Matt Connarton Unleashed: Sepsiss

We happened to have three members of Stepsis here with us live in studio. William, Melissa and Zachie b are all here. Welcome, Hey, hello, good morning, and welcome to the new uh the new studio here. You all haven't been here since we moved. I am taking in. I'm basking in the yon Beyonce. It is absolutely gorgeous, isn't it nice? This is a major upgrade. This is so much nice there, and I don't it's crazy because I didn't want to say that going in because I didn't know, like what the deal was with you guys, you know, departing that the other place was nice too.

Yeah, this is this is this is great in our own building, our own name on the building. We're not hidden on a third floor somewhere. And that's what I was going to say. I usually get more exercise when I come and visit you guys.

Yeah, the old place, you would you would never even know that there was a radio station up there. There was nothing on the outside of the building that would indicate that there was anything right that the facade is great. You're right across the street from Premiere Manchester Live Music Duel Ye Yeah, and that's a very important place, isn't it. I just think it's location wise, it's great. I love that you can just walk right down there. I love than you guys are even closer to where I live now because I'm right next to CMC.

So I'm like, oh wow, like I can see them from my house. It's awesome. Yeah. Yeah. And like for us, like when we play Manchester, we played Jewel. Yeah yeah, so when we play our hometown, we play our hometown venue and then you guys are right across the street. Yeah. Yes, Literally, Jewel is important because I mean, we all know what's coming up. That's right, warmy, that's right, that's right. No, we're doing we're doing two stages this year, and we should. We did two stages last year, and I was terrified because you know, I've never done it before.

Yeah, anytime I'm doing something I've never done before. See, I wasn't terrified because I knew NH Booking had done festivals with two stages before. So I was like, I kind of get the eye. Do you have how they run? Richie told me not to be terrified, but but I still, you know, I don't blame me something I do. I don't blame you at all. Terrified with one stage event coordinating. It's not like being in a band, you know, it's being in a band is not there's not so much people pleasing, but that there is an event coordinating.

Yeah. I mean you got the guests, but you got the bands and all the all the bands come with their own personalities and their own requirements, and if you're coordinating the event, the thing you really want to have happened is everybody to leave that night and want to do it again. Exactly. Yeah, that's so hard to do, you know, exactly. That's a good way of putting it. Yeah, and when is it for our listeners who who don't know? So for the tradition where we're continuing to do the first Saturday of November, so this year it will be on the second.

So I'm going to try to keep that tradition. But we really want to stay away from the Halloween shows. Yeah, because you get that that cluster of Halloween shows. Yeah, yeah, right, yeah, that's true type of show. Steps it doesn't do is Halloween shows are Saint Patrick's Day. So we're trying to keep it more closer to Thanksgiving, you know, Thanksgiving show sure. Sure on my calendar. On my calendar it says Swarmy Fest Day. I love that. Yeah, I love it. So uh now who's going to be playing this year?

And are you still adding to it? Yeah? I can't tell. And that's that's because this year we're going to do like a band a week, so it starts next month. Us in an h booking will probably release a band a week, so each week heading towards Swarmy Fest, we'll have bands to learn about as it goes. I like that. I like that every band will have their own flyer, every band will have their own We're gonna try to we're gonna try to, you know, do really well with the images and the artwork this year. And so when will that When will that start?

When you when you release the name of I would love I would love it to start at the beginning of July. But we got this thing called rock Fest coming up. Oh tell us about that? So so we we have we have a second album that we're trying to complete, we're pretty close, and then we have this you know, building Swarmy Fest, and then we have rock Fest. So but between these three priority events, it's been it's been challenging to juggle all of them, no doubt, and and keep it balanced. And that comes down, Matt.

It comes down to money, money in pre production and planning and in quality, because it's like, if we have the time to get something done the quality that we predict or expect or hope or plan it to be right, and then you have like your budget and like how you're going to be fiscally responsible. I don't know how the bands do it, but we're a business, so we have to be also like fiscally responsible liquid and inventory, and so when we have merchandise, we're a direct to consumer style gift shop, so we depend some artists depend on streaming.

We depend on hats, t shirts, stickers, meeting people, streams, broadcasts. So we're a little more touchy pheely. I guess well, in terms of the merch I mean that is where the money is anyway, really, I mean, you know, for us, it's also where the discovery is. What do you mean we're a brand? So that's that a lot of times people discover us not through our music map, people discover us through podcasts, live streams. A lot of times when people ask how do we get booked? For big shows or or how are we getting big opportunities.

It's never the music. It's never the music. It's never my guitar playing, you know, it's never songwriting. It's it's it's people. People resonate with the message. People lock into a human wavelength. And and people vote. You know, used to do politics. People vote for who they like. You know, it doesn't you know, people don't. People don't vote for who's right or wrong. People vote for who they like. People want to people want to feel good man. And and so we're in a hospitality business. We're entertaining people.

