The Stifftones | Matt Connarton Unleashed

0:04 Speaker 1: Tell me right to come.

0:18 Speaker 2: You see it all in the hand up boys to sleep in this cop and me, he said.

0:23 Speaker 3: He got Calistoa right again, ride in the ride in it. I'm gonna turtle hill.

0:31 Speaker 2: I'm gonna tell on him. I'm gonna sell him so.

0:34 Speaker 1: We can look at you.

0:38 Speaker 3: And you right, said men Ris, turtle past.

0:45 Speaker 4: And turtle past, and pattle past, and paddle fast, paddle past, and paddle faster, paddle.

0:49 Speaker 2: Past and go.

0:53 Speaker 1: And rising.

0:56 Speaker 5: You ri sing.

1:00 Speaker 2: We want to work on day on.

1:01 Speaker 5: It said, he ripped the stand sixteen.

1:04 Speaker 6: When to tell your brother five?

1:06 Speaker 2: When you see all in, you know, see all in, No see all there. That one's on a hill, that he's down on hill. I just shut on hill. So he to look at Jean, say right, okay, he right here, I.

1:26 Speaker 7: Sail faster paddle that's your battle, faster battle's battle after battle, faster.

1:31 Speaker 1: Battle past to go and I say, young right sit.

1:42 Speaker 2: So he's got his sister that time. Man, he never gets to leave it. He's okay with it.

1:48 Speaker 5: He's got a tube.

1:49 Speaker 7: Sod gotty twee's everywhere he leaves here where he leaves here where that ways.

1:55 Speaker 4: Out of hill.

1:56 Speaker 2: I was telling hill that was going on hill, so we can look at.

2:13 Speaker 3: Polish stufter Polish.

2:32 Speaker 2: I love it.

2:33 Speaker 5: That is backwards down a hill, and that is the Stiff Tones. And we have the Stiff Tones with us live in studio. We're going to talk with them in just a moment and they're going to play. So really looking forward to this right now. So we've got the Stiff Tones here with us in studio. Now I'm gonna bring these mics up. I'm using a little bit of a different microphone configuration than we usually use here, so we'll see strum that guitar a little bit, if you would please, Actually you could both, Actually you should both.

2:59 Speaker 5: Strump.

3:02 Speaker 2: We came out, came out a little bit while I was sitting there.

3:04 Speaker 5: Yeah, that's okay.

3:05 Speaker 2: I think my guitarget as nervous as I am. Maybe perhaps all right, cool, that's wild.

3:13 Speaker 5: Let's sue this. Let's have you, let's have you introduce yourselves please.

3:19 Speaker 2: Well, I guess, uh, where are the Stiff Tones. I'm Sean. This is Rachel, my wife, and uh we're from I'm from southern Illinois. She's from New Hampshire. I liked to joke that she exited her and exit her just Stan go to jokes. We've been traveling the country for about five years, living in the back of our Cadillac hearse playing and singing for our supper and hundreds of towns all over the country.

3:45 Speaker 5: Yeah.

3:45 Speaker 8: Yeah, we quit being grown ups and I got away from Yeah COVID trust is how I was a nurse, you know, And yeah COVID streussed no doubt.

3:54 Speaker 5: Yeah.

3:55 Speaker 8: After that, we were like, what we have choices, Like, we don't have to have all this stuff.

4:00 Speaker 5: That's okay, we're on a delay. I caught it shipwreck.

4:02 Speaker 8: I was saying, ship we don't have to have all this stuff, and so yeah, whatever we can fit in the hurst we can take with us. Yeah, that's what we did.

4:13 Speaker 2: So that's what we did. We we kind of ran away with the proverbial circus, so we kind of call ourselves the rock and roll defible circus versus a revival.

4:22 Speaker 5: Okay.

4:23 Speaker 2: So that's basically where you take instead of just reviving something, you take the good parts of it and you form something new with it.

4:30 Speaker 5: Okay. By the way, I just want our listeners to know too. I can confirm so the hearst thing is not a gimmick. That is real. There's an actual hearse outside.

4:40 Speaker 8: Her name is Tanya.

4:41 Speaker 5: Oh yes, I noticed that on the license plate. Yeah yeah, yeah.

4:44 Speaker 8: People think that I have Tanya and I'm not. I'm racial.

4:47 Speaker 5: Why why is the Hurst Tanya?

4:49 Speaker 2: Why is it?

4:49 Speaker 6: Okay?

4:50 Speaker 2: So everybody, a lot of folks get a hearse and they immediately want to name it, you know, get Patty on the license plate either, for.

4:57 Speaker 8: This is our age showing like if you're older than you know who Patty Hurst is.

5:02 Speaker 2: We're like, okay, well I get it. That's funny. But wouldn't it be even cooler if we got one and we switched it to her music? People at Yellow Name.

5:10 Speaker 8: Yeah. So when she when she was kidnapped and then she joined the People's Liberation Organization, she changed her name to Tanya. And one of our favorite bands happens to be a band named Camper van Beethoven and they have an album called Our Beloved Revolutionary Sweetheart. All on this album is a song called Tanya and it's so we have to I mean, it was just meant to.

5:29 Speaker 2: Be because she used to be a funeral carriage, you know. Now she's a rock and roll she rock.

5:33 Speaker 8: Now she's a beloved rock and roll tor queen.

5:36 Speaker 2: Okay, okay, kind of a you know that's kind of why that how that happened? Now?

5:39 Speaker 1: Do you?

5:39 Speaker 5: So you travel all over the country, So do you have a show in the area and that's why you're you're here or how how does your tour routing work?

5:46 Speaker 8: So in July, so, I, like I said, I'm a New Hampshire native, and my father and my wicked stepmother wicked, being New England wicked. Nobody else gets out of it. I'm like, my wicked step.

