Speaker 1: And Gary Smith is here with us live and studio,
and Gary, you were here just recently with Jam.
Speaker 2: Tomorrow yepp, not too long ago with with MHP and
Mark Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: So I was listening to I was playing back the
interview and one of the songs that you guys played live,
I forget which one it was, but for one thing,
I love watching you play because you play it's an
eight string.
Speaker 3: Right, yeah, it's an eight string guitar, so it's.
Speaker 1: Basically like you're playing, uh, it looks like you're playing guitar. Well,
it sounds like you're playing guitar and bass at the
same time. And one of the songs I'm listening to,
I'm listening to your playing and it's almost like, you know,
you're going back and forth, you know, between the bass
notes and the guitar notes, and it's like it's almost
like you're having a conversation. I don't know if if
if that's how you've ever thought of it, or if
anyone's ever pointed that out before, but I realized it's
like it's like the two it's it really does sound
like two instruments having a conversation.
Speaker 3: And I was fascinated by that I like that. Yeah,
I mean that's kind of the goal.
Speaker 2: Ultimately, you know, it's kind of be like a left
and the right hand of the piano, so they're kind
of working together but still kind of complimenting each other
along the way.
Speaker 3: So yeah, yeah, no, I mean that's kind of the goal.
Speaker 1: Tell us about that track we just played emo EMU Yeah, sorry, yeah,
no that speaking of birds, there's nothing there's nothing emo
about it.
Speaker 3: I don't know, I don't know why I said that,
but yeah, it's actually funny. The name came from a
yeah stupid there.
Speaker 2: It's that kind of sounded like the old Weather Report
song Birdland, and I'm like, oh, it's a bird emo.
Yeah yeah, yeah, songs an E minor so yeah. But
but yeah, I know that's a song I wrote probably
earlier this year. Uh, and me and Bob and Ryan,
who were playing guitar and drums on that track, have
played it a bunch of times.
Speaker 3: I do it my solo set too.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I played, I had a little piano for texture,
I played, you know, bass and guitar. Bob added some guitar,
and then last minute we added my friend Brian Murphy
on the trumpet.
Speaker 3: Yeah. I love bob so at the end. Oh yeah,
when that comes in, that's so good.
Speaker 2: It's just such a perfect I just just shread because
mine's all like jazzy and nerdy, and then yeah, and
then I just want him to just tread and he does.
Speaker 3: It's perfect.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the contrast of it and the texture that it
adds to the song. When you can do that, when
you can add like that kind of solo into something
where it sounds different but it still fits so perfectly,
you know, it's it's yeah, what a great track. And
we're gonna we're gonna play some others too that you
sent today. That everything that you sent me, it's all different.
It's all you know, like there's a hip hop track
which I love, and there's every everything's different. Are these all?
Are these all on one album? Are they all available
on one album?
Speaker 2: Yeah, there's an album that you can pre order on
band camp. It's gonna be streaming on band camp on.
Speaker 3: Monday.
Speaker 2: I'm actually at one o'clock they're doing I'm doing a
pre listening party at Pemburg City Limits Excellent stream it.
A bunch of people from the bands and a bunch
of other people are coming, so it should be fun.
But yeah, it's going on band camp fourteen the press
and vinyls, T shirts, stickers, all kinds of fun stuff,
cool car picks for all my guitar nerd friends, and
then it'll be on all the other streaming services on
the twenty eighth of October. Okay, Oh yeah, it's under
my name that I produced hip hop under percussive maintenance.
So even though ill, there's a lot of guitar stuff,
and there's lots of you know, basically sixteen different other
musicians that I regularly play with that are on there. Yeah,
getting three hip hop songs, some instrumental stuff, solo guitar stuff,
so it's it's really all all over the place.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: DJ Myth the DJ from Manchester from rapa Nite Manchester,
he added some scratches to some songs, so really it's
all it's all over the place.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, no, that's great. I worked with DJ Myth
like years and years ago. We were both involved in
a project called well, it was called Project Hybrid okay,
and it was this hip hop group where it was
like there were these these two people who were at
the center of it, who were always there, Danny Dragon,
who was a singer and around the Rebel who was
a rap and they were always there, but the other
musicians would kind of improvise and it was just whoever
was available.
Speaker 3: So if I was available, I would show up and
play bass and that's awesome. If Mith was available, he
would be there his thing.
