Matt Connarton Unleashed: Sepsiss and the third annual Swarmiefest

0:00 Speaker 1: And we have joining us live in studio. Let me get these mics up here. We have the band Sepsis Is with us. Hello everybody, good morning, good morning, and uh okay, let's uh William, let's start with you. Let's everyone introduce ourselves.

0:15 Speaker 2: I am William and I play guitars and I scream and sing in the band.

0:22 Speaker 3: There's somebody here.

0:25 Speaker 1: Gor bell there is.

0:29 Speaker 3: Oh my goodness, I'm Zachie B and I played BASEB. All right.

0:35 Speaker 4: My name is Melissa Wolf and I am the vocalist for Sepsis.

0:40 Speaker 5: Yes, I'm le and I'm the merch girl.

0:44 Speaker 1: And you're in the Uh you're on the newest single there, yes, sir, Yeah, yeah, yeah, we we played that. Uh was it a couple of weeks ago?

0:51 Speaker 3: Three weeks ago on the show?

0:53 Speaker 6: Thank yeah.

0:54 Speaker 1: It all blurs together. But yeah, so we should talk about Today's a very ashul day. Of course, today is swarmy Fest. Swarmy Fest Day. Swarmy Fest will be later, but uh, let's let's talk about that. Tell tell everybody what that is.

1:10 Speaker 4: So swarmy Fest is today'st weekend Theta Music Hall in Lowell, Massa. I honestly I think it's Teta.

1:23 Speaker 3: We're getting better at this. Everyone's got their own version.

1:25 Speaker 1: Right, Feda makes me think of cheese. I like, to good point, you really do.

1:33 Speaker 4: We've got about eight bands on the bill. We've got Dead by Wednesday, Casting Shadows, Hero and The Horror Exception, Lone Wolf, James, Diamond Edge, and Joint Damage.

1:49 Speaker 1: All right, very good, and uh, now what time does that start?

1:54 Speaker 3: So they started right now? Oh we started swarmy Fest last night.

1:59 Speaker 1: Yeah.

2:00 Speaker 2: No, it starts when people start getting off the plane. It really does, like people start flying in. The cool thing about swormy Fest is not just a local event. I mean, it's really because we don't have enough gas money to go. Oh my god, that there's more people here.

2:15 Speaker 4: Doors are technically at five.

2:17 Speaker 3: Yeah, the doors for the music event are at five.

2:19 Speaker 2: But we really start to show when the planes land, when people get off the plane and start hanging out. We have a pre party show that we have on Friday night, which we had last night with all these people here, karaoke and just shenanigans and dubauchery and hotel parties and stuff like that. But swormy Fest is really cool because it's not just a local event. It's really, if we had to gas money, we would be able to travel to all of our friends and fans everywhere. We just don't not in today's local climate, so we can't tour everywhere.

2:52 Speaker 2: And some of our friends, some of our fans, and most of these people here are like staff members or extended family members to us. They ben before and because we can't get out, they come in, you know, and we all do the event from within and it's all about discovery and sharing music from around New England.

3:11 Speaker 1: And now this is the third one, So what what How is this different from the first two because I assume obviously the event has changed, it's evolved.

3:21 Speaker 3: The major difference is is we've been able to.

3:28 Speaker 2: Have deeper business to business relationships with like n H Guitars playing a deeper role. This year we're doing a raffle and guitar giveaway with them. Legion of Solace is here with us, and we have a new partner, BPS Records that is also here with us helping host the event. And everybody here, whether it's having music dealerships shops or repair shops or podcasts or BPS Records and reader with her venue, everyone here is a main contributor to the event.

4:14 Speaker 5: Uh.

4:14 Speaker 2: And I think that's what's different this year than it passes is the amount of interaction that all of my partners have contributed directly.

4:25 Speaker 1: Right, and this is that Now is this the first one at in Lowell?

4:30 Speaker 2: This is the first time we've ever done it at Lowell. Usually we're across the street at Jewel. And we did the two stage thing last year. Uh, but we had some changes we had to we had to pivot this year and Tifeta's new ground for us, so we're hoping to secure a good relationship with them so we can come back and do it again. The whole point of doing this stuff is so you can do it again. Nobody wants a one night stand, you know what I mean?

4:58 Speaker 1: That would be great when you did the first one. Was that the plan all along to make it an annual thing? Or was it like, let's see how the first one goes.

5:07 Speaker 2: I hope we have a swarmy Fest South. I hope we have a swarmy Fest California. Yeah, I hope we have a swarmy Fest UK. Yeah, someday, you.

5:17 Speaker 4: Know, form the world there you go.

5:21 Speaker 1: Yeah, oh yeah, why not? So that's the long term plan. Do you are there any plans to make it like more than once a year, like do it twice a year or anything like that?

5:29 Speaker 3: Or is that the planner is always to survive?

5:32 Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, making it isn't the Sepsist thing because if you make it, then you're done. So we're always making it. You know, we're working progress and.

