Matt Connarton Unleashed: Vigil

0:00 Speaker 1: But let's go ahead and I'm going to bring these

0:02 Speaker 1: mics up here. We've got all five guys the band

0:05 Speaker 1: Vigil here with us in studio. Welcome, thanks for having us. Absolutely, Oh, Brandon,

0:12 Speaker 1: I can't hear you, and I need to figure out why.

0:14 Speaker 1: Oh I know why. I figured it out.

0:16 Speaker 2: Hello.

0:16 Speaker 1: Hello, I am Brandon. Hi Brandon Brandon. I did want

0:20 Speaker 1: you to introduce yourself first, actually, because you have incumbency here.

0:25 Speaker 1: You've been on the show before. I have, I don't

0:27 Speaker 1: believe anyone else in the room has. So you were

0:29 Speaker 1: on the show years ago. We were talking off air,

0:32 Speaker 1: like twenty eighteen, twenty nineteen, something like that.

0:34 Speaker 3: Seventeen or twenty eighteen. Yeah, I was running for office

0:36 Speaker 3: again and I, you know, came on have a conversation

0:38 Speaker 3: with you about it.

0:38 Speaker 1: Yeah, that was when we were at the old place

0:40 Speaker 1: above Margarita's there. So this is your first time in

0:43 Speaker 1: the nice new studio, so welcome, thank you, And this

0:46 Speaker 1: is the first I'm sure we talked about music at

0:48 Speaker 1: some point when you were on the show before, but

0:50 Speaker 1: now you've got an actual band to talk about. So

0:52 Speaker 1: really really excited to have you here.

0:54 Speaker 3: I'm here to do what I'm really meant to do

0:55 Speaker 3: was supposed to play, you know, play heavy music.

0:58 Speaker 1: Yes, you're the drummer. Excellent, excellent, and let's go around

1:02 Speaker 1: the room. We'll have everyone else introduce, introduce themselves.

1:06 Speaker 4: My name is Randy, and I played guitar for then.

1:09 Speaker 5: Okay, welcome Randy.

1:11 Speaker 2: I am Dave and I do with a vocal duty.

1:14 Speaker 6: Welcome Dave, Joe bass guitaro, Craig, I'm the guitarist.

1:19 Speaker 5: Okay. Wonderful, wonderful.

1:21 Speaker 1: And now these guys brought goodies. So for those of

1:24 Speaker 1: you watching online, I'm gonna put the camera on me

1:26 Speaker 1: for a moment because we appreciate this very much.

1:28 Speaker 5: When when folks do this and.

1:33 Speaker 1: Oh there's now this is a subject that comes up

1:35 Speaker 1: a lot on the show, whether whether or not to

1:38 Speaker 1: release physical media. But you guys have a CD, so

1:40 Speaker 1: for those watching online, we get that right in front

1:43 Speaker 1: of the camera.

1:43 Speaker 6: There.

1:44 Speaker 1: Very cool. Who did the artwork for this?

1:46 Speaker 6: It was I found some guy on fiver you know

1:49 Speaker 6: online really yeah, yeah, yeah, and I you know, he

1:52 Speaker 6: had some ideas I liked and we purchased him.

1:54 Speaker 1: Oh very cool. Yeah, I know you brought a couple

1:56 Speaker 1: of copies of the CD. We did coming into the

1:59 Speaker 1: segment we play Convulsive Ways from a World beyond the

2:04 Speaker 1: longest title for the longest song on the disc, it

2:06 Speaker 1: would seem Oh yeah, very cool. No, I like it.

2:09 Speaker 1: Who came up with the logo? Was that one of

2:11 Speaker 1: you guys?

2:11 Speaker 6: Or there's somebody in Arizona, some guy that we all

2:16 Speaker 6: knew in the band that makes logos?

2:19 Speaker 1: Yeah, very good. I like this make America metal again.

2:23 Speaker 1: So that's uh, that's something I think we can all

2:26 Speaker 1: agree on. And oh now this is what I this

2:32 Speaker 1: is my favorite part. Oh actually, there's a couple of

2:35 Speaker 1: things here. So wait a minute. Oh you guys did

2:38 Speaker 1: vinyl awesome? Let me hold that up for everybody if

2:42 Speaker 1: you're watching online on Facebook or YouTube. Very cool, very cool.

2:47 Speaker 1: You know two with the vinyl, it makes it seem

2:49 Speaker 1: like it's there's something just classic about it. The way

2:54 Speaker 1: the artwork, that's that's awesome. Wow, well done guys.

2:58 Speaker 6: It almost feels more real having a fine on your hand.

3:00 Speaker 1: It really does. It really does. Yeah, that's fantastic, especially

3:03 Speaker 1: when it's released through a label. Oh yeah, we'll talk

3:05 Speaker 1: about that absolutely. And I love that you got as

3:10 Speaker 1: shirt here, so you got the vigil logo on the front.

3:15 Speaker 1: You get that in the camera. There, there we go,

3:18 Speaker 1: it's just on the back. What's going on on the

3:21 Speaker 1: back there?

3:21 Speaker 6: So on the back, it's kind of a neat story.

3:23 Speaker 6: There's there's a guy I found on Facebook named Brian

3:25 Speaker 6: Casasi had to pronounce. Yeah, he's from Canada. He makes

3:29 Speaker 6: really bizarre art, painted art, okay. And I came across

3:32 Speaker 6: that image and I asked him if it was available

3:34 Speaker 6: for use, and he said yes, and he said it

3:36 Speaker 6: was free. I felt bad not paying for it because

3:40 Speaker 6: it's still art, so I paid for it anyway. And

3:43 Speaker 6: then I actually have that actual painting at my house.

