Matt Connarton Unleashed 6-29-24 hour 2

Please me listen another version. Please be in the center, make them busy.

You shall get away to my not nice to you, my nothing,

my career, adoring your day day. Do think you get sold those chapter

came by NM on your day? Tell you way up called me when shine

to go to s This is all in the shout shet the gras of praise

from that and sha tell you that acuse Chuck famousnother person. Please make the

senter, make the busy shot. I can't wait to spend try pay nice

to do nothing night prayer well to me, you're you be to come of

imagination. I'm bad. No, you've hold it, not to have miss

tragic and the traffic all the massage. No, we don't have to take

that. Step in on a load in my room, shut and shed the

race off bad, tell you better scum. That's try with another versions,

Please me in the center, bakebout body, shallotak o my too nice.

You have to line up. That is romance and reality. That is the

latest single from Sepsis. We've been playing that on the show for a while.

Really really good stuff. And of course it is Saturday, June twenty

nine, twenty twenty four, here Matt Connorton Unleashed. We are live from

the studios of wm NH ninety five point three FM here in glorious Manchester,

New Hampshire, of course, also streaming at wmnhradio dot org and at my

website Matt conorton dot com slash live. And if you are looking for the

Facebook feed this morning, if you happen to be a listening live, regretfully

there is no Facebook feed. The software is not working, so sorry about

that. But you know, the audio quality is better if you just listen

to the regular audio stream anyway, So or of course if you're locally,

if you're local here in Manchester, you can listen on your radio at ninety

five point three FM. And of course Jenny is here with us at the

news table. And speaking of sepsis, we happened to have three members of

Stepsis here with us live in studio. William, Melissa and Zachie b are

all here. Welcome, Hey, Hello, good morning, and welcome to

the new studio here. You all haven't been here since we moved. I

am taking in, I'm basking in the yon beyond. It is absolutely gorgeous,

isn't it nice? This is a major upgrade. This is so much

nice there, and I don't it's crazy because I didn't want to say that

going in because I didn't know like what the deal was with you guys,

you know, departing that the other place was nice too. Yeah, this

is this is this is great. Our own building, our own name on

the building. We're not hidden on a third floor somewhere. And that's what

I was going to say. I usually get more exercise when I come and

visit you guys. Yeah, the old place, you would you would never

even know that there was a radio station up there. There was nothing on

the outside of the building that would indicate that there was anything right that.

The facade is great. You're right across the street from Premiere Manchester Live Music

Duel. Ye. Yeah, and that's a very important place, isn't it.

I just think it's location wise, it's great. I love that you

can just walk right down there. I love than you guys are even closer

to where I live now because I'm right next to CMC, so I'm like,

oh wow, like I can see them from my house. It's awesome.

Yeah. Yeah, And like for us, like when we play Manchester,

we played Jewel yeah, yeap. So when we play our hometown,

we play our hometown venue and then you guys are right across the street.

Yeah, yes, literally, jewel is important because I mean, we all

know what's coming up. That's right, Army, that's right, that's right.

No, we're doing we're doing two stages this year, and we should.

We did two stages last year, and I was terrified because you know,

I've never done it before. Yeah, anytime I'm doing something I've never

done before. See, I wasn't terrified because I knew NH Booking had done

festivals with two stages before, so I was like, yeah, I kind

of get the idea of how they run things like this. Yeah. Yeah,

Richie told me not to be terrified, but I still, you know,

I don't blame you something I do. I don't blame you at all.

Terrified with one stage event coordinating, it's not like being in a band,

you know, it's being in a band is not there's not so much

people pleasing, but that there is an event coordinating. Yeah. I mean,

you got the guests, but you got the bands and all the all

the bands come with their own personalities and their own requirements and if you're coordinating

the event that the thing you really want to have happened is everybody to leave

that night and want to do it again. Exactly. Yeah, that's so

hard to do, you know, exactly. That's a good way of putting

it. Yeah, and when is it for our listeners who who don't know?

So for the tradition where we're continuing to do the first Saturday of November,

so this year it'll be on the second. So I'm going to try

to keep that tradition. But we really want to stay away from the Halloween

shows. Yeah, because you get that that cluster of Halloween shows. Yeah

right, Yeah, that's two type of show steps. It doesn't do is

Halloween shows are Saint Patrick's Day. So we're trying to keep it more closer

to Thanksgiving, you know, Thanksgiving show. Sure on my calendar. On

my calendar it says Swarmy fest Day. I love that. Yeah, I

love it. So. Uh Now who's going to be playing this year?

And are you still adding to it? Yeah? I can't tell. And

and that's that's because this year we're going to do like a band a week,

So it starts next month us and in h booking will probably release a

band a week, so each week heading towards Army Fest, we'll have bands

to learn about. As it goes like that, every band will have their

own flyer, every band will have their own We're gonna try to We're gonna

try to, you know, do really well with the images and the artwork

this year. And so when will that When will that start? When you

when you release the name of I would love I would love it to start

at the beginning of July. But we got this thing called rock Fest coming

up. Oh, tell us about that. So so we we have we

have a second album that we're trying to complete, we're pretty close, and

then we have this you know, building Swarmy Fest, and then we have

rock Fest. So but between these three priority events, it's been it's been

challenging to juggle all of them, no doubt, and and keep it balanced.