5:56 Speaker 2: Don't like her.

5:57 Speaker 8: I'm like, no, she's wicked good. Okay, Yeah, my wicked's mother. They live in up here, and so we come up in July and split in stack wood and fill the woodshed and do some odds and ends and stuff to keep them, you know, going up on the hill while we're running around and okay, So, but he's from Illinois and that's where we So that's what we're up here. Yes, we do have actually a show. When we get done here, we head over to Leven in New Hampshire. I went playing over the road House Mall, and then next week in World over in Vermont, and then then we head out Okay, back on the road.

6:26 Speaker 5: Okay, is it challenging that, I mean, this is an unconventional uh lifestyle, right, it.

6:34 Speaker 1: Is.

6:34 Speaker 2: It is difficult.

6:36 Speaker 8: So it's paying a mortgage and so, you know, so making sure the lights are turned on, and raising children and and you know, and just getting by and in life. So it's just it's just different. It's just a different complicated. I mean, I've been just as broken, just as frustrated when I was a nurse, as a as I am as a rock goddess.

6:53 Speaker 5: That makes sense.

6:54 Speaker 8: But you know this today was the first time I've had to set an alarm clock in.

6:59 Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, a lot kind of on a different time schedule. Now, Yeah, you play late a lot of times. Then you sleep in a little bit, you sleep until the sun warms you up.

7:08 Speaker 8: You could have been when you want, and you wake up when you want. For the most party, there's you know, there's also those fifteen hour drive days, you know, because you guys, you got to get there or you know, the side of the road, you know, tire changes or you know, I mean there's but again, you know you have those, you have roof leaks, and you have you know, things life life, happens. We have five children between the.

7:25 Speaker 2: Two of us.

7:26 Speaker 8: They're grown. Yeah, so yeah, we're pretty well adapted to, you know, dealing with the litany of issues you can come up on the road.

7:33 Speaker 5: Yeah. And have you been doing this since?

7:35 Speaker 4: Uh?

7:36 Speaker 5: Because you said so, COVID was kind of your breaking point right as far as nursing.

7:39 Speaker 8: And well, my girlfriend passed away suddenly on me and girlfriend like friend friend, Yeah, and passed away suddenly on me. And it was one of those moments where I was forty five and I was like, man, my life was already half over, and you know what am I going to do? And so I started travel nursing and we did that for a while, trying to scratch that itchy And because I was a millit Harry Bratt, so I grew up moving around a lot, and I'd been stuck in Illinois for like thirty years, and so he agreed with me, and then yeah, we started singing together.

8:12 Speaker 8: Because he was a musician. I met him at an open mic and I'm dominating this conversation anyway. And music has always been very therapeutic to me in a different kind of way. I was never a maker of music or creator. I was an appreciator. I know Sush, So long story, extremely long. We met an open mic and then we started playing together. Gosh what in twenty seventeen, twenty eighteen, and he had to rule no girlfriends in the band, so we had to get married.

8:42 Speaker 2: If you're in a band, it sorry like having three girlfriends at the same time.

8:45 Speaker 8: So we were together as friends with extraordinary benefits for the first seven years and we've been married for the last seven fourteen years together. But anyway, we had to get married so we could be the stiff Tones starting the open mic thing and travel around with the travel nursing and kind of getting you know, like a hey man, what are you doing here? Can't have a vibe, and so we're like, yeah, we'll try it. And it's nothing like what we thought. And we were completely naive and we weren't that good and bless everybody, and first everybody really cursed.

9:15 Speaker 8: But what are you doing here? I think, Yeah, that's how you get gas money.

9:18 Speaker 2: You're either really good or really That was one of our tactics later as a later as a band, I'll pass this out for any fledgling bands out there listening. Go out there and do it. And the reason for it is if you're even if you're awful like we were, eventually somebody will pay.

9:34 Speaker 8: You to leave, and perspective is everything and just start.

9:41 Speaker 2: Setting up camp and they'll just be like, all right, we're gonna pay you to get out of.

9:44 Speaker 8: Here the toilet paper.

9:47 Speaker 5: That's right, very good. Well, I uh, it's it's it's gonna be hard to avoid these puns. I'm dying to hear you play, so I said to Jenny earlier. I was like, before before the sentence even made it out of my mouth, fully I started. I started to say I'm dying to see the hears. I got as far as I'm dying, and then I'm like, oh, I'm making a pun. You're very punny, but but yeah, there's a there's a legit hearse out there.

10:15 Speaker 1: Yeahah.

10:16 Speaker 8: And just for the record, the name the stiff Tones came before the hers.

10:20 Speaker 5: Wondering about people. Oh, I just assumed our.

10:23 Speaker 8: Last name is Steve, and well my mine is now adopted it, okay, And so growing up his nickname was Stiffy. So the little town where we're from, everybody knows him as Stiffy. That how I met him was true, and so when we were when he would do the open mic circuit, they would call anybody could get up there. They'd say it was Stiffy and the stiff Tones play with him.

10:41 Speaker 2: The stiff I mean, as much as I love Tom Petty, and I really do, but I don't want to be known as Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. I want to be like the Stones or something, right, And it was just the.

10:49 Speaker 8: Two of us, So it can't be Stiffy and the stiff Tones, right.

10:52 Speaker 5: Right, right right?

10:54 Speaker 2: Yeah, very strange thing, wouldn't it.

10:55 Speaker 5: Yeah, Yeah, yeah, that would be that would be yeah. Well very good. Okay, Well I am I'm eager to hear you play you sound You sounded phenomenal during the soundtrack, so this is going to be killing.