3:45 Speaker 6: He sent it to me. Yeah, but I love the

3:47 Speaker 6: outwork the guy does, so I asked him if you

3:49 Speaker 6: can use it?

3:49 Speaker 1: Oh, that is very cool. Thank you guys, thank you

3:52 Speaker 1: very much. Now that's awesome. If you are just joining us,

3:55 Speaker 1: we have Vigil here with us live in studio. Let's

3:57 Speaker 1: talk about so this this is released through a label.

4:01 Speaker 6: Yes, it's Argonauta Records out of Italy.

4:03 Speaker 1: Oh no kidding, okay, Now, how did you how did

4:07 Speaker 1: you get to work with them? How did that come about?

4:10 Speaker 6: So we were we were looking to release the album

4:13 Speaker 6: and it's as you know, it's expensive to make any

4:15 Speaker 6: kind of physical media, and we were looking at a

4:17 Speaker 6: pretty good amount of money to make just Viles alone. Yeah,

4:21 Speaker 6: so I was trying to shop what we did to

4:24 Speaker 6: labels to see if they just pick it up to

4:25 Speaker 6: help us distribute and manufacture. Yeah, and Argonaut it gave

4:28 Speaker 6: us a great deal on what it would cost to

4:30 Speaker 6: manufacture and distribute that. So so we have more of

4:33 Speaker 6: what they call a production deal than a record deal. Right,

4:36 Speaker 6: but it was literally half the price that would have

4:38 Speaker 6: cost us to do it. Oh, no kidding. So they

4:41 Speaker 6: did it for half the price, and we got on

4:43 Speaker 6: their roster on their website, some promotion from them for

4:45 Speaker 6: two years, so all that helped too, and it was

4:49 Speaker 6: a good deal, so we just took it.

4:50 Speaker 7: Yeah, the album was already recorded by that time. We

4:53 Speaker 7: started looking for someone to help with the production. Oh okay,

4:56 Speaker 7: so they didn't have to foot the bill for any

4:58 Speaker 7: other studio costs.

4:59 Speaker 1: Right, Oh that's actually yeah, Oh, very good, very good. Yeah,

5:02 Speaker 1: we live in an amazing time where, you know, because

5:05 Speaker 1: I'm certainly old enough to remember when your only options

5:08 Speaker 1: where you know, you find a record label you hope,

5:10 Speaker 1: hope they give you some sort of an advance and

5:12 Speaker 1: then you know, hopefully they make you famous.

5:15 Speaker 6: Right.

5:16 Speaker 1: But now we live in a time where there's so

5:17 Speaker 1: many different ways to release music and you know, you

5:19 Speaker 1: can do it all yourself, you can connect with different people,

5:22 Speaker 1: you can you know, work with a company in Italy.

5:24 Speaker 5: Who's who's doing this for you? I mean that's amazing.

5:26 Speaker 1: So so it really is a it's it's such an

5:29 Speaker 1: interesting time to be alive and in the music industry

5:31 Speaker 1: in that sense.

5:32 Speaker 6: And you know, and for us part of it is too.

5:34 Speaker 6: You know, we're all a little older and this is

5:37 Speaker 6: more of a a full time job for us, right,

5:40 Speaker 6: So spending the money and the time is really difficult sometimes.

5:44 Speaker 6: So having someone just kind of helped on that way

5:46 Speaker 6: helps a lot.

5:47 Speaker 5: Oh absolutely like us too.

5:49 Speaker 3: So we have a good, you know, relationship with them,

5:53 Speaker 3: and yeah we'll see you know what kind of happens

5:55 Speaker 3: in the future with with some new music.

5:57 Speaker 5: Yeah. Yeah, absolutely.

5:58 Speaker 2: They're really good at what they do too.

6:00 Speaker 8: And the album is sold out through the online.

6:04 Speaker 2: You want to get the vinyl for them? Oh no kidding, Yeah,

6:08 Speaker 2: I get it through us now.

6:09 Speaker 1: Oh wow, Oh that's got to feel good.

6:11 Speaker 2: We sell a lot at our shows too.

6:13 Speaker 3: We played a show two Saturdays ago. Yeah, and we

6:17 Speaker 3: sold uh you know, crap ton of vinyl there too,

6:20 Speaker 3: So you know, people are really into the you know

6:22 Speaker 3: to the you know, to the format of the vinyl.

6:24 Speaker 5: But yeah, the sound of it.

6:26 Speaker 3: Is really great too, So that helps us out a lot.

6:28 Speaker 3: And yeah, you know we actually like you know, paid

6:31 Speaker 3: for you know, a good studio, a good studio mix.

6:34 Speaker 3: We have a guy that we go through who's who's

6:36 Speaker 3: really solid for us, and we'll you know, continue to

6:38 Speaker 3: work together with him.

6:39 Speaker 2: Yeah.

6:40 Speaker 1: I was curious about where you recorded because.

6:42 Speaker 2: Iron Hills Studio is in Newton.

6:43 Speaker 1: Amshure, Okay. And how did you come to record there?

6:46 Speaker 1: Because you have so many different options now in terms

6:48 Speaker 1: of recording, and there's there's a million studios around.

6:51 Speaker 5: How did how did that come?

