that a difficult decision to come to

55:09 Speaker 1: or or did it come easy.

55:11 Speaker 13: I think we thought that, you know, like, because people

55:14 Speaker 13: generally will stream a song or they like a songs,

55:18 Speaker 13: so we thought, if we just keep giving them songs,

55:20 Speaker 13: you know, spaced out rather than just all together, then

55:23 Speaker 13: there's more chats that they might listen to more of

55:25 Speaker 13: what we do rather than here's an album or that

55:27 Speaker 13: what's the single, I'll listen to that and ignore the rest.

55:30 Speaker 4: So yeah, and it just it just kept it fresh

55:32 Speaker 4: for us as well.

55:33 Speaker 13: And it was a good, you know, kind of time

55:34 Speaker 13: to keep working on things and you can change things

55:37 Speaker 13: is you know, as you know, you can start with

55:39 Speaker 13: a song, but then over time it might evolve into

55:41 Speaker 13: something slightly differently. So with a six week gap, if

55:44 Speaker 13: you like, in between what we were doing, we did

55:46 Speaker 13: have that luxury of saying, well, actually, maybe we should

55:48 Speaker 13: change this a little bit and we can try things

55:50 Speaker 13: out and you know, give a few different ideas. So

55:52 Speaker 13: from a you know, from actually a creative point of view,

55:54 Speaker 13: it was quite helpful rather than we have to get

55:57 Speaker 13: the album done within this amount of time and then

56:00 Speaker 13: once it's done, that's it. Whereas with this, you know

56:02 Speaker 13: you're only doing it one song at a time essentially,

56:05 Speaker 13: So yeah, we had a bit more bit more flexibility.

56:07 Speaker 12: So yeah, and we had a bit of engagement from

56:09 Speaker 12: like the people that come and see us play because

56:11 Speaker 12: of course they knew something was coming in six weeks time,

56:14 Speaker 12: so people we're asking us when the next one's due,

56:17 Speaker 12: when's the next one jew which which was nice. So yeah,

56:20 Speaker 12: kept us on our toes.

56:21 Speaker 1: Really, yeah, I can see how it would be kind

56:23 Speaker 1: of liberating to to be able to approach it this way.

56:26 Speaker 1: And something else too that we talk a lot about

56:28 Speaker 1: on the show is the importance of adaptability to a

56:33 Speaker 1: constantly changing music industry. And uh, in fact, that was

56:37 Speaker 1: a big subject in some ways in the in the

56:40 Speaker 1: in the previous segment that we were doing. So is

56:44 Speaker 1: this going to be the new approach going forward? Do

56:47 Speaker 1: you think you're going to keep doing it this way?

56:49 Speaker 1: Or I mean, obviously you're promoting this album singles Club,

56:52 Speaker 1: these singles that have become an album, So I don't

56:54 Speaker 1: know if you're even thinking that far ahead, but are

56:56 Speaker 1: you thinking about kind of the future or are you

56:59 Speaker 1: in the moments just more focused on promoting what you've

57:01 Speaker 1: what you've just released recently.

57:03 Speaker 12: Well, I mean absolutely we we We had a gig

57:07 Speaker 12: last night and we basically went into a studio this

57:10 Speaker 12: morning and recorded the basics of like the first three

57:13 Speaker 12: tracks for something that's planned for later on in the year.

57:17 Speaker 4: I mean, I constantly write lyrics.

57:19 Speaker 12: Lyrics just keep coming, so we keep we write them

57:21 Speaker 12: down and then we work on the ideas.

57:24 Speaker 4: We we live.

57:27 Speaker 12: About one hundred miles apart. Ok, so we so we've

57:31 Speaker 12: sort of embraced the technology. So we send each other

57:34 Speaker 12: ideas all the time via WhatsApp, and then so we

57:37 Speaker 12: pass some sort of forwards and backwards like that, and

57:41 Speaker 12: you know, we work on bits at the other end,

57:42 Speaker 12: and then we sort of come together for gigs. We

57:44 Speaker 12: were saying today, we don't really rehearse very much because

57:47 Speaker 12: we just sort of we do. If we do, I

57:49 Speaker 12: rehearse my bits. My rehearses is bits, and then and

57:52 Speaker 12: then we bring them together at gigs.

57:53 Speaker 4: Generally.

57:54 Speaker 12: Yeah, and we're quite We're pretty disciplined, to be honest.

57:57 Speaker 12: So we're well, i'd say we are. I mean, if

58:00 Speaker 12: you if you see us life sometimes were not particularly

58:03 Speaker 12: just disciplined. Some of the crowd know the lyrics better

58:06 Speaker 12: than I do. Sometimes just a bit embarrassing, especially when Yeah,

58:10 Speaker 12: sometimes so if I go into the wrong verse and

58:11 Speaker 12: somebody will give me a look from the crowd, and

58:13 Speaker 12: you'd be, oh, okay, cheers.

58:15 Speaker 1: Right right my. So you know, that's another you know,

58:21 Speaker 1: in terms of being able to send tracks back and

58:24 Speaker 1: forth on WhatsApp, I mean, that's another example of how,

58:28 Speaker 1: you know, being able to adapt to the changing technology

58:31 Speaker 1: and the changing dynamics of the industry is so important.

58:34 Speaker 1: And I always say this comes up a lot too

58:37 Speaker 1: reflecting on the pandemic. You know, the pandemic was terrible,

58:40 Speaker 1: but we have to find these silver linings where we can.

58:42 Speaker 1: And I think one of the one of those, uh

58:45 Speaker 1: few silver linings was the kind of forced people, creative people,

58:49 Speaker 1: I think musicians in particular, to kind of find new

58:51 Speaker 1: ways to create and to and to get comfortable with

58:55 Speaker 1: creating from a distance. Like you guys said, you know,

58:58 Speaker 1: you're one hundred miles apart, and you know, I think

59:01 Speaker 1: for a lot of people pre pandemic, the idea of

59:04 Speaker 1: even being able to work that way, even though the

59:06 Speaker 1: technology was already there and has been there for a

59:09 Speaker 1: while to be able to, you know, just send tracks

59:11 Speaker 1: back and forth online, I think for I think a

59:15 Speaker 1: lot of people pre pandemic were resistant to that, who

59:18 Speaker 1: then became comfortable with it, who now now it's very

59:22 Speaker 1: freeing because it's just another way to create, and to

59:25 Speaker 1: be able to create and collaborate with somebody who is

59:28 Speaker 1: one hundred miles away is really cool. Y.

59:33 Speaker 4: Yeah, we did, I mean we did in lockdown.

59:35 Speaker 12: We sat, we started, we were doing a few There

59:37 Speaker 12: was a few internet radio sort of shows, but we

59:40 Speaker 12: also did sort of gigs at home. Yeah, you know,

59:43 Speaker 12: we we we got into when the times we were togain,

59:46 Speaker 12: we got together and just sort of played played it

59:50 Speaker 12: played an online gig sort of like on Facebook Live

59:53 Speaker 12: or something like that.