Matt Connarton Unleashed 7-4-26 hour 3

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Speaker 3: Last, I'm nash my head got back my bad doll bedd.

Speaker 1: Gel cast stop bag nothing gel can fall.

Speaker 2: Back out back sis, I tries to bright the hogs.

Speaker 1: Thank you my dog Poppy, I rode fast. I'm telling us my man johns by not ball my shut inside. Tell me side.

Speaker 4: Gil Cat stop bag nothing.

Speaker 1: You'll come so brand out a matter that does not want to take out.

Speaker 5: Gil Cat take me now.

Speaker 1: A bell made? Okay? Right the brown it's sorry right after that side you can't say lay down okay now

Speaker 1: Jay rods L have the wow.

Speaker 6: Fill the race?

Speaker 1: Why yesterday? Son?

Speaker 4: Oh, I love it. That is elevated. The band is million Years and h We have entered our number three new marrow trace of Matt Connorton unleashed and let's get this up because we got a couple of the guys from the band Million Years here with us via Microsoft teams. Hey, guys, welcome, I am how are you doing good? Good good? Please introduce ourselves.

Speaker 7: Yeah, so I'm Steve, I'm the bass player and we've got our handsome frontman, which is Gems and the rest of the Lodd's currently tied up with Funny on the weight and so we're holding the fault at the moment. But before we jump on, I just want to say hop me forth of July.

Speaker 4: To use guys, thank you. Thank you.

Speaker 7: As a brit it's kind of like okay, but yeah, Helpy Forth.

Speaker 4: Well thank you very much. I'll tell you it's funny. Last night I watched fireworks with British people who happened to be here in the area.

Speaker 7: We've got a lot of shared values having me between the US and the UK, which is great. One may of that continue.

Speaker 4: There we go, there we go. Well, I heard it's actually Oasis day in the UK. Is that true?

Speaker 8: I have no idea is getting a lot of coverage with the World Cup current, you know, because it's one of the theme songs off the back of the matches that England are playing.

Speaker 7: So we've just got a well, our next match is Mexico is thee and then we've got to wait up till one o'clock on Monday morning. So by the times match finishes, that's three o'clock. So I expect no one in the UK to be at work whatsoever. Yeah, sometimes, no doubt.

Speaker 4: Now we're exactly in the UK, are you guys? Are you in Durham? Is that correct?

Speaker 9: Yeah?

Speaker 7: Just outside of Durham. So for those who don't know, we all don't live in London. Durhams in the northeast of England, just south of New Astle. It's close to the scottis. We bought and a half away from the Scottish border, so we're northern, northern. We're no more more than than Manchester.

Speaker 4: Gotcha, gotcha. Now this band million years, you guys haven't been around for that long, right did Did you form just just last year? Is that correct?

Speaker 7: So in its current format? Yeah, last year. We we picked up our new drummer and an extra guitarist last year and everything you've heard that that chimney you just played there elevated is off the back of that. It's our newest guys at the moment. But we started the band years ago, a bit of years ago.

Speaker 6: It's just a vallot. It's changed quite a few times and now we've got five of us, so there we' hitting on from there.

Speaker 4: Yeah, gotcha, gotcha. I love the single Elevated Now, that's that's the newest single tract that is.

Speaker 7: Yeah, that was I've released only this year, and I believe it. We might have another single the show folks there on the show for Yourself, which is Circles as well, which was at last last year. But we're just about to we're just about this month July and July about to block ourselves in the studio for a week and we're looking to put together a four track ap which we're hoping really shows a mark step in our evolution as well with some of the ideas that we got so heavier, faster, more in your face as well, those rifts outstanding.

Speaker 4: So tell me about the track Elevated and what was the genesis of that in terms of the lyrics of it, because my understanding is there's a little bit of a story here.

Speaker 7: Yeah. Absolutely, Yeah.

Speaker 6: It's about when people try to like put your down kind of thing and then showing them who's the boss kind of and coming back and being stronger, stronger for it, and showing people like you're not weak and you're strong.

Speaker 7: Basically, it's the proverbial middle finger, right, It is the other the other side of that as well, is you know, all us in the Bond, we're all mid thirties apart from yourself and the I'm the old man of the band on in my forties. Yeah, and you know a lot of people say, well you to be doing this. No, no, not at all. It's kind of the mental thing about mentality as well.

Speaker 4: Yeah, that's that's excellent. Uh no, I can appreciate that. Did like, like, did someone try to did someone actively try to discourage you guys from from doing this or for that reason.

Speaker 6: There's been a fair few, like in the last few years, like people saying you're too old like stuff like that, But obviously I don't listen to them.

Speaker 7: I keep on pushing forward.

Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, absolutely, absolutely. Yeah. You can't let other people define what you can do and what you're capable of. And uh, you know, I feel like there's less I feel like there's just generally less ageism though than there used to be when it comes to music. Uh yeah, but but.

Speaker 7: You'll you look across the scene. You've got bonds like Kiss, keep doing the Red Last two whatever, you know, Iron Maiden. The edge of those go is nor metallic. Age is just a number. It don't mean anything. You do see it in the industry though that you know. Yeah, of course we haven't got the side of youth on our side. She was saying. There's a lot of in hour. There's a lot of younger bands that are coming through and automatically get some more of that attention because of the youthful looks and the way they go about things.

