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

0:11 Speaker 2: 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,

0:57 Speaker 3: you can hang on to the leaves. No, you came

1:10 Speaker 3: hang on to the lake. O. He came hang on

1:22 Speaker 3: to the light. There's a hint of chill, and it's

1:29 Speaker 3: 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

1:55 Speaker 5: in summer nothing sadder than the boy who was distracted

2:04 Speaker 5: when he had her. Nothing sweeter than the things you're

2:11 Speaker 5: 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

2:48 Speaker 5: 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

3:13 Speaker 5: in summer, nothing sadder than the boy who was contracted

3:21 Speaker 5: when he had her. Nothing sweeter than the things you're

3:29 Speaker 5: 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

4:35 Speaker 4: called Leaves from the album Leaves, and we've got let's

4:39 Speaker 4: see let me bring that up here. We've got Julia

4:41 Speaker 4: with us via phone on the studio line. Hi Julia, Hi, ma,

4:46 Speaker 4: how are you doing? Wonderful? And I'm relieved that we

4:49 Speaker 4: get to speak with you this morning because so I'll

4:51 Speaker 4: start off by I don't mind giving listeners a peek

4:54 Speaker 4: behind the curtain. So we had a problem with WhatsApp.

4:56 Speaker 4: All my interviews this morning on the show, we're going

4:59 Speaker 4: to be via WhatsApp, and WhatsApp has restricted my account.

5:01 Speaker 4: They are accusing me of engaging in spam activity and

5:06 Speaker 4: I don't know why, but so thank you for being flexible.

5:09 Speaker 4: Uh So, I'm glad that we get to talk to you.

5:11 Speaker 4: And uh, I love the I love the album Leaves,

5:13 Speaker 4: and that song I can relate to that. I I

5:18 Speaker 4: feel every uh every fall. You know, here in New

5:22 Speaker 4: Hampshire where we are, we're known for our for our

5:24 Speaker 4: incredible foliage and it is pretty and everything. But I

5:28 Speaker 4: don't like it when the leaves I want to hang

5:30 Speaker 4: on to the leaves. I don't like it when the

5:31 Speaker 4: leaves start to turn because I don't like I don't

5:34 Speaker 4: like fall, I don't like winter. I love spring and

5:36 Speaker 4: I love summer. But but I can relate to that

5:38 Speaker 4: and more of that sort of melancholy vibe too, about

5:41 Speaker 4: you know you can't you can't hold on, can't hold

5:43 Speaker 4: onto the year and all of that, uh, you know,

5:46 Speaker 4: with the passage of time. I I very much relate

5:50 Speaker 4: 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.

5:58 Speaker 4: The whole album is great. But is my is my

6:00 Speaker 4: interpretation of that song and what it means? Am I?

6:03 Speaker 4: Am I on the right track? Or is there there's

6:04 Speaker 4: something else that I'm missing?

6:07 Speaker 1: Oh, You're definitely on the right track. And I spend

6:11 Speaker 1: my summers in the Catskill Mountains, so ye have the

6:15 Speaker 1: same experience, probably not as magnificent as New Hampshire. But

6:19 Speaker 1: I guess if you were missing anything at all is

6:22 Speaker 1: that the song is a little bit of an inside

6:24 Speaker 1: joke to myself with myself in that I just made

6:30 Speaker 1: myself laugh one beautiful summer day listening to September Song,

6:36 Speaker 1: which is the brilliant song by Kurt Vile about the end.

6:40 Speaker 1: You know, it's about death and longing, but using September

6:44 Speaker 1: as the metaphor, Like why am I the person who

6:48 Speaker 1: listens to this kind of thing in the height of like,

6:52 Speaker 1: you know, rejuvenation in summer. So a line about there's

6:56 Speaker 1: nothing dumber than a girl who sings September Song in

6:59 Speaker 1: summer is a little you know, poke at myself for

7:03 Speaker 1: being being having a slant towards melancholy and longing during

7:08 Speaker 1: the days that should be spent, you know, at the

7:10 Speaker 1: lake with your friends and loved ones.

7:13 Speaker 4: Right right, Absolutely, No, that makes sense? And is that

7:18 Speaker 4: kind of well, so I'm curious, I mean, is that

7:22 Speaker 4: kind of the theme of the of the album? Is

7:24 Speaker 4: there a theme to the album or or do you

7:27 Speaker 4: try to tell a different story with each song? I mean,

7:29 Speaker 4: what's what's your approach to that? Because there's certainly a

7:32 Speaker 4: cohesive sound to the album. It sounds a collection of

7:35 Speaker 4: songs that belongs together. That's why I'm wondering if there's

7:39 Speaker 4: some sort of overarching theme to it.

7:42 Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean I can I can explicate a theme

7:47 Speaker 1: after having written the songs and made the album. But

7:51 Speaker 1: they are a group of songs that I wrote over

7:55 Speaker 1: a number of years, and I think one of the

7:58 Speaker 1: reasons that they hold together so well is my producer,

8:01 Speaker 1: my co producer, Bob Perry, saw my band and I

8:06 Speaker 1: play these songs live and he was like, oh, we

8:08 Speaker 1: need to capture this live in the studio. So the

8:12 Speaker 1: entire ep is recorded live. There's no overdubs except for

8:17 Speaker 1: some percussion, and it really captures the ways in which

8:22 Speaker 1: the band and I developed these songs over a number

8:26 Speaker 1: of years. And you know, there are the years in

8:29 Speaker 1: my forties and early fifties where you start thinking about

8:33 Speaker 1: things like time passing in a different way. So there's

8:37 Speaker 1: definitely a melancholy slash live your life and laugh about

8:44 Speaker 1: it seemed to for the record and this, you know,

8:47 Speaker 1: it's called born Sentimental, which again, you know, I hope

8:51 Speaker 1: that I hope my humor comes through in the song,

8:53 Speaker 1: but it's also just that song is very much like

8:58 Speaker 1: I've always the you know, the minute I was a

9:01 Speaker 1: sentient being, I was just sort of thinking about the

9:04 Speaker 1: 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

9:15 Speaker 4: I do because and why it connects with me because

9:17 Speaker 4: I'm I'm someone who and it doesn't have so much

9:20 Speaker 4: to do with age, and in my case, only because

9:23 Speaker 4: I've I've lived really probably since I was a teenager.

9:27 Speaker 4: I've always lived in a perpetual state of existential dread.

