Matt Connarton Unleashed 6-27-26 hour 2

0:00 Speaker 1: W MNH rip the nobles.

0:06 Speaker 2: You're listening to Mattconnorton unleash w m n H ninety five point three.

0:28 Speaker 3: No, you can hang on to the lease.

0:38 Speaker 4: No, you can.

0:41 Speaker 3: Hang on to the lead.

0:47 Speaker 5: There's a drastic red where.

0:50 Speaker 4: There once was green.

0:52 Speaker 3: In case you need a clue what this thing means, you can hang on to the leaves. No, you came hang on to the lake. O. He came hang on to the light. There's a hint of chill, and it's not as pride as was this exact time last night.

1:35 Speaker 6: So you came hang not.

1:41 Speaker 1: To the light.

1:44 Speaker 5: There's nothing dumb. And the girl who sings Siptember song in summer nothing sadder than the boy who was distracted when he had her. Nothing sweeter than the things you're gonna tell her when the sea in the spring.

2:25 Speaker 7: Who came.

2:28 Speaker 6: Not to the gear?

2:35 Speaker 4: Who came not.

2:39 Speaker 6: To the gear?

2:43 Speaker 5: It changed every ounce to string the gold down until you're sweating through your New Year's down.

2:53 Speaker 6: You came not to the gear.

3:01 Speaker 5: There's nothing down. The little girl who sings September song in summer, nothing sadder than the boy who was contracted when he had her. Nothing sweeter than the things you're gotta tell her when he see her in the stream, came.

3:45 Speaker 6: Hang on.

3:47 Speaker 4: To the leader.

3:51 Speaker 7: You came.

3:55 Speaker 2: Hang to the leader.

4:32 Speaker 4: What a voice said is Julia Greenberg. The track is called Leaves from the album Leaves, and we've got let's see let me bring that up here. We've got Julia with us via phone on the studio line. Hi Julia, Hi, ma, how are you doing? Wonderful? And I'm relieved that we get to speak with you this morning because so I'll start off by I don't mind giving listeners a peek behind the curtain. So we had a problem with WhatsApp. All my interviews this morning on the show, we're going to be via WhatsApp, and WhatsApp has restricted my account.

5:01 Speaker 4: They are accusing me of engaging in spam activity and I don't know why, but so thank you for being flexible. Uh So, I'm glad that we get to talk to you. And uh, I love the I love the album Leaves, and that song I can relate to that. I I feel every uh every fall. You know, here in New Hampshire where we are, we're known for our for our incredible foliage and it is pretty and everything. But I don't like it when the leaves I want to hang on to the leaves. I don't like it when the leaves start to turn because I don't like I don't like fall, I don't like winter.

5:35 Speaker 4: I love spring and I love summer. But but I can relate to that and more of that sort of melancholy vibe too, about you know you can't you can't hold on, can't hold onto the year and all of that, uh, you know, with the passage of time. I I very much relate to that song, almost almost more than i'd.

5:52 Speaker 1: Like to.

5:54 Speaker 4: In a way, you know. But but it's but it's great. The whole album is great. But is my is my interpretation of that song and what it means? Am I? Am I on the right track? Or is there there's something else that I'm missing?

6:07 Speaker 1: Oh, You're definitely on the right track. And I spend my summers in the Catskill Mountains, so ye have the same experience, probably not as magnificent as New Hampshire. But I guess if you were missing anything at all is that the song is a little bit of an inside joke to myself with myself in that I just made myself laugh one beautiful summer day listening to September Song, which is the brilliant song by Kurt Vile about the end. You know, it's about death and longing, but using September as the metaphor, Like why am I the person who listens to this kind of thing in the height of like, you know, rejuvenation in summer.

6:54 Speaker 1: So a line about there's nothing dumber than a girl who sings September Song in summer is a little you know, poke at myself for being being having a slant towards melancholy and longing during the days that should be spent, you know, at the lake with your friends and loved ones.

7:13 Speaker 4: Right right, Absolutely, No, that makes sense? And is that kind of well, so I'm curious, I mean, is that kind of the theme of the of the album? Is there a theme to the album or or do you try to tell a different story with each song? I mean, what's what's your approach to that? Because there's certainly a cohesive sound to the album. It sounds a collection of songs that belongs together. That's why I'm wondering if there's some sort of overarching theme to it.

7:42 Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean I can I can explicate a theme after having written the songs and made the album. But they are a group of songs that I wrote over a number of years, and I think one of the reasons that they hold together so well is my producer, my co producer, Bob Perry, saw my band and I play these songs live and he was like, oh, we need to capture this live in the studio. So the entire ep is recorded live. There's no overdubs except for some percussion, and it really captures the ways in which the band and I developed these songs over a number of years.

8:27 Speaker 1: And you know, there are the years in my forties and early fifties where you start thinking about things like time passing in a different way. So there's definitely a melancholy slash live your life and laugh about it seemed to for the record and this, you know, it's called born Sentimental, which again, you know, I hope that I hope my humor comes through in the song, but it's also just that song is very much like I've always the you know, the minute I was a sentient being, I was just sort of thinking about the past and had really strong feelings, melancholy feelings about time passing.

9:10 Speaker 1: So it is that it's definitely the theme.

