The Rift | Matt Connarton Unleashed

0:00 Speaker 1: I love that that is recapture Code. The band is

0:03 Speaker 1: the Rift, and let's see. I think we've got Ris

0:06 Speaker 1: from the band here on the line with us.

0:08 Speaker 2: Hello, Hey, guys's going good?

0:11 Speaker 3: Good? Welcome to the show. Am I saying your name correctly? Ris? Aris?

0:15 Speaker 2: Yeah?

0:16 Speaker 3: Oh? Aris? Okay, you probably run into that a lot,

0:18 Speaker 3: not an Amy here every day?

0:20 Speaker 2: Is it just.

0:23 Speaker 3: Is it just you are? Okay? Good?

0:28 Speaker 1: Is it just you are the other guys with you?

0:32 Speaker 2: No, I do have our drummer here as well, so

0:36 Speaker 2: h Garrett, go ahead and say hello, hey guys.

0:39 Speaker 1: Hey Garrett, Well that's an easy name, so uh yeah,

0:43 Speaker 1: welcome to the show, guys, and thank you for being

0:45 Speaker 1: flexible about uh, you know, we're supposed to use WhatsApp

0:48 Speaker 1: and all the guests that I have on the show

0:50 Speaker 1: today shows what'sapp, and of course today WhatsApp is not

0:52 Speaker 1: working for me, so uh so I appreciate you being flexible.

0:55 Speaker 1: But I love that track, Recapture Code. It's you know,

0:58 Speaker 1: it's heavy, it's it's but it's also it's got a

1:01 Speaker 1: groove to it, and it's got some interesting time changes

1:04 Speaker 1: in there too, really really good. Can you talk about

1:08 Speaker 1: the song and about what the what the meaning of

1:10 Speaker 1: it is. I mean, it kind of gives you an idea,

1:12 Speaker 1: you know that you know, they want us to be

1:14 Speaker 1: robots and whatnot. But I really want to explore that.

1:16 Speaker 1: What is the song about?

1:19 Speaker 2: Oh yeah, no, I mean thank you, like really kind words,

1:23 Speaker 2: thank you guys for having us on. Of course, Yeah,

1:26 Speaker 2: there's all sorts of weird, crazy changes in the song,

1:30 Speaker 2: but yeah, I mean in terms of like the meaning

1:33 Speaker 2: of the song, where you know, we're just like really,

1:36 Speaker 2: you know, against a lot of this AI music stuff

1:40 Speaker 2: that you're seeing out there, and you know, just the

1:44 Speaker 2: idea that you know, some of these giant corporate CEOs

1:48 Speaker 2: are gonna, you know, try to run the music industry

1:51 Speaker 2: and basically admitted as much that they stole you know,

1:56 Speaker 2: all the music illegally from artists and now they're just like, yeah,

2:01 Speaker 2: we're gonna make all that money, you know. You know,

2:03 Speaker 2: I don't I don't know where we came to where

2:05 Speaker 2: we thought, you know, that was a good idea society,

2:09 Speaker 2: But yeah, it's sort of our our uh you know,

2:13 Speaker 2: revenge statement against those guys.

2:16 Speaker 1: Yeah, that's a subject that comes up a lot on

2:18 Speaker 1: the show too, as we are and and really I

2:21 Speaker 1: think we're just in the very early stages of the

2:23 Speaker 1: AI what I call the AI era, and how it's

2:26 Speaker 1: already impacting the music industry and uh, and how we

2:30 Speaker 1: navigate through it.

2:31 Speaker 3: And I'm not sure.

2:32 Speaker 1: I mean, obviously you can't shove that tooth based back

2:35 Speaker 1: in the tube, but you know, but it's it's very

2:39 Speaker 1: interesting times that we live in your your music. I mean,

2:45 Speaker 1: do you approach and I did listen to We're gonna

2:47 Speaker 1: play another track of course of yours at the end

2:49 Speaker 1: of our conversation today. But does everything that you guys

2:52 Speaker 1: do do you try to have a do you try

2:54 Speaker 1: to address an issue with it? Does it all or

2:57 Speaker 1: or a specific theme? Does it all have a meaning? Uh?

