Matt Connarton Unleashed: Cody Pope and Byron G (12/24)

0:00 Speaker 1: Bring these mics up, and we've got Cody Pope and

0:02 Speaker 1: Byron g here with us in the studio.

0:04 Speaker 2: Hey guys, Hey, good morning man, thanks so much for

0:06 Speaker 2: having us.

0:06 Speaker 1: Yeah, welcome back, welcome back, and uh hop if you

0:09 Speaker 1: weren't waiting outside too long. It's a little little chilly today.

0:13 Speaker 2: No, no, no, it was perfect timing.

0:15 Speaker 1: He had Adju Justice Camra here. Get you guys in

0:17 Speaker 1: the shot. Of course we are on Facebook and YouTube

0:22 Speaker 1: and all that stuff.

0:23 Speaker 3: There we go, there we go.

0:25 Speaker 1: How have you guys been? What's what's going on? Have

0:27 Speaker 1: you been releasing new music or what have you been

0:30 Speaker 1: up to?

0:30 Speaker 2: Yeah? So in October, we just released our sophomore full

0:34 Speaker 2: length album, Giant Steps in Gates City Excellent. Yeah, so

0:38 Speaker 2: that's been We did a big release show for that

0:41 Speaker 2: and it's been pretty wild ride since then.

0:44 Speaker 1: Where did you Where'd you do the release show?

0:46 Speaker 2: So we did it in our hometown in Nashaua. We

0:49 Speaker 2: like rented a hall and put together this whole experience.

0:51 Speaker 2: We had a caterer come in and like cater the

0:53 Speaker 2: event and had a photo booth and had a bunch

0:57 Speaker 2: of the artists from hell Hound open up the night.

0:59 Speaker 2: It was really cool.

1:00 Speaker 1: Nice, nice. Yeah, you guys must know. Do you know

1:03 Speaker 1: Mike McDowell the Healer? Did you run into him on.

1:06 Speaker 2: This We literally just shook hands and met as we

1:09 Speaker 2: were heading out as we were coming in.

1:12 Speaker 4: Yea.

1:12 Speaker 2: Looking forward to chopping it up with him more.

1:14 Speaker 3: Yeah.

1:15 Speaker 1: Yeah, he's doing some he's doing some great stuff. And

1:18 Speaker 1: you must know Eleanor and Andre from So.

1:20 Speaker 2: I actually just met them super recently as well. Yeah,

1:24 Speaker 2: like maybe a week ago or so. I just got

1:27 Speaker 2: to go to New Hampshire Underground and hang out with

1:29 Speaker 2: them for a bit. They're awesome people.

1:31 Speaker 1: Oh, excellent, excellent. I don't think they've done like a

1:34 Speaker 1: full hip hop show. I mean obviously six Minds combined yeah,

1:37 Speaker 1: performs there, but yeah they should do uh you should

1:40 Speaker 1: do something with them, like do a big hip hop show.

1:42 Speaker 2: Yea, that's what we're hoping to do something. We're hoping

1:44 Speaker 2: the dates wul Ligne in that we can make something

1:47 Speaker 2: happen soon.

1:48 Speaker 3: Yeah.

1:48 Speaker 2: I really like their space. I think that it's really

1:51 Speaker 2: conducive to fostering a positive like live music and arts scene,

1:57 Speaker 2: and they offer resources and spaces for people that I

2:00 Speaker 2: think are really valuable. So right I'm looking forward to

2:03 Speaker 2: seeing what they're capable of doing with that. I think

2:05 Speaker 2: that's gonna be awesome.

2:07 Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely, well, I'm dying to hear you guys. You

2:11 Speaker 1: always perform when you come on the show, which is wonderful.

2:14 Speaker 1: And now the real test, of course, is always making

2:17 Speaker 1: sure that what have you got? What do you what

2:19 Speaker 1: do you call that? Byron?

2:21 Speaker 3: This is the Roland SP four O four m K.

2:24 Speaker 1: Two Okay, and what does that do for the For

2:27 Speaker 1: the uninitiated.

2:29 Speaker 3: It does a little bit of everything.

2:30 Speaker 5: It's a sampler so you could create like full songs

2:34 Speaker 5: on here.

2:34 Speaker 3: Yeah. I use it mainly for our.

2:36 Speaker 5: Live shows and stuff like that, so I can load

2:38 Speaker 5: up heads and I can manipulate the sound.

2:40 Speaker 3: Yeah, kind of live as we're going.

2:42 Speaker 1: So okay.

2:43 Speaker 5: You never really get the same experience twice with these

2:46 Speaker 5: types of machines.

2:48 Speaker 1: Right right. Yeah, for those listening live, if you're wondering

2:50 Speaker 1: how these guys are going to perform live, that's what

2:54 Speaker 1: let's see. If let's see if we can hear that.

2:57 Speaker 1: And I'm not hearing anything yet, but I think I

2:59 Speaker 1: know why. Oh there we go, easy.

3:04 Speaker 3: Hello.

3:07 Speaker 1: Yeah, this is always the that's always the moment, right

3:10 Speaker 1: when you guys come on. It's like, let's let's hope

3:12 Speaker 1: this last. This works.

3:14 Speaker 2: Well.

3:14 Speaker 1: The first time you came on, we did the Yeah,

3:16 Speaker 1: we did the flash drive option the very first time

3:19 Speaker 1: in the old station and.

3:20 Speaker 2: That was our first album together too.

3:22 Speaker 1: Oh that's right, yeah yeah. How many times have you

3:24 Speaker 1: guys been?

3:25 Speaker 2: Is this this is our third time? Now? No, it's

3:29 Speaker 2: not your fourth. No, I think you've been up here before. Well,

3:33 Speaker 2: we had done stuff up in Laconia. Oh okay, maybe

3:36 Speaker 2: that's we did local outbreak up in Laconi.

3:39 Speaker 1: That's why I'm thinking that, Yeah, both of us.

3:43 Speaker 3: Time.

3:43 Speaker 2: Okay, yeah, because we did our first album was Meet

3:46 Speaker 2: Me and Gates City, so we played some of those songs,

3:49 Speaker 2: and then the next time was we released an EP

3:52 Speaker 2: called Pound of Wait No Renaissance Park. I think it

3:57 Speaker 2: was the Park. Yeah.

3:58 Speaker 1: Yeah, you guys have released a lot of it's hard.

4:01 Speaker 2: Yeah, it's been a while.

4:03 Speaker 1: Well, do you want to perform something or sure?

4:05 Speaker 4: Yeah?

4:05 Speaker 1: All right?

4:06 Speaker 2: You have No Sugar added A good way to warm up.

4:10 Speaker 2: This is the uh. This was the first single that

4:12 Speaker 2: we released from the new album. Okay, it's the second track.

4:17 Speaker 2: It's called no Sugar added. Okay, check check, I've been

4:33 Speaker 2: in a daze. Mine's amazing a blaze. I've been catching

4:37 Speaker 2: fight us since before the twelfth grade. I had this

4:40 Speaker 2: design yet, but couldn't get out my way. Now I'm

4:42 Speaker 2: doubled the age, still rewonded, the days I can't believe

4:45 Speaker 2: with all love done, I'm still looking back bin clean

4:47 Speaker 2: it up, because still remember the cooking crack, the drink

4:50 Speaker 2: that had for the needle. Never quite took it back.

4:52 Speaker 2: Some days I still find that I'm quite shook. In fact,

4:56 Speaker 2: the light keeps going out. Maybe that's a soign for me.

4:58 Speaker 2: I have accepted that one day will be time for

5:01 Speaker 2: me someone's revenge. I suppose that it's fine with me.

5:04 Speaker 2: Nothing in life off didn't happen with the time and

5:06 Speaker 2: sweet all I can do work to build a good now.

5:08 Speaker 2: When then stay in the sun to makeup of days

5:11 Speaker 2: that shrouded in dens. I am the howling man standing

5:13 Speaker 2: upon the howling winds, night of the hunt of the preacher,

5:16 Speaker 2: upon the prout again, not perfect, not even close to

5:19 Speaker 2: all right. Can't remember the last time I slept all night,

5:23 Speaker 2: eyes wide open, but I need another hour. I just

5:26 Speaker 2: fell asleep already. Time for the shower. No sugar, no sugar.

5:31 Speaker 2: I just need water, meant the league. I can pat it.

5:34 Speaker 3: No sugar added, no sugar added.