9:13 Speaker 4: Maybe that's why I relate to it as much as I do because and why it connects with me because I'm I'm someone who and it doesn't have so much to do with age, and in my case, only because I've I've lived really probably since I was a teenager. I've always lived in a perpetual state of existential dread. So maybe it's better saying that, may be that may be why these uh, why these songs connect with me the way that they do. But it's cool that you went in and recorded these live. And every once in a while I'll talk to an artist who approaches it that way.

9:49 Speaker 4: And I've always wondered and I've been thinking, actually, this is something I've been thinking about since I was a teenager. Why don't more artists do that? I mean, obviously it's great to be able to do, you know, all of overdubs and if you're you know, if you want to be very particular, I mean, obviously, you know, most successful producers, you know, they want to go track by track. But but there is something so cool about, you know, capturing something live, that sort of spark that happens live that in some cases you can really kind of miss out on if you don't do it that way, And I've always wondered why more artists don't do it that way.

10:26 Speaker 4: Was this your first time recording in that way live?

10:32 Speaker 1: Oh, definitely if you go back on your favorite streaming platform, hopefully one of the less egregious ones. And look at my earlier records. One's called Greenland, ones called Past your Eyes, very you know, rock studio albums with you know, melatron and every kind of amazing instrument. So this was not even this was not the plan. It was really my co producer Bob, who was like, we should capture the sound. I was like, yeah, let's He was wanting the but to try to get the sound in the studio because he hadn't recorded that way, and so I was like, sure, let's try.

11:15 Speaker 1: And then after six hours we had seven songs and I was like, these are great, you know. And then there was a period of mixing and really having to come face to face with the vulnerability that that's captured because now I have some distance and I love it. But you know, I can hear every catch in my voice. I can hear my guitar pick clicking against my guitar. You know, the bass upright, bass strings rattling, And I was like, oh, can we can we do that? Like can we have that? Is there a way to erase that?

11:51 Speaker 1: And and he's like nope, yeah, but I think in the end, if you're listening to the totality of the thing it creates, you know, it's it.

12:02 Speaker 4: Is real, right right? Exactly? Do you think you'll do it again? And like, like for the next album, do you think you'll approach it the same way now that you've now that you've done this, Probably not.

12:13 Speaker 1: No, I think I'll be less afraid of the natural tones that you know comes through. But you know, you always want to try something different, right, Like, Okay, I did my my quiet introspective album. Now like I want drums again. Yeah, yeah, I'm in the middle of writing my next album. So ever emerges, Oh.

12:38 Speaker 4: Excellent, I'll have to go back and listen to to the earlier stuff. I listened to this entire album, but I'm curious now to go back and hear some of your earlier material.

12:48 Speaker 1: Go for it.

12:49 Speaker 4: So these songs so you mentioned too, so you'd been playing these live with your band. That that's interesting to me because a lot of artists they don't want to play anything live until they have it recorded, you know what I mean. But it sounds like you kind of approached it the opposite way. I mean, was it always your intention to eventually record these because you mentioned your producer or co producer he heard you playing them live and then he said, well, we've got to record these. But were you going to eventually record these anyway?

13:15 Speaker 4: Or were these only meant to be live songs originally that you know that you may or may not record, But maybe you didn't have a particular.

13:23 Speaker 1: Plan, right, It's a very particular set of circumstances, which yes, I mean, I really these songs are of a piece and special to me. So I had it in my mind that I wanted to record them, but I was writing them over a period where I also made my first documentary film, and anyone out there who's ever made a documentary film, though there's no time for anything else. So I was really focused on this film about the great songwriter Dory Previn, who you should plan your ship if you've never heard of her.

14:01 Speaker 1: And so there wasn't a plan, absolutely wasn't a plan. And everything that I was doing at film festivals and working on the film was about Dory's Preven's music, and I interpret her music. So this was just like whenever I could find, you know, a little gig here there, I would be like, do you guys want to play? So it came out of that. It wasn't like, you know, that I had been working toward releasing an album. It just came together because of that desire to have Bob's to record live. And I had just moved to New Jersey and there's an amazingly cool record label there called Magic Door Recordings, and we all sort of talked one day and we're like, oh, we can record this live and put it out on the label.

14:46 Speaker 1: And that's how it happens.

14:47 Speaker 4: Okay, Okay, I am curious to know more about the documentary. I will confess I don't know anything about Dory Preven, but I looked it up. So the documentary is called Dory Previn on My Way to Wear. And so you and you're you're an archivist for Dori Previn's estate. Is that correct?

15:05 Speaker 1: I mean, informally, okay, I am. I became an archivist for her estate because I discovered her music. Was gobsmacked that more people didn't know about it, got to performing it and meeting her and her husband. And when you all watch the documentary on PBS dot org, where it is currently streaming, will you will see that she had an amazing career. She's written songs that you undoubtedly know, but she was kind of sublimated under the very famous story of her husband Andre Previn, who very famously left Dory for me as pharaoh.

15:49 Speaker 1: So there's a juicy gossip Hollywood gossips piece of the film too. But yes, because I became close with her and I knew that there were these precious documents, you know, lead sheets, music recordings in her office in a beautiful farmhouse in the Berkshires. I would just occasionally go there and help organize it, and as I would just like write to my friends like you wouldn't believe there's a letter from Fred Astaire. Here, there's a letter from Jack Lemon. I found these recordings and my friend Diana Dilworth, who I wound up co directing the film with, said this sounds like a documentary, And I said, well, I don't make document She's like you do.

