W M n h Ripson Dobles said, so, I said, Goshi yahms
his whole world that came in from back back to the crest of the happy
pad bout of golly as a p public boso real bread. That would do
enough, it would chan s old chap Shi. That is vultures. The
band is Swarm in all caps, by the way, from Texas, and
we've got them with us on Skype. Hopefully everybody can hear each other.
Hello, are you guys there? Can you hear me? Oh? Awesome?
Yes, yes, I can you guys hear me? Okay, I
hear you? Beautiful, beautiful. I always got nervous when we're merging calls
with Skype, because well it's Skype, and you know how that can go.
But it looks like we were successful. Welcome guys. Who who do
we have on the line with us? Go ahead and introduce ourselves. I'm
a Parish, I'm the singer of Swarm and also the original creator. And
then we got Bats our guitar player. Here, yep, I'm here,
I'm Bats. I play the guitar. All right, Welcome, Welcome,
Hey, I love your sound. I have to say, so, we
don't I feel like the genre of I guess industrial metal would be the term.
I feel like there's not enough of it, and I feel like there
was a time when there were a lot of bands doing this, but I
don't feel like there's that many around right now that are doing this. So
when Jenny sent me you guys and said, you know, this is a
guest that I've booked, I listened to these tracks and we're gonna play another
one at the end of our conversation, and I was just blown away.
This is great stuff. I really appreciate that a lot. Do you guys
kind of where you where in Texas? Are you? Are you in Dallas?
Yeah? Dallas, Texas? Okay. Yeah. We've talked to a
number of bands over the past couple of years from your area, but you
know, but they're always just like, you know, metal, mostly just
straight metal. So this, uh, industrial aspect is, like I said,
it's unusual. I mean, are there other bands in your area doing
what you're doing or do you guys really kind of stand out? We're kind
of the only industrial metal band here in DFW. Now, we do have
industrial acts here which we do play a lot with and stuff, and we
also cross genre and play with a lot of metal shows. But as far
as like an actual industrial metal style band, we're we're pretty much the only
one here in DFW. Yep, it's just us. Yeah, So I
would imagine doing what you're doing. You know, like you said, you
play with a lot of industrial bands, you also play with a lot of
metal bands. Oh yeah, yeah, because you kind of fit in either
way, right, yeah, when you when you play shows with oh sorry,
go ahead, believe it or not. Like, yeah, our actual
first like show is an actual band and not a pro solo project, was
a deaf metal concert, no kidding, no kidding. So in a in
a scenario like that, how does that like, how does the crowd react
to it? I mean, even if they're trepidacious at first, I imagine
you can win them over. But are people into it right from the onset
or is there a process of kind of winning people over because you know,
you stand out a little bit, right, You're doing something a little different
than what everybody else is doing. So the first time that I performed,
we performed with the Death Metal Show, which is our first concert, I
was very nervous, like you know, and I was like, these are
a bunch of big metal head dudes, and we're not like you know,
up there like Cookie Waster, you know, so it's not you know,
we're not quite that heavy. So I was kind of scared how they're going
to take to it. But to be quite honest with you, as soon
as we got and you know, like I guess, people were just happy
to hear you know, more metal, you know, and different kinds of
metal. And I've been noticing, you know, a lot of the shows
here lately have been cross genre, you know, as far as different types
of metal. Like, we we're very blessed here in DFW to have the
scene that we have and a lot of understanding people who just have an act
for different kinds of music and different types of metal, you know. So
it's been it's been a it's been a definite blessing. You know. We've
had the we've gotten to play with a lot of different metal bands and different
types of metal acts, and we've played with a lot of different types of
industrial acts. So it's gotten like kind of the best of both worlds.
We really enjoy it. Yeah, that's excellent. Paris. You mentioned you
started the project. Yeah, so originally I was in a synthpop band,
oh wow, and uh, I wanted to do something that was completely opposite,
just unfriendly, mean, heavy and brooty sounding. So during during the
COVID time lockdowns and everything, I just you know, had a lot of
time off work. So I I just sat there and started creating, you
know, a different sound palette and coming up with the swarm sound. And
then you know, I got a show that I had to fill in for
my other band because my singer was sick, and I was scared to death
because it was just me and a bunch of synthesizers. And you know,
I got up on stage and performed nervous as heck, you know it can
be, and everybody was like feeling it, and I was just so impressed
and I got off stage, and next thing, you know, like I
had more offers for shows and time to make this a band, you know,
so I started reaching out and you know, we went through some lineup
changes and bats here he's been. He's been one of the most long term
members we've had so far, and the band definitely a keeper if you asked
me, Yeah, you know, he's really added a lot to the heaviness
factor and he's got a lot of new metal influences. So yeah, it
brought into like a whole new you know genre, you know, where we're
not even just like like we're catering into like so many different genres, you
know, because each one of us has our own different music taste and we
all bring it to the table, you know. Yeah, that's great.
