Tombstones In Their Eyes | Matt Connarton Unleashed

0:00 Speaker 1: That is another epic track from Tombstones in Their Eyes

0:03 Speaker 1: that is under Dark Skies. Love that track. And let's see,

0:08 Speaker 1: let's see here. We'll bring this mic up. We're gonna

0:10 Speaker 1: try to talk to John Treener from the band.

0:12 Speaker 2: On to one I can eat one too?

0:15 Speaker 1: Hello, Hey John, I can I can hear you? Can

0:17 Speaker 1: you hear me?

0:18 Speaker 2: Yes?

0:19 Speaker 1: Oh beautiful? You sound great? So you switch to a

0:22 Speaker 1: different mic. I guess that's uh, I guess that's all

0:24 Speaker 1: we needed. Wonderful, Welcome to the show. I'm glad we

0:27 Speaker 1: got to talk. I was getting nervous, but I really, uh,

0:29 Speaker 1: I really like this project. This is really good Tombstones

0:32 Speaker 1: in Their Eyes great stuff. We did play the we

0:35 Speaker 1: played the single earlier Alive and Well, and of course

0:37 Speaker 1: that was the title track under Dark Skies and I

0:40 Speaker 1: love this band. Is this your project? Are you kind

0:43 Speaker 1: of the main guy? So you guys are now now

0:46 Speaker 1: you're you're on the West coast? Is that correct?

0:49 Speaker 2: I am Los Angeles, You're you're an LA based band?

0:52 Speaker 1: And are you are you kind of the the main

0:55 Speaker 1: the main guy? Are you kind of the the center

0:57 Speaker 1: of the of the band in terms of of uh

1:00 Speaker 1: steering the project?

1:02 Speaker 2: I am this is my band. I write the songs,

1:05 Speaker 2: formed it originally, and yeah, so that's the deal man.

1:11 Speaker 1: How long has this existed? How long has Tombstones in

1:13 Speaker 1: Their Eyes existed?

1:15 Speaker 2: We're at ten years now, ten.

1:17 Speaker 1: Years, that's a long time.

1:18 Speaker 2: Yeah.

1:19 Speaker 1: I was looking at band camp and I thought, wow,

1:24 Speaker 1: they've got a lot of material. You've released quite a

1:27 Speaker 1: bit over that span of time, which is impressive. Yeah,

1:31 Speaker 1: this is very, very impressive. Now I assume the uh, oh,

1:35 Speaker 1: go ahead, No, you're good. Well, I was just gonna say,

1:38 Speaker 1: I assume the the makeup of the band has changed

1:40 Speaker 1: quite a bit over that time.

1:43 Speaker 2: It has. Yeah, the people I originally did the first

1:47 Speaker 2: recordings with are no longer around. I've got a bunch

1:51 Speaker 2: of newer people. Some been around longer than others. The drummer,

1:55 Speaker 2: Steven has been with me for a long time, and

1:59 Speaker 2: you know, but yeah, things are pretty solid right now.

2:03 Speaker 1: Has it been a challenge to keep this project going

2:07 Speaker 1: for ten years? Because some you know, some people, if

2:10 Speaker 1: they have a band and people start leaving and they

2:13 Speaker 1: have to cycle people out, at some point, they kind

2:15 Speaker 1: of they kind of start to think, oh, maybe I'll

2:18 Speaker 1: start a new project myself. Since you know, people are

2:20 Speaker 1: coming and going. But ten years, I mean, that's impressive.

2:23 Speaker 1: Longevity has been Has it been challenging at times to

2:26 Speaker 1: keep this going? Have you ever been tempted to start

2:28 Speaker 1: something new? Or maybe you're just firmly committed to this

2:31 Speaker 1: and you're going to keep going no matter what? I mean?

2:33 Speaker 1: What's kind of been your approach to that over the years.

2:37 Speaker 2: Yeah, this is my thing and I'm going to keep

2:39 Speaker 2: it going as long as as long as I keep

2:43 Speaker 2: writing songs, you know, that's how I see it.