16:32 Speaker 1: Now, let's go. So, yeah, that's that's the story of the film.

16:36 Speaker 4: How long did it take.

16:39 Speaker 1: It actually didn't. It took three years, which is not so long for a documentary, but I didn't have the contact. You know, I knew, I knew her story so well and really knew how I wanted to tell it. And then it just turned out that there was just unbelievable archival footage beyond what was in her archives. He actually, strangely did a lot of television. She was she was really famous for a moment and for the listeners out there. She wrote for Hollywood films and then became a singer songwriter, and she wrote the lyrics to the theme from Valley of the Dolls, you know, the great Young Warwick track Oh Wow she yeah, and then she made seven albums in the seven years that are some of the greatest seventies confessional singer songwriter stuff that I happened upon totally randomly, and then wow, strangely changed my life.

17:34 Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, what so that's that's a commitment. But like you said, I mean, documentaries take a long time to make. Was there I mean, during the course of that three years, did you ever was there ever a point where you felt like, I don't know if I can finish this or this is uh, you know, this is a lot more to take on than I ever thought, because I tend to think of and this this might be a failing on my part, but I tend to think of I tend to think about things creatively in terms of how long how long is this going to take?

18:03 Speaker 1: You know?

18:04 Speaker 4: And obviously you know when you record an album it takes a while to record an album, but not but not not too too long, right but or or if you're just releasing singles, it's even quicker. Or in my case, I do a radio show, which is instant gratification. I come in and do the show live, which suits my personality. But but but that's a commitment making a documentary. Was there ever any a point where you thought, Wow, I'm really uh, I don't know, I don't know if I can finish this.

18:31 Speaker 1: Yeah, actually no, I mean, first of all, we started in the timeless COVID period, so time didn't really have much texture or many parameters, right, But no, it was a it was like blessed by Dory from wherever she was blessing us though. It's just it was a magical confluence of like we got incredible Diana do worth the my co director who's made some great films. She made a film about the melotron, which is amazing. Amy Hobby, the producer like made the Academy Award nominated me to Simone documentary.

19:10 Speaker 1: People were People knew that we had a story and that it that we had the tools and the assets to tell it, which I don't think a lot of people know when they start a documentary. So yeah, it went fast and it premiered itself by Southwest and the only time I thought it would never you know, we were in film festival all over the world. But the only time I felt steinyed was we tell the story through her music, because she told her life through her songs, and all of her music is on Universal Music Group label.

19:45 Speaker 1: So the process of figuring out how to legally show a film with with Universal Music assets was the biggest challenge, which we haven't fully over come. We are so honored and delighted that it's on TBS where they have a license agreement with Universal, so we can absolutely show it, but there isn't a and it's PBS, Like I'm so everybody should be supporting publicly funded arts these days, right, But it was a great home. But there was a while where I was like, we can't, we can't afford the songs, so we're not going to be able to put it out beyond film Festival.

20:26 Speaker 1: So that was the big hurdle which we were able to cross with the help of PBS.

20:30 Speaker 4: Okay, okay, excellent, excellent? Is she still alive Dory Preven?

20:35 Speaker 1: He's not. She died in twenty twelve.

20:38 Speaker 4: Oh okay, gotcha, gotcha? Yeah, that's uh yeah, I'm curious. So that's on. So people can watch that on the on PBS dot org.

20:49 Speaker 1: Yeah, on the app, like if you have it on your roades to TV or whatever, or you can watch it on your you can just literally if you just search up Dory Preven and okay, BBS, you'll find it.

21:00 Speaker 4: Okay, okay, very cool, very cool. So yeah, I mean outside of music. So obviously you're a filmmaker and you've you've done is this, you're also it sessor, you're a health justice advocate. Yeah, I want to know about that.

21:14 Speaker 1: And I try and present my whole self these days.

21:20 Speaker 4: I want to know more about this because because uh so is so is my partner Jenny. So I'm really curious about this.

21:29 Speaker 1: Yes. In fact, when when you both reached out, I was able like I was just like, what is this radio station? And who are these people? And I think there's some there's some confluence of passions there. Yeah. I mean, I am a New York City girl who grew up during the AIDS crisis and saw what it means when governments neglect people's health needs because of their identities or the color of their skin, and so very early started volunteering working with people living with HIV at the time, and then it as I was pursuing music, the jobs that I got tended to be around access to healthcare, human rights for people living with HIV at the time, but it's become broader.

22:21 Speaker 1: So I have had a career what I've been in and out of institutions and consulting very specifically on social justice and health. Like right now, my work is very focused on the fact that our healthcare system in the US is broken, and one of the reasons that it's broken is that the financial sector sees the healthcare sector as a place from where from which it can extract a ton a ton of wealth. Because so much of our taxpayer money goes into medicaid and medicare, and so there's lots of private equity, venture capital support investments in healthcare which tend to then degrade the system so that they could extract as much profit out of the system as they possibly can.

23:09 Speaker 1: So my work now is really trying to rain that in and help build the case for a universal healthcare system in this country.

23:17 Speaker 4: Yeah, that's awesome. I commend you for that. I'm glad you're you know you're yeah, absolutely, absolutely one, No, that's excellent. I mean, does that you know, the things that you that you do that obviously you're you know, that's something that you're passionate about and rightly so, does that in any way sort of inform your music? Do you think or or do you kind of compartmentalize that or how does how does that work?