6:54 Speaker 6: So I've known Aaron. I've known Aaron for over a

6:56 Speaker 6: decade from you used to work at Guitar Center, lived

6:59 Speaker 6: up North, Okay. And uh, I crossed past them that

7:02 Speaker 6: when he's stay in touch with him. Yeah, he's been

7:03 Speaker 6: in some metal bands himself, and he opened up a

7:05 Speaker 6: studio and just out of curiosity I checked out so

7:08 Speaker 6: mu stuff he did, and I saw that he was

7:10 Speaker 6: right down the alley of what we're doing. So he

7:12 Speaker 6: understands what we do, understands our product. Yes, and he's

7:15 Speaker 6: a great dude to work with too. He's really chill

7:16 Speaker 6: yeah and uh really really good musicians. So he's paid

7:20 Speaker 6: great years. Yeah, you have to be so overall, it

7:24 Speaker 6: was just I knew the guy and he does a

7:26 Speaker 6: good product, so yeah why not?

7:27 Speaker 5: Yeah? Yeah, excellent?

7:29 Speaker 1: How did this? How did this come about? Vigil is

7:32 Speaker 1: relatively new, right, I mean it's been a few years,

7:34 Speaker 1: but it's not like it's not like ten years or something, right, It's.

7:37 Speaker 6: Right, it's just just before COVID wiped out the planet

7:40 Speaker 6: twenty nineteen. We just started then and then we have

7:42 Speaker 6: to deal with the whole COVID thing.

7:43 Speaker 1: So a little longer than I thought. I swear. The

7:46 Speaker 1: pandemic causes so much time distortion. Yeah, you know what

7:48 Speaker 1: I mean, Like it's hard to sometimes it's hard to

7:51 Speaker 1: uh like I know when you were on the show before,

7:53 Speaker 1: I knew it was pre pandemic, but I but it's

7:56 Speaker 1: hard to be sure. It's weird. It's like what was

7:58 Speaker 1: the world. It's like this time miss, It's like this

8:00 Speaker 1: time missing. Yeah, no it see it almost seems.

8:02 Speaker 2: Like another life the world.

8:04 Speaker 1: Yes, but yeah, so you guys have been together longer

8:08 Speaker 1: than I thought.

8:08 Speaker 6: Yeah, okay, okay, it was a it was a challenge,

8:11 Speaker 6: you know, to get through because of course, as you

8:12 Speaker 6: start the band, you're trying to build it, bring people in,

8:15 Speaker 6: you know, and uh and yeah, and then Covid slowed

8:17 Speaker 6: things down. Yeah, and then it ramped up again. So

8:20 Speaker 6: we were on agatting off again for a year and

8:22 Speaker 6: a half just to get it off the ground.

8:24 Speaker 5: Yeah, that must have been That must have been frustrating.

8:26 Speaker 6: But then we hit a we hit us ride and

8:28 Speaker 6: we moved forward.

8:29 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, excellent. Well we should play another track from

8:32 Speaker 1: the album, but uh, I'll let you guys pick what.

8:35 Speaker 7: Uh.

8:36 Speaker 5: I don't know if you have something you're pushing as

8:37 Speaker 5: a single.

8:38 Speaker 6: Or well, the the the actual single that we first

8:41 Speaker 6: released was.

8:43 Speaker 2: It's the first song on the album.

8:44 Speaker 6: Yeah, so that's a that's a pretty good one to

8:47 Speaker 6: play a thing too, because it hits the cornerstone of

8:49 Speaker 6: all the things we do as it has some like

8:51 Speaker 6: euro doom feel. It has some thrashy parts. Okay, you know,

8:55 Speaker 6: it has has a choir thing that you know, Brendan

8:57 Speaker 6: sings the high voice fire on.

8:59 Speaker 1: It, so I'll oh, no kidding, okay, cool, it's a

9:01 Speaker 1: good example. Yeah, we'll play that next sent So let's

9:03 Speaker 1: descend to extinction, sir. All right, cool, let's go with that.

9:06 Speaker 1: If you're just joining us, we have Vigil here with us,

9:08 Speaker 1: alive in studio, and check this out.

9:10 Speaker 5: This is descend to extinction.

9:13 Speaker 1: That's cool. I love the way that ends. That is

9:15 Speaker 1: so cool. That is descend, descend to extinction. The band

9:19 Speaker 1: is Vigil, who we have live in studio. The entire

9:22 Speaker 1: band is here and it's great to speak with them.

9:26 Speaker 1: We were kind of talking off air about so this

9:29 Speaker 1: is available in a number of stores, the new album.

9:32 Speaker 5: We should mention that. Yeah.

9:33 Speaker 7: So we we did a little circuit probably what four

9:37 Speaker 7: months ago and dropped off several copies, and we just

9:39 Speaker 7: want to mention some of the places you know that

9:41 Speaker 7: were nice enough to you know, put the album on

9:44 Speaker 7: the shelf. Oh yeah, reach out when they sell out

9:46 Speaker 7: and restock. So we have Full Circle Vinyl and Meredith

9:49 Speaker 7: New Hampshire, New Hampshire Vintage Vinyl and Laconia Skeleton in Rochester,

9:54 Speaker 7: who's been huge, hugely supportive for us, Pitchfork Records and

9:58 Speaker 7: Conquered and the music connection right here in Manchester outstanding.

10:02 Speaker 1: Yeah, that's important too, because you know a lot of

10:05 Speaker 1: these UH stores. It's funny how and again I'm old

10:09 Speaker 1: enough to remember when well, first of all, when people

10:11 Speaker 1: would predict, you know, people have been predicting for years

10:13 Speaker 1: that those kinds of stores are just going to go away.

10:16 Speaker 5: But of course people also predict.

10:18 Speaker 1: For years that you know, CDs are going to go away,

10:20 Speaker 1: vinyl is going to go away, all this stuff is

10:21 Speaker 1: going to go away, and and it doesn't go away.

