The Painting | Matt Connarton Unleashed

0:00 Speaker 1: What a great song that is. I love that. That

0:02 Speaker 1: is called Scarlet. The band is the Painting, the album

0:05 Speaker 1: is Before the Rain, and let's get Lewis in here.

0:08 Speaker 1: Lewis Taylor is on the line with us via Microsoft Teams. Hello, Lewis, Hi.

0:14 Speaker 2: There, how's it going good?

0:15 Speaker 1: Good, Welcome to the show. I love that song. I

0:17 Speaker 1: love that song so much. That is that is so good?

0:20 Speaker 1: We play that. We played it when it first came out,

0:23 Speaker 1: and I still love it as much as I I did.

0:26 Speaker 1: Listen to the entire album, by the way, Before the Rain.

0:29 Speaker 1: I think the whole thing is great. So I'm really

0:30 Speaker 1: happy to have you on the show today.

0:32 Speaker 2: Oh, thank you. I'm really glad to be here to this.

0:34 Speaker 1: We excellent.

0:36 Speaker 2: Just before we go in it further, I went to

0:38 Speaker 2: pass on condolences as well to yourself about your dad.

0:42 Speaker 2: I lost my dad a couple of years ago, and

0:44 Speaker 2: so I know what it's like.

0:46 Speaker 1: Yeah, no, I appreciate that very much. Yeah, it's it's

0:49 Speaker 1: it's rough, it's yeah, it's it's uh. I'm still I'm

0:54 Speaker 1: still kind of processing it all. But I'm sorry to

0:57 Speaker 1: hear that you lost your dad a couple of years ago.

0:58 Speaker 1: But yeah, so you you know what, uh, you know

1:00 Speaker 1: what we're going through here. But no, I appreciate that

1:03 Speaker 1: very much.

1:04 Speaker 2: No, no, no problem, but uh.

1:06 Speaker 1: So happier subjects. So, like I said, I love the

1:08 Speaker 1: band and you guys are from Glasgow? Is that correct?

1:12 Speaker 2: Yeah, we're we're based in Glasgow. We're all all the

1:15 Speaker 2: members are were you know, originally from different parts of Scotland,

1:19 Speaker 2: but we're all based in Glasgow.

1:20 Speaker 1: Okay, okay? And then how long has the band been around?

1:24 Speaker 2: Oh as this iteration of the band, maybe around the

1:31 Speaker 2: year and that's what I thought. Yeah, beforehand we were

1:35 Speaker 2: in a we were a different band with a different name,

1:39 Speaker 2: but that will that will changed about a year ago

1:42 Speaker 2: and we decided to change name and change direction slightly

1:46 Speaker 2: with what kind of music we played as well.

1:49 Speaker 1: So The Painting as an entity then is a is

1:51 Speaker 1: a relatively new, uh project, which is interesting because you've

1:55 Speaker 1: already got you've already got a full album out, Like

1:57 Speaker 1: when when you became when the band became The Painting,

2:01 Speaker 1: did did you immediately start working on this album?

2:06 Speaker 2: I think at that point in time we didn't realize

2:09 Speaker 2: it was going to be, you know, an album. I

2:12 Speaker 2: think we had thoughts it might be maybe a couple

2:15 Speaker 2: of singles or you know, a kind of a shorter release.

2:19 Speaker 2: And by this time went on and we realized that

2:22 Speaker 2: we are very prolific when it comes to writing songs,

2:25 Speaker 2: and we we think it's mostly we find it easy,

2:28 Speaker 2: but we'll be just it just comes quite naturally to

2:32 Speaker 2: to just you know, to write to write music. And

2:36 Speaker 2: very quickly it became evident that we were you know,

2:39 Speaker 2: we were having had a large batch of songs and

2:41 Speaker 2: we decided, let's just record an album.