23:45 Speaker 1: It's a question that I've been thinking a lot about lately because it seemed like this is the moment where the idea of the protest song and the idea that music actually has been instrumental to social justice movements is very much on my mind given the state of our country, so, uh, it has not informed there has been an uh some compartmentalization. But if I go through my albums and look at the songs. There's absolutely there's they're there, but they're not overt. Okay, my experiences and my political positions and my feelings about the healthcare system.

24:27 Speaker 1: But like I have a song called Carton City on my last album which is very much about being in Kenya and just seeing the you know, the broken health system and the ways in which it was affecting people's lives. So there's it comes out, but it's not I don't start.

24:44 Speaker 4: With it, gotcha, gotcha? Yeah, And you know, I think a lot of a lot of artists approach it that way. You know, there's there's messaging that's not overt, but it's there if you, you know, if you care to look for it or you notice it. You went to by the way, So you went to Kenya.

25:02 Speaker 1: Yeah. So I did a lot of global health work in the earlier part of my career, so I traveled pretty extensively.

25:09 Speaker 4: Good for you.

25:10 Speaker 1: Wow, I'm very lucky.

25:13 Speaker 4: So Kenya's healthcare system is pretty broken.

25:18 Speaker 1: I mean, in some ways it's not. It's just ours is just as broken. And what I was looking at, you know, there's a lot of poverty there and a lot of the poverty, and a lot of the ideas about the health system have actually been exploited from the US. So I was really looking at sort of how this sort of ideology about how markets and capitalism automatically lead to the best possible health care systems, how that's been exported around the world. So in a lot of countries around the world, there was just they treat healthcare as the public good, and they the government funds it, andybody gets it, and and the US is actually doing a lot to try and subvers that.

26:06 Speaker 1: So right, looking at that issue in Kenya, right, I mean, it's there's there's our We are the richest country in the world, and we have the worst outcome, right like ye for all developed countries. So I would never ever say that kenya Tell system is worse than ours.

26:21 Speaker 4: Gotcha understood? Yeah, no, that makes sense.

26:24 Speaker 1: Yeah.

26:24 Speaker 4: But by the way, for listeners who are thinking, Matt, you really wandered into the weeds here, I know. But but it's but but this is but these are these are important things. I won't I won't wander any further into the weeds.

26:34 Speaker 1: But no, but I'm always happy to talk about it.

26:37 Speaker 4: Absolutely, No, I'm really glad that you're doing that work. That's awesome. I am I am curious getting back to the to the EP. I'm curious about your influences. I'm trying. I'm trying. You remind me your voice reminds me of someone and I but I can't put my finger on who. But maybe if you, if you talk to us about some of your influences, I'll make the connection my mind. But there's there's someone that I feel that you're evocative of, and I can't quite I can't quite get there. But who are who are some of your influences?

27:07 Speaker 1: Oh, that's so frustrating. I'm dying to know well my influences. And I also think this the CP captures this. I have like a major sort of rock alt country Americana side of myself and then very much like American standards early musical theater side of myself. A lot of these songs were about bringing those sides together, and I'm happy to see that a lot of the critical response to the record really sees that. But who are my influences? Well, like my my deepest core love is Lucinda Williams, and you know, and Dorey Previn, who I've talked about a lot of people think I sound like and I did love her, and she's not really making music that I know these days that I sound like.

27:58 Speaker 1: You know, Sam Phillip, not the Sam Phillips of Sun Records, but the Sam Phillips of the nineties. That's it. I'm a huge like Elvis Costello clash, Billy Bragg fan. I'm going to see Billy Bragg tomorrow night. As a matter of fact.

28:15 Speaker 4: Oh very cool.

28:17 Speaker 1: Uh so yeah, those are I mean, I would say sort of early influences like Amy Man, Elvis Costello for their literary paris. Uh yeah, we else there's a lot of great I went and saw sg Goodman last night in at levon Helm's Barn. Like, there's so many amazing wow writers out there. So I'm happily being influenced by people like her, Lale neil A, Linda Segura from her for the riff raft. They're all kind of in swirling around. Yeah, no doubt that did that capture? Did you figure out who it was?

28:57 Speaker 4: No, it'll come, you'll have to. It'll come to me later and I'll email you. Yeah, it'll it'll It'll just suddenly occur to me when I'm not thinking about it, which is what usually happens. It's interesting you mentioned Lucinda Williams. I saw h Lucinda Williams at a show. Oh wow, this would have been more than twenty years ago, maybe twenty five years ago, a long time. She was playing in Conquer, New Hampshire at a place called the Capitol Theater and she it was it was for the uh. She opened with Carwheels on a Gravel Road.

29:25 Speaker 4: That was the song she opened with. And she did something I'd never seen anyone do before. She played it twice. She opened with it.

29:32 Speaker 1: She played it literally the chills.

29:35 Speaker 4: Yeah, she played it and then she said, she said, there was something that wasn't right about the sound. I don't know if her monitor, I don't remember if it was her monitor wasn't working or something. But she said, so she tells the crowd. She says, I'm not happy with the way that sounded. Something was wrong, the mix wasn't right or something. So we're gonna play it again. And she played it again just I'd never seen anyone do that before, just kind of a kind of a do over. But I thought it was cool.

30:06 Speaker 4: I mean to me, I thought it sounded great. The first time, but but she wasn't happy with it, so she so she said, we're gonna play it again. And as she played it again, you know, nobody minded. You know, it sounded great. So it was a great, great song.