And Bats, I assume you played in other bands before A Swarm. Oh
yes, I played in multiple bands. I'm originally from the New York,
New Jersey area. Oh okay, So I was part of that metal core
scene back in the early two thousands, and I'm why I moved down here.
I didn't play for a while, and then I saw a Facebook ad
with this guy a year and a half ago, and I was like,
you know what I want to do that yeah, and reached out sent him
a video and he was like, you're in buddy boy? What was it
that? So you're from the North, So what was it that brought you
to Dallas? Oh it was during the two thousand and nine, during the
recession, and this is where the jobs were. Yep. Yeah, no,
that makes sense. That makes sense. Yeah, and it and it
worked out musically for you. That's for sure, it really did. It
took uh, it took almost fourteen years, but finally landed a real nice
gig with with Swarm, and I wouldn't want to be in any other band.
It's probably the best band I've ever been in. I've been in a
lot of bands, and it's just the camaraderie, just even the musical talent.
Like Parish was saying, all four of us, we all have different
musical taste and we all bring it in together and it comes out like we
have new metal, we have industrial, we have hardcore, and it just
all comes together. Yeah. Yeah, because yeah, oh no, go
ahead, I was gonna add to that. Yeah, so you know,
like I come from the hardcore punk scene, and you know, I didn't
get into industrial until like three years ago, so it's still all new to
me, you know. Yeah, yeah, we're old belting pot. No,
that's that's great. Whoops, I didn't mean to play that yet.
Sorry, we are going to play that. You probably recognize it. Just
make sure it's loaded up and ready, and I accidentally started playing it a
little seak preview of Perdition another great track. But now, so who else
is in the band with you? And what does everybody do, like,
do you have a live drummer or how does that work? So we have
struggled with the drummer position in our band. We use UH and we're industrial,
so we do a lot of programmed UH distorted drums and modified drums and
stuff. So we started off with the drummer and he was great, but
we had to part ways with him due to health health reasons. He was
a little bit of an older gentleman. We love him to death. Dean,
if you're hearing this, I said, we love you, bro.
You know, we had UH, we had to part ways, and then
we've just kind of struggled with it. And then we added Germaine, who
plays synthesizers and does all the drum machine work for us and everything, and
you know, addition to him, and you know, he had so much
energy back there just having him on stage, we just kind of decided not
to have a drummer. You know, we may in the future add one,
but as of right now, we just run run, our run our
drum machines and stuff. But you know, definitely, if we find somebody,
they've gotta they've gotta they gotta jibe with us, you know, we're
all got friends and it's kind of a plus, you know that we all
get along as good as we do because but at the same time, it's
a curse because we definitely want somebody who can fit with us, you know,
because we spent a lot of time together, and you know, it's
just to makes sense, you know, at the end of the day.
Yeah, but it's it's great that you have a project where you don't necessarily
need a drummer. I mean, if you're when you're doing something you know,
heavy and aggressive, you know, industrial is the one sort of zone
of that where you can, you know, not necessarily have a drummer.
And I know that, and this seems to be universal because whether I talk
to somebody from Dallas or whether somebody from the local area up here or whomever
it is, drummers seem to be the hardest to find. They are.
Yeah, they different bands, yes, twenty different bands. Yeah. Well
I have a theory about that. I think what happens is, you know,
when you're growing up and you want to start playing a musical instrument,
when you have to go have the conversation with your parents about yeah, I
want to play and here's what I want to play that. And drums and
maybe the tuba are the two instruments where they're going to actively try to talk
you out of. You know, nobody wants you know, no no parents
want you know, drums in their you know, unless they live in an
area where there's no neighbors and you know what I mean. So I that's
my theory about why drummers are in such high demand and there seems to be
so few of them. Oh yeah, it's definitely been a challenge. Uh
you know, and uh we we've tried a few different guys out and it's
just styles it in match and stuff of that nextor so, you know,
we're not actively looking for anybody. We we personally feel that the right person
will come our way and we'll just know, you know. And then when
it comes to bass, Vinnie Steel, our bass player, that guy is
he is a show in himself. Even if we didn't play, you can
get there with him and his bass and it would be a show and people
would play to see it. Oh yeah, he's a on stage and he
comes from the hardcore scene too, so he'll be it's hardcore dancing and throwing
his bass around and he's something to see for sure he can play that bass.
Like our one song Heartworm will be playing it. He will punch the
notes in literally his guitar and still keep playing the song. Wow. Well,
I'm a bass player myself, so I have to tell you I really
admire that. I'll have to Are there videos online, like on YouTube?
Are the videos of you guys playing live? Yes, yes, we do
have those. It's a swarm underscore DTX okay, And yeah we have.
We have a lot of live videos up, some actual full shows of us,
even gonna We're we're on Facebook, we're on Instagram, and we're on
good old TikTok okay. Very good. So I'm curious too about the name.
