Warhog | Matt Connarton Unleashed

0:00 Speaker 1: All right there it is the new single from Warhog

0:02 Speaker 1: that is called Starflight and welcome everybody. We have entered

0:06 Speaker 1: our number three new Marrow trace of Matt Connorton Unleashed.

0:09 Speaker 1: We are live from the studios of wm NH ninety

0:12 Speaker 1: five point three FM and Glorious Manchester, New Hampshire. You

0:15 Speaker 1: can stream the show from anywhere or go to Matt

0:17 Speaker 1: connorton dot com slash Live. Jenny is here of course

0:20 Speaker 1: at the news table and joining us via Microsoft Teams.

0:24 Speaker 1: Let's get this up here. We have Scott Beatley returning

0:27 Speaker 1: to the show from the band Warhog. Of course. Hello Scott, Hey,

0:30 Speaker 1: how are y'all doing? Very well? Very well? It's wonderful

0:33 Speaker 1: have you on? I love this of course. The new

0:35 Speaker 1: ep Ethereal Journey brand new from this just came out.

0:41 Speaker 1: What April? Wait is this out yet?

0:44 Speaker 2: No? It's not.

0:45 Speaker 1: Oh it's about to be.

0:46 Speaker 2: Yeah. We dropped the single Starlight last month on the

0:50 Speaker 2: I think the tenth, the sixth of the tenth, I'm

0:53 Speaker 2: I think it was the sixth, just about a month ago, okay,

0:56 Speaker 2: and then the rest of the EP is out on

0:58 Speaker 2: the tenth of April.

1:00 Speaker 1: Oh okay, wow, okay, So coming right up. Very very cool.

1:03 Speaker 1: By the way, I apologize, I think I might have

1:05 Speaker 1: said starflight, but it's starlight Starlight. Yeah, I think I

1:09 Speaker 1: might have said starflight because you know the lyrics. I'm

1:12 Speaker 1: thinking about a star flight. I guess as as.

1:15 Speaker 2: As we all are. Yeah, launching I I've been keeping

1:20 Speaker 2: track of that. I knew that was coming, but I

1:22 Speaker 2: didn't realize the timing of it was so kind of

1:25 Speaker 2: perfect that it's the EP is going to release the

1:28 Speaker 2: day that they come back.

1:29 Speaker 1: Oh, that's cool.

1:30 Speaker 2: Yeah, it was kind of fun.

1:32 Speaker 1: So that's awesome. That's awesome. So tell us about the

1:35 Speaker 1: inspiration for this for this EP.

1:38 Speaker 2: So the EP's kind of got a funny story. It's

1:40 Speaker 2: the redheaded stepchild of sorts. We had Originally we were

1:44 Speaker 2: working on our last bunch of EPs Ethereal not in

1:47 Speaker 2: the Ethereal Journey, that's this one, uh dys dystopian chronicle.

1:51 Speaker 1: Oh yes, yes, right, we we had We had.

1:53 Speaker 2: Originally planned that to be an album with six or

1:56 Speaker 2: seven songs, and then we had actually written Ethereal already

2:00 Speaker 2: to be kind of the big third act of that album,

2:04 Speaker 2: and our PR folks that we were working with at

2:07 Speaker 2: the time were like, hey, you really shouldn't do that.

2:09 Speaker 2: You should break this up into multiple, multiple EPs. And

2:13 Speaker 2: then we got to a point where we needed they

2:15 Speaker 2: wanted us to do more singles and you know, individual

2:18 Speaker 2: songs than just release one EP that was one twenty

2:21 Speaker 2: three minute long song, and so we kind of did that,

2:25 Speaker 2: and we just kept putting off Ethereal Journey. We were like,

2:27 Speaker 2: all right, well we'll just do this next is its

2:29 Speaker 2: own thing, and and so that's we just finally got

2:34 Speaker 2: to this point. It was just kind of a coincidence

2:36 Speaker 2: that the song that was going to go with it

2:38 Speaker 2: ended up being Starlight. Oh yeah, those two songs together

2:43 Speaker 2: were kind of the ones that we really wanted to release.

2:46 Speaker 2: Starlight we needed to release it with something, and the

2:49 Speaker 2: next thing that we knew we wanted to release was

2:51 Speaker 2: Ethereal Journey. So it was like, ah, let's just do

2:53 Speaker 2: like a space adventure themed EP and just go from there.

2:59 Speaker 1: Right right. Something I want people to know, and I'm

3:02 Speaker 1: sure you want them to know this too, is you

3:04 Speaker 1: got to go online and see the video. I love

3:07 Speaker 1: the video for Starline.

3:08 Speaker 2: Thank you.

3:09 Speaker 1: Uh, I'm curious to know more about about that, because

3:12 Speaker 1: you know, you guys are in your your your space suits.

3:14 Speaker 1: I guess would be the her uniforms. Uh, it's just

3:19 Speaker 1: it's just and you know, and you're you're just playing

3:21 Speaker 1: the song, but it's it's it's a lot of fun.

