Swarmiefest 4 | Matt Connarton Unleashed

0:00 Speaker 1: All right, that is pushed. The band is Sepsis. Welcome everybody. We have entered our number three New Marrow trace of Matt Connorton, unleashed and we are live from the studios of WM and H ninety five point three FM and Glorious Manchester, New Hampshire. If you are listening live. Today is Saturday, November fifteen, twenty twenty five, and it's the big day. Swarmy Fest is here, the day we wait for all year and we are very pleased to have. So we have Sepsis in the studio with us. Hello everybody, Yeah, Zachi be over there.

0:29 Speaker 1: Who's leaving the band?

0:31 Speaker 2: Wait?

0:31 Speaker 1: Mention that? So are you having auditions already, William.

0:35 Speaker 3: Or what's Well's that's one way you could translate it, I should call that. So there really is a process, and the first process, because we're a social media band, yeah, is to like the band, learn a song and upload it to the internet.

0:52 Speaker 1: Yeah.

0:53 Speaker 3: We've had a lot of people that have shown interest, but nobody who's really gotten past step one. Okay, okay, Yeah, Zach beat packy Be is like step twelve, right right, so he really set the standard. Yeah, so we kind of now we kind of know, more close to what we're looking for long term.

1:11 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah, it's always always a prospers. We're not in a rush though, right, okay, good good, Yeah, that's not something you want to rush into certainly. Uh Melissa is here of course as well. Hell well, welcome back and uh over there is a Lexi. Who is this? Is it right? This is the big debut?

1:28 Speaker 4: Yeah, this is the big debut.

1:29 Speaker 3: On stage out with the band. Very good, Actually, it's pretty good. She's being demoted.

1:35 Speaker 1: Oh, it's not a step down from well, the band member.

1:42 Speaker 3: I could. I think it's I think it's spiraling up. It's just a different department. But like in the business in our company, the treasury, but the merch girl actually has a higher administrative oh rank.

1:56 Speaker 1: Oh okay, so so you've lost your power. It sounds like alexis yeah the one player. There you go, there you go. I'm a creative role yeah yeah, no, outstanding. So now we need a merch girl. So now you need a bass player and a merch girl. Yeah wow, okay, all right, So who else is in is in the room with us? We have various.

2:17 Speaker 3: Everyone hears auditioning for merch and bass.

2:21 Speaker 1: Merch excellent, excellent.

2:24 Speaker 3: So this is the crazy thing. But a lot of us are Halo players, okay, And for ten years Melissa has a gaming community called Inclusive Community Gaming.

2:40 Speaker 4: I don't screw it up.

2:45 Speaker 3: Yeah, and if you meet all kinds of crazy people online anyway, But we play Xbox and is for those of you that are familiar with Halo, it the multiplayer respawn shooter. It's an older game, yeah, but there are newer versions of it and you can play multiplayer with people all over the world. So we have a game in community. And we're not just a band. We're also a game in community.

3:10 Speaker 1: Yeah.

3:11 Speaker 3: And in all of our communities, you know, people have things in common if they find common ground a lot of times. And like, video games in general are like one of the last untapped markets for advertising. Like it's one of the it's one of the few places where you can go online where there isn't a pop up okay, right, Like if you're playing a video game, there isn't constant advertisements for Nike.

3:34 Speaker 1: And yeah, I never thought, I never thought. I never thought about it before. But there must be some games that have some sort of mobile games. Yeah, mobile games are big on advertising. Okay, okay, but all of this is changing too. Oh that makes sense, yes, yes.

3:49 Speaker 3: Yes, But so we've had the game in community and originally the first time we ever did like a band created festival, like something that we organize our selves. Yeah we uh, most is gaming community came down and sponsored it.

4:05 Speaker 1: Okay.

4:06 Speaker 3: So that's kind of where we started to get the idea for this originally because a lot of are the people that we play games with and and and we play Halo. They're from all over the country. Okay, so some of the people in this room are people that we play Halo with real yeah, and they may and they may they may not be directly related to our game and community. But like our friend Lindors is here. That's his gamer tagged guy and read he's he's from New Orleans and he came up wow for the show. So he brought himself and in some of his friends.

4:39 Speaker 3: And Eric is a good friend of ours from PA we played. We get around when we can, and and he is a returning swarm me fact. I don't know if you remember before, but he's returned. This is your third time I think coming so oh second second, so he's returning and and Bernie and Ed in the corner there are like they are like they're almost like band members.

5:08 Speaker 1: Okay, but like the.

5:09 Speaker 3: Closest thing that you could be as like staff or band members. Okay, the og okay, all right. And then in the doorway, the young fellow with the dreads is my son. Oh, he works for me for free today.

5:26 Speaker 1: Nice. Nice.

5:28 Speaker 3: And behind him is staff member Rints. Okay, he's a Scepts, a staff member.

5:35 Speaker 1: Oh, very good, very good.

5:36 Speaker 3: Hell and he has a girlfriend Maggie with him. Okay, all right, that's a lot of people.

5:41 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, very nice, excellent, excellent. So let's talk about.