Uh where does the name come from? And why is it in all
caps? And is there any particular significance to that. So when I originally
started this project, it didn't have a name, and I just kind of
I kind of quickly just like I wanted something that fit the sound, you
know, and I did like a lot of grainy sense that kind of reminded
me of like insects buzzing and stuff. So that was kind of like the
whole like aspect of it. And then like you know, a lot of
my songs are like, you know, anti government, anti this and anti
that, sus like we swarm you know this stuff, and uh, you
know, it's like, I don't know, it just kind of fit.
And as far as the all caps is concerned, I think that's just the
way the logo shaped up. It's really not in all caps. But it's
be honest with you, that's never been discussed before you vote. You've opened
a new a new discussion. Okay, okay, Yeah, it's not abbreviations
or anything like that. Yeah, yeah, it's funny, you know.
Yeah, it's funny because there's some bands too that, for whatever reason,
just gets spelled in all caps for no apparent reason. Like I'm a I'm
a Kiss fan. My favorite band is Kiss, but you'll often see Kiss
written in all caps even though it doesn't stand for anything. Or Rush is
another example. You'll often see Rush written in all caps for no apparent reason.
It's just people just write it that way. You know. It's kind
of funny. Yeah, I mean definitely the way that our logo is drawn.
Yeah, it's uh, it's an all cast, which I designed it
myself, so it might have a lot to do with it. Yeah,
yeah, no, that makes sense. Now, what about the live show,
because obviously the music that you're doing and this style it lends itself to
I mean, do you have any kind of production going on or any kind
of stage effects or maybe you don't need that with your bass player who's apparently
very energetic on stage, but I mean does anything, like do you have
like a projection screen or anything like that. So we are very like we
have some of the best venues here in DFW and and most of them like
offer like full light shows and everything, and yeah, we've got it.
Like if you if you have if you ever are in town, check out
Haltam Theater, like I I recommend it. And you got to get a
hot dog while you're there. But it's, uh, it's a great place.
And you know, as far as we've been spoiled, like I'm not
even gonna lie. We started off our old drummer. When we had our
drummer, he had a lot of lighting rigs and lasers and it was cool
looking, but we kinda we kind of let that go because you know,
setting all that stuff up on the shows, you only got so much time
on stage, you know, and we never really sat down and perfected that
aspect of it, so we've been kind of running bare bones. But it's
definitely stuff that we've been talking about adding. Like we just recently, I
started incorporating a mask on certain songs that I wear. Yeah, you know,
it just fits to songs. And we have a song called Heartworm where
I wear it and stuff. So we're definitely getting to the point where we
are about to start investing a little bit more in the in the actual scenery
on stage and stuff. Yeah. One thing we do is like I move
around a lot, and Jermaine Bloodied He's in the back of the said he
moves around a lot too. He is constantly moving, and Vince is constantly
moving, and Parish is moving. It's there's a lot going on on stage
even without the lighting. Yeah, but like Parish was saying, we're gonna
start adding those some banners because I don't use an AMP. I actually plug
in directly with an AMP modeler. Oh no, kidding that up. I
could be on stage in two minutes or less, plug in XLR. Done
same thing with Vinnie Steele. You know, I'll bet other bands that you
play with love you for that too. That and the lack of a drummer.
I bet other bands that you play with love you for that, because
I just know from my own experience, like there's nothing worse than you know,
waiting for you know, when you got a bunch of bands on a
show. And I also used to promote a lot of shows, and it's
like, there's nothing worse than when you're waiting for bands to set up and
they're taking forever. Even worse when like if you're following a band and you're
waiting to get on stage and they're taken forever to break everything down. But
it sounds like you guys must be super efficient with that, I would imagine
with the way that you you approach your setup. Oh yeah, about eight
minutes the whole band, No kidding, Now, we do take the gum
riser up though. We put Jermaine up there and he don't has his whole
sense station set up and everything. Yeah, it's it's pretty incredible. I
don't know if you've ever seen Skinny Puppy live, but it's kind of,
you know, like Kevin Keyes has a setup. You know, it's monstrous.
You know. I got to see their last show, which was also
my first time seeing them, and it was sonice to see his rig up
there, you know, and uh, that's kind of how we run.
He has his he has this big setup up there, you know, he
kind of overtowers us, and he's just back there head and just throwing so
much energy out into the crowd. It's unreal. Oh, that's cool.
That's cool. Do you guys have any music videos? Have you made any
videos that you've posted other than you know, you mentioned those live performances,
but but have you produced any videos. We have not yet. We're actually
about to start getting into that. We have a song called Heartworm that were
you know, when Heartworm was originally written, it was with a lot of
different members besides me and Billy. So we're gonna aamp that song and we're
gonna be releasing a new EP with that, a couple of other new songs
on it, and a cover of Wimp Biscuits break stuff. Well, that's
cool. I was gonna I used to be in a band that we would
cover that song. Yeah, you added my name, Parish, do what
you said? Billy? You added me? Oh no, that's sorry.