Speaker 4: Yeah I was.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that was a great time. Yeah, he's a great guy.
I haven't talked him in so long, but yeah, he's
he's a very very talented.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I've known him for a long time.
Speaker 2: We started learning how to make beats on ableton at
least probably like twelve years ago from the same dude.
Speaker 3: And oh no kidding, Yeah, he just.
Speaker 2: Went down the turntable road and I went down the
other road. Yeah, yeah, no, we've known each other for
a while.
Speaker 1: And tell us again about so Pembroke City Limits, what
are you doing there exactly?
Speaker 2: So basically, there's a pre listening party for my album.
So I'm going to stream the whole album there at
pember City Limits today one and it's also going to
be available on band camp. You can listen to its
stream on band camp for that.
Speaker 3: And that's happening. That's happening today. That's happening today.
Speaker 2: Yeah, busy day, coming here, done doing that, and then
I'm going up and debuting one of the songs at
base side Bolt Night, the hip hop song that's on
there with Ben Shore, who may be calling in at
some point here. Uh yeah, Portland rapper lives in Philly now,
But okay, yeah, so that'll be cool.
Speaker 3: Yeah yeah, it is a busy day.
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, but uh yeah, so it's again the album's
all over the place, so I should be all of
it again. Like you know, I played with the jazz
trio earlier this week, and I'm playing with a hip
hop artist this week, which is, you know, kind of
how how it works for me, which is why I'm
a you know, my album's all over the place.
Speaker 1: In the same way, have you always throughout your your
career up to this point, have you always been really
diverse in terms of what kinds of music and different
genres that you get involved.
Speaker 2: In for the most part, I mean I I go
down rabbit holes, so like I know way too much
about hip hop, way too much about jazz, and then
like some of the other stuff just adjacently, like some
of this stuff like Mazy you'll suggest in Fox and Flamenco's.
Speaker 3: I've never heard of this band, but I like it.
Speaker 2: It's cool. It's just I've never you know. But yeah,
I'll play with any anyone, any anything like. I have
fun just playing, and especially if it's somewhat you know,
improvisatory or just like the writing process. I love like
writing music and making music. Yeah, I mean, that's that's
the fun part of it, you know, no matter what
it is. I play Bad Burger on Thursdays. We do
a jam there and we just you know, plays Zeppelin songs,
play like. So it's again completely different. I play you know,
full Train the night before and then Zeppelin the next day.
So it's just how my music has been and you know,
my my confused algorithms.
Speaker 1: All over the world. You play a lot too. I
was looking at your schedule on your website.
Speaker 3: You play a lot. Yeah, I'm trying to play as
much as I can.
Speaker 2: It's you know, I'm in a few different projects, and
then I have my solo jazz thing, so I'm always
I'm always doing something either at Pembroke or like Nolins
or you know, there's a bunch of bunch of places
I do my little solo show thing at Milford.
Speaker 3: I do a few places.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, So there are a lot of places that
you on kind of a regular basis, almost like a
residency where you go back quite a bit essentially.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean like Nolin's and Conquered Loans, a few
different other speakeasies across New Hampshire. So I'll go do
one there and then do one at Codex in Nashua,
and then do one at you know, crow Bauer and Claremont.
Speaker 3: So yeah, and.
Speaker 2: Obviously then makes me appreciate Pembroke City limits being five
minutes from my house a little extra.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I'm curious too about so do you always
do you play the eighth string at every show or yeah?
Speaker 2: Yeah, so I have a looper set that I play
the eighth string at. So I uh, I'm basically laying
down the guitar in the bass line and one passed
through with the looper and then I just play the melody.
But yeah, that's that's that's all over the place too,
because you know, like my influences, I do like warrang
Gy regulate, I'll do Creep from Radiohead and then Coltrane songs.
I do Take five from Dave Brubec, so like it's
you know, Mama's and the Papa songs like Jane Morrison.
Speaker 3: So it's so like so eclectic.
Speaker 2: There's no one who covers the same songs that I cover,
I'm sure, but yeah, yeah, and I just yeah, I
kind of get a looko on for some of the said,
I'll just do like kind of solo jazz guitar songs
like do like fly Me to the Moon and like
jazz standards and we'll kind of reimagined, reharmonized jazz standards.
