Matt Connarton Unleashed 7-11-26 hour 3

0:00 Speaker 1: Hey, hey, mister, won't you tell me your name? I

0:06 Speaker 1: have nothing and I'll give you the same.

0:12 Speaker 2: Hey, hey, mister, won't you.

0:15 Speaker 3: Tell me your name?

0:18 Speaker 1: I am no one and I expect the same.

0:22 Speaker 4: You're not alone.

0:25 Speaker 3: You're not alone. You're not alone.

0:31 Speaker 2: In the siege you.

0:33 Speaker 4: So you're not alone. You're not alone. You're not alone

0:43 Speaker 4: in the siege you.

0:44 Speaker 1: So, Hey, hey, sister, why are you looking away? I

0:54 Speaker 1: have nothing and I'll give you the same. Hey, hey, sister,

1:02 Speaker 1: why are you walking away? I am no one and

1:08 Speaker 1: I a mac the same.

1:10 Speaker 5: You're not alone.

1:13 Speaker 3: You're not alone.

1:16 Speaker 1: You're not alone in licen you.

1:20 Speaker 5: So you're not alone.

1:25 Speaker 1: You're not alone.

1:28 Speaker 3: Your mod lo.

1:31 Speaker 6: Is the s so.

1:36 Speaker 4: Hate to be bund.

1:39 Speaker 7: Haye to me, come.

1:42 Speaker 1: Hay to be the one to tell you what you call?

1:48 Speaker 6: Hey to me, w.

1:51 Speaker 1: Hey to me?

1:52 Speaker 7: Come pay to be the one to.

1:57 Speaker 4: Tell you what time?

2:48 Speaker 3: He tell me?

2:49 Speaker 4: Come he tell me, come.

2:54 Speaker 3: He to me.

2:55 Speaker 7: I don't want to tell you what to call? Hey

3:00 Speaker 7: to me, bow, pay to me, cold, pay to me.

3:07 Speaker 7: Don't want to tell you what you know?

3:12 Speaker 1: Hey, hey, mister, won't you tell me your name? I

3:18 Speaker 1: have nothing and I'll give you the same. Hey, Ray, mister,

3:26 Speaker 1: won't you tell me your name? I am no mo

3:32 Speaker 1: and I have had the same You're not lost, you're

3:38 Speaker 1: not lost, You're not a lord, mister.

3:44 Speaker 3: S so.

3:46 Speaker 4: You're not love, You're not alone, You're not love.

3:55 Speaker 1: And look me so, hey, mister, won't you tell me

4:03 Speaker 1: your name?

4:07 Speaker 2: I really like that a lot. The band is called I,

4:10 Speaker 2: the track is nothing, and let's see who we've got

4:13 Speaker 2: on the line from the band, Let's see al Are

4:15 Speaker 2: you there?

4:17 Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm here.

4:17 Speaker 2: Hey, welcome? And do you have anyone else with you?

4:20 Speaker 2: Or is it just you?

4:22 Speaker 3: No, it's just me today and no one else wanted

4:23 Speaker 3: to get up.

4:24 Speaker 2: I got you. Yeah, it's early there, right because you're

4:26 Speaker 2: on the West coast.

4:28 Speaker 3: Yes, yes, it's eight o'clock over here.

4:30 Speaker 2: That is understandable. Yeah. I don't want to get up

4:32 Speaker 2: at eight o'clock either, but I totally get it. I

4:35 Speaker 2: totally get it.

4:36 Speaker 3: I'm the only one. I'm the only one who's used

4:38 Speaker 3: to getting up early. So I just I got this one.

4:40 Speaker 2: I got you. Yeah. Well, I'm glad you're with us.

4:42 Speaker 2: I really like that song a lot, and and absolutely

4:46 Speaker 2: I have questions about it too, because obviously, as you're

4:49 Speaker 2: listening to it, you know, even if someone doesn't know

4:50 Speaker 2: anything about the background of the song and what inspired

4:54 Speaker 2: it and and all of that, it's it's obvious that

4:57 Speaker 2: there's there's a message there. And I wanted to ask

5:01 Speaker 2: you about that first and kind of start there because

5:04 Speaker 2: I think it's an important song and I think that,

5:06 Speaker 2: you know, you can reach people through music in ways

5:09 Speaker 2: that you can't reach them from just trying to explain

5:13 Speaker 2: to someone, for example, why they should care about something,

5:17 Speaker 2: what's going on that they should be concerned with. But

5:20 Speaker 2: you can reach people through a song like that. So

5:23 Speaker 2: can you kind of talk to us about that, about

5:24 Speaker 2: what the song is about and what inspired you to

5:26 Speaker 2: write it?

5:28 Speaker 3: Sure? What inspired me was kind of a funny story.

5:32 Speaker 3: I was walking out of the ninety ninth cent store.

5:35 Speaker 3: We have those. I'm not sure if you have them

5:37 Speaker 3: where you're at. They're just basically like discount stores.

5:39 Speaker 2: Oh yeah, we have them too.

5:41 Speaker 3: Yeah, Okay, I was walking out of one and a

5:43 Speaker 3: guy came up to me and asked me for spare change, and,

5:48 Speaker 3: trying to be funny, I said, dude, I just walked

5:51 Speaker 3: out of the nine nineth cent store. What makes you

5:53 Speaker 3: think I have any change?

5:56 Speaker 2: Yeah?

5:56 Speaker 3: And you know, we both kind of had to laugh

5:58 Speaker 3: about it, and I just told them, man, you're fishing

6:00 Speaker 3: in the wrong pond. You need to go to like

6:03 Speaker 3: a legit supermarket, maybe you know, you have better luck.

6:07 Speaker 3: And that kind of got me thinking how someone's asking

6:13 Speaker 3: for change at a nine nine cent story which really

6:15 Speaker 3: shows you like you know, and then myself, you know,

6:20 Speaker 3: getting groceries there. I honestly didn't have any change for him.

6:23 Speaker 3: So it just remember realized how close we all are

6:26 Speaker 3: to just being in each other's position, so to say.

6:29 Speaker 3: And so, you know, that's what kind of got me

6:33 Speaker 3: thinking about it. Writing the lyrics and the line I

6:37 Speaker 3: have nothing and I'll give you the same, that was

6:39 Speaker 3: literally what happened. And so that that started it. And

6:45 Speaker 3: I wrote the lyrics first. You know, just I'm not

6:48 Speaker 3: a good storyteller. I wish I was. I wish I

6:51 Speaker 3: could just like make up a story about you know

6:54 Speaker 3: whatever and then turn it into a great song. I'm not,

6:58 Speaker 3: so I tend to write about experience or things that

7:01 Speaker 3: you know, fears or things I've been through or whatever.

7:04 Speaker 3: So that was this is exactly what nothing is. And

7:08 Speaker 3: we in LA there's a big homeless issue. Yeah, a

7:12 Speaker 3: lot of and you see a lot of it is

7:15 Speaker 3: mental illness issues, a lot of it is just can't

7:18 Speaker 3: afford to, you know, to live in a house. It's

7:21 Speaker 3: either you know, some people have jobs, but they can't

7:23 Speaker 3: afford to rent, so they live in their cars. You know.

7:26 Speaker 3: So that's what's pretty much of those songs about and

7:29 Speaker 3: how it's it's really shocking when you really think about it,

7:32 Speaker 3: you put yourself in their shoes, and how quickly the

7:35 Speaker 3: roles could be reversed.

7:36 Speaker 2: Absolutely, it's it's interesting that you put it that way

7:40 Speaker 2: because I was having a conversation with someone very recently

7:44 Speaker 2: in fact, about how, you know, I look at my

7:46 Speaker 2: own life and you know, I'm an entrepreneur and I've

7:49 Speaker 2: taken a lot of risks, and it's actually shocking to

7:51 Speaker 2: me when I think back of how many times I've

7:54 Speaker 2: been on the edge, like really on the edge of

7:57 Speaker 2: maybe ending up homeless or ending up not not knowing

8:00 Speaker 2: how I was going to eat. And you're right when

8:04 Speaker 2: you say that, you know, people take for granted. It's

8:07 Speaker 2: very easy to take for granted if you know, if

8:08 Speaker 2: you've had a relatively smooth ride, shall we say, right

8:13 Speaker 2: that that everything's always that is always going to be

8:15 Speaker 2: that way. But but so many people in this country

8:19 Speaker 2: are are closer to the edge than maybe they even

8:22 Speaker 2: want to realize.

8:23 Speaker 3: You know.

8:23 Speaker 2: They always say don't look down because it'll scare you, right,

8:27 Speaker 2: but but you know they talk about how most people

8:30 Speaker 2: don't have enough money to handle an expensive emergency. You know,

8:33 Speaker 2: it's we're all closer to that then than I think

8:36 Speaker 2: a lot of not all of us, but a lot

8:38 Speaker 2: of us are closer to that then than people realize

8:40 Speaker 2: or want to think about.

8:42 Speaker 3: Right. I think someone heard someone say once you're or

8:45 Speaker 3: like one or two paychecks away from being homeless at

8:47 Speaker 3: all times?

8:48 Speaker 2: Oh yeah, oh yeah.