Oops, it's okay. Everybody knows me. It's not a big deal.
Yeah, there you go, There you go. Break Stuff is a fun
song to play. I was in a band called the Jinxt and we used
to cover that song and Uh our our singer uh Rhino, he would like
turn purple during the you know, the breakdown part. He would he would
get so intense and and like much more intense than Fred Durst ever did from
what I've seen, I mean, Ryan would he would just turn red like
he was so into it. That's a fun son. We joked about it
for the longest because you know, we play with a lot of metal bands,
and you know, everybody everybody wants to, you know, talk smack
about limb Biscuit and not take them seriously and stuff. And I was like,
man, I don't care. I grew up listening all different music,
and I I mean when I was at when you're at a party, you
know, when you're in your young teens back then, you know, you
you partied your butt off listening the limb Biscuit and everybody did. So we
joked doing it as a cover for the longest and we unveiled it at it
like an all metal show the first time we ever did it, and people
absolutely lost their mind. Like I especially when it when it pauses and it
goes to give me something to break part but et hopping, I was like,
yeah, we're gonna be doing this song for a while hour that.
We have full video of that on our TikTok, the full version of that,
and you can even me my wife tried to start and watch a bit
during it. It was great. Really, well, that's great. You
guys, do any other any other covers in this project? Uh? We
do. We try to. We try to incorporate one cover into our every
live set we do. So we have a we have a cover of Heresy
by nine and Nails that we play and it's like really heavy and uh I
got the double bass in it and everything, and uh we're working on a
cover of uh urmy Loose by lover Boy. Actually that's fun. I like
that, all right, all right, very cool, very cool. Where
do you guys record? Because there's so many different ways to record music now,
Uh, I actually believe it or not. I handle all the recording
at home. Our our next EP is going to actually be the first studio
like in a like actual studio setting. I'm gonna I'm gonna have an audio
engineer do all the mixing and mastering, because I know a lot I hate
doing mixing and mastering. Yeah, so we're gonna we're gonna just do it.
We're gonna outsource it this go around and get everything nice and polished up
and do actual physicals of it and everything, which we'll have available on our
website. I'd expect it to be complete, probably or towards twenty twenty five.
Okay, okay, so you're gonna you say physical, so you're gonna
actually put it out on a CD as well? Yeah, yeah, yeah,
Cee. Probably cassettes available. Cassettes okay, yeah. Interesting. You
know, it's been a topic of discussion on the show for a long time.
I remember it must have been five or six years ago, maybe longer.
I was on band camp looking for looking for bands and uh band camp
dot com, and I still remember vividly the moment where I saw that there
were artists in this area who were putting out things on cassette, and the
first one I stumbled upon, I was like, is this a is this
real? And then I realized there were a bunch of artists doing it.
I was like, oh my god, cassettes are back. I never saw
that coming. Yeah, yeah, but that actually comes from your younger audience.
So I go to a lot of punk shows and a lot of like,
you know, more obscure shows, and that's kind of where you'll see
the cassette tape set. Yeah. Oh, and I was shocked the first
time on when I went to this venue called Kiki's House and uh, there
was an industrial group from California called the Diesel Dudes play, and then they
had cassette tapes and I was like, what is this? And so I
had to buy one, you know. Yeah, you know, I listened
to it regularly, like it's it's definitely a regular play for me. That's
wild. When you when you got that cassette, did you did you have
something to play it on or did you have to get something to play it
out? I had to go. I went to a thrift store and bought
like an old ghetto blaster. Yeah, and that's what I've been using.
Don't let him kid you, he's got a Hello kiddy one. Nothing wrong
with that. Yeah, it's interesting how one of the things that I find
interesting about just getting older is seeing over time what you know, how these
things change and what goes away and what remains. And sometimes what you think
is going to go away or did go away, ends up coming back.
And sometimes things that you thought would never go away do go away, you
know, in terms of technology, and you know I used to work for
I left there in twenty thirteen. I used to work for a national chain
that sold CDs, and and I remember everybody talking about even back then,
you know, any day now CDs are just going to be gone. There's
going to be no more CDs. But even today, you know, here
it is twenty twenty four, people still buy CDs. You know, people
still want physical media. I mean it's a lot less than it used to
be, but you know, people still buy it. Me, I'm at
a show, if I hear a new band that I really want as an
artist, I understand that you know, these are these guys aren't making you
know, big money off of these Spotify streams. You know, I wouldn't
make so much money off Spotify, so thanks to me. Well, I
feel the ultimate compliment that you can give an artists when you see them live
is actually purchasing their music from them, because you're you're paying them way more
for an album than what you know Spotify has given them, and you not
to have like a memory there in your hand. You know, you can
pull it up and be like, man, I remember when I bought this.
That was a cool show. Those guys are great, you know.