2:45 Speaker 1: No, that's great. I assume too where you are, obviously

2:49 Speaker 1: you've got a lot of talent around you. So how

2:52 Speaker 1: hard is it to find musicians to bring in when

2:56 Speaker 1: you have to do that, when you have to make

2:57 Speaker 1: a change, when somebody's leaving and you've got to replace them,

3:00 Speaker 1: is it? I mean, do you do you hold auditions

3:02 Speaker 1: or do you just know people already who would be

3:06 Speaker 1: suitable for these various Because at this point you're are

3:09 Speaker 1: you the only original member? I assume you're the only one, right.

3:13 Speaker 2: Oh, yes, ma'am?

3:14 Speaker 1: Yeah, So how hard is it to find people or

3:16 Speaker 1: is it pretty easy?

3:18 Speaker 2: It's not, you know, it varies, right, So I had

3:23 Speaker 2: a search a while back for someone on bass, and

3:26 Speaker 2: we tried some things and I ended up going back

3:29 Speaker 2: to someone i'd used before, a guy named Nick who

3:32 Speaker 2: is still in the band and recently I had the

3:36 Speaker 2: same experience, but it was easier. Our guitar player Paul

3:40 Speaker 2: Bluten passed away a couple of months ago.

3:42 Speaker 1: Oh wow, sorry to hear that. That's terrible. Oh that's awful.

3:46 Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, I wasn't really planning on replacing him at

3:49 Speaker 2: this point. We just took some time off. But then

3:51 Speaker 2: I thought of this guy in the studio, an engineer

3:54 Speaker 2: where we record at Kit and Robot studio, and I

3:58 Speaker 2: asked him and is John Miller? And I think he's

4:02 Speaker 2: coming aboard. So that one, that one was particularly easy,

4:05 Speaker 2: But it can be difficult.

4:06 Speaker 1: No doubt, no doubt. Now, what can you tell us

4:09 Speaker 1: about Under Dark Skies because it seems like I was

4:12 Speaker 1: reading something about that you went through a period of

4:15 Speaker 1: some pretty intense personal upheaval that was kind of the

4:18 Speaker 1: genesis of the of the emotional context of the album.

4:21 Speaker 2: Is that correct for sure? Yeah? I mean for me,

4:26 Speaker 2: you know, writing songs is always easier when you're in

4:28 Speaker 2: a sort of a down period. Yeah, And I've had

4:31 Speaker 2: my experience with that, but in twenty twenty three it

4:36 Speaker 2: was particularly bad and you know, some really tough stuff

4:41 Speaker 2: going on, and and that led to a lot of

4:46 Speaker 2: the material and under Dark Skies.

4:49 Speaker 1: Something that comes up a lot on the show with

4:51 Speaker 1: people we talked to is how probably the best form

4:55 Speaker 1: of therapy is taking things that are that are bad,

4:58 Speaker 1: things that are traumatic, and and making that into art,

5:02 Speaker 1: because not only does it help you take something terribly

5:05 Speaker 1: negative and create something positive from it, because it helps

5:08 Speaker 1: you to create art, whether it be music or visual

5:10 Speaker 1: art or writing or whatever it is, but it also

5:13 Speaker 1: has the potential to help other people because other people

5:17 Speaker 1: then can connect with that and it can help them

5:19 Speaker 1: as well. And then you've taken something negative and made

5:21 Speaker 1: something very positive out of it that not only helps

5:24 Speaker 1: you work through it and the process whatever it is

5:26 Speaker 1: you're going through, but can connect with others. And I'm curious,

5:29 Speaker 1: have you experienced other people kind of reaching out to

5:33 Speaker 1: you when they hear the album and say, you know,

5:35 Speaker 1: I relate to this song, or I relate to the

5:38 Speaker 1: themes that are here, or this connects with me on

5:41 Speaker 1: a level that maybe I didn't expect. But then I

5:44 Speaker 1: listened to it and I got it, and I kind

5:46 Speaker 1: of know what you're feeling. Like, do you hear from

5:48 Speaker 1: people about that?

