Field Dispatch
Matt Connarton Unleashed 8-22-23
Game Plan
Cody Pope and Byron G perform several live tracks.
w/Jenn Coffey, Shannon
Very good. I'm going to actually move this camera over a little bit too, because we're also online. Mary Anne Williamson is here and I've got your mic up. Welcome to the show. Thank you, thank you. It's wonderful to meet you. This is the first time we've met. Thank you. I've obviously I've been aware of you for for a long time, because you know you're running for president of course in twenty twenty. And you sound out of breath. Where were running again, that we're late. Yeah, we were sort of running. I'm so smart. No, No, it's okay, No, it's like I was saying, Okay, okay, I know that you know when you're I mean, you're probably doing a lot of appearances. We are the first in the nation primary in theory. Well you know that DNC cannot strip you of your significance. Well that's one of the things I wanted to ask you about today. Actually yeah, yeah, and also too before we really get going on that, and I want to talk to you about issues too, but I also want to talk to you about your experience with the DNC. But if you have any questions or anything at all for Marianne, the studio line is open six zo three two five zero six z seven six three two five zero six zero seven. And of course you can always ask questions in the chat room as well. We have a very busy chat room. But yeah, I saw you on The Young Turks with Jak and Anna, and you were talking quite a bit about some of the ways that they I don't know how much you blame the DNC or the Biden campaign or both if it's all kind of the same, but it sounds like they've really kind of tried to sabotage you. Yeah. Yes, I early on after I had announced, I heard some pundits say, well, we should just pretend she's not there, and I thought, well, they're not going to be able to do that, But that's exactly been the tactic, you know, So I'm not on you know, it's pretty astonishing actually someone who is a declared candidate. You you know, you're not on CNN, you're not on MSNBC. So you really see that those stations, those networks just chop wood and carry water for the DNC, for the Democrats the way Fox does for the Republicans. And it's uh, it's bad for our democracy. I'm sorry, it is. It just is it's bad for democracy? No, I agree with you. Has your I mean, obviously, in some ways your experience has been different than in twenty twenty, because in twenty twenty, for example, you know, you didn't have an incumbent democrat, so it was an open field and you got to be on that debate stage. You actually quite a few of the debates, right, and they twenty couple of them, and they were they were satisfied to just mock me, you know, yeah, and treat me like I'm wacky, and we would say at this time, they are very serious about not wanting anyone in the field except Joe Biden, and they're overt about it. I just think it's a bad idea. I think it's a bad idea, not only because it's bad for democracy, but because it's we're all supposed to just assume that because the president beat Trump in twenty twenty, that he's the best candidate for twenty twenty four. I think that's wrong. I don't believe that's true. I think that you know, when people say to me, Marian, why are you doing this the fascist store at the door, don't you realize that I'm doing this because the fascist store at the door, and I agree with Franklin Roosevelt who said that we wouldn't have to worry about a fascist takeover as long as democracy delivered on its promises. In a country that, unlike every other advanced democracy, does not have universal healthcare, that does not have tuition free college, or free childcare, or paid family leave, or a guaranteed living wage or guaranteed housing, democracy is not delivering on its promises, and that should be the agenda of the Democrats. It is my agenda for twenty twenty four. It is an offering a fundamental economic reform, not just the alleviation of stress for what really amounts to less than the majority of the American people. Bionomics is not a winning message for twenty four. It means that I've alleviated the stress of some people that is not the majority of people. That message that we've done so well and let's just finish the job is contradictory to the viscual experience of the majority of American people. It's not going to win, and most importantly, it's not going to repair the country over the next four years that my agenda does. How does your agenda differ from what Biden has has done or what he puts forth, because obviously, you know, Republicans talk about Biden like he's this far left guy, which which which is a joke, clearly is not. And then of course, on the other hand, you have folks like I mentioned, the young Turks. You know, they talk about Biden and other Democrats that are kind of in that lane as being sort of Republican light almost. Well, when you ask how my agenda differs, my agenda is universal healthcare. He has said that he would veto a Medicare for All bill. It is a complete cancelation of the college long dead. It is tuition free tech school. It is paid family leave, it is a guaranteed living wage. It is all those things that I had said before. They are quite different than the president. The President is taking incremental approaches to maybe sort of kind of sometime getting there. But like all corporatist Democrats, he wants to help people, but he not so much that he is willing to get to the point challenging the bottom line of his corporate donors, for whom short term profits goes above and beyond and takes precedence over safety and well being and health of the American people. So that's very different mineus fundamental economic reform, where humanitarian principles and democratic principles come before corporate profits, as as simple as that. And also another way in which I radically differ from the President is that, for all his talk about being a climate president, and even though there are indeed some healthy investments in green energy in the Inflation Reduction Act, he has given more oil drilling permits than even Trump there and he's approved the Willow Project, which was an eight billion dollar oil drilling project on the north slopes of Alaska, both of which completely nullify the benefits that otherwise are healthy in the Inflation Reduction Act regarding climate change, so I would declare a climate emergency, and I would be and us immediately on mass mobilization to move justly from a dirty economy to a clean economy. Has your messaging or even the issues themselves that you're most concerned about, has that changed at all between twenty twenty and twenty twenty four, or is it no? Kind of the same? I look at the world the same way I did. Then I have moved all the way to medicare for all, in a way that in twenty twenty, so have we. Yeah, in twenty twenty, I still thought we could, you know, we could get there for everybody, and I see differently now. Yeah. And also I think we ought to legalized drugs, and I wasn't there in twenty twenty. I really get we should end the drug war. Yeah, I say that all the time, although I've always been there on that one, but it took me a while to get there on Medicare for all. You know, I consider myself a capitalist, and I think Jenny would say the same thing. I'm a recovering Republican, right, yeah, Jenny, Jenny used to be a Republican state rep. I mean, you know, I'm anymore. I'm an independent. But I've always said, I mean, my position, Maryanne, has always been that, you know, we live in the most successful, most prosperous, wealthiest country in the history of the world. So when somebody tries to tell me that we just can't figure out a way to make sure that everyone has access to adequate or better than adequate, preferably healthcare, I just I just don't believe it. So well, you shouldn't believe it, because of course they're ruse is to tell us that it's just complicated. It's not complicated. It's corrupt. Whether it's it's a it's a matrix of corporate dominance that has become corporate tyranny at this point, universal healthcare because of insurance companies, rationing, insulent because of pharmaceutical companies, carcin egens, and our food because of big food companies, big agricultural companies, big chemical companies, lack of safety on our streets because of a manufacturers, dirty energy because of big oil, and obviously our foreign policy dominated by the military industrial complex because of defense contractors. This will not end if we keep electing those people, because everything that I just said is now baked into the TA the cake there that is quote will not just swept itself. This will only happen if there is an intervention by the people. A government of the people, by the people and for the people, who has become a government of the corporations, by the corporations and for the corporations. Those people will not end that. Only we can. They absolutely will not. After just being a brief time in DC, the amount of money that goes into the lobbying there that absolutely destroys our healthcare system. And it makes access almost impossible. I'm right there with you. I used to think that we can fix our healthcare system, and no we can't. Eighty five million people are underinsured or uninsured. And this business of underinsured. There are millions of people who have the insurance that will enable them to go to the doctor, but eighteen million of them can't afford because they don't have the coverage to pay for the prescriptions that the doctors give them. They can't afford the treatment. I've had doctor say to may why do I even bother? I tell people I understand what's wrong with you. This is the medicine you need, This is the treatment you need. And the person says, my insurance won't come. So what was the point of hearing the doctor tell you what was wrong with you? I have a provider that had to hire an employee just to deal with the Niles from Anthem, thank you, just to deal with that. Yeah, and we have one in four Americans living with medical debt. Yes, we have eighty eight billion dollar medical debt, although I read the other day, no, it's actually two hundred millions. So somewhere in there. How many people are poor in our society? Because that's the only way they can stay alive. That's me. I pay for my medications, my infusions. I could go on and on. Everybody knows my story, but it's it's that bad that every day people suffer and die in this country while the medications to make their lives better or to have a dignity locked behind a closed door in the hospital where they can't afford it. We have one point three million Americans who rush in their insulin. Yes, when I mentioned that in a speech I gave in England about three months ago, people looked at me in disbelief. Because they have socialized medicine, they have universal healthcare. They can't even imagine. What do you mean? People? Right, Russian their insolent and this thirty five dollars limit, this isn't good enough. It's still for an average and who needs seven vials. That's over two hundred dollars in one month. Right, And that's, by the way, only if you're sixty five years or older. There are a lot of people under the age of sixty five who were Russian and there did not know it was only for people over sixty five. I thought that was a universal limit. Wow, And what's your status in New Hampshire as far as are you on the ballot here for the primary? I certainly will be on the ballot. Yeah, absolutely, Yeah, I've been very upset about and I mean, I guess I understand from a political standpoint the rationale behind it. Biden