Matt Connarton Unleashed: Plague Dad

0:00 Speaker 1: But right now, and this is the gentleman who is responsible for that song Cops on Acid. Plague Dad is here. Let me get that mic up there. Frank Gallagher, better known as Plague Dad. Hello, sir, how are you doing? Thanks so much for having me. Yeah, we're very happy to have you here. We're going to play some of your other tunes today as well. But I do have to ask you right off the top, is that song Cops on Acid? Is that based on an actual experience? Did you encounter a member of law enforcement who was on acid?

0:28 Speaker 1: Well?

0:29 Speaker 2: No, not so much that that was more the speculative part. It is actually based on an incident though a former life. I used to be a bike messenger back in San Francisco, Okay, So I rode around the city delivering things, picking up things and dropping them off for money. So one day I had picked up a filing that needed to make it to city Hall by it for thirty a deadline, you know, and need to get there quick quick. It was on my way. I was riding up Marcus Street as quickly as I could, and I ran into a police officer who was the doors of his cruiser were wide open and he was directing traffic, but blaring out of the He was listening to the dead out of the out of his cruiser while he was directing traffic, and I was like, okay, that's just interesting that you don't see that every day, and it stuck with me, And then later that night wrote that song.

1:22 Speaker 1: Oh okay, I know, I thought, maybe, so what about the shooting of the dog, because that that does happen.

1:28 Speaker 2: As you know it does. That was something that was literally torn from the headlines, so to speak. So that was, you know, I mean, with with songwriting, you try to, at least my approach is to try to start from something personal, whether it's deeply personal or superficially personal. I mean, I guess really is a judgment call, but then try to establish some connections and broaden the universality of it. At that point, and given everything that's going on with our police these days, that seemed to be actually because.

2:00 Speaker 1: They will if you have a dog who needs to be put down, they will they will do it for you. Oh yeah, you just have to have a you know, like if you have a warrant for something, they'll show up at your house. Well they're well, they're they're they're if you know, if you have like Old Yeller or something, you don't want to do it yourself. Yeah, anyway, but you're not. But just to be clear, you're not you're you're not pro law enforcement on acid.

2:23 Speaker 2: You're I assume, well, you know, I always think that drug uses a personal choice. Yeah, you know, while if if somebody who holds that position wants to do that, that would be fine. I probably while they're not on right, you know, right, but in what they do in their own time is their their their business.

2:39 Speaker 1: It is a it is a fun song though very catchy is and then it's fun and it's uh, it makes me laugh when I listen to it, and we should say, so you're getting some traction with this, you're getting an airplane?

2:49 Speaker 3: Yeah?

2:49 Speaker 1: Uh do you know? Uh, do you have any idea how many stations at this point have picked it up?

2:55 Speaker 2: Eight or ten that I know of, Yeah, you know throughout New England. And then there's something califun one of the just started to play it as well. You know. I mean it's funny because you look at you know, technology these days, like Apple Music. You know, for the artists now, if you're on Apple Music, they have started to track radio plays, yes, and they will tell you what stations. So it's gotten some play, and it's amazing, Like the Midwest, it's gotten some play out in the Midwest. It's gotten some play in Brazil, yeah, you know.

3:19 Speaker 2: I mean, it's gotten some play in Japan. It's so it's it's starting to get subtraction. And you know, I've noticed that shows now, I play a lot of shows.

3:31 Speaker 3: For me, that's the essence of music.

3:33 Speaker 2: I mean, I love making records and I love radio, but music to me is and essentially it's a it's a very deeply personal experience. Yes, and so at shows now when I play that song, people are actually starting to sing along.

3:47 Speaker 1: Oh that's great, blows me away, excellent. Yeah, that's very cool. That's that's awesome. We should mention too, And I'll put the camera back on me for a moment for people watching online on the face spook or YouTube so people can see it. So you brought this, yeah, I'll kind of hold it up. You can't can't zoom in unfortunately, But so this is now, this is vinyl.

4:08 Speaker 2: It is it's a seven inch record, very cool for songs on it, very cool.

4:12 Speaker 1: Yes, So a seven inch for for those who don't know, young people might not know, uh that is it's like and this will you can put this on on a regular turn take absolutely obviously. Yeah. But for people who don't know, you know, because Vinyl has had such a resurgence, but to see a seven inch like this, that's unusual.

4:34 Speaker 2: Well, it's very I pressed two hundred copies of these, I've sold more than one hundred of them now, I just realized, which is amazing for me. I mean, to sell one hundred and seven inch records is just and again getting back to that deeply personal experience. I mean I listened to music through all sorts of medium. I listened Spotify, I listen to band camp, I go to shows, I listen to records. But what I'm finding out is that for a growing number of people, they want some sort of physical connection to the music and a record or a cassette or to a lesser extent of CD.

5:13 Speaker 2: We'll provide that.

5:15 Speaker 1: Yeah.

5:15 Speaker 3: I mean that's the first fifty copies of that.

5:19 Speaker 2: Come with a comic book as well that you can only get with this record. And it was done by the artist named Paul Kurt John who did the cover art as well, and he's a fairly well known comics underground comics artist in the UK. And I ran into him online because on this record is a cover of a tune by Black Flag called six Pack, and we can't play it here today because it's a heavy laden with profanity and just isn't appropriate for the audience on a Saturday morning here. But yes, he came. He's a Paul is an enormous Black Flag fan, and he came across the song and we hooked up and we talked, and he's offered to do the cover of the record because he just really dug the tune and I was like, oh yeah, man, absolutely so.

6:04 Speaker 2: And then he said, well could you you want to do a comic book too. I said, I'll draw comic book and you could just give it away.

6:11 Speaker 1: Wow.

6:11 Speaker 2: So he sent me the files you know, from the UK, and I printed it here and I printed fifty copies. I have eight left. I keep forgetting to bring the comics to the shows when I the records, so you know, mail order you definitely get the comic book you come to a show. If I remember to bring up I did bring him today. I'll bring one in after the show Okay, all right, thank you. Yeah, it's uh, it's a it's a it's a it's a very offensive comic book to some people. Yeah, it's it's it's it pushes the boundaries.