Speaker 7: But I mean, at the end of the day, we love it. We don't really care what other people say in that regard. It's nice to get good feedback. It's nice to take a gative feedback and just from that as well, but it's always nice to put the middle finger up and steal what we love.

Speaker 4: Absolutely I agree. I can get on board without one hundred percent. Are you guys playing a lot of shows.

Speaker 7: We've gone into a slight into a slight remit while we're a bit of a break and we focused on the apace, So plent your practice and showing them down on that. Make sure it's tight as a dux bum all should be there, and and make sure I don't breached the waters or anything like that. So yeah, I've late, but we've got a couple of smaller festivals in the north of England coming up in August. Off we come out of all the EP session, which is quite nice, and you know, we are working with a few people with plans for the EP release show and some bigger gigs as we moved through in the next year as well.

Speaker 7: So yeah, there's plenty of foot plenty of foot. We'ven plenty of gigs over the past year and a half all over the Northeast and we're just starting to spread further afield now and hopefully trying to get down at the middle of the company and you never know, go up the big smoke, which is London and maybe it's make or marked on there at some point.

Speaker 4: Excellent. I'm glad too that you're going to be doing a couple of festivals because I always say those are such fantastic opportunities, not only to expand your audience because you get in front of a crowd that might not know you or might not be familiar with you yet, but also to just the connections that you make, you know, backstage, the industry people that you meet, you know, it can really be the festival experience can really be helpful.

Speaker 7: Yeah, it's that networking, isn't it. It's it's not you put your business on and you try a network. At the same time, it's so nice to make other people make and strike of friendships with people are similar like ideas and focus, and it's it's nice. It's nice to see the other bands as well at these these gigs and festivals, because you know, there's there's a lot of bands on and there's you know, differentially, it's across the day, who's playing what what kind of genre? We do generally sitting in that rock, alternative rock, post hardcore punk genre, yea in that right, So, but there are you know what bands at these festivals that sit down the alternative or even grunge.

Speaker 7: You know, there's a lot of that's still kicking around even though we're thirty years past it, you know what I mean. It's cyclic as well. Let's say the music come round in cycles.

Speaker 9: Yeah.

Speaker 4: I had a guest tell me recently, a guest from the UK tell me that grunge is actually really big there right now. Is that true?

Speaker 7: Yeah, it's it's kind of it's what we've seen with the grunge saying is and I personally so and I'll go not only to festivals and stuff, I go with a lot of local shows, you know, on with old bandcards and badgers in my pocket and just to say a lot of people and really trust saying. But with grunge, it's kind of it's kind of meshed with shoe gears. Yeah, well so there is that that that's dreamy shoe gears grunge element that's going off, which is like a modern take I believe on grunge, which is quite interesting here.

Speaker 7: And it's it's quite nice. I mean, obviously you can't beat the old guys like Nirvana and Pearl Jarman and all that, you know, yeah, Alison Chairmans except so, but it's nice and it's it's yeah again, it's that cyclic. It will come back round. Trends as come back round, and that's that's where we feel. We often feel sometimes some of the stuff that we've released and that we're doing that if we've been around in the early two thousand, maybees we'd be more on the platform now. But with the you know, with with the way the music industry is, we feel as though with niche at the moment, but we're fully expecting that might hopefully expand out further as people come back to listening.

Speaker 4: Right right, no doubt. I mean, how do you how do you kind of everyone always say it's a question, but how do you kind of define your sound or categorize your sound? Because I hear you know, I mean it's it's some hardcore elements, certainly, but also there's some groove there. And see if I'm a bass player myself, so I pay attention to.

Speaker 7: You know, you'll pick my base line up.

Speaker 9: That's quite hard.

Speaker 7: We've been so many times. We've gone from alternative rock? Are we in punk?

Speaker 6: There's a few people compare us to Rise Against. I think that would be quite a close ish band, but not the same, if that makes sense.

Speaker 4: Yeah.

Speaker 7: But I think also because the five members of the lads away and we've got Enders on drum, we've got Donna, just guitars and vocals, and and there is the second guitarist, we've all got different genre styles that were brought up on and what we like. Jim, you like the Cure and stuff like that. Yeah, I was brought upon Makeewall, fled Zeppelin and all that classics. Some of the other lads that are in the more scale and you kind of find that that sits in and That's why when we get asked, we say we can't pigeons haul ourselves because it points there is thrash, it points there is a bit of groove and a bit of fun, and it's it's you know, and the points there is a punk vibe there and the pigeonholers is a bit hard.

Speaker 7: However, we'll take that as a compliment because that means that we're doing something different hopefully.

Speaker 4: Absolutely. Yeah, it's a good problem to have, you know. I mean, in the industry, we always try to categorize and label everything, but and you know, and there's practical reasons for doing that, but yeah, for you to be able to not be easily pigeonholder labeled is definitely a good thing. Helps you stand out. And yeah, I was are there any because I would imagine it's a pretty high energy show, right. Are there any videos of your on YouTube? Any videos of you guys playing live?

Speaker 7: Yeah's so we've got some basic stuff on YouTube, but a lot of our stuff is on our social media, so people can check us out on a million years Official on Instagram or Facebook, TikTok as well. Million years Official. There's some good lengthy videos there of some of the gigs and yeah, it's high energy. It's you know, there's none of these awkward sciences gaps. There's always something going off. Yeah, there's plenty of sweat, plenty of being being drunk, and plenty of head banging and saw our heads and I need to sit down usually afterwards, in a nice cup of tea British right, right?