9:31 Speaker 4: So maybe it's better saying that, may be that may

9:36 Speaker 4: be why these uh, why these songs connect with me

9:40 Speaker 4: the way that they do. But it's cool that you

9:43 Speaker 4: went in and recorded these live. And every once in

9:46 Speaker 4: a while I'll talk to an artist who approaches it

9:48 Speaker 4: that way. And I've always wondered and I've been thinking, actually,

9:52 Speaker 4: this is something I've been thinking about since I was

9:53 Speaker 4: a teenager. Why don't more artists do that? I mean,

9:57 Speaker 4: obviously it's great to be able to do, you know,

9:59 Speaker 4: all of overdubs and if you're you know, if you

10:02 Speaker 4: want to be very particular, I mean, obviously, you know,

10:04 Speaker 4: most successful producers, you know, they want to go track

10:07 Speaker 4: by track. But but there is something so cool about,

10:13 Speaker 4: you know, capturing something live, that sort of spark that

10:17 Speaker 4: happens live that in some cases you can really kind

10:21 Speaker 4: of miss out on if you don't do it that way,

10:23 Speaker 4: And I've always wondered why more artists don't do it

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

10:30 Speaker 4: way live?

10:32 Speaker 1: Oh, definitely if you go back on your favorite streaming platform,

10:37 Speaker 1: hopefully one of the less egregious ones. And look at

10:43 Speaker 1: my earlier records. One's called Greenland, ones called Past your Eyes,

10:48 Speaker 1: very you know, rock studio albums with you know, melatron

10:54 Speaker 1: and every kind of amazing instrument. So this was not

10:58 Speaker 1: even this was not the plan. It was really my

11:03 Speaker 1: co producer Bob, who was like, we should capture the sound.

11:05 Speaker 1: I was like, yeah, let's He was wanting the but

11:09 Speaker 1: to try to get the sound in the studio because

11:12 Speaker 1: he hadn't recorded that way, and so I was like, sure,

11:15 Speaker 1: let's try. And then after six hours we had seven

11:19 Speaker 1: songs and I was like, these are great, you know.

11:22 Speaker 1: And then there was a period of mixing and really

11:26 Speaker 1: having to come face to face with the vulnerability that

11:29 Speaker 1: that's captured because now I have some distance and I

11:33 Speaker 1: love it. But you know, I can hear every catch

11:36 Speaker 1: in my voice. I can hear my guitar pick clicking

11:39 Speaker 1: against my guitar. You know, the bass upright, bass strings rattling,

11:46 Speaker 1: And I was like, oh, can we can we do that?

11:48 Speaker 1: Like can we have that? Is there a way to

11:49 Speaker 1: erase that? And and he's like nope, yeah, but I

11:56 Speaker 1: think in the end, if you're listening to the totality

11:59 Speaker 1: 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

12:05 Speaker 4: it again? And like, like for the next album, do

12:07 Speaker 4: you think you'll approach it the same way now that

12:09 Speaker 4: 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

12:21 Speaker 1: tones that you know comes through. But you know, you

12:24 Speaker 1: always want to try something different, right, Like, Okay, I

12:27 Speaker 1: did my my quiet introspective album. Now like I want

12:31 Speaker 1: drums again. Yeah, yeah, I'm in the middle of writing

12:35 Speaker 1: my next album. So ever emerges, Oh.

12:38 Speaker 4: Excellent, I'll have to go back and listen to to

12:40 Speaker 4: the earlier stuff. I listened to this entire album, but

12:42 Speaker 4: I'm curious now to go back and hear some of

12:45 Speaker 4: 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

12:51 Speaker 4: playing these live with your band. That that's interesting to

12:55 Speaker 4: me because a lot of artists they don't want to

12:57 Speaker 4: play anything live until they have it recorded, you know

12:59 Speaker 4: what I mean. But it sounds like you kind of

13:01 Speaker 4: approached it the opposite way. I mean, was it always

13:03 Speaker 4: your intention to eventually record these because you mentioned your

13:06 Speaker 4: producer or co producer he heard you playing them live

13:10 Speaker 4: and then he said, well, we've got to record these.

13:12 Speaker 4: But were you going to eventually record these anyway? Or

13:16 Speaker 4: were these only meant to be live songs originally that

13:20 Speaker 4: you know that you may or may not record, But

13:22 Speaker 4: maybe you didn't have a particular.

13:23 Speaker 1: Plan, right, It's a very particular set of circumstances, which yes,

13:28 Speaker 1: I mean, I really these songs are of a piece

13:32 Speaker 1: and special to me. So I had it in my

13:35 Speaker 1: mind that I wanted to record them, but I was

13:39 Speaker 1: writing them over a period where I also made my

13:44 Speaker 1: first documentary film, and anyone out there who's ever made

13:48 Speaker 1: a documentary film, though there's no time for anything else.

13:52 Speaker 1: So I was really focused on this film about the

13:57 Speaker 1: great songwriter Dory Previn, who you should plan your ship

14:00 Speaker 1: if you've never heard of her. And so there wasn't

14:03 Speaker 1: a plan, absolutely wasn't a plan. And everything that I

14:06 Speaker 1: was doing at film festivals and working on the film

14:09 Speaker 1: was about Dory's Preven's music, and I interpret her music.

14:12 Speaker 1: So this was just like whenever I could find, you know,

14:16 Speaker 1: a little gig here there, I would be like, do

14:19 Speaker 1: you guys want to play? So it came out of that.

14:23 Speaker 1: It wasn't like, you know, that I had been working

14:25 Speaker 1: toward releasing an album. It just came together because of

14:29 Speaker 1: that desire to have Bob's to record live. And I

14:33 Speaker 1: had just moved to New Jersey and there's an amazingly

14:37 Speaker 1: cool record label there called Magic Door Recordings, and we

14:41 Speaker 1: all sort of talked one day and we're like, oh,

14:43 Speaker 1: we can record this live and put it out on

14:45 Speaker 1: the label. And that's how it happens.

14:47 Speaker 4: Okay, Okay, I am curious to know more about the documentary.

14:51 Speaker 4: I will confess I don't know anything about Dory Preven,

14:54 Speaker 4: but I looked it up. So the documentary is called

14:56 Speaker 4: Dory Previn on My Way to Wear. And so you

15:00 Speaker 4: and you're you're an archivist for Dori Previn's estate. Is

15:03 Speaker 4: that correct?

15:05 Speaker 1: I mean, informally, okay, I am. I became an archivist

15:11 Speaker 1: for her estate because I discovered her music. Was gobsmacked

15:17 Speaker 1: that more people didn't know about it, got to performing

15:21 Speaker 1: it and meeting her and her husband. And when you

15:26 Speaker 1: all watch the documentary on PBS dot org, where it

15:29 Speaker 1: is currently streaming, will you will see that she had

15:34 Speaker 1: an amazing career. She's written songs that you undoubtedly know,

15:37 Speaker 1: but she was kind of sublimated under the very famous

15:43 Speaker 1: story of her husband Andre Previn, who very famously left

15:48 Speaker 1: Dory for me as pharaoh. So there's a juicy gossip

15:51 Speaker 1: Hollywood gossips piece of the film too. But yes, because

15:56 Speaker 1: I became close with her and I knew that there

15:58 Speaker 1: were these precious documents, you know, lead sheets, music recordings

16:06 Speaker 1: in her office in a beautiful farmhouse in the Berkshires.

