Matt Connarton Unleashed: Mercury Burns First

0:00 Speaker 1: The band is Mercury Burns first, they are here with us. We've got three of the guys from Mercury Burns first. One of these guys I know very very well.

0:08 Speaker 2: But Jay, let's start with you.

0:09 Speaker 1: And we'll kind of go through and you can each tell us who you are and what you do in the band.

0:14 Speaker 3: How's going. I'm Jay, I'm the vocalist. I don't play any instruments in this particular project, but I played the vocal courts.

0:23 Speaker 2: Yes, yes you do.

0:25 Speaker 3: I'm from locally, from from Manchester area, yep, been you know, playing in different bands around the scene and most of my life.

0:35 Speaker 2: Yeah, for as long as I've known you, certainly. Yeah, yeah, hopefully this is the one. Yes, yes, I think it is. I think it is. And you, sir. My name is Dan.

0:45 Speaker 4: I play bass in the band Local from Manchester, Okay, right up the street.

0:50 Speaker 5: So yeah, it's a it's a pleasure.

0:52 Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, thanks for coming. Great to have you here.

0:55 Speaker 1: I'm a fellow bass player, so absolutely natural kinship with you and you sir.

1:01 Speaker 5: My name is Adam Grant, the guitar player from Conquered and this project is just kind of conceived from years of just playing music and being in bands.

1:12 Speaker 1: And yeah, and here we are yeah yeah. So how long has Mercury Burns first existed? This is pretty new rights roughly two years almost now Okay, okay.

1:23 Speaker 2: Is this your Is this your first release of this?

1:24 Speaker 5: Uh?

1:25 Speaker 2: This EP?

1:25 Speaker 5: Yeah? Yep?

1:26 Speaker 1: Okay, all right, yeah, I really like so we were kind of talking off air about what to which track to open the segment with, and I and uh Embraces my personal favorite. I love the vibe, the the guitars and that this there's something there's something different.

1:42 Speaker 2: About it that I think is really really cool.

1:44 Speaker 1: And uh, you know, Jay, I've always loved your vocals. Uh what like, like, what is your your kind of I mean obviously, you know, broadly speaking, we put you in the metal category, but you guys have kind of a is there a sub genre that that you're trying to to fit into? I mean, it's unique, the the EP, it's it's it's a little different than I can't think of anyone. You sound exactly like you know what I mean, There's there's something.

2:09 Speaker 3: We are Like I personally have approached this project a little differently as anything that like comes along I want to try to turn into you know, turn into something. Yeah, I've been very like guarded in and picky about like what I actually want to like work on as a song. And and in this I'm not necessarily making music for just myself, uh anymore, Like I'm taking everything into consideration, Like I there there might be something that I'm not too into that like someone else and the band is into that like ends up growing on me.

2:43 Speaker 3: Yeah, and it you know, turns out to be my favorite, my favorite thing. So it's it's more of a throw throw it at the wall, see what sticks, and not necessarily trying to stick to one type or style or hopefully at hopefully by the end of you know, our our second third album, we've got a little bit of every every genre in there.

3:03 Speaker 5: Yeah, And I think that was kind of like the general idea of putting this CP out in these particular songs first was to show more of like this, we're not just a heavy band. We have a little bit more to offer than you know, and I don't think we really wanted to pigeonhole ourselves into like the metal corner of music.

3:21 Speaker 2: So yeah, now that makes sense.

3:24 Speaker 1: So it sounds like you already have more and more songs that you're working on or you're going to be.

3:30 Speaker 2: Yeah.

3:30 Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean it's obviously, as we all know, writing is a slow process, but uh yeah yeah. Recording, Yeah yeah, I mean we've been cramming a lot in in the last year, just writing and recording and you know, just trying to get this ship sailing a little bit.

3:46 Speaker 3: So we've yet to even play our first live show. Oh okay, Yeah, we've really stuck to working on the hone in our craft and working on the songs and at least getting this EP recorded and out there, you know, so we at least have a product to present to people.

4:04 Speaker 2: Right.

4:05 Speaker 1: Where does the name come from? By the way, the name is so cool. Mercury Burns first.

4:08 Speaker 3: So initially our idea was to do a concept album, and it's it's stemmed from that, like that the concept was going to be when uh, you know, in the you know, in the distant future, when when the sun kind of expands and spells up, you know, the inner inner solar system. Mercury Burns first.

4:26 Speaker 2: Yes, yes, and.