10:24 Speaker 1: And it's it's so cool that there are still you

10:27 Speaker 1: know that there are still places like that. There there

10:29 Speaker 1: are still stores like that that you can go to

10:31 Speaker 1: and and buy music. And it's not all. Don't get

10:34 Speaker 1: me wrong. I love the Internet and I love that.

10:36 Speaker 1: I do love living in a time where I can

10:38 Speaker 1: find anything online, like literally anything like if I you know,

10:42 Speaker 1: if I suddenly for some reason want to hear some

10:44 Speaker 1: Norwegian speed metal or whatever, I can probably find some online.

10:48 Speaker 1: But yeah, exactly, Yeah, yeah, so you're on the streaming

10:55 Speaker 1: services because that, I mean, that's important, you know, that's

10:57 Speaker 1: absolutely critical.

10:58 Speaker 7: Yeah, that was that was another part of the the

11:00 Speaker 7: production deal was they set us up on all the

11:02 Speaker 7: streaming platforms.

11:03 Speaker 5: Excellent, Yeah, excellent.

11:04 Speaker 1: It's cool that they do all that for you too,

11:06 Speaker 1: because you know, not everyone, not everyone enjoys having to

11:10 Speaker 1: do all that part of the business, you know, you know,

11:12 Speaker 1: the really important thing is playing music. We were also

11:15 Speaker 1: talking off there about all that went into recording, with

11:18 Speaker 1: the layering of the tracks and everything, and you know,

11:22 Speaker 1: because an observation that I made was a lot of

11:24 Speaker 1: times music that's in this genre doesn't always sound that great,

11:29 Speaker 1: you know, if it's if it's a local band or

11:32 Speaker 1: you know, maybe they maybe the recording isn't that great,

11:35 Speaker 1: sounds a little thin or whatever. But this sounds completely professional,

11:39 Speaker 1: and it's it's the way heavy music should sound. It's

11:42 Speaker 1: it's a wall of sound. It's it sounds fantastic in

11:45 Speaker 1: the headphones. And yeah, you guys were talking about you know,

11:49 Speaker 1: it was a lot of work recording this, right, Yeah,

11:51 Speaker 1: it was.

11:52 Speaker 8: I mean for me, the first day that I started

11:55 Speaker 8: recording vocal, I was working all day, so I talk

11:59 Speaker 8: a lot during the day and stuff, so I was

12:02 Speaker 8: a little strained. Showed up to the studio and uh,

12:06 Speaker 8: I went five hours of record singing, and at the

12:10 Speaker 8: end of the night, Aaron said to me, yeah, you

12:13 Speaker 8: know what he did good, but we.

12:14 Speaker 2: Have to erase everything you did. We recorded.

12:17 Speaker 8: It wasn't good enough for him. And I was thinking

12:20 Speaker 8: I was doing a good job. But the next morning

12:24 Speaker 8: I showed up to record again and he made this

12:28 Speaker 8: magic tea that just turned me into a monster.

12:31 Speaker 5: Yeah.

12:31 Speaker 8: Yeah, and ever since, I mean that he he I

12:35 Speaker 8: learned a lot from Eric.

12:35 Speaker 2: I mean it was a great experience.

12:37 Speaker 8: Yeah, and he actually was teaching me techniques as far

12:42 Speaker 8: as singing. Even now live when he's done sound for us,

12:46 Speaker 8: he's looking at me and he's like, don't cup the mic,

12:48 Speaker 8: you know. He's like he just like like my dad

12:50 Speaker 8: yelling in a good way.

12:52 Speaker 5: Yeah.

12:53 Speaker 1: So, now, so this concoction that he made for you,

12:56 Speaker 1: I mean, do you know what was in it for

12:59 Speaker 1: for other vote less who might or no.

13:04 Speaker 7: Information?

13:04 Speaker 1: Yeah, job security.

13:07 Speaker 2: I can't tell you.

13:10 Speaker 7: That's Aaron's ip. Yeah, if he gives us the green line,

13:13 Speaker 7: we can share it.

13:14 Speaker 5: Right right now. That makes sense. That makes sense.

13:17 Speaker 1: And uh, Brandon, you were talking too about having to

13:20 Speaker 1: do the drums all in one day.

13:22 Speaker 3: Oh yeah, because uh so it's just kind of funny,

13:24 Speaker 3: like like one of those fluke things that that happens sometimes.

13:27 Speaker 3: His computer died. We really know exactly what happened. So

13:31 Speaker 3: we lost like six hours that whole day of recording,

13:33 Speaker 3: and I only do my drum tracks one day. Yeah,

13:36 Speaker 3: so I think I did the whole album in like

13:37 Speaker 3: four hours.

13:38 Speaker 5: Yeah. Yeah, and I didn't.

13:39 Speaker 3: Get to really do like any of the the redo's

13:42 Speaker 3: or anything, so right, I mean, obviously it's a little

13:44 Speaker 3: bit edited, but that's just like you know the nature

13:46 Speaker 3: of of you know, production, Every album that you hear

13:49 Speaker 3: ever is edited.

13:50 Speaker 1: Oh of course, yeah.

13:51 Speaker 5: Absolutely.

13:52 Speaker 3: The key is making sure that that we can do

13:54 Speaker 3: the sound live, and we do that, you know, and

13:56 Speaker 3: then some so.

13:57 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, because you guys were also saying too, the

14:00 Speaker 1: only thing missing live is any keyboard that's in there.

14:02 Speaker 1: But nobody misses the keyboard, right because it's a wall

14:04 Speaker 1: of sound, and you guys, are no one's ever brought

14:07 Speaker 1: it up right exactly exactly.

14:09 Speaker 3: Or the clean singing no one there to me either,

14:11 Speaker 3: Yeah to them.

