Matt Connarton Unleashed: Dillon Reynolds

0:00 Speaker 1: That is a reactor number four that is from the EP Radiation Sickness. I love that. That is so good. It is Matt Connorton Unleashed. We are live on this Saturday morning. Jenny is here, of course, at the news table, present and account it far and joining us via Skype is the great Dylan Reynolds Dillon. Are you there?

0:18 Speaker 2: I am, how are you good?

0:19 Speaker 1: Good? Hey man? I love that. I love that track. I love this EP, really great stuff and I'm so happy to talk to you this morning. Tell us if you would about Radiation Sickness and what the premise is. It's got a as one. My guess from the title, there must be a story to it. It has a very specific premise, if you could explain that to us.

0:41 Speaker 2: So, yeah, Radiation Sickness, it's it's the entire EP is more like a concept DP. It's kind of building a story. But I love like post apocalyptic theme stuff, like I read novels, I play games, you know, like the Fallout series or Metros like that. Yeah, So I've always always had a really big fascination with post apocalyptic or post nuclear kind of stuff. And I was like, well, you know, I like listening or I like playing stuff like this, but you know, there's a few bands that I like that do similar stuff to that, and I was like, it's always something that I've wanted to do, So I just decided to kind of build a little, a little, I guess, minor story about what could possibly happen based off of what has already happened in the world.

1:28 Speaker 2: So kind of just piecing things together out of my brain, just having fun, and you.

1:33 Speaker 1: Know, and this is, uh, this is specifically though about Chernobyl, right, the Chernobyl disaster or is it a broader concept than than just Chernobyl.

1:44 Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, Reacting number four is definitely about Chernobyl. It's it's actually probably the most or the less fictitious song on the release. So, I mean I went in, I did research, you know, the time, the date, the protocol, procedure, the clean up, everything like that. And there was a good series on HBO called Chernobyl. I don't know if you've seen it.

2:06 Speaker 1: I have not it, I've heard a lot about it.

2:09 Speaker 2: Oh dude, it's it's phenomenal. So, you know, watching stuff like that and I'm like, dude, I could I could definitely write something about this. So I pieced it all together, and then you know, I took it from the first song, which was Reacting number four, and I decided just to build this entire story out based off of, you know, the one true event and that really did happen, but then other stuff inspired on, kind of like the themes and the imagery and stuff that would fit in the narrative but didn't actually happen.

2:39 Speaker 1: Yeah. It's particularly intriguing to me because I mean, I love the music, and so regardless of what it's about, I would enjoy this. But particularly intriguing to me because I'm actually I'm old enough to remember when Chernobyl happened, and I still remember coming home from school that day and the news had already broken and I come home and I'm worried, and I turn on the TV and you know, there it is. They're talking about Peter Jennings of ABC News. For those of us who who might recall, Uh, there he is talking about it.

3:13 Speaker 1: And I was freaked out because I didn't know what was going to happen. You know, is a cloud of nuclear radiation going to float all the way to the United States and kill all of us? And you know, my body Yeah, and my fears were quelled relatively quickly because you know, these experts are saying, well, you know, it's kind of unlikely that it would make it all the way here and whatnot. But at the in the moment, I was freaked out.

3:37 Speaker 2: Well, yeah, you know, you got to think of like the timeline too. You know, it's right towards the very end of the red scale. Everybody's afraid of, you know, the tensions with Russia and the tensions with the United States, So they're thinking, you know, you know, was this a plan?

3:51 Speaker 1: Thing?

3:51 Speaker 2: Is is something terribly going to go wrong? Can this lead to more nuclear kind of stuff? So it's a big level of uncertainty, you know, definitely before you know that the Iron Curtain came down and everything like that. But yeah, uh, it's you know, it's it's a scary theme because I mean, realistically, nobody other than the people that had to move away from the area and nobody's really been through anything like that since, so you know, imagine what would that be like if the entire world was like that.