wanting to I think he basically told the DNC you have to move the first in the nation primary status in South Carolina. And I get it in a sense that you know, I always say, Joe Biden owes this presidency to Congressman Jim Clyburn. Yes for that endorsement. That's that's what turned it all around. And you were were you still in the race at that point? Were you on the ballot in South Carolina? Out? No, I dropped out before New Hampshire last time, but I regretted it actually did you. Yeah, I'm not dropping out this time. I remember seeing you in seeing you in the debates, and you know, they kind of had you on the side. And obviously those debates where you've got a whole I don't know, eight or ten people on the stage, it's not really the best format to get to know new faces on the political scene. Because that was that was the first time we were really learning about you. It was afterward I saw a couple of long form interviews. One was with a guy I'm not crazy about, but Dave Ruben. I watched your sit down with Dave Ruben, and I said, Wow, she really she really knows her stuff. And it really that watching that conversation and the way you pushed back on a lot of well it's Dave Rubin, the way you pushed back on a lot of his nonsense. Frankly, I was impressed. I said, well, Mary Ann Williamson, she's really she brings a lot more to the table than what we got to see during the debates, because, as you know, during the debates, when you're on the end, you know you only get a couple of times to really really speak. Well, it's even more than that, too, because there's a cognitive dissonance between what you were just saying Davey Reuben interviews and others versus she's wacky, she's kooky, she's a crystal lady. You know they narratives are that's they are used as political weapons. Oh absolutely, I'm sorry, but to speak freely, they like to use that kind of language when a woman is involved, Thank you very much. Off Corey Booker says that it's profound if I say it's woo woo or emotional exactly, and that's that's part of what's wrong with our society. Unfortunately, unfortunately, but fortunately there are a lot of women in this country are coming back and fighting to end that. Yeah. And at the same time, when I think of some of the weaponization of false information and so forth, certainly regarding me, it's been women as much as men. Really, jeez, see, I feel bad now. We internalize a lot of misogyny. I think, what are you thinking? What do you mean? I'm curious? Can you expect I think some You know, when you talk about feminist thinking, I know men who are more feminist than their thinking in terms of really standing up for women. When I was growing up and the sort of feminism of the era of that, say, the nineteen seventies, it was very understood that sisterhood was part of this. None of us would get there unless all of us get there. It seemed to be given equal weight, not just the idea of equal rights for women, but also women being there for other women. It was understood we needed that. And these days I think a lot of so called feminists don't seem to have a problem trashing other women in order to get what they call their equal right. Point taken, Absolutely, point taken. I'm thinking of somebody specific, I don't know. I don't know if you're familiar with or this might even be someone who had in mind that. I don't know her actual name, but she's she's on social media as just pearly things. I don't know her, okay, but well she kind of it does what you were talking about, where she kind of trashes other women, and it's it's strange to uh, it's strange to watch her. I had one question for you something that I know is on a lot of Manchester residence minds, is our unemployees, forgive me our homeless rate? How's it gone up fifty four percent in a year? And this is not it's not just here. This is going on everywhere. A lot to do with inavilliity, inaccessible homes and rents going out of control. What are you thinking in your administration you would do to help lessen the population that we have that are homeless and help get people homed. Homelessness is a symptom, and it is a symptom of an unfair economic system. That's why my Economic Bill of Rights calls for many things that actually reduce the poverty rate. To begin with, we have an eviction rate with over three million people were evicted from their homes last year. That's as high as it was during the housing crisis. So the moratorium on evictions that was put in place during the COVID emergency, lifting that moratorium is absurd. We should realize how many people who are homeless actually work full time. That's a lot of and that goes back to things like what you were talking we were talking about with the insulin. So somebody says what do I do. Do I try to stay alive and get my insulin or do I pay my rent? They miss one rent shack and then they and their family are thrown onto the streets. So this is this. You know, it's become a cliche to say poverty is a policy choice, but in very real ways it is. These are people who are at the effect of what is essentially an unjust economic system. So on one hand, you could say, well, there are six hundred thousand homeless people and there are also five hundred thousand homes that could be think of all the jobs you could create if we kind of had a marshal plan for housing. Also, we've got to stop with the commodification of housing that's now going on, the lack of adequate housing, affordable housing, all of those things that we know to be true. But I think we need more than anything to realize that it's all one problem. It's how many people in this country have been thrown away. That's what it is. Whether it's people who don't have healthcare, people who don't have a place to live, people who don't have an education, people who have to work two or three jobs. It's a huge swath of human suffering which is treated like an invisible throw away to official political Washington. And until the American people recognize that and vote for a fundamental break with that system, then even if we had five hundred houses that were thrown into places for these people to live, they would still be more coming down the pike because the system does not address the fundamental needs of the American people. Like why you brought up about you know, there's homeless people who have jobs, who are employed, but they're just in a situation where they can't you know, can't pay rent, certainly can't afford a mortgage. I think that's an important thing to remind people about because a phrase that gets lost in a lot of dialogue that I think people need to learn is the phrase working poor. There are people, you know, because people I think there's a stigma. People look at homeless people and assume they just, you know, they're too lazy to find a job or this and that. But like you said, a lot of homeless people have jobs, absolutely, but they're just underwater. Another terrible thing going on with a lot of that. Let's say somebody misses there, they get evicted, they have children, they're living in their car, So then the couple is terrified that if they send their kids to school, some school official is going to realize the child is living in the car and it's going to call the child Protective Services. So the parents are terrified the child will be taken away. So the parents take the kids out of school in order to home school them. Well, where are they going to get WiFi? So then they're going into McDonald's to get on WiFi to be able to homeschool their kids. This is the amount of beaten. This is the layers of people being beaten down in this system, and like you said, it's working for it's good people, it's you know, we all know the cliches and the you know, every group has a shadow element, but that's not who the group is. And we need to realize that about about the homeless. And also all these laws all over the country where people are they're criminalizing feeding the homeless people are There was recently a case in Texas. Unfortunately the woman was acquitted. She was arrested for her organization feeding the homeless. There are arresting people for feeding the hungry. Yep. Yeah, that's that's been a strange. Yeah, we have a we have a call, Mary and I feel take a call from a listener. Our friend Shannon is online high Shannon. What I was going to say is you were talking about the homeless population. What never gets mentioned is a building fire that displaces five six families. You know, they are now homeless unless they have some family or whatever. You know, right to remember. Yeah, that's another direction to go in. But yeah, absolutely, I did you have a did you have a specific question for Marian No, I not a question, just that statement that that you know, the homeless people aren't just a working board and this, that and everything else. That there's human beings number one, Stop treating them like they're unsightly trash. Yes, a homeless people's pick up your trash, Yohn, Maddie say agreed, I'm Matt sorry, and just you know, I went it doesn't matter. Uh, just treat human beings. Nope, a great human beings. Absolutely, No, that's a cliche too. Well, you know how you want to be treated. Yeah, I think Mary Anne wants to respond to you know, we say homeless people, and we tend to leave out the word people, right exactly. Yeah, there are people that don't have to have happened exactly, walls and halls and doors and windows. Yeah, you know, yep. No, well, well said all right, Shannon. Well we appreciate the call. All right, all right, thank you, bye bye, all right, and we are taking calls. The studio line is open six zo three two five O six zero seven six zo three two five six zero seven. Mary Anne Williamson is here if you're just joining us, and she is a presidential candidate running on the for the Democrats to challenge President Biden. And Mary yet, can I ask you it's an indelicate it's an indelicate question. But and I don't know if this is something you've addressed. I haven't heard you address this spcifically. But I mean, in terms of President Biden, do you think he's too old? You know, I'm running against the president on issues. Yeah, I hesitate to talk about his age because I for a couple of reasons. First of all, it just feels personal. And everybody can see how the president's age. Everybody can hear how he speaks. And also I don't want to be ages about it. I'm seventy one, So I just you know, the American people, the American voter, does not need me to tell them the president's age. They don't need me to point out his gaffs or point out any of that. You know, today he was in Hawaii and he was telling people in Lahinah that he understands about the fire because he and Jill almost lost their corvette and their cat when lightning struck struck their garage. And even though he said, I don't mean to be whatever, it was like cringe. You know, yeah, what is really cringey? But you don't you don't think that's somewhat a product of is like I don't know. I don't know if Biden ten years ago would have said that. Well, that's kind of my point. But well, even though it did just point it out, you know, I mean, everybody hears and and and it is legitimate to ask ourselves what that would be in someone going on for another four years. Yeah, it is legitimate to consider his vice presidential candidate, and it's it's legitimate to consider whether whether or not he's a strong candidate. The DNC would have us believe that because he beat Trump in twenty twenty that it follows that he would beat him or the Roma Swammy or the Santist or anyone else in twenty twenty four. And I think the biggest