2:43 Speaker 1: It's cool when when it seems so natural and it

2:47 Speaker 1: and it kind of comes easy, right, because that's when

2:49 Speaker 1: you know you've really got something. I mean, it's you know,

2:52 Speaker 1: it's fine if you have to to really work at it,

2:54 Speaker 1: that's that's okay too. But when you when as a band,

2:57 Speaker 1: when when just the songwriting process, when these songs just

3:01 Speaker 1: come together quickly, it's that's how you know you're really

3:03 Speaker 1: onto something. I think when it's when it's just kind

3:05 Speaker 1: of natural and organic. And and part of why I

3:09 Speaker 1: was so curious about that too, is because it is

3:11 Speaker 1: a full album. Because we live in a time, as

3:13 Speaker 1: you know, and you referenced it too, you you know,

3:14 Speaker 1: you were talking about how you had to decide, you know,

3:18 Speaker 1: are you going to do a full album or are

3:19 Speaker 1: you going to do singles or an EP or whatever.

3:21 Speaker 1: So yeah, so to make the decision to do a

3:24 Speaker 1: full album, that's a big undertaking right out of the gate,

3:26 Speaker 1: but it sounds like it made a lot of sense

3:29 Speaker 1: given your situation with the band.

3:31 Speaker 2: Yeah, we're definitely very, very ambitious when it comes to

3:36 Speaker 2: things like, you know, like recording an album or you know,

3:40 Speaker 2: we don't do things by half measures. We always try to,

3:44 Speaker 2: you know, elevate things and aim for something quite ambitious. Yeah, yeah,

3:49 Speaker 2: and yeah, you're Redially, it's a very I think it's

3:51 Speaker 2: quite a rare thing to be able to be with

3:54 Speaker 2: another group of musicians and be able to come up

3:57 Speaker 2: with things very very quickly and you know, efficiently. I

4:01 Speaker 2: mean I've been in projects before where it would take

4:03 Speaker 2: it could take you months to even write one song,

4:06 Speaker 2: whereas we could write a song not easily. I mean,

4:11 Speaker 2: it does come with it does come with his you know, roadblocks,

4:13 Speaker 2: but we can write songs fairly quickly. So yeah, I

4:19 Speaker 2: think it's quite a rare thing, and you know, it's

4:21 Speaker 2: it's always a fun process. With the rest of the

4:25 Speaker 2: band members.

4:26 Speaker 1: I think I neglected to mention too. So you're the

4:28 Speaker 1: best player in the band. So I am myself a

4:31 Speaker 1: bass player. So there we go. Bass players unite absolutely.

4:36 Speaker 1: How many how many people are in the band? Is

4:38 Speaker 1: it a four piece? No, so.

4:42 Speaker 2: It's not became you know, kind of public knowledge. We

4:44 Speaker 2: wear six six piece, but band well down to we're

4:48 Speaker 2: now down to a five piece at this moment in time. Okay, Yeah,

4:52 Speaker 2: we recently had someone exit the band, and I won't

4:56 Speaker 2: go into it. It's it's not really you know, there's

4:59 Speaker 2: no point in then too as what is But yeah,

5:03 Speaker 2: we're yeah, we're five members and we're just continuing as normal.

5:06 Speaker 2: There's no you know, it's not gonna Empeters or anything

5:09 Speaker 2: in any way. We'll just keep going.

5:11 Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, Now the album Before the Storm is there,

5:16 Speaker 1: I'm sorry, before the Before the Rain rather is there? Oh,

5:20 Speaker 1: I know why I was singing storm. I was seen

5:21 Speaker 1: about the song Waited the Storm, which we're gonna play

5:24 Speaker 1: at the end of the segment. But yeah, but is

5:26 Speaker 1: there any kind of a theme, you know, lyrically, is

5:28 Speaker 1: there any kind of a theme of the album. It's

5:30 Speaker 1: it's really cohesive. It almost feels like there could be

5:32 Speaker 1: a theme, but maybe not. I'm not sure you tell us.