5:44 Speaker 3: Music.

5:45 Speaker 2: Modern music is evolving and live music is evolving, and Stepsis is a band that adapts. Sepsis is a band that survives and evolves.

5:56 Speaker 1: Yep.

5:58 Speaker 2: So we have to clean our late check the boxes as we go down. But uh, you know, life comes in waves, and you know it's about getting on the right ferry boat with live entertainment, changing quality over quantity for us. But we're cleaning our plate one thing at a time.

6:19 Speaker 1: Yeah, and tell us too about so to kind of veer away from that for a moment, because a few weeks ago we were talking off here about the new single Bathwater from Sepsis that just came out. When when was that just just very recently?

6:36 Speaker 3: Right? So yeah, we don't we don't come out with music anymore. We just make music.

6:40 Speaker 2: You know, so many so many artists depend on products or gizmos or gadgets or manufacturing or labels or brands to release music. We're a band that just makes music. We don't we're not a forever band. There's no born date or death date. There's just the life date. Right, So we're not waiting for iTunes or a record label to make music or give us permission to release music. So because we don't come out with music anymore, we don't wait for Spotify or ask permission for uploads. When we finish music, we just ask our fans if they want to listen to it, and then we give it to the fans, right right, So it goes there's no sepsist and then a label, and then a manager, and then an A and R guy.

7:33 Speaker 2: It's just we skip everybody, including spot We don't even release music on Spotify anymore.

7:37 Speaker 3: We just give our music directly to our fans.

7:42 Speaker 1: Has that always been the strategy. I'm sure we've talked about.

7:44 Speaker 2: This before, but it is it is now because there's too many jute boxes, there's too many middlemen before our real fl we have authentic fans. I think if you're getting into music is something. If you're a modern musician and you're you're getting into it, now and you're introduced to modern music through technology and through computers. I mean people think that that music comes from gadgets. Children think that music comes from the internet. They think it comes from computers. But music doesn't even come from people.

8:18 Speaker 1: What do you mean music was here before?

8:21 Speaker 2: Music was here before humanity. Okay, yeah, like whales make music, birds make music. Sound and frequency has been here before humans. We're just so big headed we think we made it up right, right, So, but the truth is music belongs to the universe, Matt, not to me.

8:38 Speaker 3: Okay.

8:39 Speaker 2: So that's why Stepsis gives our music away, because it belongs to everybody, yeah, not to not to companies and corporations.

8:46 Speaker 1: There's a YouTuber I don't know if anyone might be familiar with her, uh miss Crystal, who's top music attorney as our YouTube channel, and she talks a lot about, you know, releasing music yourself and not using like you were saying, and you know, the middleman like a record label and everything, because you can. And she's even talked recently in videos about how like you're better off putting it on your own website than using like you said, Spotify.

9:12 Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean opinions very on that no.

9:14 Speaker 2: And you know, if you're being introduced to music today, maybe iTunes is the way to go. But we've been a band since twenty ten. We do whatever we want to do. When we do it, we just do whatever we really want to do, you know, whatever makes us happy.

9:31 Speaker 1: Yeah, do you know when the next are you working on another single?

9:36 Speaker 3: We're working on everything.

9:37 Speaker 2: Music is expensive, and because we're trying to make quality music. You know, here's the thing with the Spotify stuff and the gadgets is me Zach Melissa Lexi. We put in a lot of time and effort and investment to make quality music high and what I mean by that is high resolution music. We mix and master high resolution music, but when we upload it to certain streaming sites like Spotify, they knock the resolution down. So if your career or if your dream depends on quality, that's part of our brand is making crystal clear loud music.

10:25 Speaker 3: That's part of our brand. So that's why we don't belong.

10:29 Speaker 2: Really on those sites because we put in a lot of investment money into creating high quality, high resolution music, and then we upload it on the websites that reduce and fragment and degrade our high resolution music.

10:46 Speaker 3: So if you are, we're career entertainers.

10:50 Speaker 2: So if your career entertainer and your resume depends on presenting quality music, and we showmakers and A and r's right, and they go or advertisers and they go, hey, we love to hear your quality music, and you go, and of course everybody listens to music through Spotify. Now they well, send us your Spotify. We go, no, we don't want to do that. We'd like to send you our high resolution music, and go, well, everybody listens to music on iTunes and Spotify.

11:19 Speaker 3: But the issue with that is bands like us.

11:21 Speaker 2: You know, if you're not a celebrity, they upload your music, they knock the resolution down. My resume depends on me having high resolution music.

11:29 Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, so music.

11:31 Speaker 2: The more of the story is is, of course we're working on stuff. It's just expensive to be in Sepsis because we want to create music that we love forever.

11:40 Speaker 3: We're not a fifteen album band. We've got friends of ours.

11:43 Speaker 2: They're super talented and they got a thousand songs out that no one's ever heard.

11:48 Speaker 1: Right.

11:49 Speaker 2: We got friends of mine that are in bands that are much more talented than I.

