Speaker 1: Poets say love is gonna save us. Most of the time,
I don't feel like.
Speaker 2: I'm worth saved and just a dum screwed up kid.
Speaker 3: You gave me hope.
Speaker 4: You spoken to my darkness, and you showed me the light.
In your glow, I'm seeing for the first time.
Speaker 3: There's still food on the fire. There's a fire burning in.
Speaker 2: Mych helping me to see the truth.
Speaker 5: In spite of all my anxious feeds.
Speaker 2: This love has made me rist.
Speaker 6: Keep it burning, war to keep it burning.
Speaker 2: I am alive and nothing's gonna change that.
Speaker 7: A living fear of showing who I really am and
fall in apart.
Speaker 3: Like a spy. You slip past my defense is.
Speaker 2: And you found me out.
Speaker 3: Piece by piece. You're taking off this army. I don't
need it now.
Speaker 2: There's a fire burning the matches, and.
Speaker 3: You're the one that put it there.
Speaker 2: It wasn't lit by anyone, because.
Speaker 8: No one has loved me with that.
Speaker 6: But Kate, you keeping burning, w.
Speaker 8: You keep it burning.
Speaker 3: More.
Speaker 2: There's a fire burning in my chest, helping me to
see the truth in spite of all my anxious fees.
Just love has made be rezled.
Speaker 3: Keeping burning.
Speaker 6: Oh you keeping burning?
Speaker 9: What a great way to open up this week's Matt
Connorton Unleashed. That is Keep It Burning Matt Litzinger, who
is here with us in studio and we are going
to be introducing him in just a couple of moments.
He brought his guitar. He's gonna play live. Can't wait,
but yeah, what a great track. Keep It Burning by
Matt Litzinger. Welcome. It is Matt Connorton Unleashed. Today is Saturday,
November twenty third, twenty twenty four. We are live from
the studios of wm NH ninety five point three FM
and Glorious Manchester, New Hampshire. And I am not alone.
J Kenny is here at the news tableted for Yes, Yes,
welcome and uh. We have a few events to mention
before we really get rolling, and I think we should
probably do these chronologically because there's a lot going on.
But tomorrow, so this is it. This is the big
weekend tomorrow we have Tomorrow we have Spelthy Fests live
at Jewel which is right across the street actually from
where we are, not from where we not from where
we live, but from where we are literally right now.
You're in w M and H it's it's yes, we can, yes,
but yeah, so that will be uh doors open at
one and then it's all day. Tons of great bands
are going to be there. You are opening right with
your your giving a talk.
Speaker 10: I'm giving a quick talk about our st s A
Reflex Sympathetic distric Association, which is the national organization here
in the United States that helps support, educate, and advocate
for CRPS patients Complex regional pain syndrome. Yes, so Spelthy
Fest is actually giving proceeds to r s CSA. So
I really do hope that you come down. But we're
celebrating Spelthy's birthday. That's the second anniversary of our fortyeth
third birthday.
Speaker 9: Hence the hence the Spelthy Fest.
Speaker 10: Yes, yes, yes, yes, And there's gonna be an a
crazy amount of musicians. It's twenty different acts going on.
There's a visual artist going on, There's going to be
stuff that you can buy, lots of wares and things
being sold there. It's gonna be insanely cool. And you
are doing a hypnosis presentation.
Speaker 9: Yes i am, and hopefully Spelthy will let me hypnotizer
in front of everyone. And and I'm also going to
MC some of the part of the event. I'll be
introducing some of the bands as.
Speaker 10: Well, Solutely and Spelfy Fest is sp E l FI
e F E s T. And if you can't find that,
just contact matter I or take a look at matt
Connatona Leached on Facebook and you'll find more information there.
Speaker 9: And you can get tickets and see the full band listing.
There's too many to mension. It's a full day of music.
It's going to be amazing. But Midnight Creatives Collective dot
com is the website. You can get your tickets there
and see the full full itinerary. So that's one thing
we've got coming up. And then let's see November thirtieth.
Our amazing sponsors, the Sister Which Company of their next event,
the Magical Market Small Business Psychic Fair. Come join us
on Small Business Saturday from eleven thirty am to six
pm where you will find some of the most amazing
vendors and they're handsome items and art. This will be
packed full, one floor only event with a separate room
dedicated to our readers and healers. This is the time
of year where small businesses need you more than any
big box store, as I always like to remind people
Walmart doesn't need your money, so support your small businesses.
Come out, meet us and watch us light up when
we make a sale. This is being held at the
Manchester Masonic Temple at fifteen to oh five Elm Street,
so that is November thirtieth yees. And then one other
big event. We could talk about events for the whole show.
There's so much going on, but very important of course,
as happens every year every year the Miracle on Elm
Street year five, yes, Yes, Miracle on Elm Street twenty
twenty four Toy Drive to benefit Manchester's kids through the
Manchester Housing and Redevelopment Authority. And of course you are
donating an item. I'm going to donate something as well, but.
Speaker 10: I'm donating one of my Macromay art pieces. It's actually
a tree, pretty cool, lots of color. Because there's going
to be a grand event, a live telethon at the
Bonfire Yeah on December fifth.
Speaker 9: Yeah fourth, December fourth, yep, yept of teleth on December fourth.
Speaker 10: So there's going to be a raffle there and that's
where the tree is going to be, along with lots
of other great prizes so you can come support that raffle, hangout,
meet people. Peter's going to be there, see the whole
Morning crew. Maddie will be there.
Speaker 9: Yep. Absolutely, And for more information on that, you can
contact Matt Kushane and his email is Matt at Hope
NDH dot org. So I'm sure it'll be another successful
year for that. So, so a lot's going on, and
I'm gonna go ahead and bring his MIC's up here
because we have Matt Litzinger here with us live in studio. Oh, actually,
let me make sure this one is up here. We go. Hey, Matt,
how you doing.
