Speaker 1: W m an Angel.
Speaker 2: Rips the normal.
Speaker 3: Hey everybody welcome. We have an or We are entering
about to cross over an hour number three New Marrow
trace of Matt Connorton Unleashed and we are live from
the studios of w m n H ninety five point
three FM, Inglorious a Manchester in New Hampshire. Of course,
you can stream the show from anywhere. Go to Matt
connorton dot com slash live for all of your live
streaming options, social media links, contact info, sharchives, et cetera,
et cetera. Today is Saturday, December twenty seven, twenty twenty five.
In just a couple of minutes, Lee Wilding from the
Far North is going to be joining us via WhatsApp.
We're gonna go ahead and spin this single. This is
one of the great tracks that he has released and
I cannot wait to talk to him. But this is
really good. This is called Mountain Song and this is
the Far North.
Speaker 2: The way things change.
Speaker 4: I don't think you can guess your next to move,
Miss you bird, your restrain on me.
Speaker 2: It's there so much to prove.
Speaker 5: You say that you'll change, So I'll leave your.
Speaker 6: Key by the door.
Speaker 2: Soon after that it all fits.
Speaker 5: To black, and I'm not so in loving more.
Speaker 2: All the gaps in my heart don't belong.
Speaker 6: Bad love?
Speaker 2: Can we go back and again? Can we go back
and again?
Speaker 4: Every time I pen my feet, a rock post.
Speaker 2: Fly underneath, I get.
Speaker 6: Back off for another round.
Speaker 2: To climb this mountain.
Speaker 4: You farm, you say that you change so when I
leave your key out.
Speaker 6: Of the time.
Speaker 4: Soon after that it all fads the black, and I'm
not so in loving about.
Speaker 7: Cold.
Speaker 4: The caps in my heart don't belong. Can't we go
back and again? Can't we go back and again?
Speaker 5: Oh?
Speaker 3: What a great track that is Mountain song from the
Far North, And we have the man behind the Far North,
Lee Wilding, on the line with us via WhatsApp.
Speaker 1: Hello Lee, Hello, that you all right?
Speaker 3: Yeah, welcome to the show. It's I love that so much.
We've we played that recently, and we played another one
of your songs too, and that's that's just really really good.
I love that song. I love the vocals and everything
about it is just perfect.
Speaker 1: Oh that's really kind of me.
Speaker 3: Thank you so much, Absolutely absolutely so. I'm really curious
to know so you you spent fifteen years as the
lead guitarist and vocalist in the Fireflies.
Speaker 1: Correct, that is correct.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so that's a long time. So what what drove
you to, you know, to kind of start fresh, because
that's you know, obviously you put a lot of equity
into that project and then you started you started The
Far North in what was it twenty.
Speaker 1: Twenty, Yeah, around twenty twenty.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 7: It's funny you though, because I hadn't considered it really
so being you know, in the Fireflies. We did like
seven albums, and we did loads of tours, and we
did show a lot of supports, lots and a lot
of headline shows and it was a pretty full time
kind of gig. And towards the end of it, we
did one last tour with Radio one's Coffee House Sessions
in I think it was the summer of twenty nineteen,
and there were six of us in the band, and
I just thought, I don't want to do this anymore.
Speaker 1: I just want to, you know, be acoustic.
Speaker 7: I'm a huge fan of like City and Color and
Neil Young and Uncle Chupelo and all those bands, and
I thought, you know, I want to do some acoustic stuff.
And it wasn't until halfway through recording the first album
songs and Gentle Souls. We had someone come in and
do backing vocals for us, a wonderful friend of mine
called Susie Potts, and she said, why have you like
kind of discredited the Fireflies after fifteen years You're starting
a fresh like, you know, you might not take any
fans over with you. And it had never occurred to
me until that moment. She said, I thought it will
be fine. All the Fireflies fans will still know it's me,
you know, and of course they didn't and it's not.
Speaker 1: It was very, very much the long way around.
Speaker 7: And it had never occurred to me for like six months,
and it was like February and February twenty one. I
think it might have been on twenty twenty, okay, and
she was like she just was like, this might not transfer,
and yeah, she was right, but you know, I've worked
it up against it all good.
Speaker 3: So I'm curious too, because so the Far North obviously
you know, it sounds like the name of a band,
but it's really your solo project, right.
Speaker 1: Yeah, pretty much.
Speaker 7: Yeah, I got you know, I rope in friends to
help me out, and you know, very talented musicians from
like the local area. And stuff to play, you know,
piano and percussion and fiddle and guitar. On my new album,
a lot of it's me, a lot of the guitar
and the bass, and you know the how monica and
a lot of it it is me. You know, obviously
vocals backing vocals, but sometimes you just need a better help,
you know.
Speaker 3: I guess I'm curious too, because you know, your friends
said to you, you know, and again I refer to
it as the equity that you had in the Firefly Yeah,
had it occurred to you at any point to just
because I think you probably would have had. I mean,
it doesn't matter now because you're obviously having a lot
of success with this, so it all works out. But yeah,
if you had just used your name instead of calling
it the Far North, you might have had a better
shot at pulling those people over because obviously people who
are big fans of the Far North, they probably knew
your name. So I mean, I'm sorry, big fans of
the Fireflies rather, they probably knew your name, sous.
Speaker 1: Think of that?
Speaker 7: Yeah, but think of that with me being such a
Neil Young Springsteen and City and Color fan and no
Gallagher fan, I just thought that like, obviously, those those
bands all had you know, it was someone and someone,
So I didn't want it to be Lee Wilding in
the Far North. But obviously with me being city in Color,
it's like his name is Dallas Green obviously, so city
and color. So I just thought, what kind of evokes like,
you know, a log cabin with a fire burning with
acoustic tunes in the middle of nowhere. And I thought,
you know, the Far North is a great, a great
you know a band title.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I mean, looking back at it now.
Speaker 7: Maybe I should have done to me recently though, you know,
like new fans of the bands that I picked fans
up all around the UK and all around the world,
and a lot of people say, why don't you just
say Lee Wilder Man, because like people knew who you
were in the Fireflies.
