Matt Connarton Unleashed: Sepsiss (11/18/23)

Without further ado, let me bring these mics up and uh, we've got

Stepsis in the house. Everything sounds so good. I don't I don't know

if are you using the headphones? Are you using the headphones? What's up?

Guys? Hi? Well, if you don't use the headphones and somebody

calls in, oh that's okay, you will have to try to suck it

out of the microphone into your brain and I'll have to use my new England

telepathy. Yes, I didn't know that was the thing, that's where it.

Yeah, yeah, you oled by so so so everyone, I'll let

I'll let you introduce ourselves. And because you're you're not only not only do

you have the band, but you've got some of us, You've got the

podcast and you always have a lot going on. Yeah, so this is

this is some of the band. It's just getting confusing. This is getting

confusing because, uh, stage left is Lexi Swarm, Who's who's actually our

merch girl. So it's getting confusing because our merch girl also performs in the

band with us. I love that. I watched your videos for months.

Oh yeah, she's got music coming out with the band. Really that I

didn't realize very cool. Her and Melissa have a song coming out called Bathwater

Sounds exciting coming up. It's in the future. But but people have been

watching her develop her scream for for a couple of years now. She's been

developing. She has her own like scream thing going on. She can tell

you about that later. But she's the merch girl and she does some screaming

and percussion of sorts. She does, she's been doing all kinds of tell

about that. And then there's then there's Zachie b who plays bass. I'd

like to say that he's new to the lineup, but nobody's new anymore.

There's no more new and the newness is gone. But uh, I tell

you he has so many different departments and different roles here. Do you want

to introduce some of yourself, some of yourself, just some of myself that

I've already introduced LEXI so that I figured. Uh so, I'm Zackie B.

I played bass. I've been with Stepsis now for god like forever,

I know what seven months? Yeah, kid, Yeah, we can't let

him go. No, you guys, that's not a pun letting go,

that's not a pun. Zach's in other bab Zachly has been like fifteen other

bands. Really everybody. Everywhere I go will be somewhere in line and people

will go and I'll think they noticed him because of Stepsis, you know.

Yeah, yeah, well, bass players are in high demand, right absolutely.

That's how I got into playing bass was because everybody wanted to play.

That's how we got into Yeah, that's by playing the bass well, very

good. I worked out well as opposed to the viola. Yeah, although,

but but that's I mean, that's kind of what the conversation is.

But he does so much more and I was I wasn't being starcastic. These

guys do all kinds of other stuff. That's why I brought them. Yeah.

Absolutely, I've been loving all the videos I've been seeing with you guys,

and the images and the pictures. Guys, you look, you look

so awesome. You want to know why you really come together and it's like

really cool package. You see what she's doing. What was she doing?

Smiling? Yeah, we're happy. We're happy. We're a happy band again,

and we're we're a happy human beings. That's why. That's why she's

She's also wearing a great shirt. By the way, very I know,

I wasn't sure where she got that. Yeah, not unable to visualize us

on polcasts or Facebook or wherever. She's wearing a very sex seed man unleashed.

Nobody ever visualized is the people of ever we don't ever get visualized.

But by the way, we could do that now. Rondo Faverro from California's

in the chat room, She says, I, so dig this spand right

before you introduced him, Isaac was in there going is that sepsis no way,

yeah, some of us, but this is the this is so this.

I brought the podcasters with me because nobody else in the band wakes up

until at least ten I'm not even sure how many band members do you think

are awake right now? None tell you. Our our drummer, our drummer,

Salvatore, Robert pan is awake right now. He's awake. Yes,

and all of the whole bands busted up. Lexi's got a broken toe,

Robert's got a broken arm. Robert has been playing on the drums for the

last two months, would have broken arm? Really, yes, So if

any of the any of the videos that you've seen, any of the live

stuff, that we would do it we just played Swarming Fast. Yeah,

everything we're doing, he's been playing with his hand wrapped up, busted up,

broken up, And we're talking about different different departments and like all the

different stuff we do here, and that's why it gets confusing at times.

So this is the podcast and Roberts the drummer, and he probably is up

because he's going he's on his way to Brooklyn because he plays in the punk

band Rags the Stitches. Oh that's a cool name. Nice, But he's

off to New York right now with his broken arm. He could go play

more rock and roll. Why does he do that? I mean, I

don't know, does it? I mean, does he does? He kind

of do a Rick Allen thing where he doesn't really use that arm he uses.

He's been using the broken arm I assume as doctor disapproves. So this

has been an ongoing thing in the company. We get there, we have

we have meetings, you know, and we talk about his arm where we

talk about everybody's limbs. It's not like what we do it in practice now,

we just talk about body parts. So well, you can't play any

music without dependencies. You need to put up a fundraiser for to buy a

bubble wrap. Oh this fundraiser, that would be a good gimmick wrap absolutely

tile and all we have I was an EMT. I could have been your

own empty Well, I'll tell you there is a just an open position in

steps right now for security drivers in pain reducer. You know it's funny too,

like we need a chiropractor too, And this is why our budget,

this is why we was hard for us to play out because all the chiropractors

and bubble wrap. Well, you know you mentioned to your your drummer on

his way to play in another band. That's been a big subject on the

show recently. It seems like every band we have on their their drummer is

in like multiple bands because there's just not enough drummers. Drummers aren't even higher

demand than bass players. Well that's that's why most bands have laptop on drums.

You see a lot of that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, They

go, hey, this is Zach you be on base, this is Lexi

on tambourine, and this is mac Book on the drum return copy paste.

No, wow, I don't that. I don't see that that often though.

That's the thing, you don't see it right right, there's no people.

Normally you see somebody doing this, right, there's nobody doing it.

My theory about and Jenny's heard me say this a lot, My theory about

that with the drummers is that you know, when you're growing up and you

first get interested in playing a musical instrument, and you go to your parents

and you have to have the conversation, well, I want to play drums,

and that that's the one thing. That and maybe the tuba are the

two things that they're going to try to talk you out of, Like do

you want to make noise? No? Yeah, they're going to try to

talk you out of that one. So no, no, we can't go

further into this conversation without going Yeah, sepsis Metal Band of the Year.

Yes, yes, I saw the most amazing images. I saw you guys

holding the award and all the Oh. I was so happy for you guys.