Yeah, I have a whole CD collection at my house and it's nothing but
local music and DFW bands, And you know, I've always try to pick
up a you know, my favorite band's new release and stuff when they drop
something new and whatnot. You know, now, that's great. Now,
I commend you for that, and and that's such an important point that you
brought up about, you know, if you're going to support local artists,
you know, yeah, buy their stuff because yeah, Spotify streams. In
fact, Spotify you guys probably know this already, but I guess recently they've
changed it so now if you're under a certain threshold, they're just not going
to pay you anything. And granted it was only pennies anyway, but you
know, so it's it's so important to support local music. Yeah. Anyway,
the only thing that saved us is we have a remix out by Xavier
from Three Teeth, another well known industrial metal band. Yeah, and that's
that's kind of been the only thing pushing us is that we have that out
there. So it's definitely been a blessing. How did that come about?
Interesting story? Actually I met him in a chat that wasn't even related to
their band. I didn't even know about their band. It was cess virus
Form, which is a synthesizer I use and uh we uh we comment.
I commented on a post of his because he had showed a picture of his
rig and I asked him a couple of questions about his sense because I was
still learning it. He gave me some real good uh information on it and
everything, and we just kind of started, you know, talking back and
forth and uh, you know, he told me he was in a band
and I was like really and he told me. I was like, yeah,
we're doing pretty good. And uh he sent me a copy for music
and I was like wow. And for me, that was the thing that
really got me to want to do industrial with those guys. And so when
we started kind of getting a little bit more traction, I was like,
man, let's get a remix done. And I was nervous. I wrote
him and I was like, hey, man, uh, you want to
do a remix for us? You know? And uh, I was surprised.
He told me he would do it, and you know it, Uh,
it was pretty cool actually, you know like it. He made a
club remix. It was great. Oh wow, Yeah that's fantastic. Yeah.
Good. Good for you guys. That's great. So what's kind of
the trajectory you've got are you? Do you have anything coming up as far
as new music. Obviously we're going to play another track in a moment,
But what should we know about what does the future hold for you guys in
the short term or the long term we have coming up? We definitely do
have new music coming up. We got some things in the pipe right now.
We've recorded and that's gonna be coming soon. Excellent, excellent out there
looking for that street Sweeper song when we released it's it's gonna be a heavy
one too. He very cool. Well, please send it to us when
it's ready to you know, we'll play it here and we'll definitely have to
have you guys back. I love what you're doing. Like I said,
I feel like there's not enough industrial metal and it's the stuff is great.
I really love it. I really love it. And what should people know
about how to find you guys on Wane to keep up with everything that you're
doing. Billy handle that where he's a social media goober. Well, going
on our website ww dot Swarm dt x dot com, you can see all
our shows on there. We have pictures we had uh Spotify to go to.
We also have Facebook. Just put in Swarm Dallas you'll find us okay
running ram Swarm Underscore d t X on Instagram and on Facebook. We are
official Swarm band. On TikTok that's you. Just put that in and we'll
pop up. Excellent, excellent. What is the significance of d t X.
By the way, I have a feeling Das for Dallas, but it
is okay. Yeah, And if any of y'all in Dallas, Texas next
weekend, we're playing a really awesome show. We're gonna be playing Bulgerfest at
Haltam Theater with our friends and Vivid in Bulger and Manifestive Boris. It's gonna
be a really good show. Hey, y'all should definitely come out very cool,
very cool. And thank you both so much, Parish and Bats.
This has been great. I really enjoyed talking with you guys. Like I
said, I love your music. We're gonna we're gonna end this track with
this track tradition. Anything we should know about this song. I do like
the title, so yeah, the song was actually written. I'm not gonna
I'm not gonna say no names, but okay, if you if anyone's ever
been in a relationship with a narcissists, it's kind of about getting away from
that and just you know, you know how much they can just drag you
down, you know, and that's kind of what the song's about basically.
Okay, well, it's relatable. You know, everyone's been in that situation
at one point or another. So so great, So we're gonna give this
a listen. Guys, thank you so much. I really really loved having
you on the show. And you've got new music coming so we will definitely
do this again in the not too distant future. But and we're gonna play
this track. But I really appreciate you guys joining us today. Thank you
both so much. Oh, thank you for having us absolutely all right.
Thanks guys, take care you too, Thank you, thank you. You
got it all right. That was Parish and Billy. I'm sorry Parish and
Bats. I see now I'm doing it from the band Swarm and check this
out. We're gonna listen to this and then we're gonna come back and uh,
we've got a little bit more show to go. So I've got one
last thing to share with you all today afterward. But give this a spin.
Give this a listen. I'm gonna give it a spin. You give
it a listen. This is called Perdition and the band is Swarm, So
it's a ball and he sh from with then tec bus. That's something in
bad. That's something that's that's the fruit god, you know best rick thing
that hey you die, you know that's not a fu. So it's face
fifty got sister pray text see I vill goes with its sick and silence have
been holding me go what its bice and do not go? Don't speak bus,
I feel fright b and everything you'rena that's a man bout Wow, I
cried, How did reck No? What wall go? Wow? Why?
