Matt Connarton Unleashed 12-27-25 hour 3

0:00 Speaker 1: W m an Angel.

0:02 Speaker 2: Rips the normal.

0:58 Speaker 3: Hey everybody welcome. We have an or We are entering

1:02 Speaker 3: about to cross over an hour number three New Marrow

1:04 Speaker 3: trace of Matt Connorton Unleashed and we are live from

1:08 Speaker 3: the studios of w m n H ninety five point

1:10 Speaker 3: three FM, Inglorious a Manchester in New Hampshire. Of course,

1:13 Speaker 3: you can stream the show from anywhere. Go to Matt

1:15 Speaker 3: connorton dot com slash live for all of your live

1:18 Speaker 3: streaming options, social media links, contact info, sharchives, et cetera,

1:22 Speaker 3: et cetera. Today is Saturday, December twenty seven, twenty twenty five.

1:27 Speaker 3: In just a couple of minutes, Lee Wilding from the

1:30 Speaker 3: Far North is going to be joining us via WhatsApp.

1:32 Speaker 3: We're gonna go ahead and spin this single. This is

1:34 Speaker 3: one of the great tracks that he has released and

1:36 Speaker 3: I cannot wait to talk to him. But this is

1:38 Speaker 3: really good. This is called Mountain Song and this is

1:41 Speaker 3: the Far North.

1:42 Speaker 2: The way things change.

1:44 Speaker 4: I don't think you can guess your next to move,

1:51 Speaker 4: Miss you bird, your restrain on me.

1:55 Speaker 2: It's there so much to prove.

2:00 Speaker 5: You say that you'll change, So I'll leave your.

2:05 Speaker 6: Key by the door.

2:08 Speaker 2: Soon after that it all fits.

2:11 Speaker 5: To black, and I'm not so in loving more.

2:19 Speaker 2: All the gaps in my heart don't belong.

2:27 Speaker 6: Bad love?

2:31 Speaker 2: Can we go back and again? Can we go back

2:37 Speaker 2: and again?

2:42 Speaker 4: Every time I pen my feet, a rock post.

2:47 Speaker 2: Fly underneath, I get.

2:51 Speaker 6: Back off for another round.

2:55 Speaker 2: To climb this mountain.

2:57 Speaker 4: You farm, you say that you change so when I

3:04 Speaker 4: leave your key out.

3:05 Speaker 6: Of the time.

3:08 Speaker 4: Soon after that it all fads the black, and I'm

3:12 Speaker 4: not so in loving about.

3:18 Speaker 7: Cold.

3:22 Speaker 4: The caps in my heart don't belong. Can't we go

3:32 Speaker 4: back and again? Can't we go back and again?

5:01 Speaker 5: Oh?

5:01 Speaker 3: What a great track that is Mountain song from the

5:04 Speaker 3: Far North, And we have the man behind the Far North,

5:07 Speaker 3: Lee Wilding, on the line with us via WhatsApp.

5:10 Speaker 1: Hello Lee, Hello, that you all right?

5:12 Speaker 3: Yeah, welcome to the show. It's I love that so much.

5:16 Speaker 3: We've we played that recently, and we played another one

5:18 Speaker 3: of your songs too, and that's that's just really really good.

5:21 Speaker 3: I love that song. I love the vocals and everything

5:24 Speaker 3: about it is just perfect.

5:26 Speaker 1: Oh that's really kind of me.

5:27 Speaker 3: Thank you so much, Absolutely absolutely so. I'm really curious

5:31 Speaker 3: to know so you you spent fifteen years as the

5:35 Speaker 3: lead guitarist and vocalist in the Fireflies.

5:38 Speaker 1: Correct, that is correct.

5:40 Speaker 3: Yeah, so that's a long time. So what what drove

5:44 Speaker 3: you to, you know, to kind of start fresh, because

5:48 Speaker 3: that's you know, obviously you put a lot of equity

5:50 Speaker 3: into that project and then you started you started The

5:54 Speaker 3: Far North in what was it twenty.

5:55 Speaker 1: Twenty, Yeah, around twenty twenty.

5:58 Speaker 4: Yeah.

5:58 Speaker 7: It's funny you though, because I hadn't considered it really

6:01 Speaker 7: so being you know, in the Fireflies. We did like

6:05 Speaker 7: seven albums, and we did loads of tours, and we

6:08 Speaker 7: did show a lot of supports, lots and a lot

6:10 Speaker 7: of headline shows and it was a pretty full time

6:12 Speaker 7: kind of gig. And towards the end of it, we

6:15 Speaker 7: did one last tour with Radio one's Coffee House Sessions

6:19 Speaker 7: in I think it was the summer of twenty nineteen,

6:22 Speaker 7: and there were six of us in the band, and

6:23 Speaker 7: I just thought, I don't want to do this anymore.

6:25 Speaker 1: I just want to, you know, be acoustic.

6:27 Speaker 7: I'm a huge fan of like City and Color and

6:29 Speaker 7: Neil Young and Uncle Chupelo and all those bands, and

6:31 Speaker 7: I thought, you know, I want to do some acoustic stuff.

6:34 Speaker 7: And it wasn't until halfway through recording the first album

6:38 Speaker 7: songs and Gentle Souls. We had someone come in and

6:40 Speaker 7: do backing vocals for us, a wonderful friend of mine

6:43 Speaker 7: called Susie Potts, and she said, why have you like

6:47 Speaker 7: kind of discredited the Fireflies after fifteen years You're starting

6:50 Speaker 7: a fresh like, you know, you might not take any

6:53 Speaker 7: fans over with you. And it had never occurred to

6:56 Speaker 7: me until that moment. She said, I thought it will

6:58 Speaker 7: be fine. All the Fireflies fans will still know it's me,

7:01 Speaker 7: you know, and of course they didn't and it's not.

7:03 Speaker 1: It was very, very much the long way around.

7:06 Speaker 7: And it had never occurred to me for like six months,

7:08 Speaker 7: and it was like February and February twenty one. I

7:11 Speaker 7: think it might have been on twenty twenty, okay, and

7:13 Speaker 7: she was like she just was like, this might not transfer,

7:17 Speaker 7: and yeah, she was right, but you know, I've worked

7:19 Speaker 7: it up against it all good.

7:21 Speaker 3: So I'm curious too, because so the Far North obviously

7:25 Speaker 3: you know, it sounds like the name of a band,

7:26 Speaker 3: but it's really your solo project, right.

7:29 Speaker 1: Yeah, pretty much.

7:30 Speaker 7: Yeah, I got you know, I rope in friends to

7:33 Speaker 7: help me out, and you know, very talented musicians from

7:36 Speaker 7: like the local area. And stuff to play, you know,

7:38 Speaker 7: piano and percussion and fiddle and guitar. On my new album,

7:42 Speaker 7: a lot of it's me, a lot of the guitar

7:43 Speaker 7: and the bass, and you know the how monica and

7:46 Speaker 7: a lot of it it is me. You know, obviously

7:48 Speaker 7: vocals backing vocals, but sometimes you just need a better help,

7:51 Speaker 7: you know.

7:52 Speaker 3: I guess I'm curious too, because you know, your friends

7:55 Speaker 3: said to you, you know, and again I refer to

7:58 Speaker 3: it as the equity that you had in the Firefly Yeah,

8:00 Speaker 3: had it occurred to you at any point to just

8:03 Speaker 3: because I think you probably would have had. I mean,

8:06 Speaker 3: it doesn't matter now because you're obviously having a lot

8:07 Speaker 3: of success with this, so it all works out. But yeah,

8:10 Speaker 3: if you had just used your name instead of calling

8:14 Speaker 3: it the Far North, you might have had a better

8:16 Speaker 3: shot at pulling those people over because obviously people who

8:19 Speaker 3: are big fans of the Far North, they probably knew

8:21 Speaker 3: your name. So I mean, I'm sorry, big fans of

8:23 Speaker 3: the Fireflies rather, they probably knew your name, sous.

8:28 Speaker 1: Think of that?

8:29 Speaker 7: Yeah, but think of that with me being such a

8:32 Speaker 7: Neil Young Springsteen and City and Color fan and no

8:35 Speaker 7: Gallagher fan, I just thought that like, obviously, those those

8:38 Speaker 7: bands all had you know, it was someone and someone,

8:42 Speaker 7: So I didn't want it to be Lee Wilding in

8:43 Speaker 7: the Far North. But obviously with me being city in Color,

8:46 Speaker 7: it's like his name is Dallas Green obviously, so city

8:48 Speaker 7: and color. So I just thought, what kind of evokes like,

8:52 Speaker 7: you know, a log cabin with a fire burning with

8:55 Speaker 7: acoustic tunes in the middle of nowhere. And I thought,

8:57 Speaker 7: you know, the Far North is a great, a great

9:00 Speaker 7: you know a band title.

9:01 Speaker 1: But yeah, I mean, looking back at it now.

9:03 Speaker 7: Maybe I should have done to me recently though, you know,

9:06 Speaker 7: like new fans of the bands that I picked fans

9:08 Speaker 7: up all around the UK and all around the world,

9:11 Speaker 7: and a lot of people say, why don't you just

9:12 Speaker 7: say Lee Wilder Man, because like people knew who you

9:15 Speaker 7: were in the Fireflies.

9:16 Speaker 1: It's like, oh my goodness. So yeah, you know, that's

9:18 Speaker 1: not the first time I've actually heard that.