Speaker 2: Is it?

Speaker 7: Check us out on social media's yeah, definitely.

Speaker 4: Yeah, excellent, excellent. Jim, is it hard sing this style because you know you're pretty intense on the vocals. Is that you know? Because Steve mentioned having some tea, I'm just wondering, I mean, do you do that to like, do you do anything to take care of your throat? Jakemans?

Speaker 6: I don't know if you have them in America, but there's a there's a coffs we called Jakemans which I have every show and just makes lose my throat a bit instead of drinking like like syrup.

Speaker 7: Or how would everyone or whiskey.

Speaker 4: Yeah, but it really.

Speaker 6: Helps with me screaming quite a lot. And then after I've played.

Speaker 4: It, my voice is usually quite normal, so really good. Yeah.

Speaker 7: The thing that I've not about your your screams gimmers, And I've heard other people who will scream when you turn that microphone off. It's like a hissed scream from some other artists, you know, it's that force back of the North. This is what Gym's doing is generally a scream. He could actually turn the mic.

Speaker 4: Off and it'd still be loud enough, no kidding.

Speaker 7: So yeah, yeah, so he's got some lungs on the lat I know that.

Speaker 4: Sounds like, yeah, no, that's that's excellent. So an obvious question, but where does the name come from? Million years?

Speaker 7: It was from May. It wasn't that an excellence? So after you made Gym first start of the band, we actually there's a festival in the UK called Download Festival. You guys might have heard. Oh yeah, it's quite quite a large festival. We were there about what three year, four years for year and we you know, we've got drunk. Jim ended up with kiss makeup on his face that couldn't get removed the entire week, and spent loads of money and we still came away with it and we formed a friendship and we're like, look, Jim knew that I've played in the band twenty years ago.

Speaker 7: Jim's always been into his music. Who was it your front Turn? And the Rattlesnakes you've actually played alongside and stuff as well in the previous lives. Yeah, and a long time ago. So we're both from the musical part, and we just said why not. We enjoyed watching and we always enjoyed this to me, let's go for it. So we actually started out in the bond name was pin wasn't.

Speaker 6: It's called portly emotion.

Speaker 7: It's a bit too soft like, as we eventually so we shifted that and maya maya on a million years is actually abbreviated to my it's a it's a measurement of unit of time. Okay, there you go. It's also something to do with the ancient Egypsian.

Speaker 6: Yeah, there's a lot of things a million years and over England people say never in a million years and stuff and that so quite a catchy as well.

Speaker 7: So yeah, every time they say that the same.

Speaker 4: Talking about there you go, we say that here too. Yeah it's a common expression. Yeah, yeah, never in a million years, there you go exactly. So what's what's so?

Speaker 5: So?

Speaker 4: So what's next for you guys? What what should we be looking out for?

Speaker 7: Well, the EPP, the one that we hope is the next step up, our next evolution, and the HOPE really defines our direction, you know, working with the various people we want to start it and you know, hence told me yourself today, we want to get you know, with our cousins over the US and get hurt over there as well. And you know, we're still slowly starting, but we think the AP is going to be the yeah, the catalyst to really kick on and we're very hopeful with it. So we're excited. We're excited to record it.

Speaker 7: We've been working very hard and I think when that comes out really defined and we hope it gets the right responses, we fail it will yeah, never know. It's as crazy, well, isn't it.

Speaker 4: Forgive me if you mentioned it already and I'm just forgetting, but was there any kind of an ETA on when the EP might be done or any kind of a timetable.

Speaker 7: So speaking with management, we believe that the way it's going to bear out is I think we're looking into just the beginning the next year for the release of the AP, which is going to do us quite nice. Sometimes you don't want to rush these things, and sometimes you don't take too long. We feel that's probably the right time for him, so they begin of twenty twenty seven. But in the main time, once we come out of that recording session and the master and everything else, we'll be but working hard on our live shows and what it's it never stops.

Speaker 4: Excellent stop, yeah, outstanding, outstanding. Well before before we let you guys go, because in a moment, I'm gonna play I'm gonna play Circles. Yeah, another great track. I love this, So we're gonna we're gonna hit that in a minute after we conclude our conversation. But I want to make sure that our listeners know where's the best place to go online to keep up with everything that you guys are doing, with everything that million guys is doing.

Speaker 7: Yeah, the best place to catches is on the social media, So on Instagram and Facebook there's a lot of content and there I know Handles is a million years official. You can find us both on Facebook and Instagram with that handle.

Speaker 4: Okay, okay, outstanding. Well listen, guys, thank you so much. Steve and Jim really want thank you.

Speaker 7: For your time and I'll be forth in July. The years guys, enjoy it.

Speaker 4: Thank you, thank you, and if you ever want to come back with the King, all right, very good, very good, we'll definitely we'll definitely have you back on in the future because you guys, it sounds like you had a lot going on and some good stuff coming. So, uh, congratulations on everything. And like I said, I love that track Elevated, and uh, we're going to hit this track Circles, so we'll let you go for now. But guys, thank you again, take care you got it. Bye bye, all right, excellent. So that is Steve and Jim from the band Million Years, and uh, this is another great track from them.

Speaker 4: I really like this a lot. Check it out. This is called Circles.

