Matt Connarton Unleashed 6-27-26 hour 3

0:23 Speaker 1: Good lass what well, man.

0:29 Speaker 2: I see it's the light gray saying all it was, what's hold day says that's oh.

0:38 Speaker 1: Boy, the silent libo.

0:41 Speaker 3: Lay all it say where you're right?

0:58 Speaker 1: That's talk about oh.

1:02 Speaker 4: Searching for your face blossom miss starting place, so wake now not so.

1:13 Speaker 1: What can't you hear me? Call that?

1:15 Speaker 3: Let me try you go tiy d me.

1:26 Speaker 1: Let me light is space worfie ss fine.

1:57 Speaker 4: Abandoned in misty we'll go crum by o business fifteens, no far, don't kiss.

2:08 Speaker 1: It's all embracing me, literating me. All right, we're me cry when you're been with them one tail like that

2:31 Speaker 1: walking up break by round up.

2:35 Speaker 3: Day this guy around nineteen, Well you're been with me one.

3:13 Speaker 1: The guilty, this letter brace sh breation man.

3:22 Speaker 5: Bor like god, which you met a coping that's the daya sen or something last mingfore my days last home.

3:34 Speaker 1: That's wos wait no man now when day? I thanks when man?

4:13 Speaker 3: When we're not blass.

4:35 Speaker 6: 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, Rob. How do you say your last name?

4:47 Speaker 7: By the way, Melvagna, Well, that's the americanized way in Italy, the g is.

4:54 Speaker 6: Silent, oh Melvano. Okay, all right, very good, very good. By the way, is it just your do do you have any of your bandmates with you? Or are we just talking to you right now?

5:05 Speaker 7: No, it's it's just just me right now. Sorry, they're all listening on the link.

5:09 Speaker 6: Oh okay, okay, cool, well, yeah, welcome to the show. Like I said, I love that track. And is this so the name despire that's a comp Is that a combination of despair and inspire? Is that correct?

5:22 Speaker 8: Yes? It is.

5:24 Speaker 7: 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.

5:52 Speaker 6: Right now, that makes sense? And you guys have been together since twenty fifteen, is that right?

5:58 Speaker 8: Yep, so I love it.

5:59 Speaker 7: Yeah, you know, we we've played with each other before this, you know, we we've all been very good friends in the in the industry, and uh we've played formations of other bands, and then then we happened to get together and uh 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 from Mike Agony produced, which inevitably got us signed to Pavement Records.

6:41 Speaker 6: Okay, yeah, I mean 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.

6:58 Speaker 7: Uh, 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.

7:12 Speaker 8: Just in general.

7:14 Speaker 7: In life itself. You know, he's a very down throat guy. We became friends, you know, so it was a big eye opener on how things are done in an industry and how he brought out, you know, certain aspects of the band and recording.

7:28 Speaker 8: You know, we just worked well together.

7:30 Speaker 6: 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.

7:42 Speaker 7: Yeah, so you know we aren't with Pavement any longer.

7:46 Speaker 6: Okay.

7:46 Speaker 7: 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 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.

8:30 Speaker 7: 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.

8:41 Speaker 6: Oh, excellent, excellent. As far as the cancer, I mean, you're you're you free and clear now clear of it.

8:49 Speaker 7: Yeah, right now. I reached one hundred percent remission. 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.

9:02 Speaker 9: Yeah.

9:02 Speaker 6: Oh, that's good for you. I'm glad to hear that.

9:05 Speaker 8: Wow.

9:07 Speaker 6: Yeah, 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 uh everything exactly.

9:29 Speaker 8: That's kind of what happened. You know.

9:31 Speaker 7: The momentum of the band was really going well.

9:33 Speaker 8: And you know, the world stopped.

9:36 Speaker 7: Yeah, and we're not Metallica, and you know what I mean. So it's like thoughting over again.

9:40 Speaker 6: 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?

10:02 Speaker 5: Uh?

10:02 Speaker 8: Yeah, We're all from Long Island, New York.

10:06 Speaker 7: 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.

10:15 Speaker 8: You know, we're all.

10:16 Speaker 7: Within you know, a half hour of each other. Yeah, a couple of guys live very close, and then the rest of us are within twenty minutes of a half hour of each other. And then recently, we just announced that the newest member, our newest drummer. She is incredible, Bobby Dima went through a lot of auditions and drummers and she just is filling the gap and bringing a whole new energy to the band.

10:42 Speaker 8: So you know, I just wanted to give a formal welcome to her on the air.

10:46 Speaker 6: Oh very cool. Yeah, congratulations to her. That's awesome. That's awesome. Do you feel like I'm curious being from New York and such a part of the scene there, do you feel like New York has shaped your because there's such a rich history of heavy music coming out of that area. And we had a actually just recently, we had Frequency Overload on the show, and you know, they're from there obviously, and they're amazing. But I mean, does do you think is there I guess what I'm trying to ask is is there a New York sound as far as heavy music, like what you guys are doing.