And that comes down, Matt. It comes down to money, money

in pre production and planning and in quality, because it's like, if we

have the time to get something done the quality that we predict or expect or

hope or plan it to be right, and then you have like your budget

and like how you're going to be fiscally responsible. I don't know how the

bands do it, but we're a business, so we have to be also

like fiscally responsible liquid and inventory, and so when we have merchandise, we're

a direct to consumer style gift shop, so we depend Some artists depend on

streaming. We depend on hats, t shirts, stickers, meeting people,

streams, broadcasts. So we're a little more touchy phely, I guess well,

in terms of the merch I mean that is where the money is anyway,

really, I mean, you know, for us, it's also where

the discovery is. What do you mean? We're a brand, So that's

that a lot of times people discover us, not through our music map,

people discover us through podcasts, live streams. A lot of times when people

ask how do we get booked for big shows or or how we're getting big

opportunities, it's never the music. It's never the music. It's never my

guitar playing, you know, it's never songwriting. It's it's it's people.

People resonate with the message, People lock into a human wavelength, and and

people vote. You know, used to do politics. People vote for who

they like. You know, it doesn't you know, people don't People don't

vote for who's right or wrong. People vote for who they like. People

want, people want to feel good man, and and so we're in a

hospitality business. We're entertaining people. We're in a business and making people feel

good, you know, keeping people informed. And we're we're a polarizing group,

so people or they don't, but that proves that we have to output.

So we're always we know as a band that our job is constantly looking

for our fans. So that's that's the move. And anytime that you have

quality and you have your budget and you have the time to do it,

you have to sacrifice one. So that that's kind of the road to Swarmy

Fest right now and releasing our next album. A lot of a lot of

our friends that are in bands, they've released eight albums, seven albums.

Sure, me and Melissa didn't record and release any professional music until twenty twenty,

as you know, that was a difficult time for people to do anything.

But we don't have we don't have albums prior to twenty twenty. So

I mean, this is our four this is our fourth year anniversary since releasing

almost eleven we've had a few singles since then, but we don't want to

be a band with a catalog, an enormous catalog. We're great music in

the streaming world. We're great music the people could discover might get lost in

the sauce. Sure, So we're again like quality, timing and resources.

We're not a forever band and we're not made of money. So we want

we want our we want our legacy to speak in terms of quality and care

and craftsmanship, you know, and we want to resonate with the people that

really matter the most it can benefit. So Rockfest has been a tremendous undertaking

because plane tickets are staff. You just I don't know if people understand the

scope of how large these festivals are, you know, thirty fifty thousand people.

We're also the finale band, so we got to we got to be

on the we got to be on the field out you know, for twelve

fourteen hours and then still be able to hang and play our set. We're

playing an hour set. Yeah, we play. Okay, we're going to

be flying out there and we play as soon as Jelly Roll gets off.

Kidding. Yeah, that's a great opportunity in the sense of rock Fest.

It's cool because we're the last metal band or rock band that you're going to

hear for the fest. Like, so as a finale band, we have

a we have a tremendous opportunity. People leave before the headliner a lot of

times so they can beat the traffic, sure, you know, and people

that are there for rock and metal, if they're not there for Stepsister,

they're going to leave before jelly Roll, you know, right, if they're

not fans of country or jelly Roll whatever whatever, that's going to be.

So people that are like traditional hardcore and metal people, we know that if

they stayed that they're staying to watch the set, and we plan I'm putting

on one hell of a show to believe me. Yeah, we've got a

whole new performance planned for this new dance moves. Yeah, we've really taken

our time to upgrade our stage package. So like we've got new gear,

new an your monitors, head brushes, all kinds of stuff. It really

takes It really takes time, like figuring out what the tools are going to

be. The world's changed a lot, so in order to go across country

twenty five years ago, you might have to rent big amplifiers or you know,

to carry on bags and then you know, if you check a bag,

you know, hundreds of dollars to try to check in luggage. And

so luckily our band has been using technology for a while that we don't we

don't bring on big amplifiers anymore. All of our technology you can put in

a bag, right, uh, for the drums. So but we had

to we had you know, we had to drop ship all of our merchandise,

rent drums out there, and it's all it's difficult. You don't want

to go to you don't want to go. I mean a lot of a

lot of bands get the opportunity to play large festivals and in their defense,

not not a lot of people have the team and the budget. That's all

going to come together, Like we all come together and we sit down and

we go, you know, how can we come together and make the most

of this. So like for us, we planned for nine months. Yeah,

you know, because because we're not rich, but we plan for nine

months. That way we can chip away at things and we can work together

as a team. So we go, how are we going to get this

merch table filled? You know, there's a lot of small bands like us

that might have this opportunity and it's great they play, but they have nothing

to leave, but they just they haven't planned how they're gonna Like for us,

I don't want to give all the tricks the trade, but we literally

sit down with think tanks and go, well, how are we going to

make a connection, How are we going to make our live performance different from

the other bands, How are we going to use the twelve hours? What

events? What are we going to do each of us? What are we

going to do to add value to the company. What are we going to

do to get people in front of that stage? What's the priority list?

And we kind of we kind of work our way down and check the boxes

and go what do we set out to achieve with this? Because a lot

of people get a chance to play Swarmy Fest or a big stage or rock

fest and it's fun, right and of course making money is cool and on

all of that, but what do you set out to achieve long term?