5:50 Speaker 2: Oh? I definitely, Yeah.

5:51 Speaker 1: Yeah.

5:52 Speaker 2: I had one particular instance where I wrote a song

5:54 Speaker 2: about super simple song about basically being on drugs during

6:00 Speaker 2: a period where I had, you know, had a relapse,

6:03 Speaker 2: and then the guy wrote in and said, I've never

6:06 Speaker 2: I've never done drugs, but after listening to your song,

6:09 Speaker 2: I completely understand that the you know, the depths to

6:14 Speaker 2: which he might go or the way he might feel,

6:17 Speaker 2: you know, And yeah, that was kind of interesting, you know,

6:20 Speaker 2: but yeah, definitely. You know, most of the music I

6:22 Speaker 2: listened to is a little sad or whatever you want

6:26 Speaker 2: to call it, and so I connect with that, you know,

6:30 Speaker 2: it makes me feel not so alone. And I think

6:32 Speaker 2: the same goes true with you know, some of the

6:35 Speaker 2: songs I write, right, So no doubt.

6:38 Speaker 1: Yeah, And can you tell us kind of circling back

6:42 Speaker 1: to Paul Button for a moment because the track we

6:45 Speaker 1: played it earlier, the single Alive and well, is that

6:49 Speaker 1: is it true that that's dedicated to Paul?

6:51 Speaker 2: Butten it is? It is? It was written before he

6:55 Speaker 2: passed away, so it wasn't you know, written after that

6:59 Speaker 2: in relation to his passing. Yeah, but yeah, it was

7:04 Speaker 2: one of his favorites and he plays on it. And

7:08 Speaker 2: you know, when we released it, I had a tough

7:10 Speaker 2: choice to make right he had just passed away. The

7:12 Speaker 2: single was coming out in a couple of weeks, and

7:14 Speaker 2: I wrestled with, you know, do I want to release

7:16 Speaker 2: a single called the Live and well after my guitar

7:19 Speaker 2: player has died, you know, and my friend and I

7:24 Speaker 2: decided to go ahead with it, you know, and dedicated

7:27 Speaker 2: to him because really the song is about coming through

7:31 Speaker 2: tough times and coming back right and and Paul had

7:35 Speaker 2: experienced that kind of process in his own life. Sure,

7:38 Speaker 2: so we both had that in common.

7:41 Speaker 1: Okay, okay, And we should talk to about where this

7:46 Speaker 1: was recorded because and I always like to make sure

7:48 Speaker 1: we give credit to producers and engineers and whomever you

7:51 Speaker 1: work with. When I hear something that I think is

7:53 Speaker 1: really striking sonically, and I really love the way I mean,

7:58 Speaker 1: I enjoy the songs. I like what you're doing. I

8:01 Speaker 1: also really love I'm kind of a recording nerd, and

8:05 Speaker 1: I love the production. I think it's I think it's

8:08 Speaker 1: really good. And I feel too that this genre that

8:11 Speaker 1: you're working in the production has to be really good.

8:14 Speaker 1: You have to be able to create something epic. You know,

8:18 Speaker 1: you can't have guitars that sound small and you know

8:21 Speaker 1: what I mean. So where did you record this and

8:24 Speaker 1: who did you work with?

8:26 Speaker 2: We recorded a place called Kitt and Robots Studio and

8:29 Speaker 2: we've been recording there since. Really our first record we

8:34 Speaker 2: mixed there and then everything else since then we've recorded there.

8:37 Speaker 2: And there's a friend, a producer, Paul Rossler. I think

8:43 Speaker 2: the spelling is probably in the press kit, but you know,

8:46 Speaker 2: he's an LA fixture. He's been around since the late seventies.

