Matt Connarton Unleashed: Matt Litzinger

0:13 Speaker 1: Poets say love is gonna save us. Most of the time, I.

0:30 Speaker 2: Don't feel like I'm worse saveding, just a dum screwed up kid.

0:40 Speaker 3: But you gave me home. You spoken to my darkness, and you showed me the light.

0:54 Speaker 2: In your glow, I'm seeing for the first time.

1:02 Speaker 3: There's still food on the fire.

1:07 Speaker 2: There's a fire burning in my ches, helping me to see the truth.

1:21 Speaker 3: In spite of all my anxious feeds.

1:28 Speaker 2: This love has made me rizled.

1:33 Speaker 1: Keep it burning, war to keep it burning.

1:43 Speaker 3: More.

1:49 Speaker 2: I am alive and nothing's.

1:53 Speaker 3: Gonna change that.

2:02 Speaker 2: A living fear of showing who I really am and fall.

2:12 Speaker 3: In apart like a spy. You slip past my defense is and you found me out. Piece by piece. You're taking off this army. I don't need it now.

2:43 Speaker 2: There's a fire burning the matches, and.

2:51 Speaker 3: You're the one that put it there.

2:57 Speaker 2: It wasn't lit by anyone. No one has loved me with that, butch Cave.

3:08 Speaker 1: You keep it burning, war, keeping burning, world.

3:24 Speaker 3: There's a fire burning in.

3:27 Speaker 2: My chest, helping me to see the truth in spite of all my anxious fees.

3:45 Speaker 3: Just love has made me.

3:47 Speaker 1: Rezled, keeping burning, Oh.

3:56 Speaker 3: You keep it burning.

4:21 Speaker 4: Matt Litzinger here with us live in studio. So I love by the way, thank you for bringing us, and I'm gonna for people watching online. I'm gonna hold up the CD. There we go, this CD you brought us, Keep it Burning? And that was the title track, of course, that we opened the show with. Where did you record this?

4:37 Speaker 1: So?

4:38 Speaker 5: Yeah, one of the cool things about this project I recorded it at my home studio. I really enjoy the process of, like watching the songs evolve. Sometimes studio time doesn't really like work well with that because you're kind of locked in. You know, you've got these hours of these days, right, and so these songs have kind of evolved over the past six nine months as I've worked on different demos for them leading up to it, and working at home just helps to make that a little easier.

5:01 Speaker 4: Yeah, it's cool to have that freedom and flexibility to do it that way. Have you always recorded that way or have you ever have? Yeah?

5:08 Speaker 5: Mostly just had a necessity with this project. I did raise money on Kickstarter to help fund it. Yeah, and so I thought about, like, do I want to get studio time involved with that? And I really like the process of, you know, wearing the different hats all the way down the process. So yeah, writing the songs, engineering it, mixing it all the way through.

5:25 Speaker 4: So that's an advantage too, that you enjoy doing all that part, because a lot of musicians don't like doing that part, right. Yeah.

5:31 Speaker 5: Yeah, my brain like, I like, you have to kind of turn off the right side, left side thing, but I like to eventually turn that off and move into more of the engineering, you know, make it sound good side of things.

5:40 Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Is this the first full length album that you've released is.

5:44 Speaker 5: Yeah, So that's that's a big one for me. It's been like EPs and singles up until this point.

5:49 Speaker 4: What made you decide to do a full length? Did it just seem like time.

5:53 Speaker 5: Or yeah, time would be the easiest way to say it. So I had I'd had two kids over the past like six eight years, and so it's been just bandwidth has been Okay, we can do a single, we can do a little project here or there, but some of those songs are stacked up and I'm happy with a lot of those. So I sat down in February wrote a couple more songs that I was happy with, and then I had a collection of them and I was like, it just makes sense. Sure I can carve out time this year to work on a whole project.

6:18 Speaker 4: And who else is on the album with you? Or is it all you?

6:21 Speaker 5: So this is all me except for on Gather Me Up. My wife plays violin, Oh a big thing because she's really great violinist, but hardly played, so it takes a lot of convincing. So it's great to get hurt on that track.

6:33 Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, excellent. Do you play out a lot? Do you do a lot off too? Yeah?

6:36 Speaker 5: Yeah, so not anything like ticketed, but I play bars and stuff around town quite a bit.

6:40 Speaker 4: Yeah. Yeah. The great thing about you know what you do, you know, just you and a guitar is obviously that opens up a lot of opportunities for where you can play. And so yeah, you know, so someone in your position, you've always got options as far as venues and so forth, whereas you know, like in the third hour today we have vigil coming in. I don't know if you know them, but they're loud and they're heavy, and you know, so of course for someone in their position, you know, they've only got so many options as far as venues, but you can probably play anywhere, and I bet You've played some interesting place for sure.

7:08 Speaker 2: Yeah.

7:09 Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean in town, Like I'm thinking small rooms where it's just like, you know, you're kind of in a corner or a bigger, bigger venues. But yeah, I played everything from like kind of college level arena areas now all the way down to like small bar gigs.

7:22 Speaker 4: Yeah. Yeah. If you do, you stick to New England or have you gotten out of Yeah, and.

