Field Dispatch
Matt Connarton Unleashed: Gary Smith
Speaker 1: And Gary Smith is here with us live and studio,
Speaker 1: and Gary, you were here just recently with Jam.
Speaker 2: Tomorrow yepp, not too long ago with with MHP and
Speaker 2: Mark Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: So I was listening to I was playing back the
Speaker 1: interview and one of the songs that you guys played live,
Speaker 1: I forget which one it was, but for one thing,
Speaker 1: I love watching you play because you play it's an
Speaker 1: eight string.
Speaker 3: Right, yeah, it's an eight string guitar, so it's.
Speaker 1: Basically like you're playing, uh, it looks like you're playing guitar. Well,
Speaker 1: it sounds like you're playing guitar and bass at the
Speaker 1: same time. And one of the songs I'm listening to,
Speaker 1: I'm listening to your playing and it's almost like, you know,
Speaker 1: you're going back and forth, you know, between the bass
Speaker 1: notes and the guitar notes, and it's like it's almost
Speaker 1: like you're having a conversation. I don't know if if
Speaker 1: if that's how you've ever thought of it, or if
Speaker 1: anyone's ever pointed that out before, but I realized it's
Speaker 1: like it's like the two it's it really does sound
Speaker 1: like two instruments having a conversation.
Speaker 3: And I was fascinated by that I like that. Yeah,
Speaker 3: I mean that's kind of the goal.
Speaker 2: Ultimately, you know, it's kind of be like a left
Speaker 2: and the right hand of the piano, so they're kind
Speaker 2: of working together but still kind of complimenting each other
Speaker 2: along the way.
Speaker 3: So yeah, yeah, no, I mean that's kind of the goal.
Speaker 1: Tell us about that track we just played emo EMU Yeah, sorry, yeah,
Speaker 1: no that speaking of birds, there's nothing there's nothing emo
Speaker 1: about it.
Speaker 3: I don't know, I don't know why I said that,
Speaker 3: but yeah, it's actually funny. The name came from a
Speaker 3: yeah stupid there.
Speaker 2: It's that kind of sounded like the old Weather Report
Speaker 2: song Birdland, and I'm like, oh, it's a bird emo.
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, yeah, songs an E minor so yeah. But
Speaker 2: but yeah, I know that's a song I wrote probably
Speaker 2: earlier this year. Uh, and me and Bob and Ryan,
Speaker 2: who were playing guitar and drums on that track, have
Speaker 2: played it a bunch of times.
Speaker 3: I do it my solo set too.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I played, I had a little piano for texture,
Speaker 2: I played, you know, bass and guitar. Bob added some guitar,
Speaker 2: and then last minute we added my friend Brian Murphy
Speaker 2: on the trumpet.
Speaker 3: Yeah. I love bob so at the end. Oh yeah,
Speaker 3: when that comes in, that's so good.
Speaker 2: It's just such a perfect I just just shread because
Speaker 2: mine's all like jazzy and nerdy, and then yeah, and
Speaker 2: then I just want him to just tread and he does.
Speaker 3: It's perfect.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the contrast of it and the texture that it
Speaker 1: adds to the song. When you can do that, when
Speaker 1: you can add like that kind of solo into something
Speaker 1: where it sounds different but it still fits so perfectly,
Speaker 1: you know, it's it's yeah, what a great track. And
Speaker 1: we're gonna we're gonna play some others too that you
Speaker 1: sent today. That everything that you sent me, it's all different.
Speaker 1: It's all you know, like there's a hip hop track
Speaker 1: which I love, and there's every everything's different. Are these all?
Speaker 1: Are these all on one album? Are they all available
Speaker 1: on one album?
Speaker 2: Yeah, there's an album that you can pre order on
Speaker 2: band camp. It's gonna be streaming on band camp on.
Speaker 3: Monday.
Speaker 2: I'm actually at one o'clock they're doing I'm doing a
Speaker 2: pre listening party at Pemburg City Limits Excellent stream it.
Speaker 2: A bunch of people from the bands and a bunch
Speaker 2: of other people are coming, so it should be fun.
Speaker 2: But yeah, it's going on band camp fourteen the press
Speaker 2: and vinyls, T shirts, stickers, all kinds of fun stuff,
Speaker 2: cool car picks for all my guitar nerd friends, and
Speaker 2: then it'll be on all the other streaming services on
Speaker 2: the twenty eighth of October. Okay, Oh yeah, it's under
Speaker 2: my name that I produced hip hop under percussive maintenance.
Speaker 2: So even though ill, there's a lot of guitar stuff,
Speaker 2: and there's lots of you know, basically sixteen different other
Speaker 2: musicians that I regularly play with that are on there. Yeah,
Speaker 2: getting three hip hop songs, some instrumental stuff, solo guitar stuff,
Speaker 2: so it's it's really all all over the place.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: DJ Myth the DJ from Manchester from rapa Nite Manchester,
Speaker 2: he added some scratches to some songs, so really it's
Speaker 2: all it's all over the place.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, no, that's great. I worked with DJ Myth
Speaker 1: like years and years ago. We were both involved in
Speaker 1: a project called well, it was called Project Hybrid okay,
Speaker 1: and it was this hip hop group where it was
Speaker 1: like there were these these two people who were at
Speaker 1: the center of it, who were always there, Danny Dragon,
Speaker 1: who was a singer and around the Rebel who was
Speaker 1: a rap and they were always there, but the other
Speaker 1: musicians would kind of improvise and it was just whoever
Speaker 1: was available.