Speaker 11: Hello, I'm great.
Speaker 9: Let me bring you up a little more here. I'm
having trouble here and you know, we just got to
boost you a little more. There we go. I think
we got you.
Speaker 11: Ye, good morning, good morning here.
Speaker 9: Yeah, yeah, so I love by the way, thank you
for bringing us, and I'm gonna for people watching online.
I'm gonna hold up the CD. There we go, this
CD you brought us, Keep it Burning. And that was
the title track, of course, that we opened the show with.
Where did you record this?
Speaker 11: So yeah, one of the cool things about this project.
I recorded it at my home studio. I really enjoy
the process of, like watching the songs evolve. Yeah, sometimes
studio time doesn't really like work well with that because
you're kind of locked in. You know, you've got these
hours of these days, right, and so these songs have
kind of evolved over the past six nine months as
I've worked on different demos for them leading up to it,
and working at home just helps to make that a
little easier.
Speaker 9: Yeah, it's cool to have that freedom and flexibility to
do it that way. Have you always recorded that way
or have you ever have?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 11: Most of you just said a necessity with this project.
I did raise money on Kickstarter to help fund it. Yeah,
and so I thought about, like do I want to
get studio time involved with that? And I really like
the process of, you know, wearing the different hats all
the way down the process. So yeah, writing the songs,
engineering it, mixing it all the way through.
Speaker 9: So that's an advantage too, that you enjoy doing all
that part, because a lot of musicians don't like doing
that part, right.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 11: Yeah, my brain like, I like, you have to kind
of turn off the right side left side thing, but
I like to eventually turn that off and move into
more of the engineering, you know, make it sound good
side of things.
Speaker 9: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Is this the first full length album
that you've released is.
Speaker 11: Yeah, so that's that's a big one for me. It's
been like EPs and singles up until this point.
Speaker 9: What made you decide to do a full length? Did
it just seem like time.
Speaker 11: Or yeah, time would be the easiest way to say it.
So I had I'd had two kids over the past
like six eight years, and so it's been just bandwidth
has been Okay, we can do a single, we can
do a little project here or there. But some of
those songs have stacked up and I'm happy with a
lot of those. So I sat down in February wrote
a couple more songs that I was happy with, and
then I had a collection of them and I was like,
it just makes sense. Sure I can carve out time
this year to work on a whole project.
Speaker 9: And who else is on the album with you? Or
is it all you?
Speaker 11: So this is all me except for on Gather Me Up.
My wife plays violin. Oh a big thing because she's
really great violinist but hardly played so it takes a
lot of convincing. So it's great to get her on
that track.
Speaker 9: Yeah, yeah, excellent. Do you play out a lot?
Speaker 11: Do you do a lot off too, Yeah yeah, so
not anything like ticketed, but I play bars and stuff
around town quite a bit.
Speaker 9: Yeah. Yeah. The great thing about you know, what you do,
you know, just you and a guitar, is obviously that
opens up a lot of opportunity for where you can play.
And so yeah, you know, so someone in your position,
you've always got options as far as venues and so forth,
whereas you know, like in the third hour today we
have vigil coming in. I don't know if you know them,
but they're loud and they're heavy, and you know, so
of course for for someone in their position, you know,
they've only got so many options as far as venues.
But you can probably play anywhere. And I bet you've
played some interesting place so for sure.
Speaker 11: Yeah, yeah, I mean in town, Like I'm thinking small
rooms where it's just like you know, you're kind of
in a corner or a bigger venues. But yeah, I
played everything from like kind of college level arena areas
now all the way down to like small bar gigs.
Speaker 9: Yeah. Yeah. If you do, you stick to New England
or have you gotten out of Yeah, and.
Speaker 11: Just mostly southern New Hampshire right now. So originally from Pennsylvania,
went to school in Indiana and then have lived here
for the past like ten years. Oh okay, and so yeah,
southern New Hampshire, mostly Manchester. I play them out towards
the Sea coast a little bit like when Sawbelly was
out there. I'd go out and play out that way.
Speaker 9: So yeah, yeah, yeah, what brought you to New Hampshire?
Speaker 11: My wife, Yeah, so she's from Chester. We met in
uh in.
Speaker 9: School, oh, in Indiana, came back here here. Oh cool, cool, excellent, excellent.
Well I'm dining here. You play live? You want to
play something.
Speaker 11: For yeah, yeah, so I'll start out. This first song
is called Restless Wings. There's a song about I tend
to be kind of a homebody, and so this song
is about watching somebody who you love need to go
off and like travel a world. You know, some people
really enjoy that, and trying to come to grips with
the fact that like they still love you when they're
out there, even though like you don't hear from them
as often. And so this song just kind of reflects
some of those ideas.
Speaker 9: All right, very good. Matt Litzinger live in studio with us.
Speaker 2: We are again saying ah goodbyes, and then and now
you will be far above the clouds. I've been looking
at the stars the night, wondering how.
Speaker 8: Long till you come back around.
Speaker 2: It's a mystery to a man like me, how you
set your sights on distant shores.
Speaker 8: Each time you return.
Speaker 2: I see your fires burned, and it's not long before
you're calling.
Speaker 8: Out for more.
Speaker 2: Your restless weeks get lighter.
Speaker 8: Look in that the sky. It's when you roll home.
Speaker 2: That's when you're most alive, My grounded hard it wishes
you could stay. I wondered, dude, you miss me when
you fly way, And as I wait for you to
return to me, I wonder if you feel pull of.
Speaker 8: My heart on yours.
Speaker 2: As a lion bed, thoughts are a mess entering you
walking back.
Speaker 3: Through my door.
Speaker 2: My bristless ways get lighter.
Speaker 8: Look in that the sky.
Speaker 2: It's when you obness, when you're most.
Speaker 8: Allahah, my grounded hard.