5:36 Speaker 2: Somewhere between happening and apocalypse, now anxiety and alarms again.

5:42 Speaker 2: Hope my horrible waves could never harm a friend. Some

5:45 Speaker 2: men crossed me again, never saw him again, even the

5:48 Speaker 2: he the Nord demon can fall from a sin who

5:50 Speaker 2: called it again? I'm not sovvag to them. Drowning in

5:54 Speaker 2: my own flood, I hardly can swim. Then I stopped

5:56 Speaker 2: too late? How could I be so selfish do the

5:59 Speaker 2: stupidest thing, But know that I'm not helpless? Bad patterns, habits.

6:02 Speaker 2: I need to learn to break. I'm mad scattered this matter.

6:05 Speaker 2: If I need to learn to shake, we'll extinguish over

6:08 Speaker 2: light the match to burn the lake, every roll of

6:10 Speaker 2: the dice, the one determined faith, slipping into the void

6:13 Speaker 2: for just a few hours to win my best to

6:16 Speaker 2: not flip. I got no new flower. My dreamscape is

6:18 Speaker 2: the place that I do scout in search of advances, like

6:21 Speaker 2: how I could bet the US power? Not perfect, not

6:24 Speaker 2: even close to all right. Can't remember the last time

6:27 Speaker 2: I slept all night. I was wide open, but I

6:29 Speaker 2: need another hour. I just fell asleep already time for

6:33 Speaker 2: the shower. No sugar added, no sugar added. I just

6:37 Speaker 2: need water. Mentally, I get padded, no sugar added, no

6:41 Speaker 2: sugar added, somewhere between being happy and mad.

6:44 Speaker 4: And I love it. I love it.

6:57 Speaker 1: Thank you Cody Pope and Ryron g here whatever live

7:00 Speaker 1: in studio on this Saturday morning.

7:03 Speaker 2: Yeah, I couldn't hear everybody at first. I was like,

7:05 Speaker 2: oh crap, what's going on.

7:08 Speaker 1: You made it work.

7:09 Speaker 2: You made it work volumes of magical thing.

7:11 Speaker 1: Yes, yes, Now tell us about you know, for people

7:14 Speaker 1: who are not familiar, So because you refer to it

7:16 Speaker 1: Hellhound Publishing, what is that exactly? For people who don't know.

7:20 Speaker 2: So, Hellhound Publishing is a record label that I founded

7:23 Speaker 2: in twenty eighteen and that Byron now co owns with me,

7:27 Speaker 2: and so that is essentially our creative house where we

7:31 Speaker 2: not only do we distribute and produce all of our music,

7:35 Speaker 2: but we've been fortunate to sign and release music for

7:38 Speaker 2: some artists that we're really close with as well. Okay,

7:41 Speaker 2: we do music, we do some books, and we do podcasts.

7:44 Speaker 2: Those are really like our big things right now.

7:46 Speaker 1: Okay, okay, and yeah, you've talked about that on the show.

7:51 Speaker 1: Before has that kind of has that kind of grown

7:53 Speaker 1: in terms of who you're working with, Like you have

7:55 Speaker 1: more artists that you're that you're working with or I don't.

7:57 Speaker 1: I don't remember who we because I think the I

8:00 Speaker 1: think the first time you talked about it on the show,

8:02 Speaker 1: you had just kind of started that, or you had

8:05 Speaker 1: started working together on that.

8:06 Speaker 2: I think, Yeah, I think what when we came on

8:08 Speaker 2: and put out Meet Me in Gate City he had

8:11 Speaker 2: only released a few records at that point, and now

8:14 Speaker 2: with Giant Steps in Gate City, it's our fifteenth release

8:18 Speaker 2: on the record label.

8:19 Speaker 1: Oh wow, Yeah, okay, okay.

8:21 Speaker 2: Yeah, I feel very fortunate to say that after all

8:24 Speaker 2: this time. But yeah, it's been quite the wild ride.

8:27 Speaker 1: Yeah, no kidding, uh wow.

8:29 Speaker 3: So who now?

8:30 Speaker 1: Who else are you working with currently? Who are you

8:33 Speaker 1: releasing music for?

8:34 Speaker 2: So our roster that's active right now consists of mostly producers,

8:39 Speaker 2: but so they go out and perform a lot of

8:41 Speaker 2: instrumental shows and we have instrumental albums out for them

8:44 Speaker 2: as well. Yeah, so we represent even though who is

8:49 Speaker 2: originally from Nashua but is now based out of the

8:51 Speaker 2: Worcester area, he has like this very like Ethereal Lo

8:55 Speaker 2: Fi kind of sound. But then because he comes from

8:58 Speaker 2: like a boom back background, there's like a really cool

9:01 Speaker 2: blend of like an almost ambient boombap kind of sound.

9:05 Speaker 2: We represent an artist named Trip Seat who's based out

9:08 Speaker 2: of Boston, Massachusetts area. He has a very electronic heavy sound.

9:13 Speaker 2: I like to compare him to like an Aphex Twin

9:15 Speaker 2: or a fat Boy Slim something along like very like

9:19 Speaker 2: high energy, like party music. We also represent eight Biza

9:23 Speaker 2: as well. I know you know Biza. He has obviously

9:27 Speaker 2: been a long time contributor to the label and to

9:30 Speaker 2: my music as well, and so he's always yeah, he's

9:35 Speaker 2: always been a big part of the equation as well,

9:37 Speaker 2: and that is that's really the core of like artists

9:42 Speaker 2: that we have releases coming out for. But for twenty five,

9:46 Speaker 2: where we're hoping to kind of expand the palette a

9:50 Speaker 2: little more. We've kind of changed the way that we

9:53 Speaker 2: operate as a label a bit, and we've also like

9:56 Speaker 2: we've moved our headquarters. We had been in the same

9:58 Speaker 2: place for over ten years. Wow, so now we just

10:01 Speaker 2: moved into a new place and that's really evolved how

10:04 Speaker 2: we can operate as a label and a lot of

10:06 Speaker 2: capacities so we may not have as many releases coming

10:11 Speaker 2: out in twenty five, but we fortunately have like really

10:14 Speaker 2: big plans and a lot more resources to apply to

10:17 Speaker 2: them now, which is exciting.

10:18 Speaker 1: Oh okay, yeah.

10:20 Speaker 3: Very good.

10:21 Speaker 1: Now, why why the when you when you talk about

10:24 Speaker 1: the changes in terms of how you do things? Is

10:26 Speaker 1: that is that something that does that come from kind

10:29 Speaker 1: of learning as you go or or does some of

10:33 Speaker 1: it I'm curious if some of it has to do

10:35 Speaker 1: to with you know, the music business is constantly changing,

10:38 Speaker 1: and you know now and I don't think we've ever

10:41 Speaker 1: really talked about this aspect before, but now AI is

10:44 Speaker 1: kind of really changing things. And yeah, I mean, does

10:48 Speaker 1: does that play a role?

10:49 Speaker 2: I would say, And you might have a different experience

10:53 Speaker 2: to speak to it. For me, as like a label owner,

10:57 Speaker 2: I always sought to be the person that I thought

11:01 Speaker 2: I would have wanted to have around as an artist.

11:05 Speaker 2: But I learned that I wasn't being the person that

11:08 Speaker 2: the artist needed, and that those are two separate things

11:11 Speaker 2: where you could want more than you actually need, and

11:15 Speaker 2: so not everybody's wants parallel, And so I had to

11:18 Speaker 2: learn how to manage the artists better on the release

11:24 Speaker 2: side of things because with some of the early releases

11:27 Speaker 2: we put out on the label, we were very we

11:31 Speaker 2: were very involved in the record in terms of like

11:35 Speaker 2: being in weekly meetings, trying to make plans, and some

11:39 Speaker 2: of the artists we were literally tracking all their music

11:42 Speaker 2: in our free time and doing the artwork for I've

11:45 Speaker 2: done the artwork for most of the releases on the

11:47 Speaker 2: label a lot of so we were like super involved,

11:51 Speaker 2: which feels good. But I think what we learned is

11:55 Speaker 2: that artists need to kind of finish the idea on

11:59 Speaker 2: their own m m and then kind of like be like,

12:02 Speaker 2: you know, we were trying to build things out of

12:04 Speaker 2: scratch with an artist, and really the artist has to

12:08 Speaker 2: kind of have that idea and figure out what they

12:11 Speaker 2: would do even if we weren't in the picture, and

12:13 Speaker 2: if they were going to do that anyways, that's where

12:16 Speaker 2: we can be of the most service to them. Okay,

12:19 Speaker 2: But as artists, we have certain expectations for ourselves, and

12:23 Speaker 2: so it's not fair to apply those expectations to everybody unilaterally.