8:51 Speaker 2: He played in a famous early LA sort of synth

8:55 Speaker 2: punk band called the Screamers, and since then it's been

8:58 Speaker 2: you know, in many other bands. And so we've been

9:01 Speaker 2: working together for you know this ten years, and he

9:04 Speaker 2: really gets what we want to do. We have a

9:06 Speaker 2: great working relationship and and we learned together, right.

9:11 Speaker 1: So yeah, when you say you've worked with him for

9:16 Speaker 1: this ten years, does that mean every single thing that

9:19 Speaker 1: you've recorded for Tombstones, in their eyes, it's all been

9:22 Speaker 1: with him.

9:25 Speaker 2: Our first record we started off at a place locally,

9:29 Speaker 2: but when it came time to mix that record, I

9:32 Speaker 2: found Paul, So technically we recorded something elsewhere, but ever

9:38 Speaker 2: since then everything has been recorded there.

9:40 Speaker 1: Okay, Oh that's awesome. Yeah, obviously it's it's working for you.

9:44 Speaker 1: I'm also curious about this, So this is I don't

9:48 Speaker 1: usually see this, and maybe we're getting into the weeds,

9:51 Speaker 1: but we do have a lot of industry people who

9:52 Speaker 1: listen to the show who might also find this very interesting.

9:54 Speaker 1: So this is a dual label release, so it's out

10:00 Speaker 1: on Little Cloud Records here in North America, but it's

10:02 Speaker 1: also on a completely separate label, Short Dive Records in

10:06 Speaker 1: the UK. And I'm curious about how that works and

10:10 Speaker 1: how that came about, and are there any challenges to

10:15 Speaker 1: effectively You've released this on two separate labels, which is

10:18 Speaker 1: very interesting to me.

10:20 Speaker 2: Yeah. I wish i'd discovered I could do that sooner, actually,

10:25 Speaker 2: because we have fans in Europe and you know, around

10:30 Speaker 2: the world, but particularly in Europe the UK, and so

10:35 Speaker 2: shipping over there is incredibly expensive these days, oh, shipping

10:39 Speaker 2: from the US. So what happened is that when we

10:43 Speaker 2: when we got with Little Cloud Records for this record,

10:47 Speaker 2: I noticed that on one of their previous releases, one

10:50 Speaker 2: of the bands had done a similar thing. Actually, they

10:53 Speaker 2: do it quite regularly, I think, And so I had

10:56 Speaker 2: the idea, and I already knew Nico from Short Dive Record,

11:00 Speaker 2: so I asked him, I asked Little Cloud if it

11:02 Speaker 2: was fine, and they're They're all fine with it. So

11:05 Speaker 2: so what this does is, like I said, it gives

11:07 Speaker 2: me a chance, or it gives us a chance to

11:09 Speaker 2: get our stuff out to those fans over there without

11:11 Speaker 2: them having to pay a million dollars for shipping.

11:14 Speaker 1: That makes sense. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense.

11:17 Speaker 1: Have you had a chance to tour over there? No? No?

11:22 Speaker 2: Uh yeah, being being a little older and having quite

11:26 Speaker 2: a full life, and you know, same with the band,

11:29 Speaker 2: right you know, right now the band has seven people.

11:32 Speaker 2: So gathering those seven people and getting us all in

11:36 Speaker 2: a place where we could do that is pretty tough,

11:39 Speaker 2: right now.

11:39 Speaker 1: No doubt. Yeah, that's so so seven people. So that's interesting.

11:43 Speaker 1: I did notice that the picture that I saw too

11:45 Speaker 1: in the press release. So what I mean, what what

11:48 Speaker 1: do all these people? What do all these seven people do? Like?

11:51 Speaker 1: Do you do you have multiple guitars? I mean, what

11:53 Speaker 1: can you just kind of take us through that? What

11:55 Speaker 1: the lineup looks like in terms of of what everyone's

11:57 Speaker 1: doing in the band.