3:23 Speaker 1: I really like the video.

3:25 Speaker 2: Thanks. Yeah. Well, first, real quick, before we jump into

3:28 Speaker 2: all that stuff, I just want to say hi to

3:30 Speaker 2: Gen and say that as much as we've been able to,

3:33 Speaker 2: we've been following kind of your advocacy stuff with the

3:36 Speaker 2: healthcare and all that. You know, it's really inspiring. You're

3:40 Speaker 2: doing a lot of great work and I just hope

3:42 Speaker 2: that you are seeing the results out of it that

3:44 Speaker 2: you want to see out of it. I just wanted

3:47 Speaker 2: to say that up up on the top of the conversation.

3:50 Speaker 1: So oh very nice in my bath and and by

3:57 Speaker 1: the way, she is wearing her Warhog shirt. We winning

4:00 Speaker 1: today as am I. We're both wearing our Warhawk shirts.

4:03 Speaker 1: You are one of my all time favorites. So your

4:06 Speaker 1: words quite a bit with me.

4:07 Speaker 2: Thank you, thank you. So so yeah the video. When

4:13 Speaker 2: we had this song put together, one of the things

4:16 Speaker 2: we knew we wanted to do was do what actual

4:18 Speaker 2: proper music video for YouTube, Like all the stuff we

4:22 Speaker 2: have right now, is just kind of stuff we've made

4:23 Speaker 2: for ourselves and it's just live shots and whatever. Yeah,

4:27 Speaker 2: so we started talking about, like, well, what's it take

4:29 Speaker 2: logistically to do something at that level, and we we

4:35 Speaker 2: decided we were doing for Starlight because it's kind of

4:38 Speaker 2: that anthemy, it's kind of it's very single perfect with

4:43 Speaker 2: the catchy chorus and all that, and it's under five

4:45 Speaker 2: minutes long, so that's also nice. So we really just

4:50 Speaker 2: kind of settled on this idea of like, well, let's

4:53 Speaker 2: just get Amazon Prime space suit costumes and let's just

4:59 Speaker 2: we'll just do it the easiest way we can think of.

5:02 Speaker 2: Eric's for lack of a better title, ex brother in

5:07 Speaker 2: law is a professional documentary filmmaker, and so he signed

5:12 Speaker 2: up to help us with this and he did a

5:14 Speaker 2: great job. I mean, his his camera work is really awesome,

5:18 Speaker 2: and he had a drone and he really knew what

5:21 Speaker 2: he was doing. He had done he's done some music

5:23 Speaker 2: videos before. And we just rented out this place that

5:26 Speaker 2: has this huge led wall and it was like, all right, well,

5:30 Speaker 2: let's just let's just make it look silly but also

5:33 Speaker 2: make it look serious like he want, you know, like

5:36 Speaker 2: obviously we are four dudes. In just the cheapest NASA

5:42 Speaker 2: knockoff costumes, Like our drummer is wearing a space helmet

5:45 Speaker 2: through the whole thing, which is a whole other story.

5:48 Speaker 1: That's true. You never actually see your drummer. He's got

5:50 Speaker 1: the helmet on the whole time.

5:51 Speaker 2: Yeah, and so we, you know, we were like, it's

5:54 Speaker 2: gonna look ridiculous, so let's just kind of play it

5:58 Speaker 2: serious and ridiculous the same time and hopefully it comes

6:01 Speaker 2: across because like, the last thing I want is people thinking, oh,

6:04 Speaker 2: these guys think they look cool, but they look like

6:06 Speaker 2: a bunch of idiots. Right, No, we we know we

6:09 Speaker 2: look like idiots, but we also know that are we

6:12 Speaker 2: believe you know that the song is really good, so

6:14 Speaker 2: it kind of shouldn't matter what we.

6:15 Speaker 1: Look like, right right, Yeah, all right, so why is

6:19 Speaker 1: the drummer wearing the helmet?

6:21 Speaker 2: So the on this EP we so our our drummer,

6:25 Speaker 2: Robert left the band at the end of last year.

6:27 Speaker 2: He left our in our after our final show in December,

6:31 Speaker 2: and we knew we we wanted this to come out.