4:29 Speaker 3: So that that idea came. The idea from the name kind of came from the idea from the album, which we may or may not have abandoned at least for at least for now. I think over the course of our career, we'll probably have that concept album put into the other albums instead of you know, focusing everything on one story and you know, again pigeonhole, pigeonholing ourselves into like being forced to write a certain thing. We just kind of want to do what comes comes along naturally when it when it comes along.

5:00 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I do feel like, you know, listening to the lyrics, and and you've always been a very interesting you know, back from your days and function, you know, your your your lyrics have always been really interesting. You know, it's you've got to kind of pay attention to what you're saying because you know, you've you've got a lot, You've got a lot that you're trying to express and and I've always been I've always been really interested in your lyrics. The lyrics on on some of these tracks is something sort of apocalyptic, so I'm not surprised.

5:31 Speaker 3: When it from that. You know, we started out as it was all going to kind of be about that.

5:36 Speaker 6: Really yuh yeah, there's there there is there is that that vibe to it, and and Embrace is particularly interesting to me because there's there's a texture to.

5:50 Speaker 1: That song that's like I haven't heard anything quite like this, you know, it's it's it's really cool. Are are all the themes to these songs kind of like that? Or or are are there like what are what are some things that you explore these lyrics.

6:07 Speaker 3: If if if this was a concept album, it would be very like scattered. They're not in order, yeah know what I mean. Yeah, so they're very far apart in the story. Yeah, but they probably would fit into into it. Yeah, but they're not necessarily purposely. We we just wanted to give the broadest spectrum of like what what we sound like?

6:27 Speaker 2: Yeah?

6:27 Speaker 1: Yeah, and then so when you do so you haven't played out yet, but do you do you have anything uh?

6:33 Speaker 2: Planned?

6:33 Speaker 3: Yeah, we have. We have a couple of shows lined up with with The Big Son and Adam McGrath. One of our shows also features the Forest Forgets.

6:44 Speaker 2: Oh, we had them on the show. They're amazing.

6:46 Speaker 3: Yeah. Our first show is uh February twenty second at the Gateway in Lawrence, Massachusetts. That's with The Big Son and Adam McGrath. Cool doors are seven, it's ten dollars a person. Twenty one plus just tickets at the door. We don't have any uh any tickets on sale for that.

7:04 Speaker 2: Yeah.

7:05 Speaker 3: The next show is.

7:08 Speaker 2: March March eighteen, Mark March upstairs. Nice, yeah, excellent.

7:12 Speaker 3: That you can get tickets for on the on the Middle East website. We got links to it on our on our Facebook, kind of posted it all over the place right now, so yeah, yeah, that that you can buy tickets ahead of time there.

7:24 Speaker 5: I think there's twelve in advanced Yeah.

7:28 Speaker 1: Okay, okay, Now you're gonna be playing the whole the whole EP, all five tracks, yes plus yeah, yeah and then some Yeah, so you've got other do you guys? Are you guys gonna be doing any covers or are you just sticking to originals.

7:40 Speaker 3: Or there's a there's a possibility of covers which we're trying to fill up our time slot, which yeah, it's gonna be pretty close, so you might get surprised with a couple of covers in there.

7:49 Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah that's cool. Now.

7:51 Speaker 1: So so uh, Jay, obviously I know some of your musical history. You were, but you've been you've been in bands between you know, because for people who don't know, I mean, we're going back like twenty year is you know function of course, and then but you've had other projects between that one and this one, correct.

8:05 Speaker 3: Yeah, I've been in some smaller you know, like like cover bands, and I was in a Christian based heavy metal band for a little bit called Slate Face.

8:14 Speaker 1: I think I remember that because i'd run into you. I forget where I've run into you somewhere. I think it was probably during the number of years ago, and I think you.

8:21 Speaker 2: Had told me about that. Yeah, yeah, okay.

8:25 Speaker 3: And uh, I took a little bit of hiatus between then and in this, and uh really just kind of focused on what what I want out of you know, like if I really think this is probably gonna be my uh magnum opus, like my what I really put everything into like anything I've been holding back, you know, it's time there's I'm not getting any younger. Yeah, So I just really I think all of us are putting everything we have into into this, uh, all our eggs in this basket.

8:58 Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah.

8:59 Speaker 1: And I'm curious too with you guys, like I assume you've both played in other bands before this.

9:04 Speaker 4: And yeah, I played, you know, all through high school and college bands and then you know, life started and I, you know, I still played, but didn't take it as seriously.

9:15 Speaker 3: Yeh.

9:16 Speaker 4: And then the keyboardist in our band, Jeremy, me and him and playing music together for ten twelve years, you know, just once a week get together, a bunch of different guys, play covers. So you know, we we played, you know, we played our last shows like around Halloween. You know, so we play you know, once a week. And then you know, and I was able to get him in the bands. I think Joel said we need someone on keys. I was like, oh, I know a guy, so you know, so and we've been playing together, you know, every week for the past.