30:16 Speaker 1: It's a perfect song.

30:18 Speaker 4: So why not absolutely, absolutely, one hundred percent. So what's up now? Uh uh? We were before we run out of time too, So what's the current live situation? Like are you are you playing a lot of shows currently with your band or do you and do you do any do you do any solo acoustic?

30:36 Speaker 1: Yeah, I do do solo acoustic. We are right now trying to line up some dates. There was like a pause for you know, all the reasons or personal reasons of band members who did a record release at this great new music and arts space in Hoboken, New Jersey,

30:54 Speaker 1: playing in the Berkshires later in the summer, and we're going to see about a tour, you know, like there's the first record where I feel like I can potentially break into like the folk circuit because my other stuff was much more rock. So I'm trying to explore the bookers and the venues in that vein. Yeah, because it's yeah, it's not because I can play a solo acoustic, which sometimes you need to do because, like we're playing, music is expensive in a world that doesn't support it. So yeah, stuff will be.

31:28 Speaker 4: Coming up, outstanding, outstanding. Where's the best place, Julia, Where's the best place for people to go to keep up with everything that Julia Greenberg is doing? And feel free to mention more than one place because you've got the music, but you've got other things that you're doing too, and you've got the documentary and all of it. So so mentioned more than one location if you want to. But I just want to make sure our listeners know where to find you.

31:50 Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean definitely. I would say the most consistently active as my Instagram page and you'll find it just Julia Greenberg music. The Dory Documentary has doryprevindoc dot com, a website with all the news and you can watch it on PBS dot org. And my band camp page is also another place where I'll be putting up you know, new music. I'm I'm. This is a very active writing phase for me and not necessarily wed to the idea that I always have to put out a album and before the songs appear, so I would say those.

32:31 Speaker 4: Three right, excellent, excellent, And I'm glad you're on band camp too, because I uh, I encourage everyone band Camp of course, as you know, very artist friendly and also too if you if you get music on band camp, you get a much higher quality file than say if you're just screaming on YouTube or something. So I'm a big fan of band camp. I think every I think every artist camp. Yeah, absolutely absolute. I'm always surprised when I encounter an artist who's not on band Camp. It's like, you know, why not, what do you doing?

33:02 Speaker 1: And you'll sign me on the Magic Door. My album is on the Magic Door recording platform on band Camp. So you can also check out a bunch of really cool artists.

33:15 Speaker 4: That they put out, Oh Fantastical.

33:17 Speaker 1: City and so Megan Riley, there's a lot of great people.

33:22 Speaker 4: On the label, Oh outstanding, Outstanding. So, Julia, to close out our conversation, I'm going to play another track after we let you go from the album, but not to put you on the spot, but I'm gonna let you pick this one. We opened with Leaves, what should we close with?

33:40 Speaker 1: Maybe close with Bourne Sentimental as it's the title track.

33:43 Speaker 4: And yeah, Born Sentimental okay, wonderful. Oh that which I just realized. I think I misspoke earlier too. I think I referred to the at the beginning of our conversation. I think I inadvertently referred to the album as Leaves. But the album is called Bourne Sentimental. The track that we played was Leaves. I always catalog my mistakes in the back of my mind so I can correct them ten minutes or fifteen minutes later.

34:07 Speaker 1: Did a great job.

34:08 Speaker 4: Thank you, Thank you. So we're gonna hit that track in a second, but Julia, we will let you go. Thank you, Thank you for joining us, and again, thank you for being flexible about you know, because WhatsApp didn't work out, so we got you on the phone line. So we appreciate that. And we'll definitely do this again in the future as certainly as you're releasing new music. Sounds like you got good stuff coming up, so we'll we'd love to have you back sooner rather than later. But thank you so much for joining us today.

34:33 Speaker 1: Thank you, Matt. I was delighted to be able to talk.

34:36 Speaker 4: Wonderful. Thanks Julia. I take care all right, bye bye bye. All right. That is Julia Greenberg, and of course the album is called Born Sentimental. Earlier we played Leaves, one of the tracks from it. Now we're going to play the title track from the album Born Sentimental. Let's give this a spin, and if you are listening live on Saturday, stick around. We've got plenty more to come, although a little bit of a little bit of an adventure today because I'm not sure. We have two guests coming up in the third hour.

35:03 Speaker 4: They were both supposed to be with us via WhatsApp, but WhatsApp has suspended my account, so I don't know what's gonna happen. We'll see. Julia was very gracious and flexible with us. Let's see how the other guests react to my emails, my frantic emails saying I cannot use WhatsApp to interview you. But all right, here's this track. This is Born Sentimental from Julia Greenberg.

35:44 Speaker 1: Ny de four.

35:51 Speaker 6: So hell.

35:55 Speaker 2: Could up forget.

36:00 Speaker 7: All steal befa found me so chackasa.

36:11 Speaker 5: To day.

36:16 Speaker 4: Because I was born.

36:21 Speaker 2: San too.

36:22 Speaker 1: Then in this.

36:30 Speaker 5: Art it so manually.

36:37 Speaker 7: Please be gentle des ours senter men and still before A kissed ste but then I kiss st R did that kiss you?

37:11 Speaker 8: And so it's few time.

37:16 Speaker 6: To resist steal to the new.

37:28 Speaker 7: Because I was born.

37:33 Speaker 2: San to men.