5:47 Speaker 3: Tonight Swarmy Fest. One thing about swarm Fest. We always bring new bands. Yes, I can't ask these guys to keep coming back and showing the same bands, right, unfair. So one thing I have to promise is that remains something that's grassroots, you know, something where we want to grow it and we hope that it continues to get bigger and we continue to do it because people request us every year to do it. Yeah. So as long as people are having fun and they request us doing it, and they request cool features, Me and Melissa and Lexi, everybody in the band are going to try to make that happen.

6:23 Speaker 3: And the goal is to grow it, but not grow it to the point where we can't have a conversation on the phone yea, or we can't have a solution. Because one of the big things that we see with festivals or big shows is they get so big or so corporate, oh yeah, that people can't supervise or manage it right barely.

6:44 Speaker 1: It becomes this monster that's hard to even come all.

6:47 Speaker 3: Right, you got to have then you have to start making friends with lawyers and you got this, you have to know how to speak in court. That's not the kind of relationships that we want to make.

6:57 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, not for us.

6:59 Speaker 3: Right. We don't want to be so professional or so industry that we need to hire people to live out this dream for us.

7:04 Speaker 1: Right, we should talk about the lineup. So, of course, obviously sepsis Silent Season, under the Horizon, Pulsifier, Temptress, and the Cherry Fog. It's quite a show.

7:15 Speaker 3: I'm blown away.

7:16 Speaker 1: Yeah, I believe it, Yeah, absolutely, And these are all we were talking earlier, Jenny and I too, about how these are all bands that have been on the show except for the cherry Fog, but I did, but I was checking them out and I love them and I have been.

7:29 Speaker 3: Like corresponding with them.

7:30 Speaker 1: Yeah.

7:31 Speaker 3: So I think they were hoping that they could come on some time in the near future.

7:36 Speaker 1: Oh definitely.

7:36 Speaker 3: Yeah, we got to get them. Mind, I'll try to make that. I'll try to keep that conversation going.

7:40 Speaker 1: Really good, really good. And then, uh, and who are a Lilith Cat and the Blood Witch again?

7:46 Speaker 3: Yeah? So they are horror alternative dancers models, and I think I think Lilith Cat does some like like like restraint or like I don't know what you would call it.

8:05 Speaker 1: Like dangling.

8:08 Speaker 3: No, no, no, is that what it's called? Yeah? Yeah, you know when I'm just forgive me, I don't have the education English for it, but you know when they either do like hooks or ropes they okay.

8:21 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, all right, oh interesting, interesting, okay, okay.

8:27 Speaker 3: Yeah, so they they have they have a stage dancing performance right before the steps that set.

8:34 Speaker 1: Okay, okay, excellent, time, excellent, excellent. So we should talk about the sponsors. So, of course, you know, we're very honored and privileged Matt Connorton unleash to be involved as always, and we have Legion of Solace on with us in the last hour. Let's see. So also speed Gamon Promotions.

8:49 Speaker 3: Yes, yes, shout out to Josh and the yep.

8:51 Speaker 1: Okay, and what do they what do they do? Exactly? Think I think Josh was supposed to be on the show with us at one point and have the reschedule.

8:58 Speaker 3: But I love Josh and and I'm trying to I'm always trying to get him on this show. Yeah, yeah, because he has just such a wealth of information. He's a vet. Yeah, he's a straight shooter. Yeah, and he as well as everybody that's sponsoring this show. We keep a close circle. And the reason why we do that is so we can all communicate. And what we're communicating is the same type of goals of like community enrichment, independent business to business relationships, long term growth, you know, not screw o who's a little guy, creating opportunities where you know, there's not a lot of money in rock and roll, in local music, but we want to try to create events where they're incentivized, they're fair.

9:49 Speaker 3: If people do get paid, they're getting paid fairly, right, that's it.

9:56 Speaker 1: Yeah, Yeah, So is that kind of what Josh is doing?

9:59 Speaker 3: Yeah, and that that's his theme and we both we both resonate and share that same goal. Yeah, and we we we tend to have the same sponsors come back, I think because I think I spoke on this before. You all do such a great job, and we don't want to take up a lot of flyer space, right with people clout chasing or you know, and if you and if you have a flyer and you put one hundred sponsors on it, and people tend to overlook it, right, Yeah, So we really want to have a little more quality over quantity, especially this year.

10:35 Speaker 3: Yeah. It's hard to do ten bands in two rooms. Oh yeah, and then some bands get missed or some people don't get to see.

10:43 Speaker 1: Did you do that two years ago? Obviously you didn't do that at U Tafada, but two years ago at Julia did that, right, Yeah?

10:49 Speaker 3: And I don't think I do it again. And and it's because we still want to be the type the type of people that can hang out with everybody a little bit. Yeah, and we want to be able to We want Swormy Fest to continue to be a social event. As I was being able to like support the bands and check out a few vendors. It's also a place where people can talk about culture and art and share their ideas. Swormy Fest is a safe space, so people can speak there and beat themselves and support the bands at the same time.

11:24 Speaker 1: Yeah, and let's see also violets rain for all the sponsors.