11:19 Speaker 6: Is there a New York sound? And are you what you do?

11:23 Speaker 7: It's a great question because I actually think there is, you know, and it goes way back to the days of you know, when the thrash metal and spemale, when you had like bands like Anthrax, and then the hardcore scene with like Biohazard and Life of Agony, you know, and Sheer Terror and all these bands that came out of the area. And then of course there was the glam movement too, you know, New York dolls and kiss, and so I think the East Coast in general, New York area and up towards your area, it's it's a it's a different roarer, more in your face, I feel, isle of music, you know.

12:02 Speaker 7: So yeah, I do think even though music has changed tremendously, and and the scene itself has changed tremendously, not just here in New York but throughout the United States. You know, in the old days, there was so many clubs and everybody came out to see music, and that was the only way was to go to sea band's live.

12:20 Speaker 8: You know.

12:20 Speaker 7: Nowadays, with social media and YouTube, you don't have to go anywhere. You know, everything's there right the ship to your thing is. But I think that you definitely can tell the sound of our our music and where we're from geographically. So I do do feel that there is a certain sound that comes out of New York. It's the aggression, it's the in your face, you know.

12:43 Speaker 8: And then just the way of.

12:44 Speaker 7: Living out here, the fast pace and of society in general, and people are so stressed and it comes out.

12:51 Speaker 8: In the music.

12:52 Speaker 6: Yeah, yeah, absolutely, What is your for the track faith list, which which again I love, it's just so good. Is this part of a larger project now? I mean, do you have a because there's so many different ways to release music now. Is is it part of an EP or an album or are you just releasing singles at this point? What's what's kind of your your plan?

13:15 Speaker 7: Okay, so you hit it on the head.

13:17 Speaker 8: I mean, like music has changed, you know.

13:20 Speaker 7: No longer are the days of where I can run to the store and I was waiting for that Iron Maiden record to come out, hit the album cover and I wanted to read the liner notes and you know, immerse myself in it while I was in to music. So, you know, people unfortunately, people's attention span is a lot less nowadays, and they want not so much instant gratification, but they want to hear a song and they want to move on to the next, you know, band and put it in their playlist. So we what we plan on doing moving forward right now is we will be releasing singles as they come up, and then as we finished writing them.

13:58 Speaker 7: And then our plan is once we released these next group of writings that we had, we're gonna put together an EP or an album of them so everybody can get it as like a special order or through a company or whatever. This way they can have everything encompassed in a CD vinyl, but the initial release is gonna be based on singles. You know, every one of the Fire songs, aside from the first couple albums, they each song is different.

14:30 Speaker 8: You know.

14:31 Speaker 7: So if you take a listen to our songs when we write, they will have a different feel, different emotion, or a different story to tell. I think we did that intentionally. We want We didn't want to be usic. You know, this album sounds like this, Like the new single that will be dropping the beginning of August and of July is a total different sound for us. It's still heavy and it's dark, but it's different. It's in a different direction from the rest of the music that we have out.

14:58 Speaker 6: Okay, okay, yeah, you're your trajectory as far as the singles, and then eventually, you know, they coalesce into an EP. That's that's how a lot of artists seem to be doing it now too. It's kind of the kind of the inverse of what it used to be. You know, when I was growing up, it was you know, a band might release a single for an upcoming album. Single goes to radio six eight weeks before the album comes out. Then the album comes out, and then if everything goes well, you know, there might be a second single, there might be a third single.

15:26 Speaker 6: But now a lot of artists are doing it, you know, the inverse of that, like you described, you know, you release a series of singles that will eventually coalesce into an EP or an album. Just kind of the and it, you know, and it makes sense. You know, you got to feed the algorithm. You got to keep people interested.

15:40 Speaker 7: And exactly yeah, you have to be relevant. You know, you have to keep it exactly what you said. You have to keep it rolling. You know, a good a good food of thought is you know, every five to six weeks if you can, you know, if you have the music written, you know, try to release something. You've got to keep yourself in everybody space, right, And that's kind of how the music business is now. Yeah, it's not a collective work because an album, people are going to listen to it, unfortunately for you know, another two years.

16:12 Speaker 7: So you've got to keep yourself relevant by throwing things out.

16:15 Speaker 6: Yea. And what's the live uh kind of touring situation for you guys, because obviously you're in an area where uh, you know, there's there's such a great array of venues you can play out. Imagine, you know, it's such a vibrant scene there in New York. Are you guys playing out a lot? Are you doing a lot of shows, You're going on tour? What's what's been happening there?

16:36 Speaker 7: Well, we so before all this happened, you know, we were ramping up. Uh we we did a tour Boba Flex and then we toured Canada and the Northeast with Life of Agony Nice. So we were ramping up and we were just about ready to do a European leg and get into the festivals. And then, like we were talking before, Bam COVID hit. So our trajectory now is we're building up the fan base. If a good tour came up, you know, obviously it would be on the table. But we are really looking for a lot of like fly dates.

