Matt Connarton Unleashed 7-6-24 hour 2

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Eager to enthrall you with its mesmerizing cadence and villain you foundless all its horn is won d you're listening to w m n A w m n H rip the Dobles Commander, don't get super matz. Hello everybody, Here we go as we enter our number two New Marrow dose of Matt Connorton unleashed and we are live from these studios of w m n H ninety five point three FM and Glorious Manchester, New Hampshire. And we are on Facebook this week as well. That is up and running and having a good time with that with the new camera set up here in the studio.

And today is Saturday, July sixth, twenty twenty four. I am not alone. J I found it. You found it. I found it. Yes. Jenny is here of course at the news table, present and accountant book. And thank you again so much to our friends in jam tomorrow for a great first hour. Love those guys, they sound amazing. I love those studio tracks and hearing them live is always great. And of course in the third hour we have mister Goodbars. But right now joining us, Kira Curtis is here. Hello, Kira, hi, and you.

We learned a view from our friend Temple Mountain Eric in Palamini. Am I saying his name right? His last name? I think I might have gotten it? Is it in Palamini? I think so I'm gonna go with yes, Okay, Yeah, I mean it sounds good, right, It sounded like I mean, it just kind of rolled off my tongue. I think I finally got it. I mean, I mean it's easier to just call him Temple Mountain. And his last name is changing anyway when he gets married. Apparently he's taking his wife's namey that'll be that'll be easy, easier, easier to say, right right, But yes, welcome Kia.

And uh, you do a number of different things. So you're a visual artist yep. And you're also a musician yep, and uh an entrepreneur, shall we say absolutely? Yeah? What what's kind of the thing that you spend the most time on would you say so? Probably definitely the art portion of it. Yeah, music takes a close second, but it all kind of gets mashed together because it kind of depends on what fits in the schedule and what's currently booked. How how difficult is it to kind of do that in terms of uh, I mean, do you sell do you sell art?

Do you do art showings? Do you? I mean obviously on your website you have artwork available, but I mean, how does that work? What's your approach to that from kind of a business standpoint? So basically how I started out was I made a collection of work and then I built my website, printed out two thousand business cards and walked around Manchester like a crazy person, walking into all the local businesses handing out business cards. Yeah, and so from there I was able to kind of network and get the groundgoing.

So then I actually did pop up shops at Shoppers, Pub and Eatery, and I did another one at hop Not, And I had art up in a handful of businesses yeah, like Top Shelf, I'm Shopper, Spub, and Eatery. I've also had stuff up in two Share brewing company as well twice. And so then and between like the different showings. I guess like having being a featured artist. I'm in Manchester but also conquered because I did Dos Amigos last year in February. But in between those things, because I'll have artwork up.

I also do the Londondery Flea Market, so essentially like that's like my go to

consistent locations so it's easier to find me. And then I have the online stuff if people want to continue to find me, but not in person. And then so I have the Londonderry stuff. I've paired up with somebody their company's night Hollow, but we share the space so that I can pop around and do different like craft fairs, psychic fares because I do metaphysical stuff as well. Okay, and then I've also did market days. It was it two weeks ago. I did a comic con in Natick last week. I also do paint parties, which is actually how I met Greg who runs who owns Rude Awakening, and then I did the mural for him.

So I'm like, I'm all over the place. Yeah yeah, uh so, but you started you just like you said, you just you printed business cards and you went around to what was what was kind of your pitch Like when you would go into a business to like, what would you what would you say? Well, first I'd ask if they work with local artists, So that was kind of the general pitch. Yeah. As far as like individual people, I typically asked them if they like trash pan, does avocado puns or crack his squirrels. That usually gets people's attention, so that's my go to.

But as far as like local businesses, I try to cover my basis first before I'm just like, hey, do you like avocado puns? Right?

Was that intimidating when you started? Was that a little bit? I've kind of worked through my social anxiety so at this point I'm perfectly comfortable with it. But it was definitely like a all right, gonna do the wiggle arms and get myself all comfortable and march my butt in there and yeah, hand out business cards. But it definitely got a lot easier. Yeah, over time. Kind of it also helped too that I was already a performer, so it kind of east me into it faster. Yeah. Yeah, because I feel like so much whether it's you know, whether it's art or anything, so much of it it's just kind of you know, getting past that initial sort of angst over you know, approaching people and say, you know, here's what I do.

Are you interested in doing this with? You know? And can we work together? But I would imagine too, as you started to have some initial success with it, I gets easier, right, because then you start to feel like, Okay, I actually can I actually can do this. I actually can't make this work? Yeah yep, now what So but you were already a performer, so were you already doing music in terms of playing out with bands? And so I was doing open mics first because I wanted to get over the hurdle of the performance anxiety.

Yeah, but also I was trying to like create a collection of work that I could actually perform out. Yeah, because like I was doing covers, but I wanted to have more originals. So then by the time I was ready, I had somewhere between twelve and thirteen originals and a handful of covers. So I was actually getting ready to do so solo. But then I made a band mix account and I had a band reach out to me that night and I've been with him ever since. Okay, so it just kind of worked out. Yeah, yeah, what what's the band?