And that's that's what's important for us. Maybe that might differ from some other

acts, is we know we're going out there representing New Hampshire, New England,

and not a lot a not a lot of heavy metal and hard rock

bands from New Hampshire ever get this opportunity. Well, what you're talking about

too requires I mean there's a degree of discipline to that, right, all

that planning that that not everyone. There's contracts, there's discipline, there are

rules this, you know, safety and and the thing that a lot of

independent artists don't want to talk about is investment. We invest in ourselves,

not and not just money the time. Yeah, Melissa spoke on it earlier.

I mean, we don't just sit around. In practice, we're rehearsing

for this thing. You know. We take each show in each stage as

a special case. We're looking at blueprints, we're looking at stage plots,

and we're trying to make each each show and each experience unique. Have you

always approached it that way or is that something you kind of had to develop

over time? Meliss So, I would say that was something that we've always

done. We've always tried, we've tried to stage performance. In the early

days, people used to say we were like a it's kind of funny,

it's like a compliment now, but they used to say we sounded like a

like a like a wasps nest, like a shaken up bag of b We

had this great idea, but it was kind of all over the place,

you know, earlier in the scene, we were kind of known for being

zigging and zagging. But we've got such an incredible team in lineup right now.

This is the first time we've worked with musicians in the band that me

and Melissa didn't have to train. Oh interesting. Yeah. So, and

of course, my brother Salvato our pants back on drums. He's a legacy

members. He's the longest member of Sebsant ever. So so we're back with

our original drummer, and we have a a whole new staff and revitalized,

re energized group. And this is the first time we're working with musicians and

instrumentalists and staff members that are familiar with the project and want to be here

and and that are benefiting from the full features of the project. And this

is the first this is the first group of people we've worked with professionally that

I didn't have to train myself. Now, what do you mean when you

say when you say trained like that, like either trained, I mean you

don't mean literally teach someone to play, I mean literally teach people how to

play instruments. Of course, Yeah, that's and that's that's that's not that's

not a knock, you know what I mean. We've had a lot of

people that have been really positive contributors to the project. But in their defense,

this music is really unique and when you listen to it, it sounds

like something everybody should be able to play, and that we designed it like

that. Yeah, we designed the music so so it sounds like it should

be easy to play. Well, some some of those guitar solos you play

do not sound easy to be but instrumentalist. And maybe I'm wrong, but

we've had a lot of people pick up the sticks or try to pick up

a guitar. Let me get it, let me get a shot at that

riff, and then get to work and around it. And and it's one

thing even if you work it out by yourself, but getting five or six

people in the room and everybody doing it together and having it all work out

is really ambitious. So yeah, man, I've had to teach people how

to play instruments, but I've also had to teach them how to play sepsis

because it's not just like playing guitar, it's like playing stepsis. It's a

whole another monster on its own. Yeah, it really is it really is?

Hey, I want to ask you all about streaming. Yeah, you

mentioned it, and and you you've posted a lot I've seen individually and as

a band. You just actually really over the last couple of years, I've

seen lot about I think you did you pull everything from like that you out

on Spotify and all that. So I'm really curious about this. So yeah,

that's you know that, that is a great question, because they're not.

I think you hear that a lot for effect. You hear a lot

of people doing that for good stories. Now we're pulling from Spotify, and

the only reason why we haven't, the only reason why we haven't is because

our first album, we signed a record deal right up. You know we

were oh yeah, I remember you talking about this. So you know,

me and Melissa, we are excited just like any other artists, you know,

and you know, we had A and r's all over us when we

came out with our first music. When we you know, when we hooked

up with Glenn Robinson and our lives started to change. We could hear our

music for the first time. Yeah, we started making and once you hear

your music, you start making it differently. We started writing it now as

much we can hear it, we could organize it and make it differently,

and then we just got a lot of A and r's and record labels,

and it's just like, just like they tell you not to do it,

we did it, you know, just like to just tell you not to

be naive, you know, give yourself time before we we make the music,

us as artists, and then as soon as the music's done, but

waiting for somebody to validate us, right, you know, exactly, waiting

for somebody to off. You know, you put all of your life into

it. You've practiced, you've invested, you went broke, you almost got

evicted, and then as soon as the music's done, as soon as we're

getting out of the studio, we run out and give it away. This

is why Lexi doesn't allow me on the merch table, because I'll get I'll

give because I want people to wear the shirts, I want people to wear

the hats. I want to give it all away because because Meme Molests are

sad artists that love making music. You know, we want to get our

name and we want to be your friend. We want you know, and

we want to do We want to play on stage. Isn't that silly?

But but like but that's you know, so memealss sincez that we're doing this

a lot of time. You know, it's it's sad, but because we

like it and we're having fun, and this is this is really a family

for us. This is really we're really best friends in this band. So

this is our time we can sneak away and be with each other and and

you know, and be human and enjoy and live fully. This is this

is how this is how we live fully, you know, by seeing people

get sober through our music and people to survive with our music, and people

have grown up with our music now. So you know, we signed the

record deal and I people say, you know, you should sign it.

You should talk with a lawyer, you know when you when when you sign

a record deal. And I did, and my lawyer told me, don't

sign a record deal and I and I didn't listen to my like, I

didn't listen to my lawyer, you know. So people tell you to do

these things, and I did these things and I ignored everybody and me and

then and then and then me and Moliss just signed the contract and and then

that was that and we're still to this day. It's funny. We're making

CDs for for rock Fest and I've been fighting with my record label forever.