Speaker 1: It's like, oh my goodness. So yeah, you know, that's
not the first time I've actually heard that.
Speaker 3: Well, but it did work out, you know, I mean,
your your instinct, ultimately, I think has proven correct and
you're having success with this. So and this is the
third album correct Songs for Storms.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's right, third album.
Speaker 7: Yeah, we did song for Healing Hearts about two years ago,
and then Songs for Gentle Souls just in the peak
of COVID. You know, we never obviously no one saw
that coming. And if you had the time again, maybe
we would have waited till it was kind of over
a bit, but you know, it is what it is,
and it did what it did, and I'm pretty happy
with it all.
Speaker 1: Really.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, Now, how is your approach different? So I
will confess I've not gone back and listened to the Fireflies,
although I will now because I'm very curious. I mean,
is your approach in terms of songwriting? Is it different
when it's just you or maybe you were the chief
songwriter in the Fireflies? I don't know.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I was the only person that only ever wrote
the song.
Speaker 7: So for me writing the songs in the Fireflies, they all,
I mean, some of the songs I've taken up, you know,
I've taken with me and just kind of like rehas them,
put a bit of you know, a new look a
paint on them. But really my songwriting is so effortless.
I don't know what it is, but they all just
appear almost fully formed out of the sky. I put
the guitar up and just I'll play G and I've
played a million g's, but one time it's like different,
and then the G to the E is like, oh
my god, I've never played this before this way, and
then you know, the vocals just come out. I'm writing
stuff for the new album now, for the next album,
and it's just all comeing to me really really quickly.
So I'm not sure whenever it will dry up, but
I'm quite lucky at the moment because a lot of
people ask how, you know, how do you write songs,
or you know, can I maybe coach some of my
friends to write songs or whatever? And it's like, the
truth is, I don't really know what I'm doing. I
just write them and they and they happen.
Speaker 1: You know. That's kind of where I'm at with it,
really a bit of a hack.
Speaker 3: But has it always been like that, Like, was it
like that throughout your tenure in the Fireflies or is
this something that's come out more as you've done this
on your own and have it, you know, having the freedom,
the liberation to be able to do it on your own.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 7: No, it was always like that, really, So whenever I
wrote stuff for the Fireflies, I'd write it on acoustic
guitar and take it into band practice and people would
just kind of start playing their own thing. So I mean,
obviously with this though, the songs, I don't deviate from
the structure much because it's me. It's written it, and
it's me it's going to play it. But with the
Fireflies it was a bit more of a democracy really.
Speaker 1: Yea.
Speaker 7: But but the you know, the bare bones and the verse,
chorus versa all be the same, and a lot of more,
you know, lots more people will kind of getting on
it really, but now it's way more streamlined.
Speaker 3: Okay, okay, good, good. Now did any of the material
from the Fireflies make it into the new project?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 3: You still play some of those.
Speaker 7: Yeah, yes, so on the first track, I think the
first album Sorry that like this House is Ours and
I think Grace and My Heart and When we Were Young.
The second album, I think Unplayed Guitar and Hollow and
this album, yeah, if you haven't made it, there was Hummingbird,
there was Sailor in the Sea, all the things you did.
So yeah, there was maybe maybe two or three off
each album was a Firefly song that was like a
complete rock out really, you know, they were just pure
rock songs or you know, kind of big maybe psych songs,
you know psych, you know, So with this stuff, I
just wanted it to be like, just give those older
songs a new liquor paint. But I'm writing the new
album at the moment. I don't know when it could
be out. It could be a year, could be two years.
But I'm rescuing maybe three more firefly songs. Wow, that's it? Then, yeah,
I think that'll be the Firefly songs done. Then I
think the bag is empty at last.
Speaker 3: Did you was that when you started this project? Was
that your intention from the beginning, because you know a
lot of people they you know, if they have a project,
you know, they're in a band, and then maybe they
do their own thing. They don't want to necessarily, you know,
some artists they like to have like a clear delineation
and they just want to not look back at older material.
And some artists do, but a lot of artists don't.
And and to me, it's always been kind of like, wow,
how do you just how do you just leave all
that behind? If you had some great songs in your
previous project, how do you just leave that behind? You know?
But but some artists will do that. Was that a
hard decision for you, whether or not to revisit those songs?
Speaker 1: It was not really.
Speaker 7: I kind of like thought about it for a little bit,
and I thought, is this going to be completely new?
Because we had Nigel Stonia produced the first album, and
we were like, you know, I don't know, I don't
really know what approach and the heat. So I sent
him a load of songs and he was like, some
of the Firefly songs were greatly like we should definitely
redo these. And I had a bit of reticence at first.
It was a bit quite about it. I thought, I'm
not sure, and then I thought, well, I wrote them,
so you know, why not. So as long as they're
acoustic and as long as they've got a lot of
heart and soul, I kind of have no problem with it.
And some of them are pretty much verbatim. You know
that humming Birds pretty much the same. We just put
a fiddle on it, and we've kind of really restructured
like the Sailor in the Sea and all the things.
You did, you know, they were completely different songs in
the Fireflies. Yeah, but I just thought, you know, I
wrote them, and I never really have writer's block. You know,
I'm always writing, you know, as Bob Dylan said, you know,
write ten songs a day and throw nine away.
Speaker 1: So I'm always you know, I'm always writing.
Speaker 7: But yeah, I didn't think about it too much, but
I'm kind of glad I've carried you know, a lot
of them over.
Speaker 3: I think, Okay, excellent, excellent. So the album the newest
one in songs for weathering storms? What does that mean
to you? And I assume you know, in terms of
weathering storms? And I I assume and I did listen
to the whole thing. I really like it, But is
there a theme that you're presenting? Sort of a almost
like it feels like there might be a story, but
I'm not sure.
Speaker 1: Okay, it's I think it's a concept album.
Speaker 7: Yeah, I mean I wrote all the songs, you know,
I obviously carried about three or four over and wrote
the rest of the song kind of around the the
weather in storms kind of gam up really and.
Speaker 1: It was like, I don't know, everyone's going through so
much stuff.
