Matt Connarton Unleashed: Bryan Bielanski

0:00 Speaker 1: That is quite catchy. That is Brian Bolanski. That is called the Perfect Date. And this is Matt Connorton Unleashed and we are live from the studios of wm NH ninety five point three FM, Inglorious of Manchester, New Hampshire. Today is October twelve, twenty twenty four, and Jenny is here, of course at the news table, and we have Brian here with us. Let's see if that mike is working. Brian, how are you?

0:25 Speaker 2: Hey, how's it going? I'm doing well? How about yourself?

0:28 Speaker 1: There we go, now I can hear you all right? Brian is So we were talking off air about I was trying to figure out if I was saying your name correctly, and so it turns out I wasn't, but I was because so you professionally you go by Brian Bolanski. Yes, but the way I was saying it Biolanski is actually the uh.

0:49 Speaker 2: Yeah, that's how you say it correctly in Poland, and it is a Polish name. So I'm doing the the Midwestern americanized accent version.

1:00 Speaker 1: Well fair enough, but we do have listeners in Poland, I believe awesome. I made that up, but it's nice to think we do I mean it's the internet.

1:10 Speaker 2: Well, I definitely promoted this show on my social media pages and do have quite a few followers in Poland, so hopefully, hopefully now there are some listeners there if there weren't before.

1:20 Speaker 1: There you go, there, you go. Yeah, you're on a big national tour, right or you're going everywhere yet?

1:24 Speaker 2: Well this fall it is a Midwest, East Coast and Canada tour. I actually just got back from Edmondston, New Brunswick, playing a show up there last night. Okay, so so yeah, yeah, all over the place, just trying to promote the new album Brian's Super Happy Fun Time.

1:41 Speaker 1: For Yes, yes, no, I love it. It's very very catchy stuff fun songs. Didn't have to make any radio edits, which is nice.

1:51 Speaker 2: Oh yeah, you know, I always try to be polite to to my friends in the radio there. Make everything FCC friendly.

1:59 Speaker 1: Where are you from.

2:00 Speaker 2: I am from Charlotte, North Carolina. That's my home.

2:05 Speaker 3: We have listeners there, we do have for el Yeah, that is true royal listeners.

2:12 Speaker 1: Yes, yes, excellent.

2:13 Speaker 2: All right, well hello Charlotte listeners.

2:16 Speaker 1: That is a that is a verifiable fact. So is that where you currently live?

2:21 Speaker 2: That is my home? Base. Yeah, so though saying I live there is is kind of a stretch. I'm there maybe a few weeks out of the year. The rest of the time, I'm just traveling across the country. And like we were talking off the air, did a europe tour earlier this year too, So yeah, I spend most of my time traveling and playing music. Yeah, I do call Charlotte home at the end of the day, you know, for a few weeks at least.

2:44 Speaker 1: How long have you been doing this full time touring?

2:47 Speaker 2: Twenty twelve is when I made the big plunge and decided to go from being a part timer like weekend Warrior to just kind of being a nomad and kind of living on the road more or less.

2:58 Speaker 1: Was it was? It scary at first?

3:00 Speaker 2: So yeah, it's still scary. It's still yeah, especially at first. I mean, you get used to a lot of aspects of it, and honestly, the aspect of not doing it is scarier to me than all the things that folks might consider scary about being on the road. Ye, But yeah, you get used to it and it's great. It's a lot of hard work, but it's a lot of fun too.

3:25 Speaker 1: Have you been touring steadily since twenty twelve, so actually the pandemic.

3:30 Speaker 2: Probably we know that, Yeah, we know, there was a little break for that, and I actually have been touring steadily since things reopened from COVID. Pre COVID, it would get to see, I've gotten better about the business aspect. At first in twenty twelve, I'd be on tour for like nine months, run out of money, have to work a couple months at my old job, and then go on tour another seven months. You know, Yeah, it depends, you know. But lately, you know, I think I've made every financial mistake there was to make as being a traveling musician.

4:02 Speaker 2: So now I, like, you know, know how to weather the storm, if you know, some years are better than others. Sure, but but yeah, yeah, since since things reopened after COVID, this is this has been it.

4:13 Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, you're making it work, certainly, and that's great.

4:16 Speaker 2: Good for you, Thank you, Good for you.

4:18 Speaker 1: Well, do you want to play something live for us? Yeah?

4:22 Speaker 2: Sure, I'm gonna do a song from my last album, Brian's Super Happy Fun Time three, the predecessor to the New one, and this song is called rock the Library. It's a song about how I hang out in the libraries all day before my shows because it's a great place to get some work done, hang out for free, and even every once in a while, have a chance to read a book.

