The Quality of Mercury | Matt Connarton Unleashed

0:00 Speaker 1: I love it. That is absolutely epic. That is the quality of Mercury. The track is called Radi eight and we are going to talk to the man behind that that project in just a moment. But welcome everybody. We have entered our number two New Maarrow dose of Matt Connorton Unleashed and we are live from the studios of wm NH ninety five point three FM and Glorious Manchester, New Hampshire. Of course, you can stream the show from anywhere or go to Matt connorton dot com slash live for all of your live streaming options, social media links, contact and Fosho archives, et cetera, et cetera.

0:30 Speaker 1: Today is Saturday, November twenty nine, twenty twenty five, and let's bring in showing us via Microsoft Teams Jeremiah Rouse from the Quality of Mercury. Jeremiah, are you there.

0:43 Speaker 2: Good morning, Matt. Thanks for having me on.

0:45 Speaker 1: Absolutely it's wonderful to have you. I really really love I love everything you're doing here with the quality of Mercury. I love the sound. It's just epic. It's so it's so big, and the way that track, the way radiate, the way it ends is so cool. You got that that really long sustain on that guitar that just seems to go on and on and you feel like eventually it's just going to kind of fade out, but then there's that little thing at the end that it kind of seeks up on you. It's just so cool. I really but I listened to the full album and I love the whole thing.

1:12 Speaker 1: It's really really good. So congratulations on that.

1:15 Speaker 2: Well, thank you very much, and thanks for the kind words.

1:17 Speaker 3: You know, it's a it's a love of the art and it's something that I've been trying to really push for it in getting this sound for a long time now, and I'm really happy with the way the album turned out.

1:29 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So the album is called The Voyager, So what can you tell us about this? Obviously, I mean I feel like there's I feel like there's a theme, like there's a story here. But tell us about the album The Voyager.

1:44 Speaker 3: Well, you know, the album itself, it kind of explores

1:51 Speaker 3: the idea of longing and needing connection basically always you know, wanting something more or this search for something more grand or fulfilling in life, whether that's like a spiritual connection or human connection. But basically overall theme of the album kind of conveys that idea.

2:11 Speaker 1: Yeah, I was reading too that. You kind of tell me if I have this right when you the way you approach these songs, is it kind of like each one is a movie theme or or I'm sorry, not a theme, but a scene in a film. Is that? Yeah?

2:24 Speaker 3: You know what, I'm a very visual artist when it comes to the music, So like when I put things together, when I write songs, I kind of write a story that I could see, you know, being filmed cinematically and little short stories.

2:38 Speaker 2: Basically.

2:39 Speaker 3: You know, I come from a film production background and I watch a lot of sci fi stuff, and then that's kind of like my impetus to put these things together. So, you know, I would you know, if I had money in time, I would love to put like little short films together for all the songs. But that's kind of how I approach the music and the writing.

2:56 Speaker 1: Okay, No, that makes sense given your background. So are you currently working in film?

3:03 Speaker 3: I yes, well, not film, I'm managing audio video production company.

3:09 Speaker 1: Oh excellent.

3:12 Speaker 3: It's for a good portion of my career I did film production mainly a lot of corporate stuff that worked on you know, music videos and commercials and some independent short films and stuff like that. But my bread and butter is in the corporate realm and that's kind of what I do now as I manage large events and provide the av support for large events.

3:35 Speaker 1: Oh excellent. That must be an exciting field to work in, too, because as technology continues to evolve, I mean, you probably never stop learning, right, You're probably constantly evolving in what you do, and it's got to be I mean, it's got to be just an amazing time to have a career in your field. I would think, well, I enjoyed a lot.

3:56 Speaker 3: The one aspect that I really enjoys being able to travel a lot. So I mean that my job takes me to a lot of places. But you know, being immersed in the new and upcoming technology is also really cool.

4:08 Speaker 1: You know.

4:08 Speaker 3: It's it's hard to keep your finger on the pulse of everything because technology is just increasing so rapidly, and there's always a new gadget out and by the time you master one thing, it's obsolete.

4:20 Speaker 1: No doubt, no doubt. You're obviously very busy and you've got a lot on your plate, so I'm curious because I know that there was a was it a nine year gap between the first album that you did Transmission? Is that correct?

4:33 Speaker 2: Yeah?

