The Lürxx | Matt Connarton Unleashed

0:00 Speaker 1: Hey, welcome back everybody. This is Matt Connorton Unleashed and

0:03 Speaker 1: we are live from the studios of w m n

0:05 Speaker 1: H ninety five point three FM and Glorious Manchester, New

0:08 Speaker 1: Hampshire and of course streaming it Matt connorton dot com

0:11 Speaker 1: slash Live and we have joining us via WhatsApp. Hopefully

0:15 Speaker 1: it's working. It was a little glitchy. That's why it

0:17 Speaker 1: took so long to get him on. I think, and

0:19 Speaker 1: I don't know if I'm saying this right, so he

0:20 Speaker 1: can correct me if I'm not Chovy?

0:22 Speaker 2: Is that you? Yeah, that's correct.

0:24 Speaker 1: Hey, welcome to the show man. Hey. Sorry, by the way,

0:26 Speaker 1: thank you, thank you, thank you for being patient with us.

0:29 Speaker 1: Took a WhatsApp of course, we're doing this via WhatsApp,

0:32 Speaker 1: and it crashed on me a couple of times. I

0:33 Speaker 1: had to reopen it, but we finally we finally got

0:35 Speaker 1: you on the line. So you know. Oh yeah, technology

0:40 Speaker 1: will fail us at times. Am I saying your name correctly? Chavy?

0:43 Speaker 2: Yeah, it's Chovy. That's it's a cattle and name.

0:46 Speaker 1: Gotcha? Gotcha? Okay x A v I for those wondering.

0:49 Speaker 1: So that's why I wasn't sure when I. When I

0:51 Speaker 1: first looked at it, I thought maybe it was zav

0:53 Speaker 1: like Xavier, but but so I love And by the way,

0:59 Speaker 1: because it took a while to get WhatsApp resolved, we

1:02 Speaker 1: actually played a few of your tracks. Uh, yeah, yeah,

1:06 Speaker 1: we did. We opened with the new single of course,

1:08 Speaker 1: we Got It All, which I love, and we played

1:11 Speaker 1: a Man of the Golden Words, and then you know,

1:13 Speaker 1: we'll play another one of course at the end of

1:14 Speaker 1: our conversation. But uh, I really like what you guys

1:18 Speaker 1: are doing.

1:19 Speaker 2: Thank you, thank you so much.

1:21 Speaker 1: Absolutely so, can you tell us about the lyrics because

1:24 Speaker 1: the Lurks is and am I pronouncing that correctly? The Lurks?

1:27 Speaker 2: Yes, absolutely, you're you're tempt pronouncing all of that.

1:30 Speaker 1: Excellent, So tell us about the band because you guys

1:34 Speaker 1: have a very it's very positive you and you have

1:37 Speaker 1: you seem to have a very specific mission and you know,

1:40 Speaker 1: in terms of the issues that you're concerned about. You know,

1:43 Speaker 1: it's very it's very conscious, uh what you're doing your music,

1:47 Speaker 1: But tell us about it.

1:49 Speaker 2: It is. I'm here with Sonny as well, by the way,

1:52 Speaker 2: so oh wonderful, you're gonna help me out. Yeah, So

1:56 Speaker 2: so we we always say that. Well, we describe our

1:59 Speaker 2: music as a nature warrior uh glamplung, grunge, whatever, and

2:05 Speaker 2: the nature warrior bit. That's that's really what we're passionate about.

2:09 Speaker 2: Like you said, it's very we're we're really all about connection,

2:14 Speaker 2: like connection between people and nature and just kind of

2:18 Speaker 2: helping people to connect to their to their wild selves

2:22 Speaker 2: and uh, and to the nature around them and just

2:24 Speaker 2: kind of like I think the last song you were

2:26 Speaker 2: playing was Mustang, Yeah, I heard that correctly, and uh,

2:30 Speaker 2: and which is told from the point of view of

2:32 Speaker 2: a horse, so in order to kind of foster that

2:35 Speaker 2: empathy between people and the humans and other beings. So

2:39 Speaker 2: that's that's really our main message is one of of

2:42 Speaker 2: just positive connection because we think that the world is

2:46 Speaker 2: so messed up at the moment, and and we just

2:50 Speaker 2: think that connection like community between people but also between

2:54 Speaker 2: people and the natural world and all beings, that's just

2:57 Speaker 2: like the answer to so many of the problems that

2:59 Speaker 2: we have. And we just hope that with our music

3:01 Speaker 2: we can just inspire people to think along that route.

3:05 Speaker 1: No, I love it is that something that's always been

3:07 Speaker 1: important to you.