6:34 Speaker 2: So we were working with another drummer, a friend of ours,

6:37 Speaker 2: through another band called the Humanist Project based out of

6:41 Speaker 2: I guess Houston and somewhat Florida. These guys that Eric knows,

6:45 Speaker 2: their drummer is a dude named Chris Lucci and he

6:48 Speaker 2: is a total monster. And you know, Eric took this

6:53 Speaker 2: opportunity to work with him on the whole So Chris

6:56 Speaker 2: did the drums for the whole EP. Okay, so that's

7:00 Speaker 2: so it's him you here on on Starlight and Ethereal

7:03 Speaker 2: Journey and then Doctor Doctor. But of course to shoot

7:06 Speaker 2: a video in Dallas, Texas, we needed a human drummer

7:10 Speaker 2: that we could have access to for a day, right,

7:12 Speaker 2: And so so our our original drummer from like when

7:18 Speaker 2: we were all in a like our young adult band,

7:21 Speaker 2: Blake knew we were looking for a drummer and said, hey,

7:24 Speaker 2: I'll help fill out for some gigs if you guys

7:26 Speaker 2: need me. And so we just pulled him in and

7:29 Speaker 2: said we'll just sit behind the kit and wear this

7:31 Speaker 2: space helmet. He was he was like, I mean true

7:35 Speaker 2: heroics there, because that's three hours in a room without

7:39 Speaker 2: air conditioning, under lights and fog and that big led

7:43 Speaker 2: wall was hot. He wore that thing and performed for

7:48 Speaker 2: like three straight hours and it was he handed me

7:52 Speaker 2: that helmet afterwards and it was disgusting. Yeah, but that

7:57 Speaker 2: but Blake has decided to to stay with us full

8:01 Speaker 2: time and be our drummer going forward. So okay, that's

8:03 Speaker 2: that's that is our drummer, Blake.

8:05 Speaker 1: Oh okay, but.

8:06 Speaker 2: He wanted he didn't want to he wanted to wear

8:09 Speaker 2: that helmet. That was kind of his idea because he

8:12 Speaker 2: didn't want people to misunderstand that that's not him playing drums.

8:16 Speaker 1: Okay.

8:17 Speaker 2: I didn't want to, like, you know, steal any of

8:19 Speaker 2: Chris's thunder because Chris did such a great job on

8:22 Speaker 2: the on the track, but Blake is also a total monster. Yeah,

8:25 Speaker 2: and we're really excited to work on some new stuff

8:27 Speaker 2: with them.

8:28 Speaker 1: So oh fantastic, excellent. Yeah. So when you play the

8:32 Speaker 1: song in the video, how many how many times do

8:35 Speaker 1: you have to run through it? Like during that because

8:37 Speaker 1: you said it was a three hour shoot.

8:39 Speaker 2: Yeah, we probably did it. I'd say ten, eleven, twelve

8:43 Speaker 2: times maybe.

8:44 Speaker 1: Yeah.

8:44 Speaker 2: We just we just would play it and then we

8:46 Speaker 2: would reset and just play it again and reset and

8:49 Speaker 2: play it again. It was it was pretty ridiculous. It

8:51 Speaker 2: was just non stop, just every six seven minutes we

8:54 Speaker 2: play the song over and over again. The best was

8:56 Speaker 2: when there's a couple of slow motion shots in the

8:59 Speaker 2: video that Jonathan's camera would film at forty eight frames

9:05 Speaker 2: per second, so he was able to film us at

9:07 Speaker 2: high speed and then slow us down. Oh yeah, which

9:11 Speaker 2: meant we had to mime to the song at two

9:14 Speaker 2: hundred percent speed, which was really hard to do, only

9:19 Speaker 2: because it sounded so ridiculous. And you know, you play

9:22 Speaker 2: things fast in a band, in a metal band, but

9:25 Speaker 2: like to hear a song and like trying to play

9:27 Speaker 2: along with it in mime and then like do the

9:28 Speaker 2: vocals and stuff. It was. It was pretty silly. I'm

9:32 Speaker 2: surprised we've got any good footage at all, but there

9:35 Speaker 2: you go. We saved that one for the end because

9:37 Speaker 2: we knew after that we'd be done.

9:39 Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, Like I said, the video came out great.

9:41 Speaker 1: I love the video, Thank you. So I'm curious about

9:44 Speaker 1: the title track. So the title track is twenty three minutes.

9:48 Speaker 1: Is that the longest? That's got to be the longest

9:50 Speaker 1: song you guys have done, right?

9:52 Speaker 2: Oh yeah by far?

9:53 Speaker 1: Yeah?

9:54 Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, that was the thing Eric wanted. Eric's always

9:57 Speaker 2: wanted to do a really long, epic, continuous song like that.

10:02 Speaker 1: Yeah.

10:03 Speaker 2: Yeah, one of our favorite bands growing up is Dream

10:05 Speaker 2: Theater and they they had an EP that came out

10:08 Speaker 2: one time called Change of Seasons, and it was like

10:11 Speaker 2: one side A was this one song called Change of

10:13 Speaker 2: Seasons that was I don't know, five or six movements

10:15 Speaker 2: and it was twenty two something minutes long. Yeah, and

10:18 Speaker 2: the rest of it was all live recordings, and and

10:23 Speaker 2: he was like, I want to do that someday, and

10:24 Speaker 2: so that idea has stuck with him. As soon as

10:27 Speaker 2: we started Warhog and we started writing slower, longer songs

10:32 Speaker 2: and was like, oh, this song's ten minutes. Oh, this

10:34 Speaker 2: song's also ten minutes. This he immediately was like, I'm

10:36 Speaker 2: going to do ethereal Journey and I was like, all right,

10:39 Speaker 2: you like go nuts? He did. He showed up with

10:42 Speaker 2: it one day, yeah, and uh so, yeah, that's just it.