Speaker 3: So what did you I assume you started out on
a six string? I did?
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I mean I actually started on bass long
before guitar, but yeah, oh okay, I started on bass
and then learned guitar after that, and then I only
got into h string about four years ago. My teacher
was selling one and I always kind of wanted to
delve into it, and I already kind of had the
bass and guitar kind of background, so it was just
kind of yeah, getting used to.
Speaker 3: The really wide neck and putting the two together. Who
is your teacher? We should give them a plug?
Speaker 2: Yeah, oh, Dave Newsome, Yeah, definitely. Yeah. I started going
to Summer Youth Music School back in ninth grade, which
is the UNH program, And he started teaching me then,
and then I went to UNH for a little bit
it and then yeah, he's he taught Tommy Gray and
I've been I haven't had any lessons really, but we
play together and like that's a that's a lesson in itself.
Speaker 1: What was it? Was it challenging learning to to play
an eight string or did it kind of come naturally?
Was it just a matter of, uh, kind of combining
what you knew and already Yeah.
Speaker 2: It was a little of both, because I already kind
of played six string bass, so I already was comfortable
with a low B string.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Uh, and then you know, adding the low F sharp
and just kind of figuring out different like chord shapes,
like yeah, like so that I you know, normal A
on guitar to get that low A like you can
do with still almost a bar chord and do some
cool stuff, and so like you just figure out different
ways to use it, and you know, some shapes kind
of transfer over some sometimes you figure out new shapes
that you could never do with a six string. So
it's yeah, it's definitely fun and it gives you, It
gives you some range, and it even like I use
it in Flamingo shows and it throws people for a
loop because they'll like hear me doing the bass and
then all of a sudden, I'll do a guitar and
then go back to me. But yeah, it's uh, it's
it's really it's a fun instrument.
Speaker 3: I'm glad I delve down that rabbit hole. Yeah. Yeah, no,
it's fascinating.
Speaker 1: Like I said, I like listening to it, but it's
also just I'm fascinated just watching you play, like I'm
just watching your fingers. You know, we should play us
since we were talking about it, we should play that
hip hop track.
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, this is as I Lay Dying feature in
ben Shore again. This is on my album. A nice
song just with some different saw me playing guitar. The
only song I played mandolin the song. There's a little
mandolin loop that started the whole song, which is funny
how stuff like one little thing becomes this big, blossoming
song that barely has anything.
Speaker 3: To do with the man. Yeah.
Speaker 2: No, it's a cool song. It's kind of big and
epic sounding, is what I was going for.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I really like this a lot. Let's give
this a spin. This is called As I lay died.
Speaker 4: Broke, but I'm not broken, don't breaking. I left the
gun smoking. My blood runs open scars.
Speaker 3: Don't heal right?
Speaker 4: He can't get it to steil tight, rub tokens together,
hoping for luck, but the deal's light falling like a
steel pipe. I fall hard through a skylight window covered
in glass. Sharks too much dancing with the devil, left
my ass chard into the road. Asked my maker to
make it end less painful. Instead, an angel came and
sang me songs until I fell asleep, helped me get up.
Instead of rain clouds, there was a rainbow. So I
crawled till I could walk. Now, I let this guitar.
Speaker 5: Weak as I lay dying, As I lay dying, as
I laid dying, As I laid dying, when it all
falls down, and the ground starts quaking, and my soul
of wickeds, and the sky starts breaking, and the eyes
are watched, and the time.
Speaker 6: I've taken it is not be given living these times
we see the bond prize ribbons were driven from riches
and sinning. And this isn't why we live in this prison,
this intim envision. It's like an incision, like if I
get in prescriptions seem to make us painfree, but mainly
for mind us that we isn't in fame. We cheats
and dragons that have no emotion for us. What so
a soldiers cappa chition that chosen formulas the real truth
thighs and this here booth.
Speaker 5: There's no fearing. My eyes absent dispair with the spies
walking to parent.
Speaker 3: The lies are bearing disguise.
Speaker 6: I taste the tears rolling down a cheeks, Kiss him away,
keep love so deep, I said, no more tears.
Speaker 4: I just let this guitara weep.
Speaker 6: As I think it's I late di.
Speaker 5: As I ate did that's I dated as they.
