MillionYears | Matt Connarton Unleashed

0:00 Speaker 1: Oh, I love it. That is elevated. The band is

0:03 Speaker 1: Million Years and we have entered our number three new

0:06 Speaker 1: Marrow trace of Matt Connorton unleashed and let's get this

0:09 Speaker 1: up because we had a couple of the guys from

0:11 Speaker 1: the band Million Years here with us via Microsoft teams. Hey, guys, welcome.

0:15 Speaker 2: I am how are you doing?

0:16 Speaker 1: Good? Good good? Please introduce ourselves.

0:20 Speaker 2: Yeah, so I'm Steve. I'm the bass player, and we've

0:23 Speaker 2: got our handsome frontman which is Gyms Vocals. It does

0:27 Speaker 2: vocals and the rest of the loads are currently tied

0:32 Speaker 2: up with Funny on the weekend, so we're holding the

0:34 Speaker 2: fault at the moment. But before we jump on, I

0:36 Speaker 2: just want to say Hopy forth of July to use guys.

0:39 Speaker 1: Thank you. Thanks.

0:40 Speaker 2: As a brit it's kind of like okay, but yeah,

0:44 Speaker 2: Hoppy forth of July, well, thank you very much.

0:47 Speaker 1: I'll tell you it's funny. Last night I watched fireworks

0:50 Speaker 1: with British people who happened to be here in the area.

0:55 Speaker 2: We've got a lot of shared volumes only between the

0:57 Speaker 2: US and the okay, which is great. The lone Mayer

0:59 Speaker 2: dot continue, there we go.

1:00 Speaker 1: There we go. Well, I heard it's actually Oasis Day

1:03 Speaker 1: in the UK, is that true?

1:06 Speaker 2: I have no idea is getting a lot of coverage

1:12 Speaker 2: with the World Cup current, you know, because it's one

1:15 Speaker 2: of the theme songs off the back of the matches

1:16 Speaker 2: that England are playing. So we've just got to well,

1:19 Speaker 2: our next match is Mexico is THEECA and then we've got

1:24 Speaker 2: to wait up till one o'clock on Monday morning. So

1:28 Speaker 2: by the times match finishes, that's three o'clock. So I

1:30 Speaker 2: expect no one in the UK be at work whatsoever. Yeah, sometimes,

1:37 Speaker 2: no doubt to do.

1:38 Speaker 1: Now we're exactly in the UK, are you guys? Are

1:40 Speaker 1: you in Durham? Is that correct?

1:42 Speaker 2: Yeah? Just outside of Durham. So for those who don't know,

1:45 Speaker 2: we all don't live in London. Durhams in the northeast

1:49 Speaker 2: of England, just south of new Castle. It's close to

1:51 Speaker 2: the Scottish and a half away from Scottish border, so

1:54 Speaker 2: we're northern, northern. We're no more more than than Manchester.

1:58 Speaker 1: Gotcha, gotcha? Yeah? Now this band million years. You guys haven't

2:03 Speaker 1: been around for that long, right did did you form?

2:05 Speaker 1: Just just last year? Is that correct?

2:08 Speaker 2: So in its current format? Yeah, last year we we

2:12 Speaker 2: picked up our new drummer and an extra guitarist last

2:15 Speaker 2: year and everything you've heard that that chumney you just

2:19 Speaker 2: played there, Elevated is off the back of that. It's

2:22 Speaker 2: our newest guys at the moment. But we started the

2:26 Speaker 2: band years ago. Wasn't about a bit of years ago.

2:30 Speaker 3: It's just a vallopin val It's changed quite a few

2:33 Speaker 3: times and now we've got five of us, so yeah,

2:35 Speaker 3: we're hit on from there.

2:36 Speaker 1: Yeah, gotcha, gotcha. I love the single Elevated now that's

2:41 Speaker 1: that's the newest single.

2:42 Speaker 2: Intact that is. Yeah. That was I released early this

2:45 Speaker 2: year and I believe it. We might have another single

2:49 Speaker 2: at the show, folks there on the show for yourself,

2:51 Speaker 2: which is Circles as well, which was at last last year.