So originally we were a Catalyst, but now we've kind of reformed into a new band since we do original music now okay, so now we are Ashbourne. Okay, we're like a rock and roll metal band. Yeah, fun, yeah yeah, but you don't with that band. You don't have any studio recordings yet, not yet. No, right now we only have live recordings, which is limited success because my phone has terrible audio quality. Oh yeah, it's like love that tinmy sound right right? But yeah, no, yeah, I think I think I saw some things on YouTube.

But but yeah, yeah, it's a it's a process. And what was the other thing? So Eric had said something else? Well, how did maybe the still jog my memory? There was something else that he told us about you? But how is it that you met Eric from Temple Mountains? So I actually met him at an open mic? Okay, I met him at my go to, which was the undiscovered open mic Up and Conquered run by a Hank Gonsburne. That's where I met him. I hadn't been in a while, so it was kind of like a like a co winky dink. But that's where I met him, and then I guess he saw some of my art, so he reached out to me, and then I ran into him again coincidentally at another open mic, which was at Rude Awakening, because they do open mics once a month these like the last Saturday of the month, so my band wanted to check them out because we wanted to play there.

Yeah, so happened to run into him, and then he and I ended up doing a live painting together. So I did a painting of him I'm Up and Conquered and I think it took like, I don't know, an hour or two or he was just playing and I painted him and I added geese because that was the request. So he's got geese, kidd Wow. Yeah, So that was fun. And I did an album cover for him too, Oh wow. Yeah. Okay, Is that is that challenging because I assume when you're doing the live painting, is that uh yes and no.

I mean I went to art school, so we didn't wed. We draw. We drew a lot of naked people, so not not that he was, but like you know, in the sense of like figure drawing,

so there's that. I also just I draw a lot of people, so it's gotten a lot easier because I just I understand anatomy, so I wouldn't say that was particularly difficult, but show no, no. So we we met up and conquered. We popped a squat in one of like the courtyard areas and so then I just I sat on the ground while he played, and then people would pass by. It was kind of cool. We live streamed it, and it's kind of interesting because he had some people walk by and they wanted to see what what I was drawing, and he was up on stairs because the composition we looked better, and so some people would you know, comment and walk by.

Some people would watch a little bit, and it was it was fun. It was a lot of fun. Yeah, yeah, I guess I wondered if it was distracting at all, you know, having people walk by. You know that because obviously there are some there are some things you know that you do creatively. You know, we all have things that we do creatively where you have to really kind of focus and concentrate and the last thing you want is distractions. But but it sounds like, you know, with something like that, it's actually fun to have people it is stop and take an interest and not to brag we got tipped six dollars but pass nice.

Yeah, oh very cool. And what was the You mentioned something about paint parties? What is that? So I'm a I'm a paint party host, but I work for paint the town. And basically how that works is instead of working at a specific location, I go to the party. Oh so I take it all with me. So I've been. I've been all over New England because they don't have a lot of paint party hosts right now, but at least up in the New England area's a national brand, so they're all over the country. Oh okay, So basically it works like you have your pinpoint location.

So my quote area designated area is Manch unless they need a paint party post somewhere else in New England. So I've done Massachusetts in Maine as well. I've got a one in Maine actually next week. But anyway, I take all the stuff with me and I go drive over, I set up for a few hours, and then I walk them through the paint process and then I take it all back. I take it all with me, minus the paintings. They get to keep the paintings, but like all the paint and stuff yeah, so it's kind of fun interesting is it almost like uh like kind of an art class when you do it?

Like think like think like get up, well depending on the context, but like think, I think like a bunch of drunk people get together and want to paint, you know, unless like they do have like kid parties too, like I do work with all ages. So I did I think My first paint party was with girl Scouts. Yeah, they were so cute. They were so cute. And then I've done a couple of different bars as well. They'll have me come in, they'll do sign ups, and so you get all the people drinking. But the big thing is people just having fun.

I didn't even know that was a thing. The paid party as well. Yeah. You ever have an instance where you do one of those and there's somebody who's participating in the party where you go, Wow, this person has some real potential. Oh absolutely, No, absolutely, I feel like there's always at least one. You get like the spectrum off. You get the people who paint, they get super super frustrated and it's like no happy trees, happy trees. And then you have like the person who's just like really quiet, and then it's just kept like they're just super super talented, and then everybody else is like, I don't want to paint like that.

Where have you been hiding all this time? I didn't know you could paint? Yeah, what do you when that happens? What do you do? Like? Do you try to give them advice? Do you give them like encouragement like, hey, you should maybe pursue this kind of I kind of gauge the person because some of them do have paint experience, some theme do it for fun. Some people it's like I'll ask if they want any feedback because like, even as a professional artist, even I like it like getting feedback as well. Yeah, so I kind of gauge them before I proceed, But I definitely encourage people where I can.

Yeah, yeah, do you ever? Uh you ever? Also on the on the other side, you ever see instance is where somebody thinks they've done a great thing and they're excited about it, and you're thinking, I mean yeah, but like also art subjective, I'm just like, just because like I don't like it doesn't make it any less valid. So I still want to like make them feel good about it, because like you know, for them, for some people taking that step to even paint is such a big deal because it's so far out of their comfort zone.