11:53 Speaker 3: Will ever be.

11:54 Speaker 2: Have a catalog of music that no one will ever hear, and people are still listening to black Light Invasion because it's yeah interesting.

12:02 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, most people, I don't think, I mean, you know, people in the scene, no, people in the industry know, But I don't think the average listener knows what you were just talking about about. How you know, it is a little resolution if you listen to something on YouTube or Spotify. Band Camp, from what I've read, is better about not like when you post things on band camp. It's higher resolution than if you uh been on YouTube or Spotify.

12:28 Speaker 2: And and of course you have to be on everything. Yeah, I mean if if if you're a band and you want to be in a music industry, then you want to be in a system, a system of gizmos and gadgets that are constantly trying to outdo each other with developed with new developers and new apps, and there's a subscription fee for everything that. Oh yeah, so the the modern day music industry is a game of wannabes man that buy and purchase products that manufacture an image of success.

13:13 Speaker 1: Well, but people like that. People like the they love it image, They love it.

13:19 Speaker 3: People like a lot of stuff. Yeah, they like fentanyl too.

13:22 Speaker 1: Well, that's that's true. Well some people.

13:28 Speaker 4: Do.

13:28 Speaker 1: Uh do the rest of you have any thoughts on what William was saying or anything to add to that or it's an interesting subject, I think.

13:36 Speaker 4: Well I can talk a little bit about Bathwater.

13:39 Speaker 1: Yes, since we got to talk about this.

13:41 Speaker 4: Single coming out yea, yeah. Well, Bathwater is a gripping and emotional story about the adult industry, equality and the birthright to our minds, our bodies and message. The song is about men benefiting from women, people that live private, double and triple lives, online, cyberbullying, doxing, It's directly confronting people who have spread rumors about me, oh, people who mistreat and misuse technology and harassment. Yeah, Bathwater is really is a message to men, and that message is that we want the full ownership and restoration of our freedoms to our brains and our own body parts.

14:41 Speaker 1: Very good.

14:42 Speaker 4: Bathwater is also a message to young women and human beings everywhere, and no matter how you choose to look, where you choose to work, or who you choose to sleep with, you are the authors and composers of your own identity in the story of your own life.

15:03 Speaker 1: Absolutely well, very good, very good?

15:06 Speaker 4: Was that?

15:07 Speaker 1: What was that song a long time in the making in terms of of the concept and the you know, because that's heavy stuff. I mean absolutely, yeah, it's not. It's not something you wrote.

15:16 Speaker 3: And justin story, our second album is all about sex. Okay, it's about getting naked. Well ahead, while we look forward to that.

15:30 Speaker 1: Are you so tonight?

15:32 Speaker 7: Are you?

15:33 Speaker 3: Uh?

15:34 Speaker 1: Are you playing? Is bathwater one of the songs you're playing tonight? Is that on the on the list?

15:38 Speaker 3: You have to show up to the show to find out.

15:41 Speaker 1: Will be there? Well, we'll be there, so I'll take I'm gonna I'm gonna take that as a yes.

15:47 Speaker 3: So no.

15:48 Speaker 2: So somebody taught me this trick last night about set lists.

15:50 Speaker 1: Yeah.

15:51 Speaker 2: I've been doing this forever and uh, they told me stop sharing a set list.

15:55 Speaker 3: Really.

15:56 Speaker 2: Yeah, they say people read the set list and if they don't play, if you played the favorite song, they don't show up.

16:02 Speaker 1: Oh I'm gonna wait to see.

16:07 Speaker 3: That's what I did though, Yeah, I said, oh man, that's what they do.

16:10 Speaker 1: That makes sense.

16:12 Speaker 3: You know. There's an angle and a method to everything. Now, if you brush your teeth, what's that for playing it tonight? My brain, that's the one that's on my repeat on YouTube. I watched that video all the time. Guess what that song is about.

16:31 Speaker 1: Yeah, my favorite desiyes of Empathy, which I've played on the show many.

16:36 Speaker 4: Many great songs.

16:37 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

16:39 Speaker 3: The song is about breakfast. I'm just kidding. I'm just.

16:44 Speaker 1: Oh okay, it's the stomach talking. All right.

16:48 Speaker 2: You could know that, yes, yes, No, Empathy is about the Mount Vernon murders.

16:53 Speaker 1: Oh I didn't know that. Yes, I had no idea.

16:56 Speaker 3: Yeah.

16:57 Speaker 2: So in the yeah, in the song, the screaming part is the murder. Yes, and Melissa sings.

17:02 Speaker 3: The part of the little girl.

17:04 Speaker 2: Oh rys, that's out the bag. Oh it'll be damned yeah right now. Now, now when you listen to it, you'd be like, oh man, totally different. So in the end, you know, when we go just don't ask Jamie. This is like a big gang vocal. Oh Jamie's the girl. Oh okay, all right, that makes sense.

17:19 Speaker 1: You're playing that tonight.