2:53 Speaker 2: But we're just about to we're just about this month

2:57 Speaker 2: July and July about to block ourselves in the studio

3:00 Speaker 2: for a week and we're looking to put together a

3:03 Speaker 2: four truck ap which we're hoping really shows a mark

3:08 Speaker 2: step in our evolution as well with some of the

3:10 Speaker 2: ideas that we got so heavier, faster, more in your

3:13 Speaker 2: face as well.

3:14 Speaker 1: Those riffs outstanding. So tell me about the track elevated

3:18 Speaker 1: and what was the genesis of that in terms of

3:20 Speaker 1: the lyrics of it, because my understanding is there's a

3:22 Speaker 1: little bit of a story here.

3:24 Speaker 2: Yeah. Absolutely, jump. Yeah.

3:26 Speaker 3: It's about when people try to like put your down

3:29 Speaker 3: kind of thing and then showing them who's the boss

3:32 Speaker 3: kind of and coming back and being stronger, stronger for it,

3:35 Speaker 3: and showing people like you're not weak and you're strong.

3:38 Speaker 2: Basically, it's the proverbial middle finger, right, it is. The

3:44 Speaker 2: other The other side of that as well, is you know,

3:47 Speaker 2: all us in the band, they're all mid thirties apart

3:51 Speaker 2: from yourself. I'm the I'm the old man at the

3:53 Speaker 2: band on in my forties. And you know a lot

3:56 Speaker 2: of people say, well, you to all have be doing this. No, no,

4:00 Speaker 2: not at all. It's kind of the mental thing about

4:02 Speaker 2: mentality as well.

4:03 Speaker 1: Yeah, that's that's excellent. Uh No, I can appreciate that.

4:06 Speaker 1: Did like like did someone try to did someone actively

4:11 Speaker 1: try to discourage you guys from from doing this or

4:14 Speaker 1: for that reason.

4:16 Speaker 3: There's been a fair few, like in the last few years,

4:18 Speaker 3: like people saying you tobal like stuff like that, But

4:23 Speaker 3: obviously I don't listen to them.

4:24 Speaker 2: I keep on pushing forward.

4:26 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, absolutely, absolutely, Yeah. You can't let other people

4:29 Speaker 1: define what you can do and what you're capable of.

4:31 Speaker 1: And uh, you know, I feel like there's less I

4:34 Speaker 1: feel like there's just generally less ageism though than there

4:36 Speaker 1: used to be when it comes to music. Uh yeah, but.

4:41 Speaker 2: Well you'll you look across the scene. You've got bonds

4:44 Speaker 2: like Kiss Keep doing the Ready, Last Two whatever, you know,

4:50 Speaker 2: Iron Maiden, the Edge of those guys, nor Metallic. It

4:54 Speaker 2: is just a number anything you do see it in

4:58 Speaker 2: the industry though that you know. Yeah, of course we

5:01 Speaker 2: haven't got the side of youth on our side. She

5:04 Speaker 2: was saying. There's a lot of in our there's a

5:06 Speaker 2: lot of younger bands that are coming through and automatically

5:09 Speaker 2: get some more of that attention because of the youthful

5:11 Speaker 2: looks and the way they go about things. But I mean,

5:14 Speaker 2: at the end of the day, we love it. We

5:16 Speaker 2: don't really care what other people say in that regard.

5:19 Speaker 2: It's nice to get good feedback, it's nice to take

5:21 Speaker 2: I get the feedback and just from that as well,

5:23 Speaker 2: but it's always nice to put the middle finger up

5:25 Speaker 2: and steal what we love.

5:27 Speaker 1: Absolutely I agree, I can get on board without one

5:29 Speaker 1: hundred percent. Are you guys playing a lot of shows.