Speaker 2: It wishes you could stay. I wondered, dude, you miss me.
Speaker 8: When you fly.
Speaker 7: Away.
Speaker 2: I'm not asking you to stay with me here.
Speaker 8: I just want to know this love story. When you're
out there.
Speaker 2: Your restless weeks get lighter. Look in that the sky
because when you roll mess when you're most alive, grounded, hardy,
wish miss you, chuld stay, I wander due you miss
me when you fly away?
Speaker 9: Beautiful. That was gorgeous.
Speaker 11: Oh, thanks so much.
Speaker 10: Oh that was gorgeous. If you are, you're getting love
in the chat room already loving this song. Can't wait
to hear more.
Speaker 9: Says Jay. Excellent, excellent. Yes, if you are just joining us,
we have a Matt Litzinger with us alive in studio
this morning. Oh yeah, Jay Bellow of course from the
band Chasing the Devil and uh but they're doing some
big things, so very very proud of them. We've played
a bunch of their music on the show, absolutely and
Jay has always been very supportive of the show too,
so we appreciate that. But yes, Matt Litzinger is here
with us in studio. And is that I assume that
song is on the album round there, Yeah it is? Yeah, excellent, excellent.
Do you play when you play out? Do you do
long shows? You probably know a lot of songs. I
assume you can do like three hour shows.
Speaker 11: Yeah, three hours is kind of my well four hours
is now my max, but three Yeah, I played a
couple of Farmers Market gigs that were four hours. Yeah,
it's kind of like like, so I run too, and
so it's kind of like that where you start out
and you're like, I don't know if I could ever
do three miles, and like you do that and you're like,
I don't know if I could ever do six That
sounds crazy. And I feel like playing gigs is kind
of the same. You're like, the first three hour gigs sucks,
and then like you play a bunch more and you're like,
this is this is doable, and then you play a
four hour on You're like, that's not that much different
than three interesting.
Speaker 9: Yeah, do you find that running helps you with your
singing in terms of your breath and.
Speaker 11: Yeah, I've never really actually thought about that part of it,
but I'm sure it does. Like just like that, the
fitness element of it helps too, and like some level
of physical fitness. I broke a rib a long time ago.
Oh no, fung capacity isn't what it used to be. Really,
hopefully that helps keep that up a little bit.
Speaker 8: Yeah.
Speaker 11: The big thing with running is like it's just an
idea generator because like similar to being in the shower,
Like a lot of my ideas hit me on a
run for a song or for like a part that
I'm just stuck on.
Speaker 9: Yeah yeah, yeah, you know you get the blood pumping
and you know, the ghost to your brain. Oh yeah,
get those neurons fire and yeah, absolutely absolutely do you play.
You must play some covers too, I would imagine, because
you don't have enough music to fill.
Speaker 11: Yeah, to find a balance. Yeah, yeah, it's like, you know,
there's you gotta figure out what hat you're wearing. So like,
if you're in a listening room, you want to play
a lot of your stuff. People are there to sit
and listen to you, right if you're in a bar
a restaurant, like, people want to be entertained, and so
some of the time that's just like, oh, I want
to hear a song that they're like, oh, that's a cool,
interesting version of that song. I know, Like I know
this one, so yeah, try to mix it up.
Speaker 9: You've got a great voice, are you? Are you? Did
you take any kind of lessons? Are you? Self taught?
Speaker 11: Mostly self taught. I took some voice lessons from this
Ukrainian guy when I was in high school for about
probably like six months or so.
Speaker 9: Oh no kidding, Yeah, yeah, so very formal.
Speaker 11: I'm not even sure if I consciously do anything that
I was trained to do.
Speaker 9: But right, right, well, but I'm sure subconsciously, yeah, yeah, absolutely.
And what about guitar.
Speaker 11: Guitar is all self taught. Okay, So my kind of
music journey with instrumentation is I started playing piano for
nine years. Yeah, hated it, but like my parents made
me stick with it.
Speaker 9: Yeah.
Speaker 11: I picked up drums on my own, loved playing drums,
started to learn to play by music, and then picked
up guitar and bass on my own after that. Yeah, yeah,
And somehow in that transition from piano to drums, I
just took it and made it my own. And I
was just like I love this, like I loved playing,
so I like, I want to figure how to play
more stuff.
Speaker 9: Do you think learning the piano helped you to learn
other instruments more quickly? Because something I hear a lot
of people say, so, I'm a musician myself. I'm a
bass player, but I never learned you know, I would, well,
I would kind of noodle around a little bit on
the keyboard when I was a kid, but I never
really learned to play. But I've heard a lot of
music instructors say that everybody should, no matter what instrument
they play, everybody should start out on the keyboard some
sort of keyboard, because that's such a great way to
kind of, you know, kind of build your well a
lot of things in terms of, you know, making sure
you have a good ear and also just know it's
a good building block for whatever instrument you're going to play.
So I'm curious in your case, because you know, they
made you didn't like it the piano, but you did
it for nine years, so I assume I assume having
done that, learning other instruments probably came pretty quickly to you.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 11: Yeah, And I think there's a couple of things wrapped
up in that. For me, it's like the piano has
a higher learning curve than some instruments. Like you can
sit and figure out a chord shape on a guitar souer, right,
But sometimes at the piano, if you want something more
than just one note melodies, right, learning from some you know, book,
it can it can be difficult to feel like you're
making momentum with that. Yeah, But things like chord structure
and even just visualizing the way the notes work on keyboards,
like the best way to conceptualize that. Yeah, so I
think a lot of things that I now lean on
with chord structure I learned from piano and now transferred
to different instruments.
Speaker 9: That makes sense, Yeah, I wish that I had done that.
You know, I always had a keyboard too, I just
never Yeah, I just I don't know. I guest I
was kind of a lazy kid though too. I was
one of those kids there if I was good at
something right away, I would just kind of that.