7:27 Speaker 5: Just mostly southern New Hampshire right now. So originally from Pennsylvania, went to school in Indiana and then have lived here for the past like ten years. Oh okay, and so yeah, southern New Hampshire mostly Manchester. I play some out towards the Sea coast a little bit like when Sawbelly was out there. I'd go out and play out that way.

7:41 Speaker 4: So yeah, yeah, yeah, what brought you to New Hampshire?

7:44 Speaker 5: My wife? Yeah, so she's from Chester. We met in uh in school.

7:47 Speaker 4: Oh, in Indiana, came back here here. Oh cool, cool, excellent, excellent. Well I'm doning here you play live? You want to play something for sure?

7:54 Speaker 5: Yeah? Yeah, So I'll start out. This first song is called Restless Wings. There's a song about I tend to be kind of a homebody, and so this song is about watching somebody who you love need to go off and like travel a world, you know, so I really enjoy that, and trying to come to grips with the fact that, like they still love you when they're out there, even though like you don't hear from them as often. And so this song just kind of reflects some of those ideas.

8:17 Speaker 4: All right, very good, Matt Litzinger, live in studio with us.

8:37 Speaker 2: Here we are again saying ah goodbyes. And then and how you will be far above the clouds. I'll be looking u at the stars de night, wondering how long to come back around. It's a mystery to a man like me, how you set your sights on distant shores. Each time you return, I see your fires burned, and it's not long before you're calling.

9:16 Speaker 3: Out for more.

9:18 Speaker 2: Your restless ways get lighter. Look in that the sky. It's when you roll home. That's when you're most love.

9:34 Speaker 2: My grounded hard it wishes you could stay. I wondered, dude, you miss me when you fly, and as I wait for you to return to me, I wonder if you feel pull of my heart on yours. That's a line bed thoughts are a mess, dream you walking back through my door. My bristless weeks get lighter looking that the sky's when you mess when you're most allahah, my grounded hard it wishes you could stay. I wondered, dude, you miss me when you fly.

10:46 Speaker 3: Away.

10:55 Speaker 2: I'm not asking you to stay with me here, I just want to know this love story. When you're out there,

11:13 Speaker 2: you're restless weeks, get lighter.

11:18 Speaker 6: Look in that the sky because.

11:22 Speaker 2: When you row mess, when you're most alive, grounded hardy wishes you could stay. I wandered, dude, you miss me when.

11:42 Speaker 6: You fly away?

11:56 Speaker 4: Beautiful?

11:57 Speaker 5: That was Guardians I think so much.

11:59 Speaker 7: Oh that was gorgeous.

12:00 Speaker 4: If you are, you're.

12:01 Speaker 7: Getting love in the chat room already loving this song. Can't wait to hear more.

12:05 Speaker 4: Says Jay. Excellent, excellent, Yes, if you are just joining us, We have a Matt Litzinger with us alive in studio this morning. Oh yeah, Jay Bellow of course from the band Chasing the Devil and U. But they're doing some big things, so very very proud of them. We've played a bunch of their music on the show absolutely and Jay has always been very supportive of the show. Too, so we appreciate that. But yes, Matt Litzinger is here with us in studio, and is that I assume that song is on the album or on there?

12:32 Speaker 4: Yeah it is, yeah, excellent, excellent. Do you play when you play out? Do you do long shows? You probably know a lot of songs. I assume you can do like three hour shows.

12:41 Speaker 5: Yeah, three hours is kind of my well, four hours is now my max. But so yeah, I played a couple of farmers market gigs that were four hours.

12:48 Speaker 4: Oh no kidding.

12:49 Speaker 5: Yeah, it's kind of like like so I run too, and so it's kind of like that where you start out and you're like, I don't know if I could ever do three miles, and like you do that and you're like, I don't know if I could ever do six That sounds crazy, And I feel like playing gigs is kind of the same. You're like, the first three hour gigs sucks, and then like you play a bunch more and you're like, oh, this is this is doable, And then you play a four hour on you're like, that's not that much different than three interesting.

13:09 Speaker 4: Yeah, do you find that running helps you with your singing in terms of your breath?

13:13 Speaker 5: Then yeah, I've never really actually thought about that part of it, but I'm sure it does. Like just like that, the fitness element of it helps too, and like some level of physical fitness. I broke a rib a long time ago. Oh no, on capacity isn't what it used to be. Really, hopefully that helps keep that up a little bit.

13:30 Speaker 4: Yeah.

13:30 Speaker 5: The big thing with running is like it's just an idea generator because like, similar to being in the shower, like a lot of ideas hit me on a run for a song or for like a part that I'm just stuck on.

13:39 Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, yeah, you know you get the blood pumping and you know, the ghost to your brain, Oh yeah, get those neurons fire, and yeah, absolutely absolutely do you play You must play some covers too, I would imagine, because you don't have enough music to fill.

13:53 Speaker 5: Yeah, it's our hour kind of balance.

13:55 Speaker 2: Yeah.

13:55 Speaker 5: Yeah, Like you know, there's you gotta figure out what hat you're wearing. So like, if you're in a listening room, you want to play a lot of your stuff. People are there to sit and listen to you. Right if you're in a bar a restaurant, like people want to be entertained, and so some of the time. That's just like, oh, I want to hear a song that they're like, oh, that's a cool, interesting version of that song. I know, like I know this one, so yeah, try to mix it up.