Y wow? Why WoT a wall guy? Why? Why drive? Why?
Why? Okay? I and stretched down and that and keeps you what
a night time? That's what she's made and for night tis you don't feature.
Don't fight him say this di it's been a scene. Don't boost your
potkin and never say why can fact what's been in fasis and don't mean up
to mad sol it s straight tas don't see I feel though we've been saying
in styles have been over to me? Go what f don I don't don't
mean what time ray didn't see everything gonna that depends go mom wow wow?
Why got wow? Why when you got a wow? Yeah? Wow?
Why got mom? Why fine? Days? Want you way you like watch
out about school? Who wa? Yeah? Did you play sat? Yeah?
But you play the stats you're training because we're straining like trained. I
want to live that mansion on you. We're no pain stuff fream loud.
I want to leave him in the mansion on you only happiness with I don't
want to see behind those balls. I don't want to love if there's been
a sorrow. I don't want to knowvel that house is a hope. I
just want to live them Manchia. I don't want here or spoken to hand
close doors. I don't want to feed the anchor towards other. I don't
want to know if love lives in mable. I just want to live that
Mansia. I want to live that mansion on you. We're no pay I
want to make the Mansion. I love that song. I love the vocals
on that. That is Cameron Sutf and Mansion on the Hill and if you
are just joining us here on Matt Connorton Unleashed. Cameron was our guest in
the first hour of the program today, so yeah, I really enjoyed talking
with him. He played live for us in studio just amazing, amazing,
really really nice guy too. So so that was Mansion on the Hill.
That's probably my personal favorite song from his debut album called Part of Me.
And before that, of course, we perdition one of the tracks from Swarm
from Dallas, Texas, and we had Parish and Bats on the show with
us via Skype all the way from Dallas, and I really loved talking with
those guys. I thought that was a pretty interesting discussion and great to get
their perspective on a number of things and learn about the history of the band.
And I love their sound. I love what they're doing. Like I
said, I don't feel like there's a lot of industrial metal. There's probably
a lot more than I realize, and I just don't realize it because I
haven't looked for it, which shame on me because the Internet makes it very
easy to find and explore all kinds of music that I might not be aware
of, that you might not be aware of. So but I really enjoyed
talking with them. If you did miss any part of today's show too,
I do suggest you go back and check it out. Like I said,
we had Cameron Suttfin on with us in the first hour and second hour,
we had Sophia Gilani skyping in from the UK, and then we had Audrey
Queen and Draven d c from the band Bullet to the Heart skyping in from
Chicago. So it's been a very, very very busy show today, by
the way. Next week on the show, uh so, Jenny will be
back next week, by the way, so we look forward to that,
and we've got Tom Russo returning to the program. Tom's been on with us
a couple of times. Next week, though, he's we're gonna do something
different. He's it's it's going to involve writing a song live on the air,
and it's going to involve some audience participation. So that's all I'm gonna
say about it, a little bit of a teaser for you. But Tom
Russo will be with Jenny and I here on the show next week and really
looking forward to that. And I love his music anyway, always get a
lot of great feedback when he's on. But but yeah, we're gonna do
something a little different, little uh innovative. It was his idea, and
I said, yes, I like that very much. So that will be
next week on the program, by the way, So and I do have
something to talk about in our remaining moments on today's program. But but I'm
also going to open up the phone line too if you want to give us
a buzz. If you happen to be listening live on Saturday six three two
five six seven six o three two five six seven, you might have some
some thoughts on this uh subject. But something that we talk about a lot
on the program is AI artificial intelligence and how it affects the music industry and
how the music industry is kind of maneuvering through this. And I think the
last time that we talked about it on the show a number of weeks ago,
Jenny and I were talking about these you know, I think it was
a Universal Music Group is threatening these AI companies for allowing these llm's large learning
models that basically take in all this information and then they're able to spit out
whatever it is that you prompt them uh to do. You know, if
you've used chat GPT at all, for example, you know you can put
in a prompt ask it to create something for you and it will just as
an example. But there's a lot of concerns and a lot of hand ringing
over how this affects the music industry going forward, and a lot of different
ideas and thoughts and concerns and worries, and some of it I think is
concerning, and some of it I think I don't know. I have a
lot of mixed feelings about it myself now at the end of the day.