6:43 Speaker 2: Okay, okay, which is read up my alley?

6:47 Speaker 1: Now? Where do you record? You know?

6:50 Speaker 2: I record wherever I can. Honestly, this record was recorded at Monaco Studios in Falmouth, Maine, and it was engineered and mixed by a by a man named Dan Capaldi, who is an absolutely gifted producer, engineer, musician. This guy has some of the best ears that I've ever run across. And he also plays drums and sits in with me sometimes it shows if I.

7:15 Speaker 3: Need a drummer.

7:16 Speaker 2: Oh okay, So he's played with me a couple of times. He plays with everybody in Portland. If you've seen a band in Portland, you've probably seen Dan Capaldi play drums or bass or guitar.

7:26 Speaker 1: Or you know, well, every every drummer I know, I mean it's a consistent theme on the show. Every drummer I know is in like multiple multiple bands.

7:33 Speaker 2: Indeed, So this one was recorded there at Monaco Studios. Now Dan has his own little studio. Now that he's just set up in Portland. I don't even know what has a name yet, but I hope to do some recording there. I also, do you know, I'm touring part of it. I play a lot of shows with a band called Vice's Inc. Who are supposed to be here this morning. They couldn't make it. That's by virtue of their absences. I guess that's how I sort of walked into this. But they have a studio, so I'm gonna be doing some record there.

8:00 Speaker 2: I've done some recording with them as well, excellent, so really wherever.

8:04 Speaker 3: I can sit it in. I also just record up in my attic.

8:07 Speaker 2: I have a little home studio that I demo things up there, and I try to record as many live shows as I can, really, yeah, because every live show has a different feel. So I just did a tour in August with Vices Inc. And I recorded a bunch of those shows. And I have another set that I recorded at the tody In Theater in Portland where I opened.

8:33 Speaker 3: Up a film festival.

8:34 Speaker 2: I was the opening act for film, so I recorded that that was with a full band, very much the sound that you heard with this track that you played, you know, bass drums, mandolin, vocals, guitar. So I have a half hour set of that sound and then I have another show this a half an hour that's solo, just me and a foot drum.

8:56 Speaker 3: And and you know, and and it's.

8:58 Speaker 2: Very different field, but it's the same songs. Yeah, I mean literally, I mean it's almost the same set list.

9:04 Speaker 1: Okay.

9:05 Speaker 2: So I'm going to release that on a cassette only release. Okay, So you're gonna get you know, the full band on one side and the solo set on the other side, and I'm gonna print one hundred copies. They're in production right now, and Paul is going to do the cover right for that as well. Okay, and those are going to be available on my website Plague dot Dad. Yeah, and on my band camp page as well.

9:25 Speaker 1: By the way, I think it's so cool that your side is Plague dot Dad because a lot of people too. You know, I'm a web designer, so I know this, but a lot of people probably don't even realize that. You know, you can get a lot of different you know, you know, it doesn't have to be dot com or dot net or you know, at this point, you can get almost anything. If you're willing to pay for it.

9:43 Speaker 2: Oh yeah, yeah, you know it's funny. I kind of backed into this one too, because I do a lot of this myself. So I built the website myself. I did you know, I came to the U r L myself them all the marketing. I mean, that's sort of the nature of the music business these days.

9:57 Speaker 1: Yeah.

9:57 Speaker 2: And I went through I'm going to name and shame here went through go Daddy to buy my domain name. I had plague dad dot com. Yeah it was you know, which was fine, and I got it for a year and it went to what it expired.

10:12 Speaker 1: Yea.

10:12 Speaker 2: And Go Daddy has created a company now and they bought the thing out from under me and offered to sell it back to me for six hundred dollars. And I was like, you know what, I'm done. Not only am I done, I'm actually gonna just, you know, whenever the opportunity comes up, I'm gonna talk smack about you. So here we are talk a smack about go Daddy, because if that's their business model for independent artists, then they are going down the wrong road. So now I found somebody else. So I've learned how to do this myself.

10:39 Speaker 2: I change the domain plague dot Dad.

10:42 Speaker 3: It's much better.

10:43 Speaker 1: Who do you own the we should plug? Who do you own the domain through?

10:46 Speaker 2: Now you know it's uh, I believe it's through banned Zoogle I think is yeah. Yeah, And they help with the website and make it really easy and set up the store to sell the records. I mean, it's just sort of a one stop shop. And for a musician who is really trying to, you know, do everything themselves, they have a suite of tools that makes it just as easy as it can possibly be.

11:09 Speaker 1: Absolutely one hundred Yeah, No, that's that's that's very cool. Uh So where does the name come from? Playing dad?

11:18 Speaker 2: And people can probably guess indeed.

11:21 Speaker 1: That you know, they're there. We we did go through a little bit, people might remember, Yeah, a bit of a pandemic.

11:27 Speaker 3: Yeah.

11:28 Speaker 2: Absolutely, well, in fact, that is where it comes from. Yeah, you know, when the pandemic emerged, Like a lot of folks, I lost my job at the time, so I had a lot of time on my hands. I ended up in my attic just writing songs. And I've always been a musician, you know, yeah, and writing some songs and recording them and I would send them out to friends or post them on you know, snippets on social media, and it started to get some traction and it's like, well, wow, that's kind of cool.

11:57 Speaker 3: So the name just sort suggested itself.

12:01 Speaker 2: I mean, we during that time, we sort of all for better or worse turned inward. I mean it was very you know, you were alone and with your family. In my case, I have actually I am a father, I have you know, three kids, and it's just sort of emerged as a in that in a time like that, you know, you're you're at least for me, family was one of the most important things.

12:27 Speaker 3: And so.

12:30 Speaker 2: It's just sort of captured everything that was going on at that time, both personally and culturally for me in a in a bumper sticker, if you will.

12:42 Speaker 3: And I'm from a marketing.

12:43 Speaker 2: Perspective, I was like, all right, that that really conjures up everything that I would need a band name.

12:50 Speaker 1: Right.

