Matt Connarton Unleashed: Bullet To The Heart

I really like that a lot that is Freeze that is new from Bullet to the Heart. Great band from Chicago. They've been on the show with us before. And I believe we have Audrey Queen from the band with us on Skypepillo, Hi. We also have Draven d C. Draven d C is with us. Hello, welcome back. Hey, what's going on? I think were you both on with us last time? I think you were, I think so, yeah, yeah, I remember, yeah, yeah, Hey, I love that track and we're also going to play fight at the end of our conversation. But yeah, welcome back to the show. And you know, Jenny and I are both really big fans, and I love these I love these songs. What's when did we have you on? It was more than a year ago, right, probably maybe a year and a half ago the last time we talked. I think it was about a year ago, because about a year ago we released Death Oddities in Romance. Yes, okay, okay, So what's what's been happening since then? Obviously you've created some new music which we really like, But what's what's going on with Bullet to the Heart? Give us give us an update if you will. So We've been writing new music, as you heard the new track Freeze, and we have fights, so we have a new EP coming out. We're also working on some new music. We parted ways with Tom Monroe due to his mental health. He felt it was better for him to step away, and we gained a new member, Six, who is our resident demon right now, and we're writing new music and we're getting ready to do our headlining show at what I'm sorry, Drevan our headlining show in West Dundee at rock House in August seventeenth. And just oh, and that's what I was trying to say, trying to tell me, and I was like, what, we're getting ready to go out on tour. We're confirming tour dates right now from middle of October to early November. Excellent, excellent, congratulations. Was it difficult with the change obviously with Tom leaving and six coming in? I mean, was that you know sometimes? I mean, I've played in a lot of bands, and you know sometimes when there's a change in members, you know, it can be it might go smoothly, it might be seamless, it might be difficult and challenging. I mean, what was that like for a bullet to the heart. It was. It was challenging, but overall it went very smoothly. I mean Tom was the one that approached us and said that he wanted to step down, and he wanted to make sure that him stepping down, we had someone to take us place, so that, you know, we weren't left without someone. But overall, we sat down, we had a serious conversation about everything, and we parted ways on a very good note. We still love him very much, Jeerlia as a friend. We try to do anything to help him with his mental health journey and what he has to go through. So it wasn't horrible. And six has been a longtime friend of Draven's, so it just made sense for him to come in because he was helping us do a lot of things anyway. So yeah, the transition was the transition was smooth and everybody's on good terms. Yeah, I mean, I know that when you're when you're doing what you're doing at your level, because you're you're obviously very busy. You know, a bullet of the heart works very hard, and you know if somebody's struggling with it, I mean, it's good that he had the maturity and the sophistication to see that you know he needed because, as you said, he approached you so that that couldn't have been easy for him. And obviously too, when you've got a lot of momentum, when you've got a lot going on, you know, you don't want anything to slow you down, and you certainly don't want to be the one causing everything to slow down either. So, uh it's good that you are all able to maneuver that together and that you're still friends and and onward and upward you go. So, uh So, that's good. Are you Are you playing a lot of shows? You mentioned you've got the tour coming up. Have you been playing a lot locally as well recently? Uh So, we actually slowed down a little bit this year because of the members swap. We really took time to write these next couple songs. And we're going out and doing this headline show, and like we don't really necessarily like the headline all the time. Yeah, so we're doing it with a purpose, and we're pumping a lot of like production into this into this album release show. We're doing like full lights, video screens, props, like the whole chebang, so to speak. And because of that. We're doing the same thing with the tour, So like last year we did like six or seven tours or something, and this year we're only gonna do one, you know, four week one, just because we're gonna be a little bit more like production based, a little bit more prop based. So we're kind of just doing one big one with a purpose. So we're kind of just us slowing things a little down, make sure that we kind of nail our craft and that we're doing stuff correctly, you know, we don't want to overdo it this year. Yeah, it makes sense to me that you're adding a lot in terms of production because I think that your music kind of you know, you listen to a song like the one we just played, Freeze, and if you're listening to that and you don't know anything about the band, and you know, you're just kind of letting your imagination take you wherever. If you think about what it must be like live, it seems like you would expect there to be some production there. It's not something you would expect to you know, you just walk into a bar and you see a band just playing a song like that because the song is so it's intense, and our friend Miriam Banish in the chat room says it she really likes it. She said, it sounds kind of eerie, but it sounds like something that demands some sort of visual production to go with it. So I think that's great that you're doing that. Has that kind of always been a goal for the band? Have you always wanted to be able to do that? Yeah, you know, we've gotten asked before and other interviews and other shows, et cetera. Because like we started doing the production stuff kind of when like Breathe came out, that's when she kind of really like got into a character and we showed all this dark imagery and kind of story stuff. And it's a lot to do. I mean, it costs a lot of money. It's a lot of time conceptualizing how it relates to the music. And we did it a couple of times live. We really on the when we went on tour with Envy Molmstein, we were playing big theaters and because we had the theaters, we were able to dress up and do like the Remnant, like the vampire thing when Revenant dropped, so we were able to do this like vampire thing. We were able to connect it