I was jumping through the screen. That was congratulations, hard one,

hard work. I tried to I tried to capture the moment on my phone,

but I was so wound up. Yeah you know you couldn't. You

know these phones now have image stability and artificial intelligence and all that. I

mean with all the lenses. I got like five lenses on this thing,

and I'm trying to capture the moment, you know, and I just noticed

I'm useless. I was you know, they did doing the names and everything,

and you know, everybody deserved to be there, you know, everybody

worked so hard to be there. Congratulations to all the nominees that we're there.

But you know, anytime, we've never we've never won anything other than

being Stepsis, you know, right, This is like you know for some

people, like some people have bands and it like their hobby their hobbyists.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, that is all level. There's level. This

is our lively. This is our life though for us, you know what

I mean, Some people to it's a weekend thing, the thing they do

with your friends or whatever. This is this is me and Melissa's life right

right, absolutely all day, every day, inside and out. I know,

because I am a swarmy absolutely share everything. I love following you guys.

I love watching what you're doing. One of the things I love that

you bring to the table is you talk about the industry in ways that other

people don't hold that thought. Because I do. I do want to get

into that. But we have a call ECG, is that you. Yeah,

it's welcome back out, welcome back everybody. Thank you. To talk

about a road trip to drummer there. It's funny if you guys ever made

a road trip to play in Canada. That's why that's Ezg's standard question.

Yes, so I have yeah, wow, hey, here you go,

easy. I have a meeting this Monday about about a Canada trip. Two

shows. Excellent, excellent, Wow, that's great. To the rest of

the show. You guys have a great I appreciate you man, Thank you

all right, EZG, thank you. Yes, Yes, love to get

to Canada because that's where my family's from. Oh, Canada. Yeah,

we're very Canadian. I would like to go to Canada because we have a

lot of fans there and I think if we went there and it was well

planned, we would probably have a good turnout if everyone prepared. Yeah.

Absolute, yeah, absolutely, no, absolutely, But yeah, Jenny mentioned

you know, you talk about the music industry and and and the uh it's

uh what is the name of the podcast? The confusion is expanding because I

feel like it changed in one right, Okay, so it didn't. I

love it. I feel like the name changed. No, okay, So

we have, so we have so Lexi has, uh bear with me.

Lexi has a podcast called the Metal Honeys Podcast. Okay, okay, and

that and that's that's the one you do with Melissa, right, no,

no, no, so so so so we have a whole network. So

we write there's a whole. So there's a whole, there's a high there

is there is and if I had to explain all the lore someday, they'd

be like a big family tree. But the the Metal Honey Pop The Metal

Honeys Podcast is Lexi in her world of Honeys and they talk about the music

industry on their own and it's and and that is like her generation and and

like a view from like I say, just because I'm feeling old, but

but it's it's it's young people's perspective on rock and roll today, modern technology

and entertainment industry as a whole. And then you have Swarm TV. And

Swarm TV is not a podcast, it's a live stream. So Melissa is

a streamer and streamers are a little bit different than podcasters. Podcasting is more

like what we're doing here, I could do this. Live streaming is when

you talk to the fans you kind of do a little bit of a hybrid

thing because you're reading on your live stream right now as well as broadcasting.

I can't do it. I can't. I don't have the faculties. It's

tricky. It's tricky. So Melissa is great at it, and she does

twitch in live streaming and she the raids and the multi stream. I can't

like it. She does the multi so she can put her brain in several

pieces of the rum and spread. It's a talent that when intend to have.

I'm serious. And she wears many hats during this thing, and she

can kind of bookmark and keep up the conversations whereas on the podcast, and

that's why I brought these guys with me. The Honeycomb Hideout, Oh okay,

right, right, is every midweek. It's hump Day Wednesday, Let

me Wednesday. Let me So it's every Wednesday at seven pm and it's seven

and nine and it's live. But it's not so much of a podcast as

it is a show about a podcast. So it's really a live stream of

US podcasting. Right, it's not really a podcast. It's not the podcast

where you listen to it on Apple Music podcast or something. I kind of

see it as a round table and ask the person as the visitor coming in

to watch, I get a seat at the table. When I'm in your

stream and I can say something or whatever. If I'm on your YouTube,

or if I'm on your Facebook stream or what have you, I can say

something. They pop up on the screen. You guys respond to it,

and I love it. But it is more of a conversation that you are

getting to participate in as the viewer. That's that's my take on the honeycomb.

Yes, that's very good. It's it's it's live, it's interactive,

educational. Somebody could slip on a banana peel, somebody could say I mean,

I mean, and that's the excitement behind it. The other thing I

want to point out, though it's not people might watch a twenty second reel

of it and and go all these guys are like or educators or but it

is it is perspective. It. I think a lot of people might imagine

us as coming on and presenting like facts or but it's more experience. It's

education through the experience in the point of view, through the conversational piece of

the participants and the people on the table. Meaning I might say something.

We might have a conversation about backtracks or something, and there could be several

different frequencies and opinions about that. Where it's so there's not a band narrative,

there's not an overall voice that speaks for the band or the podcast.

Everybody kind of participates, and we salt and pepper to taste, you know,

and you know, and and everybody kind of just respects the space.

But you know, it's it's it's not fact nor fiction. It's it's human

beings with a human take on it. And and every band is different,

in every entertainment department is different. We we we realize that for us,

we're an independent band and we talk about a lot of topics from the perspective

of independence. So if you're somebody that's in and we're saying it all the

time, if you're somebody that's in pursuit of a music industry, then then

we can be easily misunderstood in twenty seconds of film, right or twenty seconds

are real because where it's not fact based, it really is the experience of

the band that we're narrating. So if you're if you're a band and you're

coming on and you're looking for solutions. The honeycomb IIDO might not be the

greatest conduit to the industry because independent musicians looking to keep their independence shouldn't go

through the music industry. Expand on that if you will, that's there are

no the tools are different, Matt. So like the tools that you need

to hone and the acquisitional responsibilities and relationships that you would need as an independent

are useless in the music industry and vice versa. Like you wouldn't you wouldn't

take on a path of investing yourself and putting yourself in the nucleus of the

industry in pursuit of Grammys and do the kind of stuff that we're doing.