point here is that it's not supposed to be the DNC's decision. It should be the people in New Hampshire, in South Carolina, in Michigan, in Nevada, in these primary states that open up this Donard. The role of the political party has traditionally been to stay in the background until the people have spoken, and then the people will decide, and then the party's supposed to swoop in at this point and support the candidate. Today, they don't even pretend they're very overt about it. They're not even covert. They're saying, we will support the president. And then they've concocted this narrative about how this never happens, what happens all the time. They say, yeah, but when Teddy Kennedy ran against Carter, I'm sorry, Teddy Kennedy did not defeat Carter. Ronald Reagan did so. And also, you know, in twenty sixteen, there were a lot of Republican candidates and the Republicans still won. In twenty twenty, there were a lot of Democratic candidates and the Democrats still wont. So this suggestion that a lot of candidates will endanger us we all have to get you know, every time somebody says that to me, Mary, and we all have to just line up behind Biden. There is a fascist at the door. I always think to myself, Wow, I bet you have healthcare, don't you. I bet you can send you kids to college, don't you. I bet you live on more than fifteen dollars an hour, don't you. I bet you can afford to live on just one job, can't you? This is, you know, there is In sociology they talk about the difference between a screaming emergency and a silent emergency. COVID was a screaming emergency. We all got that it was an emergency, but why was it given this official moniker of emergency Because rich people got it too. So when the COVID emergency, when the President declared it over sending millions of people off their snap benefits, millions of people off Medicaid, he said, the emergency is over. Go back to your lives. For millions of people, life was already an emergency. Homelessness is an emergency, Poverty is an emergency, Hunger is an emergency. Lack of healthcare is an emergency. Medical debt is an emergency. So there are the majority and remember we're talking here about the majority of Americans, the majority of Americans who live paycheck to paycheck. Right, And it's not only the poor and the neropoort it's the afraid of becoming poor. It's the living with the constant economic stress of what will happen if I lose my job? Right? It's uh, well, and healthcare is tied. You know, we have a system in the country where healthcare is directly tied to your job. And that's why so many people are working at jobs, they hate people. And then we talk about the mental health crisis as though that is separate from these things, as though economic anxiety and stress is not a primary, if not the primary source of the fact that people just can't take it. And then when we support you know, and you know, they talk about intersectionality, and then that is related to the drug crisis and so forth. People are falling apart in front of our eyes, and we're supposed to go have another Biden Trump election where the fact that people are falling in front of apart in front of our eyes will will politely be left out of the conversation. The rematch nobody wants. But well they're certainly give it to us, That's that's for sure. Yeah, when you were talking two about challenging incumbents, I was thinking about, you know, you mentioned like Teddy Kennedy challenging Jimmy Carter and so forth. I was thinking about nineteen ninety two when right here in New Hampshire, uh Pat Buchanon damn near beat. In fact, I think it was a statistical tie, uh damn near beat George H. W. Bush in the New Hampshire primary. It's called democracy there were actual elections and you didn't know who was going to win, and you didn't have a sense of a political party putting their finger on the scale. And for Democrats, this has been going on twenty sixteen with Bernie, twenty twenty with Bernie, and what I'm seeing, man, that's we've got to stand up to those. Yeah. I remember in in two thousand, in two thousand and sixteen, the way the DNC, you know, really kind of did put their thumb on the scale for Hillary. And in fact, in ways you know, we talked about debates. I remember they were Debbie Wasserman Schultz made sure this doesn't get pointed out very often, but she made sure that the debates were scheduled on Friday and Saturday nights when young people would not be well. But that's who but that's who Bernie appealed to, was young people. Well. In the New York Times poll that came out a week before last in the tab that is people eighteen to twenty nine, Biden has thirty four percent, I have twenty seven percent, and Bobby Kennedy has thirteen percent. Now, it's also interesting, why is that. Well, On one hand, it's policies, obviously, but there's something else I can reach them because they're on TikTok and it doesn't cost me money to get on TikTok. So they know what they're doing by blocking me on CNN. They know what they're doing blocking me on MSNBC. They know what they're doing calling me long shot, not a credible candidate, because they it's their way of saying, nothing to look at their folks, nothing nothing to see, their folks, just walk on by, nothing to see there, We've already got our candidate, right, But it does give you more time to, you know, to go on I mean a lot of the shows you know, as you pointed out, you know, they've got a younger audience, so it allows you to connect with those people. I mean, maybe you're better off, you know, going on podcasts and radio shows that a younger audience is paying attention to then going on establishment media. You know, well, you need both to reach. I mean, all Americans of every age matter, and certainly the youth vote is extremely important, and it's important not only demographically in electoral sense, it's important morally. They're going to be here for another forty or fifty years, right, they deserve their they're talking about their lives. Why are old people who probably will not be here in twenty years, How do they think they have the right to make all these decisions that will affect the lives of people who have another fift, forty, fifty sixty years ahead of them. So a presidential candidate or any political candidate needs to try to reach all and every voter. I mean, there's no voter that doesn't count. Grateful to be on your show. You're grateful to be on independent media, and you need to have any opportunity you have to reach people. Have you been able to penetrate that at all with like Cable News has CNN. Fox wants to have me on because they don't have a problem messing with the president, right right. I get invited on Fox, and I've been on News Nation a little bit, but CNN and MSNBC, even the people who have me last time quite a bit. And I just you know, I don't want to sound victimy or whiney or any of that, because you know that's not what this is about. It's just wrong. So do you go on when Fox invites you? Yes, because it's the only way you can reach people and I remind you that you were in New Hampshire where there's an open primary. Yeah, and a lot of people are watching Fox in New Hampshire. So yeah, so I go on. I mean, there's one show that I turned down this week that's not on Fox, it's another station. But it was so obvious that it was only to screw the president, right, and I'm not. I'm not I'm not doing that. That's not I'm not going to play that game. I'm not going to be used that way. Yeah. But on Fox absolutely News Nation. Well, that's why, that's why they love to have rfkon. Like conservative media has really embraced him. I mean, part of it is some of the things he says, obviously, but also once again, when you look at him, you know, New Hampshire is a is a is an open primary. Of South Carolina is an open primary too, So this is a very things are Anybody who thinks that this is a predictable era and that what lies before us politically is predictable, I think is naive. There is a lot of energy rumbling up from the bottom bottom of things. I think there's a profound political realignment going on in this country, and I don't think either major political party has any clue because they're in their own bubble of their own multi billion dollar corporate Really, that's what they are. And things will not remain the way they are. Things are going to break. They're either going to break in the direction of greater democracy and justice and people who say, wait, we're going back to the people, by the people, for the people, as opposed to have the corporations by the corporations for the corporations, or it's going to break in the direction of dystopia and neo authoritarianism and some really horrifying prospects if we're not careful. Is there an issue that you have been talking about that has been a kind of a one of your main issues in your campaign that you feel is not getting talked about enough, that's kind of being ignored by the mainstream. Is there anything that you've been the mainstream is ignoring me anyway? So you know, of course, everything I talk about ignored by the mainstream. And I think there are some things that I wish to emphasize. One thing, for since I want a Department of Children and Youth, we need to do a massive, a massive movement of resources in the direction of children ten years and younger. I don't think that we are beginning to grapple with what it means that we are now raising a generation of young children praying every morning they will not get shot at school. So you think we have a mental health crisis, now, you just wait ten or fifteen years. If we want a thriving economy in a thriving society fifteen twenty years from now, our job is to take much better care of our children ten years old and younger. Today. You know, everybody talks about trauma informed education. We need to ask us, says, why do we need something is very wrong in a society that needs so much quote unquote trauma informed education. I have met elementary school principles who say they have elementary school students on suicide watch. We have children in this country who are traumatized for kindergarten. So I want to be the children's president, and I want to I want every public school in America to be a palace of culture and learning and the arts. So that is an emphasis. Also, I want a Department of Peace, and I want this profound economic u turn. And I think that leg ending the drug war is important as well. So yeah, I have some things to say that are quite different than both Biden and Bobby what about. I want to ask you about immigration too, and obviously you know you're originally from Texas, yes, and sometimes people in border states have a little bit of a different perspective than we do, say here in the Northeast. So I'm curious to ask you about your immigration policy and what you know. My position, we talk about it a lot on the show. I feel that we need a massive overhaul of the entire immigration So of course we do. And much of the problem is due to congressional inaction over the last few decades. But also a lot of the problem has to do with American foreign policy in Latin America over the last few decades, and that includes not only supporting people who were the bad guys, to be quite honest, because we thought the good guys will communist or socialists. And in fact, in many cases the people that we did not support are the ones who would have promoted a more stable economy. Secondly, and this goes back to what we were talking about, the drug war. The horror that most of the people from Latin America are seeking to escape has to do with