Speaker 3: So if I was available, I would show up and
Speaker 3: play bass and that's awesome. If Mith was available, he
Speaker 3: would be there his thing.
Speaker 4: Yeah I was.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that was a great time. Yeah, he's a great guy.
Speaker 1: I haven't talked him in so long, but yeah, he's
Speaker 1: he's a very very talented.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I've known him for a long time.
Speaker 2: We started learning how to make beats on ableton at
Speaker 2: least probably like twelve years ago from the same dude.
Speaker 3: And oh no kidding, Yeah, he just.
Speaker 2: Went down the turntable road and I went down the
Speaker 2: other road. Yeah, yeah, no, we've known each other for
Speaker 2: a while.
Speaker 1: And tell us again about so Pembroke City Limits, what
Speaker 1: are you doing there exactly?
Speaker 2: So basically, there's a pre listening party for my album.
Speaker 2: So I'm going to stream the whole album there at
Speaker 2: pember City Limits today one and it's also going to
Speaker 2: be available on band camp. You can listen to its
Speaker 2: stream on band camp for that.
Speaker 3: And that's happening. That's happening today. That's happening today.
Speaker 2: Yeah, busy day, coming here, done doing that, and then
Speaker 2: I'm going up and debuting one of the songs at
Speaker 2: base side Bolt Night, the hip hop song that's on
Speaker 2: there with Ben Shore, who may be calling in at
Speaker 2: some point here. Uh yeah, Portland rapper lives in Philly now,
Speaker 2: But okay, yeah, so that'll be cool.
Speaker 3: Yeah yeah, it is a busy day.
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, but uh yeah, so it's again the album's
Speaker 2: all over the place, so I should be all of
Speaker 2: it again. Like you know, I played with the jazz
Speaker 2: trio earlier this week, and I'm playing with a hip
Speaker 2: hop artist this week, which is, you know, kind of
Speaker 2: how how it works for me, which is why I'm
Speaker 2: a you know, my album's all over the place.
Speaker 1: In the same way, have you always throughout your your
Speaker 1: career up to this point, have you always been really
Speaker 1: diverse in terms of what kinds of music and different
Speaker 1: genres that you get involved.
Speaker 2: In for the most part, I mean I I go
Speaker 2: down rabbit holes, so like I know way too much
Speaker 2: about hip hop, way too much about jazz, and then
Speaker 2: like some of the other stuff just adjacently, like some
Speaker 2: of this stuff like Mazy you'll suggest in Fox and Flamenco's.
Speaker 3: I've never heard of this band, but I like it.
Speaker 2: It's cool. It's just I've never you know. But yeah,
Speaker 2: I'll play with any anyone, any anything like. I have
Speaker 2: fun just playing, and especially if it's somewhat you know,
Speaker 2: improvisatory or just like the writing process. I love like
Speaker 2: writing music and making music. Yeah, I mean, that's that's
Speaker 2: the fun part of it, you know, no matter what
Speaker 2: it is. I play Bad Burger on Thursdays. We do
Speaker 2: a jam there and we just you know, plays Zeppelin songs,
Speaker 2: play like. So it's again completely different. I play you know,
Speaker 2: full Train the night before and then Zeppelin the next day.
Speaker 2: So it's just how my music has been and you know,
Speaker 2: my my confused algorithms.
Speaker 1: All over the world. You play a lot too. I
Speaker 1: was looking at your schedule on your website.
Speaker 3: You play a lot. Yeah, I'm trying to play as
Speaker 3: much as I can.
Speaker 2: It's you know, I'm in a few different projects, and
Speaker 2: then I have my solo jazz thing, so I'm always
Speaker 2: I'm always doing something either at Pembroke or like Nolins
Speaker 2: or you know, there's a bunch of bunch of places
Speaker 2: I do my little solo show thing at Milford.
Speaker 3: I do a few places.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, So there are a lot of places that
Speaker 1: you on kind of a regular basis, almost like a
Speaker 1: residency where you go back quite a bit essentially.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean like Nolin's and Conquered Loans, a few
Speaker 2: different other speakeasies across New Hampshire. So I'll go do
Speaker 2: one there and then do one at Codex in Nashua,
Speaker 2: and then do one at you know, crow Bauer and Claremont.
Speaker 3: So yeah, and.
Speaker 2: Obviously then makes me appreciate Pembroke City limits being five
Speaker 2: minutes from my house a little extra.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I'm curious too about so do you always
Speaker 1: do you play the eighth string at every show or yeah?
Speaker 2: Yeah, so I have a looper set that I play
Speaker 2: the eighth string at. So I uh, I'm basically laying
Speaker 2: down the guitar in the bass line and one passed
Speaker 2: through with the looper and then I just play the melody.
Speaker 2: But yeah, that's that's that's all over the place too,
Speaker 2: because you know, like my influences, I do like warrang
Speaker 2: Gy regulate, I'll do Creep from Radiohead and then Coltrane songs.
Speaker 2: I do Take five from Dave Brubec, so like it's
Speaker 2: you know, Mama's and the Papa songs like Jane Morrison.
Speaker 3: So it's so like so eclectic.
Speaker 2: There's no one who covers the same songs that I cover,
Speaker 2: I'm sure, but yeah, yeah, and I just yeah, I
Speaker 2: kind of get a looko on for some of the said,
Speaker 2: I'll just do like kind of solo jazz guitar songs
Speaker 2: like do like fly Me to the Moon and like
Speaker 2: jazz standards and we'll kind of reimagined, reharmonized jazz standards.