So for them, it is a masterpiece. So I definitely want to make them, you know, feel and understand that that is a masterpiece in its own right. Don't listen to him, don't. Well I don't, So I'm very I have no visual artistic ability whatsoever. So I'm kind of fascinated by because I don't know what it's like to be able to do that. Yeah, Like Jenny does these incredible paintings. You know, she's an artist, and and I look at what she does, and I don't, Like, my brain isn't wired that it. Like, I don't know how she does it.

Like I can't the way my brain, I can't understand it, you know, Like I'm creative in other ways. You know, I'm a musician, and you know I can create and I can write music and so forth. But visually, like I hated art class when I was a kid. I went to UH from grade two to grade eight. I went to Saint John's and Conquered and we would have like art class every I think it wasn't every week. It was like it was weird. It was like every other week or something, these two outside artists would come in, so they weren't full time teachers there, and uh, I hated it because, you know, I felt like I was being forced to do something that I that I knew I couldn't do, you know what I mean, Like, you know, they'd be you know, they'd be walking.

I remember, I actually remember this. I remember trying to paint something and they wanted us. It was trees, and they wanted us to like paint a house with trees, and and I remember it just just to look busy. I was painting this same tree over and over. And I guess one of them actually caught onto what I was doing because she came around and said, you don't have to keep going over that. It looks good now. And I'm like, and I'm thinking, you know, I'm just I'm trying to look like I'm doing so because I'm really you know, like I just I understood that about myself that I had no no ability to do that particular thing, you know what I mean.

I feel like the misconception with artist art is a form of problem solving. Like I actually used to be an art teacher in Manchester, oh Okay, I taught at three of the Catholic schools. Oh and then I also was the art director at the Boys and Girls Club for a bit. But the big thing that I noticed was that there seems to be this conception that art is just for visual expression, an outlet of some sort. But the big, the big reason why art's important is it's a problem solving solf. So even if you can't visually, you know, use paint or push around, you know, a pencil, that's not the point.

The point is understanding what what is the problem that needs to be you solved? How do you use the skill set you have in order to create something that visually makes sense? Which also helps with the skill set to being able to visualize in problem solved outside of a you know, a painting context, you know, and then over time building that makes things you know, outside of art so much easier. Whether you're building something, whether you're even pursuing something like science or mathematics, makes a huge difference in itself.

So it's it's interesting, it's just creative problem solving that is really interesting. I've never heard anyone explain it that way before. Oh that have you? No? I think that was great. That was perfect. Like I'm literally sitting here going yes, yeah, And I hate when you honestly, I don't like it when you say things of all yourself in that way, because I see, I don't think people know what they're capable of, only because I didn't pick up an art a paint brush until like six years ago, years ago.

Like that's true. Literally, I I was the empty I drew stick figures for doctors to say, okay, I took the bloo pressure lying down. So that was the extent of I thought my artistic abilities. But like the plague hit and stuff, and I had a friend that was selling all these art supplies and for whatever reason, I was like, oh, what the heck, I'll grab them yep, and just started playing with it, you know, and it just and that's what's happened over these years is just doing that. And so that in and of itself to me showed me that I really don't know what I'm capable of.

And you like and actually try it if you have no idea what kind of creativity is locked inside? You're a musician, you have the ability to think creatively. Yes, you don't know, you've never picked up a brush, and went, let me see what I can do, but I also have zero inclination to do it. So that's well, that's that's yeah. But part of what's so impressive about what Jenny has done is so it's it's over the course of our being together that she's that she started painting. She's so she's kind of still in the grand scheme of things, relatively new as an artist, but she's already had showings at Mosaic here in Manchester, Tosaic Art Collective, and she's the featured artist at the National U Nashua Creative Collective in August.

Yeah, the Midnight Midnight Creative Collectives in August. Yeah, yeah, thank you. They're going to feature of my work, which is pretty exciting. That's awesome, Yeah, nerve wracking, exciting. Yes, So it's it's so impressive to me to just see how she's been able to do that. Oh, by the way, speaking of uh Nashua, uh spelfy Hams's and the Chatterman says, hey, everyone just tuned in. Don't know if you've talked about it yet, but Kira is joining us for the Leading Ladies Show on the nineteenth that Terminus and is going to be the mcc Artist of the Month for November.

Nice. Well, congratulations, that is fantastic. Yeah, that's fantastic. What what is this? Leading Ladies? What's that? So there's three bands that's going to be playing, So Faith and band is going to be there, and then I want to say, it's another band called Paradise and then my band Ashbourne. Okay, but I got three bands with Leading Ladies. Oh, very cool. That's not fun. July nineteenth, Yes, July nineteenth, that's a Friday. M hm, y doors open eight o'clock. Excellent, excellent. That's that Terminus and Nashville.

If you haven't been, it's an excellent venue. It really is. I tell everyone because Jenny and I were there for the open house, and the thing I say to everybody is, and she's heard me say it a million times. When you walk in, have you you've I assume you've been there. Yes, it's to me, it's like walking into another dimension. It's hardest walk in that room. Yeah, it's totally the tardest, one of the coolest places I've seen for like a music venue. Yeah, Like, I'm so excited. You walk in and you think, well, okay, it's kind of small or whatever, and then you walk a little further and and all of a sudden it just opens up into this incredible space that's just loaded with musicians and artists and oh my yeah, yeah, very very cool.