16:09 Speaker 1: I would just occasionally go there and help organize it,

16:12 Speaker 1: and as I would just like write to my friends

16:15 Speaker 1: like you wouldn't believe there's a letter from Fred Astaire. Here,

16:18 Speaker 1: there's a letter from Jack Lemon. I found these recordings

16:22 Speaker 1: and my friend Diana Dilworth, who I wound up co

16:26 Speaker 1: directing the film with, said this sounds like a documentary,

16:28 Speaker 1: And I said, well, I don't make document She's like

16:32 Speaker 1: you do. Now, let's go. So, yeah, that's that's the

16:35 Speaker 1: 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

16:42 Speaker 1: so long for a documentary, but I didn't have the contact.

16:46 Speaker 1: You know, I knew, I knew her story so well

16:49 Speaker 1: and really knew how I wanted to tell it. And

16:52 Speaker 1: then it just turned out that there was just unbelievable

16:56 Speaker 1: archival footage beyond what was in her archives. He actually,

17:00 Speaker 1: strangely did a lot of television. She was she was

17:02 Speaker 1: really famous for a moment and for the listeners out there.

17:06 Speaker 1: She wrote for Hollywood films and then became a singer songwriter,

17:11 Speaker 1: and she wrote the lyrics to the theme from Valley

17:14 Speaker 1: of the Dolls, you know, the great Young Warwick track

17:17 Speaker 1: Oh Wow she yeah, and then she made seven albums

17:22 Speaker 1: in the seven years that are some of the greatest

17:25 Speaker 1: seventies confessional singer songwriter stuff that I happened upon totally randomly,

17:32 Speaker 1: and then wow, strangely changed my life.

17:34 Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, what so that's that's a commitment. But

17:37 Speaker 4: like you said, I mean, documentaries take a long time

17:40 Speaker 4: to make. Was there I mean, during the course of

17:43 Speaker 4: that three years, did you ever was there ever a

17:45 Speaker 4: point where you felt like, I don't know if I

17:47 Speaker 4: can finish this or this is uh, you know, this

17:50 Speaker 4: is a lot more to take on than I ever thought,

17:52 Speaker 4: because I tend to think of and this this might

17:54 Speaker 4: be a failing on my part, but I tend to

17:56 Speaker 4: think of I tend to think about things creatively in

17:59 Speaker 4: 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

18:06 Speaker 4: takes a while to record an album, but not but

18:08 Speaker 4: not not too too long, right but or or if

18:10 Speaker 4: you're just releasing singles, it's even quicker. Or in my case,

18:14 Speaker 4: I do a radio show, which is instant gratification. I

18:16 Speaker 4: come in and do the show live, which suits my personality.

18:21 Speaker 4: But but but that's a commitment making a documentary. Was

18:24 Speaker 4: there ever any a point where you thought, Wow, I'm

18:26 Speaker 4: really uh, I don't know, I don't know if I

18:29 Speaker 4: can finish this.

18:31 Speaker 1: Yeah, actually no, I mean, first of all, we started

18:36 Speaker 1: in the timeless COVID period, so time didn't really have

18:40 Speaker 1: much texture or many parameters, right, But no, it was

18:47 Speaker 1: a it was like blessed by Dory from wherever she

18:52 Speaker 1: was blessing us though. It's just it was a magical

18:55 Speaker 1: confluence of like we got incredible Diana do worth the

19:00 Speaker 1: my co director who's made some great films. She made

19:02 Speaker 1: a film about the melotron, which is amazing. Amy Hobby,

19:05 Speaker 1: the producer like made the Academy Award nominated me to

19:09 Speaker 1: Simone documentary. People were People knew that we had a

19:13 Speaker 1: story and that it that we had the tools and

19:18 Speaker 1: the assets to tell it, which I don't think a

19:20 Speaker 1: lot of people know when they start a documentary. So yeah,

19:24 Speaker 1: it went fast and it premiered itself by Southwest and

19:28 Speaker 1: the only time I thought it would never you know,

19:31 Speaker 1: we were in film festival all over the world. But

19:34 Speaker 1: the only time I felt steinyed was we tell the

19:37 Speaker 1: story through her music, because she told her life through

19:40 Speaker 1: her songs, and all of her music is on Universal

19:44 Speaker 1: Music Group label. So the process of figuring out how

19:49 Speaker 1: to legally show a film with with Universal Music assets

19:57 Speaker 1: was the biggest challenge, which we haven't fully over come.

20:00 Speaker 1: We are so honored and delighted that it's on TBS

20:03 Speaker 1: where they have a license agreement with Universal, so we

20:07 Speaker 1: can absolutely show it, but there isn't a and it's PBS,

20:12 Speaker 1: Like I'm so everybody should be supporting publicly funded arts

20:17 Speaker 1: these days, right, But it was a great home. But

20:20 Speaker 1: there was a while where I was like, we can't,

20:22 Speaker 1: we can't afford the songs, so we're not going to

20:24 Speaker 1: be able to put it out beyond film Festival. So

20:26 Speaker 1: that was the big hurdle which we were able to

20:29 Speaker 1: 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.

20:44 Speaker 4: So that's on. So people can watch that on the

20:47 Speaker 4: on PBS dot org.

20:49 Speaker 1: Yeah, on the app, like if you have it on

20:51 Speaker 1: your roades to TV or whatever, or you can watch

20:54 Speaker 1: it on your you can just literally if you just

20:56 Speaker 1: 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

21:03 Speaker 4: outside of music. So obviously you're a filmmaker and you've

21:06 Speaker 4: you've done is this, you're also it sessor, you're a

21:10 Speaker 4: 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

21:24 Speaker 4: so is so is my partner Jenny. So I'm really

21:27 Speaker 4: curious about this.

21:29 Speaker 1: Yes. In fact, when when you both reached out, I

21:33 Speaker 1: was able like I was just like, what is this

21:35 Speaker 1: radio station? And who are these people? And I think

21:37 Speaker 1: there's some there's some confluence of passions there. Yeah. I mean,

21:44 Speaker 1: I am a New York City girl who grew up

21:46 Speaker 1: during the AIDS crisis and saw what it means when

21:52 Speaker 1: governments neglect people's health needs because of their identities or

21:58 Speaker 1: the color of their skin, and so very early started

22:02 Speaker 1: volunteering working with people living with HIV at the time,

22:06 Speaker 1: and then it as I was pursuing music, the jobs

22:10 Speaker 1: that I got tended to be around access to healthcare,

22:16 Speaker 1: human rights for people living with HIV at the time,

22:20 Speaker 1: but it's become broader. So I have had a career

22:22 Speaker 1: what I've been in and out of institutions and consulting

22:26 Speaker 1: very specifically on social justice and health. Like right now,

22:32 Speaker 1: my work is very focused on the fact that our

22:36 Speaker 1: healthcare system in the US is broken, and one of

22:39 Speaker 1: the reasons that it's broken is that the financial sector

22:44 Speaker 1: sees the healthcare sector as a place from where from

22:47 Speaker 1: which it can extract a ton a ton of wealth.