3:10 Speaker 2: Yeah, But I think we kind of we kind of

3:13 Speaker 2: wisened up to it just how important it is. Because

3:16 Speaker 2: when we started out back in the mid nineties with

3:19 Speaker 2: Black Lerks, which is basically the first incarnation of the Lyrics,

3:23 Speaker 2: we were like eighteen years old, like living on the

3:25 Speaker 2: streets of Hollywood, and we were much much less aware,

3:29 Speaker 2: I think, of all of the stuff. But then one

3:32 Speaker 2: of our very first songs that we ever did with

3:34 Speaker 2: the Lyrics was called the Age of Fish, and it

3:37 Speaker 2: was an ode to evolution and basically about how we're

3:40 Speaker 2: all equal because we all come out of like that

3:43 Speaker 2: first fish that crawled out of the water, and all

3:46 Speaker 2: life on land evolved from that. So it was basically

3:49 Speaker 2: an anti species this kind of thing without us knowing

3:52 Speaker 2: that it was, but it was always there at the

3:54 Speaker 2: core of us, and we've always loved nature and.

3:58 Speaker 3: Yeah, and that song was already on our very first

4:01 Speaker 3: demo that we recorded back then in nineteen ninety six.

4:04 Speaker 2: So I think that is.

4:05 Speaker 3: Completely right that that was always super important to us.

4:09 Speaker 3: But when we now really started making music again like

4:16 Speaker 3: the center of our lives, we also really decided to

4:19 Speaker 3: take that nature message into the center of the message

4:22 Speaker 3: of a band.

4:23 Speaker 1: Yeah, that's amazing. Yeah, I really like that, and I think,

4:27 Speaker 1: you know, I always say, whenever you can take a

4:30 Speaker 1: message that's important to you, something that you think that

4:32 Speaker 1: the world needs to hear, and you can if you

4:35 Speaker 1: put it to music that's also very catchy and very infectious,

4:39 Speaker 1: and you know, if you've got a song that has

4:41 Speaker 1: a great hook or something, that's really the best way

4:43 Speaker 1: to kind of transmit that message. It works with music,

4:46 Speaker 1: it works with comedy. You know, it works with other

4:49 Speaker 1: things too. Anytime that you can kind of do something

4:51 Speaker 1: that appeals to someone creatively, they're obviously going to be

4:55 Speaker 1: more open to what it is that you're trying to

4:57 Speaker 1: impart to them.

4:59 Speaker 2: Exactly. I think that whole like that, the whole positive

5:02 Speaker 2: energy that it brings is something because I mean the

5:06 Speaker 2: I'm a I'm an environmental scientist, so my day job

5:09 Speaker 2: is that I educate people about you know, climate change

5:14 Speaker 2: and uh and and everything. And I always find that

5:19 Speaker 2: it's so powerful to just talk about things in a

5:23 Speaker 2: positive way, kind of pointing out to people the beauty

5:27 Speaker 2: that's around us and how much there is to save,

5:29 Speaker 2: rather than being all doom and gloom and saying, well,

5:31 Speaker 2: I mean, obviously things are are quite quite doom and

5:36 Speaker 2: gloomy in many ways, But it doesn't mean that you

5:38 Speaker 2: should sit back and just kind of like lock yourself

5:40 Speaker 2: at home just watching Netflix all day and and you know,

5:44 Speaker 2: not not participate anymore. So I think that that positivity

5:47 Speaker 2: and it's something we get after our gigs. Like people

5:49 Speaker 2: literally they come up to us after our gigs and

5:52 Speaker 2: they they say, like, you know, can I hug you?

5:55 Speaker 2: You've just brought so much positivity to to my evening.

5:58 Speaker 2: And I think, you know, when when you get that,

6:01 Speaker 2: you know you're doing something right, because that's what. Yeah.

6:04 Speaker 2: I think we're also all about, like really giving people

6:07 Speaker 2: that positive energy so that they have the strength to

6:10 Speaker 2: keep going.

6:11 Speaker 1: Mm hmm. That's wonderful. Absolutely. Now I'm curious about the

6:15 Speaker 1: history of the band because the Lurks started quite some

6:19 Speaker 1: time ago and then there was there was something like

6:21 Speaker 1: a two decade hiatus, is that correct? So I'm really

6:24 Speaker 1: interested in this.

6:26 Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, So we basically we got to know each

6:30 Speaker 2: other when we were like twelve thirteen years old, and

6:32 Speaker 2: we started making music together and then we were indifferent.

6:37 Speaker 2: We had a punk band that released a little vinyl

6:41 Speaker 2: single back in ninety four, I think, like an independent label,

6:45 Speaker 2: and so we kind of had this idea of, Okay,

6:47 Speaker 2: we can actually make this like our thing, Like we've

6:50 Speaker 2: got a single release. Now we're just sixteen years old.