I'm looking forward to being there if you're just joining us, A cure Curtis is here with us live in studio. I want to go back to, though, what you were saying about the problem solving with art. It sounds like do you feel that again? For some like, I'm never going to do it because I just, like I said, my brain this isn't wired for it, but for creating. Although like I said, I can, I can do other kinds of art, you know, musically and so forth. Is do you feel like creating art helps I mean, is it just kind of good for your brain overall?

Like does it help you with because you mentioned problem solving using art, and problem solving helps you outside of that as well. Oh yeah, it also helps with freedom of thought? Yeah, right, because if you can think outside of the box, regardless of whether it's you know, art on paper, whether it's writing, whether it's music, Art in itself is a way of creating individual thought and creating new ideas and challenging you know, ideas that might not work anymore, right because people are forever evolving.

That's just kind of the whole point of being human, right, Art is you know, a way of problem solving in the sense of, yes, it's it's also visual, but it also kind of helps in the sense of the best way I can explain it. So it's like we are constantly stimulated by it, right, everything that we see is art, you know. So it's like whether it's social media or phones, t shirts, it's everywhere. It's also the same reason why it's no longer valued because when it's in our face all the time, why would we understand the value when it's something that's so easily accessible.

Right, So now it's like there's this idea that art is just a means of, you know, putting feelings on paper. It's no longer this idea that we are you know, taking a problem and solving it. It's only seen as this one facet when it's so much more nuanced than that. And even take like engineering, engineering or architecture that is a form of visual art in itself. There's a lot more mathematics involved, but it is still a form of problem solving. You know, if someone goes to fix their house and they want to add a deck and they want it to fit the specific you know, proportions and measurements, they're going to have to be able to visualize that.

You know, So regardless of what it is, it is a very necessary skill across the board, even if it is just being able to visualize a goal. I used to tell my students that there is just like it's okay, that it's not something you're good at. Think of it as and I'd ask them like, hey, what do you want to do when you grow up? You know, if they could give me a response like okay, I want you to visualize that, it doesn't matter. You know, at the end of the day, this isn't about whether you can or cannot draw.

This is about you visualizing the things that you want and understanding how to create a path for yourself to be able to achieve that goal, right, because paths aren't linear. I've definitely bounced around a lot. I mean, I want to you know, I'm pursuing my dream, but I mean I've been all over the place. Sure, sure, you know, but I've been able to collect and build a skill set that works for me in pursuing the path that I choose. So art kind of gives that facet of Yeah, it doesn't have to be on paper, but at least gives people the skill set to be able to communicate and visualize the things they want and how to achieve them.

A lot of what you're saying too resonates with me because I'm a hypnotherapist and one of the things that I do during the session is I have the client, well, I have a standard thing that I do pretty much at the end of every session where I have them visualize, visualize themselves, but a version of themselves that they most want to be, and I talk about the path to getting there, and I have them do this visualization where they actually step inside that version and become that version of who they want to be.

But I always too, I tell all of my clients, even outside of hypnosis, visualization is very powerful because everything that we do, everything that we accomplish or create, everything that we become, everything that we achieve, it all starts in our imaginations. It all starts with some sort of visualization. First you imagine it, you dream it, you think it, and then you go and accomplish it. You do it and make it real. Oh, A Spelfe in the chat room says, I don't think I can be hypnotized. Anybody can be hypnotized.

What's that? Everybody says that? Is it a consent thing?

Exactly right, It's not like you see on TV in the movies. I can't you know, I can't hypnotize you against your will. But if you want to be hypnotized, I can't. I tell everybody, really, all hypnosis is self hypnosis. I'm just guiding you through the process, you know. But it's like people saying they can't meditate, but you can. If you can box breathe, you can meditate because you know what I mean. If you really want to change something, then you absolutely can be hypnotized and affect those changes.

But if you're going to fight against it, this no real point. Something else that really caught my ear. You were talking about art not being valued. Can you expand on that? Oh? Absolutely, I'm so. It's like, at least throughout my life I encountered a lot of people where it's just like, why would you be an artist when you can go online and print, like just print things off your printer or you know, I've I've had people tell me to go get a real job, like I've Yeah, I've had some people say some pretty nasty things to me.

But that's okay, that's that's you know, that's a projection of them, not of me. But yeah, I think it's jealousy. I think it's that's jealousy in the sense that they want to cut you down in some way and they get less valued. I think it's more than that though. Yeah, I think that deep down a lot of people have goals that they wanted and because for whatever reason, whether it was programmed in or whatnot, they felt obligated to pursue a different path. And that because they themselves did not believe that they had the option and they gave up it that in their mind, it isn't an option for anybody.

And so if they were to accept that it is a valid path if they choose, if they were to choose it, they would actually it would challenge everything they think they currently understand. Yes, it would. It'd be an ego death in itself because they would have to accept that the world that they understand is not the world that they thought it was. Right, I really love how you put that, Ye, thank you. But I think the same goes for like the value of art. And so it's like I said before, it's like when you're overstimulated with it.