4:33 Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean with my career and the way I travel and family, you know, the music unfortunately is more of a hobby and you know, it takes the back seat to life at this point. So I try to create when I can and record when I can. I'm hoping, you know, to keep up the pace a little bit better than I have for the past nine years now with my kids being older and whatnot. And yeah, but it's it's, uh, you know, it's it's a great.

4:58 Speaker 2: Creative outlet for me.

4:59 Speaker 3: I have to do it, but sometimes making the time to do it is just very challenging.

5:05 Speaker 1: I would imagine that can be challenging because you know, you're probably day to day, you've probably got all these ideas in your head right for songs, and you just want to you know, you want to be able to find the time to actually record them. Yeah, I would imagine that's I would imagine that's hard in a way, but I mean a good problem to have, and that you've probably got tons of ideas. You strike me as someone who is constantly thinking about this stuff. But then to find the time to actually record them and really and to really do it right, you know, the sound that you achieved.

5:36 Speaker 1: I'm also very curious, and I'm a little bit of a recording nerd and audio engineering nerd, so I'm just curious about your process because you really achieve that sort of I think, I use the word epic coming out of that song. I mean, it's just you've got such a big, full sound. What is your process like in terms of recording?

6:00 Speaker 3: Well, you know, thanks, you know, thanks again for the kind wordas I appreciate that. It's you know, I guess I really base what I want to do on the sonic like landscape. I do want to create these lush, you know, big sounding landscape, so that's kind of the priority when I when I record. But my process is, you know, I generally start, you know, noodling around with some type of rhythm section on an acoustic guitar or an electric guitar, and I and then you know, from that, I kind of get the hook or the chorus part of the song, and then I have to build it or out around that.

6:35 Speaker 3: It's probably ninety nine percent of time how I start writing a song, and since I play by myself. You know, a lot of times when I'm recording, I may have only ever played that guitar part once or that you know that thing one time only. It's not like I'm a rehearsing band or something like that. So I kind of build it as I go, and then you know, just kind of crafted in the box with effects and whatnot. I have a general idea where I want to go with things, but there's a lot of nice surprises that happened along the way.

7:05 Speaker 1: Yeah, I would imagine. I mean, do you sometimes find that what you end up with at the end of it is significantly different than sort of your initial idea, your initial concept.

7:15 Speaker 3: Yeah, I would say probably most of the time it ends up being quite a bit different than the initial concept, just because you know, the happy accidents happen and you're like, oh, that that sounds different than I thought, but it's really good, so let me go with it.

7:29 Speaker 1: Yeah, that must be exciting when that happens, And is it correct? That is it all you?

7:34 Speaker 3: Like?

7:35 Speaker 1: Do you have any collaborators at all, any guest musicians or do you do everything yourself?

7:39 Speaker 3: So I do everything myself, and I basically program some basic drum beats with some software, and then when I'm all done with the you know, recording process, I'll have somebody actually play real drums and record drums for me. So, oh okay, for this is my second record, but for each record, that's that was my process.

8:02 Speaker 2: I wrote, recorded all.

8:04 Speaker 3: The instrumentation around some program drum tracks, and then I had the drum tracks replaced by somebody who can actually play.

8:11 Speaker 1: Oh. Interesting, Yeah that makes sense because I was thinking as you were saying that, you know, when you mentioned programming the drums, I was sinking, Wow, these drums they sound amazing. But but so you have is it the same drummer on each track all the way through or so?

8:24 Speaker 3: Yeah, for this record it was one drummer. I actually connect with Mario Quintwit. Yeah, Mario Quintero from the band Spotlights.

8:33 Speaker 1: Oh okay.

8:33 Speaker 3: He also produces and mixes, so he recorded and you know, played the drums for all the songs, and he did the final mixing of the record, which I'm super happy with. I would not have gotten to you know, where it is now without Mario's involvement.

8:51 Speaker 1: Yeah, no, it sounds incredible. So he wasn't involved in transmission. I assume he was not it was not. Okay, okay, Now, how did you come to work with him? Is he someone that you just know through the industry or I've been.

9:04 Speaker 3: A big fan of the band Spotlights for a long time and then you know, I've been I'm the guy that reads all the record jackets and all that stuff and credits.

9:12 Speaker 1: Same And I had.

9:13 Speaker 2: Seen that he had done drums for.