6:52 Speaker 2: We already got it like a single out, and we

6:54 Speaker 2: decided to just really go for it, and we did

6:56 Speaker 2: music full time for a few years, and we went

7:01 Speaker 2: to Hollywood and did the whole so Sunset Sunset Serve

7:05 Speaker 2: thing like ten years too late, so there was the

7:06 Speaker 2: Sunset serp was very not very much not happening at

7:09 Speaker 2: the time, but there was really cool underground like punk

7:12 Speaker 2: glampunk scene there, which which was cool. So we did

7:16 Speaker 2: that and we kind of took it as far as

7:18 Speaker 2: we as we could at the time we had we

7:21 Speaker 2: kind of went. We were at this cusp that I

7:24 Speaker 2: think many bands at some point find themselves on where

7:26 Speaker 2: there was some interest. We had management, we had interest

7:30 Speaker 2: from a big record label, Sony Records, and we had

7:33 Speaker 2: this offer for like one of these horrible development contracts

7:36 Speaker 2: where they're going to tie you up, give you no

7:38 Speaker 2: creative control over anything, and just basically trying to make

7:41 Speaker 2: a quick book. Yeah, and we turned that down, and

7:47 Speaker 2: that's kind of that was the end, the beginning of

7:49 Speaker 2: the end for Black Lerks because we just basically after

7:54 Speaker 2: turning that offer down, we kind of looked around at

7:56 Speaker 2: our options for being an independent band. And that was

7:59 Speaker 2: back in nine eight, so just before like the big

8:02 Speaker 2: Internet explosion happened, and the only the only way that

8:07 Speaker 2: we saw back then that we could make it as

8:09 Speaker 2: an independent band was basically hit the road, you know,

8:11 Speaker 2: be on the road two hundred eighty days a year

8:15 Speaker 2: and just kind of that's that's like what we saw

8:17 Speaker 2: independent bands around us do. And at that point, we

8:20 Speaker 2: had we had just we had a cat. We didn't

8:23 Speaker 2: want to have that road life. We just said, that's

8:25 Speaker 2: that's just not We wanted to write songs and be creative,

8:28 Speaker 2: but we didn't want to live in a van, and

8:31 Speaker 2: that it was just not what we were looking for,

8:33 Speaker 2: and we thought there's no other way, so it's it's

8:35 Speaker 2: all or nothing. And that's when the hiatus started because

8:38 Speaker 2: we're basically like, okay, if we if we can't do that,

8:41 Speaker 2: we don't want to be like hobby musicians who you

8:45 Speaker 2: know sometimes get out their acoustic guitars. And it just

8:48 Speaker 2: didn't sit right. So that's where we said, like and

8:51 Speaker 2: I think it was ninety nine or two thousand when

8:54 Speaker 2: there was some other there was some other happening. We

8:57 Speaker 2: actually had planned our tour through Europe. Uh, and then

9:00 Speaker 2: our drummer got badly beaten and had to have like

9:03 Speaker 2: a metal plate put in his skull and couldn't play

9:06 Speaker 2: the drums anymore for a while. And uh, and then

9:08 Speaker 2: I was really sick and I lost my voice and

9:10 Speaker 2: it was basically like then we had to cancel this

9:12 Speaker 2: entire tournament we had organized self organized, and uh. And

9:15 Speaker 2: at that point we were just like, yeah, right, screw it,

9:18 Speaker 2: We're done with this.

9:20 Speaker 1: Yeah.

9:20 Speaker 2: And then yeah, then we did other stuff. But I

9:25 Speaker 2: think when you're an artist, deep down inside you you

9:28 Speaker 2: can do other stuff. And we did other creative things

9:30 Speaker 2: as well. We always did our own thing. But but

9:33 Speaker 2: when when we kind of returned back to music a

9:37 Speaker 2: couple of years ago, now, it just completely took over

9:39 Speaker 2: our lives. It was insane. Wow, Like we we started

9:43 Speaker 2: writing songs again and and it was just like yeah,

9:46 Speaker 2: I know, it's like bam bam bang and then and

9:48 Speaker 2: and it's like whoa, whoa, wait a second, like what's happening?

9:53 Speaker 2: And now we're basically dedicating just as much time and

9:56 Speaker 2: effort to it. As we did back then, with the

9:59 Speaker 2: with the small difference that we're also doing our day

10:02 Speaker 2: jobs and we're not we don't have to actually live

10:05 Speaker 2: off the music, which is nice because we don't have

10:08 Speaker 2: to compromise anything we do. We can just do exactly

10:11 Speaker 2: what we believe in. Yeah. Yeah, so yeah, that's that's

10:15 Speaker 2: what happened.

10:16 Speaker 1: Well, it's wonderful, you know, and and and to see that,

10:18 Speaker 1: you know, to see it start to take off that

10:20 Speaker 1: way and people are really interested in what you're doing.

10:21 Speaker 1: I mean, that's that's obviously quite validating. But you don't have,

10:26 Speaker 1: as you said, you don't have the stress of having

10:28 Speaker 1: to depend on that to make a living, because it's

10:29 Speaker 1: much much harder than people realize.

10:34 Speaker 3: You know.

10:34 Speaker 1: It's funny when you when you talk about the Sunset

10:36 Speaker 1: Strip and all that, it's like, you know, back in

10:37 Speaker 1: those days, people had this idea that you sign a

10:39 Speaker 1: record deal and then you're you're being uh, you know,

10:42 Speaker 1: you're you're hanging out at the Playboy mansion and uh

10:46 Speaker 1: dating supermodels and you're suddenly filthy rich and you're living

10:49 Speaker 1: in you know, you're driving around in a Lamborghini and everything,

10:51 Speaker 1: and it's, uh, it's not how it works. It's really

10:54 Speaker 1: was never that simple.

