Matt Connarton Unleashed 5-9-26 hour 3

0:00 Speaker 1: W m N H rips the normals.

0:05 Speaker 2: We're back from the brand Mannerson.

0:45 Speaker 3: About let you go.

1:08 Speaker 4: Tie like I s prop the sa I go out, so come on.

1:32 Speaker 5: What I'm home about?

1:33 Speaker 3: You don't black time do? Let you go down?

1:44 Speaker 5: Sun by the side, don't.

1:49 Speaker 6: Tell sis.

2:25 Speaker 3: Not so?

3:26 Speaker 7: Oh my god, I love that the track has lived fast. The band is Viva los Villains from the album Year of the Villain. And let's see who we have with us via WhatsApp. I think we have Jonathan Ordridge with us.

3:37 Speaker 8: Hello, Yeah, hi Matt, Yeah, you got Jonny hit and I'm joined by the other boys.

3:42 Speaker 7: Oh got all three of you. Yeah, Oh wonderful, wonderful. Okay, so we got Jonathan Ordridge, Tom Marfleet and Aaron Bailey. I'm really glad you guys could join us today. I love that song. I listen to the whole album Year of the Villain and it's so good. I love your sound. Who is so? Who's uh? Who's the guitar player?

4:03 Speaker 1: Well, Aaron does a lot of the lead guitar stuff. Tom does a lot of the rhythm stuff.

4:10 Speaker 7: Yeah, and then uh so okay, so Aaron does some Tom does rhythm and then Jonathan. What do you do.

4:19 Speaker 1: So either bass or rhythm.

4:20 Speaker 7: I got you, I got you? Okay? And who's singing?

4:24 Speaker 8: I sing on that one, Johnny, Yes, so, but Tom sings on quite a few as well.

4:29 Speaker 9: So.

4:32 Speaker 7: Gotcha, gotcha? Yeah, that's interesting and obviously, you know, for for a trio, you guys got a big sound. But it's also it's just so cool. I have not heard a lot of bands that have that kind of vibe recently that are that are you know, just doing stuff like that? And uh, I love the guitar solo at the end of that is it's fantastic. Thanks, thanks very much, solutely I love that.

5:03 Speaker 1: Yeah.

5:03 Speaker 10: Yeah, so the sound is really we love classic rock. We're all brought up on classic rock, you know, listening to our parents' records, and so that kind of big, meaty sound of the seventies and eighties is really something that we go for.

5:18 Speaker 7: Yeah, absolutely, is that something I know this isn't your first release. Is that something that you've kind of uh strove to sound like from the very beginning or has the sound change over changed over time?

5:31 Speaker 10: Our sound the first stuff that we put out was was a bit more poppy but pop orientated. But the sound, particularly when Aaron joined us because it was just me and Johnny as a duo originally, and then Aaron joined us, and the sound's got heavier and heavier since then.

5:48 Speaker 7: Yeah, so, uh well, let me get the obvious question out of the way. So where does the name come from? Viva Lost Villains or is it Viva Low's Villains or doesn't matter.

6:01 Speaker 10: So we were just sort of kicking about names. In fact, the band originally was called Actong. We we wanted something that was kind of really in your face, and then Johnny really fancied he wanted a band with the word villain in it. It was something that you were kind of really into, wasn't it. Yeah, and we just kind of, yeah, worked on the name for a number of weeks, and that's what we landed on.

6:24 Speaker 7: Yeah. No, I like that. Are people surprised, I mean, given given where you're from, uh to have a name like that? Well, actually, where are you, guys from? Exactly where where are you in the UK?

6:35 Speaker 1: So like southern England? Okay, we're about hours south of London, I.

6:42 Speaker 7: Suppose okay, okay, are there other bands in that area that sound anything like you, guys? Or I would imagine you really stand out.

6:49 Speaker 10: Yeah, I don't think as heavy as us. There's a we're lucky to be in quite a musical.

6:54 Speaker 1: Scene down here.

6:55 Speaker 10: Yeah, but certainly, you know, I think guitar bands have been out of for quite a long time, and not not that that matters much to us, but certainly I think our sound is pretty heavy for the scene, right right.

7:10 Speaker 7: Yeah, no doubt. I mean there's something I mean, forgive me for saying this, I don't know if this is okay to say or not, but there's something very like I would not know that you were not an American band if I didn't already know that, you know, just from listening to you, there's something very sort of American Southwestern about your sound, if that makes sense.

7:28 Speaker 11: Yeah, I think this kind of a bluesy kind of vibe behind it, which we've been sort of exploring a little bit. Yeah, somewhat covered up by the sort of the heavier rock sound, but I think it's still there, and sur elements of country as well. We've done some kind of I wouldn't say there were country tracks, but definitely some influences of country in there as well.

7:46 Speaker 1: So we're massive bands of.

7:48 Speaker 10: American music and yeah, again, It's another thing that's kind of fit the fed the sound.

7:54 Speaker 7: I suppose, yeah, no doubt, no doubt. Are you guys playing live a lot? Are you touring?

8:01 Speaker 1: Not a huge amount, to be honest with you.

8:02 Speaker 10: We're really focusing on on the studios stuff and kind of getting out good records. But then we've got plans for digging and touring coming up hopefully soon.

8:11 Speaker 7: Part of why I wonder it is I just I bet these songs sound incredible live. I can just I'm just kind of imagining it.

8:21 Speaker 1: Down pretty well, especially the heavy ones.