Speaker 10: You sink I wanted to learn how to play piano
so bad. Yeah, I put my kid in it and
he hated it, and I, not being your parents.
Speaker 9: Went Yeah.
Speaker 10: I always said I wasn't going to force him because
I wanted him to do music because he wanted to
and he's a self taught guitar. But I kind of
wish I had made him do it because I know
that he would have been able to read music and
stuff I had made him. So I don't know, kind
of on the fence on that one.
Speaker 11: And I wish there was a better way to, like
tell kids you don't have to stick with piano, like
just stick with this for now, right, because they look
at you know, people shredding on guitar, like killing the
drums exactly, and I want to do that. Yeah you
can do that, but start here because like you'll be
so much better at that thing when you get there.
Speaker 9: Yeah right, yeah, yeah, but I know what you mean too,
Like it's like if you pick up a guitar and
you just you know, if you learn power chords, you
can go join a punk band or pretty quickly.
Speaker 11: So yeah, it doesn't take much.
Speaker 9: In my case, the reason ided up playing bass was
so I started on guitar and I took guitar lessons
for a couple of years, but I wasn't but again,
I you know, I would get frustrated. I would get
impatient with myself. And then in high school I picked
up a bass. And I know other bass players hate
when I say this, but it's just the truth. I
picked up a bass and I was like, oh, two
fewer strings and I don't have to know any chords. Yeah,
I think I can do this. And then I ended up.
You know, I went on to play in a bunch
of bands playing bass because but but I do think
in my case, though, learning some things on guitar to
the limited extent that I did, helped make me a
better bass player, even though the way that I got
to playing bass was again my my own laziness kind
of came into play.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 11: And although like, yeah, I think people like to crap
on bass players a lot, but in my experience, the
bass players I've played with sometimes their musical knowledge like
blows me away. Oh yeah, for being a simple instrument
so to speak, with only having four strings, Like yeah,
their conceptualization of chords and like what changes and like
what note they're playing in the root and stuff. I'm
just like, dang, like they know more than I do
about this stuff. For sure.
Speaker 9: We have Aaron Billido coming in second hour. I don't
know if you know Aaron, but he's a bass player
and he's amazing. Like I watch his fingers and it's like,
oh my god, what he can do at that bass.
You know, But yeah, I never got that far with it.
But so so on your so like you said so
on your album, so you play everything except you mentioned
your wife plays violin, but you do everything else.
Speaker 11: Yeah, yeah, And I kept it pretty simple, like I
wanted to go for kind of an old country kind
of like Zach Bryany kind of sounds. Yeah, and so
it's guitar, bass, drums, a little bit of mandolin on
a couple of songs.
Speaker 9: Okay.
Speaker 11: Outside of that, that's that's really it for instrumentation.
Speaker 9: Is the mandolin? Did you find that difficult to learn or.
Speaker 11: So I don't play it super well? Yeah? I play
like just chords on it, so it's easy to figure out, like, Okay,
what's the chord shape for this chord and then kind
of do little chunking us on it. I don't do
a whole lot of melody work on.
Speaker 9: The on the mandolin, okay, okay.
Speaker 11: Yeah, it is hard with big fingers, which is funny
because you look at the best mandolin players, like these
guys have giant, you know, fingers, and how do they
play this thing?
Speaker 9: That's well, that's the thing that's That's one of the
things that makes me so curious about it because some
of these instruments, like the mandolin, I just I've always
wondered about that. It looks like it's difficult to you know,
it's hard enough when you're learning to play guitar, you know,
to make sure that your fingers are going in the
right places and then on something like the mandolin, Yeah,
you're right, like like if you have big fingers, you know,
how do you do that and be able to really
really uh you know, not be not be sloppy with it.
So it's very It's very impressive to me. Do you
want to you want to play another live one for us?
Speaker 2: Sure?
Speaker 9: Dying to hear more?
Speaker 2: Sure?
Speaker 9: Yeah.
Speaker 11: So the next one I have is so it is
one of the songs I mentioned. I wrote some songs
in February. There's this thing called FOM, which is February
Album Writing Month. It's like a challenge, you try to
write fourteen songs oh the February.
Speaker 9: It sounds like kind of like the RPM challenge.
Speaker 11: Very much like that. Okay, yeah, except I think the
end goal is not to have like a produced thing
at the end of it. It's just like you have
a collection of songs and you can do whatever with them.
Is cohesive album?
Speaker 9: Oh cool? But okay.
Speaker 11: One of the songs that came out of that. There
was a news story right around that time, I think
from the Washington Post about scientists ad measure that the
moon is starting to shrink, and so I was like, man,
this is like the perfect jumping off point for a song.
Speaker 9: Yeah, so I.
Speaker 11: Tried to dream up this world of like, Okay, if
the moon's shrinking, what's that mean for like our tide
patterns on the earth, Like, what's that look like if
I draw that out to this post apocalyptic picture. Then
I tried to turn that into a love song of
like what's it look like for love to sustain something
as tragic and difficult as like the world coming to
an end? So there's a song called Moonquakes that's about
that just stemmed from that story.
Speaker 9: Interesting, all right, totally fictitious. Matt Litzinger live in studio
with us. I'm looking forward to this one. This one
sounds pretty interesting. Although worry someone wants so we have
climate change story about now we got to worry about
the moon shrinking too.
Speaker 11: Yeah, hopefully it's a it's a very slow process.
Speaker 9: I would assume, Matt Litzinger, Live in studio.
Speaker 8: The moon is shrinking. That's what the experts says.
Speaker 2: It's getting smaller everything gold Day.
Speaker 8: Don't be alarmed.
Speaker 12: That's what the man on TV says.
Speaker 2: It feels like everything is hanging by threads.
Speaker 13: Last night, I was for above the ground, and I
could see four.