12:50 Speaker 3: It does what it needs to do as a band.

12:51 Speaker 1: Name, right right. Yeah, No, it's great. And I regular listeners hearing me say this all the time, but you know, but I always say, you know, the pandemic was an awful experience for us all but you got to find these silver linings where you can And one of the big silver linings is, you know, just broadly, is it really kind of forced people to be more creative and find ways to do things or expand on existing ways to do things. But you know, for example, you saw a lot of like bands, you know, doing online performances where they're all in separate places, that kind of thing.

13:28 Speaker 1: Yeah, it also opened people up to people who may have been you know, because I always I ask every guest, you know, where do you record? Because you have so many options now, But it really kind of I think the pandemic opened people up to people who maybe were resistant to you know, just sending files back and forth and recording that way now found themselves in a position where okay, well I guess I better figure out how to make this work. So it really kind of I think expanded the boundaries that people have in their minds in terms of how to be of how to make music or anything else.

14:02 Speaker 2: Oh indeed, no, no, no, no question. And you know it's interesting some that with all the technology that exists now, it provide it there's a toolbox that is unprecedented, I mean, from from a musical perspective, power that we have available to us now as musicians is exponentially stronger and more robust than it was even just a couple of years ago. Yeah, ten or twenty years ago. Curiously, though, I used that technology too. I wanted to create a sound and and some material that could be played should that technology not be available.

14:43 Speaker 2: You know, I mean, what can I just do with a voice, right, some wood and some guitar strings, you know, wooden instruments that don't have to be amplified. You know, a foot drum, you know, these these tools that are there regardless of whatever the technology situation is. And again it gets back to that connection, that deep personal connection. I'm not saying that, you know, you can't forge that connection through technology, but I was looking for something a little more primal. Yeah, and so I really, you know, you made an artistic decision to base this in acoustic instruments, and that acoustics sound filtered through that punk rock ethos that brought me into music in the first place.

15:32 Speaker 1: Yeah, so so prior to this, so prior to plague, Dad, what what were you doing musically before? Were you in a band or were.

15:42 Speaker 2: You Yeah, this is a long sort of tale. How much time we have time.

15:46 Speaker 1: Yeah, it's only nine twenty, we have time. I love a long sort of tale. Yeah.

15:50 Speaker 2: No, I started playing you know, a lawn back in the ties, you know, into this.

15:57 Speaker 3: I'm in my fifties. Okay, so I started playing.

16:00 Speaker 2: My first band was a band called Scouts on Her and I went to the Berkeley College of Music and was with a couple of Berkeley students who happened to be from San Francisco. Oh and we, you know, we gigged around Boston. We played the rat we played T T's you know, you know, we're doing some things like that. Yeah, and then these guys said, you know what, let's just move to San Francisco.

16:19 Speaker 1: Man, let's just Yeah.

16:20 Speaker 2: So we bought a school bus, ripped out the seats, threw all a crap in, and moved to San Francisco.

16:25 Speaker 1: Okay, yeah, now what what year was this?

16:28 Speaker 2: This is in nineteen eighty seven, okay, eighty seven. So we started playing around there and did pretty well, put out a record. We were We ended up playing a show with Nirvana, No kidd, playing a show with the Google Dolls. We ended up playing with a couple of you know, bands like Alice Donut and Primus and mister Bungle and I mean we were going up and down the West coast, playing from La to Seattle, doing that whole thing.

16:54 Speaker 1: Yeah.

16:55 Speaker 3: Yeah, and uh you could you know.

16:57 Speaker 2: It's still a copy a couple of copies of that record around subware. I'm sure you could find it on eBay or discogs or something like that.

17:04 Speaker 1: Yeah.

17:05 Speaker 2: But uh, it got to the point where that just wasn't fun anymore.

17:12 Speaker 1: What did it become more like work?

17:13 Speaker 2: It did, Yeah, and it became you know, it's a grind.

17:16 Speaker 1: I mean people think, you know, people think, oh, you go on tour and oh my god, it's just uh wine women in songs I writ someone say once and it's it's not right.

17:25 Speaker 2: Yeah no. And beyond that, there's just sort of the emotional aspect to it as well. You know, I've a I've come to understand on the deeply personal level that comparison is the thief of joy. And at that point in my life as a young person, You're all about am I doing?

17:46 Speaker 4: Am I?

17:47 Speaker 3: Am I? Is it successful? Is it going to be successful?

17:49 Speaker 2: What?

17:49 Speaker 1: Am I?

17:50 Speaker 2: You know? I mean it's all about that competition. And one day we had booked a show and we were going to open for Helmet at the Kennel Club, which was, you know, a club in San Francisco at the time on the Visitarro Street. And the guy we had played there a couple of times and the shows great. And the club owner called me back a couple of weeks before the show and he said, you know what, you guys are off the show?

18:11 Speaker 3: Why?

18:12 Speaker 2: He said, well, you know, we got to call. Helmet was on amphetamine Reptile at that time, before they had gotten big huge, and he said, you know, the label called and they said, we can't get Helmet unless we take these two other acts promote as well. Sorry, and that was it. I could just feel something just snapped. You know what, I'm done.

18:32 Speaker 3: This is it. I just can't do this anymore.

18:35 Speaker 1: Yeah.

18:36 Speaker 2: So I went back. I left San Francisco. I went back to school.

18:40 Speaker 1: And did you go back to Berkeley or no.

18:42 Speaker 2: I went to orn I went to U Maie and became a journalist, reporter. I was a reporter for a long time reporter, columnist.

18:51 Speaker 3: And an editor.

18:53 Speaker 2: Made my way back to San Francisco, where I actually covered city hall politics in San Francisco for for quite a while. And what's fascinating to me is that the folks who are merging into the national power structure. Now, Yep, Gavin Knwsom, who was the governor, Kamala Harris, Who's are these were the folks who were holding local offices when I was covering that, Oh wow, city Hall. I remember when Gavin was appointed to the city council by Willie Brown. A good friend of mine was Kamala's chief of staff when she was the district attorney.

19:21 Speaker 2: So you know, I did that for a very long time. Yeah, and wow, the background of prince.