11:29 Speaker 3: Yeah. And Gypsy is a good friend of mine. She she brings in like healing oils candles Okay, yeah, okay, yeah, this this year, we wanted to go with with a magical theme. Okay, you know, you know, healing aroma therapy. She does. I think she's making a black light invasion steps as candle.

11:53 Speaker 1: Okidd Oh, that's cool. That's a cool idea.

11:56 Speaker 4: You's got a bunch of stones and things too.

11:58 Speaker 3: Yeah. Danee Lin's creations is similar where it's like everything from like patches and trinkets and you know, self help, motivation and LGBT inclusive themes.

12:15 Speaker 4: Yeah, knitting, crochet.

12:17 Speaker 3: Chakra stones. Yeah, and of course you know, and you get all the bands there with this stuff.

12:22 Speaker 1: Yeah yeah. And then what about BPS Records? Are they still gonna be there?

12:25 Speaker 5: I know?

12:26 Speaker 1: And they were, they were supposed to be on the show with us, and I know there was some sort of an emergency, So I don't know if there.

12:30 Speaker 3: Is, I'm not I hope they can make it to the actual Yeah. So yeah, I've yet to get a full update.

12:37 Speaker 1: Okay, okay, yeah, I hope everything's okay with them. I know, I know something went wrong, but hopefully nothing too serious.

12:42 Speaker 3: But when you have a show like this, this is the weirdest thing, and not just the part I don't like when you have a show like this because it's getting a little bit bigger. You know, you start off with thirty people, then yeah, forty people, but as the show gets bigger, the more people, you know, you make relationships with and you're trying to hold it together. If you have the larger your audience, something's going to go wrong. Oh of course with somebody. You know, if you have an audience attend people, the likelihood of somebody twisting their ankles a little low.

13:13 Speaker 3: But once you have an audience of seventy five people, somebody's mother passes away. Yeah, somebody gets sick that week. So you know, when you have a show at this size and you're one of the organizers, you kind of have to prepare for some a little bit disappointment.

13:30 Speaker 1: Oh yeah, you have to.

13:31 Speaker 3: It's not really prepared. My job isn't prepared for things to go well, right, it's kind of and my job is to prepare for how am I going to behave and how am I not? How am I going to respond and not react when things don't go my way?

13:49 Speaker 1: Exactly? Exactly? Have you had this is the fourth fourth Swarmy Fest. Have you had a lot of surprises over the years doing this or My impression is that the things have gone smoothly overall, right, But I mean I'm sure, I'm sure things go wrong.

14:07 Speaker 3: That is a that is a fair impression. We have a lot of people working on this.

14:10 Speaker 2: Yeah.

14:11 Speaker 3: Yeah, so it's it's not like you've got a good team. I do, and then and and many of them are in this room. Yeah so, and we're working on it all year.

14:18 Speaker 1: Yeah.

14:19 Speaker 3: I want to give a special shout out to my partner for Swarmy Fest, Larry Loud from Loud Entertainment.

14:25 Speaker 1: Oh he's great. Yeah, we had him and uh, I'm never sure.

14:29 Speaker 3: Yep.

14:30 Speaker 1: We had them on the on the show not too long ago. Hopefully. Baboo's okay. I know he has some health.

14:34 Speaker 3: He's doing good, he's at he's at their new club tonight, the Canary they got, they got, they got that big club now up in Massachusetts. Yeah, so he's doing that, but Larry will be there tonight.

14:44 Speaker 1: Oh excellent, excellent. Yeah. Yeah, he's a nice guy.

14:46 Speaker 3: Yep.

14:46 Speaker 2: Yeah.

14:47 Speaker 1: And how did that come about working with Loud Entertainment because you didn't have them on board?

14:52 Speaker 3: Want me to tell you the truth?

14:53 Speaker 2: Yeah?

14:53 Speaker 1: Yeah.

14:55 Speaker 3: So the truth is we were doing an event and I won't say where, but we were doing an event and Larry wanted to book us for a show.

15:04 Speaker 1: Why won't Why won't you say where? I'm curious? Can you say why? You won't say where?

15:09 Speaker 3: Just because because people become emotional and and and there are there are levels of emotional where people tend to throw out rational thought. Okay, and that's just something I'm not going to engage with people online because then it becomes negative and if it's negative, it's a failure.

15:24 Speaker 1: Yeah.

15:25 Speaker 3: Okay, so you know I don't kiss and tell.

15:27 Speaker 1: Ok fair enough.

15:30 Speaker 3: But Larry was asking, you know, promoters want to know who can you get in the door? Can you get five people? Can you get ten people? It's not ugly, but it.

15:40 Speaker 1: Is a question that Yeah, it's a valid, valid concern.

15:42 Speaker 3: So you know, if you got a room capacity it two fifty promoters interested in you, they're gonna they might ask a band, or they might ask the talent. Hey, how many people do you think? How many tickets? How many pre sale tickets do you think you can sell? And I, you know, I I have an open door. I have a pretty open policy. Yeah, you know, we sepstants. We show our mistakes.

16:06 Speaker 1: Yeah.