3:00 Speaker 3: In terms of how you approach the lyrics, I.

3:03 Speaker 2: Mean it depends on the song. Sometimes, you know, we

3:07 Speaker 2: just uh, yeah, we write, you know, I tend to

3:11 Speaker 2: We tend to write, you know, kind of rebellious rock

3:15 Speaker 2: anthemic tracks, and that's just something that kind of comes

3:19 Speaker 2: out naturally. So I think we always try to just

3:21 Speaker 2: do whatever comes out naturally, and that just happens to

3:24 Speaker 2: be something that we do do a bit of. But uh,

3:29 Speaker 2: you know, we do have just tracks that are like

3:32 Speaker 2: you know, kind of all over the place too. You know,

3:35 Speaker 2: we have tracks about you know, dancing with girls and stuff,

3:39 Speaker 2: so we are very much all over the place.

3:43 Speaker 1: Yeah, so it's not all, you know, super serious message heavy.

3:47 Speaker 3: No.

3:47 Speaker 1: Yeah, no, that makes sense. That makes sense now is

3:50 Speaker 1: the uh so the track recapture code? Is that part

3:54 Speaker 1: of or is it going to be part of an

3:56 Speaker 1: album or an EP or are you just releasing singles

3:59 Speaker 1: at this point?

4:00 Speaker 3: What's your approach to that?

4:03 Speaker 2: Yeah, no, we we do have an album. I mean

4:05 Speaker 2: it's a part of an album called Metamorphosis that we've

4:09 Speaker 2: been kind of just releasing singles every so often with it,

4:15 Speaker 2: and you know, we have a few more to release

4:19 Speaker 2: before the full things out. Okay, but yeah, just it

4:22 Speaker 2: seems like the way to go nowadays is just to

4:24 Speaker 2: get more releases and so everything's a single until it's

4:27 Speaker 2: you know, on the album, right because you get more

4:30 Speaker 2: kind of juice out of it that way. So that's

4:33 Speaker 2: what the strategy has been behind that.

4:35 Speaker 1: Yeah, that's something we talk about a lot on the

4:37 Speaker 1: show too. How it's kind of a lot of artists

4:39 Speaker 1: now do the inverse of what you know, the model

4:42 Speaker 1: used to be, you have an album, you've got the

4:44 Speaker 1: first single that goes to radio six eight weeks before

4:46 Speaker 1: the album. Then the album comes out, and then if

4:49 Speaker 1: everything goes well, you have a second single or even

4:51 Speaker 1: a third single. But now a lot of artists seem

4:54 Speaker 1: to be doing the inverse where they're releasing a series

4:56 Speaker 1: of singles that eventually coalesce into an EP or an album.

5:00 Speaker 1: And I think that that that seems to be working

5:02 Speaker 1: for for a lot of people, seems to be working

5:04 Speaker 1: well for you guys, And so that's great.

5:08 Speaker 3: And you guys, are you're from Los Angeles? Correct?

5:12 Speaker 2: Originally? Yeah? And then my Garrett is based down in

5:18 Speaker 2: San Diego. Okay, he actually managed his school of rock

5:22 Speaker 2: down there. Nice, but you want to where your originally,

5:26 Speaker 2: But yeah, I'm from Denver, Man.

5:28 Speaker 3: Oh wow, Okay, Okay.

5:31 Speaker 4: So rocking out in the kind of like Stone or

5:35 Speaker 4: Doom kind of style rock Denver rock out there for

5:38 Speaker 4: the last fifteen years.

5:40 Speaker 3: Yeah.

5:42 Speaker 4: Yeah. And then Aris and I met a couple of

5:44 Speaker 4: years ago via Craigslist, which is the best place to

5:48 Speaker 4: find your band mates. Still yeah, and uh yeah, just

5:54 Speaker 4: been rocking out, you know. He just needed help out

5:56 Speaker 4: with a couple of gigs filling in and then it

5:58 Speaker 4: turned into something that was more serious and then and

6:00 Speaker 4: here we are doing a little tour this week.