14:12 Speaker 4: You've got a great voice, are you? Are you? Did you take any kind of lessons? Are you? Self taught?

14:17 Speaker 5: Mostly self taught? I took some voice lessons from this Ukrainian guy when I was in high school for about probably like six months or so.

14:25 Speaker 4: Oh no kidding, yeah, yeah.

14:27 Speaker 5: So very formal. I'm not even sure if I consciously do anything that I was trained to do.

14:32 Speaker 4: But right, right, well, but I'm sure subconc yeah, yeah, absolutely, And what about guitar.

14:38 Speaker 5: Guitar is all self taught. Okay, So my kind of music journey with instrumentation is I started playing piano for nine years. Yeah, hated it, but like my parents made me stick with it.

14:47 Speaker 4: Yeah.

14:47 Speaker 5: I picked up drums on my own, loved playing drums, started to learn to play by music, and then picked up guitar and bass on my own after that.

14:55 Speaker 4: Yeah.

14:56 Speaker 5: Yeah, And somehow in that transition from piano to drums, took it and made it my own. And I was just like I love this, like I loved playing, so, like, I want to figure how to play more stuff.

15:04 Speaker 4: Do you think learning the piano helped you to learn other instruments more quickly? Because something I hear a lot of people say, So, I'm a musician myself. I'm a bass player, but I never learned you know, I would, well, I would kind of noodle around a little bit on the keyboard when I was a kid, but I never really learned to play. But I've heard a lot of music instructors say that everybody should, no matter what instrument they play, everybody should start out on the keyboard, some sort of keyboard because that's such a great way to kind of kind of build your well a lot of things in terms of, you know, making sure you have a good ear, and also just you know, it's a good building block for whatever instrument you're going to play.

15:43 Speaker 4: So I'm curious in your case because you know, you didn't like it the piano, but you did it for nine years. So I assume I assume having done that, learning other instruments probably came pretty quickly to you.

15:54 Speaker 2: Yeah.

15:55 Speaker 5: Yeah, And I think there's a couple of things wrapped up in that. For me, it's like the piano has a higher learning some instruments, like you can sit and figure out a chord shape on a guitar Souer right, But sometimes at the piano if you want something more than just one note melodies, learning from some you know book, uh, it can it can be difficult to feel like you're making momentum with that. But things like chord structure and even just visualizing the way the notes work on keyboards like the best way to conceptualize that.

16:22 Speaker 5: Yeah, so I think a lot of things that I now lean on with chord structure I learned from piano and now transferred to different instruments.

16:29 Speaker 4: That makes sense, Yeah, I wish that I had done that, you know, I always had a keyboard too, I just never Yeah, I just I don't know, I guest I was kind of a lazy kid though too. I was one of those kids there if I wasn't good at something right away, I would just kind of that was that.

16:43 Speaker 7: You sink I wanted to learn how to play piano so bad. Yeah, I put my kid in it and he hated it, and I, not being your parents, went Yeah. I always said I wasn't going to force him because I wanted him to do music because he wanted to, and.

16:58 Speaker 4: He's a self taught guitar.

17:00 Speaker 7: But I kind of wish I had made him do it because I know that he would have been able to read music and stuff if I had made him.

17:06 Speaker 4: So I don't know, kind of on the fence on that one, I.

17:08 Speaker 5: Wish there was a better way to like tell kids, you don't have to stick with piano, like, just stick with this for now, right, because they look at you know, people shredding on guitar, like killing the drum exactly, and I want to do that, right, Yeah, you can do that, but start here because like you'll be so much better at that thing when you get there.

17:25 Speaker 4: Yeah right, yeah, But I know what you mean too, Like it's like if you pick up a guitar and you just you know, if you learn power chords, you can go join a punk band pretty quickly.

17:34 Speaker 5: So yeah, it doesn't take much.

17:37 Speaker 4: In my case, the reason I ended up playing bass was so I started on guitar, and I took guitar lessons for a couple of years, but I wasn't But again, I you know, I would get frustrated, I would get impatient with myself, and then in high school, I picked up a bass, and I know other bass players hey when I say this, but it's just the truth. I picked up a bass and I was like, oh, two fewer strings and I don't have to know any chords. I can do this, And and then I ended up. You know, I went on to play in a bunch of bands playing bass because But but I do think in my case though learning some things on guitar to the limited extent that I did, helped make me a better bass player, even though the way that I got to play and bass was again my my own laziness kind of came into play.

18:19 Speaker 5: Yeah, And although like yeah, I think people like to crap on bass players a lot, But in my experience, the bass players I've played with sometimes their musical knowledge like blows me away. Oh yeah for being a simple instrument, so to speak with help me having four strings? Like yeah, their conceptualization of chords and like what changes and like what note they're playing in the root and stuff and just like dang, like they know more than I do about this stuff.

18:41 Speaker 2: For sure.

18:41 Speaker 4: We have Aaron Bilido coming in second hour. I don't know if you know Aaron, but but he's a bass player. And he's amazing. Like I watch his fingers and it's like, oh my god, what he can do at that bass, you know. But yeah, I never got that far with it. But so on your so, like you said, so on your album, so you play everything except you mentioned your wife plays violin, but you do everything else. Yeah.