the drug cartels. Ending the drug war will not solve the problem completely, but it will help in the meantime. When you talk about the crisis, the crisis that the border a lot of it. When certain voices in our society talk about the crisis that the border, they're talking about a different crisis than the one that matters to me. And the one they're talking about is not even a crisis actually, given how many jobs are open and available that native born Americans are not looking to fill, thank you very much, that many of these immigrants are. That's number one, and number two, we need to own on an emotional level, the humanitarian crisis. If people at the average American had any idea with some of these people, most of these people actually are seeking to escape. Now, are there people trying to gain the asylum system, Yeah, they're actually, and they should not allow that to happen. But for the most part, if we're gonna if we're gonna just shut not just our borders, but our hearts, then let's take down that m Lazarus poem. Let's just not pretend. Let's just not be these hypogrites. Give me or huddled mouses. You don't need to breatheree, because we don't even mean it anymore. So we've got to decide are we are compassionate society or not the idea that we don't have quote unquote won't have room for these people. Actually we do. And if you look at the at the statistics, the immigrant population does more to contribute to our economy, not just to our culture and to our society, which should be obvious to anyone, to our economy, and most of these undocumented people, they don't want to be undocumented. We force people into the shadows. We have draconian immigration laws, and so absolutely this needs to be overhauled. But I'll tell you something. I think if there's any common thread to my candidacy and would be to my administration, is do right by people and everything's going to repair itself. Just do right by people, and gradually things are going to right. The ship is listening so far to one side. And what those voices of the political class would say is that these ideas are so far left or so radical. I remind you they're considered moderate positions in every other advanced democracy. But more than that, what's radical is what the neoliberal vulture capitalist system has done that is what's radical. What's radicals that over the last fifty years there has been a fifty trillion dollar transfer of wealth into the hands of one percent of Americans. That's what's radical. What's radical is that one in four Americans live with medical debt in richest country in the world, that sixty eight thousand people a year die of lack of healthcare. The one third of Americans live on less than fifteen dollars an hour, and a half of them cannot find a place to live. That half of our seniors live on less than twenty five thousand dollars a year. That is what's radical. So what I'm saying is just bring the ship back to a semblance of a situation in which everyone has a chance. That's the American dream, that people have a chance, that if they work hard enough, they can manifest and make their dreams come true. It used to be that the American dream was to buy a house. Today the American dream for millions of people is to get out of debt before they die. Debt is crippling. And these loans, these loans that these kids are carrying. I can't even imagine being in my twenties. I don't know if I've been in my twenties with tens of thousands of dollars of college loan day, which they only took out because they're trying to better their lives, right, right, This is so wrong, and that's why these should be forgiven, because they should never have existed to begin with. Well, Biden did try to do that, and then again, you know, there are those who believe, there are those who believe if he had just come in and cauntled the whole thing, and he still has ways that he could he could do more. Yeah, you know, he tries to have it both ways. He wants to help people, but he doesn't want to offend, you know, the bankers. He doesn't want to offend those corporate donors. And so far it's well, the American people should have a chance to decide whether or not that is an adequate response to the challenges of our time. Well, he's been he's been a product of Washington going back fifty years and including including he was arguing he was the one who helped pushed the bill which said that you could not go bankrupt and get out of your college Loantown. Oh yeah, yeah, absolutely, and the crime Bill. Yeah. Yeah, I feel like on some of these issues, like immigration, to me is because as you said, it's that that's been a problem for decades and we can't seem to get you know, we'll get a a little bit of action on it here and there, but I feel like the ball, you know, it doesn't really get moved down the field much in either direction over the decades, and I feel like part of it is part of what I feel is broken about our politics is there's money in solving problems, but there's also money and not solving problems. Meaning, for example, if immigration never gets solved in any meaningful way, both Democrats and Republicans can continue to raise money off of the issue. So even if you don't solve the problem, there's still money in it for you. I mean, our two party political system, it's like, you know, it's like failing up. You can fail at solving problems, but if you talk about solving them or look like you're trying to solve them, that's good enough and people will give you money. Well, look at what happens with rov Wode. I mean, it should have been codified by the Democrats years ago. It should have been codified under Obama, who said he wanted to do that when he was a candidate, but then said he didn't want to spend his political capital on that. And it should have been codified the first two years of the at the beginning of the Biden presidency, but much too much, as you were saying, there was so much money raised on oh, vote for us, vote for us, so we could lose Roe V. Wait, well guess what, we did vote for you, and we did lose roby what. Yeah. I said the same thing with the Deat ceiling when when we went through that last round where and Mary and I can tell you, I was very Jenny knows, I was very I was pessimistic, and I try to be an optimist on the show. I really thought we might go over the fiscal cliff. I really thought this might be it, and of course it wasn't, thank goodness. But I said the same thing you were saying about Roe v. Wade. When the Democrats had control, they should have finally done away with the Deat ceiling. It's ridiculous. Yeah, it's totally ridiculous. Well, also, I think the president shouldn't have if I negotiated, he should have just what is it the fourteenth Amendment. I can't remember. Not that couldn't be the fourteen No, it is, Yeah, that's that's in the fourteenth Amendment. Well, that would have been See, I disagree with you there. I think that would have been too Uh. That would have been scary. We would have been an unchar did water there. Well, while though all would have taken as some judge to put an injunction on him. I mean, we don't even know how exactly it would have been invoked, how it would have been implemented. You know, I think I think that's I think that would have been very dangerous. I think the Democrats blink too much. I think, well, I think there's I do somewhat agree with you on that point because I think, oh, I hear Jak Huger say it all the time. You know, Uh, Republicans can be ruthless, but Democrats tend to want to just play nice. And that's right, and I agree with you know, the Republicans consider the fact that they won the election their mandate, and as we're well aware, they have no problem overreaching and abusing power. But Democrats won't even use the power that they're given. Right, Well, we didn't get a mandate. We'll have to wait till the second term and then things don't change in the second term. Well, it's really important that we win again so that maybe we can you know, the milk tooth. And I think the people. Yeah, people don't like that. People like to see spine in their leaders. We need a mother in the White House. You can take that however you want to. I remember after Rovie Wade was overturned and seeing Kamala Harris, I think it was Dana Bash on CNN interviewing her, and yeah, she kind of had that that thing that that you were just doing, where she's like, yeah, well, you know, what can you do? Uh, you gotta vote for more Democrats. Yeah, and I listen, I'm earning as a Democrat. I do want you to vote for more Democrats. But they're different. They're Democrats and then there are Democrats and the much as you were saying earlier, the corporates, Democrats today are what Republicans were when I was growing up. Mmm. Well, it's like I remember Paul Wellstone. He said, I'm from the democratic wing of the Democratic Party, exactly exactly my point that I would I would see myself as a Paul will Stone, I'm curious too, have you been courted by any third parties who have said years ago I was years ago the Green Party had asked me to, but not no. I feel I'm nostalgic for the Democratic Party of my youth. I'm nostalgic historically for the Democratic Party of uh Franklin Roosevelt. I don't you know, I'm aware that third party voices have been very important in the United States. Abolition came from the Abolitionist Party, Women's suffrage came from the Women's Party, social Security came from the Socialist Party. And I'm not pleased, nor should any American be pleased, with the way Democratic and Republican parties have formed this unholy alliance, making it very difficult for third parties to have the significant voice. Having said that, I also think that the soul of the Democratic and the Republican Party need to be retrieved for the sake of this country. I think a lot of people understandably criticizing the corporate duopoly, which I certainly agree with, but let's not be naive about third parties too, because the problem is with political parties period. Do you know what I'm saying? And any system can be corrupted. Yeah, no, labels seems uh well, there's a lot of suspicions about what they're really if they approached you or probably not. No, No, I don't think any I don't think they would want me in there. You know, they want a Democrat and a Republican. But from the corporate duopolis, right right, yeah, yes worldview. Yeah, that world where it seems like they're different, but they're really not so much, or certainly not when it comes to big oil or defense contractors. They all, you know, fall in line for the same for the same guys. We have just a quick question in the in the chatwoman, then we know, we know you gotta go. But Tom Blanchard is asking what do you think about taxing business? One president raised taxes on business and a lot of them left the country. That's just nonsense, because when you look back at the nineteen fifties and sixties and even seventies, when we have these very high tax rates for these companies, they were here. Yeah, they were here. So I think that that's the threat, Oh they'll leave, they'll leave. Well, look how many are leaving now? You know the ones who are going to leave they're leaving now, So I do not what is it was supposed to be afraid of if they if we tax them more and we have more money to take care of people than in that point, let them leave if they want to leave. But the evidence is not that they would, and the evidence is that we should be afraid of how many of them are leaving right now because we are. We are actually making it easier for them in many cases because of these trade deals to