Speaker 5: I don't want to start a work by walls before my jeweler's head because I'm.

Speaker 1: Spending Lon and I juice time talk again. I'm telling you my friends and she just up to me. Ships hit sound out.

Speaker 7: Sound together.

Speaker 1: I'm going out and around.

Speaker 3: By black out of side Shot and talk to Jacks by blinds project side by cover. I talk to the shower at jack Shot and last Chelson trying at jack Shot and Bob size the tough about Alcock sign.

Speaker 1: And now we don't know get the door. Do you want to know the force to raise and the heavy breeze and feed uneasy wrench the shore the.

Speaker 5: Time of time again telling to her friends and she just looks to me, checks something something.

Speaker 9: Trying again.

Speaker 1: I'm going round and very like a way out of side shot.

Speaker 3: And talk to hag Jot Bye bye jack.

Speaker 1: Shot by god ride a talk to hag Jolly at jack Shot. That's just a drop attack.

Speaker 3: Shot bob tize the top about shot.

Speaker 1: Side and so all again.

Speaker 9: Say you start.

Speaker 1: Fall again to say by so why wouldn't try him feet the song you went on? Did every word you see?

Speaker 4: Welcome back everybody, of course, Matt Connorton unleash. We are live from the studios of w m n H ninety five point three FM, Inglorious, Manchester, New Hampshire, and of course you can stream the show. Go to Matt connorton dot com slash live for your streaming options and social media links, contact and POSHO archives, et cetera, et cetera. We just heard Circles from the band Million Years and before we talk to those guys Steven Jim, we played their newest single, Elevated. I really love their sound and I cannot wait to hear what's next.

Speaker 4: You know they're they're working on a full length recording. Can't wait to have them back on So Happy fourth of July everybody, of course, Happy Independence Day. I'm gonna play Let's see. I've got something I think we should play. This is Our America from Eddie Singh in the thirty one Days. We haven't played this in a while. Yeah, let's give this a spend. I think it's appropriate for the for the holiday, for Independence Day, So we'll give this. We'll do this, and then we'll come back and we had some time, we'll do some some more music industry news probably, and I'll remind everybody about this is a big show happening today in Nashua for those of you listening live on the fourth that you should definitely know about.

Speaker 4: So there's plenty more to come, but check this out. This is Our America from Eddie sing In the thirty one Days.

Speaker 3: Well, I don't know if you wonder why on earth we landed here with the struggle in the heartland, in a disconnected fear.

Speaker 2: We got politicians scream insanity, line Cole watch ride through that seat. I thought we were all in this together, huddled around this Liberty.

Speaker 1: Is this my marry comes? Is this my marry come? Shouldn't we stand two together? Ras Wal?

Speaker 10: It's this my marry comes, This mile Berry comes.

Speaker 9: If it is, then we ain't even close to done. We gotta take it to the city.

Speaker 3: We gotta take it to the streets, because these profits of divisions are tearing down all our hopes and dreams.

Speaker 4: I don't care if you're a Democrat. I don't care if you love the States right.

Speaker 1: I don't care if you're independent. I don't care if you're black, cold white.

Speaker 10: This is my Berry Comes. This is my Berry Comes, home of the brave of free. This is mine Berry Comes. It's the fire Mary, huddle around Miss Liberty.

Speaker 1: We have not forgotten who we are. We bound together near and for you and.

Speaker 3: Me, You and me, You and me, you and me, you and me.

Speaker 1: Will we ride a meica as our own?

Speaker 5: So what is the truth? What is the truth?

Speaker 1: What is a meica? Through and through? Will you just open your eyes?

Speaker 4: Will you just letter in?

Speaker 9: Because I hear the blowing of the wind.

Speaker 1: Maybe it was just a pink house.

Speaker 7: Maybe it was just a pink coat.

Speaker 1: Maybe we should try to go. Maybe we should take it. So maybe we should just have some fun. Maybe we were both born to rhyme. Maybe we should just take a chance.

Speaker 4: What else, maybe we should just get up and dance.

Speaker 1: Is this my aby?

Speaker 9: Come?

Speaker 1: This is my mery come home of the brave and of the free. It's the army come.

Speaker 10: It's this Ramry come aroundless liberty.

Speaker 1: Who so Mary?

Speaker 5: Because the sum is paramry, because the son ees every voice every year, mister Somry.

Speaker 1: Come some is all Mary come come praying too to guide us clean?

Speaker 5: Down Mary us Ambery, every eye, every voice, every week,

Speaker 5: pray do the lords to guide us clean.

Speaker 4: This is sorry, America. That is Eddie singing the thirty one Days. I want to play one more song for you before we get to some more music news because Aaron Billodeoh, you know, we recently featured his newest single from the album Lid Liquor, his new song The Passenger, which I believe he actually played for us to live the last time he was on the show. But he is scheduled to come back next week July eleven. Aaron billode Oh here with us live in studio, and I did see him in the chat room also, so I think we should play this song.

Speaker 4: He's got such a unique sound and I love watching him play. I don't know if he's I know he's coming in next week. I don't know if he's playing to play live next week or not hopefully, but I just love watching him, you know, as a bass player. I just he's an incredible bass player. He's far far better than me. I love just watching his hands. You know what he's playing, so so cool. But uh, let's give this listen. This is called the Passenger, and this is Aaron by.