10:56 Speaker 2: Yeah, and we were we were really, we were really

11:00 Speaker 2: I think that we did the Suncestor thing because we

11:03 Speaker 2: saw that happen. So we saw the we saw the

11:06 Speaker 2: dark side of these development contracts because there were these

11:09 Speaker 2: bands on the strip at the time that some of

11:12 Speaker 2: them actually got the record deal and and you know,

11:15 Speaker 2: we were like whatever eighteen nineteen, and it was always like, Wow,

11:18 Speaker 2: they're going to be like they're going to be big now,

11:20 Speaker 2: like Cold Chamber, They're going to be big, right, And

11:23 Speaker 2: then you know, they got they got all this money

11:25 Speaker 2: from the record company to get tattooed and peers and

11:28 Speaker 2: like represent and then it was one album, maybe one

11:32 Speaker 2: little hit single, and then they were just completely dropped

11:35 Speaker 2: because I mean all the labels did was and I

11:37 Speaker 2: don't know if they still do this, I really don't

11:39 Speaker 2: know what that type of the industry is like now.

11:42 Speaker 2: But I mean they just they were just throwing at

11:45 Speaker 2: the wall to see what sticks, and they didn't care

11:48 Speaker 2: about the bands or about their artistic development or any

11:52 Speaker 2: of that. It was it was very and seeing that

11:54 Speaker 2: I think was one of the reasons why we turned

11:57 Speaker 2: it down when it was offered to us. I think

11:59 Speaker 2: had we not seen that before with other bands, you

12:02 Speaker 2: would have probably been like, yeah, well Sony Records, let's

12:04 Speaker 2: sign our lives away.

12:06 Speaker 1: Totally right, exactly exactly. Well that brings me to another question.

12:13 Speaker 1: So in twenty twenty five, you guys, is this correct?

12:16 Speaker 1: Am I reading this right? You pulled your music from

12:18 Speaker 1: Spotify out of protest? Is that right? We did?

12:20 Speaker 2: Yeah? Oh yeah, we did.

12:22 Speaker 1: Yeah, tell me about that.

12:23 Speaker 2: Yeah. It was basically around the time when when it

12:27 Speaker 2: was in when the big news was that the Spotify

12:32 Speaker 2: CEO had invested all this money into military drone technology,

12:36 Speaker 2: and we just thought, well, we're pacifists, where we're all

12:39 Speaker 2: about like love and understanding, and the military drones about

12:42 Speaker 2: as far from from what we want than anything could be. Yeah,

12:47 Speaker 2: And it was basically that was the last job. I mean,

12:49 Speaker 2: we were already know no fans of Spotify, but when

12:52 Speaker 2: we came back, I mean with gen xers, so we

12:55 Speaker 2: came back into this digital world and we're like, right,

12:57 Speaker 2: how do you do indie music now? So in the beginning,

12:59 Speaker 2: we just did it all. We just uploaded our music

13:01 Speaker 2: to Spotify, and you know, we heard about that they're

13:04 Speaker 2: ripping artists off and they're not really paying fair raids.

13:08 Speaker 2: And then they started pushing AI music and all that stuff,

13:12 Speaker 2: and then that military drone thing was just like right, no,

13:15 Speaker 2: actually we have no interest in that, so we did

13:19 Speaker 2: pull it. There's there's one song still on Spotify that's

13:22 Speaker 2: called why We're Not on Spotify, So that's like our

13:25 Speaker 2: by message. So if you want to check that out,

13:28 Speaker 2: the lyrics on Spotify. One song why We're Not on Spotify.

13:31 Speaker 2: It's just the demo. We didn't really bother to produce

13:34 Speaker 2: the lot, but yeah.

13:35 Speaker 1: That's brilliant.

13:37 Speaker 2: I think we it just goes again. We we've we

13:40 Speaker 2: kind of became a bit disillusioned with this whole striving

13:45 Speaker 2: for streams and likes and then a numbers, which is

13:50 Speaker 2: why we actually now go back to doing radio and

13:53 Speaker 2: podcasts and really just end playing live a lot and

13:55 Speaker 2: just building this real community, because you know, when you're

13:58 Speaker 2: doing like radio, for example, you know like talking to

14:02 Speaker 2: someone like you who clearly like we all have a

14:04 Speaker 2: passion for music and for music discovery and for you know,

14:08 Speaker 2: connecting with other people who have that passion. And I

14:12 Speaker 2: just feel like if you're just chasing streams and likes,

14:17 Speaker 2: you kind of lose that. The whole point is to

14:19 Speaker 2: make a connection. Yeah, that's why we we kind of

14:24 Speaker 2: we still got our Instagram and we but we use it.