17:10 Speaker 7: We're trying to get into the festival scene. You know, we do want to actually come up to your area. We're looking into New Hampshire. We have right now we're all working on dates in New Jersey, Connecticut, North Carolina. We have a show which is our comeback show on Long Island October sixteenth in New York. That's a Friday night. That is our next show that we have on the books. You know. That's kind of where we're looking to be right now. The scene here, you know, and I'm sure it's.

17:45 Speaker 8: Kind of like that everywhere.

17:46 Speaker 7: Unfortunately for original music, it's very hard.

17:51 Speaker 8: It's not like it used to be.

17:52 Speaker 7: Every club, every bar wants cover bands and tribute bands now, taking nothing away from those bands. You know, the club owners they don't care anymore honestly about promoting original music. It's all about, you know, the money and how what they can put in their pockets and how many people you can get through the door.

18:09 Speaker 8: And sure, you know, and it's changeable.

18:13 Speaker 7: Back in the day, I'm sure you remember in the eighties. I mean, people went out to see music they didn't know. They wanted to reach out and find new bands and new things that would turn them on. And it's kind of not like that anymore. So you have to your job as someone in a band is a lot harder now, you know, from from my perspective, Yeah.

18:35 Speaker 6: Well, now you're competing with so much. You know, you're you're competing with Netflix and and uh and YouTube and and uh, you know, and and gaming and and all of it. There's there's so many things now. There's a lot more things that you can do at home now, uh instead of going out that you couldn't do before. So so that's that's always a challenge.

18:59 Speaker 7: Yeah, Well, that's like what I said before. You know, people don't need they don't have to go to see a band.

19:04 Speaker 8: You know, videos are put on YouTube.

19:06 Speaker 7: They could sit in their house, not spend any money and watch a video of the band live or a live stream and.

19:12 Speaker 8: There it is.

19:13 Speaker 7: Yeah, which to me takes away from the whole purpose of live music. I like the vibe with the audience and the sound of a bass drum just like crushing your ribs, and when you're there, it's like you can't experience that sitting in your living room.

19:28 Speaker 6: Exactly. Yeah, absolutely, I agree. I agree. So October sixteenth is the next show for you guys, and you've got some other opportunities coming up, it sounds like, So that's that's great.

19:40 Speaker 7: Yeah, we're we're working on a lot of opportunities that will be announced in the upcoming weeks. So we'll be around Okay, you know, we're going to be heading out there and then especially going into next year, in the next festival season, you know you'll be seeing this fire a lot more.

19:56 Speaker 6: Oh, fantastic, fantastic in a in a man. Well, we'll let you go on. We're gonna play. I've got another track here that I'm going to play at the end of our conversation, Blue Sky Reborn. You've got a This is really and this show is a different side of you guys. Great song, but you've also got a guest vocalist on this.

20:19 Speaker 7: Yeah, so Alicia Rose. You know, I thought that she had the perfect voice. She's she's a local musician from our area and she has a great tone to her voice. And the story of Blue Sky I felt and the band members in the band, we all discussed this and we felt that.

20:36 Speaker 8: It would fit perfect with what we were looking to do.

20:39 Speaker 7: So the original song Blue Sky, which is on our EP, it was written based on Unfortunately in my life I had about seven times happened to me I had to deal with suicide. So when the song was written, it was about the what the people who are left behind have to deal with and how you need to find ways of moving forward. That's kind of what the song is about. And now it's also taken on if a loved one has passed, you know, how how do I get through this? So we wanted an answer to that, you know, we thought, let's do this acoustics, show a different side of the band and show someone which is her part answering back to you when you're asking them you know, I'm looking searching for Blue Skies, you know, I miss your voice.

21:24 Speaker 7: And now this person is answering you back and kind of saying, look, everything's okay, nothing was your fault, but I'm here for you. So that's kind of what Blue Sky Reborn is about.

21:35 Speaker 6: Okay, okay, Yeah, it's a it's a great song. And

21:40 Speaker 6: by the way, did you say so seven times you've you've dealt with the people you know who've committed suicide.

21:47 Speaker 7: Unfortunately, and they between family members and very close friends. You know, it's something Depression is real. Yeah, you know a lot of times you don't you don't know it. With the people that are going through it, they kind of just do it, yeah, you know, and it catches it by surprise, you know. But there are places out there, people to talk to, you know, and thank god, I have music, and you know, that's one way myself and the band members can talk about things. But hopefully it touches something and someone else and they're able to hear something and it helps them.

22:26 Speaker 7: Yeah, part of being an artist, you know, you want to help people. But unfortunately, yes, I had, I had to deal with that. I don't I don't want to deal with it anymore.