11:10 Speaker 2: I want to play in the song about a little hometown. Sure, okay, So I guess we'll do a song for you about our little hometown. It's on our first album is about to come out in September, and it's kind of give you it's the meson scene of the album. Okay, it's kind of the just you know, it's a it's a little corn town. It's where it all started. There's trains, coal, mines and uh industry that has gone kind of vibe. So anyways, it's where this album starts. I think we'll start there.

11:37 Speaker 5: Okay.

11:38 Speaker 2: It's a song called Midwestern Town. It's just kind of a love song to your hometown kind of song.

11:44 Speaker 5: All right. The Stifftones live in studio.

12:10 Speaker 2: Liver has a story.

12:14 Speaker 9: They have to stay in in this town. Most were passing through here win faith.

12:25 Speaker 3: Had decided to let them down.

12:32 Speaker 6: If I hadn't ha chance, I'll tell you what I would do.

12:43 Speaker 7: If I pack my bags and say goodbye.

12:47 Speaker 2: Hand catch next train home to you?

12:51 Speaker 10: Home?

12:51 Speaker 4: To you.

12:55 Speaker 2: Near the Western Town?

12:57 Speaker 3: Western Town down?

12:59 Speaker 6: Chu my home?

13:02 Speaker 10: You my home?

13:05 Speaker 11: Let me Midwestern town in Western Town?

13:09 Speaker 2: Do let me go? You gotta let me go, won't you let me eg? You gotta let me go. This place is like a heaven where dreams a go.

13:33 Speaker 12: Today I should have left you ride away and never speen a single night.

13:46 Speaker 2: Single.

13:49 Speaker 7: But if I had have chance, I'll tell you what time would to lad back my bags and say goodbye.

14:04 Speaker 2: Henll catch next train home? Do you.

14:08 Speaker 6: Home?

14:08 Speaker 1: Do you?

14:12 Speaker 2: Mid Western Town? Western Down?

14:16 Speaker 6: You're my home?

14:19 Speaker 10: You my home?

14:22 Speaker 11: Let me mid Western Town, Western Down?

14:27 Speaker 2: Let me go?

14:29 Speaker 6: You gotta let me go?

14:32 Speaker 2: Won't you let me go? You gotta let me go? Now, tell me baby.

15:22 Speaker 10: When it's that you used me?

15:29 Speaker 6: So I'll me never make it out.

15:32 Speaker 2: But maybe we could share around dreams, share o dreams.

15:41 Speaker 11: Middle Western town Western down, Chum, you're ma let me go, midle Western townstern down to let me go?

15:58 Speaker 2: You gotta let me.

16:18 Speaker 5: Oh, that is so good, beautiful, it is so good. We've got these stiff tones here with us alive in studio, and uh, how many like, how many songs do you have? Probably quite a few at this point right in terms of original music, we do have a few.

16:37 Speaker 8: We do have a well, we're getting ready to release our debut album on September twenty first.

16:42 Speaker 5: Hopefully excellent, excellent.

16:45 Speaker 8: Yeah, and there there will be nine original tracks on there in one cover.

16:50 Speaker 6: And then we have.

16:53 Speaker 8: The good meat and potatoes of our second album already wet on that one. Largely so we've been most of these songs that were that were performing today and that are all going to be on the album are all songs that were written either right well before Sean and I met, or write as we met, or you know after, and so yeah, fourteen years he and I have been kind of working on some of these same songs. Yeah, but we didn't go into this with the idea that that's what we were doing, because again, I was a nurse and I was a mother and that's what I you know.

17:26 Speaker 8: I sang with him and harmonized with him when he would practice and play because it was fun and I love to sing, you know, and I sang growing up and whatever. But like run away and join the circus, no, I mean, like, yeah, I had my PhD and Karen, you know, like I had the hair cuts hairs for a while. It's living in ahearse what no, right?

17:45 Speaker 3: Right?

17:46 Speaker 2: Yeah, So the one cover we do is a cover by a guy named Johnny Hickman. I want to mention that, so not all heroes were caves. So the reason it's on there is because it's it's our that signal song, and it's at the very very end of the album. So so anyways, that's kind of that was the first song. Okay, So the album actually was kind of written around the idea of putting that song at the end of the album.

18:14 Speaker 5: Yeah, why is that, like why it belong there?

18:19 Speaker 2: It's I don't know, for whatever reason, well, Rachel probably tell you.

18:22 Speaker 8: One of the reasons is you know, is it that signal? You know? And when Shawn and I were first dating and becoming friends, anybody that knows us knows we know how to fight very very much. We perfected it like it's very early on and where's much brother and sister and a mother and son and and and it like it's crazy. But when we would break up, and because we again we had five children between the two of us, it was just complicated and missing. We'd break up and he'd go home and he'd post this song on the internet because Facebook was new at the time.

18:55 Speaker 8: And I knew that I was the treacherous woman in that song, even though he didn't it was but so but I knew it was time for me to call him up because he was thinking and.

19:04 Speaker 2: Johnny, Johnny's my favorite guitar player. Without him having been a guitar player, and he heard his work in the band Cracker, I would have never picked up a guitar like yeah.

19:14 Speaker 8: I actually got to take his hand and say it. And so he gave us his permission for this song to be or not that the song weren't doing it right now, but that song to be at the end of the album. Oh okay, Yeah, we rearranged it a little bit and but yeah, permission.

19:29 Speaker 5: Very cool. Now where you might have mentioned it earlier, but where are you recording the album?

19:34 Speaker 2: Everywhere? So we were as we were writing in we were here listening to you guys talk about that on the show, and I was like, oh my goodness, way to the hear hear from us. So we're putting this album together in the most unconventional way you could possibly about imagine over the course the last four years, being run around the country singing for our supper. So we started putting the album together like in different places. So part of the album, the first part at the end of the album. Firstly, we just recorded.