You wouldn't want to pursue. We've been on the charts before. You wouldn't

want to pursue charts because you're you're the time that you're doing to pursue a

professional music industry or the products or the acquisitional tools and features of a music

industry. You wouldn't be independent with the goal of getting into the music industry

to then unlock your independence, right if you're If you're planning on being independent,

and you'll see this a lot of times people just say what are you

doing? They say, well, we're independent. We say, well,

why are you independent? Not what? Why? What are the goals behind

being an independent? Also, I can get into the music industry, then

then what you're gonna do when you get there, I'm gonna be independent.

So you're gonna work your way to get to all of these you know,

rely, you're gonna because you're gonna have to rely on these relationships and tools.

So you're gonna make You're gonna acquire independent tools. You're gonna acquire independent

relationships, You're gonna build your resume in independence. You're gonna be able to

show your work in independence, and then you're gonna you guys gotta understand that

the music industry is an industry that is designed for artists to need them.

Oh of course, So if you don't need that. So the issue is

if there's nothing that they can take away from you, if there's nothing that

they could give to you. We get left out a lot of times of

the products and features of the music industry because they can't take them away.

Mm hmm, yeah, I feel like we're not invited. We have seen

examples of Taylor Swift sort of trying to when you when you mentioned unlocking your

independence once you're in I mean, obviously, you know, who's more in

the music industry than Taylor Swift, no one. But now she's trying to

like like she uh, because she was upset about her catalog being bought out

from her. I don't know all the intricacies of it, but yeah,

so she she went and re recorded everything and is and is re releasing it

separate from the previous deal that she was in because she's trying to reclaim her

independence. Or I'm reminded of what Prince did. You know, this goes

back to the what was that late nineties when he you know, when he

decided he didn't want to be a part of the system anymore, or he

called it a matrix and he he said, you know, I don't want

to be with Warner Brothers anymore. Yes, we've done this all before.

Yeah, yeah, just gotten Yeah. Yeah. So you do see you

see examples of of people trying to kind of who are who are? So

it seems to be the ones who are in deepest in the in the music

perfect for example. Yeah, we go on on the part of the podcast,

is you know us making fun of ourselves, Matt. A lot of

times that people go, yeah, you know, how do you know,

how are you able to talk about this? What qualifies you guys to talk

about how silly it is to get a record deal? Well, it's because

we had a record deal. Well, how can we talk about pay to

play because we've done it? Yeah, how can we tell about how can

we talk about being scammed? I mean, it's one thing to be an

alcoholic and go to school for it. You don't need mean to talk about

alcoholism and read it out of a book, you know. But it's another

thing to or read about homelessness or go to school for homelessness. But it's

another thing to live on the street. Uh So, in terms of education

and experience, what we talk about on the podcast isn't just some like uh

like narrow like one sided or one dimensional experience. A lot of what we

talk about on the podcast is because, you know, like like alcoholism,

not only have we read books on it and studied it, live through it,

and we have family members and people that have been affected by it,

but we've also tasted alcohol, you know, not not just that we we've

we've we're reporting on pay to play, we're reporting on Spotify or reporting on

unfairness. Like Taylor Swift, your taste buds changed, you get hit.

I mean, people recruit people to fight wars before their brains developed, yes,

And the same thing with the music industry. They they recruit. They

recruit before your brains developed, before you know how to use the tools,

before you know how to make use of the responsibilities. The most responsible people

in the room mat get to make the rules, okay, and before they

before you learn, before you learn what the responsibilities are. They want to

make sure that you've paid your dues, you know, and and then nobody

wants to talk about it, you know. So you know, you pay

your dues, and then you're not popular if you talk about it, because

in the industry it's not popular talk about unfairness. True, So Taylor's Taylor's

grown up. Taylor Swift has grown up and Pili Sepsis, you know,

you get in you start this stuff, you get into music. And for

a lot of us, we all got into music in a time where we

were shaping our identities, okay, when we were kids. So for a

lot of us, we got into this in a time when we were trying

to shape who we were and who we are, right, and that changes

as your brain develops, of course. Yeah, I mean the human brain

really until you're you're twenty five, it hasn't really fully developed that sometimes into

sometimes into for late bloomers, into your thirties. Sure. So, clinically

speaking, biologically speaking, like human beings, we stay kids longer than other

creatures. You know, kittens and grasshoppers don't stay. They don't they don't

remain in near youth, you know, as long as human beings. Yeah,

so we're infactuated with our youth. Our creature is we're infatuated with,

you know, immortality and living forever, and we're infatuated with with all,

you know, having all and subscribing to all and living forever and the fountain

of youth. So, believe me, the record companies, believe me,

the generals and the presidents, and the believe me. That's that's who the

pushers find, right, you know, that's who the chicken hawks go after,

is the young and impressionable kids that want to be rock stars. And

by the time you're old enough to learn the game, they don't change the

technology on you. It's the full mats different. For as soon as you

learn radio, they change it to cassettes. Then you learn cassettes, then

they tended it to CD, and then the CD. Then you rip it

all off the web. But when you were a kid, all you wanted

to do is be on MTV. Is no MTV anymore? Yeah, there

hasn't been am TV for a long time. There hasn't been anything. No,

but there hasn't been anything in my life. There hasn't been anything for

a long time. True that not even dinosaurs. They never came back.

That's true. Things come and they go. And that same thing with NP

three, same thing with Blue Blue Tooth, Blu Ray laser discs. Everything

will come and everything will go. Can you talk about some of the things,

I mean, William, you mentioned like some of the things you've been

through like pay to play and a bad record deal and all that. I

mean, can you expand on some of that? You know? And I'm

a music industry nerd, so this is I mean, particularly band past the

time you're scheduled here. But these guys might expand a little bit. I'll

never stop expanding. That's kind of my bad ass was right on that same

alliance what's the most frequent thing that you see with younger bands getting pulled into

or is it the pay to play? What is the one you see the

most frequently that you think being being told they have to sell tickets to be

on the bill, Like you have to sell the minimum fifty tickets, and

each ticket is like twenty five bucks, and if you don't sell all of

them, we kick you off. That's the popularm and you guys, and

the band takes nothing, nothing, they're not even allowed to perform. Yeah,

many times, many times those bands don't get paid. That's just for

the like opening slot on the parking lot stage outside the venue. A lot

of times we find this is gonna bother a lot of people. A lot

of times we find that we're the only band it's getting paid. Yeah,

did you experience it yourself when you were first starting? Where did you end

up doing this? You know, I'll tell you the ticket sales I I

play. Oh yeah, and we did a lot of our our me and

Melissa did in the beginning. We did a lot of paying our dues.