14:13 Speaker 1: Yeah, I can't remember if we talked about that on Are,

14:15 Speaker 1: but yeah, the clean singing is you with me and

14:17 Speaker 1: and for you, but for you to do that and

14:19 Speaker 1: play drums at the same time, would be.

14:21 Speaker 3: I tried it a couple of times a couple of

14:23 Speaker 3: our shows, and I just I'm so focused on kind

14:25 Speaker 3: of like where I'm doing, yeah, or you know, what

14:28 Speaker 3: I'm doing, where I'm going, that it's it's hard to

14:30 Speaker 3: kind of, you know, carry the melody and still be

14:32 Speaker 3: on point. So I just kind of focus on the

14:34 Speaker 3: instrument and then we'll do all the vocal stuff later.

14:36 Speaker 1: Yeah, well plus two. I mean, drums is the most

14:39 Speaker 1: physical instrument You're using all four of your.

14:40 Speaker 3: Lembs, most important part of the band.

14:42 Speaker 1: Matt, Yes, well, yes, man, you could say that.

14:45 Speaker 6: Yes, well, the machines, but they're drum machines.

14:49 Speaker 2: I'm just saying, your band is only as good as your.

14:55 Speaker 1: Good point.

14:56 Speaker 2: Good point.

14:57 Speaker 1: Now, have you guys all, I assume you've all been

14:59 Speaker 1: in other bands in the scene prior to vigil Or.

15:01 Speaker 2: Yes, oh yeah, I've been playing in bands until sixteen.

15:04 Speaker 5: Yeah.

15:04 Speaker 7: Yeah, some of us took a little bit of a

15:06 Speaker 7: vacation from music. Yeah, I was way out of the scene.

15:10 Speaker 7: I was in bands in the late nineties. Yeah, and

15:12 Speaker 7: then I kind of got obsessed with cars and then

15:16 Speaker 7: started a family, and I didn't touch music for eighteen

15:20 Speaker 7: or so years, eighteen until I met this guy at

15:22 Speaker 7: work one day, and yeah, he talked me into picking

15:25 Speaker 7: up the bass and starting to mess around again. And

15:27 Speaker 7: I quickly realized, like, wow, I should probably get a

15:30 Speaker 7: new instrument here because this thing's old.

15:31 Speaker 5: Yep.

15:32 Speaker 7: Yeah, and I just fell right back down the rabbit hole. Yeah,

15:35 Speaker 7: here we are.

15:36 Speaker 1: But did you always I mean, eighteen years is a

15:38 Speaker 1: long time, But did you always kind of know in

15:40 Speaker 1: the back of your mind that you're going to know?

15:42 Speaker 7: I didn't know. Actually, I was on a different path

15:45 Speaker 7: for a long time. Yeah, not a bad one. Just

15:48 Speaker 7: playing music was not on my priorities. Yeah, but everybody

15:52 Speaker 7: else in this band is very active in the music

15:55 Speaker 7: industry for decades, I guess at this point, depending on

15:58 Speaker 7: who we're talking about, eighty nine was my first band.

16:02 Speaker 8: Two thousand and four for me, Yeah, I go back

16:06 Speaker 8: to the days when I was in college and I

16:10 Speaker 8: started a little trash metal type of band. I was

16:13 Speaker 8: playing drums at the time, and then, uh, I wanted

16:17 Speaker 8: to do something more extreme because I always like death metal.

16:20 Speaker 8: That's why my vocals are death metal inspired. And in

16:24 Speaker 8: Boston I was playing drums with a band called Summoning

16:28 Speaker 8: Eight are still active.

16:31 Speaker 2: Uh. Then I would and form a little side project.

16:33 Speaker 8: It was like a grindcore death metal band, Vicious Insanity.

16:37 Speaker 2: I did some session drumming and some other bands.

16:40 Speaker 6: Uh.

16:40 Speaker 8: And then uh, from that, I went to sing for Untuned,

16:44 Speaker 8: which is another band I was. That's when my Vocal

16:46 Speaker 8: Journey sat it. And then going to shows, I met Justin.

16:53 Speaker 8: I was playing guitar for us, and I've done Justin

16:55 Speaker 8: for a long time. Justin has been always a doom

16:58 Speaker 8: guy and going into like Boston, going and going to shows,

17:01 Speaker 8: we talked about doom. Yeah, and that's how I actually

17:05 Speaker 8: ended up with Vigil okay, telling me that he was

17:07 Speaker 8: doing something like a project. He sent me the songs,

17:11 Speaker 8: and I mean it was what I was looking for

17:14 Speaker 8: right up my alley. I showed up for the first

17:17 Speaker 8: rehearsal and I was kind of afraid to growl because

17:20 Speaker 8: I think they actually liked it.

17:25 Speaker 2: Have something here, So yeah, that's that's where I am now.

17:28 Speaker 1: I mean, I get the impression this all came together

17:30 Speaker 1: pretty quickly, right. It sounds like it was, you know,

17:32 Speaker 1: a situation where it's like that magic is there right away.

17:35 Speaker 1: Although I know Randy, you you came in later, right,

17:37 Speaker 1: but you were already kind of working with these guys

17:40 Speaker 1: in a sense, right.

17:41 Speaker 4: Yeah, I've been scrambling around, scrambling around a little bit

17:48 Speaker 4: with Craig in another side project that we have a

17:52 Speaker 4: World Worth Burning where it's just instrumental, but there would

17:55 Speaker 4: always be discussion about what was going on in Vigil,

17:59 Speaker 4: So I kind of had an ear to the wall

18:01 Speaker 4: about that.

18:02 Speaker 1: But but yeah, you guys have a that's a cool name,

18:06 Speaker 1: A World Worth Burning like that.