10:45 Speaker 2: It was just his little challenge to himself to write

10:49 Speaker 2: something that long and continuous, and then for us to

10:52 Speaker 2: all kind of start learning it and recording it, and

10:55 Speaker 2: it was a it's been it's been fun. I'm glad

10:57 Speaker 2: that we finished it so that other people can listen

11:00 Speaker 2: to it, because we've been enjoying it for I probably

11:04 Speaker 2: a year or so now sure, and knowing how kind

11:06 Speaker 2: of ridiculous it is.

11:08 Speaker 1: Well but interestingly, so, you know, when I listen to it,

11:12 Speaker 1: it doesn't seem like at the end of it, it

11:15 Speaker 1: doesn't seem like twenty three minutes has gone by, which

11:18 Speaker 1: and I mean that in the best possible way. It's like,

11:22 Speaker 1: like there's a band, there's a band in our area

11:25 Speaker 1: called able Blood, and they have a song called mental

11:27 Speaker 1: Note that's eleven minutes. But I remember telling those guys,

11:31 Speaker 1: you get to the end of it, you don't feel

11:32 Speaker 1: like it was eleven minutes. Somehow it seems like half that.

11:35 Speaker 1: And I get the same feeling listening to Ethereal Journey. Yeah,

11:39 Speaker 1: it's long, but at the end of it, I don't

11:41 Speaker 1: feel like it's been twenty three minutes. It keeps me

11:43 Speaker 1: engaged when I listen to it, So I you know,

11:47 Speaker 1: I think that's your credit. I think it came out great.

11:49 Speaker 1: I really like it a lot, and I encourage people

11:52 Speaker 1: to listen to it and invest invest the time to

11:55 Speaker 1: listen to it because it's really good, really good.

11:57 Speaker 2: Thanks, thank you. Yeah, now he will love to hear that.

12:01 Speaker 2: I agree. It's it's fun to go back, even for

12:04 Speaker 2: me to listen to because I I still you know,

12:07 Speaker 2: like obviously I recorded singing it, but I don't know

12:09 Speaker 2: that I know the lyrics all the way through. Like

12:11 Speaker 2: I don't know that I've got to memorize because I've

12:13 Speaker 2: always had the sheet in front of me because it

12:15 Speaker 2: is like nine verses or something music, right, you know,

12:20 Speaker 2: to where I'm just trying to figure out what I'm

12:22 Speaker 2: what comes next? Oh yeah, it's this part, you know,

12:24 Speaker 2: And so I'm always kind of even when I listen

12:27 Speaker 2: to it, I get taken on that little adventure myself. Yeah,

12:30 Speaker 2: oh yeah, this is this is the part where the

12:31 Speaker 2: drums kick in, you know, right, So it's it's fun.

12:36 Speaker 2: It's a fun little tune because that's what only knows

12:38 Speaker 2: if we'll work it up live and play it.

12:40 Speaker 1: I was curious about that. Yeah, that was gonna be

12:42 Speaker 1: my next question. Actually, do you have plans to play

12:44 Speaker 1: that live?

12:45 Speaker 2: But we've talked about what it would look like. I mean,

12:47 Speaker 2: the reality is it would take up so much of

12:49 Speaker 2: our set to do just the one thing we've talked

12:52 Speaker 2: about doing, Like let's pick the ten minutes that would

12:55 Speaker 2: be the best to do and kind of like hit

12:58 Speaker 2: all the spots so well, we'll maybe start looking at

13:01 Speaker 2: that this summer. But yeah, honestly, I honestly don't know

13:04 Speaker 2: if we'll we'll do that. It might just be something

13:07 Speaker 2: fun that we recorded and you know, you just got

13:10 Speaker 2: to imagine what it would sound like live.

13:12 Speaker 1: And the story that you're telling in that song, it's

13:15 Speaker 1: kind of I mean, that's the main crux of the story, right,

13:18 Speaker 1: Like Starlight's kind of the introduction. You know, here we are,

13:22 Speaker 1: we're going to space, and then the Ethereal Journey is

13:25 Speaker 1: the story.

13:26 Speaker 2: Right, Well, yeah, they're not really related, they're just they're

13:30 Speaker 2: just coincidentally themed, Okay, similarly, right, like, Starlight was a

13:35 Speaker 2: thing that I mean, in my head, Eric had already

13:39 Speaker 2: written Ethereal Journey. I knew what it was. I'd been

13:42 Speaker 2: you know, I had recorded demos of it for us

13:45 Speaker 2: to work through. Oh okay, you know, probably back in

13:50 Speaker 2: twenty twenty three. Okay, right, So by the time I'm

13:53 Speaker 2: writing Starlight two years later, I'm not thinking, oh, these

13:56 Speaker 2: two songs are all related, oh, because there was so

13:59 Speaker 2: much time between.