We're in a business and making people feel good, you know, keeping people informed. And we're we're a polarizing group. So people love us or they don't. But that proves that we have to output. So we're always we know as a band that our job is constantly looking for our fans. So that's that's the move. And anytime that you have quality and you have your budget and you have the time to do it, you have to sacrifice one. So that that's kind of the road to Swarmy Fest right now and releasing our next album.

A lot of our friends that are in bands, they've released eight albums, seven albums. Sure, Sure, Me and Melissa didn't record and release any professional music until twenty twenty, as you know, that was a difficult time for people to do anything. But we don't have we don't have albums prior to twenty twenty. So I mean this is our four this is our fourth year anniversary since releasing almost eleven and we've had a few singles since then. But we don't want to be a band with a catalog, an enormous catalog, where great music in the streaming world, where great music the people could discover might get lost in a sauce.

Sure, So we're again like quality, timing and resources. We're not a forever band and we're not made of money. So we want we want our we want our legacy to speak in terms of quality and care and craftsmanship, you know, and we want to resonate with the people that really matter the most it can benefit. So Rockfest has been a tremendous undertaking because plane tickets are staff. You just I don't know if people understand the scope of how large these festivals are, you know, thirty fifty thousand people.

We're also the finale band, so we gotta we got to be on the We got to be on the field out you know, for twelve fourteen hours and then still be able to hang and play our set. We're playing an hour set. Yeah, we play Wisconsin. We're going to be flying out there and we play as soon as Jelly Roll gets off, no kidding. Yeah, that's a great opportunity in the sense of rock Fest. It's cool because we're the last metal band or rock band that you're going to hear for the fest. Like, so as a finale band, we have a we have a tremendous opportunity.

People leave before the headliner a lot of times so they can beat the traffic, sure, you know, and people that are there for rock and metal, if they're not there for Stepsister, they're going to leave before Jelly Roll, you know, if they're not fans of country or Jelly Roll whatever, whatever, that's going to be. So people that are like traditional hardcore and metal people, we know that if they stayed that they're staying to watch the set, and we plan on putting on when hell of a show. To believe me, We've got a whole new performance planned for this New dance moves really taken our time to upgrade our stage package.

So like we've got new gear, new an, your monitors, head rushes, all kinds of stuff. It really takes it really takes time, like figuring out what the tools are going to be. The world's changed a lot, so in order to go across country twenty five years ago, you might have to rent big amplifiers or you know, to carry on bags and then you know, if you check a bag, you know, hundreds of dollars to try to check in luggage. And so luckily our band has been using technology for a while that we don't we don't bring on big amplifiers anymore.

All of our technology you can put in a bag, except for the drums. So but we had to we had you know, we had to drop ship all of our merchandise, rent drums out there, and it's all it's difficult. You want to go to you don't want to go. I mean a lot of a lot of bands get the opportunity to play large festivals and in their defense, not of not a lot of people have the team and the budget. That's all going to come together, Like we all come together and we sit down and we go, you know, how how can we come together and make the most of this.

So like for us, we planned for nine months. Yeah, you know, because because we're not rich, but we plan for nine months. That way we can chip away at things and we can work together as a team. So we go, how are we going to get this merch table filled? You know, there's a lot of small bands like us that might have this opportunity and it's great. They play, but they have nothing to leave, but they just they haven't planned how they're gonna Like for us, I don't want to give all the tricks the trade, but we literally sit down with think tanks and go, well, how are we going to make a connection.

How are we going to make our live performance different from the other bands? How are we going to use the twelve hours? What events? What are we going to do each of us? What are we going to do to add value to the company. What are we going to do to get people in front of that stage? What's the priority list? And we kind of we kind of work our way down and check the boxes and go what do we set out to achieve with this? Because a lot of people get a chance to play Swarmy Fest or a big stage or rock fest and it's fun, right, and of course making money is cool and on all of that, but what do you set out to achieve long term?

And that's that's what's important for us. Maybe that might differ from some other acts is we know we're going out there representing New Hampshire, New England and not a lot of not a lot of heavy metal and hard rock bands from New Hampshire ever get this opportunity. Yeah, well, what you're talking about too requires I mean there's a degree of discip into that, right, all that planning that that not everyone. There's contracts, there's discipline, there are rules there, you know, safety and and the thing that a lot of independent artists don't want to talk about is investment.

We invest in ourselves, not and not just money. The time Melissa spoke on it earlier, I mean, we don't just sit around. In practice, we're rehearsing for this thing. You know. We take each show in each stage as a special case. We're looking at blueprints, we're looking at stage plots, and we're trying to make each each show and each experience unique. Have you always approached it that way or is that something you kind of had to develop over time? Melissa, I would say that was something that we've always done.

We've always tried to we've tried to stage performance.

In the early days, who used to say we were like a it's kind of funny, it's like a compliment now, but they used to say we sounded like a like a like a wasps nest, like a shaken up bag of b We had this great idea, but it was kind of all over the place, you know, earlier in the scene we were kind of known for being zigging and zagging. But we've got such an incredible team in lineup right now. This is the first time we've worked with musicians in the band that me and Melissa didn't have to train. Oh interesting, interesting, Yeah.