8:49 Speaker 3: A lot of us, you know, a lot of us

8:50 Speaker 3: don't have you know, the big savings or the investments.

8:55 Speaker 3: You know, a lot of us don't live that way,

8:57 Speaker 3: you know.

8:57 Speaker 2: Right.

8:57 Speaker 3: So it's like you said, it's a fine line sometimes.

9:01 Speaker 2: Yeah, And where you are, that area certainly is known

9:04 Speaker 2: for that. I think. I think all the major cities

9:07 Speaker 2: in California really are known for having a terrible homeless problem.

9:10 Speaker 2: And it's it's but it's it's terrible everywhere. Absolutely. But

9:14 Speaker 2: I also think too, what's very relatable about the song

9:17 Speaker 2: is I think everyone has experienced that too, where you

9:20 Speaker 2: know you're you're not in that position, but you're not

9:23 Speaker 2: exactly you know, thriving either, And maybe you're walking yeah,

9:27 Speaker 2: you know, maybe you're walking out of the dollar store,

9:29 Speaker 2: you know, or any kind of store, and somebody's asking

9:32 Speaker 2: you for change and you're like, nah, things are tough

9:34 Speaker 2: all over, man, I don't I don't have anything to

9:36 Speaker 2: give you. I'm you know, I'm barely making it, you know.

9:39 Speaker 3: Right right.

9:40 Speaker 2: I think that's very relatable. What's the response been to

9:43 Speaker 2: the song? Like, like, do people do people kind of

9:46 Speaker 2: hone in on the message? Do they get the message

9:47 Speaker 2: when they listen to it?

9:50 Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, it's fifty to fifty. Some people just

9:52 Speaker 3: like the groove of it, you know. Some people just

9:55 Speaker 3: like it because it says like that kind of like

9:58 Speaker 3: heavy guitar kind of metal thing to it, you know,

10:02 Speaker 3: So it really depends. Then we have some people who

10:03 Speaker 3: actually have come up to us after gigs and said like, oh,

10:07 Speaker 3: you know, and they tell us their story. Oh that

10:09 Speaker 3: was me once the first time we played it. I

10:13 Speaker 3: try to be clever and I got like a I

10:16 Speaker 3: found a pizza box outside and I cut the pizza

10:18 Speaker 3: box and I wrote you know, we'll work for food,

10:21 Speaker 3: you know, just you know, And I stood there holding it,

10:23 Speaker 3: trying to be you know a little a little dramatic

10:24 Speaker 3: during the gig, Sure, and I just threw it. I

10:26 Speaker 3: just threw it away up. I just chucked it, you know.

10:28 Speaker 3: And after the show, some guy came up with it

10:31 Speaker 3: and said like, I'm gonna hold this because that song

10:33 Speaker 3: really spoke to me. I'm going to keep this. Could

10:35 Speaker 3: you guys sign it? And it was so strange. We're

10:38 Speaker 3: just like, yeah, sure, and you know, and he told

10:40 Speaker 3: us similar story. I was homeless and I was addicted

10:43 Speaker 3: and I held these signs in the corner. I just

10:45 Speaker 3: happened to be here with friends. So they didn't even

10:49 Speaker 3: come to see us. They were just happened to be there.

10:50 Speaker 3: And so it's it's mixed. You know, people like it

10:54 Speaker 3: for different reasons. But there are some people who actually

10:57 Speaker 3: do listen to the lyrics and other people just like

10:59 Speaker 3: to shake their ass and listen to a groove.

11:02 Speaker 2: Sure. Sure, I also like, you know, the kind of

11:06 Speaker 2: the empathy behind it, because that's that's something that I

11:09 Speaker 2: think lacks is lacking for a lot of people. When

11:11 Speaker 2: they again, you know, if you've always had a smooth

11:13 Speaker 2: ride and you don't know any better. You might not

11:15 Speaker 2: know that there could be a cliff somewhere. You know,

11:18 Speaker 2: a lot of people they like to look down on

11:20 Speaker 2: homeless people or unhoused I guess is the term that

11:23 Speaker 2: we use now, and it's you know, something that a

11:27 Speaker 2: lot of people don't realize is there's a large I

11:30 Speaker 2: don't know the numbers offhand, but there's estimated to be

11:33 Speaker 2: a large percentage of homeless people who are actually veterans,

11:35 Speaker 2: who are people who are not not to get political

11:37 Speaker 2: with it, but it is worth pointing out people who

11:40 Speaker 2: are let down by this country and are terribly broken

11:44 Speaker 2: system in terms of taking care of our veterans who

11:46 Speaker 2: have fallen through the cracks. And so, you know, I

11:49 Speaker 2: always tell people because there are people of a certain

11:51 Speaker 2: political persuasion who tend to be the ones who are

11:54 Speaker 2: most likely to go out of their way to disparage

11:57 Speaker 2: homeless people or unhoused people. And I always like to

11:59 Speaker 2: point out, you know, when you do that, you might

12:01 Speaker 2: be treating a veteran that way. You know, So you know,

12:04 Speaker 2: the people who like to.

12:05 Speaker 3: You're able to make the money you're making is because

12:07 Speaker 3: they put their life on the line at one point or.

12:09 Speaker 2: Another exactly exactly one hundred percent, and you know, and

12:13 Speaker 2: we just let them, We just let them fall through

12:15 Speaker 2: the cracks. We should mention the video too, right, there's

12:17 Speaker 2: a music video for nothing.

12:20 Speaker 3: Yes, that's how it kind of got Originally we released

12:23 Speaker 3: that song before we signed with Soday Records, we just

12:26 Speaker 3: kind of released our own songs. Yeah, so we had

12:29 Speaker 3: like an EP of four songs that we released on

12:32 Speaker 3: our own, and that was one of the songs. So

12:36 Speaker 3: what we decided to do is we started releasing songs

12:39 Speaker 3: under sody so they give it to push the songs deserve.

12:42 Speaker 3: So we can't re release the songs as singles again

12:45 Speaker 3: because we're already put out there, but we were able

12:47 Speaker 3: to put them out as videos, so it kind of

12:49 Speaker 3: refreshes the song and then gives the label an opportunity

12:52 Speaker 3: to push the song as you know, as a video

12:56 Speaker 3: and the song itself and not just a single. So

12:58 Speaker 3: that's our little, a little loop hope we've found to

13:00 Speaker 3: be able to push songs were recorded earlier.

13:03 Speaker 2: That's a great strategy. How long ago was nothing actually recorded? Originally?

13:10 Speaker 3: About three maybe four years ago?

13:12 Speaker 2: Oh okay, okay, it's got you know, the sound though

13:15 Speaker 2: in the vibe of it are pretty timeless. It's not

13:18 Speaker 2: like you know what I mean, which is which is good.

13:22 Speaker 2: It's got kind of a I feel I feel like

13:24 Speaker 2: it's got kind of a grunge vibe to it. In

13:27 Speaker 2: terms of the production. I don't know if that's what

13:28 Speaker 2: you were going for, but that's that's sort of what

13:30 Speaker 2: I hear when I listen to it.

13:32 Speaker 3: Yeah, we get that a lot. And it's funny. Paul

13:35 Speaker 3: the guitarist, the guy who we got the band together,

13:38 Speaker 3: he likes to embrace that grunge sound. And me coming

13:42 Speaker 3: up in that time, I hated that word grunge because

13:45 Speaker 3: I figured, like, it's just it's just rock man, It's

13:47 Speaker 3: just it's that's a U labeled someone put on it

13:50 Speaker 3: to sell, to sell flannels, you know. But but it's

13:55 Speaker 3: funny when we we we were asked about it. The

13:59 Speaker 3: way I explain it is we're not kids, we're older,

14:03 Speaker 3: you know. So we grew up in the nineties listening

14:07 Speaker 3: to take it back, we grew up as kids listening

14:09 Speaker 3: to the same bands that the guys did in the nineties.

14:12 Speaker 3: So we grew up with the Sabbath and you know,

14:16 Speaker 3: Zeppelin and Deep Purple and you know bands the Pixies,

14:20 Speaker 3: the bands like that from the seventies, So that's what

14:24 Speaker 3: influenced us to write our music. It just so happened

14:27 Speaker 3: that the guys from Seattle also heard those bands, so

14:31 Speaker 3: therefore our sound is similar. But we never like said, oh,

14:33 Speaker 3: we need to sound like Allison Chains and when you

14:36 Speaker 3: sound like Sound Garden. We always wanted to sound like

14:38 Speaker 3: Black Sabbath. Oh, we wanted to sound like Lloyd So

14:41 Speaker 3: we kind of have the same influences. So yeah, our

14:44 Speaker 3: music would have been you know, if we would have

14:46 Speaker 3: been out there more in the nineties, our music would

14:51 Speaker 3: have fit in perfectly. But yeah, but it's not on purpose,

14:53 Speaker 3: like let's be gruns. Just we just want to be

14:55 Speaker 3: Black Sabbath and Kings. That's all we want to be.

14:57 Speaker 3: And because it just kind of lands that way, Kings.