But I need to make it clear that oh man, I'm foot in mouth

here, but you know, we're really we've been really lucky people. We've

been really taking care of We've been we're really privileged, like privileged band.

A lot of people come, a lot of people go with us, but

like me and Melissa, we've been doing this since twenty ten. We've been

really we've been really lucky and really blessed to have had people on our side

and kind of guiding us along the way. And you know, we've we've

made a whole lot of mistakes, but uh, you know that's part,

that's part of the ride. But yeah, yeah, but I just want

to say, like, yes, we've paid our dues, but we haven't

been held hostage to it because we're not stupid, and we know what what

unfair looks like. And me and Melissa a big feature of this band being

in it was standing up for ourselves. You know. So we also come

from the street, you know what I mean. We're not We're not a

little privileged band that comes from you know, a garage that's all decked out

with Mommy bought you and amplify you. You know what I'm saying. Me

and Melissa don't come from that. Ye Stepsis doesn't come from that. Oh

I respect you know what I mean so like, so for us, you

know, we're not not making music for riches or fame, and a lot

of these kids they're in it for the wrong reasons. So that's why they're

easy to take. So that's why the Chicken Hawks, it's easy to drop

drop a line in the pond. So but for us, you know,

we come from court backgrounds, law backgrounds, you know, over the street,

prison jail. I was in boys homes and juvenile halls growing up,

you know, I was. I'm I'm also adopted. I didn't. I

didn't grow up with any family. Uh, So I grew up in the

family court system. So I had lawyers my whole life. I was also

a childhood rapper, a DJ. All this is so I had managers growing

up, I was, I had. I had pressed background interest, some

broadcasting background, yeah, I got some of my first I have my broadcasting

background at w h e B. I lived in Portsmouth, me being a

Portsmouth resident, street performer, dancer, the theaters, repertory theaters. So

I grew up in the environment. So I was like, you grew up

in the voyument, you know, you know, you know about manages,

you know, especially during the eighties and nineties. It was real sleazy,

you know what I'm saying. Everybody had the kids on the take, and

that's that's who the talent scouts were after, was the kids. So I

was I was posed. I was in modeling agencies as a kid. I

did a lot of perform and I used to perform for pro Portsmith. I

was in the newspaper all the time, Market Square Day. So we were

hip to you know it really by the way, Legion of Solace is in

the chat and says we are we are proud to call ourselves partner and affiliate

with the Sepsist family for the last two or three years now, very nice.

How many years we've been around. I love when our partners can't tell

how many years they've been around, because it feels like they're just partnering,

right, perpetual you know what you said. I don't know, like in

the record industry they have this little box that says perpetual. Yeah, right,

So everybody, you know, Swarmyfest was an absolute success. No,

I know, I know, and I'm not going to twist a knife,

I really not. But everybody, I'll have you know, everybody looked for

you guys though, really yeah, they did. Yeah, but that should

make you feel good though, Well, there's nothing you could have done.

We'll be at the next one period. I assume it's going to be annual.

Oh yeah, no, so so swarm me. That's three. It's

November. Excellent, you've already got that locked down at Jewel. Yeah,

it's that Jeweled November second next year. If you're a man, you want

to play excellent, excellent, Come on now, email Richie Downs a little

little little New Hampshire Humor there. Email NH Booking if you like to play

Swarmy Fest Excellent you want to? I know it is two stages, It's

great, Yeah, tell us about it. What was it like me?

How did it go? Okay? Well, I was nervous the whole time,

total of the honesty. Yeah, yeah, because I never did We

never did two stages at Jewel. I've played Jewel a bunch of times,

and what I was nervous about is the sound is so good on this on

the front stage. I didn't want anybody to have less. I was really

especially we had some really good bands in the other room, you know,

and there wasn't anybody up there that wasn't absolutely qualified to play the main stage.

You know what I mean, all those other bands were perfect for the

main stage. I don't like to even use that English, you know,

because that everybody, everybody was dressed great. To add it to I love.

I love when a show comes together and everyone's participating. The I mean

when you talk about how do we how what's the blueprint or the template for

independence coming together and having a great show. This is it. Swarmy Fest

is it. And the purpose of swarming Fest is to prove unequivocally that local

talent can get together at high quality. There's no buyons, there's no pay

to play, there's opportunity forever. People that stay to the end can get

some gas money. People that you're everyone's encouraged to participate. Of course,

Matt Connerton is involved opening the doors, letting all the bands come down here

to get some press and some airtime, getting the vands in like that,

like a lineup like Solace coming and being a part of that. They made

a huge weekend coming down supporting bands all the way up the coast, culminating

in Swarmy Fest, visiting with their partners, and it wound up being this

huge frequency of people from all over the area. They're coming and sell,

you know, to celebrate traditional neighborhood you know, homegrown music. And there's

no there's no crazy egos, fist fights flying around, Nobody owes anybody money,

there's no celebrities, there's no rock stars, there's no nobody's a headliner

or a co headliner. Nobody went over set times, nobody backed for encores,

No nothing came up missing. This is what I love about fest.

The quality, network is right and community bringing it all together. It was

really strong. It was and the purpose to show that neighborhood bands are top

quality and they draw. Oh dude, sorry about the draw. I forgot

about that. Sorry draw. I'm always saying the F word on the podcast.

Sorry about that? And they draw? Yeah, yeah, yeah,

they draw and that and that's that's the big purpose. We want to try

to teach every body as much as we possibly can. The bands that we're

working with, we want to try to teach and encourage them to draw.

We have a call. This is Malcolm from Leads in the Solid. Hey,

welcome Malcolm, how you doing. Welcome to the show. Well,

thank you for having me. I just wanted to call in and say I

had an amazing time from my first trip from Lynchburg, Virginia, all the

way up there steps and stood on performing fast a few My language was the

best. Means uh And I want to say, Matt, it would have

been an honor to guy to meet you guys. But yeah, yeah,

I just wanted to call in and say thank you for doing what you're doing.

Also because it's amazing. I run a radio show. I know what

you're doing, and it's amazing than loving. I love everything and all you

guys are doing. I'm glad to know every last one of you. Thank

you, mal Thank you so much, Malcolm, Thank you very much.

I love you very much. No pob guys, and you all keep it

up, man, And I can't wait to see next year swarming Beast because

I already rid on my calendar. Yes, yes, that's so exciting.