8:23 Speaker 7: Yeah, yeah, no doubt, no doubt, And I love it. Okay, So tell me about the album artwork. And by the way, I would encourage anybody to go online and and take a look at the album artwork for this again, it's Viva Loos Villain's Year of the Villain. Did one of you guys do the artwork?

8:40 Speaker 2: Yeah?

8:40 Speaker 1: So we we we have.

8:42 Speaker 8: We we love the idea of this kind of smoking skull, and we use it a little bit on sort of artwork and stuff around us. And I think we quite like the mascot, like Eddie to Iron Maiden. I think this may be used in like future covers for us in the in the future.

9:00 Speaker 1: In various ways.

9:01 Speaker 8: Yeah, but yeah, we like you brought into the smoking skull character and can just see it being rolled out.

9:09 Speaker 10: Yeah, it's very much all the stuff we do, the music, the visuals. It's a team effort and we tend to just knock stuff backwards and forwards. Some have an idea, you know what, hows this for a for an album, an album cover or a single cover.

9:22 Speaker 1: I've got a great photo that I took.

9:24 Speaker 10: Maybe we could we could do something in that, So, you know, really a team effort and getting everything together.

9:30 Speaker 7: Yeah, yeah, no, I really, I really like the artwork and I like the mascot idea. That makes sense. How long have you guys been around? I mean, it's it. It hasn't been too too long, right.

9:41 Speaker 10: No, well, so Johnny and I, Johnny and I have known each other for nearly twenty years.

9:45 Speaker 7: Oh wow.

9:46 Speaker 1: And Aaron's been part of our.

9:48 Speaker 10: Friendship group for a long time as well. But so Johnny and I wrote a lot of stuff, you know, way back in the day.

9:55 Speaker 12: And.

9:57 Speaker 10: But only in the last couple of years Kin I got together and and started doing stuff a bit more seriously. So we did have kind of a kind of back catalog of stuff we'd written over the years that really helped us kind of drive the early stuff. But you know, we meet up, you know, a few times a month generally writing and recording and rehearsing stuff.

10:19 Speaker 7: So yeah, no, that's great. And then what are your plans after this album? I mean, obviously, right now you're focused on promoting this, but I assume because it sounds like you've got a lot of things in the pipeline that you probably you know, a lot of music written that you haven't necessarily recorded yet. It sounds like you guys are always writing.

10:39 Speaker 10: We've got the label, so they Records would be really angry with us if we didn't mention it. We had a single out yesterday called The Devil in Me, which that came out literally yesterday, so our listeners are interested. They can look that up and they can find us on all popular streaming platforms.

10:57 Speaker 7: Oh, is that not on You're of the Villain?

11:00 Speaker 10: No, this is a standalone single that we released listerally yesterday.

11:05 Speaker 7: Oh, very interesting. Well, because we're going to play something obviously at the end of our conversation as well to bookend the segment, and maybe I will play that nice. Oh it looks like you have a video for it too, good.

11:21 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, so that was us.

11:24 Speaker 8: Yes, we filmed that down at a studio near us in Portsmouth.

11:29 Speaker 7: Oh outstanding. Yeah. Yeah, it's so important, you know, And it's funny in America. I don't know if you guys run into this over there at all, but there are some people in America who think. Usually it's people not active in the music industry in any way who are under this impression that because you know, MTV has gone away and and people think that there's no more music videos and they don't realize that actually, if you just go on YouTube, there's more music videos than ever. Everybody makes music videos now.

11:53 Speaker 7: It's really become such an essential thing in terms of promoting your music, especially when you have a new single and sharing that out on social media and all of that.

12:03 Speaker 10: Yeah, totally, And you know, I think the trend is actually people more people watching the music videos than streaming the music. You know, people want to they've got their phone in their hands and they're finding new music. It really helps to have a visual with it.

12:19 Speaker 7: Yeah, absolutely, Now what one another decision to release a single outside of that's not on the album. Is there is there any particular strategy about it or was it just something you guys felt like doing.

12:30 Speaker 1: We'll have to talk to the label about that.

12:33 Speaker 7: Interesting Damn.

12:35 Speaker 10: He runs the label, as I said, it's Soday Records, and he gives us a schedule. You know, he's very good to say. You know, he doesn't put too much pressure on us. He lets us release what we want, but he'll say, right, we're going to have something coming out on the eighth of May, and then the next month is on such and such a date.

12:54 Speaker 1: And we kind of worked towards that. Really, I think there was more an element that we were so excited about this particular track.

13:01 Speaker 11: Yeah, we've been very passionate about since we since we sort of created about six months ago.

13:07 Speaker 1: That we were just keen to get it out as soon as we could. Yeah, even just as a free standing single.

13:13 Speaker 7: No, that makes sense. That makes sense in terms of being on a label. Do you guys find it's uh? Is it easier? Does it kind of take that off of your plate? Because I know a lot of artists who don't want to be Like, some artists can't function on a label because they they have to be in control of every little thing. I talked to a lot of guests on the show who it's like they're they're so dialed into every little aspect of what they do that the idea of being on a label, you know, unless it was a major label that offered them a million dollar advance or something, which doesn't even happen anymore, but the idea of being on a label is so anathema to how they operate.

13:47 Speaker 7: But it sounds like for you guys, it's working really well.

13:52 Speaker 1: Yeah, I'd say it.

13:53 Speaker 12: So.

13:53 Speaker 10: I think it's really nice for us to be able to focus on on the music and sounds very good kind of holding our hand and particularly on the promotional side of stuff, just kind of leading us in the right direction. I think being an artist these days, you have to be everything you have to, you know, be able to play the music, write the music, record the music, produce the music, produce content for the music, and it's it's a lot to kind of to handle. So for us, it's to have Sam holding our hand on certain aspects of it, and I think we have a lot of autonomy as well in terms of being able to produce the kind of music that we want to make yeah for sure.