Speaker 1: A little bit every day and waiting.

Speaker 9: Unto guy way Passenger.

Speaker 10: Oh lad, I.

Speaker 9: Cannot see its store.

Speaker 1: Love.

Speaker 9: It don't matter what I said you want.

Speaker 4: That is a Passenger from the album Lid Liquor, from our friend Aaron Bilido, who will be here with us in studio next week. Can't wait for that. Welcome everybody, if you are just joining us live. Yes, we are actually live, even though it is a holiday. July fourth, twenty twenty six, Happy Independence, Hey everybody. Matt Connorton unleashed. We are at the WMNH ninety five point three FM studio in glorious but hot, very hot, Manchester, New Hampshire. I don't even know how hot it is right now. I'm lucky.

Speaker 4: I don't mind the heat, although I have to admit yesterday it did get a little oppressive. Oh it's only eighty six degrees right now. Oh that's actually cooler today. I mean, hi eighties supposed to get up to high eighty seven. But compared to last couple days, that's actually not too bad. But that summer, what do you want. It's my favorite time of year. I do so love the summertime. But yes, happy Independence Day everybody. And we've had some great guests on the show today, all of them just happened to be British.

Speaker 4: But I do want to remind you the big Fourth of July rock show happening in Nashua today. Our friends Eleanor and Andrea at New Hampshire Underground and Terminus Underground putting this on. But this is actually going on outdoors at twenty six Sergeants Ave in Nashua. It is a residential area. So if you're going to I want to stress this because I can see how people would get confused if you're going to twenty six Sergeants AV on your GPS and you're like, this is residential. This isn't the right place.

Speaker 4: It is the right place. This is where they're doing the show. There was a sole thing. It wasn't supposed to be there. It was supposed to be somewhere else. That's not my story to tell. That's Eleanor's story to tell. We will get her on the show soon to talk about it. I invited her to come on today, but she's obviously very busy because she's got this big show that starts at two pm today. But here's the lineup at two pm. Six Minds Combined is opening the show at three pm. Aaron Billadoh, who we just heard, Who's going to be here next week.

Speaker 4: He's performing at four pm, super Child, five pm Sunset Electric. They were on the show. Jesus, it's been a few years now, I think since they we're on the show for a couple of years anyway, but they're going to be there six pm Born Fools and seven pm of course, Deed Harrison. They've got to be in the five timers club. As far as this show goes, I've interviewed them, I mean, I've interviewed them on other shows two over the years. I've probably interviewed at Harrison like ten times, great great band.

Speaker 4: Love those guys. They'll be headlining tonight at seven pm. So this all takes place again twenty six sergeants Avenue. If you are in Nashua, or if you're not in Nashua, make the drive. It's worth it. But yeah, big show today again, fourth of July. Rock Show Happy two fiftieth America and thank you to our veterans and active service duty members and so if you can it sounds like a great time, really really strong lineup today. Let's see a little bit of music industry news. Which one should we do first?

Speaker 4: I got a couple of interests. Now let's do this one first, because you know, I love talking about branding and trademarks and copyright. I'm not an attorney, I'm not a legal expert of any kind. I do know a little bit about this stuff, just because of my experience in the music industry so and with podcasts and things, so I do know some. I do know a little bit. I know enough to have an opinion. For example, earlier when we were talking about the latest update on Taylor Swift being sued by Maren Flagg over the trademark of you know, Maren Flagg has this podcast Confessions of a Showgirl.

Speaker 4: Taylor Swift has the album Life of a Showgirl. And so there is a legal battle that again I still can't believe it goes on, but it does. I think it's frivolous. But anyway, so I'm fascinated by all of these things. This I did not know about until today. I didn't know this one was going on. But this is interesting. This is another trademark situation. This is from Digitalmusicnews dot Com, one of my favorite websites for music industry news. Sidney Beach Brand beats Eminem in legal battle over swim Shady trademark.

Speaker 4: Okay, so they've been using this trademark this company swim Shady. It says here Sidney Beach Brand swim Shady has secured a trademark victory against rapper Eminem, who argued the company's name was too similar to his all ego says here, will the real swim Shady please stand up? The Sydney Beach Brand won a major victory in the trademark fight against rapper Eminem, who argued that the company's name was too similar to his established branding and longtime alter Ego Slim Shady. Now the Australian Registrar of Trademarks has narrowed the scope of the musician's claim.

Speaker 4: On Wednesday, the IP Australia Delegate IP for Intellectual Property. The IP Australia Delegate determined that his existing trademarks had not been significantly used across Australia. Evidence showed that Eminem's existing Australian trademarks for Shady and Shady Limited hadn't been genuinely used across a range of merchandise categories including clothing, bags and footwear during the relevant period. Moreover, evidence for further showed that there had been only three recent sales of Shady merch to customers in Australia during that period.

Speaker 4: The Delegate also found that there were insufficient evidence that Eminem to exercise the level of control over the Australian sale of merch required to maintain trademark protection in these specific categories. That brings up an interesting question that I want to circle back to. Something about this I've always wondered, and again we're talking about this is you know, the laws in Australia are not the laws here, but there's there's a broad question that I've been thinking about when it comes to trademarks.