4:42 Speaker 4: There you go, all right, way, honey, I know what you need. I like to write, you like to read. I really like the way you look. Are you gonna check out my library book? Because I'm you your host? We're the most rocking libraries coast to coast and I ten, I twenty, I thirty and forty A fifty, I sixty, I seventy eighty. I love you, baby.

5:11 Speaker 3: The don't mean maybe your heart of than nash potatoes and gravy.

5:15 Speaker 4: Well, I'm your hosts. Aokave rocking libraries. You will say, yeah, you look so cute in your glasses. Studying for college classes no fills only passes sweeter than all family molasses.

5:32 Speaker 2: I'm your host.

5:33 Speaker 4: We're the most rocking libraries coast to coast. And I ten, I twenty, I thirty and forty A fifty, I sixty, I seventy eighty. I love you, baby.

5:44 Speaker 3: The don't mean maybe your heart of than mash potatoes and gravy Well, I'm your hosts.

5:49 Speaker 4: AOKA rocking libraries.

5:52 Speaker 2: You will say, have.

5:54 Speaker 4: Ck rock rock the library, Rock rock rock the library, Rock rock rock the library, Rock rock rock the library. I'm your host AOK rocking libraries. You will say, yeah, honey, I know what I need. I like a girl that likes to read. Come on, baby, I'm no fool. I know that the library's cool. And I'm your host. We're the most rocking libraries coast to coast and nine TENN twenty thirty forty, A fifty, I sixty, I seventy eighty. I love you, baby, don't even maybe your hot of damn mashter, Tata's and gravy.

6:37 Speaker 4: And I'm your host AOK rocking libraries.

6:41 Speaker 2: You will say, yeah.

6:43 Speaker 4: Rock rock rock the library, Rock rock rock the library, Rock rock rock the library. A rock rock rock the library. I'm your host AOK rocking libraries.

6:58 Speaker 2: You will save.

7:04 Speaker 1: Very nice. That's awesome. I love it.

7:06 Speaker 2: Thanks y'all, Thank you very much.

7:08 Speaker 1: Brian Blanski is here with us live in studio. If you're just joining us and uh, yeah, libraries are do you have you found that there aren't as many as there used to be.

7:17 Speaker 2: Oh no, there seem to be plenty of libraries. The only thing I've noticed was, well, you know, a lot of them are not open for as many hours, yeahs as they used to be. A lot of the public libraries are closed on Sundays, which but you know, honestly, I also do a university libraries a lot too, because they're often like open till late at night. So, like, if I have an early show, I stopped by a college library, pull out my laptop and you know, start sending emails to book book and promote shows. That's pretty much how I keep things going.

7:50 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, Now do you have a because a lot of the people who listen to this show are musicians or people who are aspiring to do what you do, Like, do you have advice for maybe somebody who's just starting out who wants to be able to do what you do in terms of touring nationally, hitting the road. You know you mentioned mistakes that you made, especially you know earlier early in your career.

8:14 Speaker 2: Oh. Absolutely, my advice to anyone that wants to, you know, do music full time. Just pretty much it's all I do, more or less. You know, if I'm not driving city to city or playing shows, I'm just I'm on my laptop, laptop promoting and booking shows. So I literally, you know, don't have a lot of downtime, and yeah, I just spend all my time just you know, working hard at it. And whatever you focus on, I thinking, if it's music or anything, if you devote your entire focus to whatever your goals are, then I mean it's it's bound to happen, like you know, little by little.

8:51 Speaker 2: And my other advice is, do not let any rejections or anybody who you know, saying something mean about your music or about you as a person. Don't let that deter you because a lot of the times the people are probably just jealous. So yeah, don't let any of that stuff bother you, and just work hard and keep a positive attitude and you know, stay calm when challenges arise. That's my advice.

9:14 Speaker 1: Yeah, well, thank you. Yeah, I think that that too kind of gels with what you know. In the first hour, our guest six Minds Combined, who's kind of an alternative hip hop artist from the area. He said something similar about you know, really keeping positive and not you know, not letting rejection or criticism affect you. But but he talked about how you know, the way he really got into his career was he had gotten into some trouble a long time ago and he ended up having to do community service, and he had to do community service with a place called Positive Street Art, which is where he met someone with whom he collaborates with musically and so forth, and it just kind of snowballed from there and how approaching it.