22:50 Speaker 1: Because so much of our taxpayer money goes into medicaid

22:53 Speaker 1: and medicare, and so there's lots of private equity, venture

22:58 Speaker 1: capital support investments in healthcare which tend to then degrade

23:04 Speaker 1: the system so that they could extract as much profit

23:06 Speaker 1: out of the system as they possibly can. So my

23:09 Speaker 1: work now is really trying to rain that in and

23:12 Speaker 1: help build the case for a universal healthcare system in

23:16 Speaker 1: this country.

23:17 Speaker 4: Yeah, that's awesome. I commend you for that. I'm glad

23:20 Speaker 4: you're you know you're yeah, absolutely, absolutely one, No, that's excellent.

23:26 Speaker 4: I mean, does that you know, the things that you

23:31 Speaker 4: that you do that obviously you're you know, that's something

23:33 Speaker 4: that you're passionate about and rightly so, does that in

23:36 Speaker 4: any way sort of inform your music? Do you think

23:39 Speaker 4: or or do you kind of compartmentalize that or how

23:41 Speaker 4: does how does that work?

23:45 Speaker 1: It's a question that I've been thinking a lot about

23:47 Speaker 1: lately because it seemed like this is the moment where

23:51 Speaker 1: the idea of the protest song and the idea that

23:54 Speaker 1: music actually has been instrumental to social justice movements is

24:00 Speaker 1: very much on my mind given the state of our country, so, uh,

24:04 Speaker 1: it has not informed there has been an uh some compartmentalization.

24:12 Speaker 1: But if I go through my albums and look at

24:15 Speaker 1: the songs. There's absolutely there's they're there, but they're not overt. Okay,

24:20 Speaker 1: my experiences and my political positions and my feelings about

24:26 Speaker 1: the healthcare system. But like I have a song called

24:29 Speaker 1: Carton City on my last album which is very much

24:32 Speaker 1: about being in Kenya and just seeing the you know,

24:37 Speaker 1: the broken health system and the ways in which it

24:39 Speaker 1: was affecting people's lives. So there's it comes out, but

24:43 Speaker 1: it's not I don't start.

24:44 Speaker 4: With it, gotcha, gotcha? Yeah, And you know, I think

24:47 Speaker 4: a lot of a lot of artists approach it that way.

24:50 Speaker 4: You know, there's there's messaging that's not overt, but it's

24:53 Speaker 4: there if you, you know, if you care to look

24:55 Speaker 4: for it or you notice it. You went to by

24:58 Speaker 4: the way, So you went to Kenya.

25:02 Speaker 1: Yeah. So I did a lot of global health work

25:05 Speaker 1: in the earlier part of my career, so I traveled

25:07 Speaker 1: 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

25:23 Speaker 1: is just as broken. And what I was looking at,

25:27 Speaker 1: you know, there's a lot of poverty there and a

25:31 Speaker 1: lot of the poverty, and a lot of the ideas

25:33 Speaker 1: about the health system have actually been exploited from the US.

25:36 Speaker 1: So I was really looking at sort of how this

25:41 Speaker 1: sort of ideology about how markets and capitalism automatically lead

25:47 Speaker 1: to the best possible health care systems, how that's been

25:51 Speaker 1: exported around the world. So in a lot of countries

25:53 Speaker 1: around the world, there was just they treat healthcare as

25:56 Speaker 1: the public good, and they the government funds it, andybody

26:00 Speaker 1: gets it, and and the US is actually doing a

26:04 Speaker 1: lot to try and subvers that. So right, looking at

26:07 Speaker 1: that issue in Kenya, right, I mean, it's there's there's

26:11 Speaker 1: our We are the richest country in the world, and

26:14 Speaker 1: we have the worst outcome, right like ye for all

26:16 Speaker 1: developed countries. So I would never ever say that kenya

26:19 Speaker 1: 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,

26:26 Speaker 4: you really wandered into the weeds here, I know. But

26:28 Speaker 4: but it's but but this is but these are these

26:31 Speaker 4: are important things. I won't I won't wander any further

26:33 Speaker 4: 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.

26:39 Speaker 4: That's awesome. I am I am curious getting back to

26:43 Speaker 4: the to the EP. I'm curious about your influences. I'm trying.

26:48 Speaker 4: I'm trying. You remind me your voice reminds me of

26:52 Speaker 4: someone and I but I can't put my finger on who.

26:55 Speaker 4: But maybe if you, if you talk to us about

26:58 Speaker 4: some of your influences, I'll make the connection my mind.

27:00 Speaker 4: But there's there's someone that I feel that you're evocative of,

27:03 Speaker 4: and I can't quite I can't quite get there. But

27:05 Speaker 4: 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.

27:14 Speaker 1: And I also think this the CP captures this. I

27:17 Speaker 1: have like a major sort of rock alt country Americana

27:21 Speaker 1: side of myself and then very much like American standards

27:26 Speaker 1: early musical theater side of myself. A lot of these

27:29 Speaker 1: songs were about bringing those sides together, and I'm happy

27:35 Speaker 1: to see that a lot of the critical response to

27:37 Speaker 1: the record really sees that. But who are my influences? Well,

27:41 Speaker 1: like my my deepest core love is Lucinda Williams, and

27:47 Speaker 1: you know, and Dorey Previn, who I've talked about a

27:51 Speaker 1: lot of people think I sound like and I did

27:54 Speaker 1: love her, and she's not really making music that I

27:56 Speaker 1: know these days that I sound like. You know, Sam Phillip,

28:00 Speaker 1: not the Sam Phillips of Sun Records, but the Sam

28:02 Speaker 1: Phillips of the nineties. That's it. I'm a huge like

28:08 Speaker 1: Elvis Costello clash, Billy Bragg fan. I'm going to see

28:13 Speaker 1: 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

28:20 Speaker 1: sort of early influences like Amy Man, Elvis Costello for

28:25 Speaker 1: their literary paris. Uh yeah, we else there's a lot

28:32 Speaker 1: of great I went and saw sg Goodman last night

28:35 Speaker 1: in at levon Helm's Barn. Like, there's so many amazing

28:39 Speaker 1: wow writers out there. So I'm happily being influenced by

28:44 Speaker 1: people like her, Lale neil A, Linda Segura from her

28:49 Speaker 1: for the riff raft. They're all kind of in swirling around. Yeah,

28:53 Speaker 1: no doubt that did that capture? Did you figure out

28:56 Speaker 1: who it was?

