Speaker 1: Singer songwriter Mark Winters this year. Hello, Mark, what's shaken? Matt,
Welcome to the program.
Speaker 2: Oh, I love loving it here. It's so beautiful in
the area. And I have to say I really love
the tagline unleashed for your show.
Speaker 3: That's pretty awesome. It's got a big, good story behind that.
Speaker 1: Well, yeah, I don't, oh, you know what it was?
So when back when I started, because I started it
as a podcast in twenty eleven and then in twenty seventeen,
I had the opportunity to bring the show here to
WM and h been here ever since. But originally it
was just I called it unleashed because I was used
to being a co host on other people's shows and
now is starting my own show. So it's gonna be
where I'm just gonna do, you know whatever, say whatever
opinions I have, et cetera, and people can like it
or lump it. You know, I'm gonna be truly unleashed.
Speaker 3: I love that unleashed.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's I feel like sometimes I'm in the same boat.
I'm all about the positive vibes. Yes, those singer songwriters
are a little more moody than I am. Yeah, so
I have to control how much I'm leashed all my
positive energy?
Speaker 1: You know, right right, you're currently on uh you're on
a How how long is your tour? You've you're going
all over the place for I.
Speaker 3: Has sixty five days of awesomeness.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 2: The Good Vibes Highway Tour headed east out of Houston, Texas,
down the Gulf Coast and then up the Eastern Seaboard
up into Canada and then back down through the Central
US to to Texas.
Speaker 1: Okay, Wow, where do you live?
Speaker 3: Based in Houston Town?
Speaker 1: Based in Houston? Okay? Yeah? Is this your first big
tour like going as far as you are?
Speaker 3: My second?
Speaker 2: So spring of this year I did a West Coast tour,
first time going out that direction as well, and uh
kind of learned the whole tour culture and how to
be on an extended tour. And this is the second
one that I'm doing here in the fall, and I
loving loving being out on the road, loving sharing the
energy with everyone that I meet. It's it's an amazing
way to see the United States.
Speaker 1: Yeah, no doubt, no doubt. We're glad you're here. Well,
so you've got your guitar and you're gonna play in
a couple minutes, but I think we're gonna play this.
This is the new single, right, Man in the Sky.
Speaker 3: Man in the Sky.
Speaker 2: Yes, it's about one of my daily rituals. I wake
up in the morning with a cuff of coffee. I
love to watch the sunrise. I love to be out
camping and nature. It helps me set my mind right
for the day before I turn my TV on, or
before I watch my phone or anything else. And I
get a certain pep I pick me up in my
step if I start my day that way. And the
track and the vibes and the lyrics are all about
just enjoying that fresh moment, you.
Speaker 1: Know, yeah, outstanding all right, So let's play this. This
is called Man in the Sky, and this is Mark Winters.
Speaker 4: This morning with the sky is my guy.
Speaker 2: It's that still biding in my mind somewhere in the
clouds call them mea look up, looking look out the
journeys all around, even.
Speaker 4: When the clouds are passing.
Speaker 5: Bottle talking to the plan of below sky.
Speaker 2: In the meadow, green sol bast answerines were daisy bloom
and the air so clean, Standing on around, getting ready
take a wall, look up, looking look out the journey's
all rounds.
Speaker 4: Even when the.
Speaker 6: Clowns are passing bays, talking to the plan up in
the sky, talking to the man up in the sky,
feeling like song.
Speaker 7: The old Crown.
Speaker 5: Oh, even when the clouds are passing byways, talking to
the man up in the sky, talking to the.
Speaker 1: Man that is man in the sky, and that is
Mark Winters. And we have Mark Winters here with us
alive in studio on this Saturday. Great track, very very catchy.
I love all the music you sent us. And we
have another song too that we're gonna play at the
end of our segment today, another great studio track. But
before we go any further too, for those who are
watching online on your platform of choice, whether it be
Facebook or YouTube or even we even stream on LinkedIn.
But I want to show off for the camera this
this rubber bracelet or what's the term's wristband? Thank you.