17:23 Speaker 3: If you come to the show, how long are you playing?

17:28 Speaker 1: Can you tell us the length of your.

17:29 Speaker 2: Yeah, it'll be snappy SATs tonight. We want to you know, we wanna want to keep the music going. Yeah, because we've never done this before. We don't want the let's go have a cigarette moment.

17:39 Speaker 1: What do you mean you've never done this this before?

17:42 Speaker 3: Oh yeah, I.

17:43 Speaker 2: Mean it's eight it's it's eight bands. We don't do eight bands anymore. It's two thousand and twenty four.

17:48 Speaker 1: I really feel like it's tafaa. I really really feel like it's taffa. Like I'm almost positive and.

17:56 Speaker 4: Bets now we're definitely gonna have to ask them.

17:59 Speaker 3: Yeah, I said, I think it's.

18:06 Speaker 1: Every time you say, you're making me crave a Greek I want a Greek salad now.

18:10 Speaker 2: Thinking about in the beginning when we when we had the venue change, I'm like, it's at.

18:16 Speaker 1: Your yeah, see you knows, yeah.

18:20 Speaker 2: And everybody's like, oh, it's at the fet Music Hall. I'm like, no, it'sta like fet music Hall. I said, no, Feta cheese. That's right to ask somebody the chat. Somebody's out there.

18:35 Speaker 3: How do you say this?

18:37 Speaker 1: Because taffa means something right, it's is it a color? What is taffaa? Or I don't I don't know.

18:43 Speaker 4: It sounds like.

18:46 Speaker 1: It sounds like yeah, but it looks like a cool room from what I saw online. It looks like a nice place.

18:51 Speaker 2: It does, and it doesn't look like anybody will be shanked. I mean we have these shows.

18:57 Speaker 1: Well that's that's a positive too. Yeah.

18:59 Speaker 2: Well, you know, you got to do your research. We google earth everything now, but we go there. We've driven all over the country, so some of the places we play at are you know yeah.

19:10 Speaker 1: Yeah. One of my favorite things about going to a show is not getting shanked, right. I love that, Like, at the end of the night, if I haven't been shanked.

19:16 Speaker 3: Right, Yeah, it's a good show.

19:18 Speaker 4: That's important.

19:19 Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, it's a it's a win.

19:24 Speaker 1: What time is the first fan going?

19:28 Speaker 3: Five thirty? Yeah, five thirty.

19:29 Speaker 2: Doors will be at five okay, and then we'll start music at five thirty. I think the incredible Diamond Edge I think is kicking it off. And I'll wait until they've been on here before I believe, right, di'mond Edge, I don't think, So let's get Diamond Edge on. He I love them school name Diamond Edge.

19:47 Speaker 3: That they're fantastic and.

19:50 Speaker 2: Yeah, you know it's that you can never get people to set these No one ever wants to go last, right, and nobody wants to go first.

19:56 Speaker 3: I'm like, who wants to go first, you know, Diamond Edge stepped up.

20:00 Speaker 1: Yeah. Now, now who's who's from the area and who who traveled? Because not not all these bands are from around here.

20:09 Speaker 3: Right, I mean from here is New England, you know.

20:14 Speaker 1: So yeah, anybody from outside of New England.

20:17 Speaker 2: Oh obviously what you're saying. No, No, they're all New England bands.

20:21 Speaker 1: Because I think I think last last year we.

20:23 Speaker 3: Do that though something.

20:24 Speaker 2: Yeah, I you know, it's tough because the way that the venues work now, it's all pre sale tickets. So it's like post pandemic. If you don't sell pre sale tickets, your band is trash. Because if you're if you're a musician, your venue, your show, your dream is all downstage center, Okay, But in twenty and twenty four, if you're a talent buyer,

20:55 Speaker 2: your dream is on your cell phone and and and chasing tickets and algorithms and demographics, and we don't even talk I don't even even talk about music anymore when we book shows. It's not even about music. It's just about metrics and pre sale tickets. And even if you're a massive band, as you see a lot now, these massive bands are canceling. You go, why these huge bands canceling, Yeah, because they can't sell enough predictable audience members. They want to be able to predict how many audience members you're going to have before soundcheck.

21:32 Speaker 2: So you know, if steps's books a show, I'm talking pre sale tickets, I'm not nobody cares about who physically shows up. If nobody physically shows up to Stormy Fest, nobody cares. The only thing that that talent buyers and venues are interested now, as far as you know, booking bands like us is if you're drawing, if you're not, If you can't draw a crowd and you can't sell pre sale tickets, it doesn't matter what bands you're in, you're out.

22:03 Speaker 3: Yeah, And it's and it's going to continue to be that way. It's going to be tough for some people.