22:34 Speaker 8: But you got to find a way to.

22:36 Speaker 6: Continue, absolutely absolutely, And no. And I like what you said about depression too, you know, as someone who I myself, I mean, I'm not suicidal, but I do deal with depression. And it's uh, you know, mental health is something that a lot of the stigma has gone I think is a lot of the stigma has faded, but it's still something that we probably don't talk about enough.

22:56 Speaker 7: And yeah, it's you know, people do it, anxiety and depression and the way society is and the best thing to do is find an outlet. You know, ending your life is not the answer, right because life is beautiful, you know, as there are things nature, you know, the materialistic things in the world don't mean anything. You know, family health, you know, and being able to just experience what you have and the good things in life, you know, so there's so many ways you could talk your problems out nowadays, you know, so don't be afraid to ask for help, right right.

23:35 Speaker 6: Very well, said very well, said Rob. Before we let you go, and we're going to hit that track. But where's the best place for people to go online to keep up with everything that Despire is doing.

23:47 Speaker 7: Despire dot com is our website, but really social media yeah, Facebook, Instagram, you know, those are the best place. We have a social media presence, you know, we send out newsblasts, we're always posting, so you'll definitely be able to find Aspire. You know, you can google our name, you'll see.

24:08 Speaker 8: All kinds of things about us.

24:10 Speaker 7: Yeah, we're on Spotify, all the major digital networks you can. You can download our music YouTube, so we're around.

24:19 Speaker 8: Yeah.

24:19 Speaker 6: Absolutely, Well that's another thing that's really changed, huh room Before I it used to be social media. It changed everything.

24:26 Speaker 7: Yeah, oh yeah, it's it's crazy and we we again, you know, I'll even I'd like to speak to you about it another day too. We do want to come up to New Hampshire. We actually started looking into it, so maybe we can sooner than later get ourselves up there. And and bring our crazy show. Because a Thespire show is not just five guys and I will say four guys and a young lady up on the stage. We put on an event because we come from the Iron Maiden. You know. To me, when you go see a band live, the music, yeah, you know wants music to be good, but you want to escape reality, you know, you want to come see a show exactly.

25:05 Speaker 8: That's what we do.

25:06 Speaker 6: Oh yeah, oh hell yeah, yeah.

25:07 Speaker 7: No, definitely We'll be seeing you up in New Hampshire, in that New England area real soon, I hope.

25:11 Speaker 8: So.

25:11 Speaker 6: I would love it. I would love it absolutely. All right, Rob, we'll let you go. We're going to hit that track Blue Sky Reborn. But thank you so much for joining us, and thank you for being flexible about the the WhatsApp and the phone line and everything. We appreciate that as well.

25:26 Speaker 7: No problem, Matt, and I want to thank you for your time and having to fire you know, grace your ailways and to speak with us.

25:34 Speaker 8: I appreciate it.

25:35 Speaker 6: Oh absolutely no, we appreciate you. Rob. All right, thank you so much, and I'm sure we'll talk again soon.

25:41 Speaker 7: We will all right, see you that everybody, By all right.

25:45 Speaker 6: That is Rob from the band Despire and again this track shows a different side of the band and their sound. But this is really good. This is Blue Sky Reborn with Alicia Rose is also on the track singing this is really good. Check this out, scream.

26:38 Speaker 1: I love you, mister sonny a voice dream.

26:46 Speaker 10: We don't feel an you by my side, raid angered by the answers to wild ba, I'll keep it bottled and leave inside. M hm, hope you now at peace, suffering.

27:25 Speaker 11: Covets hope you know it. Peace suffering conveys, scream.

27:37 Speaker 12: And shout, I from my way out to us and not under reach on my head shot in the spell, close my eyes and flyer.

27:52 Speaker 11: Then sensing for blue skies so and sunset.

27:59 Speaker 1: In dog your cries your.

28:03 Speaker 11: Sor is a bird been such a for b Scotch so the sunset him the dog guy near your cries you so is that bird?

28:37 Speaker 13: Sorry, lestitude, It's nothing needed wrong at peace in your mind. Tomo is with you already ever saught you know, close your eyes and s.

28:53 Speaker 1: Been such as for peace scs so you as.

28:58 Speaker 13: Sunset in the dogs masson he's a rayes be sexual stares so sns.

29:15 Speaker 1: In the dog cause massoniadis Henry World, who.

29:47 Speaker 11: Wo bring such a for the disguiest sort sort? Heman dog acries us and Red being such a for girls scys sort and songs hem the Dog act you.

30:51 Speaker 14: So you're listening to Matt Connorton Unleashed on WM and H ninety five point.

