Santino DeMonte and Caleb Dyer | Matt Connarton Unleashed

0:00 Speaker 1: We got a couple of other fine people here in

0:02 Speaker 1: studio with us. Get those mics up here. So, one

0:05 Speaker 1: of whom has been on the show recently, Caleb Dyer, returns. Hello, Caleb, Hello, Hello,

0:10 Speaker 1: welcome back. It is good to see you.

0:11 Speaker 2: Yeah, good to see you as well.

0:12 Speaker 1: And you brought with you someone who's music. We recently

0:16 Speaker 1: did a world radio premiere for Santino Demanti is here.

0:20 Speaker 2: Hello.

0:21 Speaker 1: Now that I know, now that I know how to

0:22 Speaker 1: say your name correctly, I apologize. I think the day

0:25 Speaker 1: we premiered the song, I was saying Demante it.

0:27 Speaker 2: Works down south, but it's Demante perfect.

0:30 Speaker 1: Yes, yes, So I'm glad we cleared that up, because

0:32 Speaker 1: I do try to get everyone's names correctly. I know

0:35 Speaker 1: what it's like to have people struggle with, you know,

0:37 Speaker 1: because my last name is very unusual. So in fact,

0:40 Speaker 1: in high school my nickname was Canarton because the first

0:43 Speaker 1: day of school, the teachers they would, you know, they'd

0:46 Speaker 1: do the roll call and they'd get to my name

0:48 Speaker 1: and they'd inevitably they would all say Canarton. And so

0:52 Speaker 1: all my friends have started calling me that. But uh man,

0:57 Speaker 1: I got so used to it that even today, if

0:59 Speaker 1: someone missed pronounces it. It takes me a second to

1:01 Speaker 1: remember to correct them right because I'm so used to it.

1:04 Speaker 1: But we did the world radio premiere for your your

1:07 Speaker 1: debut single, Yes, Summer in the Sky, not only your

1:11 Speaker 1: first single as a solo artist, correct, but the inaugural

1:14 Speaker 1: release on Hatchet At.

1:17 Speaker 3: It's a mouthful hatchet accent saw. But yes, it was

1:20 Speaker 3: our very first release. We're very proud of it. There's

1:24 Speaker 3: hopefully much more to come from the company. And yeah, no,

1:28 Speaker 3: I mean we poured our heart and soul into it.

1:30 Speaker 3: We we finished that tune in thirty days, which was

1:33 Speaker 3: an accelerated schedule for sure.

1:36 Speaker 2: Yeah, but we we put.

1:37 Speaker 3: In just as much time and care and attention as

1:39 Speaker 3: we would any other project. And yeah, it came I

1:44 Speaker 3: thought it came out excellent. I could hear every element

1:47 Speaker 3: that I wanted to in it, and yeah, yeah.

1:49 Speaker 1: Yeah, the production is great.

1:51 Speaker 2: Thank you.

1:52 Speaker 1: How involved are you so you're you're completely like do

1:55 Speaker 1: you do do you engineer the track?

1:58 Speaker 3: And so for this, for this particular the project with Tino,

2:01 Speaker 3: it was it was just Santino and myself. I was

2:05 Speaker 3: the principal engineer and then after we you know, got

2:09 Speaker 3: the tracks, after we recorded everything. We really sat down

2:13 Speaker 3: and we got to you know, putting a mix on

2:15 Speaker 3: it and getting the levels correct, and then you know,

2:17 Speaker 3: through to the mastering process. We did everything in house.

2:20 Speaker 3: Originally when the house, when the company was founded, we

2:23 Speaker 3: originally thought that we were going to have to kind

2:25 Speaker 3: of outsource some of the mastering, Yeah, just just to

2:27 Speaker 3: make things easier on us. But we purchased some software

2:32 Speaker 3: and we're imminently going to be probably purchasing some more

2:35 Speaker 3: hardware that will make it even easier for us to

2:38 Speaker 3: to do everything in house.

2:39 Speaker 1: So that's something I didn't realize. So you so you

2:41 Speaker 1: mastered this?

2:43 Speaker 2: Yes?

2:43 Speaker 3: This was I mean well it was actually cooperatively I

2:46 Speaker 3: would say, mastered by Santino and myself. He was still

2:49 Speaker 3: involved down to the wire, right, right, so when we

2:52 Speaker 3: finished the tune. Uh, Santino was the person who made

2:55 Speaker 3: the final edits. So well, yes, I did apply the

3:00 Speaker 3: the effectuation right, the compression and equalization on the main

3:05 Speaker 3: you know, it was tweaked and it was dealt with

3:07 Speaker 3: by both of us.

3:08 Speaker 1: Okay, okay, outstanding and uh, now what's kind of the plan,

3:12 Speaker 1: like do you have more? Are you? Are you just

3:15 Speaker 1: gonna release more singles or do you have an album

3:18 Speaker 1: or an EP and the works or what.

3:20 Speaker 4: I would like to do? So right now playing we

3:22 Speaker 4: have an EP for next spring probably excellent, excellent, So

3:25 Speaker 4: we're gonna spend some time work on that and spend

3:28 Speaker 4: some time this time.

3:29 Speaker 2: Yeah.

3:29 Speaker 3: Yeah, it's gonna be a little bit more drawn out.

3:33 Speaker 3: And I don't know exactly how many songs that it

3:35 Speaker 3: was four or five, five I believe, and in one

3:38 Speaker 3: of one of those songs will be recycling of Somewheer

3:40 Speaker 3: in this Guy, So it's four additional and then Somewhere

3:42 Speaker 3: in the Sky will be re released with the cool

3:45 Speaker 3: EP collection. So yeah, and there might be slight changes,

3:48 Speaker 3: but I don't think very much will change concerning it.

3:51 Speaker 3: You never know, you never know, right, Yeah, we're gonna obviously,

3:54 Speaker 3: when we release any collection of works, we listen back

3:58 Speaker 3: to each of them to make sure not only there's

4:00 Speaker 3: cohesivity between you know, each song, but that there's you know, continuity,

4:07 Speaker 3: right that it feels good listening to it as if.

4:11 Speaker 2: It was an album, right, you know.

4:13 Speaker 3: And and now I understand EPs can be diverse and

4:16 Speaker 3: you don't have to do that, but there is definitely

4:19 Speaker 3: a sort of theme if you will.