19:02 Speaker 5: Yeah, And I kept it pretty simple, like I wanted to go for kind of an old country kind of like Zach Bryany kind of sounds. Yeah, And so it's guitar, bass, drums, a little bit of mandolin on a couple songs. Okay, outside of that, that's that's really it for instrumentation.

19:14 Speaker 4: Is the mandolin? Did you find that difficult.

19:17 Speaker 5: To learn or so I don't play it super well.

19:20 Speaker 4: Yeah.

19:21 Speaker 5: I play like just chords on it, so it's easy to figure out, like okay, what's the chord shape for this chord and then kind of do a little chunking us on it. I don't do a whole lot of melody work on the on the.

19:31 Speaker 4: Mandolin, Okay, Okay, Yeah, it is hard with.

19:33 Speaker 5: Big fingers, which is funny because you look at the best mandolin players, like these guys have giant, you know, fingers, and how do they play this.

19:40 Speaker 4: Thing that's well, that's the thing that's That's one of the things that makes me so curious about it because some of these instruments, like the mandolin, I just I've always wondered about that. It looks like it's difficult to you know, it's hard enough when you're learning to play guitar, you know, to make sure that your fingers are going in the right places, and then on something like the mandolin. Yeah, you're right, like like if you have big fingers, you know, how do you do that able to really you know, not be not be sloppy with it?

20:03 Speaker 4: So it's very impressive to me. Do you want to you want to play another live one for us? Sure? Dying to hear more?

20:09 Speaker 2: Sure?

20:10 Speaker 4: Yeah.

20:10 Speaker 5: So the next one I have is uh so, it's one of the songs I mentioned. I wrote some songs in February. There's this thing called FOM, which is February Album Writing Month. It's like a challenge you try to write fourteen songs and all the February.

20:21 Speaker 4: It sounds like kind of like the RPM chant.

20:23 Speaker 5: Very much like that. Okay, yeah, except I think the end goal is not to have like a produced thing at the end of it. It's just like you have a collection of songs and you can do whatever with them. It's a cohesive album.

20:32 Speaker 4: Oh cool, but okay.

20:34 Speaker 5: One of the songs that came out of that, there was a news story right around that time, I think from the Washington Post about scientists and measure that the moon is starting to shrink, and so I was like, man, this is like the perfect jumping off point for a song. Yeah, So I tried to dream up this world of like, Okay, if the moon's shrinking, what's that mean for like our tide patterns on the earth, Like what's that look like? If I draw that out to this post apocalyptic picture. Then I tried to turn that into a love song of like what's it look like for love to sustained something as tragic and difficult as like the world coming to an end.

21:03 Speaker 5: So there's a song called Moonquakes that's about that stemmed from that story. Interesting, all right, totally fictitious. Matt Litzinger live in studio with us. I'm looking forward to this one. This one sounds pretty interesting. Although worry someone once so we have climate change storry about, now we gotta worry about the moon.

21:21 Speaker 4: Shrinking too.

21:21 Speaker 5: Yeah, hopefully it's a it's a very slow process.

21:25 Speaker 4: I would assume. Matt litzing Er Live in studio.

21:39 Speaker 6: The moon is shrinking.

21:42 Speaker 2: That's what the experts say.

21:51 Speaker 8: It's getting smaller.

21:54 Speaker 2: Everything old day.

22:04 Speaker 8: Don't be alarm.

22:07 Speaker 2: That's what the man on TV says. It feels like everything is hanging by threads.

22:35 Speaker 6: Last night I.

22:37 Speaker 2: Was for above the ground and I could see four miles and miles of round. When the lights went out, I.

23:03 Speaker 8: Felt the darkness around.

23:12 Speaker 6: This might be the end.

23:14 Speaker 8: But I'm finding hoping your green eye.

23:24 Speaker 2: And if the ground beneath our feet should break, won't lead you astray.

23:37 Speaker 6: And if the seas.

23:38 Speaker 2: Shoot over won their bound, I'll hold back the way.

23:48 Speaker 3: It's the way of this luve.

23:54 Speaker 6: Spore.

23:56 Speaker 3: This world could bad way of this love.

24:06 Speaker 8: It's ball in this world code babe.

24:33 Speaker 4: Mm hmm wow. Oh let me get that mic on Jenny, Sorry, do that to meet every Saturday.

24:39 Speaker 3: He does.

24:40 Speaker 4: He turns me download I do I do? Uh No, that is great, that is great. Matt Listener here with us live in studio. H Ryan LeMay is in the I see in the chat room, says well done. Ryan is a very obviously I'm sure you know Ryan. He's a very very talented musician.

24:56 Speaker 9: I do not know.

24:56 Speaker 4: Oh you don't know Ryan, Okay, you'll probably uh you'll probably meet at some point. Also, Eric Manarone, if I'm saying that correctly, says I, all, hello Eric in the chat room. If you are just joining us. We do have Matt Litz singer with us live in studio. He's got this great album keep It Burning, really really good. Do you are you already working on the next one, so you know, whereas you record at home and you know, you can kind of take your time with it, I would imagine you're already working on new stuff.

25:21 Speaker 5: Yeah, So it's kind of funny. I'm actually taking a little bit of a well not a break, but just scaling things back a little bit.

25:26 Speaker 2: Yeah.