4:21 Speaker 2: So that's the scary part of the.

4:23 Speaker 1: Topic right right now. You mentioned so there's some fictitious elements to the story also that you tell in these in these songs on the.

4:33 Speaker 2: CP definitely you know. Prippy At is the third song. It was originally supposed to be the opener track because it has a really, really really long intro in it, But then I started thinking about it, and I'm like, as far as the timeline's concerned, that it wouldn't make sense, So I decided to put that a little bit farther down. But that's actually based on there's a there's an old PC computer game called Stalker, which is about the uh there's a bunch of warring factions in the you know, the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, and there's you know, mutants and Stalkers are basically guys that go in they have you know, wars and gangs and stuff like that, and they go in and they fight mutants, they fight uh you know, bandits shit like that.

5:22 Speaker 2: Sorry and sorry about that. I gotta turn on gotta turn on the radio voice.

5:30 Speaker 1: Don't We're on a delay. So I caught it.

5:33 Speaker 2: It's all good, okay, good deal, and uh but yes, so Pripyat's about the Stalker games. Radiation Sickness is more of not really based on anything, but rather the theme and then, uh, the Aftermath is a song that I wrote. I probably wrote that song like seven or eight years ago, and I just never had anything to kind of put it with. And it's it's more of like, you know, the the Big screw as the Big Terror of the fires. Everything is for the most part been put out, but it's about what remains after and it's all these people just basically either one trying to survive or two banding together to take whatever they want.

6:13 Speaker 2: So kind of Mad Max in a way.

6:15 Speaker 1: I guess, Yeah, I'm curious, do you know, uh, how do I fraise it? Do you do you know why you're interested in this subject and these themes like did you did you grow up always having a fascination with sort of apocalyptic or post apocalyptic stuff or or is this something you've always been into or and do you know where it comes from? I'm always super curious about this kind of.

6:41 Speaker 2: Thing, definitely. So I grew up watching Mad Max. Some of my favorite movies of all time Road Warrior, you know, beyond Thunderdome, and I've always liked that concept, and then a couple of years when I was growing up later into it, you know, like movies like the Book of Eli came out, and just seeing that kind of down you know, dirty gritty themes and imagery, and I'm just like, dude, this is it kind of brings humanity back to its primal stage. You know, there is no you're my neighbor and I'm going to take care of you anymore.

7:18 Speaker 2: It's you have what I want and I'm going to come take it. So it's always kind of fascinating me. I guess maybe like on a I don't know, like a mental or a psychological level, like what could make humanity revert back to the most basic of instincts? Yeah, and the Great Reset would do that, And so it's just I guess it's just always been fascinating to me on that level. So anytime a new book comes out that's post apocalyptic and theme, or a movie or a game, I'm usually the first one to try it. Plus, you know, I grew up playing Fallout.

7:53 Speaker 2: It's one of my favorite game series of all times, so I've always always kind of really read into it from that angle to So is that.

8:01 Speaker 1: What I'm not a gamer, but I assume Fallout is that that that's about something having to do with nuclear radiation. I assume.

8:07 Speaker 2: Yeah, yep, so Fallout is sent in. I think it's like two hundred years after a great nuclear war devastates the entire world. Yeah, and I won't get into the lord because it's just too much to talk about. But essentially, the government built underground vaults and bunkers and they decided to risk, you know, certain people underground in a way to write it out where they could come back after most of the radiation goes away. And when a lot of them open up, they realize it never went away, and there's bandits, there's some small vestiges of humanity left, and it's it's a really cool role playing experience.

8:55 Speaker 2: If if you ever decide to get into any of them, I would heavily recommend it. It's just it's a it's a fun, fun experience.

9:01 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I yeah, I won't. I actually, about twenty years ago was the last time I ever held any kind of a game controller, and I had to put it down and I said, I'm never playing any more games because I found it very psychologically addictive.

9:18 Speaker 2: Oh yes, yes, yeah.