10:01 Speaker 1: He talked about how approaching everything positively really enables him to have the career that he has now.

10:09 Speaker 2: And that's the truth. And I think you know that, like like it's true in anything you do that if you stay positive and you treat people the way you want to be treated. I mean, I know there's a lot of people in you know, the music business and in any business that you know, we'll try to get ahead at the expense of other people. But and that might work for the short term, but in the long term, I think, you know, in karmically and and just also you know, people talk, so when people do rude things or treat people poorly.

10:38 Speaker 2: I mean, it's a small world. It's much smaller than you'd expect.

10:42 Speaker 1: The Internet has made it very small indeed. Indeed, yeah, yeah, no, I think you bring up a good point about how you treat people, because it's so much of it is about building relationships and having a strong reputation, you know, because yeah, you know, people talk well. It's quite true.

11:02 Speaker 2: And one thing I've seen in shows where I'm playing with other musical acts and maybe some that are, you know, more famous than I am, but I've seen a lot of musicians treat their fans poorly, like they can't be bothered with them, and that just always boggled my mind. I'm like these people that like your music is the reason why you're doing what you're doing. So anytime, like somebody you know, tries to reach out to me and express that they like my music, I try my best to express my appreciation for them, because if it wasn't for those people, I wouldn't be doing what I'm doing.

11:34 Speaker 1: Right right Exactly, how many do you have any idea how many songs you've written? It looks like from what I see online, it looks like you've written quite a few.

11:43 Speaker 2: Exactly one hundred and eighty published songs.

11:46 Speaker 1: Wow.

11:46 Speaker 2: Yes, Before I was a solo artist, I had a band for many years, so most of those songs are the old band. I still play a few of those old band songs here and there in in my live sets. But yeah, one and eighty.

12:02 Speaker 1: And you've probably written I imagine you strike me as someone who writes a lot. You've probably written a lot that you haven't even recorded yet.

12:08 Speaker 2: I would think, well, yeah, it's It's funny you mentioned that, because Brian's super happy fun time for the new album. It just came out last month, and as soon as I was done recording the album this summer, I just got a like a flood of new song ideas. I'm like, that always happens too. I'm like, oh, man, why could have I wrote this one before the album and put it on this album? But yeah, I definitely have almost the whole next album written whenever, whenever I find the time and the money to record it, you know, it's definitely I've got the songs with all set.

12:39 Speaker 1: Where do you record?

12:40 Speaker 2: So most of my songs I record in Charlotte. There's a studio called Catalyst Recording, and my producer Rob Tavlion down there and we've been working together for almost twenty years since the old days with my old band, and he does a great job. I always like to say he's like the George Martin of the Southeast United States. He's great. I mean, he collaborates. He plays percussion on a lot of the songs on the albums uh. And this this last album, actually I did the whole thing at his studio.

13:14 Speaker 3: Uh.

13:15 Speaker 2: It was a better year financially because sometimes I just do the radio singles, like the standout tracks at his studio and then I'll self record the rest of the album in my home studio. But this year treated me okay, So I actually got to do the whole album at Rob's studio.

13:30 Speaker 1: Outstanding.

13:31 Speaker 2: Neat, Yeah, it wasn't neat.

13:33 Speaker 1: What was the band that you were in? What? What did what did you guys sound like?

13:37 Speaker 4: So?

13:37 Speaker 2: The band was called Anguish with a W A G W I s H. And it was punk rock slash hard rock kind of band. Yes, yes, so I definitely did like A one to eighty as far as like the the lyrical themes, like you know, now it's Brian super happy fun time, whereas, like you know, the the old band was more like angry, screaming punk rock songs and stuff. Yeah. So, actually the final album as a band I got to do with the late great Steve Albini back in twenty sixteen, no kidding, and that was so yeah, he was. He was a great guy too.

14:11 Speaker 2: I mean he did so much for independent music and he was a really pleasant guy to work with. He was just ultra professional, had a lot of input and ideas for a lot of the songs we recorded there. So it was a great way for me to like end that chapter of my life, to get to something a dream i'd always had. Is my favorite engineer by far.

14:30 Speaker 1: That's fantastic that you got to work with Steve Albini. That's great, Thank you. Pasted a couple of years ago, right, it was earlier this year. Actually, oh it was earlier this year. Wow.

14:40 Speaker 2: Wow.

14:41 Speaker 1: And then so after that, so the band was that after having that experience, was that kind of like, well, there's nowhere else to go with this, or.