28:57 Speaker 4: No, it'll come, you'll have to. It'll come to me

29:01 Speaker 4: later and I'll email you. Yeah, it'll it'll It'll just

29:03 Speaker 4: suddenly occur to me when I'm not thinking about it,

29:04 Speaker 4: which is what usually happens. It's interesting you mentioned Lucinda Williams.

29:08 Speaker 4: I saw h Lucinda Williams at a show. Oh wow,

29:13 Speaker 4: this would have been more than twenty years ago, maybe

29:14 Speaker 4: twenty five years ago, a long time. She was playing

29:17 Speaker 4: in Conquer, New Hampshire at a place called the Capitol

29:18 Speaker 4: Theater and she it was it was for the uh.

29:23 Speaker 4: She opened with Carwheels on a Gravel Road. That was

29:26 Speaker 4: the song she opened with. And she did something I'd

29:28 Speaker 4: never seen anyone do before. She played it twice. She

29:31 Speaker 4: 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,

29:40 Speaker 4: there was something that wasn't right about the sound. I

29:43 Speaker 4: don't know if her monitor, I don't remember if it

29:46 Speaker 4: was her monitor wasn't working or something. But she said,

29:49 Speaker 4: so she tells the crowd. She says, I'm not happy

29:53 Speaker 4: with the way that sounded. Something was wrong, the mix

29:56 Speaker 4: wasn't right or something. So we're gonna play it again.

29:58 Speaker 4: And she played it again just I'd never seen anyone

30:02 Speaker 4: do that before, just kind of a kind of a

30:04 Speaker 4: do over. But I thought it was cool. I mean

30:07 Speaker 4: to me, I thought it sounded great. The first time,

30:09 Speaker 4: but but she wasn't happy with it, so she so

30:11 Speaker 4: she said, we're gonna play it again. And as she

30:13 Speaker 4: played it again, you know, nobody minded. You know, it

30:15 Speaker 4: 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

30:22 Speaker 4: up now? Uh uh? We were before we run out

30:26 Speaker 4: of time too, So what's the current live situation? Like

30:29 Speaker 4: are you are you playing a lot of shows currently

30:31 Speaker 4: with your band or do you and do you do

30:33 Speaker 4: any do you do any solo acoustic?

30:36 Speaker 1: Yeah, I do do solo acoustic. We are right now

30:40 Speaker 1: trying to line up some dates. There was like a

30:42 Speaker 1: pause for you know, all the reasons or personal reasons

30:45 Speaker 1: of band members who did a record release at this

30:48 Speaker 1: 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

30:58 Speaker 1: going to see about a tour, you know, like there's

31:00 Speaker 1: the first record where I feel like I can potentially

31:04 Speaker 1: break into like the folk circuit because my other stuff

31:08 Speaker 1: was much more rock. So I'm trying to explore the

31:11 Speaker 1: bookers and the venues in that vein. Yeah, because it's yeah,

31:16 Speaker 1: it's not because I can play a solo acoustic, which

31:19 Speaker 1: sometimes you need to do because, like we're playing, music

31:22 Speaker 1: is expensive in a world that doesn't support it. So yeah,

31:27 Speaker 1: stuff will be.

31:28 Speaker 4: Coming up, outstanding, outstanding. Where's the best place, Julia, Where's

31:32 Speaker 4: the best place for people to go to keep up

31:34 Speaker 4: with everything that Julia Greenberg is doing? And feel free

31:38 Speaker 4: to mention more than one place because you've got the music,

31:40 Speaker 4: but you've got other things that you're doing too, and

31:42 Speaker 4: you've got the documentary and all of it. So so

31:45 Speaker 4: mentioned more than one location if you want to. But

31:47 Speaker 4: I just want to make sure our listeners know where

31:49 Speaker 4: to find you.

31:50 Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean definitely. I would say the most consistently

31:57 Speaker 1: active as my Instagram page and you'll find it just

32:01 Speaker 1: Julia Greenberg music. The Dory Documentary has doryprevindoc dot com,

32:08 Speaker 1: a website with all the news and you can watch

32:10 Speaker 1: it on PBS dot org. And my band camp page

32:17 Speaker 1: is also another place where I'll be putting up you know,

32:19 Speaker 1: new music. I'm I'm. This is a very active writing

32:23 Speaker 1: phase for me and not necessarily wed to the idea

32:25 Speaker 1: that I always have to put out a album and

32:28 Speaker 1: 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

32:35 Speaker 4: camp too, because I uh, I encourage everyone band Camp

32:39 Speaker 4: of course, as you know, very artist friendly and also

32:42 Speaker 4: too if you if you get music on band camp,

32:44 Speaker 4: you get a much higher quality file than say if

32:47 Speaker 4: you're just screaming on YouTube or something. So I'm a

32:50 Speaker 4: big fan of band camp. I think every I think

32:53 Speaker 4: every artist camp. Yeah, absolutely absolute. I'm always surprised when

32:56 Speaker 4: I encounter an artist who's not on band Camp. It's like,

32:59 Speaker 4: you know, why not, what do you doing?

33:02 Speaker 1: And you'll sign me on the Magic Door. My album

33:06 Speaker 1: is on the Magic Door recording platform on band Camp.

33:12 Speaker 1: So you can also check out a bunch of really

33:14 Speaker 1: 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

33:26 Speaker 4: out our conversation, I'm going to play another track after

33:30 Speaker 4: we let you go from the album, but not to

33:33 Speaker 4: put you on the spot, but I'm gonna let you

33:35 Speaker 4: pick this one. We opened with Leaves, what should we

33:37 Speaker 4: 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

33:49 Speaker 4: just realized. I think I misspoke earlier too. I think

33:51 Speaker 4: I referred to the at the beginning of our conversation.

33:54 Speaker 4: I think I inadvertently referred to the album as Leaves.

33:57 Speaker 4: But the album is called Bourne Sentimental. The track that

33:59 Speaker 4: we played was Leaves. I always catalog my mistakes in

34:03 Speaker 4: the back of my mind so I can correct them

34:04 Speaker 4: 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

34:12 Speaker 4: in a second, but Julia, we will let you go.

34:14 Speaker 4: Thank you, Thank you for joining us, and again, thank

34:17 Speaker 4: you for being flexible about you know, because WhatsApp didn't

34:19 Speaker 4: work out, so we got you on the phone line.

34:21 Speaker 4: So we appreciate that. And we'll definitely do this again

34:23 Speaker 4: in the future as certainly as you're releasing new music.

34:25 Speaker 4: Sounds like you got good stuff coming up, so we'll

34:28 Speaker 4: we'd love to have you back sooner rather than later.

34:31 Speaker 4: 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.