9:48 Speaker 4: I came into the bands about a year and a half ago. They had an original bass player. Oh okay, and then yeah, I came check them out. And then you know, as bands do things, people go different ways. And came down and played and thankfully okay, yeah, fun like sure, did yeah show up next week?

10:06 Speaker 2: Yeah?

10:06 Speaker 4: Yeah, you know, and it's great, especially you know, we're getting up there in Asian to be able to work our schedules out so that we can actually get together and do something that we really enjoy, and ye are building something towards it's it's so much fun. I really hope this goes places for us.

10:22 Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, no, I think I think you're onto something great and how about you?

10:26 Speaker 5: So for me, I mean basically, the whole music thing started out as an angsty teen playing playing hardcore and punk music locally here in a band called Strike Three.

10:37 Speaker 2: I remember Strike Three.

10:39 Speaker 5: Yeah wow.

10:40 Speaker 3: They were like when we were in high school. Like they were like the first kind of people that I knew that were ever so like they're partially they're partially.

10:47 Speaker 5: Yeah, so myself the reason why I'm a.

10:49 Speaker 3: Musician, oh wow, because like I went to their shows and like saw that, Hey, you know these guys that I go to school with are doing this, Like why not?

10:57 Speaker 2: Oh that's cool.

10:58 Speaker 5: Our drummer jol Is also he was all so in that band, so we you know, we had done all that stuff and been a part of that scene. And I think once you're a part of that scene like that, that lifeblood of just being a part of that music and just the energy just never goes away, like yeah, it's always in you. And like so you know I did that and then took a break for a while obviously, like raised my family and uh, and then some years went by, tried to put some stuff together. Yeah, nothing really came to fruition.

11:34 Speaker 5: Then I did that I'm in a cover band as well, just to keep keep the fingers moving. And then now it was just like one day I just finally went on Facebook and I was like, who wants to play music? And Jay responded, and you know a couple other people and we just this is where we're at, and it just kind of like put this together, and like Jay said, it's kind this is kind of like we're all in right now. Let's do this because like you said, we're not getting.

12:00 Speaker 2: Younger right right, So.

12:04 Speaker 1: No, I think you're onto something really good though, you know this, Like I said, I listen to loly P. I think it's it's really good. Tell me about the I'm curious too about the cover art. I like the cover art. It definitely matches the it matches the name and the vibe of of of what we're what we're hearing from.

12:21 Speaker 5: So that that came to place. Our drummer Joel found this guy. His name's Matt Barnes. He's from the UK actually okay, and he does like a bunch of like, uh, I guess it's like horrors like book covers and movie art, and so he contacted him and he's the one who actually put this together for us.

12:41 Speaker 1: So yeah, no, it looks really cool. How much how much direction did you have to give him or or did you just.

12:47 Speaker 5: Tell him just I think Joel, like Joel kind of had the whole like he was the brain child behind that artwork, and we were just kind of give him the input and it was kind of like his idea because it started out with the whole concept thing a little bit, yeah, and then it just kind of turned into that, and you know, we went back and forth a little bit with the ideas and that's that's what we ended up with.

13:09 Speaker 7: Yeah.

13:09 Speaker 1: I encourage people to if you haven't seen it, go online and check it out. It's yeah, you know, it kind of looks it looks like it could be a movie poster, you know, But yeah, it's it's cool. It's very striking. And I like the reds anyway because red's my favorite color. But but yeah, no, I like it a lot. Like was that something where when you guys saw it liked did everybody in the band immediately like it or did you have to kind of think about it?

13:33 Speaker 5: I don't think so.

13:35 Speaker 3: It actually send us like a stock photo of like the guy sitting out front asaut and there was like a couple of things that like I wasn't I wasn't a fan of and they really they changed it and now I mean, you know, yeah, I love it. So yeah, yeah, they like there was a little like the host coming out of his out of his helmet was like a little phallic. Oh really, I don't know if we're going you know, it's not gonna be the them are going for it.

14:02 Speaker 1: Although would get people, yeah talking about it. Good good conversation piece, but no, I do understand.

14:08 Speaker 8: Yeah.

14:08 Speaker 4: I mean Joel, I think does does a lot of the art direction too. He's a very artistic guy. You know, he released his own comic book and you know he paintings, he art, Yeah, has a really great eye yeah for art. I mean he yeah, he's great.

14:25 Speaker 2: He's put out a comic book, yeah.