That's awesome. I'm gonna get back to watching you guys. I just wanted

to call in real quick. I really appreciate it. Thank you for waking

up in the morning, all right, Thank you so much for the call.

Thank you to anybody that woke up this morning. By bye, it's

a question for everybody's favorite March Girl did you sell out of the Swarmy Fest

T shirts? I was so close. You still have some? I still

have a couple. Oh we need to talk. Yeah, we could hook

you up for sure. I don't. I can't believe I missed that.

But like Malcolm said something that was so important. It's like we were talking

about like it's not about like what you earlier and like what what you're doing,

Like okay, the what is like you're having the show and what the

bands are moving the gear back and forth and they're tuning the guitar strings,

but like why and it like Malcolm really just pointed it out and your ability

to you know, slash and zap swear words. I don't know if anybody

got this, but the friendship man, the friendship, the humanity, you

know, Uh, there's no hocus pocus. This was a magical moment of

communities and people from all over the region, all over the country coming together.

I mean we got people who bust in and people that flew in,

wives, girlfriends, I mean families. This is a family affair. It's

a family event and it's and it there's no big math, there's no arithmetic.

It's people that that love home, grown rock and roll. It proves

that people love drums and guitars and screaming and dancing and uh, it's that

simple. You know, it's that simple. There's no rule in the world,

there's no It's something that we've always loved to do. You know,

we're proven that people still love to do it. Who was the furthest Away

band who came and played? Who do you do you know a fan who

like, I'm curious, who was our guitar player so hot sauce our guitar

player? She she drives, she's up there. Yeah, she's way up

there. But I think she's up there with Dark Rain. Dark Rain is

up there. I think they came from the ye. What does she say?

Which I didn't know there was I didn't either. Is that a band?

That's a band to trot? Which? Which trot them? On the

show? I told you I know all the bands. No, we play,

we've seen them play. I think at the Hill Charlie Hill is that's

right? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, they're really good.

Salvatore is in the chat room, by the way, he says,

I am there in spirit. No, he's right now. He's loading in

his drum kit. In Brooklyn. That's what he's with his broken arm to

meet this guy. Yeah, really, you've never met Sal. I don't

think i've ever met in person. I don't think we have. Okay,

so me and are both libras. But he's definitely more balanced. This guy

is Sal is the most balanced guy in the band. He's got to be

drummer. He's so chill. Him and Melissa, I think in the most

chilli. Really, yeah, because we need them the most. Of course,

Malcolm Wood in the chat says almost had our car towed away for this.

I forgot about. I don't know about that. It is quite that.

It was quite the theater, you know. Of course, everybody's pulling

in and and there was no places to park. And if these guys are

partners though, and we always park in the same place, and we get

out there and there's just I mean, there's a circle, there's a kerfuffle.

There was a kerfuffle and not and not. You know, it's Manchester,

so I'm used to kerfuffles, but I'm not. I was very disappointed

to see that. It was the it was the solace, It was everybody

for and me just auto pilot, you know, there's no way to park.

People say, where you park in Manchester? Nowhere right, Well,

it's weird usually like there's a lot of lots nearby, but the lot directly

next door to Jewel is like super uptight. So like they have like I

think around. I think it's how they their money. Is they sitting near

Jewel? Oh yeah, oh yeah, doubt. And it's such a fine

line between where the Jewel parking lot is and where the neighbors parking lot is.

So they parked in that one spot that happened to be on the other

person's And to these two tow truck drivers get out, I think they had

a total of three teeth. They get out, and they had this they

had this car on. I mean they had it loaded up faster than you

could say black light invasion. I mean this thing was oh my god,

it was. Yeah, it was a standoff out there. It was the

Legion versus the tow truck people. Really, and then I already told you

the tow truck people only have three more teeth. They had no more teeth

to lose. And if they were outnumbered, and the guy is crazy,

it might have been ninety pounds and he's screaming and yelling, banging on his

chest, and I was like, can we please de escalate? Oh wow,

can we please de escalate? Because usually once once they've got your car

hooked up, that's it, like you got to yeah, oh no.

They charged a fee to drop it. I think it was like two money.

Yeah, maybe next to your like one of those police tape things,

not police tape, but you know, tape don't pass here. Well,

we thought, yeah we had tases and pepis right, we thought, but

that they already had. But they already had the once they got it done,

yeah, Malcolm says in the chat we paid one hundred and seventy five.

Ye and this guy's this guy's like yelling and Malcolm is this huge guy,

and this tiny little guy's yelling at Malcolm. I'm going this is not

good for the little guy. Malcolm is this big guy, you know,

and there's this little guy with the tow trock. But the problem is the

little guy has all he got the car, he's got the car hooked up,

he's got the power, right yeap. Wonderful. This must be like

a trained operation because if they had it up as quickly as this is a

trap these guys with secret cameras. What Yeah, I think that. Yeah,

I think they had drones out there waiting for us to park, of

cameras watching watching people pack. No packing sign right there, no packing and

the tow truck drivers. Okay, so we were talking out before you know

it. We were talking earlier about the music industry and about the podcast and

how we're always reporting about gatekeepers and it's the same thing with whiffleball bats and

shoehorns and parking. It's every industry that you can find. People think we're

always talking about the music industry. No, no, no, no,

no, no, we're talking about life. Yeah, when we're the stuff

we're we're reporting on isn't really about paying your dues in the music industry.

When we talk about scams and schemes in the music industry, anybody that watches

our podcast to start thinking about the industry that they're currently working in. Sure,

sure, right, the land escaping industry. So if you don't have

to be a fan of rock and roll to like the hard rock and heavy

metal reset, you don't have to be into sepsis to love the honeycomb hide

out or to learn something about your own industry because what we're reporting about is

happening in every industry, everywhere. Glowbal Yeah, he says in the chat.

We had enough time to carry the T shirts inside, to set up

our merch table, and run back out to stop our car from being stolen.