to a couple things like on stage, and we kind of really enjoyed that and a lot of people like ate that up. So we were like, how do we do that again, but now with this new song. So we came up with these characters and did all this stuff so that it could connect not only to the music, but the theme and the story that we're trying to convey. Yeah, that makes sense. That makes sense. Now has the process changed with Well, actually, let me ask it this way. The new songs, the songs that we're playing today, were these done with six or were these originally done with Tom? So they were started with Tom. He never made it to final tracks though, but they were written with Tom Okay, and then when we got six involved, he definitely amped up the sound a little bit. He's a little bit more of a technical musician, so we were like, oh, let's heavy this up. Let's make this atmosphere darker, let's change it up a little bit. I know, in the song Faun, which will come out August second, right before the EP drops, he added this breakdown part at the end, so there's a there's a middle breakdown that's pretty heavy. He does this weird off time breakdown that we all had to learn in the song, so he kind of added that kind of stuff, like just a little bit extra extra sauce, if you would, on the songs. Yeah, Oh that's cool. Is is it different playing live with him or is that kind of this you know, is the vibe different at all? Or I would say a little bit. He is. Also he's also done vocals before in bands, so he that definitely the harmonies have added a depth, have added depth to the to the music and the live show. He's also helped us like kind of rewire some of our equipment like tones and stuff, so a lot of that has definitely definitely helped, and overall I think we have a better sound. Yeah. No, I mean, like I said, I love the new tracks. Jenny was showing me a video too. It might have been was that the video for Freeze? Is there a video for that? Or is it? Okay? Yeah, that was the one Jenny was playing the other night, and she was talking about how I don't remember I don't think I've watched all of them necessarily, but is there a red door in every video or is that like a theme that you guys have, Yes, So the red door symbolizes the realms that the these trauma demons live in, and our main character is going through these different realms trying to face her trauma head on and heal from it. Okay, it makes sense. Is that? So? Is that kind of a theme. Is that also a theme with a fight as well as Freeze, because we're gonna play fight in a little bit. Does that carry over? Yeah? Yeah, so Fight is the one that kind of started the Red Door. You'll see in the beginning of the video, our main character goes through the Red Door and then she finds herself in this the first trauma realm, which is Fight, and then at the end we see the Red Door again to that will transition into the Freeze trauma realm, and then at the end of Freeze you see the Red Door again. So it's gonna transition to another realm. Okay, okay, I like it. Yeah, so there's a story. That's cool. Yeah, I see. To recall from our previous conversation too, we talked about how part of the I don't know if you want to I don't know if mission is quite the right way to put it, but part of what you're trying to do with this band and with your lyrical content is you know, there's a lot of talking about, uh, people dealing with issues, people dealing with problems and trying to work through them and uh, you know, and using your music to try to kind of reach people that way, you know, not not just be you know, this loud, heavy band that you know people can enjoy, but but you really get something out of it that's helpful and useful and applicable in their in their lives. And I mean I am I correct about that? Am I remembering that correctly? Yeah? You're absolutely correct, And that definitely translates into obviously the newest EP trauma. I wanted to take the trauma responses each one, fight, flight, freeze, and fawn, and I wanted to, Yes, I wanted to kind of touch on all of those trauma responses and how someone would react in those trauma responses. But then I also wanted to add my own trauma that I have gone through. I recently, in December, was diagnosed with a complex post traumatic stress disorder. So I really wanted to showcase because I had always dealt with mental health, but I never had dealt with my own mental health. So I'm finally getting there, and I wanted to show the world that you know, it's okay to not be okay, and we all go through trauma and it either come out on the other side strong or we come out with some sort of mental illness and it's okay. You are stronger than that and you can heal from that and how you deal with what's going on. You should come first in your life. Your mental health, your physical health. You should be a priority. So if you feel like you are not okay, there are resources for you to reach out to, for you to get help. I mean, really need to keep pushing towards that, Like mental health is the most important thing. So I wanted that to come across in this new EP Trauma. Yeah, that's that's great. Do you do you ever hear from people who listen to your music and they and they pick up on that and they uh and they talk to you about it, like about their own trauma. Yes, So it was really prominent. When I remember back when Breath came out, we had a lot of people approach us on tour about that because that one was about mental health and addiction. And I had someone recently, one of our Bloodline members come forward and talk about like his trauma and how his mother ended up passing, and our music basically got him through that and showed him that, you know, I'm not alone in this world. There are people that understand me. And then it led him to reaching out to other Bloodline members and he ended up getting so integrated in the community that he was like, you guys really helped me. And that I think that's like our biggest mission is like to connect people and be like, look, you aren't alone. People are dealing with what you're dealing with. They may not understand it, but they want to be there to help you. And it is just the response has just been so good and so overwhelming, just like it always has been. And like the continued love and support is just like this is what we live for. It's just the love and the support. Yeah, No, that's that's remarkable. I commend you for doing that. Is it Is it challenging to write lyrics from that perspective or does it? I don't know if maybe it maybe it comes naturally to you, but you know, you're dealing with heavy stuff here. Is