9:21 Speaker 3: Well, but it did work out, you know, I mean,

9:23 Speaker 3: your your instinct, ultimately, I think has proven correct and

9:26 Speaker 3: you're having success with this. So and this is the

9:30 Speaker 3: third album correct Songs for Storms.

9:34 Speaker 1: Yeah, that's right, third album.

9:35 Speaker 7: Yeah, we did song for Healing Hearts about two years ago,

9:38 Speaker 7: and then Songs for Gentle Souls just in the peak

9:41 Speaker 7: of COVID. You know, we never obviously no one saw

9:44 Speaker 7: that coming. And if you had the time again, maybe

9:46 Speaker 7: we would have waited till it was kind of over

9:48 Speaker 7: a bit, but you know, it is what it is,

9:50 Speaker 7: and it did what it did, and I'm pretty happy

9:52 Speaker 7: with it all.

9:52 Speaker 1: Really.

9:53 Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, Now, how is your approach different? So I

9:57 Speaker 3: will confess I've not gone back and listened to the Fireflies,

9:59 Speaker 3: although I will now because I'm very curious. I mean,

10:02 Speaker 3: is your approach in terms of songwriting? Is it different

10:05 Speaker 3: when it's just you or maybe you were the chief

10:08 Speaker 3: songwriter in the Fireflies? I don't know.

10:11 Speaker 1: Yeah, I was the only person that only ever wrote

10:13 Speaker 1: the song.

10:14 Speaker 7: So for me writing the songs in the Fireflies, they all,

10:17 Speaker 7: I mean, some of the songs I've taken up, you know,

10:19 Speaker 7: I've taken with me and just kind of like rehas them,

10:21 Speaker 7: put a bit of you know, a new look a

10:22 Speaker 7: paint on them. But really my songwriting is so effortless.

10:25 Speaker 7: I don't know what it is, but they all just

10:27 Speaker 7: appear almost fully formed out of the sky. I put

10:30 Speaker 7: the guitar up and just I'll play G and I've

10:33 Speaker 7: played a million g's, but one time it's like different,

10:36 Speaker 7: and then the G to the E is like, oh

10:38 Speaker 7: my god, I've never played this before this way, and

10:40 Speaker 7: then you know, the vocals just come out. I'm writing

10:43 Speaker 7: stuff for the new album now, for the next album,

10:45 Speaker 7: and it's just all comeing to me really really quickly.

10:48 Speaker 7: So I'm not sure whenever it will dry up, but

10:50 Speaker 7: I'm quite lucky at the moment because a lot of

10:52 Speaker 7: people ask how, you know, how do you write songs,

10:54 Speaker 7: or you know, can I maybe coach some of my

10:57 Speaker 7: friends to write songs or whatever? And it's like, the

11:00 Speaker 7: truth is, I don't really know what I'm doing. I

11:02 Speaker 7: just write them and they and they happen.

11:04 Speaker 1: You know. That's kind of where I'm at with it,

11:05 Speaker 1: really a bit of a hack.

11:07 Speaker 3: But has it always been like that, Like, was it

11:09 Speaker 3: like that throughout your tenure in the Fireflies or is

11:12 Speaker 3: this something that's come out more as you've done this

11:16 Speaker 3: on your own and have it, you know, having the freedom,

11:18 Speaker 3: the liberation to be able to do it on your own.

11:20 Speaker 1: Yeah.

11:21 Speaker 7: No, it was always like that, really, So whenever I

11:23 Speaker 7: wrote stuff for the Fireflies, I'd write it on acoustic

11:25 Speaker 7: guitar and take it into band practice and people would

11:28 Speaker 7: just kind of start playing their own thing. So I mean,

11:31 Speaker 7: obviously with this though, the songs, I don't deviate from

11:34 Speaker 7: the structure much because it's me. It's written it, and

11:36 Speaker 7: it's me it's going to play it. But with the

11:37 Speaker 7: Fireflies it was a bit more of a democracy really.

11:39 Speaker 1: Yea.

11:40 Speaker 7: But but the you know, the bare bones and the verse,

11:42 Speaker 7: chorus versa all be the same, and a lot of more,

11:45 Speaker 7: you know, lots more people will kind of getting on

11:47 Speaker 7: it really, but now it's way more streamlined.

11:49 Speaker 3: Okay, okay, good, good. Now did any of the material

11:54 Speaker 3: from the Fireflies make it into the new project?

11:57 Speaker 1: Yeah?

11:57 Speaker 3: You still play some of those.

11:58 Speaker 7: Yeah, yes, so on the first track, I think the

12:01 Speaker 7: first album Sorry that like this House is Ours and

12:03 Speaker 7: I think Grace and My Heart and When we Were Young.

12:07 Speaker 7: The second album, I think Unplayed Guitar and Hollow and

12:11 Speaker 7: this album, yeah, if you haven't made it, there was Hummingbird,

12:14 Speaker 7: there was Sailor in the Sea, all the things you did.

12:17 Speaker 7: So yeah, there was maybe maybe two or three off

12:19 Speaker 7: each album was a Firefly song that was like a

12:22 Speaker 7: complete rock out really, you know, they were just pure

12:24 Speaker 7: rock songs or you know, kind of big maybe psych songs,

12:28 Speaker 7: you know psych, you know, So with this stuff, I

12:30 Speaker 7: just wanted it to be like, just give those older

12:32 Speaker 7: songs a new liquor paint. But I'm writing the new

12:35 Speaker 7: album at the moment. I don't know when it could

12:37 Speaker 7: be out. It could be a year, could be two years.

12:38 Speaker 7: But I'm rescuing maybe three more firefly songs. Wow, that's it? Then, yeah,

12:44 Speaker 7: I think that'll be the Firefly songs done. Then I

12:46 Speaker 7: think the bag is empty at last.

12:48 Speaker 3: Did you was that when you started this project? Was

12:51 Speaker 3: that your intention from the beginning, because you know a

12:53 Speaker 3: lot of people they you know, if they have a project,

12:57 Speaker 3: you know, they're in a band, and then maybe they

12:59 Speaker 3: do their own thing. They don't want to necessarily, you know,

13:03 Speaker 3: some artists they like to have like a clear delineation

13:05 Speaker 3: and they just want to not look back at older material.

13:10 Speaker 3: And some artists do, but a lot of artists don't.

13:13 Speaker 3: And and to me, it's always been kind of like, wow,

13:15 Speaker 3: how do you just how do you just leave all

13:17 Speaker 3: that behind? If you had some great songs in your

13:19 Speaker 3: previous project, how do you just leave that behind? You know?

13:22 Speaker 3: But but some artists will do that. Was that a

13:24 Speaker 3: hard decision for you, whether or not to revisit those songs?

13:28 Speaker 1: It was not really.

13:29 Speaker 7: I kind of like thought about it for a little bit,

13:31 Speaker 7: and I thought, is this going to be completely new?

13:33 Speaker 7: Because we had Nigel Stonia produced the first album, and

13:36 Speaker 7: we were like, you know, I don't know, I don't

13:38 Speaker 7: really know what approach and the heat. So I sent

13:41 Speaker 7: him a load of songs and he was like, some

13:42 Speaker 7: of the Firefly songs were greatly like we should definitely

13:45 Speaker 7: redo these. And I had a bit of reticence at first.

13:47 Speaker 7: It was a bit quite about it. I thought, I'm

13:48 Speaker 7: not sure, and then I thought, well, I wrote them,

13:50 Speaker 7: so you know, why not. So as long as they're

13:54 Speaker 7: acoustic and as long as they've got a lot of

13:56 Speaker 7: heart and soul, I kind of have no problem with it.

13:58 Speaker 7: And some of them are pretty much verbatim. You know

14:01 Speaker 7: that humming Birds pretty much the same. We just put

14:03 Speaker 7: a fiddle on it, and we've kind of really restructured

14:06 Speaker 7: like the Sailor in the Sea and all the things.

14:08 Speaker 7: You did, you know, they were completely different songs in

14:10 Speaker 7: the Fireflies. Yeah, but I just thought, you know, I

14:12 Speaker 7: wrote them, and I never really have writer's block. You know,

14:15 Speaker 7: I'm always writing, you know, as Bob Dylan said, you know,

14:18 Speaker 7: write ten songs a day and throw nine away.

14:20 Speaker 1: So I'm always you know, I'm always writing.

14:22 Speaker 7: But yeah, I didn't think about it too much, but

14:24 Speaker 7: I'm kind of glad I've carried you know, a lot

14:26 Speaker 7: of them over.

14:27 Speaker 3: I think, Okay, excellent, excellent. So the album the newest

14:30 Speaker 3: one in songs for weathering storms? What does that mean

14:33 Speaker 3: to you? And I assume you know, in terms of

14:35 Speaker 3: weathering storms? And I I assume and I did listen

14:39 Speaker 3: to the whole thing. I really like it, But is

14:41 Speaker 3: there a theme that you're presenting? Sort of a almost

14:44 Speaker 3: like it feels like there might be a story, but

14:49 Speaker 3: I'm not sure.

14:50 Speaker 1: Okay, it's I think it's a concept album.

14:52 Speaker 7: Yeah, I mean I wrote all the songs, you know,

14:55 Speaker 7: I obviously carried about three or four over and wrote

14:57 Speaker 7: the rest of the song kind of around the the

15:00 Speaker 7: weather in storms kind of gam up really and.

15:03 Speaker 1: It was like, I don't know, everyone's going through so

15:06 Speaker 1: much stuff.