14:34 Speaker 7: Yeah, So he's obviously not trying to micromanage what your output is, just more what happens to it when it's out right.

14:42 Speaker 10: And like we come from a really a DIY music background. You know, we are doing you know, pretty much everything ourselves, which you know a lot of people are doing these days, and Sam just kind of gives us the freedom to be able to do that. I mean, he's never once said I'm not releasing that.

15:01 Speaker 7: That's excellent. That's excellent. By the way. So for the for the album You're of the Villain, I'm curious, is it, uh, you have physical Do you have physical copies of it as well?

15:12 Speaker 10: At the moment though, just just just just the digital you know, it's it's it's one of it's. It's a difficult one because you know the cost of getting getting vinyl or CDs.

15:22 Speaker 1: Out there is is pretty high. You know, it can be a high risk strategy for.

15:29 Speaker 12: Sorry, it's a pretty.

15:32 Speaker 1: High risk strategy for kind of investment. Investment wise.

15:36 Speaker 10: We're kind of happy building our you know, our following and presence online, but definitely be interested in doing some some physical releases in the future.

15:44 Speaker 7: It would be wonderful to see that. You guys have probably thought of this too. It would be wonderful to see that artwork which I just love so much from your the Villain on a on a big vinyl record, you know what I mean. But but it is very expensive to do that, absolutely absolutely great. Well, so what should people know about where to find you guys online for people who want to keep up with everything that you're doing with all things Viva Los Villains.

16:11 Speaker 10: Yeah, so we're pretty busy on Instagram and on Facebook, Sam and the rec Word label produce pushing it on TikTok YouTube, So yeah, most of the social media channels. If you search for viv Villains on Google, you'll probably find us.

16:29 Speaker 7: Yeah, you're very googleable, certainly a word that I like to use, which is extremely important in the times that we live in. So very easy to find you. So I love it. I love the album again. I encourage everybody please go check out the album Viva Lost Villains Year of the Villain, and we are about to play the new single Devil and Me. We'll give that a spin as soon as we wrap up with you guys. Anything else we should know about this track Devil and Me? Is it kind of the same. I mean, we'll hear it in a moment.

16:56 Speaker 7: But is it kind of the same vibe as the album or is this truly a separate piece.

17:02 Speaker 1: Yes, so it is a separate piece. But I think it's you know, it's pretty slightly more.

17:08 Speaker 8: I think it would fit a dance floor more than the album would.

17:11 Speaker 7: Interesting.

17:13 Speaker 8: Yeah, it's it's a bit more funky, but it's still rocking, still catchy.

17:18 Speaker 1: We were writing. We wrote it back in November.

17:20 Speaker 10: We had a kind of band away weekend writing weekend, and we started writing.

17:24 Speaker 1: Someone came up with the chords and.

17:26 Speaker 10: Then someone said, do you know what this will sound amazing with a disco kind of on the floor beat on it, and we put it on there we all.

17:33 Speaker 1: Just went, yeah, that's it. That's fantastic. So yeah, it's it's it's.

17:37 Speaker 10: Kind of upbeat but still heavy and yeah, I hope you and your listeners like him.

17:42 Speaker 12: That.

17:42 Speaker 7: Oh very cool. I cannot wait to listen to this. Okay, So, by the way, has this been played anywhere on the radio?

17:50 Speaker 1: No?

17:50 Speaker 10: Literally, come out literally yesterday, so I'd be surprised.

17:53 Speaker 1: I think I think it's exclusive.

17:55 Speaker 7: So this is a world we love the world radio premieres here so I get to use the world premiere bumper, so that's great. I love it. I love it well, guys, thank you all three of you for joining us here today, Johnny, Tom and Aaron. Wonderful to speak with you. We'll definitely do it again in the future, especially as you're releasing new music, because it sounds like you've got a lot of stuff coming up. So but like I said, I love the album. I encourage everyone to check it out. So we will let you, guys go and we will hit this track, brand new Devil in Me, and guys, thank you again so much.

18:31 Speaker 7: You got it, Take care, bye, bye, cheers. All right, that is the guys from Viva Los Villains and right now this is spontaneous, but we're gonna do the world radio premiere of the brand new single from Viva Los Villains, Devil in Me.

18:48 Speaker 2: You are listening to t wuminh.

18:52 Speaker 5: World premiere.

19:12 Speaker 13: One day, Swells swats Up twice, wish return Me Lad may Day, which you tell me what came first selling or so I'm trying to tell.

19:40 Speaker 6: With me, I just send me a fool the.

19:45 Speaker 14: Execution pas to tell with me. Co trud can't control

20:15 Speaker 14: that Sap the Control made night Side just as out

20:44 Speaker 14: si Quiens spell my night to sleep it out of his name. Come, it's cold, the is, it's old swam, It's out.

21:08 Speaker 5: Trot from Can't Control, trot from Control.

21:55 Speaker 7: Oh, I love it, I love it. That is the world radio premiere of the brand new single just came out yesterday on streaming platforms. That is the first time you have ever heard that on the radio, The Devil in Me brand new from Vivlos Villains and I really like those guys a lot. And we have we have a surprise guest here. We've got Alex from the Cherry fogg Is here on the phone with us. Alex, are you there?

22:20 Speaker 1: I'm here.

22:21 Speaker 7: How are you?

22:22 Speaker 9: Man?

22:22 Speaker 7: What's up? What's going on?