14:49 Speaker 2: Well, actually what it was? You know, I mentioned I've been touring live since twenty twelve, and you know it was like half and half band and solo because basically I'd set up up tours as my band, but bandmates would just like flake out halfway through the tour. Because the living life on the road at the level that I do it, it can be a little grueling and it's not for everybody. So basically, band members would quit and I'd be left like just showing up to the places alone with my acoustic guitar, like, yeah, my band bailed on me, but I'm here.

15:20 Speaker 2: I still want to play and and I just got the epiphany. I was like, you know, why don't I just do this right?

15:25 Speaker 1: You know right?

15:26 Speaker 2: And it's it's been a lot easier logistically since I just started being a solo artist. And then of course on the albums, I'm I'm doing the instruments, like the track we played to start the show, I'm doing drums, bass, lead guitars. So I still get to kind of have fun in the studio, like like I'm a full band, laying each track down one at a time, Paul McCartney style. But yeah, when I'm live, this is this is what I do. I got my acoustic guitar, and I'm miss singing and playing my songs.

15:56 Speaker 1: Yeah, it's hard with you know, I've been in bands and somebody I forget who it was now. Somebody on the show described describe the challenge of it, you know, in terms of scheduling and all of it. It's like being like if you're in a band with three other people, it's like it's like being in a it's like being in three separate relationships. And those with with people who are all in three separate relationships. You know, it's it's it's just it's it's hard. It's really hard. It's so hard.

16:22 Speaker 2: And it's sad too because the last incarnation of my band, we were just a two piece. It was just me and a drummer. But still it was just uh, you know, like I said, it's more like you know, sleeping in a vehicle and you know, not you know, dealing with all the you know, pressures of the road. I mean, don't get me wrong, it's a fun time too, but there's a lot of things that I think, you know, quote unquote normal people might might find just they couldn't you know, deal with it on a daily basis. Yeah, so uh so yeah, but but you know, what you said was one hundred percent true, like you know, trying to you know, manage all the schedules and it is it's like it's like being in a family and being or being like in a relationship.

17:05 Speaker 2: So it's tricky. I mean, and uh, a lot of my ex bandmates are are still like very supportive come to my shows when I'm around in Charlotte. So yeah, definitely, like not uh you know, a lot of amicable breakups, just kind of like hey, Brian, I just can't do this, not not like you know, yeah, like I can't stand you.

17:27 Speaker 1: Well that's good. Is the material that you recorded with Anguish is that still available online?

17:32 Speaker 2: Oh yeah absolutely. As a matter of fact. Accidentally, because I didn't understand how all the digital distribution worked at the time, my first solo album is actually under the old band, which is yeah, I was a little mistake on my Parloy said, I think I made every mistake. I was like, oh, I didn't know I had to create a brand new uh you know, identity online for my new uh my new projects. So so yeah, but yeah, all that stuff if anybody wants to see it, but I will warn anybody that that stuff is not family friendly, like the Brian Super Happy stuff.

18:09 Speaker 2: So just a fair warning to anyone because there's a lot of like younger, younger listeners these days. I've been playing a lot of shows at things like you know, churches and schools and and things like that. So definitely, I just like to say, parental advisory. For the earlier stuff. There's there's some clean stuff, but a lot of it was punk rocks. So yeah, it's enough said. I guess understood, understood.

18:35 Speaker 1: Well, do you want to play another one for us? I'd love to hear another song, Absolutely sure.

18:39 Speaker 2: I'm gonna just do one more from the last album, and this one is called Baby. I'm your super Mario, all.

18:48 Speaker 1: Right, Brian Blansky live in studio with us.

18:57 Speaker 4: Baby, om your super Mario. Oh yeah, your super Mario. Give me a try. You won't be Sorrio. Oh no, you won't be Sorrio. I'm getting big, I'm getting super I'm gonna save you from King Cooper. You're gonna be my Princess Peach. The Level eight Castle is in my reach. Fav ite, I'm your super Mario. Oh yeah, your super Mario. You just stay away from Warrio. Oh no, don't go with Warrio. You're gonna be my Princess Peach. The Level eight Castle is in my reach. Will all my dreams have come true except the one where I save you.

20:00 Speaker 4: Where I save you? Because all my dreams have come to except the one where I save you. I just want to be your guy. We have a super happy fun time. Baby, I'm your super Mario. Faby, I'm your super Mario Fabe. I'm your super Mario Baby, I'm your super Mario.