22:09 Speaker 1: We had John MacArthur. I don't know if any of you know John MacArthur. He's a promoter. He's with uh I forget now, Jenny, Do you remember John MacArthur is something musical music collective, New Amster Music Collective. He was talking about how they they promote a lot of shows and conquered and he was talking about the challenge of people waiting until the last minute whether to decide whether or not they're going to go to go to the show. So he runs into a situation where because they have two rooms that they have a smaller room and a bigger room that they work with, and sometimes they'll have someone playing in the smaller room and and there'll be a lot of walk up and they'll be going.

22:44 Speaker 1: He gave me a specific example too. I can't remember who it was, but where all these people show up at the last minute, and they could have put this artist in the bigger room if they'd known precise all these people were coming. But you know, weise we kind of live in an era where people will wait for the last minute.

23:02 Speaker 2: And terrible people have been taking advantage of this for years. Zack will explain it to you, But they've been terrible people have been taking advantage of this, uh for years by having the most privileged people and the richest kids.

23:18 Speaker 3: Just buy the tickets.

23:19 Speaker 2: Yeah, just buy the pre sale tickets, show up with nobody and pray and play at a boutique spot. You know, have the White Glove nine thirty ten o'clock slot. Sure, yeah, you know when you know it should go to the most qualified, drawing hard working, talented people. So you know, talent buyers will see that and go, hey, I know the rich kids will buy.

23:45 Speaker 3: The pre sale tickets. Who cares who shows up? So now you know what I mean.

23:50 Speaker 2: You got rich people playing empty shows and that's why you got guys that can play violin with their teeth living in the subway.

23:59 Speaker 1: Oh I haven't seen that, Zach, You're gonna Williams said you had something to say on that.

24:04 Speaker 6: Oh yeah, So like I've seen in other bands where we've been on you know, the pay to play shows where you know they essentially give you a stack of tickets, and you know, your time slot is based on how many tickets you sell. So if you sell all fifty, you're the direct support right before the touring headline and the national act. But you know, if you don't sell ten, they're kicking you out of the room tonight, right. And then you know, in my experience, you know my old bands, we would get ten people.

24:33 Speaker 6: We'd hustle and you know, sell ten tickets and get ten people right in the door, and you know, hand the promoter the money and they're like, well, you only sold the minimum, so you're going on first. And then you know, so this band is you know, headlining tonight because they sold the most tickets. And after our band went, our people left because I don't know these other bands.

24:53 Speaker 3: We don't care about.

24:54 Speaker 6: Them, right, especially since you know, your merits only based on how many tickets you sold. So we're gonna go to the bar down the road, right. So then the rest of the night, that promoter had to look us in the eye as every you know, every other band was playing to an empty, empty room except for the other band.

25:12 Speaker 2: And now people wonder why if it's just sometimes the climate feels so competitive. It is because like every part about music has been like monetized or like in an algorithm, or it's.

25:21 Speaker 3: It's competitive or as a competition.

25:24 Speaker 2: So it's hard, you know, And and truthfully, Swarmy Fest for sure is a great example. Great shows, like really successful shows. It's not just one band that does that. It's not just it's it's true, but it's it's the staff members, it's the band members. It's for stepsist shows. Our audience makes up the show. Yeah, you know, I don't know if bands really understand that that that it takes all the bands that are part of the showcase, and it takes the audience and everybody together to make a great room, to make a great night.

25:58 Speaker 5: Yeah, what's different, like like he's saying, like with Swarmy Fest, you know, we have talented bands, They put in the effort, they put on a phenomenal performance, like you know, your standard showcase where it's no longer if you are good or can even play, it's just how many tickets to be sold?

26:18 Speaker 3: You know, what are your numbers looking?

26:19 Speaker 5: Like?

26:19 Speaker 3: How many likes do you have on Facebook?

26:21 Speaker 6: How many comments did you last?

26:22 Speaker 3: Pick? Bands at Swarmy Fests actually like each other.

26:25 Speaker 2: Yeah, so you know that's that's a good thing to point out as a big difference in contrast to things that we've done before. Is I think we've really made sure this time around that everybody knows each other, everybody likes each other, everyone's been vetted, the fans really like the music, and this time it is a matter of like going around and saying, who really wants to play with us and who wants to play with each other?

26:48 Speaker 3: So much we're seeing bands and multi genres.

26:51 Speaker 2: You know, I can't be effective sometimes, but when you have everybody kind of striving for the same goal and rooting and cheering for each other. Yeah, and everyone's kind of out of the same understanding that we all want to see each other play and do well. Right, then everybody stays for the show and it's not competitive, right And if there and if it is competitive, it's.

27:12 Speaker 3: The kind of competition that we can all appreciate.

27:14 Speaker 1: Well, this healthy competition.

27:15 Speaker 3: It's called good sportsmanship.

27:17 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah. Everybody wants to wants to do better than everybody else.

27:21 Speaker 3: Competition is great in the scene when you have good sportsmanship.

27:24 Speaker 1: Oh absolutely.

27:25 Speaker 7: One.

27:27 Speaker 1: By the way, Salvator Pan is in the Facebook live chat and says, love you guys, and good morning.