34:40 Speaker 4: All right. That is Julia Greenberg, and of course the

34:43 Speaker 4: album is called Born Sentimental. Earlier we played Leaves, one

34:47 Speaker 4: of the tracks from it. Now we're going to play

34:48 Speaker 4: the title track from the album Born Sentimental. Let's give

34:52 Speaker 4: this a spin, and if you are listening live on Saturday,

34:54 Speaker 4: stick around. We've got plenty more to come, although a

34:57 Speaker 4: little bit of a little bit of an adventure today

35:00 Speaker 4: because I'm not sure. We have two guests coming up

35:02 Speaker 4: in the third hour. They were both supposed to be

35:04 Speaker 4: with us via WhatsApp, but WhatsApp has suspended my account,

35:08 Speaker 4: so I don't know what's gonna happen. We'll see. Julia

35:11 Speaker 4: was very gracious and flexible with us. Let's see how

35:14 Speaker 4: the other guests react to my emails, my frantic emails

35:18 Speaker 4: saying I cannot use WhatsApp to interview you. But all right,

35:23 Speaker 4: 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

36:59 Speaker 7: A kissed ste but then I kiss st R did

37:08 Speaker 7: 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.

38:23 Speaker 6: 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

39:40 Speaker 4: Born Sentimental the title track from the album Born Sentimental,

39:44 Speaker 4: And thank you again to Julia for joining us today.

39:46 Speaker 4: This is Matt connorton Unleashed and we are live from

39:49 Speaker 4: the studios of w m n H ninety five point

39:53 Speaker 4: three FM, Inglorious, Manchester, New Hampshire. Of course, you can

39:56 Speaker 4: stream the show from anywhere. Go to Matt connorton dot

39:58 Speaker 4: com slash live. I've clicked the link there, or you

40:02 Speaker 4: 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

40:08 Speaker 4: some links and some articles. We're still kind of building

40:10 Speaker 4: that site out. It is relatively new, so there's gonna

40:13 Speaker 4: be a lot of cool new stuff on there as well.

40:16 Speaker 4: Quick programming note too, that I forgot to mention at

40:20 Speaker 4: the top of the show. I had it in mind

40:22 Speaker 4: that I was going to share this and then I

40:24 Speaker 4: it just slipped, But you know, I was, But we

40:27 Speaker 4: were having some trouble anyway with If you're just joining us,

40:31 Speaker 4: you don't know the little misadventure that we've had this

40:33 Speaker 4: morning with WhatsApp. Actually I'll tell you this first. So

40:37 Speaker 4: when we have guests on the show, we have them

40:40 Speaker 4: either call the studio line, which is what Julia did,

40:43 Speaker 4: or we have them join us via Microsoft Teams, or

40:46 Speaker 4: we use WhatsApp. And it just so happens. Today we

40:52 Speaker 4: had four guests, four different guests booked. We had a CJ.

40:57 Speaker 4: Wildheart in the first hour, Julia Greenberg in the second hour.

41:00 Speaker 4: In the third hour, we have two guests booked. We've

41:02 Speaker 4: got the band Despire in the first half of the

41:05 Speaker 4: third hour, and in the second half of the third

41:07 Speaker 4: hour we have the Rift. So but it just it

41:11 Speaker 4: just so happens that today all four guests, they all

41:15 Speaker 4: chose WhatsApp, which is unusual. Everybody chose WhatsApp to use

41:20 Speaker 4: as their platform of choice because we do give them

41:23 Speaker 4: multiple options on how they're going to connect with the show.

41:25 Speaker 4: For the interview and it just so happens on the

41:28 Speaker 4: day that all four guests all chose WhatsApp. WhatsApp has

41:33 Speaker 4: restricted my account. I cannot call our guests using WhatsApp.

41:37 Speaker 4: It says suspicious activity, something about spam, and my account

41:43 Speaker 4: is suspended for the next five hours. So luckily CJ Wildheart, I,

41:48 Speaker 4: you know, I emailed him, I said, hey, can I

41:50 Speaker 4: send you a teams link Microsoft Teams? Can we do that?

41:53 Speaker 4: And that worked out great, actually worked out fine. And

41:56 Speaker 4: then Julia I emailed her, I said, hey, can we

42:00 Speaker 4: use teams or the studio line? So she called the

42:02 Speaker 4: studio line, so that worked out. I don't know what's

42:04 Speaker 4: going to happen in the third hour. I've not heard

42:06 Speaker 4: back yet from either the Rift or a Deathspire, so hopefully,

42:11 Speaker 4: 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

42:15 Speaker 4: when all four guests they all chose WhatsApp as their

42:18 Speaker 4: platform with choice to connect with the show. But live

42:20 Speaker 4: radio is an adventure and that's part of what makes

42:24 Speaker 4: it exciting. You know, it's a high wire act. There's

42:26 Speaker 4: always something that can and often will go wrong. But

42:29 Speaker 4: that's okay. We sold her on. I mean and at

42:32 Speaker 4: the end of the day. I mean, it is just

42:33 Speaker 4: a radio show, right, It's not life and death. There's

42:36 Speaker 4: nothing worth getting upset over. And technology will fail us

42:39 Speaker 4: at times. But yeah, I don't know. I've never had

42:41 Speaker 4: that happen before with WhatsApp. But I guess something something

42:45 Speaker 4: suspicious about my account. I don't know if it's because

42:48 Speaker 4: I'm trying to use it. You know, I have it

42:50 Speaker 4: on my phone, but we also have it installed here

42:52 Speaker 4: on the computer. I don't know if I just have

42:55 Speaker 4: what's happened too many places, and you know, I don't

42:58 Speaker 4: know what's going on. But hopefully next week it's fine.

43:01 Speaker 4: But so waiting to hear back from both guests that

43:04 Speaker 4: we have scheduled for the third hour today. But anyway,

43:08 Speaker 4: the programming note that I wanted to share with you

43:12 Speaker 4: is next Saturday, one week from today is July fourth,

43:16 Speaker 4: Independence Day. I will be here live. I cleared it

43:21 Speaker 4: with the station manager of the Big Boss. Actually asked

43:24 Speaker 4: him a few months ago, because we've been booking guests,

43:27 Speaker 4: you know, so far ahead, well into summer. He said, yeah,

43:30 Speaker 4: that's fine, you can come in. So I will be

43:33 Speaker 4: here because since we moved the show to Saturday, this

43:36 Speaker 4: is what I told him in the email I sent him.

43:38 Speaker 4: I said, you know, since we moved the show to Saturday,

43:40 Speaker 4: I have not missed a single Saturday, even on holiday

43:43 Speaker 4: weekends I've been here. But this is the first holiday

43:46 Speaker 4: weekend since we moved to Saturdays, where the holiday itself

43:50 Speaker 4: actually falls on the Saturday. So usually there won't be

43:55 Speaker 4: anybody in the building on a holiday, and it's all

43:58 Speaker 4: all the programming is. You know, it's all pre recorded,

44:02 Speaker 4: all automated and so forth. So but I said, you know,

44:05 Speaker 4: I don't want to just because it's a holiday. I

44:07 Speaker 4: still want to do my show. So he approved it.