15:07 Speaker 7: Right now, and I mean people always have, but I

15:09 Speaker 7: don't know if it's because of social media.

15:11 Speaker 1: It always seems very prevalent.

15:12 Speaker 7: It seems to be right at the surface right now

15:14 Speaker 7: that everyone just seems to be going through potentially the

15:17 Speaker 7: worst time of their lives. But yeah, life couldn't be

15:20 Speaker 7: any easier in a way, right, So it was just,

15:23 Speaker 7: you know, it was just about hold on, man, it'll

15:26 Speaker 7: be all right, Like everything will be okay, you know,

15:28 Speaker 7: in the end, and if it's not the end, then

15:30 Speaker 7: it'll be all right, you know. And it's like, I

15:33 Speaker 7: just think, you've just got to keep going. You've just

15:34 Speaker 7: got to have faith, you've just got to have hope.

15:36 Speaker 7: And pretty much every song is like formed in a

15:39 Speaker 7: bit of heartbreak. There's always about of heartbreak there. There's

15:41 Speaker 7: always a bit of loss, but ultimately everything's going to

15:44 Speaker 7: be all right. All you need to do is make

15:46 Speaker 7: it into tomorrow, you know, just take things day by day.

15:48 Speaker 1: It'll be fine. So it's kind of like my nine

15:51 Speaker 1: tracks of like it'll be okay.

15:53 Speaker 7: And I think there's there's a song called Release Repeat,

15:55 Speaker 7: which is obviously about animal rights and you know all

15:58 Speaker 7: that kind of thing as well, you know, but the

16:01 Speaker 7: most of the song, the bulk of the songs on

16:02 Speaker 7: the album are like it is gonna be all right,

16:05 Speaker 7: and I know it's been done and I know it's

16:06 Speaker 7: been done to death, but I guess it's not been

16:09 Speaker 7: done with these songs in my voice, you know.

16:11 Speaker 3: Right right, Yeah, Mountain Song. I was reading that that

16:15 Speaker 3: was written about a particularly painful breakup, and it's it's

16:18 Speaker 3: pretty evident in the lyrics, you know, because obviously when

16:23 Speaker 3: you're a listener, you hear lyrics and it's it's somewhat subjective.

16:27 Speaker 3: Everyone's going to interpret things a little bit differently, but

16:30 Speaker 3: there's there's really no misinterpreting that one. To my mind.

16:35 Speaker 3: I'm listening to it and it's like, okay, you know,

16:37 Speaker 3: you know what it's about, and it does clearly describe

16:41 Speaker 3: a painful breakup.

16:43 Speaker 7: Yeah, there's a few, really, there's a few on the

16:46 Speaker 7: on the album that kind of deal with that, and

16:48 Speaker 7: it is quite it is quite clear. And I don't know,

16:52 Speaker 7: I think writing about breakup and that breakup and particularly

16:56 Speaker 7: I always find the kind of catharticism with it.

16:58 Speaker 1: You know, it's always like kind of gets the pain

17:00 Speaker 1: out that's there.

17:01 Speaker 7: He kind of rinses it, you know, like a like

17:03 Speaker 7: a towel, like a wet towel that just rinses it

17:05 Speaker 7: all out. And I can just kind of deal with

17:07 Speaker 7: it and kind of move on, you know. But you

17:09 Speaker 7: know everyone's going to go through three or four heartbreaks

17:12 Speaker 7: in their life, you know, and this is basically my

17:14 Speaker 7: heartbreak opus, you know, and ultimately you know that that

17:18 Speaker 7: you know, we split up like what three years ago,

17:20 Speaker 7: and you know, everything was all right, but at the time,

17:23 Speaker 7: I was like, oh my goodness, I've never felt pain

17:25 Speaker 7: like this.

17:26 Speaker 1: This is awful.

17:27 Speaker 7: And you know, three three months down the line, you know,

17:30 Speaker 7: you kind of all right, six months you're like, hey,

17:32 Speaker 7: I'm healed, this is fine. So I was in a

17:34 Speaker 7: place where I could actually write a song about it,

17:36 Speaker 7: and it's very, very real, Like the lyrics are lyrics

17:39 Speaker 7: that she would say, you know, things she said to

17:41 Speaker 7: me and things I'd said back, and how I felt.

17:43 Speaker 1: So, I mean, I don't know if she's heard the song, really,

17:45 Speaker 1: I assume, so I wasn't been in touch, but you know, I.

17:48 Speaker 3: Was going to ask you that if you know, if

17:51 Speaker 3: she's heard the song.

17:53 Speaker 7: I felt like texting me, you know, I just felt like,

17:56 Speaker 7: like when it came out on Halloween, I was like,

17:58 Speaker 7: should I text her?

17:59 Speaker 1: Yeah?

17:59 Speaker 7: But I didn't obviously, and you know, knowing her though

18:02 Speaker 7: maybe she's heard it.

18:03 Speaker 1: I don't know. He's not come at me though, So that's.

18:05 Speaker 3: Cool, Okay, okay, good? And what about So I'm really

18:11 Speaker 3: curious about the production and I'm a bit of a

18:13 Speaker 3: recording nerd, so uh so, so of course I am.

18:16 Speaker 3: But there's a so the lack of the lack of

18:20 Speaker 3: drums is really interesting. It's a very it's a very

18:24 Speaker 3: sort of a strip stripped down sound, which I really

18:28 Speaker 3: like because I think a lot of things are are overproduced. Yeah,

18:32 Speaker 3: and I don't even mean just you know, in these

18:34 Speaker 3: times that we live in, I mean just going all

18:36 Speaker 3: the way back to the eighties, there's a lot of

18:38 Speaker 3: things that I think are overproduced and sound sound you know,

18:41 Speaker 3: really a little too slick and polished, and you know,

18:44 Speaker 3: I like a certain rawness and I think you've captured

18:47 Speaker 3: that with this album.

18:49 Speaker 1: Yeh.

18:49 Speaker 3: But but I'm I'm curious about I mean, is that

18:52 Speaker 3: something that you're very intentional about or does that just

18:55 Speaker 3: sort of come naturally that.

18:57 Speaker 7: Approach or I think, you know, being in the Fireflies,

19:00 Speaker 7: a lot of our albums were quite underproduced, really quite raw,

19:04 Speaker 7: and a lot of the reviews and a lot of

19:06 Speaker 7: people listening were like, oh no, obviously this has been

19:07 Speaker 7: made in a budget blah blah blah, but it wasn't.

19:10 Speaker 7: I mean, we aimed it to sound like that. So

19:12 Speaker 7: with The Far North, I wanted a certain level of polish,

19:15 Speaker 7: but also that like the raw beauty of an acoustic guitar,

19:19 Speaker 7: you know. So my co producer John O'tringen, like we

19:23 Speaker 7: in June twenty twenty four, we were like sat in

19:25 Speaker 7: a local kind of place having breakfast, and we were.

19:28 Speaker 1: Like, how do we make this album?

19:30 Speaker 7: Because like I did the second album with him, and

19:32 Speaker 7: it's a bit more rocky, a bit more college rot

19:34 Speaker 7: Bit Third Eye, Blind Bit, Matchbox twenty Yeah. You know,

19:37 Speaker 7: we kind of turned the guitars up on that album

19:39 Speaker 7: and I found myself in like, you know, fireflies kind

19:42 Speaker 7: of territory again. I thought I need to get away

19:44 Speaker 7: from this. I keep just going back to that, tried

19:47 Speaker 7: and tested my favorite sound, you know, just being in a.

19:50 Speaker 1: Band, I guess, and we were like, how do we

19:52 Speaker 1: do this?

19:52 Speaker 7: So we just listened, like I say, to a lot

19:54 Speaker 7: of you know, December Risks and Uncle Chuopolo City and color,

19:59 Speaker 7: early early Neil Young like Harvest here and Neil Young

20:02 Speaker 7: and then obviously Nebraska era Springsteen and we're like, we

20:06 Speaker 7: need to we need to make you know, we It

20:08 Speaker 7: was a conscious decision and out of the drums and

20:10 Speaker 7: there's only based on one track and all that, and

20:12 Speaker 7: it was very it was very planned, but I think

20:16 Speaker 7: a lot of it was came out like a happy accident.

20:19 Speaker 1: You know.

20:19 Speaker 7: It was like, Okay, this sound sounds because the production's massive,

20:23 Speaker 7: it sounds like really well produced. Know it's hugely produced.

20:27 Speaker 1: Yes, but the sounds are still quite sorry.

20:29 Speaker 7: The songs are still quite direct and quite you know,

20:32 Speaker 7: down that funnel of like you know, heartbreak and loneliness.

20:35 Speaker 1: They're not you know.

20:36 Speaker 7: And it was funny because I had a review from

20:39 Speaker 7: someone and the reviewed Mountain Song funnily enough in a

20:42 Speaker 7: local magazine and the reviews are usually pretty good, like

20:45 Speaker 7: I've been lucky this last like twenty years with reviews.

20:48 Speaker 7: And this guy was like, so this guy who was

20:51 Speaker 7: from Newcastle, and he just said, oh, the fanals back

20:54 Speaker 7: again with another one of his massive anthems, and I

20:57 Speaker 7: was thinking, okay, and he goes he's desperately trying to

21:00 Speaker 7: be Fleet Foxes and comes right, and the thing is,

21:03 Speaker 7: I've never listened to Fleet Foxes. I've never they've never

21:05 Speaker 7: like turned up on my you know, my thoughts for ever.