14:26 Speaker 2: We try to use it in a way that we're

14:28 Speaker 2: not trying to get like fifty k follows on there,

14:30 Speaker 2: but we're trying to really know the people who follow

14:32 Speaker 2: us and kind of like have personal conversations with them

14:35 Speaker 2: and use it as a tool to build community rather

14:38 Speaker 2: than chase numbers.

14:40 Speaker 1: Right. And I think it's great too that you are

14:42 Speaker 1: on band Camp because I'm a big you know, supporter

14:46 Speaker 1: of band Camp. What a lot of people don't know.

14:48 Speaker 1: What a lot of people don't realize about band camp too,

14:50 Speaker 1: is if you if you purchase and download music from

14:53 Speaker 1: band Camp, you're getting a better quality file then you are,

14:57 Speaker 1: say if you're just streaming it on YouTube or even Spotify.

15:00 Speaker 1: With band Camp, you get the best possible quality file

15:03 Speaker 1: that you can and and you know, and it matters,

15:04 Speaker 1: especially if you're listening with high quality headphones and everything.

15:07 Speaker 1: You want to really hear everything exactly the way that

15:10 Speaker 1: it's meant to be heard. So I'm a big, big

15:12 Speaker 1: fan of band Camp.

15:14 Speaker 2: Yeah, they're awesome. Our new recket that's coming out soon

15:18 Speaker 2: is also going to be on band camp, and there's

15:21 Speaker 2: also there's a new platform. I don't know if you've

15:23 Speaker 2: heard about Subvert.

15:25 Speaker 1: I have not. I have not.

15:27 Speaker 2: No, it's it was actually it's a it's really brand new.

15:31 Speaker 2: They just started being open to the public and we're

15:34 Speaker 2: part of like their founding that they had a bunch

15:37 Speaker 2: of artists that got behind them before they officially opened

15:40 Speaker 2: it up. And it's basically the ideas that it's musician

15:42 Speaker 2: owned and it's like it's it's also very much based

15:46 Speaker 2: around communities. So if you google subvert, it should come up,

15:51 Speaker 2: and there the ideas that you get actually all of

15:55 Speaker 2: the proceeds from your from your sales. And I don't

15:58 Speaker 2: quite know how the back end of it were because

16:00 Speaker 2: I'm I'm I'm an illiterate with these kind of things.

16:03 Speaker 2: But it's a really it's a really cool platform. It's

16:05 Speaker 2: easy to upload, you can down it's basically like band Camp,

16:08 Speaker 2: but it's really owned by the musicians that that are

16:13 Speaker 2: on there. So I think it's it's some kind of

16:16 Speaker 2: like a community thing.

16:18 Speaker 1: Okay, I don't know.

16:20 Speaker 2: Yeah, so we're on there, we're on band camp, and

16:25 Speaker 2: then what we also do is that through our website,

16:27 Speaker 2: you can also just download our music for directly for

16:30 Speaker 2: our website as well, in high quality. So we're just

16:33 Speaker 2: trying to make it as accessible as possible, right because

16:36 Speaker 2: I really we believe that that's one of the great

16:40 Speaker 2: booms nowadays with the Internet, is that you can actually

16:43 Speaker 2: make your music accessible also to people who just cannot

16:46 Speaker 2: afford to buy music. So our music is always is

16:51 Speaker 2: free basically. I mean, we love it when people pay

16:53 Speaker 2: for it because we think, you know, it's it's valuable

16:55 Speaker 2: and if people can pay for it, that's awesome. But

16:58 Speaker 2: it's the same with our merch at concerts. It's all

17:02 Speaker 2: our merch is pay if you can and otherwise, you know,

17:05 Speaker 2: we just have an honesty box and we the good

17:08 Speaker 2: thing is we don't need anyone to man our merch table,

17:12 Speaker 2: right and honestly.

17:14 Speaker 3: We we always say pay what you can, pay if

17:16 Speaker 3: you can, steal if you must.

17:19 Speaker 2: Right. But the cool thing is, ever since we started

17:24 Speaker 2: doing that, we're earning more with merch sales than ever before.

17:28 Speaker 2: Like it's so cool because yeah, again it's it's just

17:32 Speaker 2: about like people are good. I like I trust in people,

17:35 Speaker 2: Like most people are are good people. I think and like,

17:38 Speaker 2: you know, they might get corrupted by bye, by the

17:42 Speaker 2: way the world is sometimes, but I think you got

17:44 Speaker 2: to trust in people. And yeah, I I really love

17:48 Speaker 2: that about the Internet. That kind of made it possible

17:51 Speaker 2: to share your art uh with everyone and uh and

17:55 Speaker 2: then people can can go and support you if they

17:57 Speaker 2: if they wish, like in a monetary way. But the

18:00 Speaker 2: more important thing is really to get it out there

18:02 Speaker 2: and yes, spread that positive energy absolutely.

18:06 Speaker 1: So the new album, what's the album called.