25:27 Speaker 5: I had a lot of songs written for this project, and so I had the benefit of being able to pick just the ones I liked the best or that worked most cohesively for this theme. Yeah, and so I had some extra songs that I didn't do anything with yet, so those are kind of in the hopper. I played those live out just trying to like get feelers for how to fine tune them. I had a tendency the right really long songs, so I'm always on the mission of figure out how do I tighten this stuff up.

25:50 Speaker 4: Yeah.

25:51 Speaker 5: So like one of those songs is like seven minutes long, and so it's like, okay, that's too long for a singer songwriter ballad. Yeah, trying to figure how to tighten it up. But yeah, right now, it's just kind of scaling back a little bit. Like I said, I have a young family, so and this isn't my full time gig too, so just trying to figure out how do I keep this in his right place right right?

26:08 Speaker 4: Yeah, there's a lot of time management skills that can go into that. Do you remember the first song you ever wrote?

26:15 Speaker 3: I do.

26:16 Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, So I started writing songs in high school just as kind of a cathartic thing, and it was a just really bubblegum poppy love song.

26:25 Speaker 4: Yeah, like you and me? Yeah?

26:26 Speaker 2: Yeah?

26:28 Speaker 4: Did it survive?

26:28 Speaker 5: Do you ever play not survive? I don't know that I could even play it if I had to, really.

26:32 Speaker 2: Yeah.

26:32 Speaker 5: I don't even think it got recorded. I think it just got played to the girlfriend at the time.

26:36 Speaker 4: Oh okay, I don't remember who it was, but We had a guest on who really surprised me. They could remember like the first song they wrote when they were like ten years old and they still play it. It might it might have been Kenny Troon and Kenny, if you're listening and I'm wrong, I apologize, but I feel like it was Kenny Truon. He said, yeah, I still play it. My first song is like wow, man, Yeah.

26:56 Speaker 5: I always jealous of those guys.

26:57 Speaker 4: Yeah.

26:57 Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, you can go back to your back catalog and will have just the muscle memory to pull back out right right.

27:03 Speaker 4: Who can you tell me about influences, Like in terms of songwriting, who who influences you? Yeah?

27:12 Speaker 5: So I like a lot of singer songwriter stuff. It has more of a Maricana kind of rock background to it. Yeah, Like modern influences will probably be like Jason Isbel is a big one. Storgel Simpson is probably a big one. Going back further, I love John Denver, like I just keep coming back. He's just such a great songwriter.

27:32 Speaker 4: Yeah.

27:33 Speaker 5: My grandparents, my grandma in particularly on my mom's side, really loved him. And so like playing country roads is always a big favorite for me, or like leaving on a jet Plane.

27:41 Speaker 4: Yeah.

27:42 Speaker 5: Yeah, his stuff's great. I love coming back to his his music.

27:46 Speaker 4: Yeah. Well, what about in terms of your approach vocally? Is there anyone you Is there anyone you've ever really you have a unique voice. I can't think of anyone off the top of my head who I feel like you sound like? Yeah, exactly, But I don't know. I mean, is there anyone who's influenced you as far as your vocals?

28:04 Speaker 5: I mean, I think a lot of people over time, and I get compared to some people, so like Evan Stevens Hall from Pine Grove, They're like an indie rock band.

28:16 Speaker 5: The guy from the Decembris, who I'm blanking on his name right now.

28:19 Speaker 4: Yeah, I can't remember either, but I know what you mean.

28:21 Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, yeah, but yeah, I think I pull from different things. I hear in vocal performances and I'm like, I like that. I try to emulate that a little bit, and then it's just still trying to figure out, like how do I do that and not make it sound like I'm trying to sound like like, you know, I have a certain signature to my voice and I want to keep that right. But it is interesting, like listening back to material from like ten years ago to now. It's crazy how your voice changes over time. And I even listen to other artists like that happens so much too.

28:48 Speaker 5: H But it's it's really interesting to see, and it's very much a subconscious thing because yeah, I didn't decide I'm gonna sit down and record this song so that it sounds like this.

28:56 Speaker 4: Yeah, I've always been kind of fascinated by that with vocal how some some people's voices do change over time as they get older, their voice gets deeper. But some people it seems like it you know, you hear something they record very uh you know, like they might be a sixty year old guy who sounds just like he did when he was twenty, and it's like or at least on at least in the studio. Yeah, maybe maybe not live. But you know, it's interesting how how some people their voice really changes and some doesn't.

29:26 Speaker 4: I imagine too. Part of that comes from, you know, a lot of musicians, you know, drink and smoke and that you know that'll change your voice certainly, But but I think for a lot of people to you know, their voices just kind of get deeper naturally as they get older. But yeah, some people just sound sound the same. It's it's weird, I think. I think Billy Joel is an example of that.

29:46 Speaker 5: Like it's true.

29:47 Speaker 4: Like if you if you go on YouTube and you pull up a Billy Joel video of him performing live in recent years, he kind of sounds the same as he did when you know, when that first album came out. It's it's it's weird. But all the time goes so fast. You want to play another one for us? Sure? I want to. I want to get at least one more live one and before we run out of time. If you are just joining us. Matt Litzinger is here with us, alive in studio, and I did confirm with him. I am saying his name right because I wasn't sure if it was everybody.

30:14 Speaker 5: Yeah, it's always short eyes.