Speaker 3: I didn't even want to talk over the end. It
just sounded so cool as I laid down. That is
from uh uh the New Uh? Now is it? Is
it under Gary Smith or is.
Speaker 7: It uh You're you're calling it yeah? So my h
I've already released stuff under yeah, So that is uh here.
I have a oh wonderful, wonderful that the name of
the album is Melody Workshop. My name that I produced
under is Percussive Maintenance. So all the songs on the
album are going to be under percussive maintenance, you know.
Speaker 2: Okay, Uh, they're gonna have all the different artists, you know,
because there's Jam Tomorrow on there, there's Fox and Flamingos,
And I tried to get again, because the album is
so collaborative, I tried to get collaborative with the art.
So my good friend Christy Marcella did that nice piece
of art that's featured throughout the album.
Speaker 1: And so for those watching online, I'll hold up yeah, yeah,
I'll hold up the shirt here. I can't really zoom in,
but that so that so she did that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so she did that piece of art. That's awesome. Yeah,
it's so so gorgeous.
Speaker 2: And then Nick from Cosmic Blossom he's on a song
too that I'm sure you heard. He did a piece
of art. A friend from California did a piece of art.
So it's kind of just the album is going to
have a bunch of different pieces of art, all kind
of blended together on the back for you know, just
for something kind of again collaborative art wise and music wise.
Speaker 1: So no, that's extremely cool, and yeah, thank you, this
is a that's amazing, very nice, very nice. So what's
kind of the future trajectory in terms of are you?
Are you continuing to work with a lot of these
artists on I mean, obviously this this album is just
now coming out or about to come out, But but
are you because you strike me as someone you probably
always have ideas and oh.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, no, I always have music in the bank,
because I mean I could probably do another one of
these pretty quick if I you know, just got into
the studio and sou but uh yeah, I mean that's
really more. I mean I have some ideas kind of
to get things slightly more focused. You know, that's kind
of this is kind of just the like shoot it
out there. This is everything I do. And then you know,
I want to do a little more hip hop production.
Me and Ben have talked about doing a few more
songs together and the song that you may have heard
with Mazy Digital Sunrise like that, when we want to
do a few more little like snippets like that, because
those you know, come together really quick. You know, I
have having the able to she just you know, records
it through the mic in my house and it's super
simple in that sense. Okay, and then I just go
to our mixed mastering Wizard with the stems and we
just mix it in a couple hours, so it's no kidding.
So yeah, that's why I like even some of the
stuff that most of the stuff is you know, ultimately
produced and made my bedroom and you know, bedroom studio.
But you know, I take the stems and let Pete,
Pete do his thing because he's he's such a good
dude and he knows he knows this stuff, and there's
so much stuff that like I have an idea, and
then just even when he gets the stems, he's like,
why don't we do this? Why don't we do this?
And it just makes such a big difference. Like yeah,
that's that's why I'm glad I do I.
Speaker 3: Do this with you. Now where is he because we
should give him a plug?
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's Pete Peloquin at Boards House Productions in Brookline.
Speaker 3: Yeah, same one. That's where you did Jam Tomorrow, right, Yeah,
Jam Tomorrow.
Speaker 2: Fox and Flamingos have recorded there. There's yeah, a bunch
of bunch of bands around the area have have recorded there.
I mean Rooster Creation are the big one that they do.
But he's the sound guy for Bad Fish, so he's
on the road doing that stuff a bunch too, So
oh okay, he's actually we're playing a pumpkin fest tomorrow
with Fox and Flamingoes and we get to he gets
to do our sounds, so we're we're lucky. I think
it's the best will ever sound with him doing our sounds.
Speaker 3: Kid. Yeah, yeah, no, it makes sense, Yeah, it makes sense.
But yeah, I know he's he's an awesome dude.
Speaker 2: He's super easy to work with and like he lets
meaner it out and learn stuff from him, Like I've
become a better you know, producer by just watching what
he does, like over his shoulder and asking him nerdy questions.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's cool though, that you're able to to do
the recording at home.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 3: It's always say we live in a time.
Speaker 1: We're blessed to live in a time where you have
so many different options in terms of how you record,
and you know, different studios you can go to or
you can do it at home. And oh, really, I'm
out with something that sounds amazing. Maybe we should play
that track Digital Sunrise.