16:08 Speaker 3: So he said, what would you get at your last show? And I said, oh, you know, go ask the promoters themselves. I said, don't take my word for it. Get in touch with the venue, and I want you to double check to so you can see what our attendance was. So he had been in contact with the venue and they said, oh, well, Sepsis, they only brought sixty people to the show, so I wouldn't recommend them. They said that we that Sepsis only brought sixty people to the show, and that we're not a big enough band, which I accepted, and then I reminded them all that not many bands in New England get twenty five people in the door.

16:55 Speaker 3: It's tough, yeah, yeah, And I'm not trying to be mean right, I'm trying to tell the truth right exactly. You can think whatever thought and focus on that, but

17:11 Speaker 3: ignoring your thoughts and focusing on the truth that the truth is the biggest local bands in New England don't draw twenty five people every show.

17:23 Speaker 1: Sure.

17:25 Speaker 3: Or consistently. It's very difficult and if they did, we would be the first band that sent them an email to try to book with them, right of course, because it's a win. Well to me, is to lose if you're the only person in the band and Zachie b has to get all the audience members, or Melissa has to write all the songs, or the headliner and the co headliner are responsible for the majority of the draw, we have a and I think that creates an inside sir from an outside circle and it leaves independent artists subservient, submissive and relying on national acts and talent buyer talking power.

18:11 Speaker 3: Yeah, and we don't want nobody to be able to repurpose, misuse or set our value for us. Right, So it's a good way of putting it our pathway and there is no wrong way for anybody. This is just for us. We're not telling people what to do. Continue doing whatever works for you, yep. But we believe that no band and that's what Swormyfest is about, that no band should have to get one hundred people in the door, right, Not because we're moral or there's good guys and bad guys or evil or good. It is because we just don't have to.

18:47 Speaker 3: Logistically, local bands don't have to get one hundred people in. How about just ten?

18:52 Speaker 1: Right?

18:53 Speaker 3: But if you've got five bands and this you know, five people in the band, twenty five people there, and every band member brings two or three people, then it's not you're not leaving it to one band member or or a headliner, and then then you don't have all of the lobbying in playing with the paperwork when it comes to local when it comes to national acts coming into town, right right, it takes.

19:21 Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely, absolutely, yeah, yeah, definitely definitely. This is a little bit of a side street. But I know Jenny had told you that, uh so this show, we usually stream it on Facebook and we're not doing that for right now, and she said, you kind of chuckled that about that and the reason we're not and we're still going to YouTube and actually LinkedIn, believe it or not. But Uh. Facebook has banned me from live streaming until December, and I have and I have no idea why, because they don't like to tell you.

19:54 Speaker 1: You know, these social media platforms, they don't like to tell you what you did wrong. They just like to tell you did something wrong. I can do everything else on Facebook, I just can't live stream the show.

20:02 Speaker 3: That's the I mean, that's the way it is for That's the way it is now for all of the apps. Yeah, you know they have that for sure. I mean that's kind of a hack, isn't it. You know, you create a special program and there's no human beings that you can talk to. Rights, does it Twitch?

20:20 Speaker 1: Does it?

20:20 Speaker 3: All the apps on your phone do at Yeah, there's no customer service.

20:23 Speaker 1: Yeah.

20:25 Speaker 3: Yeah.

20:26 Speaker 1: It's funny too because people, you know, we talk a lot about.

20:29 Speaker 3: AI, but AI is all supposed to make the world easier for us, right in theory. We're supposed to save money and be happier. But it's been with us.

20:37 Speaker 1: It's also been with us for longer than people realize, because if you're talking to a chat bot, I mean you're literally talking to a chat bot, you know, And I know that I know that the person who told me via Facebook support that I'm banned from live streaming until December. Who couldn't tell me the reason why? I know that that wasn't a real person, right, I know that was a chat I was talking to AI, and you know, and I don't know if they even fully understood what I was describing as the problem.

21:05 Speaker 3: Right, you know what I mean? But most people, most people, if you sit most people down and you remove them from a group of other people from the construct, and you sit them down and you ask them what the purpose of artificial intelligence is, they're not gonna be able to tell you.

21:19 Speaker 4: Yeah, but I mean, isn't it supposed to be intelligent?

21:25 Speaker 1: Yes?

21:26 Speaker 3: Well what what made the intelligent thing a human being? So so if you're a gamer, you know, I gotta tell like me and my gamer friends, like AI is not new to us, like if like the idea of AI or just all of these gadgets and gizmos. If you're a gamer, if you've been playing Xbox your whole life, it's not really a new concept for us, right.

21:50 Speaker 1: Right, Yeah, that makes sense. That makes sense. Are you concerned about and curious any any of you? Are you concerned about AI and its effect? On on music.

22:02 Speaker 3: Did you see the news Did you see the new Bathwater video where where the hornets were flying out of Lexi's.

22:09 Speaker 1: Yeah, oh so those weren't actual hornets. I was concerned when I watched it.

22:19 Speaker 3: I was like, poor, Unfortunately our lead singer Melissa sets herself on fire and her body skeleton burn up into flames.

22:32 Speaker 1: But that but that didn't actually happen, right, That was a because I was also concerned about that. I was like, poor Melissa, that looks very painful.