5:36 Speaker 2: We've gone into a slight into a slight remit while

5:39 Speaker 2: we're a bit of a break and we focused on

5:42 Speaker 2: the apace, so plenty of practice and showing them down

5:45 Speaker 2: on that, make sure it's tight as a dux bumball

5:49 Speaker 2: should be there and and make sure I don't breach

5:52 Speaker 2: the watershed or anything like that. So yeah, late, but

5:56 Speaker 2: we've got a couple of smaller festivals in the north

6:00 Speaker 2: of England coming up in August. Off we come out

6:03 Speaker 2: of all EP session which is quite nice, and you

6:08 Speaker 2: know we are working with a few people with plans

6:11 Speaker 2: for the EP release sure, and some bigger gigs as

6:15 Speaker 2: we moved through the year in the next year as well.

6:17 Speaker 2: So yeah, there's plenty of foot, plenty of foot. We've

6:19 Speaker 2: got plenty of gigs over the past year and a

6:21 Speaker 2: half all over the Northeast and we're just starting to

6:24 Speaker 2: spread further afield now and hopefully trying to get down

6:27 Speaker 2: at the middle of the could be and you never know,

6:29 Speaker 2: go up the big smoke which is London and maybe

6:31 Speaker 2: it's May. I'm marked on there at some point.

6:33 Speaker 1: Excellent. I'm glad too that You're gonna be doing a

6:35 Speaker 1: couple of festivals because I always say those are such

6:38 Speaker 1: fantastic opportunities, not only to expand your audience because you

6:41 Speaker 1: get in front of a crowd that might not know

6:42 Speaker 1: you or might not be familiar with you yet, but

6:45 Speaker 1: also too just the connections that you make, you know, backstage,

6:48 Speaker 1: the industry people that you meet. You know, it can

6:52 Speaker 1: really be the festival experience can really be helpful.

6:55 Speaker 2: Yeah, it's not networking, isn't it. It's it's not put

6:59 Speaker 2: your ands on and you try and network. At the

7:01 Speaker 2: same time, it's so nice to make other people make

7:04 Speaker 2: and strike of friendships with people are similar like ideas

7:08 Speaker 2: and and focus, and it's it's nice. It's nice to

7:11 Speaker 2: see the other bands as well at these these gigs

7:14 Speaker 2: and festivals because you know, there's there's a lot of

7:16 Speaker 2: bands on and there's you know, differentially, it's across the day,

7:21 Speaker 2: who was playing, what what kind of genre? We do

7:25 Speaker 2: generally sit in that rock, alternative rock, post hardcore punk genre,

7:28 Speaker 2: yeah in that right, So, but there are you know

7:31 Speaker 2: what bands at these festivals that sit down the alternative

7:36 Speaker 2: or even grunge. You know, there's a lot of that's

7:38 Speaker 2: still kicking around even though we're thirty years past it,

7:41 Speaker 2: you know what I mean. It's cyclic as well. Let's

7:44 Speaker 2: say the music come round in cycles. Yeah.

7:47 Speaker 1: I had a guest tell me recently, a guest from

7:49 Speaker 1: the UK tell me that grunge is actually really big

7:53 Speaker 1: there right now. Is that true?

7:56 Speaker 2: Yeah, it's it's kind of it's what we've seen with

7:58 Speaker 2: the grunge scene is and I personally so and I'll

8:01 Speaker 2: go not only to festivals and stuff, I go to

8:04 Speaker 2: a lot of local shows, you know, on with old

8:06 Speaker 2: band cards and badgers and and pot and just to

8:09 Speaker 2: say a lot of people and really trust the saying.

8:11 Speaker 2: But with grunge, it's kind of it's kind of meshed

8:16 Speaker 2: with shoe gears. Yeah as well. So there's that that

8:20 Speaker 2: that's dreamy shoe gears grunge element that's going off, which

8:25 Speaker 2: is like a modern take I believe on grunge, which

8:27 Speaker 2: is quite interesting here. And it's it's quite nice. I mean,

8:29 Speaker 2: obviously you can't be the old guys like Nevana and

8:32 Speaker 2: Pearl Jarman and all that, you know, yeah, Allison Chairmans

8:36 Speaker 2: except so, but it's nice and it's it's yeah again,

8:39 Speaker 2: it's that cyclic will come back round, trends as come

8:43 Speaker 2: back round, and that's that's where we feel. We often

8:46 Speaker 2: feel sometimes some of the stuff that we've released and

8:49 Speaker 2: that we're doing that if we've been around in the

8:51 Speaker 2: early two thousands, maybies we'd be more on the platform now.

