Matt Connarton Unleashed: Cody Pope and Byron G

And we have a couple of fine gentlemen here on the couch. We have

Cody Pope and Byron Gee. How are you guys? Hey doing great?

Thanks so much for having us, Absolutely absolutely so um and you guys are

going to perform and this is very cool. Have you ever performed sitting on

a couch before? Honestly, and I think this is the first for us.

Definitely a different vibe, first time here, first time performing on a

couch. Yeah, yeah, there it is there, It is okay?

Should all right? Are you guys ready? Yeah? We are ready?

All right, Here we go. The song title is called off of our

debut album Together and Meet Me in Gate City. That is Cody Pope and

I am Byron Gee. I turned thirty and felt I had a cracker.

Two. People love to just sit back and laugh at you, miraculously think

that life is just gonna turn around. Same people always telling you to turn

your frown, turn it down music, glad what neighbors? I do this

for real ones and no, my true players. Not no sense thinking you're

flipping up quick or like clipping bricks or cooking it like this quick. I

had needles in my arm. Money in the same felt the treason from my

dogs, looking funny in their face, almost sat down for a couple for

defending the turf. This planet truly hates me. I'm no friend of the

earth, trail blazing. I don't need to ride a coat tail. Things

I've survived are the same things that most failed tried to ride the waves but

couldn't fix a boat's sail. Like all this into Hope's fault. I was

watching Hope fail. Broken pottery manned with the gold dust, never ashamed to

make repairs to the yold us cracks in our armor only show we have history.

If you don't get it, it don't mean it's a distant me.

Broken pottery man with the gold dust, never ashamed to make repairs to the

old dust cracks and our armor only show we have history. If you don't

get it, it don't mean it's this to me. You might catch me

prowling down Vine Street or at the crib holding them my dime piece. Might

see me at the record store chilling with my niece. Every song is a

capsule, like it's my dig digarria of the mouth things I spit specific thing.

No, I'm gifted like I flow cost the specific you miss every shot

that you don't take. Shoot so much, you might meet me at my

own way. Wait wait, see began big like a soda in the three

piece, like Jordan with the three peak seed stuck on repeat. We like

the hot boys, Turk Juvie and Big Man. We freshest man he when

he's making beats for Wheezy best believe me being greedy, get you left behind.

Everybody meet their maker friends with death in time, My breath is rhymes,

my un crime, body, shrine piss excellent with these, might as

well bottle up the wine. Broken pottery mended with the gold dust, never

be Shane to make repairs to the old dust cracks, and Alma only show

we have history. If you don't get it, it don't mean it's a

dis to me. Broken pottery mended with the gold dust, never Shane to

make repairs to the old dust cracks, and am the only show we have

history. If you don't get it, it don't mean it's a dist to

me. Preach. Oh you guys sound great, Hey, thank you man

man absolutely if you're just joining us, Cody Pope and Byron g are here

with us live in studio. That was not a studio track. That is

them performing live. Here they are on the couch with us, and gentlemen,

I have some good news if you want to keep going, well,

if you're gonna twist my arm because I'd love to hear Mark. Yeah,

I finally I figured out how to get that folder over beautiful. So you

want you want just the next track? Sure? So this track two is

called Scary Stories. We just had this going throughout college radio in North America

and it was really cool to see how far it went. So h Excel

is kind of like the first proper single from the album, if you will,

So shout out to everybody that helped make this one count. It's a

little more rapid he rapped than the last one. Yeah, cool, cool,

All right, are you ready? Yes sir? All right, here

we go. Shout out to DJ Meth on the Scratches, Manchester's finest Yes,

Sir, rap raps stand sign Yo. Don't talk to me about a

wrapper with no book of flames. Don't look the way I'll burn the bridge

with one book of flames. Shook with Shane, took a look and play

The crooked game cooks the same. But the word you say don't mean a

thing. You want your masters because nobody wants trash. Don't flaunt that means

the label won't call back. Do something to magnitude before flexing attitude. Say

you don't give it up until people lamat at you. Only positive fib okay,

you opportunists, surround yourself with toxic people just to push your music integrity

and sacrifice me tona before success can't be new to when people be lying to

the press, here the remind minds that rappers are actors to what's this man's

intention with all the questions he's asking you? So I clearly want to run

until they fall face first instead of go in the slow clumps at the pace

first? What taste worse with a bit of frank friends becoming fosed with someone

who plans to use against you what they know all one and the same,

all one in the equal We both can't live. You gotta die before the

sequel gave me life. Taking yours is not a problem. Taught plunge with

a knife before they say they got him this that I do take every penny

in breath, So no what I have no fear. I'm already friends with

death? Why so Sifricus because life's so hard. Somehow, a lot of

these frauds so left me scar trusted in people who wouldn't give me a crumb

to live, having to napgate humanity. It's dumb to live still swinging,

still fighting, I show why trying. Y'all tough on song, Facebook all

crying bitch, probably sell your journals out, refused. I'm the world's night

man. Nobody's dreaming for you. Preach you guys will have to excuse me

skipping out a couple of phrases here and there, trying to trying to keep

it give it cleaning, radio clean. So just you know, but I

love doing this. This is really cool man. It's all a great way

for us to uh share the album with people. I love this. Oh,

it's great here and you guys live in the in the studio like this.