20:40 Speaker 1: Now, Ryan Dolansky live in studio with us here on this Saturday morning on Matt connorton Unleashed. Yeah, I'll tell you, if you're gonn write a song about a video game, it makes sense to do that one because it's timeless. Yeah you know what I mean, Like like Super Mario goes back to when I was a kid.

21:00 Speaker 2: Oh yeah, me at me too. And ironically that when that song came out on my my last album last year, I had no idea there was a Super Mario movie coming out, and it actually came out just about the same month that the movie came out. I was like, oh, really, what a coincidence, But it worked out. I think that's the most popular song as far as the digital streaming sites go, which is which is kind of neat. I like it, and once again, you know, yeah, I used to love playing video games as a kid. Not a lot of time to play video games now with the organizing, you know, three hundred shows a year, So instead I write, write and play songs about him instead.

21:40 Speaker 1: Yeah, no, that makes sense. Yeah, and video games can be highly addictive too, so probably.

21:48 Speaker 2: No doubt. Well, you know what, I love video games, and I feel like the fact that I was so into them when I was a kid has like really helped me, uh, you know, with with my booking and my promoting, like you know, surfing the internet trying to find you know, radio TV stations and venues. Like the faster I can find their emails, I'm like, it's kind of like, you know, jumping out of the way of the Koopa Troopa and super Mario. Is are you fast enough to do that? Are you fast enough to find the right place before another band books it?

22:16 Speaker 1: Kind of thing, right, right? Yeah, No, that makes sense. That makes sense in your experience, you know, because again you were started touring in twenty twelve, and then of course, you know, the pandemic kind of caused that break and then and then you got back out. Is is touring different post pandemic in terms of like I hear people complain that some venues have closed and you know that kind of thing.

22:41 Speaker 2: You know, Yes, I think if I'm not mistaken, and I could be wrong about this, but I believe that, like you know, pre COVID that I think one third, close to one third of all venues in the US closed down. Now there are new ones popping up to which is great, but yes, sadly, I mean venues that I'd played at for years and years that I had great relationships with went out of business because they just could not weather the storm. I mean, you know, the COVID thing. Really it killed a lot of venues, which is sad.

23:15 Speaker 2: But you know what, like I said earlier about the advice, you know, I mean, there's you just keep going. There's a well, like I said, I've started playing a lot of places that a lot of musicians don't even think about playing, like schools, homeless shelters, hospitals. So you know, there's and I think a lot of musicians probably don't want to play those kinds of places for whatever reason. But to me, those are some of the most fun shows and some of the most appreciative audiences at places that don't typically get musicians.

23:48 Speaker 1: No, that makes sense. Is there a particular place or type of place that you've played that really kind of surprised you where you it ended up being a better experience than you thought.

24:00 Speaker 2: You know, and it's funny. I have a song where I list off all the different interesting places. Yes, I've played grocery stores. I played a laundromat once, you know, a dentist office waiting room in Mexico. I was able to get a play for the people waiting to get their dental work done and got a discount for doing the concert. So that was kind of yeah. And to me, like the more unique of a place, like, the more fun it is. And like I said, I've been having a lot of fun, you know, doing doing the shows at like homeless shelters and hospitals and rehabilitation centers, just you know, trying to think about people in the population that that, Like I said, a lot of musicians don't think about playing for them, and I like to, you know, I like to, uh to do those kind of shows.

24:47 Speaker 1: Yeah, oh that's awesome. And while you're while you're on the road, do you do you primarily do shows by yourself or do you have anybody you team up with or anybody?

25:01 Speaker 2: Mostly it's so when I'm traveling, it's just me in my car going city to city. Most of my shows are me just performing on my own and I you know, my concerts can be anywhere from like an hour and a half, two hours to uh I've done up to five hours. Really a five hour concert. A few of those, Yeah, those are few and far between, but I have done a couple of them. Sometimes I do play shows where I'm playing a shorter set and there's other musicians or bands on the bill with me, but uh, typically it's I'm doing the longer concerts where it's just me.

25:35 Speaker 1: Wow, no kidding. You've done of shows was five hours?

25:39 Speaker 2: Five hours? Yeah, one in one in New Mexico and one in Wyoming.

25:43 Speaker 1: Wow, that's like Springsteen in the eighties, you do those five hour shows. Yeah, you know.

25:49 Speaker 2: It was uh yeah, there's something else and but ill Yeah, I love a challenge, so you know when they were uh in one of the venues, was like, hey, our next band cant old, can you just play five hours instead of two and a half. I was like, I'm on it.

26:04 Speaker 1: Wow, Wow, no kidding. I hope they paid you for it.