9:20 Speaker 1: The last video game I ever played. I remember I was at a friend's house and they had fallen asleep and it was like one am, and I had started playing this game at like nine pm, and there it is four hours later, and I'm looking at the clock and I'm like, I can't do this anymore. And I actually stopped because that's that's exactly the kind of thing that I would get sucked into.

9:37 Speaker 2: And then oh, yeah, yes, dude, it's it's even worse. Like I had add. Man, it's really hard for me to concentrate on certain things. But if you put a controller in my hand, you know, just like you say, it'll be eight pm, and the next time you look at the clock, it's four or four am, and you're like, what happened? So I get it.

9:55 Speaker 1: Yeah, hey, this is a little bit, a little bit of a left turn topically. But you mentioned a d D. I uh do some work with some podcasting with a gentleman named doctor Kevin ross Emory and a d D ADHD. It's kind of a specialty of his, and he talks about he has a book called Managing the Gift, for example, and he talks about a lot about how people with ad D actually tend to be more creative and and accomplish more in terms of their creativity and and and you know, just uh, you know, whether it be music or visual art or whatever it is.

10:35 Speaker 1: I mean, do you feel that, Like I said, I know, this is kind of a curve. You probably didn't expect to be talking about this, but I'm curious since since you mentioned it, do you feel that your ad D helps you because you're you're such a creative person. Do you feel that it helps you in some way with your in terms of making music and everything else.

10:54 Speaker 2: Definitely, I feel like I to a degree, I hyper think say it on things that I like. So you know, I'm not gonna say like I'm a teetotal perfectionist. But if I look at something and I realize, you know, that could be slightly better, you know, I'll It's there's an old common saying. It's like, you know, if you're painting something, you're never really done painting it. It's just when you decide to quit, because you can always add more pain. Right. So it's the same thing with music. You know, I do graphic art.

11:27 Speaker 2: It's the same thing with that as well. I can sit at a computer and make a million tiny changes that probably ninety percent of people wouldn't realize. But if I don't do them, I'll look at it and I face I should have done that, So yeah, kind of. And then on the flip side of it, you know, you get like writer's block or designer's block a lot. So sometimes you just sit there and be frustrated at a computer trying to write something or trying to design something, to the point where you have to take a break, and sometimes it sucks.

12:00 Speaker 2: But that break is like a month long, and then when you come back from that break, it's like everything falls into place. But you know, if you spend too much time on something then you'll you'll just get annoyed with it.

12:11 Speaker 1: Right, But but yeah, do you You've always got multiple things going on creatively anyway, right, so i'd imagine, oh yeah, it's kind of move from one thing to the next, but but they're all they're all always in motion.

12:24 Speaker 2: Yeah, that's and that's the way to keep it fresh too, is you know, you get a little frustrated with one thing, put it down, run to the next, knock that out, come back. So that definitely does help. Yeah.

12:33 Speaker 1: Yeah, and you mentioned too being a graphic artist, so obviously you do all the artwork for you know, like radiation Sickness, you did all all that yourself, I would imagine, right.

12:42 Speaker 2: Uh yeah, So normally, under normal circumstances, I'll be one hundred percent transparent with it. For normal clients that I have, I never use AI generated art. I think it's a cool tool to get inspiration, but I don't ever use it for clients in mind. Yeah, I did use it for my stuff just because it's something I wanted to put out as quick as possible, so I did a lot of editing to it. But for the most part, it is generated. But like I said, it's it's only stuff that I've used for for my personal stuff.

13:11 Speaker 2: That way, I'm not I'm not going to charge somebody, you know, however much I charge for a design when it, you know, took ten seconds to generate versus you know, then tell me something specific and I'll make it myself.

13:24 Speaker 1: Sure. Sure, yeah. But but yeah, that's interesting because that's another subject that comes up a lot on this show, you know, AI and and how it affects the music industry and art and so forth. Are you how do you feel about AI in terms of music? Are you worried about it? Do you care?