15:00 Speaker 2: Yes, yes, and I can hear that, and that it

15:03 Speaker 2: didn't occur to me until you said it, but I

15:06 Speaker 2: can hear that. I love King Zax, as you might

15:08 Speaker 2: be able to tell from my reaction. And I'm a

15:11 Speaker 2: bass player, so Doug Pinnock is one of my heroes.

15:15 Speaker 3: We just we just supported them at the Whiskey a

15:17 Speaker 3: couple of weeks ago. Oh my god, really, yeah, yeah,

15:20 Speaker 3: it was great. We've been trying to get on that

15:21 Speaker 3: gig for years every time they come to town, and this

15:24 Speaker 3: time we found the right promoter. We we cooked us

15:27 Speaker 3: up and we're able to to support them at the Whiskey.

15:30 Speaker 3: It was it was one of those they say not

15:33 Speaker 3: to meet your heroes, but yeah, that's wrong. We got

15:35 Speaker 3: to meet the guys and they were great and they

15:37 Speaker 3: were cool to us, and it was cool to play

15:39 Speaker 3: with the Kings X fans. Yeah that we know, like, okay,

15:42 Speaker 3: they're they're they're probably gonna appreciate what we're doing. And

15:45 Speaker 3: we had a great rapport with them, and you know,

15:48 Speaker 3: we you know, we sold merch and CDs and you know,

15:51 Speaker 3: we got a bunch of new fans out of it

15:54 Speaker 3: because you know, they listen, they love Kings X as

15:58 Speaker 3: much as we do. And make sure, you know, King

15:59 Speaker 3: Zach should have been huge. They should have been like

16:02 Speaker 3: the biggest band in the world. Because it wasn't for them,

16:05 Speaker 3: a lot of this ninety stuff wouldn't exist, you know, agreed,

16:09 Speaker 3: But so when they play a club, everyone there is

16:12 Speaker 3: a hardcore King Zax fan so it was like it

16:16 Speaker 3: was one of our like we gotta get on that gig. So, yeah,

16:19 Speaker 3: we only agree on two bands when we got together.

16:22 Speaker 3: You know, you know, you do the whole who are

16:23 Speaker 3: you influenced? When I first met Paul, Yeah, we only

16:25 Speaker 3: agreed on two bands, King z X and Black Sabbath

16:28 Speaker 3: No Kill, you know. Yeah, so that's that's the way

16:31 Speaker 3: it worked out for us.

16:32 Speaker 2: Those are those are great choice of Sabbath is also

16:34 Speaker 2: one of my favorites. But yeah, I met King Zax

16:37 Speaker 2: a long time ago. Well she's like literally decades and

16:42 Speaker 2: I got to interview Doug Pinnock. I think he might

16:45 Speaker 2: have been the first musician I ever actually sat down

16:48 Speaker 2: and interviewed now that I'm thinking about it, and uh,

16:51 Speaker 2: what an amazing guy. I mean, just so so gracious.

16:54 Speaker 2: I wasn't the only one there participating in the interview,

16:57 Speaker 2: but he gave us a lot of time and and

16:59 Speaker 2: uh yeah it was it was just just really incredible.

17:05 Speaker 2: But yeah, but I but I can hear all that

17:07 Speaker 2: in that's in that song that you know, King Zax

17:09 Speaker 2: and Sabbath, you know, with the guitar tone and everything

17:12 Speaker 2: just just just really really good. It's funny too, because

17:14 Speaker 2: you know, you don't like the term grunge, and I

17:17 Speaker 2: totally get it. I I I reflect back now on

17:21 Speaker 2: that time, and it's like grunge kind of became the

17:23 Speaker 2: catch all term for you know, anything that came out

17:26 Speaker 2: of Seattle. And if you you know, if you think

17:28 Speaker 2: about the bands that were big at that time that

17:29 Speaker 2: got labeled as grunge, they all sound very different like

17:32 Speaker 2: Alison Chains doesn't sound anything like Pearl Jam, which doesn't

17:36 Speaker 2: sound anything like Nirvana, you know, and all these bands

17:39 Speaker 2: got put in this box.

17:41 Speaker 3: Uh right, That's always my argument. But you know, it's

17:44 Speaker 3: like it's always our argument. I lose because you know,

17:46 Speaker 3: it's it just it grunge is a thing now like

17:49 Speaker 3: new wave or you know, like hair metal. It just

17:53 Speaker 3: kind of became a thing and it's a it's a

17:55 Speaker 3: real term now, you know. But I did my best

17:57 Speaker 3: to fight it off, but I guess I lost.

17:59 Speaker 2: That It's huge right now in the UK. We have

18:02 Speaker 2: a lot of guests from the UK and apparently grunge

18:05 Speaker 2: is very much the big thing over there right now.

18:09 Speaker 2: Oh really, Well, yeah, surprised me. Surprised me, but but

18:13 Speaker 2: but yeah, absolutely, now, So tell me about the history

18:16 Speaker 2: of the band because I did I originally form in

18:20 Speaker 2: the nineties. Am I understanding that correctly?

18:23 Speaker 3: Yeah? Yeah, we were kids. Paul and I first started

18:26 Speaker 3: out in the nineties. We had a short run just

18:28 Speaker 3: doing like local There was a small scene in East

18:30 Speaker 3: La Montabello area and we played there for a few

18:33 Speaker 3: years with two other different bass player and drummer, and

18:38 Speaker 3: we you know, we did our run and you know, nothing,

18:41 Speaker 3: nothing happened for us, and then eventually we just kind

18:44 Speaker 3: of like you know, went our ways. I got married,

18:47 Speaker 3: had kids, just you know, Paul, he's always been a musician.

18:52 Speaker 3: Like right now, he's in Chicago. Uh, he plays bass

18:56 Speaker 3: for Vinnieppissi. Oh wow, his Sabbath band. So he tours

18:59 Speaker 3: with with Vinny Nice as a bass player, but he's

19:02 Speaker 3: actually guitarist. But like you know, bass player gigs are

19:05 Speaker 3: waysier to get the guitarist gigs. Oh.

19:07 Speaker 2: Absolutely.

19:08 Speaker 3: So he's always been a musician. He's always played covers

19:11 Speaker 3: and tribute bands his whole life's And then I would

19:15 Speaker 3: say a good fifteen years past and then we just

19:19 Speaker 3: kind of run into each other again and we just

19:22 Speaker 3: started talking and we said, like, let's let's start writing again.

19:25 Speaker 3: You know, there's no expectation. That's just right, just to

19:27 Speaker 3: you know, do something. You know, I just want I

19:30 Speaker 3: just wanted to reconnect with him, and I knew that's

19:32 Speaker 3: pretty much the only way we're going to reconnect.

19:34 Speaker 6: And then.

19:36 Speaker 3: Yeah, so we started putting music out and we got

19:38 Speaker 3: contacted by Sam from Sodey who was interested in signing us.

19:42 Speaker 3: Which is funny because when you're a kid, that's all

19:45 Speaker 3: you want to do, right, you just want to get signed,

19:47 Speaker 3: and you know you're thinking about like back in the days,

19:49 Speaker 3: you get signed, you get a bonus, you get the road,

19:52 Speaker 3: and you know it's different. Now, we weren't even looking

19:54 Speaker 3: for that. It just kind of happened. We're just like

19:56 Speaker 3: very grateful, like, oh cool, he wants to sign us

19:59 Speaker 3: and put on his label and distribute to us. So

20:03 Speaker 3: it kind of happened backwards for us, but we're very grateful.

20:05 Speaker 3: So yeah, we started early and then took a break

20:08 Speaker 3: and started up again. Yeah.

20:09 Speaker 2: I always laugh about the miss misconceptions and misperceptions people

20:13 Speaker 2: have about how I don't think this is largely the

20:16 Speaker 2: case anymore, but there certainly was a time when people

20:18 Speaker 2: assumed that, you know, if you got signed, it meant

20:21 Speaker 2: that you were. Now you were flying on a private

20:23 Speaker 2: jet out to LA and hanging out with supermodels and

20:27 Speaker 2: staying at the Playboy mansion and now and driving a

20:30 Speaker 2: Lamborghini and all that.

20:32 Speaker 3: And it's not the eighties and Motley Crue anymore, right, right, And.

20:37 Speaker 2: And let's be honest, it wasn't even that way for

20:39 Speaker 2: Motley Crue until they started to really sell some records

20:42 Speaker 2: and sell some tickets. You know, it's not it's not

20:45 Speaker 2: you know, people think, oh, you know, you get signed

20:46 Speaker 2: and you're suddenly rich. It's like no, and you have

20:49 Speaker 2: to explain things like recruitment and all of this. It's, uh,

20:53 Speaker 2: the economics of it are much tougher than people realize.

20:56 Speaker 3: You have. There's still a lot of work to do. Absolutely,

20:58 Speaker 3: you signing that that contract?

21:00 Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely. Now, So when when you guys kind of

21:03 Speaker 2: put the project away the first time, was it was

21:07 Speaker 2: it always kind of in the back of your mind

21:09 Speaker 2: that you might revisit it someday or or at the time,

21:12 Speaker 2: did you feel like, I'm done with this, moving on

21:15 Speaker 2: getting married, focusing on that.