This is awesome. Thank you. Yeah, it's cool. It's been

a while since we've got to perform or really rock these. You know,

we've been so busy with doing We we both do like event planning and stuff

like that, and we do a lot of booking of shows and we run

a record label together. So it's like it's been probably months since we've played

a show, so it's nice to just even be here, kind of like

flexing the muscle again. Yeah. Yeah, well let's talk about some of

that stuff and then and then if you guys want to do another track,

I'd love to hear another track in a few minutes. But yeah, yeah,

tell me about now. So, Cody, I've interviewed you, I

think once, maybe twice. Yeah, I think it was once. It

was like I want to say it was twenty fifteen, when you were doing

Local Outbreak in Laconia. Yeah, yeah, long time ago. Yeah.

Now, how long have the two of you been working together, because it

sounds like you do do a lot of stuff together, right, yeah,

just um, just over the last like two years now. Okay, we

had met We're both from Nashua, New Hampshire, so we met through like

the Gate City hip hop community there. Yeah, and he had just sent

me a couple of beats and what was going to be a couple of songs

turned into an album. Us doing the album turned into him coming on board

to help me run the record label. And honestly, ever since we've like

found this symbiosis in our partnership, things have just taken off tremendously for both

of us, and yeah, I think we both attribute a lot of that

to the partnership because we'd both been out here. We've been out here for

over a decade on our own, making waves, but not anything sustainable.

And you know, now ever since we've put this album out, things have

really opened up for us fortunately. Yeah. Now, do you guys always

perform together at this point or do you ever still do solo shows or how

does that work? So he does solo shows as a producer, so so

Cody Pope and Byron Gee. He produces all the music for us and is

like composing all of that, you know, working with any of the instrument

players we work with, anything like that. And so he can go out

and do like DJ shows and gigs like that where it's like, um,

he'll go and play his beats and things of that nature. I don't I

honestly could go out and do shows without him, But we have so much

fun performing together that any opportunity I get to perform, I try to get

him involved. Yeah. He's really good about supporting me live too, where

you know, when we do certain you know, I'll get offers to open

for certain artists where you know, for example, we just opened for Nonfiction

a few weeks back, sold out at the Shaftky and it was great.

But um, anybody that's familiar with nonfiction that's like a really heavy, like

you know, hardcore hip hop, and so some of the songs from our

album are a little more soulful. But you know, I have a really

deep back catalog, so he'll learn songs from my back catalog and we'll go

and play. You know, we never play the same set twice basically,

and he's really good about playing my old catalog songs with the songs that we've

made oh sorry, made together now okay, okay, And Byron, did

you like what what did you start doing first, producing or rapping or what

like? What what came first for you? I started producing first to rap,

so I was writing and stuff. This was you know, back early

two thousands. Yeah, and uh, I I wasn't real you know on

like the YouTube find beats and stuff. So I really got fruity loops and

learned how to produce beats basically for myself to rap over. Okay, yeah,

you know, over the years, I just liked producing more and uh

engineering, mixing, mastering that type of stuff. Yeah, and uh,

I kind of just gave the didn't really write as much anymore. I kind

of gave that the backseat and to focus on the other things where I was

like, I really was needed because you know, a lot of people out

in this area. Um, you know, it's easy to pick up a

pen and a pad. You know, it doesn't cost a lot of money

and just get your thoughts out. And a lot of people didn't really have

the bed to you know, lay their lyrics down too. So I kind

of took that helm and and and started to progress in that producing and engineering

rather than the writing and stuff. Okay, okay, um, but you

still you still do some writing, not much. I'm getting back. I'm

trying to pressure them too. I tell them all the time. I go,

Byron, we got to put out a rap album for you on help.

I'm working on this stuff. You know, not a lot of people

now, but I'm slowly getting back into it, you know, bring something

different to the table for the next projects we have coming up. Yeah.

Yeah, and you guys tell me about the label. You started that together,

the two So I started that back in twenty eighteen. Um, I

had I had started a different record label back in twenty ten, and I

did that on my own for like eight years. Decided it was time,

you know, it had run its course, closed the doors. I had

also like taken some time off I you know, the this was a little

before the pandemic, but the pandemic also kind of put that into motion too.