21:09 Speaker 1: Really, I mean, maybe I should, and he goes.

21:11 Speaker 7: He sounds desperately wanting to be Fleet Foxes, but comes

21:14 Speaker 7: across as the drunk old man in the corner hater

21:18 Speaker 7: walling a song on the karaoke right, that's what he said, Yeah, wow,

21:22 Speaker 7: So I like so, and he was like, and then

21:24 Speaker 7: he sent me a message personally and said, I'm really

21:27 Speaker 7: really sorry that that was like personal, but that's how

21:30 Speaker 7: I feel about your music. And I was like, I

21:34 Speaker 7: was like, that's okay, but I've never listened to Fleet

21:37 Speaker 7: Foxes in my life. It's just one of those bands that, like,

21:40 Speaker 7: I don't even know who they are. I was like,

21:41 Speaker 7: what he was like, you know, so it's kind of

21:44 Speaker 7: funny really, but yeah, it kind of it's annoying someone.

21:47 Speaker 1: I guess.

21:47 Speaker 3: It's funny that he actually contacted you to tell you,

21:50 Speaker 3: you know, I'm sorry. Sorry I was mean, but here's

21:53 Speaker 3: why I was mean.

21:55 Speaker 7: Yeah, literally, he thought I was like trying to The

21:57 Speaker 7: thing is as well a few of the reviews have

21:59 Speaker 7: said like, and I've no, I've never listened to Muff

22:01 Speaker 7: and Son's once, right, I've never ever listened to them,

22:03 Speaker 7: because I've heard a few tracks on radio and I'm like,

22:06 Speaker 7: it's not really my jam and everyone's like, oh my godly,

22:09 Speaker 7: like it's so Munffing and Sons, it's so good, it's

22:11 Speaker 7: so commercial, and I'm like, oh, do you know what

22:13 Speaker 7: I mean?

22:13 Speaker 1: It's like, I didn't really write it to be commercial.

22:16 Speaker 7: I write I wrote it for people to to just

22:19 Speaker 7: enjoy it. I guess just kind of you know, there's

22:21 Speaker 7: no plan here, I just kind of do you know.

22:24 Speaker 3: I can tell you, so I've I've listened to Fleet

22:27 Speaker 3: Fleet Fox's. I don't know. I I've definitely heard a

22:31 Speaker 3: lot of Mumford and Sons. Is huge here in America,

22:34 Speaker 3: so I've heard a lot of Umfort and Sons. I

22:36 Speaker 3: can tell you. I I kind of understand why someone

22:39 Speaker 3: would hear that, but I don't hear it in the

22:42 Speaker 3: sense that because I really like the album, but I

22:46 Speaker 3: find Mumford and Sons kind of unbearable.

22:48 Speaker 1: So I did myself.

22:49 Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, so I definitely uh so again, I can

22:53 Speaker 3: understand why someone would make that connection, I guess, but

22:57 Speaker 3: but I don't. I don't really hear it myself. I

22:59 Speaker 3: don't perceive it that way honestly, until you mentioned Mumford

23:02 Speaker 3: and Sons, it hadn't even occurred to me.

23:04 Speaker 1: Oh that's good then, nor Fleet Foxes.

23:07 Speaker 3: To be honest with you.

23:08 Speaker 7: Yea, yeah, I listened to them like they've got a

23:10 Speaker 7: few good songs and you know Fleet Foxes, and they thought, oh,

23:12 Speaker 7: this is a band that actually they're actually good.

23:14 Speaker 1: I quite like this, but I.

23:15 Speaker 7: Thought I never sat down and sort of thought, you

23:16 Speaker 7: know what, I really want this to sound like a

23:18 Speaker 7: cross between Munth and Sons and Fleet Foxes.

23:21 Speaker 1: That it never occurred, like what.

23:22 Speaker 3: Right right now? What happens live? Is it? Do you

23:27 Speaker 3: have other musicians who perform with you live or is

23:29 Speaker 3: it just you?

23:30 Speaker 1: Or yeah, it's just me.

23:32 Speaker 7: I did an album launch here in Runcorn for the

23:35 Speaker 7: out of the day after the album came out, and

23:36 Speaker 7: it was just me on a stool and acoustic in

23:39 Speaker 7: this venue, and you know, there's a couple of hundred

23:41 Speaker 7: people that turned up and it's just me, really, you know,

23:44 Speaker 7: And I don't know. It's like whenever I've seen City

23:47 Speaker 7: and Color, I've seen him. I used to live in Vancouver,

23:49 Speaker 7: so I saw him a few times in Vancouver on

23:52 Speaker 7: his own and that was when they sometimes and bring

23:54 Speaker 7: me your love albums were out, and I never really thought, oh,

23:58 Speaker 7: you know, I hope that there's a full or I

24:00 Speaker 7: hope there's you know. I've always just been happy to

24:02 Speaker 7: hear that person in that voice. Really, so I think

24:05 Speaker 7: I've never really said to.

24:06 Speaker 1: Anyone when I do a gig, oh, it's just me.

24:08 Speaker 7: I don't know if people are ever kind of expecting

24:11 Speaker 7: a band.

24:11 Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't know.

24:12 Speaker 7: No one's ever mentioned it, which is which is funny really,

24:16 Speaker 7: but it's it's just me with an acoustic guitar.

24:19 Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, But it's cool that because you're you're performing

24:23 Speaker 3: something that that can, you know, lend itself like if

24:26 Speaker 3: you wanted to put a band together, obviously you could,

24:28 Speaker 3: but this lends itself to any any configuration, right like

24:32 Speaker 3: you could it can just be you, or if you

24:34 Speaker 3: wanted to bring another just another acoustic guitarist on stage

24:37 Speaker 3: with you, you could do that, or you could play

24:38 Speaker 3: with the band. You know, you could do whatever you

24:40 Speaker 3: wanted with these songs. And I've always been a little

24:42 Speaker 3: bit fascinated by that because so I'm a musician. I

24:46 Speaker 3: used to play. I don't play currently, but I used

24:48 Speaker 3: to play in a lot of bands, but every band

24:49 Speaker 3: I was ever in it was like, Okay, it's me

24:51 Speaker 3: and three other guys, and it has to always be

24:54 Speaker 3: this configuration. It has to always be the four of us,

24:57 Speaker 3: because if you take any anything out it, you know,

25:00 Speaker 3: it collapses. But you know, so I've always been fascinated

25:05 Speaker 3: by the concept of just doing something where you can

25:08 Speaker 3: do it in any co configuration you want, Like like

25:11 Speaker 3: with jam bands, you know you can you know, if

25:13 Speaker 3: the saxophone player shows up, great, if not, doesn't matter,

25:16 Speaker 3: who cares. You know, you can you can play any

25:18 Speaker 3: way you want to. Yeah, exactly, And there's a it

25:21 Speaker 3: seems like there's a freedom that comes with that.

25:24 Speaker 1: Yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah.

25:25 Speaker 3: What about is it ever or well, I'm sure it's

25:29 Speaker 3: not by this point, but at any point. Was it

25:31 Speaker 3: weird for you doing it that way after having played

25:35 Speaker 3: with a band for fifteen years?

25:37 Speaker 1: Yeah, it was.

25:38 Speaker 7: It was really strange at first. So, like my first

25:40 Speaker 7: gig as the Far North was at Old Trafford Stadium

25:43 Speaker 7: where Manchester United play. So that was about eight days

25:47 Speaker 7: before COVID hit. Funny enough, it was like early March

25:50 Speaker 7: twenty twenty. So I got up there and they had

25:52 Speaker 7: this huge event with like a few of the bands on,

25:56 Speaker 7: big local bands from Manchester and it was a match.

26:00 Speaker 7: So you know, there's me on the big screens and

26:02 Speaker 7: I'm just sat there with my acoustic guitar playing to

26:05 Speaker 7: all these people. And it was I think that the

26:08 Speaker 7: thought of it was a bit strange because it was

26:10 Speaker 7: just me.

26:11 Speaker 1: Was kind of et up.

26:12 Speaker 7: By the fact that I was like, holy cow, like

26:15 Speaker 7: what like there was so many people there. I was like, okay,

26:18 Speaker 7: So I kind of like set my stall out super

26:20 Speaker 7: early with the Far North.

26:21 Speaker 1: I was like, okay, have guitar, will travel, you know.

26:24 Speaker 7: And I think I had a friend that sadly passed

26:27 Speaker 7: away on Christmas Day about eight years ago called Paul Savage,

26:30 Speaker 7: and the first album is dedicated to him, and he

26:32 Speaker 7: used to come to all the Firefly shows and it's

26:35 Speaker 7: saying he used to say to me, your songwriting is

26:37 Speaker 7: so leans itself so much to a just acoustic guitar

26:40 Speaker 7: voice and harmonica, you should really do that. And he

26:43 Speaker 7: sadly passed away before I got a chance to, you know,

26:46 Speaker 7: from the Far North. And he was right, you know,

26:49 Speaker 7: he was absolutely right that it was it was so

26:51 Speaker 7: much easier as well, just me you know, get my

26:54 Speaker 7: guitar in the car away we go.

26:55 Speaker 1: It's just it's awesome. You know, I wouldn't trade it

26:58 Speaker 1: in for anything at this point.

27:00 Speaker 3: Oh, that's fantastic. Do you ever do you keep in

27:02 Speaker 3: touch with any of the guys from the Far North?