21:18 Speaker 3: You know, I can't speak for Paula. For myself, yes,

21:21 Speaker 3: not just specifically this band, but just being creative. See

21:25 Speaker 3: I have bipolar disorder. Okay, I didn't know until I

21:28 Speaker 3: was you know, almost thirty. So being able to be

21:33 Speaker 3: creative and to be able to like, you know, just

21:36 Speaker 3: purge whatever's in my brain and put into into music

21:39 Speaker 3: or just you know, writing it down poetry or just

21:42 Speaker 3: journaling has always helped me. And I left that thinking, Okay,

21:47 Speaker 3: that's the past. Now I'm just gonna you know, you know,

21:50 Speaker 3: be married and raise kids and you know, have you know,

21:53 Speaker 3: not be a musician anymore. But it bit me in

21:55 Speaker 3: the ass because it just it that creativity was wasn't

21:59 Speaker 3: there purposely, I purposely put it away, and it just

22:03 Speaker 3: it really just didn't work with me. It kind of

22:06 Speaker 3: and it made me a monster at times. So so yeah,

22:10 Speaker 3: I did think about it and I did miss it,

22:12 Speaker 3: but I really didn't realize that was the key to

22:14 Speaker 3: my sanity. Yeah, because that makes any sense. So yeah,

22:17 Speaker 3: so soon as they has the opportunity, like during that time,

22:20 Speaker 3: I did like a couple of cover projects, like, Hey,

22:22 Speaker 3: we're gonna do a party, you want to play some

22:24 Speaker 3: cover songs? Stuff like that, And that's when I realized, like, okay,

22:26 Speaker 3: you know, I still I still I missed this, I

22:28 Speaker 3: missed the rehearsals and the guys and the songs and yeah,

22:32 Speaker 3: so yeah, for myself, yeah, it was always in the

22:34 Speaker 3: back of my head. I just didn't realize how much

22:36 Speaker 3: I needed it until you know, all hell broke loose

22:39 Speaker 3: R I realized there's something missing in my life and

22:41 Speaker 3: that was it.

22:42 Speaker 2: Well, especially too, where you're someone who and again you know,

22:46 Speaker 2: we talked about the song nothing You're you're someone who

22:48 Speaker 2: clearly has something to say that you need to express.

22:51 Speaker 2: So I can see where it makes sense to me

22:54 Speaker 2: how you explain that, how you realize that that was

22:57 Speaker 2: missing from your life and you needed to get that back.

23:02 Speaker 2: So what's the with the current lineup of the band?

23:04 Speaker 2: Is it? Is it the same? Is it the same

23:06 Speaker 2: four of you or.

23:08 Speaker 3: No, No, it's just Paul and I are the originals.

23:11 Speaker 3: And then we David the drummer is actually Paul's nephew

23:16 Speaker 3: who at the time when we were getting back together,

23:19 Speaker 3: he didn't have any any project at the time, so

23:22 Speaker 3: he just kind of sat in with us and it

23:24 Speaker 3: just kind of clicked. So we just kind of said, well,

23:26 Speaker 3: guess guess what they're playing with us too, you know

23:28 Speaker 3: what I mean? Because he's a lot younger than us.

23:29 Speaker 3: He's like in this this late twenties or maybe that

23:32 Speaker 3: might be thirty by.

23:33 Speaker 2: Now, okay.

23:34 Speaker 3: And then Pauli the bass player. He's someone that Paul's

23:37 Speaker 3: known for a long time and played in a lot

23:39 Speaker 3: of bands with back in the day. So we just

23:42 Speaker 3: recruited him and same thing. We said, Hey, we're doing

23:44 Speaker 3: this show. We just need someone to sit in with us.

23:47 Speaker 3: He learned the songs and we just kept saying, hey,

23:49 Speaker 3: we have another one. You want to do it, Yeah,

23:51 Speaker 3: you got another one, and now he just we just

23:53 Speaker 3: kind of tricked them into just hanging around. So yeah,

23:56 Speaker 3: it's nice.

23:57 Speaker 2: Nice when it comes together organically like that, you know,

23:59 Speaker 2: instead of yeah, instead of saying, okay, we're gonna we're

24:02 Speaker 2: gonna hold all these auditions and do all this stuff.

24:05 Speaker 3: But then we just spend hours talking about some auditions.

24:08 Speaker 3: We try to have their their nightmares and they're hilarious

24:12 Speaker 3: at the same time. It's rough. Yeah, it's rough, not

24:17 Speaker 3: just the plane, but like you know what we say,

24:19 Speaker 3: like the guys who get all the gigs because rule

24:22 Speaker 3: number one, don't be an a hole. And you'd be

24:24 Speaker 3: surprised how many guys you meet who are auditioning and

24:26 Speaker 3: they're just like arrogant or a hole or you know,

24:31 Speaker 3: and not to mention whether they could play or not.

24:33 Speaker 3: But it's a right, yeah, there's there's there's there's some

24:36 Speaker 3: stories there with the audition. So luckily we didn't have

24:38 Speaker 3: to We did it for a bit until we realized

24:40 Speaker 3: it's just start tricking guys into playing with us.

24:43 Speaker 2: Yeah, there you go. Maybe some of the guys who

24:46 Speaker 2: are auditioning, maybe they thought they were going to get

24:48 Speaker 2: the private chat and hang out at the Playboy mansion

24:50 Speaker 2: and all that.

24:51 Speaker 3: It could be.

24:55 Speaker 2: So does the the early material, because obviously you guys

24:58 Speaker 2: have have a history. Does the early material survive or

25:02 Speaker 2: or are you focused on on writing and recording just

25:05 Speaker 2: new stuff or how does that work.

25:08 Speaker 3: We brought with us believe two two, maybe three songs

25:14 Speaker 3: that we recorded that we played. Three songs that we

25:16 Speaker 3: played back then. The other ones we just you know,

25:19 Speaker 3: they we either they either morphed into something else or

25:24 Speaker 3: you know, Paul used them with other projects, you know,

25:26 Speaker 3: as far as the ideas. Yeah, but three songs we

25:28 Speaker 3: brought with us that we we felt still kind of

25:31 Speaker 3: had you know, enough you know, fit with what we're

25:35 Speaker 3: doing now. Okay, really isn't much different, but yeah, yeah.

25:39 Speaker 2: And then what is the plan for these? I mean,

25:42 Speaker 2: are you going to continue to release singles or will

25:45 Speaker 2: these coalesce into a an EP or an album or

25:48 Speaker 2: what what's kind of your your strategy?

25:51 Speaker 3: Yes, so our next release is the thirteenth of August,

25:56 Speaker 3: and that'll be our new single Circle, but it'll be

26:00 Speaker 3: released in an album because we haven't enough. We released

26:02 Speaker 3: a bunch of singles now, so we're gonna combine them

26:05 Speaker 3: into an album. Okay, So it'll be the album's going

26:08 Speaker 3: to drop on the thirteenth and it will have the

26:11 Speaker 3: new singles Circle on it.

26:12 Speaker 2: Oh wonderful. And you did send us that one, which

26:16 Speaker 2: we're going to play at the end of our conversation

26:17 Speaker 2: so our listeners can get a sneak peek. Has this

26:20 Speaker 2: been played anywhere on the radio before?

26:23 Speaker 3: So we've played it. We've played it live a couple

26:25 Speaker 3: of times, or actually just once. We just played it

26:27 Speaker 3: once at the king Zex because we had to do

26:29 Speaker 3: some rewrites on it, so the way it is, the

26:33 Speaker 3: way we recorded it. We only played it at the

26:35 Speaker 3: King Sex Show.

26:36 Speaker 6: Oh.

26:37 Speaker 3: Has been played anywhere?

26:38 Speaker 2: Oh? Wow? So this will be a world radio premiere.

26:41 Speaker 2: I love it. I love it.

26:42 Speaker 3: We there you go. I like that. Oh we put

26:44 Speaker 3: that on our on our website. Oh, world radio premiere.

26:49 Speaker 2: Please do please do no. We we love to get

26:51 Speaker 2: to do those. That's great. That's I'm very honored that

26:54 Speaker 2: you sent us, sent us that then I didn't realize

26:56 Speaker 2: that it wasn't coming out until August. That's that's fantastic

26:59 Speaker 2: And it's a great track. Really like it a lot.

27:02 Speaker 2: You absolutely, absolutely so. I haven't asked you the most

27:05 Speaker 2: obvious question, yet, where does the name come from? I?

27:09 Speaker 3: Okay, So when we were coming up with band names,

27:13 Speaker 3: I came up like you know, and but we wanted

27:16 Speaker 3: to do it in a way that said, in this

27:19 Speaker 3: big scheme of life, we're not that important. You know,

27:22 Speaker 3: we think we are, but we're not that important. So

27:25 Speaker 3: when you read or write the word I, it's always

27:27 Speaker 3: capital because you're talking about yourself. So we figure like

27:30 Speaker 3: we're he's gonna make it, you know, oh, lowercase I,

27:35 Speaker 3: and you know, just to at least for our entertainment.

27:39 Speaker 3: It tells us like we're not that important, right, you know,

27:42 Speaker 3: we're in there's bigger things to worry about than us,

27:46 Speaker 3: So we just went with a lowercase.