6:04 Speaker 3: Excellent.

6:05 Speaker 1: Yeah, I think you had mentioned that in an email too,

6:07 Speaker 1: So tell me about the tour.

6:10 Speaker 3: Yeah.

6:10 Speaker 2: Actually, we we just got back into LA this morning.

6:13 Speaker 2: We've been up and down the West coast for the

6:15 Speaker 2: last like ten days. Oh wow, we drove through the

6:19 Speaker 2: night to be with you guys on the station.

6:22 Speaker 3: Yeah, thank you.

6:23 Speaker 2: We were just in San Francisco last night. Great, great

6:27 Speaker 2: show in the Bay Area, PACIFICA. It was. Yeah, it

6:34 Speaker 2: was unusually hot like up in Seattle and the Northwest,

6:39 Speaker 2: but good old Bay Area still still cold and rainy

6:43 Speaker 2: and us a good time.

6:45 Speaker 3: Excellent, outstanding.

6:48 Speaker 1: So I'm curious about because, you know, I've been in

6:51 Speaker 1: a lot of bands, but I've never been in a

6:52 Speaker 1: band that you know, has some progressive elements, you know,

6:56 Speaker 1: the time changes and things like that. How difficult is

6:59 Speaker 1: it to play these songs live? I mean, do they

7:01 Speaker 1: become like second nature or you know, something like recapsure code.

7:04 Speaker 1: You know we mentioned the time changes. I mean, are

7:07 Speaker 1: are these are these difficult to to kind of pull

7:10 Speaker 1: off live? Especially like for you, Garrett, I mean, you're

7:13 Speaker 1: you know, you're you're keeping time, right, So it's got

7:15 Speaker 1: to be it's got to be a challenge to learn them.

7:18 Speaker 4: It was super hard to learn these tunes, but like

7:22 Speaker 4: not not crazy hard, but we kind of did old

7:27 Speaker 4: school and we're putting it together live on stage, you know,

7:31 Speaker 4: running tunes that sometimes we haven't played together in a while. Yeah,

7:36 Speaker 4: just as it is. And you know, a couple of

7:39 Speaker 4: shows is worth a thousand nights in the rehearsal room,

7:42 Speaker 4: you know what I mean. So a lot of these

7:44 Speaker 4: songs are getting worked out, like like I said, kind

7:46 Speaker 4: of old school where it's like you know what that

7:48 Speaker 4: works on the record. Live you know, we can adjust

7:52 Speaker 4: things a little bit too. But it is an absolute

7:57 Speaker 4: marathon of drumming. Like it's like thirty minute set. But

8:04 Speaker 4: thanks Theris for righty, it is. It's a marathon is

8:07 Speaker 4: drumming because you know, it's got lots of changes, lots

8:10 Speaker 4: of slow kind of or maybe halftime intros that end

8:14 Speaker 4: with like a double time you know, our quadruple kind

8:19 Speaker 4: of four on a snare kind of end up feel

8:23 Speaker 4: which is like you know, starting flow and ending fast

8:27 Speaker 4: and like a marathon. You're like, okay, we've gotta do

8:30 Speaker 4: this six more times, right, Right, it's awesome.

8:34 Speaker 2: It's so much fun.

8:35 Speaker 3: Yeah.

8:35 Speaker 2: Yeah, they can be challenging for.

8:37 Speaker 3: Sure, Yeah, no doubt, no doubt.

8:40 Speaker 1: I'm also impressed that because you guys are a three piece, right,

8:45 Speaker 1: there's there's only three of you in the round, but

8:47 Speaker 1: you've got a huge sound.

8:48 Speaker 2: We don't we don't use any tracks live, so everything

8:51 Speaker 2: you hear is us playing like you know, like Rush

8:54 Speaker 2: or something. We just we just go out there and

8:56 Speaker 2: we do it. Unlike Rush. We're not that great, but no,

9:04 Speaker 2: but uh, that's that's like our our goal to get

9:08 Speaker 2: to that point.