8:55 Speaker 2: But with the you know, with with the way the

8:57 Speaker 2: music industry is, we feel as though we're with niche

9:00 Speaker 2: at the moment, but we're fully expecting that might hopefully

9:04 Speaker 2: expand out further as people come back to listening.

9:08 Speaker 1: Right right, no doubt. I mean, how do you how

9:10 Speaker 1: do you kind of everyone always hay, it's a question,

9:11 Speaker 1: but how do you kind of define your sound or

9:13 Speaker 1: categorize your sound? Because I hear you know, I mean

9:16 Speaker 1: it's it's some hardcore elements certainly, but also there's some

9:19 Speaker 1: groove there. And see if I'm a bass player myself,

9:22 Speaker 1: so I pay attention to.

9:25 Speaker 2: You know, you're picking the base line up. That's quite hard.

9:30 Speaker 2: We've been so many times we've gone from alternative rock?

9:35 Speaker 2: Are we in punk?

9:36 Speaker 3: There's a few people compare us to Rise Against. I

9:39 Speaker 3: think that would be quite a close ish band, but

9:42 Speaker 3: not the same, if that makes sense.

9:44 Speaker 2: Yeah, But I think also because the five members of the

9:49 Speaker 2: Lads Away and we've got Enders on drum, We've got

9:51 Speaker 2: Dono guitars and vocals, and Andrew is the second guitarist.

9:58 Speaker 2: We've all got different genres ours that were brought up

10:01 Speaker 2: on and what we like. Jim, you like the Cure

10:04 Speaker 2: and stuff like that. Yeah, I was brought up on

10:08 Speaker 2: matewall f, led Zeppelin and all that classics from the

10:12 Speaker 2: lower the lads that are in the more scale, and

10:16 Speaker 2: you kind of find that that sits in. And that's

10:18 Speaker 2: why when we get asked we say we can't pigeons

10:20 Speaker 2: haul ourselves because it points there is thrash, it points

10:24 Speaker 2: there is a bit of groove and a bit of funk,

10:27 Speaker 2: and it's it's you know, and the points there is

10:29 Speaker 2: a punk vibe there and the pigeonholes is a bit hard. However,

10:37 Speaker 2: we'll take that as a compliment because that means that

10:39 Speaker 2: we're doing something different hopefully.

10:42 Speaker 1: Absolutely. Yeah, it's a good problem to have, you know.

10:44 Speaker 1: I mean, in the industry we always try to categorize

10:47 Speaker 1: and label everything, but and you know, and there's practical

10:51 Speaker 1: reasons for doing that, but but yeah, for you to

10:53 Speaker 1: be able to not be easily pigeonholder labeled. Is is

10:56 Speaker 1: definitely a good thing helps you stand out. And yeah,

11:00 Speaker 1: I was are there any because I would imagine it's

11:03 Speaker 1: a pretty high energy show, right. Are there any videos

11:05 Speaker 1: of your on YouTube? Any videos of you guys playing live?

11:08 Speaker 2: Yeah's so we've got some basic stuff on YouTube, but

11:11 Speaker 2: a lot of our stuff is on our social media,

11:13 Speaker 2: so people can check us out on a million years

11:16 Speaker 2: official on Instagram or Facebook, TikTok as well, million years Official.

11:21 Speaker 2: There's some good lengthy videos there of some of the gigs,

11:24 Speaker 2: and yeah, it's high energy. It's you know, there's none

11:27 Speaker 2: of these awkward sciences gaps. There's always something going off. Yeah,

11:32 Speaker 2: there's plenty of sweat, plenty of being a being drunk,

11:35 Speaker 2: and plenty of head banging and saw our heads and

11:38 Speaker 2: anie to sit down usually afterwards a nice cup of

11:41 Speaker 2: tea British.

11:43 Speaker 1: Way right, right?

11:45 Speaker 2: Is it check us out on social media's?