Speaker 3: So what did you I assume you started out on
Speaker 3: a six string? I did?
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I mean I actually started on bass long
Speaker 2: before guitar, but yeah, oh okay, I started on bass
Speaker 2: and then learned guitar after that, and then I only
Speaker 2: got into h string about four years ago. My teacher
Speaker 2: was selling one and I always kind of wanted to
Speaker 2: delve into it, and I already kind of had the
Speaker 2: bass and guitar kind of background, so it was just
Speaker 2: kind of yeah, getting used to.
Speaker 3: The really wide neck and putting the two together. Who
Speaker 3: is your teacher? We should give them a plug?
Speaker 2: Yeah, oh, Dave Newsome, Yeah, definitely. Yeah. I started going
Speaker 2: to Summer Youth Music School back in ninth grade, which
Speaker 2: is the UNH program, And he started teaching me then,
Speaker 2: and then I went to UNH for a little bit
Speaker 2: it and then yeah, he's he taught Tommy Gray and
Speaker 2: I've been I haven't had any lessons really, but we
Speaker 2: play together and like that's a that's a lesson in itself.
Speaker 1: What was it? Was it challenging learning to to play
Speaker 1: an eight string or did it kind of come naturally?
Speaker 1: Was it just a matter of, uh, kind of combining
Speaker 1: what you knew and already Yeah.
Speaker 2: It was a little of both, because I already kind
Speaker 2: of played six string bass, so I already was comfortable
Speaker 2: with a low B string.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Uh, and then you know, adding the low F sharp
Speaker 2: and just kind of figuring out different like chord shapes,
Speaker 2: like yeah, like so that I you know, normal A
Speaker 2: on guitar to get that low A like you can
Speaker 2: do with still almost a bar chord and do some
Speaker 2: cool stuff, and so like you just figure out different
Speaker 2: ways to use it, and you know, some shapes kind
Speaker 2: of transfer over some sometimes you figure out new shapes
Speaker 2: that you could never do with a six string. So
Speaker 2: it's yeah, it's definitely fun and it gives you, It
Speaker 2: gives you some range, and it even like I use
Speaker 2: it in Flamingo shows and it throws people for a
Speaker 2: loop because they'll like hear me doing the bass and
Speaker 2: then all of a sudden, I'll do a guitar and
Speaker 2: then go back to me. But yeah, it's uh, it's
Speaker 2: it's really it's a fun instrument.
Speaker 3: I'm glad I delve down that rabbit hole. Yeah. Yeah, no,
Speaker 3: it's fascinating.
Speaker 1: Like I said, I like listening to it, but it's
Speaker 1: also just I'm fascinated just watching you play, like I'm
Speaker 1: just watching your fingers. You know, we should play us
Speaker 1: since we were talking about it, we should play that
Speaker 1: hip hop track.
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, this is as I Lay Dying feature in
Speaker 2: ben Shore again. This is on my album. A nice
Speaker 2: song just with some different saw me playing guitar. The
Speaker 2: only song I played mandolin the song. There's a little
Speaker 2: mandolin loop that started the whole song, which is funny
Speaker 2: how stuff like one little thing becomes this big, blossoming
Speaker 2: song that barely has anything.
Speaker 3: To do with the man. Yeah.
Speaker 2: No, it's a cool song. It's kind of big and
Speaker 2: epic sounding, is what I was going for.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I really like this a lot. Let's give
Speaker 1: this a spin. This is called As I lay died.
Speaker 4: Broke, but I'm not broken, don't breaking. I left the
Speaker 4: gun smoking. My blood runs open scars.
Speaker 3: Don't heal right?
Speaker 4: He can't get it to steil tight, rub tokens together,
Speaker 4: hoping for luck, but the deal's light falling like a
Speaker 4: steel pipe. I fall hard through a skylight window covered
Speaker 4: in glass. Sharks too much dancing with the devil, left
Speaker 4: my ass chard into the road. Asked my maker to
Speaker 4: make it end less painful. Instead, an angel came and
Speaker 4: sang me songs until I fell asleep, helped me get up.
Speaker 4: Instead of rain clouds, there was a rainbow. So I
Speaker 4: crawled till I could walk. Now, I let this guitar.
Speaker 5: Weak as I lay dying, As I lay dying, as
Speaker 5: I laid dying, As I laid dying, when it all
Speaker 5: falls down, and the ground starts quaking, and my soul
Speaker 5: of wickeds, and the sky starts breaking, and the eyes
Speaker 5: are watched, and the time.
Speaker 6: I've taken it is not be given living these times
Speaker 6: we see the bond prize ribbons were driven from riches
Speaker 6: and sinning. And this isn't why we live in this prison,
Speaker 6: this intim envision. It's like an incision, like if I
Speaker 6: get in prescriptions seem to make us painfree, but mainly
Speaker 6: for mind us that we isn't in fame. We cheats
Speaker 6: and dragons that have no emotion for us. What so
Speaker 6: a soldiers cappa chition that chosen formulas the real truth
Speaker 6: thighs and this here booth.
Speaker 5: There's no fearing. My eyes absent dispair with the spies
Speaker 5: walking to parent.
Speaker 3: The lies are bearing disguise.
Speaker 6: I taste the tears rolling down a cheeks, Kiss him away,
Speaker 6: keep love so deep, I said, no more tears.