27:33 Speaker 3: So we're coming over. We're going over his house right after this.

27:38 Speaker 1: Oh okay, all right, and uh, Brandon Morrissette says, hey, y'all, welcome morning.

27:45 Speaker 6: Sleep ahead.

27:45 Speaker 2: Wait a minute, he's in the hotel sleeping. Oh, everybody's sleeping right now.

27:50 Speaker 1: Apparently he apparently he woke up.

27:53 Speaker 3: Yeah.

27:55 Speaker 7: Good.

27:55 Speaker 1: So the event So the event actually, so Swarmyfest really started last night, right, you had your yeah kind of the thing going on?

28:01 Speaker 3: Really?

28:01 Speaker 2: Yes, So yeah, I was gonna say, so we have a we have a gaming community and this is the president of our gaming community.

28:08 Speaker 3: It's called Immaculate Connection.

28:10 Speaker 2: Gaming Steps has created a long time ago with Melissa, So it's kind of crazy. A bunch of these folks here are from all over the country. But this is my friend Sean and he's also known as I CG for Life, and he is the president of our gaming community.

28:25 Speaker 3: Melissa founded our community.

28:27 Speaker 2: So really the party started Thursday when we picked when we picked up Sean from from Logan. But on Friday, you know, partners, fans, the band, everybody that's that's helped building the event, we all get together before the event because it's hard to hang out. We figured out doing this years before that. If we all try to hang out on show day, it's kind of like how you doing and we're all pushing gear around.

28:56 Speaker 1: Right right, Yeah, you're you're all busy.

28:58 Speaker 3: So we all as we get better at this every year.

29:00 Speaker 2: Yeah, we've made adjustments and we've all figured out we need a couple more days, Yeah, to hang out and rest.

29:07 Speaker 3: And be together. It's a great idea, you know, collect the value.

29:11 Speaker 1: Yeah, what what is a game? For those who don't know, what is a gaming community? What does what does that mean?

29:16 Speaker 3: Exactly do you want?

29:17 Speaker 7: You want?

29:18 Speaker 3: Gaming community is Mike get.

29:20 Speaker 1: You got to lean right in.

29:21 Speaker 7: Being a part of a gaming community is like having some of your greatest teammates and the most impactful action that you can have. It's entertainment that you can have right at home and you don't have to travel very far. We prefer to play on Xbox and we gather up say every Wednesday and Friday, and then we have a lot of pickup games on Saturday too, and it's just absolutely wild. The same excitement that we have in the room, we get to share that together running in our living rooms. Some Xbox Live customer, but I hang out with stepsuspand I prefer to play with entertainers.

29:46 Speaker 3: Oh all right, thank you, thank you. It's ICG for life. Very good.

29:50 Speaker 2: So we do games giveaways events just like in Sepsis.

29:53 Speaker 1: Yeah.

29:53 Speaker 2: Yeah, we have merch and actually, like this in one of the shirts he's got on. Now, some of these guys have as you can see, High is a gaming community person. Okay, all right, if you like, I go to a Macca connection gaming dot com.

30:07 Speaker 1: There you go. Now, how long has that been a thing?

30:09 Speaker 3: H wow?

30:12 Speaker 1: Now not not longer than the band y.

30:15 Speaker 2: No, well so we we we learned it in another gaming community. I think we've I think that this will be our seventh year doing it.

30:23 Speaker 1: Okay, okay, been quite some time. And how many like, how many people are in it?

30:28 Speaker 2: You know, it's a revolving door. It's it's gaming, so it's easy to quit.

30:32 Speaker 1: So people come and go, yeah, yeah, no, it makes sense, that makes sense. No, that's cool. That's cool if you are just joining us. Sepsis is here, of course, talking about Swarmy Fest tonight at did we agree it's Taffia? Did we all agree?

30:48 Speaker 3: Another one? We can agree?

30:49 Speaker 4: I'll try and remember.

30:50 Speaker 1: That we want we want, we want people to be able to find it.

30:53 Speaker 2: We do and right right they can't you but that's okay.

30:58 Speaker 1: And and and we have no idea what Sepsis is playing. They won't tell us, so you have to show up for that.

31:03 Speaker 3: We're playing music. We're gonna play all. We're gonna play all by Wednesday song.

31:07 Speaker 1: If you have I've been I've been playing. I opened the show today with because they were on last week that their cover of No Easy Way Out. If you listen to that.

31:18 Speaker 3: I'm addicted to it. I am.

31:20 Speaker 2: I'm addicted to it, and I've been hassling them all week. I've been doing what people are doing to me. You know, are you gonna play Bathwater? I've been doing that to them. Are you guys gonna play no easy way out?

31:30 Speaker 3: I assume, I hope. So they have to. I so this this. I didn't know that they could do this whole clean singing thing. Yeah. You know, I've been listening to Dead by Wednesday for a long time, and this whole clean singing thing is I'm looking forward to hearing them do more of it.