22:24 Speaker 9: Not much? I wanted to say hello, see how things were going. I'm looking forward to a show with Stepsis coming up. That's gonna be Darrevin Taunton.

22:33 Speaker 7: Oh very good. When when is that?

22:37 Speaker 9: It's a Platinum City Gaming. Let me pull up the date for you right now?

22:40 Speaker 7: Yeah.

22:40 Speaker 9: Yeah, but it's going to be a real barn burner backed by Loud Entertainment, and we're really looking forward to the show.

22:47 Speaker 7: Yeah, I love them. Loud Entertainment's great. I really like those guys Rich and of course uh Baboo is that he's a character.

22:57 Speaker 15: Yeah.

22:58 Speaker 9: The show actually is on May twenty third. It's gonna be a Platinum City gaming down in Taunton.

23:05 Speaker 7: Oh, very good.

23:07 Speaker 11: Yeah.

23:08 Speaker 9: But I also have something for tonight, if anybody's available tonight. I have another band called Wicked Dark Shark and we're gonna be celebrating an album release party tonight in of all places of Lawrence. Yeah. I don't know if you've heard of this venue before. Man, it's called like Rap Skill in music Hall.

23:26 Speaker 5: I have not.

23:27 Speaker 7: Is that a new place? I have not heard of that.

23:29 Speaker 9: I think it's relatively new. Yeah, but it's a free show. It's going to be an album release party. We're gonna be rocking out music by Frank Morey as well. He's a Cambridge guy. But yeah, feel free to come by tonight. That starts at six. It's gonna be going till eleven. Gonna be a great show.

23:44 Speaker 7: Very good, very good. And how how's the band? What's the cherry Fog been up to?

23:49 Speaker 9: The Cherry Fog has been up to We've been doing a lot of duo stuff. So we've been kind of rocking out black keystyle, having just Peter on guitar and myself on drums, and people have been liking it. We've had our bass player had to relocate to Texas to be a professor teaching philosophy, so we've had to go at it on our own and we've actually really enjoyed it. So obviously he's involved in creative endeavors and obviously helped with the record and stuff. We've been just kind of taking to act as a duo as of late.

24:20 Speaker 7: Oh okay, it sounds like it's working out well.

24:22 Speaker 9: You know, you're keeping busy, definitely, Yeah, keeping busy, and we have a couple of other shows coming up. But yeah, the place tonight is called rap Scalm Music Hall. But man, those guys at Texas are so cool. You see that award they just won.

24:35 Speaker 7: It's hard to it's hard to keep up with it because they seem to win a lot of stuff. What's the one that they just what's the award that they just won.

24:43 Speaker 9: It was something about like New England's Society of Music or something, but they were like number one band in New England. I think I have it from Loud sent it over to me.

24:52 Speaker 7: Okay, but let me just see here.

24:54 Speaker 9: Yeah, it was a New England Music Awards winner Band of the Year.

24:58 Speaker 7: Oh okay, oh very good. Good. I think they've I know they've won at least two others over the years. Uh so, oh that's excellent. Good for them. Yeah, no, we have. We have a great time with them. Always look forward to a Swarmy Fest, which is gonna be I thinks a little early this year. I think it's gonna be in September. That's always a really good time. So yeah, Jenny and I are both really big fans of Sepsis. We like them a lot, and they you know, they've been really really good to us. And William always has a lot to say whenever they come on the show.

25:32 Speaker 9: That's why he has his own show. It's so entertaining.

25:34 Speaker 7: Oh that's true. Yeah. The podcast, Yeah that that gets confusing too, because they've had more than one podcast over the year. But I think is he still doing will is it William versus the World?

25:45 Speaker 9: I haven't seen that one.

25:47 Speaker 7: Okay, I might be wrong on the title. I thought it was something like that, but but yeah, yeah, no, we we we like Sepsis a lot not everyone does. They're a little controversial in a way. I'm not exactly sure why. You know, there's some people in the scene who look down on them a little bit or whatever. But no, Jenny and I have always had a good experience with that band, and we you know, we've done Swarmy Fest because Matt Connorton Unleashed. We're one of the sponsors of that show, and we've done that for I think this will be our fourth year, maybe fourth or fifth, at least fourth.

26:18 Speaker 7: Yeah, yeah, So no, it was.

26:20 Speaker 9: Cool because Cherry Fog was kind of like an outlier at that show in a way, like a lot of the other bands were really heavy like rock and metal, maybe a little bit thrashy. But it was cool because we were able to bring that vintage kind of feel to the show and everybody seemed to appreciate it. It was like a sort of like a motif of like heavy metal and then like it was us like vintage hard rock. So it was a cool like twist of the show.

26:42 Speaker 7: I thought it was. I thought you guys fit in great though. I mean, yeah, you know, it was a little different, but but it still worked, you know. I mean, but you know, loud guitars, you know, always work like time.

26:56 Speaker 9: But yeah, you guys were up in bass, loud drums. You know, I play very lightly as you know.

27:02 Speaker 7: No, it was no, it was excellent. Yeah, you guys were amazing.

27:07 Speaker 9: Yeah. But for anybody who's curious about the Cherry Fog, just check to look us up on Spotify, on Apple Music and just typing the Cherry Fog. We got an album out, we've got a single and we've been at it for a couple of years. So more music to come. But you know, pick your favorite song, maybe let us know what it is on Instagram and we'd be happy to kind of make sure it gets included.

27:26 Speaker 7: A more sell lists outstanding. Yeah, the album Curious Creature, correct.

27:31 Speaker 5: That's the name.