20:03 Speaker 8: Tracks in my dad's garage, of my dad's kitchen.

20:05 Speaker 2: Just the other night that we recorded for it would have happened. We we went all the way to California, southern California to record like the end of the album.

20:15 Speaker 8: Yeah, and that's where Backwards Down a Hill was recorded. Yeah, because when we first went out in twenty twenty one, we went out with the intention of recording this album, and at that time, Backwards Down a Hill was going to be maybe was going to be on the album. But the only thing we left that day with was Backwards down a Hill. An education that's right, very good, very good education, and realization that we needed more education.

20:39 Speaker 1: Yea.

20:39 Speaker 2: And so so the back of the album is more like recorded in California. But then everything kind of goes like in a Quentin Tarantino style, everything it goes backwards. After that, Backwards down a Hill, we just cursed ourselves and didn't even know it. We went in there. We recorded a version of the last song in the album, Father Winter, and it was awful. Really, Yeah, we did. The one thing that we were asked not to is to not not ruin the song in the Chili and yea, so we did in the studio that it was originally recorded with.

21:09 Speaker 8: The original engineer that recorded the original.

21:13 Speaker 2: We did.

21:13 Speaker 8: We could have fanned ourselves in front.

21:15 Speaker 2: Of them anymore situation, yea. So we tuck tail and we went. We drove all the way back to New Hampshire. In our hearse there's a story about paying the band the engineering change story for a year older. But yeah, we get we make it back and then we get stranded on the mountain in the winter time up here. Yeah, so anyways we uh recomposed that song. Yeah, while we're living in a tenth wow side of.

21:43 Speaker 8: The mountain, would couldn't would stay warm?

21:48 Speaker 2: And then we went to uh, we went to uh we recorded that with Chuck melching down.

21:52 Speaker 8: Chul in Newmarket where I got kicked out of the first grade.

21:56 Speaker 2: So Father Winter was recorded here in New Hampshire and the last, last last track on the album. Okay, So I know it's a lot of discon convoluted story, but all ties into a big theme.

22:07 Speaker 8: Yeah, we're from a movie.

22:09 Speaker 2: Yeah, there's a movie, or at least a really uh seedy, grainy YouTube video.

22:15 Speaker 8: So porn you're just started. Do you what your role is?

22:21 Speaker 2: By like, man, I'm hovered on the button.

22:26 Speaker 5: Okay, okay, anyway, by the way, I do have to ask why did you get kicked out of the first grade?

22:31 Speaker 2: Oh boy, this is glorious, is it?

22:33 Speaker 5: Yeah?

22:33 Speaker 2: She was on an army brap Go ahead, right, you'll tell the story.

22:35 Speaker 8: It's really it's not that good.

22:37 Speaker 4: So I was.

22:38 Speaker 8: I was in military brat my birthdays in October when we moved to Germany and my and they let you start kindergarten at like age.

22:45 Speaker 5: Four over there, Yeah, kindergotten.

22:47 Speaker 8: Yeah, so I finished kindergarten where they originally originated it, and it came back to the US and they let me start the first grade. And then they realized they didn't meet the age requirement. They sent me home with a note pinned to my shirt telling me that I was not allowed to come back anymore. I was I loved school. I was so mad.

23:07 Speaker 5: Oh wow, yeah so.

23:11 Speaker 8: Yeah, and then I was traumatized after that.

23:13 Speaker 5: Yeah, I can imagine. Wow. Well on that note, whytn to play another song? You want to hear? You want to play another one? I'm not to hear another one over Okay, So I can't. I can't even help it. I literally just said it. Yeah.

23:27 Speaker 2: So yeah, give me just a second week, give a little too. Yeah, yeah, we'll play one. Rachel can talk about this one if she wants. But this is we're gonna do a song called starting Over. And if you're old, if you're you're old enough to have had to.

23:40 Speaker 3: Do this before you, So I'll tell you this song is.

23:43 Speaker 8: We released it as a demo version on Backwards down Hill, so there is a B side out there. It's a demo and I recorded it in southern California, And the reason why we had to come to New Hampshire recorded is because when I recorded and sound in New Hampshire, I didn't realize till we got back here that was Statton Nova. I was like, what, like, I'm not I haven't lived in New Hampshire since Ye, this is where I learned how to speak.

24:04 Speaker 1: Yeah.

24:04 Speaker 8: Since, So I had to come back to New Hampshire so I could re record it, Chuck Melchin, and so I could start over, stop starting over. But the one that's on the internet right now, I'm stopping over. So and then the other side of this story song is the internet version is explicit.

24:23 Speaker 11: We won't do the explicit.

24:25 Speaker 5: Version today, thank you.

24:26 Speaker 8: But it's a beautiful song about starting over and if you're gonna, you know, do it, you might as well do it big. So the F word is all through it.

24:35 Speaker 5: Oh, I said, yeah, but not but not this one. Well we're on an eight second to La slip it happens.

24:42 Speaker 8: Yeah, we got this one down.

24:43 Speaker 5: Okay, all right, thank you?

24:45 Speaker 2: She says that.

24:46 Speaker 5: All right, the Stiff Doones live in studio.

25:05 Speaker 3: He tell me to just see that. I couldn't look away. I don't know where I'm going.

25:18 Speaker 10: It's journey out of it.

25:22 Speaker 3: And I don't know where I'm going, just that I can't stay. And now starting over, a starting uberm Maybe.

25:33 Speaker 13: This time I can get it right, starting over, starting uber.

25:40 Speaker 6: Maybe this time I can get here right.

25:43 Speaker 13: But I wouldn't play dolls because I'm leaving with no regrants.

25:51 Speaker 3: No, I wouldn't hold children.

25:54 Speaker 1: For me.