18:09 Speaker 2: It's called Exile from Mainstream, Okay, Oh, I like that.

18:12 Speaker 2: I like that because Exile Exile on main Street was

18:16 Speaker 2: one of our favorite albums growing up and we always yeah,

18:22 Speaker 2: and we we always wanted to have a setup like

18:26 Speaker 2: they did because they recorded it at Keith Richard's house

18:28 Speaker 2: in southern France in their home studio, and that was

18:32 Speaker 2: always our dream. And now with thanks to digital technology,

18:35 Speaker 2: we have this home studio where we recorded it at

18:38 Speaker 2: home and we thought, like, yeah, and it's super It's

18:41 Speaker 2: like not mainstream. It's very kind of seventies rock almost,

18:45 Speaker 2: like if it's like hard rock, stoner rock, a little

18:48 Speaker 2: bit up punk. Men of Golden Words is on there,

18:51 Speaker 2: and we got it all is on there, and there's

18:54 Speaker 2: a lot of songs about about nature and just kind

18:58 Speaker 2: of it's kind of chill. It's kind of like a

19:01 Speaker 2: mixture of I don't know, like like Mother Love Bone

19:06 Speaker 2: and Pearl Jam and the Chili Peppers, and it's it's

19:09 Speaker 2: kind of it's a very gen X album in a

19:11 Speaker 2: way because that's who we are.

19:13 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, so that should be.

19:17 Speaker 2: We're doing the final, final, final mixes, Like we're at

19:19 Speaker 2: that stage where every mix is called final Mix one

19:23 Speaker 2: and then final Mixed ten, and so we're at that

19:26 Speaker 2: stage of mixing, so it should be. It should be

19:30 Speaker 2: done pretty soon. Where we just sent it over to

19:33 Speaker 2: our friend who actually that Mustang song that you played

19:37 Speaker 2: earlier that was from our last EPA and all of

19:41 Speaker 2: that was mixed and mastered by our friend James Michael,

19:46 Speaker 2: who was the lead singer in six Am.

19:48 Speaker 1: Yes, yes, I'm I'm a big fan. I'm a big

19:51 Speaker 1: fan by the way. Yeah I love six Am And yeah,

19:55 Speaker 1: James is great.

19:56 Speaker 2: Yeah, James is awesome. He's we became friends with him

19:59 Speaker 2: a wi ago and and he just when he retired,

20:04 Speaker 2: he basically took on that EP as a retirement project.

20:07 Speaker 2: He just did that for us and we we did it. Yeah,

20:10 Speaker 2: Like we sent him the tracks and he mixed them

20:12 Speaker 2: and we worked on it together. And he's still a

20:14 Speaker 2: mixing gurus. Every time we have a question, we're like,

20:17 Speaker 2: we're just messaging him on what step, Like, James, can

20:19 Speaker 2: you have to listen to that? What what do we

20:21 Speaker 2: do here?

20:22 Speaker 1: That's awesome?

20:23 Speaker 2: Yeah, it's it's really amazing working with him because yeah,

20:27 Speaker 2: he's a super He's just a great guy and amazing

20:30 Speaker 2: to have someone like that.

20:32 Speaker 1: Yeah, no doubt, no doubt. Oh, by the way, so

20:35 Speaker 1: are you guys twins?

20:37 Speaker 2: A sort of I would say, yeah, we're twins. We're twins,

20:42 Speaker 2: like apart from that, we don't have the same parents.

20:46 Speaker 2: Oh okay, we self identified, We self IDENTI.

20:51 Speaker 1: Okay, because I saw something online about you guys being twins,

20:54 Speaker 1: and I was like, oh, it's.

20:57 Speaker 3: Been it's been happening to us for so many years.

21:00 Speaker 3: Said every time people get to know us, they're like,

21:02 Speaker 3: are you twins? So?

21:04 Speaker 1: So why why is that?

21:06 Speaker 3: Like?

21:06 Speaker 1: What what is the dynamic there that that makes people

21:09 Speaker 1: think that?

21:11 Speaker 2: I think it's we've just we just found each other

21:15 Speaker 2: in a in a like it was one of these

21:17 Speaker 2: soul made kind of things. When we met, we instantly

21:21 Speaker 2: just knew that there was a connection there that that

21:24 Speaker 2: we just that we wouldn't have with anyone else. And

21:27 Speaker 2: I think that's it's like it's a connection like with

21:30 Speaker 2: a twin. From what we've heard from from twins that

21:33 Speaker 2: we've talked to, it's like you just you just know,

21:37 Speaker 2: we just we just know, we always know what we're thinking.

21:40 Speaker 2: We we just we we're so connected on this deep level,

21:44 Speaker 2: which is not Yeah, it's just it's just very different

21:47 Speaker 2: from other friends or from just like a partner. It's

21:51 Speaker 2: it's a way, it's it's a weird it's a weird thing.

21:55 Speaker 2: It's just like a it's a soul made thing.