Speaker 4: But we'll come back to that, so more to this again. This is from Digitalmusicnews dot Com. As a result, the Shady and Shady Limited trademarks will now be removed from several merch categories, thereby allowing swim Shady to continue selling under its existing brand. The main issue at hand is the timing. Eminem has long been known by his slim Shady mind, but he did not register slim Shady as an Australian trademark in the country until after swim Shady launched its own business. Ah swim Shady founders Jeremy Scott and Elizabeth Afrikoff said, quote, while this is an important milestone for swim Shady, it is one step in the broader trademark proceedings and we recognize there are still matters to be resolved unquote.

Speaker 4: Indeed, the Australian ruling is just one part of the broader dispute. Eminem is also opposed swim Shady's trademark in several jurisdictions, including the United States, the United Kingdom and Japan. Meanwhile, his legal team has until July twenty second to appeal the decision. In Australia. It's just the latest ruling in a series of high profile trademark disputes, including Katy Perry's battle against Sydney designer Katy Perry and Taylor Swifts fight against a real life showgirl. That's the story of the Taylor Swift thing, is what we talked about earlier.

Speaker 4: I did not know so Katy Perry, I guess I'm gonna have to click that link because now I'm curious. We'll go down that rabbit hole. So I guess Katy Perry has been in some sort of legal battle with a designer from Sydney, Australia named Katy Perry. Uh oh, so this brings the question that I always wonder about with this stuff. Let's go back a little bit and again I understand Australian laws different than in the United States, but let's see okay this paragraph here. Moreover, evidence further showed that there had been only three recent sales of shady merch to customers in Australia during that period.

Speaker 4: The Delegate also found that there was insufficient evidence that Eminem had exercised the level of control over the Australian sale of merch required to maintain trademark protection in the specific categories. So it raises the question. This is something I've always wondered about. What if someone trademarks something, They trademark a name, and then they just never do anything with it, so they own the trademark and then they just they just park it. I don't know if that would be the right term.

Speaker 4: We use that term when it comes to website domains. You know, if you buy a web domain and you and you park it, you just you don't do anything with it. You just own it because you want to own it in case somebody needs it, they're gonna have to pay you for it. What's to prevent people from doing that with trademarks? Is there anything to prevent people from doing that with trademarks? If you just think of something that's a cool name and you find out nobody has it yet, and you say, I'm gonna trademark that, so if somebody wants to use that, they're gonna have to come to me for it, or I'm gonna get some sort of some sort of money from that.

Speaker 4: What's to prevent people from doing that? And I don't know Apparently in the Australia system of doing this, there is sort of a safeguard built in against people being able to do that because if you buy a trademark, but then you're not using it. So in other words, Eminem, after the swim Shady brand launched, Eminem his legal team went ahead and filed this trademark in Australia, right retroactively in effect. Right, but if they're not doing anything with it, and they're not going to do anything with it, I mean, it's almost a form of harassment in a way.

Speaker 4: Now, the way that Eminem's legal team probably argues it is they would say, well, if it were not for slim Shady, there would be no swim Shady because obviously the point of the name swim shady, that's a play on the name slim shady, right, swomen's slim rhyme, and it's you know, it's not hard to figure out. In other words, if Eminem had never used the slim Shady alter ego and use that name, the swim Shady brand would not exist. They would they would have called it something else, right, So that's probably how Eminem's legal team argues it and why it's trademark infringement.

Speaker 4: But it sounds like in Australia, if you own a trademark but then you're not using it, you're just parking it. Again, I don't know if that's the term when it comes to trademarks. You can't just claim it in perpetuity that your trademark is being infringed upon. And again I don't know if if the US Patent Office, for example, treats that the same way. I don't know if they do. I hope that they do, because I think that they should, because you shouldn't be able to just buy a trademark just to have it and then never do anything with it, and then be able to sue somebody because they're using it, especially if because I assume the swim Shady trademark was approved by Australia's what is it IP delegate, right, so now they're using it.

Speaker 4: You don't just you know, if you're a big company like that, you're not just going to you know, like a big swimwear company or whatever. You're not just going to start using a trademark without being sure that you can legally right anyway. So I've just always that's something I've always wondered about what's to stop people from abusing the trademark system. It's not that expensive. I know because I've done it. It's not that expensive to file for a trademark. So what's to prevent someone from just buying up lots and lots of trademarks that they think someone's going to want to use, or if you have knowledge, almost like insider trading, although that's definitely not the right term in this I don't know what the term would be here, But if you have knowledge that somebody is going to be wanting to trademark something potentially, and you have some sort of insider knowledge about that, and you say, oh, I'm going to go, I'm going to run and register this trademark.

Speaker 4: Now, I do know in the US Trademark and Patent Office they don't us. They don't just give out trademarks like candy. You do have to supply some documentation. But again, what's to prevent someone from just kind of doing that frivolously and presenting that they have the intentions of using this trademark for something, but then in the end they don't use it, they're just parking it. So it's something I wonder about Now I am. I wasn't planning on doing this, but now I'm curious. I'm going to click this and see what this Katy Perry thing is all about.

Speaker 4: So apparently, oh, this happened back in April and twenty twenty three, so this is not recent news, but I do think it's relevant. So and that's why they included the link in the article. So I'm just gonna go ahead and look at this. This is from Digital Musicnews dot com. Katie Perry beats Katy Perry in a David and Goliath trademark battle, saying this is a win for small business. Ah okay, all right, So singer Katy Perry has lost a trademark lawsuit by Australian fashion designer Katy Perry. Katy Perry sued the Pops Are for allegedly infringing the designer's trademark with her merchandise.