9:17 Speaker 3: A band called Machines Learning way back when, which I liked it, and so I know he was at one point he was promoting his audio mixing business or it's Audio MQ, and I just I connected through him, I think through his website, asked him if he'd be interested in working on the project with me.

9:38 Speaker 1: Okay, okay, wow, no, that's fantastic. Yeah, Like I said, the whole thing, it just it sounds really really good. Before prior to Quality of Mercury, had you ever been in a band a full, like normal sort of working situation in a band.

9:55 Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, for a brief period, I was with some friends and we had though you know, we called ourselves an emo band back in the late nineties early two thousands. Yeah, you know, we had played a handful of shows throughout a year and we really enjoyed it.

10:13 Speaker 2: It's just tough being in a band.

10:15 Speaker 3: I would love to be in a band, but you know, different personalities to work with. Everybody's got a different work ethic.

10:23 Speaker 2: And I enjoyed it a lot. I found to be a bit frustrating at times.

10:29 Speaker 1: Yeah, somebody, I wish I could remember who it was, but somebody was on the show who was a solo singer songwriter who had transitioned from being in a band to just doing a solo thing, who said something about something like, when you're in a band with three other people, it's like being in a relationship with three other people who are also in a relationship with three other people. And it's just it's so difficult. And I know from my own experience too, because you know, if you're in a band with several people, everybody's got you know, you've got varying levels of commitment and uh vision in terms of where you're going and and you know, sometimes and it's not anybody's fault, it's just you know, kind of how it goes.

11:09 Speaker 1: But it can be it can be very difficult, you know, and especially too you're someone with with your commitments and your schedule. I'm sure it's it's just easier, you know, to be able to do this on your own and to uh and and to be in control of everything and not have to check with anybody about you know, Hey, are you available to play this show on this state at this venue? Oh? No, you're you can't do that day? Okay, I guess we're not playing that show.

11:35 Speaker 3: You know.

11:35 Speaker 1: That's the kinds of things I would go through when I've played in bands, and and it's it can be really hard. But that brings me to the question, so is there any sort of live performance of of any of the work that you've done as the quality of Mercury that you've been able to do. I don't know how that would work exactly without a band, But have you ever found a way to to do any of this live? You know?

12:00 Speaker 3: I keep exploring that I haven't done it yet, And it's not that I don't want to. I think it's, you know, a big challenge to figure out how to do it. There's definitely I got ideas. I have people that you know would play with me as well. It's it's more about finding the time to make it happen.

12:16 Speaker 2: At this point.

12:18 Speaker 3: That's my biggest challenge with my music. It's just finding time to make all this stuff happen. But I would love to do it, and I hope, you know, hopefully I get a chance to do something live at some point.

12:29 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, that would be uh well again, you know, with with evolving technology, there are there are ways to do it, but like you said, you know, time is uh you know, time can be a barrier to that. I wanted to ask you too about the artwork. Now, you created this yourself, correct the cover for the Voyager.

12:45 Speaker 2: I did, Yeah, I did.

12:47 Speaker 3: You know, using the the AI tools that are available out there now I can get some really you know, astonishing results. But you know, I think it kind of really I was able to achieve my vision of the artwork with with the AI tools.

13:02 Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, no, I like it. It looks like it's almost hard to describe. It looks like a spaceship landing in some sort of body of water or river or something, or.

13:15 Speaker 2: A latic alien planet like.

13:18 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, but I like it. I like that, and I really like the colors too. Yeah, it's it's very very cool. How do you feel about I mean, do you have any thoughts about it a little bit of a side street, but it is a subject that comes up a lot on the show, and you're working in areas where you know, technology is, as we discussed earlier, is evolving so rapidly. I mean, how do you feel about the use of AI in all things creative?

13:46 Speaker 3: You know, if you treat it as a tool to you know, enhance your art, I'm all for it.

13:53 Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm really torn.

13:55 Speaker 3: You know. I just started messing around with Suno, the audio recordings, and I am blown away with the results that give me. But like, at the same time, I don't I don't feel right using it. Like right, it's kind of cool for inspiration and it's just jaw dropping on what it's doing, but at the same time, it's taking it's taking away that ar street. So ah, man, I'm torn, you know. I'm I'm a bit old school, you know. I like analog. I stay analog, so to speak. And I think, you know, after messing with this AI music generator, like, I had a lot of fun and it's it's been, you know, quite an experience messer with music with this Suno.