30:16 Speaker 4: Anybody ever get it wrong like on a poster or something, not on.

30:18 Speaker 5: A poster, but not saying it out loud, Yeah, quite a bit.

30:21 Speaker 4: Yeah, Yeah, Matt Litzinger is here with us in studio.

30:25 Speaker 3: What are you?

30:26 Speaker 4: What are you gonna play for us?

30:27 Speaker 5: Yeah? So this next one's called I don't know much. It's on the record as well. It's it's a song I have two young kids and they ask a ton of questions. Yeah, and I've gone through this phase of like in my twenties, I felt like I had to have the answered everything all the time, And in my thirties, I'm really kind of okay with it. It's okay to just say I don't know, right, I'm more and more aware of the sense like when people try to tell you they do have all the answers everything, to be highly skeptical of that.

30:51 Speaker 5: Yes, and so this song is about just being able to go through life and being okay with not having answered everything.

30:56 Speaker 4: Oh, I like it all right.

31:07 Speaker 3: It seems like this life face.

31:11 Speaker 6: Getting rd about the day, people trying to figure.

31:17 Speaker 3: Out how.

31:20 Speaker 2: It got to be this way, because in the sage of information, the facts.

31:28 Speaker 3: Seems so passive.

31:32 Speaker 2: I'm standing with my mouth a gape, can't find those words to say. So I don't know much, and that's okay. I'm just hoping it's enough to give me through the day. Some pass lead back where they begin going in circles. It can drive you mad. There's a few things I know for sure. The rest I'm still searching for the sun. It's gonna rise each day and your love for me will never face. You love for me will never face.

32:32 Speaker 2: And I've got a few friends who have carried me on this road and they couldn't give a rip about the stuff I think I know, because we're all just grown up kids trying to figure this life out and being honest about them madness of Clara our Dows.

33:05 Speaker 6: I don't know much and that's okay. I'm just hoping it's enough to give me through the day.

33:14 Speaker 2: Some pass lead back where they be again.

33:19 Speaker 6: When circles, it can drive you mad. There's a few things I know for sure. The rest I'm still searching for.

33:31 Speaker 8: The sun is gonna rise each day, and you love for me will never face. You laugh for me will never face.

33:56 Speaker 6: I don't know much, and that's okay. I'm just hoping it enough to give it through today.

34:04 Speaker 2: Some paz lead back where they begain go in circles.

34:10 Speaker 6: It can drive you men.

34:12 Speaker 2: There's a few things I know for sure, And the rest I'm still searching for.

34:21 Speaker 8: The sun is gonnariz each day, and you love for me will never faced. You love for me will never fade.

34:38 Speaker 4: Oh I love that. I love that. What a great song. If you're just joining us Matt Litzinger is here with us, live in studio. What's that one called a gun?

34:45 Speaker 5: I don't know much.

34:46 Speaker 4: I don't know much. Great great song, great song. You're getting some love. In the chat room to Tom Russo, who's been on the show a few times, very very talented musician, says sounds great, nice lyrics, great voice and song. Thanks absolutely, and by the way, I owe you an email and I will get back to you, I promise. Dj Steve, also in the chat room, says, good morning Matt and Jenny. I am really enjoying this. Thank you sir, Thank you Dj Steve. Let's see, Yes, we do have Matt Litzinger live and studio with us, and we've been he's been playing some songs from that one's on the album too, I assume, right.

35:16 Speaker 10: Yeah.

35:17 Speaker 4: For those watching online the video component of the show, let me hold this up again for everybody. This is the album Keep It Burning, full length album from Matt Litzinger.

35:28 Speaker 3: This is all.

35:29 Speaker 4: This is all online too, right. People can get this.

35:31 Speaker 5: Online all the streaming services.

35:33 Speaker 4: Excellent, excellent, And what went into the decision to make physical copies too? Because not everyone does, although it seems like lately most of the guests that we have are are doing CDs. There was a period of time where it seemed like no one was doing CDs, and then now everyone is, which is great, great to see if some people are even releasing vinyl. But what went into the decision to release a physical copy?

35:57 Speaker 5: Yeah, so part of it was that I did a Kickstarter campaign and so just having some type of physical reward for it felt important. Yeah, And people took me up on that quite a bit too. Just kind of have like assigned even if it's just memorabilia and you never like open the cellophane to it, right, Just having that people really like that. And at live shows too, like being able to go away, like I like this experience and I want to take something home with me from it.

36:17 Speaker 3: Right.

36:18 Speaker 5: I don't even know how many people really have CD players. Like my vehicle doesn't have a CD player in it, Yeah, truck does. My old it's like a two thousand and six, but like my newer card doesn't have a CD player.

36:27 Speaker 4: Right. Right, way back when people were predicting the total death of CDs, I think what kind of kept CDs going was to a large degree, just you know, people still having CD players in their cars, and of course new cars now don't have them. But I think you're right too. People like having a physical copy, you know, especially if you're a big fan of somebody, and yeah, most of them probably, you know, they may not ever open it. They just want to have it to support you and to support your work. And that's my theory with vinyl too, because I think even fewer people have record players, but vinyl is well, I think I think twenty twenty, it was either twenty two or twenty three, was the first year that that vinyl it actually outsold CDs A chart for that, yeah, yeah, And I'm convinced that most people who purchase vinyl never open it, you know, they just if you're really a fan of an artist, you know, because you know who has a I mean some people have record players obviously, but but I think most people, yeah, they purchase it and they don't open it.

