Matt Connarton Unleashed: Paperjam Magazine

0:01 Speaker 1: I've had that song stuck in my head for a solid week now. That is not coming back by Day to Attend who were here with us last week, and there's a very specific reason why we played that. And we have joining us live in studio. And these fine people were spoken about last week by the band because we had Day to Attend here with us in the first hour, and now they are joining us and we get to speak with them live on the air. We have Sheila and Tony Russo from Paper Jam Magazine.

0:27 Speaker 2: Welcome, thank you.

0:29 Speaker 3: Thank you to here.

0:30 Speaker 2: Yes.

0:30 Speaker 1: Yes, and by the way, so you brought us this is cool. I should hold this up for people watching online, the Girls Rock edition of Paper Jam Magazine. And for those of you who don't know, so this is a publication, Well tell us some tell us a bit about this. How long has Paper Jam existed.

0:47 Speaker 2: We're in our third year.

0:49 Speaker 3: Yeah, we're coming up on our third year, about two and a half years.

0:51 Speaker 2: Yeah, okay.

0:53 Speaker 1: And of course the way we met was through Day to Attend because they were our guests in the first hour last week, and they're on the current the cover of the current edition.

1:01 Speaker 3: Yes, they are our cover story for this new issue.

1:04 Speaker 1: Yes, and they are in the chat room as well. So in fact, I think it was Tom Sarahcuso was saying, if I'm saying his last name correctly, out that I have great taste in music, assume because I played the Day to well.

1:15 Speaker 3: You made you definitely made my morning starting off with that song because I'm a huge fan.

1:20 Speaker 1: Of dates with Oh yeah, yeah, absolutely, yeah. We were talking about that off air. Is it the CD release party is on your birthday?

1:27 Speaker 3: Yeah? Yeah, Happy Birthday to me. Is their their new album World of Zen Falling Awake is going to be available on August thirty.

1:36 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I'm excited.

1:37 Speaker 2: Yeah.

1:37 Speaker 1: We played a bunch of their tracks for the first time on the radio when they were here last week, and uh no, those guys are those guys are absolutely amazing. I do want to say make sure we say hello to everybody in the Facebook live chat, because, like I said, you do have some some fans in there.

1:51 Speaker 2: Yep.

1:51 Speaker 1: Jeff Richards from Day to Attend in the chatroom says Hi, Sheila and Tony uh and good morning. We love paper Jam, they say. Tom Syracusa says paper Jam in the house, Let's see oh And Anthony Nicastro from Purging.

2:10 Speaker 3: Perging Sand another great, great band. I believe they just opened up for Godsmack and Flat Black.

2:16 Speaker 2: Right, I believe.

2:17 Speaker 1: So, yeah, that's a that's a big show. Yeah, good, good for them. They've been around a while. Miriam Banishad joins us in the Facebook. She says, excellent song, I assume, referring to not coming Back. Yeah, that, like I said, that's been stuck in my head for the past week. So I'm glad I had a good excuse to play it again on the show this morning. Melanie La Liberty, one of our great friends from the state of Vermont, joins us in the chat room. Daniel Syracusa says, love day to attend seeing them in drake It at the boat tonight.

2:49 Speaker 1: Oh yeah, they were talking about that show. Oh that must be Tom's brother.

2:53 Speaker 2: Yeah.

2:54 Speaker 1: So so Paper Jam So it's been around for three years, you said two and a half two and a half years, okay, and it's gone through a bit of a transformation, right because now so it had been uh, strictly paper, but now it's also a digital magazine publication.

3:10 Speaker 3: That's that's brand new as of about two weeks ago. Okay, we decided to do a digital version version because a lot of people were asking for it. Yeah and uh so we took some time to think about it and to make the decision. And I'm very happy with the response that we received when people realized they could click the link, click and read the digital version. But the paper copies are definitely not going away, right.

3:38 Speaker 2: No, no, no, We'll definitely keep the papers.

3:41 Speaker 4: That's what we're about, hence the name.

3:43 Speaker 3: So now you can choose. Now you can choose. You can get your paper copy or you can going forward read a digital version.

3:51 Speaker 1: So and by the way, so I suggest people check out paper jam magazine dot com. I'm looking at it right now. And we were talking off air. I was a compliment Sheila on her web design because I love the website. It looks really good. And I'm a web design nerd and I'm very critical of websites and I see a lot of websites that aren't great. But this one's really good, and like I said, it's perfect for what you're doing. So I suggest everyone check it out now on the website are all the back issues on the website.

4:19 Speaker 1: They are Oh wow, Okay, that must have taken a while to that must have been a lot of work, I would imagine to get all of that, it was a lot of work. Yeah, absolutely absolutely. But so the paper version is not going away.

4:30 Speaker 2: No.

4:31 Speaker 1: Now that's what's interesting about that. So I'm really curious about that. So when you decided to start Paper Jam, and obviously, as you said, it's it's called so the name, it's called that because it's a paper publication, did anybody did anyone try to talk you out of it? And the reason I ask that is because we live in an era where everything is where everything is digital, and a lot of publications like newspapers and a lot of magazines over the years, over the past twenty years, have have been gradually going away because they didn't find it to be a sustainable model, and some of them went away, you know, some of those companies have gone away completely.

5:10 Speaker 1: A lot of them now are strictly online. So I mean, did anyone say to you, wow, what? Because honestly, like, if I knew you before you started this, I probably and you talk to me about it, I probably would have been like, I don't know, I would have been skeptical, you know what I mean, just as a business person, you took the risk and you've obviously made it work. This is a success, and it's very impressive by the way, And I was talking too about when Day to Attend was here, and I'm I'm kind of flipping through the issue that they were in, and I'm like, wow, this is really there's a lot here, There's a lot.

5:41 Speaker 3: It's always jam packed.

5:42 Speaker 1: So you've you've really made this work. But did anyone. I mean, I assume you had people who are skeptical, people who are doubters, and you had to kind.

5:50 Speaker 3: Of believe it or not. What's so interesting is maybe that worked in our favor. Ye paper publications went away because do you recall the era of of zines, Remember.

6:01 Speaker 2: Zes where the whole idea.