Rights, It's like that was it demand supply versus demand. We have a huge supply and arguably, at least in the sense of because people kind of put all art in the same you know thing, there's more supply than there is demand for it. Yeah, right, So

should you put this? I guess as a result because if stuff that we see, people don't understand how much work in time goes into it, and they don't understand that even like something like T shirt design is not going to be the same as a fine artist, right. And it's also not you know, you're sitting in a corner at home, Doodling's a lot more to it, and arguably to be an artist too. You can't just sit at home. There are plenty of people that I've seen, you know who it was quote the only thing that they were good at.

So they went to art school and they were really good. However, they weren't expecting what comes after, right, which is you have to be your own entrepreneur. You have to be your own marketer, and if you aren't, you have to find someone who's willing to do it for you. Right, there's a lot of time and effort. Arguably being an artist, the drawing portion of it is the lesser portion of it. It's important, you need it to have a body of work. But to be successful at art, you have to understand who you're marketing to and like, even if you draw for yourself, able to identify the people that like the stuff that you're producing.

Like just just as an example, like avocado punds are super silly, Like that was an inside joke that I didn't think was going to go anywhere, but people liked it. It was well received. It was a surprise to me. But you know what, that's okay, that's a sacrifice I am willing to make. But like I was able to find my niche does it make sense to most people. Maybe not. You know, I think that my art may or may not offend some people because it is humor. So there are artists that I suspect from conversations I've had that might resent the fact that I've pursued the humor because they want people to take art seriously, and so by pursuing a humorous outlet, it might seem disrespectful to some people because they spend so much time and energy into making something that challenges the status quo that the idea that somebody is making art that is humorous is offensive to them, which is kind of interesting, but you know, it is what it is.

But art subjective and art challenges different ideas and different perspectives, So there really isn't any right or wrong to it. But anyway, I got sidetracked. I think that that's a big portion of it. Though people don't understand the amount of time investment that it requires to actually make those things. And then when you add AI into the mix as well, it's like now it is at their fingertips. They can literally just type it into an engine. So now, because they didn't have the context required to understand how much time and effort it not only takes to make a piece, but edit a piece, market a piece, why would they, you know?

And it'd be wrong to blame people for it because as artists, we have not provided the context necessary for people to understand. So now we're in a pickle because now people, because they already didn't understand it, are moving to AI because they want to be artists too and don't have the skill set or foundation to do so. And you know, we just haven't been open about, you know, the process and how much time it takes, especially since a lot of us, you know, I'm not an introvert. I got lucky in that particular regard, but most partists aren't.

They're introverted. They just want to stay home in their happy place and make their art and do stuff behind a computer screen. But they're not talking face to face with their community, right right. You know, I think as you're talking about this, it occurs to me, you know, because something that I've talked about a lot on the show over the years is how musicians very often will approach music as they think, if what they're doing is really great, that something is going to happen to them to help them be successful, and they don't, you know, just as you were talking about, you know, there's some entrepreneurial steps that you have to take to market yourself and to get yourself out there.

And it's just like with music. You know, a lot of musicians I like to talk about the mythical record company scout that doesn't exis anymore and hasn't for a long time. But but there's people who still believe, you know, I'm gonna go out, I'm gonna play these bars and uh, because what I'm doing is so great that eventually a record company scout's going to wander in and see me on stage and be so impressed they're going to give me a ten album deal and fly me out to LA and the whole thing. Yeah, and and you know, even twenty years ago that was pretty statistically unlikely to happen.

But but I feel like it sounds like you're you're kind of saying too. It's it's not just with music, but probably with any kind of art. Right, there's there's people who just think, if I do this amazing work and maybe I just put it online somewhere, people are going to see it and they're going to be so impressed with what I've done, when really it's like, you know, it's an old cliche, but it's valid. You know, if a tree falls in the forest and you know no one's around here, it doesn't make a sound.

If what you're doing, no matter what it is, music or visual art or anything, if you're creating things, but you're not putting in the effort to make those connect and do like you did, you know, printing business card and going to businesses and talking to people. You know, if you don't do that part, if you're not willing to do that part, or or find someone who's willing to help you with that part, then you know you're kind of you're kind of dead in the water. Yep, yep. The other thing too, I'd like to hear more of your thoughts on and Jenny probably would too.

As you mentioned AI. That's been a subject on the show that we visit from time to time, and again more with music because you know, there's there's a lot happening in the music industry right now legally in terms of AI and and how to deal with it. And I think the last time we talked about it on the show, we were talking about I think it was Universal Music Group was threatening these AI companies if they find out that they're they're using Universal Music artists to train their AI models, and it's it's a whole thing, and it's fair, and I have a lot of mixed feelings about it myself.

I mean, you know, I'll always advocate on the side of artists but but I do have I don't know, I have a lot of mixed feelings about it, but I'm really curious to hear what you think. So it's one of those like I try to see both sides of it because like I am an artist. So it's like, okay, the fact that the fact of the matter is it can't create new things. What it can do is it can create mashing things up that already exists right now. Are there potential uses for it? Is there a market for it? Absolutely?