19:26 Speaker 1: Journalism, oh wow.

19:27 Speaker 2: And got married, raised some kids and just sort of set the music things aside for a while to concentrate on journalism and raising my family.

19:38 Speaker 1: And yeah, you know, wow.

19:41 Speaker 2: When the pandemic rolled around again, though, the opportunity presented itself to get back into some of the music.

19:49 Speaker 3: Yeah, so I did.

19:51 Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, and you know, three and a half four years into it, it just keeps rolling, which is you know, yep, I'm thankful for that every day.

20:00 Speaker 1: Oh excellent, excellent. We should uh, well, let's play another track. Sure, I'll I'll let you pick.

20:06 Speaker 2: Well, you know, there's like there's four songs on this record the Uh there's the there's one.

20:11 Speaker 3: Called Slip the Leash, which really speaks.

20:15 Speaker 2: To sort of my love hate relationship with technology.

20:18 Speaker 1: Oh okay, in a minute and a.

20:20 Speaker 2: Half, very short, which mix should we go with? Well, you know, let's let's do that. Let's do the Monoco mix and then talk about the you know, because I like to remix tunes and.

20:32 Speaker 3: We've done that with someone.

20:34 Speaker 1: Right right, Okay, so we'll play the Monaco.

20:36 Speaker 2: Uh, Monica being the studio where we recorded it, which is why it's got that.

20:40 Speaker 1: Yeah yeah yeah, and uh yeah, great great sound coming out of there.

20:44 Speaker 3: Fantastic studio.

20:45 Speaker 2: Sam Monico, who was the host of the Locomotive Show on w Mpghay Portland, is a fantastic support of the local music scene in and he's just a great guy.

20:56 Speaker 3: And it's a it's a that studio is remarkable.

20:59 Speaker 1: Oh okay, let's give this a listen. So this is called whoops. Oh there it is Slip the Leash, the Monico mix, and play Dad, check this out.

21:17 Speaker 5: It's all got smartphones and a wish to christ.

21:20 Speaker 2: I didn't have mine, but I need it for work.

21:27 Speaker 5: I need it for work. We've all got lap office. Dad's how we all in the world stay. That's how we can next.

21:41 Speaker 4: At least that's what they say.

21:46 Speaker 2: I live near the airport, right under the night Dad.

21:52 Speaker 3: I hear the engines.

21:55 Speaker 4: And I see the things you take the kids the airport.

22:01 Speaker 5: Still get the nights.

22:04 Speaker 4: Week talking about where we might go Stata.

22:13 Speaker 5: Smartphones and a Wesh Christ.

22:16 Speaker 3: I didn't mind.

22:19 Speaker 5: I need it for work. They hate job.

22:27 Speaker 1: That is slip the leash. That is a Plague Dad. We have Frank Gallagher of Plague Dad here with us alive in studio. That uh, that song in particular, I think is relatable in that Uh. I think probably a lot of people feel that. Well, I shouldn't even say probably, I know a lot of people feel that way because, uh, people talk about it all the time on on Facebook. You'll you'll see and hear people well, I shouldn't say you'll hear, but you'll see people talking about in post. You know. I hate uh, I hate all this technology.

22:55 Speaker 2: Well it's funny. I mean this of one company now has made at the centerpiece of their new ad camp Pain. It's the ads featuring Atlantis Morse that yeah, or talking about how we all have to use our phone and people it's this sort of this love hate relationship with technology. And it's fascinating to me from a cultural and a personal perspective, because you know, the promise of the internet was that it would create community and that it would bring us all together, right, and in some ways it absolutely has done that, But in many other ways it has done exactly the opposite.

23:24 Speaker 2: It has fractured communities, it has destroyed communities, and it has very much provided people, you know, this illusion of community when really they're just in their own cocoon with that with that phone, and they interact and people I shouldn't.

23:43 Speaker 3: I don't say that.

23:44 Speaker 2: I'm as guilty of it as anybody. But we interact these days through a screen as opposed to intentionally and personally,

23:56 Speaker 2: which is it is what it is.

24:00 Speaker 3: We we make our own decisions about how we deal with that.

24:03 Speaker 1: I think, yeah, And people say things to online that they would never say in person, you know, And and the way people treat each other online, I mean, you know, yeah, like some of the things that have been said to me online. It's like, you know, sometimes I think, uh, you know, I'm not a violent person by any stretch, and I'm no tough guy, but if this person said that to me in real life to my face, I probably punched them.

24:26 Speaker 3: Absolutely.

24:27 Speaker 4: Yeah.

24:27 Speaker 2: No, the facade of anonymity that that we either believe in or you know, construct is Yeah. It allows that to happen and encourages that.

24:40 Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, time courage, Yeah yeah. And I also hear people say too, you know, well like you so you you stepped away from Facebook, absolutely, and from a mental health perspective, you're probably a lot better off. But at the same time, it's like, you know, because we were kind of talking off there about how the you know, it does, but it does put certain constraints on you in terms of promoting what you're doing.

25:03 Speaker 2: One hundred percent, no question. I'm read I will reach fewer people because I'm not on Facebook.

25:08 Speaker 1: Yeah.

25:09 Speaker 2: But in the balance, if you make a list of the upsides and the downsides, upsides of beating off of Facebook vastly outweigh the downsides.

25:18 Speaker 1: In my yeah, yeah, see, I'm doing this radio show and everything, there's no way I can oh yeah, you know, like I'm I'm I'm locked in. But I but I don't, you know, I don't engage much in terms of you know, like the way that I use it. You know, I'll share out things related to the show or promote other things that I'm doing, and I use it for my hypnotherapy practice and all this, you know, is to let people know what I'm doing. But and sometimes I'll I'll I'll post, especially in the last couple of years, I'll post things that might be more personal or that I just think are funny.

25:50 Speaker 1: But when when people start commenting, if because the thing is too We live in a in a time when you don't have to be you don't have to be even remotely. Like I posted something recently about about getting vaccinated, and you know, i'd gone to write eight and you know, got my flu shot COVID booster, and so of course and I just posted something funny about it. How you know, the pharmacist said, you know, go sit down and for fifteen minutes, and then you know, as soon as he's not looking, I sneak out, you know, because you know, it's not my first time with it.