6:04 Speaker 3: That's where the whole idea came from.

6:06 Speaker 5: I used to live in Massachusetts and I was you know, I played in bands my whole life, and there was a couple of scenes like the noise and stuff like that.

6:13 Speaker 2: It was like a big deal if your band got in there.

6:16 Speaker 5: Yeah yeah, and it's you know something I still have to the stack and show, you know, my niece's and nephews.

6:20 Speaker 2: I'm like, oh, look, I was actually in a magazine.

6:22 Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, like you could walk into any any music venue and see stacks of.

6:26 Speaker 5: Different all the different ones. Yeah, yeah, and they went away just like you said. And so one night she was an English major and I'm like, listen, this is after a gig, is like two thirty in the morning.

6:37 Speaker 3: In the morning.

6:39 Speaker 5: I'm like, you know, scenes used to be a big deal. It's too bad that we have such a great music scene and that doesn't exist anymore. Right, It's like we should start our own magazine. And Tony, you love English and you love music.

6:52 Speaker 2: You know.

6:52 Speaker 3: Yeah, Tony gets all the credit for coming up with the idea. So this is the true story, right Tony. So the next day I woke up, he woke up, and I had already been to Staples and it made.

7:07 Speaker 1: A mock up.

7:08 Speaker 2: So yeah, and in like six hours he already had one.

7:11 Speaker 3: And so what's so interesting? And So, to answer your question, did anyone try to talk us out of it or encourage us to go a different route? No, in fact, it caught on quickly.

7:21 Speaker 2: Yeah. We had actually a lot of support, good.

7:23 Speaker 3: And so and so we tend to say that we're old school in a lot of ways, and so we liked the idea of bringing back zines, but making it more modern. Yeah, and so so everyone was really encouraging right from the beginning. So maybe the fact that paper publications went away worked in our favorite because here they were coming back and people were really digging it.

7:45 Speaker 1: There was it was like there was a void that needed to be filled. Yeah, no one was doing it.

7:50 Speaker 3: And and and so it was working out great.

7:52 Speaker 2: And we did.

7:53 Speaker 5: It's not really like a business per se, it's we don't make money from it, yeah, and to make money from it, yeah, the idea was just to give some support and recognition.

8:02 Speaker 3: To the local band.

8:04 Speaker 2: Yeah. It really is.

8:06 Speaker 5: All the bands that you meet and talk to and many many more, they're all just real nice guys. So the idea was just sort of give back a little bit. You know, I play in bands, so I know what it's like.

8:17 Speaker 1: You know, do you play earlier?

8:18 Speaker 2: Oh yeah, I'm in two bands.

8:19 Speaker 1: Oh what what bands?

8:21 Speaker 5: I'm in the on Peg band out of Rochester and I'm in a band called p S out of Altam.

8:26 Speaker 1: Oh cool, cool, excellent, excellent. Yeah, so this is now when it when it started, was the first issue like this where.

8:36 Speaker 3: No, it was very different, brought to Coveted first to show you.

8:41 Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, for for those watching online, if you're watching on Facebook.

8:45 Speaker 3: Made it staples and I hand stapled it at my kitchen table and put them around town. This was how it started.

8:51 Speaker 4: Eight pages.

8:52 Speaker 1: Wow.

8:53 Speaker 3: I had five hundred copies made and I hand stapled them at my kitchen table and then I drove them around and that's how it started. The coveted first issue and it features our friend Wendy Gagnan Poor who says, meet the singer in three bands. But Wendy's in three bands, so I asked her to be on our first cover and it took off from there. So eight pages turned into twelve, and twelve turned into sixteen. So I decided I couldn't handstaple that many cops anymore. So I found a local printer right in Rochester, who are fabulous, and so the magazines are now printed by Lilac City Printing in Rochester.

9:34 Speaker 2: And they hate the name and and they gave.

9:36 Speaker 1: Us the paper jam. Yeah, a printer's nightmare. Yeah, it was.

9:41 Speaker 3: It was really funny because the printer took us back and showed us this giant machine that they print the magazines on, and they said, we we we really hate it when we get a paper jam. It was really funny. But anyway, so it kept expanding and expanding, and.

9:58 Speaker 5: Actually it started out quarter it was the idea oh okay, and within I think the second issue if there was so much clamor that, we were like, okay, we have to at least go bi monthly. Yeah, and so we've been bi monthly ever since. So it's just been on getting bigger more and.

10:15 Speaker 4: We love it.

10:15 Speaker 3: It's a lot of fun.

10:16 Speaker 1: That's fantastic. Yeah. Yeah. Do you ever do you ever have moments where you go, wow, this is uh, this is a lot of work, Like I mean, I assume, I mean, do you have do you have help with or do you do this all yourselves?

10:29 Speaker 5: That's all Sheila. Oh that's Sheila. I'm like a musical consultant. Yeah, yeah, that's and she does all the really heavy living.

10:36 Speaker 3: I say, Tony, what what type of gear? Did he say that he plays? And that helps me with that. So yeah, it's all me for now. I could really use some staff. Yeah, but I'm not complaining. It's it's been a great thing and we have one of the best music communities and it's really.

10:56 Speaker 5: It's a lot of fun because it's really a lot of fun. We have these bands come over the house. We had our basement don on my band practice, so it's a full practice space. Yeah, so they come over, we have our interview with them. A lot of times they'll play we you know, talk guitars and all that kind of stuff. But it's just great to meet all the people and we always spend a few hours with them.

11:15 Speaker 2: Yeah, it's always a good time.

11:17 Speaker 3: So usually Sunday's is paper jam interview day, Okay, So Sunday we'll prepare. We finished our basement. We call it the R and R Lounge, right, Russo and Russo and so you know, it kind of looks like a little pub down there with a live jam space. So we usually an interview, you know, the when the band arrives, we greet them outside, we bring them in and we have some food and snacks. We give them a little tour of the guitar lounge.

11:44 Speaker 2: And then I have a guitar room.

11:46 Speaker 3: Okay, and then we start with the interview. And when we start with like a speed round and we have some fun and there's usually a lot of laughs, great time.

11:55 Speaker 1: So what's your process for the interview? Do you do you record it? Do you record audio of it?