9:09 Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah.

9:10 Speaker 1: Is that something that's that you guys had from the beginning,

9:14 Speaker 1: that ability to to put out such a big sound

9:17 Speaker 1: or is it something you had to work on? Because

9:19 Speaker 1: I'm always impressed when I when I when I see

9:21 Speaker 1: I hear a three piece band that can have a

9:23 Speaker 1: big You know, it's one thing if it's you know,

9:26 Speaker 1: a three chord punk band, but what when it's what

9:28 Speaker 1: you guys are doing and you've got that big sound.

9:31 Speaker 1: Was that a challenge at any point to replicate live?

9:34 Speaker 1: Or did that come naturally?

9:36 Speaker 3: No?

9:37 Speaker 2: I think I mean for me, I think it came

9:39 Speaker 2: really naturally. Just because of the way uh, you know

9:43 Speaker 2: we play. And again, it's like when we're recording and

9:47 Speaker 2: writing these songs, it's nothing that we ever did. I

9:50 Speaker 2: felt like was uh forced, you know, like we're trying

9:53 Speaker 2: to sound a certain way on the recording. Yeah, so

9:58 Speaker 2: that's just kind of like what comes out out and

10:01 Speaker 2: you know, I just kind of channel everything through my

10:03 Speaker 2: Mason boogie and then get that big old kind of

10:07 Speaker 2: classic guitar rock sound and credit. Yeah, our bass player

10:12 Speaker 2: fills it out too. He's incredible.

10:14 Speaker 4: Yeah, the bottom tends to drop out with a lot

10:17 Speaker 4: of times when you have a single guitar, you know,

10:19 Speaker 4: go to a solo, right, I mean, you have no

10:23 Speaker 4: rhythm underneath it. So it's a huge credit to him.

10:26 Speaker 4: He can totally work magic and and somehow be able

10:30 Speaker 4: to like fill that up, you know what I mean. Yeah,

10:34 Speaker 4: you know, I wish he was here now, but because

10:36 Speaker 4: I have no idea how does it? But it's it's awesome.

10:38 Speaker 2: Yeah, And I think a lot of that has to

10:40 Speaker 2: do with the bass. Like I think to me, you know,

10:43 Speaker 2: when you have like a counterpoint in the bassline during

10:46 Speaker 2: a song and then the guitar is kind of accenting

10:50 Speaker 2: that not necessarily copying it. That kind of makes it

10:55 Speaker 2: sound bigger too, I think.

10:57 Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely absolutely. I'm curious about that too. As a

11:02 Speaker 1: bass player myself, I assume he's not playing a four string?

11:05 Speaker 3: Does he? Does he have a five string or something?

11:08 Speaker 2: I figured, yeah, I think he's got the five string.

11:12 Speaker 3: Yeah, I figured.

11:13 Speaker 4: I think he did that so he didn't have to

11:15 Speaker 4: tune as much, right, But then it's like this crazy

11:20 Speaker 4: like transposing nightmare.

11:23 Speaker 2: So yeah, he's done for yeah, yeah, yeah.

11:31 Speaker 3: No doubt.

11:33 Speaker 1: Do you guys have any kind of when you play live,

11:35 Speaker 1: any kind of effects or anything that you guys use

11:38 Speaker 1: As far as visually, I'm curious about the visual presentation

11:43 Speaker 1: or maybe not, Maybe you just get on stage and play.

11:44 Speaker 1: I don't know, but it seems like your music would

11:46 Speaker 1: would lend itself to some sort of I don't know,

11:49 Speaker 1: even something as simple as a screen behind you or

11:51 Speaker 1: something like that, but anything like that live, Yeah, totally.

11:56 Speaker 2: You know, we really like when people come to see us.

11:59 Speaker 2: We want to kind of have a memorable experience. And

12:03 Speaker 2: even if they're like, God, that band really sucks, I

12:06 Speaker 2: hate that singer or whatever, we want them to be

12:10 Speaker 2: like that was, you know, cool, presentation. So we have

12:14 Speaker 2: some things that we do. We have these really cool

12:18 Speaker 2: like we call them light boxes where we kind of

12:20 Speaker 2: stomp on them and there's like a it's like a platform.