Speaker 7: Right now, and I mean people always have, but I
don't know if it's because of social media.
Speaker 1: It always seems very prevalent.
Speaker 7: It seems to be right at the surface right now
that everyone just seems to be going through potentially the
worst time of their lives. But yeah, life couldn't be
any easier in a way, right, So it was just,
you know, it was just about hold on, man, it'll
be all right, Like everything will be okay, you know,
in the end, and if it's not the end, then
it'll be all right, you know. And it's like, I
just think, you've just got to keep going. You've just
got to have faith, you've just got to have hope.
And pretty much every song is like formed in a
bit of heartbreak. There's always about of heartbreak there. There's
always a bit of loss, but ultimately everything's going to
be all right. All you need to do is make
it into tomorrow, you know, just take things day by day.
Speaker 1: It'll be fine. So it's kind of like my nine
tracks of like it'll be okay.
Speaker 7: And I think there's there's a song called Release Repeat,
which is obviously about animal rights and you know all
that kind of thing as well, you know, but the
most of the song, the bulk of the songs on
the album are like it is gonna be all right,
and I know it's been done and I know it's
been done to death, but I guess it's not been
done with these songs in my voice, you know.
Speaker 3: Right right, Yeah, Mountain Song. I was reading that that
was written about a particularly painful breakup, and it's it's
pretty evident in the lyrics, you know, because obviously when
you're a listener, you hear lyrics and it's it's somewhat subjective.
Everyone's going to interpret things a little bit differently, but
there's there's really no misinterpreting that one. To my mind.
I'm listening to it and it's like, okay, you know,
you know what it's about, and it does clearly describe
a painful breakup.
Speaker 7: Yeah, there's a few, really, there's a few on the
on the album that kind of deal with that, and
it is quite it is quite clear. And I don't know,
I think writing about breakup and that breakup and particularly
I always find the kind of catharticism with it.
Speaker 1: You know, it's always like kind of gets the pain
out that's there.
Speaker 7: He kind of rinses it, you know, like a like
a towel, like a wet towel that just rinses it
all out. And I can just kind of deal with
it and kind of move on, you know. But you
know everyone's going to go through three or four heartbreaks
in their life, you know, and this is basically my
heartbreak opus, you know, and ultimately you know that that
you know, we split up like what three years ago,
and you know, everything was all right, but at the time,
I was like, oh my goodness, I've never felt pain
like this.
Speaker 1: This is awful.
Speaker 7: And you know, three three months down the line, you know,
you kind of all right, six months you're like, hey,
I'm healed, this is fine. So I was in a
place where I could actually write a song about it,
and it's very, very real, Like the lyrics are lyrics
that she would say, you know, things she said to
me and things I'd said back, and how I felt.
Speaker 1: So, I mean, I don't know if she's heard the song, really,
I assume, so I wasn't been in touch, but you know, I.
Speaker 3: Was going to ask you that if you know, if
she's heard the song.
Speaker 7: I felt like texting me, you know, I just felt like,
like when it came out on Halloween, I was like,
should I text her?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 7: But I didn't obviously, and you know, knowing her though
maybe she's heard it.
Speaker 1: I don't know. He's not come at me though, So that's.
Speaker 3: Cool, Okay, okay, good? And what about So I'm really
curious about the production and I'm a bit of a
recording nerd, so uh so, so of course I am.
But there's a so the lack of the lack of
drums is really interesting. It's a very it's a very
sort of a strip stripped down sound, which I really
like because I think a lot of things are are overproduced. Yeah,
and I don't even mean just you know, in these
times that we live in, I mean just going all
the way back to the eighties, there's a lot of
things that I think are overproduced and sound sound you know,
really a little too slick and polished, and you know,
I like a certain rawness and I think you've captured
that with this album.
Speaker 1: Yeh.
Speaker 3: But but I'm I'm curious about I mean, is that
something that you're very intentional about or does that just
sort of come naturally that.
Speaker 7: Approach or I think, you know, being in the Fireflies,
a lot of our albums were quite underproduced, really quite raw,
and a lot of the reviews and a lot of
people listening were like, oh no, obviously this has been
made in a budget blah blah blah, but it wasn't.
I mean, we aimed it to sound like that. So
with The Far North, I wanted a certain level of polish,
but also that like the raw beauty of an acoustic guitar,
you know. So my co producer John O'tringen, like we
in June twenty twenty four, we were like sat in
a local kind of place having breakfast, and we were.
Speaker 1: Like, how do we make this album?
Speaker 7: Because like I did the second album with him, and
it's a bit more rocky, a bit more college rot
Bit Third Eye, Blind Bit, Matchbox twenty Yeah. You know,
we kind of turned the guitars up on that album
and I found myself in like, you know, fireflies kind
of territory again. I thought I need to get away
from this. I keep just going back to that, tried
and tested my favorite sound, you know, just being in a.
Speaker 1: Band, I guess, and we were like, how do we
do this?
Speaker 7: So we just listened, like I say, to a lot
of you know, December Risks and Uncle Chuopolo City and color,
early early Neil Young like Harvest here and Neil Young
and then obviously Nebraska era Springsteen and we're like, we
need to we need to make you know, we It
was a conscious decision and out of the drums and
there's only based on one track and all that, and
it was very it was very planned, but I think
a lot of it was came out like a happy accident.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 7: It was like, Okay, this sound sounds because the production's massive,
it sounds like really well produced. Know it's hugely produced.
Speaker 1: Yes, but the sounds are still quite sorry.
Speaker 7: The songs are still quite direct and quite you know,
down that funnel of like you know, heartbreak and loneliness.
Speaker 1: They're not you know.
Speaker 7: And it was funny because I had a review from
someone and the reviewed Mountain Song funnily enough in a
local magazine and the reviews are usually pretty good, like
I've been lucky this last like twenty years with reviews.
And this guy was like, so this guy who was
from Newcastle, and he just said, oh, the fanals back
again with another one of his massive anthems, and I
was thinking, okay, and he goes he's desperately trying to
be Fleet Foxes and comes right, and the thing is,
I've never listened to Fleet Foxes. I've never they've never
like turned up on my you know, my thoughts for ever.