I had like a three year hiatus, and I started doing a lot

of different writing. I was writing poetry. I'd written a couple of screenplays

for like radio screenplays. Yeah, I got I got really into like old

radio dramas from like the forties and fifties and stuff like that. And so

I kind of wrote this like detective sci fi story that takes place in Nashua

in like the fifties and had a bunch of voice actors come and I put

like two years into that, and then I was right, you know,

and that so that just kind of opened me up to I love hip hop.

I love everything that I do, but I want to create a label

or some sort of distribution house that I can put all of my art out

through. Yeah, And then so I'd spent a couple of years kind of

just getting the branding right, figure out what I was going to do next

as an artist, and when he came along, it was just like the

It was like, I can't explain how perfect the timing was, where both

of us wanted the same thing, but both of us brought the thing that

the other person didn't do, where it was like I always, you know,

ever since I was a kid, pretty much, I wanted to like

have a record label and be a musician and do all this stuff. But

I'm not an audio engineer. I don't know things about bit rates and file

sizes, and you know, distributors will ask us questions and I'm like,

oh, well, I'm gonna pass that off to my man over here.

And you know, so even in my personal goals, him coming on board

has allowed me to pursue my like professional goals at a rate of speed that

I wouldn't have been able to without having a partner like that. That was

like equitably invested emotionally and everything else. Oh yeah, yeah, oh very

cool. It's like really yeah, yeah, it was. It was perfect

time, and for sure because you had just released The Howling Man, and

I think you were just like like what's next, and you were throwing shows

and stuff, and I was just I had recently just really like released my

first two instrumentals on like digital. Yeah. Other than that, it was

just a hard drive full of stuff, you know what I mean. So

joining up with him, I put out a whole basically beat tape last year,

full album. We put it on physical and CD and sold it out

and and we've released uh, like seven I think it's seven records on the

label since he came on board. Kidding, we did three. We did

three instrumental albums so far. We did our Meet Me and Gate City album.

We did another we did worked with a vocalist who's based out of Salem

now who was like into a little more modern style of music, and we

did a project for him that Byron had curated. We have like a sampler

out as well. So we we got super busy right from the jump,

and we had a whole roster of artists that really were just ready to work,

and we got really fortunate too. Um, we're at record number ten

in our catalog. I had put out the first couple of Cody Pope records

on my own, but so yeah, so as of as of right now,

we're at we're going into record eleven this summer, and so just for

for that like couple of years of time. You know, some of the

CDs have sold out and we're on second runs. Some of them were still

kind of figuring out how to who the audience is and how we're going to

market. But this experience has been like everything that I've wanted to do in

life, and so I feel so fortunate to be kind of like fulfilling all

of these ideas that I had for so many years. That's awesome. Now,

how does that work with CDs now? Because some people think that actually,

I don't know if this is true. I read somewhere that in twenty

twenty two it was the first year that Vinyl Byron you look like you already

know. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that supposedly the first year that Vinyl

actually outsold CDs. Yeah, I don't. I don't know if that's true.

No, I've I've definitely read that too. I don't know if it

was twenty two or twenty three, but one of those years it definitely has

happened. And it's not to my surprise at all, you know, Like,

and I love Vinyl too, don't you know. That's people get it

twisted because we put so much of our catalog on CD. Yeah, it's

just like, from from a consumer standpoint, a lot of that people don't

understand that vinyl has insane turnaround times, oh my gosh, and it's a

huge labor of investment. And so if we wanted to put ten records out

on vinyl, that would have never happened. You know that that would have

cost us tens of thousands of dollars that we didn't have access to months and

months and months lead time. Yeah, you know. Instead, we were

able to using CDs allowed us to get artists off the ground quickly who didn't

have a platform but could utilize our you know, we had venues that we

booked shows at in our own booking company. We had the record label,

which our office also doubles as the studio with the ISO booth and the control

room in a podcast lounge and a photo area, and so artists that came

to work with us had basically all of the resources at their disposal, and

so it allowed us to kind of do the artist development that we grew up

seeing happen, but that clearly doesn't happen anymore. So it was like the

artists didn't have to compromise anything. All we needed them to do was show

up and create the best art they could make, you know, not sacrifice

their integrity. We would be the ones to figure out how to package it,

distribute it, sell it, the whole nine. And we got really

lucky. A lot of these guys had never played a show before, and

now they've played through all the East. They have CDs distributed all over the

country, like they're making really big headways, and it makes us really out

that we got to be involved in that and still keep sight of what we

want to do as artists as well. Yeah that's fantastic. Yeah, I

do want to talk to you more about that, but I also want to

hear another song. You guys want to do another another songs? Sure,

so we go with the next h Yeah, we'll go with track three.