Speaker 12: Miles and miles of round. When the lights went out, I.
Speaker 6: Felt the darkness around.
Speaker 2: This might be the end. But I'm finding hope.
Speaker 8: In your green nights.
Speaker 2: And if the ground beneath our feet ray won't lead
you astray, and if the sea should over bond their bound,
I'll hold back the way.
Speaker 8: There's the way of this lug. It's bare. This world
could bad. Wave of this slug. It's more than this
world could bad.
Speaker 2: Mmm.
Speaker 9: Wow, let me get that Mike on Jenny, Sorry, do
that to meet every Saturday. He does. He turns me down.
I do, I do? Uh No, that is great, that
is great. Matt listener here with us live in studio.
H Ryan LeMay is in the I see in the
chat room, says, well done. Ryan is a very obviously
I'm sure you know Ryan. He's a very very talented musician. I.
Speaker 11: Oh, you don't know Ryan.
Speaker 9: Okay, you'll probably uh, you'll probably meet at some point. Also,
Eric manroon if I'm saying that correctly, says I all,
bellow Eric in the chat room, if you are just
joining us, we do have Matt Litzinger with us live
in studio. Uh, he's got this great album, keep it Burning,
really really good? Do you are you already working on
the next one? So you know where's you record at home,
and you know you can kind of take your time
with it. I would imagine you're already working on new stuff.
Speaker 11: Yeah, So it's kind of funny. I'm actually taking a
little bit of a well not a break, but just
scaling things back a little bit.
Speaker 9: Yeah.
Speaker 11: I had a lot of songs written for this project,
and so I had the benefit of being able to
pick just the ones I liked the best or that
worked most cohesively for this theme. And so I had
some extra songs that I didn't do anything with yet,
so those are kind of in the hopper. I played
those live out just trying to like get feelers for
how to fine tune them. I had to tendency the
right really long songs, so I'm always on the mission
of figure out how do I tighten this stuff up. Yeah,
So like one of those songs is like seven minutes long,
and so it's like, okay, that's too long even for
a singer songwriter. Ballad trying to figure ou how to
tighten it up. But yeah, right now, it's just kind
of scaling back a little bit. Like I said, I
have a young family, so and this isn't my full
time gig too, so just trying to figure out how
do I keep this in his right place right right?
Speaker 9: Yeah, there's a lot of time management skills that can
go into that. Do you remember the first song you
ever wrote?
Speaker 11: I do, yeah, yeah, So I started writing songs in
high school just as kind of a cathartic thing, and
it was a just really bubblegum poppy love song like
you and Me.
Speaker 9: Yeah? Yeah, did it survive?
Speaker 11: Do not survive? I don't know that I could even
play it if I had to, really.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 11: I don't even think it got recorded. I think it
just got played to the girlfriend at the time.
Speaker 9: Oh okay, I don't remember who it was, but we
had a guest on who really surprised me there. They
could remember like the first song they wrote when they
were like ten years old and they still play it.
It might it might have been Kenny Troon and Kenny
if you're listening and I'm wrong, I apologize, but I
feel like it was Kenny Truon. He said, yeah, I
still play it.
Speaker 11: My first song is like wow, man. Yeah, always jealous
of those guys.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 11: Yeah, yeah, you can go back to your back cattle
I and still have just the muscle memory to pull
back out right right.
Speaker 9: Who can you tell me about influences? Like in terms
of songwriting, who who influences you?
Speaker 11: Yeah? So I like a lot of singer songwriter stuff.
It has more of a Maricana kind of rock uh
background to it. Yeah, Like modern influences will probably be
like Jason Isbel's a big one.
Speaker 1: Uh uh.
Speaker 11: Storgel Simpson is probably a big one. Going back further,
I love John Denver like I just keep coming back.
He's just such a great songwriter. Yeah. My grandparents, my
grandma in particularly on my mom's side, really loved him,
and so like playing country roads is always a big
favorite for me, or like leaving on a jet plane. Yeah, yeah,
his stuff's great. I love coming back to his music.
Speaker 9: Yeah. Well, what about in terms of your approach vocally?
Is there anyone you Is there anyone you've ever really
you have a unique voice. I can't think of anyone
off the top of my head who I feel like
you sound like? Yeah exactly, but I don't know, I mean,
is there anyone who's influenced you as far as your vocals.
Speaker 11: I mean, I think a lot of people over time,
and I get compared to some people, so like Evan
Stevens Hall from Pine Grove, they're like an indie rock band.
The guy from the Decembris, who I'm blanking on his
name right now.
Speaker 9: Yeah, I can't remember either, but I know, I mean, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 11: Yeah, but yeah, I think I pull from different things.
I hear in vocal performances and I'm like.
Speaker 14: I like that.
Speaker 11: Yeah, I try to emulate that a little bit. And
then it's just still trying to figure out, like how
do I do that and not make it sound like
I'm trying to sound like like you know, I have
a certain signature to my voice and I want to
keep that right. But it is interesting, like listening back
to material from like ten years ago to now, it's
crazy how your voice changes over time. And I even
listen to other artists like that happens so much too,
mm hmm. But it's it's really interesting to see, and
it's very much a subconscious thing because yeah, I didn't
decide I'm gonna sit down and record this song so
that it sounds.
Speaker 9: Like this Yeah, I've always been kind of fascinated by
that with vocalists. How some some people's voices do change
over time as they get older, their voice gets deeper.
But some people it seems like it you know, you
hear something they record very you know, like they might
be a sixty year old guy who sounds just like
he did when he was twenty, and it's like or
at least at least in the studio. Yeah, maybe maybe
not live. But you know, it's interesting how how some
people their voice really changes and some doesn't. I imagine too.
Part of that comes from a lot of musicians. You know,
drink and smoke and that, you know, that'll change your
voice certainly. But but I think for a lot of
people too, you know, their voices just kind of get
deeper naturally as they get older. But yeah, some people
just sound sound the same. It's it's weird. I think.