I was blanking on the name, So tell us about
this so that it says think like a proton always positive,
which I And it's got your it's got your name
on it, of course, Mark, good good branding. But but
but yeah, tell us about that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm you know, I'm uh my undergraduate degrees in
aerospace engineering. I took a left turn at Albuquerque and
became an artist instead, but I did practice for a
little bit, and my brain has always lived in both
the world of poetry and science. And so when I
think about, uh, you know the world a lot of times,
I think, you know through those both of those lenses,
And and when I rolled out, the glass was always
like half full. For me, I always see the world
in a positive way. When I meet people, I look
for the good in them. When I sit in a
songwriting circle, I look for the best of everyone to
try and combine it together. I've always had that sort
of positive view of the world, and it's hard for
me not to put it in my lyrics. And so
when I show up to play a show somewhere, my
goal is to create more positive energy for everyone who's
attending a show for me. And if I've done that,
then I've had a great day. Yeah, and uh, I
feel like I've contributed to the universe. Uh. And my
grandma would be proud of me for making the world
a little writer.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's outstanding. Can you tell us you a little
bit more about your background? And by the way, so
I am someone who you know, Jenny was talking earlier
about how she's not good at things like math and science.
I'm the same way. Although Jenny's better at math than
she realizes because she does that amazing macrima. And I
always say, what's that? It is math? It is math,
it's me. It's geometry, Am I reometry?
Speaker 3: It's applied physics?
Speaker 1: Yes it is? Yes? See correct? So there you go,
there you go.
Speaker 3: An expert is master Jenny?
Speaker 1: Yes? So so she's and she's incredible at doing that.
But like I can't, you know, I was always math
and science were always very hard for me in school.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: I excelled more with with reading, comprehension and writing and
things like that, and history I was good at. But
math and science I was always terrible at. But what
what is it that? So obviously you're you know, really
good at those things, But what is it that that
brought you into into music? And because you're you're doing
this as your full time career now.
Speaker 2: Right, it's my it's my thing. Yeah, it's my vibe.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 2: So in twenty eleven, I wanted to do something musical
and never had done anything artistically. My grandmother when I
was five, had taught me to write poetry. Okay, So
my whole life I've been writing poetry, which is amazing.
I think that created the sort of juxtaposition in my
brain of all these thoughts because I started with her.
My my inclination was math and science, and so in
twenty eleven, I put it on the list I'm going
to do it. I bought a guitar from a local
guitar shop and on the on the sly I learned
to play a song for my wife for anniversary.
Speaker 1: Okay, and I thought, oh.
Speaker 2: Three months, there's plenty of time to do. Go from
nothing like no musical experience to performing a song for
my wife.
Speaker 3: Yeah, which was.
Speaker 2: Quite a bit to bite off, I find out later.
But the guitar shop guy was really cool. And I
used to get my daughter to sit in the fourier
with me and practice UH while my wife was out
working UH to get ready for the for the performance.
And then we went out to dinner at our favorite
place for anniversary, and I said, I forgot something in
the car and I went back and got my guitar
and she's like, what.
Speaker 4: Are you doing?
Speaker 3: So she had no idea, had no idea guitar. I
had nothing.
Speaker 2: It was all all you know, right on the spot. Yeah,
a nice little intimate place. Everybody, the whole crowd that
was there, pulled their chairs around, made a little audience.
And I had a giant anniversary card because I couldn't
remember the lyrics and the chords all at the same time.
And my daughter had helped me be dazzle it. And so,
you know, a long winded way to say when I
when I performed that song for her, it was so amazing,
so emotional, the connection. I want to write poems for
someone it's personal, and I read it to him, it's
more personal. When I sang it was like, this is
what I meant to do. And so from that moment forward,
I became obsessed. My wife would say, was teaching myself music.
So I bought a bunch of online music courses online,
taught myself to write music and read music and compose.
And along the way, I put a cover band together
and I found, I guess I didn't write at first
the cover band. I just wanted to play some shows
with them. And I found as I was singing, singing
other people's words, they wouldn't say what I wanted to say.
I started changing the lyricsd and my wife was like,
you can't change the lyrics.
Speaker 3: I'm like, well, that's what I want to say.
Speaker 2: That led me to writing my own stuff in twenty
eighteen and put my first album out in twenty nineteen,
started touring behind that, and of course COVID, like everyone else,
kind of interrupted that whole experience. And so when COVID
was happening, I went online because I wrote a four
piece rock band format for my first album, Soft Rock.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: And when I went online and started doing charity fundraisers,
zoom ticketed charity fundraisers to learn how to be a
singer songwriter proper, yeah, and rearranged all my music and
started writing in that lane. And and I haven't looked back.
It's been amazing. I just love the journey that I'm
on and the people I get to meet.