Speaker 3: That's another one. So now this track, to just to
be clear, this is not Fox and the Flamingos. This
is not Fox and Flamingos.
Speaker 2: No, this is again a song and guitar riff that
ultimately again the guitar riffs started all became a song,
and then I wanted to do something with it, and
Mazy heard it and loved it, like, oh, I can
write some something cool over this, so yeah, yeah, and
then just did some rearranging. But yeah, I know this
is just a percussive maintenance featuring. Yeah amazing.
Speaker 3: I didn't mean to start that already.
Speaker 1: Try trying to actually, Oh, here we go, trying to
actually download it, and this computer's being a little slow.
Speaker 3: Here we go, Here we go.
Speaker 1: Okay, yeah, this is really cool too. Let's give this
a spin. This is called digital sunrise.
Speaker 8: Sometimes I wanna hi, that's a that's a d.
Speaker 9: Al.
Speaker 8: The time passed me by, hop times.
Speaker 9: A while, ride.
Speaker 8: The universe? So mad, have been had on, happen, have a.
Speaker 10: Feeling good between ussis has singing in the street, don't
where the sun musty?
Speaker 5: But I'm not just wa.
Speaker 9: God man, I'm like God.
Speaker 10: Being good between machines, happen stinging in.
Speaker 8: This I don't where the sun musty? I'm not just
why no way.
Speaker 3: God, man, I'm like, god.
Speaker 8: I don't know what to tell you. You've gone to
some aching.
Speaker 9: Something bad.
Speaker 3: It's got a cool vibe if you're just joining us.
Speaker 1: Gary Smith is here with us, alive in studio and
we're playing some tracks from Percussive Maintenance.
Speaker 3: Do I get the title right? Yeah?
Speaker 2: Percussive that's my producer name. The album is called Melody Workshop.
Speaker 3: Melody Workshop, right, right, gotcha, which is.
Speaker 2: My My parents had a music store that they opened.
That was my first job back in ninth grade. I
was giving guitar lessons, so yeah, that was called the
Melody Workshops. I'm like, oh, it's a perfect kind of
tie everything together.
Speaker 3: So yeah, you were already giving guitar lessons.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, mainly bass lessons, but beginner guitar lessons, and
then yeah, by the end and by like senior year,
that was you know, just all I was doing was
giving good guitar lessons and bass lessons. So I didn't
really have a normal high school crappy job, you know,
given lessons for my parents.
Speaker 3: Good for you, Good for you. Does that store still
exist or no?
Speaker 2: No, they've both passed since and they've retired a while ago.
But I think the last time it existed, probably as
it was, was like two thousand and two, two thousand
and three. But I actually I found an old picture
of the sign and that's used on the album cover,
so yeah, oh that's very cool.
Speaker 3: But yeah, it was a you know, my stepdad got
me into music. Really.
Speaker 2: My mom and him met doing like Actors Singers back
in Nashville. He was the director of Actors Singers.
Speaker 3: Oh wow, so uh so.
Speaker 2: They met and then that kind of infused me with music,
made me learn trombone at a young age.
Speaker 3: And I love bass.
Speaker 2: So because I went from trombone, I'm like, I already
know bass left so I could read it right away.
Speaker 3: So what was trombone your first instrument? Trombone was my
first instrument.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I haven't touched one in you know, twenty somethings,
so it probably sound horrible if I tried to touch it.
Speaker 3: But but yeah, I mean it was definitely the catalyst
for everything.
Speaker 2: And then you know, that's what led me to bass
because I'm like, oh, it's in the same cleft, so
I can read it right away. And that was very
basically and then you know, my thought was all my
friends are learning how to play guitar, why don't I
learn how to play bass?
Speaker 3: And yeah it has worked out well.
Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely absolutely that track too. So you were saying
off here Digital Sunrise, you call it it's mid fi.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, so that was the joke.
Speaker 2: It's it's not like a low fi like slow like
gritty track, but like it it's like a it's a
hip hop ified version of Fox and Flamingos almost, like yeah,
so it's kind of the again, the melding of the
two sides.
Speaker 1: Right right when you play like when you play out solo,
do any of the songs from the bands that you're
in make it into the set?
Speaker 2: Or oh definitely yeah, yeah, I mean some of the
I actually just added one we've done with Fox and Flingers.