I think Billy Joel is an example of that.
Speaker 11: It's true.
Speaker 9: Like if you if you go on YouTube and you
pull up a Billy Joel video of him performing live
in recent years, he kind of sounds the same as
he did when you know, when that first album came out.
It's it's it's weird. But do you want to? Uh,
the time goes so fast you want to play another
one for us?
Speaker 2: Sure?
Speaker 9: I want to. I want to get at least one
more live one in before we run out of time.
If you are just joining us. Matt Litzinger is here
with us, alive in studio, and I did confirm with him.
I am saying his name right because I wasn't sure
if it was everybody. Yeah, anybody ever get it wrong
like on a poster or something.
Speaker 11: Not in a poster, but yeah, quite a bit.
Speaker 9: Yeah, yeah, Matt Litzinger is here with us in studio.
What do you what are you going to play for us? Yes?
Speaker 11: So this next one is called I Don't Know much.
It's on the record as well. It's a song. I
have two young kids and they ask a ton of questions. Yeah,
And I've gone through this phase of like in my twenties,
I felt like I had to have the answered everything
all the time, And in my thirties, I'm really kind
of okay with it. It's okay to just say I.
Speaker 9: Don't know, right.
Speaker 11: I'm more and more aware of the sense like when
people try to tell you they do have all the
answers everything to be highly skeptical of that. Yes, and
so this song is about just being able to go
through life and being okay with not having answered everything.
Speaker 9: Oh, I like it all right.
Speaker 8: It seems like this life is.
Speaker 2: Getting hard about the day, people trying to figure out how.
Speaker 8: It got to.
Speaker 2: Be this way, because in the Sage of Amation the
facts seems so pass. I'm standing with my mouth a
gape can find those words to say. So I don't
know much and that's okay. I'm just hoping it's.
Speaker 8: Enough to give me through the day.
Speaker 2: Some pass lead back where they begin, go in circles.
It can drive you mad. There's a few things I
know for sure. The rest I'm still searching for the sun.
It's gonna rise each day.
Speaker 8: And your love for me will never face. You love
for me will never face. And I've got a few
friends who.
Speaker 2: Have carried me on this road and they couldn't give
a rip about the stuff I think I know because
we're all just grown up kids trying to figure this
life out and being honest about the madness of Clara
Fire our downs. I don't know much and that's okay.
Speaker 8: I'm just hoping it's enough.
Speaker 2: To give me through the day. Some pass league back
where they begin, When circles, it can drive you mad.
There's a few things I know for s or the
rest I'm still searching for. The sun is gonna rise
each day, and you love for me will never face.
You laugh for me will never face. I don't know,
but sham, that's okay.
Speaker 8: I'm just hoping it enough to give it through the day.
Speaker 2: Some pass lead back where they begin, go in circles.
Speaker 8: It can drive you mad.
Speaker 3: There's a few things I.
Speaker 8: Know for sure.
Speaker 2: And the rest I'm still searching for. The sun is
gonna rise each day, and your love for me will
never fit. You love for me will never fade.
Speaker 9: Oh, I love that. I love that. What a great song.
If you're just joining us, Matt Litzinger is here with
us live and studio. What's that one called again?
Speaker 11: I don't know much.
Speaker 9: I don't know much. Great great song, great song. You're
getting some love in the chat room. To Tom Russo,
who's been on the show a few times, very very
talented musician, says sounds great, nice lyrics, great voice and song.
Thanks absolutely, And by the way, Tom, I owe you
an email and I will get back to you, I promise.
DJ Steve, also in the chat room, says, good morning
Matt and Jenny. I am really enjoying this. Thank you sir,
thank you Dj Steve. Uh. Let's see. Yes, we do
have Matt Litzinger live in studio with us, and we've
been he's been playing some songs from that one's on
the album too, I assume, right. Let me for those
watching online the video component of the show, let me
hold this up again for everybody. This is the album
Keep It Burning, full length album from Matt Litzinger. This
is all This is all online too, right. People can
get this.
Speaker 11: One all the streaming services.
Speaker 9: Excellent, excellent. And what went into the decision to make
physical copies too? Because not everyone does. Although it seems
like lately most of the guests that we have are
are doing CDs, there was a period of time where
it seemed like no one was doing CDs and then
now everyone is, which is great, great to see if
some people are even releasing vinyl. But what went into
the decision to release a physical copy?
Speaker 11: Yeah, so part of it was that I did a
Kickstarter campaign and so just having some type of physical
reward for it felt important. Yeah, and people took me
up on that quite a bit too. Just kind of
have like as signed, even if it's just memorabilia, and
you never like open the cellophane to it, right, just
having that people really like that. And at live shows too,
like being able to go away, like I like this
experience and I want to take something home with me
from it.
Speaker 9: Right.
Speaker 11: I don't even know how many people really have CD players,
Like my vehicle doesn't have a CD player in it, Yeah,
truck does. My old it's like a two thousand and six,
but like my newer card and have a CD player right.
Speaker 9: Right, way back when people were predicting the total death
of CDs, I think what kind of kept CDs going
was to a large degree, just you know, people still
having CD players in their cars, and of course new
cars now don't have them. But I think you're right too.
People like having a physical copy, you know, especially if
you're a big fan of somebody, and yeah, most of
them probably you know, they may not ever open it.
They just want to have it to support you and
to support your work. And that's my theory with Vinyl too,
because I think even fewer people have record players, but
Vinyl is still I think I think twenty twenty, it
was either twenty two or twenty three, was the first
year that vinyl it actually outsold CDs that Yeah. Yeah,
And I'm convinced that most people who purchase vinyl never
open it, you know, they just if you're really a
fan of an artist, you know, because you know who
has a I mean, some people have record players obviously,
but I think most people, yeah, they purchase it and
they don't open it. They just want to have it.