18:09 Speaker 6: Yeah, And again that that was one of the successes

18:11 Speaker 6: out of COVID. Like, like I had said earlier, during COVID,

18:14 Speaker 6: the band kind of slowed down a little bit, Yeah,

18:16 Speaker 6: because everyone was afraid to be in a room. We

18:18 Speaker 6: didn't know what was going on. Yeah, And you know,

18:20 Speaker 6: me and Joe we're still spending time together, like doing

18:24 Speaker 6: stuff as friends, right, and we're like, well, we should

18:25 Speaker 6: just be using the room because we're still here, right,

18:27 Speaker 6: And we started working on Vigil stuff. But then we

18:30 Speaker 6: started to just like play other things. And I've always

18:33 Speaker 6: wanted to be like an instrumental post rock type band,

18:36 Speaker 6: so the music kind of developed into that, and then

18:39 Speaker 6: then we we kind of started a side project by accident,

18:42 Speaker 6: just because I needed some of it for these songs

18:44 Speaker 6: ago that weren't going to fit anything else. So and

18:47 Speaker 6: that's kind of where Randy shows up, you know, because

18:49 Speaker 6: he was in a room across the hall. Yeah, and

18:52 Speaker 6: I knew he played, and he played really well, so

18:54 Speaker 6: we brought him in to try it out and it worked.

18:56 Speaker 5: So yeah, that's outstanding, excellent.

19:00 Speaker 1: Uh we should uh, you guys want to play another

19:03 Speaker 1: track from the from the EP. I guess it's an EP, right,

19:06 Speaker 1: you call it an EP or now the songs it's

19:08 Speaker 1: only four songs, but they're kind of long.

19:09 Speaker 5: It's long.

19:12 Speaker 7: Before yeah, yeah, probably the next best example of what

19:17 Speaker 7: we're all about.

19:18 Speaker 5: Okay.

19:18 Speaker 3: It's usually like our second song on the set, we

19:20 Speaker 3: go right into that after our first song. Oh okay,

19:22 Speaker 3: usually a pretty good let in.

19:25 Speaker 7: By the way, who writes the lyrics, So it's a

19:28 Speaker 7: mix of us, kind of kind of my committee.

19:30 Speaker 3: Yeah.

19:30 Speaker 2: Yeah.

19:31 Speaker 7: Everybody brings in a lot of ideas, but Dave write,

19:34 Speaker 7: Dave writing the bulk of them.

19:35 Speaker 2: Okay, So the first song that sent to extension was

19:38 Speaker 2: justin yeah.

19:39 Speaker 6: Uh.

19:40 Speaker 8: Then we go into the other three songs, which is

19:42 Speaker 8: the Roussian of the Soul.

19:44 Speaker 2: I did the lyrics on that.

19:46 Speaker 8: I did the lyrics on Words of a Dying Man

19:50 Speaker 8: and convulsive ways more world view.

19:52 Speaker 1: Okay, okay, well let's give this a spin. If you're

19:55 Speaker 1: just joining us. We have the band Vigil here with

19:57 Speaker 1: us live in studio, and this is called Erosion the Soul.

20:01 Speaker 1: That is Erosion of the Soul and the band is Vigil,

20:04 Speaker 1: who we have here with us alive in studio on

20:07 Speaker 1: this Saturday morning.

20:08 Speaker 5: And I love it. I love it. Great stuff.

20:11 Speaker 1: Are you guys? Do you guys play out a lot?

20:13 Speaker 5: Do you do a lot of shows or what's what's the.

20:16 Speaker 3: So twenty twenty four was a was a pretty uh

20:20 Speaker 3: it's a busy year for us. I think I think

20:22 Speaker 3: this is the most you know, shows that we played. Yeah,

20:25 Speaker 3: we try to play a show a month, you know,

20:27 Speaker 3: but actually we we wrapped up our.

20:29 Speaker 2: Show season like two weeks ago.

20:30 Speaker 3: Okay, We're gonna actually gonna go back and go back

20:33 Speaker 3: in the lab and start writing some stuff now.

20:35 Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, it seems like winter is the best time

20:37 Speaker 5: to do that.

20:38 Speaker 3: Right because I have a couple of songs that that

20:40 Speaker 3: are that are are done that. But you know that

20:42 Speaker 3: we've been playing for like over a.

20:43 Speaker 2: Year now, okay, okay, but as far as.

20:46 Speaker 3: You know, formulating a new album, like you know, we're

20:49 Speaker 3: across that vision, we get there. But yeah, have some

20:50 Speaker 3: more stuff that we're gonna work on, you know for

20:52 Speaker 3: the word time.

20:53 Speaker 1: Oh very good.

20:53 Speaker 3: I don't think we'll play a show again until probably

20:55 Speaker 3: late you know, late spring, even early summer.

20:58 Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't blame you. I mean winter is like

21:00 Speaker 1: the worst time to go out and play, you know,

21:01 Speaker 1: with the weather and.

21:02 Speaker 7: People don't want to go to shows.

21:04 Speaker 1: No, yeah, it's it's it's I mean, you know, I

21:06 Speaker 1: appreciate the people who persist, but it's it's hard.

21:10 Speaker 4: Especially especially moving gear in the snow.

21:12 Speaker 5: Yeah, thank you, exactly.

21:14 Speaker 7: Well, we actually played a show that really really really

21:18 Speaker 7: abysmal cold day last year where it was like negative

21:21 Speaker 7: eighteen degrees. Oh yeah, we played in Revere that night

21:24 Speaker 7: on the beach.

21:24 Speaker 5: Oh my god.