25:57 Speaker 6: Now for me, looking now for me, keep looking now?

26:09 Speaker 13: Tell me that you feel that something's gone to change. Well, it's been coming for so long, honey, I can't wait. I don't know I'll go, just that I can't stay. And now starting over, starting Ober. Maybe the time mark in it ride, I'm starting over, starting Nouber.

26:41 Speaker 6: Maybe this time marking in it ride.

26:44 Speaker 13: But it's broken his time maybe, and it's desperate, it's in maze. There's at least somewhere for.

26:54 Speaker 10: You, in for me, for me, people looking for me

27:08 Speaker 10: now traditional.

27:24 Speaker 3: Tell me?

27:24 Speaker 1: Did you hear that.

27:27 Speaker 3: Times taking away? Come with me? Hand mid because I'm living here. I don't know where I'm coming, just that I can't stay.

27:45 Speaker 13: And now starting over, starting over, maybe this time back get here right, I'm starting over, starting over. Maybe the time barking, get it right. But I wouldn't place no opens because I'm living with no regrets.

28:06 Speaker 3: Noah wouldn't hold children for me, for me, keep for me.

28:23 Speaker 13: I'm starting over, I'm starting over, maybe this time back.

28:28 Speaker 3: And get here right. I'm starting over.

28:32 Speaker 13: I'm starting over, maybe this time back, get here right. But I wouldn't place no bence because I've got no freaking regrets.

28:44 Speaker 3: Noah wouldn't hold children for me.

28:50 Speaker 6: For me, people looking for me.

29:06 Speaker 5: I love it. The Stiff Tones live in studio. That is so good. Rachel here with us. Yeah, oh that's okay, no worries, no worries. No, you sound amazing. Is this now? Is this the earliest in that Is this the earliest in the day that you've sung in a long time?

29:23 Speaker 1: Yeah?

29:24 Speaker 2: Probably?

29:24 Speaker 1: Yeah?

29:25 Speaker 4: Yeah?

29:26 Speaker 5: Is that is that different? Or because you know, sometimes somebody will will come in and they'll perform and they'll say it's it's unusual, like they feel like they sound different or something, And for a lot of people they don't notice any difference.

29:38 Speaker 8: But I think I'm a two pack a day reform smoker.

29:42 Speaker 7: Yeah.

29:45 Speaker 2: Some days I get up and like I'm feeling I'm sound a little rough this Morning track something yeah, and she's like, well, it's you sound like Rover on the recording.

29:57 Speaker 8: My biggest issue is just comfort.

29:59 Speaker 7: Yeah.

30:00 Speaker 8: They have really bad stage, right, and then get in my head and then yeah, yeah, they'll start getting tight and pitchy, and then I start sweating and I'm like, I don't know.

30:07 Speaker 2: Whole thing is just like if i get nervous on stage, it looks like I'm doing methapheta means I start sweating. I'm going like really yeah, yeah, like speed racing through my songs.

30:15 Speaker 5: Oh wow, Yeah, it's crazy.

30:18 Speaker 8: Doing something that you love so much but you're so scared to do.

30:20 Speaker 2: Like that's true.

30:21 Speaker 5: Yeah, Well, I used to play in bands, and you know, for me, the way it would always works, I'd be nervous right before, but then once I was on stage.

30:27 Speaker 8: Yeah, you can get in it, then you're good.

30:30 Speaker 5: Yeah. Yeah, exactly.

30:31 Speaker 8: Like you're up there and you've got like one person just sitting there staring at you and you're like yeah yeah, or if it's somebody that you know.

30:37 Speaker 5: But there's value in that too, right, Because on the one hand, yeah, it's you know, you feel that anxiety and whatnot. Sometimes in the moment, you might wish you didn't feel that, But then again, if that went away, wouldn't that also be kind of a bummer, because then you'd start to question, like, is this is this no longer exciting?

30:52 Speaker 8: That's what I learned about is tell yourself, it's not anxiety, this is this is not me being afraid, This is me being excited. I feel that emotion. You know, other people tell you that that's that's fear that you're feeling that way, but they're not in your meat too, they don't actually know what you're feeling, right exactly, you get to say that this moment, I'm not afraid, I'm excited excited. Yeah, and I'm worried that I might do it wrong, but I'm gonna have so much fun that it's okay. Yeah, I'm gonna be have more fun than I'm gonna be scared.

31:20 Speaker 5: It's ultimately, it's a good kind of nervous, you know.

31:22 Speaker 8: Yeah, absolutely, psych yourself, lie, lie until you believe.

31:26 Speaker 5: It, right, Yeah, exactly, exactly.

31:29 Speaker 8: Yeah, And that what they're teaching is now these days and you.

31:33 Speaker 5: Said, Rachel, you said you used to be a smoker. Yes, how do you quit? I'm curious because I'm a hypnotherapist, I help people quit smoking. So whenever someone tells me they used to be a smoker, I'm like, oh, how'd you quit?

31:43 Speaker 8: Well, first of all, I was a nurse for eighteen years, and so there would be many and I was icy nurse and a dialysis nurse, so there'd be many shifts that I would go twelve to eighteen hours without being able to smoke. So I've got some pretty good control over stuff when I have control, but I also have an inability or ability to have no control.

31:59 Speaker 2: Yeah.

32:00 Speaker 8: Being said, when we started doing running around the country, smoking as expensive, and I smoked mentals and my throat started burning a lot. And then so we started smoking his cigarettes to save money, and we would share because I didn't smoke quite as much. And then we started smoking a loose leave and we were smoking out of a pipe because it was just even that cheaper, And it got down to the point where we were literally smoking the equivalent of three cigarettes a day between the two of us out of a pipe.