27:32 Speaker 7: Yeah, what's what's the newest single from that? Because I'll play it. I'll play it at the end of our conversation. I'll play it.

27:39 Speaker 9: So is that only the album? But our latest single is called Lookout Below?

27:42 Speaker 7: All right, let me see if I can find it.

27:45 Speaker 9: It should be up on all the platforms.

27:48 Speaker 7: Look Out Below found it? Yes, yes, yeah, I'll play this. I assume there's no I assume there's no swears in it.

27:56 Speaker 9: No, no explayers on that one.

27:58 Speaker 7: Awesome. It is FCC for Yeah. Has this been played anywhere on the radio?

28:04 Speaker 9: Nothing I'm aware of. I know it was kind of circling a little bit on like Reddit playlists here and there, kind of underground stuff. But I think this might be the debut of Lookout Below on the radio.

28:15 Speaker 7: I'm sure with I'm sure, as you know, we do love to do the world radio premieres here on the program, so I can give this the world radio premiere treatment, the world radio premiere of Lookout Below from the Cherry Fog. What do you think?

28:27 Speaker 9: I'm honored to be a part of this one A.

28:30 Speaker 7: I love it. I love it all right, So we'll hit that. We'll let you go, Alex. Do you want to plug the show that's happening for our live listeners? Plug that one more time before you go.

28:39 Speaker 16: Yep.

28:39 Speaker 9: Two shows. So I got one at rap Scale and Music Off for the Wicked Dark Shark record release party. Another brand new album just came out today, and then May Stepsis Down and Totton at Platinum City Gaming. I'm going to be a hell of a show, going to be some serious people watching and some loud music.

28:57 Speaker 7: Very good, very good. All right, Alex from the Cherry Fog, thank you so much for calling us today. Man, this was a cool surprise and we'll wait. We'll talk to you soon.

29:07 Speaker 9: Thanks man.

29:07 Speaker 7: Bye, all right, man, take care, all right, wonderful. Well this is cool, so let's do it. Here we go. This is the world radio premiere of the new single from the Cherry Fog, and this is called look Out. Below.

29:21 Speaker 2: You are listening to.

29:22 Speaker 12: W M and H.

29:24 Speaker 5: World premiere.

29:41 Speaker 2: You gamman jumping at.

29:43 Speaker 17: Job shadow now, yeah, you jump it jumping at job Shadow now.

30:00 Speaker 9: Yeah, but I want you to know right now.

30:08 Speaker 5: Yeah, I need you to know.

30:09 Speaker 2: I need you to know.

30:10 Speaker 7: How did you know?

30:15 Speaker 3: Then?

30:16 Speaker 5: I've been feeling like I'm.

30:18 Speaker 17: Following up and Jesus guy Firs, why said I feel the sweat?

30:24 Speaker 6: I'm telling me that it's so.

30:26 Speaker 3: Vers on me.

30:27 Speaker 2: Yesterday I saw st gas. Can't be getting you hold the candle when I get out from moon. Yeah, I want you to know right now.

30:43 Speaker 6: Now, why do you know where you go?

30:45 Speaker 2: Where you show? Look? Cowpo got a.

31:00 Speaker 15: Bar you comment jumping at you? All settle down? Jumping at you all settle down?

31:41 Speaker 18: Yeah you gotment jumping that's you.

31:44 Speaker 6: All settle down.

32:06 Speaker 7: Oh my god, I love that. Oh they have such a good sound. That is called Lookout below the world radio premiere the newest single from the Cherry Fog. And thank you again to Alex for calling in. That was a fun surprise. Good to talk to him. And yeah, I love that band, like I said Jenny, and I saw them for the first time at Swarmfest last year and they're incredible live. If you get a chance to see them live, you must, you know. And Alex had mentioned a couple of shows, one of them is coming up tonight in Lawrence.

32:35 Speaker 7: So but such a good band. I love that song. That is so good. Look Out below the new single from the Cherry Fog. And as far as terrestrial radio goes, you heard it here first on Matt Connorton Unleashed and we are live from the studios of w m n H ninety five point three FM and Glorious Manchester, New Hampshire. Of course, you can stream the show from anywhere. Go to Matt connorton unleashed dot com, the brand new website that we have dedicated entirely to the show. Click live and you can stream the show, and of course you can find the archive of the show there, and there's even a new blog feature.

33:08 Speaker 7: We just put up an article about the something we talked about on the show last week, Busta Rhymes getting sued by his former assistant because apparently Buster Rhymes violently assaulted his former assistant and you know, because his dinner was late or something. You just can't do that. But even if you're a bust To Rhymes, So lots of stuff there Matt connortonuleash dot com. There will be a lot more to come in of course, is my website Matt connorton dot com. If you're interested in booking a hypnotherapy session, that is the best place to do that.

33:40 Speaker 7: And if you want to learn more about what I do in hypnotherapy, I can help you quit smoking, lose weight, deal with anxiety, all kinds of good stuff. So if you are looking to make some change and you need a little help, hit me up Matt connorton dot com. You can find me there. You can schedule a session, you can schedule a free consultation right through the site. So it's been an exciting shows so far. We do have a little bit to go. If you are listening live on Saturday, a little bit more music News.

34:07 Speaker 7: Now I just learned something, and as someone who's worked in the music industry for a long time, I'm a little embarrassed that I did not know this term. But there is a term in the touring industry called blue dot fever. This is from musiclly dot com. Again. This is another one of these websites that I really like as far as getting access to music industry news, and of course it's very handy doing a show like this. Actually, let's start with the first. This two articles about this, so blue dot fever.