leave. Well, on that note, it is it is almost the top of the hour. Mary Anne Williamson, thank you so much. It's wonderful to meet you. Thank you. I hope we can do this again in the future. I assume you're spending a lot of time in our states. I am, and I hope that people will go to Maryann twenty twenty four dot com and sign up so that I can let you know when I'm back. I would I would be very grateful for that. Excellent, excellent, Thank you. All right, we're gonna I'm gonna play a song here and for the for the crossover, and then uh oh, here we go, and then we'll let you scoot. All right, Maryanne, thank you so much, Thank you so much Welcome back everybody as we enter our number two New marrowdose of Matt Connerton unleashed and we are live from the studios of w m n H ninety five point three FM and Glorious Downtown Manchester, New Hampshire, also now on Comcast Channel six in Manchester. And hello to all of our online listeners across the nation and around the globe. You can go to my website Matt Connerton dot com for all your live streaming options, social media links, contact infosh archives, etcetera, etcetera. Jenny is here, of course at the news desk, president and accounted for. And a little while ago in the first hour, we had Mary Ann Williamson here presidential candidate, So if you missed it, that'll be up later in the archive. Check it out. And we have joining us. Let me make sure I got the right Mike's on here. Cody Pope and Byron g have returned to the show. Hey guys, Hello, thank you for having us back. Oh yeah, no, we're we're very excited to have you got a lot of positive response from from last time you guys came in and performed live. And what's do you want to tell us what's been going on since last time you were here? Yeah? Absolutely so when we so, Actually a year ago today, Byron and I had released our debut collaborative album meet Me in gate City, and that's what we came in here and performed songs from yes and so this week we release our follow up, which is an EP called Pound of Flesh that'll be available everywhere Friday on all streaming platforms in on hellhum publishing dot com. Cool. So we thought, because we had such a great time here last time, that a cool way to show these songs to the world for the first time would be to perform them here so people could see a different rendition of what they'll get when they listen to the recorded version. Very cool, very cool, nice Byron. Let's see, uh, let's see if we got some signal coming out of that machine there. I'm gonna very gingerly bring the fader up and we'll see what we got. Okay, I'm on now, I hear something, but it's low, but that might oh you know what that might be because this is low. Let me see here. Maybe we'll get there we go, there we go. How does that sound? Does that sound? Okay? In on your I know those headphones have some buzz, but a little bit. It's not bad though. Yeah, how's the volume for you? It's a little quiet in my headset. Yeah, I'll bring I've got a low on the board. I just I'll I'll bring it up and kind of mix on the fly. But sure, I just want to make sure we got signaled. All right, cool, cool, all right, So these guys, do you want to do? You want to jump into the first song and then we'll then we'll talk for a bit. Yeah. So this is the opening song from our new EP, Pound of Flesh. This song is called key Holders theme song. All right, Unlock the key dog over the gate. Let them suck and know that we don't play. Unlock the key dog, open the gate. Let them suckers know that we don't play. Unlock the key dog, opened the gate. Bobron tear the keys, Pope tevern the page be can warmed, make the strugged dogs wearing away, ready for opposition. Even if they don't play. We don't care what they say, because we pave in the way. When the does look down, we look as straight as the blade shop with. Then the babble with the bob while you Ama I don't need a Dolly Lamba to tell me about my problems of vision clarity. Travis R. Reverty. We who they scared to beat, and maybe who they did to be. They need to ever be a blunt in a nice cap, maybe a dog or a prisoner who right back anyone. But the father who just said they'll be right back needed smokes, but he can't find the right pack. Me getting my dogs. We just help for the night cap. No fashionistas. We just need in the right cap, pair of vands, a hoodie and a jacket. I keep a simple style something another's lack in. It's profound for to the gate city sound this for the ones with their boots on the ground, unlock the lock. The gate keepers are here protecting what we built on. Have no fear. We did to build a scene for you to disgrace it. We molded the keys. You'll just have to face it. This for every motion that make a move for the town. All this commotion might look a motive. The crowd shout, the bodies guarding Christopher Sopranos held hound. How Lapino goes pepper, two to blinos at the two snos might catch me watching cronos meal, prep healthy, but still find myself. Mcdonod's this whole jam just but workers to thrive, to pray, you make enough to want one, but can buy to move the little street rock. Tried to hang sheet rock, but my whole life changing my words made the meat rock. Byron and Cody the new yelling Pete rock. Except we don't beef. We're just trying to see stocks grow out. We cropped to drop more music, Liquid aspect dreams got us moving more fluid to make the long haul. You can't be stupid, make the mistake. You just gotta keep it moving, unlock the luck. The gate keepers at here protecting what we built done, have no fear. We didn't build a scene for you to disgrace it. We molded the keys. You'll just have to face it. That was awesome, nice, Thank you nice. It's our first time ever doing that. Oh yeah, wow nice. Yeah. If you're just joining us, Cody, Pope and Byron's here here with us, live in studio, and if you have any questions or anything for these guys, or feedback or anything at all, six zo three two five zero six O seven, the studio line is open. Six zo three two five zero six zero seven. You can also text me at six one seven nine one seven four four seven six. I'm on social media at Matt Connerton. You can email me Matt at matt Connerton dot com, and of course you can interact undo Pine in the Facebook live chat. But the best thing to do so that we can hear and enjoy your dulcet tones is give us a call at six zero three two five zero six zero seven six zero three two five zero six zero seven. So that was that was the first time you guys are doing that track live. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's pretty much our first time ever doing that outside of the studio. Is it Are you nervous when you when you perform a song like that live the first time or do you feel pretty confident with it going in? Oh? No, I'm super nervous. You know, we like put so much time in energy and re recording and there's so much that goes into it that you think that when the time comes to unveil it that you're going to be ready. But yeah, there's always that like instinctual like, oh, you know, if I just had a little more time, we could we could do a little differently. Yeah, but if we did that, we would never put anything out, you know, so I'm like, I'm very proud of what people are gonna hear. Yeah, it's also that like nervous feeling of like, oh boy, this is a lot, this is a lot different. Now hopefully hopefully they react well, yeah, but how do you know what it's done? Like, do you guys both just kind of have to like you're both at that point where you can agree that it's done or do you ever disagree about like does one of you think it's done and the other one of you says, I don't know? So yeah, yeah, yeah, So it's it's hard so because we do all the mixing and mastering in house as well. Yeah, so it's hard to like let it go, you know. So we're both kind of learning to just let it go. Man. We spend hours on it. For this one alone, it was four tracks, but we put hours and hours and hours into it, mixing it down the correct way and mastering and making it sound the way that we want to sound. Yeah, and uh, there's always that all right, man. Like we were trying to set dates for ourselves, which definitely helps. So when the date comes up like that last final week it's like, all right, let's get all these ducks in the line. Let's yeah, let's just finish this stuff and and put it out. Yeah. Yeah, so it makes sense. And so it's a is it a four track EP? That's kind yeah okay, Now, was the previous one also an EP? Or was that a full No? So Meet Me and gate City was a full length that had about fourteen songs on it. Part of the reason why we so we have like a full length in the can ready to go. And I think it's safe to say both of us very much come from album culture, and that's very much our forte. But over the last year, through examining how people gauge the record, the physical media collectors gravitated to it and it did great. We did multiple CD runs. You know, it really resonated with people in the digital in the streaming world, it didn't quite have the same gravity. Interesting, and I think a lot of that has to do with the way that music consumption happens right now, and so it was kind of our responsibility to try and adapt to that at some point. And so this is kind of like, we have enough music for an album, but people aren't consuming albums in whole like that, in at least in our genre. I don't want to make like general statements because, like I said, I love albums. There's people out there that appreciate them, but I guess from a consumer standpoint, that's not the thing that sells the most right now. Yeah, So our thought was, like, well, the songs that would have been our album, we had a whole album follow up planned for meet Me and gate City, and we just decided to take that and kind of micro doset for lack of a better term, And so we have a bunch of small EPs that we're going to drop and let that kind of go into next year, and then hopefully next year our audience will be ready to receive the album that we've been waiting to give them. Yeah. Yeah, I understand what you're saying, though. I think I think people are just when it comes to downloading music, people are just used to downloading singles or maybe even an EP, but downloading a full album it's like WHOA really? Right? Yeah, Unfortunately I think it has shifted that way. But I but I guess too, like there's an advantage to just doing an EP and that at least you're getting you're getting things out there quicker because with social media and all of it, you know, you have to kind of feed the machine, right, Yeah, exactly. I mean we've been we hadn't released anything with our US two music wise since last year. Yeah, it's literally a year from today one Meet Me and get Gate City came out. Oh okay, So we've been kind of you know, we've been putting out a lot of other records under the label, a lot of instrumental albums really a couple other hip hop albums with vocalists and stuff. But uh, yeah, we were just feeding at this point to get something out there and do it different from what we did the first time. Yeah. Yeah, So some of the albums you've been releasing on the table are instrumentals. Yeah. Yeah. Are those generally I mean I assume there's an audience for that obviously, or you wouldn't be doing it. But are those generally well received? Yeah? You know, a lot. It takes, you know, obviously, like any album in any genre, it takes an artist to really get behind it and push their work. But with a lot of the producers we work with, there's such a cool beat making scene and like a drum machine based scene where it doesn't involve rappers. You