32:26 Speaker 8: So it's messy, it stinks only sometimes, but it wasn't nearly as pleasurable as we wanted it to be. As we remembered it being when we first started smoking, and so you guys to the point that you were like, why are you What we did is we went to we went to California.

32:40 Speaker 10: Yeah, I bought an ounce.

32:42 Speaker 8: We for like forty dollars. We bought two of three, And.

32:45 Speaker 2: I thought, every time I'm gonna every time I crave a tobacco, I'm gonna have my pre roll up here and I'm just gonna smoke until I need to lay down.

32:53 Speaker 5: There you go, And I did.

32:54 Speaker 2: About about a day into this process, I'm like, I'm pretty good. Yeah.

32:59 Speaker 14: Then you know, then I'm having crazy occasionally, but you know, once in a while, I'll be like, oh yeah, somebody's near us, and I'll take a job office because I still like the you know, it's pretty much not enough to smoke against it.

33:10 Speaker 1: Yeah.

33:11 Speaker 8: If I lived to seventy.

33:12 Speaker 2: Five, yeah, we're firing backyard.

33:14 Speaker 5: Yeah yeah, maybe that long seventy five.

33:17 Speaker 8: Yeah yeah, make it seventy five back again.

33:19 Speaker 5: Yeah.

33:21 Speaker 1: No.

33:21 Speaker 5: The thing is, though, like you were saying, once you get down now, like if you're smoking the equivalent of three cigarettes a day, it's like two of us, Like they were like, what are you doing?

33:29 Speaker 2: Man?

33:30 Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah. At that point, it's like, yeah, you might as well just be done with it.

33:33 Speaker 4: Yeah.

33:34 Speaker 5: Yeah, did you notice, like without smoking, did it change your like for either of you? Did it to change your voices or yeah?

33:42 Speaker 2: Gain twenty really yeah, and so I feel I feel like my voice is husky right now that it used to be.

33:48 Speaker 5: Oh really, I don't think for sure, but possibly. Oh that's interesting.

33:53 Speaker 8: Yeah yeah, I haven't really noticed by different.

33:55 Speaker 7: Yeah.

33:56 Speaker 5: Yeah, I'm most curious about that too. Yeah. Well, do you want to you want to play another one for the almost.

34:02 Speaker 2: At the end of the album like these times and then give them just sure? Yeah, because I mean we didn't have a game you Yeah.

34:11 Speaker 5: Yeah, So it's good to keep it loose for this show. That's kind of how we do it anyway.

34:15 Speaker 8: We never run with a set list, we try.

34:17 Speaker 5: Yeah. Yeah, well, not not being chained to a set list that gives you some flexibility too, because you can kind of read the room and kind of figure out what you think people might want to hear and just what the vibe is, you know. Yeah.

34:29 Speaker 8: Well, unfortunately for him, I only knew a handful of songs because I was raised not allowed listening to secular music and so really Yeah, so there's a lot of songs you like, I have made it. I can sing, I can, but he's he's an encyclopedia of music. So yeah, mm.

34:47 Speaker 2: Was that curious. So this song is is kind of a song I want to preface this with. This song is about.

35:01 Speaker 5: Polarity, okay, and uh getting the fear and.

35:06 Speaker 8: It's about not picking this picking sides.

35:08 Speaker 2: Yeah, but this in my world, this is a song about you can I don't know, just love, try to love people, try to love your name, show that kind of thing. Yeah, because it's kind of it's a friend's language language.

35:25 Speaker 5: All right. No, I look forward to I look for to he in this one just a.

35:28 Speaker 2: Little bit, no worries. This is the last track that we have on the album that's ours okay, and it's immediately followed by that Johnny Hickman song Felt.

35:37 Speaker 5: The whole album around okay.

35:39 Speaker 2: So yeah, the first song and then starting over is kind of the middle way point where you get the boyl over six track six instantly okay. This is towards the end of the album, all right, song before I.

35:53 Speaker 5: To be safe worries. All Right, the Sift Ones live in studio.

36:49 Speaker 2: There's times at all.

36:50 Speaker 3: Let him understand these times at all.

36:54 Speaker 2: I of'm understand these times at all.

36:57 Speaker 3: Let him to understand this time sat.

37:00 Speaker 10: Everyone's offended, but everyone wants.

37:03 Speaker 3: To shut on understand there's times at all one's.

37:08 Speaker 10: Offended, but everyone wants.

37:10 Speaker 3: To shut don't understand there's times at all.

37:14 Speaker 13: Look over there, those things, they're over there, they're coming here.

37:23 Speaker 2: I don't understand, just don't understand.

37:26 Speaker 1: I don't understand.

37:28 Speaker 2: I just don't understand these times, these times, these times.

37:43 Speaker 2: But little understand these times at.

37:46 Speaker 3: All, understand these times at.

37:49 Speaker 2: All, But little understand these times at all.

37:53 Speaker 3: I don't understand these times at all.

37:57 Speaker 10: People needing forgiveness, People want to judge.

38:00 Speaker 3: I don't understand these times at all.

38:04 Speaker 10: People need and forgiveness, people want to judge.

38:07 Speaker 3: I don't understand these times at all.

38:10 Speaker 10: Look over there, I think if they're over there, they're almost.

38:21 Speaker 2: I just don't understand. I just don't understand, not these times,

38:35 Speaker 2: these times. Well, I of understand these times at all.

39:34 Speaker 3: I don't understand these times at all.

39:37 Speaker 2: Well lot of understand these times that are old.

39:41 Speaker 3: I don't understand these times at all.

39:44 Speaker 2: Well, yeah they got something, got something you want.

39:48 Speaker 3: I don't understand. There's times at all.

39:51 Speaker 2: Don't you got something that everyone wants?

39:55 Speaker 3: I don't understand there times at all.