22:43 Speaker 3: Back then, we used to have to really throw bugs at them.

22:45 Speaker 5: And is that why you're leaving the bid? It sounds very remember we signed that paper, sounds very dangerous.

22:59 Speaker 3: Whatever happens in stays and step yes, yes, uh.

23:04 Speaker 1: Yeah we should Uh you want to play another what should we? Let's play something? We can play a Sapsus track, unless you want to play something from one another bands?

23:14 Speaker 3: Or what do you play a Silent Season song? You want to play a silent which one?

23:18 Speaker 4: Hopeless boy my favorite song?

23:20 Speaker 1: Yeah, we played this one in the first hour, but I'm happy to play it again. That's okay, we can play it again. Different. It was a different hour. It was a whole different hour. No, this is my favorite Silent Season song. This is a great choice. All right, let's give this s spend Silent Season. Of course, one of the bands playing tonight at Swarmyfest, and we're going to talk more about that on the other side of this. But this is a great track. This is called hopeless

23:42 Speaker 1: and I don't hear anything, and I think I know why. I'm gonna try that again. I'm gonna have to edit that on the podcast. This is dull, hopeless Silent Season.

24:18 Speaker 6: I feel the pressure falling, telling my s I fe feel safe behind every single day, all those same like my Sonchas and chanty. No is gonna make me fall time, no chancey suit chel sing and well knows the goven Listen, Tess.

25:11 Speaker 3: I'm buried and I'm no praise.

25:15 Speaker 5: How it felt so sad and.

25:21 Speaker 3: I say that I can't break it.

25:23 Speaker 2: I charge change, serve me that starts so row.

25:32 Speaker 6: No's gonna save you, no chasy suits say test and will know no s thank go saves a serious book.

26:03 Speaker 3: I'm not a sush with my inshie rits. I don't know which way is still for.

26:14 Speaker 2: My ears from my shot make you work doctor God.

26:22 Speaker 2: Still feel alone gol watching at back.

26:27 Speaker 6: Very signs not my.

26:33 Speaker 2: Here chassy, so.

26:41 Speaker 6: I'll say.

26:44 Speaker 3: Sas not well know.

26:49 Speaker 6: Thanks? Wis no checks.

27:19 Speaker 4: There it is.

27:19 Speaker 1: The track is Hopeless. The band is a Silent Season and they will be playing tonight at Swarmyfest. If you are listening live on Saturday, it is November fifteen, twenty twenty five. This is Matt Connorton Unleashed And of course we're talking today. It's all about Swarmyfest tonight at Jewel right across the street really on Canal Street here in Manchester and really looking forward to tonight. And of course we have William and Zachie b and Melissa and Lexi here from the band and uh and you brought you brought some other folks with you and who now, Who's who's going on last tonight?

27:55 Speaker 1: Is it? Is it Sepsis?

27:57 Speaker 3: Yeah? Yeah, we like to do that, yeah, because of the clock, you know. Yeah, so if we're running a little late, we could either add or take away music.

28:09 Speaker 1: Yeah, it gives you a little little bit of flexibility there. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's good. That's good. Who's opening the show? You know?

28:15 Speaker 3: At this I think I think Temptris is opening the show.

28:19 Speaker 1: Tempriss is opening. Yeah, yeah, we have them on. We played I don't know if you've listened to that song Carly that they have, but Jenny and I are like addicted to that song.

28:27 Speaker 3: We make we make sure this is this probably sounds crazy, but we listen to the bands that we book. Yeah. Well yeah, I know it seems like that would be like a generic thing, but a lot of times people don't do that, you know.

28:42 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, true.

28:44 Speaker 3: You know, if if a band says to a promoter, hey, I pretty pretty pinky swear promise, right then I'm gonna that I'm really good and I'm gonna bring fifty people, sometimes people believe that, right, right, that is true that I've never met a band that says my band is terrible and we're bringing.

29:00 Speaker 1: No one, right Yeah, yeah, of course of course. So now what is now after? Obviously, you know, today is a very big deal. But after you get through today, what's what's kind of the what else does the band have in the works other than you know, you got to find a new bass player or replace them with AI or whatever.

29:19 Speaker 3: But I can talk about the a I think forever. I think, I well, the Swarmy Fest really starts on the Friday, which is last night, so we all, yeah, we all hang out and we do like staff and the VIPs and people that helped getting the show together, we all hang out together, and folks that may have came used years before and new people get to all meet each other. Yeah, and it's nice because that way you can go to the venue some of the people that are traveling or familiar with people there, right, instead of telling everybody, hey, just just meet at the venue and we're the only people they know.

29:52 Speaker 1: Yeah, it's just.

29:53 Speaker 3: Nice to have a few other people to that you're familiar.

29:55 Speaker 1: With, of course.

29:56 Speaker 3: Yeah.

29:57 Speaker 1: Yeah.

29:59 Speaker 3: But the real cherry on top is the Swarmy Fest after.

30:05 Speaker 4: Party, yeah, with our best Pajama contest.