14:00 Speaker 1: Oh interesting, okay, yeah.

14:02 Speaker 2: Because we because I remember, the plan was to release

14:05 Speaker 2: it as the follow up from our first album. So

14:08 Speaker 2: like we've We've just been waiting to get this one

14:11 Speaker 2: out the door. Yeah, it just so happened that the

14:14 Speaker 2: timing was, like, oh, what are the two songs Ethereal

14:17 Speaker 2: Journey in Starlight? Of course they would.

14:18 Speaker 1: Be right.

14:21 Speaker 2: Sense, Yeah, so yes, Starlight's different. It's just it's it's

14:24 Speaker 2: kind of my you know, let's send a bunch of

14:26 Speaker 2: dudes up into space and send them on aure where

14:29 Speaker 2: Eric's is more like it's you know, apocalyptic future we've

14:35 Speaker 2: got to send It's kind of it's kind of almost

14:38 Speaker 2: Hail Mary ish in a way. Of course, I know

14:40 Speaker 2: that that had nothing to do with it, because he

14:42 Speaker 2: had not read that book and that movie was like

14:44 Speaker 2: years from being made. Sure, but it's like, you know,

14:48 Speaker 2: the planet is super dying and we get a strange

14:52 Speaker 2: message and he, you know, the the lone traveler, gets

14:56 Speaker 2: sent off to go find out what the message is.

14:58 Speaker 2: And it's not necessarily help. It's someone. It's someone or

15:03 Speaker 2: something that transforms this guy into a god, basically gives

15:08 Speaker 2: him all this cosmic power, and then instead of coming

15:10 Speaker 2: back to help the Earth, he's gonna come back and

15:14 Speaker 2: conquer it, you know, right, It's just kind of a weird,

15:16 Speaker 2: you know, that's that's kind of the story of Ethereal Journey.

15:20 Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, and then so and then you you close

15:23 Speaker 1: it with You've got the cover of Doctor Doctor by UFO,

15:28 Speaker 1: which and by the way, you know some people are

15:30 Speaker 1: gonna listen to it and not realize it's a cover.

15:34 Speaker 1: You know, some people, obviously. I'm sure you have fans

15:36 Speaker 1: who may maybe have even told you. Oh I didn't

15:38 Speaker 1: realize that first of that was a cover because not

15:40 Speaker 1: everyone knows UFO obviously, But I really like that too,

15:44 Speaker 1: And I'm really I'm curious why you chose that song

15:49 Speaker 1: and uh yeah, I mean I guess, I mean the

15:52 Speaker 1: name of the band it's taken from obviously fits the.

15:54 Speaker 2: Uh yeah, I didn't even think about that. Oh yeah, yeah,

15:58 Speaker 2: of course that is I've I literally had not put

16:02 Speaker 2: that together until you just said it. That's hilarious. How

16:06 Speaker 2: can I even miss that? My god, I wish you

16:09 Speaker 2: could see me like I'm doing the whole like Captain

16:12 Speaker 2: Picard face palming thing, like what am I? So? I'm

16:17 Speaker 2: a huge Iron Maiden fan. I always have been me too,

16:21 Speaker 2: ye And if you've ever seen them in concert, they're

16:25 Speaker 2: kind of you know, between bands, they always play house music, yes,

16:30 Speaker 2: but Iron maidens like, all right, guys, everybody walked to

16:34 Speaker 2: the stage. Music is a live track of Doctor Doctor

16:38 Speaker 2: by UFO from the Strangers in the Night Oh live record.

16:41 Speaker 2: And they've been doing that for decades. Every time I've

16:45 Speaker 2: seen Iron Maiden since the nineties, they've come out to

16:49 Speaker 2: doctor Doctor. Okay, And Eric and I went and saw

16:53 Speaker 2: them a few years ago. We just happened to be

16:55 Speaker 2: at the same concert together, standing on the floor next

16:58 Speaker 2: to each other, and Doctor Doctor comes on, and I

17:01 Speaker 2: don't I don't know that he ever witnessed that, but

17:03 Speaker 2: like the crowd goes nuts. It's like it's that first

17:07 Speaker 2: step into an Iron Maiden concert, which for so many

17:10 Speaker 2: of us is basically like going to church. You know.

17:12 Speaker 2: It's like here we go and the crowd gets real

17:16 Speaker 2: amped up and we're all singing doctor Doctor please. And

17:20 Speaker 2: he's like, this song rocks, and I was like, yeah,

17:22 Speaker 2: it does. And I knew it. I like, I've recorded

17:25 Speaker 2: demos of it myself just for fun, and I was like,

17:28 Speaker 2: we should we should do this and he was like absolutely.