They can't stand me. But so so you're still you're just to be clear,

you're you're still locked into that. Oh absolutely, really that is yeah,

that is a very real thing. Okay, yeah, Sony orchard Ord

Okay, oh yeah. But but it's not the it's not their fault because

all of these are acquisitional like companies, you know, like like it's like

Sony doesn't sign people, they just acquire companies, right, you know what

I mean? And yes, the music industry is an acquisitional you understand this.

But when I tell my friend this, they think I'm they think I'm

making they think I'm making stuff up. Now, I taught myself there that

they think I'm making stuff up. But so you understand it. No one's

ever looked at me in the last year and said, oh I get that.

Yeah, uh well you just threw me off there. But there's a

lot of uh consolidation, that's the word I was looking for it. And

all the artists and and all the the labels, they're all still even though

we all know it's kind of silly. They're all still counting and playing off

the mystique. Sure, you know the magic and mystique. Everybody goes,

well, how did you get signed? I was just in the right place,

in the right time, and I played the right chord, and Melissa

came out and the wind blew and then you know, a record company scout

happened to walk in offered you a ten album out to l A and right.

No, we were taking we were taking good pictures. We have strong

social media. We got a great producer, h Melissa is a killer host

of the page, and and and and people can see that we're willing to

invest in ourselves. We're in A and R's dream because yeah, because that's

what labels want. Now, you know, they don't want it. They

don't want to do the A and R. They want that already done.

Yep, all set. We're a perfect target. Yep, yep, we're

a perfect tuity. These guys, these guys work hard and and we really

want it. You know, if you if you go and you approach them

kids, eighteen nineteen year old kids, they might change their mind. You

know, they might get a girlfriend, right, stuff like that, right,

you know, folks like us. We're perfect because they go. You

know, these guys know how to pay their bills. These guys are fiscally

responsible. You know, they can play their instruments. We've made mistakes,

but not not, not many of us have made the mistake. And they're

all waiting for that. They're all going to get you. All of all

of our all of our friends and our deepest closest celebrities in contacts in the

industry. It's all happened to them too. We're just the only band that

talks about it. We're the only ones. There's no there's nobody that talks

about it. It's it's a very because it's embarrassing. It's embarrassing to get

taken because because we're counting on the mystique being tough rock stars, we're brilliant.

Nobody can take advantage of us. And you know, we're such experts,

right and and it and it kills artists to go I'm not an expert.

I'm ambitious. I developed my identity when I was a child, and

I and I and I want to be like the guys that I saw on

my wall and on the posters. And that's and it's harder than ever to

do that, right, because in the social media era, it's you know,

whatever mystique you can you know, managed to have, it's harder than

ever to hang on to that. The low is lower and the high is

higher, so the career climb and whatever. You know. We live in

a society now too that like whatever you whatever you're not driven to do,

and whatever you haven't honed the talent for you're you're encouraged to buy it.

Everybody's the DJ, everybody body is a model, everybody's you know, So

we're in we're in that time now where uh, content creation is one of

the fastest growing industries planet on the planet. So that's why I meant it

earlier when I when people say, how did we get to open up for

Jelly Roll at Rockfest by going live on Facebook? Man? How did I

get a record deal by by having great social media and Melissa kicking butt?

You know? Yep? But that I mean that that's how we're It's not

because the guitar, yeah, you know, it's never it's not the music,

but you still need the music. Well, I mean, I mean,

if you're a conduit, I mean, if you if you do everything

else. But what you put out isn't of quality. Of course you're not

gonna be able to keep people. So this is we're We're not a viral

band. You know, we were talking about the career climb. We're along

jet banned. That's what I meant about not having fifteen albums a marathon,

not a sprint. For us. It is for us. It is we

waited our whole lives to be adults. We also make adult music, and

a lot of people are catering to a younger crowd, to kids and child

format entertainment. Me and Melissa are you know, we do the adult thing,

So we make music for adults. Our music is adult themed. Some

kids like our music, but our music is our demograph is for grown people

with bills and boyfriends and girlfriends, relationships. And you know people that my

dad's a big fan. By the way, are you serious? Yeah?

Yeah, But my dad is unique. So my dad, he's in his

seventies, but he's never been He's he's highly unusual in the sense that he

loves hearing new music. He lives on the sea coast, so he listens

to double Oh my Goodness, he listens to w U n H. The

great college wow, because he he's he's he's never been like, you wouldn't

get in a car with my dad and your oldies on the radio. It

wouldn't happen. That's a great station. Yeah, oh yeah, yeah,

I grew up listening to that. Yeah, oh yeah, college radio is

wonderful. But my dad, yeah, he's always been like he's sipper than

me actually, Like he'll ask me about artists that I'm not even familiar with.

I'm like, no, I don't know them. But yeah, he's

always he's always been like that. But but he's a big fan of Sepsis.

See, he's not crazy about the name full disclosure, but he's not

the name that I forget how he said it, it was funny. But

he loves your music. That's awesome. Yeah, yeah, I appreciate that.

And you know I don't I don't hold anybody, but that doesn't hurt

our feelings because I'll tell you now more than ever. You know, as

you as you get older, you know, you start thinking about all the

band names that you that you loved growing you know, growing up. Yeah,

you know I loved you know, Cannibal Corps and yeah, you know

you got butcher babies and now you know, now a middle aged guy,

I'm going you know this is crazy. Yeah, sepsis and butcher babies and

thrat. You know when we mean the name of the band, we didn't

name We didn't really name it after the medical term meaningless that didn't know any

better. You know. We just like, let's name the band something cool.