21:57 Speaker 1: I think, yeah, I sort of get that. I I

22:02 Speaker 1: played in a band many years ago called My Life Crisis,

22:04 Speaker 1: and I was in this I was in the band

22:06 Speaker 1: with this guy Dave Dave Blaize, and and he was

22:09 Speaker 1: kind of like like, I mean, nobody, nobody ever thought

22:11 Speaker 1: we were twins, but he was kind of like my

22:13 Speaker 1: musical soulmate in that, you know, if we would write

22:16 Speaker 1: songs together or record together, like it was there was

22:19 Speaker 1: like this intuitive thing that I've never quite had with

22:22 Speaker 1: anyone else that I had with Dave. That made it

22:26 Speaker 1: made it very easy to work with him. Yeah.

22:28 Speaker 2: Yeah, I think intuitive is a great word. It's just

22:31 Speaker 2: like you don't you don't have to talk about stuff.

22:33 Speaker 2: It's just it's just there. It's just a connection that's

22:37 Speaker 2: just there. Yeah, And it seems to spill out because

22:40 Speaker 2: people always ask us like are you are you siblings?

22:43 Speaker 2: Are you twins? It was always uh. And then we

22:46 Speaker 2: took it up and our moms can't tell our voices

22:48 Speaker 2: a part on the phone.

22:49 Speaker 1: Oh interesting, Oh mother doesn't know. Oh that's funny, that's great,

22:59 Speaker 1: that's great. Oh and one other thing to tell me

23:02 Speaker 1: about the name the Lurks. Where does the name come from?

23:06 Speaker 2: Well, that's that's the longest story tell it. Yeah, So

23:12 Speaker 2: we used to when we were when we were like

23:15 Speaker 2: sixteen seventeen, in our in our most messed up time,

23:19 Speaker 2: we had this. We had this friend who was a

23:22 Speaker 2: very very spaced out, weird guy, and he had this

23:26 Speaker 2: way of just staring off into space and saying normal words,

23:31 Speaker 2: but saying them over and over again in this way

23:33 Speaker 2: just that like turned the word hilarious. Like he would

23:37 Speaker 2: just say a random word and it was just the

23:40 Speaker 2: most hilarious thing, and especially if you were stoned, it

23:43 Speaker 2: was especially hilarious. And he was from Austria, tell you

23:47 Speaker 2: was a German speaking guy, and he had this and

23:50 Speaker 2: they had this hilarious Austrian accent. And so one of

23:54 Speaker 2: the words he would say was the word lush, and

23:59 Speaker 2: lush is that's how he would say. It is the

24:03 Speaker 2: German word for the animal newt. So we we really

24:09 Speaker 2: love that. We we love we love the we love Newts,

24:11 Speaker 2: and we we love the way he said that word.

24:14 Speaker 2: And then we kind of made up a made up

24:17 Speaker 2: plural of it, like if it's if you pronounce lure

24:21 Speaker 2: like the way it spelled l u r c h,

24:25 Speaker 2: so it's kind of like lurk, and then you put

24:28 Speaker 2: an es in, it will be lurks. It will be

24:29 Speaker 2: several luis and u. And then we we added the

24:34 Speaker 2: umloud and the double X because we weren't Chiniky six

24:38 Speaker 2: and Modley crue and needed to be and that and

24:42 Speaker 2: that's it, and that's why we have a Newt as

24:44 Speaker 2: our band logo. And we didn't at the time realize

24:47 Speaker 2: how immensely fitting that would turn out to be, because

24:50 Speaker 2: I mean, Newts are amphibians so they kind of live

24:53 Speaker 2: in the water and on land, and we have this

24:55 Speaker 2: whole thing with water and all life coming out of

24:58 Speaker 2: the water. So the Newt is a is a great

25:02 Speaker 2: masket animal for us. But yeah, it was. It was

25:06 Speaker 2: simply it was a joke. It was just a druggy

25:08 Speaker 2: joke really with the name, and then it just stuck.

25:11 Speaker 1: Yeah, no, I like it.

25:12 Speaker 2: I like it over the years. Yeah. Yeah.

25:16 Speaker 1: Well the cool thing too, is with a name like that,

25:18 Speaker 1: you don't have to worry about finding out at some

25:20 Speaker 1: point in the future. Oh, somebody else already has the

25:22 Speaker 1: rights of this name. They're sending us letters. You know,

25:25 Speaker 1: you don't have to worry about it when you've got

25:26 Speaker 1: a really unique and interesting name like that.

25:29 Speaker 2: That's true. Yeah, it's always like it's it's in times

25:33 Speaker 2: now where people always want to google you. You just

25:35 Speaker 2: make to have to make sure they know how to

25:37 Speaker 2: spell it.

25:37 Speaker 1: But yeah, right, it's But.

25:41 Speaker 2: Actually it's funny because our current masket animal actually ended

25:45 Speaker 2: up being a pink money rather than the Newts, So

25:48 Speaker 2: we switch switched animal maskets now because we we did

25:52 Speaker 2: this video to Man of Golden Words, and it features

25:54 Speaker 2: a stop motion animation of this pink toy bunny, and

25:58 Speaker 2: then I have a I have a leather jack that

26:00 Speaker 2: has a big like a bunny on the back, a

26:02 Speaker 2: nature warrior bunny.