To be clear, at the end of the day, I will always advocate
on behalf of artists. That's where I come from, and I want artists
to be compensated for their work, and I don't want their work to be
stolen and so forth. But I'm also not sure how in a practical sense,
as we move into this new realm of AI and in the music industry,
I'm not sure how that all works. So and I don't think anyone
really is sure. But there's an article from The Verge which is a great
side by the way, if you're interested in these subjects, the Verge dot
com. That kind of gets us up to speed on where we are with
all of this. There is a lot of lawsuits and threats of lawsuits,
and Congress, you know, perhaps shall make laws at some point. And
I always cringe at that because whenever Congress makes laws regarding technology. You know,
if you watch any Congressional hearing on anything involving technology, you can kind
of figure out pretty quickly that a lot of these Congress people have no idea
what they're talking about, but they're going to vote, they're going to make
laws on these things anyway. I mean, just go on YouTube and for
example, you can look up Mark Zuckerberg got testifying before Congress, before a
Congressional committee, and here are the questions that he has asked, you know,
by these whether it's a House congressional committee or a Senate committee, and
you'll realize very quickly that the people who are discussing this and making these laws
have no idea what they're doing because they have no idea what they're talking about.
Because you know, I mean, ninety year old Chuck Grassley, although
I give him credit, he seems to be very familiar with Twitter, but
you know, do I want him making laws? Not to be agist,
but anyway, but we won't go too far in that direction. But so
the Verge dot Com has this updated article, the music Industry's AI Fight.
Let's look at this just briefly. We only have a little bit of time
left today. But it is a fascinating subject. And if you know,
obviously at this point, because of the way that the show is constructed and
the content that we present in all these interviews and whatnot, we talk to
a lot of musicians, so we assume a lot of people who are active
in the music industry are listening to this program and are probably also interested in
the subject. But so here's what this article again, we'll just spend a
few minutes on this has to say. Again, this is from the Verge
dot Com. Surely you've heard Mariah Carey's holiday smash hit All I Want for
Christmas Is You? But have you heard about this other song. It's also
called All I Want for Christmas is You, and it sounds a lot like
Mariah Carey. We're about to spend a long time litigating how that happened.
Oh you know what. This isn't the article I wanted. I'm sorry,
let me find let's go with Yeah, let's go with this one from this
from nbcnews dot com. So this relates to the story that we were talking
about recently. US record labels are suing AI music generators a legend copyright infringement
Universal Music Group, and that was the lawsuit that we had talked about.
Jenny and I had talked about on the show a number of weeks ago.
It might have been a couple of months ago, I'm not sure, but
but now Sony Music and Warner Music are also now filing lawsuits against companies like
Suno and Udio Maker about this, about using their intellectual property. So,
in other words, these AI companies are using the music the intellectual property of
the artists that these record labels represent. These AI companies are if you think
of it as, you know, sucking up all of that information. I
don't think the technical term is sucking up, but sucking up all that information
and then being able to, you know, say, okay, if you
tell the AI model, okay, make me a song in the style of
All I Want for Christmas by Mariah Carey. I hate that song, by
the way, But does anyone actually like it. I've never I mean,
it's ubiquitous during the holidays, but I've never heard anyone say, oh I
love that song or I can't wait to hear that song. But anyway,
so you can prompt it, you know, make me this, and it'll
make you this based on the work of all these artists and their information that's
been fed into a large learning model. And they call it that because it
learns. It uses all this information to learn how to create these things.
So let's look at this for a quick update. So this is from nbcnews
dot com. The world's biggest record labels are teaming up to take two prominent
AI music making companies to court, a move that comes as generative artificial intelligence
continues to infiltrate the music industry. Universal music groups, Sony Music Entertainment,
and Warner Music Group, among others, filed lawsuits against Suno and udio maker
Uncharted Labs, both of which recently released AI programs that enable users to generate
songs from text prompts. And by the way, one of these weeks,
if we have a week where we just we have an hour where we don't
have a guest. I think it would be fun to try one of these
services out live on the air and see what it comes up with. I
just think it would be interesting, it says here. The proliferation of accessible
AI tools capable of generating realistic music, including full songs using AI versions of
real artists' voices, has triggered a slew of legal and ethical questions for the
music industry. Many artists have expressed concern over how generative AI technologies could undermine
human work and compensation. Now, when Jenny and I talked about this before
and again in the end, I will always advocate on behalf of artists,
but plain Devil's advocate. If I write a song, I'm a musician.
I've written some songs. If I write a song or create anything musical,
maybe just write a guitar riff. Whatever it is isn't whatever I write,
isn't whatever I choose to create somehow influenced and informed by all of the music
that I've heard up to that point that I write that song. So how
is that any different from an AI model that has fed all of this information
and then create something now, obviously with the aid while you're taking the humanity
out of it, and you're potentially harming, uh, people who make their
livings creating music, right man, you know, doing the manual labor of
creating music. But again, if you want to argue the other side of
it, you can say, well, how is that any different than a
human who creates music who's influenced by everything that they hear. I mean,
that's why, you know, that's why sort of plagiarism happens. Right.