11:59 Speaker 3: And then I actually literally type, I type while they answer, kidd, I do.

12:05 Speaker 2: I type super fast fast?

12:09 Speaker 3: Yet I do type their answers as they're okayring the questions and and then so I have not recorded any of the interviews. However, that road we're gonna We're going to start zoom interviews. On August eighteenth, we have our first zoom interview. Because what happens is some of the bands who want to be in paper Gam live two or more hours away in New Hampshire. Yea uh, and so I don't expect everyone to travel that far. So I decided to start zoom interviews, and that comes with the capability of recording.

12:46 Speaker 3: So then that's when I'll start recording.

12:48 Speaker 1: Okay, and then when you do that, will you will you post uh the video of that as kind of like, uh.

12:56 Speaker 3: I hadn't thought I hadn't thought that far ahead. Yeah, expertly. I think that'd be a lot of fun because.

13:02 Speaker 5: Is always the inevitably somebody say something, Oh, don't put that in don't put that.

13:06 Speaker 2: In there right right?

13:08 Speaker 5: Yeah.

13:08 Speaker 3: We have this running joke that everybody says, strike that from the record don't.

13:12 Speaker 1: Put that, yeah, because I'm you know, I'm thinking that'd be a good you know, a good teaser to get you know, before the issue comes out. Put little little clips on YouTube, Facebook and yeah, absolutely, And.

13:24 Speaker 3: So some of the bands play when they come to their interview in our in our jam space and some don't. Yeah, but we love it either way. Everyone who comes, any band who comes as welcome to play a few songs.

13:36 Speaker 2: Yeah.

13:37 Speaker 5: Yeah, and sometimes we'll put some of that up yeah.

13:40 Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah. So oh that's amazing. Yeah, that's that's that's fantastic. Now, So what is the criteria in terms of artists who are in Paper Jam? Do you do you focus on New Hampshire or is it is.

13:57 Speaker 2: New Hampshire.

13:58 Speaker 5: We started out just trying to keep a local local are like Rochester, Dover.

14:02 Speaker 2: Oh yeah, yeah, because we didn't you know.

14:03 Speaker 5: We don't have that much money to pay for you know, a million pages and it's a lot of work. So we started out that way and as it's grown, more and more people from further away are getting into it. The whole idea though, is that there is we support any and all music, you know what I mean, There are no I don't care if it's your first day playing guitar, or you've been playing for years, So all level of music it is or it doesn't matter, and it.

14:30 Speaker 3: Doesn't matter if your country, pop, jazz, all levels, it's all inclusive.

14:36 Speaker 2: Yeah, who is just to support everybody.

14:39 Speaker 3: We are getting contacted by bands outside of New Hampshire's maybe been one of the more difficult parts is I don't want to say no to anybody. But at the same time, there are so many local bands that I still are on our list. So I have a list called bands in Line. Unfortunately there is a waiting list and we're full through much of twenty twenty five.

15:02 Speaker 1: Oh wow.

15:03 Speaker 3: Yeah, So so the bands have been roll patient and understanding that they have to wait in a little bit of a line.

15:09 Speaker 1: Yeah.

15:09 Speaker 3: So that's a good problem to have, yeah, I think. But when I start hearing from bands in other states, that's when I have to kind of think about New Hampshire based for now.

15:22 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, because that's only gonna obviously as you you know, as you continue to grow, Uh, that'll that'll probably continue to intensify, I would, right, and especially now with the website too, you're gonna be probably probably already are hearing from a lot more.

15:37 Speaker 3: Yeap, Yes, it's a very busy mail box.

15:39 Speaker 2: Yeah.

15:40 Speaker 1: Yeah.

15:40 Speaker 2: That.

15:40 Speaker 5: One of the things that Sheila came up with, because we can't have all these bands from everywhere at this point, is that if they contact us and we can't necessarily put them in, she does like a spotlight special on the website and put something together for an advertisement something.

15:55 Speaker 4: Yeah, I put.

15:56 Speaker 3: Together a little video for them that way, pop it up on our Facebook page so that they had a bit so that they can be have a spotlight but not necessarily end up in the pages of the magazine.

16:09 Speaker 1: Oh okay.

16:09 Speaker 2: Yeah.

16:10 Speaker 3: That was my way of sort of like not saying.

16:12 Speaker 1: No, yeah, no, that's good. That's good. And tell me about getting on the cover, Like is there in terms of who gets on the cover, Like what is the decision making process there? And is there a criteria like when you put like obviously day to attend, you know, they certainly deserve to be on the cover. And yes they do. I'm so glad that you did that. But and I know they are too, because they you know, they speak very highly of paper jam and and what you're doing. But like, how does that work? Getting on the cover?

16:43 Speaker 3: Getting on the cover. I think people believe it's because we personally love that band the most, or that we think they're better, or when in fact, it has not very little to do with that. It has something to do with that, because y'all know I love Day two Tense. They're going on the cover.

17:01 Speaker 1: Yeah, But all of.

17:04 Speaker 3: The bands that have been on the cover, and all of the bands that have been in the pages of Paper Gym, they're all equal to us. We don't play favorites. Yeah, it's it actually boils down to mostly timing. Who who reached out first, right, and I said, oh, I don't have anyone for my cover next month. Uh, And it's a band that draws a big crowd, big following.

17:27 Speaker 5: Another thing factor is if they have like a CD just coming out.

17:31 Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, so.

17:32 Speaker 3: If you've got a CD coming out, or if you signed a you know, we had one band who signed a production deal and they're on our cover. Vigil great metal band.

17:41 Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, great guy. Yeah yeah. Craig and those guys on the show. He hasn't been on for a very long time, but he's yeah, he's been on. Yeah.

17:52 Speaker 3: So really it's about timing. Who contacts us first. If you know, if you contact me in January, I'm not going to make you wait. You know you you got in first. So it's a combination of timing, what's what's new, what's in the news for you, what can we report on? And also you know, who's Who's Who's a big band yea, but some of the other bands that have been in the not on the cover are also cover worthy, And we we had a saying where we're like, there's only one cover and there's so many bands.