44:09 Speaker 4: He said that's fine. So I will be here. So

44:12 Speaker 4: there will be a show for anyone who's wondering. Yes,

44:14 Speaker 4: 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

44:24 Speaker 4: got a new single to premiere that day to commemorate

44:29 Speaker 4: July fourth. It is called We Beat the British from

44:32 Speaker 4: the band The Melted Chapsticks. We saw The Melted Chapsticks

44:37 Speaker 4: recently at the spot in Nashua. Great band. Frankie Hollywood,

44:41 Speaker 4: the frontman for the band. He also hosts a show

44:44 Speaker 4: on Wave Radio Boston, by the way, so he's a

44:46 Speaker 4: radio guy as well. But the Melted Chapsticks great band.

44:49 Speaker 4: They've got a new song called We Beat the British

44:51 Speaker 4: and you're gonna hear it here next week on Matt

44:54 Speaker 4: Connor toon Unleashed, our July fourth Independence Day edition of

44:58 Speaker 4: the show Can't Wait. I'll probably also because it's sort

45:01 Speaker 4: of an unofficial tradition on the show. Used to do it,

45:06 Speaker 4: used to do it whenever we had a patriotic holiday

45:08 Speaker 4: when we were on weekday afternoons, you know, because there

45:11 Speaker 4: was a time for many years we were on weekday

45:13 Speaker 4: afternoons here afternoon Drive. I would play Also my personal

45:19 Speaker 4: favorite patriotic song of all time. And if you don't

45:21 Speaker 4: know my favorite patriotic song, because I do consider I

45:25 Speaker 4: know some people think, you know, if you're you know,

45:29 Speaker 4: if you're a left winger, as I guess I am,

45:33 Speaker 4: you know that you're not patriotic, But I am. I

45:35 Speaker 4: love my country. My favorite patriotic song of all time is,

45:38 Speaker 4: of course the classic I'm sure some of you shared

45:41 Speaker 4: the same thoughts, Yankee Rose by David Lee Roth. That's

45:45 Speaker 4: my favorite patriotic song. Of all time. And if you

45:48 Speaker 4: think it's not patriotic, listen to those lyrics. It's about

45:52 Speaker 4: as American as it gets Yankee Rose by David Lee

45:55 Speaker 4: Roth in many ways. So we'll give that a spin

45:58 Speaker 4: too week on the show. So so anyway, so I

46:02 Speaker 4: say all that to say we will be here live

46:05 Speaker 4: on July fourth. Also, I'll just mention too, just a

46:09 Speaker 4: quick reminder because I know we have some crossover in

46:11 Speaker 4: the audience. If you are a fan of the Tough

46:13 Speaker 4: Bumps podcast, the show that I do that is not

46:17 Speaker 4: carried on WM ANDH, that is completely separated, is strictly online.

46:20 Speaker 4: It is a podcast only. But if you are a

46:22 Speaker 4: fan of that show, we will be back Sunday night

46:25 Speaker 4: at four pm live along with my friends Eric Pilcher

46:28 Speaker 4: and Austin Hicks. We've been on a little bit of

46:31 Speaker 4: a hiatus, that was off for a couple of weeks,

46:32 Speaker 4: but that is back. Tough Bumps is back, so fear

46:36 Speaker 4: not if you've been missing that. I think what we

46:39 Speaker 4: should do right now, I think we should play another

46:44 Speaker 4: Julia Greenberg song, Let's sneak one more in. We do

46:47 Speaker 4: have time, and then we're going to show some love

46:49 Speaker 4: to our amazing sponsors who he'll pay the bills around here,

46:52 Speaker 4: and we are so grateful to have the sponsors and

46:54 Speaker 4: advertisers that support WMNH ninety five point three FM, this

46:58 Speaker 4: great station. And then in the third hour, now the

47:01 Speaker 4: third hour again a little bit of an adventure. I'm

47:04 Speaker 4: not sure what's gonna happen. We have two guests booked,

47:07 Speaker 4: but they both wanted to use WhatsApp. That was their

47:11 Speaker 4: platform of choice to connect with the show, and WhatsApp

47:15 Speaker 4: is they have suspended my account, so I did email

47:18 Speaker 4: them both. It worked out with Julia, she was willing

47:22 Speaker 4: to join us on the studio line. And oh, hang

47:30 Speaker 4: on a second, I think one of our guests is

47:33 Speaker 4: 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,

47:44 Speaker 4: but we can actually talk to you now, so I

47:50 Speaker 4: get I guess.

47:51 Speaker 1: You know.

47:51 Speaker 8: It was funny because I was panicking there a little

47:54 Speaker 8: bit because Steve was on the phone with me and

47:55 Speaker 8: he's like, and I got the guys in the band.

47:57 Speaker 8: 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,

48:01 Speaker 8: because Steve sent it over and uh. I was like

48:04 Speaker 8: 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

48:09 Speaker 4: talk now. Of course you're from the band, uh Despire?

48:12 Speaker 4: 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

48:21 Speaker 4: you know, I was saying on the show a few

48:22 Speaker 4: minutes ago. Uh, all the guests that I had booked

48:26 Speaker 4: on the show today all chose WhatsApp. Every single one

48:30 Speaker 4: chose WhatsApp is their platform of choice. And then WhatsApp

48:33 Speaker 4: suspends my account at the same time that I've multiple

48:36 Speaker 4: guest booked using WhatsApp. What are the odds? But but

48:39 Speaker 4: I'm glad you're here. We are live, we are live

48:41 Speaker 4: on the air. We can go ahead. Do you want

48:42 Speaker 4: to do you want me to play the single and

48:45 Speaker 4: 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

48:49 Speaker 8: do that if you want. We could play the single

48:51 Speaker 8: faithless that's out right now, Uh, you know, and then

48:56 Speaker 8: after they hate a song, if you want, we could

48:58 Speaker 8: talk about whatever you want. Let's mean it and go

49:01 Speaker 8: 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,

49:06 Speaker 4: and we have Rob from Despire on the line with us. So, yeah, Rob,

49:09 Speaker 4: if you don't mind hanging on the line, we'll play

49:11 Speaker 4: the single, we'll come back and talk about it, and

49:13 Speaker 4: then at the end of our conversation we'll play another

49:15 Speaker 4: track from you guys that I have queued up as well.

49:18 Speaker 4: But so if you are just joining us, we have

49:20 Speaker 4: Rob from Despire on the line with us. Rob, please

49:23 Speaker 4: hang on. We're gonna hit this track and then we'll

49:25 Speaker 4: 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

49:32 Speaker 4: band is Despired. The track is called Faithless. This is

49:35 Speaker 4: really good. Check this out.