So and of course, my brother Salvatore pants back on drums. He's a legacy members he's the longest member of Sebsist ever. So, so we're back with our original drummer, and we have a whole new staff and revitalized, re energized group. And this is the first time we're working with musicians and instrumentalists and staff members that are familiar with the project and and want to be here and and that are benefiting from the full features of the project. And this is the first, this is the first group of people we've worked with professionally that I didn't have to train myself.

Now, what do you mean when you say when you say trained like that, like either train, I mean you don't mean literally teach someone to play. I mean literally teach people how to play instruments. Really of course, Yeah, that's and that's that's that's not that's not a knock, you know what I mean. We've had a lot of people that have been really positive contributors to the project. But in their defense, this music is really unique and when you listen to it, it sounds like something everybody should be able to play, and that we designed it like that.

We designed the music so so it sounds like it should be easy to play. Well, some some of those guitar solos you play do not sound easy to be but instrumentalists. And maybe I'm wrong, but we've had a lot of people pick up the sticks or try to pick up a guitar. I mean, let me get it, let me get a shot at that riff and then get to work and around it. And and it's one thing even if you work it out by yourself, but getting five or six people in the room and everybody doing it together and having it all work out is really ambitious.

So yeah, man, I've had to teach people how to play instruments, but I've also had to teach them how to play sepsis because it's not just like playing guitar. It's like playing stepsis. It's a whole another monster on its own. Yeah, it really is, It really is. Hey, I want to ask you all about streaming. Yeah, you mentioned it, and and you you've posted a lot I've seen individually and as a band. You just actually really over the last couple of years, I've seen a lot about I think you did you pull everything from like that you had on Spotify and all that.

So I'm really curious about this. So yeah, that's you know that, that is a great question, because they're not. I think you hear that a lot for effect. You hear a lot of people doing that for good stories. Now we're pulling from Spotify and the only reason why we haven't, the only reason why we haven't is because our first album we signed a record deal right up you know we were Oh yeah, I remember you talking about this, so you know, me and Melissa. We were excited just like any other artists, you know, and you know, we had A and r's all over us when we came out with our first music.

When we you know, when we hooked up with Glenn Robinson and our lives started to change. We could hear our music for the first time. Yeah, we started making and once you hear your music, you start making it differently. We started writing it now as much we could hear it, we could organize it and make it differently. And then we just got a lot of A and rs and record labels, and it's just like, just like they tell you not to do it, we did it, you know, just like, what do you mean to just tell you not to be naive?

You know, give yourself time before we we we make the music us as artists, and then as soon as the music's done, we're waiting for somebody to validate us, you know, exactly, waiting for somebody to off you know, you put all of your life into it. You've practiced, you've invested, you went broke, you almost got evicted, and then as soon as the music's done, as soon as we're getting out of the studio, we run out and give it away. This is why Lexi doesn't allow me on the merch table, because I'll get, I'll give because I want people to wear the shirts.

I want people to wear the hats. I want to give it all away because because meme Less are sad artists that love making music. You know, we want to get our name and we want to be your friend. We want you know, and we want to do we want to play on stage. Isn't that silly? But but like but that's you know, so Memeless and Zach, we're doing this a lot of time. You know, it's it's sad, but because we like it and we're having fun, and this is this is really a family for us. This is really we're really best friends in this band.

So this is our time we can sneak away and be with each other and and you know, and be human and enjoy and live fully. This is this is how this is how we live fully, you know, by seeing people get sober through our music and and people to survive with our music. And people have grown up with our music now. So you know, we signed the record deal and I people say, you know, you should sign it. You should talk with a lawyer, you know, when you when when you sign a record deal? And I did, and my lawyer told me, don't sign a record deal and I and I didn't listen to my like, I didn't listen to my lawyer, you know.

So people tell you to do these things, and I did these things and I ignored everybody and me and then and then and then me and Molissa signed the contract and and then that was that, and we're still to this day. It's funny, we're making CDs for for rock Fest and I've been fighting with my record label forever. They can't stand me. But so so you're still you're just to be clear, you're you're still locked into that. Oh? Absolutely, really that is yeah, that is a very real thing. Okay, yeah, Sony Orchard Orchard Okay, oh yeah, I'm familiar yeh.

But but it's not the it's not their fault because all of these are acquisitional like companies, you know, like like it's like Sony doesn't sign people, They just acquire companies, right, you know what I mean? Laels, And yes, the music industry is an acquisitional you understand this. But when I tell my friend this, they think I'm they think I'm making they think I'm making stuff up. Now, I taught myself there that they think I'm making stuff up. But I so you understand it. No one's ever looked at me in the last year and said, oh I get that.

Yeah, well you just threw me off there. But there's a lot of uhl dation. That's the word I was looking for it. And all the artists and and all the the labels, they're all still even though we all know it's kind of silly, they're all still counting and playing off the mystique. Sure, you know the magic and mystique. Everybody goes, well, how did you get signed? I was just in the right place in the right time, and I played the right chord, and Melissa came out and the wind blew, and then you know, a record company scout happened to walk in offered you a ten album out to l A and right.