Speaker 1: You know, it's music theory must have been pretty easy
for you, right, you know it was.
Speaker 2: It's very mathematical, That's what I'm thinking. Yeah, Yeah, there's
a very mathematical element the part, believe it or not,
the instrumental part was fairly I'm pretty dexterous, and so
I play sports and whatever else. And so between the
math and and the hand eye coordination, the instrument part
was was much easier. Yeah, the vocal part I had
no reference and so I didn't even sing in choir, right,
I really yeah, right, And so just to learn to
control your voice is such a whole other experience. Yeah,
and that was the hardest journey.
Speaker 3: And I started.
Speaker 2: I got a vocal coach in Houston, and that that
helped me a ton. Ok, it's really much easier to
learn from someone else.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, you vocals, Yeah, vocals, You know, your voice.
That's the one instrument where some people, for whatever reason,
they just they just can do it without even you know,
I've met so many people who just it's like, oh,
did you take lessons? And they say no, they just
they're just able to do it, you know what I mean.
It's it's I've always been been very jealous. I'm a
bass player and I can I can sing like I'm
not a bad harmony singer. I can kind of find
the octave and lock in. But on my own I
get lost. And I went through three different vocal coaches
and nobody, nobody could get me to where I wanted
to be. With it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a it's a it's its own journey. And
I found, uh, you know, you got to put your
ten thousand steps in and so you know, if you
didn't grow up singing in church and choir and whatever,
then you got to you got to put that time in.
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2: And so as I've become, you know, more experienced as
a vocalist, it's much more intuitive now for me. I
sing in a trio back home, and I seen harmonies
and so you know, and the lady asking with is
very well trained and very precise, and so all the
people around you start pushing you to develop your skill.
And I'd say, now it's it's a lot more intuitive
when I pick up a song, to pick up a guitar,
to write a song, it's very easy for me to
sort of craft a melody now on the fly, where
you know, two years ago it was much more difficult.
Speaker 3: It's becoming intuitive.
Speaker 1: Yeah that's excellent. Yeah, that's great. Well, I'm dying to
hear you play live. You want to play something live,
Let's let's do it.
Speaker 2: Let's talk about one of those science meets philosophy juxtapositions.
I'm gonna break through some boundaries with you, guys, with
a song called boundary Layer. Computational fluid dynamics has boundary
layer theory in it and particle theory. Particles approaching an
object in a fluid slow down when they get near
the object, and then they accelerate in a new direction.
Kind of like the philosophy of breaking through a boundary
in your own life. So let's rock and roll with
some boundary layer, all.
Speaker 1: Right, Mark Winter is live in studio.
Speaker 2: Supersonic speed, I can see what I need.
Speaker 4: I'm soaring faster than higher, breaking through. I believe in me.
Speaker 2: We find our limits when we're young, slowing down before
we've be gone. They tell me I'm too small to
play and that I don't look like them at all.
Or can I find the strength in me to break
my boundaries?
Speaker 4: In me?
Speaker 2: Eat me see pushing that supersonic speed, I can see
what I need.
Speaker 4: I'm soaring faster.
Speaker 7: And ie.
Speaker 4: Breaking through. I believe in me.
Speaker 2: Here we go now, get a job and find a life.
Listen to everyone's advice. They tell me I'm too old
change and that I need.
Speaker 4: To rearrange my mind.
Speaker 2: Where can I find the strength in me to preck
my boundaries and make me see.
Speaker 4: Pushing at the supersonic speed, I can see what I need.
I'm soaring faster inne breaking through. I believe in me.
Speaker 2: Go bring some love along the way, keep my humble
minded play bound to lay us are just to test
to give the strength to be my best. Bring my
circle up with me, feel the love and loyalty. Boundary
lay us are just to test to give the strength
to be my best.
Speaker 4: Push You're not the supersonic speed. I can see what
I need. I'm soaring faster and I breaking through. I
belief in me. But you're not the supersonic speed. I
can see what I need. I'm soaring faster and eye
breaking through.
Speaker 1: I believe in Very nice, very nice. If you're just
joining us, we have Mark Winter is here with us,
alive in studio. He's on a tour and he is
in the area. And that's what is that song.
Speaker 3: Called again, It's called boundary Layer.
Speaker 1: Boundary Layer. Very good. So now where are you in
your tour in terms of like what did you play
last night?
Speaker 3: Somewhere I did?