30:09 Speaker 3: Oh okay, yeah, this and we do a theme, so there's a you know, just like with every show, Stepsis does a wardrobe theme for anybody that's keeping score, and we also do an after party theme. And this year is the after party Pajama Jamie jam okay, and if you bring if you don't have to, but there's a limited amount of people. Yes, you know, we don't want to get arrested.

30:35 Speaker 1: Yeah, but.

30:38 Speaker 3: Folks can if they if they buy tickets early, they can send us screenshots and it automatically gets them into the after party. And then if they bring pajamas, they can win a gift card.

30:51 Speaker 1: Oh that's a cool concept.

30:52 Speaker 3: Yeah yeah, whoever's got the coolest pajamas on we have or cosplay and we have you know, female judges that are going to judge. Everybody'll be fun.

31:01 Speaker 1: Okay, all right, cool, So that's tonight.

31:04 Speaker 3: So if you're the only person out there and you brought your pajamas, you won.

31:09 Speaker 1: Wow. Wow. So you can win by forfeit basically.

31:12 Speaker 3: A lot of people, yeah, a lot of people like man, I don't want to wear any pajamas. But that's good because that that just narrows down the competition. So when no matter what, when no matter what, and I guess if nobody wears their pajamas, we'll spend a gift card.

31:29 Speaker 1: And then so what happens after all this, So after you get past Swarmy Fest? So like do you know, like are you are you recording new music?

31:35 Speaker 3: Oh that's what you meant. Yes, yeah, yeah, yes, yes we would. We would record more music, but it's expensive to record our music. Yeah, it really is. And because we really want the best quality we could get for us.

31:52 Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely absolutely. Where do you record normally?

31:56 Speaker 3: I mean, so there's two processes. We record track out a lot of it at our house.

32:01 Speaker 1: Yeah.

32:02 Speaker 3: And then the second half is working with Glenn Robinson. Okay, we either meet with him video or he mixed and masters on his own.

32:09 Speaker 1: Okay.

32:09 Speaker 3: Is he in the area or is he he's some Canada? Oh he's Oh he is, Okay, but he's got studios in New York, Vermont.

32:16 Speaker 1: Okay, Because I was gonna say, I know the name.

32:18 Speaker 3: Glenn Robinson is is world renowned? You know?

32:21 Speaker 1: Yeah?

32:21 Speaker 3: Yeah, you know Gore Jason Newstead. Yeah.

32:26 Speaker 1: Is that what makes it so expensive? Because you talked about.

32:29 Speaker 3: Well, no, but we are in it. We are in an industry of showing people that we know important people and that we've worked with important people.

32:38 Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah.

32:39 Speaker 3: That's the whole purpose of Swarmy Fest is for all of us to create a long lasting resume.

32:45 Speaker 1: M h m hm. How do you when you're when you're putting together Swarmy Fest in terms of the bands that you have booked, and you know, you talk about how you don't want to have the same bands every year obviously because I gets stale. But but what what is kind of the criteria that you look for with the band. It's because it's a really good mix.

33:01 Speaker 3: It's disappointing and it's depressing because I have to do it, and because you have to tell people, you have to, you have to, you have to tell people no. That's something I want to do. I don't want to make people unhappy. I don't want to tell people or or I don't I don't want to tell them no and then they feel that I don't like their band or that I don't like their because I like everything man, but like like I loved, I love death metal. But over the we used to book with a lot of death metal bands in our shows, and and like we had a lot of people say, you know, can we just do one or two?

33:37 Speaker 3: Like a lot of our fans, they want to more of a mix. So we've been trying to do more of a blend. Yeah, you know, or you'll get people to say, you know, we used to book a lot of rappers and stuff, and people wanted more of a blend. So just with with with Because we book around Sepsis, we try to now book the bands that really like us and fit in with us. We used to book bands that didn't even like us. Really, yeah, why do you got to like our music? All you gotta do is be professional and get people in the door.

34:08 Speaker 1: Oh, that's true. You don't got to like me, right, that's true.

34:11 Speaker 3: All you got to do, all you got to do is what you agreed to do. Right, You don't. You don't have to do what you're not committed to do. And you don't have to do what you agreed to do. You don't have to do which you didn't agree to.

34:25 Speaker 1: Do, right, right, So if they didn't agree to like, right, we don't. We don't.

34:29 Speaker 3: We don't or don't us. We don't force people to like us, and we don't. We don't make music and some bands do do that. I'm not being sarcastic, of course. Some artists make music for people to like it.

34:41 Speaker 1: Yeah.

34:42 Speaker 3: We just make music. Yeah, and if you like it, you like it.

34:45 Speaker 1: Yeah.

34:45 Speaker 3: If you don't, then you don't. We don't care. That's not it's not a goal of ours to create music that Spotify likes, right, because then we have to go, Well, let's find out what Spotify likes. What's the method of Spotify likes to two minutes and eighty seve seconds Spotify like that when you don't you swears Spotif so, then who's right in the art?

35:04 Speaker 1: Now?