Speaker 4: I just let this guitara weep.
Speaker 6: As I think it's I late di.
Speaker 5: As I ate did that's I dated as they.
Speaker 3: I didn't even want to talk over the end. It
Speaker 3: just sounded so cool as I laid down. That is
Speaker 3: from uh uh the New Uh? Now is it? Is
Speaker 3: it under Gary Smith or is.
Speaker 7: It uh You're you're calling it yeah? So my h
Speaker 7: I've already released stuff under yeah, So that is uh here.
Speaker 7: I have a oh wonderful, wonderful that the name of
Speaker 7: the album is Melody Workshop. My name that I produced
Speaker 7: under is Percussive Maintenance. So all the songs on the
Speaker 7: album are going to be under percussive maintenance, you know.
Speaker 2: Okay, Uh, they're gonna have all the different artists, you know,
Speaker 2: because there's Jam Tomorrow on there, there's Fox and Flamingos,
Speaker 2: And I tried to get again, because the album is
Speaker 2: so collaborative, I tried to get collaborative with the art.
Speaker 2: So my good friend Christy Marcella did that nice piece
Speaker 2: of art that's featured throughout the album.
Speaker 1: And so for those watching online, I'll hold up yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I'll hold up the shirt here. I can't really zoom in,
Speaker 1: but that so that so she did that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so she did that piece of art. That's awesome. Yeah,
Speaker 3: it's so so gorgeous.
Speaker 2: And then Nick from Cosmic Blossom he's on a song
Speaker 2: too that I'm sure you heard. He did a piece
Speaker 2: of art. A friend from California did a piece of art.
Speaker 2: So it's kind of just the album is going to
Speaker 2: have a bunch of different pieces of art, all kind
Speaker 2: of blended together on the back for you know, just
Speaker 2: for something kind of again collaborative art wise and music wise.
Speaker 1: So no, that's extremely cool, and yeah, thank you, this
Speaker 1: is a that's amazing, very nice, very nice. So what's
Speaker 1: kind of the future trajectory in terms of are you?
Speaker 1: Are you continuing to work with a lot of these
Speaker 1: artists on I mean, obviously this this album is just
Speaker 1: now coming out or about to come out, But but
Speaker 1: are you because you strike me as someone you probably
Speaker 1: always have ideas and oh.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, no, I always have music in the bank,
Speaker 2: because I mean I could probably do another one of
Speaker 2: these pretty quick if I you know, just got into
Speaker 2: the studio and sou but uh yeah, I mean that's
Speaker 2: really more. I mean I have some ideas kind of
Speaker 2: to get things slightly more focused. You know, that's kind
Speaker 2: of this is kind of just the like shoot it
Speaker 2: out there. This is everything I do. And then you know,
Speaker 2: I want to do a little more hip hop production.
Speaker 2: Me and Ben have talked about doing a few more
Speaker 2: songs together and the song that you may have heard
Speaker 2: with Mazy Digital Sunrise like that, when we want to
Speaker 2: do a few more little like snippets like that, because
Speaker 2: those you know, come together really quick. You know, I
Speaker 2: have having the able to she just you know, records
Speaker 2: it through the mic in my house and it's super
Speaker 2: simple in that sense. Okay, and then I just go
Speaker 2: to our mixed mastering Wizard with the stems and we
Speaker 2: just mix it in a couple hours, so it's no kidding.
Speaker 2: So yeah, that's why I like even some of the
Speaker 2: stuff that most of the stuff is you know, ultimately
Speaker 2: produced and made my bedroom and you know, bedroom studio.
Speaker 2: But you know, I take the stems and let Pete,
Speaker 2: Pete do his thing because he's he's such a good
Speaker 2: dude and he knows he knows this stuff, and there's
Speaker 2: so much stuff that like I have an idea, and
Speaker 2: then just even when he gets the stems, he's like,
Speaker 2: why don't we do this? Why don't we do this?
Speaker 2: And it just makes such a big difference. Like yeah,
Speaker 2: that's that's why I'm glad I do I.
Speaker 3: Do this with you. Now where is he because we
Speaker 3: should give him a plug?
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's Pete Peloquin at Boards House Productions in Brookline.
Speaker 3: Yeah, same one. That's where you did Jam Tomorrow, right, Yeah,
Speaker 3: Jam Tomorrow.
Speaker 2: Fox and Flamingos have recorded there. There's yeah, a bunch
Speaker 2: of bunch of bands around the area have have recorded there.
Speaker 2: I mean Rooster Creation are the big one that they do.
Speaker 2: But he's the sound guy for Bad Fish, so he's
Speaker 2: on the road doing that stuff a bunch too, So
Speaker 2: oh okay, he's actually we're playing a pumpkin fest tomorrow
Speaker 2: with Fox and Flamingoes and we get to he gets
Speaker 2: to do our sounds, so we're we're lucky. I think
Speaker 2: it's the best will ever sound with him doing our sounds.
Speaker 3: Kid. Yeah, yeah, no, it makes sense, Yeah, it makes sense.
Speaker 3: But yeah, I know he's he's an awesome dude.
Speaker 2: He's super easy to work with and like he lets
Speaker 2: meaner it out and learn stuff from him, Like I've
Speaker 2: become a better you know, producer by just watching what
Speaker 2: he does, like over his shoulder and asking him nerdy questions.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's cool though, that you're able to to do
Speaker 3: the recording at home.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 3: It's always say we live in a time.