11:48 Speaker 1: Yeah, definitely, yeah, excellent, excellent. Jim, is it hard to

11:52 Speaker 1: sing this style because you know you're pretty intense on

11:54 Speaker 1: the vocals. Is that?

11:56 Speaker 2: You know?

11:56 Speaker 1: Because Steve mentioned having some tea, I was wondering, I mean,

11:58 Speaker 1: do you do that to like, do you do anything

12:01 Speaker 1: to take care of your throat Jakemans.

12:03 Speaker 3: I don't know if you have them in America, but

12:05 Speaker 3: there's a there's a coffs we called Jakemans, which I

12:08 Speaker 3: have every show and it just makes lose my throat

12:12 Speaker 3: a bit instead of drinking like like syrup.

12:15 Speaker 2: Or how would everyone like or whiskey.

12:18 Speaker 1: Yeah, but.

12:20 Speaker 3: It really helps with me screaming quite a lot. And

12:22 Speaker 3: then after I've played it, my voice is usually quite normal,

12:25 Speaker 3: so really good.

12:26 Speaker 1: Yeah.

12:27 Speaker 2: The thing that I've noticed about your your screens gimmers,

12:30 Speaker 2: and I've heard other people who will scream when you

12:33 Speaker 2: turn that microphone off. It's like a hissed scream from

12:35 Speaker 2: some other artists, you know, it's that force back of

12:38 Speaker 2: the north. This is what Gym's doing is generally a scream.

12:42 Speaker 2: He could actually turn the mic off and it'd still

12:45 Speaker 2: be loud enough. So yeah, yeah, so he's got some

12:49 Speaker 2: lungs on the lab.

12:50 Speaker 1: I know that sounds like, yeah, no, that's that's excellent.

12:55 Speaker 1: So h an obvious question, but where does the name

12:58 Speaker 1: come from? Million years It was from Maya.

13:03 Speaker 2: Wasn't an expert. So after you made Gym first start

13:06 Speaker 2: of the band, we actually there's a festival in the

13:08 Speaker 2: UK called download festival, you guys might have heard. Yeah, yes,

13:12 Speaker 2: quite quite a large festival. We were there about what

13:16 Speaker 2: three four years four a year, and we you know,

13:20 Speaker 2: we got drunk and Jim ended up with kiss makeup

13:23 Speaker 2: on his face, get removed the entire week and spent

13:26 Speaker 2: loads of money, and we said, came away with it,

13:28 Speaker 2: and we formed a friendship, and we're like, look, Jim,

13:30 Speaker 2: you know that art played in the band twenty years ago.

13:34 Speaker 2: Jim's always been into his music. Who was it your

13:37 Speaker 2: front Turn? And the Rattlesnakes you've actually played alongside and

13:41 Speaker 2: stuff as well in the previous lives. Yeah, long, a

13:44 Speaker 2: long time ago. So we're both from the musical bat

13:46 Speaker 2: and we just said why not. We enjoyed watching and

13:49 Speaker 2: we always enjoyed this. Let's go for it. So we

13:52 Speaker 2: actually started out and the band name was Pim wasn't

13:55 Speaker 2: It was called Portly Emotion. It's a bit too softball likings,

13:59 Speaker 2: we eventually so we shifted that and Maya Maya on

14:03 Speaker 2: million years is actually abbreviated to my it's a it's

14:06 Speaker 2: a measurement of unit of time. Okay, there you go.

14:10 Speaker 2: It's also something to do with the ancient Egyptian.

14:12 Speaker 3: Yeah, there's a lot of things a million years and

14:15 Speaker 3: over England people say never in a million years and stuff,

14:18 Speaker 3: and that so quite a catchy as well.

14:21 Speaker 2: So yeah, every time they say that the same.

14:22 Speaker 1: Talking about there you go, we say that here too. Yeah,

14:26 Speaker 1: it's a common expression.

14:27 Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, never in a million years, there you go exactly.

14:32 Speaker 1: So what's what's so? So? So what's next for you guys?

14:35 Speaker 1: What what should we be looking out for?