Yeah, you know, and let's make sure that we can have it

on Google. That was our big thing. Oh yeah, really mean anything?

Yeah? Yeah right. I just thought it sounded dangerous and later on

we found out all the all the things that happen when you grow up.

Yeah. But yeah, so so Spotify, So are you still there or

did you pull So I'm sorry about that. That's such a crazy thing.

So I would, you know, I would love to. I would love

to pull our music off of Spotify and do a massive press release. I

would. I think that would be so much fun. Oh so you haven't

pulled it? Yeah? No, And I and I would like to,

but there would be no reason for us to do it now because our contract

with our record label is so I can only pull down my own music,

and then my record label would give me the finger, you know, and

say, well, you can't pull ours, and I was I was making

a joke because we're wild and rebellious and lawless heavy metal band. I'm always

breaking rules. So you know, I'm not supposed to make the record label

mad, but we know we're going to rock Fest and I'm not supposed to

really go through anybody else, know for direct to consumer products. So I'm

like, I'm gonna back door these dudes. Man, go make my own

CDs. And you know, we went to we went to one of our

partners and we started to generate the CDs and immediately, you know, immediately

we got cont Immediately the paperwork came through and we got copyrighted. Yes,

So I mean this is like yesterday. We're like, oh, they're never

going to see it, like we're moving it around. And that's how that

that's how strong the technology was. Like we got an email with less than

twelve hours of them going your record labels complaining and we're gonna need written permissions

and all that. I said, Man, this man, forget it.

So we got we got we got another year with those with these guys and

then it is one of us. They only thousands of dollars. Really yeah,

of course that you hear that. You've heard that. You know when

you say to you like the bands and the the you know TLC said it,

and oh Bobby Brown said it. You can Flipknot said it. You

can have a multi platinum album and be broke. Absolutely, yes, man,

it's it's not an unusual story. This is a wild thing. No.

They took they took all of our money, man. Yeah. And

then I confronted them and I said, you know, you're stealing my money,

and they said, well, we're going to continue to do it.

Cause if you're if you're if you're already wealthy, you you can hire uh

an accounting firm or a lawyer to do an got it. But but when

you're not already wealthy, they know they've they've got you. And and remember

what I said about acquisitional companies. So what they do, okay, what

record labels do is they acquire a whole bunch of promising, smaller artists and

then they have their boutique or white glove artists. Yeah okay, and and

they sign all of us, not because we're terrible, because we're really good.

You can't really sign terrible people because you need people to go forward through

the process. And the only type of people that are going to go forward

and complete the signing process are driven people like Melissa right right. So they

need people who are willing to commit and that are good because people that don't

believe they're good, people that don't believe they deserve a shot, aren't going

to go and complete the process because the process is hot to get a record

deal. So only driven people that I mean, you find somebody in their

thirties that have been practicing their whole life, They've invested their whole life.

You know, they got great music, they got a great they start asking

themselves, well, why shouldn't I be signed? This type of mentality is

what A and r's look for. And what happens is is they acquire a

whole bunch and then they throw it at the wall to see what sticks right,

but most of them and there's only there's only a limited amount of people

that are allowed to be successful at the top at any given time. So

there's only a limited amount of people at the top that have the success model

that we're all willing to learn from. So what happens is is they acquire

a bunch of smaller, really good artists, and they keep them below aligned.

And the reason why is if they if we're not making enough, all

right, or if they can claim that let's say there's a lot of returns,

or they can claim that, okay, then then they're always counting on

us not making enough to go to court and litigate. They're trying to rip

you off just enough where me and Melissa aren't going to spend ten grand and

fly to Chicago and sit in a crimem right exactly. So I mean,

if we were litigating tens of thousands of dollars, then I can get on.

Then I can get an entertainment lawyer, and we could throw punches.

But if they're doing nickel dime nickel dime exactly, And if you have three

hundred artists on your label and they're only making three hundred dollars a quarter,

but you have three hundred artists acquisitionally each quarter you're pulling in half a million.

But none of the small artists are realizing they're part of this half a

million pool, right right? So like, oh, do you want to

take them to court? Melissa? Oh my no, well this quarter they

only got us for two fifty, Yes, but they got three hundred other

bands for two fifty during that quarter, four quarters in an entertainment season,

and for all that, you're you're at their mercy to the point where a

very common horror story in the music industry is that, you know, you

record an album for them and they decide to shelve it. Yep, you

do all that and you don't have the rights to your masters, and they

just say, no, we've decided we're not going to release it, or

maybe we'll release it in the future. And it's like, and we tested

them on this theory when we came out with the song you already Know.

It wasn't really it was more like a rhetorical that we wanted to test the

company to see what they would do. Really we predicted that we well,

yeah, we started to say, okay, these guys are shelfing us.