5:38 Speaker 2: This is this is the hard book because I'm probably

5:40 Speaker 2: the wrong person task based as in Keaton, who is

5:44 Speaker 2: the you know, the sega and let us as to

5:46 Speaker 2: the band. But I think we all collectively agreed like

5:50 Speaker 2: when we were you know, when we saw the lytics

5:52 Speaker 2: and we heard the lytics, so it all kind of

5:55 Speaker 2: points to can the new beginnings a lot of the time. Yeah,

5:58 Speaker 2: and I think it's quite relevant obviously with regards to

6:02 Speaker 2: us becoming a new project, you know, coming from the

6:06 Speaker 2: ashes of an old band basically, and I know Kieren

6:10 Speaker 2: wouldn't mind me talking about it as well. But obviously

6:12 Speaker 2: he went through a breakup during this time and then

6:16 Speaker 2: has now moved on to you know, a new relationship,

6:21 Speaker 2: and that's essentially what the song Scarlet's about, is a

6:24 Speaker 2: new relationship. So there's a lot of kind of new

6:27 Speaker 2: beginnings is probably I think a quite a big you

6:30 Speaker 2: know theme within the album, within the lyrics. I think

6:34 Speaker 2: you're right as pretty cohesive, and I think it was

6:37 Speaker 2: quite unintentional. I don't think it was it was set

6:40 Speaker 2: out to be like that, but yeah, I think when

6:43 Speaker 2: you you know, in retrospect, if you were, if I

6:46 Speaker 2: was to go back and listen to it, or you know,

6:48 Speaker 2: listen to the lyrics, I could definitely see that there's

6:50 Speaker 2: a lot of you know, and intertwined kind of themes

6:54 Speaker 2: that makes sense basically.

6:56 Speaker 1: Yeah, and it's very I find overall, it's got a

6:59 Speaker 1: vibe that is very you know, it's it's sort of

7:01 Speaker 1: dreamy and light in a sense, but also hopeful. Yeah,

7:07 Speaker 1: you know, it's it's gotta there's just a hopefulness to

7:09 Speaker 1: the to the album that I really like. And also

7:13 Speaker 1: I wanted to ask about the cover for Before the Rain.

7:17 Speaker 1: It's appropriate for a band, uh called the painting because

7:21 Speaker 1: it looks like a painting. But I'm I'm and it's

7:24 Speaker 1: a you know, I encourage people to look at it online.

7:26 Speaker 1: It's it's a really nice cover and it's very I

7:29 Speaker 1: think it's classy to the way the name of the

7:32 Speaker 1: band and the name of the album. It's it's in

7:34 Speaker 1: the upper left corner, you know, kind of kind of small,

7:36 Speaker 1: you know, big enough so you can see it. Obviously

7:38 Speaker 1: it's you don't have to hunt for it. But but

7:39 Speaker 1: but the way it's sort of unintrusive in terms of

7:44 Speaker 1: of the uh, the rest of the image of of

7:46 Speaker 1: what looks to be a painting. But I'm curious about

7:49 Speaker 1: the artwork. I mean, is that an actual painting that

7:52 Speaker 1: that's hanging somewhere and uh or is it specifically for

7:55 Speaker 1: the album or where does that come from?

7:57 Speaker 2: No? Actually, it's it's actually a fool graph really yeah, yeah,

8:01 Speaker 2: we I think it's maybe slightly been edited to to

8:06 Speaker 2: make it kind of look more like a painting that

8:07 Speaker 2: I'm not entirely sure, but it certainly comes from a

8:10 Speaker 2: photograph that we came across online and by a photographer,

8:13 Speaker 2: and we you know, we obviously spoke to the photographer

8:16 Speaker 2: and got permission to use it. But yeah, I understand

8:21 Speaker 2: where you're coming from. It it does look like a painting.

8:24 Speaker 1: Yeah, it really does. It really does. Absolutely. What was

8:28 Speaker 1: the so, what was the name of the band that

8:30 Speaker 1: that pre pre dates the painting.

8:34 Speaker 2: It was Arcade State.