Speaker 2: I did played down in Pennsylvania last night, and then
the night before I was in New York. So I'm
in week number four four, Yeah, week number four of
a sixty five day tour, having a great time, like
a little inch worm about you know, three hundred miles
a day. I drive and then I dropped my trailer
International Park or State Forest, and you know, play a
show and come back and get up in the morning
and do the thing again. You know, it's it's amazing.
Speaker 1: And then where do you go after here?
Speaker 2: Where's your Yeah, I'm headed to Maynard. I'm playing in
a festive this afternoon.
Speaker 1: Excellent.
Speaker 2: And then from there I go to Maine for a
two day break to visit my dad.
Speaker 3: Uh he lives in o Gunquit, Okay.
Speaker 2: Uh so I'm gonna hang out, walk the margin away
and then uh, you know, recharge a little bit, and
then I'm up off into Canada.
Speaker 1: Oh nice, How many dates you have up there?
Speaker 2: I have five five shows in Canada?
Speaker 1: Outstanding. Wow, that's great. That's great. So what's been like,
Has anything been a surprise to you doing that? Because
you said, this is the first tour that you've done
of this size, right, this many dates?
Speaker 2: Yeah, so spring I did the same number of days, okay,
and so it kind of learned a little bit of
the tour culture, you know, I think, uh, for for me, uh,
it's been so amazing to get out of the echo
chamber of Houston. Yeah, you're you kind of you get
stuck in a situation and an environment, and your brain,
I think stops growing and thinking.
Speaker 7: Uh.
Speaker 2: And so I think getting out on the West Coast
was amazing for me. And you don't really know how
your music is landing with people. I mean all the
streaming and TikTok and YouTube and you know, the interaction
you get, you know, is not as rich. And what
I found when I was on the West Coast was,
first of all, there's a lot of people who are
science nerds, closet closet science nerds who really are viving
with my music, which is really cool, excellent. And then
I found this the whole positive energy element. There were
so many people who came out to see a show
for the positive energy experience, and they heard me on
the radio like on your show, they came out to
a show for me. I remember the first time that
happened to me was in New Mexico.
Speaker 3: I was in Ridoso.
Speaker 2: It was a beautiful city, and a couple drove three
hours they heard me on the radio.
Speaker 3: They drove three hours. They're like, we got a lot
of bad.
Speaker 2: Stuff going on in our life right now, and we
want an evening of positive energy.
Speaker 3: And I was so touched.
Speaker 2: Three or four of the couples heard me on the
same radio station and came out for that same experience.
And it was ten days into my tour on the
West Coast, and it told me I'm in the right
place and doing what i need to be doing right
in this world. And I've still got goosebumps because i
had so many experiences like that along my West Coast tour.
I was just on fire the whole time. Yeah, my
wife asked me. She's like, she comes out a week
out of each month that tour, and she says, you know,
this is.
Speaker 1: A lot, a lot.
Speaker 3: You're up every day early.
Speaker 2: You got a lot of stuff going on, you got
all this stuff in email everything else.
Speaker 3: It's a lot, she said, How do you do it?
Speaker 4: I'm like, I'm.
Speaker 2: So so fulfilled by the people I meet and the
experiences I'm having and the fact that my music is
really making a difference in the world. Yes, you know
it's no effort, Yeah, you know, it's worth it. It's
worth every effort, you.
Speaker 1: Know, Yeah, absolutely absolutely. Is there anything that's really kind
of surprised you or challenges that maybe you didn't expect
that you've run into, you know, because it's not easy
what you're doing. It's like your wife said, it is
a lot, and it's it's fulfilling. So it's a lot
in a good way, right, in a positive way. But
it is a lot.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, for sure. So I had never pulled the
trailer before. Yeah, And so there was the I rented
a few and tried it out and kind of got
my the sizing and everything the way I wanted to
do in whatever. But I had never been out in
the snow and mountains and whatever. So there was a
whole lot to learn about being cold in Canada or
in the Northern United States in the mountains that I
didn't know how to. I didn't even bring warm clothes
with me on the tour. Whop at Walmart and buy
some sweatshirts and whatever. And then as a musician, you
don't really know your music until you've been in so
many rooms where the sound is just off. They've got
the EQ on the monitor. Weird, you got all these
all these weird things happen. You can't hear yourself, You
can't hear anything. I remember I played a rock venue
They're trying to develop a songwriter night, and they had
the vocals compressed so much. There was no dynamics, and
they had the frequencies super tight. You couldn't hear your
overtones or anything. There was like nothing. And so I
found I was very challenged to hear myself, right, and
you and you really have to learn. You're in a
big crowd, it's super noisy. How do you continue to
hear yourself properly as a musician?