21:25 Speaker 7: Yeah, there was I don't even think all the band

21:28 Speaker 7: members showed up. For the other bands that played the show,

21:31 Speaker 7: nobody went to the show.

21:32 Speaker 2: Wow.

21:33 Speaker 7: Yeah that was tough.

21:35 Speaker 5: Yeah, but you guys did it though, how metal is

21:37 Speaker 5: that right?

21:37 Speaker 2: Yeah?

21:38 Speaker 1: We did it.

21:39 Speaker 3: Because we you know, we usually headlining.

21:41 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, that's a big part of it.

21:43 Speaker 5: Yeah, no, that's cool.

21:46 Speaker 1: Are there other bands in the area this kind of

21:48 Speaker 1: happens organically. Are there other bands that you've kind of

21:50 Speaker 1: teamed up with on shows that you play a lot.

21:52 Speaker 2: Of shows with.

21:52 Speaker 7: Absolutely, there's a good handful of bands that we really

21:56 Speaker 7: enjoy not just playing with but watching. Yeah, we go

21:58 Speaker 7: to as many local shows as we can. Yeah, we

22:01 Speaker 7: like to make connections. There's a band, there's, well, there's

22:04 Speaker 7: there's a lot of bands that we are friends with,

22:06 Speaker 7: you know, through the through the industry. And yeah, Glacier

22:10 Speaker 7: out of Boston is a huge for me anyway that

22:14 Speaker 7: they're one of my favorite local local acts right now.

22:17 Speaker 7: There's a Manchester band Geey. I don't know if you've

22:19 Speaker 7: ever heard of them, also post metal, their unbelievably unbelievable band.

22:25 Speaker 7: Able Blood is another band.

22:26 Speaker 1: Love Blood. IM gonna see We're going to see them

22:28 Speaker 1: tomorrow at Spelfy Pests.

22:29 Speaker 7: Actually Blood, we really dig those guys. Yeah, yeah, who

22:35 Speaker 7: well who else? Realm, Benthic Realm. Yeah, we just with

22:39 Speaker 7: them the last year we played able Blood also played

22:42 Speaker 7: that show.

22:43 Speaker 6: The guys in dust Profit who are a local band, Froom.

22:45 Speaker 1: Yeah, I used to be in a band with Auto

22:48 Speaker 1: many many many years ago.

22:50 Speaker 6: Yeah, we like we like them, you know, they're good

22:52 Speaker 6: people with me.

22:53 Speaker 3: You know, there's a few the two man project with

22:55 Speaker 3: him for a while you did. Yeah, I didn't know

22:57 Speaker 3: that that was called skin Drone.

22:59 Speaker 5: You were in Skindrow. I'll be damned, I didn't.

23:02 Speaker 1: I didn't put that together. I probably knew that in

23:05 Speaker 1: the back of my mind because it seems weird that

23:07 Speaker 1: I wouldn't know that, but but I I.

23:09 Speaker 2: Wow, I don't.

23:10 Speaker 3: We didn't really do a whole lot.

23:12 Speaker 2: We play a couple of shows, but it was it.

23:15 Speaker 3: Was a you know, a two man thing with vocals

23:18 Speaker 3: and my guitar, I mean, had some drum programming. It

23:21 Speaker 3: was like a industrial like you know, it's death metal thing.

23:24 Speaker 2: Yeah.

23:25 Speaker 3: And then uh, I left that to go do another band.

23:28 Speaker 3: And then I left that.

23:29 Speaker 2: Band because I had deployed. That was in the military

23:30 Speaker 2: at the time.

23:31 Speaker 6: Ye.

23:32 Speaker 2: So and then.

23:32 Speaker 3: Uh yeah, just kind of been we're getting on the weed.

23:38 Speaker 2: Yeah.

23:38 Speaker 8: The good thing too, is that any Hampshire it's a

23:42 Speaker 8: lot of good bands. Joe mentioned even Yeah, and we're

23:46 Speaker 8: very close, you know, we before each other. We go

23:49 Speaker 8: to their shows. They come through our shows, especially at Hampshire.

23:52 Speaker 8: Now there's quite a handful of bands that I just

23:55 Speaker 8: out there that for each other. Yeah, Geary, Geary's awesome,

23:58 Speaker 8: awesome band from able Blood too. A couple of the

24:02 Speaker 8: bands that we want to play with. Conclave another great

24:04 Speaker 8: band that we haven't been able to play show with yet. Okay,

24:08 Speaker 8: the guys from Black Acid Prophecy out of Rhode Island,

24:11 Speaker 8: like Pyramid two. It's just because you know the are

24:15 Speaker 8: We're all busy, so it's kind of hard to put

24:17 Speaker 8: us together in a room and play a show together.

24:19 Speaker 8: Sometimes we got like great offers to play great shows,

24:21 Speaker 8: but somebody's always busy. Yeah, hard to keep up with life,

24:25 Speaker 8: that part can be hard enough to get practices attended.

24:30 Speaker 7: Four bands with four or five dudes each, to get

24:32 Speaker 7: everybody a night off to play a show.

24:34 Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly what can be a thing, no doubt, no

24:37 Speaker 1: doubt before we run out of time, because I do

24:39 Speaker 1: want to get the last song in two words of

24:42 Speaker 1: a dying man. But anything we should know? What should

24:44 Speaker 1: people know about? How to keep up with everything the

24:46 Speaker 1: Vigil is doing. Where's the best place to go online?

24:51 Speaker 2: All right?

24:52 Speaker 7: So?