8:36 Speaker 1: Arcade State. Yeah, that's a that's an interesting name. That's

8:39 Speaker 1: kind of cool. Two random ones and then and then

8:42 Speaker 1: so so how many how many members from that are

8:46 Speaker 1: in the painting.

8:47 Speaker 2: So at this moment and tell you just three? Three,

8:52 Speaker 2: So it would be myself Jordan the drummer and Kevan

8:56 Speaker 2: who is the guitarist and singer.

8:58 Speaker 1: Okay, okay, now that project and then start the painting.

9:02 Speaker 1: Was that was that difficult? Like was there a lot

9:05 Speaker 1: of I'm especially curious because I've been in situations like that.

9:09 Speaker 1: I don't play anymore. I used to play in bands

9:11 Speaker 1: at this point. At this point, I'm more focused on

9:14 Speaker 1: on broadcasting and stuff. But I've been in situations where

9:17 Speaker 1: it's like, in fact, I've been in that exact situation

9:20 Speaker 1: where one band, You've got one band, and you're thinking

9:23 Speaker 1: about maybe making a new project with some of the

9:26 Speaker 1: same people. So then it's like, well, what do we

9:28 Speaker 1: do we just take what we have and change direction,

9:31 Speaker 1: or or do we just say that's it, We're gonna

9:34 Speaker 1: do this whole new thing with this new name. How

9:37 Speaker 1: much of the old thing gets brought into the new

9:40 Speaker 1: thing and all the nuances of that. So I'm really

9:43 Speaker 1: curious about that.

9:45 Speaker 2: Yeah, So, to be honest, things then in particular, will

9:49 Speaker 2: I think, I think and they can. A plan for

9:52 Speaker 2: Keaton was to do this as almost like a kind

9:55 Speaker 2: of a soul project. We'd all it's into a big

10:01 Speaker 2: long story about it. We all didn't perhaps part way

10:05 Speaker 2: is quite. You know, it wasn't really amicable. It was quite.

10:09 Speaker 2: It wasn't the most you know, it just ended quite

10:12 Speaker 2: abruptly and will not fell out and hated each other

10:16 Speaker 2: or anything. It wasn't like that. It just wasn't. Yeah,

10:19 Speaker 2: it just looked like we were It was just over

10:21 Speaker 2: and that was the end of it. And then Keran

10:25 Speaker 2: announced that he wanted to start a new project. It

10:28 Speaker 2: would be The Painting. He was the only member at

10:31 Speaker 2: that point. I don't know if his plans were to

10:33 Speaker 2: you know, get other members or do everything on his own,

10:36 Speaker 2: but eventually, maybe after a week or so, he asked

10:39 Speaker 2: me to come back and play bass for him, and

10:41 Speaker 2: then Jordan, who is his brother, actually to play drums.

10:46 Speaker 2: And then eventually it just got to the point where

10:48 Speaker 2: we were just essentially a few members of Arcade State.

10:52 Speaker 2: And then we started looking for a keyboard player and

10:56 Speaker 2: another guitar player, and that's where Marta and John came

11:00 Speaker 2: into the equation. Yeah, and when when it comes to

11:04 Speaker 2: the style of music, we beforehand, we were more alternative rock.

11:09 Speaker 2: Maybe I wouldn't say we weren't heavy like kind of

11:12 Speaker 2: heavy music. You know, it was more a little bit

11:15 Speaker 2: more abrasive than what we are now, obviously, but we

11:19 Speaker 2: wanted to lean more into the kind of pop aspect

11:22 Speaker 2: of things. And I think all of us, like our

11:26 Speaker 2: one of our biggest influences is the war on drugs,

11:29 Speaker 2: and we wanted to kind of lean more into that

11:34 Speaker 2: as well, a bit more of a kind of I

11:37 Speaker 2: guess I'm trying to think about what you would define

11:41 Speaker 2: them as, almost kind of Americana sort of music. I guess, yeah,

11:45 Speaker 2: like and mixed up with a kind of pop element.