34:36 Speaker 7: I did not know that this is a thing, or I knew that it was a thing. I guess I didn't know that it had a name. Again, this is from music Ally. So this is the first story that just went up a couple days ago, Ticketmaster Live Nation and the quietly canceled tours catching blue dot fever. Oh, actually hanging on on.

35:01 Speaker 15: Uh.

35:02 Speaker 7: This website wants me to sign up for a free account, which is fine, except I'm trying to do this in real time. All right, Let's let's read the newest story because this will update us. So here's what blue dot fever is. So it says here Thursday. Again. This is from music ally dot com. It says, Actually, yesterday we wrote about the blue dot fever phase or phrase that's been prominent in music trade media this week, following a spate of big tours being canceled or delayed amid rumors of poor sales as the and by the way, you know the inflation that is really gripping the economy, affordability issues and so forth.

35:42 Speaker 7: They absolutely affect the touring industry, no doubt about it, and touring itself has become increasingly cost prohibitive in the last few years, it says here. As the company involved in many of those tours, Live Nation has now responded to speculation that blue dot fever is a worrying trend for twenty twenty six, and as you may have guessed, it has an alternative view. Quote. Of all the shows Live Nation has on the books this year, less than one percent have been canceled. That's not blue dot fever.

36:13 Speaker 7: It's a normal touring year, unquote, said Live Nation's a spokesperson to Music Ally told Music Ally quote. In fact, twenty twenty six is shaping up to be a record with concert sales up eleven percent for the year unquote. That surprises me. Especially with the price of tickets. These are figures for all the shows Live Nation is putting on, rather than just the bigger arena and stadium shows that are the focus of the blue dot fever talk. So I guess, and again I'm just learning the serm. I guess when you talk about blue dot fever, that tends to apply more to the big tours, arena and stadium tours, and Live Nation is kind of lumping in.

36:55 Speaker 7: You know, you've got theaters, you've got smaller venues, and Live Nation of course controls. I mean, it is a monopoly, let's call it what it is. And they control and Live Nation and Ticketmaster are the same thing. For people who don't know, Ticketmaster is a subsidiary of Live Nation. Live Nation controls most the vast majority of the national artist touring industry in this country. But so they're putting some spin on it. They're saying, well, there's no blue dot fever. Look where ticket sales are up eleven percent for us.

37:28 Speaker 7: But again that's including everything, not just the big arena and stadium tours, which is where the blue dot fever talk comes into play apparently, So it says you're going back to the article. Even so, the stats open a new speculation path. A lot of big artists are out on tour this year, and a lot of them are clearly doing good box office business. But this is a highly competitive environment. So the trend may be that when a promoter gets it wrong, where the venue size and or ticket prices don't match the true demand for that artist, it can be really wrong and obvious very quickly.

38:06 Speaker 7: So the debate is not our big concerts in trouble, but perhaps it's more about why specific tours have overshot so brutally and whether external factors costs in particular, are making the subsequent downgrades, delays, and cancellations swifter than in the past. So there you go. So, you know, I learned something new. Like I said, I was not aware of this blue dot fever phenomenon or that that was a term, but apparently it is. And you know, and again like I said, when there's difficulty in the economy in this case, you know, we talk about affordability and inflation and all that, it does very much affect the concert business.

38:49 Speaker 7: What's the first thing that you have to cut back on is entertainment. Right when you're when you're having difficulty, you know, I mean, if if you've got to choose between you know, grocery or buying a ticket to see a concert, and these tickets are so incredibly expensive, you know, you gotta spend your money at the grocery store. Right, So either way, one other thing I saw that I wanted to look at. Oh yeah, since we're talking about Ticketmaster. Apparently Ticketmaster boy. We talked about Ticketmaster a lot on the show.

39:24 Speaker 7: This is from Digital Musicnews dot com. Major cuts at Ticketmaster. The company has cut three hundred and fifty jobs. As Live Nation divestor dangles. Let's see what this is about. It says here Ticketmaster cut eight percent of its global staff, are around three hundred and fifty employees in its on in its engineering, product and design divisions. The company also cut contractors. By the way, I wonder if some of this is the result of AI, you know, just aibby being able to do certain tasks that you don't necessarily need humans to do, and a company like Ticketmaster, because any company that I mean, I don't know if you would use the term tech company to describe Ticketmaster.

40:12 Speaker 7: Necessarily it's a ticketing platform, but it's a ticketing platform on the Internet. They do depend heavily on probably a lot of things, a lot of tasks that you can train AI models to do. Again, this is from Digital Music News. It says Ticketmaster has cut eight percent of its global staff this week. According to a new report from Pollstar. The cut effects approximately three hundred and fifty employees across twenty five countries, primarily in its engineering, product and design divisions, as well as reducing its contractors.

40:43 Speaker 7: Notably, the company's executive leadership team has not changed. Samil Meta, Ticketmaster Global president, who joined the company last October, said, quote, the purpose of these cuts is stronger prioritization, especially in engineering, product and design unquote.

41:01 Speaker 12: Oh.

41:01 Speaker 7: He also said, quote that comes with flattening layers, consolidating ownership, changing how teams are structured, and ensuring that we put more energy behind specific initiatives. We're going to keep investing in specific areas so that we can actually achieve the vision we laid out unquote. Meta presented his vision for Ticketmaster's future on April fifteen during a keynote address at the Pollstar Live conference. There, he explained the importance of Ticketmaster meeting fans where they are and optimizing the checkout process via new technologies like AI.