4:21 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, and and something too that you know, you

4:25 Speaker 1: and Jesse when when you and Jesse Rutstein were here,

4:28 Speaker 1: you made very clear that with with the label Hatchet

4:30 Speaker 1: Acts and saw I did it, I do Jenny's heard

4:35 Speaker 1: me trip on it a thousand times that that uh,

4:39 Speaker 1: you know, you're you're really taking your time. And actually

4:42 Speaker 1: we were talking about it a little bit off air

4:43 Speaker 1: too before the show. You're really uh committed to making

4:47 Speaker 1: sure that everything's right. It's not just because sometimes people

4:50 Speaker 1: start something like a label or or some other endeavor

4:54 Speaker 1: and they, uh, you know, they just kind of throw

4:55 Speaker 1: a lot of stuff against the wall and see what sticks.

4:57 Speaker 3: Very very haphazard. This this company certainly not doing that.

5:02 Speaker 3: The first two artists we signed, Santino and then Sarah Bird,

5:06 Speaker 3: who's actually one of Santino's colleagues, played with uh with

5:09 Speaker 3: Santino yesterday with Dog a Dog excellent and you know

5:13 Speaker 3: Sarah's tune. I can't wait to release that to the world.

5:16 Speaker 3: It's so musically interesting, really and actually so in the

5:20 Speaker 3: same way where I principally engineered and you know, mixed

5:24 Speaker 3: and assisted with mastering Tino's tune. Jesse is principally working

5:28 Speaker 3: with Bird. So this is kind of we divide the

5:31 Speaker 3: labor right now kind of in this way, some of

5:35 Speaker 3: the mixing and mastering on Bird's tune might be me.

5:38 Speaker 3: I don't know exactly you know what's going to happen

5:42 Speaker 3: right now because they haven't finished tracking everything just yet.

5:46 Speaker 3: But once all is finalized, then you know, we have

5:48 Speaker 3: the discussion of like, okay, how we move forward. And

5:52 Speaker 3: in every instance, the artist is the principal creative director.

5:55 Speaker 3: Of course, this is how it goes, and we have

5:58 Speaker 3: to as produce, we have to effectuate the artist's intent.

6:02 Speaker 3: So you know, if I'm brought in to do anything,

6:05 Speaker 3: it's going to be with Bird. It's going to be

6:07 Speaker 3: with her as kind of directing me, guiding me. You

6:11 Speaker 3: know what she wants in the tune. I've listened to

6:13 Speaker 3: the tune plenty, but you know I can't be her,

6:17 Speaker 3: I can't be in her mind. So I need to

6:19 Speaker 3: and and that that's part of doing this. I what

6:21 Speaker 3: I consider to be the right way, where you know,

6:25 Speaker 3: there are many recording companies and stuff where they will

6:27 Speaker 3: tell the artists like, oh, you need to write something

6:29 Speaker 3: that's saleable, you need to write something that that we,

6:31 Speaker 3: you know, feel strong and confident in promoting and we

6:36 Speaker 3: frankly just don't care. Will you know, if it's original,

6:40 Speaker 3: if it's if it if we think it's good, if

6:42 Speaker 3: we think that the musicality is there, will produce it,

6:46 Speaker 3: and you know, we'll we'll follow your direction. And I

6:50 Speaker 3: think that is something that is sorely lacking and missing

6:54 Speaker 3: in our musical culture in general. You know, there to

6:58 Speaker 3: some degree, once you have enough money can buy creative freedom.

7:01 Speaker 3: Of course, there's a lot of there's a lot of

7:04 Speaker 3: creative direction that that comes in some of these companies.

7:07 Speaker 2: We're entirely antithetical.

7:09 Speaker 1: Yeah, no, I think that's that's excellent. Well, I think

7:12 Speaker 1: we should let's play the track Summer in the Sky

7:14 Speaker 1: for anyone who hasn't heard it yet. And of course

7:15 Speaker 1: this is out on all the streaming platforms and everything,

7:18 Speaker 1: and anything we should know before we play it, anything

7:21 Speaker 1: we should know about the song itself. Santino, do you

7:23 Speaker 1: have anything you want.

7:24 Speaker 4: To it's a it's a tribute to Brian Wilson. Yeah,

7:27 Speaker 4: you know, I want to do something for him. I'm

7:30 Speaker 4: not normally a singer, but I tried it for this one.

7:32 Speaker 4: And you know, we'll see how that goes. But I

7:35 Speaker 4: just wanted to I want to just make something for

7:37 Speaker 4: him because he passed away in July. And yeah, that's

7:39 Speaker 4: really it's just a feel good, uh tune. I don't

7:41 Speaker 4: even know what it's about. It's about summer, my favorite

7:45 Speaker 4: time of year. So I like, of course we're in

7:47 Speaker 4: the sky right, very good.

7:48 Speaker 1: So without further ado, we'll give this a spin and

7:51 Speaker 1: then we'll come back and talk with these guys some more.

7:53 Speaker 1: But here it is. This is Summer in the Sky

7:55 Speaker 1: Santino Demanti.

8:00 Speaker 5: Sound gaining that's so long, but the pussion that's in

8:04 Speaker 5: an upstad and the sound so rogating coms the world.

8:10 Speaker 5: But the sound of the music way and updown b

8:16 Speaker 5: they running up. That's it up sons and it's another.

8:31 Speaker 6: Wit s.

8:40 Speaker 5: S So go away with the jos Sons and brod

9:03 Speaker 5: the dress the auld prefect time to dreams that the

9:08 Speaker 5: damots me the shot streams the same season stream Woman

9:16 Speaker 5: stone Face but bating the.

9:35 Speaker 6: Sun in the snow song in the store.

9:51 Speaker 5: So SnO, m.

10:05 Speaker 4: M m.

10:39 Speaker 1: Oh, that is so good. Summer in the Sky, Thank you.

10:42 Speaker 1: The debut release from Santino Demanti, and of course the

10:46 Speaker 1: debut release from Hatchet Acts and Saw Records, and we

10:50 Speaker 1: have both the Santino and Caleb Dyer from Hatchet Acts

10:53 Speaker 1: and Saw See.

10:54 Speaker 2: Now that I can say, I know it is it

10:58 Speaker 2: is a mouthful.