24:52 Speaker 6: Uh, we we have a we have a Facebook page,

24:56 Speaker 6: So just look up Vigil and you'll find it. Yeah. Uh,

25:00 Speaker 6: Vigil Doom is our band camp. Okay, So and we're

25:03 Speaker 6: on Spotify. You can fast some Apple music. We have

25:06 Speaker 6: a YouTube presence through Argonauto Records, yes, yes, and you

25:10 Speaker 6: can also find any one of us on our personal

25:12 Speaker 6: pages too, you know, but by name and uh we

25:16 Speaker 6: respond that way either way too.

25:18 Speaker 1: Yeah.

25:18 Speaker 2: Yeah, pretty much in every platform.

25:20 Speaker 8: Yeah, yeah, thanks to the label, So Spotify, YouTube music

25:26 Speaker 8: or everywhere pretty much.

25:28 Speaker 5: Yeah, excellent, excellent, And uh.

25:31 Speaker 1: What do you what do you have coming? Do you

25:33 Speaker 1: have another show coming up this year?

25:34 Speaker 3: No, we already played that show.

25:36 Speaker 1: That's uh, that was two weeks ago at Ato And okay.

25:39 Speaker 7: This is a show in the works for June, but

25:42 Speaker 7: we don't have a solid date yet. Oh okay, yeah,

25:45 Speaker 7: it's not worth really talking about.

25:46 Speaker 1: Right, So so next So probably you were saying earlier,

25:50 Speaker 1: probably spring.

25:51 Speaker 7: Yeah, we're probably looking at spring.

25:53 Speaker 6: It'll probably be that that show we're working on building

25:55 Speaker 6: right now.

25:55 Speaker 5: Okay, okay, excellent.

25:57 Speaker 1: No, I haven't seen you guys live, so I look

25:59 Speaker 1: forward to seeing you live and future and that'll be

26:01 Speaker 1: that'll be great and uh and I love the Thank

26:04 Speaker 1: you again. By the way, for that's so cool that

26:06 Speaker 1: you brought a vinyl copy of that.

26:09 Speaker 5: That's awesome.

26:09 Speaker 1: I love it so uh Vigil, thank you all five

26:13 Speaker 1: of you, And we'll close out the segment with words

26:15 Speaker 1: of a dying Man. Anything you want us. I mean

26:17 Speaker 1: we were kind of talking off there a little bit

26:19 Speaker 1: about it, but anything we should know about this song before.

26:21 Speaker 6: Actually, one of the coolest things about the song I

26:23 Speaker 6: think is instead of instead of playing guitar on the song,

26:27 Speaker 6: I'm on a Fender Base six guitar, which is a

26:30 Speaker 6: long scale or short scale bass basically, but I played

26:33 Speaker 6: it through my guitar rigs, so it's like a guitar

26:35 Speaker 6: but stringth Oh no, kiddle. This song is kind of

26:38 Speaker 6: a different tone to it, Yeah song, Yeah, songs a

26:41 Speaker 6: lot different. Yeah. This is like our outliar, It's like

26:43 Speaker 6: our weird song.

26:44 Speaker 8: We haven't played it in a while, but I think

26:46 Speaker 8: we kind of don't play this song yet anymore.

26:49 Speaker 1: Oh okay.

26:50 Speaker 2: For me is a personal touch because it talks.

26:52 Speaker 8: About my grandfather dying, yeah, and the journey of like

26:55 Speaker 8: me seeing him literally passing away, yeah, and me just

26:59 Speaker 8: thinking it's some point we're going to meet again, right,

27:02 Speaker 8: somewhere right, So it's it's personal, Okay, it was it

27:06 Speaker 8: was hard to sing live when I was every time

27:08 Speaker 8: I do the song, but yeah, yeah, I.

27:10 Speaker 7: Mean we sort of supplanted this song with one or

27:13 Speaker 7: two of the newer ones that we're working on.

27:15 Speaker 1: So gotcha, gotcha, all right, So we're gonna end with

27:18 Speaker 1: that in a moment. And of course I want to

27:20 Speaker 1: remind everybody Spelfy Fest tomorrow at Jewel Uh.

27:24 Speaker 5: Come see us.

27:25 Speaker 1: Jenny will be given a short talk there and I'm

27:28 Speaker 1: gonna be there and I'm gonna MC and UH do

27:31 Speaker 1: some stuff.

27:32 Speaker 4: Proceeds are going to benefit the r s c S,

27:35 Speaker 4: a sympathetic distribute organization raising awareness for c r p S.

27:40 Speaker 5: And there's going to be a ton of great bands there.

27:42 Speaker 1: So yeah, and find out more on me at gencopy

27:45 Speaker 1: dot com.

27:45 Speaker 5: J E N N c O f f UI dot com.

27:48 Speaker 7: Yes, definitely attend that show. The Midnight Creative is correct collective.

27:51 Speaker 7: They are a great group of people. Absolutely, Eleanor and

27:54 Speaker 7: Andre have been very supportive of us. We played at

27:57 Speaker 7: their other venue in National Terminus Back can get Back

28:00 Speaker 7: in September.

28:01 Speaker 5: Artwork on display.

28:02 Speaker 7: They are fantastic and they're all about local art, not

28:07 Speaker 7: just music, all of the arts. So if you can

28:09 Speaker 7: support them and what they're doing, that's huge.

28:11 Speaker 1: Absolutely absolutely no, we love them very much, all right.

28:16 Speaker 1: So we will close with this, and if you miss

28:17 Speaker 1: any part of today's show, it will be up in

28:19 Speaker 1: just a little bit at wmn hradio dot org and

28:21 Speaker 1: in my website Matt connorton dot com.

28:23 Speaker 5: But here it is.

28:23 Speaker 1: This is called Words of a Dying Man. The band

28:26 Speaker 1: is vigil Thanks guys, thanks, thank you for having us