17:31 Speaker 2: Which Eric is not one usually for covers, because I

17:36 Speaker 2: think a lot of times when you cover someone's music,

17:38 Speaker 2: it comes with a lot of expectation, right, like, yeah,

17:42 Speaker 2: what bands do you really love and what bands are

17:44 Speaker 2: you trying to sound like? And can you pull it off?

17:46 Speaker 2: And and a lot of times it's best left, I

17:49 Speaker 2: think avoided right, right. But Eric was kind of like

17:53 Speaker 2: really keen on this idea of mine, which also he's

17:56 Speaker 2: usually not keen on my ideas anyway. So I worked

18:01 Speaker 2: on a I just worked this this version up, and uh,

18:05 Speaker 2: you know, we kind of went with it. And then

18:07 Speaker 2: when we had the EP and we were like, all right, well,

18:09 Speaker 2: we've got Starlight, we've got Ethereal Journey, we need something

18:12 Speaker 2: else to kind of round it out, and we really

18:15 Speaker 2: didn't have anything unreleased that we were waiting to release

18:20 Speaker 2: that isn't part of our next album. Yeah, and so

18:23 Speaker 2: we just kind of were like, well, let's could we

18:25 Speaker 2: should we do Doctor Doctor? And was like, yeah, that

18:28 Speaker 2: would be fun because then it's like, a it's a

18:30 Speaker 2: cover that we could probably release and that'll be fun

18:34 Speaker 2: and people that might listen to the original might find

18:37 Speaker 2: our cover and then find us and be like, oh

18:39 Speaker 2: these guys are you know kind of they're they're heavy metal,

18:41 Speaker 2: they're doing something interesting, and just give us one extra

18:46 Speaker 2: thing that maybe could end up on the radio somewhere.

18:49 Speaker 2: There's a there's a guy in Dallas, Chaz he Chas Night.

18:52 Speaker 2: He does a local show and one of his kind

18:56 Speaker 2: of recurring things is he'll do a show. He has

19:00 Speaker 2: maybe done it a while or I have not caught it,

19:01 Speaker 2: but he does like rock he calls it rockstar Karaoke, okay,

19:04 Speaker 2: and the whole the whole program of that hour long

19:07 Speaker 2: show is covers by other bands. So he'll do like

19:12 Speaker 2: Pantera's cover of what is it? Planet Caravan or like

19:17 Speaker 2: the Faith No More War Pigs, right, So like and

19:20 Speaker 2: I was like, oh, this would be a good way

19:21 Speaker 2: to get on that. We could be like a local band.

19:25 Speaker 2: One be a local band, but two having a cover

19:27 Speaker 2: that's kind of radio worthy.

19:29 Speaker 1: Yeah, so it you know, it.

19:31 Speaker 2: Was like, well, let's just throw doctor Doctor together and

19:33 Speaker 2: put that out there with it. And it turned out

19:35 Speaker 2: to we had fun doing it, and yeah, I think

19:38 Speaker 2: it turned out pretty well. And like you mentioned that,

19:41 Speaker 2: I still can't believe that completely slip my mind. Ufo, duh.

19:46 Speaker 2: And that's so funny. You think I'm kidding about that.

19:48 Speaker 2: But if you look anywhere that we've talked about the Epe.

19:51 Speaker 2: That's not mentioned because I had not put that together somehow.

19:56 Speaker 2: I was just I'm so focused on it being like

19:59 Speaker 2: a cover, and like, I hope this goes over well.

20:01 Speaker 1: I hope people, you know, like, oh.

20:03 Speaker 2: Why doctor, doctor, why are you guys doing the cover

20:06 Speaker 2: the UFO? But I never I really never put that together.

20:10 Speaker 2: I can't believe it.

20:11 Speaker 1: That's awesome, that's funny. So did did the song get

20:15 Speaker 1: on that show?

20:17 Speaker 2: We haven't released it yet. You're the you're if you're

20:19 Speaker 2: gonna play it, you're the first person to do it.

20:20 Speaker 1: Oh nice, nice, I am gonna. I am going to

20:23 Speaker 1: play it at the end of our conversation. So very good,

20:27 Speaker 1: very good. It'll be the world radio premiere of that track.

20:29 Speaker 1: I love it. We love those now. And when you

20:35 Speaker 1: when you do a cover like that, is that did

20:37 Speaker 1: you say that's the first time you've done a cover

20:39 Speaker 1: in Warhawk.

20:40 Speaker 2: Yeah, like an official cover of someone else's stuff. I

20:44 Speaker 2: mean we've we've early early days, we played like a

20:47 Speaker 2: Black Sabbath song at a at a at a gig

20:49 Speaker 2: one night because we needed something to fill the space,

20:52 Speaker 2: you know, like we only had ten minute long songs.

20:54 Speaker 2: We needed something that was only five minutes. Okay, let's

20:57 Speaker 2: just play this.

20:59 Speaker 1: So when so when?

21:00 Speaker 2: Yeah, we don't really do covers.