26:04 Speaker 1: Yeah.

26:05 Speaker 2: So so now we actually like, uh, a bit of

26:08 Speaker 2: a bunny. We've bit of a bunny band now that

26:11 Speaker 2: just kind of happened.

26:13 Speaker 1: That's awesome, very good, very good. So where's the best

26:17 Speaker 1: place to go online for people to keep up with

26:20 Speaker 1: everything that you guys are doing with everything all things

26:22 Speaker 1: the Lurks? Where should people go?

26:26 Speaker 2: Our website? So we're at www dot theminus lurks dot com.

26:32 Speaker 2: There's where there. All our music is on there. There's

26:35 Speaker 2: like a biography thing you can deep dive into our history.

26:39 Speaker 2: And then we're pretty active on Instagram at the lurks

26:43 Speaker 2: just in one word, okay the l u R double X.

26:48 Speaker 3: And of course we got a lot of beautiful music

26:49 Speaker 3: videos on YouTube.

26:51 Speaker 1: You do you do? I was checking them out? Yeah,

26:53 Speaker 1: absolutely absolutely. Do you guys do those yourselves? Is that

26:56 Speaker 1: di I y? Or do you have someone who works

26:57 Speaker 1: with on the videos? Works with you on the videos?

27:00 Speaker 2: That's all? They excellent.

27:02 Speaker 1: You guys are doing a great job with that. That's great,

27:04 Speaker 1: thank you. Yeah, not everyone can pull that off, So

27:08 Speaker 1: in a moment, we'll let you guys go in a

27:09 Speaker 1: moment and we'll we'll we'll wrap up. But I do

27:12 Speaker 1: want to play again. We played it earlier, but it is,

27:15 Speaker 1: of course the current single We got it all. What

27:18 Speaker 1: should we know about this track? Love this song?

27:21 Speaker 2: It's an ancient song. We wrote that song when we

27:25 Speaker 2: verse sixteen, Wow in our in our punk uh, we're

27:29 Speaker 2: our first punk band, and we've always loved it, and

27:32 Speaker 2: we never got around to recording it. And the only

27:35 Speaker 2: new part of that song is the middle bit with

27:38 Speaker 2: the compass of compassion. Follow the compass of compassion. We

27:42 Speaker 2: added that in, but it's basically always been as it is.

27:45 Speaker 2: It's a it's an anti capitalist, anti anti normative society

27:51 Speaker 2: song where it's basically saying, you know you ain't a

27:56 Speaker 2: true The confusion is better than compromise, Like, don't go

28:00 Speaker 2: compromising who you are. It's okay to be confused, It's

28:03 Speaker 2: okay to be like not a straightforward being. It's okay

28:08 Speaker 2: to you know, question things and change your mind, but

28:10 Speaker 2: don't try to compromise your ideals and your and your

28:14 Speaker 2: dreams just so you you fit in. Because people always

28:18 Speaker 2: want to kind of make you believe that everything has

28:20 Speaker 2: to be straightforward and if you deviate from that, you're

28:23 Speaker 2: somehow deficient. But we're saying that deficiency that's what makes

28:27 Speaker 2: you human. And yeah, so that's really the core. And

28:31 Speaker 2: then just follow your inner compass of love and empathy

28:34 Speaker 2: and compassion and connection and then you'll be all right.

28:38 Speaker 2: Then then you'll have it all.

28:39 Speaker 1: Yeah. Oh I love it. I love it very very

28:41 Speaker 1: positive and it's uh and it's a great song, and uh,

28:44 Speaker 1: I love what you guys are doing. We will definitely

28:47 Speaker 1: do this again in the future, especially it sounds like

28:48 Speaker 1: you have some new music coming up. So absolutely, let's

28:53 Speaker 1: stay in touch. We'll definitely have you back on guys.

28:55 Speaker 1: Thank you both so much. The lurks, we will uh,

28:58 Speaker 1: we'll talk to you soon, all right, take care, guys.

29:02 Speaker 2: Thank you for having us.

29:03 Speaker 1: Thank you, you got it, Bye bye bye. All right.

29:07 Speaker 1: The lyrics they are not twins, it turns out, but

29:09 Speaker 1: they but they are very close to it. And uh, yeah,

29:12 Speaker 1: I really enjoyed talking with them. I look forward to

29:14 Speaker 1: having them back. And as I said, they do have

29:16 Speaker 1: some new music coming up that they talked about, so

29:18 Speaker 1: we'll have an easy excuse to have them back in

29:20 Speaker 1: the very near future. But in the meantime, let's give

29:23 Speaker 1: this a spin. We did play it earlier, but this

29:25 Speaker 1: is the current single and I like this a lot.

29:28 Speaker 1: It's catchy. This is called we Got It All.