37:23 Speaker 4: They just want to have it. And if you're really a big fan of somebody, it makes sense to do that. Certainly for a part of.

37:28 Speaker 5: It might be self serving too, because I've always liked listening to full records. Yeah, and like I think that just goes back to like, was your only way to listen to things before before Spotify would recommend things after you listen to a track. So I like sitting especially from a songwriter perspective, how'd you sequence this? Like how do these songs tell a story together?

37:46 Speaker 4: I love that?

37:47 Speaker 5: And then being able to look at the liner notes, especially yes, like we all miss out on that now.

37:51 Speaker 4: Oh yeah, yeah, especially when Yeah, when I was a kid, I used to love listening to I've been looking at liner notes when I'd get a new CD. Yeah, just you know, seeing what inf you know, pre internet, just seeing what information I could glean from just from the liner notes, you know, which usually wasn't much. But if I was a really big fan of somebody, just anybody, I could you know, oh who was the uh engineer on on this? You know, you know, just any little bit of information, you know. But I'm a very curious person anyway, So anything I could learn from liner notes was great.

38:19 Speaker 4: Yeah, so that's excellent. Is this your first? Is this your first physical release this disc? Yes?

38:26 Speaker 5: Okay, yeah, yeah, so this would be the first. I made some like, you know, very homemade copies of early stuff, but this would be the first like professional release.

38:33 Speaker 4: Yeah. Yeah, no, that's excellent. You know, it's funny. Back when I first so there was a span of time when I first started interviewing musicians on radio shows and podcasts. There was a span of time where, like I said, nobody was really releasing CDs, but people would still give me. People would actually give me music on their CD instead of doing it like now where you just email your music to somebody. People would actually give me music for the show on a CD that wouldn't be that would not be professionally produced, and it would I couldn't even count the number of times someone would hand me a CD on their finger, you know what I mean, like like no case, no case.

39:07 Speaker 4: That would happen a lot, and it was always like, really, this is how you're giving this to me?

39:14 Speaker 1: You know.

39:14 Speaker 4: They'd write on it with the sharpie what it was and then hand you know, here's the CD for the you know you need this for the show, right, It's like, yeah, thanks. We actually have a CD player here. I think Rob is uh yeah, Rob has a veto from Grandit state of mind. I think he's the only one who actually uses it. I've never used it, but we do have a functioning CD player here. But no it's I think it's cool that you're doing that, and I like, now you mentioned too, I think this was off air you mentioned this.

39:38 Speaker 4: Your wife is a graphic artist.

39:39 Speaker 5: She is, Yeah, does she do all the artwork? So yeah, I had a my friend who's a photographer, Rebecca Scatting, did all the photography inside and out, and then my wife did the layout and all the design work.

39:49 Speaker 4: Okay, excellent, Yeah, yeah, no, that's great. That's great. And you brought us a couple of stickers too, which is good. Oh yeah, you mentioned your wife made those. Jenny loves stickers, as you can see from the back of her computer.

40:02 Speaker 4: That's right, that's right.

40:04 Speaker 6: We have time.

40:04 Speaker 4: You want to play one more, I'd love to. Okay, awesome if you're just joining us, we have Matt listeninger here with us live in studio. What are you gonna play? Yeah?

40:11 Speaker 5: So this is an older one. It's not on the album. It's called time Turner. So there's an old family story of playing board games and somebody asking someone to turn that little sand timer. It started this song idea in my head of like man, time slips away, and we've got a lot of songs about that. But how do I write it from this like appealing to a higher power to say, like, hey, can I just get a little bit more time? Can you slow this down a little bit? So it's a song about that, all right.

40:50 Speaker 2: Time turning on? She turned the time a little more slowly. I've been wasting my time today.

40:59 Speaker 6: Oh please, won't you have just a little pity because I could? There was a little time my way.

41:09 Speaker 11: And and time turner, won't you lend me your ear for a moment?

41:20 Speaker 6: That's why I can plead my case to you.

41:24 Speaker 2: Seems like I'm always running in circles a bird, and it's heavy in my.

41:31 Speaker 6: Moments a few.

41:49 Speaker 11: Time turner, won't you.

41:50 Speaker 6: Tell me when my time is over?

41:54 Speaker 8: Maybe I can still leave my mark.

41:57 Speaker 2: Greatest fear is waste all my time for my life fades in.

42:05 Speaker 5: To dark.

42:30 Speaker 2: And time turn on? Won't you turn the time a little more slowly? I've been wasting my time today.

42:45 Speaker 4: I think that one's my favorite.

42:47 Speaker 5: Oh thank you?

42:48 Speaker 4: Very relatable, too, very relatable. I love it. I love it. Matt Listener here with us alive in studio. That's uh, when when did you write that that? You said that one an early one.

42:58 Speaker 5: Yeah, that one's from probably back in two thousand twelve.

43:00 Speaker 4: Okay, oh wow, wow, yeah, very good, very good. Have you ever recorded that one?

43:05 Speaker 5: Yeah, it's on an EP called Up in the Woods EP?

43:07 Speaker 4: Okay, okay, outstanding. What do you have this weekend? Do you have any shows this weekend?