14:27 Speaker 5: Get comic a couple of years ago.

14:29 Speaker 2: Oh very cool, yeah, j ol Joel Okay.

14:32 Speaker 4: Yeah, but he said art shows and boss and stuff with his painting and everything. So I think we have a lot of different directions we can go in with this with you know, not only the music, but the art and the live show. Yeah, you know, I'm I think we have a good direction.

14:46 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, it's it's good to have, you know, kind of a be able to approach it from different you know, different aspects and elements, like the art, you know, the the art work would because not everyone thinks about that, you know, some people don't really put a lot of thought into that part of it. But we live in an era where, you know, with social media and everything, you've really got to in terms of branding, you know, you've really got to think about all of that, all these different aspects and elements.

15:14 Speaker 2: You know.

15:14 Speaker 1: It's it's it's a lot different than it used to be in that sense, you know. So so yeah, I think that's I think that's really cool. And is now right now is everything only available on streaming or are are you making physical CDs?

15:28 Speaker 5: So we have right now we have CDs already available which you can get on band camp. We have vinyls coming, uh March nice should be like mid to end of March should be arriving for those Oh very cool, very.

15:42 Speaker 1: Cool expensive though right to do vinyl? Yes, I've I've heard it's it's very expensive, but no, I think, I think that's great that you're doing that. I'm I'm imagining that artwork on a on a full vinyl and oh, that's that's gotta be Uh, that's gonna look really cool.

15:59 Speaker 2: I assume it's gonna be the same.

16:00 Speaker 5: Image for the image.

16:02 Speaker 1: Okay, not on some people they try to do like a different image for the vinyl to make it like a limited edition thing.

16:07 Speaker 2: But it's like, that's already limited edition. It's vinyl, you.

16:10 Speaker 5: Know, be orange vinyl.

16:13 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, nice, nice, No, that's that's awesome.

16:17 Speaker 2: That's awesome.

16:18 Speaker 1: I have a theory that most people who buy new vinyl never actually play it, but they just buy it because if you know, if you're really a fan of somebody, it's cool to have, you know.

16:30 Speaker 2: Like we have. We opened the show today with a new track from Mike Frasier.

16:35 Speaker 1: He's a singer songwriter from Seattle, and we did the world radio premiere of his new song in April days. But when Jenny and I met him, remember that we met him at the Shaft Skin he was touring, and he gave us a vinyl. He was very excited to give us his vinyl record and and and it looked great and everything, and you know, the artwork was cool and it's like, okay, awesome, But but then there's that, you know, like I always have that conversation with myself in my mind. Should I tell him I have nothing to play on or or or does it matter or does he care whether I have something to play it on or not?

17:06 Speaker 2: He clearly he wants us to have it.

17:08 Speaker 3: I feel like often in that situation, someone might go out and buy a record player, so like people people give vinyl and like it'll sit for a while, but then you're like, you know what, I want to play this? Yeah, yeah, you know, you see see a little record player sitting at a yard sale, and you know, maybe you'll grab.

17:23 Speaker 2: It right right.

17:24 Speaker 1: Yeah, that's true, that's true. We don't even have a CD player at home. Really, we have one here at the station.

17:29 Speaker 2: I think.

17:30 Speaker 1: I don't know if you guys know Rob as a veto he owes granted state of mind, but he actually uses it or I think he's the only one.

17:37 Speaker 2: What's that. I forget that it's even there. But yeah, you're right. But I do think though, there's there's.

17:43 Speaker 1: A lot of value in physical media because even you know, even if somebody never plays it if they just want it because they're a fan. You know, people like to have the artwork, They like to look at liner notes and all that kind of stuff.

17:54 Speaker 3: That was kind of our idea behind, you know, getting the physical copies of stuff, because it's like, you know, like the average person's probably gonna just dream it, you know, or if they're going they buy the album, they'll buy it on you know, Spotify or iTunes. Yeah, but you know the people that you know, know us already care about us and like want to have a piece of our art, like well, you know, they buy the CD and yeah there or the album the record.

18:16 Speaker 2: Yeah exactly.

18:17 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, because there was a period where you know, CDs, like nobody was doing CDs.

18:21 Speaker 4: You know, there's still there's still something cool but grabbing the CD. I still have racks of my CDs. Yeah, grab one and play it front to back while you're you're taking the drive, you know.

18:31 Speaker 3: Yeah, it's like I feel like that the EP sounds better in my car on the CD than any other any other thing I've listened in to it on. So it's just there's something about that. Yeah, I still have a CD player in my car.

18:43 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, oh, excellent, excellent, Well we should play another track.