Speaker 1: Yep?
Speaker 2: Right?
Speaker 3: That was That was a heart lesson.
Speaker 2: It took me about maybe four weeks into my West
Coast two before I had played enough rooms that I'd
learned the thing. Yeah, and then something I'm still learning, how.
Speaker 3: Do you read a room?
Speaker 2: So a friend of mine is a brilliant songwriter from
the Houston area, Ken Gaines. When I first started off
as as a songwriter, I asked if I could just
follow him around for a few of his shows, very
regionally successful, and just watch what he does. And he
took me under his wing for three shows and he
told me his set list, in advance, and he said,
but I'm going to change it, and I'm going to
change the intro and the outro and the story based
on the room.
Speaker 3: How do you do that?
Speaker 2: And so he's playing the show and then he would
stop in the show and he said, Mark, this is
for you, and he would make a change. He wouldn't
tell anybody else what he was doing for you, And
I knew what he was doing, right, And I'm like, okay,
I got to know my music that well right to
be professional, you know, to be accomplished. And so I'm
still learning how to do that, you know. I think
it's just a journey, you know that I'll probably be
on ever, just learning how to read a room and
land the story and music in a way that's gonna
that's going to serve the room and the song the best.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, no, that's that makes sense, and that yeah,
that is something you kind of that's not something anyone
can It's not something you can read in a book.
How to do that? You know. It's the only way you.
Speaker 3: Could, man, I wish you could in a book.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the only way. Yeah, really, the only way you
can learn is by by doing. And uh, it can
be tricky.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I wish it was a journeyman process. You know,
that would be great if I could like just tack
on to a touring guy who's you know, a gray beard,
who could show me around, yeah, and teach me some
of those things. But that's just not a part of
a music program that I'm aware of anyway, you know.
Speaker 1: I think that aspect is especially challenging when you're you know,
a solo act, right, just you and a guitar, because
if you're in a band, like if you're in a band,
there's a certain comfort to that and a safety in that,
you know, safety in numbers. You know, no matter what
the room is, you're up there with three other guys
or four other guys or whatever the configuration is, right,
But when it's just you, you're vulnerable, right, it's just you
with the guitar, and you've got to figure out how
to read that room. When you're in a band, you
kind of don't care. It's like we do what we do, right,
But when it's just you, there's that added pressure of
you really got to sell this.
Speaker 3: Yeah for sure.
Speaker 2: And another thing I had to learn, like I love
I'm all about positive energy, and I can share a
million stories, touching stories, but I have a few songs
that are very personal, and I'm not used to like
being super vulnerable when I'm performing. And and so another
thing that I've had to learn, you know, is stories
are meant to be shared. I have a song my grandmother,
my my poetry pal who's no longer with me, but
super influential in my life. I wrote a song because
I continue to hear her voice talking to me and
encouraging me. And it's it's original, real, it's her telling
me things. I'm sure where she's coming from. But you know,
I get so emotional when I sing that song and
I tell the story, and it touches so many people
in the crowd when I do that, and they come
up afterwards and tell me, Hey, that that song your voice.
I can hear someone from my life, Wow, that's no
longer with me. And so learning how to be vulnerable
is something I'm learning still. I have some more personal songs.
I'm scared to play them live. They're going to come
out on an album that's that's coming up next year,
but I'm scared to play them live because they're sort
of raw emotions. Yea and yeah, I got to learn.
I've got to learn to do that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, Well do you want to play another live
one for us?
Speaker 3: I will, I will do that. So this song is a.
Speaker 4: It's a song called signal.
Speaker 2: It's all about being aware of the energy that you're
putting out in the world and the energy that you're
taking in from other people.
Speaker 3: Like we're all little radio station.
Speaker 2: You know. And I like to think about my channel
being sort of the positive energy channel. And have friends
who live on both ends of the spectrum, which helped
me write the song right, Because no matter how good
or bad you are, other people's signals affect you and
your perspective on life for that day and in that moment.
Speaker 3: Single. This is called signal.
Speaker 2: Waves washing out from me, sending around my energy, sometimes
bright and shimmering, sometimes dark and stifling, crashing into the
walls and floors, sleeping in.