18:24 Speaker 1: Well, I'm curious, I mean, is it ever a hard decision?

18:26 Speaker 3: It is a hard decision bands like Middleman or Standard Tuning or you know, bands like you know, they're fantastic and we only have one cover.

18:37 Speaker 1: So yeah.

18:38 Speaker 5: Sometimes too, what we'll try and do is whether it's the issue, if it's a different issue before they're going to be in it. Sometimes we'll give them the back cover. Oh okay, so you know it's not the cover, but it's cover. So or if we're going to tease something, you know, like a band coming in the next issue, or we might put that on the back cover or something like that.

19:00 Speaker 3: So on the on the back cover of our day to attend issue, you'll see it has Cathedral tribute to Van Halen. Okay, so they're next on our cover.

19:09 Speaker 1: Oh cool.

19:10 Speaker 3: So so they're they're a great band.

19:13 Speaker 2: Yeah, great gitar player, the bass player is super cool.

19:17 Speaker 1: They're called Cathedral.

19:18 Speaker 3: Cathedral attribute to the music of Van Halen. Fantastic Okay, featuring Tyler Morris doing all that Eddie van halenk He's fantastic.

19:27 Speaker 1: Yeah.

19:28 Speaker 3: Yeah, so we're looking forward to that one.

19:30 Speaker 1: Very cool, very cool. And how many of these? So you've got this this Girl's Rock where you know, obviously you've got a montage of of female musicians on the cover, so it's a special edition. Have you done more than one of these special editions where instead of you know, just putting one artist, where you that's.

19:49 Speaker 3: The only one so far?

19:51 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

19:52 Speaker 3: That was a very popular issue.

19:53 Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, yeah, excellent, excellent.

19:56 Speaker 3: We'd Afford actually saw the Girl's Rock issue. Yes, we had a friend bring bring it to the Lead Afford show and I have a picture of her looking at it. And then we've also had Zach Wilde read paper jam and sign it for us. Yeah, that was a fun moment.

20:11 Speaker 1: Yeah, we were talking about that off air. He gave you some. He gave you some some meritles because you know, because congratulations, it's been what eight months? Yeah? Thanks, less than a year, it's still new, right, yeah? Yeah? Can you can you tell us what he told you? Or is that not appropriate for radio?

20:29 Speaker 2: No?

20:29 Speaker 3: Actually, Tony, we love the story, so I'm sure would be happy to tell you.

20:33 Speaker 4: What Zach told us.

20:34 Speaker 5: Okay, He basically said, just use the word i'm sorry. Be ready to say i'm sorry, right, you know, like my wife's never going to leave it, so I just say I'm sorry.

20:46 Speaker 1: It was really funny about it.

20:47 Speaker 2: It was hilarious.

20:48 Speaker 5: And then he's like, so you say you're sorry, and then just say do you want to go get some coffee? And you know, you go and just you know, that's whatever problem it is to roll off your back right right.

20:58 Speaker 3: Basically, and he said, go go have a coffee, move on, have a happy life.

21:03 Speaker 2: Yeah, and he wrote that all.

21:04 Speaker 3: He wrote it on the guitar case.

21:05 Speaker 2: Which is funny because we've actually used the advice.

21:08 Speaker 5: Yeah something, Yeah.

21:11 Speaker 3: You want to have a cup of coffee? And I go yes, and then we're good and then we say thank you Zach Wild.

21:17 Speaker 2: Yes, he's a really nice guy though, that's what I've heard.

21:20 Speaker 1: Yeah, wait, well Jenny, you met you met Zach.

21:22 Speaker 4: Wild right with yes, right here in Manchester. Yeah, when he was six, his sixteenth.

21:28 Speaker 6: Birthday present was surprise tickets to VIP tickets to the Black Label Society concert here in Manchester.

21:35 Speaker 4: It was awesome. Yeah, awesome, he told Jesse. I was really then.

21:38 Speaker 6: He had a really cool mom, so I was like really excited about that.

21:41 Speaker 1: When they were at it mustn't it was soil the Rizing Center then, right was that yeah? Snow? Yeah?

21:46 Speaker 6: Oh yeah, no, it wasn't snow back then, yeah, back then, listen, but it was an amazing concert. It was an amazing it was. It was definitely worth it a hundred percent. And I think the money from the VIP was going to a children's hospital or something like that.

22:03 Speaker 4: It wasn't. The band wasn't keeping it. It was all getting donated.

22:06 Speaker 6: I'm not surprised by Yeah, no, it doesn't surprise me at all either.

22:10 Speaker 4: But that made it even more sweet to do the VIP, knowing.

22:13 Speaker 6: Where the when he was going. Oh yeah, yeah no. It was an incredible concert. Definitely great memory. I still wear my t shirt.

22:21 Speaker 1: Now, So Tony, I'm curious when when you're you know, obviously you're in a couple of bands. I assume you're out playing a lot of shows. Do do do people from other bands ever try to kind of lean on you, like, hey, get us into Paper Jam, Oh yeah, get us on the cover. We want to be on the cover, like.

22:37 Speaker 5: Oh yeah, all the time, and the answer is always yes, we'll get you in there.

22:43 Speaker 1: Yeah.

22:43 Speaker 2: Well I don't know exactly when, but yeah.

22:46 Speaker 5: We don't really say no to anybody, and it's just again a matter of timing that. One of the coolest parts for me about all this is that, you know, meeting all these guys from all these different bands.

22:57 Speaker 2: You know, I'm one of them.

22:58 Speaker 5: Yeah, and so we out, we see them, these bands play, We get to meet everybody. But then I see faces that from the other band's showing up see me play, which is always you know, it's it's again comes back to just an awesome community. But it's really cool when I see people that I've met through Paper Jam out in the crowd, I'm like, oh, you get to see me play now?

23:19 Speaker 2: Cool? Thanks? You know.

23:21 Speaker 1: You know what else is.

23:21 Speaker 3: Really cool is when Tony's playing a show or we go to a show and we look out in the crowd and there's always a handful of people in a paper Jam shirt or a paper Jam hat, or or they're walking around picking up the issue because we leave them at the music venues. Usually when we go to see a show, we bring copies with us.