18:47 Speaker 2: I'll let you guys pick what should we what should we play next?

18:52 Speaker 5: We opened with embrace Let's do Deaf and Blind?

18:55 Speaker 2: Deaf and Blind?

18:57 Speaker 5: All right?

18:58 Speaker 1: Uh, if you are just joining us on this chilly Saturday morning, here we got Mercury Burns. First is with us live and studio or part of the band. How many guys are in the band?

19:08 Speaker 2: Is it five? Or six?

19:09 Speaker 3: Six? Six?

19:09 Speaker 2: Six?

19:10 Speaker 3: Yeah?

19:10 Speaker 2: So what does everybody?

19:11 Speaker 1: Okay, so we know what the three of you do. It's unusual to see a band that large. What are the other three guys all do? One's?

19:16 Speaker 2: Uh?

19:17 Speaker 5: So we have Joel's our drummer, Max, Max is the other guitar player. Okay, also my son. Kind of an interesting story. Oh and then we have Jeremy. He plays synth and keys.

19:31 Speaker 2: Oh okay, that must be cool playing with your son in a band.

19:35 Speaker 5: Yeah. It was one of those things like when we were assembling the whole lineup, it was just he came and you know, he's he has had a lot of interesting guitar and i'eah like, well that's a no brainer, like just come on, let's go.

19:47 Speaker 2: Oh wow.

19:48 Speaker 5: So and actually the a lot of the guitar work the I guess I said they were the better guitar solos on the record were his, which for Embrace, and the guitar solo Hindsight was his as well.

20:01 Speaker 2: Kid.

20:02 Speaker 5: Yeah, so those all written by him, So oh very cool. Did you did you teach him or I would like to say yes, but no, I think the Internet had more to do with that than anything else.

20:12 Speaker 1: Yeah, so it's amazing now like with YouTube, you can you know, take lessons right online.

20:18 Speaker 5: Yeah.

20:18 Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, it's so cool because nowadays it seems like they're you know, guitar solos have kind of gone away in a lot of mainstream sure rock, and I think these are some of the best guitar solos that I've I've heard in a long time.

20:29 Speaker 9: Yeah.

20:30 Speaker 3: Things very tasteful and I agree, yeah, I agree absolutely.

20:35 Speaker 2: All right, let's give this a spin. So this is called Deaf and Blind and the band is Mercury Burns First.

21:03 Speaker 10: College, DISSI Sho skis O All My Dad, The City shows based off Station When Sey, Superstitions of the Ship, Winday.

21:19 Speaker 11: Can Brost a Tusko.

21:23 Speaker 8: The Can't Make Man.

21:29 Speaker 11: Where two Tame shows, The Camel.

21:41 Speaker 8: Y God.

21:48 Speaker 7: Stays rock show Gallery, drowning.

22:05 Speaker 11: Asso shot off not to estimation, snors.

22:16 Speaker 12: Say, set files, sign doctors turns for a call.

22:29 Speaker 11: To total shots twelve class.

22:35 Speaker 8: Doll. Are you trying to tell Nail?

22:44 Speaker 12: So tell friend black man ta cairnly Fui So time stay?

23:23 Speaker 12: Why stay?

23:30 Speaker 11: Okay?

23:33 Speaker 12: So whisn all t time shouting to cast?

24:14 Speaker 2: That'll get the blood pumping on a cold Saturday morning. I love it.

24:18 Speaker 1: That is The band is Mercury Burns First and that is called Deaf and Blind. And we've got three of the guys from Mercury Burns First here with us live in studio. Great track, guys, I love the energy of that. Thanks really really good. We have jay Dan and Adam here from the band joining us. And where do you guys record?

24:37 Speaker 5: Where?

24:37 Speaker 2: Where? Where did the where did you record the EP?

24:40 Speaker 5: So we did this at right actually right around the corner at black Heart Sound Studio.

24:44 Speaker 2: Oh nice. We had Eric Sotter on the show. I don't know, maybe six months ago.

24:50 Speaker 1: It all becomes a blur, but but I told him when we had him on, I said, it's great to have you on because your name comes up all the time on the show because his name does. He comes up all the time, so many of the guests we that have recorded with him, and everything that comes out of there sounds amazing.

25:04 Speaker 5: Yeah, he did a really good job, and he actually helped out quite a bit, like just pulling some of this stuff to the loose ends that we didn't have ready to go.

25:11 Speaker 3: So yeah, there are even little little parts of like solo is that he kind of gave us ideas for that, like uh kind of you know, spiced it up a little bit.