Speaker 1: We're blessed to live in a time where you have
Speaker 1: so many different options in terms of how you record,
Speaker 1: and you know, different studios you can go to or
Speaker 1: you can do it at home. And oh, really, I'm
Speaker 1: out with something that sounds amazing. Maybe we should play
Speaker 1: that track Digital Sunrise.
Speaker 3: That's another one. So now this track, to just to
Speaker 3: be clear, this is not Fox and the Flamingos. This
Speaker 3: is not Fox and Flamingos.
Speaker 2: No, this is again a song and guitar riff that
Speaker 2: ultimately again the guitar riffs started all became a song,
Speaker 2: and then I wanted to do something with it, and
Speaker 2: Mazy heard it and loved it, like, oh, I can
Speaker 2: write some something cool over this, so yeah, yeah, and
Speaker 2: then just did some rearranging. But yeah, I know this
Speaker 2: is just a percussive maintenance featuring. Yeah amazing.
Speaker 3: I didn't mean to start that already.
Speaker 1: Try trying to actually, Oh, here we go, trying to
Speaker 1: actually download it, and this computer's being a little slow.
Speaker 3: Here we go, Here we go.
Speaker 1: Okay, yeah, this is really cool too. Let's give this
Speaker 1: a spin. This is called digital sunrise.
Speaker 8: Sometimes I wanna hi, that's a that's a d.
Speaker 9: Al.
Speaker 8: The time passed me by, hop times.
Speaker 9: A while, ride.
Speaker 8: The universe? So mad, have been had on, happen, have a.
Speaker 10: Feeling good between ussis has singing in the street, don't
Speaker 10: where the sun musty?
Speaker 5: But I'm not just wa.
Speaker 9: God man, I'm like God.
Speaker 10: Being good between machines, happen stinging in.
Speaker 8: This I don't where the sun musty? I'm not just
Speaker 8: why no way.
Speaker 3: God, man, I'm like, god.
Speaker 8: I don't know what to tell you. You've gone to
Speaker 8: some aching.
Speaker 9: Something bad.
Speaker 3: It's got a cool vibe if you're just joining us.
Speaker 1: Gary Smith is here with us, alive in studio and
Speaker 1: we're playing some tracks from Percussive Maintenance.
Speaker 3: Do I get the title right? Yeah?
Speaker 2: Percussive that's my producer name. The album is called Melody Workshop.
Speaker 3: Melody Workshop, right, right, gotcha, which is.
Speaker 2: My My parents had a music store that they opened.
Speaker 2: That was my first job back in ninth grade. I
Speaker 2: was giving guitar lessons, so yeah, that was called the
Speaker 2: Melody Workshops. I'm like, oh, it's a perfect kind of
Speaker 2: tie everything together.
Speaker 3: So yeah, you were already giving guitar lessons.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, mainly bass lessons, but beginner guitar lessons, and
Speaker 2: then yeah, by the end and by like senior year,
Speaker 2: that was you know, just all I was doing was
Speaker 2: giving good guitar lessons and bass lessons. So I didn't
Speaker 2: really have a normal high school crappy job, you know,
Speaker 2: given lessons for my parents.
Speaker 3: Good for you, Good for you. Does that store still
Speaker 3: exist or no?
Speaker 2: No, they've both passed since and they've retired a while ago.
Speaker 2: But I think the last time it existed, probably as
Speaker 2: it was, was like two thousand and two, two thousand
Speaker 2: and three. But I actually I found an old picture
Speaker 2: of the sign and that's used on the album cover,
Speaker 2: so yeah, oh that's very cool.
Speaker 3: But yeah, it was a you know, my stepdad got
Speaker 3: me into music. Really.
Speaker 2: My mom and him met doing like Actors Singers back
Speaker 2: in Nashville. He was the director of Actors Singers.
Speaker 3: Oh wow, so uh so.
Speaker 2: They met and then that kind of infused me with music,
Speaker 2: made me learn trombone at a young age.
Speaker 3: And I love bass.
Speaker 2: So because I went from trombone, I'm like, I already
Speaker 2: know bass left so I could read it right away.
Speaker 3: So what was trombone your first instrument? Trombone was my
Speaker 3: first instrument.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I haven't touched one in you know, twenty somethings,
Speaker 2: so it probably sound horrible if I tried to touch it.
Speaker 3: But but yeah, I mean it was definitely the catalyst
Speaker 3: for everything.
Speaker 2: And then you know, that's what led me to bass
Speaker 2: because I'm like, oh, it's in the same cleft, so
Speaker 2: I can read it right away. And that was very
Speaker 2: basically and then you know, my thought was all my
Speaker 2: friends are learning how to play guitar, why don't I
Speaker 2: learn how to play bass?
Speaker 3: And yeah it has worked out well.
Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely absolutely that track too. So you were saying
Speaker 1: off here Digital Sunrise, you call it it's mid fi.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, so that was the joke.
Speaker 2: It's it's not like a low fi like slow like
Speaker 2: gritty track, but like it it's like a it's a
Speaker 2: hip hop ified version of Fox and Flamingos almost, like yeah,
Speaker 2: so it's kind of the again, the melding of the
Speaker 2: two sides.
Speaker 1: Right right when you play like when you play out solo,
Speaker 1: do any of the songs from the bands that you're
Speaker 1: in make it into the set?
Speaker 2: Or oh definitely yeah, yeah, I mean some of the
Speaker 2: I actually just added one we've done with Fox and Flingers.