No, we were taking we were taking good pictures. We have strong social media. We got a great producer, h Melissa is a killer host of the page, and and and and people can see that we're willing to invest in ourselves. We're in A and R's dream because yeah, because that's what labels want now. You know, they don't want it. They don't want to do the A and R. They want that already done, all set. And we're a perfect target. Yeah, we're a perfect titic. These guys. These guys work hard and and we really want it.

You know, if you if you go and you approach some kids, eighteen nineteen year old kids, they might change their mind. You know, they might get a girlfriend stuff like that. Right, You know, folks like us, we're perfect because they go. You know, these guys know how to pay their bills. These guys are fiscally responsible. You know, they can play their instruments. We've made mistakes, but not many of us have made the mistake. And they're all waiting for that. They're all going to get you. All of all of our all of our friends and our deepest closest celebrities in contacts in the industry.

It's all happened to them too. We're just the only band that talks about it. We're the only ones. There's no there's nobody that talks about it. It's it's a very because it's embarrassing. It's embarrassing to get taken because because we're counting on the mystique of being tough rock stars. We're brilliant. Nobody can take advantage of us, and you know, we're such experts, right and and it and it kills artists to go, I'm not an expert. I'm ambitious. I developed my identity when I was a child and and I and I and I want to be like the guys that I saw on my wall and on the posters.

And that's and it's harder than ever to do that, right because in the social media era, it's you know, whatever mystique you can, you know, managed to have, it's harder than ever to hang on to that. The low is lower and the high is higher, so the career climb and whatever. You know. We live in a society now too that like whatever you whatever you're not driven to do, and whatever you haven't honed the talent for, you're you're encouraged to buy it. Everybody's the DJ, everybody's a model, everybody's a you know.

So we're in we're we're in that time now where content creation is one of the fastest growing industries planet. Yes, on the planet, yep. So that's why I meant it earlier when I when people say How did we get to open up for Jelly Roll at Rockfest by going live on Facebook? Man? How did I get a record deal by by having great social media and Melissa kicking butt? You know? Yep?

But that I mean that that's how we're It's not because the guitar.

Yeah, you know, it's never it's not the music. But you still need the music. Well, I mean, I mean, if you're a conduit, I mean, if you if you do everything else, but what you put out isn't of quality to work, of course, you're not gonna be able to keep people. So this is we're We're not a viral band. You know, we were talking about the career climb. We're a longevity band. And that's what I meant about not having fifteen albums a marathon, not a sprint for us. It is for us. It is we waited our whole lives to be adults.

We also make adult music, and a lot of people are catering to a younger crowd, to kids and child format entertainment. Me and Melissa are you know, we do the adult thing, So we make music for adults. Our music is adult themed. Some kids like our music, but our music is our demograph is for grown people with bills and boyfriends and girlfriends, relationships and you know people that my dad's a big fan. By the way, are you serious? Yeah? Yeah, But my dad is unique. So my dad, he's in his seventies, but he's never been he's he's highly unusual in the sense that he loves hearing new music.

He lives on the sea coast, so he listens to double Oh, he listens to w U n H the Great College Wow, because he's he's he's never been like, you wouldn't get in a car with my dad in her oldies on the radio, It wouldn't happen. That's a great station. Yeah oh yeah, yeah, I grew up listening to that. Yeah, oh yeah. Radio is wonderful. But my dad, yeah, he's always been like he's sipper than me actually, Like he'll ask me about artists that I'm not even familiar with. I'm like, no, I don't know them.

But yeah, he's always he's always been like that. But but he's a big fan of Sepsis. See, he's not crazy about the name full disclosure, but he's not the name that I forget how he said it. It was funny, but he loves your music. That's awesome. Yeah, I appreciate that, and you know I don't I don't hold anybody that doesn't hurt our feelings because I'll tell you now more than ever. You know, as you as you get older, you know, you go you start thinking about all the band names that you that you loved grow you know, growing up.

Yeah, you know I loved you know, Cannibal Corps and yeah, you know, you got Butcher Babies and now you know, now a middle aged guy, I'm going, you know this is crazy. Yeah, sepsis and butcher babies. Thrat. You know, when when we need the name of the band, we didn'tame we didn't really name it after the medical term. Yeah, me and Molissa didn't know any better. You know. We just were like, let's name the band something cool, yeah, you know, and let's make sure that we can have it on Google. That was our big thing.

Oh yeah, really mean anything? Ye yeah yeah right. I just thought it sounded dangerous, and you know, later on we found out all the all the things that happen when you grow up. Yeah. But yeah, so so Spotify, So are you still there or did you pull? So? I'm sorry about that that's such a crazy thing. So I would, you know, I would love to. I would love to pull our music off of Spotify and do a massive press release. I would. I think that would be so much fun. Oh so you haven't pulled it? Yeah, no, and I can't and I would like to, but there would be no reason for us to do it now because our contract with our record label is so I can only pull down my own music, and then my record label would give me the finger, you know, and say, well, you can't pull hours, And I was I was making a joke because we're wild and rebellious and lawless heavy metal band.