14:40 Speaker 3: But I am going to continue to write my songs record them in the traditional way.

14:45 Speaker 1: Yeah, no, I think I think that's good. Yeah, it is. Suno is incredible. I always tell people, though, to enjoy these tools while we have them, because the sharks are circling in terms of class action lawsuits all that kind of thing. But not that I think these uh not that I think these tools are going away. I think it's too late to shove the the genie back in the bottle. But still, yeah, it's it's.

15:09 Speaker 2: It's crazy times right now.

15:11 Speaker 3: It's I don't know what the future holds, but it's gonna keep evolving and getting better. But does that mean everything's going to be looking and sounding the same?

15:18 Speaker 2: I don't know, right.

15:20 Speaker 1: Right, yeah, exactly, Yeah, we'll see. You know, the technology it does move. It does move very quickly. By the way, did I see something about do you have a family member who's also on the album with uh doing backing vocals?

15:34 Speaker 2: Yeah, my daughter of Violet, she did backing vocals and some of the tracks.

15:37 Speaker 1: Oh that's so cool. That must be that must be a kick.

15:42 Speaker 2: Yes, she kind of.

15:43 Speaker 3: You know, I wanted to do backing vocals for almost all the tracks and she she did like half of them, and then she refused to do the rest. Oh really, yeah, you know at nine years. You know, a young girl changes a lot in nine years. So when she was younger, she was more interested in help me out, and as I got closer to the end of the recording process, she didn't have anything to do with it.

16:06 Speaker 1: Oh, no kidding, Oh that's funny. No, that must be so cool though, having your daughter on the tracks. Is she I mean, does she have interest in being a professional musician or or what do you what do you think?

16:18 Speaker 2: I don't know. You know, earlier on I thought she she was playing piano. She loves to singing.

16:23 Speaker 3: She still sings constantly, so I think I think she'll have the bug. You know, she's still kind of young, but I think she gets a little bit more into the high school years. I think she's gonna kind of reconsider what she does with music and take it a little bit more seriously.

16:40 Speaker 1: Right right, Yeah, No, that's great, that's that's fantastic. And then so what can you tell us too? I wanted to ask you about these songs because I know Radiate. We opened with Radiate because that's kind of the focus track. As we say, what's what can you tell us about that song? And why is that song so significant to you.

17:02 Speaker 3: Well, I mean, I guess for most of these songs, you know, they're all kind of set in a space theme, right, the sci fi space theme, but they're all most of my songs are metaphors for something either it's like some kind of love lost or longing for something bigger or new.

17:20 Speaker 2: And that's kind of, like I said, the overall theme of this. But this particular song.

17:24 Speaker 3: You know, it's it's about this guy who's stuck in this disabled spaceship that's you know, about to explode and he needs to he needs to get out of there, and oft in a distance is a smaller space station that he's gonna try to like kind of use the airlock to eject himself out towards that.

17:48 Speaker 2: Space station for survival.

17:51 Speaker 3: But you know, the tether that he would normally wear doesn't you know, go that far out, so it would be too short. So he's going to be out in space free and he's hoping to meet uh someone on the other side halfway basically, So that's kind of just that story there literally, but metaphorically it's about you know, having all of your options you know, taken away except for one, and you've got to take the leap of faith to move forward and survive.

18:24 Speaker 1: It's relatable. I think everyone's yeah, been in that position or will be at some point certainly. So yeah, yeah, no, I think that's I think that's that's interesting. And then what about in a moment, So at the end of our segment, we're gonna play uh, Ganna made or a Ganymede. How am I saying that?

18:41 Speaker 3: Right?

18:41 Speaker 1: Ganymede.

18:42 Speaker 2: It's Ganymede. Yeah, named after one of the moons.

18:47 Speaker 1: Oh okay, yeah, Well, and and what can you tell us about that track?

18:53 Speaker 3: Well, that track that's essentially a love story, and it's

19:00 Speaker 3: it's basically about this guy who ort he meets a partner on a like a space station and basically falls in love with her, follows her around, and then he she she's kind of reckless and loose and wants to get off the planet Jupiter and go to the moon Ganymy, which is this ice planet, and and he follows her, but you know, he hates going there and things don't work out, they don't see eye to eye, and then she ends up leaving him. That's kind of what the story is about, and the significance of this track.