26:08 Speaker 2: I did get paid a yah.

26:09 Speaker 1: Yeah. So yeah, which was a great part.

26:11 Speaker 2: That's definitely a great part of that.

26:13 Speaker 1: Yeah, that's awesome. Well, you want to you want to play another live one for us absolutely.

26:18 Speaker 2: I'll uh you know this next song that I'm gonna carry on with here. This is one from the brand new album uh Brian Super Happy Fun Time four And this is a little bit more of a like a serious song. I guess it's it's my version of a we are the World kind of song about how I wish everyone in the world would get together or get along better.

26:56 Speaker 5: You've gotta give a little love.

27:02 Speaker 2: And you get a little love. So what are you thinking of.

27:13 Speaker 5: Commands from heaven above? You've gotta give a little love. Well, I don't think that it's too late. Things in our world could be great. Well if we pray for peace,

27:43 Speaker 5: the wars, in.

27:44 Speaker 4: Hunger, all mecies. You gotta give a little love.

27:53 Speaker 5: And you get a little love.

27:58 Speaker 2: So what are you.

27:59 Speaker 4: Think a can of.

28:04 Speaker 5: Commands from heaven above? You've gotta give a little love.

28:17 Speaker 3: I know we can do it. Let's put all my suit with sisters.

28:24 Speaker 5: And brothers speaker to each other.

28:29 Speaker 2: I know we can do it.

28:32 Speaker 3: Let's put on my suit and make the world a better place, a better place for every one.

28:46 Speaker 4: You gotta give a little love.

28:53 Speaker 2: And you get a little love.

28:58 Speaker 4: What are you thinking again of.

29:04 Speaker 5: Commands? From having above you gotta give a little love.

29:24 Speaker 1: I like that.

29:27 Speaker 2: Me too, Thank you.

29:29 Speaker 1: That's something we could uh, we could all use, right.

29:32 Speaker 2: Yeah, give a little from the new album there and it's uh, it gets tricky too because most people know me for my my happy go lucky like semi silly songs. So but I felt like, you know, doing a serious song here and there is okay.

29:45 Speaker 1: No, I think, uh and very appropriate. I think thank you, thank you very much. Absolutely. Uh. If you are just joining us on the Saturday morning, we have Brian Bolanski here with us live in studio. Where do you now? Where do you go from here? Brian? Because you said so your last show was in Canada? Is that right?

30:02 Speaker 2: Yeah? Last night played in Edmundston, New Brunswick. After I leave the show here, I am headed to Swansea, New Hampshire, where I will be playing at the West La Beer Company today from three pm to six pm.

30:18 Speaker 1: Oh wow, okay, very cool, very cool.

30:21 Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, and it's it's great to be back in New Hampshire.

30:25 Speaker 1: How much of the how much of the country have you?

30:28 Speaker 2: Like?

30:28 Speaker 1: Do you keep track of how many states you've played it?

30:30 Speaker 2: Oh? Yes, that's something that as a matter of fact I list them out in the bio. It's been forty nine states and twenty five countries abroad that I've performed in.

30:41 Speaker 1: Wow, what's the one state you haven't hit?

30:45 Speaker 2: Alaska?

30:45 Speaker 1: Alaska.

30:46 Speaker 2: Yeah, but they're they're not going to get away from me forever. I'll eventually get there. They're they're they're in my sights.

30:52 Speaker 1: Yeah. How many times, like how many times have you gone overseas to do tourists?

30:57 Speaker 2: So this this year would have been my fifth time going overseas to uh to Europe uh, And I've done one Central American and one Asian tour in the past, and I'd love to uh love to get back to Asia and Central America was was pre COVID, So I'd love to get back to both those places. And you know, I've still still got Australia and Africa and South America and you know, to to get to and then uh finally Antarctica eventually. Oh okay, so yeah, yeah, that's my my life stream is to perform in all seven continents.

31:34 Speaker 2: Well I'm still still here.

31:38 Speaker 1: Do the do the challenges they come with touring change when you go like Central America or is it all I mean? Or is it the same challenges, but just more severe, shall we.

31:49 Speaker 2: Say, Uh, you know, it's kind of the same. Like Luckily, well Central America. I'm not great speaking Spanish, but I'm a little bit better at Spanish than any other langguage. Okay, you know, I think language well. Luckily, a lot of people abroad speak English as a second language, so that between that and me, I always try to learn at least a little bit of every country I go to. That got a little trickier when I was in places like Finland and Latvia and even like Poland was really tricky. French and Italian and German a little bit easier, a little bit closer to English.