11:59 Speaker 2: Sure, yeah, So myself I do vocals and guitar. We

12:03 Speaker 2: have a guitar player named Phil Cobb does yeah, and

12:07 Speaker 2: then we have it We had Paul Bouton who passed away,

12:11 Speaker 2: and now we have a John Miller who's going to

12:13 Speaker 2: be also you know, playing guitar. So that's me, two

12:16 Speaker 2: guitar players, a bass player named Nick, drummer named Steven,

12:20 Speaker 2: and then we have two other vocalists. One is Clia

12:24 Speaker 2: Cohen and the other is Courtney Davies. Yeah. Courtney's been

12:28 Speaker 2: with us a little a little while and Cleia is

12:31 Speaker 2: a little newer. But we started getting into harmony so

12:36 Speaker 2: much on the records that it made sense, you know,

12:38 Speaker 2: to try and do that live.

12:40 Speaker 1: Okay, Yeah, has has that been some Is that something

12:45 Speaker 1: that's unique to this record in terms of the harmonies

12:48 Speaker 1: or did you do that on.

12:51 Speaker 2: It's been starting to happen. It really came into bloom

12:56 Speaker 2: on the last record, Asylum Harbor, and has sort of

12:59 Speaker 2: can okay, okay, just an evolution, Oh.

13:03 Speaker 1: Interesting, Okay, very cool. I want to ask you too.

13:07 Speaker 1: I want to make sure we touch on you know,

13:10 Speaker 1: so people don't get the wrong idea in terms of

13:13 Speaker 1: in terms of the album and the context. You know,

13:16 Speaker 1: it's not all it's not all doom and gloom, right,

13:18 Speaker 1: There's there's sort of a theme of defiance and overcoming

13:23 Speaker 1: these challenges and dare I say even hopefulness to it? Right?

13:27 Speaker 1: I listen to the whole thing, and that's that's kind

13:30 Speaker 1: of what I took from it. It's you know, it's

13:32 Speaker 1: not just you know, because people hear, you know, doom

13:35 Speaker 1: rock or whatever term you want to use, and they think, oh,

13:37 Speaker 1: it's it's just all down, it's all negative, but it's

13:40 Speaker 1: really not. And and what do you want people to

13:44 Speaker 1: take away from this, you know, not just when they

13:46 Speaker 1: listen to say Alive and Well the single, but when

13:49 Speaker 1: they listen to the whole album. What do you want

13:50 Speaker 1: people to take away from from that when they hear it?

13:56 Speaker 2: Yeah, I hear what you're saying for sure, and it

14:01 Speaker 2: is not all doom and gloom, right, And I want

14:03 Speaker 2: people to take away that you can make it through

14:06 Speaker 2: tough times, you can find strength and there is hope, right.

14:10 Speaker 2: And that was sort of you know, the place I

14:12 Speaker 2: was in. I can't believe I made it through it

14:17 Speaker 2: at some points, right, And So the songs are they're

14:22 Speaker 2: not wallowing in self pity right there are, like you said,

14:28 Speaker 2: sort of a defiant like I'm gonna make this happen,

14:31 Speaker 2: you know, I'm gonna make it.

14:33 Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, that's what I got from it was the

14:35 Speaker 1: defiance and I really like that it connected with me.

14:39 Speaker 1: I think the album is fantastic. We should imagine too,

14:41 Speaker 1: how new it is too. This just came out December fifth, right,

14:44 Speaker 1: so this this just came out earlier this month, so

14:46 Speaker 1: it's very new and obviously it's on all the streaming services.

14:51 Speaker 1: And you did you get physical copies of this as well?

14:54 Speaker 1: Do you have physical copies?

14:55 Speaker 2: Oh yeah, oh yeah, it's on vinyl, MCD. Vinyl can

15:00 Speaker 2: be you know, purchased through our band camp, can be

15:02 Speaker 2: purchased through Short Dived Records band camp in Europe and

15:05 Speaker 2: the UK, and also on Little Cloud Records website. So

15:09 Speaker 2: it's available.