So this one, this one's called Superpowers. This one, this one's for

all the artists tuning in. Whatever your medium is. You're a writer,

a photographer, a painter, you're a radio DJ, whatever your thing is,

you know that your art is your superpower. And as soon as you

put that down and you stop wielding that sword every day, you lose touch

with what makes you you, and so this is all about using your superpowers.

Nice, nice, all right here, Cody Pope and Byron g Live

in studio. Superpowers, use your super powerful lets use your super powerful Otherwise

you might wake up and find your lose your power. Use your superpowers,

use your superpowers. Otherwise you might wake up and find you lose your power.

Use your superpowers, use your superpowers. Otherwise you might wake up and

find your los your power. Use your superpowers. Use your superpowers. Yo,

Nev Campbell scramble, not know when I'm ghosts face never writt an example

of man show. When the Most Taste slam like Titanic in the midst of

a boat race, jam just like a sandwich. I'm best with bread and

most case flee. Marvin in me always starving from a feast, stomach grumbling.

You'll have to pardon the beasts and then me scrumbling, stumbling on their

speech. That's why I shop in my knives and I land on my feet

earth the kitchen flow like Catwoman's balance, Someday's stoic, some days of magnum

heart and madlics signals of misery giving me bops like Travis's crazy, but not

insane, constantly wreaking havoc, Elliot cool via the Long Goodbye. They're telling

me that I'm fooled for having Knights on the prize, cries from the audience,

but critics viewing lies. It's like I live cinematic by ticket you when

nights, y'all. The movies understand me better than most of my friends.

Songs I hear in my headphones heait me from feeling dead. Books are my

favorite authors. Responses. I never had a superpower. The monsters are never

bad. The movies understand me better than most of my friends. Songs I

hear in my headphones keep me from feeling dead. Books are my favorite authors.

Responsors. I never had when as your superpower? The monsters are never

bad. Nick and not watching Nick and Knight and maybe Breathless. I make

off from the heart that some deemed reckless. In the morning, play your

Love Supreme for breakfast. Before I hit the road, I leave a pearl

necklace. Do I come here? Often? Hallucinations of grandeur travel far and

wide, but always come back to New Hampshire. Tropica Virgo Pope reading Tropic

of Cancer, Suspiria and student Transfer Dancer. I'm letting it Coe when blowing

smoke with parasites in Heaven, A beautiful loser who music writes like confessions different

out my rear window, will real romanitarian. Now watch him die, You're

watch him ride like a cherry get. I will let you bevery get.

You will find the body aught has given me your life. That won't me

time for hobbies stays keep moving faster to when laps like Ricky Bobby y,

I'm exhibited and gall LaBrie you locked out of the lobby. Ah, I

love it. I love it, Cody Pope and Byron's here here with us

in studio and uh I love the positivity. Awesome, thank you. You

know that was that was really important for me. You know, people that

know my back catalog a lot of what got me, I, you know,

have a very like dark past, much like a lot of people,

and so like my first few albums really dealt with me learning how to cope

and recover and deal with some of the things that I had been through,

and so it was incredibly cathartic music. But looking back on it, some

of it is really hard to listen to, and I can understand why not

only for me. I mean Obviously I know why it's hard for me,

but I can understand why for the average listener. It's you know, if

you're in a tough spot, listening to somebody that's trying to climb out of

a tough spot, you're either going to see motivation or you're going to see

struggle. And so when we got together to work on music, I had

always told him I was like, one of the things that's really important for

me going forward is I don't want to lose sight of how I write and

how raw and vulnerable. I try to keep my storytelling, but I just

want to show that there's like a flip side to the coin and that I've

been able to turn some of these things around. And so meet me in

Gate City. I really feel like it is like the first album where I've

tried to exercise that mentality of like, look, I can address that things

are horrible and everything is tough, but I need to show people that I

have strength to overcome adversity and that hopefully they will too, right right,

Yeah, No, I like that absolutely. If you got any questions or

anything at all for these guys, the studio line is open six ZO three

two five O six Z seven six three two five six ZO seven Again,

we have Cody Pope and Byron Gee here with us in studio. Ronda in

the chat room, our friend from California. She says, Damn, y'all

got folks driving looking at me. Funny because I'm popping and locking in the

car. Let's love these guys awesome much love. Yeah, Jenny is enjoying

it very much. She says, they are awesome. I love this awesome.

Thank you. Let's see. Chris from the band Edgewise is asking about

the label if it's a genre specific No, because he says, asking for

a friend, I don't know if you guys know Edgewise, Yeah, no,

shout out to them. They're you know, they're definitely notable around around

the New England culture. Oh yeah yeah, and I even't wear their hat

right But no, so me personally, like I grew up in like the

punk and hardcore realm. That was very much what got me into being in

the music scene and caring and being as passionate about music because I am.