Speaker 2: We've done like this cool funky version of Benny and
Speaker 2: the Jets of Her Yeah, and I'm like, oh, that
Speaker 2: has like it has a looping structure. I'm like, oh,
Speaker 2: I can loop this one way through, So like that's
Speaker 2: kind of when I and then like, isn't she lovely?
Speaker 2: I do that just the two of us. So yeah,
Speaker 2: some of the songs I do with one or other bands.
Speaker 2: Then some of my originals like I do an EMU
Speaker 2: when I do that live, and I like layer the
Speaker 2: harmonies through the looper and like, yeah, it's a uh yeah.
Speaker 2: I definitely find songs from from that for sure. I
Speaker 2: haven't quite done an original and I haven't thought about it.
Speaker 2: I don't think one would quite work like looping process
Speaker 2: wise because they're also weird. But I definitely find some
Speaker 2: good covers that that work well. And that's kind of
Speaker 2: again the fun of my original or my live side
Speaker 2: is like people like listening and saying, oh, I know
Speaker 2: that song. Oh that's a radiod, Oh that's you know
Speaker 2: yeah John, So like there it is.
Speaker 3: It is kind of fun in that sense.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, very cool. Well we should uh let's see.
Speaker 1: I want to make sure we get these other ones in.
Speaker 1: Should we play melt Away?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a new Fox and Flamingos song that's actually
Speaker 2: our most recently recorded one. Oh and this was a cool,
Speaker 2: cool story about this one. Me and Mayzi just were like,
Speaker 2: we want to write a song. We hadn't written a
Speaker 2: song in a while, and then I had like, as
Speaker 2: silly as it sounds, I had a dream with this
Speaker 2: riff in it that I had already played like it,
Speaker 2: just like it's weird that I remember that.
Speaker 3: And then she said I'm like, okay, how about that.
Speaker 3: She's like, oh, I love it.
Speaker 2: So the beginning riff was where it all started. But
Speaker 2: I had the riff, the chord progression, and then I
Speaker 2: just brought it to her. She instantly came up with
Speaker 2: words and then brought it to the Flamingos and we
Speaker 2: fleshed it all out to what it is, and it's
Speaker 2: it's an awesome.
Speaker 3: Song or only song that's not in four to four
Speaker 3: in the album.
Speaker 1: So yeah, little waltz, Oh cool, cool. Yeah, I love
Speaker 1: Fox and the Flamingos as you know, I love I
Speaker 1: still love that.
Speaker 3: I still play it once in a while. That don't
Speaker 3: be a stranger. Yeah, Oh such a great that's such
Speaker 3: a great song. Yeah, I love it. But this is
Speaker 3: great too.
Speaker 2: So this is brand new, right, Yeah, this is brand new.
Speaker 2: It hasn't been played anywhere besides us doing it live.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 2: I think we debuted at Wormtown. So yeah, this is
Speaker 2: a new Little Fox and Flamingo's debut.
Speaker 3: Fantastic And this is called melt Away. Check this out. Hey, Safety.
Speaker 9: Savings, Your Love and one Invisible a.
Speaker 3: Member and that trust you.
Speaker 8: Not at all trust myself?
Speaker 10: Am that it doesn't trust myself?
Speaker 8: Did you feel you're so mad?
Speaker 3: So love me?
Speaker 1: I think.
Speaker 8: Was floating down?
Speaker 3: Can I do you do?
Speaker 5: You do?
Speaker 3: Not you deliver? Say just not the way.
Speaker 5: To that? Just you.
Speaker 10: Don't it's just myself. Oh say that's my sa.
Speaker 3: You feel your so right?
Speaker 8: Slow long.
Speaker 1: I lo.
Speaker 9: God, trust.
Speaker 3: But at all just my.
Speaker 9: Safe hold Stevens not smustard, you feel so loud, so rod.
Speaker 3: So No, that is so good, gorgeous melt away. I
Speaker 3: love Fox on the f as you all know. Yeah,
Speaker 3: that is fantastic. And yeah, the flute sounds great and
Speaker 3: that the way it kind.
Speaker 2: Of just just weaves in and out and yeah, like
Speaker 2: it's cool, like the flute over the heavy guitar.
Speaker 3: It's such a cool like mix of sounds.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, fantastic, fantastic if you're just joining us.
Speaker 1: Gary Smith is here. He's in Fox and the Flamingos
Speaker 1: and Jam Tomorrow and uh, what like ten other bands
Speaker 1: or something.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Cosmic Blossomsome effective, Yeah, and then kind of Cinnamon
Speaker 2: Jazz Trio, the Floutest in that we play a little bit.
Speaker 2: We're played at Pembroke actually with I played bass in
Speaker 2: that with a piano player Joe Verga, and play flute yea,
Speaker 2: and yeah, we just do some jazz standards.
Speaker 3: We have fun. We uh it's always great time.
Speaker 2: I mean just just like all my other things, Like
Speaker 2: we invite people to play up so like we had
Speaker 2: a from player last time, kind of sax player before.
Speaker 3: So it's fun.
Speaker 1: Is that Is that ever challenging when you when you uh,
Speaker 1: I mean having having those additional horns, I mean, does
Speaker 1: it always just kind of work or is it ever?
Speaker 2: I mean, jazz even though it's kind of crazy, A
Speaker 2: lot of it's structured, so like you're you're kind of
Speaker 2: just doing the same form over and over. So as
Speaker 2: long as you know the basics for everything are kind
Speaker 2: of happening, it's pretty simple, d Ad. And uh even
Speaker 2: like uh my jazz thing I do at Pembroke, like
Speaker 2: last week, I do it every other Sunday pretty much.