Let's throw them another single and see if they ask for money. Yeah,

you know, so we use you already know as a single, and we

set up a booby trap to see how they were to see if we could

confirm that they were shelfing us. Yeah, and they yeah, they and

they one hundred percent, you know, they wouldn't release that they wouldn't release

the single. They didn't want, so they didn't want They only wanted the

song under the condition that we released it after they were done promoting their boutique

artists. Okay, yeah, because obviously it came out. I thought that

they were taking all of our money and pushing this boutique artist. I'm not

going to say the name because I think it would be unfair. I don't

even think they know what's happening. Yeah, yeah, so I think they

were taking, you know, two hundred of us. They were taking our

money acquisitionally, and they were pumping it into this to the to their white

Glove boutique bands. Yeah. They didn't like the timing, so they didn't

so and I saw them doing this, so I said, man, let's

go to the studio, make a song real quick and see how they react

to it. I say, we'll do the best we can on it,

yeah, you know, like sonically, yeah, like we'll bring it up

to radio threshold. Will well, we'll hit notes like let's let's just see

what they say, you know. And and of course when they when they

got the track, they made every excuse for us to go back to the

studio for us. They started playing games and trying to redirect us to the

studio to buy time, you know what I mean. So we played it

with them for a while and just proved it just you know, just proves

that you've got to find the beauty and everything. And if if it wasn't

for this relationship, I would not have been able to run competitive campaigns against

my own record label. Like in in the process, I realized that steps

is acquisitional. So just the same as these guys are doing to other people,

we can learn the same tricks as legacy right holders and shareholders too.

Not everybody. We're not. They're not the only people that can play that

game. So you know, so our time that we've spent with our record

label, you know, we've been making best friends with everybody on this staff.

And you'll learn and you'll learn, So that's good. The other thing

that people don't know about labels is that I think is in seen is they

actually don't mind if they sign if they sign artists and they end up losing

money because maybe they advance you a bunch of money, yeah, and and

and the whatever you record doesn't generate enough money for them to recoup the money.

The advance. They don't care because it's if it's a loss on the

books that's actually helpful to them from an accounting standpoint in terms of taxes.

Yep. It's the same thing that the movie studios do. You know,

every every major movies studio, every year they they they've got at least a

couple of movies that bomb, that end up losing money. They don't mind.

They don't mind at all because that's a tax rite off. So they

don't mind losing some money. No, after every big show, there's always

you know, five or ten T shirts that we don't mind giving out.

Yeah, I mean it's reue Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So what so

you're you're on that label for another year? You said another year? That's

the It's so there will be a Spotify steps the showdown. Yeah, there

will be huge, guaranteed, it'll be huge. But then, so what's

what's the motivation though to pull from Spotify? Why do you want to do

that? Because there's because they're thieves. Yeah, because they hurt people.

Yeah, I don't. I don't. I don't want to hang out with

people that hurt people. Even even major artists complain that, you know,

it's it's pennies for for you and for us. For us, it's it's

not it's not just what they're doing, it's what they're gonna do. What

do you mean? Spotify is not a music company, you know, it's

a stealing company. So if you're into Marcus Aurelius, they're Confucius. They

can't be resurrected to collect royalties. Do you get what I'm saying. Yeah,

that's why the move to audio books, that's why the Spotify will take

whatever whatever it's not nailed down, oh, podcasts, pornography, anything,

religion, anything, pot You got understand, Spotify is in the business of

stealing people's work and ideas and then not paying them for it. That's the

game, right And I know it's it seems obvious, but it really is.

It really is. Tupac can't come back to life and argue about mechanical

royalties. That's true. And so that's why you see your point. That's

why you see spot That's why you see spot cat Spotify moving to podcasts,

that's why you see them moving to towards audio books, because it's not about

music. It's about owning data. It's about farming data. It's about adding

to machine learning, and it's about being able to predict your your shopping habits.

It's not about music. It's about creating bundles that people will sign up

and do subscriptions for. And when you subscribe, they are data mining your

demographics where you and it's the same for Netflix and grub hobby. This is

an app world. This is a technology world, not a music world.

So Spotify is in the tech business, not the music business. Yeah,

and that's why they don't care about musicians. Yeah, they're actually I think

now because we we've talked about it on the show, I think for the

first time, they're starting to cut a lot of people loose, like like

if if like if you don't have like if well, I know, for

one thing, they're not they're no longer paying you if you don't meet a

certain threshold. Yes, in terms of money that you've accrued for streams,

they're just not gonna pay you at all like you have. They're they're establishing

thresholds. But they're also I think they've reached a point where because in theory

anybody could upload music to Spotify, but now they're starting to like artists that

are uploading like demo quality stuff. They're just saying, that's why I said

the lowest, the lowest. Yeah. Yeah, they're starting to kick people

off. Yeah, and and and they're also they're also following the predictable path

of adding tears with high fidelity audio like it's twenty twenty four. I think

that that's weird that Spotify doesn't have high quality audio. But apparently you have

to pay for that too. So you got to understand how ridiculous this sounds.

Right, Like Stepsis is a band and we mix and master at the

highest quality that technology is provided, but when you upload it to Spotify,

they knock it down to low quality music. Can you believe that? So

this is why, this is why we wouldn't want our music on Spotify,

because like bands like Stepsist make high quality music, right, but Spotify charges

our fans to listen to our music at high quality. That doesn't make sense.

Our fans should be able to have the quality of the music that we

created it at. Yeah, now is it? Is it a double edged

sword? Though? If you do pull, if you do pull your music

from Spotify, does that hurt you in some way to not be on Spotify?

Not not us. No, no, we be we our band doesn't

benefit at all from streaming on Spotify. Yeah. Yeah. The big the

big thing that that the big I guess, the big lure to Spotify when

when it's not we all know it's not money. When you talk to when

you talk to even big artists, they'll tell you it's not money. The

thing that they'll tell you about Spotify, the big reason why we're all supposed

to be excited to be on it is for exposure. Stepsis doesn't need that.