39:58 Speaker 10: Look in the middle. I think they're always here, they're in the mid.

40:08 Speaker 2: I just don't understand. I just don't understand.

40:16 Speaker 15: Times, these times, these times. I have understand these times at all. I have understand these times at all. I understand these times at all.

40:33 Speaker 16: I haven't understand these times up, I haven't understand these times all.

40:47 Speaker 5: Wow, that is so good. That's right, that's right. The stiff Tones here with us live in studio sounding amazing. That was fantastic. That was fantastic. If you are just joining us, this is Matt Connorton Unleashed and we are live from the studios of w m n H ninety five point three FM, Inglorious, Manchester, New Hampshire. Of course you can stream us at Matt connorton dot com slash Live and yeah, great song and yeah, very very appropriate, I would say for the times that we're in.

41:20 Speaker 8: Certainly we started writing that in twenty fifteen.

41:25 Speaker 2: Yeah, like you know what they're gonna do there this always, Yeah, we're gonna get every one of us fight each other for every damn Yeah, you know truth.

41:32 Speaker 8: Yeah. Yeah, So in twenty sixteen it kind of really ping got to paper and I was up here in twenty twenty when or during the COVID in twenty twenty when we really you know, you started really seeing the polarity in the country where you know, like in polarity being everything, if there's something for us to stand against each other as regular folks all and yeah, yeah, we keep picking the wrong Yeah, we keep picking the wrong person to fight with. But anyway, and so twenty twenty four is when we finally released that song and it was nominated for Song of the Year for josh for Joshua and Joshua Tree, California.

42:08 Speaker 5: Oh Wow.

42:08 Speaker 8: It features Victor Krumanaker and Jonathan Tagle of Campra Van Beethoven's.

42:13 Speaker 2: Okay, So We're standing on shoulders of Giants yea, and Kyle Mayor.

42:17 Speaker 8: Of September Morning is on the drums on that and he also helped us do mixing mix and then on the album. Victor and Jonathan are both on a couple of songs on that, and then we have our we have several friends and Kyle's on drums and he's helping us with the mixing in the final.

42:30 Speaker 2: Engineering, we kind of went around the country getting all of our friends together to record all the different parts.

42:34 Speaker 8: The North Carolina favorites on there. We have Illinois people on there. Yeah, anywhere we could.

42:40 Speaker 2: It's been recording in the garages and basements and caves and Tanya the car. Yes, it might be the first album ever have tracks recorded in hearst. I don't know for sure, but because I mean it should be the stiff tones, I mean, I guess.

42:52 Speaker 8: Yeah, yeah, I mean, there was enough Bruce sessions in there trying to burn and listening to right right anyway, how are we on time?

43:02 Speaker 6: We're good, We're good.

43:03 Speaker 5: We got probably probably do one more in a couple of minutes. I'm curious. So in terms of like I said, you know, because we talked about it a little bit earlier, this is such an unconventional approach, you know, travel in the country and ahearson and so forth and doing this. Is there anything that's really surprised you over these over these years, this news.

43:21 Speaker 2: Is a bunch of yeah, yes, that to answer your question, absolutely, you know, I thought, my god, California is crazy and we're gonna get there and it's gonna be all this these things and see on the news, right, it wasn't any of those things, right, thought the same thing about Texas. You know, oh god, Texas is going to be this way in South Code. I can name every state that we have and every place that we've been, and you think it's going to be a way and you're like, wow, you know what, people are just people in here.

43:49 Speaker 8: So but then also the other thing though, was that each individual state really is so individual. It's a contrary line. It really like things that you know, the landscape shift, that the culture shifts, you know, And that's the other thing that is seeing all of the different cultural differences just in even traditional rural America, you know, where you don't think that you have that culture, and there's so much the eclectics, the melting pot of it, like the beauty, the true, true raw beauty of what America the beautiful is melting pot.

44:24 Speaker 2: Yeah, that you can go.

44:26 Speaker 8: Anywhere everywhere here and see also the wonders of the world. I mean, we've been traveling for a couple of years now, and we scratch the surface, yea.

44:35 Speaker 2: But mostly the most surprising thing for me is, honestly is the fact that no matter how far you travel, where you go once and needs of people doesn't change, right.

44:44 Speaker 8: Right, the regular people like us, us people. Yeah, we're just regular people.

44:49 Speaker 5: Yeah.

44:50 Speaker 8: Yeah, it's beautiful and it's good to know. There's so much fear that's created like that sponsors and there are there are they're legitimately bad people out there, yes, but there's legitimately good people out there. You seek, you will find what you seek. So look for the good.

45:05 Speaker 2: Be the good.

45:06 Speaker 8: Do the good, you know, And if you I mean or of being a whole, I don't care. You can be an a whole. It's not up to me. Just if you want to be one over there.

45:12 Speaker 2: Right, We have a we actually have a song for that too, but that's that's on the album.

45:18 Speaker 8: We wrote that up here and we actually wrote that Harley Jackson.

45:22 Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, very cool. And do you have any advice for for people who not not necessarily want to buy hers, but just just for people who want to do what you do? You know a lot of young independent.

45:32 Speaker 10: Artist I do.

45:33 Speaker 2: I do, And I'll give you the first piece of advice that my friend Turk gave me right before we left on the emotion.

45:39 Speaker 3: Yeah.

45:39 Speaker 8: And then and then he died then he died.

45:41 Speaker 2: Oh wow, and he was young. He was all right, you know, I mean, but he's like he's but he was old just dead.

45:47 Speaker 5: Oh wow gone.

45:50 Speaker 2: So yeah, so as your question, yeah, man, make it happen. Yeah, make it happ and go for it. Do it, do it now, not later? Right?

46:02 Speaker 6: Yeah?