41:37 Speaker 7: And there it is, there it is, he said during his presentation. Quote what I learned over the last ten years, which I'm trying to apply to Ticketmaster, is how to engage with commerce at scale, how to move billions, tens of billions, hundreds of billions all over the world between buyers and sellers, how to fight bad actors fraud, and most importantly, how to take a technology first approach to problem solving, especially in the age of AI. Unquote. Meta was formerly the chief product Officer and head of Business org at Square, whose holdings include the likes of Title, Cash, app after pay, bit Key, and Spiral.

42:18 Speaker 7: So as you can see from his background, you know this is a guy who's thinking about this stuff, right, he said. Quote to me, the strong performance reflects the past, and this is about what we are doing to set ourselves up for the earnings report twelve months from now, eighteen months from now, twenty four months from now. I'm thinking. The thinking is, let's do this so we are well positioned for two years down the road, one year down the road, or eighteen months down the road. So there you go. There you have it.

42:49 Speaker 7: I think we should play so earlier. Well by earlier, I mean during the first hour we talked to Johnny Collins from the band Modesty Blaze, who have such an interesting sound. I think we should play another one of their songs, and then we'll come back and we'll begin to wrap things up this week on the show. But again, you know, they released re released Melancholia. It's the twenty fifth anniversary of that album, completely remastered, and we talked a lot. If you missed it during the first hour, you'll want to check it out on the podcast, which will be available within the hour after we get off the air today.

43:23 Speaker 7: But really really enjoyed talking with Johnny Collins and talking about how, you know, the whole process of remastering this album. But let's give this a spin. This is another great track from the remaster of Melancholia, the twenty fifth anniversary edition. This is called I'm Going Dancing. We're gonna give this a spin and then we'll come back and we'll start to wrap things up on the other side. I'm going Dancing, Modesty Blaze, I'm.

44:21 Speaker 3: Going when you singing.

44:37 Speaker 16: Spots conta, but I.

46:00 Speaker 15: Do I thought.

46:05 Speaker 18: My back starting your star, my thought.

46:42 Speaker 3: Going up.

47:01 Speaker 7: That is I'm going out from Odyssey Blaze. Hope there's more.

47:08 Speaker 7: It's the Matt Connorton Unleashed remix.

47:12 Speaker 9: There we go.

47:13 Speaker 7: Thank you again to Johnny Collins for joining us in the first hour to talk about the twenty fifth anniversary remaster of Melancholia that features that song. Really enjoyed talking with him. Hey, really quick, because we spent some time last week on the show talking about the Buster Rhymes thing, and I referenced it earlier. So Buster Rhymes, I have some more details about that that I want to just hit before we run out of time on today's show. This is from USA Herold. It says Busser Rhymes folds aging rapper quietly settles lawsuit I'm sorry, settles assault and workplaces abuse case before jury could deliver verdict.

47:49 Speaker 7: So when we last left off, we were talking on the show last week about Buster Rhymes. His former assistant was suing him for assault and battery because Buster Rhymes again, apparently if you you are working for him as a personal assistant and you upset him, he might punch you in the face. You better make sure that he gets his dinner on time and things like that. So difficult to work for a lot of famous people tend to be. But apparently there was a violent assault involved, and so we talked about that last week on the show.

48:15 Speaker 7: So it has been settled and that's it. That's the end of that. But this article does have some details that were missing from the other article that we were looking at, because the other article was focused mainly on what was happening in court on their way to settling. But this not only updates that the settlement is final and everybody can move on, but just some interesting details about exactly what happened here. So again this is from USA Harold. It was a confrontation that started with a text message, so rewind to January twenty twenty five.

48:47 Speaker 7: Gables that was his name, Dash Gables, the assistant. Gables is unloading luggage at Busta's luxury Brooklyn high rise when his daughter calls his phone. He doesn't answer, he texts her back, a simple human moment between a father and his child. According to Gables, that text cost him his face. He alleged bus stuff flew into a rage and punched him multiple times in the lobby of the upscale building. Gables was hospitalized. He filed a police report. Prosecutors, however, declined to bring criminal charges, leaving Gables with one path to accountability civil court.

49:28 Speaker 7: Why obvious question, But why did prosecutors decline to bring criminal charges? What's going on there?

49:38 Speaker 1: You know?

49:38 Speaker 7: Did bust Or Rhymes pay them? I mean, you know, are they just big Buster Rhymes fans? You know what is going on there?

49:47 Speaker 2: Why?

49:48 Speaker 7: Why would prosecutors not bring charges? That's bizarre. So because they didn't bring charges, Gables had to sue. So, getting back to the article from us A Herald, when he filed suit in August of twenty twenty five, the allegations exploded. Beyond the punches. Gables painted a portrait of systematic workplace abuse, a hostile environment where he claimed Buster forced him to unclog a toilet with his bare hand and later retaliated against him for going to police, allegedly using his industry influence to blacklist Gables from future work.

50:22 Speaker 7: The price tag on that destruction at least six million dollars in damages sought for assault, wage violations and career annihilation. By the way, so for anyone who thinks, wait, he made him unclog a toilet with his bare hands. That's just inhumane. Yeah, but think about it, that's what happens. This is not unusual to hear stories about people who become very famous and very wealthy who also, for some reason or maybe it was always in them, but for some reason, also are very cruel and they have this power thing.

50:57 Speaker 7: So, I mean, anybody who watched the Diddy documentary series knows, and Jenny and I Binge watched that. We were just captivated by it. But you know, this is just something that happens to some people. They become rich and famous and powerful and then they decide to also be evil on top of it all. It's not you know, so on one hand, it's shocking that Busta Rhymes would make his assistant do that, But at the same time, it's like, hmm, but actually it's not that shocking because that's just something A rich, wealthy person who's probably so rich and i'm sorry rich wealthy, I mean rich and famous, rich and wealthy, that's redundant.