26:27 Speaker 1: I know, you know, I am going to have a side effect, but it's going to be later when I'm exhausted. But of course, you know, so I just post something like that because I think it's funny and of course, you know, anti vaxxers and everybody's make it a totally political thread. But what I do is I don't engage because because I just I don't argue about politics or anything. I just I don't argue with people on social media. I refuse to. I find it both just unenduringly just it's it's so tedious and it's entirely pointless, and and uh so I just I actually learned to kind of enjoy when that happens, because people start posting all this mean, angry stuff at me over what I thought was just a funny post.

27:15 Speaker 1: But instead of engaging, I actually take pleasure in not engaging, knowing that it's making them crazy that I'm not engaging because they want me to argue with them, right, and uh they want me to fight with them, and I'm not doing it, and I know it bothers them indeed. Well yeah, and I actually get a laugh out of knowing that it bothers you. Yeah.

27:40 Speaker 3: No, there's there's a lot to be said for that.

27:42 Speaker 2: Yeah, it's just yeah, Emotionally, I just like I said, emotionally, intellectually just didn't have the bandwidth for it. And again, it's do I want to give an hour to these people and Mark Zuckerberg, or do I want to spend an hour in a meaningful time that you know sar Joy?

28:00 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, exactly.

28:03 Speaker 3: I'll choose my time.

28:04 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, exactly, choose Joy, choose absolutely absolutely. Come on, Well now no, so let me ask you this. So, how how have you Because you know, as we discussed, I mean you're having some success. You know, Cops on Acid is catching on, and and you know you're you're selling your music. What because a lot of a lot of people in the industry listen to the show, A lot of a lot of musicians listen to the show. Like what advice do you have for for anyone who maybe doesn't want to have to do? You know, you utilize Facebook?

28:36 Speaker 1: Like how are you what is your approach? How are you doing this?

28:40 Speaker 2: Play as many live shows as you can.

28:43 Speaker 1: Yeah.

28:43 Speaker 3: Music is all about being heard.

28:46 Speaker 2: Yeah, it's you know, it's like that old if tree falls in the forest and nobody hears it, does it happen?

28:52 Speaker 5: Right?

28:53 Speaker 3: Well?

28:53 Speaker 2: You know, I mean if you write a song and nobody hears it, did it get written? Go out and play show, go to open mics, go play wherever you can you know when I when this project first started to come together and seemed as if it would have legs, we couldn't play shows, that there was no place to physically get a get a gig because the pandemic had taken care of everything was shut down. So I literally went out into the streets and played. I started busking. I would absolutely and I still do it.

29:25 Speaker 1: I love it.

29:26 Speaker 2: I go as often as I can if I don't have If I'm in Portland and at home and I don't have a show on a Friday or Saturday night, you will typically find me down in the Old Port between six and nine playing music.

29:38 Speaker 3: Absolutely.

29:39 Speaker 2: I use what's called an.

29:41 Speaker 3: AMP that is a roll in tube street. This thing runs on batteries.

29:45 Speaker 2: It runs on eight double a's and it runs for six hours on eight double as pushes fifty watts.

29:50 Speaker 3: It has three channels.

29:51 Speaker 2: I can run my guitar and my vocals and my little foot drum through it and I will just go play for three hours. And I've met some amazing musicians just just doing that, and people will gather around, and you know, I'll bring a crowd. You know, and that I love busking because you will know immediately, what works and what doesn't. You know, if people stop and are listening, then you're doing something right. If people are walking by, you know, I mean the thing I'm looking for, reaction. You know, what works, what doesn't work, what makes people happy, what pisses people off.

30:30 Speaker 2: The worst thing in my mind is ambivalence. That's what drives me nuts. Hate being ignored, right, And maybe that's a personal thing, and I fully cop to it, you know, call me an attention or whatever. No, I think, so I don't if you hate it, you know, but a reaction is what I'm looking for, and busking provides that immediate feedback. And beyond that, you know, part of being a music is learning how to perform and make no mistake. That is a skill set that is separate and apart from learning your scales and your modes and how to solo and how to improvise, and that's there's an element of showmanship that you need to develop.

31:16 Speaker 2: And the only way to do that is to get out there on the stage and play in front of people. Right. And so I'm thankfully I'm fortunate enough at this point where I'm I'm actually getting a lot of shows indoors but if I, like I say, if I genuinely love busking, because I don't have to be there at eight fifteen, I don't have to load in at eight twenty five. I don't have to play twenty two minutes. You know, I don't have to I can play whatever a damn well please. I can play the same song four times if I want, you know, and I use that to go workshoping new material.

31:47 Speaker 2: Okay, and you know some of these songs that we're playing today have evolved dramatically. Out there on the pitch is what us buskers call where we play.

31:56 Speaker 1: Okay. I didn't know that I've heard that phrase.

31:59 Speaker 2: Okay, okay, and it's uh so I'm uh you know, if it's warm tonight, I may actually go out because you know, I have some shows coming up next three weekends. But I'm actually off tonight, so I may be out there in Portland.

32:16 Speaker 1: I'm just curious, do you need any kind of a permit or anything, or do they just let you do it or you know, you're.

32:23 Speaker 2: My understanding is that you're supposed to have some sort of permit if you're amplified, and I often am amplified. That said, I've never had somebody stop me and ask me for that permit. And I'm Dan in the old Port where you know, on a Friday or Saturday night, where there is a police presence, and those officers down there have actually come to know me because I'm there frequently, and like what I do they know? I mean, I'm a sort of a known commodity and I've so I haven't had that problem yet. That said, I've heard from some other buskers in Portland that they've had some some run ins.

33:06 Speaker 2: Yeah, some uh, you know, some of the compliance staff. But every town is different. Like in in Boston you don't need a permit across the river and Cambridge you do. Yeah, oh yeah absolutely, so really, I mean, if it's something that you're want, if you're a musician, is something you want to try, hey do it absolutely because it's just fantastic experience. It's it's so much fun. But look, check into it, you know, make some calls, do the research, sure, figure it out.