can just have like fifteen beat makers go up on stage and play their music and people dance and vibe and hang out. And so we found artists that really cater to that, and they all kind of do a different thing where it's like Byron has an instrumental album out, you would say that's very like modern hip hop, feel very like almost like ambient but still like heavy drums. And then we've put out lo fi instrumentals as well. We have an artist that put out a more or like electronic almost like an af X twin kind of like really wild edm record, And so a lot of it is it's great for people that do videos. It's great for soundtracking, it's great for uh, you know, sinking under different visuals and stuff like that. Uh you know, it kind of goes back to the idea of music consumption where I love instrumental music, whether it's like, you know, like an Explosions in the Sky kind of band, or like a Byron instrumental record. Sometimes I just don't need vocals. I'm a vocalist, so I got words running through my head all the time. So it's nice to just have like something just like a background, so you think about yeah, put it on and just relax. Yeah, yeah, do some laundry or whatever. Well I would imagine too, like some aspiring rappers might be, you know, listening to these instrumentals and practicing rapping over them. Yeah. Oh, we have a call. Our friend. Our friend Shannon is on the line. Hey, Shannon, you got a question for these guys? Yes, I do. How no, gentlemen, how are you? Hello? We're great? How are you good? What I was going to ask or or let you know is and you can google this later opus one. Okay, it's one of the songs that are played on hold. You know, we call a place to get put on hold, you get to hold music. Yeah, so your instrument A kid wrote that. It's got I don't know his last name. His first name was Tim. I think he was. I think he said it was sixteen or seventeen when he wrote it and gave it away. You can sell it, So make sure you know if if you make something you know, snazzy jazzy enough to be a hold music, you know, yeah, absolutely, you'd probably be rich right now if he sold it. Yeah, well, hey, you never know, that's right, right, everybody need it's some music, that's right. I mean there was there was one gentleman that used to call a place and specifically say, can you please put me on hold? I just want to hear the music. I'd like to do that with. The Fire Department has the best MFC has the best hold music. Oh my gosh, I don't know if I've ever heard it. Well, Shannon, I hope you're not calling the fire Department just to hear the hold music. Well, no, I wish I could, though, just called let me hear some of that electric guitar for a few minutes. You have to, like you send me an MP three of this or something. Well, I'm just saying, if anybody ever says, you know, hey, i'd like to have this you've been worn, don't don't just give it away. Thank you. I just made a rhyme over one of us. There you go, alright, alright, alright, thank you for the call. Thank you, all right, by Oh, it's nice to hear from Shannon. That does open up the studio line for you. Six zero three two five zero six zero seven six zero three two five zero six zero seven. We have Cody Pope and Byron g here. I'd love to hear another song if you guys want to do it too. Yeah, this this track is called Manifest. How's the volume I that on? Was that good? The yeah tracks? All right? Yeah, all right, I haven't touched it, so I'll leave it where it was excellent? All right? Cody Pope and Byron g live in studio, cash in rain checks water brand. What we planted started the garden, No, but where we crash landed cash handed in stacks plan what we do this for? Uh but build a passion? What we do this music for New Hampshire STANDSTI Where in the heck have you been at? True wins back, been holding the granade on our back? Cody Gan, Byron Champion level without a code, the type to smoke the whole beat, way past the rope. We locking long. I was cooking and building the system. It took a minute to win it, but now we felt to killer. See we grind like the tools to turn the wheat to duck fire and cook the beat. And you know I'm gonna beat the guy working class coming for our fair share, looking like we came from the woods with all this bare hairs. There they're just two guys who set replaced their lives, who understand the road that comes way past the prize. Daily, daily, daily, It doesn't give every difference. Things change, but never switching the mission. Some give up, decide they're gonna fall back. Some clame real book and not what I call that. Daily, daily, daily, It doesn't give every difference. Things change, but never switching the mission. Some give up, decide they're gonna fall back. Some clame real book, quit and not what I call that. Even through revolution, I've been the same meat what I meant back then. It's still plain to see I was built on principles some would call home, having loyalty and honors what you call so all told it what times I almost didn't make it? Nah, can't fake it when I know I can really contain it. Rearranged and together now like meth and print Roult, filled with a lot of gems to set the stream. Days don't pass question in this crash course wouldn't be mad if Raps bought the rap four Doing these laps may be not always sure, but this is the thing that got me always wanting more. Different kind of project feat your family with your passion, trying to pay the mortgage and the groceries with my wrapping, living, breathing proof. The rap can be the path of freedom, which having your own path can be the reason you don't need them. On daily, daily, daily, it doesn't get every different things change, but never switching the mission. Some give up decide they're gonna fall back, some playing real book and not what I call that daily, daily daily, It doesn't get every different things change, but never switching the mission. Some give up, decide they're gonna fall back, some real book with what I call that nice thank you. That was a second song off our Pound of Flesh EP. That one was called manifest Very cool, very cool. Will Vegas is in the Facebook live chat says smooth flow, great lyrics, awesome, thank you. I had the I gotta give him a shout out too. I had the pleasure of spending some time with Will Vegas earlier today at Will's Auto Service and great service. Actually Will is Will is fantastic, so I highly recommend him. You can hear him occasionally on the morning show He's He's popped in a few times or on He joined us on a Friday night on a Retrospectrum Radio with Paul ce A number of months ago, and I cannot recommend him enough. So and Jay fat is in the chatwoman says, have you thought about increasing the length of your beard? I don't know if that's for one of you or both of you. This seems to be his new question. Uh so we'll start with you, Cody Pope, if you thought about increasing the length of your You've got a lot of beard already. Yeah, it's funny. I've actually taken a lot of beard off. That's kind of short for you. Yeah, My my normal beard length is honestly probably like down to here. Yeah, it's just it's so hot in the summer. And now, I besides us like performing all the time, I also do event coordination for like Harley Davidson's and stuff, So it's like I'm always outside and in the heat. So I would just be melting if I had any I can't get rid of the beard because it's like a staple of my personality. But man, it's yeah, I've been trying to trim it up a little bit to see what I can get away with, right, right, And Byron, now you've got a beard kind of like mine. It's it's short, super sure. I always get bit short. When it grows out, it just gets all long and I can't do it. Not a good look for me. No, I get it. I've I've never grown mine out either. I couldn't. I couldn't do that. I just to me, it just looks like this looks like hell in the summer, saying, yeah, you know, I can't put in the extra effort. I'm not trying to comb it. I just shave it like walking around with a wool cap on your face. You know, That's what it looks like to me. I couldn't. It's cool And if it was like you know, because this is like thick. Yeah, yeah, mine is not. It's all long, weird phrase, keep it like, it's just not good. Will Vegas points out O d B was a Mangi rapper. He was absolutely. Uh. Let's see. Isaac Banks is asking what's your favorite Heavy D and the Boys rap song? Now that we got love, what are we gonna do with it? My dad likes that song. I love Heavy D in the Boys. Yeah, you know. You know what's so funny is I feel like both times that we've come on now people have asked us about that specifically Heavy D. Yeah. Really, I feel like I feel like on the on the last episode, somebody called into and was like, Yo, you know you guys. You guys like Heavy D and the Boys funny. It's cool though. I like your audience for that. That's awesome. Yeah. Today at work on break I was watching an episode of Fresh Prince of bel Air and Heavy D. It was actually in that episode today, no rest in peace? Wow, you guys want to play another? You guys want to play another? Yeah? Sure, all right, I'm I'm dying here another one if you're just joining us. We have Cody Pope and Byron g here with us in studio and they're performing some songs from the the upcoming ep. It comes out Friday. You said, yeah, it comes out Friday. Everywhere, very good, very good as one track three extra special treat today. Yeah, yeah, all right for us too, Yeah all right. Whenever you guys are ready, eyes wide open, feeling the dilation could have died from all the supplies I've taken. I won't lie. The taste is something I'm chasing. I can't deny that without it, life sought to face climb the agrol crack, playing tag with the Dragon. Who do I text whoever right now's back And if I can't get it, I'll hit your mom's liquor cabinet when I need mine. You can't say no, I'm just not having it. Freeze. I'm hot now this comes in cycles. My name is Cody, but I played the game like Michael Wild, hungry eating gorm berries. The storms come in. I suggest you warned many patients is a virtue pump chasing often replaced with that NIGI conducting that's ultimately go waste the taste My decisions leave me with this. How would try to do the right thing but don't always have the power. I got the power, but don't always make the right choice. Listen to myself, don't always pick the right voice? Evil? Thow my shoulder is easy because it's a light choice. Feels good? Now, how make the wrong life choice? I got the power, but don't always make the right choice. Listen to myself, don't always pick the right voice? Evil thow my shoulder is easy because it's a light choice. Feels good? Now? How I make the wrong life choice? Did the panning get you guys? Yeah? That was good, thank you? Uh and Byron? So what is that? What is it that you're using over there for an instrument. So this is the legendary Roland SP four or four its MK two and this is what I This is pretty much the exact setup that I bring to our live shows. Okay, this thing, it's small, it packs a punch, and you're able to manipulate the beats live. I'm kind of holding back a little bit now because it's all brand new, these these tracks and messing around, but yeah, we do. We bring this to every live show. It's super simple. Instead of bringing around a laptop which probably has a lot of valuable information and all your you know, tracks and whatnot, I keep that at home. I bring this in my little podium and simple quick. Yeah, not in the way something different bring to the live show. Yeah, no, understandable. And obviously that gives you more flexibility. You know that last