27:47 Speaker 2: I okay, okay, interesting and I like the is so

27:54 Speaker 2: and it is lowercase. And then I see the image

27:57 Speaker 2: of the uh is your official go the eye in

28:01 Speaker 2: front of the hand is that uh?

28:04 Speaker 3: No, the original logo is just the eye. Okay, the

28:07 Speaker 3: hand is that's my wife's hand? She uh yes, we

28:12 Speaker 3: uh if you have a minute. She she had some

28:16 Speaker 3: cancer scares with her she has she had a rare

28:19 Speaker 3: uh tumor in her kidney called a feel We call

28:22 Speaker 3: it a feeld, but I forget what the full name is.

28:24 Speaker 2: Okay.

28:24 Speaker 3: So there was times where you know, where we didn't

28:27 Speaker 3: know if we were going to have her around and

28:30 Speaker 3: you know, uh if she had her surgery it was

28:32 Speaker 3: during COVID, So I the day I dropped her off

28:35 Speaker 3: at the hospital, I couldn't go inside with her. And

28:39 Speaker 3: and then she had a fifty to fifty chance on

28:40 Speaker 3: the table, So I didn't know if that was the

28:42 Speaker 3: last time I was ever going to see her, you know.

28:44 Speaker 3: So it was a lot of stress. So luckily she know,

28:47 Speaker 3: she she made it through and stuff. So I just

28:50 Speaker 3: had this thing where I wanted to get her hand

28:52 Speaker 3: tattooed on me.

28:53 Speaker 6: Somewhere.

28:53 Speaker 3: So I had her put you know, through the whole

28:55 Speaker 3: paint on a piece of paper and oh wow, something

28:58 Speaker 3: just kind of clicked, and I'm like, I'm put the

29:00 Speaker 3: eye right in the middle of it and use it

29:02 Speaker 3: as a logo. And actually when we play our gigs,

29:04 Speaker 3: I have a shirt that has her hand with the

29:07 Speaker 3: eye on it and stuff like that too. So so

29:09 Speaker 3: it's the official logo is just the eye, but the

29:12 Speaker 3: hand's been very popular, so we're probably gonna roll with

29:14 Speaker 3: that for a while.

29:15 Speaker 2: Yeah. I like it. No, it's a cool image and

29:17 Speaker 2: thank you for sharing the story behind it. And so,

29:19 Speaker 2: so how is she now at this point? Is she good?

29:22 Speaker 3: Yeah, she's good. I mean it's still it's one of

29:25 Speaker 3: those the the tumor being on her on her adrenal gland.

29:30 Speaker 3: I mean, I said, Kiddy, apologize. Her adrenal gland wrecked

29:33 Speaker 3: havoc in her body, ye, because it was constantly releasing adrenaline.

29:37 Speaker 3: So they removed the tumor and the adrenal gland. So

29:41 Speaker 3: now she's joining on one adrenal gland. Okay, So you know,

29:44 Speaker 3: so it's been a couple of years, but it's still like,

29:46 Speaker 3: you know, her body's getting used to having only one

29:48 Speaker 3: adrenal gland. So some days good days, bad days, and

29:51 Speaker 3: the bad day is usually like fatigue. But yeah, she's

29:55 Speaker 3: she's she's still.

29:55 Speaker 2: Good, good, good, glad to glad to hear that. Yeah, yeah,

29:59 Speaker 2: that's a that's a a very a very scary thing.

30:02 Speaker 2: Now the the track circle will will there be a

30:05 Speaker 2: video for this as well eventually.

30:08 Speaker 3: Yeah, we're we're we haven't thought, we haven't talked about

30:11 Speaker 3: it yet and uh, but it's that video. It should

30:14 Speaker 3: be fun because the whole song revolves around a Plato's cave.

30:18 Speaker 3: I don't know if you're familiar with that one, so

30:20 Speaker 3: it's kind of a yeah, it's a you know, Plato

30:22 Speaker 3: has a lot of Plato's cave is the whole theory

30:26 Speaker 3: of they you're stuck in a cave and your captors

30:31 Speaker 3: put like a little like to say, like a like

30:36 Speaker 3: a little symbol of a of a horse or like

30:39 Speaker 3: a soldier, and then they put a fire behind it,

30:41 Speaker 3: so it makes a shadow on the wall of a

30:44 Speaker 3: soldier and and things you fear. So you're stuck in

30:47 Speaker 3: this cave because of these shadows, not realizing if you

30:50 Speaker 3: just turn around, you don't realize it's not a real soldier.

30:53 Speaker 3: It's just a little stand with the reflection on it. Yeah,

30:56 Speaker 3: so that's the whole. That's the whole Plato's cave, I

31:00 Speaker 3: think so. So I'm thinking that should be a pretty

31:02 Speaker 3: fun video to make. You know, uh, play Doo's not

31:05 Speaker 3: around anymore, so I don't think we'll get sued.

31:06 Speaker 2: But right right, yeah, it's probably okay to to use

31:11 Speaker 2: his intellectual property. Yeah, yeah, that's great. I love the concept.

31:16 Speaker 2: That's that's really cool. That's really cool.

31:18 Speaker 3: Yeah, that should be a fun one to make.

31:20 Speaker 2: And then what's the obviously you know you mentioned Paul

31:24 Speaker 2: is very busy obviously, but I mean, what what is

31:26 Speaker 2: the live situation like going forward? Do you have more

31:28 Speaker 2: shows coming up? Are you gonna be touring or do

31:30 Speaker 2: you have to wait for him to get back or

31:32 Speaker 2: how does that work?

31:33 Speaker 3: Well, he's only gone for like a week at a time,

31:35 Speaker 3: so that you know, yeah, then he doesn't just go

31:37 Speaker 3: on the road for you know, yeah, he goes off

31:40 Speaker 3: for a week. That's that's a okay. The shows, we

31:43 Speaker 3: have nothing schedule now, Like I said, we just put

31:45 Speaker 3: all our eggs into the Kings X show. We were

31:47 Speaker 3: just like really hyped up about that one. So right

31:51 Speaker 3: now we have nothing, nothing said. We're going back in

31:54 Speaker 3: the studio two uh next week to work on two

31:58 Speaker 3: more singles to put out. We try to be we

32:01 Speaker 3: try to be very busy, you know, so he keeps

32:04 Speaker 3: us focused.

32:05 Speaker 6: Yeah.

32:05 Speaker 3: We ask Sam from the label like, hey, give us

32:08 Speaker 3: five dates next year, and he will give us five dates.

32:11 Speaker 3: So we know, like there's our carrot. That's what we

32:13 Speaker 3: got to do. So our main focus is you know,

32:17 Speaker 3: delivering songs or videos to the label, and in between

32:22 Speaker 3: we go like, hey, let's do a gig. So we

32:23 Speaker 3: have a few places we play often, but right now

32:26 Speaker 3: we have you know, there's nothing on the books right now. Okay.

32:29 Speaker 3: If when there, when there is, it'll be all over

32:31 Speaker 3: our socials and our website for sure.

32:33 Speaker 2: Okay, okay, outstanding, and we'll, like I said, we'll let

32:37 Speaker 2: you go in a moment and we'll hit that track circle.

32:39 Speaker 2: But where al where is the best place for people

32:42 Speaker 2: to go online to keep up with everything that the

32:44 Speaker 2: band I is doing?

32:46 Speaker 7: Uh?

32:47 Speaker 3: If you want like a one chop stop, it's our

32:50 Speaker 3: website which is ibandofficial one dot com okay, and and

32:57 Speaker 3: that that has all the links to all our socials ig,

33:00 Speaker 3: our Facebook, our our YouTube. We have a lot of

33:04 Speaker 3: videos on YouTube live and also you know regular videos

33:08 Speaker 3: on there. Yeah, so that's like the go there and

33:11 Speaker 3: you can find everything. But also if you just want

33:13 Speaker 3: to go straight to our ig that's I band official

33:16 Speaker 3: one at ig And if you like Facebook, it's a

33:20 Speaker 3: band official on Facebook.

33:21 Speaker 2: Okay, okay, outstanding, Well, Algernados from the band I, thank

33:26 Speaker 2: you so much for joining us. We're going to hit

33:28 Speaker 2: that track circle and h and oh, and I encourage

33:31 Speaker 2: everyone to check out after the show, go to YouTube

33:34 Speaker 2: check out the video for nothing. It's it's really cool

33:37 Speaker 2: and it's it's an important subject. So I really like

33:40 Speaker 2: that song a lot too. But Al, thank you so

33:43 Speaker 2: much for joining us today, and we'll definitely do it

33:44 Speaker 2: again in the future as you're releasing new music. We'd

33:47 Speaker 2: love to have you back. And I really like the

33:49 Speaker 2: band a lot, so we will. We will definitely do

33:51 Speaker 2: this again.

33:52 Speaker 3: Great, thank you, Thank you for having me.

33:54 Speaker 2: This was fun, all right, Al, thank you, take care,

33:55 Speaker 2: bye bye bye bye. All right. That is Algronados from

34:00 Speaker 2: the band I and right now, because this isn't coming

34:03 Speaker 2: out until August, sometime in August, but we you'll hear

34:07 Speaker 2: it here First the world radio premiere of the new

34:09 Speaker 2: track from I. This is called Circle.