And if you're really a big fan of somebody, it
makes sense to do that.
Speaker 11: Certainly for a part of it might be self serving too,
because like I've always liked listening to full records. Yeah,
and like I think that just goes back to like
was your only way to listen to things before before
Spotify would recommend things after you listen to a track,
So I like sitting especially from a songwriter perspective, how'd
you sequence this? Like how do these songs tell a
story together? I love that, And then being able to
like look at the liner notes, especially yes, like we
all miss out on that.
Speaker 9: Now oh yeah, yeah, especially when Yeah, when I was
a kid, I used to love listening to I mean
looking at liner notes when I'd get a new CD. Yeah,
just you know, seeing what information, you know, pre internet,
just seeing what what information I could glean from just
from the liner notes, you know, which usually wasn't much.
But if I was a really big fan of somebody,
just anybody, I could you know, oh who was the
uh engineer on on this? You know, you know, just
any little bit of information, you know. But I'm a
very curious person anyway, so anything I could learn from
liner notes was great. But uh, yeah, so that's excellent.
Is this your first? Is this your first physical release?
Speaker 6: This?
Speaker 2: Uh?
Speaker 11: Yes, okay, yeah, yeah, so this would be the first.
I made some like, you know, very homemade copies of
early stuff, but this would be the first like professional release.
Speaker 9: Yeah, yeah, no, that's excellent. You know. It's funny back
when I first so there was a span of time
when I first started interviewing musicians on radio shows and podcasts.
There was a span of time where, like I said,
nobody was really releasing CDs, and but people would still
give me. People would actually give me music on their
CD instead of doing it like now where you just
email your music to somebody. People would actually give me
music for the show on a CD that wouldn't be
that would not be professionally produced, and it would. I
couldn't even count the number of times someone would hand
me a CD on their finger, you know what I mean,
like like no case, no case. That would happen a lot,
and it was always like, really, this is how you're
giving this to me? You know. They'd write on it
with the sharpie what it was, and then hand you know,
here's a CD for the you know you need this
for the show, right, It's like, yeah, thanks, We actually
have a CD player here. I think Rob is uh yeah,
Rob has a veto from grandited state of mind. I
think he's the only one who actually uses it. I've
never used it, but we do have a functioning CD
player here. But no, it's I think it's cool that
you're doing that, and I like, now you mentioned too,
I think this was off air you mentioned this. Your
wife is a graphic artist. She is, yeah, so does
she do all the artwork?
Speaker 6: So?
Speaker 13: Yeah?
Speaker 11: I had a my friend who's a photographer, Rebecca Scatting,
did all the photography inside and out, and then my
wife did the layout and all the design work.
Speaker 9: Okay, excellent, Yeah, yeah, No, that's great. That's great. And
you brought us a couple of stickers too, which is good.
Oh yeah, you mentioned your wife made those. Jenny loves stickers,
as you can see from the back of her computer.
That's right, that's right. We have time. You want to
play one more?
Speaker 11: I'd love to.
Speaker 9: Okay, awesome if you're just joining us. We have Matt
Litzing or here with us, live in studio and really
enjoying this. Coming up second hour we have Aaron Billodoh
and friends, and then third hour of the band Vigil.
We'll be here with us. But Matt Litzing was gonna
play one more for us. What are you gonna play? Yeah?
Speaker 11: So this is an older one. It's not on the album.
It's called time Turner. So there's an old family story
of playing board games and somebody asking someone to turn
that little sand timer. It started this song idea in
my head of like man, time slips away, and we've
got a lot of songs about that, but how do
I write it from this like appealing to a higher
power to say, like, hey, can I just get a
little bit more time? Can you slow this down a
little bit? So it's a song about that all right.
Speaker 2: Time turn along. She turned the time a little more slowly.
I've been wasting all my time today. Oh please, won't
she have just a little pity because I could?
Speaker 8: It was a little time my way and time turner.
Won't you lend me your ear for a moment.
Speaker 2: That's why I can plead my case to you. Seems
like I'm always running in circles a burden. It's heavy
in my moments a fume.
Speaker 8: Time Turner one, you tell me when.
Speaker 2: My time is over, maybe I can still leave my mark.
Greatest fear is wasting all my time before my life
fades into dark in time Turnoon't you turn the time
a little most slowly? I've been wasting on my time today.
Speaker 9: I think that one's my favorite.
Speaker 11: Oh thank you.
Speaker 9: Very relatable, too, very relatable. I love it. I love it.
Matt Listener here with us alive in studio. That's uh,
when when did you write that that? You said that
one an early one?
Speaker 11: Yeah, that one's been probably back in twenty twelve.
Speaker 9: Okay, oh wow, wow, yeah, very good, very good. Have
you ever recorded that one?
Speaker 11: Yeah, it's on an EP called Up in the Woods EP.
Speaker 9: Okay, okay, outstanding. What do you have this weekend. Do
you have any shows this weekend?
Speaker 11: Nope? Next one I have is in December and Planet
two share, Oh very good. At end of the month.
I think it's a twenty seventh Okay, yeah, it's I'm taking.
Speaker 9: A little break. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Why not do you
during the winter, do you kind of hibernate a little
bit too and focus on writing and recording or do
you still.
Speaker 11: Play especially I try to do that February project where
I do a songwriting project. Oh yeah, February because it's
just the darkest, like depressing part of the year's I
might as well produce.
Speaker 9: Something out of it, you know, yeah, exactly, exactly. Yeah,
I notice a lot of people kind of plus, you know,
going and playing shows in the winter is hard because
you never know what the weather's going to do, and
a lot of things experience here. It's cold and flu season,
all of it, all of it. Yeah, it's summer kind
of your busiest time as far as playing.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 9: Yeah.