27:04 Speaker 3: I mean, I'm sorry from the Fireflies.

27:07 Speaker 7: Yeah, I'm going away with the Basis tomorrow. We're going

27:09 Speaker 7: to Poland in the morning. We'll go into the Outfits. Yeah,

27:12 Speaker 7: we're going to do the tour of outfits to pay

27:15 Speaker 7: our respect. Yeah, you know, because like my grandfather was

27:19 Speaker 7: a gunner in World War Two, and you know, everyone

27:22 Speaker 7: everyone's got family that was in World War Two, you know.

27:24 Speaker 1: Yeah.

27:25 Speaker 7: So yeah, so me and Sam the basis, He was

27:27 Speaker 7: the basis in the Fireflies for many, many years.

27:29 Speaker 1: And yeah, so we're off to Poland in the morning.

27:31 Speaker 8: Wow.

27:32 Speaker 5: Yeah.

27:33 Speaker 7: So some of the other guys, Yeah, we speak every

27:35 Speaker 7: now and then, and that you know a few people

27:37 Speaker 7: from the band that haven't speak spoken to since since

27:41 Speaker 7: the band broke up. You know, there was never any

27:43 Speaker 7: bad blood. I was just like, I can't really do

27:46 Speaker 7: this anymore, this yeah thing, you know. And before that,

27:49 Speaker 7: I was in a band called Warped for like ten years,

27:51 Speaker 7: and that was a full time as well, since when

27:53 Speaker 7: I was like fifteen. So yeah, for like twenty twenty

27:56 Speaker 7: five years, i've just been doing the full band thought. Yeah, yeah,

27:59 Speaker 7: so now it's just I absolutely love it now. But yeah,

28:02 Speaker 7: I keep in contact with a few of the guys

28:04 Speaker 7: and it's you know, it's all good. They come to

28:05 Speaker 7: the shows and stuff.

28:06 Speaker 1: Oh good, good, it's nice. Yeah, it's nice.

28:08 Speaker 3: Yeah, that's what I was wondering about if if there

28:10 Speaker 3: was any acrimony there. But that's that's good.

28:12 Speaker 1: Old no, nothing now nothing, it's all No.

28:14 Speaker 3: That's good. That's that's very good.

28:17 Speaker 2: Now.

28:18 Speaker 3: So what's kind of the forward trajectory for you? I mean, obviously,

28:23 Speaker 3: I'm sure you're focused mainly on promoting the current album,

28:26 Speaker 3: but you strike me as someone too you're probably always writing, right,

28:29 Speaker 3: you were kind of alluded to that earlier, that you

28:31 Speaker 3: write a lot of songs. Uh. Do you have a

28:34 Speaker 3: future recording plans in the in the near future or

28:37 Speaker 3: are you thinking about that yet?

28:39 Speaker 1: I think so.

28:40 Speaker 7: Yeah, I've got quite a few good shows coming up,

28:42 Speaker 7: you know, I got some really really good acoustic shows

28:46 Speaker 7: and I'm really looking forward to those.

28:48 Speaker 1: So yeah, there's one on the third third of January.

28:50 Speaker 7: And that's supporting the guy that was in the Seahorses,

28:53 Speaker 7: the guy who who formed a band with John Squire

28:55 Speaker 7: from the Stone Roses. That's quite nice. There's some some

28:58 Speaker 7: nice ones coming up. But because I've been writing so much,

29:01 Speaker 7: I actually thought once songs were general, so sorry, songs

29:04 Speaker 7: for weather Weathering Stones was finished. So we finished it

29:08 Speaker 7: in like maybe maybe July, who was completely finished, and

29:12 Speaker 7: then the single was out in October and we worked

29:14 Speaker 7: for like fifty you know, eighteen months on. It was

29:16 Speaker 7: like a year and a half, and I thought, you

29:18 Speaker 7: know what, I'm never going to the studio again because

29:20 Speaker 7: it's just drained me completely. Like everything about this album

29:23 Speaker 7: has been like it was difficult to record in a

29:26 Speaker 7: not not a difficult logistically because like you know, me

29:29 Speaker 7: and John O produced it and it was very easy

29:31 Speaker 7: that way.

29:31 Speaker 1: Yeah, but like every every.

29:33 Speaker 7: Fiber of who I am was put into it, do

29:35 Speaker 7: you know what I mean. I was so just just

29:37 Speaker 7: drained by the whole process because it was mainly me

29:40 Speaker 7: playing stuff over and over again. So and I thought

29:43 Speaker 7: I would I wouldn't be going to the studio again.

29:45 Speaker 7: But the way I feel at the moment, and I

29:46 Speaker 7: did say this to one of my friends just before Christmas.

29:49 Speaker 7: I could probably see myself going back in to do

29:51 Speaker 7: a more acoustic album in like April or May. So

29:55 Speaker 7: maybe spend like three or four months just doing just

29:58 Speaker 7: fiddle and monica and.

30:00 Speaker 1: Acoustic guitar, that is it. No piano, no.

30:04 Speaker 7: Percussion, nothing, just a very very low key album and

30:08 Speaker 7: maybe have that out by October. That's kind of the

30:10 Speaker 7: way I'm thinking, because I'm writing quite a lot of

30:11 Speaker 7: the moment. So yeah, yeah, But having said that, I'm

30:14 Speaker 7: a Gemini, so I might never release an album again.

30:16 Speaker 1: I don't know.

30:19 Speaker 3: No, I'm sure. I'm sure you will. No, that's that's fantastic. No,

30:22 Speaker 3: I can't wait to I can't wait to hear what

30:24 Speaker 3: comes out next. Thank you in a moment. Well, we'll

30:28 Speaker 3: let you go in a moment and we're gonna play Well,

30:32 Speaker 3: we'll end the segment with Sailor and the Sea. What

30:35 Speaker 3: should we know about this song?

30:37 Speaker 7: I'm glad you picked that one. That's my second favorite

30:40 Speaker 7: after Mountain Song song. Yeah, like Sailor in the Sea

30:44 Speaker 7: is I think it's like again, it's about the same girl.

30:49 Speaker 7: It's not the same girl in Mountain Song. Yeah, yeah,

30:52 Speaker 7: but then so so so mounting song. Right, So you've

30:55 Speaker 7: got the first half of it where it's a little

30:57 Speaker 7: bit kind of like you know, I guess, and then

31:01 Speaker 7: it goes that when it goes into the jig d,

31:05 Speaker 7: that's the like me. That's me a few months later

31:07 Speaker 7: realizing that the right decision had been made to break up.

31:10 Speaker 1: So that was me finding the happiness.

31:12 Speaker 7: So Sailor in the Sea is almost like two songs

31:15 Speaker 7: bolted together again. So the first half of Sailor in

31:17 Speaker 7: the Sea is me feeling completely lost when she left.

31:20 Speaker 7: It was like how how will I ever livet and

31:23 Speaker 7: do you know what I mean? It's like as a

31:25 Speaker 7: as a forty year old man, like you know what

31:27 Speaker 7: I mean, I'm like just feel like I'm like sixteen

31:29 Speaker 7: again and just lost and just like how will I

31:31 Speaker 7: ever cope without this person? And it's the stupidest thing

31:35 Speaker 7: that you think of. It's so silly, you know at

31:37 Speaker 7: the time, and you look back now and go what

31:38 Speaker 7: will you pull yourself together for?

31:40 Speaker 5: Right?

31:40 Speaker 7: So now, so Sailor in the Sea is pretty much

31:43 Speaker 7: it's pretty much the first half of it is that,

31:45 Speaker 7: and then the second half of it is kind of

31:47 Speaker 7: owed to the person I met, like you know, recently,

31:50 Speaker 7: so like you know, so it's like all the lyrics

31:55 Speaker 7: and you know, do you have the heart to make

31:57 Speaker 7: it through you and all that, and it's almost like

31:58 Speaker 7: I was like not saying saved by this person, but

32:01 Speaker 7: you know, when you find love again after a break up,

32:04 Speaker 7: it's like almost everything's in color and it's wonderful and

32:07 Speaker 7: springs in bloom. So the second half of Selling the

32:10 Speaker 7: Sea is about the faith and hope that my girlfriend

32:13 Speaker 7: now gave.

32:13 Speaker 6: Me, you know.

32:14 Speaker 7: So it's wow. So it's kind of yeah, so I

32:16 Speaker 7: love that song. Yeah, it's nice. That's a really nice

32:19 Speaker 7: kind of hopeful chin.

32:20 Speaker 3: I bet she likes it too.

32:22 Speaker 5: Yeah.

32:22 Speaker 1: Yeah, she actually said to me.

32:24 Speaker 7: She came to one of my shows in York last

32:27 Speaker 7: year and she was like, you're going to have a

32:30 Speaker 7: song about me because these are all about your exits. Well,

32:34 Speaker 7: and then so there was the second half of that,

32:36 Speaker 7: and then a Ship of Bones, which is the last

32:38 Speaker 7: track on the album, was exclusively about her, you know,

32:41 Speaker 7: which is really nice.

32:42 Speaker 1: You know, so she's made up about that and so

32:44 Speaker 1: you know, so it's all good.

32:45 Speaker 3: Oh good, good, very good. Well, so we'll play that

32:48 Speaker 3: in a moment. But before we let you, goalie, what

32:50 Speaker 3: where should people go online? Where's the best place to

32:53 Speaker 3: go to keep up with everything that you're doing as

32:55 Speaker 3: the Far North? Where should people go?