37:38 Speaker 7: In this.

37:42 Speaker 1: Art it.

37:45 Speaker 5: So manly, plea be gentle, becauserves a saner and.

38:07 Speaker 6: I reliz god it was before it start now used pretending. So please received.

38:28 Speaker 7: This album sending it's prong.

38:41 Speaker 4: Because I was poor, send a.

38:47 Speaker 6: Man in this.

38:54 Speaker 5: Party.

38:58 Speaker 6: So when you.

39:02 Speaker 7: Pleasease be gentle?

39:06 Speaker 1: Who that was.

39:11 Speaker 7: Sent?

39:15 Speaker 4: Oh yeah, what a beautiful voice that is Julia Greenberg Born Sentimental the title track from the album Born Sentimental, And thank you again to Julia for joining us today. This is Matt connorton Unleashed and we are live from the studios of w m n H ninety five point three FM, Inglorious, Manchester, New Hampshire. Of course, you can stream the show from anywhere. Go to Matt connorton dot com slash live. I've clicked the link there, or you can go to our new site, Matt connorton unleashed dot com.

40:06 Speaker 4: You can find the archive of the show there and some links and some articles. We're still kind of building that site out. It is relatively new, so there's gonna be a lot of cool new stuff on there as well. Quick programming note too, that I forgot to mention at the top of the show. I had it in mind that I was going to share this and then I it just slipped, But you know, I was, But we were having some trouble anyway with If you're just joining us, you don't know the little misadventure that we've had this morning with WhatsApp.

40:35 Speaker 4: Actually I'll tell you this first. So when we have guests on the show, we have them either call the studio line, which is what Julia did, or we have them join us via Microsoft Teams, or we use WhatsApp. And it just so happens. Today we had four guests, four different guests booked. We had a CJ. Wildheart in the first hour, Julia Greenberg in the second hour. In the third hour, we have two guests booked. We've got the band Despire in the first half of the third hour, and in the second half of the third hour we have the Rift.

41:09 Speaker 4: So but it just it just so happens that today all four guests, they all chose WhatsApp, which is unusual. Everybody chose WhatsApp to use as their platform of choice because we do give them multiple options on how they're going to connect with the show. For the interview and it just so happens on the day that all four guests all chose WhatsApp. WhatsApp has restricted my account. I cannot call our guests using WhatsApp. It says suspicious activity, something about spam, and my account is suspended for the next five hours.

41:45 Speaker 4: So luckily CJ Wildheart, I, you know, I emailed him, I said, hey, can I send you a teams link Microsoft Teams? Can we do that? And that worked out great, actually worked out fine. And then Julia I emailed her, I said, hey, can we use teams or the studio line? So she called the studio line, so that worked out. I don't know what's going to happen in the third hour. I've not heard back yet from either the Rift or a Deathspire, so hopefully, but what are the odds?

42:12 Speaker 1: Right?

42:12 Speaker 4: I have a problem with what's app on a day when all four guests they all chose WhatsApp as their platform with choice to connect with the show. But live radio is an adventure and that's part of what makes it exciting. You know, it's a high wire act. There's always something that can and often will go wrong. But that's okay. We sold her on. I mean and at the end of the day. I mean, it is just a radio show, right, It's not life and death. There's nothing worth getting upset over. And technology will fail us at times.

42:40 Speaker 4: But yeah, I don't know. I've never had that happen before with WhatsApp. But I guess something something suspicious about my account. I don't know if it's because I'm trying to use it. You know, I have it on my phone, but we also have it installed here on the computer. I don't know if I just have what's happened too many places, and you know, I don't know what's going on. But hopefully next week it's fine. But so waiting to hear back from both guests that we have scheduled for the third hour today.

43:07 Speaker 4: But anyway, the programming note that I wanted to share with you is next Saturday, one week from today is July fourth, Independence Day. I will be here live. I cleared it with the station manager of the Big Boss. Actually asked him a few months ago, because we've been booking guests, you know, so far ahead, well into summer. He said, yeah, that's fine, you can come in. So I will be here because since we moved the show to Saturday, this is what I told him in the email I sent him. I said, you know, since we moved the show to Saturday, I have not missed a single Saturday, even on holiday weekends I've been here.

43:44 Speaker 4: But this is the first holiday weekend since we moved to Saturdays, where the holiday itself actually falls on the Saturday. So usually there won't be anybody in the building on a holiday, and it's all all the programming is. You know, it's all pre recorded, all automated and so forth. So but I said, you know, I don't want to just because it's a holiday. I still want to do my show. So he approved it. He said that's fine. So I will be here. So there will be a show for anyone who's wondering. Yes, July fourth, there will still be a live Matt Connorton Unleashed.

44:20 Speaker 4: Not only that, but and this I'm excited about. We've got a new single to premiere that day to commemorate July fourth. It is called We Beat the British from the band The Melted Chapsticks. We saw The Melted Chapsticks recently at the spot in Nashua. Great band. Frankie Hollywood, the frontman for the band. He also hosts a show on Wave Radio Boston, by the way, so he's a radio guy as well. But the Melted Chapsticks great band. They've got a new song called We Beat the British and you're gonna hear it here next week on Matt Connor toon Unleashed, our July fourth Independence Day edition of the show Can't Wait.