Like you know, if Joe plays Dungeons and Dragons, you know, and just once an avatar for his freaking character, you know, he's not necessarily going to want to spend sixty dollars, you know, to commission somebody. So I can understand that side of it, because there are plenty of people who, you know, they might even commission atwork, but they might not want to buy something, especially if it's a throwaway character, you know, building campaigns and stuff like that. So for purposes like that for the general public, I totally get it.

But then there's the issue of consent, and that's the big conundrum. Now. I kind of feel like, if best case scenario, I think It's one of those things where it's a tool, you know, and just like any other tool, you know, it can either create a lot of good or it can be a lot of bad, And it's just a matter of how we use the tool personally. What I think that we should be doing, because I think it's a mistake to run around protesting AI because we're not educating people. And the problem is it's like, you know, when you scream at somebody and tell them now and that person doesn't understand why it's a bad thing, all you're doing is reaffirming that they're just going to go for AI harder, I guess, is what I'm trying to say, because again they don't have the foundation or training or understanding to understand why it's valuable to begin with and why it's a skill set that's necessary.

Right I'm you know, so it's like, okay, so how can we work around that? I don't think, I mean, regardless of what people feel about AI, I don't think it's going anywhere. What I think is that we need to find a reasonable solution to find better ways to use AI that don't hurt the don't hurt artists. So how do we do that. Well, I'm Pandora when that was a thing, Like I know, when music became a lot more easy to get a hold of, but artists weren't necessarily getting compensated the way that they should.

Yeah, well that's also been a pretty consistent subject on the show. Yeah, but it's just like if we could find a way to create where it's AI becomes its own field. So basically artists could consent, right, they'd have to sign a contract because consent is key here. Then they could put their art into the program, right, and so then they're getting compensated for the art that they're putting and it gives them exposure. Right. But the other key factor too is they would need to be cited. So just like on Pandora, when an artist comes up, it would list, you know, the artist in the name of the song, the AI would need to just basically list what it pulled from.

Because then it's like people know where to find the art if they like it. The artist is being credited and the person is still getting what they want, just like Pandora. Right, maybe if maybe it's a small fee, maybe it's like eight ten cents go to somebody each time it's pulled from right. Oh. Interesting, Okay, So it's like, in that way, the artist is getting credited, they're being compensated, and they're getting exposure, while the person who is you know, using the AI engine is still getting what they want.

So if Joe wants a D and D character, he can still have his D and D character while the artist is being compensated. It's like AI is not going anywhere. We just need to figure out how to use it in a means that makes everybody happy. Yeah, you know, but I think right now, along with a lot of other things, we are just too angry to like as a as a whole in a society that we are not looking at viable solutions to be able to reasonably construct, you know, a way around a big issue, you know, to find a solution.

Spelfia says of the I know a tattoo artist that has started using AI because he is sick of spending hours on a design, and then the client says they don't like it. Oh, that's interesting, that's interesting. I mean I've also seen artists with I mean I personally know somebody who are a couple of somebodies who are tattoo artists that use AI to generate the work, and then they'll like piece things together in Photoshop and then they'll just create the stencil. So they don't actually know how to draw.

They don't they know how to tattoo, but they don't actually know how to draw, so because they're just tattooing over the stencil. Oh, so that's I've got mixed I've got real mixed feelings about that. But it's one of those like at that point, though, I feel like there's going to be a divide even in the tattoo industry. Are you a tattoo artist or are you just a tattoo wer, Because tattooing a stencil, in my eyes, is not the same as being a tattoo artist. You can be a tattooer. You can be someone who does the act of putting ink in someone's skin and being good at it.

They might even be skilled at it, right, but that does not mean they might even be have figured out how to shade. But that does not mean that I would quantify them as an artist when they don't actually have the skill set to be able to draw or composed their own ideas. But that's the whole concept of freedom of thought. Is somebody a free thinker or are they falling back on ideas of others in order to succeed? You know, But I also think that freedom of thought is being discouraged right now. I mean, in general, independence is slowly being whittled away in general.

Yeah, the only thing I've used when Dolly three first came out, I used it to try to make a We did a segment on the show when I don't know if you followed it at all, but when Darryl Hall and John Oates had their initial lawsuit they're falling out. We did a whole segment about it on the show, and I tried to make so I I took that segment and I put it on YouTube, and I wanted to make a thumbnail of I asked. I think it's the only thing I ever really tried with Dolly three. I asked it to create an image of Daryl Hall and John Oates in a boxing ring having a fight.

It wouldn't do it it because I guess there's certain restrictions about violent imagery and or or putting celebrities in violent situations and so forth, so I had to It was an interesting process because it's kind of like it's almost like you have to negotiate with it, you know, to try to get it to create what you want. In fact, Jenny and I attended I forget the gentleman's name now at most Yeah, a thing. It was a discussion about a Yeah, it was really interesting. But he kind of described the same thing trying to get Dolly three to create certain things and having to kind of manipulate it almost into into creating what he wanted anyway.

With with the with my YouTube nail, what I ended up with the best I could get it to do was Darryl and John uh playing chess in a chess match. I got it to create that, and then I I said, can you make them look angry? And it was willing to do that. So it's an image of them, Yeah, look at you know, just kind of glaring at each other angrily over a chessboard. So but but it was it was an interesting process because I couldn't get it to do exactly what I wanted, and they don't exactly look like Holling Oates either.