32:57 Speaker 7: I'm more prevalent on Instagram than anything else, So I

32:59 Speaker 7: think Instagram is the Far North music, and the likes

33:03 Speaker 7: of Twitter and Facebook and TikTok, it's just the Far

33:06 Speaker 7: North music and I'm on there. I post most days,

33:08 Speaker 7: you know, I always reply to people. There's been a

33:11 Speaker 7: massive kind of avalanche of people just getting in contact

33:14 Speaker 7: since the album came out.

33:15 Speaker 1: Really, you know when obviously it hit.

33:17 Speaker 7: Like a couple of charts and stuff, and obviously it's

33:19 Speaker 7: found its way all, you know, all the way over

33:22 Speaker 7: to the us of A your good self, you know, yes,

33:25 Speaker 7: So it stuns me really, I just kind of think,

33:27 Speaker 7: like holy moldly, like what is happening here? So it's

33:31 Speaker 7: just great that people getting in contact. So anyone that

33:34 Speaker 7: wanted wants to reach out, you know, they're more than welcome.

33:37 Speaker 3: I always reply excellent, excellent, Well we will let you go.

33:41 Speaker 3: We'll hit that track in a moment. But Lee Wilding

33:43 Speaker 3: of the Far North, thank you so much. We will

33:45 Speaker 3: definitely have to do this again in the future and

33:47 Speaker 3: really appreciate you joining us today.

33:50 Speaker 1: No, it's been my pleasure. Thank you very much for

33:52 Speaker 1: having me on mate. Thank you.

33:53 Speaker 3: All right, you got it, Lee. We'll talk to you soon,

33:55 Speaker 3: I'm sure. Take care, thanks mate. Bye bye, okay, bye bye.

33:58 Speaker 3: All right. That is Lee Wildinges project is The Far North,

34:02 Speaker 3: And here's another great track from the new album. This

34:05 Speaker 3: is called Sailor and the Sea. The Far North.

34:20 Speaker 8: Is the Renathan left to say as fade away to

34:26 Speaker 8: a tream and move around the room, the stark and

34:35 Speaker 8: daft and new, I'm over here.

34:41 Speaker 6: And then it all falls down.

34:44 Speaker 5: Here, it all falls down.

34:47 Speaker 6: And it gets faster.

34:50 Speaker 4: I suspinning me around. Then Sis starts to come, take.

34:56 Speaker 5: It off of me, like you say, it's you with

35:00 Speaker 5: the sea, like.

35:01 Speaker 6: A sailor through the sea.

35:17 Speaker 5: And the night.

35:18 Speaker 2: I hay there, I'm lost, so aware.

35:22 Speaker 5: Of this part my heart.

35:29 Speaker 2: It starts to break.

35:31 Speaker 4: I'm the lovees to make how could it lasts?

35:38 Speaker 2: And then it all falls down, get it.

35:42 Speaker 6: All falls down and it gets faster.

35:47 Speaker 2: I spend it mere round.

35:49 Speaker 4: Then the Sis starts to gone. It's taking over me

35:55 Speaker 4: like sail lets the scene, like sailor.

36:00 Speaker 5: To the scene, I A had to make a fery.

36:35 Speaker 2: Without you. Please come home to me.

36:53 Speaker 5: To make.

36:58 Speaker 2: Without you.

37:17 Speaker 5: Make but.

37:27 Speaker 2: Please come home to me. Black Sail to the Sea.

37:38 Speaker 3: What a great track. I love the way that ends

37:40 Speaker 3: a sailor and the sea that is the far North

37:42 Speaker 3: Lee Wilding. Of course, thank you Lee again for joining

37:45 Speaker 3: us today on the program. That was a great conversation.

37:48 Speaker 3: I really really enjoyed talking to him and definitely a

37:51 Speaker 3: big fan of his music. If you are just joining us,

37:53 Speaker 3: of course, this is Matt Connorton Unleashed and we are

37:56 Speaker 3: live from the studios of w m n H ninety

37:59 Speaker 3: five point three here in glorious Manchester, New Hampshire. And

38:04 Speaker 3: if you are driving around today, actually roads are probably

38:06 Speaker 3: fine by now. When I came in this morning, I

38:08 Speaker 3: was not expecting all that snow to be on the ground.

38:12 Speaker 3: Not that there was a lot, but just enough to

38:14 Speaker 3: kind of make make things a little bit of a nuisance.

38:18 Speaker 3: But I do think that we'll, uh, yeah, let's look

38:21 Speaker 3: at some more music industry news because we do have

38:24 Speaker 3: a little bit of time. This is something that popped

38:27 Speaker 3: up from Digital Musicnews dot com hackers scrape Spotify's entire library.

38:34 Speaker 3: I thought of this when I saw, you know, we

38:35 Speaker 3: were talking earlier a little bit about Spotify and the

38:38 Speaker 3: importance of being on Spotify so that your music is discoverable,

38:42 Speaker 3: a term that we like to use in the industry.

38:43 Speaker 3: But hackers have scraped Spotify's entire library obtain three hundred

38:50 Speaker 3: terabytes worth of audio. Spotify says it has identified and

38:54 Speaker 3: disabled the nefarious user accounts. I hope they do a

38:59 Speaker 3: lot more than that. Just identifying and disabling those accounts

39:03 Speaker 3: is not going to fix the problem long term. I mean,

39:06 Speaker 3: if they did it once, they can do it again

39:07 Speaker 3: in theory. But it says here hackers say they've scraped

39:10 Speaker 3: Spotify's entire music library, compiling the metadata behind two hundred

39:14 Speaker 3: and fifty six million tracks, two hundred and fifty six

39:19 Speaker 3: million tracks tied to over fifteen point four million artist profiles,

39:25 Speaker 3: and intend to make a massive amount of music available

39:28 Speaker 3: to torrent. Meanwhile, Spotify is acknowledged to the breach and

39:32 Speaker 3: confirmed that the culprits accessed some of the platform's audio files,

39:39 Speaker 3: some of the platform's audio files and quotes. So Spotify

39:42 Speaker 3: acknowledging I mean, you know, fifteen point actually two hundred

39:47 Speaker 3: and fifty six million that's some of the platform's audio files.

39:51 Speaker 3: I wonder how many actual audio files? Do you ever

39:54 Speaker 3: wonder about that? Like, how much actual music is on Spotify?

39:59 Speaker 3: How many how many audio files are on Spotify? Because

40:02 Speaker 3: we were talking about I remember a couple of years

40:04 Speaker 3: ago on the show now might have been two or

40:07 Speaker 3: three years ago, we were talking about how Spotify had

40:10 Speaker 3: announced that they were starting to remove some music from

40:14 Speaker 3: its platform because people were uploading you know, demos and

40:19 Speaker 3: really lo fi. I don't mean lo fi as in

40:22 Speaker 3: the style of recording. You know, you can you can

40:25 Speaker 3: record low fi music or music that sounds like it's

40:28 Speaker 3: supposed to be, you know, kind of like from another

40:31 Speaker 3: time even right, But I mean actual like low quality,

40:35 Speaker 3: like just poor recording quality music. People were just uploading,

40:38 Speaker 3: you know, stuff that they just just cheap demos that

40:41 Speaker 3: they'd made on their tape recorder or whatever, just uploading

40:46 Speaker 3: all of it to Spotify. And it got to a

40:48 Speaker 3: point where Spotify decided to go through and start and

40:51 Speaker 3: I don't know how they do it. I mean, I'm

40:52 Speaker 3: sure they have I'm sure they have the technology to

40:55 Speaker 3: detect these things, but actually went through and started removing

40:58 Speaker 3: some of that stuff because you know, if you think

41:02 Speaker 3: about how much music is being uploaded to these platforms

41:07 Speaker 3: like Spotify every single day, every single day, all over

41:10 Speaker 3: the world, people are uploading music, and it's not like,

41:14 Speaker 3: you know, I think we tend to think of it

41:16 Speaker 3: as sort of this this infinite thing, like there's just this,

41:20 Speaker 3: you know, because it's because it's audio. There's just this

41:25 Speaker 3: infinite amount of space to put all this because it's

41:28 Speaker 3: not they're not physical objects. It's audio files. So you

41:33 Speaker 3: can just put as many audio files up as you

41:35 Speaker 3: want and it doesn't matter how much rumor takes up.

41:38 Speaker 3: But it actually does matter how much room it takes

41:40 Speaker 3: up because you have to keep building, you have to

41:42 Speaker 3: keep building more storage for all this music. It still

41:45 Speaker 3: takes up space digitally, so you can't just let it

41:49 Speaker 3: be a free for all. Part of what made me

41:51 Speaker 3: remember that is because I remember at the time when

41:53 Speaker 3: we talked about it on the show, some people were

41:55 Speaker 3: upset and it was another reason to be mad at Spotify.

41:58 Speaker 3: I guess people were up saying, well, how can they

42:01 Speaker 3: just go through and remove stuff? Well, yeah, it's it's

42:03 Speaker 3: a little bit. First of all, a little bit of

42:05 Speaker 3: quality control is not a bad thing. You know, if

42:08 Speaker 3: people are just you know, getting the band together and

42:12 Speaker 3: sticking a tape recorder in the middle of the room

42:14 Speaker 3: and then taking that taking that recording and uploading Spotify,

42:20 Speaker 3: you don't necessarily want that on your platform, right, something

42:23 Speaker 3: something like that, you know. And also there's there's abuses

42:28 Speaker 3: that goes on that go on, and you know, people

42:30 Speaker 3: stealing other people's music and uploading it, and there's all

42:33 Speaker 3: kinds of things going on. So, you know, I'm not

42:36 Speaker 3: saying that you should never be mad at Spotify about anything,

42:41 Speaker 3: but you know, but they have a right to police

42:45 Speaker 3: their own platform too a little bit and make those decisions. Anyway,

42:50 Speaker 3: that was a little bit of a side street, but

42:52 Speaker 3: the point is apparently two hundred and fifty six million tracks,

42:56 Speaker 3: that's only part of how much music is act on Spotify.