34:12 Speaker 6: You are listening to wumin h World premiere.

35:05 Speaker 1: Oh say not decern go.

35:14 Speaker 5: Oh my jo got decide.

35:24 Speaker 3: I mister s.

35:29 Speaker 5: I do my n that good time. Wretch.

35:39 Speaker 6: Ain't a woman.

35:44 Speaker 5: I'm not a dome fuck gr oh cha shop.

36:09 Speaker 1: All the chair up the row.

36:18 Speaker 3: Drops the maid of kick your head, I go.

36:22 Speaker 5: This takes the ratice, skip them, the watte.

36:58 Speaker 3: Dropping lace. Hey you had a gold pige No where

37:04 Speaker 3: to escape, no where to escape?

37:08 Speaker 7: Can't you hear me?

37:10 Speaker 1: Now?

37:13 Speaker 5: Can't you hear me?

37:15 Speaker 3: Now?

37:20 Speaker 6: Do you hear me?

37:24 Speaker 7: Now?

37:28 Speaker 5: I can come bad in my.

37:33 Speaker 3: Can that happen?

37:34 Speaker 5: Right to read more about this? All the side of

37:46 Speaker 5: the turn, all the sun God go.

38:03 Speaker 3: You here? Can you here? There is?

38:14 Speaker 2: That is the world radio premiere of the upcoming single

38:18 Speaker 2: Circles and the band is I. And thank you again

38:22 Speaker 2: to Al Gernados for joining us today on the show.

38:24 Speaker 2: Really enjoyed talking with him and he actually he just

38:26 Speaker 2: paid me a very nice compliment on WhatsApp, So Al,

38:29 Speaker 2: if you're still listening, and I appreciate that too, he said,

38:31 Speaker 2: he enjoyed it. So welcome everybody. This is Matt Connorton

38:34 Speaker 2: Unleashed and we are live from the studios of wm

38:38 Speaker 2: NH ninety five point three FM and Glorious Manchester, New Hampshire.

38:42 Speaker 2: And of course you can stream the show from anywhere.

38:44 Speaker 2: Go to Matt connorton dot com slash unleashed for a

38:47 Speaker 2: full list an updated menu of a live streaming options

38:51 Speaker 2: if you will, And of course you don't forget our

38:54 Speaker 2: new site, Matt Connorton unleashed dot com, which has the

38:57 Speaker 2: full archive of the show and it is searchable, so

39:00 Speaker 2: if you're looking for a specific guest or a specific day,

39:03 Speaker 2: you can find that there. So let's see. Well it's

39:08 Speaker 2: been quite a show so far. But I think we

39:10 Speaker 2: do have a little bit of time left. We should

39:12 Speaker 2: maybe do some quick music industry news. I did not

39:17 Speaker 2: know that this was going on, but you know, artists

39:20 Speaker 2: suing record labels is not a terribly unusual thing, it

39:25 Speaker 2: would seem. And usually when we talk about one of

39:30 Speaker 2: these stories, it's usually a universal music group that is

39:32 Speaker 2: being sued, but this time it was not. This time

39:35 Speaker 2: it was Sony Sony Music. You know, it's funny because

39:39 Speaker 2: when Al was on the show, we were talking about

39:41 Speaker 2: talking a lot about the nineties. Well, there's a nineties

39:43 Speaker 2: band called Lit who had a song, you might remember,

39:46 Speaker 2: a pop punk song called My Own Worst Enemy, and

39:50 Speaker 2: they have just settled a streaming royalty lawsuit with Sony Music.

39:54 Speaker 2: You know again, artists suing labels over royalties is not

40:00 Speaker 2: a new thing, and that predates the Internet, that predates streaming.

40:07 Speaker 2: It is not unusual for an artist or an accountant

40:11 Speaker 2: who works for an artist, and so on and so forth.

40:13 Speaker 2: The business manager who might work for an artist to

40:16 Speaker 2: at some point in time say hey, I think we're

40:20 Speaker 2: missing some money. I don't think you know this. My

40:23 Speaker 2: client here has been has been selling millions of records

40:26 Speaker 2: and they're only getting a small pittance. And the legal

40:30 Speaker 2: department looked at the contract and apparently there should be

40:33 Speaker 2: a lot more money than what is currently going to

40:36 Speaker 2: my client, et cetera. So maybe we need to sue

40:38 Speaker 2: the label over that. It's not a new story now.

40:42 Speaker 2: The taking that and applying it to the era of streaming,

40:46 Speaker 2: which we're in, that part is somewhat new, although not

40:50 Speaker 2: really that new in twenty twenty six. Streaming has been

40:52 Speaker 2: around for a couple decades now. But but these stories continue.

40:57 Speaker 2: But I didn't know that this one was going on.

40:59 Speaker 2: I didn't know that was suing Sony Music. It says

41:02 Speaker 2: here and again. This is from Music Businessworldwide dot com, which,

41:07 Speaker 2: if you're a regular listener, you know, one of my

41:09 Speaker 2: absolute favorite sites for music industry news. It says, LIT,

41:13 Speaker 2: the band behind pop punk hit My Own Worst Enemy,

41:16 Speaker 2: settles Sony Music streaming royalty lawsuit. LIT, the rock band

41:20 Speaker 2: behind the nineteen ninety nine single My Own Worst Enemy,

41:24 Speaker 2: has settled its lawsuit against Sony Music Entertainment over streaming royalties.

41:28 Speaker 2: Never liked that song, by the way, not that I

41:31 Speaker 2: don't like Litt. They're fine. I just don't like that song.

41:36 Speaker 2: The band and the major label reached a settlement in principle,

41:41 Speaker 2: according to a July seven court filing reviewed by Music

41:45 Speaker 2: Business Worldwide. Neither Litt nor Sony has disclosed the terms,

41:49 Speaker 2: and a written agreement is still being finalized. US just

41:53 Speaker 2: record John P. Cronin closed the case on Tuesday after

41:57 Speaker 2: being notified of the deal, which was first reported by Billboard.

42:01 Speaker 2: The members of LIT sued Sony in the US District

42:03 Speaker 2: Court for the Southern District of New York in March

42:07 Speaker 2: over their streaming royalties. The complaint was brought by frontman

42:11 Speaker 2: aj Popoff, guitarist Jeremy pop Off. I assume they're brothers,

42:15 Speaker 2: bassist Kevin unless Popoff is a common name, which it's not,

42:20 Speaker 2: bassist Jeremy Baldez, and the estate of late drummer Alan Schellenberger.

42:26 Speaker 2: As Music Business Worldwide reported at the time, Sony, which

42:29 Speaker 2: acquired RCA Records years after the label signed the band

42:33 Speaker 2: in nineteen ninety eight, had been paying the musicians a

42:35 Speaker 2: fourteen percent US royalty rate on streams. Quick note here

42:40 Speaker 2: before we go any further, that's another thing that happens

42:43 Speaker 2: a lot, consolidation. Right, one record label buys another record label. Now,

42:49 Speaker 2: all of a sudden, some of the artists who were

42:53 Speaker 2: on the record label that got bought, they're not getting

42:56 Speaker 2: their money. Or you know, there's a turn that I

43:00 Speaker 2: learned a couple of years ago that is common in

43:03 Speaker 2: the well. It describes a practice common in the music

43:06 Speaker 2: business spaghetti accounting, which is where the accounting is done

43:10 Speaker 2: in such a way that it makes it it makes

43:12 Speaker 2: it very more convoluted than it necessarily needs to be,

43:14 Speaker 2: which makes it hard to do. Forensic accounting, which is

43:17 Speaker 2: when you try to figure out where the money is going,

43:18 Speaker 2: and why some of the money isn't going where it

43:20 Speaker 2: should be, and or why not enough of the money

43:23 Speaker 2: is going where it should be going, et cetera. But

43:26 Speaker 2: this is a thing when when one record label buys another,

43:29 Speaker 2: if you're on the record label, it's being purchased again.

43:32 Speaker 2: This is something where if you're that artist, you want

43:35 Speaker 2: your legal team, you want your management whomever is keeping

43:40 Speaker 2: an eye on this, you want them in there making

43:43 Speaker 2: sure that you're getting everything that you have coming to.

43:48 Speaker 3: It.

43:48 Speaker 2: Says here. The band argued the nineteen to ninety eight

43:52 Speaker 2: RCA contract entitled it to fifty percent of net receipts

43:58 Speaker 2: whenever a master is lie since treating an on demand

44:02 Speaker 2: stream as a master use license rather than a sale,

44:08 Speaker 2: so master being the master recording of the song, which

44:11 Speaker 2: is obviously what gets distributed to these streaming platforms because

44:15 Speaker 2: the streaming platforms. Obviously you want the platform to have

44:18 Speaker 2: the highest possible quality file of your music if you're

44:22 Speaker 2: an artist on a platform. Right, But according to the

44:27 Speaker 2: band argues or their legal team argues, according to their

44:30 Speaker 2: RCA contract, they're titled to fifty percent of net receipts

44:33 Speaker 2: when the master is licensed. So in this case, the

44:36 Speaker 2: master is licensed to a streaming platform, so fifty percent

44:39 Speaker 2: of that revenue that's generated by that track on that platform.