23:41 Speaker 4: The venues are so.

23:43 Speaker 3: So cool, gracious and cool to let us put them there, and so we have a lot of drop sites around, but I definitely like the music venues, and so we bring copies and see these strangers wearing a shirt or reading the magazine, and it's a pretty good feeling. And then the next thing you know, you see them at you see him again, and I don't know, We've met so many great people through this.

24:03 Speaker 5: It's oh, it's hilarious because some of the people will send pictures, Oh, I'm in Mexico at the beach and where they're wearing their paper.

24:09 Speaker 3: Oh yeah, yeah, we have this we have around the world, the paper We have this thing whereas where is paper Jam. So when they when they travel, they send me a pic in their shirts and tell me where they're where they're from, somewhere in the world.

24:22 Speaker 1: Very cool, kind of fun, very cool. How do people get the shirts. Do they order them online or you can?

24:27 Speaker 3: We have men's and ladies shirts, and just got some tank.

24:31 Speaker 2: Tops and yeah, stickers and.

24:34 Speaker 3: Yeah we have stickers, key change all kinds of merch and.

24:37 Speaker 1: How many how many drop locations do you have? I assume that's grown over this, it has grown.

24:43 Speaker 3: I think we started with like, you know, six seven, eight, and now I believe there's over thirty. And I think, you know, definitely want to give a shout out to a friend of ours named Jim. Jim Antonino. He came into the Paper Jam circle and has really been huge and super supportive and helping us get ads. So we weren't selling ads the first year and a half too. This is also kind of recent. Jim has been very helpful in helping us sell ads and find new locations to put Paper Jam magazine excellent and we appreciate him very Yeah, so I was sort of sticking to you know, it's a hobby.

25:28 Speaker 3: You know, I'm not trying to make money. I'm just trying to, you know, help the bands get some recognition that they deserve. And then Jim came and said, you have a really good model going here. Let me see where we can take this, and so he has helped us so much. I appreciate you, Jim very much. And so we've sold a few ads and we're.

25:49 Speaker 5: Just I have to give this a shout out to us. Got a big hit guitars as well, he was one of the first.

25:55 Speaker 3: Got a big hit guitars. Awesome guitar.

26:00 Speaker 2: Okay, real nice stuff.

26:01 Speaker 5: He's got the whole range, but he's got some real nice high end excellent.

26:05 Speaker 3: So even though it's just us in one sense, it's really not just us because we've had help along the way.

26:10 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, that's outstanding. By the way, Jay Bellow, who I'm sure you all know from Chasing the Devil, he's in the chat room. He says, thank you all so much for what you do for local music and musicians.

26:23 Speaker 2: Thank you very nice. Yeah.

26:25 Speaker 1: Yeah. Jeff Richards, of course from day to attend, says black Label played Chantillies in Manchester once with Robert on bass, who is in Metallica.

26:34 Speaker 2: Now, yeah, wow, they played. Wow.

26:37 Speaker 1: I remember I remember going to a lot of shows back in the day of Chantillies, that's for sure. That must have been when black label society was just starting out.

26:44 Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, that would have been way back.

26:47 Speaker 1: I had to be way back.

26:48 Speaker 2: Yeah, early two thousands probably.

26:50 Speaker 1: I still remember the first time I ever saw Zach Wild when he was I think it was in the Ozzie's No More Tears video. Yeah, he was very different then.

27:00 Speaker 2: He looks very that's I fell in love with. Yeah More Tears era.

27:04 Speaker 5: Yeah, the Theodore of Madness tour at the Orphean okay, this one, and it was you know, a small locations actual. I was just starting to play the guitar. Yeah, so he just absolutely floored me. Yeah, like I want to I want to do that.

27:16 Speaker 2: Yeah.

27:16 Speaker 5: Yeah, And I've never looked back. I've been obsessed with the guitar ever since.

27:19 Speaker 2: Oh no kidding, Yeah, yeah.

27:21 Speaker 1: Tom Siracusa from uh of course out dat to attend, says paper Jam supports young musicians as well.

27:27 Speaker 2: Yes, Oh, grim Rock is.

27:29 Speaker 1: In the Facebook live chat, our friend from Pennsylvania by the way, so in the coming up in the third hour. So, uh, he sends us a lot of cool stuff. And we have not opened this package yet. But this package here that I'm holding, we're going to oh this is from Grim from our friend Grim Rock and Pa, and we're going to open that in the Uh, I mean we know what it is, right, I do. I mean it's it's obviously I assume it's a CD.

27:52 Speaker 4: I know you know you know what it is, but I'm not telling you.

27:55 Speaker 1: And we're going to open that up today and the third hour live on the air, So looking forward to that. He but no, he's amazing. But and he says, hey, hey, hope everyone's day rocks.

28:07 Speaker 6: I have grim stickers along with my data Aten stickers. Yes, and I'm wearing a Data to Attend T shirt.

28:14 Speaker 1: Yes that's true. Yes she is. Jen.

28:17 Speaker 3: I really wish I brought you paper jam stickers. I'm going to send you some.

28:23 Speaker 4: Oh yeah, I love stickers.

28:24 Speaker 1: Yeah, Jenny loves the stickers.

28:25 Speaker 3: Yeah.

28:25 Speaker 1: You can see on if you're watching live on Facebook, you can see Jenny's.

28:28 Speaker 6: That's just one part of my laptop. They're on the bottom too. Yeah, they're on everything. I'm a sticker.

28:34 Speaker 1: Jenny's got a lot of stickers.

28:35 Speaker 6: Jesse, he inherited that from me too. He's he's now stickering up his guitar case.

28:39 Speaker 4: Oh okay, on a mission.

28:41 Speaker 3: Speaking of the stickers, when the bands come for their interviews, they bring so much merch and they're so generous and so we too ended up with a large pile of band stickers, which we love. I was trying to think what to do with them. So we went out and we bought like this huge poster board and we made like a wall of stickers that great, so we filled it, so I got to start a new one. But they bring us all kinds of great, great thing CD shirts.

29:12 Speaker 1: Yeah, and.

29:14 Speaker 4: It's fantastic.