46:03 Speaker 2: Man?

46:04 Speaker 5: Do you want to you want to play one more?

46:06 Speaker 2: Yeah, we'll play another unfraid. So this is the end, the end of the end of the album and this song.

46:10 Speaker 5: Okay, and this is.

46:14 Speaker 8: The name of the album. Is Existentialism on Main Street?

46:16 Speaker 3: Follow you do?

46:17 Speaker 5: Okay?

46:19 Speaker 4: It is.

46:21 Speaker 8: It's kind of we don't want to say it's a concept album, but it kind of is kind of. We have to plan each song and how they're going to be in track order and different things that they weren't written in secession or anything. But the plan is for you to put it on repeat all and when you get to the very last song, it should kick right back to the first song and you should feel like you just went on a journey that you can't want to go on again. Yeah, okay, that's that's kind of what our goal is.

46:46 Speaker 5: Yeah, okay, nice The Stiff to.

46:50 Speaker 8: Fort mm hm h.

47:04 Speaker 1: M hm h m hm h.

47:21 Speaker 13: M hmmm.

47:24 Speaker 6: Mm hmm.

47:34 Speaker 17: Okyotes our streaming up all the rich.

47:42 Speaker 2: Another year is over.

47:44 Speaker 3: It's called nunters that breach. I don't know here, sunning, well, I guess I've got friend.

47:57 Speaker 2: Well, yess I do.

48:01 Speaker 3: Now five the winter is it and he's leaning old me.

48:14 Speaker 2: I don't want your money and I don't want your power. I don't want your love.

48:24 Speaker 3: I ain't got time for night when I shoulder unless it comes me.

48:37 Speaker 4: Listen, indeed, nar five the winter is it and he's leaning call me.

48:54 Speaker 3: She steps some biggers for love.

48:58 Speaker 2: Yeah, she used it.

48:59 Speaker 3: Well, shoot far of bit tonight the socc lemizl fire. The winter can't.

49:12 Speaker 2: Break your space. Love is a lesson. Love is a curse.

50:05 Speaker 11: Depends on the love has to witch all his words here through the seasons.

50:15 Speaker 3: I'm a sweet church is indeed now five the winter is here.

50:28 Speaker 2: And he's leaning.

50:30 Speaker 16: Hold me, who he's leading, Hold me when he's leaning, Hold me.

50:50 Speaker 3: When he's leaning on me.

51:08 Speaker 17: Cauties scream and oh, oh that is so good, that is so good.

51:25 Speaker 5: The stiff Ones live in studio here with us. Rachel and Shawn are here, and that was amazing. Thank you so much for coming in and playing absolutely now for our listeners who are tuning in live on Saturday. So where's your next show? Where are you off to? After this?

51:41 Speaker 8: We head to the roadhouse, uh, powerhouse, mall yeah, over in Levin in New Hampshire four and then or two wish to four, and then the following weekend we're at the Scutiny Festival over in Vermont, and then we head to New York And it'll be probably next year before we back up here again, but we come, We do try to come up. Yeah, we were considering coming up for snow season and helping shovel and we did spend that, Yeah, we really, Yeah, we spent a couple of winters up here. We did, like five winters.

52:13 Speaker 8: Like when I was a travel nurse. We specifically took contracts up here so I could be, you know, to help, you know with the shoveling. My dad and my wicked my wickedste mother. I've had some you know, health issues and stuff, and so her dad's like, oh that flat land up, yeah, shovel snow for real.

52:32 Speaker 5: Welcome to the Mountain Sun right right? Well, very good? And where should people go online to keep up with everything that you're doing. Where's the best place to go.

52:41 Speaker 8: The Stiff Tones dot com. Yeah, and we're very heavily active on Facebook. Yeah, we're gen x and so that's kind of you know, that's where we fell after my Space, and so that's where we're comfortable. Yeah, but I do we do have a website that I somewhat maintained, but our bands in Town link is on there. There's you can find links to everything, like if you're interested in your I G page and all that stuff.

53:02 Speaker 2: But you can also send hate mail at gmail dot com.

53:07 Speaker 8: We stepped on hate mails.

53:10 Speaker 5: Very good.

53:12 Speaker 8: Yeah, I like my coffee suite, my male bitter Yeah, yep, like that.

53:18 Speaker 5: Well, very good. Thank you so much. This has been wonderful and we are the time does go quickly, h I do want to remind people too, if you are listening live on Saturday, coming up at so at nine pm tonight, Yeah, we're going to be at Jewel to see under the Horizon and it's a it's a big event. Actually there's a three day event going on, but we're we're mainly going to see uh see them, and that's why we're twins today. We've got the matching Under the Horizon Shurts and uh and of course, uh scarecrow Hill is going to be there to another great band we've had on the show.

53:49 Speaker 5: And Uh, Jenny, do you want to mention your website. You've been up to a lot of stuff as usual.

53:54 Speaker 2: Man.

53:54 Speaker 18: The latest is up on the website, so go check it out at Jencoffee dot com, E N N C O F f U I dot com and see what kind of good trouble getting into good trouble.

54:06 Speaker 5: Yes, yes, and let's see. And of course, uh, if you miss any part of today's show, it will be up in just a little bit at w m n H radio dot org and at my website Matt Connerton dot com. And thank you everyone who joined us today, Lydia ready and uh Tony from Flair and again Rachel and Sean from the Stifftones, thank you both so much.

54:24 Speaker 2: Thank you.

54:25 Speaker 5: This has been wonderful and that's gonna do it for us for now. We hope to see a jewel tonight and uh.

54:31 Speaker 8: Go out and enjoy live music.

54:32 Speaker 5: Absolutely, it's very very important and we'll we'll talk to you a little bit later. By everybody,