time we were here we use the flash drive and whatnot. Up with that? You know, you can you can do what I mean? Do you ever kind of vary what you're doing while you're performing live with that always? Yeah? Yeah, everything's pretty much on the spot with this thing. Yeah. Yeah, it's pretty safe to say we never do the same show twics. Yeah, it's yeah, pretty much impossible to you know, get those chops and the EQ sweeps, and you know, you could just pull a bunch of different crazy effects that you could add, and there's just so much that you're you're probably not going to do the same thing every time and for each song unless you you know, have a unless you practice it for hours. Yeah, but no, it's cool. You can make beats with it. A lot of people use this as their like a lot of producers use this as their basically main hub and run all of their like their dog and everything through this because it has a compressor in it. That is like, people buy this just for the compressor in it, so it's it does a lot. It's good to us. Yeah, yeah, very cool. Will Vegas and the chat room says rip big pun Absolute man and j FT is asking as a performer, do you believe you might be able to perform while taking an ice bath or while taking a cold east side cold? But he's a purveyor of the ice path. We've may very well have had this conversation the last time you guys were here. I don't know if this sounds from how could it not? He does it to everybody I know I know, I don't know. I don't always tell you're gonna go there for a birthday party and he's gonna dunk you into an ice Yeah, he's trying to get for for Melanie. He's trying to get somebody to go there to perform in Vermont a birthday party. Yes, but but I think he'll if you, if you agree to do it, he'll probably try to talk you into the ice bath. I mean, I'm not I'm honestly not wholly opposed to it, the bonus involved. I mean, it's, yeah, this time of year, it's a little cold. But I will say that I've definitely heard that like ice, ice is like the best recovery for like athletics and training and all that stuff. I'm a big mm a nerd. Sorry, Yeah, I always you know, you always see them doing the little ice baths and stuff. So so I'm like, I'm like, I'd like to think I would handle it. Yeah. Yeah, he's out there on the data winnadicated negative conditions. He's out there. That's like, I feel like it's like a lifestyle thing. Once people like get their bodies acclimated to it, it just becomes like a refresher. I wish I was that tough. Yeah, yeah, I just uh yeah. J Fed says you could do it. I don't know if I do it. I just worry about hypothermia, things like that, Just little things like that. Off Now, what's now, what's happening with the label? So you how many how many artists are you guys working with currently? So right now, obviously we have our our collaborative stuff as well as solo stuff. We also have another instrumental record coming out this fall from a producer who lives in Canada now. His name is Nique one hundred. He used to be based out of Boston. He has this really cool, like sample heavy, kind of avant guardip jazz hip hop sound. Yeah, it's really good. So that's gonna be coming out this fall. We have a record coming out from an artist named Q Quick from New Hampshire, which is a really interesting story because a lot of people know him for his production. He makes beats for a lot of hip hop artists and he does a lot of graphic design work. But I had a record label years ago when we had first met, and we had recorded a hip hop album for him that he produced all the beats and rapped over and it just never came out. So I kind of like poked the bear this year and was like, what do you think about us putting this out? And so we got together and chopped it up, and so we're gonna put together a plan to put that out. So we'll have the unique one hundred instrumental album coming out. We'll have Q Quick's hip hop EP coming out. We have a bunch of music ourselves coming out. Like we were saying, we got a bunch of EPs that we're going to drop throughout the remainder of the year. Eight Bizza, who I think you're familiar with eight Business. Yeah, he's been on the show a couple of times, not recently, but yeah, I interviewed him. Yet he's been he's been steady working on all sort it's the different things. And a few years back he put out his like seminal producer album, Bobby's Boom Bap Recital, and it didn't get like a full wide distribution. It was like only on band camp. So we worked out something with him so that we can put out like a CD and distributed version of it so that people can hear it because it's a it's a brilliant album. It's it's really he like mastercrafted the whole thing, picked all the verses out over a couple of years, you know, picked the right rappers, put them on songs with people that he thought would do well. It's just it's a brilliant album. Uh. It's definitely something that as like a somebody who's like a physical music collector. It deserves to be on like a CD or vinyl or something like that. So we're excited to put that out as well. Yea, and and we got we got a couple other records, but it's it's tough. We we can't like talk about all of them yet, but yeah, but we but we have. But we've got a lot of stuff in the pipe line for this year as well as next year, and we're hoping this time next year our next full length will be out by then. Very cool. Our friend Shannon is back on the line. Hi Shannon, Hi, Sorry, go back. But that last song you just played it had like a correct me if I'm wrong, but like a Middle Eastern Turkish background. Ye like the sample? Yeah, thank you. I don't know the terms ye have you ever got? I don't know what one of these looks like I just heard it. What the name of it is? An oud? It's it's a it's sort of like an Arabic or Turkish guitar. I know what I'm talking about. I know, I know what you mean. I'm not sure how to pronounce it either, but I think I know what you're talking about. Yeah, it's pronounced food because it's how they pronounced it on the radio. But then again they are wrong sometimes. Yeah, but that would be neat you know that if you could find one? Mmm, absolutely, I don't know. It's just an idea. No, that's uh, I like all of your ideas. There you go already, all right, Shannon, Thank you, Shannon, thank you, bye bye. All right, Well we heard from Shannon again. Six zero three two five zero six Z seven is a studio line. If you'd like to join us. Six zo three two five zero six zero seven. That must be a I don't know. Is is it a relief in a way to have that? Is it? Q quick? Is that at the name of the artist? Who's uh, you're going to be releasing that? Finally? Because it's I always think it's a shame when you hear about music that gets recorded and then never released it is you know, it's it seems wrong somehow, you know, so it must be nice to finally be getting that out. It really is. And I can say from experience too that sometimes it's a good test because the way, you know, like we're talking about music consumption and all of that, so many people because technology allows you to we could record a song and here, take it home, mix it and master it all night, upload it to distro tomorrow, and it'll be online in the next couple of days, or it'll be up you know, SoundCloud or our website within a couple of minutes. Yeah, But the issue with that is that it creates it creates a disposability with music. And so I ran into it where I'd taken a hiatus for a couple of years, and so I went back and listened to songs that I had done in that time, and some of those songs stood the test of time and they were great. They had been five years old, six years old, three years old, however long, and that made up an album that was like my return album before him and I did ours. And so I'm a very avid fan of when you finish your master recordings, sit on it for a few months and make sure that when you come back to it, you're just as excited about it. You feel just as proud of that work, you don't, you know, because it's we I think all of us come from a time where artists would put out an album and they would celebrate that album for two, three, four or five years. They could tour all over the world, they could do music videos, they could do meet and greets, they could do all sorts of different things, and so you didn't need your favorite band or artists to keep flooding you with music. They gave you something that you appreciated and you listen to over and over and over again. And so for us, it's like that's very much our goal with hell Hound is we want to create music that people will continue to listen to years down the road and still find a connection to or value within. And sometimes you gotta let things sit in the vault to know that they're right for the world. You know, if he had put that out back then, maybe he wasn't ready, Maybe our listenership wasn't built up yet. You know, maybe it would have gone under appreciated. Who knows. There's a number of things that to me, it just makes it feel like, all right, the patient game is good if you if you've got art that matters. Yeah, yeah, no, that's interesting, that makes sense. Is it ever hard to do that? I mean, did you ever? Did you guys ever make something, you record something where you go I really would just like, this is so good, I just want people to hear it, literally the story of my life. We always joke that we have like a small circle of friends that when we have music in the vault, they know that if they come over to hang out at the studio, they're gonna sit there and listen to me wrap them every song that we have in the vault, because it's one of those like I've been holding this in for too long, like I need someone to hear it. It doesn't come out till next year, Like, can can you just let me just wrap these songs for you? Yea, even these songs, you know, we've we've probably been showing our our circle of these songs for months and months now at least. Yeah, it was just all about, like we other records from other artists that we needed to get done first, and then we had show obligations and this and that. So yeah, it was you know, once again, it was like I get so excited to show people these things, but I'm so lucky that we're always doing enough that it's easy for me to like put something not like on the back burner, but it's easy for me to like put something in my pocket when I have like another artists project on deck. Yeah, I have to. Both of us have had to really find that balance of like we are in a way, like the flagship artists for our label. Yeah, but we also own the record label that we have, and so we have obligation to the other artists that we sign and support as well, And so it's we're constantly trying to figure out that balance of we have to lead the way both as artists and set the path as label owners and in the like opposite effect too, Like we've definitely shelved records that are completely done where we're like you listen back and you're like like, I gotta go down a little hotter on that, or I coulda change you gotta I could I gotta fix the baseline or that we were ready to release and then we're like, all right, let's hold back a little bit. Yeah, sit back, restructure rethink this and and put it back together. Wow, we've done that as well, for sure. Yeah, it's tough, especially with hip hop music, to be, you know, be totally transparent, you know, Like I tell people all the time, I can I can wrap, like I have no qualms about and that's not me. I'm not trying to be like pretentious and like that. But like I know how to rap, you know what I mean. It's like I feel like it's safe to say