12:28 Speaker 2: Every every artist requires a specific kind of like catered

12:33 Speaker 2: to means of getting their thing done, and if we

12:37 Speaker 2: love the art enough, we're going to work on how

12:40 Speaker 2: to be that to each artist and still maintain the

12:43 Speaker 2: integrity of what we're trying to do personally.

12:46 Speaker 1: That makes sense because everyone's process is different. Yeah. Yeah,

12:51 Speaker 1: Now what about AI in terms of like like releasing music,

12:56 Speaker 1: do you have to? Does it get complicated now? With UH?

13:02 Speaker 1: I mean it's it's incredible what's going on, Like I

13:04 Speaker 1: I see uh, you know, like major labels are suing

13:07 Speaker 1: AI companies and there's all that. There's all this mess

13:10 Speaker 1: like do you have to does it become a consideration

13:15 Speaker 1: when releasing music? Like is there an AI sample or

13:18 Speaker 1: something in here? Is there something that is going to

13:20 Speaker 1: cause us a problem down the road? And are there

13:23 Speaker 1: headaches that come with that?

13:24 Speaker 5: So it's I think personally there's there's good and there's bad.

13:28 Speaker 5: For for the sample based producers that like to dig

13:32 Speaker 5: in you know, old records of like old crates of

13:35 Speaker 5: records and things like that, which I am one of them,

13:38 Speaker 5: it makes it a little bit harder to kind of

13:41 Speaker 5: chop and and when it comes to release time, if

13:44 Speaker 5: you have samples on your beats, you kind of it's

13:48 Speaker 5: it's different now, It's definitely AI is picking up on

13:51 Speaker 5: a lot of that stuff. Doesn't mean that there's a

13:55 Speaker 5: place for it, because there definitely still is and a

13:57 Speaker 5: lot of uh, you know Snoop and are releasing. I mean,

14:01 Speaker 5: it's probably a little bit different because they have the

14:03 Speaker 5: actual stems from the artists, but there's different avenues where

14:08 Speaker 5: you could go for that type of stuff now.

14:12 Speaker 3: But on the other side of things, I've been.

14:15 Speaker 5: Using AI to generate uh chord progressions and and different

14:21 Speaker 5: sounds and stuff like that.

14:23 Speaker 3: And i've you know you cant Byron?

14:25 Speaker 1: Can you pull that, Michael a little bit? Just yeah,

14:27 Speaker 1: so just I noticed it was just dropping out. Yeah,

14:29 Speaker 1: it is better. That's better. Yeah, thank you, it's just it.

14:31 Speaker 1: It starts to g sorry about that, to make sure

14:35 Speaker 1: we can hear you. I'm sorry. Good, Yeah, go ahead.

14:37 Speaker 3: Yeah.

14:37 Speaker 5: On the other other side of things, I've been using

14:40 Speaker 5: AI to generate melodies and chords and picking my keys

14:44 Speaker 5: and and blending and mashing a bunch of like AI

14:47 Speaker 5: generated stuff and basically using them as my samples as

14:51 Speaker 5: of late, chopping it up that way and doing it

14:54 Speaker 5: that way. It's all like you're you're the creator, so

14:59 Speaker 5: there's no royalties or there's no copyright infringement cases that

15:05 Speaker 5: you run into. Oking it that way and it's different.

15:09 Speaker 5: There's a million different possibilities. And I'm the type of

15:12 Speaker 5: guy it's like, as we evolve, as you know, producers

15:17 Speaker 5: and just musicians, if you're not using all of the

15:21 Speaker 5: elements that are at your hands.

15:23 Speaker 3: These days, you're gonna fall behind.

15:25 Speaker 1: Yeah.

15:25 Speaker 5: So there's good and there's bad. It's just all about

15:28 Speaker 5: how you look at it.

15:29 Speaker 3: I think.

15:30 Speaker 1: Yeah, adaptability is so important absolutely, and yeah, adapting to technologies. Yeah,

15:35 Speaker 1: we I was talking to somebody about that in terms

15:39 Speaker 1: of doing a like a radio show, you know, like

15:41 Speaker 1: there was a time when a radio show would just

15:43 Speaker 1: be on the radio, but we've had to adapt to

15:46 Speaker 1: you know now you know podcasting and streaming and all

15:48 Speaker 1: of that, and and if you don't if you don't

15:50 Speaker 1: do that, yeah, if you don't adapt, you fall behind.

15:53 Speaker 3: Yeah.

15:53 Speaker 5: Like I would never like take someone's voice right and

15:57 Speaker 5: and have them say specifically Eric's like I wouldn't use

16:00 Speaker 5: AI or anything like that. Yeah, But in terms of

16:04 Speaker 5: like creating, I'm definitely messing around with AI.

16:07 Speaker 3: Yeah, it comes to creating melodies and stuff like that.

16:10 Speaker 1: Sure, sure, So.

16:12 Speaker 2: I think the thing that's important with AI, and that's

16:14 Speaker 2: why I'm glad you spoke on it because you have

16:16 Speaker 2: more experience with it. I don't, but I just from

16:18 Speaker 2: like a outside looking in perspective kind of thing, I

16:21 Speaker 2: feel like there's a lot of fear around AI taking

16:26 Speaker 2: on creative tasks and things of that nature. And I

16:30 Speaker 2: think the ultimate responsibility or obligation is that like, if

16:33 Speaker 2: we don't determine how AI is going to be used,

16:37 Speaker 2: other things are going to determine that for us. And

16:41 Speaker 2: so it's like, rather than being afraid of AI and

16:44 Speaker 2: being so against it, figure out how to implement it

16:48 Speaker 2: into your life in the ways that it that you want.

16:51 Speaker 2: You know, it's like, yeah, my conversations with most people

16:54 Speaker 2: is that it's like you want AI to take care

16:56 Speaker 2: of menial tasks and things that are time consuming and

16:59 Speaker 2: take away from you like living your most life right,

17:02 Speaker 2: So it's like if we sit back and wait for

17:05 Speaker 2: AI to become what it is, it's going to take

17:08 Speaker 2: the things we love instead. Because nobody like stepped in

17:11 Speaker 2: and said like no, I want to do this part,

17:13 Speaker 2: like do this task for me instead, And I don't

17:17 Speaker 2: have any experience using it, So that's why it's like

17:20 Speaker 2: hard for me to really like put my foot down

17:22 Speaker 2: one way or another. But I just feel like we

17:24 Speaker 2: have to kind of like we are the users of AI,

17:26 Speaker 2: so we have to dictate what purpose it's going to

17:30 Speaker 2: serve to us before it becomes consequential.

17:33 Speaker 1: Yeah, got to be proactive with it.

17:34 Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, yeah, sure.

17:36 Speaker 5: I think like for independent artists, it definitely can be

17:41 Speaker 5: like an attribute to you because as an independent artist,

17:45 Speaker 5: you have to you have to wear so many hats, right,

17:48 Speaker 5: whether it's creating artwork or whether it's you know, coming

17:51 Speaker 5: up with videos or whatever, and AI can be a

17:53 Speaker 5: huge help for that stuff if you're not specifically like

17:57 Speaker 5: a drawing artist, to make up your own art work

18:01 Speaker 5: whatever it is, right, Yeah, definitely use AI to help

18:04 Speaker 5: you out on that side of things too.

18:06 Speaker 2: And even just like like task stuff, I would think

18:09 Speaker 2: more so you know, like as somebody who makes artwork,

18:11 Speaker 2: it's like I like, I like that side of things.

18:14 Speaker 2: But I'm sure even as like maybe an engineer or

18:17 Speaker 2: like a radio show producer, there's certain like engineering things

18:20 Speaker 2: where it's like I wish this, I wish my mixerer

18:23 Speaker 2: just always set to these levels, or I wish my

18:26 Speaker 2: fader just always went to this thing, or I wish

18:28 Speaker 2: my preset always went you know, these are kind of

18:31 Speaker 2: the initial These are things that like AI could probably

18:34 Speaker 2: do for us, is like set these kind of prerequisite

18:38 Speaker 2: things so that when we go to use our creative tools,

18:41 Speaker 2: they're like in the right settings or whatever.