But but you know it's going to become its own thing. Yeah, yeah, just like anything else. Yeah, but it was, you know, close enough for a YouTube thumbnail. Oh the time goes so fast, it's already quarter of what so going forward? I mean, do you do you have any specific priorities in terms of is are the number one thing in music a second or or do you think of it that way? Or do you just think of all of it as as being important to you? Or oh so all if it's important. I feel like music is always going to have a special place in my heart, Like I don't.

I mean, I think if it came down to it, if I if if some you know, in theory, if someone were to walk up to me and be like, hey, do you want to do music the rest of your life full time, I'd be like, hell yeah, sign me up, like without hesitation. Yeah. But art and music for me are kind of symbiotic. Long term, I'm looking to merge the art, music, and metaphysical community. Okay, So it's like, because I very much work with all three of those communities, and there's so much overlap, and it's such all three or such creative communities, so why not try to combine them?

So right now it's like they kind of work. They feed off of each other, is what I'm trying to say, right right, I'm curious what you do too? Metaphysically. We had we had recently on the show the Sister Witch Company. Oh, I did one of their shows in Manchester. Oh excellent. Yeah were you at the show with the because they do the Basonic Lodge. You were at that one? Yeah, it was back in like April. Oh okay, okay, Yeah, they're amazing. I I went and had a meeting with them actually yesterday, because we're going to be I shouldn't talk about it yet until it's definitely happening.

But good, good things are coming. But but what what so what do you do in that in that realm? So to speak? So I do palm readings, I do terror readings. I have sessed people's spaces out before because I am also a medium, so I do stuff like that as well. It's kind of it's kind of mixed. I do also sell supplies for it, so things like sage and crystals, do like build your own pocket spells. I try to just be informational because it was kind of a it was not a journey I sought out, but it was the journey I ended up with that explain that if you could what what do you mean, like, is it something that just kind of happened where you Oh, it was one of those like I had an abrupt to spiritual reawakening, and it kind of set me on a journey of a lot of unanswered questions, and I didn't really know how, Like I was having trouble making sense of what it is that I was seeing and experiencing, especially with other people because in a good chunk of these instances, they were also additionally physical people that I was with, Okay, So it wasn't like was it in my head?

Was it not in my head? It was like, oh my God, we all just saw that right, like, you know, but which was kind of hard because like my family was always very religious, so it was always like, if it ain't Jesus, don't talk to it. But at the same time, though, not finding answers was becoming a problem. So I went to a lot of different religious people who were like pastors, priests, didn't get anywhere. I got the same answer, like God's got a special purpose for you. If it ain't Jesus, don't talk to it.

Like that's helpful, thanks. So I ended up kind of finding my own answers. So I'm very all in, all out kind of persons. That's kind of how I ended up jumping down the tarot rabbit hole, where it was like because I had spirits who were interacting with not just myself but people who were around me. And I had a friend at the time who was a terror reader, and every time she pulled cards, it was the same cards in the same order every single time. Really, oh yeah, it was super weird. It was wicked weird, and I had a whole existential crisis.

I was like, Oh my god, why it's so weird. But that also piqued my curiosity, so then I ended up buying my own deck, And I also ended up jumping down the numerology rabbit hole and the astrology rabbit hole and palm rating and all this other stuff. And I found that a lot of the metaphysical stuff actually ties into a lot of physical things. So like, for instance, your palm is your biological imprint of where you're currently at. So it's like every time you make a decision, every time something happens to you, your body has a chemical reaction your biology is going to respond to, and it just so happens that you know the lines on your hand actually mirror what you're going through on a biological level level, right, So it's like there are physical

relationships with these things. It's not just you know, hoodoo, voodoo, you know whatever, or even like frequencies things that people would talk about where it's like, you know, let's say there's like an evil spirit. A lot of that is on a frequency level. But if you go into like scientific studies on frequencies, some of them can be harmful. I'm blanking on what the frequency is called, but there are some frequencies that can cause psychopathy. I've I've read a little bit about this a long time ago.

Somebody got me interested in it, but it was, like I said, it was quite a while ago, so I don't know what you know. I'm sure there's more research that's been done on it. But yeah, but that is that is very interesting. I'm curious. I don't know if you want to if you're not comfortable answering this, understand, but I am curious if if it's cause any issue with your family and all that that laugh answers it, Uh, in their eyes, I might as well be sacrificing babies. Oh no, oh yeah, is that the case?

Am I sacrificing babies, absolutely freaking not. But this in the eyes of my family, I might as well be Oh wow, yeah, that's it is what it is. Yeah, I'm sorry to hear that. I mean, so there's there you don't do you not interact with them or or do you for different reasons? No, but I'm not going to get into that right now. But no, I I don't have much contact with my family. Yeah. Yeah, well no, that's that's too bad. But but I mean that's what chosen families exactly exactly. Yeah. Oh sorry, sorry, sorry, go ahead, Yeah, I hear you.

And sometimes the families we create are better than the ones were supposedly related to. Yeah, I agree. Oh. By the way, Spelfie had made a comment to uh in the chat because you were talking about, you know, kind of mixing these different modalities. She said, Uh, Kira is doing an art class at the MCC painting tarot cards. So you actually so you're actually painting the tarot cards. So basically, so I have a bunch of decks, so I'm going to bring them in and people can choose what card they want from what out of her deck, Okay, and so it'll be like that will be their reference.