44:59 Speaker 4: I'll probably also because it's sort of an unofficial tradition on the show. Used to do it, used to do it whenever we had a patriotic holiday when we were on weekday afternoons, you know, because there was a time for many years we were on weekday afternoons here afternoon Drive. I would play Also my personal favorite patriotic song of all time. And if you don't know my favorite patriotic song, because I do consider I know some people think, you know, if you're you know, if you're a left winger, as I guess I am, you know that you're not patriotic, But I am.

45:35 Speaker 4: I love my country. My favorite patriotic song of all time is, of course the classic I'm sure some of you shared the same thoughts, Yankee Rose by David Lee Roth. That's my favorite patriotic song. Of all time. And if you think it's not patriotic, listen to those lyrics. It's about as American as it gets Yankee Rose by David Lee Roth in many ways. So we'll give that a spin too week on the show. So so anyway, so I say all that to say we will be here live on July fourth. Also, I'll just mention too, just a quick reminder because I know we have some crossover in the audience.

46:11 Speaker 4: If you are a fan of the Tough Bumps podcast, the show that I do that is not carried on WM ANDH, that is completely separated, is strictly online. It is a podcast only. But if you are a fan of that show, we will be back Sunday night at four pm live along with my friends Eric Pilcher and Austin Hicks. We've been on a little bit of a hiatus, that was off for a couple of weeks, but that is back. Tough Bumps is back, so fear not if you've been missing that. I think what we should do right now, I think we should play another Julia Greenberg song, Let's sneak one more in.

46:46 Speaker 4: We do have time, and then we're going to show some love to our amazing sponsors who he'll pay the bills around here, and we are so grateful to have the sponsors and advertisers that support WMNH ninety five point three FM, this great station. And then in the third hour, now the third hour again a little bit of an adventure. I'm not sure what's gonna happen. We have two guests booked, but they both wanted to use WhatsApp. That was their platform of choice to connect with the show, and WhatsApp is they have suspended my account, so I did email them both.

47:19 Speaker 4: It worked out with Julia, she was willing to join us on the studio line. And oh, hang on a second, I think one of our guests is joining us very early. All right, hey is this Ron?

47:40 Speaker 8: Yeah, what's up? Matt?

47:41 Speaker 4: Hey you are you have joined the show very early, but we can actually talk to you now, so I get I guess.

47:51 Speaker 1: You know.

47:51 Speaker 8: It was funny because I was panicking there a little bit because Steve was on the phone with me and he's like, and I got the guys in the band. They're like, oh, there's something wrong.

47:58 Speaker 1: With what's that.

47:59 Speaker 8: I'm like, I said, well, let me just try this number, because Steve sent it over and uh. I was like all right, and then bam here I am hello everybody.

48:07 Speaker 4: Hey, well you are early, but that's okay. We can talk now. Of course you're from the band, uh Despire? Am I saying that correctly?

48:15 Speaker 8: Yes? You are so at a Long Island, New York?

48:18 Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, no, and thank you for being flexible. Yeah you know, I was saying on the show a few minutes ago. Uh, all the guests that I had booked on the show today all chose WhatsApp. Every single one chose WhatsApp is their platform of choice. And then WhatsApp suspends my account at the same time that I've multiple guest booked using WhatsApp. What are the odds? But but I'm glad you're here. We are live, we are live on the air. We can go ahead. Do you want to do you want me to play the single and then we'll talk or do you want to just talk?

48:47 Speaker 1: Yeah?

48:47 Speaker 8: We could Uh, we could go ahead and uh and do that if you want. We could play the single faithless that's out right now, Uh, you know, and then after they hate a song, if you want, we could talk about whatever you want. Let's mean it and go from there.

49:01 Speaker 7: Let's do that.

49:02 Speaker 4: So we'll go ahead and spin this track Faithless from Despire, and we have Rob from Despire on the line with us. So, yeah, Rob, if you don't mind hanging on the line, we'll play the single, we'll come back and talk about it, and then at the end of our conversation we'll play another track from you guys that I have queued up as well. But so if you are just joining us, we have Rob from Despire on the line with us. Rob, please hang on. We're gonna hit this track and then we'll come back and talk with you.

49:26 Speaker 8: Sound good, You got it, Matt, Thank you?

49:29 Speaker 4: All right? Awesome? All right, everybody here it is the band is Despired. The track is called Faithless. This is really good. Check this out.

50:00 Speaker 2: Last what will bad? I see the lion grace saying all it once but so many day says that's oh boy, the signment little right, all it through.

50:20 Speaker 1: Was saying.

50:32 Speaker 9: Where you are now, that's tall certain for your face blossoms this story way so.

50:44 Speaker 2: Wake now not so, but can't you hear me?

50:51 Speaker 1: Call that?

50:52 Speaker 2: Let me try you know me tire.

51:00 Speaker 5: Hear me.

51:02 Speaker 1: Hear me cru.

51:09 Speaker 2: Lightest bad.

51:28 Speaker 10: Morfi s respine, Abandoned epis overcome by open stas fete das go fine, don't.

51:43 Speaker 4: Jass it's all embracing.

51:46 Speaker 1: Me of kissing me a farrid dim.

51:56 Speaker 2: M hear me cry yes when you'll man went bad one team like bad walking out and race fine rock brin you dad ah this y'all around nineteen when.

52:19 Speaker 5: Well young man with men one mi.

52:50 Speaker 3: Your tree this.

52:53 Speaker 4: Different brace saint Brady. What the litten case man.