Speaker 1: Really, I mean, maybe I should, and he goes.
Speaker 7: He sounds desperately wanting to be Fleet Foxes, but comes
across as the drunk old man in the corner hater
walling a song on the karaoke right, that's what he said, Yeah, wow,
So I like so, and he was like, and then
he sent me a message personally and said, I'm really
really sorry that that was like personal, but that's how
I feel about your music. And I was like, I
was like, that's okay, but I've never listened to Fleet
Foxes in my life. It's just one of those bands that, like,
I don't even know who they are. I was like,
what he was like, you know, so it's kind of
funny really, but yeah, it kind of it's annoying someone.
Speaker 1: I guess.
Speaker 3: It's funny that he actually contacted you to tell you,
you know, I'm sorry. Sorry I was mean, but here's
why I was mean.
Speaker 7: Yeah, literally, he thought I was like trying to The
thing is as well a few of the reviews have
said like, and I've no, I've never listened to Muff
and Son's once, right, I've never ever listened to them,
because I've heard a few tracks on radio and I'm like,
it's not really my jam and everyone's like, oh my godly,
like it's so Munffing and Sons, it's so good, it's
so commercial, and I'm like, oh, do you know what
I mean?
Speaker 1: It's like, I didn't really write it to be commercial.
Speaker 7: I write I wrote it for people to to just
enjoy it. I guess just kind of you know, there's
no plan here, I just kind of do you know.
Speaker 3: I can tell you, so I've I've listened to Fleet
Fleet Fox's. I don't know. I I've definitely heard a
lot of Mumford and Sons. Is huge here in America,
so I've heard a lot of Umfort and Sons. I
can tell you. I I kind of understand why someone
would hear that, but I don't hear it in the
sense that because I really like the album, but I
find Mumford and Sons kind of unbearable.
Speaker 1: So I did myself.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, so I definitely uh so again, I can
understand why someone would make that connection, I guess, but
but I don't. I don't really hear it myself. I
don't perceive it that way honestly, until you mentioned Mumford
and Sons, it hadn't even occurred to me.
Speaker 1: Oh that's good then, nor Fleet Foxes.
Speaker 3: To be honest with you.
Speaker 7: Yea, yeah, I listened to them like they've got a
few good songs and you know Fleet Foxes, and they thought, oh,
this is a band that actually they're actually good.
Speaker 1: I quite like this, but I.
Speaker 7: Thought I never sat down and sort of thought, you
know what, I really want this to sound like a
cross between Munth and Sons and Fleet Foxes.
Speaker 1: That it never occurred, like what.
Speaker 3: Right right now? What happens live? Is it? Do you
have other musicians who perform with you live or is
it just you?
Speaker 1: Or yeah, it's just me.
Speaker 7: I did an album launch here in Runcorn for the
out of the day after the album came out, and
it was just me on a stool and acoustic in
this venue, and you know, there's a couple of hundred
people that turned up and it's just me, really, you know,
And I don't know. It's like whenever I've seen City
and Color, I've seen him. I used to live in Vancouver,
so I saw him a few times in Vancouver on
his own and that was when they sometimes and bring
me your love albums were out, and I never really thought, oh,
you know, I hope that there's a full or I
hope there's you know. I've always just been happy to
hear that person in that voice. Really, so I think
I've never really said to.
Speaker 1: Anyone when I do a gig, oh, it's just me.
Speaker 7: I don't know if people are ever kind of expecting
a band.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 7: No one's ever mentioned it, which is which is funny really,
but it's it's just me with an acoustic guitar.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, But it's cool that because you're you're performing
something that that can, you know, lend itself like if
you wanted to put a band together, obviously you could,
but this lends itself to any any configuration, right like
you could it can just be you, or if you
wanted to bring another just another acoustic guitarist on stage
with you, you could do that, or you could play
with the band. You know, you could do whatever you
wanted with these songs. And I've always been a little
bit fascinated by that because so I'm a musician. I
used to play. I don't play currently, but I used
to play in a lot of bands, but every band
I was ever in it was like, Okay, it's me
and three other guys, and it has to always be
this configuration. It has to always be the four of us,
because if you take any anything out it, you know,
it collapses. But you know, so I've always been fascinated
by the concept of just doing something where you can
do it in any co configuration you want, Like like
with jam bands, you know you can you know, if
the saxophone player shows up, great, if not, doesn't matter,
who cares. You know, you can you can play any
way you want to. Yeah, exactly, And there's a it
seems like there's a freedom that comes with that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah.
Speaker 3: What about is it ever or well, I'm sure it's
not by this point, but at any point. Was it
weird for you doing it that way after having played
with a band for fifteen years?
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was.
Speaker 7: It was really strange at first. So, like my first
gig as the Far North was at Old Trafford Stadium
where Manchester United play. So that was about eight days
before COVID hit. Funny enough, it was like early March
twenty twenty. So I got up there and they had
this huge event with like a few of the bands on,
big local bands from Manchester and it was a match.
So you know, there's me on the big screens and
I'm just sat there with my acoustic guitar playing to
all these people. And it was I think that the
thought of it was a bit strange because it was
just me.
Speaker 1: Was kind of et up.
Speaker 7: By the fact that I was like, holy cow, like
what like there was so many people there. I was like, okay,
So I kind of like set my stall out super
early with the Far North.
Speaker 1: I was like, okay, have guitar, will travel, you know.
Speaker 7: And I think I had a friend that sadly passed
away on Christmas Day about eight years ago called Paul Savage,
and the first album is dedicated to him, and he
used to come to all the Firefly shows and it's
saying he used to say to me, your songwriting is
so leans itself so much to a just acoustic guitar
voice and harmonica, you should really do that. And he
sadly passed away before I got a chance to, you know,
from the Far North. And he was right, you know,
he was absolutely right that it was it was so
much easier as well, just me you know, get my
guitar in the car away we go.
Speaker 1: It's just it's awesome. You know, I wouldn't trade it
in for anything at this point.
Speaker 3: Oh, that's fantastic. Do you ever do you keep in
touch with any of the guys from the Far North?