32:27 Speaker 2: But yeah, I always make sure I sing in English, but when I'm talking to the audience in between songs, I always learn how to say. This next song is from my last album. As a matter of fact, yesterday in New Brunswick, I was in a French speaking part of the province there, so I got to practice my French again last night speaking to the audience there. But you know, same kind of challenges. I just do a lot of online research and find venues, and after I get my venues booked, I try to find you know, radio newspapers and stuff to promote the shows and uh, and yeah, yeah, it's just it's a labor love, a lot of a lot of hours spent.

33:07 Speaker 1: Yeah. Wow. What what was the most challenging place that you've played geographically?

33:14 Speaker 2: Oh, I would have to say Thailand when I was there, just it was it was trickier to find venues there. Luckily, I had kind of like boots on the ground. I had some friends that lived in Thailand and and they were the ones that helped me book the majority of my shows in Thailand. So it would have been a lot more challenging if I didn't have friends already there kind of like you know, going to places like in person and and you know talking me up to uh, different music venues. So so that was kind of challenging.

33:47 Speaker 2: But it was also probably one of the most fun countries abroad really just because it was you know, such a different culture and uh and the people there were so friendly, so amazing and great food too.

33:58 Speaker 4: Yeah.

33:58 Speaker 1: Yeah, that's awesome. That's awesome. You want to play another one?

34:03 Speaker 2: Sure? Absolutely so. This next song that I'll carry on with us from my album two albums Ago, Brian's Super Happy fun Time too. And this was the main single from that album. It's called Elf Girlfriend.

34:23 Speaker 4: She's an elf in the woods and she's magic. If she turned me away, it be tragic. I feel like I've known her for years. I really like her point of years. She's an oath in the woods. I discovered she's an o Now I think I'm gonna love her.

34:51 Speaker 3: I know she lives inside a tree. That's really who came with me?

35:03 Speaker 4: Well, I'm so intrigued, and I never knew that she exists. Oh yeah, it's true because my life was bad, but now it's cool. Well, I know what I gotta do.

35:24 Speaker 4: She's an oath in the woods and she's magic. And she turned me away, it be tragic. I feel like God known her for years, really.

35:40 Speaker 3: Like her pointy years. She's an oath, prettier than Princess eu the I'm quasimodou.

35:49 Speaker 4: She's as moral.

35:53 Speaker 3: I know she lives inside a tree. That's really okay with me. She's my oath. She's my health, golfriend, she's my health. She's my health goffriend. She's my health. She's my health gofend gol friend.

36:18 Speaker 1: Duh, very nice, very nice, Thank you very much. Did you meet an actual health in the woods?

36:25 Speaker 2: No, that song it is a fairy tale. Okay, that did not. Actually, even though most of my songs are actually you know, I'm singing them all from my own perspective, so that one.

36:37 Speaker 1: Yeah.

36:37 Speaker 2: Actually, I when COVID hit in twenty twenty, I and nobody was sure if things were going to open soon or not. Of course they wind it up not So I spent many months camping in national forests, and I like to do a lot of research on anything I'm doing, and I kept researching that a lot of people would see supernatural creatures in the national forests, and some of them, most of the almost all of them were like bigfoot sasquatch, scary threatening things. And then you'd hear a few people talk about like the pixies and fairies and like the more benevolent kind of creatures.

37:15 Speaker 2: And I've always been a fan of supernatural stuff. So I was like, well, let me do a song about, you know, instead of like a big scary bigfoot, if there was like a benevolent creature in the woods. So so yeah, fit little fairy tale song there. When I was bored in the woods for three months, the COVID quarantine.

37:33 Speaker 1: Oh very cool. Do you remember the first song you ever wrote?

37:37 Speaker 2: Oh? I do, actually, yes, I do, the first good one. You know. I guess there was like some proto songs, but but yes, I actually do. I you know, used to write them all down in notebooks and and yeah, that's a very good question. I actually do remember, what I think, at least the first one that that you know, was written down and and everything.

38:01 Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely did it? Did it survive or did you leave?

38:06 Speaker 2: As a matter of fact, I had resurrected it and put it on the very first Brian super happy fun time. Oh cool, Yeah, you know, and it's funny too. A lot of times, you know, when I release music, I like to release albums. I know a lot of musicians, I guess I'm old fashioned that way. A lot of musicians these days just like to do singles and EPs. But uh, I don't know from from what I hear, you know, albums are still the way to go because I look at albums kind of like a painting, and one song is like, you know, one thing in the painting, like one of the tree in the landscape painting or whatever.