31:49 Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I've been. I've been trying to get a feature with them for years and years. I said, we should really do a collaboration.

31:54 Speaker 1: Oh yeah, wouldn't Yeah yeah, yeah, Well I'm when they used to have the two singers. I think they were cousins back in the day, like when they did Pawns and everything.

32:05 Speaker 2: He did have two singers. Although I love this line up. Yeah yeah, this is it for me. Yeah, I love you see the Wasteland video. Yes, I'm a video guy.

32:15 Speaker 1: We talked about that during the interview because they look well, oh no, I'm sorry, Actually no, that was off air. I was talking with them about the video afterward. That's right, because I was saying, how like it looks like they.

32:25 Speaker 2: I don't know if they went to Burning Man or whatever they did, but it is the video they were at.

32:31 Speaker 1: It Apparently it was like a happy accident. They were at a festival and they decided they were going to shoot this video and they got everybody participating, and they made it looks like it looks like a trailer for a Mad Max movie.

32:43 Speaker 3: Can do that.

32:44 Speaker 1: It looks like it was it was really expensive. And they said no, it just it just came together and and everyone kind of participated in it and it was almost so planned. It does right, It does. I mean, I mean, unless they were just telling me that to feed the Lord, I'll go.

33:00 Speaker 3: With it either way. I know.

33:03 Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean it's it seems. It seemed true when they when they were telling me about it, they were like, yeah, just kind of came together.

33:09 Speaker 2: I was like, Wow, I discovered a lot of music through MTV.

33:14 Speaker 3: Some of you guys don't know.

33:15 Speaker 2: What that is, but that but that that's why I.

33:18 Speaker 3: Love the music videos. That's why we still do the music video stuff.

33:22 Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, some people think that. Some people think there are no videos anymore. And and there's actually a lot of people who say, you know, you artists should skip it, but we don't.

33:33 Speaker 3: We don't.

33:34 Speaker 1: I love video.

33:36 Speaker 5: Story.

33:37 Speaker 1: And yeah, there's not one for Bathwater yet, right, is there gonna be?

33:42 Speaker 3: There's gonna be. We're thinking about porn Hub.

33:45 Speaker 2: Oh all right, we're thinking about releasing it on adult networks. Uh huh, okay, no, I'm kidding, but but we we we do think it will be what we want to do with it won't be Facebook friendly. Yeah, it's really difficult cult now. It's getting harder on YouTube.

34:04 Speaker 3: You know. We do all the podcasts and stuff.

34:06 Speaker 2: Yeah, I just got a terrible mouth and we're always talking about naked stuff and like, oh, it's getting difficult.

34:11 Speaker 1: You should plug that the podcast or podcasts.

34:13 Speaker 2: So so, honeycomb hide Out will be returning in some form along with Swarm TV, but they will probably be combined and we won't get to it probably till next year. Okay, so we're all taking a break from podcasting for a while. Yeah, but you can catch my show.

34:29 Speaker 1: I was gonna say, yeah, because I know you're you've been.

34:31 Speaker 3: Yes, William Versus the World?

34:33 Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, every weekday at seven I'll be angry, and I'll have plenty of coffee.

34:37 Speaker 1: You do that five days a week, every week five.

34:39 Speaker 3: I do it every single day. Oh, I didn't realize. Yes, I'm so.

34:43 Speaker 2: I'm kind of trapped right now because I'm doing the hundredth episode. But the hundredth episode is special, and I've got to have all kinds of people on it. So I have to have all the right some kind of frozen right now because I have to have all these people one with me special one hundredth episodes.

35:01 Speaker 3: You got to go crazy. I'm trying to break the law and you don't.

35:05 Speaker 1: Just to clarify too, you don't just talk about music on that.

35:08 Speaker 2: No, it's William versus the world. Yeah, yeah, yeah, seriously, so it's me versus everybody.

35:14 Speaker 4: Yeah, music, technology, yet the police, I go off on everybody.

35:20 Speaker 6: Yeah, horrible restaurant review.

35:21 Speaker 1: One time, I think, oh really, oh no kidding.

35:24 Speaker 3: You've given me a shout out a few times. I've gotten in there and seen you.

35:27 Speaker 2: I'm really, I'm, I'm I'm. It's pretty much nothing without you guys showing up. A lot of the people here show up, yeah, just to help me, uh, to encourage me. Yeah, yeah, so you know really again, like without uh, without the people in the chat, it would be impossible to do it.

35:44 Speaker 3: So I appreciate all y'all.

35:45 Speaker 1: Yeah, no doubt, no doubt. Well we are. Yeah, we're kind of getting to the top of the hour, so I'm thinking maybe we'll we'll wrap up this segment and get some other folks on on the mic. But yes, remind us what should we what do you want to make sure we know about tonight?

36:03 Speaker 3: I mean, geez to show up five.

36:08 Speaker 4: We're gonna have some cool grab bags and giveaways too.