51:40 Speaker 7: A rich and famous person who's probably so rich and so famous, they've also probably become severely mentally ill in some way. You know, that's something that a wealthy, famous, mentally ill person would do is make their just for the hell of it, make their assistant unclock toilet with their bare hands, just saying. I mean it's something, it's it's I really do think that's part of the human condition. Obviously, not everyone who is wealthy and famous is a psychopath becomes a psychopath, or maybe they already were, but there now the their wealth and their fame enables them to really activate their their worst impulses.

52:23 Speaker 7: But you know, but but again, see something like that. It's shocking, but it's not shocking at the same time. Uh, the entertainment industry is replete with stories like that anyway. So it says here Busta came out swinging then settled again. This is from USA Herald Buster Rhymes didn't take it lying down. His legal team fired back with everything they had, calling the lawsuit a calculated, attempted shakedown by a disgruntled former employee who fabricated the entire story for a payday. Bust A countersuit for defamation.

52:58 Speaker 7: That's always the move, by the way, countersuit for defamation, that's always the move. Bust A countersuit for defamation, claiming gables public allegations cost him two major advertising contracts and torched his reputation. For a moment, it looked like this was headed toward a dramatic courtroom showdown, but it was not. By January twenty twenty six, both sides agreed to pause proceedings and enter mediation. Eighteen months of legal combat, police reports, countersuits, public allegations, and reputation warfare collapsed into a private agreement that neither side will discuss publicly.

53:37 Speaker 7: And that's it. That's the end of that that's the end of that article, and apparently that's the end of that story. All right, We are coming perilously close to the end of the program, So just a couple things to wrap up again. Thank you to all of our great guests today. Of course, we had Johnny Collins from Modesty Blaze in the first hour. In the second hour, Sofihaicle we talked about her new single and her new album coming up. And in the third hour, of course, we had the guys from Viva Los Villains, a big fan of theirs, and we had Alex from the Cherry Fog.

54:10 Speaker 7: That was a surprise, and we got to do a bonus world radio premiere Cherry FOG's newest single. So that was great. I really enjoyed today's show. I hope you enjoyed it. I will remind you if you are listening live on Saturday Tomorrow, Sunday Big WWE Premium live event Backlash is happening, and Sunday probably well geez because of backlash. I wonder if we'll still do it at the usual time. Anyway, we've been doing them Sundays at four pm. Maybe we'll do it earlier or later. I'm not sure, but Tough Bumps probably earlier if we're going to do it at a different time.

54:44 Speaker 7: Tough Bumps the podcast that I host with Eric Pilcher and of course Austin Hicks. You can hear that every Sunday we go live. Just keep an eye on social media. Again, that's completely separate from the radio station, but we do that. You can see it on YouTube and Facebook, and of course you can subscribe to that anywhere where you get your favorite podcasts. So please subscribe to Tough Bumps or like and subscribe if you're on YouTube. So we have plenty to talk about. We actually took last Sunday off because both the guys were not feeling well, so we will be back with a vengeance.

55:15 Speaker 7: I say this Sunday night, so please, and again make sure you check out the new website for the show, Matt Connorton on leash dot com. Also Matt connorton dot com if you want to keep up with everything that I'm doing. And oh and if you missed any part of today's show it we'll be up in just a little bit at wmnhradio dot org and of course at my website Matt connorton dot com and Matt Connorton on leash dot com. So there you go. Please follow me on social media all of that, you know, all this stuff. I think we're gonna end today's show with a little bit of Jerry and the Scumbags because we haven't played this track in a while.

55:50 Speaker 7: Unicycle. It is the radio edit, of course, and that's gonna do it for us for now. So thanks everybody, Love to you all, and we'll talk to you a little bit later. Bye bye.

56:33 Speaker 12: When I was a boy, all I think about this one, A stupid boy that I was.

56:41 Speaker 2: When I was a kid. I got my face up, damn, not boilets with the des out, Damn. I wasn't always a stool.

56:53 Speaker 13: Um but when I was I was a jump I didn't.

56:59 Speaker 2: Always okay, So I used to have him go fill man bus. I remember, roll the man sids and picks member Bob. It feels like someone that's shopping their sad fun all to my far.

57:23 Speaker 3: Right.

57:24 Speaker 2: Done your nest side call where no scene down, Bob me.

57:29 Speaker 5: Roll the live.

57:30 Speaker 12: I ride do you ness side.

57:34 Speaker 2: Go where no scene down? No body, roll up live.

57:46 Speaker 17: Y.

57:54 Speaker 2: When I was in school, didn't make those grades. I was yeah, still being numb fool. When I was still young, all I cared about proud white girls, but they didn't like my temples. I used to be sun just a wool reform. They an crying on the floor.

58:19 Speaker 5: They used to wear your fans.

58:21 Speaker 12: Read me of my milk money taken. When I was growing up, I remember the van times, did them my PM.

58:36 Speaker 2: It feels like someone is shoving the same angs of my part. I ride down your nest side go w no sin down.

58:49 Speaker 5: No bomb me roll alive.

58:52 Speaker 2: I ride done mass side can win, no se down the bomb roll up.

59:16 Speaker 16: You know.

59:17 Speaker 12: When I was a boy, my father used to look down at me insane, What God helle even that?

59:25 Speaker 2: Go outside and cut some grass. Why don't you go kids, A girl, you stupid loser,