18:44 Speaker 5: Yeah, like everything else, as long as you put the

18:46 Speaker 5: time behind to learn the things you know, and you

18:50 Speaker 5: can manipulate anything in your favor. Yeah, you know, as

18:53 Speaker 5: long as you put the time in and the effort

18:55 Speaker 5: to figure it out.

18:56 Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely, Yeah, No, I agree, Well said you guys

18:59 Speaker 1: want to play on other.

19:00 Speaker 2: Yeah, what do you think? Maybe gratitude?

19:12 Speaker 1: Sure, if you're just joining us. We have Cody Pope

19:14 Speaker 1: and Byron g here with us live in studio.

19:16 Speaker 3: Let me get that. Uh, there we go. I gotta

19:21 Speaker 3: find this joint.

19:22 Speaker 6: Yeah.

19:37 Speaker 2: Some days I wake up and I wish I had it.

19:43 Speaker 2: I hate that I'm sad, but my love once feel

19:46 Speaker 2: so glad that he's a lead trip And don't know

19:50 Speaker 2: why I'm so mad. Man got a lot to be

19:55 Speaker 2: He's greatful for even when I'm down, bad man. Some

19:59 Speaker 2: days i' wake up and I wish I had it.

20:05 Speaker 2: I hate that I'm sad, but my love Monk feels

20:08 Speaker 2: so glad, easily dripping.

20:12 Speaker 1: I don't know why I'm so mad man.

20:16 Speaker 2: You've got a lot to be grateful for. Even when

20:19 Speaker 2: I'm down, bad man, waked up in my brain already

20:24 Speaker 2: feeling dark, get the couch, already chase a spot, contemplat

20:29 Speaker 2: and in my sick or unhealthy. It's this depression of

20:32 Speaker 2: calma for unwealthy enough cleverity to know that I'm the

20:36 Speaker 2: end of me, the one destroying me, the one should

20:38 Speaker 2: be defending me. Got to take time enough to know

20:41 Speaker 2: you can't make time, So make mind feel with the

20:43 Speaker 2: things that shape live. What you heard on the great

20:46 Speaker 2: vine might not taste right, so you don't gotta make wine.

20:49 Speaker 2: You'll still make life. Plant that seed that gonna bandy

20:52 Speaker 2: your family with the real money tree, life's optical standard fees.

20:56 Speaker 2: And still days I'm fighting to get prop it. But

20:59 Speaker 2: that's the vibe when no mean my trooper, when the

21:02 Speaker 2: fight come at the door, you can't be true. You

21:04 Speaker 2: missed that chance. Well, some days I wake up and

21:09 Speaker 2: I wish I had it. I hate that I'm sad,

21:14 Speaker 2: but my loved once feel so glad. Then he's the

21:18 Speaker 2: lead tripping don't know vibe. I'm so mad man, got

21:23 Speaker 2: a lot to be here, grateful for even when I'm down,

21:26 Speaker 2: bad man. Some days I wake up and I wish

21:32 Speaker 2: I had it. I hate that I'm sad, but my

21:36 Speaker 2: loved ones feel so glad that he's the lead tripping.

21:41 Speaker 2: Don't know why I'm so mad, man, you got a

21:46 Speaker 2: lot to be grateful for, even when I'm down, bad man.

21:51 Speaker 1: Some days I wake up, I wake up. Mmm, good stuff, guys,

22:04 Speaker 1: good stuff.

22:04 Speaker 2: Thank you.

22:05 Speaker 1: If you're just joining us, we have Cody Pope and

22:07 Speaker 1: Byron g here with us live in studio, and uh yeah,

22:11 Speaker 1: I love that track and it's it's very relatable. I

22:14 Speaker 1: I have those.

22:15 Speaker 2: Days, right, That's the thing, you know, I feel like

22:18 Speaker 2: most of us do. And yeah, when we're in those moments,

22:20 Speaker 2: you kind of feel like you're the only person and

22:23 Speaker 2: it's like, man, how is like the world really like

22:25 Speaker 2: crashing down on me? But when you realize how many

22:27 Speaker 2: people in your life have made it to that next day,

22:30 Speaker 2: it's like, all right, let me let me just try

22:32 Speaker 2: and like breathe for a minute, yeah, and stop thinking

22:36 Speaker 2: about what's weighing on me and like figure out what's

22:38 Speaker 2: like lifting me instead.

22:40 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, no, I like that a lot, you know.

22:42 Speaker 1: I I'm pretty public about it. I struggle with depression,

22:45 Speaker 1: and so I can I can relate to that, you know.

22:48 Speaker 1: I hear those lyrics and it's like, yeah, yeah, I

22:51 Speaker 1: get it.

22:53 Speaker 3: I get it.

22:54 Speaker 4: Now.

22:55 Speaker 1: Are you so the new album it just came out.

22:58 Speaker 2: It came out in October.

22:59 Speaker 1: Came out in October, so pretty recent. Yeah, are you?

23:01 Speaker 1: Are you already working on the next one? It seems

23:03 Speaker 1: like you guys are pretty prolific. You put out a

23:04 Speaker 1: lot of music.

23:05 Speaker 2: Yeah, So we have a lot of stuff in the

23:07 Speaker 2: vault right now, and we definitely have some releases planned

23:11 Speaker 2: for next year, but we're gonna honestly spend a lot

23:13 Speaker 2: of time with this record. We've been working on visuals

23:17 Speaker 2: for it. So we do these seminars called Inside the Music.

23:21 Speaker 2: We do them at Nashville Public Library, and oh yeah.

23:24 Speaker 2: We take songs from our records and kind of break

23:27 Speaker 2: down the lyrics and the stories and the Ryan patterns,

23:30 Speaker 2: the references, and he'll break down the stems of how

23:33 Speaker 2: the song was composed. And we put one together for

23:36 Speaker 2: Giant Steps, and we didn't get to do it in

23:40 Speaker 2: time for the release. So that's gonna be one of

23:42 Speaker 2: the things that we do this spring is Return of

23:46 Speaker 2: the library seminar, and so we really just want to

23:50 Speaker 2: give people time to take this record in. It's eighteen songs, yeah,

23:54 Speaker 2: and we have a documentary coming out for it on Monday,

23:57 Speaker 2: which really covers like from when we did meet Me

24:00 Speaker 2: in Gates City till where we're at now. And so

24:03 Speaker 2: there was like a lot of like obstacles along the

24:06 Speaker 2: way of getting the album out, and so because it

24:09 Speaker 2: took us so long to get here, we're really hoping

24:13 Speaker 2: that we can afford to take time with this record

24:16 Speaker 2: over next year because there's a lot to take in.

24:18 Speaker 2: You know, it's eighteen songs. It's a very like in

24:21 Speaker 2: depth personal record. It's the essentially like the follow up

24:26 Speaker 2: to you know, the first record that we did Meet

24:29 Speaker 2: Me in Gates City was shortly after we met as people,

24:34 Speaker 2: you know, and like we met, and within a year

24:37 Speaker 2: and some change we had a full length album out

24:39 Speaker 2: and had been playing all over the region and running

24:43 Speaker 2: this label together, and so so much has happened in

24:47 Speaker 2: that time and we've learned a lot. We've both gone

24:50 Speaker 2: through so much in our personal lives, and so the

24:54 Speaker 2: album is really a document of so much of that

24:58 Speaker 2: that it's hard to like move on to the next

25:01 Speaker 2: thing already interesting where like we have like we have

25:04 Speaker 2: an EP that we had already recorded. I have a

25:07 Speaker 2: actually I have a project with Biza that we're hoping

25:09 Speaker 2: to put out next year.

25:11 Speaker 1: Oh cool.

25:12 Speaker 2: I have a live band record that him that he's

25:14 Speaker 2: helped me engineer that we've been working on for a

25:17 Speaker 2: couple of years. We worked with some great artists from Maine.