Yeah, and then I'll have like paper and stuff so they can actually kind of meditate on it. Because with error cards, because each each tarot deck is going to communicate a little differently. So while each card means, you know, across different terror decks mean the same things, the pictures communicate differently, right, so the way that they read is going to differ. Okay, So the idea is when you get a Teraroor deck, you're actually supposed to meditate with it, and if you're going to go really deep into it, you got to.

You're supposed to meditate with every single card because you're going to develop a relationship with each card on a spiritual level. Yeah. Have I done that? No, I've done that once with one card, but I just I never sat down with a whole deck. But I will say it's a very very interesting experience. But anyway, I digress. The idea is they'll pick a card that they resonate with and they are going to paint that card. Okay, interesting, very interesting. Wow, Kiara, we are rapidly approaching the top of the hour.

This has been a wonderful conversation. I'm so glad you came in thank you. I want to make sure everybody knows what they need to know to find you online, keep up with everything that you're doing your website, any social media you want us to know about, and any any events that you have coming up that you want to put out there too. Oh, my band's going to be playing not just at the Terminus, We're also going to be playing at Root Awakening the next day, on July twentieth. I want to say, it's from eight till eleven.

Where is that. It's in Nashua, Nashua. It's actually not too far away from the Terminus. Oh okay, but it's off the main road, which is kind of cool. Yeah, and then that's the big thing. I mean, I'm at the one dry flea market every weekend on Sundays. Okay, okay, yeah, very good, very good. And the website, oh Kira Curtis dot rt k E I R A c U R T I S dot art okay, very good dot art. Yeah. Yeah, I was pretty excited. I saw that was an option for a domain. I was like, yeah, yeah, there's there's all kinds of options for domains now.

Yeah, it's it's kind of interesting,

kind of a random question. But I'm curious, is anyone ever misspelled your first name all the time all the time. I can't like almost everything, but K E I R A. But I also had the weird Gaelic spelling and the English spellings K I E R A. Yeah, so everybody thinks I before E or they give me like the Kira from Death Note. Always always find out real quick if someone watches and animes the first thing out, it's like, oh, like from Death Note close but no cigar. Oh that's funny. Yeah, yeah, what can you do?

That is what it is? At least memorable? Yeah, exactly. There you go, all right, and we're gonna end with So this is something that it's on YouTube. You recorded a cover of I Have Nothing by Whitney Houston. So we'll give that a listen to and the segment any any are you any particular reason you chose that song to to record a cover of. I really like Whitney Houston. She's definitely somebody that I look up to as far as like her career is concerned. Yeah, so it just kind of gives me a goal of all in mind.

I also just like challenging songs. Yeah, it's definitely something I've been working on over the last like year or two, strengthening my vocal range. Actually bronchitis. When I recorded that, yeah, no, oh wow, Is that part of why you did it to challenge yourself? No, I actually didn't know I had a bronchial infection. I was sick for a little over a year, which sucked. I didn't know what was wrong. I had had bronchitis like September, so this was back in twenty twenty two. But I had gotten sick and then I went to the doctor.

I have asthma, that matters. They gave me the steroids, and then I thought it was over with. But then if I was up for a little too long, I kept getting resick over and over and over again, and then my vocal range cat in like half wow, where like I lost a good chunk of it. But then I was like, is am I doing something wrong? I thought I was dehydrated, you know. I thought maybe I pushed myself too hard because I do have a history of not sleeping. So I was like, maybe it caught up with me. And then I got really sick again, and come to find out that I was still sick with bronchitis.

Okay, so I was like, are you kidding me? I've had bronchitis for over a year now, it can linger. Yeah, I've known people that's happened to apparently with asthma. So with asthma, it doesn't go away. You have to you have to get it treated. Like they had to hook me up to a breathing machine more than once because I wasn't getting enough oxygen. But yeah, so essentially they can put you on steroids, but that won't necessarily cure it. So they had to put me on steroids, and they had to put me on antibiotics, and like I wasn't even sure it killed it then because apparently, again asthma, it don't go away.

So I'm after like a year of that finally went away. But a lot of the stuff on my channel, I still had bronchitis. Oh wow. I was just like, I'm getting my yeah yeah, but no, I've got my voice back now. Yeah,

I'm pretty happy about it. You worked through it, yeah, yeah. Well okay, so we'll give this a listen, and Kira thank you again so much. Absolutely absolutely all right here it is Kira Curtis, I have nothing by Whitney, Houston, Hfe. Take me for one Kuzona, but change, Oh my colorgey love. I'll never rise sport. You move just to that you and everything man you do. I don't really need to look very much further. I don't want to have to go where you don't follow. I want to hold it back again, this passion inside.

Get to run from myself. There's no lead up. Don't make babel who's running with them? I don't wanna anymore. It's times, it master time. Don't get you there, don't walk away from I haven't nothing anything if I don't have you. You you You see the room right to the horn of me.

You break down my walls with the strength of your low I never't know love thing. Why do you wi

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