I mean, I'm sorry from the Fireflies.
Speaker 7: Yeah, I'm going away with the Basis tomorrow. We're going
to Poland in the morning. We'll go into the Outfits. Yeah,
we're going to do the tour of outfits to pay
our respect. Yeah, you know, because like my grandfather was
a gunner in World War Two, and you know, everyone
everyone's got family that was in World War Two, you know.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 7: So yeah, so me and Sam the basis, He was
the basis in the Fireflies for many, many years.
Speaker 1: And yeah, so we're off to Poland in the morning.
Speaker 8: Wow.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 7: So some of the other guys, Yeah, we speak every
now and then, and that you know a few people
from the band that haven't speak spoken to since since
the band broke up. You know, there was never any
bad blood. I was just like, I can't really do
this anymore, this yeah thing, you know. And before that,
I was in a band called Warped for like ten years,
and that was a full time as well, since when
I was like fifteen. So yeah, for like twenty twenty
five years, i've just been doing the full band thought. Yeah, yeah,
so now it's just I absolutely love it now. But yeah,
I keep in contact with a few of the guys
and it's you know, it's all good. They come to
the shows and stuff.
Speaker 1: Oh good, good, it's nice. Yeah, it's nice.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's what I was wondering about if if there
was any acrimony there. But that's that's good.
Speaker 1: Old no, nothing now nothing, it's all No.
Speaker 3: That's good. That's that's very good.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 3: So what's kind of the forward trajectory for you? I mean, obviously,
I'm sure you're focused mainly on promoting the current album,
but you strike me as someone too you're probably always writing, right,
you were kind of alluded to that earlier, that you
write a lot of songs. Uh. Do you have a
future recording plans in the in the near future or
are you thinking about that yet?
Speaker 1: I think so.
Speaker 7: Yeah, I've got quite a few good shows coming up,
you know, I got some really really good acoustic shows
and I'm really looking forward to those.
Speaker 1: So yeah, there's one on the third third of January.
Speaker 7: And that's supporting the guy that was in the Seahorses,
the guy who who formed a band with John Squire
from the Stone Roses. That's quite nice. There's some some
nice ones coming up. But because I've been writing so much,
I actually thought once songs were general, so sorry, songs
for weather Weathering Stones was finished. So we finished it
in like maybe maybe July, who was completely finished, and
then the single was out in October and we worked
for like fifty you know, eighteen months on. It was
like a year and a half, and I thought, you
know what, I'm never going to the studio again because
it's just drained me completely. Like everything about this album
has been like it was difficult to record in a
not not a difficult logistically because like you know, me
and John O produced it and it was very easy
that way.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but like every every.
Speaker 7: Fiber of who I am was put into it, do
you know what I mean. I was so just just
drained by the whole process because it was mainly me
playing stuff over and over again. So and I thought
I would I wouldn't be going to the studio again.
But the way I feel at the moment, and I
did say this to one of my friends just before Christmas.
I could probably see myself going back in to do
a more acoustic album in like April or May. So
maybe spend like three or four months just doing just
fiddle and monica and.
Speaker 1: Acoustic guitar, that is it. No piano, no.
Speaker 7: Percussion, nothing, just a very very low key album and
maybe have that out by October. That's kind of the
way I'm thinking, because I'm writing quite a lot of
the moment. So yeah, yeah, But having said that, I'm
a Gemini, so I might never release an album again.
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 3: No, I'm sure. I'm sure you will. No, that's that's fantastic. No,
I can't wait to I can't wait to hear what
comes out next. Thank you in a moment. Well, we'll
let you go in a moment and we're gonna play Well,
we'll end the segment with Sailor and the Sea. What
should we know about this song?
Speaker 7: I'm glad you picked that one. That's my second favorite
after Mountain Song song. Yeah, like Sailor in the Sea
is I think it's like again, it's about the same girl.
It's not the same girl in Mountain Song. Yeah, yeah,
but then so so so mounting song. Right, So you've
got the first half of it where it's a little
bit kind of like you know, I guess, and then
it goes that when it goes into the jig d,
that's the like me. That's me a few months later
realizing that the right decision had been made to break up.
Speaker 1: So that was me finding the happiness.
Speaker 7: So Sailor in the Sea is almost like two songs
bolted together again. So the first half of Sailor in
the Sea is me feeling completely lost when she left.
It was like how how will I ever livet and
do you know what I mean? It's like as a
as a forty year old man, like you know what
I mean, I'm like just feel like I'm like sixteen
again and just lost and just like how will I
ever cope without this person? And it's the stupidest thing
that you think of. It's so silly, you know at
the time, and you look back now and go what
will you pull yourself together for?
Speaker 5: Right?
Speaker 7: So now, so Sailor in the Sea is pretty much
it's pretty much the first half of it is that,
and then the second half of it is kind of
owed to the person I met, like you know, recently,
so like you know, so it's like all the lyrics
and you know, do you have the heart to make
it through you and all that, and it's almost like
I was like not saying saved by this person, but
you know, when you find love again after a break up,
it's like almost everything's in color and it's wonderful and
springs in bloom. So the second half of Selling the
Sea is about the faith and hope that my girlfriend
now gave.
Speaker 6: Me, you know.
Speaker 7: So it's wow. So it's kind of yeah, so I
love that song. Yeah, it's nice. That's a really nice
kind of hopeful chin.
Speaker 3: I bet she likes it too.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, she actually said to me.
Speaker 7: She came to one of my shows in York last
year and she was like, you're going to have a
song about me because these are all about your exits. Well,
and then so there was the second half of that,
and then a Ship of Bones, which is the last
track on the album, was exclusively about her, you know,
which is really nice.
Speaker 1: You know, so she's made up about that and so
you know, so it's all good.
Speaker 3: Oh good, good, very good. Well, so we'll play that
in a moment. But before we let you, goalie, what
where should people go online? Where's the best place to
go to keep up with everything that you're doing as
the Far North? Where should people go?