33:34 Speaker 1: Sure. And you know, I don't even know what the I don't know what the laws are on that or rules are here in Manchester.

33:42 Speaker 2: You know, it's funny you say that to you, because I was coming in this morning, and coming over the bridge and.

33:46 Speaker 3: It's like, wow, I bet I could.

33:48 Speaker 1: Yeah.

33:48 Speaker 2: It's like whenever I come into a town, that's my first thing. It's like, there's a pitch where where would be the best pitch?

33:53 Speaker 1: Yeah, because I see them on Elm Street, but not much, not as much as I used to. It seems like, so I don't know, I have no idea what the what the rule is? But uh, was that when you first started doing that?

34:06 Speaker 2: Was it?

34:07 Speaker 5: Was?

34:07 Speaker 1: It intimidating at first, but you.

34:11 Speaker 2: Have to you know, there's a couple of things going on. I'm at the point in my life now where i just don't care what people think anymore.

34:18 Speaker 3: I'm just beyond that.

34:19 Speaker 2: You know, I really don't.

34:21 Speaker 1: And that's one of the few good things about getting older. It's a short list, but as you get older, you just naturally become less self conscious. It's more like, you know, who cares what people think?

34:31 Speaker 3: Exactly? Beyond that it's.

34:35 Speaker 2: People you're not you're not hurting anybody, you know, you know, just people can ignore it if they want, right, you know, right, So it's it's as long as you're not blocking the sidewalk. That seems to be the you know, you don't want to cause anybody any problems. But if you're just out there doing your thing, you know. Yeah, now, man, I'm a ham.

34:57 Speaker 3: Yeah, you got to work to show me up now.

35:02 Speaker 1: In the uh you know what about in the winter, do you? I mean, is there anywhere where you can do that indoors, like in a mall.

35:08 Speaker 2: Or well you know, it's it's it's it's it's funny. I don't know about the mall, but like last winter. Uh, there's a there's a pub in Portland called bram Hall which is on Congress Street and I just walked in there one night and guy behind the bar had to be the manager. I said, hey, how about you just let me play here every Thursday night? And he's like, what do you mean? And I said, well, here's what I explained to him. You know that bost and what's going on?

35:34 Speaker 3: I said, getting too cold?

35:36 Speaker 2: And your place to play? Yeah, I said, you know, to pay me and there's no amplifications, just me and my acoustic guitar and my drum. So there's no laws about entertainment, there's no permits or anything like that. How about you just let me roll in here with my tip Jart Thursday night. Yeah, on Thursday nights and play and if people are digging it, fantastic. If they're not, I'll move along and he's like all right, And I did that for six months.

36:03 Speaker 3: It actually turned out really really and.

36:06 Speaker 2: It got to be a thing. I mean, if people start to hear about this, if you're any good, I mean, that's why I encourage people to play live. If you're any good, you will find traction because people like live music.

36:21 Speaker 2: Maybe not so much, you know, because but I was fortunate enough that people would would come around and people would come back. There were regulars. They'd come in, you know, because they knew what was going on, and they people like live music. So I would start to have friends come by and you know, people other other musicians that I know from around town sit in, do a couple of tunes. You know. It got to become a thing and it was actually pretty cool. And then the places changed ownership and the new manager came in, it just the vibe wasn't the same, and I was like, yeah, okay, this was played.

36:54 Speaker 1: So yeah we moved on. Yeah, But I mean I think the broader point, though it sounds like they you're making, is it's it's so important to build a relationship.

37:02 Speaker 3: Absolutely, and uh that's the currency, you know, so you you.

37:05 Speaker 1: Can get around Facebook, oh yeah, you know, or other forms.

37:09 Speaker 2: Of uh, but play live and when if you're a young musician or a musician who's young in your career and you're just starting out, play as many shows as you can and stay for the other bands. Yeah, listen to those other bands and talk with those other bands and create and nurture those relationships, because that's how you find your audience, and that's how you develop your audience, and that's how you grow your audience. I mean, you can have ten thousand followers on Instagram, but if you can't put twelve people into a club that any does that have any meaning?

37:47 Speaker 3: Does that any value?

37:48 Speaker 1: Yeah?

37:49 Speaker 3: What are you know?

37:50 Speaker 1: Good?

37:50 Speaker 4: Yeah?

37:51 Speaker 1: No, that's a great point and an important one because of the club or the bar or the venue. You know, they the promoter, they don't it's you know, they're impressed if you have a lot of Instagram followers, but what they really care about is how many of them are going to show.

38:05 Speaker 3: Up exactly exactly.

38:06 Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, So now you know it's getting to be I'm looking around and again I'm thinking okay, well, maybe I need to find another bram Hale because it's getting colder. And that said, I also just need to take some time. I've been playing so many shows and touring and I think, you know, this past summer I played probably seventy.

38:25 Speaker 3: Five eighty shows, no kidding, Wow, it was, which is fantastic. I love it.

38:30 Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm not complaining of what I'm saying is I have about twelve to fifteen songs. Have a disturbing amount of songs that are half done. Okay, I really just need to finish, you know, So maybe I take six or eight weeks and just take it down a notch and finish those songs.

38:47 Speaker 1: You know, And when you play live, is it always just you? Do you ever have guest musicians or I.

38:52 Speaker 2: You know, I do. I will play with I look at the show and what the venue is and who I'm playing with and pull together. If it's a tour, it's probably gonna be me solo because the cost musically these days, and you know, the business of the music business is so fundamentally broken now that a touring band is very difficult to pull off. Oh yeah, I mean you're gonna a They're gonna low ball you on the gate. You're not gonna get if you get paid, they're gonna take a cutting and merchet, you know.

39:23 Speaker 3: I mean, there's just you. You can't do it.

39:26 Speaker 2: It's it's very difficult. So off, when I go on tour, I'm solo. When I'm playing locally or you know, regionally, I will pull together a band.

39:38 Speaker 5: You know.