25:20 Speaker 2: So we have stuff that we're hoping to put out

25:22 Speaker 2: next year. Yeah, but it just is, Ah, everything's kind

25:26 Speaker 2: of happening on a feeling now where we did so

25:29 Speaker 2: much stuff on setting deadlines that we thought fit within

25:33 Speaker 2: our marketplace, and our audience has really shown us that

25:37 Speaker 2: we can dictate our own marketplace and the best way

25:41 Speaker 2: to do that is to not compromise the integrity of

25:43 Speaker 2: these records. And so we're really hoping and frankly, you know,

25:48 Speaker 2: just to be like honest about it. The record is

25:51 Speaker 2: doing very well in regards to reception. People that hear

25:55 Speaker 2: it loved the record. People have been buying the CDs,

25:58 Speaker 2: which is great. The show was fantastic, But in terms

26:02 Speaker 2: of like the typical benchmarks that you're trying to reach

26:05 Speaker 2: in audience growth and stuff like that, we're just not

26:08 Speaker 2: there yet. Yeah, We're we're a long ways away from

26:13 Speaker 2: being where we're at comfortably in growing our audience, and

26:17 Speaker 2: so it seems like it would be detrimental of us

26:21 Speaker 2: to move on from this record too fast when there's

26:23 Speaker 2: so much substance there.

26:25 Speaker 1: Yeah, no, that makes sense.

26:28 Speaker 3: We also went to a legit studio this time around too.

26:32 Speaker 6: Oh.

26:34 Speaker 5: Before we were it was all in house, like doing

26:36 Speaker 5: all the engineering, mixing, mastering, all that stuff. This time,

26:41 Speaker 5: due to you know, time and our mental capacities with

26:44 Speaker 5: work and stuff like that, it just.

26:46 Speaker 3: Wasn't gonna come out the way we wanted it to.

26:50 Speaker 5: So they made the decision to bring in Mertz, who

26:53 Speaker 5: Cody had previously worked with who's uh engineered down at

26:56 Speaker 5: the Bridge in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and he was kind of

27:00 Speaker 5: like the third member of the team to help us

27:02 Speaker 5: put this one together. Yeah, and he absolutely crushed it,

27:06 Speaker 5: blew it out the like hit it right out the park.

27:08 Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah.

27:09 Speaker 5: Like, the synergy between the three of us was fantastic.

27:11 Speaker 5: Every time we were down in his studio, we recorded

27:14 Speaker 5: the whole thing down there, and he was like a

27:17 Speaker 5: huge part of this record. So sonically, it's definitely like

27:22 Speaker 5: our best sounding record too.

27:24 Speaker 2: Okay, it really it allowed us to be like it

27:29 Speaker 2: allowed us to operate as a duo as artists. Where

27:33 Speaker 2: doing Meet Me in Gate City, even though we were

27:35 Speaker 2: a duo, he had to be the Rick Rubin and

27:38 Speaker 2: like run the boards and make sure that I was

27:41 Speaker 2: doing what I needed to do. And and so this

27:43 Speaker 2: time was like we both just got to be the

27:45 Speaker 2: artists and have our vision be brought to life. And

27:48 Speaker 2: so I'm glad that you brought that up because i

27:50 Speaker 2: do think that that also like played a big part

27:53 Speaker 2: in making.

27:53 Speaker 3: This That's what it was the Upbraide sonically for sure.

27:57 Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a huge and and that's and it's a poster,

28:00 Speaker 2: you know, it's like this is part of a greater story.

28:03 Speaker 2: And so you know, from meet Me and Gate City,

28:05 Speaker 2: it was a lot of getting to know us, getting

28:08 Speaker 2: to know how to operate with each other, and us

28:10 Speaker 2: getting to know who our audience was. Now because this

28:13 Speaker 2: music was quite a bit different than my solo music

28:16 Speaker 2: and now with Giant Steps, it's exactly that, like we

28:21 Speaker 2: were willing to challenge ourselves, we were willing to challenge

28:24 Speaker 2: the listeners, we were willing to challenge the status quo.

28:27 Speaker 2: We were willing to step outside of all of our

28:30 Speaker 2: comfort zones and just make a record that we felt

28:32 Speaker 2: was like a strong body of work and I'm happy

28:35 Speaker 2: to like stand on that for a long time.

28:38 Speaker 1: Yeah, was that a difficult decision to to because you

28:42 Speaker 1: had done the previous tracks? Yes, and how Yeah, Yeah.

28:45 Speaker 2: We tried. We tried. Frankly, like we we took a

28:49 Speaker 2: couple different attempts at doing so we were gonna do

28:52 Speaker 2: EP three before the new album we had so that

28:55 Speaker 2: we did Pound of Flesh, then we did Renaissance Park

28:58 Speaker 2: and we have one more that we already have written,

29:02 Speaker 2: and so we went to record that and we just

29:05 Speaker 2: we just weren't feeling it. There was just something. And

29:07 Speaker 2: that's when I think he started to realize he was

29:09 Speaker 2: getting burnt from the engineering, the mixing, the mastering, all

29:13 Speaker 2: that stuff.

29:14 Speaker 5: And it was juggling family with work and yeah, at

29:19 Speaker 5: the studio till two am and then waking up and

29:22 Speaker 5: going to work and doing the same thing.

29:24 Speaker 3: And it's a lot. It was a lot, and we

29:25 Speaker 3: have been doing that for like three years straight.

29:28 Speaker 2: So it was like, yeah, you don't get that same

29:31 Speaker 2: off filming, right right, Yeah, Yeah, you don't get that

29:35 Speaker 2: same fulfillment when it feels like work all the time.

29:38 Speaker 5: Yeah, and that's what it was definitely becoming the field

29:40 Speaker 5: it was it was starting to feel like work and

29:42 Speaker 5: that's the complete opposite artist, right right.

29:47 Speaker 2: But it was also like a blessing in disguise because

29:50 Speaker 2: the songs for EP. Three, while we love them, by

29:54 Speaker 2: the time we kind of figured out that we wanted

29:56 Speaker 2: to like go back into the studio setting, the songs

30:00 Speaker 2: wouldn't have worked for the time period that they would

30:03 Speaker 2: have been done. You know, there was just a sonic

30:04 Speaker 2: appeal to having them in like the springtime. They just

30:08 Speaker 2: have that kind of energy. And we didn't start recording

30:11 Speaker 2: until the beginning of summer, so by the time we

30:13 Speaker 2: were done, it was gonna be late summer fall, and

30:16 Speaker 2: we would have just been putting out songs just to

30:18 Speaker 2: put something out and just to keep up with the joneses.

30:21 Speaker 2: And instead we have this body of work that just

30:24 Speaker 2: like everything made sense, and it was like it just

30:27 Speaker 2: really reminded us of like we can't always dictate the timelines.

30:31 Speaker 2: We just have to make the art, and the art

30:33 Speaker 2: is going to tell us not to be like you know,

30:36 Speaker 2: but like the art is really going to set the

30:38 Speaker 2: terms of like what we can do. Like, nothing we

30:41 Speaker 2: say matters until we have a body of work in

30:43 Speaker 2: our hands, and then we can, you know, get to

30:46 Speaker 2: the starting line.

30:47 Speaker 1: Yeah, that makes sense. That makes sense. By the way,

30:50 Speaker 1: you mentioned so you do you've done most of the

30:53 Speaker 1: artwork for the arts of released through hew Lound. Yeah,

30:57 Speaker 1: is there is there any kind of like, do you

31:00 Speaker 1: have a specific style that you apply to The reason

31:04 Speaker 1: I'm curious is in the past, it probably isn't really

31:08 Speaker 1: a thing anymore, but I just remember, like back in

31:10 Speaker 1: the nineties or in the two thousands, like No Limit Records,

31:13 Speaker 1: you know, there was a very specific style pixel.

31:18 Speaker 6: Yeah.

31:18 Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm curious if if, like, do you have a

31:21 Speaker 1: specific style that you try to use.

31:22 Speaker 2: Or I don't. The only thing I guess I would

31:25 Speaker 2: really say about my style is that I am in

31:29 Speaker 2: I'm not like a traditionally trained graphic designer. I don't

31:33 Speaker 2: have any sort of like art background or anything. I

31:37 Speaker 2: learned how to use photoshop purely because I wanted to

31:40 Speaker 2: be a guy starting a record label, and so the

31:43 Speaker 2: root of my like artistic style is very photo heavy.

31:47 Speaker 2: So I love when somebody can either give me a

31:50 Speaker 2: photo or give me a reference or something, and that

31:54 Speaker 2: is typically like my canvas and I can like creatively

31:57 Speaker 2: build from there, Okay, and like I'm I'm learning how

32:00 Speaker 2: to do other stuff. But I would say that through

32:03 Speaker 2: the fifteen releases that we've put out that I've done

32:06 Speaker 2: covers for, they're very like photo centric, where it's about

32:11 Speaker 2: a certain like character or a certain idea and then

32:15 Speaker 2: I'll just kind of design around that idea.