We've done like this cool funky version of Benny and
the Jets of Her Yeah, and I'm like, oh, that
has like it has a looping structure. I'm like, oh,
I can loop this one way through, So like that's
kind of when I and then like, isn't she lovely?
I do that just the two of us. So yeah,
some of the songs I do with one or other bands.
Then some of my originals like I do an EMU
when I do that live, and I like layer the
harmonies through the looper and like, yeah, it's a uh yeah.
I definitely find songs from from that for sure. I
haven't quite done an original and I haven't thought about it.
I don't think one would quite work like looping process
wise because they're also weird. But I definitely find some
good covers that that work well. And that's kind of
again the fun of my original or my live side
is like people like listening and saying, oh, I know
that song. Oh that's a radiod, Oh that's you know
yeah John, So like there it is.
Speaker 3: It is kind of fun in that sense.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, very cool. Well we should uh let's see.
I want to make sure we get these other ones in.
Should we play melt Away?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a new Fox and Flamingos song that's actually
our most recently recorded one. Oh and this was a cool,
cool story about this one. Me and Mayzi just were like,
we want to write a song. We hadn't written a
song in a while, and then I had like, as
silly as it sounds, I had a dream with this
riff in it that I had already played like it,
just like it's weird that I remember that.
Speaker 3: And then she said I'm like, okay, how about that.
She's like, oh, I love it.
Speaker 2: So the beginning riff was where it all started. But
I had the riff, the chord progression, and then I
just brought it to her. She instantly came up with
words and then brought it to the Flamingos and we
fleshed it all out to what it is, and it's
it's an awesome.
Speaker 3: Song or only song that's not in four to four
in the album.
Speaker 1: So yeah, little waltz, Oh cool, cool. Yeah, I love
Fox and the Flamingos as you know, I love I
still love that.
Speaker 3: I still play it once in a while. That don't
be a stranger. Yeah, Oh such a great that's such
a great song. Yeah, I love it. But this is
great too.
Speaker 2: So this is brand new, right, Yeah, this is brand new.
It hasn't been played anywhere besides us doing it live.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 2: I think we debuted at Wormtown. So yeah, this is
a new Little Fox and Flamingo's debut.
Speaker 3: Fantastic And this is called melt Away. Check this out. Hey, Safety.
Speaker 9: Savings, Your Love and one Invisible a.
Speaker 3: Member and that trust you.
Speaker 8: Not at all trust myself?
Speaker 10: Am that it doesn't trust myself?
Speaker 8: Did you feel you're so mad?
Speaker 3: So love me?
Speaker 1: I think.
Speaker 8: Was floating down?
Speaker 3: Can I do you do?
Speaker 5: You do?
Speaker 3: Not you deliver? Say just not the way.
Speaker 5: To that? Just you.
Speaker 10: Don't it's just myself. Oh say that's my sa.
Speaker 3: You feel your so right?
Speaker 8: Slow long.
Speaker 1: I lo.
Speaker 9: God, trust.
Speaker 3: But at all just my.
Speaker 9: Safe hold Stevens not smustard, you feel so loud, so rod.
Speaker 3: So No, that is so good, gorgeous melt away. I
love Fox on the f as you all know. Yeah,
that is fantastic. And yeah, the flute sounds great and
that the way it kind.
Speaker 2: Of just just weaves in and out and yeah, like
it's cool, like the flute over the heavy guitar.
Speaker 3: It's such a cool like mix of sounds.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, fantastic, fantastic if you're just joining us.
Gary Smith is here. He's in Fox and the Flamingos
and Jam Tomorrow and uh, what like ten other bands
or something.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Cosmic Blossomsome effective, Yeah, and then kind of Cinnamon
Jazz Trio, the Floutest in that we play a little bit.
We're played at Pembroke actually with I played bass in
that with a piano player Joe Verga, and play flute yea,
and yeah, we just do some jazz standards.
Speaker 3: We have fun. We uh it's always great time.
Speaker 2: I mean just just like all my other things, Like
we invite people to play up so like we had
a from player last time, kind of sax player before.
Speaker 3: So it's fun.
Speaker 1: Is that Is that ever challenging when you when you uh,
I mean having having those additional horns, I mean, does
it always just kind of work or is it ever?