44:45 Speaker 2: So continuing on again this article for Music Business Worldwide.

44:50 Speaker 2: In a in a parenthetical, the band's nineteen to ninety

44:54 Speaker 2: eight contract gave an example of such a license. Quote

44:59 Speaker 2: RCA's license to another person of the right to embody

45:02 Speaker 2: a master recording on a website in a so called

45:05 Speaker 2: streaming format, which is not subject to the digital download

45:09 Speaker 2: of that master recording by a viewer. Unquote. When the

45:12 Speaker 2: nineteen ninety eight deal was signed, Napster had not yet launched,

45:18 Speaker 2: and streaming services such as Rhapsody did not arrive until

45:22 Speaker 2: the early two thousands. Litt claimed the language entitled it

45:26 Speaker 2: to more than eight hundred thousand dollars in unpaid streaming royalties.

45:34 Speaker 2: The band's attorney, Chris Vaeos, in the complaint said, quote

45:41 Speaker 2: Sony's failure and or refusal to account properly to plaintiffs

45:45 Speaker 2: for streaming royalties received from licenses from third party DSP's

45:49 Speaker 2: digital service providers under the nineteen ninety eight agreement. As

45:52 Speaker 2: damaged plaintiffs in excess of eight hundred thousand dollars in

45:56 Speaker 2: unpaid royalties as reflected on royalty statements rendered from January one,

46:01 Speaker 2: twenty twenty one, through December thirty one, twenty twenty six. Unquote.

46:05 Speaker 2: The complaint also alleged that Sony used the wrong formula

46:10 Speaker 2: for video streaming royalties and that it never applied the

46:14 Speaker 2: escalated rate it's deal called for. Once A Place in

46:17 Speaker 2: the Sun, which is the album that that song was on,

46:21 Speaker 2: reached gold and platinum status. That's you know, the song

46:25 Speaker 2: Mound Worst Enemy that's from the album A Place in

46:29 Speaker 2: the Sun. Reduced royalty reporting had also lowered the band's

46:34 Speaker 2: pension contributions and affected its health insurance eligibility through SAG

46:40 Speaker 2: after the complaint said. According to the complaint, the band

46:45 Speaker 2: had tried to renegotiate since twenty twenty three, but Sony

46:49 Speaker 2: offered a half hearted defense of the rate before it

46:52 Speaker 2: stopped responding. Vos said in March, quote, this is something

46:57 Speaker 2: that we were helped. We were hoping we could resolve

47:00 Speaker 2: before having to file a lawsuit unquote. A lawyer for

47:02 Speaker 2: Sony later said in a May court filing that the

47:05 Speaker 2: band had begun settlement talks after suing. According to Billboard, MBW,

47:10 Speaker 2: Music Business Worldwide has reached out to Sony and its

47:14 Speaker 2: management team at Shelter Music Group for a comment. The

47:17 Speaker 2: case landed as Sony faces other royalty claims in the

47:21 Speaker 2: same New York court. Again, as I said, this is

47:23 Speaker 2: a common story, and they use these labels, use spaghetti

47:27 Speaker 2: accounting to make it very difficult to figure out exactly

47:30 Speaker 2: what's going on, what is not happening, that should be happening,

47:35 Speaker 2: and so forth. They make it very complicated for a reason,

47:39 Speaker 2: for the same reason anybody who makes their accounting very

47:42 Speaker 2: complicated does so to you know, it's and it's not

47:46 Speaker 2: even necessarily. I don't know that they're trying to hide stuff,

47:50 Speaker 2: but they're certainly trying to make it so it's not

47:52 Speaker 2: easy to find. I guess that is an effect hiding something.

47:55 Speaker 3: But.

47:57 Speaker 2: They don't want you to figure out how you know,

48:00 Speaker 2: Universal Music Group we talked about this on the show.

48:02 Speaker 2: Universal Music Group, and again not to conflate them with Sony,

48:08 Speaker 2: but they've been sued a bunch. They weren't I don't

48:10 Speaker 2: know whatever happened to it, but we talked about it

48:12 Speaker 2: on the show. Limp Biscuit was suing Universal Music Group

48:16 Speaker 2: because apparently UMG, if you're an artist on UMG, you

48:19 Speaker 2: are provided with a portal. So it almost sounds like,

48:23 Speaker 2: you know, like if you're if you have a bank

48:27 Speaker 2: a bank account, and you know, use your portal to

48:30 Speaker 2: check your banking information, your your bounds and whatever. You

48:33 Speaker 2: log into the portal. Right, UMG actually has a portal

48:37 Speaker 2: for their artists, their signed artists, where they can log

48:41 Speaker 2: in and check what's going on with their royalties, how

48:44 Speaker 2: much they're owed, or how much they might owe in recruitment,

48:49 Speaker 2: which is another subject. We won't take that side three

48:51 Speaker 2: right now, but you can check all that through this portal.

48:54 Speaker 2: But apparently the portals don't always work. You know, Olympus

49:02 Speaker 2: gets accountant was trying to or accounting firm was trying

49:06 Speaker 2: to sign into the portal at one point, and they

49:10 Speaker 2: didn't have the right password and they tried to create

49:13 Speaker 2: a new password, but the portal wouldn't let them, so

49:16 Speaker 2: they had to come. I mean, really, this is wild,

49:18 Speaker 2: right that this goes on. And then so they try

49:21 Speaker 2: to contact somebody at Universal Music Group to up so

49:24 Speaker 2: they could update their passwords so they could get into

49:26 Speaker 2: the portal, but no one was getting back to them.

49:30 Speaker 2: This is how these labels treat their artists. It's just

49:35 Speaker 2: a fact. This is how these artists are treated. And

49:42 Speaker 2: you can say, well, I don't really care how somebody

49:46 Speaker 2: who's rich and famous is treated by their record label.

49:49 Speaker 2: What's the matter. They're rich and famous, so what talk

49:52 Speaker 2: about your first world problems? I get that, But but

49:56 Speaker 2: it doesn't just happen to artists who are already rich

49:59 Speaker 2: and famous. You know, the guys from Lit, they had

50:02 Speaker 2: that one huge hit. I don't remember if they had

50:04 Speaker 2: any others. If they did, I'm not remembering them, which

50:06 Speaker 2: makes me think. And I have a pretty good memory

50:08 Speaker 2: for that, but I don't always remember everything, so maybe

50:11 Speaker 2: they did. I don't remember, like I remember them being

50:15 Speaker 2: really big off of that song for a short period

50:17 Speaker 2: of time. But I can tell you this, Being really

50:20 Speaker 2: big off of one song for a short period of

50:23 Speaker 2: time does not make you rich. It helps, it doesn't

50:28 Speaker 2: make you rich. Being really big over a prolonged period

50:32 Speaker 2: of time might make you rich. But if you have

50:35 Speaker 2: one hit song and one platinum album, you're not, you know,

50:40 Speaker 2: I mean, unless you take really good care of your

50:41 Speaker 2: money and you invest in all that. But but just

50:44 Speaker 2: based on that alone, that income alone. You're not wealthy

50:47 Speaker 2: for the rest of your life based on that. So

50:51 Speaker 2: you know, no one should be treated this way by

50:53 Speaker 2: a record label. This is why there's so much antipathy

50:56 Speaker 2: toward the major labels, the major label system. When you

50:59 Speaker 2: ever hear anyone say something nice about Universal Music Group

51:04 Speaker 2: or Sony or Warner Brothers or any of these label

51:06 Speaker 2: when do you ever hear anybody say, you know, they

51:09 Speaker 2: really you know, if you're signed to that label, they

51:12 Speaker 2: really treat you, right, they really take care of the artists.

51:16 Speaker 2: That's gone. I mean now, even if they do sign you,

51:19 Speaker 2: they want you to already be a ready made package,

51:21 Speaker 2: which that part I understand. They want you to already

51:25 Speaker 2: be at the very least Internet famous before they're going

51:29 Speaker 2: to make you really famous, right or try to. But

51:35 Speaker 2: it's a terrible system. I mean, they really abuse, they

51:39 Speaker 2: really abuse their artists. Okay, So getting back to the article,

51:41 Speaker 2: because there's an example here of what I'm talking about,

51:44 Speaker 2: And again this is from Music Business Worldwide dot com.

51:46 Speaker 2: It says here Jermaine dupri And is so so deaf

51:50 Speaker 2: Companies sued Sony for more than eighteen million dollars on Monday,

51:56 Speaker 2: July sixth, alleging unpaid and under report royalties on records

52:01 Speaker 2: by Criss Cross, Escape Usher and Mariah Carey eighteen million dollars.

52:08 Speaker 2: And now I understand just because they're suing for that,

52:12 Speaker 2: that doesn't mean that that is accurate and that they

52:14 Speaker 2: are actually owed that much money. But it wouldn't shock

52:18 Speaker 2: me especially Well, let's look at that phrase, alleging unpaid

52:26 Speaker 2: and underreported royalties. That's part of how and again that

52:30 Speaker 2: plays into the spaghetti accounting under reported. In other words,

52:35 Speaker 2: some royalties are reported, but some are not. Why would

52:38 Speaker 2: you do that? Well, if you report enough royalties and

52:42 Speaker 2: you pay out enough in royalties, maybe no one gets suspicious.