Speaker 11: And it's just seeing people seem to have fun this
summer too, you know, they enjoy live music more. Yeah,
like it seems like it.
Speaker 9: So yeah, absolutely absolutely so we while speaking the time,
I'm thinking about closing segment with this year another one
of your great studio tracks that you sent us. So
it seems appropriate since you just seems like it might
relate in some way to the song you just played. So,
but what should people know about? Where to find you online,
how to keep up with everything that you're doing?
Speaker 11: Yeah? Sure, so I get a profile on Spotify, just
mattlet Singer, and then my website matletsinger music dot com
is where I usually try to put everything. Yeah, redesigning it.
So it should be redesigned in the next week or so.
It's very very close to being done.
Speaker 8: Oh cool.
Speaker 11: I think the last time it was redone was twenty ten.
Speaker 9: Oh really yeah? Oh wow? Do you do the all
at yourself?
Speaker 11: I do yes as my day job. I'm a web developer.
Speaker 9: Oh no kidding?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 9: Oh very good, Yeah, excellent, excellent. So we will uh,
we'll close out. Oh you should spell your last name too, sure?
Speaker 11: Yeah, So last name l t z I n G
e er.
Speaker 9: That's actually well, you know, it's funny. It's it's obviously
not a common last name, but it is spelled pretty
much the way you would expect it.
Speaker 11: To day, which is I think so people struggle.
Speaker 9: With my last name all the time. Connorton is very
unusual and uh people people misspell it.
Speaker 11: But a lot of mats though, a lot of mats.
Never a minister in area where there's not another match?
Speaker 9: Are there a lot of litz singers?
Speaker 11: You know, I've met hardly any? Yeah, which is funny
because online I compete with two other mattless singers. One's
a real litter and one's in like creative ad buying.
Speaker 9: Oh no kidding, yeah, so like it.
Speaker 11: Tries to se o value. There's some out there, but
I've never met a lot in real life.
Speaker 9: Yeah, yeah, definitely, Uh, definitely a rare name, but that's good.
A rare name, you have less chance of somebody popping
up and saying, hey, I'm also a musician with this
name and I was doing it before you and you
know and everything that goes with that. So so that's
that's definitely an advantage. So we will we'll close out
uh with this track this year. If you're listening live,
coming up second hour, we have Aaron Bildeo here and
I assume hue the Gecko is with him as.
Speaker 8: Well, negative ghost writer.
Speaker 9: We have other friends. Oh no, Huey the Gecko though
that's no, okay, all right, uh, that's okay next time,
but no, but Aaron is amazing, so really looking forward
to this. And we're gonna play some of his studio
tracks and he's going to perform live for us too.
So we have an action packed Saturday morning, but we
will close out with this great track. This is called
This Year from Matt Litzinger and Matt thank you again.
Speaker 11: Yeah, thanks so much for having me.
Speaker 9: You got it.
Speaker 3: I'm looking up.
Speaker 2: I'm looking up head, swip the mosses out from under
my bed.
Speaker 3: I'm moving on from it might have been.
Speaker 5: I'm getting ready to shift this skin.
Speaker 3: All this time that I've wasted.
Speaker 5: It's given me a reason to say this.
Speaker 2: Year, I'm gonna do things different.
Speaker 5: I'm gonna see the hard things too.
Speaker 2: My gaze has said, and I'm not gonnaway.
Speaker 3: I'll be standing here.
Speaker 8: It's true.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna try to do it better this year. Just
wait and see. I'll take you by surprise. This new
me is more than just THEO.
Speaker 2: Guys you told me once, give yourself some graties, if
not for some of your mistakes.
Speaker 5: Each year's a brand news story. It's given me a
reason to say.
Speaker 2: This year, I'm gonna do things different, gonna see the
hard things go, my Jesus said, and I'm not gonna
waver I'll be stand and hear it's true. This year,
I'm done with the excuses, but let me shackle for
too long.
Speaker 8: I'll reached a point where I.
Speaker 2: Was down for the count, but I'll live to see
a new day, Dawn.
Speaker 7: I'm gonna try to do it better this year.
Speaker 14: This cold weather in store for the Northeast, i might
not see the sun.
Speaker 3: For a couple of weeks. Maybe I won't do all
the things.
Speaker 2: I set out to do, but I'll.
Speaker 3: Take a few steps and I'll go a little too,
Because this year I'm gonna do things different. I'm gonna
see the hard things through. My Cazeus said, and I'm
not gonna wait. I'll be standing here.
Speaker 8: It's true.
Speaker 3: This year, I'm done with the excuses. They kept me
shackle for too long. I reached a point where I.
Speaker 2: Was down for the count, but I lived to see
a new day, Dawn.
Speaker 7: I'm gonna try to do it better. Lord, I hope
I do better this year.
Speaker 15: This year, You're a hurricane, wild and free, like a
force of nature on a rage and see.
Speaker 3: I'm a freight train running strong on a long way track.
You can't steer me rhall. Some people say this landing sorrow.
I'd rather say we tried than just head go. Because
we'rement for each other.
Speaker 2: I know it's true to forces this strong people.
Speaker 3: We could do.
Speaker 2: Because we could defy the cynics, we could take on
impossible things. We'd be so much stronger than we ever
could have been.
Speaker 8: Apart.
Speaker 2: Pulling in the same direction, Pulling in the same direction,
You and I could never tagged along, been going our
own way, befar to a whole.
Speaker 3: Well, love his patient, and love is kind. Let's fight
for a love that's more.
Speaker 2: Because we could defy the synics, we could take on
impossible things.
Speaker 8: We'd be so much stronger than we ever could have been.
Speaker 2: A part, one in the same direction, one in the
same direction. Because we could defy the cynics, we could
take on impossible things.
Speaker 8: We'd be so much.
Speaker 6: Stronger than we ever could have been apart.
Speaker 2: Pull in the same direction, pull in the same direction,