Uh they didn't know. Uh, they didn't know that they was about

to get a Lynchburg, Virginia butt kicking. Yeah. Like these guys in

Virginia, they don't Carol's new tow trucks. Will they just back up to

you. It's got that it was and it just whoop. So they don't

have to do nothing. They can just I was speaking with the guys,

you know, after we had had a version of de escalation, which is

like not screaming, you know. I was pointing out, these guys are

loading in for a job, Like it's not that they were parked. Yeah,

we were getting the equipment out of the car. It wasn't like we

were settled in and that. I mean, these guys drove up across country

and pulled the T shirts out of the car, turned around and then had

this surprise. I loved them guys, man, they did such a great

job. Though they did like we had so much fun that we can,

like I want to say, they really made it comfortable and fun to have,

you know, out of state sponsors come. We don't usually have sponsors

from out of state come. We usually just have people coming as like guests

at that rate. But Bruce and everybody really like insisted and we had,

I mean, we had. These guys were so great. They had a

formal pre production meeting with us about coming down. I mean, if I

if I could say anything, making friends and solidifying those relationships with those people

was some of the most memorable moments of the weekend. It was awesome.

No hocus pocus, it really was. It was magical despite it made all

the things we can't control and made it really valuable because like when you have

a big production like that and there's two stages and people coming in and you

got friends and family and guests and you're hoping everybody doesn't get sick or call

out or cancel. The only thing you could really do when it's go time.

You know, you drove out there a thousand miles and you got all

your gear out there, and you're in a different state. The only the

only thing you truly have control over at any time is your attitude towards any

circumstance. You know, the show's gone, the show must go on,

just like you know, with the events and circumstances to happen with you guys,

you know, and you know if you to have a terrible attitude about

it, that had been the only thing you could control. Mm hm.

You know, because things are going to happen in your life. There's gonna

be things that pop up and events and circumstances that there's nothing you could physically

put your hands on. And the only thing you're gonna be able to grasp

or grip is your sense of your sense of self control and that and that's

through the attitude that you're going to have a great attitude, a positive attitude

about something, or you're gonna you know, you're going to have a bad

attitude. You know, everyone's going to get a painful tooth, you're gonna

gonna bump your toe, or you're gonna get a flat tire. But and

you can't control all of that. You can't control when it's going to rain.

You really can't control your you know, every record sale and everybody's worried

about every every insight and metric and every follow and everywhere in that time in

life where everyone's cutting every nucleus and examining it and measuring it and cutting that

and then giving a name to it and a sub label and a category,

and we're this is time when we're kind of like hyper focused on these micro

transactions and everything, and it's just cool to zoom out every now and then

and be like, you know what, I don't really control any of this

stuff, but I'm just gonna have a good attitude about it. Yeah.

By the way, Hans is in the chat room, Hans Smith, and

uh, hello, and uh, I don't know. I don't know this

person, but I love the name Gideon Eckhart. I love the name.

Gideon says love to you all, Hello much love and what So what what

is next for sepsis? What do you what do you have coming up?

You're gonna give me an anxiety attack? I'm just kidding, kid. So

no, I only say that rhetorically because I know everybody has anxiety and does

all that we all do. But I say that like people say, oh,

c D. People just use and they throw around these words, you

know, like we like we're all doctors or something like we went to school

show You're gonna give me heartburn saying I'm gonna start web MD and my blood

pressure because we all have the ability to look up all these fancy words,

we all forget that, like people go to school for this stuff, Like

you can't just be a brain surgeon because you read a website. To be

fair, I'm on medication for a lot of the stuff, like like that's

a broadcaster. If you can't just wake up and have a Facebook page and

say I'm a broadcaster and actually be a broadcaster. I'm tired of it.

I was an so the medical jargon what's next for what's next for us?

Lex just so much and and really, like I say, anxiety, but

it is a good anxiety. I Like we started a conversation off with me

saying how like how happy we are to be a band and a company and

be working with people that are excited and it's great for me and Wmislim speaking

for myself now, it's good for us to be working with people that are

grateful and that are behaving consistently and sharing an energy with us to focus and

prioritize our fans and our goals. Yeah, Okay, like we need to

be like, we need to be comprehensive in tandem speaking the same language.

And it's good to be working with an entire room of people that can kind

of speak the same language, and we can all go, this is the

band we're in, we're all going in this direction. We all want to

record, we all want to go to Detroit or whatever we're going to do.

We can talk about that. Now. We can share those ideas openly,

we can all write them down, and everyone kind of respects each other's

space, and we're all, you know, grateful and participating mutually for the

investment of the goals of the band. That's comprehensive, you know that,

it seems that's really what the band is at first, is like the actual

physical and and intellectual reality that there actually is a band. So everyone around

has got to be in the band and agree that they're actually in it to

have it. Like that's the cool part about having a band, is actually

having it, and we have it. But that's also one of the hardest

parts, right, I mean, I just the hardest part of having a

band is getting in, getting in the same room every week, right,

because because if you can't get in the same room every week. Then you

can't learn the tunes. If you can't learn the tunes and you don't learn

them well enough, nobody can really see the true value of the tunes.

No one can get the tunes good enough where they go, oh wow,

this might actually work. And then no one can audition these tunes in front

of people, And then no one can audition them to the point where they

adjust them and get them good in front of people, where everybody can get

back in the room and agree that that that's what success is called. I

say, so where we're You know what I mean? So we're What we're

really happy about is we've checked off all the boxes for twenty twenty three.

We don't know how other bands do it, but just how we do it.

We set goals for each year. We all sit down as individuals.

We all write down on pieces of paper. He writes down five things,

she writes down five. Even our staff members do it. Everybody. It's

it's a it's a rule. We all sit there. We have rules in

the band, and one of the rules is we got to know what you

want. How do you want to participate? We don't write nobody, you're

not allowed to be in the club unless you unless you tell us what you

want, because there's no reason of being here unless we can help you get

what you want. Because we know people won't do something for long unless they

get what they want right, so long you know what I mean. And

this is like I said, this isn't something we don't just tune the guitars.

We read about this stuff. We're in an evolving industry that that that

in modern day era, with the with the internet and information traveling at light

speed, so does the industry. So that the industry is evolving over weeks

and days. Whereas the years ago, you might need you might have the

time with a particular technology like CDs or something, or radio. We had

radio around for fifty years we had but now we have something for weeks and

until it becomes something else or evolved with something else. So like for us,

when you think about who we are, we are a modern rock We're

not. We're not rock from nineteen seventies. So we're not we're not We're

not hunting radio. We're not hunting outdated ideas, we're not hunting outdated technology.

We're not hunting a rock and roll that our grandfathers were in as much

as unless we borrow from that as much we learned from that, and we've

inherited skills from that we can and we can sample and marinate in those conversations

and and and dip into that toolbox as special features as for conversational pieces whatever.