Speaker 7: I'm more prevalent on Instagram than anything else, So I
think Instagram is the Far North music, and the likes
of Twitter and Facebook and TikTok, it's just the Far
North music and I'm on there. I post most days,
you know, I always reply to people. There's been a
massive kind of avalanche of people just getting in contact
since the album came out.
Speaker 1: Really, you know when obviously it hit.
Speaker 7: Like a couple of charts and stuff, and obviously it's
found its way all, you know, all the way over
to the us of A your good self, you know, yes,
So it stuns me really, I just kind of think,
like holy moldly, like what is happening here? So it's
just great that people getting in contact. So anyone that
wanted wants to reach out, you know, they're more than welcome.
Speaker 3: I always reply excellent, excellent, Well we will let you go.
We'll hit that track in a moment. But Lee Wilding
of the Far North, thank you so much. We will
definitely have to do this again in the future and
really appreciate you joining us today.
Speaker 1: No, it's been my pleasure. Thank you very much for
having me on mate. Thank you.
Speaker 3: All right, you got it, Lee. We'll talk to you soon,
I'm sure. Take care, thanks mate. Bye bye, okay, bye bye.
All right. That is Lee Wildinges project is The Far North,
And here's another great track from the new album. This
is called Sailor and the Sea. The Far North.
Speaker 8: Is the Renathan left to say as fade away to
a tream and move around the room, the stark and
daft and new, I'm over here.
Speaker 6: And then it all falls down.
Speaker 5: Here, it all falls down.
Speaker 6: And it gets faster.
Speaker 4: I suspinning me around. Then Sis starts to come, take.
Speaker 5: It off of me, like you say, it's you with
the sea, like.
Speaker 6: A sailor through the sea.
Speaker 5: And the night.
Speaker 2: I hay there, I'm lost, so aware.
Speaker 5: Of this part my heart.
Speaker 2: It starts to break.
Speaker 4: I'm the lovees to make how could it lasts?
Speaker 2: And then it all falls down, get it.
Speaker 6: All falls down and it gets faster.
Speaker 2: I spend it mere round.
Speaker 4: Then the Sis starts to gone. It's taking over me
like sail lets the scene, like sailor.
Speaker 5: To the scene, I A had to make a fery.
Speaker 2: Without you. Please come home to me.
Speaker 5: To make.
Speaker 2: Without you.
Speaker 5: Make but.
Speaker 2: Please come home to me. Black Sail to the Sea.
Speaker 3: What a great track. I love the way that ends
a sailor and the sea that is the far North
Lee Wilding. Of course, thank you Lee again for joining
us today on the program. That was a great conversation.
I really really enjoyed talking to him and definitely a
big fan of his music. If you are just joining us,
of course, this is Matt Connorton Unleashed and we are
live from the studios of w m n H ninety
five point three here in glorious Manchester, New Hampshire. And
if you are driving around today, actually roads are probably
fine by now. When I came in this morning, I
was not expecting all that snow to be on the ground.
Not that there was a lot, but just enough to
kind of make make things a little bit of a nuisance.
But I do think that we'll, uh, yeah, let's look
at some more music industry news because we do have
a little bit of time. This is something that popped
up from Digital Musicnews dot com hackers scrape Spotify's entire library.
I thought of this when I saw, you know, we
were talking earlier a little bit about Spotify and the
importance of being on Spotify so that your music is discoverable,
a term that we like to use in the industry.
But hackers have scraped Spotify's entire library obtain three hundred
terabytes worth of audio. Spotify says it has identified and
disabled the nefarious user accounts. I hope they do a
lot more than that. Just identifying and disabling those accounts
is not going to fix the problem long term. I mean,
if they did it once, they can do it again
in theory. But it says here hackers say they've scraped
Spotify's entire music library, compiling the metadata behind two hundred
and fifty six million tracks, two hundred and fifty six
million tracks tied to over fifteen point four million artist profiles,
and intend to make a massive amount of music available
to torrent. Meanwhile, Spotify is acknowledged to the breach and
confirmed that the culprits accessed some of the platform's audio files,
some of the platform's audio files and quotes. So Spotify
acknowledging I mean, you know, fifteen point actually two hundred
and fifty six million that's some of the platform's audio files.
I wonder how many actual audio files? Do you ever
wonder about that? Like, how much actual music is on Spotify?
How many how many audio files are on Spotify? Because
we were talking about I remember a couple of years
ago on the show now might have been two or
three years ago, we were talking about how Spotify had
announced that they were starting to remove some music from
its platform because people were uploading you know, demos and
really lo fi. I don't mean lo fi as in
the style of recording. You know, you can you can
record low fi music or music that sounds like it's
supposed to be, you know, kind of like from another
time even right, But I mean actual like low quality,
like just poor recording quality music. People were just uploading,
you know, stuff that they just just cheap demos that
they'd made on their tape recorder or whatever, just uploading
all of it to Spotify. And it got to a
point where Spotify decided to go through and start and
I don't know how they do it. I mean, I'm
sure they have I'm sure they have the technology to
detect these things, but actually went through and started removing
some of that stuff because you know, if you think
about how much music is being uploaded to these platforms
like Spotify every single day, every single day, all over
the world, people are uploading music, and it's not like,
you know, I think we tend to think of it
as sort of this this infinite thing, like there's just this,
you know, because it's because it's audio. There's just this
infinite amount of space to put all this because it's
not they're not physical objects. It's audio files. So you
can just put as many audio files up as you
want and it doesn't matter how much rumor takes up.
But it actually does matter how much room it takes
up because you have to keep building, you have to
keep building more storage for all this music. It still
takes up space digitally, so you can't just let it
be a free for all. Part of what made me
remember that is because I remember at the time when
we talked about it on the show, some people were
upset and it was another reason to be mad at Spotify.
I guess people were up saying, well, how can they
just go through and remove stuff? Well, yeah, it's it's
a little bit. First of all, a little bit of
quality control is not a bad thing. You know, if
people are just you know, getting the band together and
sticking a tape recorder in the middle of the room
and then taking that taking that recording and uploading Spotify,
you don't necessarily want that on your platform, right, something
something like that, you know. And also there's there's abuses
that goes on that go on, and you know, people
stealing other people's music and uploading it, and there's all
kinds of things going on. So, you know, I'm not
saying that you should never be mad at Spotify about anything,
but you know, but they have a right to police
their own platform too a little bit and make those decisions. Anyway,
that was a little bit of a side street, but
the point is apparently two hundred and fifty six million tracks,
that's only part of how much music is act on Spotify.