11:00 Speaker 1: No, it's a great name though. I love it. I

11:01 Speaker 1: love it and uh, you you and you and Jesse

11:04 Speaker 1: shared how you came up with the name and everything,

11:06 Speaker 1: uh when you were on and that was that was

11:07 Speaker 1: really interesting. But I'm also so I'm curious about the

11:10 Speaker 1: production of the track because you know, it's got that

11:14 Speaker 1: you know, it's got an old school vibe, you know,

11:16 Speaker 1: and as you said, Santino, it's a tribute to Brian

11:18 Speaker 1: Wilson in effect. How hard was it to get because

11:24 Speaker 1: that's that's a tricky thing, right to get that that

11:26 Speaker 1: kind of sound and that vibe without screwing it up.

11:30 Speaker 1: Because you got it. You want to get that sound

11:32 Speaker 1: in that vibe, but you also need to make it

11:34 Speaker 1: sound you know, modern in.

11:37 Speaker 3: The wise words of SpongeBob technique. Technique technique. Yeah, it's

11:42 Speaker 3: all about technique. And if you know how these things

11:45 Speaker 3: were originally done, you can reverse engineer them. Okay, It's

11:49 Speaker 3: it's pretty pretty much that simple. I will say, we did.

11:52 Speaker 3: On some things we used more modern techniques. So for example,

11:56 Speaker 3: the drum captures are not recorded in the same way

11:59 Speaker 3: that they would have been recorded back in that time,

12:03 Speaker 3: but that was done deliberately because we wanted to add

12:06 Speaker 3: certain textures and overlay things. So there were certain things

12:11 Speaker 3: that were not kind of those old techniques. But actually

12:14 Speaker 3: a lot of what we did for the guitars, like

12:17 Speaker 3: the signal chains, a lot of what we did, you know,

12:21 Speaker 3: on the actual mastering of it, the actually the software

12:24 Speaker 3: emulations that we use, because you know, we are working

12:26 Speaker 3: digitally for the vast majority of everything, with the exception

12:30 Speaker 3: of the actual signal going into the digital path. But

12:34 Speaker 3: even on the digital side, the software emulations that we

12:37 Speaker 3: were using were very much tools or emulations of tools

12:40 Speaker 3: that would be from that era, and some of them

12:43 Speaker 3: sounded better than others. So we you know, gravitated towards

12:46 Speaker 3: what to our years felt right, but really it was

12:50 Speaker 3: it was technique.

12:51 Speaker 2: That's really just it. If you again, if you know

12:54 Speaker 2: how they did it, you can reverse engineer it.

12:57 Speaker 1: Okay, is that the most challenging thing you've done as

13:01 Speaker 1: far as recording?

13:01 Speaker 2: Oh no, not even close.

13:03 Speaker 3: No, really, ok yeah, I mean, it's of as of late,

13:08 Speaker 3: it's uh, it's you know, it's more interesting. But I

13:11 Speaker 3: would say the most challenging things to record was some

13:15 Speaker 3: of my own stuff really and and and I mean

13:17 Speaker 3: none of that's been released, but yeah, that's a that's

13:20 Speaker 3: a totally different discussion. Yeah, yeah, but yeah, some of

13:23 Speaker 3: that was was extraordinarily difficult to kind of get what

13:28 Speaker 3: it should sound like because you know, the different techniques

13:32 Speaker 3: available to you, the different sorts of microphones, placement of microphones,

13:37 Speaker 3: all different manners of waves of capturing sound, and then

13:41 Speaker 3: all of the ways to process sound, and you have

13:43 Speaker 3: to get to get the right sound.

13:45 Speaker 2: You have to get both of those things correct.

13:48 Speaker 1: So Santino, when you did you write the song yourself?

13:51 Speaker 1: You you yeah, when you came up with the song,

13:55 Speaker 1: did the did what ended up being the song the

13:58 Speaker 1: finished product? Did that match what you had in your head?

14:02 Speaker 2: Or was it?

14:02 Speaker 1: Was it? I mean I imagine it was probably even better, right, but.

14:05 Speaker 4: Well so kind of because like I wrote it on

14:08 Speaker 4: piano like months ago and probably okay, in my head,

14:11 Speaker 4: i'd like, you know, one by one kind of like

14:14 Speaker 4: imagine like what would make sense for it to be there,

14:16 Speaker 4: or like what I imagined it to be there, right, Yeah,

14:18 Speaker 4: and for so long, like such a long time of

14:22 Speaker 4: having to be able to sort of like process like

14:24 Speaker 4: what should be there. Like when we started recording it,

14:27 Speaker 4: I feel like it just kind of fell in place,

14:28 Speaker 4: and and uh, there were elements I think that are different,

14:33 Speaker 4: but you know, a lot of it was just very good.

14:37 Speaker 3: Yeah, it was just what are we feeling? Or actually

14:40 Speaker 3: what Tina was feeling? Because I didn't play a single

14:42 Speaker 3: note on this. Everything that was done was Tina And

14:47 Speaker 3: which is interesting because there there have been people that

14:49 Speaker 3: have you know, worked with where you know, I've assisted

14:52 Speaker 3: of done things where you know, like hey, play bas

14:55 Speaker 3: on it or something like that. Yeah, and you know

14:58 Speaker 3: that's cool, But I try, as much as possible, I

15:00 Speaker 3: want the artist's intent to be effectuated by whatever we're doing.

15:05 Speaker 1: Yeah.

15:05 Speaker 4: I also think it depends on who comes in with

15:07 Speaker 4: a specific mindset, like would you like the producer to

15:09 Speaker 4: take more charge or maybe have someone else add some

15:12 Speaker 4: more ideas. And I guess since I had so much

15:14 Speaker 4: time doing nothing else to think of the song, it

15:16 Speaker 4: was so specific and I thought that just doing it myself.

15:18 Speaker 2: Would give it that specific touch.

15:20 Speaker 3: Yeah, he came in with a super clear creative direction,

15:23 Speaker 3: and that made what I was doing easy. I mean truly,

15:27 Speaker 3: it was just it was about Okay, Now, all I

15:30 Speaker 3: have to do is on the recording side of it,

15:32 Speaker 3: suggest techniques that will effectuate that intent.

15:36 Speaker 2: He told me. He told me coming in.

15:38 Speaker 3: Basically, it's a tribute to Brian Wilson, his life and

15:40 Speaker 3: his memory and how it affected him.

15:42 Speaker 2: Musically.