But we're a modern band and we are and and and for us,

it's our goal. We are constantly hunting what others are not doing, what

other whatever we know She's right. What's what we do is we're always hunting

for that one to five percent of what other bands and our competitors aren't doing.

That's the research, if so. And the cool part is, if

you're a band in New Hampshire or in the world, we're following you.

Don't ever think that we're because you know, either think that it is Ozzy

Osbourne follow me, or does this band like mess follows you. We follow

everybody. Even if we don't follow you and hit the button, we're following

you. We're watching all of you and we're listening to your music. We

listen to your music too, whether you're doing karaoke, whether you're doing beatboxing

or rapping, we're watching you. Uh, Alright, I was just gonna

say, Robert Pan is in the chatterman says, hey, Matt, Robert

Pan from Second Street. Uh, Sonoco, my son, my son is

the drummer for Sepsis. It's my favorite. Well, apparently I'll have to

stop it at the Second Street Sono Oko sometime to meet him. Bob has

been in our lives, so people don't notice about about So Salvator Pan is

a returning member and an original drummer. Very cool, good so yeah,

so so he left temporarily and started Rags to Stitches. Okay, and now

he's back. Wow, excellent, excellent. Isn't that cool? Cool?

We're about to change the look over there, we got Yeah, we're about

to. Yeah. We wanted to be more like pee Wee's playhouse a hideout.

Yeah, we want like trapdoors to come out explosions. What about the

fee and the play Yes, we want like plants that are dancing in the

bag. We want we want this to be Yes, you know, like

maybe like a like a jambie or something not gen big. She's thinking she

wants to play her drum. That's what I thought, too, because I've

heard that word pronounced a thousand different ways. I thought that's what you were

saying. You know, you remember you remember Mecca Laka high machaheiey ho.

That's not a bad word. No, that's not a bad word. Everybody's

like it's gonna happen anyway. Shout out to Clemento. They got great pizza

and gas. Nicole, I'm not gonna say this correctly. I'm sure Budage

Sandborn Yeah, says they are an amazing music. Oh, they are an

amazing band musically and personally, each and every member very nice. Man.

We need as much people to say that as possible. So I Nicole said

that we're personally charming and we are personally satisfying for the records, amazing.

She didn't say charming or satisfying, but she did say but she did say

amazing. Yes, but she used the word personal. See that, Zach,

personal as opposed to personable. Yes. Yes, Well, me and

Zach have this ongoing joke of people that watch us on the internet and review

our personalities. I said, come on, you only see the twenty second

clip of me. You don't know what happened before the clip or after.

What do you think you're reviewing for our personalities in review right now? Right?

Has ever occurred that that that this might be my public personality and that

could you know, Oh, we had a question to Jay fed one of

our friends from Vermont had a question for Zach about let's ask Zach questions out

the length of your beard. Yeah, I didn't know where that was going.

Moved quickly. Now this isn't a problem yet obviously, but if you

if you were to grow it out. He was asking about growing it out

and would you be concerned about it getting caught in your bass strings? You

know, it's funny. I actually just shaved recently. It was a lot

longer. Okay, too long? Is that why you shaved it? Because

it was gonna get in the way bass and didn't get stuck in the string.

That's true, that's true. Well, you know he's very into beards

and ice baths baths. Yes, if you go to Vermont, he will

invite you into a real ice bath, a real like he breaks the ice

and gets in it. The older it is, the happier he is.

That's incredible. There were those of us who think no, no, not

so much. But hypothermia fan he does have a fan base. Yeah,

that's really cool. Actually, you know in the summer, that actually sounds

amazing because I'm a very sweaty person. This is not about this is not

about summer. Oh no, no, no, like tread out there on

the snow, take a sledgehammer to the ice it for as long as you

whatever can stay. I think it's insane. I personally don't have any desire

to do so. Is it like the longer you stay in you get a

prize or something like if you can break the rest? I try that.

I think it's only in his mind the price he gets. Yeah, it's

supposed to do something healthy for you, but I don't know. Yeah,

I don't know what. I won't knock it till I try. Yeah,

yeah, I'm not. I would I could see this, Yes, right,

we should? We should. Uh So, you've all been very generous

with your time and we appreciate it. We'll we'll let you, we'll let

you bounce in a minute. But I do want to make sure everybody knows

where to find you online, the band, the podcasts, everything. What

should our listeners know in terms of well, you should know that if you

don't follow us, it'll be impossible to ignore us because Sepsis has a talent

of being everywhere online. I was just gonna say that they're like me,

they're everywhere. We have this twenty twenty four will be the most productive year

we've ever had. And that's a terrifying prospect because that means I have a

lot of work to do. No, but we I mean, I don't

quote me on this and nail me to the cross. But Virginia, we'll

be back in Pennsylvania this year. It looks like North Carolina. We'll be

returning to the Chicago area. I got some huge news coming up up for

fans in the Midwest that can't even get on that right now upstate New York,

Ohio Swarmy Fest three uh, and so much more. We got the

We got new music coming out, maybe some acoustic songs. Of course,

we got Take the World by Swarm, our second album. I Love Take

the World by Swarm like the the amazing our engineering producer, the the amazing

Glenn Robinson. As you know his work has been nominated for Grammys before.

Our producer Glenn Robinson from of course Jason Newstead gwore Queen's right. If you

don't know about our producer, go check them out. He's worked on everything

from Guitar hero to even remastering work with YouTube on HBO so go. If

you didn't know the I would say Glenn Robinson is definitely the seventh member of

Sepsis, so he'll be back with us on the second record. Of course,

our friends and partners and stations do have Romance and Reality. Romance and

Reality is not released for streaming yet, but all of our friends have it,

so I believe you can pre order it on Distro Kid and it's going

to be released December twenty first. Yeah, excellent, but we're also going

to hear it. At the end of the segment, I was going to

say, you might be able to hear it. If you guys tune in,

you get to hear and I think that's the That's the thing that a

cool thing to me and Melissa have been doing is letting our fans and partners

in radio stations get our music first before the industry gets it. Yeah.

A lot of artists will go out and they give all their music to the

industry. We're doing something different. We're giving it to our friends and to

our curators and to our partners first, and then the industry gets it later.