So let's see. So there's an update here again. This
is from Digitalmusicnews dot Com. An update as of the
twenty second It says after this piece was published. Well, no,
let's go back. We'll go back to the update after.
Let's look at the original article first. Okay, so the
allegedly responsible hackers part of a self described nonprofit project
called Anna's Archive themselves disclosed the data heist in a
blog post. In that lengthy post, drawing from the metadata,
covers hard stats concerning duration, stream volume, popularity, genre release date,
and more regarding straight audio, Anna's archive indicated that it
had quote archived around eighty six million music files, representing
around ninety nine point six percent of listens and clocking
in at a little un under three hundred terabytes in
total size. A while ago, we discovered a way to
scrape Spotify at scale. For now, this is a torrent's
only archive aimed at preservation, but if there is enough interest,
we could add downloading of individual files to Anna's archived unquote.
The hackers communicated, that's interesting because when they say that
it's only again, this is from the hackers. When they
say that it's aimed at preservation, it sounds like they're
they're trying to present this as an altruistic endeavor. We
want to make sure that nothing ever happens to this music.
We want to make sure. Again, I'm not please, I'm
not justifying what they did. Don't misunderstand me. I'm just
saying that this sounds like this is what they're presenting.
You know, we want to make sure nothing happens to
this music, you know, because in theory Spotify can remove
anything anytime it wants, or an artists can remove anything
anytime it wants, and then where does it go? What
if they just delete it and then that's it. It's
just gone. It's not available anywhere else, right, So they're
trying to preserve all this music. That's that's what That's
what the hackers have communicated, it says you're Unsurprisingly, Spotify
and especially rights holders have plenty to say about those plans,
as noted by third chair head ya Yayov Zimmerman. Yeah
of Zimmerman. However, whatever takedowns and illegal actions follow, the
damage is already done. Technically. Anna's archive claims that it
doesn't host any copyrighted materials, instead purportedly indexing metadata that
is already publicly available direct hosting or not. Some of
the projects supporters are lamenting the Spotify circumvention and the
possibility that will quote ruin the actual important literary archive
unquote by encouraging aggressive litigation. Zimmerman wrote, quote the data
is circulating on P two P networks and there is
no putting the back putting this back in Pandora's box.
Anyone can now, in theory create their own personal, free
version of Spotify All Music up to twenty twenty five,
with enough storage and a personal media streaming service like Plex.
The only real barriers are copyright law and fear of
enforcement unquote. You know, and I'm sure I'm not the
only one who this has occurred, to to whom this
has occurred, you know what this reminds me of. We're
going back. We're going back, geez, how many years? Thirty years,
maybe twenty five years? Napster. This reminds me of Napster.
When Napster first became a thing, file sharing, peer to peer,
file sharing online, and the whole music industry freaked out
because all of a sudden, everything was free online through Napster. Now,
obviously a lot's changed since then, and the music industry
had to figure out ways to adjust to the new
reality and the Internet and all of it. But when
I see this, anyone can now in theory create their
own personal free version of Spotify All Music up to
twenty twenty five with enough storage and a personal media
streaming server like Plex. The only real barriers are copyright
law and fear of enforcement. Let's see, there's a little
do we have time. Oh yeah, we have time. There's
a little bit more here. Oh sorry, okay, here we go.
Perhaps more pressingly, in the AI age, the massive collection
of audio could theoretically be used to train generative generative
models and fuel additional unauthorized sound alike outputs, a particularly
significant issue if the involved platforms are based in countries
with inadequate IP protections. I'm telling you, in some ways,
this is napster all over again. This is napster in
the AI age. It says here. One section of the
na archives site says, quote, it is well understood that lms,
which is large learning models like you know, chat, EPT
and others, that suck up all this information. Okay, it
is well to understood that lms thrive on high quality data.
We have the largest collection of books, papers, magazines, et
cetera in the world, which are some of the highest
quality text sources. Unquote. According to the same site, Anna's Archives,
I've promptly put out the metadata and with three hundred
terabytes worth of audio files, releasing an order of popularity.
In other words, the full extent of the episode's fallout
remains to be seen. And as initially mentioned, Spotify confirmed
the unauthorized access, but not where things go from here
in a detailed light. In a detail light statement, Yeah,
they didn't really say much. The Spotify spokesperson said, quote,
an investigation into author unauthorized access identified that a third
party scraped public metadata and used illicit tactics to circumvent
DRM to access some of the platform's audio files. We
are actively investigating the incident unquote. And again, as I
pointed out earlier, what is missing from that statement nothing
about how we will prevent this from happening. Again, I
think that's very interesting. One more thing a radio more
of a radio specific thing. But this is also from
Digital Musicnews dot com. Hot ninety seven introduces new on
air hosts after abrupt ebro firing New York listeners give
a chili welcome. Now, you might be wondering, depending on
where you are, why do I care about what goes
on at a radio station in New York. Well, I'll
tell you. Hot ninety seven in New York City is
the most powerful, most prominent, respected, elite hip hop station
in the entire country. Hot ninety seven is you know
you're if you're interested in hip hop even even a
little bit, you probably know about Hot ninety seven, and
so they are again the most powerful hip hop station
in the entire country. And Ebro, Now, I did not
preread this. I don't know what happened, but I'm always
very curious what happened to Ebro. I know that he
was very I recognize this picture. I know that he
was a very prominent figure again in hip hop, in
radio in New York. He's a big deal. Let's see
what happened here. So Hot ninety seven introduces a fresh
group of hosts amid the cancelation of Ebro in the Morning,
and New Yorkers aren't too happy about it. On Thursday,
just after announcing the cancelation of Ebro in the Morning,
New York hip hop station Hot ninety seven shared a
promotional image on social media introducing a trio of new hosts.