15:43 Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, and I will say that not to cut

15:45 Speaker 4: you off, but I just think that the help that

15:47 Speaker 4: you gave me is a singing primarily. I think Caleb

15:49 Speaker 4: is a very good coach in vocals. I've learned a

15:52 Speaker 4: lot singing from him. Yeah, Whereas I may have had

15:55 Speaker 4: some of things a little more like you know, experience

15:57 Speaker 4: just doing certain things. But like I think singing has

15:59 Speaker 4: been a big thing that I can't look it he

16:02 Speaker 4: up anyone with you.

16:02 Speaker 3: Know, I certainly try. My only musical training is on

16:07 Speaker 3: voice in ear. I never was trained on any of

16:10 Speaker 3: the other instruments, or very briefly piano lessons. But I

16:13 Speaker 3: stopped that when I realized that I knew more musically

16:16 Speaker 3: than the teacher did, wow, which that is strangely, and

16:20 Speaker 3: I tried to find I tried to find another teacher,

16:23 Speaker 3: and I just was kind of disappointed in once that

16:25 Speaker 3: I was seeking out. But with regards to voice and ear,

16:30 Speaker 3: I mean as my first things that I did was

16:33 Speaker 3: doing vocal arrangements in high school. And you know, while

16:39 Speaker 3: I don't really sing very much now, I sing on

16:42 Speaker 3: my own unreleased things, but I don't sing much anymore

16:47 Speaker 3: in any of the groups I'm in, except for maybe

16:48 Speaker 3: some backups. But yeah, I encourage if vocalists are coming

16:54 Speaker 3: in and doing work with us, I can certainly, and

16:57 Speaker 3: I'm not gonna be pushy, but somethings are universal and

17:01 Speaker 3: a recorded context, like you need to enunciate, you know,

17:04 Speaker 3: clear things unless you want to.

17:06 Speaker 2: Slur your lyrics and right right.

17:09 Speaker 3: But but you know, I I yeah, anyhow, I I

17:13 Speaker 3: I love working with certainly Santino and anyone else who's

17:17 Speaker 3: coming into to do work with us, and you know,

17:21 Speaker 3: guide them through the process of here's how we get

17:23 Speaker 3: the sound right, because you're creating the sound, but to

17:26 Speaker 3: get it to sound like you want on our record,

17:29 Speaker 3: it requires a whole separate set of science and and

17:33 Speaker 3: that's the part that I think a lot of gigging

17:35 Speaker 3: musicians kind of miss.

17:37 Speaker 1: Yeah, well, said, I'm curious to Santino about, Uh, tell

17:42 Speaker 1: us a little bit more about your affinity for Brian

17:44 Speaker 1: Wilson and is he is he?

17:45 Speaker 2: Like?

17:46 Speaker 1: Is he? Is he? Is he your biggest influence or

17:48 Speaker 1: is he?

17:49 Speaker 2: Yeah?

17:49 Speaker 4: Yeah, I love Jimmy Page, Jimmy Hendrix, Oh yeah, but

17:54 Speaker 4: I mean, uh, fellow left handed guy.

17:56 Speaker 2: I appreciate Hendricks very much, that's right.

17:58 Speaker 4: But in my last couple of year, I think I've really,

18:01 Speaker 4: I've really been taken aback almost by Brian Wilson. Uh

18:06 Speaker 4: and just his capability as a as a just all

18:10 Speaker 4: around musician, I guess, and arrange your composer things like that, yea,

18:16 Speaker 4: and yeah, like I never heard anything you know, like

18:19 Speaker 4: like it before a lot of people know the Beach

18:21 Speaker 4: Boys for kind of the surf rock thing, but there's

18:24 Speaker 4: really really complex arrangements that he's done.

18:28 Speaker 2: Sounds sound speaking of vocal arrangements.

18:32 Speaker 3: Speaking of vocal arrangements, I mean, I've said this for

18:35 Speaker 3: some time and I can't take credit. I don't know

18:37 Speaker 3: who can take credit for saying this first. But the

18:41 Speaker 3: Beach Boys weren't so much a surf rock group as

18:43 Speaker 3: they were like a barber shop quartet with exactly rock

18:47 Speaker 3: band behind them, and and it you know, that stuff

18:50 Speaker 3: is magical. I mean, very few people are trying to

18:53 Speaker 3: do anything like that anymore. And when Santino came with

18:57 Speaker 3: this project and he's like, I want to do some

18:59 Speaker 3: crazy is the vocal stacks as of someone who you know,

19:03 Speaker 3: comes from a vocal arranging background.

19:05 Speaker 2: And I didn't even have to arrange.

19:06 Speaker 1: It, right, Yeah, I didn't even have.

19:08 Speaker 2: To do any of this.

19:08 Speaker 3: He just comes in there and he hears all the

19:11 Speaker 3: notes in the harmonic series that he wants to hit

19:13 Speaker 3: and he's just like, all right there it is.

19:14 Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, man, it's just it's a fun time. It's

19:17 Speaker 4: just it's fun more than anything, you know, to put

19:20 Speaker 4: something out there, you know, it means a lot. So

19:22 Speaker 4: I'm appreciative for sure.

19:24 Speaker 1: Had you ever done anything like this before, because obviously,

19:26 Speaker 1: you know you've done other projects and we'll in a minute,

19:28 Speaker 1: we'll talk about the other the band that you guys

19:30 Speaker 1: have together, but had you ever done anything like that

19:34 Speaker 1: before that? That really kind of serves as such a

19:37 Speaker 1: fantastic tribute.

19:38 Speaker 2: To thank you.

19:41 Speaker 4: I've written tunes, you know, for this purpose, I guess

19:44 Speaker 4: in that regard, but this is the first time that

19:47 Speaker 4: I've recorded it with a good friend of mine in

19:51 Speaker 4: a good studio. You know, I think I've recorded a

19:53 Speaker 4: billion demos and stuff, you know, things like that.

19:56 Speaker 3: Even demos with mego. We have some songs together. One

20:01 Speaker 3: of them I think is going to get resurrected as

20:03 Speaker 3: a song for Crank and Wagon pretty soon, when tune

20:06 Speaker 3: called the Fugitive, which I think is gonna eventually appear

20:11 Speaker 3: on a concept album that Paul Fry is dreaming up

20:14 Speaker 3: in his head. It's a collective effort, but it's definitely

20:19 Speaker 3: mostly his creative vision in terms of the story, and

20:22 Speaker 3: we're just following that intent because we think it's a

20:24 Speaker 3: good idea.