When I was like twelve years old, my sister brought me to some of

my first hardcore shows, and some of my friends brought me to my first

punk shows and that just carried me through life and so I still carry a

huge love and passion for all that. And my taste is eclectic anyway.

So when you look at the roster, we have a lot of hip hop

on our roster, but that's also because, like we're hip hop artists and

so we move in that circle and it's easy for us to move like that.

But we actually just did a record label pop up shop at Bridge nine

Records in Boston, which is like a more like hardcore like a kind of

like a legendary hardcore label. Yeah, And we set up shop and we're

just talking with a bunch of other record labels and sharing game and trading records

and stuff, and you know, it's really important for us to show people

the parallels that hip hop, punk, rock, hardcore, metal, you

know, even like gonzo journalism, all of these different things that we like,

love, motorcycle culture, all these things parallel in so many different ways.

Yeah, and it's important for our music to kind of represent a lot

of that like working class ethic as opposed to just like what people expect from

hip hop traditionally, right right, Yeah, absolutely very cool. Melanie Liberty

from the great state of Vermont. Also really enjoying you guys. Yeah,

much love show out to Vermont. Vermont is Vermont has always been good to

the hell Hound crew. Our first show this year, actually we did,

I want to say it was January something. I forget what the date was,

but it was snow and it was in January. We played up at

Sugar Loaf Mountain. We played. They have like a little bar up there

where they do some crazy hip hop shows, and so we brought everybody that

was on the record label roster up there and played and it was like one

of the funniest shows we've ever done. So we got a ton a love

for Vermont. Shout out to mister Burns, Shout out to all the Vermont

crew up there. Very nice. Yeah, Chris from my edgewise, she

says love Cross Promotion will connect awesome. Yeah, please please get in touch

with us Hellhelm Publishing dot com. At Hellhelm Publishing you can get a hold

of us anywhere. Check out all our music we got. We got CD

samplers that we try to put in the local record stores and stuff like that.

So if you're connected to a record store and you care about physical music.

Get in touch with us and we'll give you some free stuff to give

out. Yeah yeah, excellent. Also a board seven one of our friends

from Greensboro, North Carolina checking in in the chat as well. Um.

Yeah, so so it's funny. You know, I used to work for

you guys. Remember Strawberries. Yeah yeah, oh yeah, I used to.

I used to work there. I worked at a bunch of different locations,

but um, I remember people and you know, and then eventually it

became fye. But I remember when I worked there, and I left that

company in twenty thirteen, but even then, people were People would come in

and they'd be like, wow, people still buy CDs, And I mean,

what do you guys think it is that, you know, in this

digital age, some people still want a CD. I assume it's because if

you're really a fan of somebody, you want the artwork, you know,

and yeah, you just want everything that goes with it. I think there's

just so much that goes into that listening experience where it's, like you said,

having the artwork, being able to open the liner notes. You know.

One thing we talk about all the time, especially me being like an

old like punk and hardcore kid, is like I learned about music through liner

notes. I would be finding out about bands and I would blind by CDs

at Newberry Comics or at Strawberries off of what this band had in their liner

notes. And so we try to carry that on as well and thank people

from our community and artists and people that really matter to us. You know.

We try to tell the story of how the record was made. All

the photography is usually done by like our team in house. Shout out to

nicolete Ryan, my girlfriend. She did the cover for Meet Me and Gate

City as well as a lot of our other albums. And so there's like

that part of it. There's like the listening part of it, which is

like when you put a CD in, whether you're in the car or at

home cleaning the house or whatever, you're gonna probably listen to it top to

bottom. It's an easy play to just put on and let it skip,

versus having it on a digital playlist or something. We're not adverse to,

like the digital streaming world, you know, we jokingly we will say that

we are from time to time, but UH CDs have just provided a great

benefit to us. Obviously, they help us fund the label and fund you

know, people are people understand that they're investing in keeping our label going and

and helping us pay these artists, even if it's a couple hundred bucks here

and there. We're investing in keeping them going and building upon their platform,

So that part of it's really important. And then there's just like a collectibility

to it too, where it's like, you know, having all of the

different catalog numbers and having the c D and which artwork are you going to

display on your shelf you know? Or which one are you going to listen

to in the car? You know? It creates conversation. People have to

come up and talk to us at the merch table. We know who our

listeners are. We have so many of the names and addresses of the people

that support us, and so we can contact them directly and keep that line

of communication open without getting lost in We're not that popular on Instagram. We

don't get that many likes on a post, so no one's going to see

our next video. Those things are gonna We're always gonna have to overcome that

adversity. But why not have this like handshake deal where it's like, you

like our music, so you're going to be the first one to get it,

and we're going to give it to you in the best format and the

best quality that we can do. Yeah, and these people, you know,

and the more of these people buy the CDs, we're going to be

able to do vinyl eventually well, and we'll keep expanding because we love physical

media as a whole. You'll notice in the gift pack that I gave you

there's actually a book in there. We put out a book in twenty twenty

one. I'm gonna I'm gonna go ahead and open this now. Yeah,

go for it. I'm talking about Yeah, definitely, please do. Um.