that I've like come up here done the rap thing. I can rhyme, I can do the patterns. We're in a time in music where that's that doesn't matter anymore. What matters is that you can write songs that people can connect to and can gravitate to. The rapping is just part of It's like an instrument in the whole part of the song. If your song is just raps the whole way through, people aren't gonna necessarily late, They're not going to catch everything. And so I can make songs all the time, you know. I mean, me and them could go to the studio tonight, I could knock out ten songs, but tomorrow I don't know if they're all good. Yeah, you know, I don't know if I like everything I said on all those songs. And that's why you got to like be confident in sitting on things for a while, because if you're anxious to put music out right now, there's a very good chance that the reason you're so anxious to get it out is because it has to do with the timeliness of either something you said, you know, you're you said something relevant to like a news thing right now or a political thing or whatever, or your sound sonically matches the popular singles. And that's why a lot of people are desperate to get this music out because they think getting the song out is the business strategy. But to put the song out, you need to have a business strategy, you know. So that's why I'm comfortable play in the waiting game now. But I but I do admittedly like get anxious to be like all right, like right, And it's safe to say right now me and him probably have forty or fifty songs in the vault at last YEP, and that we were ready to put out a full length album this year, but we had to assess our situation and just realize that, like we don't have the market for that yet, and so we need to like put our feet to the to the concrete and shake hands and kiss babies and get people to hear this music more. You know, we're fortunate that we still have an album that we're super proud of, you know, going back to the timeliness. You know, the album came out a year ago, but I would I would put it out today as a brand new album and show people, and I would I'd perform every one of those songs today as an anniversary thing if we didn't already have new music. I love that record, and so I'm happy to keep pushing that forward while sprinkling little bits out until we until we figure out who's ready for the next one. Yeah, are you guys playing out a lot? By the way, are you're doing a lot of live shows? It's it's definitely. It's funny. We were talking about this earlier. This year has been like our thinnest year so far for shows, uh huh. But I think a lot of that just has to do with we we really learned a lot about running the record label, and that kind of happened unexpectedly, and so we kind of had to like hit the brakes to figure out how to do the label the right way so that the label wasn't just like a little like side project or like a little hobby for you know, we want people to know that, like when they put out records through our record label, that that record is just as important as a Cody Pope and Byron g record, and that the goal is to elevate all of those equally, and so we need to have a creative and business strategy to do that. And so we haven't really taken as many shows, but it worked out in our favor because now like this lined up perfectly to be in here today, and then we have two shows this week. We're going to be opening for Spose from Maine. He's like an incredibly hard working artist, and so Thursday we're going to be opening for him in Lowell at Taffada, and then Friday we're gonna be opening for him at Wally's in Hampton Beach. So it worked out really well because if we had been doing too many shows and spreading ourselves too thin, we probably wouldn't have been able to earn an opportunity like that. But because we've kept things scarce and timed it with a new record and all of that. I think it just kind of like once again, like playing the patient game just has blessed us in a way. Yeah, no, that makes sense. Chris from the band Edgewise and the Chapman says writing something memorable is an art. To his point, writing songs isn't the issue, right, writing something memorable? Yeah, yeah right, absolutely absolutely absolutely shout out to Edgewise. Yeah, do you guys want to uh yeah, we have time. We want to do one more before Yeah, this is this is the closing song from our new p pound of Flush that's gonna be available everywhere on Friday. And this song is called Victory. All right, Cody Pope and Byron g down bad. But I have to keep my head up, trying to capture the moment. But life sped up. Got all these books for black time, just stay right up. Knew all these crooks, but I almost got set up, fed up with the patterns I've been placing myself in, eating knock these platters. Now I'm letting myself win, smoking sheets of shadow ring, but making my head's been when the only thing that matters is with making the dead live. Struggle to wake up some days, but I gotta do it think my hell Hound family. We got a lot of music strategizing, the compromising due to the budget. But even if I go broke again, you know that I love it. Hopefully one day I'll look back at my victories, but right now I'm just developing my history. First home, then take this all over the planet, never forget our victories. Sing the grant of victory for the humble in the hard working, but the ones who overcame another large burden victory for the star war vosser reep the reward. You're here even if y'all hurt in victory Put the humble and the hard working, but the ones who overcame another large burden victory, but the star war vosser in reep the reward. You're here, even if y'all hurting. Victory ga the people who pushing pass problems. She is to the ones who know money don't always solve them. Loyalty is the trait that most men have been robbed of. Best friends become strangers, but it's all loved oddly so far. Rough path from my younger me used to be hungry. Now I'm trying to see hungary. I don't let the thunders under me, You get under me, I get the storm in my soul. So there's no wonder Billy, get dead, devil, just seek a stability, work separate from all that time is killing me. Musics are functioning. It operates like utility, or rhymes like wines, like my combrass. Be's feeling me. All this hydration and this susting. This keep my soul right. I've been getting heavy, but this he will make me so light, illuminated and fortunate. To possess these guilt the obstacle. That is the way your best to make these thrill. Victory. Put the humbled in the hog working, but the one Supol became into the large part in victory. But the stall war envosstertain reap the rewards or he reaping if y'all hurt in victory. Put the humbled in the hog working, but the one supol became another large party victor ree but the stall wark enfosstertain reap the rewards. You're here even if y'all hurt him, And that's victory. The closing track from our brand new EP, Pound of Flesh, available everywhere, Friday, August twenty five. Nice, very nice, very nice. Yeah, that's a strong closer. That's really good, thank you. Yeah. I like the positivity and you guys always bring a lot of that. That's that's really good. Absolutely, And so where should so that'll be available on all the streaming platforms obviously, And what about now for Hellhound Publishing? Where should people go to learn more about the label and everywhere? You can go to www dot Hellhound Publishing dot com. You can find all of me and Byron stuff. You can find every artist from the label. You can find the books, you can find our podcasts, you can find our web store. You can order CDs directly from there. They'll come directly from us. That's really the hub of everything. And then of course we're on social media everywhere at Hellhound Publishing as well. Excellent, excellent. Yeah, it's cool to you guys. I know we talked about this last time, but they still put out physical media too. That's really cool? Is that? Do you put out actual physical CDs for everything that you release? Or so we were for a while, but now we've kind of switched things up a bit because certain records that we do, they just they placate to a certain audience, and if that audience isn't buying physical music. Then it's like, you know, don't don't reinvent the wheel, you know, feed people how they're already eating. So we would like to have a physical of everything, but sometimes it doesn't always come in the form of a CD. Now, yeah, yeah, no, that makes sense. We should we should remind people too, uh. And if you're just joining us here, we have our Cody Pope and Byron g with us live in studio and if you if you missed them performing, make sure you go back and check out what you miss really really good stuff. We should remind people. So you've got two shows this week coming up right, Yeah, August twenty fourth, Thursday, we're gonna be at Taffada and Lowell, Massachusetts, opening for Spose in the Rigga Metrics. And then Friday, August twenty five, will be at Wally's in Hampton Beach, also opening for spos and the Rigga Metrics. Again, it's going to be a wild night. Oh Friday Friday, Oh happy birthday. Hey, thank you very nice. Soll surprise them at the show exactly and we both have the day off. The best, the best birthday present of all is listening to our music, coming to our shows and buying me jagerbombs. There you go, There you go, guys, thank you so much. And uh, we should say too thank you to marry Ann Williamson for joining us in the first hour. And uh and if you miss that, that'll be up of course in the archive as well. And Jenny, did you want to plug your website and anything else? Oh, you can always check me out at gencoffee dot com. J E n n c o ffui dot com. The last few months of DC trips are loaded and up there if you want to see the videos. And uh, and we have Brooks Young. We should remind people to Brooks Young will be our musical guest on Thursday. Is he playing live or is he just coming in? Uh? I believe he is doing both live and recorded. Yeah, that'll be Uh. Do you guys know Brooks Young? No loose artists? No, that sounds cool though. Yeah. Yeah, he's familiar. He's amazing. Yeah, you might have run across him. He's he's from the area, but he's he's on on tour open for a lot of big names. And I was just commenting to Jenny earlier. I think the first time I interviewed him was like literally fifteen years ago. Wow, and it's just weird. I look at pictures of him now online and he looks exactly the same, except he has gray hair. It says weird seeing him with gray hair, and it's like, oh, wow, the last time I saw that guy, he didn't have any gray air at all. It's been a long time, but he's great, really super nice guy and just extraordinary. I mean, I'm gaf, I'm bad at math. It might have been twelve, but it's been a long time. It's been a long time, so that will be that'll be great to see him. He'll be in here on Thursday. But guys, thank you again so much. Cody Pope and Byron Gee, thanks so much for having us. Wonderful to see you guys. Thanks for coming in and playing. And with that, if you miss any part of today's show, it will be up in just a little bit at WMH radio dot org and on my website Matt Connerton dot com. Oh and happy birthday to hip hop fifty years that's right, that's right, all right. We'll leave you with a little bit of public enemy to the clean version, of course, to fight the power. To commemorate that I've been dying to play this anyway. That's it for us for now. We'll talk to y'all a little bit later. By everybody, Bye bye,
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