31:23 Speaker 6: Three Matt Connorton Unleashed and we are live on WMNH ninety five point three FM. And of course thank you again to Rob of course from the band Despire. I really enjoyed talking with him. And in just a couple of minutes we're gonna have the guys from the band The Rift joining us now again if you are just tuning in, today has been an adventure on the show, or a misadventure, if you will, because all of the guests that I had booked today were supposed to be joining us via WhatsApp app. All four guests shows WhatsApp as their platform of choice, and WhatsApp has temporarily suspended my account, so I've had to communicate with everybody by email, Hey can you call the studio line instead?

32:12 Speaker 6: And everyone's been cool about it so far. Hopefully it all works out with The Rift, our final guest of the show today. I know they have the studio line number, so hopefully they'll be calling because WhatsApp says I've been doing something spammy or suspicious or whatever. I'll have to figure that out later. But it's never given me any trouble before, but it's given me nothing but trouble today. But that's okay. That is the adventure of live radio. By the way, Hello to my friend Stacy and her dad who are listening to the show.

32:41 Speaker 6: Stacy apparently a big fan of Despire. Really like that band, so and I should say hello too to everybody in the chat room just quickly, and then we're gonna play Recapture Code by the Rift, a great track. I think you'll all enjoy that. But Beepinard is in the chat rooms. Good morning everyone, bf Raid says, good morning Matt and Jen great shirt. Yes, of course I am wearing my bf RAID shirt Boston's Final Raid.

33:08 Speaker 7: Uh.

33:08 Speaker 6: They're gonna be on the show with us in August. Can't wait for that. Jenny is in the chat and says, I love this. His accent is so awesome a real New Yorker, referring of course, to Rob from the band Despire and our friend Isaac Banks is in there as well, and hello to all of you. Let's go ahead and play this. Let's see. This is called recapture code and the band is the Rift, So you do what your.

34:01 Speaker 1: Welcome to the.

34:02 Speaker 3: Yeas top existiens.

34:05 Speaker 4: Lesson I show back and cross the law for progress.

34:11 Speaker 1: For not sex, make it brilliant.

34:15 Speaker 3: Season more perciently the my phrase killing competition. Just give me sol something mak the shadows board to crash, so s more.

34:54 Speaker 1: One a life.

34:59 Speaker 9: Destroyer ourselves destroying ourselves over its.

35:07 Speaker 1: Head to having me entii out the world.

35:13 Speaker 3: And shall feeling seems you want you to try to show sec nate your stuff that Sita and yeah joality.

35:34 Speaker 9: Last enough forget the same telesis as spring destruction.

35:44 Speaker 1: Just Canley.

35:47 Speaker 3: Stuffing the shadow chaation to crush, said sad.

36:14 Speaker 1: One will.

36:19 Speaker 9: Destroying asels destroy oursels as.

36:27 Speaker 3: Actually having.

36:30 Speaker 1: Tire that shall thing?

38:31 Speaker 6: Oh I love that. That is recapture code. The band is the Rift and let's see. I think we've got Urus from the band here on the line with us. Hello, Hey guys, what's going good?

38:43 Speaker 1: Good?

38:44 Speaker 6: Welcome to the show. Am I saying your name correctly? Ris? Aris?

38:48 Speaker 5: Yeah?

38:49 Speaker 7: Oh?

38:50 Speaker 6: Aris? Okay? You probably run into that a lot. Not an amy here every day.

38:53 Speaker 15: Is it just.

38:56 Speaker 11: Is it just you're.

38:59 Speaker 6: Okay good? Is it just you or the other guys with you?

39:04 Speaker 16: No, I do have our drummer here as well, So Garrett go ahead and say, lo hey guys, Hey Garrett.

39:12 Speaker 6: Well that's an easy name. So yeah, welcome to the show, guys, and thank you for being flexible about you know, we're supposed to use WhatsApp and all the guests that I have on the show today shows What's Happen. Of course today WhatsApp is not working for me, so uh so I appreciate you being flexible. But I love that track Recapture Code. It's you know, it's heavy, it's it's but it's also it's got a groove to it, and it's got some interesting time changes in there too, really really good. Can you talk about the song and about what the what the meaning of it is?

39:43 Speaker 6: I mean, it kind of gives you an idea, you know that you know they want us to be robots and whatnot, but I really want to explore that what is the song about?

39:52 Speaker 16: Oh yeah, no, I mean, thank you, like really kind words, thank you guys for having us on of course, yeah, all sorts of weird, crazy changes in the song, but yeah, I mean in terms of like the meaning of the song, where you know, we're just like, really, you know, against a lot of this AI music stuff that you're seeing out there, and you know, just the idea that you know, some of these giant corporate CEOs are gonna, you know, try to run the music industry and basically admitted as much that they stole you know, all the music illegally from artists and now they're just like, yeah, we're gonna make all that money, you know, you know, I don't I don't know where we came to where we thought, you know, that was a good idea, as you know, society, but yeah, it's sort of our our uh you know, revenge statement against those guys.