We we helped co publish a book with the Underground Writers Association and so

it's a it's a volume of all poetry of people from like New Hampshire and

South Africa. Um. So it was a really cool collaboration that the Underground

Writers Association pulled together and we got really lucky to help co publish that.

But I've always wanted to put out books, and so that was kind of

like our first foray into getting the books printed and how to learn how to

do all that. This is really well sealed. Yeah. By the by

the way, Jenny, they brought one for you too, so I'll be

bringing you home one of these. But um, I'm thinking, I'm do

you guys want to do another song? I mean I won't say no,

why don't because I'm thinking if you want to do another song, and while

you're doing that, I'll figure out how to open At least we know it's

secure. Shout out to everyone that orders through our web store, because now

you know that our packaging is secure. When you get your packs in the

mail, I can attest. No, that's a good thing. That's a

good thing. But yeah, I'll find something sharp dough open it with.

But yeah, you guys want to do uh we go, let's jump to

seven. I think seven? Yeah? No, sorry, you think of

six? Six is six is diminished? Seven? Is the Business? The

Realness? Yeah, I have it. I have it numbered wrong. We

wrote down a different set. That's another reason why we make CDs has a

track listing on the back. Yeah, gotcha got yeah? This song,

this, this, this song, this little this little ditty right here is

called the Realness. Oh, the Realness? Oh what did I said?

The Business? Why did? That's a great title to shout out to the

business. Though it's a great hardcore band. There you go. All right?

Yeah, boy, maybe I need to get my eyes checked. I'd

lasic and everything. I'm starting to wonder. All right, So the realness,

that's the one you're doing. All right? Cool? All right here

it is the realness. This is uh Cody, Pope and Byron g with

us live in studio. Ladi la dot yeah, Laidli Nili dot do Ladi

daid dot doah, Laidli dot do yo. My life is bever nest in

coldtrane mixed in a blender. Most days are complicated, beautiful if I remember.

Lately, though I hate me. I can't take no more Novembers.

My best days was a knighted too, had a bender. I thought I

was moving on up like mister Jefferson. You know I'm gonna lose who Just

waiting for a check again, checking in having hard times lately, texting friends,

got money coming, but so broke. I needed second hand, my

family, sunny days and happy songs. I can't relate frankly, the reasons

that I'm laughing wrong. No, I got skill, though I'll be laughing

y'all. Just need a path that I can successfully travel. Long Babbitt long,

calling them maybe existing burning up. I feel bad more in my jams.

Ain't got you turning up, whish when I had shows more of you

was turning up. But life goes on and hopefully but y'all just learning.

Rarara the rab man yell boom boom boom, the bap so fell. The

raw in this should not deter you from the realness. That's why it's raw,

because you gotta truly feel this. Ra ra ra the rab man yell

boom boom boom, the bap so fell. My raw in this should not

deter you from the realness. That's why it's raw, because you gotta truly

feel that. To understand man is to crack the algorithm. Pieces I can

formulate, but better to give it rhythm, hard, to give the ants

to start him off with the mission to ants to life is like an endless

acquisition. Life be dish and meet things my stomach can't handle. No money

for, no family, no pictures on no mantle. Matter of fact,

my life feel pretty dismantled. I take the blame for some things, money,

mishandled. A lot of this just feel a little circumstantial. Wand to

write how long I live with her financials, ask for pepperoni. They just

give you antchophies. Can't stand the looney from none of these damn homy fingers

to my head in the shape of a gun. Enough vitamin D. I

have to take the sun. Wanna be a good enough man to raise the

sun. But I'm worried I'll be a failure if i can't raise the funds.

I'm done. Wow, I love those lyrics are fantastic. Thank you

man. I appreciate that absolutely absolutely. If you're just joining us, we

have Cody Pope and Byron g with us. And for those of you watching

online, I'm gonna put the camera back on me for moments I want to.

So this is the I did get the package open, and so this

is this is the book that you were the wonderful book that actually the camera's

over here, the wonderful book that you were talking about, this poetry book.