I'm always breaking rules, so you know, I'm not supposed to make the record label mad. But we know we're going to Rockfest and I'm not supposed to really go through anybody else, you know, for direct to consumer products. So I'm like, I'm gonna back door these dudes, man, go make my own CDs. And you know, we went to we went to one of our partners and we started to generate the CDs and immediately, you know, immediately we got cont Immediately the paperwork came through and we got copyrighted. Yes, So I mean this is like yesterday, we're like, oh, they're never gonna see it, like we're moving it around.

And that's how that that's how strong the technology was. Like we got an email with less than twelve hours of them going your record labels complaining and we're gonna need written permissions and all that. I said, man, this man, forget it. So we got, we got, we got another year with those with these guys, and then it is one of us. They only thousands of dollars. Really, yeah, of course that you hear that. You've heard that, you know when you say to you like the bands and the the you know, t LC said it and Bobby Brown said it.

You can Flip Knot said it. You can have a multi platinum album and be broke. Absolutely, yes, man, it's it's not an unusual story. This is a wild thing. No, they took they took all of our money. Man. Yeah. And then I I confronted them and I said, you know, you're stealing my money, and they said, well, we're going to continue to do it. Cause if you're if you're if you're already wealthy, you you can hire uh an accounting firm or a lawyer to do an audit but but when you're not already wealthy, they know they've they've got you.

And and remember what I said about acquisitional companies. So what they do, okay, what record labels do is they acquire a whole bunch of promising, smaller artists and then they have their boutique or white glove artists, Okay, and they sign all of us, not because we're terrible, because we're really good. You can't really sign terrible people because you need people to go forward through the process, and the only type of people that are going to go forward and complete the signing process are driven people like Melissa, right.

So they need people who are willing to commit and that are good because people that don't believe they're good, people that don't believe they deserve a shot, aren't going to go and complete the process because the process is hard to get a record deal. So only driven people that I mean, you find somebody in their thirties that have been practicing their whole life, They've invested their whole life. You know, they got great music, they got great they start asking themselves, well, why shouldn't I be signed?

This type of mentality is what A and r's look for And what happens is is they acquire a whole bunch and then they throw it at the wall to see what sticks, right, but most of them. And there's only there's only a limited amount of people that are allowed to be successful at the top at any given time. So there's only a limited amount of people at the top that have the success model that we're all willing to learn from. So what happens is is they acquire a bunch of smaller, really good artists and they keep them below aligned.

And the reason why is if they if we're not making enough, all right, or if they can claim that let's say there's a lot of returns, or they can claim that, okay, then then they're always counting on us not making enough to go to court and litigate. True, they're trying to rip you off just enough where me and Melissa aren't going to spend ten grand and fly to Chicago and sit in a crimeroom, right exactly. So I mean, if we were litigating tens of thousands of dollars, then I can get on, Then I can get an entertainment lawyer and we could throw punches.

But if they're doing nickel dime nickel dime exactly. And if you have three hundred artists on your label and they're only making three hundred dollars a quarter, but you have three hundred artists acquisitionally each quarter you're pulling in half a million. But none of the small artists are realizing they're part of this half a million pool, right, So like, oh, do you want to take them to court, Melissa, Oh my no, Well this quarter they only got us for two fifty. Yes, but they got three hundred other bands for two fifty during that quarter, four quarters in an entertainment season, and for all that, you're you're at their mercy.

To the point where a very common horror story in the music industry is that you know, you record an album for them and they decide to shelve it. You do all that, and and you don't have the rights to your masters, and they just say, no, we've decided we're not going to release it, or maybe we'll release it in the future, and it's like and and and and we tested them on this theory when we came out with the song. You already know it wasn't really it was more like a rhetorical that we wanted to test the company to see what they would do.

Really, we predicted that we well, yeah, we started to say, okay, these guys are shelfing us. Let's throw them another single and and and see if they ask for money. You know, so we we we use you already know as a single, and we set up a booby trap to see how they would to see if we could confirm that they were shelfing us. And they, yeah, they and they one hundred percent, you know, they wouldn't release that they wouldn't release the single want So they didn't want They only wanted the song under the condition that we released it after they were done promoting their boutique artists.

Okay, yeah, because obviously it came out. I thought that they were taking all of our money and pushing this boutique artist. I'm not going to say the name because I think it would be unfair. I don't even think they know what's happening. Yeah, yeah, so I think they were taking, you know, two hundred of us. They were taking our money acquisitionally, and they were pumping it into this to the to their White Glove boutique bands. Yeah, and they didn't like the timing, so they didn't so and I saw them doing this, so I said, man, let's go to the studio, make a song real quick and see how they react to it.

I'll say, we'll do the best we can on it, yeah, you know, like sonically, yeah, yeah, like we'll bring it up to radio threshold, will we'll we'll hit notes like let's yeah, let's let's just see what they say. Yeah, you know. And and of course when they when they got the track, they made every excuse for us to go back to the studio. For us, they started playing games and trying to redirect to the studio to buy time, you know what I mean. So we played it with them for a while and just proved it just you know, just proves that you've got to find the beauty and everything.