14:38 Speaker 2: Well, the EPP is the one that we hope is

14:42 Speaker 2: the next step up, our next evolution, and the hope

14:46 Speaker 2: really defines our direction, you know, working with the various

14:50 Speaker 2: people we want to start getting, you know, hence taught

14:54 Speaker 2: me yourself the day we want to get, you know,

14:56 Speaker 2: with our cousins over the US and and and get

14:58 Speaker 2: get hurt over there as well. Well, and you know,

15:01 Speaker 2: we're still slowly starting a little, but we think the

15:03 Speaker 2: AP is going to be the yeah, the catalyst to

15:07 Speaker 2: really kick on. And we're very hopeful with it. So

15:09 Speaker 2: we're excited, we're excited to record it. We've been working

15:12 Speaker 2: really hard and I think when that comes out really

15:16 Speaker 2: defined and we hope it gets the right responses we

15:18 Speaker 2: feel it will. Yeah, never know it's as crazy, well,

15:21 Speaker 2: isn't it.

15:22 Speaker 1: Forgive me if you mentioned it already and I'm just forgetting,

15:25 Speaker 1: but was there any kind of an ETA on when

15:27 Speaker 1: the EP might be done or any kind of a timetable?

15:31 Speaker 2: So I spink with management. We believe that the way

15:36 Speaker 2: it's going to bear out is or I think we're

15:38 Speaker 2: looking into just the beginning the next year for the

15:42 Speaker 2: release of the AP, which is going to do us

15:46 Speaker 2: quite nice. Sometimes you don't want to rush these things

15:48 Speaker 2: and sometimes you don't take too long. We feel that's

15:51 Speaker 2: probably the right time frame, so at the beginn of

15:53 Speaker 2: twenty twenty seven. But in the meantime, once we come

15:55 Speaker 2: out of that recording session and the master and everything

15:59 Speaker 2: else will be back working hard on our live shows

16:01 Speaker 2: and what it's it never stops.

16:04 Speaker 1: Excellent, Yeah, outstanding, outstanding. Well before before we let you

16:10 Speaker 1: guys go, because in a moment, I'm gonna play I'm

16:12 Speaker 1: gonna play Circles, another great track. I love this, So

16:16 Speaker 1: we're gonna we're gonna hit that in a minute after

16:19 Speaker 1: we conclude our conversation. But I want to make sure

16:22 Speaker 1: that our listeners know where's the best place to go

16:25 Speaker 1: online to keep up with everything that you guys are doing,

16:27 Speaker 1: with everything that Million Years is doing.

16:29 Speaker 2: Yeah, the best place to catches is on the social media,

16:32 Speaker 2: so on Instagram and Facebook there's a lot of content

16:34 Speaker 2: and there I handles is a million Years official. You

16:39 Speaker 2: can find us both on Facebook and Instagram without handle.

16:42 Speaker 1: Okay, okay, outstanding. Well listen, guys, thank you so much,

16:45 Speaker 1: Steve and Jim really thank.

16:48 Speaker 2: You for your time, and I'll be forth of July

16:50 Speaker 2: the years. Guys enjoy it.

16:52 Speaker 1: Thank you, thank you, and if you ever want.

16:55 Speaker 2: To come back, we'll have a way with the King,

16:56 Speaker 2: don't worry.

16:58 Speaker 1: Very good, very good. We'll definitely we'll definitely have you

17:02 Speaker 1: back on in the future because you guys, it sounds

17:04 Speaker 1: like you had a lot going on and some good

17:05 Speaker 1: stuff coming. So congratulations on everything. And like I said,

17:09 Speaker 1: I love that track elevated and uh, we're gonna hit

17:12 Speaker 1: this track circles. So we'll let you go for now.

17:14 Speaker 1: But guys, thank you again, take care you you got it,

17:18 Speaker 1: Bye bye? All right. Excellent. So that is Steve and

17:21 Speaker 1: Jim from the band Million Years, and uh, this is

17:25 Speaker 1: another great track from them. I really like this a lot.

17:27 Speaker 1: Check it out. This is called circles,