Speaker 4: Oh interesting, okay, So on Friday April twenty eight, and again keep in mind this is a few years ago. Justice Bridget Markovic or Markovic ruled that clothing sold during Katy Perry's twenty fourteen Australia tour breached designer and small business owner Katie Perry's trademark, Katie's company, Kitty Purry must pay damages to Katie Katie the Australian Designer, apparently, the amount of which will be determined in May. So we won't go through the whole thing because again it's old news. It's from a few years ago.

Speaker 4: But that's an example of but again this. Oh, and they do spell them differently, by the way. So Katie Perry the Australian Designer spells it Katie, and of course Katy Perry spells it. You know, the singer calls it, spells it kat Y. Okay, what was the other thing we had? Oh, this is interesting because A obviously is a subject that comes up quite a bit on the show. We talked about AI and its impact on the music industry and in entertainment and some of the other some of the other you know, potential problems that it may raise.

Speaker 4: This is about weird Al Yankovic, by the way, I'm a weird alfan. Weird Al Yankovic abruptly pulls out of a lucrative AI ad spot, saying that he can't be the poster boy for AI. And this is something new that I was not aware of it, says. Weird Al reveals that he was offered a lucrative ad spot for productivity software, but he backed out once he realized the product involved AI. I'm not a fan of AI. Quote unquote Again, this is from Digital Musicnews dot Com. Parody king weird Al Yankovic sat down for an interview with Syracuse dot Com ahead of his Syracuse stop on his Bigger and Weirder tour, where he revealed that he was offered a nice pile of money to appear in a commercial for productivity focused business software, but once he realized the project involved AI, he backed out.

Speaker 4: Quote. I'm not going to mention any names, but they told me it was for a business. It was business software that would increase productivity. I said, oh, well, yeah, sure I could do that. And then a week before we're supposed to shoot it, I find out this is AI, and I thought, oh no, I can't be the poster boy for AI. Forget it. So I felt bad about kind of pulling out at the last minute, but yeah, I'm not down with that unquote. The musician is very familiar with the weird Al jokes that have cropped up on on online sites since the rise of artificial intelligence, but he has made it clear that he is not a fan of AI.

Speaker 4: Oh the weird AI jokes? Is that what it is? Meanwhile, besides history, Yankovic is working on a Broadway musical. All right, m we won't get into that, but I'd be curious to know. Though. Here's the thing about this, and again I respect his decision, but I would just be curious to know when he says, well, I found out the software was AI. Is there an AI component to it? Is it literally like a chat chept?

Speaker 10: Like?

Speaker 4: What are we talking about here? Because you know AI? I mean, we can pretend it's like this brand new thing, but it's not. Lots of things have been using you know, we talk about this when we talk about how you know, these platforms are now trying to like Spotify, they're now trying to flag AI generated music and it's like, okay, cool, but some people are going to get caught up in the net because you know, every major recording studio with with you know, advanced software. You know some of those programs have AI components in them.

Speaker 4: If you've interacted with the chatbot online, maybe you're trying to get service from a company and you're talking to a chatbot. You know, that's been going on for at least twenty years, maybe longer. That's that's an example of AI. So it's not like it's a new thing. I'm just curious, like when when he says, well, I found out the software was AI, what does that mean exactly? I would like to know more about that. Again, I'm not you know, I'm certainly not criticizing him or his decision or anything like that.

Speaker 4: I respect it, but I just I'm I would be curious to know more. And I wonder if if any of you might feel the same way about that. I just would be I just would be curious, curious to know more about that. Yeah, we have time for one more quick thing. Also, digital music news reporting this, Spotify shows up a lot in the news, especially lately. Spotify asked judge to shift undisclosed filtering practice his lawsuit to federal court. Spotify has officially moved to shift to federal court the undisclosed filtering practices lawsuit filed against it by artists and attorney Mark Crater.

Speaker 4: I know a little bit about this, but it says here Spotify set that shift in motion with a notice of removal yesterday after Crater fired off an amended complaint and aggressively sought an injunction in late June. But to recap, the plaintiff maintains that Spotify in March retooled its streaming and recommendation system without informing the public or artists themselves. The alleged pivot fueled a sudden, simultaneous and systemic collapse in streams across Crowter's multiple artists profiles. According to the complaint, Okay, that's very interesting.

Speaker 4: So in other words, he's basically he's suing, saying, look, Spotify has changed the way that they do this, the way they do their filtering system, and because of that change, my streams, my streaming numbers are way down. I'm not getting the traffic I was.

Speaker 7: I have.

Speaker 4: I have a gut reaction to that. But we'll finish this article quickly and then we'll I'll tell you what I think. So it refers to five artist pages for the amended action, and Spotify is just submitted retort. However, upon closer inspection, the plaintiff appears to operate additional profiles as well, like a distinct mark Crater band singles page on top of the main mark crater band profile, for instance, that can be a problem having too many profiles and with actual consumption data factoring prominently into the action.

Speaker 4: Crater is accusing Spotify of making the relevant changes to boost major label catalogs at the expense of indies. Now Spotify is weighed in on the suit and filed to shift the showdown from the Stanford Superior Court to the US District Court for the District of Connecticut. There's more here about that, specifically about what Cratter is trying to do in terms of moving the case to the US District Court. I just would say, though I'm not sure. I'm not someone who wants to defend Spotify, but I don't know.