Speaker 2: I had some younger kids, uh, freshman at Berkeley come
Speaker 2: and I think he's a high school student from around here.
Speaker 2: Jack and Nick and they came and we just had
Speaker 2: in the whole time and played and went over some
Speaker 2: stuff and like it was like it was a good
Speaker 2: learning experience for them to get to kind of woodshed
Speaker 2: those types of songs. So yeah, I mean it's never
Speaker 2: sometimes it's smoother than others by all means. It kind
Speaker 2: of depends on what the history is. But yeah, I
Speaker 2: mean I do a few of them around here. I
Speaker 2: I often go to the Forum Jazz Jam up the
Speaker 2: Old Area twenty three, and yeah, the same thing is
Speaker 2: just some old school guys, you know, Brian Booth, mikey
Speaker 2: g Mike Galant, and they all just kind of go
Speaker 2: through some standards and we all make it sound really
Speaker 2: really good because you know, there's there's the structure to it.
Speaker 2: But yeah, yeah, I mean it always depends, but I
Speaker 2: mean that's kind of the fun, especially if you have
Speaker 2: a solid bassist or in rhythm section, you know, good
Speaker 2: bassis and drummer like you can you can over you
Speaker 2: can overcome a lot just by having the solid bass
Speaker 2: and then you know, trust that they're gonna kind of
Speaker 2: lead you. Yeah long, But yeah, it's definitely a different
Speaker 2: type of mindset versus you know, rehearsing, you know, like
Speaker 2: learning a cover song for jam tomorrow. That's a very
Speaker 2: different mindset versus you know, kind of the improvisatory side. Yeah,
Speaker 2: but even like Cosmic Blossom, like sometimes in sets when
Speaker 2: we're doing something, we'll just say, hey, let's jam and
Speaker 2: see my ern and see where it goes. And we've
Speaker 2: come up with songs. Like the most recent song we're
Speaker 2: working on came out in a jam. We were doing
Speaker 2: a candy a road brewing. We just like kind of
Speaker 2: saw where it went and then they made it. We
Speaker 2: basically made it a song over the course of the night.
Speaker 2: So it's fun how stuff can work like that collaboratively.
Speaker 1: Is Cosmic Blossom something where where the songs like do
Speaker 1: they change a lot live like, because it seems like
Speaker 1: with the project like that, you've got like the songs
Speaker 1: have room to breathe if you want to just kind
Speaker 1: of make them longer spontaneously exactly.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean they definitely do. And then I mean
Speaker 2: Cosmic Blossom collective is it's a group of bunch of people.
Speaker 2: There's you know, multiple drummers, multiple bassis, multiple you know, guitarists.
Speaker 2: There's like kind of Nick and Brad are the core, okay,
Speaker 2: but yeah, I mean there's three vocalists, there's a saxophonists
Speaker 2: sometimes comes in so it's really, uh, it's really all
Speaker 2: over the place. But that's kind of the beauty of
Speaker 2: it is that allows you for some flexibility, get a
Speaker 2: bunch of different types of input. And we practiced last
Speaker 2: week in Nash. So we had three female vocalists, Sarah, Megan, Amanda,
Speaker 2: like Meg from Doggie Dog. She's a great vocalist. Uh,
Speaker 2: sarahs from dog a Dog too, and Amanda's from cos
Speaker 2: Cosaic Blossom and uh.
Speaker 3: Her and her boyfriend Ever Group too.
Speaker 2: I'll get in trouble for not remembering, but yeah, so
Speaker 2: like it's just these powerful female vocalists and they can
Speaker 2: like instantly harmonize on the spots while we're riffing on
Speaker 2: something that we made up there coming up with these
Speaker 2: awesome intertwining harmonies, and it's like it's just me and
Speaker 2: Nick looked over at each other once.
Speaker 3: Last week just like Jesus, Wow, absolutely mind blowing.
Speaker 2: But yeah, I mean it's uh we But then like
Speaker 2: the one we did a Candy Road, that's just me
Speaker 2: one of the drummers and Nick and Brad just we
Speaker 2: do a bunch of cosmic songs, the ones that don't
Speaker 2: require those powerful female vocals.
Speaker 3: But then you know, we'll do some covers.
Speaker 2: We'll you know, just make stuff up on the spot,
Speaker 2: and sometimes the spontaneous stuff gets like the best reaction
Speaker 2: from the crowd because you know, it's just us doing
Speaker 2: our best thing.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Oh, that's fantastic. That's fantastic.
Speaker 1: Uh So before we run out of time and we'll
Speaker 1: we'll play we do have one more that you sent
Speaker 1: me Kaleidoscope I think.
Speaker 3: It was, yeah, clidophone. Yeah, that's so.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's the one with Nick Burns actually of Cosmic Blossoms.
Speaker 2: Oh okay, he's the lead singer in the you know,
Speaker 2: kind of core of that.
Speaker 3: He sang on the song. We actually wrote the song together.
Speaker 2: I had the guitar part and then he's like, yeah,
Speaker 2: I said, let's let's make something cool together with this,
Speaker 2: and then he came up with the melody.
Speaker 3: He plays guitar on it.