Yeah, I mean it's so so. And in order to get exposure

on Spotify, you have to give them more money. Right, you have

to pay for our keys, you have to pay for advertising campaigns, you

have to pay to be on these Discovery. That's payola. We all know

in radio that's illegal. So you're a radio guy. You know in radio

that's illegal, it's a crime. But because it's streaming, it's not a

so we should we should clarify just for people who don't know. So payola

refers to in radio and and back in the day, you know, if

you were a DJ, for example, somebody might might give you an envelope

full of money, right and say, hey, play this song for me,

right basically, I mean, that's that's a little reductive the way I

explained it, but just to give people the idea, and that's that is

illegal. You can't. It is, and I guess I mean there's all

sorts of legal ways to do this as as as anything, but yeah,

that is illegal. Our big mission has always been a big statement, and

part of our brand has always been like fairness, man, and what we've

learned from the record label, and like we weren't really a band with much

of a mission before all of this this stuff we had to work through,

you know. But I can pay for sure that one of our you know,

one of our slogans is you know, fairness, you know, and

being inclusive and mutual. And that's why we do all the podcasts, that's

why we're teaching people all the time. And people are convinced that being on

Spotify is going to get them exposed to someone, but that's not true because

subscribers that subscribe and pay for Spotify, they only listen to under fifty artists

a month. Yeah, so this is not a This is not a device

or a gadget or gizmo. As much as they liked you to believe it's

not one that's invested into discovering artists. That sounds cool in a Facebook post.

That sounds great when you're trying to sell your technology, that sounds great,

you know, But this is this, this idea came from the same

guy that used to work for you know you Torrent and and bit Torrent and

sites that that you know, these these pirate sites, Well, we're in

the business of stealing data and media. So if you Daniel ck is the

CEO of Spotify, and if you know who Daniel Eck is, you got

to start in you torrent and you know you torrn in places like lime wire

or pate or pirate Bay were illegal websites that mastered specialized and we're experts at

stealing data and media in movies and games and music. But that's also why

these services exist. Like I just think about this, like Spotify exists because

of Napster. Yes, yes, and so and and and and when we

talk about this in plain English, it means that we went from stealing and

outright piracy to streaming. We're only one degree, We're only one click and

then and in two decades, we've only moved one degree from stealing. So

when people are like, why why is Spotify a difficult place to be,

It's because we haven't moved the needle, Matt. We're still that close to

stealing. Now, think of in terms of this, you know, we

just had June Juneteenth, right, think think of Think of like we think

if we only move the needle that much in slavery, right, think if

we move the needle only that much in women's rights. It's it's that simple,

like, well, with women's rights, we just moved the needle back.

I hate that. I hate that, But I'm not going to do

it to you. I'm not right, I'm not gonna do it. I

just exploded the other day on that. I'm not gonna do it. But

that's separate. Yeah, we'll do that another time, right, But but

but in the same sense, though, in the same sense, it's like

we haven't. I know, we're supposed to be this advanced, you know,

society, and this is supposed to be you know, the land of

the free and the land of opportunity, and Spotify will tell you that,

you know, that's the big advertisement is that you know that we're going to

get exposed and it's all this opportunity. But if you know anything about Daniel

Eck and where he comes from, he comes from stealing media in music.

And he just said recently that what you say, Zach, that the cost

of music or the cost the cost of content creation was nearly zero. I

can't believe that. I mean, this is this He said this last week

on Twitter. He said the CEO of Spotify said the cost the he seems

to know how much stepsist's budget is, I guess, but he said that

the cost that musicians he doesn't play any instruments. Yeah, this isn't a

guy that's been on stage or sings or anything. But he seems to believe

that the cost of creating music for musicians in the modern day is zero,

is nearly zero. He is out of his mind soenter lately. Yeah.

So, I mean that's so. You know, years ago when they we're

selling us this technology, it was gonna open up opportunity and musicians we're going

to be able to help themselves paid to rent. And we don't have a

musician's minimum wage yet and we're working on it. I think the Musician Minimum

Wage Act is asking for a penny a stream. Well that that's a I'm

not aware of this. Oh you'd love this. This is a bill right

now, Okay, right now, there's a bill and everyone loves it.

It's called the Musician's Minimum Wage Act. Everyone should go look it up,

and everyone should go sign a petition. Everyone. Oh, you got to

get into this. Yeah, this got this, got passed me. I'm

embarrassed to say that, but yeah, I'm not aware. Oh please write

this down maybe, well it's recorded, that's true. Well, if you're

at home and you're listening to this, yeah, yeah, I got to

write this down. If you're a musician, if you're a band, look

up. Yeah, the Musician's Minimum Wage Act. Okay, it's really cool,

interesting, very interesting. It's a cool thing to get by. Yeah.

Yeah, well, I'm glad we were able to get in all that.

I love talking about that stuff. But as we approach the top of

the hour, we should probably circle back to all the exciting things coming up.