39:38 Speaker 2: I played a show at Genos the other night with the band called Euphemia, who, for my money, is the best local band in Portland right now.

39:44 Speaker 3: These guys are fantastic.

39:46 Speaker 2: They'll oh God, their new record self released. It was It's been the number one local record at Bull Moose now for a long time.

39:55 Speaker 3: These guys are amazing.

39:57 Speaker 2: Okay, So I open for them at Genos and I pulled together the punk rock trio for that.

40:03 Speaker 4: You know.

40:03 Speaker 2: I had Dan Capaldi played drums, and a guy named Mike Berkowitz who plays bass with a couple of jazz bands around town, sat in on bass, and you know, and we just ripped it for half an hour, man together a thirty minute set that you know, when I go bust now I have I'll play for three or four hours at a time. I mean, I know, one hundred songs. Yeah, you know, a bunch of covers and a bunch of my stuff, and I'll weave that together and sort of pull a set together in the moment based on what's working.

40:32 Speaker 3: You sort of read the room.

40:33 Speaker 2: Yes, but when I do a club gig, it's thirty minutes of unrestrained mayhem because I know what works, because I've put that time in and I've road tested this material, and I can put together a set list that will it's contoured, that is just relentless and it rips. And that's what we did and hell of a show. Yeah, I really enjoy those kind of gigs. There's a lot to be said for those, you know, busking aside this. You know, coming in and doing a set like that, that's that powerful and you know at the end of it, people were just cheering.

41:09 Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean because I do.

41:11 Speaker 2: Have that element of showmanship that you know, I'm I enjoy that. That's part of being on stage. Yes, it's got to be you know, you have to leave leave it all out there, man.

41:20 Speaker 1: Yeah.

41:20 Speaker 2: You know, these people are paying good money for a show. I'm gonna make sure they get what they came for. Yeah, you know, speaking and paying good money. I mean, you know, I went to a club the other night. I couldn't twenty dollars cover charge. Yeah, that was just to get into the door twenty bucks in Portland. Yeah yeah, and that's it was worth it because there were five bands on the bill. But that's a lot of dope sure coming in, you know. But yeah, this is where we are, yeah these days. Yeah, absolutely, yeah.

41:49 Speaker 1: I mean there's there's major touring acts that have canceled yeah, oh yeah, canceled tours because they can't afford to do it, you know. And Live Nation has things.

42:00 Speaker 2: Their predatory Live Nation I just have Yeah, we've we've.

42:04 Speaker 1: Talked about that a lot on the show. Yeah. Absolutely. I think they're getting sued again. Good yeah, no kidding, uh yeah no, these these monopolies. Let's play another track.

42:19 Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, let's play one off what I call the Mayhem Mix, which is so for there's an interesting story behind these these So I took the songs are on this record, and I gave him to a friend of mine named Chuck Gonzalez out in San Francisco, who was again another very talented engineer, and I said, Chuck, go nuts.

42:38 Speaker 1: Yeah, just play with it.

42:39 Speaker 2: Have fun. And his sound and his approach is very different than Dance who did the initial mix. So he gave it this sort of psychedelic edge. Yeah, and uh, you know, for for example, there's a guy named New York Mike who's a DJ on WMPG and he plays the Psychedelic show. Yeah, and he didn't like that Monico mix. But oh hell of of the Mayhem. Oh okay, so okay, you know it does have a very different feel. Yeah, which track, Well, let's play you know what, play play this this the Cops may the Mayhem mix the Cops.

43:12 Speaker 3: Okay, because that's the It's got a whole different vibe to it.

43:16 Speaker 1: Yeah, you're at you know, it's funny too. That's the first one I listened to when I listened to the tracks that you sent me was was that mix of Cops on Acid? Yeah? All right, check this out. This is the Mayhem mix of Cops on Acid. And this is a plague Dad, Dad, I.

44:02 Speaker 2: Woman know what this man said?

44:11 Speaker 5: He said, cockball last, come said come ball man last.

44:41 Speaker 2: Talk comedy.

44:45 Speaker 5: He was listening dude bream did said, hey man, what showed that? He said, show my hands? Then shot my dogue.

45:21 Speaker 1: That is the Mayhem mix of Cops on Acid by Plague Dad, mister Frank Gallagher here with us alive in studio. No dogs were harmed in the in the actual one, yes, yes, but uh no that is that is very cool, Frank. This has been wonderful. Thank you so much for joining us this morning, pleasure.

45:39 Speaker 2: Thank you so much for having me. I really enjoy radio. It's a medium that I keep turning back to because, particularly community stations and college stations.

45:51 Speaker 3: I like to hear what the DJs you have to say and what they what they play.

45:57 Speaker 2: I mean, the algorithm is fine, but I I have heard so much and been turned on to so much cool new music by listening to college DJ as a community station yew days.

46:09 Speaker 3: That's it's unbeatable.

46:11 Speaker 1: I'll mention this briefly. My father who listens to the show, Hi dad, if you're listening. So he lives on the sea coast here in New Hampshire, and he's in his seventies. And I only mentioned that because you know, most people geez, I don't know by the time they get to be thirty or forty, they kind of just say, okay, I've heard all the music I'm ever interested in and I'm not going to like anything that I anything new that I hear from this point forward.

46:33 Speaker 4: Right.

46:34 Speaker 1: My dad is the opposite of that. He still loves new music. He's always been like that. Like you'd never like, if you got into a car with my dad, you're not going to hear the oldiest station coming out of the stereo, right right. And he so he lives on the Sea coast and he loves listening to wunh oh fantastic because he loves hearing new music and he loves college radio.

46:53 Speaker 3: No, no, it's great.

46:53 Speaker 1: Yeah it really is.

46:55 Speaker 2: And you know to that, and yes, I do this, play dad. But I also run alay little blog in town called that Portland Sound. Oh really, where I try to bring some attention to bands that I like. Yeah, so I'll just write up little pieces about bands I like and I'll put that out there. Oh and you know, I was a reporter for a long time, so I write, oh, I totally want to read this. Yeah, yeah, it's you know, I updated infrequently. I'm thinking I really need to start making that more of a regular thing. And I'm actually toying with the idea of making it a print thing.