13:42 Speaker 2: Is it?

13:43 Speaker 1: Uh, there's a lot of varying opinions on the matter.

13:50 Speaker 2: Well, you know me, I love rock music, right, yes, as far as when it comes to playing it live, you know, rock bands historically played every for the most part, played every instrument live. Pop music resorts a little bit more towards backing tracks and not as many live musicians. So in a way, it's a stretch. But in a way I kind of look at it, like, how is AI any different than a pop singer playing live If they're just playing to music behind them and then somebody hits a button and generates a couple beats.

14:25 Speaker 2: I'm kind of in that. Like I said, it's a stretch. Now as far as being like a complete creative process, like you know, I'm going to pump in a formula on the computer and it's gonna pull out beats for me, it's gonna pull out chord patterns, it's gonna do that. Don't really believe in that. I don't find that creative at all. But maybe using it as just an inspiration tool rather than the means to an end I think would probably be okay.

14:53 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's going to be very interesting in the coming years to see how the music industry deals with it. And so forth. But getting back to radiation sickness for a moment. So are you performing these songs live or is this strictly a studio project or how are you proceeding with it?

15:12 Speaker 2: Currently? Studio project only? In my normal day to day, I'm extremely busy, so I don't have a lot of time to go out and find guys that I trust you can learn all the material and then grind and play a whole bunch of shows. So it's more just fun for me and a little bit of a segue. It helps me build up a catalog which gets me, you know, different doors open. Like right now, I am writing the soundtrack for a local movie based out of Hickory, North Carolina. Oh, so we're writing. It's a full, complete independent movie.

15:50 Speaker 2: So they wanted to do an eighties style slasher thriller. Oh and they wanted a complete hard rock soundtrack to go with the movie. So it's somebody that I've known for years. That's he's a writer, he's an author, he's done a lot of really cool stuff. And he asked me, He's like, hey, do you want to do this? And I said, yeah, you don't even have to pay me. Let's do it. Yeah, so you know, even if it's something small like that, they can get the door open. You know. I'm I'm extremely I've already got five or six songs.

16:23 Speaker 2: If I get permission when it gets closer to release time, I'd love to send you one. Oh yeah, yeah, that way we can we can do a little bit of promotion on that.

16:32 Speaker 1: Absolutely. Absolutely. Oh that's very cool and that's that's certainly right up your alley. Are you Are you playing out at all currently? Do do you do any live shows of any kind? I know you you have the h I don't know if you still do it the Judas Priests at Tribute band.

16:46 Speaker 2: Yes, yeah, we still do Unleashed the Classic Judas Priests Tribute. We actually just got back from Virginia about three weeks ago and we played a showdown there for a biker rally. Cool, So we did that. We got some stuff coming up in October. We we try to do like bar hop. We don't want to be weekend Warriors because we all have full time jobs and families and everything like that. So yeah, we try to do like five six, seven big shows a year and then just spend the rest of the time with family.

17:12 Speaker 1: So yeah, Oh that's cool. Is it challenging singing?

17:16 Speaker 2: You know?

17:16 Speaker 1: Halford obviously one of the greats uh some would say the best, you know, the metal god Rob Halford. Is that challenging to do? I mean, do you have to especially whereas, like you said, if you're only doing five or six big shows a year with that project, is that to get your voice in shape for that? Is that challenging at all? Or is it perfectly natural? Or how do you approach that vocally?

17:40 Speaker 2: Now that I have spent years singing it, you know, I could go weeks without practice, go to you know, then go to a rehearsal and play it like we've been playing it for a year straight.

17:50 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I.

17:51 Speaker 2: Would probably indirectly, I would probably credit Halford for getting my voice the way it is, learning how to sing his stuff, because you know, if you listen vocally on the Radiation Sickness EP, it's very guttural. It's very raspy, rowy, which is how I originally learned to sing. I grew up listening to you know, early Pauldiano, Iron Maiden, really deep voice because that's what I had. I didn't have a high pitched voice growing up singing, so I learned how to sing like that, and then I get into it, and you know, that's these guys that I've been playing with for a while.