Speaker 4: The minds and more.
Speaker 2: Should I keep spewing random feelings, Nope, I should focus
my mind on't heeling I'm taking it in and putting
it out. I should cear up any lingering time some God,
dial in my signal and make it a dream.
Speaker 4: Make it my positive screen. Dial in my signal hey.
Speaker 2: Make it a dream, make it my positive screen. Changing
my mind to create a layer intensity is fine if
your heart is there radiating the thoughts you want the most.
It's a powerful, purposeful piece of Crouse reading the vibes
back from with him. I can tell the quote I'm
pulling out, you get back in, not accidentious, in the nagative,
bringing out the best and share that narty.
Speaker 4: I'm taking it in, putting it out. I should clear
up any lingering die.
Speaker 2: So I'm going up nyl in my signal and making
it a dream. Make it my positive screen. Dial in
my signal and make it a dream. Make it my
positive screen. Do you feel the vibes from those around you?
Are you catching the meaning in your mind? Is it
helping you live and smile?
Speaker 4: Or do you need to turn that dial.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna dial in my signal and make it a dream.
Speaker 4: Make it my positive screen. Dial in that signal and.
Speaker 8: Taking a dream, make it my positive stream.
Speaker 1: Outstanding. Mark Winters is here with us live in studio.
If you are just joining us, it is Matt Connorton
Unleashed and if you are listening live of course, today
is Saturday, October fourth, twenty twenty five as we are
in our first hour and starting out with some great
positivity from Mark Winters. So excellent, excellent. So when you
when you do this, when you play live, do you
ever have anyone join you? Or is it always? Is
it always you? Or because yeah, because you mentioned back
in Houston, there's someone you perform with, right.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, so I have.
Speaker 2: I've been on an amazing musical journey and I've I've
met so many amazing people in the production of my
albums and such. And I met a really good friend
of mine now, mister Michael Shanks, about a year and
a half ago, and he was just coming back in
from Spain.
Speaker 4: He was in.
Speaker 2: There studying at Berkeley. He's an amazing guitar player and
just an amazing human being. He and I were talking
with a producer that was working on a song for me,
and so he and I started playing when he was there.
I just loved his energy and I said, hey, you know,
when you're actually back in town, you want to hang
out together, maybe play a few songs. Next thing, you know,
we struck up a great friendship. I started inviting him
out to play at shows with me. We have this
you know, I'm competent on the guitar. I played lead guitar,
but you know, I'm just sort of competent. He's phenomenal, okay,
And the fact that he can do it on an
acoustic guitar was what I was looking for. Creates great energy,
and so we started playing together. We play percussion back
and forth on the guitars and lead and rhythm and everything.
Speaker 3: It's really amazing.
Speaker 2: And then my vocal instructor I was telling you about earlier,
you know, he I told him I'm looking for someone
to sing harmonies with, and he said, hey, I've got
just the lady. She's looking for someone to do the same.
She doesn't play out a lot, and so she and
I had coffee and then I invited her to sing
with me at a show of mine that I had
coming up. And if Lady Gaga and Adele had a baby.
Speaker 3: That's her voice.
Speaker 2: It's just meso soprano, richness and amazing, and if you
tracked her, she's like like perfect when she's tracking her
vocals or just like really like right down the middle.
And so we started hanging out, playing singing duets to
gather and so that became my trio okay, and we're
really tight. I love working with those guys. I'm teaching
her how to write songs. So we've written four songs
together now, wrote the first one just for her. There
have been harmonies or duo work for us, and so
we play out a lot around town. But she has
kids that are in middle school and isn't portable to
be out on the road. And she's still developing herself
as an artist independent artists new and so I'm hopeful
to have her and Michael both out on the road
as I get back through the area here, maybe next year.
I'm still developing a following that makes it worthwhile for
everyone to come out. You know, if you don't sell
enough tickets, it doesn't work for people who have families
to feed. So so I'm working on developing us as
a trio more. And you'll hear her singing harmonies and
background vocals on some of the songs in my Acoustic
Me album. That's the live sound between the three of us.
That's what I capture. That is all three of us
performing and that on that Acoustic Me album.
Speaker 1: Oh cool, very nice, very nice. So how many how
many albums have you recorded at this point?