20:25 Speaker 2: Yeah.

20:26 Speaker 3: We actually just did a show yesterday at Wormtown out

20:30 Speaker 3: in Greenfield, mass We played the set and it was

20:33 Speaker 3: space themed.

20:34 Speaker 2: And the theme of the Crank and Wagon.

20:38 Speaker 3: Yes, this is Cranking Wagon where I play orgon for

20:41 Speaker 3: the listeners out there. I play orgon and occasionally some

20:44 Speaker 3: electric piano and stuff, and mister Santina Demante plays percussion

20:48 Speaker 3: and drums, and Paul fryes the guitar, and we had

20:51 Speaker 3: Nick Vatruba from Bass Sabbath, which I'm wearing their shirt

20:55 Speaker 3: for all the all the people watching out there.

20:58 Speaker 2: Wearing bass. Sabbath.

20:59 Speaker 3: He's a very nice tribute band. But he played bass

21:01 Speaker 3: with us yesterday and it was fantastic. Oh I you know,

21:05 Speaker 3: I hope, I hope he does more with us. But

21:09 Speaker 3: even if, even if not, even if it was just

21:11 Speaker 3: a one off, it was still an excellent gig, a

21:13 Speaker 3: great gig.

21:15 Speaker 1: Well, I'm curious to know more about it, because I

21:17 Speaker 1: haven't actually heard Crank, and so I'm curious to just

21:19 Speaker 1: to know more about it, like what's like, what is it?

21:22 Speaker 4: It's a good fusion of like rock and some progressive

21:26 Speaker 4: elements too. Oh yeah, yeah, so it makeses. I think

21:30 Speaker 4: it blends like maybe simpler rock and roll with like

21:34 Speaker 4: a good interesting, sort of different flair. And you're really

21:37 Speaker 4: a big part of the music in that, So I

21:39 Speaker 4: think you could even attest to more of that, you know,

21:41 Speaker 4: I think.

21:42 Speaker 3: You know, in my view, and you know, Paul has

21:46 Speaker 3: his own influences that he brings to the table, But

21:49 Speaker 3: in my view, the influences that I'm bringing are sort

21:51 Speaker 3: of that seventies progressive rock, Emerson, Lake and Palmer. Of course,

21:56 Speaker 3: I'm a massive Keith Emerson fan. Yeah, yesterday we covered

22:00 Speaker 3: a deep purple tune. We covered Space Truck in.

22:02 Speaker 2: Nice, which was heavy man, absolutely heavy.

22:06 Speaker 3: And you know, I'm a massive John Lord fan. Yesterday

22:10 Speaker 3: at the gig, I wore a Boston shirt. Tom Schultz

22:13 Speaker 3: is another musical hero of mine on the organ, and

22:15 Speaker 3: I mean, if you listen to that music, you know,

22:18 Speaker 3: if you listen to all of that in the way

22:20 Speaker 3: that the organ drives it and is central to the

22:25 Speaker 3: rock and roll and the classical elements. Even yesterday we

22:29 Speaker 3: opened up the show with Son Andolf Gang, but take

22:31 Speaker 3: out stalls. We opened up a rock show with a

22:35 Speaker 3: classical piece, right, and you know, like you you don't

22:41 Speaker 3: hear that in like I've I've literally in the last decade,

22:47 Speaker 3: I've not heard another band doing something musically ambitious like that.

22:52 Speaker 3: And then the way that we plan transitions between songs

22:55 Speaker 3: and everything else we do is original. We usually throw

22:58 Speaker 3: in one cover for the people, but everything else we

23:00 Speaker 3: do is original. And I mean we play with the

23:03 Speaker 3: time signatures. We you know, even do some tempo play

23:07 Speaker 3: as well, where we kind of we'll drag things and

23:09 Speaker 3: be a little bit timmy wymy, But it's all deliberate.

23:12 Speaker 3: It's not It's not like it was not meant to

23:15 Speaker 3: be there. It's very very meticulously placed and and that

23:20 Speaker 3: I think is what separates that musical group from a

23:24 Speaker 3: lot of other ones that you'll hear. It's it's just

23:28 Speaker 3: very it's very deliberate, very composed.

23:33 Speaker 1: Now, how long has Crank and Wagon been around? How

23:35 Speaker 1: long have you as been? Only about a year? I

23:36 Speaker 1: mean a little over a year.

23:38 Speaker 3: But it's had various forms and and I'd actually like

23:41 Speaker 3: to show appreciation to some of the past members because

23:45 Speaker 3: I mean they you know, they did excellent things with it,

23:48 Speaker 3: and it's just continued on. But the original drummer was

23:52 Speaker 3: Cam Clark and he's a fantastic drummer's continuing to do

23:56 Speaker 3: other things now not exactly sure what he's up to,

24:00 Speaker 3: but Cam Clark was with us. And then for a

24:02 Speaker 3: period of time earlier this year, we had Chris Drew

24:05 Speaker 3: play play a number of gigs. He's the bass player

24:07 Speaker 3: in Dog Eate Dog, which of course it's a natural

24:10 Speaker 3: natural flowover for him to be playing with us. Then

24:14 Speaker 3: we did a three piece gig where it was just

24:16 Speaker 3: me left handing the bass. Really yeah, yeah, And I

24:19 Speaker 3: mean that's the cool dynamic thing about the Wagon is

24:22 Speaker 3: that you know, we can play a gig is a

24:25 Speaker 3: three piece with no bass player, or we can add

24:27 Speaker 3: a bass player and have all of this texture and

24:30 Speaker 3: you know, we can do whatever we.

24:33 Speaker 2: Want to do musically.

24:34 Speaker 1: Really cool.

24:34 Speaker 3: Yeah, and in that sort of creative liberty is I

24:40 Speaker 3: think it's it's getting much more rare. I think a

24:42 Speaker 3: lot of musicians put themselves into a box. They don't

24:45 Speaker 3: need to. I think they they think that oh, these

24:48 Speaker 3: odd time signatures, these different you know, ways to feel

24:52 Speaker 3: music and to convey emotion with music. I think they

24:55 Speaker 3: feel almost like, oh, it's too wacky, it's too scary

24:59 Speaker 3: and like different, and like what if we don't execute

25:02 Speaker 3: it right? And you know what if it doesn't And

25:04 Speaker 3: you know, all of these things exist within musicians heads.