36:11 Speaker 2: There's a guitar raffle and giveaway through NH Guitars that Legion to Solace is presenting again. BPS Records will be opening the show and announcing bands. Excellent, They'll be running around the venue. We've got a grab bag at the end. Uh a killer after party. I'm not gonna speak for everybody because they're gonna come on and and there's there's other features and different things happening.

36:37 Speaker 3: So I'll let them talk about it, but just show up and be pleasant.

36:40 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, outstanding, outstanding and uh yeah, come say hi to you know. Jenny and I will be there of course and looking forward to that and uh I think what we'll do is, since we talked about it and it's your newest single, we'll close with Bathwater. We'll close the segment with bath water.

36:57 Speaker 3: Yes, yes, and hear you on the radio.

37:00 Speaker 1: Oh, we should we should plug the website. We should plug the website too. I don't think we did that.

37:06 Speaker 4: Dot com dot com spelled the S E P S I S S dot com.

37:11 Speaker 1: By the way. I'm sure now that's you're spelling. I'm sure I've asked you this before, but I can't remember. Has anyone ever gotten, like, spelled your name wrong on a flyer?

37:17 Speaker 3: Or are the we are the most Yeah? I mean, I mean I feel.

37:22 Speaker 4: Like it happens to everybody, though, Yeah.

37:24 Speaker 3: Especially us.

37:25 Speaker 2: We get called and mispronounced every weird name and you step kids.

37:34 Speaker 3: Are you kidding? We've gotten everything?

37:40 Speaker 1: Yeah?

37:41 Speaker 3: Every Yeah.

37:46 Speaker 2: The only reason why and we were talking about earlier you said something about titles or we didn't name the band for any reason. It's just just just what it's called. Yeah, so it's just so it's searchable.

37:58 Speaker 1: Yeah, no, we I remember in the previous conversion we talked about.

38:01 Speaker 3: That disappoint anybody else? Oh?

38:03 Speaker 1: I remember why we talked about that before because I mentioned my dad is a big fan of you, except except the name. And I think, and I don't think. I don't think the name bothers him. I think he's just being funny about it. But he but he tells me, he's like, yeah, Maddie, you know, I don't know about the name, but I really will have.

38:17 Speaker 2: A problem with and then and then they'll and then they'll go play Cannibal Corpse.

38:22 Speaker 3: And slip not. I said, we've got a problem, and you slipknot right right, come on?

38:31 Speaker 1: And and I'm like a lot of those uh, And unlike a lot of those bands, your logo is decipherable and everything, you know, because a lot of those bands, we can't even you can't even read the logo.

38:40 Speaker 3: People don't like that about us Cannibal Corpse.

38:42 Speaker 7: Uh.

38:43 Speaker 1: When I when I used to work at years ago for those who remember Strawberries and then eventually oh wow, but but I.

38:50 Speaker 3: Just got all everybody over a thirty five. But I know that's because you are.

38:54 Speaker 7: I just.

38:56 Speaker 1: I just remember the nightmares I would have on like after shipment day but away the Cannibal Corpse CDs and seeing some of those album covers.

39:03 Speaker 2: Remember when they were like crushing iced tea tapes and stuff and nw A.

39:07 Speaker 1: You guys don't remember that way back, Yeah, yeah, when everybody was mad at I see.

39:12 Speaker 2: Yeah, we just played with them, Zach's favorite band. We just played with them at rock Fest Two Live Crew from.

39:20 Speaker 3: The US A. You know, yeah, yeah, I didn't know.

39:23 Speaker 2: They were all the booty shaken and all of that back then, and they banned.

39:27 Speaker 6: You want to talk about a band that has like more experience with First Amendment, you know, there's yeah, a band that have been censored by a court.

39:35 Speaker 1: Yeah, I remember, yeah, yeah, I didn't know they were even still doing anything.

39:40 Speaker 3: We played with those guys a couple of months ago in Rockfest.

39:42 Speaker 2: They had a bigger crowd than any rock and roll band in the entire venue.

39:48 Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah, made Jelly Roll look like Swiss role.

39:53 Speaker 2: No, it was crazy to Live Crew is a it was a rock and roll, a heavy metal FESTIV. Two Live Crew had the biggest crowd I think we saw at the entire festival.

40:05 Speaker 1: What's his name, Luther, Uncle Luke, Yeah, yeah, yeah, wow.

40:10 Speaker 3: They got mad at the guy because he likes bums, so.

40:14 Speaker 1: Did sir mix a lot. Nobody got mad at him.

40:16 Speaker 3: He likes big butts and he can't lie. That's right, that's right.

40:19 Speaker 1: Nobody got mad at him, not right, Yeah, yeah, all right, So we'll end with bathwater and then we're gonna get some other folks on the mic. But really looking forward to tonight. I have no idea what you're playing because you wouldn't tell me, but no, looking forward to it, looking forward to it.

40:34 Speaker 3: All right, here it is.

40:35 Speaker 1: This is the newest single from Stepsis. This is Bathwater.