And then also we're playing in Connecticut on January. How could I forget

cool? Yeah? So we love Blizzard Birthday. We love Dead by Wednesday

and I used to book them here in Manchester. I booked a shows for

them when they would come up because years ago, years ago. I mean,

there'll be a lot of people who probably will be funky about my next

statement. But I think I think Dead by Wednesday is the perfect example of

a poster band of success for New England bands. I think, when you

when when when you want to if you want to go, what what is

the definition of making it? Because I you know, once you you know,

if you truly make it, then maybe you'd be done. And I

guess, but this is like if you want if, what is the definition

of moving forward towards the direction of making it? Yeah? I feel like

Dead by Wednesday is one of those bands. And there are others, but

I will say stiff competition. I would say Dead by Wednesday is by far

the perfect example of New England bands making it and being successful. They are

the entire package of what it would I think definably clearly represents successful bands in

New England. Legion of Solace in the chat says, also, the Birthday

Bash in January will be a reunion for the original sixth lineup for Dead by

Wednesday. No, I didn't need that's why. Oh wow, that's awesome.

That's wow, that's incredible. I'm blown away. What a wow?

I'm not whoa, I'm blown away. I'm now I want it to be

the Blizzard Bash. Can it be tomorrow? Oh? We have to get

this into Anna Randall in the chat room says, I personally think that Sepsis

is amazing on many levels. I'm not being biased, just stating the truth.

Very nice, she's famous, very cool, very cool. What's it

now? What's the uh? So? Where should people go? Should people

go to your main website for everything? Can they find everything there? All

the all the shows and yes, podcasts, one stop shop dot com.

Yeah, we're doing every like if anything I can. This is a great

advice for artists too. I know we've done a lot to rely and to

count and great tools social media and all these third party apps and the subscription

lifestyle as I'd like to call it. But this year me and Lexi have

gone over so many bands that just don't have websites. Yeah, oh my

gosh, you know in an address. You know, if you're filling out

a job application for Wendy's, you'd have an address, right, if you'd

have a phone, you have a phone number right and an address bands?

Yeah, please please it please, you want to be taken seriously. Yeah,

you need a dog something else that we kind of re recognized too,

because we've actually given some folks some highlights on some of the websites we have.

For sure, you guys love what you guys guys. Yeah, it's

hard for some to get that first website up. Fill out your bio,

have a phone that somebody can reach you at, a professional email, and

a website. Please have a home for your band. There was a weird

period. This goes way, This goes back almost twenty years. But I

remember when my space got really big, there was this because I've been out

there. Yeah, didn't we learn now not to put We should have learned

that then. But the thing is, so I've I've I've also been a

web designer for a long time, and I remember I would run into this

a lot where bands would tell me, now, we don't we don't need

a website. We have We have MySpace. We're on my Space and that

became a thing. That's the thing now with with artists. Find us on

Instagram or check out my Spotify. This is the one websit band Doozle and

bands in Town and Bandemonium. What's the other one? Band band camp and

band town band band. They got to pack it up and start the buses

we need. We can't find anybody websites and app forevery I mean, and

how many subscriptions are you going to have? Twitter is up for sended to

doing subscriptions that Twitter everywhere everyone's going. So you have a subscription to be

yourself? Right, describe subscribing to your last name. If it's not nailed

down, security department, I'm going to start a subscription. Let me get

out of here. You no, you're you're right though. Yeah. So,

so Sepsis is a substance. We're doing everything from sepsis dot com and

we should For people who don't know, it's S E P. S I

S. You can find us on all the snapper, Google poppers. We're

all on all the stuff. You're very google bable, yes, but it's

important on many of these thirds, right, We're on all of that stuff.

Yeah, but we do. We do at our home. And you

know what, here's the other thing bands are always talking about. You know,

you can do all this virtual stuff and spend all kinds of money to

support Sepsis. You don't have to like spend any money all the time.

You know, it could just be something simple, is like leaving us a

Google review or signing our guestbook on our dot com. Those are things that

you can do to help out really any band. It don't cost a lot

of money. And you know what, get off the internet, go see

a show. It's not our show. A show a show. If you

don't come and see Sepsis, go see the band in your neighborhood. People

are always asking me. You see these things online, who's the most underrated

band? And then you'll see people will say their favorite celebrity bands, the

most underrated, underdeveloped, underappreciated, underpaid band that is super talented is your

neighbor Yeah, seriously, that's it. Hell yeah, not even kidding.

If there's anything I've learned this year from the process that we've done and how

we've been changing the format all year, more and more I get into music.

It's like I always tell them it's unbelievable how much talent we have in

just in New England, just in our town, just in our city.

I just I'm always floored by how many new and amazing artists come up I

get to see. I mean, it really does surprise me. You think

that it's the only there's there's a whole lot of diamonds out there. Oh

definitely, yeah, yeah, absolutely, Well, so we'll let you all

go. Thank you again, by the way for the wonderful shirts. Thank

thank you three and Malcolm and everybody to solid. Definitely going to be having

you guys back in, and I know, I definitely want to have you

guys come back in and talk about some of the stuff that's going on in

the industry. The cool thing about we can bring back more people, so

like we could completely switch everybody out. It could be like strangers next time.

That's nice. Would just send you know, Salvatore and hot Sauce and

it would be like having complete strangers. You'll walk in and you guys be

like, who are you? I will recognize them right, thank you?

If you're a swarmy thank you, how dare you? So? If you

if you didn't know so there are there are levels to this now, so

there's like they're like, you know, there's like fans and and and and

of course people are like, what is the swarmy? Swarmis are the closest

thing that you can be to being in the band. Oh okay, people

don't know that. So so there's like fans, and there's like super fans,

and then there's like swarmies, and swarmies are almost like staff members.

But the elite green beret of the swarmy it's called the yellow jackets. Oh

so if you're a yellow jacket. So a swarmy is like a prestigious fan.

A swarmy is an ultimate stepsist fan, but is a public fan because

like some fans would be your fan, but they're not publicly, right,

Like, I'm your fans conveniently when you're doing stuff that I like, right

right, I didn't like that, I'm not sharing it. I agree with

you, then I'm your fan. Okay, But if it's two percent off,

nope, right, celebrating differences, nope, so but that so,

but yellow jackets are the fans that celebrate us publicly, regardless of our differences,

regardless of our humanity, regardless of what makes us special and unique.

Yellow jackets are the the I would say, the elite swore me. Oh

yeah. Excellent. Thank you, guys, thank you, thank you so much,

Game Plan