25:07 Speaker 3: They just need to fite in overpower. And you know,

25:12 Speaker 3: crank and Wagon is that it is fearless, absolutely fearless.

25:18 Speaker 3: You know, we'll we'll we'll have like a nice rock

25:20 Speaker 3: and groovy section one time, and then all of a

25:22 Speaker 3: sudden we'll break into five, or we'll break into seven eight,

25:25 Speaker 3: or you know, or will will insert a random measure

25:28 Speaker 3: of nine to eight just because we can and in

25:31 Speaker 3: already an odd time sequence, and and Tino knows exactly

25:36 Speaker 3: what I'm referencing because he was the one. But you know,

25:41 Speaker 3: we we just we play with every element of the

25:44 Speaker 3: music that we can make it interesting and something that

25:48 Speaker 3: the listener just doesn't expect. And and that's what I

25:51 Speaker 3: value in musical compositions, and I know Santino does as well.

25:55 Speaker 4: Absolutely, Yeah, And then what's the plan as far as recording?

26:00 Speaker 4: Oh so well, hopefully pretty soon. You might know more

26:04 Speaker 4: than I do actually at this point kind of.

26:05 Speaker 3: Sort of, I mean, but we've we've spoken about it

26:07 Speaker 3: down there, so we have our nice little whiteboard with

26:10 Speaker 3: our plans, our evil plans. But anyhow, so coming soon

26:15 Speaker 3: is going to be an EP. I believe it's going

26:18 Speaker 3: to be six songs. It's gonna contain our self titled track,

26:21 Speaker 3: Crank and Wagon, and it will have, you know, a

26:25 Speaker 3: few other morsels of things that people who have seen

26:28 Speaker 3: us live have have already kind of gotten to know.

26:32 Speaker 3: But it's that's going to be mostly things that we

26:34 Speaker 3: wrote in the very beginning, okay, and some one thing

26:39 Speaker 3: I think that was written a little bit later, But

26:41 Speaker 3: most of it is original sort of Crank and Wagon,

26:44 Speaker 3: the founding, the genesis, of the band, Paul Frye mostly

26:48 Speaker 3: his direction and writing in those songs, and then once

26:52 Speaker 3: we complete that, once we put that out, then we'll

26:54 Speaker 3: set work on the concept album that was aforementioned that

26:57 Speaker 3: is mostly driven by Paul's creative direction in terms of

27:00 Speaker 3: the story. Musically, I would say this is where Santino

27:05 Speaker 3: and I sort of start to get more aggressive in

27:09 Speaker 3: terms of how we color the ideas of mister fry Okay, interesting,

27:15 Speaker 3: and some of the writing is is Zappa esque, some

27:19 Speaker 3: of it is Emerson, you know, Keith Emerson and Emerson

27:21 Speaker 3: Lake and Palmer esque, and then some of it is

27:25 Speaker 3: more in the vein of Paul Frye and the you know,

27:28 Speaker 3: obscure eighties kind of poland vibe that he is going for. Yeah,

27:32 Speaker 3: and the name Crank and Wagon kind of comes for

27:35 Speaker 3: an affinity from this post World War two sort of

27:39 Speaker 3: Cold War music from the Eastern Bloc and even actually

27:43 Speaker 3: parts of Western Europe as well, where it was unique,

27:49 Speaker 3: like not droning music, but music that was born of

27:56 Speaker 3: the despair of living in a place that was impoverished, oppressed,

28:03 Speaker 3: where you know, people didn't have creative freedom. Really, if

28:07 Speaker 3: you had it, it was underground. And it was not

28:09 Speaker 3: easy to share, and that I think inspires all of us,

28:14 Speaker 3: all three of us in the band, to varying degrees,

28:17 Speaker 3: but the idea that we use this band as a

28:21 Speaker 3: vehicle for exactly what we want to put out into

28:24 Speaker 3: the world, and that no one's going to tell us

28:28 Speaker 3: how we should do it.

28:31 Speaker 2: And if you like it, you like it. If you don't,

28:33 Speaker 2: you don't.

28:35 Speaker 3: But it is definitely it's not your stereotypical standards straight

28:39 Speaker 3: up rock and roll.

28:39 Speaker 2: It's very out there.

28:41 Speaker 1: Right yea. How often does Crank and Wagen play? Do

28:45 Speaker 1: you guys play? A lot?

28:47 Speaker 3: Fairly and frequently really, And that's deliberate. We're trying to

28:52 Speaker 3: what we do when we play live. We're trying to

28:56 Speaker 3: theme our sets. So the last several shows we've had

29:00 Speaker 3: have had different themes that we've stuck to. So when

29:03 Speaker 3: we the last show we did prior to this, it

29:05 Speaker 3: was Jurassic Park themed, Oh Wow, and we did the motif.

29:08 Speaker 3: We played the John Williams motif in three different keys

29:13 Speaker 3: throughout the throughout the set so that we would transition

29:17 Speaker 3: seamlessly into other songs. But we we did that John

29:20 Speaker 3: Williams motif and that again, like rock bands that will

29:25 Speaker 3: just put John Williams into their sets like that. It

29:29 Speaker 3: just you don't hear about that. It doesn't happen. And

29:33 Speaker 3: we just do it because we can, because musically we

29:37 Speaker 3: all have the ability, and we think it serves the songs,

29:41 Speaker 3: it serves the set and delivers a creative and interesting

29:46 Speaker 3: product to the people who are there in the audience.

29:49 Speaker 3: And we don't want to we don't want to be

29:54 Speaker 3: delivering just sets where it's like stopping in between every

29:57 Speaker 3: song and you know, we're like leaving dead air. We

30:01 Speaker 3: want to be really making people surprised. It's like, oh,

30:05 Speaker 3: they went into that song immediately, like what, how do

30:08 Speaker 3: they even do that? And we want to create that magic,

30:12 Speaker 3: and to do that we need more time in between shows.