32:18 Speaker 1: Yeah.

32:18 Speaker 5: Yeah, Robert, Yeah, he's the one who basically took all

32:23 Speaker 5: the pictures of us, yeah for the for the last

32:27 Speaker 5: ep in this album. Oh okay, Yeah, he was just

32:32 Speaker 5: the the artistry in him, like he was literally laying

32:36 Speaker 5: down almost like head in traffic to get that perfect angle.

32:41 Speaker 3: Yeah. He's one of a kind.

32:44 Speaker 2: Yeah, he's actually based here in Manchester. But his name

32:47 Speaker 2: is Robert Bates, ok and you can so you can

32:50 Speaker 2: find his Robert Bates Photography and on Instagram he goes

32:53 Speaker 2: by Domino Sonata. But he's also like a very he's

32:57 Speaker 2: a very into cinema, like local cinema and film and

33:00 Speaker 2: film history and stuff like that too.

33:02 Speaker 5: So you could totally feel it when you're like when

33:04 Speaker 5: you see his photos. Really he's incredible man, And I think,

33:08 Speaker 5: what did Nick did meet me in Gate City?

33:12 Speaker 3: So okay, Nix is girlfriend.

33:14 Speaker 2: Yeah. So we have a lot of like close people

33:17 Speaker 2: in our network that shoot photos and then I just

33:19 Speaker 2: like am fortunate enough to take those and manipulate them.

33:22 Speaker 1: Oh that's cool? Yeah, yeah, very cool. Uh you guys

33:25 Speaker 1: want to play another one?

33:27 Speaker 3: Yeah?

33:27 Speaker 2: What do we go?

33:28 Speaker 1: Dying to hear more?

33:30 Speaker 2: Here?

33:30 Speaker 1: If you're just showing us we have Cody Pope and

33:31 Speaker 1: Byron g here with us alive in studio.

33:36 Speaker 2: And to exit more. Yeah, it's a fun one, all right,

33:51 Speaker 2: you're watching at home, you can snap with us elevated

34:09 Speaker 2: to the gallows like a miles in France. Life be

34:12 Speaker 2: hitting differently do Miles of dance might have a thousand

34:15 Speaker 2: yards stare of of a mile and trance life can

34:17 Speaker 2: be so short you're running miles and pants don't care

34:20 Speaker 2: for people but a smile, because why not? This life

34:23 Speaker 2: the only one that I know that I got all

34:25 Speaker 2: This Third eyed Jazz got me feeling like cyclops every

34:28 Speaker 2: year for a little closer they'm feeling like my pops,

34:31 Speaker 2: frustrated with my nation. Probably for different reasons of posing

34:35 Speaker 2: opinions on opposition committing treason. I'm from where you got

34:38 Speaker 2: to embrace multiple seasons. One day it's spring, one day

34:41 Speaker 2: you take in the leaves and still jump hurdles. What

34:44 Speaker 2: I got these long legs for? Ramp up my protein?

34:47 Speaker 2: Would I eat all these eggs for? I grew up

34:49 Speaker 2: between exit one and exit for, But even as a youth,

34:52 Speaker 2: I knew I had to exit more.

34:56 Speaker 3: A little short one.

34:57 Speaker 1: That is a short one.

34:58 Speaker 3: Wow.

34:59 Speaker 5: Yeah, there's a lot of those little kind of like

35:01 Speaker 5: interlows between each a lot of the tracks on this one.

35:04 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, No, I like it though. One day it's spring,

35:07 Speaker 1: next day you're taking the leaves. Then that is true.

35:10 Speaker 1: That is our weather tends to go. Yes, yes, we

35:14 Speaker 1: have Cody Pope and Byron's here with us alive in

35:16 Speaker 1: studio and uh sounding great. Are you guys playing out Lutrey?

35:21 Speaker 1: Are you doing a lot of live shows the days?

35:23 Speaker 2: So it was. I would say this was probably our

35:26 Speaker 2: slowest year we did. We did a run in March

35:30 Speaker 2: when we put out Renaissance Park. We were real lucky.

35:32 Speaker 2: We got to go out with Ari the Rugged Man

35:34 Speaker 2: for a night. We did some nights in Vermont. Yeah,

35:37 Speaker 2: came here. You're with the first on that whole that

35:41 Speaker 2: was the well, that's the show that's okay, going back

35:44 Speaker 2: to before we were on air, that's we were here

35:47 Speaker 2: for Renaissance Park and that was the show that the

35:50 Speaker 2: computer crashed, yes, because we played let It Grow for

35:54 Speaker 2: the first time.

35:54 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's that's part.

35:57 Speaker 3: Of that run. And that same night we had a

35:59 Speaker 3: The Rugged Man at.

36:00 Speaker 1: Oh okay, okay wow.

36:02 Speaker 2: But after that run of shows, it was pretty quiet

36:06 Speaker 2: for the most part. We did something, you know, something

36:08 Speaker 2: here or there.

36:09 Speaker 3: A lot of life stuff was going on.

36:11 Speaker 2: Yea, yeah, we we started working on well, so we

36:16 Speaker 2: started EP three basically in like so, Renaissance Park came

36:21 Speaker 2: out in March, and by like the end of April,

36:24 Speaker 2: we were already jumping into EP three and then by

36:28 Speaker 2: like the end of May we realized everything just like

36:31 Speaker 2: wasn't working. And by the end of June we were

36:34 Speaker 2: already down at the Bridge working on the new album. Okay,

36:39 Speaker 2: So it was just one of those things that like

36:40 Speaker 2: and then we spent so much time doing the album

36:44 Speaker 2: and we didn't want to. We knew what we wanted

36:47 Speaker 2: to do for the release show, and we knew if

36:49 Speaker 2: we did too many shows beforehand that that would kind

36:52 Speaker 2: of like spoil or saturate it. So once we started

36:55 Speaker 2: working on the album, we made like a very like

36:58 Speaker 2: conscious effort to be like, look, we're gonna not perform

37:01 Speaker 2: until this show. We want people to really like, this

37:05 Speaker 2: is the next time they experience us is going to

37:07 Speaker 2: be hearing these songs in a room that we booked

37:09 Speaker 2: with our sound are lighting, our caterers that we brought,

37:13 Speaker 2: like just like a show the way that we think

37:16 Speaker 2: it makes the most sense. Yeah, and and like, I

37:19 Speaker 2: think it was one of the best decisions we made

37:21 Speaker 2: because the event turned out like really memorable.

37:26 Speaker 1: Excellent, excellent. By the way, what was our a the

37:28 Speaker 1: rugged man? Like he seems like an intense dude.

37:31 Speaker 2: Like, yeah, he's very intense. Yeah, we we didn't get

37:36 Speaker 2: to meet him. I've opened I think I've opened for

37:39 Speaker 2: him like three or four times, and I've literally never

37:42 Speaker 2: met him. So oh really yeah, that's just how rappers

37:45 Speaker 2: are though.

37:46 Speaker 1: Yeah, he I I heard I heard an interesting story

37:50 Speaker 1: about him. Do you guys know Kate ever?

37:53 Speaker 2: So I don't know him personally, but I feel like

37:56 Speaker 2: we the name sounds familiar and I'm pretty sure we

37:59 Speaker 2: played a show like years and years ago in the past,

38:02 Speaker 2: if I'm not mistaken.

38:03 Speaker 1: Okay, yeah, he he opened for U.

38:07 Speaker 2: I bet you that was probably the I bet you

38:08 Speaker 2: I might have been on that show too. Okay, maybe

38:11 Speaker 2: that's where I know him from.

38:12 Speaker 1: Yeah he he He told me an interesting story which

38:15 Speaker 1: I won't I won't repeat.

38:17 Speaker 5: But I would never want to be as loud as

38:20 Speaker 5: a live sound engineer artist.

38:23 Speaker 3: Man. I felt bad for that guy that night.

38:25 Speaker 1: Really, why did the engineer take some verbal Yeah.

38:28 Speaker 3: And it's yeah, yeah he did.

38:30 Speaker 5: And uh, you know, I mean if you're an art

38:32 Speaker 5: like a has been around for you know, over two decades.

38:36 Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, it's like there's a there's a level of expectations.