11:48 Speaker 2: So I think we're getting there. I think with the

11:52 Speaker 2: album Before the Rain, that's only just the first step

11:54 Speaker 2: in our revolution and sound. I think we were still

11:58 Speaker 2: writing now like for future releases, and I think with

12:02 Speaker 2: what we're writing is certainly evolving. So yeah, yeah, it's

12:09 Speaker 2: been a long It's been a very quick year, but

12:11 Speaker 2: also it feels like a very long year at the time.

12:14 Speaker 1: Yeah, well, you guys have been busy. You've been doing

12:16 Speaker 1: a lot. That's wonderful. I'm curious did any of the

12:19 Speaker 1: material from Arcade State make it into the painting or

12:21 Speaker 1: did you just start completely new?

12:23 Speaker 2: So we started completely fresh? Yeah, Yeah, we actually think

12:27 Speaker 2: even had a number of songs that we could have

12:30 Speaker 2: carried over, you know, to this project, but we just

12:34 Speaker 2: scraped them essentially. There might there might be a little

12:38 Speaker 2: bits here and there, like a guitar line, or like

12:42 Speaker 2: a few lines of like lyrics and things like that,

12:44 Speaker 2: but it's not you know, it's not like a base

12:47 Speaker 2: of a song that's came from the project. Everything is

12:50 Speaker 2: essentially new.

12:51 Speaker 1: Okay, Okay, what was that difficult? Because you know, song

12:56 Speaker 1: like some some songwriters will describe songs as being almost

12:59 Speaker 1: like their children and it's hard to you know, it's

13:02 Speaker 1: hard to leave them behind. Was that was that difficult

13:06 Speaker 1: at all, like leaving all of that behind or did

13:08 Speaker 1: it just seem like the natural thing to do or

13:11 Speaker 1: what was that like?

13:13 Speaker 2: It definitely felt like the natural thing to do. Good,

13:16 Speaker 2: But also we are quite cutthroat, well we we well

13:24 Speaker 2: just scrap things and and just move on. Obviously there'll

13:28 Speaker 2: be there'll be certain songs that you they will miss

13:32 Speaker 2: from the old from the old band. Yeah, none of

13:36 Speaker 2: it fits anymore. It really makes sense. So I mean,

13:40 Speaker 2: I guess you could argue we could make it fit,

13:43 Speaker 2: but I think we're quite content with the direction we're heading.

13:46 Speaker 2: But no, I think we might be a little bit

13:48 Speaker 2: of a kind of were entity there where we're quite cutthroat.

13:52 Speaker 2: We don't mind, We'll just move on and write something else.

13:55 Speaker 1: Oh that's good, that's that's excellent. Good for you. And

13:59 Speaker 1: then what's the lives situation like for you guys? Are

14:01 Speaker 1: you playing a lot lot of live shows or so?

14:06 Speaker 2: There was a period of time when we were writing

14:08 Speaker 2: the album we weren't really playing at all. It was

14:11 Speaker 2: more just focused on the writing aspect of things. But

14:14 Speaker 2: as the years came to a close, like coming to

14:16 Speaker 2: a close, we have played a few gigs recently. We

14:19 Speaker 2: played a headline show in Glasgow in October and then

14:25 Speaker 2: another headline show in Edinburgh in November. It was sorry,

14:31 Speaker 2: everything this whole year is just a blur. Yeah, but yeah,

14:35 Speaker 2: so and we also played a kind of mini festival

14:40 Speaker 2: like like a day festival, indoor festival in Aberdeen as well.

14:46 Speaker 2: It started December, so you know, we were quite busy

14:49 Speaker 2: coming towards the end of the year and then moving

14:51 Speaker 2: into next year, we've got quite a lot coming up.

14:54 Speaker 2: We've got a lot dates planned, We've got almost a

14:57 Speaker 2: small mini tour of the UK planned as well, and yeah,

15:03 Speaker 2: there's many other things in the works that hasn't you know,

15:06 Speaker 2: it's not been announced jet and it's not being confirmed yet,

15:09 Speaker 2: but there's a lot Next year is gonna be really

15:12 Speaker 2: really busy for us?