that is that challenging? It it? Lately it has been a little challenging, but also I've just always since I was young, I always wrote poetry, and I always was looking up like different words and definitions that could describe I was always trying to figure out, like what was going on inside of me, So it was kind of like a natural ability to put what I was feeling to words. But sometimes that is difficult because as much as you want to like tell people like, this is what's going on, it is hard to face yourself and be like, there is something wrong, and it's hard to kind of tell other people about it. But that's something that I'm working through. But I mean, at the end of the day, I always tell myself, maybe this song that I wrote from my perspective will touch somebody else and they'll think about their perspective and be like, if she can talk about it, I can talk about it, and I can be seen and I can be heard, and I can get help and that might, you know, honestly, save somebody's life. I recently got a semicolon tattoo, because you know, continue your story. Your story is important no matter who you are, and maybe somebody someday wants to hear that story and maybe it'll help them. So just live every day and you never know, like the possibilities of the potential that you truly have. Mm hmmm hmm. Yeah, well said you mentioned bloodline members. What what is that? So our little fan base we call them the Bloodline. We have a song called Bloodline, and that's basically about all of our fans, Like, you guys are the reason why we continue. You're the bloodline. You pump blood into our hearts and it makes us full and it makes us want to just continue on. Like our fans are the reason why we do what we do, because if we didn't have fans, I mean I don't I love making music, but I don't want to make it for myself. I want to make it for other people. I want I want other people to be touched. So we call our fan base the Bloodline. Yeah, yeah, that's really cool. Yeah, we have a group on Facebook that you could join. There's like a couple of questions just to verify or out like a bot. Yeah, but the community right now, we're like five hundred and seventy something members strong, and it's a great way for people to connect, talk about the music, talk about other music, talk about how they feel. I know a lot of people within the community have reached out to each other and not only become friends, but also like really close friends and borderline family. At this point, everyone's been able to lean on each other for certain stuff because you know, life goes man and we know personally, like some of our fans, like their parents have died or friends have died, and they've gone through something traumatic, whether it's a diagnosis or something else, and they've always been able to connect in that group, and we're always there answering the group as well. So it's very cool to see a community grow not just from like a business perspective, but for a community like for themselves. Yeah, that's excellent. That is fantastic. I'm really glad you're doing that, and love what you're doing. Love the music, love the songs, and I love the whole, you know, the whole. Like I said, the sort of mission of it, I think is fantastic. Well, in a moment, we're gonna wrap up and we're gonna play this other track fight. But I also want to make sure that because you do have a lot going on, what should people know about how to keep up online with everything that Bullet to the Heart is doing in terms of releasing music and playing shows and everything. What should people know? So the easiest way to keep up with us is to go to our Facebook page. There's a link tree and if you click on that link tree, it will take you everywhere that we are. We're on Twitch, We're on Patreon, we have a merch store, Apple Music, Spotify, YouTube. It literally will take you everywhere. It's your one stop shop on how you can keep up with Bullets of the Heart. We're most active on Facebook and Instagram. We do have a TikTok and buy merch. Is the easiest way to support us. Support us getting out to a show and then subscribing to Patreon because we've got a lot of behind the scenes you might be missing out on Yeah, excellent, excellent and courage people too, you know, go on YouTube check out the videos. The videos are really Do you do all that yourselves or do you have a production team that you work with? The videos are amazing. Yeah, so I kind of co produced and co direct. I also conceptualize a lot of this stuff. But we work with A Kash Hans. He's a pretty big name out in Chicago. He's actually one of my close friends that I actually work with because I do production work with him as well. Yeah, but yeah, he just loves making movies, man, that's his goal. So when we try to do these music videos, it's not just a music video, it's a cinematic experience. And him and I worked really hard to like really nail that in. And six has been a great help as well because he's also got that creative production brain. So when we were doing something like Freeze, like we had to take take down the music video aspect, like there's not a lot of playthroughs, there's no drums, there's no guitar stuff in there. It's just Audrey raw with some cinematic stuff. And he was very he was a good help with that as well. Yeah, yeah, no, I encourage people to check those out. They are they are really amazing. And so we're gonna end with this track Fight Anything we should know about this song specifically, So Fight is just it's about the fight trauma response. It is in your face, It is you fighting, you ready to go aggressive? Let's go Yeah? Yeah, no, I love it. I love it well. Thank you both of course, Audrey Queen Drave and Jason Draven DC. Sorry, uh really really wonderful to talk with both of you. Today. Like I said, I love what you're doing. Jenny and I are both big fans and UH. Our friend Miriam was commenting in the chat room too how much she likes you. So we'll we'll have to do this again in the near future because you, you know, as you're releasing new music and UH and I love this whole concept with the UH with these tracks. So we're gonna play this, but I'm gonna let you both go. But thank you again so much. Really appreciate talking with you today. Thank you. Thank you for having a song. Absolutely absolutely well, we'll talk soon, all right, Okay, take care, bye bye bye. All right. That is Audrey Queen and Draven DC and their band Bullet to the Heart. Great stuff. Check this out. This is called a Fight And if you are listening live on Saturday, we have more to come in the third hour, so don't go anywhere.