43:01 Speaker 3: So let's see. So there's an update here again. This

43:09 Speaker 3: is from Digitalmusicnews dot Com. An update as of the

43:13 Speaker 3: twenty second It says after this piece was published. Well, no,

43:17 Speaker 3: let's go back. We'll go back to the update after.

43:19 Speaker 3: Let's look at the original article first. Okay, so the

43:22 Speaker 3: allegedly responsible hackers part of a self described nonprofit project

43:26 Speaker 3: called Anna's Archive themselves disclosed the data heist in a

43:31 Speaker 3: blog post. In that lengthy post, drawing from the metadata,

43:36 Speaker 3: covers hard stats concerning duration, stream volume, popularity, genre release date,

43:42 Speaker 3: and more regarding straight audio, Anna's archive indicated that it

43:48 Speaker 3: had quote archived around eighty six million music files, representing

43:53 Speaker 3: around ninety nine point six percent of listens and clocking

43:58 Speaker 3: in at a little un under three hundred terabytes in

44:02 Speaker 3: total size. A while ago, we discovered a way to

44:05 Speaker 3: scrape Spotify at scale. For now, this is a torrent's

44:10 Speaker 3: only archive aimed at preservation, but if there is enough interest,

44:14 Speaker 3: we could add downloading of individual files to Anna's archived unquote.

44:19 Speaker 3: The hackers communicated, that's interesting because when they say that

44:28 Speaker 3: it's only again, this is from the hackers. When they

44:32 Speaker 3: say that it's aimed at preservation, it sounds like they're

44:37 Speaker 3: they're trying to present this as an altruistic endeavor. We

44:41 Speaker 3: want to make sure that nothing ever happens to this music.

44:45 Speaker 3: We want to make sure. Again, I'm not please, I'm

44:47 Speaker 3: not justifying what they did. Don't misunderstand me. I'm just

44:50 Speaker 3: saying that this sounds like this is what they're presenting.

44:54 Speaker 3: You know, we want to make sure nothing happens to

44:56 Speaker 3: this music, you know, because in theory Spotify can remove

45:00 Speaker 3: anything anytime it wants, or an artists can remove anything

45:02 Speaker 3: anytime it wants, and then where does it go? What

45:05 Speaker 3: if they just delete it and then that's it. It's

45:08 Speaker 3: just gone. It's not available anywhere else, right, So they're

45:11 Speaker 3: trying to preserve all this music. That's that's what That's

45:14 Speaker 3: what the hackers have communicated, it says you're Unsurprisingly, Spotify

45:19 Speaker 3: and especially rights holders have plenty to say about those plans,

45:24 Speaker 3: as noted by third chair head ya Yayov Zimmerman. Yeah

45:31 Speaker 3: of Zimmerman. However, whatever takedowns and illegal actions follow, the

45:35 Speaker 3: damage is already done. Technically. Anna's archive claims that it

45:41 Speaker 3: doesn't host any copyrighted materials, instead purportedly indexing metadata that

45:47 Speaker 3: is already publicly available direct hosting or not. Some of

45:51 Speaker 3: the projects supporters are lamenting the Spotify circumvention and the

45:56 Speaker 3: possibility that will quote ruin the actual important literary archive

46:00 Speaker 3: unquote by encouraging aggressive litigation. Zimmerman wrote, quote the data

46:06 Speaker 3: is circulating on P two P networks and there is

46:09 Speaker 3: no putting the back putting this back in Pandora's box.

46:13 Speaker 3: Anyone can now, in theory create their own personal, free

46:18 Speaker 3: version of Spotify All Music up to twenty twenty five,

46:22 Speaker 3: with enough storage and a personal media streaming service like Plex.

46:26 Speaker 3: The only real barriers are copyright law and fear of

46:29 Speaker 3: enforcement unquote. You know, and I'm sure I'm not the

46:33 Speaker 3: only one who this has occurred, to to whom this

46:35 Speaker 3: has occurred, you know what this reminds me of. We're

46:39 Speaker 3: going back. We're going back, geez, how many years? Thirty years,

46:47 Speaker 3: maybe twenty five years? Napster. This reminds me of Napster.

46:53 Speaker 3: When Napster first became a thing, file sharing, peer to peer,

46:57 Speaker 3: file sharing online, and the whole music industry freaked out

47:02 Speaker 3: because all of a sudden, everything was free online through Napster. Now,

47:07 Speaker 3: obviously a lot's changed since then, and the music industry

47:11 Speaker 3: had to figure out ways to adjust to the new

47:12 Speaker 3: reality and the Internet and all of it. But when

47:20 Speaker 3: I see this, anyone can now in theory create their

47:24 Speaker 3: own personal free version of Spotify All Music up to

47:27 Speaker 3: twenty twenty five with enough storage and a personal media

47:31 Speaker 3: streaming server like Plex. The only real barriers are copyright

47:34 Speaker 3: law and fear of enforcement. Let's see, there's a little

47:43 Speaker 3: do we have time. Oh yeah, we have time. There's

47:46 Speaker 3: a little bit more here. Oh sorry, okay, here we go.

47:53 Speaker 3: Perhaps more pressingly, in the AI age, the massive collection

47:57 Speaker 3: of audio could theoretically be used to train generative generative

48:02 Speaker 3: models and fuel additional unauthorized sound alike outputs, a particularly

48:08 Speaker 3: significant issue if the involved platforms are based in countries

48:12 Speaker 3: with inadequate IP protections. I'm telling you, in some ways,

48:18 Speaker 3: this is napster all over again. This is napster in

48:22 Speaker 3: the AI age. It says here. One section of the

48:28 Speaker 3: na archives site says, quote, it is well understood that lms,

48:33 Speaker 3: which is large learning models like you know, chat, EPT

48:36 Speaker 3: and others, that suck up all this information. Okay, it

48:40 Speaker 3: is well to understood that lms thrive on high quality data.

48:45 Speaker 3: We have the largest collection of books, papers, magazines, et

48:50 Speaker 3: cetera in the world, which are some of the highest

48:54 Speaker 3: quality text sources. Unquote. According to the same site, Anna's Archives,

49:00 Speaker 3: I've promptly put out the metadata and with three hundred

49:04 Speaker 3: terabytes worth of audio files, releasing an order of popularity.

49:10 Speaker 3: In other words, the full extent of the episode's fallout

49:13 Speaker 3: remains to be seen. And as initially mentioned, Spotify confirmed

49:18 Speaker 3: the unauthorized access, but not where things go from here

49:22 Speaker 3: in a detailed light. In a detail light statement, Yeah,

49:27 Speaker 3: they didn't really say much. The Spotify spokesperson said, quote,

49:30 Speaker 3: an investigation into author unauthorized access identified that a third

49:34 Speaker 3: party scraped public metadata and used illicit tactics to circumvent

49:39 Speaker 3: DRM to access some of the platform's audio files. We

49:43 Speaker 3: are actively investigating the incident unquote. And again, as I

49:49 Speaker 3: pointed out earlier, what is missing from that statement nothing

49:56 Speaker 3: about how we will prevent this from happening. Again, I

50:02 Speaker 3: think that's very interesting. One more thing a radio more

50:06 Speaker 3: of a radio specific thing. But this is also from

50:08 Speaker 3: Digital Musicnews dot com. Hot ninety seven introduces new on

50:12 Speaker 3: air hosts after abrupt ebro firing New York listeners give

50:16 Speaker 3: a chili welcome. Now, you might be wondering, depending on

50:19 Speaker 3: where you are, why do I care about what goes

50:21 Speaker 3: on at a radio station in New York. Well, I'll

50:23 Speaker 3: tell you. Hot ninety seven in New York City is

50:26 Speaker 3: the most powerful, most prominent, respected, elite hip hop station

50:32 Speaker 3: in the entire country. Hot ninety seven is you know

50:38 Speaker 3: you're if you're interested in hip hop even even a

50:42 Speaker 3: little bit, you probably know about Hot ninety seven, and

50:45 Speaker 3: so they are again the most powerful hip hop station

50:48 Speaker 3: in the entire country. And Ebro, Now, I did not

50:53 Speaker 3: preread this. I don't know what happened, but I'm always

50:56 Speaker 3: very curious what happened to Ebro. I know that he

51:00 Speaker 3: was very I recognize this picture. I know that he

51:03 Speaker 3: was a very prominent figure again in hip hop, in

51:07 Speaker 3: radio in New York. He's a big deal. Let's see

51:11 Speaker 3: what happened here. So Hot ninety seven introduces a fresh

51:13 Speaker 3: group of hosts amid the cancelation of Ebro in the Morning,

51:17 Speaker 3: and New Yorkers aren't too happy about it. On Thursday,

51:20 Speaker 3: just after announcing the cancelation of Ebro in the Morning,

51:23 Speaker 3: New York hip hop station Hot ninety seven shared a

51:25 Speaker 3: promotional image on social media introducing a trio of new hosts.