29:16 Speaker 1: We used to have something like that in the old studio because we've we've only been here when did we move here October November of last year. But when we were in our when W. M and H was on our Elm Street location, we had a wall where you know, you could put stickers sign it and but uh, but now that we're in this nice new place, is really not not a place for that. You know, if somebody pulled out a sharpie and signed the wall here, I'd get fired. But we but we had a Yeah, we had a really cool thing where you know, you could do that.

29:44 Speaker 1: But no, that's a great idea though.

29:45 Speaker 5: The Rochester Opera House is cool about that in the back back part of the stage. Yeah, all the bands that have played there get to sign it. Yeah, right, yeah, and a lot of the venues will have something like that. Yes, you know, we'll have a sticker, you know. Oh yeah, stick it's always a fight bands again.

30:03 Speaker 2: I'm gonna put my sticker over there.

30:05 Speaker 1: I used to see that a lot in Boston, like when I was really active promoting live shows. I would see that at a lot of the Boston venues, and I'm sure a lot of them still have it where it just you know, just covered in stickers, you know, going back decades, you know, and you could kind of you could kind of look at it and try to pick out Oh wow, I remember that band, and I remember that.

30:23 Speaker 2: Do you remember Sarah Morgan's cove inster.

30:27 Speaker 1: It sounds familiar.

30:28 Speaker 5: Yeah, they're playing the fameous The Rolling Stones played there once and Narrow anyways, it was.

30:33 Speaker 2: It was a cool place. It's gone now, like many of them unfortunately.

30:36 Speaker 1: Yeah.

30:36 Speaker 5: Yeah, but yeah, Middle East Ts, all those places, they all had stuff like that.

30:41 Speaker 1: Yeah, a lot of places come and go. Now. So do you ever feature anyone, or have you ever featured anyone in the publication who's not necessarily a musician but is doing something else, like maybe someone who owns the venue or.

30:54 Speaker 3: Yeah, that's a great question. We actually, in addition to UH band interviews, we also spotlight articles and there's a website for female drummers called Drummer Girls United. I think it has about seven thousand female drummer members and from that site, I have interviewed separately three female drummers, so we did spotlight on them, and then we've also done a spotlight on a few venues that feature live music, and I love to do spotlight articles. In the next issue, there'll be one with Scott from Big Hit Guitars that we mentioned previously, spotlight his new guitar shop.

31:35 Speaker 3: Because it's fantastic.

31:38 Speaker 2: It's bad for me because it's too.

31:39 Speaker 3: We tried the magazine. We try to include band interviews, and then we try to include some music related articles, maybe about gear or how to promote your CD, songwriting lyrics, that kind of thing, and then we have the spotlight articles, which are generally shorter, and then we also add in some jokes and some trivia and some fun stuff and seem.

32:07 Speaker 4: To like it.

32:07 Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, it's a good time.

32:09 Speaker 1: Do you have do you have a number of is like, is there a number of artists that you try to have in every is there like a minimum threshold of artists that you try to have in each issue.

32:19 Speaker 3: They started with two per issue, and it went and it went to three, and now in this day to attend issue there's four bands. Yeah, but we did four full interviews. Yeah, And when it comes to the interviews, we try to find an angle. When the band arrives and we get situated, I let them know, like, as we talk through this interview, I need to find an angle for your band, because otherwise it's all going to sound the same, right, So I often ask tell me about your background, what's your experience, how'd you learn to play music?

32:51 Speaker 4: Or I'll say, uh, what venues.

32:53 Speaker 1: Have you played?

32:54 Speaker 3: Or who influenced you? All of those questions are often the same for every band, but it would all start to sound alike if we didn't find an angle, right, And luckily there always seems to be one, which is some band is you know, one band's coming out with a new album, or one band is brand new on the scene and they're trying to make a name for themselves. That's their angle, the new band on the scene. Or there's a band that's you know, all females, or there's a band that's made up of teenagers, like a band we featured in the Day to Attend issue.

33:30 Speaker 3: Tom Syracuse's daughter, Hannah Rose, is fifteen and she's a fabulous drummer and she's in bands, and so we featured her in there as well. So we try to find the angle so that it all doesn't sound the same. Hopefully it's working.

33:47 Speaker 1: Do you have prior experience interviewing or working in pr because what you just said, not everyone knows that. And it's evidence that not everyone knows that because you'll see a lot of people who do interviews who do that just asked the same old questions where are you from?

34:02 Speaker 3: Yeah, where are you from?

34:03 Speaker 1: What kind of music do you play? You know? So so to know that, I mean, is that just something you knew instinctively or do you have prior experience?

34:11 Speaker 3: I don't have prior experience in interviewing or or anything like that. But but I've always been a writer, okay, and so I like, I have a book of short stories of written novels, Like I I've always been a writer. So I think from that I learned some of that some of you know, yeah.

34:30 Speaker 1: Because it was obvious, like looking like looking at the day to attend article. It was like, okay, you know how to interview because not everyone does, a lot of people try and they don't really know how to do it.

34:40 Speaker 2: Does a great job.

34:40 Speaker 5: Yeah yeah, I'm just sort of like the comedic value, you know, comedic value to the whole.

34:44 Speaker 1: Thing right right.

34:46 Speaker 3: Now, another part of another thing put out the snacks, Well, somebody asked you.

34:56 Speaker 1: So.

34:59 Speaker 2: So.

34:59 Speaker 3: Another thing that interesting about the articles is that some of them are written in a question and answer format, and other articles are written, you know, just straight out like about the band versus questioning and so someone asked me one time, like, how do you decide you know, and I just said, it depends on the feel of the band, what we're going to talk about. Some bands feel more like a question and answer type interview. I can't really say why.

35:28 Speaker 2: It just it's a.

35:29 Speaker 3: Feeling and it depends on the angle we want to talk about. So, and then I love to get the poll quotes. I call them. The poll quotes are inevitably, someone during the interview will say something profound or interesting that stands out to me, and I'll make a little note like this would make a great poll quote. And then as you flip through the pages of paper Jam you'll see a lot of that, Like you'll see a band member's photo and then usually like a great quote that they gave us. And so I'm kind of fortunate because the band make it easy for us.