21:01 Speaker 1: So when you do when you record a Doctor, Doctor,

21:03 Speaker 1: were you i mean, did you feel like you wanted

21:06 Speaker 1: to keep it close to the original or were you

21:09 Speaker 1: more concerned with kind of putting your own stamp on it,

21:11 Speaker 1: or what was your approach there?

21:14 Speaker 2: I'd say about fifty to fifty.

21:15 Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, I don't.

21:16 Speaker 2: I don't love covers that very wildly from their original,

21:20 Speaker 2: with the exception of like all Along the Watchtower, I

21:24 Speaker 2: think is like when you try to reinvent a song

21:27 Speaker 2: that's the gold standard, and we definitely weren't going to

21:29 Speaker 2: try and do that.

21:30 Speaker 1: Yeah.

21:30 Speaker 2: Yeah, but I also didn't. I didn't want to make

21:33 Speaker 2: it a joke. I didn't want to I didn't want

21:35 Speaker 2: to force it into something that it wasn't. So I

21:38 Speaker 2: think I just maybe slowed it down just a hair

21:42 Speaker 2: and I took some of the guitar noodling away, Like

21:46 Speaker 2: the intro's got this really great shanker kind of improv

21:50 Speaker 2: solo that every time I've listened to it live, it's

21:52 Speaker 2: it's a little bit different. It's got a little bit

21:54 Speaker 2: of a different flavor and then I can't really do

21:58 Speaker 2: that as one guitar player, right, So you know, we

22:01 Speaker 2: did the harmonies and I kind of did it well,

22:02 Speaker 2: if Eric and I were going to do this live,

22:04 Speaker 2: what would it sound like. So I worked out the

22:06 Speaker 2: two parts and then we kind of just all right, okay,

22:08 Speaker 2: So it's got the chug in the background, it's got

22:10 Speaker 2: some different rhythms going on, you know, held out chords

22:14 Speaker 2: and some other stuff that I like to do. So

22:17 Speaker 2: I kind of made it ours without without really taking

22:21 Speaker 2: it too far from I think what the original version is,

22:25 Speaker 2: which is just kind of like a.

22:26 Speaker 1: Heavy yeah, which is what we love so right right, absolutely, absolutely,

22:32 Speaker 1: So the ep Ethereal Journey comes out April tenth, and

22:35 Speaker 1: then it's going to be on all the streaming platforms.

22:37 Speaker 1: I assume that's correct. Excellent, excellent, And then are you

22:41 Speaker 1: playing these out live already or yeah?

22:44 Speaker 2: We we had a show in March in Houston, okay,

22:47 Speaker 2: our first kind of show with Blake, our new guy

22:51 Speaker 2: who's coming along with us. We've got four shows that

22:54 Speaker 2: we're doing. I dare to call it a tour. It's

22:56 Speaker 2: really more like an extended weekend, but we're doing four

22:59 Speaker 2: nights in four states back to back here in a

23:03 Speaker 2: week or in a week and a half. We're doing Joplin, Missouri.

23:06 Speaker 2: That we're doing Louisville, Kentucky, Fort Wayne, Indiana, and uh Nashville, Franklin, Tennessee.

23:13 Speaker 2: Got a Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. We're gonna go play

23:15 Speaker 2: with some friends of ours called Salem's Child. They're based

23:18 Speaker 2: out of Fort Wayne, kind of Cocomo, Indiana. We're playing

23:22 Speaker 2: with well, a bunch of great bands just kind of

23:24 Speaker 2: all along the the the trip. Uh and that'll be

23:28 Speaker 2: kind of our Ethereal Journey run. We're gonna you know,

23:32 Speaker 2: Starlight is the big one from that. Yeah, and uh

23:35 Speaker 2: so we're excited to play a bunch and get it

23:37 Speaker 2: out there. And it'll be nice that we have an

23:39 Speaker 2: EP that'll be out, the video will have been out,

23:41 Speaker 2: so hopefully people will have checked all of that stuff

23:45 Speaker 2: out and kind of know what they're getting into. We're

23:47 Speaker 2: not bringing the space suits or anything.

23:49 Speaker 1: I was about I was about to ask that, Yeah.

23:53 Speaker 2: It'll just be us in our you know, in our

23:56 Speaker 2: regular stage gear. But yeah, you know, we've got them,

24:00 Speaker 2: so who knows what will happen to them?

24:02 Speaker 1: Right right?

24:03 Speaker 2: They might end up in the mix at some point see.

24:06 Speaker 1: And then uh and then so what's what's next for

24:08 Speaker 1: you guys after this, Because you're always working on music.