Very cool. So so you obviously, so you don't put out only

CDs, No, no, no, no, We're trying to expand as

much as possible. Most of our music catalog is on CD right now,

but we try to do books. We have like podcasts on YouTube and stuff

like that. Um. Cool. It's really just about keeping the like giving

artists of any artistic medium that fit that, like raw vulnerable storytelling. That's

really I guess if you had to give us an aesthetic, it's about just

being creatively free but still you know, being able to execute professionally and get

that across. Very cool. And also a copy on CD of Meet Me

and Gate City, Cody Pope and Byron g And there's there's the back of

it there. And so you said your girlfriend did did the artwork for this?

Yeah, yeah, she did the French. She did all the photography

for that one, as well as a lot of our other records. Too

cool cool, Yeah, I like it, very nice. And also as

a sampler a crew called hell Hound. Now hell Hound is the name of

the label, correct, Yeah, hell Hound Publishing, hell Hound Publishing.

Yeah, very cool. Okay, so this has uh yeah, quite a

few. How many? How many artists you have actively on the label right

now? So it's it's interesting because typically what we do is like one album

at a time. So some of the artists that we've put out records for

finished their album with us and are now moving on to other things. And

then we have some people that are in the midst of an album cycle right

now. So we probably have like five, five or six active artists,

but then we have like seven or eight in total on the roster, some

of who we just at this point distribute the record that they did with us.

Okay, okay, we have a call. I think somebody wants to

talk to you. Guys. Hey, Matt, this is actually you calling

in. Thanks for taking my call. Wow, this is wonderful. I

always dreamt of the day where I'd get to talk to myself. I'm curious

if you remembered to pick up toilet paper or if you plan to do it

on the way home. We need it to wipe our little bottom. Oh

my goodness. Wow, I did not know that we were out, but

I'm really glad that you told or I'm really glad that I told me.

Our little bottom can get a bit messy. Sometimes it feels like we use

too much of that dang stuff toilet paper, I mean right right, toilet

paper. I've remember actually called was John Hopwood. Oh John. I've always

thought of him as a father figure, mostly because he always tries to spank

my little bottom. I never let him, but he keeps asking this must

be an ai thing. Yes, he does, he does. How did

I know that? I just mostly wanted to say that I am very nice

and very much a sweet little boy, and even though my bottom gets a

bit messy, I am a nice guy and someone that people love. H

that's very nice. Uh, thank you. Oh and one more thing,

Hopwood looks like an eighty six year old toddler and he makes us mush up

bananas for him for lunch. Well, yes, yes, that is uh.

Goodbye, Matt be at home in the mirror, thank you? Yes,

wow, very sad. I'll tell you what. That's a first for

me. I've never gotten to h speak to myself now. Is it possible

that someone puts something into my energy drink? Uh? And I just hallucinated

all of that. I mean, I don't know. Somebody must have put

something in my something too. There. Yeah, Wow, that was that

was crazy. I felt like I spoke a little bit faster just now than

I usually do on the phone. Well maybe not anyway. Wow, all

right, Well I'm glad you guys were here for that. Yeah. First,

Yeah, that was that was never a dull moment up up in here.

That was fun. That was fun. Oh. Also, too in

the package just before we sew those uh some stickers here in a couple of

cards. Thank you for your support. Absolutely, no, you guys.

Um, yeah, I'm really impressed with what you guys are doing. By

the way, how long is uh? I know you told me this already,

I'm sure, but how long is the label? When did the label

start? Twenty eighteen? Okay, yeah, like you guys, so that's

what five years? So yeah, got a math, but it seems like

you guys have accomplished a lot in uh in five years. That's that's really

impressive. Yeah, definitely. I feel really fortunate. It took us a

couple of years to like get it off the ground, but these last two

years have just been phenomenal for us. Learned a whole lot, a whole

lot in these last two years. Yeah for sure. Yeah. Bill Fee

is in the chatwoman much love to Fee the evolutionist lyrical h Yeah, he

says, Cody Pope and Byron Glenn are the bomb. Let's go love the

songs yep, and that's out to you. Bill Jenny says, Oh,

I love stickers, Yes, she does. Us. Hit us up Hellhound

Publishing dot Com. We'll hook you up with some stickers for sure. Ye

there you go, there you go. Um, did you guys want to

do one more song before we run out of time? Or I mean I'm

not not like opposed. Yeah, I mean yeah, I'm up for whatever

one you think we should do. Matt, you pick, he's a dealer's

choice. Oh my goodness. Um, four and nine are skits? Oh

okay, so, um, I know this is no. Nine's not a

skit. I think eight is oh nine is called chopping stone. Oh yeah,

so that's like an interlude? Oh oh okay? Uh? Or what

about an anthemic? Yeah, I was either that I was in, say

anthemic or PDSD. Yeah, that could be kind of cool. So either

what is that eleven? Or six? Yeah, since six is diminished it

says yeah yeah, oh yeah, is that that's the right one though?