19:44 Speaker 2: You know, I think this was this was my initial single.

19:48 Speaker 3: I think this track really captures, you know, what the album is about, and like what the landscape is of the album, and like the journey is of the album.

19:58 Speaker 2: So this is why it was the lead track.

20:00 Speaker 3: It kind of has all that in there, you know, the space, the metaphorical story, plus the sonical landscape.

20:08 Speaker 2: So it kind of laid out what the album's though all about.

20:10 Speaker 1: Okay, okay, that makes sense. Yeah, yeah, it's another great track. We're going to play that in just a couple of minutes. But now, what is uh, what's kind of your future trajectory with this track? I mean, I mean, not with this track, but with with your music, with the quality of Mercury. Because obviously I'm sure you don't want to wait another nine years until the next one. But I mean, do you have do you have plans for the next album or are you obviously in the moment you're focused on this one, But I mean, are you already thinking about songs for the next the next record, or where are you with that?

20:42 Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm not sure if I'm gonna do another record right away. You know, I just started recording a new song. I want to release a single, oh, in the next few months.

20:50 Speaker 1: So good.

20:51 Speaker 3: I'm going to do a single, and then I have an idea for an EP that I want to do. Some things that have already recorded but want to recreate, you know, older things that I've I liked in my shelved a long time ago that I want to kind of give new life to and do an EP.

21:08 Speaker 1: Oh. Very nice. Yeah, there's so many different ways to release music now, and so many different strategies you can use. And I think the album format is great for what you're doing because obviously all these songs, you know, there's there's a theme, there's a story here with everything. But but releasing singles is great too. And you know, as soon as the next singles ready, we'd love to play it here and have you back on the show to talk about it, because you know, we really like what you're doing a lot.

21:31 Speaker 1: But No, that's great. I'm glad you're I'm glad you're already working on uh on something new. So that's fantastic. That's good to hear. Jeremiah, where should people go online to?

21:40 Speaker 2: UH?

21:40 Speaker 1: Where's the best place to go to keep up with everything that you're doing?

21:43 Speaker 3: UH?

21:43 Speaker 1: Be it with the quality of mercury or or anything else you want people to be aware of and know about.

21:50 Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm most active on Facebook.

21:53 Speaker 3: I'm not real great at social media, but I'm most active on Facebook. If you want to listen to my music, I always try to people to go to band camp first.

22:01 Speaker 2: But yeah, music's available on all the streaming platforms.

22:05 Speaker 1: So yeah, yeah, band Camp is a great resource. And yeah, the album is the album is there and it sounds great. A lot of people don't know too. Something people don't realize about band camp is you actually get a higher quality You'll get a higher quality file if you get it from band camp then if you're just say, streaming it on YouTube or something like that. And I've noticed that people don't seem to realize that. But that's one of the reasons that band camp is so great. So I like to direct people there.

22:30 Speaker 1: Absolutely.

22:31 Speaker 3: Yeah, and then you know, I have vinyl for sale. Oh you do my first Yeah, my first album. And then there's pre orders for this record, so I will be releasing a vinyl Oh hopefully, I'm waiting. You know, the pressing companies are all backed up all the time, but I'm hoping to have those in hand by the end of December early January.

22:50 Speaker 1: Oh, that is so cool, very cool. Yeah, that's awesome. I love to hear that is. Are you also doing physical CDs physical discs of.

22:58 Speaker 2: No no CDs so it's just digital in the vinyl.

23:00 Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that's really cool, very very cool, excellent. Well listen, Jeremiah, thank you so much. We're gonna play this track, Ganymede in just a moment. We'll let you go. But like I said, when you've got the next single ready, please come back. We'd love to have you back on to play it and talk about it. And like I said, we're fast fans here. I love your sound, I love everything you're doing, so we definitely want to stay in touch.

23:23 Speaker 2: Well, I appreciate you, Matt, thanks for having me on. It was a great time.

23:26 Speaker 1: Absolutely, we'll talk to you soon, my friend. Take care bye, take care. All right. That was Jeremiah Rouse and the project is the Quality of Mercury and we're gonna play this track. So this was the first single from the album The Voyager, and this is called Ganymede.