30:15 Speaker 3: We need to be able to construct the sets really meticulously,

30:18 Speaker 3: get them where we want them to be. And it's

30:20 Speaker 3: the same as recording. It's like, you know, Santino is

30:24 Speaker 3: well aware of this led Zeppelin as a band, and

30:27 Speaker 3: I would argue that a lot of it is much

30:30 Speaker 3: more musically simple, especially the earliest stuff. But there is

30:34 Speaker 3: a lot of the stuff from led Zeppelin that they

30:37 Speaker 3: took a long time in between to really get what

30:41 Speaker 3: they wanted for a musical idea, right and feeling the

30:46 Speaker 3: way that they want to convey that emotion, and that

30:49 Speaker 3: is so important when you're doing something that is musically intricate.

30:53 Speaker 1: But now that's really interesting to the concept of, you know,

30:57 Speaker 1: making every show, you know, have a and have it

31:00 Speaker 1: be different because that I don't I can't think of

31:02 Speaker 1: anyone who really does that. Yeah, there's the top of

31:04 Speaker 1: my head. I can't think of anything.

31:05 Speaker 3: Yeah, there are some some bands that do themed shows

31:09 Speaker 3: and things like that, and you know, bands that will

31:11 Speaker 3: dress up and costume to do it where where maybe

31:14 Speaker 3: the show itself, the music itself is not themed. But yeah,

31:18 Speaker 3: but just the idea. I forget when it was when

31:21 Speaker 3: we kind of started doing that, but it was earlier

31:23 Speaker 3: this year, for sure. It was at the beginning of

31:25 Speaker 3: this year, and I think Paul just are just like, hey,

31:27 Speaker 3: let's do this theme for Strange Creek, and we just

31:30 Speaker 3: dressed up that way. We didn't really do much musically, Yeah,

31:34 Speaker 3: I guess we We put take Me Out to the

31:35 Speaker 3: Ballgame as an intro for our first song called America's Pastime,

31:39 Speaker 3: which which is a little bit of a play on words.

31:43 Speaker 2: But but anyhow.

31:45 Speaker 3: So we do things like that where we you know,

31:48 Speaker 3: we inject interesting ideas and we try to make the

31:51 Speaker 3: listener and the person who's in the audience think a

31:53 Speaker 3: little bit more about the music because we've thought a

31:56 Speaker 3: lot about the music.

31:58 Speaker 1: Yeah, now that's fantast When is the next Cranking Wagon show?

32:02 Speaker 1: Do you have something coming around?

32:04 Speaker 3: So the Wagon? The Wagon is coming to I think

32:09 Speaker 3: we're playing October tenth and eleventh. I think tenth is

32:12 Speaker 3: in Rhode Island. I forget the exact venue. Sorry, sorry

32:16 Speaker 3: to the listeners.

32:17 Speaker 2: Uh.

32:17 Speaker 3: October eleventh, though, is at Ralphs Rock and Diner in Worcester.

32:21 Speaker 3: And I believe we're going to be playing with Bass Sabbath.

32:24 Speaker 3: That show is actually not going to be super themed. However,

32:28 Speaker 3: we are going to be doing some of the music

32:30 Speaker 3: of Pink Floyd.

32:31 Speaker 1: Okay.

32:33 Speaker 3: We One of the covers we used to do, which

32:35 Speaker 3: we've kind of left out of recent sets was Sid

32:38 Speaker 3: Barrett Eric Floyd.

32:39 Speaker 2: We did what was the name of that to in

32:42 Speaker 2: the it went, I forget the name, got the name,

32:48 Speaker 2: Oh my god, something? No? Yeah, lyric, Yeah, it's in

32:57 Speaker 2: F sharp. I know, I'll the notes something but like

33:03 Speaker 2: a devil, No, I forget what the name of it is.

33:06 Speaker 3: You're not thinking, I can't, I can't even quote the

33:10 Speaker 3: song and I can, Yes, yes, Lucifer Sam Yes, early

33:14 Speaker 3: sid Bear at Eric Floyd. So we're probably gonna reincorporate

33:17 Speaker 3: that along with some other Pink Floyd classics that you

33:20 Speaker 3: know well.

33:23 Speaker 2: But uh so that that show.

33:24 Speaker 3: Is a little bit of a one off where we're

33:26 Speaker 3: doing more covers than we would normally do, but we

33:28 Speaker 3: will still play originals and uh you know that the

33:31 Speaker 3: focus is always on the original.

33:33 Speaker 1: Yeah, so excellent. And what about playing Summer in the

33:36 Speaker 1: Sky out like, do you if you had a chance

33:38 Speaker 1: to play that out live? Or what what's their plans

33:41 Speaker 1: to or.

33:42 Speaker 2: I haven't thought about that.

33:43 Speaker 4: Yeah, so, I mean I would like to assemble the

33:47 Speaker 4: band of some time next year and maybe do some

33:49 Speaker 4: some stuff like that. But for now, I'm just really

33:51 Speaker 4: enjoying the recording of it and make sure it's a

33:54 Speaker 4: good polished thing. And yeah, you know, in time, I

33:56 Speaker 4: think it's totally possible.

33:57 Speaker 3: You know, there's there's a lot of elements on that

34:00 Speaker 3: and to do it, to do it live, to do

34:02 Speaker 3: it live without horns or strings would be would be

34:05 Speaker 3: very difficult thing.

34:05 Speaker 4: As possible, but definitely, uh, something to plan out, and

34:09 Speaker 4: you know.

34:09 Speaker 1: It'd be hard to you know, I mean if if pressed,

34:12 Speaker 1: you could pull out an acoustic guitar.

34:14 Speaker 3: Exactly, but to do the harmony vocal stacks on it,

34:18 Speaker 3: and to really to really get the feel to.

34:20 Speaker 1: Do it justice.

34:21 Speaker 4: Yeah, I think getting a band together to do it

34:23 Speaker 4: somewhat justice. It's totally possible even without things like you know,

34:26 Speaker 4: vocal stacks or or strings or horns or whatever. But yeah,

34:29 Speaker 4: it's just it's finding the groove of it and finding

34:31 Speaker 4: everyone's place in it, you know.

34:32 Speaker 1: Yeah.

34:33 Speaker 2: So yeah, totally something that could happen for sure.

34:36 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I mean we.

34:37 Speaker 3: Certainly know people who are musically good enough to make

34:40 Speaker 3: that happen out doubt so absolutely yeah.

34:43 Speaker 2: One yeah, uh.

34:44 Speaker 1: Well, the time goes quickly, guys, and I do want

34:46 Speaker 1: to play I think we're going to play that song

34:48 Speaker 1: once more once more to end the segment.