50:00 Speaker 2: Last what will bad? I see the lion grace saying

50:08 Speaker 2: all it once but so many day says that's oh boy,

50:16 Speaker 2: 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

50:41 Speaker 9: 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

51:40 Speaker 10: 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

52:04 Speaker 2: one team like bad walking out and race fine rock

52:11 Speaker 2: 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

53:09 Speaker 10: 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

53:50 Speaker 2: 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,

54:14 Speaker 4: check your pulse, you might be dead. That is so good,

54:16 Speaker 4: That is faithless. The band is Despire and we've got Rob,

54:20 Speaker 4: the vocalist from Despire here on the line with us. Rob.

54:23 Speaker 4: How do you say your last name?

54:24 Speaker 8: By the way, Melvagna, Well that's the American iceed way

54:30 Speaker 8: in Italy the g is.

54:31 Speaker 4: Silent, oh Melvano? Okay, all right, very good, very good.

54:35 Speaker 4: By the way, is it just you r Do you

54:37 Speaker 4: have any of your bandmates with you or are we

54:39 Speaker 4: just talking to you right now?

54:41 Speaker 8: No, it's it's just just me right now. Sorry, they're

54:45 Speaker 8: all listening on the link.

54:46 Speaker 4: Oh okay, okay, cool, well, yeah, welcome to the show.

54:50 Speaker 4: Like I said, I love that track. And is this

54:53 Speaker 4: so the the name despire that's a com Is that

54:55 Speaker 4: a combination of despair and inspire? Is that correct?

54:59 Speaker 8: Yes? It is is you know, we wanted to take

55:01 Speaker 8: the two emotions of you know, the lowest of the

55:05 Speaker 8: lows and the highest of the highs, you know, and

55:07 Speaker 8: kind of put it together and you know, come up

55:10 Speaker 8: with that made up name there. But you know, we

55:14 Speaker 8: because everybody goes through that, you know, and that's kind

55:17 Speaker 8: of what leads you to either be successful or you know,

55:21 Speaker 8: to deal with your problems in life, right you know,

55:26 Speaker 8: so we wanted to take those two emotions and combine

55:28 Speaker 8: them right right now?

55:29 Speaker 4: That makes sense? And you guys have been together since

55:32 Speaker 4: 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,

55:40 Speaker 8: you know, we we've all been very good friends in

55:42 Speaker 8: the industry and we've played formations of other bands and

55:47 Speaker 8: then then we happen to get together and start jamming

55:51 Speaker 8: and writing some music. And one of our earlier songs,

55:55 Speaker 8: which is on our first EP, Black, the song is

55:58 Speaker 8: got in the hands of Joey Z from Life of Agony,

56:02 Speaker 8: who reached out and said, you know, I like this,

56:04 Speaker 8: what are you guys doing? I'd love to record some

56:07 Speaker 8: of your new stuff, and hence that's what led to

56:10 Speaker 8: our first DP, Irritation, which Joey Z for my Fagne produced,

56:14 Speaker 8: which inevitably got us signed to Pavement Records.

56:17 Speaker 4: Okay, yeah, I mean in connecting with Joey Z, that's uh.

56:21 Speaker 4: You guys got off to a great start early on.

56:23 Speaker 4: That's that's amazing. Life of an Agony of course, such

56:27 Speaker 4: a great band. But oh that's that's uh so cool.

56:30 Speaker 4: I mean you probably learned a lot from him, I

56:32 Speaker 4: would imagine, Uh.

56:35 Speaker 8: Yeah, you know what was great was you know, I

56:39 Speaker 8: was a Life of Agony fan, you know before that,

56:42 Speaker 8: and I learned a lot from him, not only in

56:45 Speaker 8: the studio, but just in general in life itself. You know,

56:52 Speaker 8: he's a very down throreat guy. We became friends, you know,

56:56 Speaker 8: so it was a big eye opener on how things

56:59 Speaker 8: are done in industry and how we brought out you know,

57:02 Speaker 8: certain aspects of the band and recording. You know, we

57:05 Speaker 8: just worked well together.

57:07 Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, absolutely, And then now tell us about so

57:11 Speaker 4: present day Faithless. I know that's the newest that came

57:15 Speaker 4: out pretty recently, right, the new single Faithless.

57:18 Speaker 8: Yeah, so you know, we aren't with Pavement any longer. Okay,

57:23 Speaker 8: you know, things happened in twenty twenty with COVID. You know,

57:29 Speaker 8: the band itself went through a lot of changes and

57:32 Speaker 8: unfortunate deaths. In our first drummer passed away, and then

57:37 Speaker 8: family members, mothers, fathers after COVID, and then I had

57:42 Speaker 8: a health scare. I was diagnosed with cancer, went through

57:45 Speaker 8: my treatments, and in this process a drummer that was

57:50 Speaker 8: with us. We had about seven songs that we had written.

57:54 Speaker 8: So Griffin went in the studio recorded the drums because

57:57 Speaker 8: we you know, we knew that we were going to

57:59 Speaker 8: be coming back out once I got the clear and okay,

58:02 Speaker 8: you know, we started recording some songs and it was

58:05 Speaker 8: time to release them, you know. And now we have

58:08 Speaker 8: big news coming up in the upcoming weeks. We have

58:11 Speaker 8: some offers on the table that we will be announcing

58:14 Speaker 8: shortly for these upcoming singles that will be released.

58:18 Speaker 4: Oh, excellent, excellent. As far as the cancer, I mean,

58:23 Speaker 4: 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,

58:30 Speaker 8: so things are looking good, you know, and it it

58:33 Speaker 8: just made me stronger as a person and to move forward,

58:36 Speaker 8: 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,

58:47 Speaker 4: it's interesting how COVID even even now in twenty twenty six.

58:51 Speaker 4: It it comes up in a lot of conversations on

58:54 Speaker 4: the show because it just affected so many people. And

58:57 Speaker 4: you know, when you're when your whole thing is especially

58:59 Speaker 4: if you're playing live music, you know, it really it

59:03 Speaker 4: really affected.

59:04 Speaker 8: Uh, and that's everything exactly. That's kind of what happened.

59:07 Speaker 8: You know. The momentum of the band was really going well,

59:10 Speaker 8: and uh, you know, the world stopped. Yeah, and we're

59:13 Speaker 8: not Metallica and you know what I mean. So it's

59:15 Speaker 8: like starting over again.

59:17 Speaker 4: Absolutely, especially where you are too, because you're in New

59:20 Speaker 4: York and and uh man, I mean New York City

59:24 Speaker 4: really got hit hard. I mean that was that was

59:27 Speaker 4: really for a while. That was kind of the epicenter

59:29 Speaker 4: in the country for for COVID nineteen, it just just

59:32 Speaker 4: just awful. Are you guys ever everybody who's in the

59:36 Speaker 4: 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,

59:43 Speaker 8: like I said, we've been brothers forever. You know, it

59:47 Speaker 8: feels like, you know, it's like having another marriage. But

59:50 Speaker 8: we're all great friends. You know, we're all within you know,

59:55 Speaker 8: a half hour of each other.

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