47:27 Speaker 2: You know, really remember the old school with zines. I'm going to make this into a zine.

47:32 Speaker 1: We have a here, we have a paper jam magazine. Yeah, we've had them on the show.

47:36 Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I'm going to do that with this. There is a market for it, and I'm gonna you know, I've started, I've costed it out. I'm going to print up two hundred and fifty copies, probably twenty four pages, and I'm going to put together a compilation CD and just glue it into.

47:51 Speaker 3: The back page awesome, and just drop it around town.

47:54 Speaker 2: Yeah. You know so though, like you'll find ten copies in a cafe, you'll find ten copies of Geno's. You'll find ten copies a Hi fi in in in Portland, which is one of my other favorite venues. That place is fantastic.

48:05 Speaker 1: Oh I love it. That's so yeah.

48:06 Speaker 2: I'm gonna start doing that as well.

48:09 Speaker 1: Fantastic, fantastic. And of course the website is Plague dot dad bleg dot dad.

48:14 Speaker 2: Dad, and I'm on band camp as well if you want, you know, and you can buy the records there. I have other merch I have T shirts and bandanas. A lot of stuff is sold out, which is crazy.

48:23 Speaker 3: I gotta. I gotta up my awesome totally.

48:27 Speaker 1: Oh I love your music because it makes me smile.

48:30 Speaker 2: Well, that's great, fantastic, that's one of the best things that anybody has ever said to me.

48:34 Speaker 1: And and for those watching online too, let me hold this up again, the seven inch final. I love this artwork. You can see that. Yeah, the artwork is very very.

48:43 Speaker 2: That's like I said, Paul court John is the artist there.

48:46 Speaker 3: You like his stuff.

48:47 Speaker 2: He's gotta. He's just got a crazy amount of independent comics that he produces.

48:50 Speaker 1: And you're playing You've got shows this week?

48:52 Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, we're playing with The next one is in Ellsworth. So there's a new place in Ellsworth called the Black Moon Public House. And this is my new favorite place in Maine because it is a pub and it's a record store together you can like go in and and they're having live shows there. So I was there, you know, back earlier this summer and at the place had a soft opening and I walked in and I saw that they looked around. I found Steve, Steve Pierce, the Empressario, and I said, hey, do you ever do any in stores here?

49:23 Speaker 2: He's like, yeah, sure. So I just started playing there and so I've played there a couple three times now, but now he trusts me a little bit.

49:33 Speaker 3: I don't know, you know, whether better or for worse.

49:37 Speaker 2: So this weekend, Saturday, November second, I'm bringing up a couple of friends of mine from Portland and we're gonna just Portland comes to Ellsworth, So Plague Dad will be there crying. Caleb is going to be there, and a gentleman named Fine Pioneer Okay, and he's got a new single out that's just amazing as well. It's called both Sides of Sleepy and it's a fantastic song. So we're gonna take that show on the road. We're gonna go up to Ellsworth on the second and we're gonna play that Okay. And there's a couple in uh in Scout Hegan, there's some there's there's some young people that are organizing shows there now, house parties and other venues.

50:12 Speaker 2: So that they they reached out to me and asked me if I come up play a couple there.

50:15 Speaker 3: I said, of course, I will, absolutely yeah.

50:17 Speaker 2: And then the Spring Point Tavern in South Portland's Okay, is right across the street from uh SMCC from Southern Main Community College. They're doing live music now and cryon. Caleb got a show there and he asked me if I would play that show with him.

50:32 Speaker 3: He said, hell yeah, of course.

50:34 Speaker 2: Yeah, So we're playing there on I want to say the ninth. These are all on my website, plague dot Dad.

50:39 Speaker 3: I put every show, every.

50:41 Speaker 2: This is on, this is on there, you know, and there's a mailing list if you want to stay up with things. I promise I won't spam yet, but uh, you know, there's a lot of really cool stuff going on.

50:50 Speaker 1: And drop a line outstanding. Well, thank you again, plague Dad. This has been amazing. What should we close with. I'll let you pick.

50:59 Speaker 2: Oh, let's play let's play the one tune we haven't played yet, which is what ran us off. Right. There's actually a video for this on YouTube as well.

51:06 Speaker 1: Ran us off. I don't see that one.

51:08 Speaker 3: That's the I don't have the record for me. I can't remember.

51:10 Speaker 1: I've got I've gotten there just as well, just as well.

51:13 Speaker 2: No, that's not that's not the right.

51:15 Speaker 1: Oh that's one of the ones you sent me.

51:16 Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, you know what, play that. Go ahead and play that. That's a great little tune.

51:19 Speaker 1: Okay, Yeah, I like that one. Yeah, it's more of a country. So we'll give okay, yeah, we'll give this a spin. And then if you are listening live on Saturday, of course, coming up in the second hour, in just a couple of minutes, we've got October Sun's uh Dave Wally is here in the building, and I think he's got how many is it just uh Dave and Chris or is four people?

51:41 Speaker 2: Really?

51:42 Speaker 1: Okay? All right? Very good? And uh these are these are some some old old and uh some old and dear friends of mine, so I'm really looking forward to that. And then in the third hour today we have Rebecca Turmel so stick around. But uh here it is plague. Dad. This is just as well, and.

52:03 Speaker 5: It's just as well it would have ended up and heart egg either way. Now that enough for either one of us to say. And it's just as well. I always thought to be would have a self another day

52:35 Speaker 5: about your drinking tea way faith away and you saying back,

52:57 Speaker 5: and it's just as well. You would have been it up and audis a ways so I could drink into your me marine bays a ways, And it's just as well.

53:21 Speaker 5: I always thought that you would have a sealesan us A days now.

53:28 Speaker 4: There's nothing that for either one of us to say

53:37 Speaker 4: except back, and it's just as well we would have ended up in hunted years away. That is nothing up for you, the one of us, to say, and it's just as well.

54:40 Speaker 5: I always about to see you. What to have Celsan does A days so how to drink into your M or we fades away M saying about

55:01 Speaker 4: M