35:05 Speaker 3: Our fans. So if if we let our fans hold us hostage, if we if we let the apps and the gadgets hold us hostage, me and Melissa can't write right, yeah, yeah, then we can't be authentic. Yeah, so that's week. There's already a lot of bands that are writing for the industry. Oh, sure, there are a lot of Always, there are plenty of bands that write for their fans. Yeah, there are plenty of bands that write to be monetized. Yea. We write to be honest, We write to be authentic. Yeah, we write to just be ourselves.

35:36 Speaker 3: We just write to to do it.

35:38 Speaker 1: Yeah. Are the two of you? Your the principal songwriters? You and Melissa, the two of you write everything.

35:43 Speaker 3: These days, it's it's whoever's doing it, Okay, Okay, these days it's like if we're in the creative process. You know, we were in the we were in the studio last year and and and Zach sat sat down for a few minutes and we just didn't have a baseline, you know. Yeah, and it's just sitting here listening to the music. I think, trusting our ears and playing with each other. We've all been working with each other for so long. Yeah, there's a little bit of our personality of the music. So we we've all gotten accustomed to what each other like.

36:16 Speaker 3: Yeah, so sometimes you know, LEXI will write a drum pattern that she knows I'll be impressed with, or you know, or I'll throw I'll throw a riff at Melissa and I'll know because you know, she'll be sitting there like, Okay, yeah, that's that's stock. I'm not ready yet. It's got to be bigger than that. And when it gets big, you know, and then Melissa doesn't doesn't say much. But but but she's got you know, she got the communication when she likes something, you know, that big old smile come up. And really, I want to write music that my band members want to play, you know, not.

36:54 Speaker 4: Just quiet here. I'm quiet in reality.

36:58 Speaker 3: So like I I go around and we have like a peer reviewing process, and some of our most passionate friends and fans and people that have been working with us are in our staff chats and stuff. So like we'll come up with riffs or creative ideas, and we'll just ask people do you like it, and like if they like it or if they have extra feedback. We usually go as a team together what we all feel is best for the music, right.

37:26 Speaker 1: Right, excellent? So what so tonight are you playing? Uh, let's see, so are you playing the new song Bathwater? Are you playing that tonight?

37:34 Speaker 3: Or we're playing Bathwater?

37:36 Speaker 1: Excellent? Excellent? What about force you to lay down? You playing that one?

37:41 Speaker 3: Yes?

37:42 Speaker 1: Okay, good because I we played that in the first hour today of the show, and I said, I hope they play that tonight.

37:47 Speaker 2: Yeah.

37:48 Speaker 3: Yeah, so tonight's set list.

37:51 Speaker 1: I'm glad you're answering these questions because I don't know if you remember this, but last year I asked you and you you didn't want to reveal anything on the air about what was get mad at me?

38:03 Speaker 4: People get mad if we give everything away different.

38:07 Speaker 3: Yeah, we'll go, hey, tune into Matt Connorton and then we'll tell them the set list. Yeah, that has happened. Yeah, And people don't get like raging man. Of course, they're like busting with us, you know, yeah, yeah, okay, but you.

38:24 Speaker 1: Are playing those two Yeah, so you've committed you've committed to that, and I'll give you I'll give you a cheat.

38:29 Speaker 3: Okay, we have a new band member joining the band, so naturally we're gonna play a lot of songs that incorporate the new band member. Whether it be, whether it be keyboards are screaming, you're gonna see a lot of the new band member. Yeah, all right, all right, that is because that is the new edition. Okay, so that people haven't heard people haven't heard us with keyboards in a while. We've had DJ's keyboards, all kinds of different versions of this band.

38:56 Speaker 1: That's true. Yeah, the band has gone through a lot of iterations.

38:59 Speaker 3: I've shown somebody a picture of Stepsis ten years ago with Melissa before the braids, and they were like, yeah, they didn't even know who they were looking.

39:07 Speaker 4: At such a baby face.

39:09 Speaker 3: Yeah they didn't know. Yeah, they thought were showing them another band.

39:12 Speaker 1: Yeah, so it's gonna be a geared more toward newer material then, right.

39:16 Speaker 3: I hope.

39:16 Speaker 1: So if it, if it's.

39:18 Speaker 3: I always want to because we because you know, we're responsible for still pushing our very first song. Yeah, Like artists make that mistake of believing that everybody heard their first favorite.

39:30 Speaker 4: Song and then they stopped pushing it, and they stopped pushing it.

39:33 Speaker 3: That's why we don't have a huge library or catalog because we don't want to be one of those artists with like twenty albums of music that nobody listens to.

39:40 Speaker 1: Yeah, that's a really good point.

39:42 Speaker 3: Yeah, really good music that nobody listens to.

39:45 Speaker 1: Right, because you might have right because if you so.

39:47 Speaker 3: Much music gets missed with even with national artists, to the big artist. Sure, even traditionally they only push a couple of singles. Right, even ten years ago, thirty years ago, even when the albums had seventeen tracks on it, they only picked one or two songs. And that's what the Yeah that that hasn't changed. Well, yeah, everybody pushed the singles. No, they push singles back then too.

40:10 Speaker 1: Oh yeah, well yeah, like when I work with clients, when I work with radio clients doing college radio promotion, you know, we pick a we pick a single, and we we send that out and you know, if if if a station isn't biting on that single, you know, maybe you'll try to, well, you know, here's the whole album, maybe there's something here, you like, try to get them to play something.