40:49 Speaker 6: Yeah. That's a subject that comes up a lot on the show too. As we are and and really I think we're just in the very early stages of the AI what I call the AI era, and how it's already impacting the music industry and uh, and how we navigate through it. And I'm not sure. I mean, obviously you can't shove that tooth based back in the tube, but you know, but it's it's very interesting times, uh that we live in your your music. I mean, do you approach and I did listen to We're gonna play another track of course of yours at the end of our conversation today.

41:23 Speaker 6: But does everything that you guys do, do you try to have a do you try to address an issue with it? Does it all or or or a specific theme? Does it all have a meaning in terms of how you approach the lyrics?

41:36 Speaker 16: I mean, it depends on the song. Sometimes, you know, we just uh yeah, we write you know, I tend to We tend to write you know, kind of rebellious rock anthemic tracks and that's just something that kind of comes out naturally. So I think we always try to just do whatever comes out naturally, and that just happens to be something that we do do a bit of. But uh, you know, we do have just tracks that are like, you know, kind of all over the place too. You know, we have tracks about you know, dancing with girls and stuff.

42:12 Speaker 16: So we are very much all over the place.

42:16 Speaker 6: Yeah, so it's not all you know, a super serious message heavy no, yeah, no, that makes sense. That makes sense now, is the uh so the track Recapture Code. Is that part of or is it going to be part of an album or an EP or are you just releasing singles at this point? What's your approach to that?

42:36 Speaker 16: Yeah, No, we we do have an album. I mean it's a part of an album called Metamorphosis that we've been kind of just releasing singles every so often with it, and you know, we have a few more to release before the full things out. Okay, but yeah, just it seems like the way to go nowadays is just to get more releases and so everything's a single until it's you know, on the album, right, because you get more kind of juice out of it that way. So that's what the strategy has been behind that.

43:08 Speaker 6: Yeah, that's something we talk about a lot on the show too. How it's kind of a lot of artists now do the inverse of what you know, the model used to be, you have an album, You've got the first single that goes to radio six eight weeks before the album, then the album comes out, and then if everything goes well, you have a second single or even a third single. But now a lot of artists seem to be doing the inverse where they're releasing a series of singles that eventually coalesce into an EP or an album.

43:32 Speaker 6: And I think that that that seems to be working for for a lot of people, seems to be working well for you guys, and so that's great. And you guys, are you're from Los Angeles? Correct?

43:45 Speaker 16: Originally?

43:46 Speaker 8: Yeah?

43:47 Speaker 16: And then my Garrett is is based down in San Diego. Okay, he actually managed his school of rock down there.

43:56 Speaker 6: Oh no, nice, But originally I'm from Denver, Man, Oh wow, Okay, okay.

44:04 Speaker 17: So rocking out in the kind of like Stone or Doom kind of style rock Denver rock out there for the last fifteen years. Yeah, but yeah, and then Aris and I met a couple of years ago via Craigslist, which is the best place to find your band mates. Still yeah, and yeah, just been rocking out, you know. He just needed help out with a couple of gigs filling in and then it turned into something that was more serious. And then here we are doing a little tour this week.

44:37 Speaker 6: Excellent. Yeah, I think you had mentioned that in an email too, So tell me about the tour.

44:43 Speaker 8: Yeah.

44:43 Speaker 16: Actually, we just got back into LA this morning. We've been up and down the West coast for the last like ten days. Oh wow, we drove through the night to be with you guys on the station.

44:55 Speaker 6: Yeah, thank you.

44:56 Speaker 16: We were just in San Francisco last night. Great show in the Bay Area in PACIFICA. It was uh yeah, it was unusually hot like up in Seattle and and uh the Northwest, but good old day area still still cold and rainy and uh a good.

45:18 Speaker 6: Time, excellent, outstanding. And So I'm curious about because you know, I've been in a lot of bands, but I've never been in a band that you know, has some progressive elements, you know, the time changes and things like that. How difficult is it to play these songs live? I mean, do they become like second nature or you know, something like recapture code? You know, we mentioned the time changes. I mean, are are these are these difficult to to kind of pull off live? Especially like for you, Garrett, I mean, you're you know, you're you're keeping time right, So it's got to be it's got to be a challenge to learn them.

45:51 Speaker 17: It was super hard to learn these tunes, but like not not crazy hard, but we kind of get old school and we're putting it together live on stage, you know, running tunes that sometimes we haven't played together in a while, just as it is, and you know, a couple of shows is worth a thousand nights in the.

46:14 Speaker 8: Rehearsal room, you know what I mean.

46:16 Speaker 17: So a lot of these songs are getting worked out, like, like I said, the kind of old school where it's like, you know what that works on the record live, you know, we can adjust things a little bit too, but it is an absolute marathon of drumming, Like it's like thirty minute set. But thanks theris for right, it is. It's a marathon of drumming because you know, it's got lots of changes, lots of slow kind of or maybe halftime intros that end with like a double time you know, our quadruple kind of four on the snare kind of end up feel, which is like you know, starting slow and.