Speaker 4: Can you if you're an artist and you have your music on a platform and that platform changes something about how the algorithm works, how their search functions work, how they're filtering works in this case, can you then sue them for that because they've damaged you in some way? I am pretty skeptical. I don't want I don't want to say this is frivolous, but I don't know. I kind of do want to say this is frivolous. I mean first of all, these platforms, and I don't have much experience directly with Spotify because I haven't been releasing my own music, But I mean, I have some experience with YouTube.

Speaker 4: They're always changing their rules and how things work and what shows up and what doesn't in searches and et cetera, and how the algorithms work. They're always they're always changing things. So as facebooks, you know, so as a lot of these platforms. But and in the case of YouTube, a lot of creators, a lot of podcasters have been damaged in many different ways, in many different instances over the years by YouTube specifically. And I've had my problems and complaints about YouTube. But I don't know I mean to actually sue one of these platforms for changing how they do things.

Speaker 4: I mean, it's not as though I would assume it's not as though Spotify somebody said in a room at Spotify and said, let's really screw over Mark Crater, We're going to change something about how our platform works so that we can decimate this guy's streaming numbers. Right. I don't think there was any malicious intent here on the part of Spotify, So I'm not sure about going and suing them. It seems strange to me. I don't know if it's frivolous, And again, I don't want to be defending Spotify. You know, obviously, at the end of the day, I will always advocate on behalf of artists because of my background.

Speaker 4: But I just I don't know if this is a fight that I would have chosen with Spotify. I mean, they're a private company. They can I don't think they're publicly traded, are they. They can really kind of make whatever rules they want to about how their platform op rates, right. I mean, we had a discussion on a not on this show, but on a podcast that I do separate from all of this, where we were talking about, you know, does a platform the rights of a platform to control how it operates and how and whether someone can even be operating on their platform.

Speaker 4: You know, these are private companies that you know, we might not like it. It might feel like censorship when they do things to either remove us from their platforms or to potentially hide our content or lower our streaming numbers, et cetera. But ultimately, they are private companies and they have a right to do what they want to. So I just don't think this is I don't think this guy, Mark Cratter is going to win. I guess that's my long winded way of saying that. All right, we need to begin to wrap up.

Speaker 4: I do want to thank everyone who joined us today on the show and wish everyone a very happy and safe fourth of July. Happy Independence Day to everybody, And of course I want to thank all of our great guests today. We had the Radio Addicts, Million Years, the Azuessens, and of course I want to remind you one more time before we go. If you are listening live on Saturday the fourth, the fourth of July Rock Show happening at twenty six Sergeants av in Nashua, starts at two pm. Six Minds Combined, Aaron billode Oh, Super Child, Sunset, Electric Born, Fools and Dead Harrison all performing live and again.

Speaker 4: It is a residential area. So if you're going there, you got your your Google Maps and you're going to twenty six Sergeants have and you think this doesn't look like, this doesn't look right. It is right. You're in the right place. It is a residential area. But there's going to be a lot of great music happening today. So again, fourth of July Rock Show twenty six Sergeants av in Nashua. Please go support our friends Eleanor and Andre from New Hampshire Underground Terminus Underground. Definitely a lot of great talent performing there today.

Speaker 4: If you want to know more about me and what I'm up to, you can go to my website Matt Connorton dot com. Not only will you find information about this show there, but also if you'd like to book a hypnotherapy session or just set up a free consultation, you can do that too. I am a certified hypnotherapist. I can help you quit smoking, lose weight, deal with phobia, as all kinds of stuff. You can learn more. Just go to my website Matt Connorton dot com. Hit me up, contact me. I would love to talk to you.

Speaker 4: Also Jenny's website. She's been up to a lot of great stuff. She's been doing some traveling. Go to Jencoffee dot com for everything that Jenny is doing. She has been up to some good trouble, as we like to say. And if you missed any part of today's show, it will be up in just a little bit. You can find it at my website Matt Coonnorton dot com and of course our news site Matt Connorton unleashed dot com. You can find it there as well with our searchable database. We will conclude I think with I think we should give this one more spin again with apologies to my British friends, but and end of the guests that we had today.

Speaker 4: But it's all in fun. But I think we should close out because it is a patriotic song to end our show today, fourth of July. Our friends the Melted Chapsicks who will be here with us August first, and I can't wait for that. But they released this especially for the fourth of July. So I will leave you with this song. This is called from the Melted Chapsis. This is called We Beat the British. Bye everybody, Happy Independence Day.

Speaker 1: We did it. We did it, We we did it. We did Clee. And let's say, tennis shot was fine. I really don't know why. Now we got it like rock stuffs come the full the July. We did it. We did it, We British, We did it. We did Clee.

Speaker 1: They thought that they contax us. We told them to go to hell.

Speaker 10: Now they're ringing in their ears from the liberty bell.

Speaker 1: We did it. We did it. We beat the brit Ash. We did it. We did it. Cleeveat the britt As they.

Speaker 10: Gave us beetle Mania, the store so of hu the clash, we.

Speaker 1: Give you the melted chaff sticks. It's gonna be a bash. We did it. We did it. We beat the bread Ash. We did it. We did it. Clee beat the britt Ash.