18:26 Speaker 2: We were doing like variety eighties metal, just you know, for fun, going and playing a couple of shows a year, doing whatever. And then we all decided let's do let's do one band, and we all agreed on Priests. Then I'm sitting here thinking, oh my, I have to learn sing like Priest. So it took years, years and years and years to learn how to how to get Halford's nuances. How especially his high screams. Those are some of those are really brutal. But but like I said, man, the only way to do it is to do it, and I just I went out there and I practiced for years just that.

19:02 Speaker 2: I mean, the same songs over and over and over and just try to get a little better at each time. And man, I've probably grown at least an entire octave range learning how to sing his stuff. Yeah, it's been tough, is there?

19:16 Speaker 1: I'm curious, is there any particular pret song that really gave you a hard time?

19:21 Speaker 2: Is there?

19:21 Speaker 1: Is there one you can pinpoint as being the most challenging.

19:24 Speaker 2: Yes, there is a song called Devil's Child and it is off of the Screaming for Vengeance album.

19:34 Speaker 1: YEP.

19:35 Speaker 2: It is absolutely and it was one of the first songs they wanted to learn too, so it was right. So, I mean, it's it's tough, man. There is a there's kind of like a bridge section where it's just nothing but you know, his highest screaming piercing notes. And it's not like there's different levels to Hawford's screams. There's low screams and there's high and that mid section is nothing but high screams. Chorus is high screams. I mean it's yeah, it's tough, man, I think. I mean, honestly, this is kind of gonna be weird to say, but I think I could sing Painkiller easier than I could sing Devil's Child.

20:14 Speaker 1: Really.

20:14 Speaker 2: Yeah, it's right in the pocket. I don't know how to describe other than that with my voice. Yeah, but I can hit those screams all day long because they're not They're right about in the same zone. So it's the not monotonous, but it doesn't gas me out. Devil's Child for some reason, dude, that song kills me every time.

20:33 Speaker 1: But it's probably kind of cool in a way that you had to you said that was one of the first ones or the first one they wanted you to learn, because I mean, if you can sing that, you can sing any of it, right, If that's yes, So that's probably a good way to start from that standpoint.

20:48 Speaker 2: Oh definitely, yeah, yeah, yeah.

20:50 Speaker 1: Pretty cool. Uh, Dylan, the time goes so quickly. I do want to so we'll let you go in a moment, but I want to end the segment by playing another track from Radiation Sickness. Uh, but I'd like you to choose what would be a good uh, what would be a good one to end with.

21:05 Speaker 2: Let's go with the title track.

21:10 Speaker 1: Oh there it is. Yeah, I'm staring right at it and not seeing it. Clearly I need more caffeine. All right, very good, So we'll play that. We'll play the title track from Radiation Sickness And Dylan, where should people go online to keep up with everything that you're doing? To find the EP and and just anything else if you want to plug your your work as a graphic artist, anything our listeners should know about you.

21:31 Speaker 2: So for graphic artwork, you can find me at atom A t O M Bomb Artwork, dot com uh music general updates, or on my YouTube channel YouTube dot com slash Dangerous Dylan with a Z not an S. And you can just find me generally on Facebook under doing Reynolds or doing Renolds music, and that's typically where I keep everything else. Also, if you want to check out the Unleashed tribute, we are on Facebook as Unleashed the Classic Judas Priest.

22:00 Speaker 1: Very cool, very cool. All right, Dylan Reynolds, thank you so much, my friend. I'm gonna hit this track and I appreciate you joining us today and we will uh we'll do this again, uh in the uh your future, I'm sure.

22:12 Speaker 2: Alrighty man, thank you for letting me be on absolutely anytime.

22:15 Speaker 1: All right, Thanks Jill, and take care later, buddy,