38:39 Speaker 5: You got it if you're gonna you know, oh yeah, yeah,

38:42 Speaker 5: do anything with him, which is you know, he earned that.

38:44 Speaker 1: So if you guys ever seen the meltdown he had

38:46 Speaker 1: with Tim Poole on his podcast.

38:49 Speaker 2: That sounds wild.

38:50 Speaker 1: Oh it's great. Yeah yeah, if you go on YouTube

38:52 Speaker 1: and just hide in Tim pool all right, the recommend

38:54 Speaker 1: I'm sure it comes right.

38:54 Speaker 3: Oh, I gotta check that out.

38:57 Speaker 1: Yeah he got He had a little angry with Tim Poole.

39:00 Speaker 1: It's just like, I'm not that guy. You don't want

39:02 Speaker 1: to go there with me. I can't even do an

39:04 Speaker 1: impression of it. It's it's really really good. I'm really

39:08 Speaker 1: angry with it. Was awesome, It's fantastic.

39:13 Speaker 2: I can just like picture that in my head.

39:15 Speaker 3: Yes, it's really good.

39:20 Speaker 1: Now who else?

39:21 Speaker 3: Now?

39:21 Speaker 1: Is there any is there anyone else coming up in

39:23 Speaker 1: the short term who you're releasing through uh?

39:28 Speaker 2: In sometime this spring we are hoping to release so

39:33 Speaker 2: eight Biza. Yeah, yeah, really yeah. Business just dropped a

39:38 Speaker 2: Merry Christmas beat tape which is on all streaming pladcams,

39:42 Speaker 2: so everybody should go listen to that. But when we

39:45 Speaker 2: initially obviously Bizza has always been a part of our movement,

39:50 Speaker 2: but when we like made a formal offer to be like, hey,

39:54 Speaker 2: we want to have a record of yours come out

39:56 Speaker 2: on the label, he put out what what I to

40:00 Speaker 2: consider like his magnum opus is an album he did

40:03 Speaker 2: a few years ago. It's called Bobby's boombapp recitle. Okay,

40:06 Speaker 2: it's like his producer composition album and he basically hired

40:12 Speaker 2: and picked and curated all of the vocal features on

40:17 Speaker 2: the record and produced it and put them all together.

40:20 Speaker 2: And it's a phenomenal album. It just has acrobatic mister Lyft,

40:26 Speaker 2: crime Apple, my favorite rapper, Cody Pope is on there.

40:31 Speaker 2: Tons of people are on There's just Time and lep

40:34 Speaker 2: who don't even really perform anymore. So it's probably one

40:37 Speaker 2: of the last recordings that they did. Yeah, there's just

40:40 Speaker 2: these phenomenal verses on there. But much like a lot

40:43 Speaker 2: of us as artists, because they didn't have a budget

40:46 Speaker 2: behind him to do some grand release. He didn't have

40:49 Speaker 2: money to do a physical release, you know, there wasn't

40:53 Speaker 2: He was doing it all himself, you know, and he

40:54 Speaker 2: puts so much into making it that it didn't even

40:58 Speaker 2: get like a huge digital distribution. Okay, So one of

41:02 Speaker 2: the things that we wanted to do first was give

41:04 Speaker 2: that record like a really grand release, And over the

41:10 Speaker 2: years we've been trying to like put a CD package

41:13 Speaker 2: together that really like is special and put some video

41:17 Speaker 2: content around it. So this spring really is hopefully going

41:20 Speaker 2: to be the Bobby's boomback recital Spring, as well as

41:23 Speaker 2: some more stuff from us.

41:25 Speaker 4: Yeah.

41:25 Speaker 1: Yeah, Bus is incredible. Yeah, I haven't interviewed him and

41:29 Speaker 1: a real I gotta get him on the show.

41:30 Speaker 2: Yeah, he's always got stuff going on.

41:32 Speaker 6: Man.

41:32 Speaker 3: I went into the studio.

41:34 Speaker 5: It was like two weeks ago and ran into bizit

41:37 Speaker 5: there and what he was doing that night, I actually

41:40 Speaker 5: got it. I had was like taking videos and stuff.

41:42 Speaker 5: Just the way he manipulates samples and audio is like

41:46 Speaker 5: no one's doing it like him. Yeah, he could literally

41:50 Speaker 5: you can smack this wall and he'll make a full

41:53 Speaker 5: beat out of it.

41:53 Speaker 3: Like, yes, he's on another level, and I hope.

41:56 Speaker 5: I think he'll get his flowers soon where everybody, you know,

42:02 Speaker 5: I can see that he can just he's he's the

42:04 Speaker 5: mad scientist for that's what I call it.

42:07 Speaker 3: He just can anything any sound.

42:10 Speaker 5: He's manipulating it in his way, and it's really incredible

42:14 Speaker 5: to see when he's in his zone at the studio,

42:17 Speaker 5: you know.

42:17 Speaker 2: Yea, Yeah, I hate to be biased because I'm obviously

42:20 Speaker 2: like his friend, but I can't tell you enough, like

42:23 Speaker 2: as a record label owner and obviously like Bizza is

42:28 Speaker 2: an artist, So I'm not saying that he's not challenging

42:31 Speaker 2: in his own right, but but Bizza is he's the

42:34 Speaker 2: type of artist you want to work with as a

42:37 Speaker 2: label owner because he's doing things that he was going

42:41 Speaker 2: to do even if you weren't. Sorry, that's right. He's

42:44 Speaker 2: doing things that he was gonna do even if you

42:47 Speaker 2: weren't in the picture. And that's what you want, is

42:50 Speaker 2: you want an art of You want an artist that's

42:52 Speaker 2: motivated enough to do it themselves, so that when you

42:55 Speaker 2: come in and partner with them, you're just adding fuel

42:58 Speaker 2: to something that was already the If you just know

43:01 Speaker 2: a great artist but they're not driven to do it

43:04 Speaker 2: on their own, you're like pulling teeth sometimes because it's

43:08 Speaker 2: like they clearly didn't want it if if you were,

43:11 Speaker 2: if they weren't already doing it, you know. And so

43:13 Speaker 2: with Bizzy, you almost have to chase him sometimes because

43:16 Speaker 2: he's so motivated that he's he's dropping stuff constantly, and

43:20 Speaker 2: you got to kind and so that's why it's like

43:22 Speaker 2: we have a unique friendship and relationship with him because

43:25 Speaker 2: it's like he was doing this before either of us anyways.

43:29 Speaker 2: So it's like you got to give him room to

43:31 Speaker 2: do his thing and let him breathe creatively. But we

43:35 Speaker 2: just feel fortunate that like he still like wants to

43:39 Speaker 2: partner with us and do stuff with us as well,

43:41 Speaker 2: because we like to find those little gems every now

43:44 Speaker 2: and then and be like, here's how we can help

43:46 Speaker 2: bring that into the world.

43:47 Speaker 1: Right, right, Have you ever I mean obviously I don't

43:50 Speaker 1: expect you to mention any names, but have you guys

43:51 Speaker 1: ever run into a situation where you work with somebody

43:53 Speaker 1: who maybe just doesn't.

43:56 Speaker 2: Absolutely, I guess for you know, not too many, fortunately,

44:04 Speaker 2: but I would say we've had We've had one release

44:08 Speaker 2: that didn't work out, and in total, we've maybe worked

44:11 Speaker 2: with three artists that it just wasn't the right kind

44:15 Speaker 2: of relationship. But fortunately, we only ever really were in

44:21 Speaker 2: one situation where an artists record came out and it

44:24 Speaker 2: just didn't really work out. And uh yeah, you know,

44:28 Speaker 2: like those things are tough in the moment, and for

44:32 Speaker 2: us being so early in the label, I think it

44:35 Speaker 2: definitely felt like, oh, like what did we do wrong?

44:38 Speaker 2: Like what you know, But as time went on, like

44:41 Speaker 2: we realized like we did the best we could and

44:45 Speaker 2: it just like everything's not going to always work out.