15:13 Speaker 1: Well, very good, good good. So in a moment, we're

15:16 Speaker 1: going to play at the end of our our conversation,

15:19 Speaker 1: we're going to play the track Waiting on the Storm.

15:22 Speaker 1: What should people know about this one? This is one

15:24 Speaker 1: because I had asked you, so we'll pull back the

15:26 Speaker 1: curtain a little bit. I did ask you, Yeah, what

15:28 Speaker 1: you wanted to what you wanted us to play at

15:31 Speaker 1: the end of the at the end of the segment,

15:33 Speaker 1: and I don't I mean, is this going to be

15:34 Speaker 1: the next single or is this just one that that

15:37 Speaker 1: that you're really proud of or what? What should we

15:39 Speaker 1: know about this song before we play it?

15:41 Speaker 2: Yeah? So this is an earlate single from the album

15:46 Speaker 2: and the final single from the album. And this song

15:51 Speaker 2: was actually written in I think maybe ten minutes. Wow,

15:56 Speaker 2: it was a yeah, yeah, it was a very very

15:59 Speaker 2: quick This is one of the occasions where we didn't

16:03 Speaker 2: overthink it. We just played what failed natural and this

16:06 Speaker 2: is what came out.

16:07 Speaker 1: Wow, excellent, excellent. So before we let you go and

16:10 Speaker 1: before we hit that song. What should people know about

16:13 Speaker 1: where to keep up with everything that you're doing as

16:15 Speaker 1: a band? Where should people Where's the best place to

16:17 Speaker 1: go online to keep up with the painting?

16:20 Speaker 2: Oh, I would say definitely on Instagram. Instagram's the way

16:25 Speaker 2: you know where we are probably most active. You can

16:28 Speaker 2: find as the painting official on Instagram, and yeah, that's

16:35 Speaker 2: definitely the best place to keep up to date with us.

16:37 Speaker 1: Outstanding outstanding, Well, Lewis, I really appreciate you joining us

16:41 Speaker 1: here today this morning or well, I don't know what

16:43 Speaker 1: time is it where you are, where you are, it's

16:44 Speaker 1: probably afternoon, right, Yeah, it's two theory tooth theory you.

16:48 Speaker 2: I'll forgive you you.

16:51 Speaker 1: It is indeed, it is inded. No, but I do

16:53 Speaker 1: very much appreciate you doing joining us. Like I said,

16:56 Speaker 1: I listened to the full album and we've become fast

16:59 Speaker 1: fans of the painting here, really really like what you're doing.

17:02 Speaker 1: So we'll definitely have to do this in the future,

17:04 Speaker 1: and certainly once you have some new music, we'll have

17:07 Speaker 1: you on or you know, or anything that you have

17:08 Speaker 1: coming up that's exciting. You know, we'd love to have

17:10 Speaker 1: you back and we will definitely do this again.

17:14 Speaker 2: Thank you so much for having me and moving to

17:16 Speaker 2: quietly come back on. It's been been a.

17:18 Speaker 1: Pleasure, wonderful, wonderful. All right, Lewis, thank you. We'll let

17:21 Speaker 1: you go. We're gonna hit this track and we will

17:23 Speaker 1: talk to you soon.

17:24 Speaker 2: Take care, no problem, Thank you any much.

17:26 Speaker 1: You got it, Bye bye, all right. That is Lewis Taylor.

17:29 Speaker 1: He is the bass player for the band The Painting.

17:32 Speaker 1: And here's another great track, and this is going to

17:34 Speaker 1: be the next single. You heard it here first, at

17:38 Speaker 1: least on American radio. You're hearing it for the first time,

17:40 Speaker 1: so I don't know if it's been played over there yet.

17:42 Speaker 1: But this is from the album Before the Rain, and

17:45 Speaker 1: the track is called Waiting on the Storm.