Or yeah it can we yeah? Can we do? So we don't.

We don't play this song live. It shows this kind of goes back to

um, you know, when you're when you're playing live, you got to

keep a certain energy yea. Um. But when I wrote this, we

wrote this song for the album, and it's a little bit of a concept

song. Um, I was really in there's like an old NAS song that

he does from like the perspective of the gun. Yeah, and uh,

you know, I gave you power and so I kind of took uh,

well you'll figure it out by the end of the song, but I took

something that I was dealing with and tried to manifest it into its own person.

And so like throughout the song, you'll quickly pick up who PD is.

The song's called PTSD. Okay, this was track six. I just

want to make sure I grabbed the r I one. Yes, Oh that's

great, all right, cool, all right here here they are Cody Pope

and Byron g live in studio about a minute. Since we don't say,

don't don't yell at me for having my cheat sheet out here, I just

figure it. We never do this one, it's cool to do it here

for a little rare radio performance. Shout out to everybody holding on. I

knew this cat PTSD. He was always testy, the type to have a

few drinks sake, come and test me. Pete would never ever dare to

be bested, even if it means his ask God arrested, always stressing hard

to understand why your men will leave it. Let the hands fly on a

damn fly. One of the views whom y'all never seen, the man cry.

Whatever you plan to do, he's probably anti sent nickel, comedian at

everyone's expense, funny till it's on you. You're probably on the fence,

willing to make tests a lot. They don't mend opinion so strong, My

god, they don't bend. Nobody's asking, nobody know how he doing.

Look like he's winning, but really inside he's losing. Maybe not the race,

but the destiny that's looming, a type of hell. Most man,

I can't stand the man I see in the mirror man, that the man's

way morer and way clearer. They say life is beauty, But some days

I feel a less fever or death, even if she being nearer. Man,

I can't stand the man. I see in the mirror of man,

that the man's way mar and way clearer. They say life is beauty,

was some days I fear her less fear or death, even if she being

nearer. It hurts him to hate and fail this hard. It's worth it

to wait. They want him to stall. Don't feel like he's making it

too Next fall, I can't take it. Can't fake it at all.

That damnage American prosperity doesn't say that only to talk scarily. Life is not

a dream everily merrily these days, honest is something that summer's there to be.

Trying to write to those who may relate. But if you feel this

feeling, and I hope you find real escape. Not supposed to use eye

as much as I do. But when I was stuck on age and want

to die, dude, life will get better feels like another lie too.

I don't want to live in a world where I get lied to, the

want to misconstrue you as on my side, dude, just to wait in

the time to say goodbye. Man, I can't stand the man I see

in the mirror, the man that demands way more, every way clever.

They say life is beauty, but some days I fear less be Rogette,

even if she being nearer. Man, I can't stand the man I see

in the mirror, the man that demand's way more, ring, way cleverer.

They say life is beauty, but some days I fear less be Rogette,

even if she'd be nearer. Not too shabby, Yeah, well done,

gentlemen, Well done. I love it. I love it. Guys.

We are just about out of time, so I want to make sure

before we go. I want to make sure everybody knows where to find you

online, where to keep up with what you're doing, your website, any

social media, upcoming shows, you want us to know about anything at all,

Just to make sure our listeners know where to find you. Awesome,

Thank you so much for having us. It's been a blast, honor to

be here. Everybody that's been tuned in, Thank you guys for all the

love. Once again, we're Cody Pope and Byron g On behalf of Hellhound

Publishing. You can find us at www dot Hellhound Publishing dot com or at

Hellhound Publishing. Across social media, you can find me personally at Cody Pope

HC. That's Hellhound Crew cross platforms, and you can find Byron at BG

six oz three excellent, excellent. Do you have any shows coming up in

the area? Yeah, So next Sunday we're gonna be playing at the Nashua

Farmers Market. We're actually gonna be doing a two hour set that day,

so we're gonna be Yeah, So it's gonna be a rare set for us.

Where We're pulling out a lot of deep cuts, a lot of unreleased

songs, obviously songs from Meet Me and Gate City. But yeah, it's

gonna be a really special performance. We haven't performed in a while now,

so this is going to be a really big way for us to kick in

the door. It's the first farmers market of the season for Nashua, and

being some Gate City boys, we love anything. Yeah, you know,

different audience than our usual crowd, so we really love trying to cater to

those kind of events. You know, we always appreciate a good challenge,

and I say that in an endearing way because you know, the non hip

hop listener is different than the people that are going out of their way sure

to take it in. So we always try to challenge ourselves to put on

an extra special show that will welcome everybody graciously hopefully. And I think what

you guys do is accessible in that way anyway. Thank you. That's really

yeah, yeah, absolutely