Speaker 2: So there are three albums that are out yea. The
first one is called Slipstream, which is a scientific principle
of being like tucked behind someone like a duck. The
person up front's working harder than the people behind them, Okay,
And I felt like I was sort of drafting off
of a lot of amazing musicians who are helping me
create that album.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: And so that's the first album I put out kind
of a four piece light rock band format. And then
I put out Boundary Layer, which was my album on
the other side of COVID, still four piece rock.
Speaker 3: Light rock.
Speaker 2: And then I started leaning more heavily into the singer
songwriter and so I rearranged a lot of my music
to be singer songwriter formatted acoustic me album. I was
telling you about it, sort of reimagine. It's got a
few new songs on it. Yeah. And then I just
put out Equal SIMC Squared, which is my latest batch
of songs that a friend of mine, John Edward Ross,
helped me produce. And I'm working slowly with these two
new singles that I've just put out, Fake Gravity and
Man in the Sky are part of an album that's
going to release next year called the Science in Me,
and so that would before into when that album comes out,
that'll be the fourth album.
Speaker 1: Okay, so where do you record?
Speaker 2: You know, it's a I've I've recorded my very first album.
I met a guy. I went looking for a producer.
I'm pretty thorough guy. So I interviewed a bunch of
producers and told him, look, I'm the new guy. I
don't know anything. I'm gonna be annoying to work with
because I'm gonna want to be in the middle of
everything because I'm learning. Yeah right, yeah, And so I
look for a producer who was friendly for that, and
Mark Townsend showed that his studio was in Houston, and
so he and I were talking. He had a Houston
number or whatever. Well, he had just relocated to LA.
Speaker 3: Six months or earlier. Oh like, okay, well how do
we do this?
Speaker 2: And he's like, well, you know, why don't we just
have a he has a bunch of contacts.
Speaker 3: I said, why don't we?
Speaker 2: He said, why don't we just meet in Nashville and
record your first album the bones of it there, yeah,
and then we'll come out to La do the vocals.
And so he did pre production in Houston, with me,
and then we did the bones in Nashville at the
House of Blue studio there and then did the vocals.
Speaker 3: Out in California.
Speaker 2: So the first one I did with him, and then
I learned a ton he was so he was such
a great mentor and he's so musically gifted. He helped
me a ton to grow and learn. And then I
was looking for someone more local for the second album,
and so I worked with Derrek Haymes in Hugh and
sugar Land actually uh and did my second album. It
was a bit The process for that one was it
was much more difficult for me because he's kind of
a live sound person and so he wanted me to
show up, do the thing live and then okay, you know,
he'll clean up some stuff and they're done, which is
not how I'm wired. And so I found another guy
in town in Houston, Johnnybold Ross, and he and I
have been working together, and Michael Shanks, my guitarist, is
a producer as well, and so that there there are
the two that really are the people who get me
the best. And so we're on a journey together and
we've written this where we produced this whole next album
together that's coming out. And so I like people, you know,
I like someone I can sit down and talk to you,
like you like, Okay, let's work on this together, right,
that sense of collaboration. I'm it's much more difficult to
be the sort of remote you know, send me your
vocals and send me the guitar part and put it
all together remotely.
Speaker 3: I don't get the energy out of that.
Speaker 1: Sure, sure, yeah, it's funny. Uh there was a time
when when people just generally were kind of turned off
to that idea, and then COVID. COVID forced a lot
of people to work that way. But then, you know,
and a lot of people still a lot of people
still work that way. But I would imagine it I
understand your perspective and that I would imagine it would
be challenging to work that Like obviously, we have the
technology to you know, send tracks back and forth with
Dropbox or you know, or OneDrive or whatever service you
want to use. And it's sometimes some of the guests
we have on the show, you know, these bands come
in and they've got they've got music that sounds like
it was all recorded together. You know, it sounds like
a live band in the studio, you know, and then
you find out no, they they've used a lot of
technology in different studios and sending tracks back and forth
and whatnot. But but the way, the way of doing it,
the kind of the old school way, which is what
you're doing, it sounds easier in a lot of ways
because you're you're able to get that energy of directly
collaborating with people. Right. Yeah, it sounds. It just sounds.
That's how I mean. I'm a musician and I've recorded
some stuff, but I've never not not to the extent
that you have. And I would rather do it the
way you're doing it, I think, than the way that
some other people are doing it. If that makes sense.