38:38 Speaker 2: So I like to do that and a lot of times I'll go back to like my really early songs, and you know, when I'm trying to, you know, I'm like, oh, I need I need three more songs for this album. I'm like, wait a minute, all right, that part of that song was good, This part of this song was good. So sometimes I frankenstein songs together too. Yeah, yeah, but it did survive. Yeah.

38:59 Speaker 1: Subject that comes up a lot on the show is, you know, because we live in a time where there's so many different strategies you can use for releasing music, and you know, some artists just do EPs, or some just do singles, or or some of our guests that we've had in recent years, their strategy is to release a series of singles that eventually become an album. Kind of the inverse right of what we're used to traditionally.

39:21 Speaker 2: But indeed, and I've done that before in the past, and yeah, there's no wrong way to do things. Of course, what I've been doing. As a matter of fact, last year I put out the album full album Brian's Super Happy Fun Time three, but I also put out an EP of all non album tracks. I'm a big Beatles fanatic, and one thing I loved about them is that their EPs and their singles were almost always things that were not on their albums. They like they wanted to make sure their their customers were getting their you know, getting their money's worth.

39:52 Speaker 2: So that's something I do if I ever do an EP or a single, I try to make sure that it's not something that you can just get on the album and make your fans buy something twice, right, So that's something I tried to do too.

40:05 Speaker 1: That's like a British thing. I feel it is, because you know a lot of yeah, a lot of British artists would do that, not not even necessarily then, but even in more recent years like Oasis when what went well of course, if Jesus it was back in the nineties now when Oasis fir scot Big seems like more recent. But I noticed, uh, they right from the beginning, did that. Like one of my favorite Oasis song, which happens to be Acquiesce, was originally the B side.

40:35 Speaker 2: You know.

40:35 Speaker 1: It eventually came out on the Best Of album, but it was originally a B side that was not not released on an album.

40:42 Speaker 2: No kidding, you know, and I'm and yeah for me Like Nirvana, another one of my big, big inspirations and I loved Like to me, that was like just the best thing, getting a single with a B side that you could not get anywhere else, and me like, this is the best song. Why is it just on the B side to the single? It seems like the B sides are always the best songs we should uh.

41:06 Speaker 1: So we're running out of time. I'd love to get you to play one one more, but before we do that, I want to make sure our listeners know too, uh where to go online to keep up with everything that you're doing if they want to follow you on tour. You know, obviously we're local here in Manchester, but we have a lot of listeners online in other parts of the country who might uh, you know, you might be coming to their area. So I want to make sure everybody knows exactly where to find Brian Blanski.

41:31 Speaker 2: Great, thank you and and yeah, the way to find me online The best way is my official website, Brian's Super Happy Fun Time dot com and that is Brian with a Y. And from Brian's Super Happy Fun Time dot com you can find everything my tour schedule, links to you know, music streaming sites, the YouTube channel, all the social media platforms. So it's a great one stop shop and all the links to anything else you might like to uh consume music on or right there on Briansuper Happy Funtime dot com.

42:05 Speaker 1: Excellent. Looks like you've got tour and AD's going all the way like for the next year.

42:10 Speaker 2: Yes, yeah, well that's the thing Europe next year. You see Europe. They booked, They booked pretty far in advance, so yeah, there's stuff going all the way up to the next September. So yeah, uh yeah. I said it's good to stay busy.

42:22 Speaker 1: Absolutely absolutely, yeah. You want to play one.

42:24 Speaker 2: More for us, absolutely well, I'll do one song from the original Brian Super Happy Fun Time album Brian Super Rappy fun Time one.

42:34 Speaker 4: All right, love you once, love you twice, love you more than ps Rice, my beive it, my pretty, my little lead it, my pretty believe it, love you will love you down God, love you well.

42:56 Speaker 3: I found my beeve it my pretty but ye there, my little leading, my pretty.

43:04 Speaker 4: Baba, damn love you here, love you, damn God. I love you everywhere.

43:26 Speaker 3: My beheming, my pretty bad, my little leader, my pretty bad love you watch, love you twice, love you mo. Dam beats Rice, my bee my pretty Biet, my little leading, my pretty bie, my little leader, my pretty bade.

43:53 Speaker 1: It very nice, nice, very nice.

44:01 Speaker 2: Thank you.

44:01 Speaker 1: Brian Bolanski live in studio with us and uh no, this is this has been wonderful. Brian. We really appreciate your coming in