47:00 Speaker 8: Fast and like a marathon.

47:01 Speaker 17: You're like, okay, we've gotta do this six more times, right, It's.

47:07 Speaker 8: So much fun.

47:08 Speaker 6: Yeah.

47:08 Speaker 16: Yeah, they can be challenging for sure, Yeah.

47:11 Speaker 6: No doubt, no doubt. I'm also impressed that because you guys are a three piece, right, there's there's only three of you in the end, but you've got a huge sound.

47:21 Speaker 16: We don't use any tracks live. So everything you hear is us playing like you know, like Rush or something. We just we just go out there and.

47:29 Speaker 8: We do it and.

47:33 Speaker 16: Unlike Rush, we're not that great. But no, but that's that's like our.

47:40 Speaker 8: Goal to get to that point.

47:42 Speaker 1: Yeah.

47:42 Speaker 6: Yeah. Is that something that's that you guys had from the beginning, that ability to to put out such a big sound or is it something you had to work on? Because I'm always impressed when I when I when I see I hear a three piece band that can have a big you know, it's one thing if it's you know, a three chord punk band, but what when it's what you guys are doing and you've got that big sound. Was that a challenge at any point to replicate live or did that come naturally?

48:09 Speaker 1: No?

48:10 Speaker 16: I think I mean for me, I think it came really naturally just because of the way uh, you know we play uh and and again it's like when we're recording and writing these songs, it's nothing that we ever did. I felt like this uh force, you know, like we were trying to sound a certain way on the recording. Yeah, so that's just kind of like what comes out, and you know, I just kind of channel everything through my Masa boogie and then get that big old kind of classic guitar rock sound. And yeah, our bass player fills it out too.

48:46 Speaker 16: He's incredible.

48:47 Speaker 17: Yeah, the bottom tends to drop out with a lot of times when you have a single guitar, you know, go to a solo, right, I mean, you have no rhythm underneath it. So it's a huge credit to him. He can totally work magic and somehow be able to like fill that up, you know what I mean. Yeah, you know, I wish he was here now, but because I have no idea how he does it, but it's awesome.

49:11 Speaker 16: Yeah, And I think a lot of that has to do with the bass. Like I think, to me, you know, when you have like a counterpoint in the bassline during a song and then the guitar is kind of accenting that, not necessarily copying it, that kind of makes it sound bigger too, I.

49:29 Speaker 6: Think, yeah, absolutely absolutely, And I'm curious about that too. As a bass player myself, I assume he's not playing a four string, does he? Does he have a five string or or something?

49:41 Speaker 16: I figured, yeah, I think he's got the five string.

49:45 Speaker 1: Yeah, I figured, I think he did that.

49:47 Speaker 17: So he didn't have to tune as much, right, but then it's like this crazy like transposing nightmare.

49:55 Speaker 8: So yeah, he's done a lot of work for sure.

49:59 Speaker 7: Yeah.

50:00 Speaker 17: Yeah, everything with the computing.

50:01 Speaker 6: Yeah, no doubt. Do you guys have any kind of when you play live, any kind of effects or anything that you guys use as far as visually, I'm curious about the visual presentation or maybe not. Maybe you just get on stage and play. I don't know, but it seems like your music would would lend itself to some sort of I don't know, even something as simple as a screen behind you or something like that, but anything.

50:25 Speaker 16: Like that live, yeah, totally. You know, we really like when people come to see us. We want them to kind of have a memorable experience and even if they're like God, that band really sucks, I hate that singer or whatever, we want them to be like that was, you know, cool presentation. So we have some things that we do. We have these really cool like we call them light boxes where we kind of stomp on them and there's like a it's like a platform. We have kind of like an amp about the size of it, like a combo, but there's a flood light inside of them, okay, And so when we step on those like you would a guitar pedal and it shoots a flood light up at us, so it's kind of cool.

51:10 Speaker 16: And then I have I have this really over the top like show kind of guitar that's like custom piece. It's like acrylic and it lights up blue. And then I put some custom pickups in there, so it's like Seymour dunkins it would sound good to play, so that that thing always gets a lot of kind of and the playing. But yeah, we're always looking to kind of push the envelope because you know, at the end of the day, like you know, you're there to entertain people, and you know it's it's a it should be a visual kind of audio experience, you know, to some degree.

51:48 Speaker 6: I think right right now that makes sense. And like I said, I mean, your sound definitely I think lends itself to that. Oh, by the way, so the the the obvious question I didn't ask yet, where does the name come from? The Rift?

52:03 Speaker 16: Yeah that you know, back in the day, I and I still am a big Disturbed fan, and they had a song off of ten Thousand Days. I think it was called.

52:19 Speaker 8: The Abyss.

52:20 Speaker 16: But like one of the first lines, for whatever reason in that song, that Dreamian saying was like something about the rift, and I was like, God, that's so cool. It's just stuck in my head.