And well, we've got a second album coming out called Take the World

by Swarm. Yes, and we've been releasing singles for this over time rather

than you know, just dropping the bomb all at once. Yeah, we've

got a new song coming out soon called The Bath Water, which is going

to be featuring our merch girl Lexis Swarm on Screams. Excellent. We're super

excited for this one. Well, we'll be making a music video for this

as well, so cool, stay tuned for that. Yeah, our new

guitar player, Hot Sauce drops a cool solo on it too. Okay,

yeah, some really different, some really cool. So that'll be on the

new Is that gonna be on the new album? Yes? Yes, And

Romance and Reality will be on the new album as well. Okay. Cool

Awesome rock fest we mentioned earlier July twentieth and kadat Wisconsin and Bravo Fest September

twenty eighth at Charlie Bravo's Connecticut. It would be will also be at Hot

Rods Spotlight Lounge in Connecticut, also on August thirty first. Okay, so

that one's in Middletown. We've got a couple things. We've got a couple

of things going on. Yeah, yeah, you're you're not a band that

plays like tons and tons of shows and oversaturates, which I which I respect.

We try not to do that because some some bands do. I Back

in the day, I used to play in bands that would do that.

You know people people won't. Well, you know what that the issue is

that you keep telling the same people to come to the show. Yeah,

and then you know it loses its sauce. Oh yeah, I want to

give people a break. Like I don't regret it because there was a time

when all I wanted to do was play. It's also a different time.

People had time to pray back then, Like people prayed, people went to

church, people did push ups, people played video games all weekend. People

made love, people went out to dance. People don't have time for that

anymore. You got to look at your algorithm and then go boost. You

got to boost your chart, compete with somebody, right right, Yeah,

that that's true. That's true. And then Swarmy Fest in November. Oh

yeah, remember I would be honored. I would love if you guys would

come and be a part of that this year. Everyone's excited to have you

guys. Yeah, we're excited. We're very excited to keep me away.

Yes, yes, and of course I didn't know you had a microphone over

there. Huh. That's awesome. And yeah, so we're gonna have eleven

bands. Everything we do is eleven eleven songs. On every album eleven bands?

Why is that? Does that number have significance? It does. So

we have the album Almost eleven, which was released in twenty twenty, yeah,

through Pavement, and we named it that because the band constantly sees the

number eleven eleven ones over and over and over again. It's like numerology.

Yeah, I've heard, I've heard that eleven eleven specifically has some significance.

Yeah, they're like and they're like, they like they call them like angel

numbers. We're not like, we're not like religious people or nothing like that,

but that's just what they call them. Yeah. Yeah, no,

that's cool, that's cool lore tradition. But the whole band see is the

numbers. Yeah, it's very bizarre and yeah, so we're excited about Swarmy

Fast and obviously we'll have more information about that soon. Yep. Your friends

are going to be there though, they're coming back this year, Legion them

and they're coming yeah, and so they'll they'll be coming to hang out with

us. They'll be there all day Saturday. And our friends from New Hampshire

Guitars yes to be coming down to I'd love to get them down here with

you guys. They are such a fantastic bunch when I get when I plug

the Swarmy Fest, man, they are a great bunch to have done.

I mean there's there's a whole group of these guys and they're they're great players,

and they are just so New England and so New Hampshire. They belong

here. Yeah, I could already feel it. But they got a really

cool thing going on in Windom. It's the only place I get my guitars

tech at kidding before any big shows that I have, you know, anytime

we need like unique gear fixes, uh, stuff that nobody else would touch.

New Hampshire Guitars Man, they do the thing. Yeah, they so

we play on these things called head rushes. They're like computers and you know

if you call Guitar Center, they wouldn't touch it. Really Yeah, New

Hampshire Guitars had it fixed within a week. Oh cool, all right,

But I mean guitar setups, bass setups, they got lessons down there.

Yeah, I mean, I'll plug to death because it's because they're they're really

good. Yeah. We met them at the at the first Swarmy Fest,

a booth in the back. Yeah yeah, yeah, they seem like really

good guys. Yeah, absolutely, And what should people know about how to

find stepsus onlinehere's the best place to go and keep up with the dot com

and we should spell it. It's S E P S I S S right.

I don't know if there is there is there an actual like one s

dot com that might confuse people. I don't know now that you said that.

The rank Jenny is gonna look, yeah it has has anyone ever s

I s? Dot org? Dot com points to a dot org and yeah,

it's basically teaching people about the medical I hope we don't I hope we

don't confuse people. Yeah, yeah, has has anyone ever misspelled your name

on a flyer all the time? But yeah, but there's like, I

mean, there's like forty bands named after the disease. I mean yeah,

we follow all of them. Website is looking awesome, thank you. Yeah,

that's that's Melissa's work there. I can't take any credit. It looks

great. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. There's a lot of content

there and really good, really good stuff. All right, So we are

approaching the top of the hour. We've got John MacArthur coming up. But

I'm gonna end. I'm gonna be a little bit selfish. I'm gonna end

with my favorite Sepsist song, and my dad loves this song too, by

the way, this is the one that I think got his attention. Eyes

of Empathy. Whoa wow wow love this song. We haven't played it in

a while, but I never get tired of it. It's so so good.

So we will end with this. But thank you, all three of

you. I really appreciate your coming in today. Thank you so much for

having always always wonderful to see you. And here it is. This is

Sepsis, Eyes of Empathy, Strangers in the Holidays, Three school Dreamses,

Swimming and night Seem and Green, Scarl and press its present, swing n

and scree strees and hill I'm just st then some last all the grand Oh

my love Bill to cover do Sorry he's come on the news in the same

But I cannot free rush swear the breaking falling because

Game Plan