34:50 Speaker 2: O great, great, thank you?

34:52 Speaker 1: What is there anything you guy? It's got a lot

34:55 Speaker 1: going on. I do want to make sure though, is

34:56 Speaker 1: there anything coming up that you want to mention that

34:58 Speaker 1: we didn't talk.

34:58 Speaker 3: About or well, I will say if you're local to

35:01 Speaker 3: New Hampshire and you want to come see me. Tomorrow

35:04 Speaker 3: I'm gonna be in Milford, New Hampshire doing a blues

35:07 Speaker 3: jam something totally different. Wow, open, open everyone. I do

35:10 Speaker 3: that with Craig Thomas the second Sunday of every month

35:13 Speaker 3: out at Riley's Place in Milford. And it's a fantastic jam.

35:18 Speaker 3: You can pretty much come and play anything, though it

35:20 Speaker 3: is more blues focused, and I would love to see

35:24 Speaker 3: people there and play with you because I love meeting

35:28 Speaker 3: all kinds of local musicians, especially people who are passionate

35:31 Speaker 3: about crazy and wild music. But yeah, come on out

35:35 Speaker 3: have some fun.

35:36 Speaker 2: That that's me. I know Tino's got his own schedules.

35:38 Speaker 4: So yeah, after yesterday the show we played we were

35:42 Speaker 4: talking about earlier, we're finally getting nice break. So as

35:46 Speaker 4: of now I can't think of anything, so I get

35:49 Speaker 4: to maybe sleep a little bit or record some more.

35:51 Speaker 4: So yeah, but maybe I'll check out that blues jam

35:53 Speaker 4: that CAB's doing too.

35:55 Speaker 1: You know what's funny as on a side about Milford,

35:58 Speaker 1: So Milford for for people listening online from other parts

36:01 Speaker 1: of the country, Milford, New Hampshire, it's just this town.

36:06 Speaker 1: It's not like a big metropolitan area, right it's just

36:08 Speaker 1: a small town in New Hampshire. But for whatever reason,

36:11 Speaker 1: like Milford comes up on the show all the time,

36:14 Speaker 1: and it sounds like like there's just a lot going

36:17 Speaker 1: on there's musically, it's so weird.

36:20 Speaker 3: It's like there's so many there's so many places in

36:24 Speaker 3: town in that town that have live music. And it's

36:26 Speaker 3: because the people in and around that little kind of

36:30 Speaker 3: part of that valley, sow he Can Valley just they

36:33 Speaker 3: love local music and they love all kinds of different stuff.

36:36 Speaker 3: But I will say they do it for proclivity to blues,

36:39 Speaker 3: no question. Yeah, the age and the demographic there's a

36:41 Speaker 3: lot for blues musicians there, but yeah, for just about everything,

36:46 Speaker 3: they have so much diverse wild doesn't.

36:48 Speaker 2: Yeah it's great. It's awesome to see.

36:50 Speaker 1: Yeah it is. Yeah it is. Yeah, you don't expect it,

36:53 Speaker 1: but yeah, Milford comes up all the time on the show. Caleb,

36:57 Speaker 1: where is the best place for people to go online

36:59 Speaker 1: to keep up with everything that Hatchet Acts and Saw

37:01 Speaker 1: Records is.

37:01 Speaker 2: Doing Hatchet Action Saws on Facebook.

37:04 Speaker 3: We do not yet have a website, but you can

37:07 Speaker 3: find us on Facebook Hatchet Action and Saw Records, And

37:10 Speaker 3: I believe we're getting some other social set up where

37:13 Speaker 3: you know, we're a little bit slacking on the socials,

37:15 Speaker 3: but we are.

37:16 Speaker 2: We're not slacking on the music.

37:18 Speaker 1: Oh that's for sure.

37:19 Speaker 2: That's for sure.

37:19 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, and uh, Santino, where should people go? Well,

37:23 Speaker 1: the single, of course is on all the platforms right,

37:25 Speaker 1: all the streaming platform somewhere in the sky. Where else

37:27 Speaker 1: should people go to keep up with everything that you're doing?

37:30 Speaker 4: I have, I have a Facebook page, Instagram page.

37:34 Speaker 2: Is my name? Yeah, yeah, it's basical things. For sure.

37:37 Speaker 1: You want to spell your last name for people who don't.

37:39 Speaker 2: Yes, D E, capital M O N T E.

37:43 Speaker 1: Very good and now I know how to say it tractly. Guys,

37:47 Speaker 1: this has been wonderful. Thank you bouth so much.

37:50 Speaker 2: Great.

37:50 Speaker 1: Absolutely, we'll definitely do this again in the future. And

37:52 Speaker 1: I think too, we're gonna We're gonna see Caleb on

37:55 Speaker 1: the podcast version of the show at some point in

37:57 Speaker 1: your future too. But we will end this segment with this.

38:01 Speaker 1: We're gonna play this again. Summer in the Sky, the

38:03 Speaker 1: debut single from Santino Demonti as a solo artist on

38:06 Speaker 1: Hatchet ACS and Saw Records. So this is really good.

38:08 Speaker 1: If you missed it earlier, we're gonna play this again,

38:10 Speaker 1: and if you are listening live on Saturday. Coming up

38:12 Speaker 1: next hour, we have Keith sam Land and his project Alienstone.

38:16 Speaker 1: He's gonna be joining us via Microsoft Teams, so really

38:20 Speaker 1: looking forward to talking with him. He's got a really

38:22 Speaker 1: interesting sound. Uh so uh. There is plenty more to come,

38:25 Speaker 1: but right now here it is summer in the sky.

38:27 Speaker 1: This is Santino Demante.

38:43 Speaker 6: The sound of the music in its.

39:03 Speaker 5: Mother.

39:04 Speaker 4: It s.

39:12 Speaker 6: The SnO.

39:20 Speaker 5: Score, So.

39:30 Speaker 6: Do away with the dream. The sunset rode the dress,

39:37 Speaker 6: the Indian.

39:38 Speaker 5: Perfect time did dreams that the day abouts did the

39:44 Speaker 5: shoe streams the same season stream nd Stone Satan so

40:01 Speaker 5: sun stock.

40:16 Speaker 2: So the storm.

40:23 Speaker 5: So stop so stop.

40:57 Speaker 6: So spot

41:05 Speaker 4: So