52:58 Speaker 2: Bor add god alight.

53:05 Speaker 10: Which you mess a something that's datasy or something lass before my dangers classhole that's boss.

53:27 Speaker 4: Wit no man that when day like that.

53:33 Speaker 2: Wman ridday by day my well you mean with w your being now stay your men.

53:55 Speaker 1: Well you'll be.

54:12 Speaker 4: As I like to say. If that doesn't get you moving, check your pulse, you might be dead. That is so good, That is faithless. The band is Despire and we've got Rob, the vocalist from Despire here on the line with us. Rob. How do you say your last name?

54:24 Speaker 8: By the way, Melvagna, Well that's the American iceed way in Italy the g is.

54:31 Speaker 4: Silent, oh Melvano? Okay, all right, very good, very good. By the way, is it just you r Do you have any of your bandmates with you or are we just talking to you right now?

54:41 Speaker 8: No, it's it's just just me right now. Sorry, they're all listening on the link.

54:46 Speaker 4: Oh okay, okay, cool, well, yeah, welcome to the show. Like I said, I love that track. And is this so the the name despire that's a com Is that a combination of despair and inspire? Is that correct?

54:59 Speaker 8: Yes? It is is you know, we wanted to take the two emotions of you know, the lowest of the lows and the highest of the highs, you know, and kind of put it together and you know, come up with that made up name there. But you know, we because everybody goes through that, you know, and that's kind of what leads you to either be successful or you know, to deal with your problems in life, right you know, so we wanted to take those two emotions and combine them right right now?

55:29 Speaker 4: That makes sense? And you guys have been together since twenty fifteen, is that right?

55:34 Speaker 1: Yep?

55:35 Speaker 4: So I love it.

55:35 Speaker 1: Yeah.

55:37 Speaker 8: You know, we we've played with each other before this, you know, we we've all been very good friends in the industry and we've played formations of other bands and then then we happen to get together and start jamming and writing some music. And one of our earlier songs, which is on our first EP, Black, the song is got in the hands of Joey Z from Life of Agony, who reached out and said, you know, I like this, what are you guys doing? I'd love to record some of your new stuff, and hence that's what led to our first DP, Irritation, which Joey Z for my Fagne produced, which inevitably got us signed to Pavement Records.

56:17 Speaker 4: Okay, yeah, I mean in connecting with Joey Z, that's uh. You guys got off to a great start early on. That's that's amazing. Life of an Agony of course, such a great band. But oh that's that's uh so cool. I mean you probably learned a lot from him, I would imagine, Uh.

56:35 Speaker 8: Yeah, you know what was great was you know, I was a Life of Agony fan, you know before that, and I learned a lot from him, not only in the studio, but just in general in life itself. You know, he's a very down throreat guy. We became friends, you know, so it was a big eye opener on how things are done in industry and how we brought out you know, certain aspects of the band and recording. You know, we just worked well together.

57:07 Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, absolutely, And then now tell us about so present day Faithless. I know that's the newest that came out pretty recently, right, the new single Faithless.

57:18 Speaker 8: Yeah, so you know, we aren't with Pavement any longer. Okay, you know, things happened in twenty twenty with COVID. You know, the band itself went through a lot of changes and unfortunate deaths. In our first drummer passed away, and then family members, mothers, fathers after COVID, and then I had a health scare. I was diagnosed with cancer, went through my treatments, and in this process a drummer that was with us. We had about seven songs that we had written. So Griffin went in the studio recorded the drums because we you know, we knew that we were going to be coming back out once I got the clear and okay, you know, we started recording some songs and it was time to release them, you know.

58:07 Speaker 8: And now we have big news coming up in the upcoming weeks. We have some offers on the table that we will be announcing shortly for these upcoming singles that will be released.

58:18 Speaker 4: Oh, excellent, excellent. As far as the cancer, I mean, you're you're you free and clear now clear of it.

58:26 Speaker 8: Yeah, right now. I reached one hundred percent remission. Yeah, so things are looking good, you know, and it it just made me stronger as a person and to move forward, you know and do what I love.

58:38 Speaker 2: Yeah.

58:39 Speaker 4: Oh, that's good for you. I'm glad to hear that.

58:41 Speaker 8: Wow.

58:43 Speaker 1: Yeah.

58:44 Speaker 4: And you guys have been through a lot, I mean obviously. Yeah, it's interesting how COVID even even now in twenty twenty six. It it comes up in a lot of conversations on the show because it just affected so many people. And you know, when you're when your whole thing is especially if you're playing live music, you know, it really it really affected.

59:04 Speaker 8: Uh, and that's everything exactly. That's kind of what happened. You know. The momentum of the band was really going well, and uh, you know, the world stopped. Yeah, and we're not Metallica and you know what I mean. So it's like starting over again.

59:17 Speaker 4: Absolutely, especially where you are too, because you're in New York and and uh man, I mean New York City really got hit hard. I mean that was that was really for a while. That was kind of the epicenter in the country for for COVID nineteen, it just just just awful. Are you guys ever everybody who's in the band now, are you all from New York?

59:38 Speaker 1: Uh?

59:39 Speaker 8: Yeah, we're all from Long Island, New York. You know, like I said, we've been brothers forever. You know, it feels like, you know, it's like having another marriage. But we're all great friends. You know, we're all within you know, a half hour of each other.

59:56 Speaker 4: Yeah, a couple of guys