43:12 Speaker 5: Nope? Next one I have is in December and Planet two share.

43:16 Speaker 4: Oh, very good.

43:16 Speaker 5: End of the month. I think it's a twenty seventh okay, yeah, so it's I'm taking a.

43:19 Speaker 4: Little break during the winter. Do you kind of hibernate a little bit too and focus on writing and recording or do you still play.

43:25 Speaker 5: Especially I try to do that February project where I do a songwriting project. Oh Yeahbruary, because it's just the darkest, like depressing part of the year. It's like you might as well produce something out of it, you.

43:33 Speaker 4: Know, yeah, exactly, exactly. Yeah, I notice a lot of people kind of plus, you know, going and playing shows in the winter is hard because you never know what the weather's gonna do, and a lot of things experience here. It's cold and flu season, all of it, all of it. Yeah, is summer kind of your busiest time as far as playing.

43:52 Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, And it's just seeing people seem to have fun. Yeah, the summer too, you know they enjoy live music more. Yeah, like it seems like it.

43:58 Speaker 4: So yeah, absolutely, absolutely so we while speaking the time, I'm thinking about closing the segment with this year another one of your great studio tracks that you sent us. So it seems appropriate since you just seems like it might relate in some way to the song you just played. So, but what should people know about? Where to find you online? How to keep up with everything that you're doing? Yeah?

44:21 Speaker 5: Sure, so I get a profile on Spotify just mattlet Singer, and then my website mattlet Singer music dot Com is where I usually try to put everything. Yeah, redesigning it. So it should be redesigned in the next week or so. It's very very close to being done.

44:33 Speaker 3: Oh cool.

44:34 Speaker 5: I think the last time it was redone was twenty ten.

44:36 Speaker 4: Oh really? Yeah? Oh wow? Do you do all at yourself?

44:39 Speaker 5: I do yes, as my day job. I'm a web developer.

44:41 Speaker 4: Oh no kidding? Yeah, oh very good, yeah, excellent, excellent, So we will will close out. Oh you should spell your last name too, sure?

44:47 Speaker 5: Yeah, so last name l I t z I n G e er.

44:51 Speaker 4: It's actually well, you know, it's funny. It's it's obviously not a common last name, but it is spelled pretty much the way you would expect it today, which is I think so people struggle with my last name all the time. Connorton is very unusual and uh people people misspell it.

45:06 Speaker 5: But a lot of Matts though, a lot of mats never a minister in area where there's not another match?

45:11 Speaker 4: Are there a lot of Litzingers?

45:13 Speaker 5: You know, I've met hardly any? Yeah, which is funny because online I compete with two other Mattlets singers. One's a real litor and one's in like creative ad buying. Oh no kidding, Yeah, so like its se o value. There's some out there, but I've never met a lot in real life.

45:26 Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, definitely. Uh, definitely a rare name, but that's good. A rare name, you have less chance of somebody popping up and saying, hey, I'm also a musician with this name and I was doing it before you and you know and everything that goes with that. So so that's that's definitely an advantage. But we will close out with this great track. This is called This Year from Matt Litz Singer and Matt thank you again.

45:46 Speaker 5: Yeah, thanks so much for having me.

45:47 Speaker 4: You got it.

45:56 Speaker 3: I'm looking up.

46:00 Speaker 10: It.

46:01 Speaker 3: Swip the monsters out from under my bed. I'm moving on from what might have been.

46:09 Speaker 9: I'm getting ready to shift this skin.

46:13 Speaker 3: All this time that I've wasted, it's.

46:18 Speaker 2: Given me a reason to say, this year, I'm gonna do things different.

46:26 Speaker 3: I'm gonna see the hard things to my gaze has said, and I'm not gonnaway. I'll be standing here.

46:36 Speaker 6: It's true.

46:38 Speaker 3: I'm gonna try to do it better this year. Just wait and see.

46:52 Speaker 2: I'll take you by surprise. This new me is more than just theop. Guys, it's all me. Once, give yourself some graties, if not for some of your mistakes. Each year's a brand new start. It's given me a reason to say, this year, I'm gonna do things different, gonna see the hard things go what Jesus said, and I'm not gonna waver.

47:28 Speaker 3: I'll be stand and hear it's true. This year. I'm done with the excuses.

47:37 Speaker 6: But ket me shackle for too long.

47:41 Speaker 2: I'll reached a point where I was down for the count, but I'll live to see a new day.

47:47 Speaker 3: Darn.

47:49 Speaker 2: I'm gonna try to do it better this year. This cold weather in store for the Northeast, I might.

48:11 Speaker 3: Not see the sun for a couple of weeks.

48:19 Speaker 10: Maybe I won't do all the things I set out to do, but I'll take a few steps.

48:31 Speaker 3: And I'll go a little too, Because.

48:37 Speaker 2: This year I'm gonna do things different. I'm gonna see the hard things through. My caze is said, and I'm not gonna wait.

48:50 Speaker 3: I'll be standing here. It's true.

48:54 Speaker 2: This year round done with the excuses they ken me shackle for to law. I reached a point where I was down for the counber. I lived to see a new day dawn.

49:10 Speaker 9: I'm gonna try to do it better. Lord, I hope I do better this year.

49:22 Speaker 6: This year,