12:24 Speaker 2: We have kind of like an amp about the size

12:26 Speaker 2: of it, like a combo, but there's a flood light

12:29 Speaker 2: inside of them, okay, And so when we step on those,

12:33 Speaker 2: like you would a guitar pedal, and it shoots a

12:36 Speaker 2: flood light up at us, so it's kind of cool.

12:38 Speaker 2: And then I have I have this really over the

12:41 Speaker 2: top like show kind of guitar that's like custom piece.

12:46 Speaker 2: It's like acrylic and it lights up blue, and then

12:50 Speaker 2: I put some custom pickups in there, so it's like

12:53 Speaker 2: Seymour dunkins it would sound good to play, So that

12:57 Speaker 2: that thing always gets a lot of kind of in

13:00 Speaker 2: as of the plan. But yeah, we're always looking to

13:03 Speaker 2: kind of push the envelope because you know, at the

13:05 Speaker 2: end of the day, like you know, you're there to

13:07 Speaker 2: entertain people, and you know it's it's a it should

13:11 Speaker 2: be a visual kind of audio experience, you know, to

13:15 Speaker 2: some degree.

13:16 Speaker 3: I think right right now that makes sense.

13:18 Speaker 1: And like I said, I mean, your sound definitely, I

13:20 Speaker 1: think lends itself to that. Oh, by the way, so

13:23 Speaker 1: the obvious question I didn't ask, where does the name

13:26 Speaker 1: come from?

13:27 Speaker 3: The Rift?

13:30 Speaker 2: Yeah? That you know. Back in the day, I and

13:35 Speaker 2: I still am a big Disturbed fan, and they had

13:40 Speaker 2: a song off of ten Thousand Days. I think it

13:44 Speaker 2: was called the Abyss, but like one of the first lines,

13:49 Speaker 2: for whatever reason in that song, that Dreamian saying was

13:53 Speaker 2: like something about the Rift, and I was like, God,

13:55 Speaker 2: that's so cool. It's just stuck in my head. Yeah,

13:57 Speaker 2: there you go, a name, camera.

14:00 Speaker 3: There you go. Yeah, Disturbed is funny.

14:01 Speaker 1: I still remember the first time I heard Stupefy, So

14:03 Speaker 1: the first time I ever heard Disturbed, I was like.

14:05 Speaker 2: Wow, yeah, that's an awesome yeah, awesome record.

14:09 Speaker 3: Absolutely absolutely.

14:12 Speaker 1: So you just got back from a tour, No, so

14:14 Speaker 1: what's next for you guys? Are you going back out

14:16 Speaker 1: on tour or what's.

14:17 Speaker 2: Well, Yeah, we got to two dates back in SoCal

14:22 Speaker 2: to finish up on a tour. So tonight we have

14:24 Speaker 2: a big it's like a big festival at this really

14:27 Speaker 2: famous punk rock venue in Anaheim, California called the dall Hut, Okay,

14:32 Speaker 2: and so it's like indoor outdoor stages. So we'll be

14:35 Speaker 2: going on I think in nine tonight okay, and there's

14:41 Speaker 2: some really great bands headlining tonight too, and then tomorrow

14:45 Speaker 2: at the Redwood Bar in La Downtown is the last

14:50 Speaker 2: show for us, and then, uh, we'll probably take a

14:52 Speaker 2: little breather after that.

14:55 Speaker 3: Yeah, you guys have been working hard.

14:57 Speaker 4: And then see our family and yeah, go back to work.

15:01 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, no doubt, no doubt. In a moment, we're

15:05 Speaker 1: going to play because I want to play another song.

15:07 Speaker 1: At the end of our conversation, I was thinking about

15:08 Speaker 1: playing this track Lightning. What should we know about this?

15:12 Speaker 1: Anything we should know about this before I play it?