15:10 Speaker 1: Oh, fantastic, fantastic. Where is the best place to go

15:15 Speaker 1: John for people to keep up with everything that you're

15:17 Speaker 1: doing with tombstones in their eyes? Where should people go

15:20 Speaker 1: online to keep up with everything?

15:23 Speaker 2: I would say these days, either Instagram probably Instagram would

15:28 Speaker 2: be the best place because I had some help with that,

15:31 Speaker 2: and we're making sure the content is flowing there with

15:34 Speaker 2: news and other things. I handle the Facebook myself, so

15:39 Speaker 2: that's you know, there was a period where I was

15:42 Speaker 2: trying to manage every social media and I've had to

15:45 Speaker 2: concentrate on just a few. Yeah, you know. Yeah, i'd

15:48 Speaker 2: say Instagram is a good place to go.

15:50 Speaker 1: Yeah, excellent, excellent. In a moment, we'll let you go

15:54 Speaker 1: and then we're gonna play I want to close out

15:56 Speaker 1: the segment with another track from the album under Dark Skies,

16:00 Speaker 1: but I'm going to kind of put you on the

16:01 Speaker 1: spot a little bit. I'm gonna ask you to pick

16:04 Speaker 1: it because we already played We played a live and

16:06 Speaker 1: well and we played the title track under Dark Skies,

16:09 Speaker 1: you know, while we were kind of working through our

16:11 Speaker 1: tech issues. So what would you like us to play

16:14 Speaker 1: to close out the segment?

16:17 Speaker 2: Wow, we might throw you a curb on play. Have

16:21 Speaker 2: you play an instrumental?

16:23 Speaker 1: Okay, okay, absolutely, absolutely, whatever you want.

16:29 Speaker 2: The song is called the Beginning.

16:31 Speaker 1: The Beginning. Oh yep, I see it. Excellent. So yeah,

16:36 Speaker 1: so we'll finish out with that. That'll be interesting. Okay, Well, John,

16:40 Speaker 1: thank you so much for joining us here. Today. Like

16:43 Speaker 1: I said, I love the album. I'm going to go

16:45 Speaker 1: back to and listen to some of your earlier work

16:46 Speaker 1: as well. So far, I've only listened to Under Dark Skies,

16:49 Speaker 1: but i really enjoyed it a lot, and I'm glad

16:51 Speaker 1: that we were able to work through our tech issues

16:54 Speaker 1: and get you on the phone. And it's been interesting

16:56 Speaker 1: talking to you and I'm sure we will definitely do

16:58 Speaker 1: it again in the future. As you're are you already

17:01 Speaker 1: working on new music? Are you just kind of focused

17:04 Speaker 1: on the current project right now now that this has

17:06 Speaker 1: just come out.

17:08 Speaker 2: There's always stuff in the works. I mean we have

17:10 Speaker 2: a lot, a big backlog of songs that have recorded

17:12 Speaker 2: over the last couple of years. At the same time, yeah,

17:15 Speaker 2: I'm kind of focusing on this right now and trying to, yeah,

17:18 Speaker 2: you know, get us into a good live thing.

17:21 Speaker 1: Oh of course. Yeah. Well, we will definitely have you

17:23 Speaker 1: back in the future as when you do have new stuff,

17:26 Speaker 1: because like I said, I've become a fast fan of

17:28 Speaker 1: your work. We're gonna hit this track, so we'll let

17:31 Speaker 1: you go for now. But John from Tombstones in Their Eyes,

17:34 Speaker 1: thank you so much for joining us today.

17:37 Speaker 2: I appreciate it. Thank you and sorry for the sect problem.

17:39 Speaker 1: Oh hey, no worries. We got through it all right,

17:42 Speaker 1: all right, John, take care of you. Bye bye, all right.

17:45 Speaker 1: That was John Treeener from Tombstones in Their Eyes and

17:47 Speaker 1: we will close out this segment with this. This is

17:50 Speaker 1: an instrumental from the album Under Dark Skies. This is

17:53 Speaker 1: called the Beginning.