36:01 Speaker 3: They have so much to say and and they're great.

36:04 Speaker 1: Is there anyone who's really surprised you? I mean, I'm sure there are, like who you interviewed them and they wound up being way more interesting than you expected, Like they just had a backstory that really maybe when in a direction you weren't.

36:19 Speaker 5: Expect all the time, Almost every time, really some sort of surprise that you like, even day two attend those guys again wickednized guys, but they all pulled together from all these different situations they were in over a long period of time. And you know, it's just but almost every band gives us some sort of we didn't expect that, which is really cool. Yeah, and you find out somebody was like, oh, I was an opera singer. I didn't didn't see that one coming right right right, you know, and stuff like that.

36:49 Speaker 5: So it's always it's always an interesting time.

36:51 Speaker 1: And isn't that one of them? Like I feel like for me as as someone who interviews people. That's like one of the best things I love when somebody says something to me I complete he wasn't expecting, or they reveal something about me that just like, wow, I didn't see that coming. That just makes it so much more rewarding, you know what I mean.

37:07 Speaker 3: I'll have to say that one of the questions I like to ask is do you have any hobbies or interests outside of music? Because they're all here to talk about their instruments and their music and experience. But sometimes I'm just curious to know what do you like to do when you're not doing music. And that's where it really gets interesting because you find out that, you know, some people are a professional chef or some people mm a, yeah, yeah, and so and so it's been really interesting to hear what they like to do outside of music.

37:37 Speaker 3: Yeah, to really get to know them, and that that surprises me. Sometimes. We had one we had one band member who told me he's made over five hundred or eight hundred I forget a very high number of sky dive jumps.

37:52 Speaker 1: Kidding.

37:53 Speaker 3: That was uh, that was Scott I think from from Stiletto.

37:58 Speaker 2: Yeah.

37:59 Speaker 1: Well, you know what I think is R two about your approaches. It kind of I think it probably uh snaps them out of because I I mean, I can kind of tell, and I'm sure you can too, when someone comes into an interview and they're sort of they have an expectation of what they're going to be asked, and they've kind of already done the interview in their own mind, you know, So it's not you know some musicians. I mean, I know from my experience sometimes I'll interview someone and they seem really spontaneous and like they're fully engaged.

38:28 Speaker 1: And some people, you know, you can kind of tell where like I said, they've already done the interview in their brain. Yeah, they're just kind of giving you the answers to the questions that they're already expecting to hear. So if you can pull them out of their shell by asking them something sort of outside of that, yeah, that's a great technique.

38:43 Speaker 3: We start with the speed round. We just throw out questions and just to break the ice, we say like Megan X or Metallica, cats are dogs, you know, Bendor Gibson, and and then and then mountains or lakes.

38:57 Speaker 2: You know, and.

39:00 Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, and then once we get through.

39:04 Speaker 2: Tattoos are piercings.

39:06 Speaker 1: You know, Jeff from day to attend says in the chat, it's amazing how Sheila compiles all that info into the amazing articles.

39:13 Speaker 4: Thank you, Jeff.

39:14 Speaker 1: How long does that take? I mean it probably varies wildly from one to the next, but I mean.

39:18 Speaker 3: It takes a long time. Yeah, it's pretty much a full time job outside of my regular full time.

39:23 Speaker 5: Yeah, the second month because we have two months, just two months.

39:27 Speaker 2: To do it.

39:28 Speaker 5: Yeah, and so trying to get all the interviews, and inevitably a lot of the interviews happened in the second month, So the last two three weeks of that month, it's like was like, yeah, work on it, and she's always the computer and you know, just busting a cute little bum there to uh to finish it up.

39:45 Speaker 1: Does it come out the same day of the month.

39:49 Speaker 3: It comes out at the beginning of you know, it's bi monthly, so it'll come out early in the in the new month, Okay, but it's not always the same day. Yeah, you know, I don't think the printers open on the weekend, so sometimes we have to wait till Monday.

40:02 Speaker 2: Yeah.

40:03 Speaker 5: Then of course driving it around and we both have day jobs, so yeah, you know, just trying to find the time to go distribute it and so forth. So usually within a few days of the beginning of the month.

40:12 Speaker 1: Yeah.

40:12 Speaker 3: Another thing that we do that people may not realize is that once the issue's done, so to speak, I always, I always do proofs from the printer. So I go pick up a black and white and a color proof, and I go over it page by page to make sure that the colors translate well. Yeah, and it looks good in black and white, looks good in color. Make sure there's no spelling mistakes.

40:36 Speaker 1: Yeah.

40:37 Speaker 3: And as a grammar nazi, I really have made typos before, and I didn't sleep for a week because I just don't want to make typos in my magazine. But it happens. We're all human. Yeah, But I try to go through it and check the colors and the layout and make sure it's all looking good, and before we hit what I call the go button. But once I look at the proofs, then we hit the go button and and and then the printer does their thing.

41:01 Speaker 1: Yeah, I know what you mean about grammar. I'm the same way, right, You're the same way.

41:04 Speaker 3: Yeah, Yeah, I think I did one issue where I said something about metal mayhem and I misspelled mayhem and I didn't catch it, and it still bothers me.

41:13 Speaker 1: I would be I would be the same way in that situation, Like I I even I'm I mean, I'm I'm at the point where I'm horrified if I see something I posted on social media and I realize I'm expelled something. Yeah, and I'll go back and corrected, And most people wouldn't bother because it's just social media. But yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, very cool. Oh we should mention too, So if you're is it everyone who's in the magazine gets a color copy or yeah, okay.

41:42 Speaker 3: Yeah, e is. We we print in black and white for our paper copies all over the community, but we always print full color copies for everyone who gets in the in the magazine.

41:53 Speaker 2: Okay, so everybody and everybody, every bandits in.

41:55 Speaker 3: Everybody in, each member gets a color copy.

41:58 Speaker 1: Oh, very cool, that's really cool. Yeah yeah. Tom Russo, who was also here with us last week, a very talented musician, He says, I'd love to get in your publication. This sounds great. Do you know, Tom, I don't sing a songwriter, really.