The posts didn't specify whether the new hosts will take
over the morning show or when their show might launch.
The post introduces Rondell Smith, Lana Harris, and Million, labeling
them as the new Hot ninety seven hosts, alongside a
coming soon banner, but given out quickly. The announcement followed
the cancelation of longtime favorite Ebro in the Morning, which
was hosted by Ebro darden, Laura Styles and Peter Rosenbro
for years. Commenters on Instagram were decidedly unenthusiastic about the news.
By the way, Peter Rosenberg will be familiar to wrestling
fans because he also sometimes he does interviews or sits
on a panel at you know, WWE events, usually during
the pre show you might see him. So if you're
a WWE fan, you've seen Peter Rosenberg at some point,
So you know, Hot ninety seven kind of his or
was his day job. But he also is involved in
WWE as a broadcaster, and you know, and he does
a lot of a lot of interviews, a lot of
YouTube content and so forth. So so he was part
of that team too. So responding to this to the announcement,
one commenter wrote, congratulations, you played yourself. I'll keep listening
to podcasts unquote. The announcement of new hosts follows a
lot of shaky ground at the radio station, as the
cancelation of Ebro in the Morning has sparked a lot
of debate among fans and industry observd a like Hot
ninety seven has notably not publicly explained the decision, but
Ebro Dardin has claimed that his outspoken political views and
critiques of major institutions may have contributed. Meanwhile, funk Master Flex,
who briefly filled in during the morning slot after Ebro's departure,
clarified on social media that it'll still be a while
before his long term role in mornings will take hold.
On the former Twitter x, he wrote that while he
received positive feedback from listeners, his deal for the morning
show doesn't start until twenty twenty nine. Okay, until then,
he will remain in his longtime five pm slot. Twenty
twenty nine, so he has a deal to take over
the morning show on Hot ninety seven and twenty twenty nine.
You know what that reminds me of. It reminds me
of back when when Jay Leno announced his retirement from
the Tonight Show the first time, or I'm sorry he
didn't announce his retirement, but NBC was getting ready for
what they wanted to be a retirement, so they announced
five years in advance. Five years in advance. They announced
that Conan O'Brien was going to be taking over the
Tonight Show in five years, and then of course five
years came, Conan took over and uh, you know, and
then it didn't work out and Leno came back, and
you know, eventually Leno left again and it was Jimmy Fallon.
But but it just reminds me of that, Like, Okay,
so it's been established that funk Master Flex has taken
over the morning show, but not until twenty twenty nine.
They can't say, hey, Flex, maybe we should revisit this,
maybe we should have you take over the morning show now, Like,
what are you doing in other New York related Oh? This,
some other this? Oh, actually, well this is relevant too
for people who are interested in politics. This Spart's relevant
in other New York radio shakeups. Power one oh five
and iHeartMedia announced last week the extent of their relationship
with Media mogul and The Breakfast Club host Charlemagne the God. Again,
if you're interested in politics and political podcasters, you're familiar
with Charlemagne. I mean, he's not a podcast you know,
they do politics on his radio show, but you know,
but he's become a pretty influential guy over the years
in politics. The multi year agreement will see Charlemagne continue
his nationally syndicated show on weekdays from six to ten am,
as well as weekends with the Breakfast Club, alongside co
host DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious and Lauren L. Rosa. So
all right, so Charlemagne's not going anywhere, but he's been
very very successful with his format. I think he originally
was doing more of a more you know, hip hop,
you know, years ago, was doing more just interviews with
other figures in hip hop. But then eventually it became
I think now it's I mean, I don't listen to
him all the time. I just you know, see whatever
I see on YouTube. But it looks like now it's
pretty much all politics, I think, politics and current events
that they do. But they've again, they've been very very
successful with that format. We are approaching the top of
the hour, so we will begin to wrap up. I
want to say, first again thank you to everybody who
joined us today. Of course, we had Baz from the
band Box of Trash in the first hour. In the
second hour we had Kate from the Marches, another great band,
and then of course in the third hour we had
Lee Wilding talking about his solo project, The Far North,
and I really enjoyed talking with everybody today. So I've
had a lot of fun on today's show, and if
you've been listening, I hope that you have as well.
I think that to close out, though, I think we
should play one more song from the Far North. What
was the song?
Speaker 5: Hmm?
Speaker 3: We've got a couple of options here. Well, while I'm
figuring that out, because I can multitask, I will just
remind you if you miss any art of today's show,
you can you can get it, of course, via podcast.
Go to Wmnhradio dot org or go to my website,
Matt Coonorton dot com for all your options. On that oh,
ship of Bones, that was the other one Lee was
talking about. We'll close out with that one, but so
I hope you'll do that, And if you want to
know more too, you know I should mention this January
is coming a very busy time for someone like me
who is a certified hypnotherapist. So if you've got New
Year's resolutions you're concerned with, reach out to me Matt
Connorton dot com. I can help you. I am a
certified hypnotherapist and hypnosis is a great way to make
positive and lasting change. I won't give you a big
sales pitch. I don't spend money on a sponsorship, so
I don't want to turn my show into a into
an infomercial. But I'll I'll just throw that out there.
January is coming. January is for hypnotherapists like Christmas is
for retailers. It's a very very busy time. So uh,
Matt Conorton dot com. You can reach me through the website.
And on that note, uh, we will conclude this week's
Matt Condorton Unleashed again. Thank you everyone so much, and uh,
to close out, we're gonna play this song, Ship of Bones.
This is the other song that Lee Wilding was talking about,
and uh, we'll close out with this and again this
is the Far North. And thank you all so much.
Speaker 6: You know I need you, know.
Speaker 2: Like I always did.
Speaker 6: You know I.
Speaker 2: Won't you love bring God upon me.
Speaker 4: Because in Tim's all pay, Oh dear Sree, pay.
Speaker 5: You help me just like you want me.
Speaker 2: Drove down your love to the storm, into the storm,
and to my arms from storm. I keep you wall
from storm, I keep you warm.
Speaker 6: Until save the spot.
Speaker 2: Without the
Speaker 5: Sapper, without you