40:28 Speaker 3: But but it's push was that song?

40:30 Speaker 1: Yeah?

40:31 Speaker 3: Push was the push?

40:32 Speaker 1: Was that?

40:32 Speaker 3: So when our album came out and our record label like,

40:37 Speaker 3: you know, we wanted we want a black light to be to be fun, you know. Oh yeah, but in the middle of black Light it says let's go f it r.

40:45 Speaker 1: Right.

40:46 Speaker 3: We didn't know that getting into this.

40:48 Speaker 1: Oh.

40:49 Speaker 3: As a result, you haven't seen you haven't seen a Sepsist song since with a bad word in it.

40:53 Speaker 4: Yeah's everything on our first well there is one.

40:59 Speaker 3: Uh fair to say it's on our first album. Oh okay, yeah, Well never like anything anything that was written after that, we will never yeah yeah, I'll never do it ever again. We never swear Yeah.

41:11 Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah. I don't know if you even realize this. I played black Light Invasion I made I made a radio edit of it. Really, I played it years ago. It was before we ever even met, because I do that other show, Local Outbreak, Yes, and I played it on that show just because I just found you guys online and I was like, oh, I like this song, and I just I made a radio edit of it. So when it gets to that part instead of you know what, it says yeah, yeah exactly, yeah, yeah, thank you, yeah yeah, not to send that to us.

41:41 Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't. I don't think I still have it, but that that would have been geez, that would have been at least well, when when did that song come out?

41:47 Speaker 3: It's over ten years, right, so I think I think I think the first time we ever gave that to you, it was like a demo version, I believe.

41:55 Speaker 1: Well, no, when I when I played it originally, I just found like I said, we hadn't even met. I found it on line. I found you guys online on band camp, I think is right.

42:02 Speaker 3: So that song, the song that the version that everybody hears now yeah, wasn't really was not recorded until twenty nineteen.

42:12 Speaker 1: Oh so the one I played was what was it a dem Yes? That was online?

42:16 Speaker 3: Okay, yeah, yeah, strange Stepsis fact. We we we didn't. We've we've been a band for fourteen years.

42:22 Speaker 1: Yeah, but we didn't.

42:23 Speaker 3: We didn't release music until five years ago.

42:25 Speaker 4: Oh it's because we've gone through so many different lineups.

42:29 Speaker 3: Yeah, and the music changes, you know. Oh yeah, oh wow, Okay, that's true a lot of time. A couple a couple of Stepsis facts. Yeah, most most people that play in Stepsis don't play over don't play over eighteen to thirty months, okay, and most members that play in Stepsis play under thirty shows. Okay, that's just it's just what it is. Yeah, yeah, that's just what it is, all right, So don't feel bad, Zach there, hold on, hold on, hold on, never there are there are no band members except for Robert Pan and Lexi, who have lasted in the band more than two and a half three years.

43:12 Speaker 3: Wow, no kidding, No, that's just that's just what it is. Yeah, yeah, Lexi's been in the band for seven years and Robert's been in the band on and off for ten years.

43:22 Speaker 1: Well but she's only been in the band band today, right, So that that resets the clock, doesn't that reset the clock in a new apartment? Yeah, so you're starting all over, yes, complete newbie. So now you can't leave at least for another two and a half years.

43:42 Speaker 5: I could break.

43:43 Speaker 1: That's true. That's true. Well we are oh wow, we are rapidly approaching the top of the hour. It all goes so fast. So one last push for tonight, So swarmy fast tonight. Doors open at seven or does the show start at seven?

43:57 Speaker 3: Doors at six? Music six thirty oh.

44:00 Speaker 1: Music starts at six thirty.

44:02 Speaker 4: Yes, okay, gotcha's changed since the flyer.

44:04 Speaker 3: Oh okay, okay, no, that's what the original flyer did say that though, And that's good.

44:10 Speaker 1: To tell our live listeners that though. So yeah, so so. Tonight, Loud Entertainment presents US Swarmy Fest Sepsis Silent Season under the Horizon Pulsifier, the Cherry Fog Temptress, also featuring Lilith Kat and the Blood Witch, and of course Matt Connorton Unleashed. We are very proud and honored to again be participating along with Legion of Solace, Speed Demon Promotions, Violets, Rain BPS Records, Denny Lynz Creations.

44:35 Speaker 3: Did I miss anybody that was really good?

44:38 Speaker 1: Thank you? I try. Well, We're Jenny and I are really excited about tonight. So we're we're very very happy and always wonderful to have you on and wonderful to have all of you here. Thank you for coming in, thanks for having me absolutely absolutely so yeah. So if you're listening live on Saturday, make sure you come to Jewel tonight for Swarmy Fest. And yeah we are. I don't even have time to play another song, we are out of time, but that's okay. We had a lot to talk about. That's a good problem.

45:07 Speaker 1: So if you miss any part of today's show, it'll be up in just a little bit at wmnhradio dot orgon on my website Matt connorton dot com. And that's it for us for now. We'll see it's warm me Fest by everybody. Bye.