52:45 Speaker 2: Maybe no one starts asking questions. Maybe no one says,

52:48 Speaker 2: let's look at the books and figure out if we're

52:49 Speaker 2: actually getting all that we're supposed to. Because we probably

52:52 Speaker 2: are because we're getting money. But what if you're actually

52:55 Speaker 2: owed more money, so you know they're not just gonna

52:57 Speaker 2: forget to pay you, they're gonna pay you something. They

53:01 Speaker 2: might just not pay you everything that you're owed. Because

53:04 Speaker 2: as long as they pay you something, maybe you won't

53:07 Speaker 2: start snooping around. Because if you hire a forensic accounting firm,

53:11 Speaker 2: and you start snooping around, you're gonna find out that

53:14 Speaker 2: you're owed a lot more than what they are telling

53:17 Speaker 2: you that you're owed. So that suit is for eighteen

53:21 Speaker 2: million dollars. It says here that suit is active, and

53:24 Speaker 2: Sony has said the parties were attempting to resolve the

53:27 Speaker 2: accounting dispute before Dupree went to court. Sony has settled

53:31 Speaker 2: similar claims before the company reached a settlement in twenty

53:35 Speaker 2: eighteen with Nineteen Recordings, the record label behind American Idol alumni,

53:40 Speaker 2: including Kelly Clarkson and Carrie Underwood, which had accused Sony

53:44 Speaker 2: of underpaid streaming royalties by accounting for streams as sales

53:49 Speaker 2: rather than licenses. In twenty twenty, Sony agreed to pay

53:52 Speaker 2: twelve point seven million to settle a class action brought

53:57 Speaker 2: by the estate of nineteen fifty singer Rick Nelson over

54:01 Speaker 2: royalties on foreign streaming revenue. Such disputes have become more

54:05 Speaker 2: common as legacy artists challenge how labels calculate streaming royalties

54:09 Speaker 2: under contracts signed before Spotify. Litt continues to tour, with

54:14 Speaker 2: dates booked across twenty twenty six My Own Worst Enemy

54:18 Speaker 2: has drawn more than five hundred and eighty million streams

54:21 Speaker 2: on Spotify. According to the band's complaint, It spent even

54:25 Speaker 2: really eleven weeks at number one on Billboard's Alternative Airplay chart.

54:31 Speaker 2: The band's nineteen to ninety nine album A Place in

54:34 Speaker 2: the Sun was certified platinum in the US. LIT releases

54:37 Speaker 2: most recent album Tastes Like Gold in twenty twenty two.

54:40 Speaker 2: The dismissal gives the party's forty five days to restore

54:42 Speaker 2: the case if the written settlement is not completed. Yeah,

54:46 Speaker 2: and again, they probably need that money. The band probably

54:50 Speaker 2: needs that money. One platinum album, one big hit song

54:54 Speaker 2: that does not make you rich. You're not set for

54:57 Speaker 2: life based on that. I promise you You're not like

55:00 Speaker 2: you know we were. We kind of were talking about

55:03 Speaker 2: that a little bit with Al from the band I

55:05 Speaker 2: when we were talking during our conversation about you know,

55:07 Speaker 2: people have misconceptions and misperceptions about how this all worked.

55:10 Speaker 2: They think you get signed and now you're you're famous

55:13 Speaker 2: and you're rich, and you know you can be you

55:15 Speaker 2: can be very famous and be broke. It happened to

55:17 Speaker 2: TLC when they release their album Crazy Sexy Cool in

55:21 Speaker 2: the late nineties. They were triple platinum and they were

55:24 Speaker 2: broke because of the way their record deal was structured.

55:28 Speaker 2: They had no money and they'd sold three million copies

55:34 Speaker 2: of that album on the strength of singles like Creep

55:36 Speaker 2: and Waterfalls and all that. I mean, it's it's the

55:42 Speaker 2: math that the system is all. Look, this is true

55:47 Speaker 2: in life in general, right, The system is always against you.

55:50 Speaker 2: You got to fight for every little crumb because the

55:54 Speaker 2: system is always trying to screw you in some way.

55:57 Speaker 2: In this case, it happens to be the major system

56:00 Speaker 2: of these record companies, but they're always trying to screw

56:05 Speaker 2: somebody over and they'll do whatever whatever they they can

56:12 Speaker 2: get away with. Okay, really quickly, because Spotify did come up.

56:16 Speaker 2: We're almost out of time. I want to hit this

56:18 Speaker 2: really fast though. This is from Digital Music Digital Music

56:22 Speaker 2: News dot Com again, another one of my favorite sites

56:24 Speaker 2: for this stuff. Spotify has invested more than one billion

56:28 Speaker 2: dollars on podcasting. I think most of that money went

56:30 Speaker 2: to Joe Rogan. So why can't it be YouTube? This

56:34 Speaker 2: is interesting to me. And by the way, you can

56:36 Speaker 2: find this show on Spotify. We uploaded to Spotify. It's

56:39 Speaker 2: on YouTube et cetera. But it's but I'm not making

56:42 Speaker 2: any you know. I mean, Spotify hasn't given me a

56:45 Speaker 2: big contract. They didn't back up bring Struck up to

56:47 Speaker 2: my home like they did Joe Rogan. But anyway, but

56:49 Speaker 2: I'm not bitter. YouTube continues to steamroll Spotify in the

56:53 Speaker 2: podcasting game, despite the latter's billion dollar investment in the

56:57 Speaker 2: medium over the last few years. By the way, off

56:59 Speaker 2: the top of my head, my gout reaction, people really

57:01 Speaker 2: like the video component rather than just listening to audio

57:04 Speaker 2: more and more so all the time Spotify, it's just

57:07 Speaker 2: audio YouTube. You can watch the video, it says. Your

57:11 Speaker 2: YouTube has unsurprisingly been the dominating force in the video

57:16 Speaker 2: content space for years, but it's also the leader in

57:19 Speaker 2: the podcast space in a major way. New data from

57:23 Speaker 2: Edison Research shows the Google owned platform has now overtaken

57:27 Speaker 2: Spotify in the UK as the most popular space for

57:31 Speaker 2: video podcast consumption. According to the data, twenty nine percent

57:35 Speaker 2: of weekly British podcast listeners age fifteen plus chose YouTube

57:40 Speaker 2: as the service they most use to consume podcasts, notably

57:44 Speaker 2: twenty eight percent to Spotify. So it's still fairly neck connected.

57:48 Speaker 2: By the way, all the podcasts I listen to I

57:50 Speaker 2: just go to YouTube. That's that's my you know, so

57:54 Speaker 2: I get it, says here. However, the new still comes

57:56 Speaker 2: as a significant blow to Spotify, which has been investing

57:59 Speaker 2: millions in its podcasting and video infrastructure over the past

58:02 Speaker 2: several years. That includes a partnership with Netflix and buying

58:05 Speaker 2: a podcasting platforms like the Ringer Grimlet, media anchor par Cast,

58:12 Speaker 2: and the advertising publishing infrastructure network Megaphone. Spotify has also

58:18 Speaker 2: secured exclusivity deals with big names in the podcasting space,

58:22 Speaker 2: which have included Joe Rogan, I'm not going to get

58:24 Speaker 2: in all the numbers, Alex Cooper, Prince Harry, and Megan Markle.

58:31 Speaker 2: I guess if you're an anglophile, you want that content.

58:34 Speaker 3: I guess.

58:34 Speaker 2: But Spotify founder and then CEO Daniel Eck noted that

58:37 Speaker 2: the company's expensive deals were a drag on margins, which

58:41 Speaker 2: led to a pivot and strategy and resulted in cost

58:43 Speaker 2: cutting and a slew of canceled shows and layoffs That

58:47 Speaker 2: also put the kiash on Spotify's strategy of cutting exclusive

58:50 Speaker 2: deals with big name podcasters. By late twenty twenty four,

58:57 Speaker 2: YouTube was already the go to destination for podcasts, at

59:01 Speaker 2: least for the majority of Americans, according to Edison. In

59:04 Speaker 2: October of that year, Edison reported that thirty one percent

59:07 Speaker 2: of weekly podcast listeners aged thirteen and up chose YouTube

59:11 Speaker 2: as the service they most listened to for podcasts. Edison

59:15 Speaker 2: noted quote a few years ago, YouTube might have seemed

59:18 Speaker 2: like an unlikely platform for podcasts, but as the world

59:21 Speaker 2: of podcasting evolves, many podcasters have embraced video podcasting, recording

59:26 Speaker 2: their shows in both audio and video formats. Not only

59:29 Speaker 2: can podcast consumers listen to episodes, but they can also

59:33 Speaker 2: watch video versions of their favorite shows. As video and

59:36 Speaker 2: audio content continue to overlap, creators and listeners are benefiting

59:40 Speaker 2: from more dynamic and engaging experiences. Just a little more here,

59:47 Speaker 2: it says, despite injecting over a billion dollars into podcasting,

59:51 Speaker 2: Spotify remains out of disadvantages. Podcasting continues to evolve into

59:54 Speaker 2: a video forward format.