25:21 Speaker 5: And then yeah, it's just stuff that you just don't think about because someone else has got a set of years on it and you're like, oh, that's actually sounds a lot better than I thought it did.

25:29 Speaker 13: Yeah.

25:30 Speaker 4: Yeah, and we're recording live just in our in our studio, you know, we just pump it out and you know, not not a whole lot of mastering and stuff like that. So finally when we're in the studio and perfecting and he's picking up on other little nuances as you're recording track by track, you know, and gave us some good ideas. So it was it was awesome working with him. Yeah, his name comes up all the time. He was at the barber the other day.

25:52 Speaker 5: You know, it's like, oh yeah, I know her.

25:54 Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely, no, he's he's remarkable at what he does.

25:57 Speaker 3: He did a great job.

25:58 Speaker 1: Absolutely. How long was the process of recording these Uh?

26:04 Speaker 5: I mean it it started like, uh, it was dragged out because I think initially we thought we were just gonna go right in there and pump these songs out and be done with it. But yeah, it took probably a better part of like four or five months to just because and it was like just odd, like a couple of days here and there. It wasn't like consistent. Yeah, it was spaced out, So it was spaced out. But I think it was just also just the learning curve of being in the studio and being like, oh, like we actually need to take some time and do this the right way.

26:35 Speaker 2: Yeah.

26:37 Speaker 1: That makes sense though, because you know, like we were talking about earlier, this what you're doing here is fairly complex. It's not you know, it's not just three chord rock.

26:44 Speaker 3: You know, it's yeah, and there's and you know, there's six six gears in the machine.

26:48 Speaker 2: So it's yeah, yeah exactly, and and it.

26:51 Speaker 3: Really it's been running smoothly pretty much the whole time. There's not a lot of conflict or anybody stepping on anybody's toes. That's great, It's it's gone really well.

27:01 Speaker 13: Yeah.

27:02 Speaker 1: Yeah, because I would think, you know, with six guys too, you've got so you've got six different schedules to work with and everything.

27:08 Speaker 2: I mean, I would think it would be challenging, but it sounds like it's been.

27:11 Speaker 3: We finally just downloaded this this calendar app where everybody can like put out their blackout dates. We're finally getting a little organized to know like where. Yeah, we'll find out how busy Dan is.

27:24 Speaker 5: A lot going on, But I mean for the most part though, our regular practices have been pretty much locked down. I think it's just the level of commitment that we're at right now. We're all really committed to doing this, and I think that was the thing, was like, you know, practices are definite. Everything else will figure out.

27:41 Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, how do you do you guys?

27:45 Speaker 1: Are you able to have practices where it's all six of you on a regular basis.

27:49 Speaker 3: Normally we can all get there once, you know, once a week. Yeah, We've always had it up in the air that that we can we'll have an optional second practice, which we kind of have never.

27:59 Speaker 2: Never been themselves up on.

28:02 Speaker 8: Yeah.

28:02 Speaker 3: Yeah, I think now that we have some shows coming up, will probably you know, between now and then, we'll probably throw an extra practice in here here and there to work on the actual.

28:10 Speaker 1: Like yeah, you know the show. Yeah, yeah, now, very cool, very cool. What what went into the when you decided to work with Eric Sotter?

28:22 Speaker 2: What went into that?

28:23 Speaker 12: Like?

28:24 Speaker 1: Were you examining various options or what or was he the obvious choice right from the beginning.

28:29 Speaker 5: I think initially when I when we started looking at studios, there were quite there's obviously quite a few to choose from between here in Massachusetts and oh yeah, I mean I had my sights set on a few down in mass but it was just a matter It's the travel time and all that. And it was also trying to find someone that was gonna be able to hear what we're doing right like we and I'm sure there's a plenty of studios out there that probably could have handled this, but I we definitely wanted the insight of somebody who's already done some heavy stuff.

28:59 Speaker 5: Yeah, and that was kind of the where we found Eric.

29:03 Speaker 2: So yeah, yeah, and what about the mastering?

29:07 Speaker 5: Did you no so The mastering was actually done by West West Side Music in New York by Alan Dutchess. Okay, which he's done so many albums and this and that.

29:18 Speaker 2: It's gonna say the name is familiar.

29:20 Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean he's done everybody that's ever been on the radio from what I could see from his portfolio. But it was like one of those things when I was looking at places to have it done, it was like where did these Where did this record get done? Where did that record get done? And then I contacted him and he was like the nicest guy ever, and it was just they took care of everything for us and it was great.

29:42 Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, no, that's excellent. Yeah, it came out, came out really well.