And if if it wasn't for this relationship, I would not have been able to run competitive campaigns against my own record label. Like in in the process, I realized that steps is acquisitional. So just the same as these guys are doing to other people, we can learn the same tricks as legacy right holders and shareholders too. Not everybody, We're not. They're not the only people that can play that game. So you know, so our time that we've spent with our record label. You know, we've been making best friends with everybody on this staff.

And you'll learn and you'll learn, so that's good. The other thing that people don't know about labels is that I think is as interesting, is they actually don't mind if they signed If they sign artists and they end up losing money because maybe they advance you a bunch of money, and and and the whatever you record doesn't generate enough money for them to recoup them money the advance. They don't care because it's if it's a loss on the books that's actually helpful to them from an accounting standpoint in terms of taxes.

Yep. It's the same thing that the movie studios do. You know, every every major movies studio, every year, they they they've got at least a couple of movies that bomb, that end up losing money. They don't mind. They don't mind at all because that's a tax right off. So they don't mind losing some money. No, I mean, after every big show, there's always you know, five or ten T shirts that we don't mind giving out. Yeah, I mean it's real, yeah, yeah, absolutely So what so you're you're on that label for another year.

You said another year. That's the It's so there will be a Spotify steps this showdown. Yeah, there will be huge, guaranteed, it'll be huge. But then, so, what's what's the motivation though to pull from Spotify? Why do you want to do that? Because there's because they're thieves. Yeah, because they hurt people. Yeah, I don't. I don't. I don't want to hang out with people that hurt people. Even even major artists complain that. You know, it's it's pennies for for and for us for us, it's not. It's not just what they're doing, it's what they're gonna do.

What do you mean? Spotify is not a music company, you know, it's a stealing company. So if you're into Marcus Aurelius or Confucius, they can't be resurrected to collect royalties. Do you get what I'm saying. Yeah, that's why the move to audio books, that's why the Spotify will take whatever whatever it's not nailed down, oh, podcasts, pornography, anything, religion, anything, pot You understand, Spotify is in the business of stealing people's work and ideas and then not paying them for it mm hmm.

That's the game, right, And I know it's it seems obvious, but it really is. It really is. Tupac can't come back to life and argue about mechanical royalties. That's true. And so that's why you see your point. That's why you see spot That's why you see spot cat, Spotify moving to podcasts, that's why you see them moving to towards audio books, because it's not about music. It's about owning data. It's about farming data. It's about adding to machine learning, and it's about being able to predict your your shopping habits.

It's not about music. It's about creating bundles that people will sign up and do subscriptions for. And when you subscribe, they are data mining your demographics where you and it's the same for Netflix and grub hoob. And this is an app world. This is a technology world, not a music world. So Spotify is in the tech business, not the music business. Yeah, and that's why they don't care about musicians. Yeah, they're actually I think now because we've talked about it on the show, I think for the first time, they're starting to cut a lot of people loose, like like if like if you don't have like if well, I know for one thing, they're not they're no longer paying you if you don't meet a certain threshold.

Yes, in terms of money that you've accrued for streams, they're just not going to pay you at all, like you have there. They're establishing thresholds. But they're also I think they've reached a point where because in theory anybody could upload music to Spotify, but now they're starting to like artists that are uploading like demo quality stuff, they're just saying, that's why I said the lowest, the lower Yeah. Yeah, they're starting to kick people off. Yeah, and and and they're also they're also following the predictable path of adding tears with high fidelity audio.

Like it's twenty twenty four. I think that that's weird that Spotify doesn't have high quality the audio, but apparently you have to pay for that too. So you got to understand how ridiculous this sounds. Like Stepsis is a band and we mix and master at the highest quality that technology is provided, but when you upload it to Spotify, they knock it down to low quality music can so this this is why, this is why we wouldn't want our music on Spotify because like bands like Stepsist make high quality music, right, but Spotify charges our fans to listen to our music at high quality.

That doesn't make sense. Our fans should be able to have the quality of the music that we created it at. Yeah,

now is it? Is it a double edged sword? Though? If you do pull, if you do pull your music from Spotify, does that hurt you in some way to not be on Spotify? Not not us? No, no, we be we our band doesn't benefit at all from streaming on Spotify. Yeah. Yeah, the bit a big thing that that the big I guess, the big lure to Spotify when when it's not we all know it's not money. When you talk to when you talk to even big artists, they'll tell you it's not money. The thing that they'll tell you about Spotify, the big reason why we're all supposed to be excited to be on it is for exposure.

Stepsus doesn't need that. Yeah, I mean it's so so. And in order to get exposure on Spotify, you have to give them more money. You have to pay for our keys, you have to pay for advertising campaigns, you have to pay to be on these discovery that's payola. We all know in radio that's illegal. So you're a radio guy, you know, in radio that's illegal. It's a crime. But because it's streaming, it's not a crime. So we should we should clarify just for people who don't know. So payola refers to and radio and and back in the day, you know, if you were a DJ, for example, somebody might might give you an envelope full of money, right and say, hey, play this song for me, right.