52:30 Speaker 6: Yeah, there you go, There you go. Yeah, Disturbed is funny. I still remember the first time I heard Stupefy, So the first time I ever heard Disturbed, I was.

52:38 Speaker 16: Like, wow, yeah, that's an awesome yeah, awesome record.

52:42 Speaker 6: Absolutely absolutely. So you just got back from a tour, No, so what's next for you guys? Are you going back out on tour or what's well?

52:50 Speaker 16: Yeah, we got two dates back in so cal to finish up on the tour. So tonight we have a big it's like a big festival at this really famous punk rock venue in Anaheim, California, called the doll Hut, okay, and so it's like indoor outdoor stages. So we'll be going on I think in nine tonight, okay. And there's some really great bands headlining tonight too, and then tomorrow at the Redwood Bar in La Downtown is the last show for us, and then uh, we'll probably take a little breather after that.

53:27 Speaker 6: Yeah, you guys have been working hard and.

53:30 Speaker 17: See our family and yeah, go back to work.

53:34 Speaker 6: Yeah, yeah, no doubt, no doubt in a moment, we're gonna play because I want to play another song. At the end of our conversation, I was thinking about playing this track Lightning. What should we know about this? Anything we should know about this before I play it.

53:49 Speaker 16: Yeah, it's a super cool track.

53:52 Speaker 8: You know.

53:53 Speaker 16: I've always been a huge fan of of Thunderstruck.

53:58 Speaker 8: By A C. D C.

53:59 Speaker 16: Yeah, And I mean it's like one of the most iconic, you know, songs, right, So I really wanted to try to create something that was, you know, obviously inspired by that and like kind of a modern take on that. And then I had a We had our good buddy Chas Leon, who sings for Kings and Thrash with Dave Elson and the ex megadesk guys that are out there crushing it.

54:27 Speaker 8: He did some guest vocals.

54:29 Speaker 16: I used to play with Chaz and uh like a sound Garden tribute band really, and so that was kind of how we became good buds and stuff. But yeah, he does some guest vocals on the track, and it's definitely, I think live one of our our fun songs. People start singing the little chant thing along and and it's a good time.

54:53 Speaker 6: Yeah, absolutely, no, I think I think the audience will enjoy this. And okay, so before I let you guys go, so we are going to hit that track and and and again, thank you both Arison and Garrett for joining us today. Where's the best place to go online to keep up with the Rift with everything you guys are doing.

55:12 Speaker 16: Yeah, you just go on to their riftofficial dot com. We've got any social thing that you want to go on to Instagram, uh, the double Underscore, Rift, Spotify, were we're pretty much everywhere. But yeah, the Rift offficial dot com is sort of our our hub and you can go on there and check out all of the merch and all the all the tour dates and stuff. We're on there too. So yeah, and then yeah, like I said, any social platform you want to check us out on until.

55:41 Speaker 8: They listed there?

55:42 Speaker 6: Excellent, excellent. Well again, thank you guys for joining us. We'll definitely have to do this again in the future as you have more music coming out. It sounds like you got a lot going on, so uh it will be uh, we'll be able to have you back on soon, I'm sure, and I appreciate I know it's kind of early there. Uh you know, you guys are what are your three hours behind us? So it's uh and and and you're you've been busy, so I appreciate busy touring. So I appreciate you joining us this morning. And and uh and thank you for being flexible about the WhatsApp thing.

56:09 Speaker 16: Oh, thank you so much for having us on the show. You guys rock and uh yeah, keep keep sharing you know, awesome music and doing what you guys do.

56:19 Speaker 6: Man, we'll do, we'll do. Thank you. We're gonna hit this track Lightning, so we'll let you guys go, but again, thank you both so much and we'll talk again soon.

56:28 Speaker 16: Thanks guys, walking on you got it?

56:29 Speaker 6: Bye bye. All right. That is Airis and Garrett from the band The Rift, and let's give this a spin and then we'll come back. And right at the end of the show, I'm gonna tag you with a couple of programming notes that I want you to be aware of. But here's another great track from The Rift. This is called Lightning.

57:29 Speaker 1: B F.

57:51 Speaker 15: B Shock Ways crossing on the Cone cross so far that I know, I cause.

58:22 Speaker 1: Nothing in me cose he's head, but I can't.

58:26 Speaker 3: Buying a cry.

58:30 Speaker 7: This guy start to jump.

58:41 Speaker 1: Come you know, Mastraye.

58:51 Speaker 3: Loogainst Ill, He's you d swing.

59:12 Speaker 15: From the t sun to the South with your heart out to the fat glass.

59:18 Speaker 3: No starting to arrest your chatiac. Cheap trumble back, trumble back cross, let's.

59:28 Speaker 16: Start to jump.

59:36 Speaker 1: Trouble you.

59:43 Speaker 3: Strie runner, You see Ben