29:47 Speaker 1: Do you plan to you know, obviously you're you're already thinking about or I don't know how far you are in the process of the next Obviously you've you've got more songs, right, so you're already.

29:57 Speaker 3: Yeah. I feel like through through this process we've learned a lot. We already kind of like from the beginning, we've Adam has been recording our our live sessions. Yeah, and you know we've just kind of he's he's been honing his craft on mixing and that on our you know, just our practices. Yeah, I feel like if we're gonna do like a full album, we would maybe look to get that done under like a maybe a label, someone paying for it, yeah, or more likely just releasing singles ourselves.

30:30 Speaker 2: Yeah.

30:31 Speaker 1: Yeah, it's you know, we live in a time where you've got so many options as far as how you how you release music.

30:36 Speaker 2: You know, you can put out an EP, you can put out a full album. You can do I guess you know.

30:42 Speaker 1: Now they're calling it the waterfall effect where you release, you know, instead of releasing an album and then singles, you release the singles and then the singles eventually become an album.

30:51 Speaker 5: Yeah.

30:51 Speaker 2: Yeah, there's so many ways to do it now, and with Spotify and everything.

30:55 Speaker 3: Yeah, because I feel like the songs that we wrote along with with the songs that are on the EP kind of fit they would fit together as like a full length album. Yeah, They're all kind of in the same vein, and like, you know, anybody that comes to see our show, we'll kind of we'll see it's it's we worked to make it kind of flowing, yeah piece.

31:17 Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, no, that makes sense, has I I assume that.

31:25 Speaker 1: I mean when the band started, was was this kind of what you guys had in mind, because it's been a couple of years right since the band start.

31:34 Speaker 3: I mean, you know, working as you know, a promoter and for me in the past that we didn't even have an album until the very end and we split up once. It was so it was like we did where I wanted to do that the other way around, like start with something that we could actually like give the people instead of just like the only way you can see us is the come is come see us, right right? And uh so yeah, it was it was it was pretty intentional to to get the album done before we like, you know, we we weren't really interested in just playing every dive bar every day of the week.

32:08 Speaker 3: You know. The function was the house band at the Bomb Shelter, and we played like three days a week at the same omber the bar. So that was not what we were looking to do with this. Yeah.

32:19 Speaker 1: Yeah, now I think, Uh, I think the way you're approaching it is, uh is excellent.

32:24 Speaker 2: Uh we wanna play Uh we can play another one. Uh what should we what should we play?

32:29 Speaker 5: Let's do hindsight do We'll do Uh?

32:31 Speaker 1: We'll do hindsight. Okay, and if you are just joining us, we have Mercury Burns. First three of the guys from the band here with us uh in studio and yeah, let's give this a spin. This is from the EP the self that LEDDP. This is called hindsight.

33:07 Speaker 11: I find little cars, no walls me this long. It's not low.

33:19 Speaker 12: Go car live dolls doing what he's on again and where our stands the way there's guy was chops do scus it's start guy.

33:51 Speaker 11: So you the choice car sing their face him on the fire fires. Ladies and girls have.

34:03 Speaker 12: To roll know there welcomes two snoes around their shoulders about yam despite the world.

34:19 Speaker 11: Car smoking small, I'm always missed with sign gone, We're twenty twenty two. Sad sea side the tall as long as.

35:03 Speaker 13: Wrong, I'm always burst side gone.

35:09 Speaker 12: You're twenty twenty two sail see nac girl sign.

35:17 Speaker 11: The freaking my bird talks sail.

35:21 Speaker 8: Say to this ball.

35:24 Speaker 11: You fery cord the doing world. I'm telling my baseball were st Cols.

35:36 Speaker 8: We all l.

35:39 Speaker 11: One the other change because.

35:41 Speaker 12: I'm there, little scared, what a fool.

35:47 Speaker 11: Little chasing horse. The fuck it's a man of fuse to stand always that won't be study.

36:00 Speaker 12: Want a show, Poli stars, facks walk or Penny bars and were on it.

36:06 Speaker 11: It's water and we don't be a wall.

36:14 Speaker 8: The three.

36:16 Speaker 12: Man t s fall to Fall, don't fell. We card doing work on change Storm. We have being worn for Mestoke Beyond, but.

36:36 Speaker 11: Not all change cause it nuts can.

36:42 Speaker 8: Plays so long chapter.

36:46 Speaker 12: The Fox walk for mad pos steps always that will restore the.

36:56 Speaker 11: Poor shall pool stuffs.

37:11 Speaker 2: That is cool.

37:12 Speaker 1: That is called hindsight. The band is Mercury Burns. First, we've got three of the guys from the band here with us in studio. I was telling these guys off air, I think that would be a very strong radio single, really really catchy.