Basically, I mean, that's that's a little reductive the way I explained it, but just to give people the idea, and that's that is illegal. You can't it is, And I guess I mean there's all sorts of legal ways to do this as as anything, but yeah, that is illegal. Our big mission has always been a big statement, and part of our brand has always been like fairness man, and what we've learned from the record label, and like we weren't really a band with much of a mission before all of this this stuff we had to work through, you know, but I can pay for sure that one of our you know, one of our slogans is you know, fairness, you know, and being inclusive and mutual and that's why we do all the podcasts, that's why we're teaching people all the time.

And people are convinced that being on Spotify is going to get them exposed to someone. But that's not true because subscribers that subscribe and pay for Spotify, they only listen to under fifty artists a month. Yeah, so this is not a This is not a device or a gadget or gizmo, as much as they liked you to believe, it's not one that's invested into discovering artists. That sounds cool in a Facebook post. That sounds great when you're trying to sell your technology, that sounds great, you know, But this is this this idea came from the same guy that used to work for you know you torrent and and bit torrent sure and sites that that you know, these these pirate sites.

Well, we're in a business of stealing data and media. So if you Daniel Eck is the CEO of Spotify, and if you know who Daniel Eck is, you got to start in. You torn and you know you torn in places like lime wire or pirate or pirate Bay. We're illegal websites that mastered specialized and we're experts at stealing data and media in movies and games and music. But that's also why these services exist, like I just like Spotify exists because of Napster. Yes, yes, and so and and and and when we talk about this in plain English, it means that we went from stealing and outright piracy to streaming.

We're only one degree. We're only one click and then and in two decades we've only moved one degree from stealing. So when people are like, why why is Spotify a difficult place to be, it's because we haven't moved the needle, Matt, We're still that close to stealing. Now, think of in terms of this, you know, we just had June Juneteenth, right, think of think of think of like we think if we only move the needle that much in slavery, right, think if we move the needle only that much in women's rights.

It's it's that simple, Like, well, with women's rights, we just moved the needle back. I hate that. I hate that, but I'm not going to do it to you. I'm not right, I'm not gonna do it. I just exploded the other day on that I'm not gonna do it. But that's separate. Yeah, we'll do that another time, right, but but but in the same sense though, in the same sense, it's like we haven't I know, we're supposed to be this advanced, you know, society, and this is supposed to be you know, the land of the free and the land of opportunity and Spotify I will tell you that, you know, that's the big advertisement, is that you know that we're going to get exposed and then it's so all this opportunity.

But if you know anything about Daniel Ck and where he comes from, he comes from stealing media and music. And he just said recently that what do you say, Zach, that the cost of music or the cost the cost of content creation was nearly zero. I can't believe that. I mean, this is this He said this last week on Twitter. He said the CEO of Spotify said the cost the he seems to know how much stepsists budget is I guess, but he said that the cost that musicians he doesn't play any instruments. Yeah, this isn't a guy that's been on stage or sings or anything.

But he seems to believe that the cost of creating music for musicians in the modern day is zero is nearly zero. He is out of his mind soenter lately. Yeah, so, I mean that's so. You know, years ago when they were selling us this technology, it was gonna open up opportunity and musicians, we're going to be able to help themselves paid to rent. And we don't have a I'm musicians minimum wage yet, right, and we're working on it. I think the Musician Minimum Wage Act is asking for a penny a stream. Well that that's a I'm not aware of this.

Oh you'd love this. This is a bill right now, Okay, right now, there's a bill and everyone loves it. It's called the Musician's Minimum Wage Act. Everyone should go look it up and everyone should go sign a petition. Everyone. Oh you got to get into this. Yeah this got this got passed me. I'm embarrassed to say that, but yeah, I'm not aware. Oh please write this down. Maybe, well it's being recorded, that's true. Well, if you're at home and you're listening to this, yeah, yeah, I got to write this down.

If you're a musician, if you're a band, look up. Yeah, the Musician's Minimum Wage Act. Okay, it's really cool, interesting, very interesting, a cool thing to get behind. Yeah. Yeah, well, I'm glad we were able to get in all that. I love talking about that stuff. But as we approach the top of the hour, we should probably circle back to all the exciting things coming up and well, we've got a second album coming out called Take the World by Swarm. Yes, and we've been releasing singles for this over time rather than you know, just dropping the bomb all at once.

Yeah, We've got a new song coming out soon called the bath Water, which is going to be featuring our merch girl Lexis Swarm on Screams excellent. We're super excited for this one. Well, we'll be making a music video for this as well, so cool, stay tuned for that. Yeah, our new guitar player, Hot Sauce drops a cool solo on it too. Okay, yeah, some really different, some really cool. So that'll be on the new Is that gonna be on the new album? Yes? Yes, And Romance and Reality will be on the new albums Yeah, okay.