15:16 Speaker 2: Yeah, it's super cool track. You know, I've always been

15:20 Speaker 2: a huge fan of of Thunderstruck by a c DC,

15:26 Speaker 2: and I mean it's like one of the most iconic,

15:29 Speaker 2: you know, songs, right, So I really wanted to try

15:32 Speaker 2: to create something that was, you know, obviously inspired by

15:36 Speaker 2: that and like kind of a modern take on that.

15:41 Speaker 2: And then I had a We had a good buddy,

15:45 Speaker 2: Chas Leon who sings for Kings of Thrash with Dave

15:49 Speaker 2: Elson and ex megadesk guys that are out there crushing it.

15:54 Speaker 2: He did some guest vocals. I used to play with

15:58 Speaker 2: chazz and uh like a sound guarding tribute band really,

16:03 Speaker 2: and so that was kind of how we became good

16:06 Speaker 2: buds and stuff. But yeah, he does some guest vocals

16:09 Speaker 2: on the track and it's definitely I think live one

16:13 Speaker 2: of our our fun songs. People start singing the little

16:17 Speaker 2: chant thing along and it's a good time.

16:20 Speaker 3: Yeah. Absolutely, no, I think I think the audience will

16:24 Speaker 3: enjoy this.

16:25 Speaker 1: And Okay, so before I let you guys go, so

16:27 Speaker 1: we are going to hit that track and and and again,

16:29 Speaker 1: thank you both Arison and Garrett for joining us today.

16:33 Speaker 1: Where's the best place to go online to keep up

16:35 Speaker 1: with the rift with everything you guys are doing.

16:39 Speaker 2: Yeah, if you just go on to their riftofficial dot com.

16:43 Speaker 2: We've got any social thing that you want to go

16:46 Speaker 2: on to, Instagram, the Double Underscore, Riff, Spotify, We're we're

16:53 Speaker 2: pretty much everywhere. But yeah, the ristofficial dot com is

16:56 Speaker 2: sort of our our hub and you can go on

16:58 Speaker 2: there and check out all of there and all all

17:02 Speaker 2: the tour dates and stuff. We're on there too. So yeah,

17:05 Speaker 2: and then yeah, like I said, any social platform you

17:07 Speaker 2: want to check us out on.

17:08 Speaker 1: Until we listed today excellent, excellent, Well again, thank you

17:12 Speaker 1: guys for joining us. We'll definitely have to do this

17:13 Speaker 1: again in the future as you have more music coming out.

17:16 Speaker 1: It sounds like you got a lot going on, so

17:18 Speaker 1: uh it will be uh, we'll be able to have

17:20 Speaker 1: you back on soon, I'm sure. And and I appreciate

17:22 Speaker 1: I know it's kind of early there. Uh you know

17:25 Speaker 1: you guys are what are you three hours behind us,

17:26 Speaker 1: so it's uh and and and you're you've been busy,

17:29 Speaker 1: so I appreciate busy touring. So I appreciate you joining

17:32 Speaker 1: us this morning. And and uh and thank you for

17:34 Speaker 1: being flexible about the WhatsApp thing.

17:36 Speaker 2: Oh, thank you so much for having us on the show.

17:40 Speaker 2: You guys rock and uh yeah, keep keep sharing you know,

17:44 Speaker 2: awesome music and doing what you guys do.

17:46 Speaker 3: Man, we'll do, we'll do. Thank you.

17:48 Speaker 1: We're going to hit this track lightning, so we'll let

17:50 Speaker 1: you guys go, but again, thank you both so much,

17:52 Speaker 1: and we'll talk again soon.

17:54 Speaker 2: Thanks guys, you got it.

17:55 Speaker 3: Bye bye. All right.

17:57 Speaker 1: That is Airis and Garrett from the band The Rift,

18:00 Speaker 1: and let's give this a spin and then we'll come back.

18:03 Speaker 1: And right at the end of the show, I'm going

18:05 Speaker 1: to tag you with a couple of programming notes that

18:07 Speaker 1: I want you to be aware of. But here's another

18:09 Speaker 1: great track from the Rift. This is called Lightning