44:48 Speaker 2: And I like to say that hell Hound is for anyone,

44:53 Speaker 2: but Hellhound isn't for everyone, right, you know, Like we

44:57 Speaker 2: are so open to what kind of music, what kind

45:00 Speaker 2: of art, the kind of people we work with, Like

45:03 Speaker 2: we really just we have a wide scope and a

45:06 Speaker 2: love of art. Yeah, but we also have a certain

45:09 Speaker 2: framework within which we like to do things, and we

45:12 Speaker 2: have a certain aesthetic and a certain rawness and vulnerability

45:15 Speaker 2: and honesty and work ethic, and that's not for everybody,

45:19 Speaker 2: and so it's not you know, goes back to like

45:21 Speaker 2: what I was saying earlier, is like we can't hold

45:24 Speaker 2: other artists to the way that we do things. We

45:27 Speaker 2: do what works best for us. And if there's other

45:30 Speaker 2: people that we love their art, we just have to

45:32 Speaker 2: kind of acclimate to what's going to work for them

45:35 Speaker 2: to be the most genuine.

45:37 Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, exactly not And you could tell. You could

45:40 Speaker 3: tell when.

45:43 Speaker 5: You know the passion's not fully there right as well,

45:46 Speaker 5: you know, and.

45:47 Speaker 3: It kind of sucks the air out of the room.

45:49 Speaker 5: So yeah, you kind of learn real quick when you

45:53 Speaker 5: get into a couple of sessions with somebody and you know,

45:57 Speaker 5: kind of the first or second day, we're like, it's

46:00 Speaker 5: either going to be way too much work in us pushing, right,

46:06 Speaker 5: and if they're not in that creative space or if

46:09 Speaker 5: they're you know, not fully committed, then it's I'm we're

46:14 Speaker 5: not going to push you to like get there, like

46:17 Speaker 5: you gotta have that. Like it's just an artist in

46:20 Speaker 5: general or musician or whatever like, Yeah, you gotta have

46:22 Speaker 5: the passion or else it's not gonna work.

46:24 Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly, exactly.

46:27 Speaker 3: We have time.

46:27 Speaker 2: You guys want to play one more or twist arm right?

46:33 Speaker 3: Do the last one?

46:33 Speaker 2: Yeah, I guess we should. So. This is the title

46:36 Speaker 2: track from Giant Steps in Gate City, which is affectionately

46:39 Speaker 2: called Giant Steps.

46:40 Speaker 1: Okay, Cody Pope and Byron g.

46:55 Speaker 2: My lace is tight enough for all my giant steps.

46:58 Speaker 2: Now easy to get every day to say I'm the

47:00 Speaker 2: best Now, life be like some big beautiful breast now

47:04 Speaker 2: over a windy day when all the sun dresses out.

47:08 Speaker 2: Even when stressed out, stop and taking another ahead of

47:12 Speaker 2: this life and understand why you love it it. No

47:15 Speaker 2: one can do what you do. That's why the gluff

47:17 Speaker 2: won't fit. Keep working hard towards your dreams. You'll make

47:20 Speaker 2: so much of it. These menver thongs take training more

47:23 Speaker 2: than saying words. Sometimes you're on the path alone that's

47:26 Speaker 2: evading herds. You lucky if your lifeline is exchanging verbs.

47:31 Speaker 2: There was a time in my life I was exchanging hurt.

47:34 Speaker 2: Went from thinking not be dead before the age of

47:37 Speaker 2: thirty to making it with words and trying not to

47:40 Speaker 2: be too worthy for every step back something to look

47:43 Speaker 2: forward to. You've been working. Soon enough you'll be soreing too.

47:47 Speaker 2: These giant steps come by learning how to evox. First,

47:51 Speaker 2: life's a fight. You might want to learn how to evox.

47:53 Speaker 2: First progress means getting up when you beat down. Dedicated

47:58 Speaker 2: to the babies born.

48:00 Speaker 3: Damn.

48:00 Speaker 2: These giant steps come by learning how to walk. First,

48:04 Speaker 2: life's to fight. You might want to learn how to box.

48:07 Speaker 2: First progress means getting up when you beat down. Dedicated

48:11 Speaker 2: to the babies born. I meet clowns all the time.

48:15 Speaker 2: Most of them fade away. Not enough battery for all

48:19 Speaker 2: the games they play. Learn how to center, stop, step

48:22 Speaker 2: on your own side. Don't let these cat with this

48:25 Speaker 2: people lead up your own time. You know you best,

48:28 Speaker 2: so find a pass to the rest. Understand it takes time,

48:32 Speaker 2: try your buy risk and tests. Had many people tell

48:35 Speaker 2: me I was two heads strong, But when I do this,

48:38 Speaker 2: all those people will be dead. Wrong people not wrong

48:41 Speaker 2: for offer room ways to make the day, but everyone

48:44 Speaker 2: God preferences how to make the stake. There will be

48:47 Speaker 2: times when you know you got to walk alone. Let

48:50 Speaker 2: the power of your actions be the message shown. Plenty

48:53 Speaker 2: of thrones don't worry about what the king say. You

48:57 Speaker 2: play lifelike shredding guitar like a way. How much can

49:00 Speaker 2: you do before the end credits play? All depends on

49:04 Speaker 2: how much you let get in the way. These giant

49:07 Speaker 2: steps come by learning how to walk first life. To fight,

49:10 Speaker 2: you might want to learn how to box first. Progress

49:14 Speaker 2: means getting up when you beat damn. Dedicated to the

49:17 Speaker 2: babies born feet damn. These giant steps come by learning

49:21 Speaker 2: how to walk. First life. To fight, you might want

49:24 Speaker 2: to learn how to box first. Progress means getting up

49:28 Speaker 2: when you beat damn. Dedicated to the babies born feet damn. Preach.

49:41 Speaker 1: Well done, guys, Thank you man, well done.

49:43 Speaker 2: Well, Thank you having us.

49:44 Speaker 1: Cody Pope and Byron g here with us live in studiou.

49:47 Speaker 1: What should our listeners know about where to find you

49:49 Speaker 1: guys online to keep up with everything that you're doing.

49:52 Speaker 2: So everything in our universe can always be found at

49:54 Speaker 2: hellhum Publishing dot com. We're really active on YouTube right now,

50:00 Speaker 2: so we have a Hellhound Publishing YouTube channel. We would

50:03 Speaker 2: love for people to go over there and hit the

50:05 Speaker 2: all subscribe button. We're putting out music, we're putting out

50:08 Speaker 2: behind the scenes videos. We had our documentary. It's going

50:11 Speaker 2: to be out Monday.

50:12 Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I'm very very curious to see that.

50:14 Speaker 2: Thank you. Yeah. So it's my first like big video

50:17 Speaker 2: editing project. It's like a forty minute documentary just about

50:21 Speaker 2: our whole journey. Cool.

50:22 Speaker 3: I saw it yesterday for the first time.

50:24 Speaker 4: Really.

50:24 Speaker 3: Yeah, it's blown away. Yeah, oh very cool. Yeah.

50:27 Speaker 2: So yeah everything Hellhound Publishing dot com, Hellhound Publishing on YouTube,

50:32 Speaker 2: if you're on social media, I'm at Cody Pope hc

50:35 Speaker 2: across everything. He's at BG six ZH three across everything,

50:40 Speaker 2: and at Hellhoun Publishing of course too. But hell Hound

50:44 Speaker 2: till we're underground.

50:46 Speaker 4: All right, I love it. I love it.

50:48 Speaker 1: Anything we didn't talk about that, you want to make

50:49 Speaker 1: sure our listeners know about anything we didn't mention. You

50:52 Speaker 1: guys always got to like going on side. Well, I

50:54 Speaker 1: make sure we didn't leave anything out.

50:56 Speaker 2: No, So we're, like I we mentioned earlier, we're and

50:58 Speaker 2: this is our kind of weekend wrap. But for us,

51:00 Speaker 2: this was the first thing we have going on. So

51:02 Speaker 2: thank you so much for having us. Yeah, Tomorrow night, Sunday,

51:05 Speaker 2: we're going to be at the shaf Skiine for rap night.

51:08 Speaker 2: It's gonna be our last show of the year, kind

51:09 Speaker 2: of a holiday wrap up show, and then Monday is

51:12 Speaker 2: the premiere of the documentary. And other than that, I

51:15 Speaker 2: would just say that our new album, Giant Steps in

51:18 Speaker 2: Gate City is available anywhere that you listen to music.

51:21 Speaker 2: Please take an opportunity to listen to it. That's all

51:25 Speaker 2: we could ask is for people to just take the

51:27 Speaker 2: time to listen to it. It's eighteen songs and if

51:30 Speaker 2: you don't like it, hopefully you'll have a better day after.

51:36 Speaker 2: I think you will.

51:38 Speaker 1: Very good, very good guys. Thank you so much.