Speaker 2: I mean, jazz even though it's kind of crazy, A
lot of it's structured, so like you're you're kind of
just doing the same form over and over. So as
long as you know the basics for everything are kind
of happening, it's pretty simple, d Ad. And uh even
like uh my jazz thing I do at Pembroke, like
last week, I do it every other Sunday pretty much.
I had some younger kids, uh, freshman at Berkeley come
and I think he's a high school student from around here.
Jack and Nick and they came and we just had
in the whole time and played and went over some
stuff and like it was like it was a good
learning experience for them to get to kind of woodshed
those types of songs. So yeah, I mean it's never
sometimes it's smoother than others by all means. It kind
of depends on what the history is. But yeah, I
mean I do a few of them around here. I
I often go to the Forum Jazz Jam up the
Old Area twenty three, and yeah, the same thing is
just some old school guys, you know, Brian Booth, mikey
g Mike Galant, and they all just kind of go
through some standards and we all make it sound really
really good because you know, there's there's the structure to it.
But yeah, yeah, I mean it always depends, but I
mean that's kind of the fun, especially if you have
a solid bassist or in rhythm section, you know, good
bassis and drummer like you can you can over you
can overcome a lot just by having the solid bass
and then you know, trust that they're gonna kind of
lead you. Yeah long, But yeah, it's definitely a different
type of mindset versus you know, rehearsing, you know, like
learning a cover song for jam tomorrow. That's a very
different mindset versus you know, kind of the improvisatory side. Yeah,
but even like Cosmic Blossom, like sometimes in sets when
we're doing something, we'll just say, hey, let's jam and
see my ern and see where it goes. And we've
come up with songs. Like the most recent song we're
working on came out in a jam. We were doing
a candy a road brewing. We just like kind of
saw where it went and then they made it. We
basically made it a song over the course of the night.
So it's fun how stuff can work like that collaboratively.
Speaker 1: Is Cosmic Blossom something where where the songs like do
they change a lot live like, because it seems like
with the project like that, you've got like the songs
have room to breathe if you want to just kind
of make them longer spontaneously exactly.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean they definitely do. And then I mean
Cosmic Blossom collective is it's a group of bunch of people.
There's you know, multiple drummers, multiple bassis, multiple you know, guitarists.
There's like kind of Nick and Brad are the core, okay,
but yeah, I mean there's three vocalists, there's a saxophonists
sometimes comes in so it's really, uh, it's really all
over the place. But that's kind of the beauty of
it is that allows you for some flexibility, get a
bunch of different types of input. And we practiced last
week in Nash. So we had three female vocalists, Sarah, Megan, Amanda,
like Meg from Doggie Dog. She's a great vocalist. Uh,
sarahs from dog a Dog too, and Amanda's from cos
Cosaic Blossom and uh.
Speaker 3: Her and her boyfriend Ever Group too.
Speaker 2: I'll get in trouble for not remembering, but yeah, so
like it's just these powerful female vocalists and they can
like instantly harmonize on the spots while we're riffing on
something that we made up there coming up with these
awesome intertwining harmonies, and it's like it's just me and
Nick looked over at each other once.
Speaker 3: Last week just like Jesus, Wow, absolutely mind blowing.
Speaker 2: But yeah, I mean it's uh we But then like
the one we did a Candy Road, that's just me
one of the drummers and Nick and Brad just we
do a bunch of cosmic songs, the ones that don't
require those powerful female vocals.
Speaker 3: But then you know, we'll do some covers.
Speaker 2: We'll you know, just make stuff up on the spot,
and sometimes the spontaneous stuff gets like the best reaction
from the crowd because you know, it's just us doing
our best thing.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Oh, that's fantastic. That's fantastic.
Speaker 1: Uh So before we run out of time and we'll
we'll play we do have one more that you sent
me Kaleidoscope I think.
Speaker 3: It was, yeah, clidophone. Yeah, that's so.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's the one with Nick Burns actually of Cosmic Blossoms.
Oh okay, he's the lead singer in the you know,
kind of core of that.
Speaker 3: He sang on the song. We actually wrote the song together.
Speaker 2: I had the guitar part and then he's like, yeah,
I said, let's let's make something cool together with this,
and then he came up with the melody.
Speaker 3: He plays guitar on it.