42:12 Speaker 2: I know the name. Yeah, yeah, I know the name.

42:13 Speaker 1: Yeah, he's he's uh, he's amazing.

42:16 Speaker 2: We can get you in there.

42:17 Speaker 4: Just go ahead and get you in.

42:18 Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, contact us.

42:20 Speaker 1: What's the best way for should they contact you through the website or on social media?

42:24 Speaker 3: What's the best way is our email box? It's uh, it's paper Jam Underscore mag m a g at yahoo dot com. So paper Jam Underscore mag at yahoo dot com.

42:37 Speaker 1: Okay, and just.

42:38 Speaker 3: Tell tell us a little bit about who you are and your band, and you know, it doesn't have to be just a band, could be solo musicians. Yeah, yeah, I would do that too. So if you'd like to be in Paper Jam, just send us an email and tell us a little bit about yourself.

42:50 Speaker 1: A lot of.

42:51 Speaker 3: Times people will send links so we can listen to the music and we can go from there.

42:56 Speaker 2: Yeah.

42:57 Speaker 3: Again, there is a bit of a waiting line. Yeah, so if you don't if you don't mind waiting a little bit, but we can make it happen.

43:02 Speaker 2: Yeah. It's amazing how patient a lot of these bands are sure sure is this? You know? Or some of them will be like I do want to be on the cover, and we're like, well.

43:10 Speaker 5: It's going to be like eight months yeah before that's okay, yeah, oh wait, yeah, you know, and they do and it's you know, it's great.

43:16 Speaker 2: It's every really is supportive of it.

43:19 Speaker 3: And it's a nice mix too because we have cover bands, we have original bands, and then we have tribute bands. So we've done all three and and so it's a nice mix there.

43:29 Speaker 1: Yeah, outstanding, bless you, I think, did Jesus sneeze? Yeah? Our allergies have been well, I have allergies. I don't know what your issue.

43:37 Speaker 4: I'm allergic to you.

43:38 Speaker 1: Yes, that must be what it is. That must be. Oh and before we run out of time. The time goes so quickly, it's already approaching the top of the hour. But what what do you have or do you know yet? What's what's in store for the next issue? Obviously Day two attend is on the cover.

43:52 Speaker 3: On the cover of this one yet but for next time we have Cathedral okay, the Van Halen Tribute amazing, Van Hallen Band amazing with our friend Kirk bartholomewn Kirk and Tyler Morris. We're looking at a band called down by ten, a band called dumpster Fire.

44:14 Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, yeah, you love that.

44:17 Speaker 3: And we're looking at Scott at Big Hit Guitars for a nice spotlight article and lots.

44:26 Speaker 1: More excellent, excellent, And who else is in the current one too? For obviously Day to A ten is on the cover. Who else you have in the current issue?

44:34 Speaker 3: We have Standard Tuning, great cover band and Sea Rock and Tainted Hearts. So Sea Rock is a band, a local cover band that came and they gave us a very memorable interview because they were hilarious and made us laugh for two hours.

44:52 Speaker 1: That was a lot of fun.

44:53 Speaker 3: They just they just great. And Tainted Hearts is the young teen band that they range in age from fifteen to seventeen. And that's who's in the current is.

45:04 Speaker 1: I think their name has come up on the show recently. I don't remember why.

45:07 Speaker 3: But Tainted Hearts is Tom syracusea of Day to Attend.

45:10 Speaker 4: That's his daughter.

45:11 Speaker 1: Oh yakay, okay, that's why. Yeah, so Tom must have mentioned that.

45:16 Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, so we were happy just for Tom.

45:20 Speaker 2: Guns and Roses are awesome.

45:21 Speaker 1: Yeah, there you go.

45:23 Speaker 2: He loves Oh don't we all? I do? Who does?

45:27 Speaker 1: Or everybody? I mean they're one of those bands, I mean who doesn't I mean everybody either loves them? Or at least likes them.

45:32 Speaker 2: Yeah.

45:32 Speaker 1: You very rarely hear anyone say I don't like Guns n' Roses.

45:35 Speaker 2: No, I don't know if that's ever happened.

45:36 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I mean, I'm sure there's somebody somewhere, but it's it's unusual. Like my my favorite band is Kiss, but there are a lot of Kiss haters, Like there are a lot of people who will tell you they don't like Kiss. But uh no, guns and Roses. I don't know anyone who Jenny, guns and.

45:50 Speaker 4: Roses, not particularly you.

45:54 Speaker 1: You don't particularly like them? Yeah, see we found somebody on.

45:59 Speaker 2: She hates them either.

46:00 Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, you don't hate them, though, do you?

46:02 Speaker 4: I don't hate any musicians.

46:03 Speaker 1: Okay, do you dislike them?

46:06 Speaker 4: I'm not particularly fond of their music.

46:08 Speaker 5: No, Well, then I guess I can't say that next time.

46:15 Speaker 1: I guess not.

46:16 Speaker 4: Jenny, you didn't ask me until now. Do you ever hear me play them?

46:22 Speaker 1: Actually? No?

46:23 Speaker 4: Never in all our years, like a decade.

46:25 Speaker 1: Never. Oh, and Jeff Richard says that Kiss rules. Matt you rock, thank you. Yeah, we are out of time. Remind us again, where should people go online? The website and anything else people should know about paper Jam.

46:39 Speaker 3: Well, the website is paper Jam Magazine dot com. So if you want to look at some back issues, I'll send it to you mail order. I think it's only four bucks, yeah, to order a back issue, okay, And the email is paper Jam Underscore mag at yahoo dot com.

46:58 Speaker 2: Okay. And of course we're on Facebook as well.

47:01 Speaker 3: And we're on Facebook as paper Jam the music mag for local bands and fans.

47:06 Speaker 1: Okay, Okay, outstanding, Sheila and Tony, thank you both so much.

47:10 Speaker 3: Thank you so much for having me.

47:11 Speaker 1: This has been wonderful. We'll have to do it again in the future. I love what you're doing, very very cool. And we'll actually end this segment with Ghosts Inside, another great track from Day to a Song, and of course Day to Attend is on the cover of the current issue of paper Jam Magazine. And this is another great track. This is called ghost Inside.