24:10 Speaker 2: We are, we are, We've got to We've got a

24:12 Speaker 2: couple of things. I you know, with Blake coming in,

24:17 Speaker 2: we want to give him an opportunity to kind of

24:19 Speaker 2: work himself into the band. So there's some smaller projects

24:22 Speaker 2: that I think we're going to try and get out

24:24 Speaker 2: this year. One of them is uh. I've been teasing

24:27 Speaker 2: it on YouTube if anybody has been paying attention, But

24:30 Speaker 2: I've been working on an EP celebrating the fortieth anniversary

24:34 Speaker 2: of Transformers, the movie Oh No Kidding, that we're going

24:38 Speaker 2: to release as Warhog. And it's because that that soundtrack

24:41 Speaker 2: had a bunch of like really great kind of eighties

24:44 Speaker 2: rock tunes, including the Transformers theme. So I've I've been

24:49 Speaker 2: doing them and putting them on YouTube, and we're going

24:52 Speaker 2: to get Blake in the studio and he's going to

24:55 Speaker 2: do the drums on him and Eric's gonna mix and

24:57 Speaker 2: master them and we're going to release the is just

25:00 Speaker 2: a fun EP I think at the end of the summer.

25:03 Speaker 2: And then we've got we're gonna try and get in

25:05 Speaker 2: and do it live studio recording with Blake and just

25:09 Speaker 2: knock out a couple of the songs that we're playing

25:11 Speaker 2: on this little tour. Yeah, and then because we're gonna

25:14 Speaker 2: do a full album at the end of the year,

25:16 Speaker 2: start working on this thing called The Collector that we've

25:21 Speaker 2: we've been developing in the background, and hopefully it'll come

25:26 Speaker 2: out early twenty twenty seven. Okay, the nine songs all

25:31 Speaker 2: kind of intentionally five minutes or less, very kind of

25:36 Speaker 2: straight up traditional metal, half concept album. But it's gonna

25:42 Speaker 2: be fun. We're some of the songs were really really

25:44 Speaker 2: excited about. But it's gonna be kind of, I think

25:48 Speaker 2: our big eggs in a basket moment where we're gonna

25:52 Speaker 2: put all of our effort into this thing. We're gonna

25:55 Speaker 2: get it sounding perfect, and then we're gonna hopefully start

25:57 Speaker 2: shopping it around to labels and see if we can

25:59 Speaker 2: do something with it. I think it's going to be

26:01 Speaker 2: maybe we're hoping that it'll be the thing that starts

26:04 Speaker 2: to really push us forward in a lot of ways.

26:06 Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, Well, you guys are already doing great stuff.

26:09 Speaker 1: Love to see its absolutely absolutely love the EP. So

26:14 Speaker 1: Scott in a moment, we'll let you go. We'll hit

26:17 Speaker 1: that track, Doctor Doctor, the world radio premiere of war

26:21 Speaker 1: Discover of Doctor Doctor by UFO. But where's the best

26:24 Speaker 1: place for people to go online to keep up with

26:26 Speaker 1: everything that you guys are doing as a band?

26:28 Speaker 2: Social media, Facebook and Instagram. We are at Warhog DFW.

26:34 Speaker 2: That's Warhog w a r h O g DFW like

26:38 Speaker 2: Dallas Fort Worth and our website Warhog band dot com.

26:43 Speaker 2: But we're real active on social media all the time,

26:46 Speaker 2: so anything that we're up to, you will find out

26:48 Speaker 2: about it that day. We would love to get more

26:52 Speaker 2: followers and more folks getting years on our stuff, so

26:55 Speaker 2: we're on all streaming platforms. We've got a YouTube channel.

26:58 Speaker 2: We're pretty easy to find once start looking for us.

27:01 Speaker 1: Absolutely and speaking of the YouTube channel again, I cannot

27:03 Speaker 1: stress enough to our listeners, please go check out the

27:07 Speaker 1: video for Starlight. It's really really fun. I just absolutely

27:11 Speaker 1: love it, absolutely love it all. Right, Scott Beatlee of Warhog,

27:15 Speaker 1: thank you so much, my friend for joining us today.

27:17 Speaker 1: We'll let you go and we're gonna hit that track.

27:19 Speaker 1: But always love talking with you and thank you. Absolutely

27:22 Speaker 1: love the music and I'm sure we'll talk again soon.

27:25 Speaker 1: You guys are always up to something, so I'm sure

27:27 Speaker 1: we'll be talking again soon.

27:29 Speaker 2: Absolutely. All right, you guys have a great day.

27:31 Speaker 1: Thank you, you two, Scott, thank you, bye bye bye Jen.

27:34 Speaker 1: All right, that is Scott Beatlee of war Hoog and

27:38 Speaker 1: right now. Okay, so this is I get to use

27:41 Speaker 1: the bumper. This is the world radio premiere because this

27:44 Speaker 1: is not out yet. The EP comes out April tenth,

27:47 Speaker 1: so you know the single Starlight, you can find that,

27:49 Speaker 1: but the EP comes out on the tenth, so you

27:54 Speaker 1: will not hear this anywhere. What we're about to play

27:57 Speaker 1: UFO Doctor Doctor, as covered by Warhog. Here we go.