Speaker 2: The same trumpet player who was on EMU plays the
Speaker 2: trumpet parts, Brian Murphy. Again, he used to be in
Speaker 2: a band called The Shills, which was pretty famous at
Speaker 2: one point. But yeah, he's a he's an awesome trump player,
Speaker 2: awesome vocalist, awesome guitarist.
Speaker 1: Okay, okay, yeah, so we'll we'll play that in a moment,
Speaker 1: but before we go, I want to make sure so
Speaker 1: for our people listening live on Saturday, because you've got
Speaker 1: a busy Saturday. Let's make sure everyone wants to people
Speaker 1: want to follow you around today.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so at twelve thirty I have a one o'clock
Speaker 2: the Streaming Stars. But at twelve thirty I'll be at
Speaker 2: Pembrooke City Limits showing the whole album. We showed you
Speaker 2: know a few songs from it, but there's twelve total songs.
Speaker 2: And then I'll be there till about two thirty most likely.
Speaker 2: And then I'll be going up to Bayside Bowl in Portland,
Speaker 2: Maine with Onyx, the old school hip hop group. They're
Speaker 2: playing and Ben Shore is opening for them. We're gonna
Speaker 2: debut the song we just played as I lay dying
Speaker 2: with me playing guitar excellent.
Speaker 3: Right before they go on.
Speaker 2: And then tomorrow Fox and Flamingos is playing eleven thirty
Speaker 2: in the middle of the Milford Oval for Pumpkin Fest.
Speaker 3: Too excellent.
Speaker 2: And then yeah, yeah, I mean keeping eye on my website,
Speaker 2: my website g Smith music dot com. I still have
Speaker 2: a lot of a lot of gigs coming up, you know,
Speaker 2: next week I'll be playing.
Speaker 3: A Bad Burger.
Speaker 2: We do a cool little jam there with the owner
Speaker 2: Ian and then I'll be up and I'm actually racing
Speaker 2: next weekend, so I'll be up in Claremont.
Speaker 3: So I'm doing a gig while I'm racing on the weekend.
Speaker 3: So what do you mean you're you're racing? You I
Speaker 3: race hill climb like hill climb cars.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so the bottom of a mountain access road up
Speaker 2: to the top like they do Mount Washington.
Speaker 3: Oh wow. Yeah, there's a bunch of them throughout Vermont
Speaker 3: that that I do.
Speaker 2: And I have an old two thousand and four Neon
Speaker 2: s R T four that's with a roll cage.
Speaker 3: That's yeah, yeah, that's uh. I've been doing that for
Speaker 3: a few years.
Speaker 2: I think you saw me probably one point when I
Speaker 2: was all broken when I was in when I was hobbling.
Speaker 3: That was because I crashed one of my race cars. Yeah.
Speaker 3: But yeah, yeah, I love hill climbing. It's the best kidding. Yeah,
Speaker 3: this is scary. It sounds scary.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean like, it took me a while to
Speaker 2: get into it. But I'm like, if you're racing on
Speaker 2: a road course, which I did before, I'm like if
Speaker 2: you hit a wall, it's not going to be fun.
Speaker 2: If you hit a tree, it's not gonna be fun.
Speaker 2: And then I mean I did hit a tree really
Speaker 2: bad and it definitely was less than less than fun.
Speaker 2: But I got back to it with any year because
Speaker 2: it's so fun. The community is so great and it's
Speaker 2: what every everyone in New England wants to do. Go
Speaker 2: as fast as you can on a back road, you know,
Speaker 2: with no no speed limits. It's just you know, it's
Speaker 2: with stee windy thirty turn road up the top of
Speaker 2: the road.
Speaker 3: So it's a lot of fun. Wow, Ok, that's cool.
Speaker 3: That's cool.
Speaker 1: All right, well we will we will close out with oh,
Speaker 1: actually the other thing too, not only what you're doing today,
Speaker 1: but let's make sure two people know the schedule for
Speaker 1: the album release.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, album release. Yeah, so fourteenth. You'll be able
Speaker 2: to download it, stream it on band camp. You can
Speaker 2: pre order the vinyls, you can order shirts like.
Speaker 3: You got we had those.
Speaker 2: I'm actually gonna have guitar picks coming in again for
Speaker 2: my nerdy friends. And then the twenty eighth the album
Speaker 2: will be out on all the other streaming services. Obviously,
Speaker 2: band Camp is a little bit nicer to musicians, So
Speaker 2: anyone who would like to support us through that is
Speaker 2: definitely appreciated. But it'll be on all the you know,
Speaker 2: Spotify's and apples of the world on the twenty eighth.
Speaker 3: Yeah, okay, Yeah, the vinyls should.
Speaker 2: Be here by the end of the year, pending things
Speaker 2: with Vinyl, but it's gonna be some cool one hundred
Speaker 2: and eighty gram clear vinyl for the first first hundred pressings.
Speaker 3: Nice. Yeah, I'm a vinyl nerd. I have been. I
Speaker 3: worked at Tweeter back in the day. Yeah yeah, so
Speaker 3: I'm I gotta gotta do it right, I think if
Speaker 3: I'm not mistaken.
Speaker 1: Twenty twenty two was the first year of the vinyl
Speaker 1: actually old c Yeah, yep, long time coming.
Speaker 3: Yeah, there you go, there you go. Gary Smith. Always
Speaker 3: wonderful to have you here, my friend. Thank you for
Speaker 3: having me.
Speaker 1: I appreciate it absolutely, and congratulations on the album and
Speaker 1: everything that you're doing.
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