51:30 Speaker 3: The posts didn't specify whether the new hosts will take

51:33 Speaker 3: over the morning show or when their show might launch.

51:38 Speaker 3: The post introduces Rondell Smith, Lana Harris, and Million, labeling

51:45 Speaker 3: them as the new Hot ninety seven hosts, alongside a

51:50 Speaker 3: coming soon banner, but given out quickly. The announcement followed

51:53 Speaker 3: the cancelation of longtime favorite Ebro in the Morning, which

51:56 Speaker 3: was hosted by Ebro darden, Laura Styles and Peter Rosenbro

52:00 Speaker 3: for years. Commenters on Instagram were decidedly unenthusiastic about the news.

52:05 Speaker 3: By the way, Peter Rosenberg will be familiar to wrestling

52:08 Speaker 3: fans because he also sometimes he does interviews or sits

52:14 Speaker 3: on a panel at you know, WWE events, usually during

52:17 Speaker 3: the pre show you might see him. So if you're

52:19 Speaker 3: a WWE fan, you've seen Peter Rosenberg at some point,

52:23 Speaker 3: So you know, Hot ninety seven kind of his or

52:27 Speaker 3: was his day job. But he also is involved in

52:30 Speaker 3: WWE as a broadcaster, and you know, and he does

52:34 Speaker 3: a lot of a lot of interviews, a lot of

52:36 Speaker 3: YouTube content and so forth. So so he was part

52:39 Speaker 3: of that team too. So responding to this to the announcement,

52:45 Speaker 3: one commenter wrote, congratulations, you played yourself. I'll keep listening

52:49 Speaker 3: to podcasts unquote. The announcement of new hosts follows a

52:52 Speaker 3: lot of shaky ground at the radio station, as the

52:54 Speaker 3: cancelation of Ebro in the Morning has sparked a lot

52:56 Speaker 3: of debate among fans and industry observd a like Hot

53:01 Speaker 3: ninety seven has notably not publicly explained the decision, but

53:05 Speaker 3: Ebro Dardin has claimed that his outspoken political views and

53:10 Speaker 3: critiques of major institutions may have contributed. Meanwhile, funk Master Flex,

53:16 Speaker 3: who briefly filled in during the morning slot after Ebro's departure,

53:20 Speaker 3: clarified on social media that it'll still be a while

53:23 Speaker 3: before his long term role in mornings will take hold.

53:27 Speaker 3: On the former Twitter x, he wrote that while he

53:31 Speaker 3: received positive feedback from listeners, his deal for the morning

53:34 Speaker 3: show doesn't start until twenty twenty nine. Okay, until then,

53:39 Speaker 3: he will remain in his longtime five pm slot. Twenty

53:43 Speaker 3: twenty nine, so he has a deal to take over

53:45 Speaker 3: the morning show on Hot ninety seven and twenty twenty nine.

53:50 Speaker 3: You know what that reminds me of. It reminds me

53:51 Speaker 3: of back when when Jay Leno announced his retirement from

53:56 Speaker 3: the Tonight Show the first time, or I'm sorry he

53:58 Speaker 3: didn't announce his retirement, but NBC was getting ready for

54:02 Speaker 3: what they wanted to be a retirement, so they announced

54:05 Speaker 3: five years in advance. Five years in advance. They announced

54:10 Speaker 3: that Conan O'Brien was going to be taking over the

54:12 Speaker 3: Tonight Show in five years, and then of course five

54:15 Speaker 3: years came, Conan took over and uh, you know, and

54:19 Speaker 3: then it didn't work out and Leno came back, and

54:21 Speaker 3: you know, eventually Leno left again and it was Jimmy Fallon.

54:25 Speaker 3: But but it just reminds me of that, Like, Okay,

54:27 Speaker 3: so it's been established that funk Master Flex has taken

54:31 Speaker 3: over the morning show, but not until twenty twenty nine.

54:35 Speaker 3: They can't say, hey, Flex, maybe we should revisit this,

54:39 Speaker 3: maybe we should have you take over the morning show now, Like,

54:42 Speaker 3: what are you doing in other New York related Oh? This,

54:47 Speaker 3: some other this? Oh, actually, well this is relevant too

54:50 Speaker 3: for people who are interested in politics. This Spart's relevant

54:53 Speaker 3: in other New York radio shakeups. Power one oh five

54:56 Speaker 3: and iHeartMedia announced last week the extent of their relationship

55:01 Speaker 3: with Media mogul and The Breakfast Club host Charlemagne the God. Again,

55:06 Speaker 3: if you're interested in politics and political podcasters, you're familiar

55:10 Speaker 3: with Charlemagne. I mean, he's not a podcast you know,

55:13 Speaker 3: they do politics on his radio show, but you know,

55:18 Speaker 3: but he's become a pretty influential guy over the years

55:21 Speaker 3: in politics. The multi year agreement will see Charlemagne continue

55:24 Speaker 3: his nationally syndicated show on weekdays from six to ten am,

55:29 Speaker 3: as well as weekends with the Breakfast Club, alongside co

55:32 Speaker 3: host DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious and Lauren L. Rosa. So

55:36 Speaker 3: all right, so Charlemagne's not going anywhere, but he's been

55:39 Speaker 3: very very successful with his format. I think he originally

55:43 Speaker 3: was doing more of a more you know, hip hop,

55:45 Speaker 3: you know, years ago, was doing more just interviews with

55:49 Speaker 3: other figures in hip hop. But then eventually it became

55:53 Speaker 3: I think now it's I mean, I don't listen to

55:55 Speaker 3: him all the time. I just you know, see whatever

55:57 Speaker 3: I see on YouTube. But it looks like now it's

55:59 Speaker 3: pretty much all politics, I think, politics and current events

56:02 Speaker 3: that they do. But they've again, they've been very very

56:05 Speaker 3: successful with that format. We are approaching the top of

56:10 Speaker 3: the hour, so we will begin to wrap up. I

56:12 Speaker 3: want to say, first again thank you to everybody who

56:15 Speaker 3: joined us today. Of course, we had Baz from the

56:17 Speaker 3: band Box of Trash in the first hour. In the

56:20 Speaker 3: second hour we had Kate from the Marches, another great band,

56:26 Speaker 3: and then of course in the third hour we had

56:28 Speaker 3: Lee Wilding talking about his solo project, The Far North,

56:31 Speaker 3: and I really enjoyed talking with everybody today. So I've

56:36 Speaker 3: had a lot of fun on today's show, and if

56:38 Speaker 3: you've been listening, I hope that you have as well.

56:42 Speaker 3: I think that to close out, though, I think we

56:44 Speaker 3: should play one more song from the Far North. What

56:48 Speaker 3: was the song?

56:50 Speaker 5: Hmm?

56:53 Speaker 3: We've got a couple of options here. Well, while I'm

56:56 Speaker 3: figuring that out, because I can multitask, I will just

56:58 Speaker 3: remind you if you miss any art of today's show,

57:02 Speaker 3: you can you can get it, of course, via podcast.

57:06 Speaker 3: Go to Wmnhradio dot org or go to my website,

57:09 Speaker 3: Matt Coonorton dot com for all your options. On that oh,

57:13 Speaker 3: ship of Bones, that was the other one Lee was

57:15 Speaker 3: talking about. We'll close out with that one, but so

57:19 Speaker 3: I hope you'll do that, And if you want to

57:22 Speaker 3: know more too, you know I should mention this January

57:25 Speaker 3: is coming a very busy time for someone like me

57:27 Speaker 3: who is a certified hypnotherapist. So if you've got New

57:31 Speaker 3: Year's resolutions you're concerned with, reach out to me Matt

57:34 Speaker 3: Connorton dot com. I can help you. I am a

57:37 Speaker 3: certified hypnotherapist and hypnosis is a great way to make

57:40 Speaker 3: positive and lasting change. I won't give you a big

57:43 Speaker 3: sales pitch. I don't spend money on a sponsorship, so

57:48 Speaker 3: I don't want to turn my show into a into

57:50 Speaker 3: an infomercial. But I'll I'll just throw that out there.

57:52 Speaker 3: January is coming. January is for hypnotherapists like Christmas is

57:57 Speaker 3: for retailers. It's a very very busy time. So uh,

58:01 Speaker 3: Matt Conorton dot com. You can reach me through the website.

58:04 Speaker 3: And on that note, uh, we will conclude this week's

58:08 Speaker 3: Matt Condorton Unleashed again. Thank you everyone so much, and uh,

58:11 Speaker 3: to close out, we're gonna play this song, Ship of Bones.

58:15 Speaker 3: This is the other song that Lee Wilding was talking about,

58:17 Speaker 3: and uh, we'll close out with this and again this

58:20 Speaker 3: is the Far North. And thank you all so much.

58:35 Speaker 6: You know I need you, know.

58:38 Speaker 2: Like I always did.

58:41 Speaker 6: You know I.

58:42 Speaker 2: Won't you love bring God upon me.

58:48 Speaker 4: Because in Tim's all pay, Oh dear Sree, pay.

58:55 Speaker 5: You help me just like you want me.

59:02 Speaker 2: Drove down your love to the storm, into the storm,

59:09 Speaker 2: and to my arms from storm. I keep you wall

59:15 Speaker 2: from storm, I keep you warm.

59:24 Speaker 6: Until save the spot.

59:33 Speaker 2: Without the

59:38 Speaker 5: Sapper, without you