Cool. Awesome rock fest we mentioned earlier July twentieth and caadat Wisconsin and Bravo Fest September twenty eighth at Charlie Bravo's Connecticut. It will be will be a Hot Rods Spotlight Lounge in Connecticut also on August thirty first. That we got a couple of things. We've got a couple of things going on. Yeah, yeah, you're you're not a band that like plays like tons and tons of shows and oversaturates, which I which I respect. We try not to do that because some some bands do. I back in the day, I used to play in bands that would do that.

You know people people won't. Well, you know what the issue is that you keep telling the same people to come to the show, and then you know it loses its sauce. Oh yeah, you want to give people a break. Like I don't regret it because there was a time when all I wanted to do was play. It's also a different time, but people had time to pray back then. Like people prayed, people went to church, people did push ups, people played video games all weekend. People made love, people went out to dance. People don't have time for that anymore.

You got to look at your algorithm and then go boost. You got to boost your chart, compete with somebody, right right, Yeah, that that's true, that's true. And then Swarmy Fest in November. Oh yeah, remember second November. I would be honored. I would love if you guys would come and be a part of that this year. Everyone's excited to have you guys. Yeah, we're excited. We're very excited to keep me away. Yes, yes, and of course I didn't know you had a microphone over there. Huh. That's awesome. And yeah, so we're gonna have eleven bands.

Everything we do is eleven eleven songs on every album. Eleven bands. Why is that? Does that number have significance? It does. So we have the album Almost eleven, which was released in twenty twenty, yeah, through Pavement, and we named it that because the band constantly sees the number eleven eleven one over and over and over again. Yeah, it's like numeral. Yeah, I've heard. I've heard that eleven eleven specifically have some significance. Yeah, they like and they're like the like they call them like angel numbers.

We're not like, we're not like religious people or nothing like that, but that's just what they call them. Yeah, yeah, no, that's cool lore tradition, but the whole numbers, Yeah, it's very bizarre. And yeah, so we're excited about Swarmy Fest and obviously we'll have more information about that soon. Yep. Your friends are going to be there though. They're coming back this year, Legion and they're coming yeah, and so they'll they'll be coming to hang out with us. They'll be there all day Saturday.

And our friends from New Hampshire Guitars Yes to be coming down to I'd love to get them down here with you. Guys. They are such a fantastic bunch when I get when I plug the swarmy fest man, they are a great bunch to have done. I mean, there's there's a whole group of these guys and they're they're great players, and they are just so New England and in so New Hampshire. Yeah they belong here. Yeah, I could already feel it. But they got a really cool thing going on in Windom. It's the only place I get my guitars TechEd at.

Oh no kidding. They before any big shows that I have. You know, anytime we need like unique gear fixes, uh, stuff that nobody else would touch. New Hampshire Guitars Man, they do the thing. Yeah, they So we play on these things called head rushes. They're like computers and you know, if you call Guitar Center they wouldn't touch it really Yeah. New Hampshire Guitars had it fixed within a week. Okay, all right, but I mean guitar setups, bass setups, they got lessons down there. Yeah, I mean I'll plug them to death because it's because they're really good.

Yeah. We met them at the at the first Swarmy Festky had a booth in the back. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, they seem like really good guys. Yeah. What should people know about how to find stepsis online? Where's the best place to go and keep up with every dot com website? And we should spell it? It's S E P S I S S right. I don't know if there is there an is there an actual like with one s dot com that might confuse people? I don't know now that you said that, wh rank, Jenny's gonna look, Yeah it has, has anyone ever y S I S dot org?

Dot com points to a dot org and yeah, it's basically teaching people about the medical I hope we don't I hope we don't confuse people. Yeah, yeah, has anyone ever misspelled your name on a flyer? All the time? But yeah, but there's like, I mean, there's like forty bands named after the disease. I mean, yeah, we follow all of them. Website is looking awesome, thank you. That's that's Melissa's work there. I can't take any credit. Looks great, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah. A lot of content there and really good, really good stuff.

I'm gonna end. I'm gonna be a little bit selfish. I'm gonna end with my favorite Sepsist song. And my dad loves this song too, by the way, this is the one that I think got his attention, Eyes of Empathy. Whoa, wow,

wow. I love this song. We haven't played it in a while, but I never get tired of it. It's so so good. So we will end with this. But thank you that all three of you. I really appreciate your coming in today. Thank you so much for having always having always wonderful to see you. And here it is. This is Sepsis, Eyes of Empathy. Strange still Jesus see the green style and breads spread its wing, Si and screen streets and hill and just send them some losing hill. The great oh my love Bill the cover sorry coms in this scene and I cannot be questions the breaking bocuse I spend the taking raspaking in Sam Clare

cushion through the tools of that, here's a crimson. No, you can never go back home. Some life on. Really, Christian May Bright to the men, you cannot be christ through the freak to cause you can't.

I can't find it's you joking, knee taking the man as the instruments. The cold streams are going in other boy,

Matt Connarton Unleashed: Sepsiss

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