37:24 Speaker 2: It's got a cool vibe to it. But yeah, excellent, excellent job. Guys. Do you do you do you each have your own favorite of the of these of these tracks, do you each have one that really stands out for you?

37:35 Speaker 3: I mean it comes around like I keep I feel like I have like a favorite, you know, different each week is a different favorite. Like mine started out as embrace Yeah yeah, and uh respond is our heaviest song, and that's you know, like it's it's a different vein from the kind of the few that we played, so like, yeah, it's hard. It's hard to put that against like, uh, the song we just played, They're they're apples and oranges, like I would say, like that's my favorite, Like yeah, yeah, but but Respond is my favorite heavy song.

38:12 Speaker 3: Okay, okay, it's it's yeah, it varies.

38:16 Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, what about you Dan.

38:18 Speaker 4: Yeah, I asked to embrace this my favorite song. I love that just kind of the the more mellow vibe and yeah, yeah it hops into you know, a lot heavier late later on. Yeah, from playing I think Respond is one of my favorites to play. I got a little bass and drum break down midway for me and Joel, So that's that's really fun to play.

38:37 Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, what about you Adam?

38:38 Speaker 5: I mean for me, it's basically all of them. I think it's just because we've we've poured so much energy into them and just seeing like where they're, where they're coming and going, and the overall development of the songs themselves, and you know, especially when you have, like you said, six guys in one band and coming from the concepts of where the song started and garage band, because that's usually how we do it. We'll put the arrangement, a quick arrangement together for everyone to listen to, yeah, and then to see it when unfold.

39:06 Speaker 5: That's why it's kind of like cool, this is great, Like yeah, so I don't have a particular favorite.

39:12 Speaker 3: Okay, Okay, they were all really we're really proud of of each theres they're all our children and they all have a special special too.

39:21 Speaker 2: Yeah, no doubt, no doubt. Well, guys, the time goes so fast.

39:25 Speaker 1: I think we'll probably close the segment with respond because we were talking about and that is a great track.

39:30 Speaker 2: That's the opener of the EP, and it is. It is good and heavy. But what should people know about? Where to keep up with you online? Everything that the band is.

39:38 Speaker 3: We're on Instagram, We're on Facebook. We have band Campus where you can get our merch or our CDs, our records, T shirts. You know. Come out and see us at the Gateway or at the Middle East the Gateways February twenty second, Middle East is March eighteenth. We'd love to see you guys there. Come check it out.

40:00 Speaker 2: Excellent Mercury Burns first on the Google machine. Yes, yes, yes, it's very googleable, which is important. Which is important.

40:09 Speaker 3: Yeah, we have our albums up on Spotify, iTunes, Pandora, all you know, all the streaming services, all major streaming.

40:15 Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, excellent. Yeah, no, you guys got it, got it well covered. And congratulations on h on the EP and uh and everything that you're doing. And we'll we'll definitely have to have you back in the future. But uh yeah, I think we'll close out the segment with respond again. That's the opener and very very strong track, nice and heavy. We will close out with this. This is called the segment with this. This is called Respond. It is the opener from Mercury Burns first and guys, thank you again great absolutely.

41:08 Speaker 12: Answer to rush of fast, walls out the songs quoted

41:15 Speaker 12: the sound so loud, I got to explore less cross into walls.

41:22 Speaker 11: Let's stop for you anymore to get it's all that's guy stops to.

41:28 Speaker 8: That's what all.

41:31 Speaker 11: Show us.

41:52 Speaker 12: Rock lest a round, okay, lights out of course of col down out taking a steps to a show before all this chaff. So watch word your change that way, start a restaurant place for start off.

42:19 Speaker 8: A show way because you can't away you stand star face wearing your cat.

42:43 Speaker 11: Shows a fire to your plan, says very last.

42:48 Speaker 12: They stands before you the gas fust stair to fly over your flo Oh my god, she suggested. Tor sir La,

43:16 Speaker 12: guess we're also are laser story, Priscut, you.

43:41 Speaker 11: Knows not coer.

43:57 Speaker 9: We will have a boy, will be sport, We walk act, but will respawn.

44:09 Speaker 13: Worry, brow burning scraps great wells to will cracky glds not.

44:21 Speaker 12: Else wus we know were blown with them there longs.

44:26 Speaker 11: Were lying with the souls charge we're not.

44:29 Speaker 8: Itself, so well we don't exploding.

44:33 Speaker 12: With less that clause into one website that's not tire, got ball to oject brown with all that's left were my start to us on the ballot frown stra