Speaker 2: The same trumpet player who was on EMU plays the
trumpet parts, Brian Murphy. Again, he used to be in
a band called The Shills, which was pretty famous at
one point. But yeah, he's a he's an awesome trump player,
awesome vocalist, awesome guitarist.
Speaker 1: Okay, okay, yeah, so we'll we'll play that in a moment,
but before we go, I want to make sure so
for our people listening live on Saturday, because you've got
a busy Saturday. Let's make sure everyone wants to people
want to follow you around today.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so at twelve thirty I have a one o'clock
the Streaming Stars. But at twelve thirty I'll be at
Pembrooke City Limits showing the whole album. We showed you
know a few songs from it, but there's twelve total songs.
And then I'll be there till about two thirty most likely.
And then I'll be going up to Bayside Bowl in Portland,
Maine with Onyx, the old school hip hop group. They're
playing and Ben Shore is opening for them. We're gonna
debut the song we just played as I lay dying
with me playing guitar excellent.
Speaker 3: Right before they go on.
Speaker 2: And then tomorrow Fox and Flamingos is playing eleven thirty
in the middle of the Milford Oval for Pumpkin Fest.
Speaker 3: Too excellent.
Speaker 2: And then yeah, yeah, I mean keeping eye on my website,
my website g Smith music dot com. I still have
a lot of a lot of gigs coming up, you know,
next week I'll be playing.
Speaker 3: A Bad Burger.
Speaker 2: We do a cool little jam there with the owner
Ian and then I'll be up and I'm actually racing
next weekend, so I'll be up in Claremont.
Speaker 3: So I'm doing a gig while I'm racing on the weekend.
So what do you mean you're you're racing? You I
race hill climb like hill climb cars.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so the bottom of a mountain access road up
to the top like they do Mount Washington.
Speaker 3: Oh wow. Yeah, there's a bunch of them throughout Vermont
that that I do.
Speaker 2: And I have an old two thousand and four Neon
s R T four that's with a roll cage.
Speaker 3: That's yeah, yeah, that's uh. I've been doing that for
a few years.
Speaker 2: I think you saw me probably one point when I
was all broken when I was in when I was hobbling.
Speaker 3: That was because I crashed one of my race cars. Yeah.
But yeah, yeah, I love hill climbing. It's the best kidding. Yeah,
this is scary. It sounds scary.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean like, it took me a while to
get into it. But I'm like, if you're racing on
a road course, which I did before, I'm like if
you hit a wall, it's not going to be fun.
If you hit a tree, it's not gonna be fun.
And then I mean I did hit a tree really
bad and it definitely was less than less than fun.
But I got back to it with any year because
it's so fun. The community is so great and it's
what every everyone in New England wants to do. Go
as fast as you can on a back road, you know,
with no no speed limits. It's just you know, it's
with stee windy thirty turn road up the top of
the road.
Speaker 3: So it's a lot of fun. Wow, Ok, that's cool.
That's cool.
Speaker 1: All right, well we will we will close out with oh,
actually the other thing too, not only what you're doing today,
but let's make sure two people know the schedule for
the album release.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, album release. Yeah, so fourteenth. You'll be able
to download it, stream it on band camp. You can
pre order the vinyls, you can order shirts like.
Speaker 3: You got we had those.
Speaker 2: I'm actually gonna have guitar picks coming in again for
my nerdy friends. And then the twenty eighth the album
will be out on all the other streaming services. Obviously,
band Camp is a little bit nicer to musicians, So
anyone who would like to support us through that is
definitely appreciated. But it'll be on all the you know,
Spotify's and apples of the world on the twenty eighth.
Speaker 3: Yeah, okay, Yeah, the vinyls should.
Speaker 2: Be here by the end of the year, pending things
with Vinyl, but it's gonna be some cool one hundred
and eighty gram clear vinyl for the first first hundred pressings.
Speaker 3: Nice. Yeah, I'm a vinyl nerd. I have been. I
worked at Tweeter back in the day. Yeah yeah, so
I'm I gotta gotta do it right, I think if
I'm not mistaken.
Speaker 1: Twenty twenty two was the first year of the vinyl
actually old c Yeah, yep, long time coming.
Speaker 3: Yeah, there you go, there you go. Gary Smith. Always
wonderful to have you here, my friend. Thank you for
having me.
Speaker 1: I appreciate it absolutely, and congratulations on the album and
everything that you're doing.