We've done on you know, on Friday nights. Of course, I'm a
co host on Retrospectrum Radio with poly C and we've done several shows. I
should plug that too, Friday nights from eight to eleven pm here on WM
and H. I always love my Friday Nights with poly C, H DJ
Steve and sometimes Tony Petrello joins us. But we've done several shows now about
plagiarism, where people have plagiarized to other people's music or are accused of doing
such. So but to me, that just that's an example of how everything
that we create is already influenced and informed by everything that we know up to
that point. So how is this different? I'm not saying it's not different
I'm just again a plain devil's advocate and just asking the question because regardless of
how any of us might feel about it from a principled standpoint and a human
standpoint, of course, there's also if you're going to make laws about this,
or if there's going to be litigation, which there is about this,
you also have to navigate how you approach this from a practical and pragmatic standpoint.
And that's not as simple as you can't navigate that by just saying,
well, I feel that this is wrong or I'm uncomfortable with this. You
know, there has to be a logical foundation that everyone can sort of agree
on moving forward. So and time is short. But by the Recording Industry
Association of America, the music recording industry's largest trade organization, the r i
A. By the way, that's the organization that also certifies albums as being
gold or platinum. You know, whenever you see a musician posing with a
picture of a platinum album, we've all seen those pictures, right, Those
are issued by the r i A. A fun fact that not everyone might
know. The artist has to pay though, has to pay for that,
has to pay for the certification. There's a fee. They don't just automatically
certify albums. And then you know, when everybody in the band gets their
their gold record or their platinum record, that they pose within those pictures,
that they have to pay for, that they're not just given those by the
r i a A. You know, everybody in the band, the producer,
and whoever else. Our i AA chairman and CEO, Mitch Glazier said
in a statement, quote the music community has embraced AI, and we are
already partnering and collaborating with responsible developers to build maintainable AI tools centered on human
creativity that put artists and songwriters in charge. But we can only succeed if
developers are willing to work together with US. Unlicensed services like Suno and Udeo
that claim it's fair to copy in artist's life's work and exploit it for their
own profit without consent or pay set back the promise of genuinely innovative AI for
us all unquote. The music labels allege in the lawsuits that building services like
Suno or Udio requires quote copying decades worth of the world's most popular sound recordings
unquote in order to train their models, and that both AI companies have been
deliberately evasive about what exactly they used to train those models, but it's obvious
what their music generators were trained on. According to the lawsuits, their models
could only succeed in producing such realistic songs, the suits stated if they had
been trained on quote vast quantities of sound recordings from artists across every genre,
style and era unquote, many of which remain copyrighted by these record labels.
Neither Suno nor Udio has publicly disclosed its training data. Both charge tiered monthly
membership fees for those who wish to use their AI music generators at higher capacity.
Representatives for Suno did not immediately respond to requests for comment. When asked
for comment, Udeo directed NBC News to a blog post stating that the company
is quote completely uninterested in reproducing content in our training set, and in fact
have implemented and continue to refine state of the art filters to ensure our model
does not reproduce copyrighted works or artists' voices. We stand beyond our technology and
believe the generative AI will become a mainstay of modern society unquote. So Udo
says we're not doing that and it is hard to prove a negative, right,
to prove that you're not doing something. There's a lot more to this,
it's a big subject, but we are out of time, so we'll
wrap up. We will leave it on that, but I'm sure this is
something that we'll be talking about from time to time on the program as we
move forward. So again, thank you to everyone who joined us today.
If you miss any part of today's show, it will be up in just
a little bit at wmnhradio dot org and at my website Mattconnorton dot com.
Jenny will be back next week. Tom Russo will be with us, and
I'm gonna leave you with a little bit. We won't have time to fit
the whole thing in, but we've played it a few times throughout the show.
Hope the Rapper his brand new single, Heavenly Father, as we continue
our ten weeks of new singles from Hope the Rapper. Every week for ten
weeks, a world radio premiere of a brand new track from Hope the Rapper.
And we're in week five, so here it is Heavenly Father. To
close out this week's Matt Connorton Unleashed, I'll talk to you a little bit
later. Bye everybody. You know it's different once the chorus comes in,
just for let us say the name h Oh. I ain't grow up in
the hood, but I'm good damn trying to walk in my shoes. Not
the good pat steal ball on a hugain and one from the father with a
game understand some move with the work, sort of like a tan dump.
I'm about to take the rat cap or ransom. Different meetings. Will we
greet them and say hands up? Kills me it? Pancake Charles Manson,
poodn't get a boy pen? Don't you know that this she spinds. I'm
just trying to touch the world. Paper was my mental man. I'maa send
them rid of limb they go. Not the way you think. I was
trying to buy some hope. Not I'm doing it in the track. People
problems on my plate, trying to get them in a cent full time.
I was healing beefs pull. Thema was in a sent still about a dollar
only if was making sense, trying to get this money straight. Just a
freak of pen call of this ride. A chauffeur can't count the times I
came from coast Shoulters, hand me the rocks a week and make bold to
my cuncle was square like PlayStation controler. Hold up. They printed that I
retired, but I got it like Trump when I spent five build the wall
to run the profit. Call it how you want it. I'm gonna treat
them how they treat me. Sign it from the bottom. Never said it was