Speaker 2: Yeah to me, I think there's Uh, it's kind of
like it's like co writing. I started co writing two
and a half years ago, never done it before, And
there's a certain level of competence that you need to
have to co write and to correcte well. And if
I show up in the right room, my co writing
sessions produce a completed song in three hours. Okay, So
all I need is either me instrumentally or someone else
on an instrument. Yeah, and you know, two people is
if you pair me with a person who's used to
writing melody, especially, then I can do everything else, so
we can really produce a song really well, and there's
an organic element to it. And I'm good. I've written
co written with a lot of people and I'm good
at it. And I can remotely work on zoom with someone.
Because of the transport lag, I can't play a thing
with you in the room, right, And so I have
the same problem with production. I've done it enough that
I can do it. I've done a track. I did
a Christmas track with a remote producer. It was all
back and forth remote and so I know how to
do it, and I do my own vocal track and
get home.
Speaker 3: I have a studio for that.
Speaker 2: But when you're creating an arrangement and you're listening to something,
listening to a mix for the first time and trying
to get everything dialed in, it's so difficult because of
the lagginess of it.
Speaker 6: Right.
Speaker 2: I find it the most difficult when I'm writing, and
the second most difficult when I'm in the final production
phase and I'm trying to hear like the producers like
let me turn the base up or the bass down
or this or that way, you're not in the room
with them.
Speaker 3: It's so hard.
Speaker 2: So my process with John Edward is we can do
certain amount of things. We do the arrangement live, me
and him and Michael in the room, and we do
the thing and we get it the way we want
it and the way it's the structure, and so we've
got the genesis of the idea is now done and
it's down and we've got that, and then.
Speaker 3: We we do the parts.
Speaker 2: We can put them all, you know, Frankenstein it together,
the parts around that arrangement. And then when we get
back to when I put my first set of vocals in, okay,
we need to sit down and listen to that live,
and then we do the final mix.
Speaker 3: We need to do the live.
Speaker 2: So I think there's there's moments in the songs genesis
that you really need to be live to give it
its best effort. And then after for that you can
be you know, sort of remote. That's just my personal experience.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, absolutely, Well you want to play one more
live one?
Speaker 3: Yeah, let's let's let's do it.
Speaker 2: Okay, So this next tune I'm going to play for
you is all about me getting out of a bad mood.
Speaker 1: Okay, So even when.
Speaker 2: I'm writing about a bad mood, I have to put
a little positive spin on it. I was in a
bad mood about it two years ago. And you know,
I have a lot of crazy hobbies, you know, surfing
and rollerblading and motorcycle racing and whatever, anything that my
hair is on fire for. Yeah, and that usually gets
me out of any funk i'm in.
Speaker 3: H Usually just a run does.
Speaker 2: But I got in a bad mood that I couldn't
get out of it, And I said, you know, you're
a songwriter. You should write a song about it, at
least share the fact that you're in a bad mood,
and ultimately ended up helping me get out of the
bad mood. It's called seven Deadly moods.
Speaker 1: All right, Mark Winter is live in studio.
Speaker 2: I've got these bad moods living in my head, snapping
and biting, n putting me on edge. It's like a
hydra spitting with seven hairs, sneaking around and trying to spread.
Ben said, and this got a hold on me. What's
it gonna take to make you leave? My mind's tied
up in a punking moods got me on edge?
Speaker 4: Why do I do? I said, I'm mooding. I need
my things around me with dance. So night set up
res feet singing a songs. I want to change my tongue.
Seven deadly moon's gonna turn to go.
Speaker 3: Here comes those bad moods creeping back in.
Speaker 4: It's lonely and quite, just sitting on my cow. No
one's around.
Speaker 2: They help me out, shameful, depressing and mercury thoughts, constricting
and squeeze and I'm hit it south anger and sadness,
So saiding, what's it.
Speaker 4: Gonna take to make you leave? My mind's side up
in a punker moods? It's coming on it?
Speaker 7: Wow do I do?
Speaker 2: I said, I'm moody, handing mppons around me with dance
all night, said our world street singing our.
Speaker 4: Songs, gonna change my tone. Seven deadly moves gonna.
Speaker 2: Turn to go, I said, turning turn turning to go,
Seven deadly moves sitting in my head. H I S
S I N G love and light and camarader read
If I S S I G.
Speaker 4: Take those moods and loosen their whole K I S
S I G. Seven deadly moods gonna turn to go?
I said, turning, turning, turn it to go? That said
the mood, and I need muffins around me, would dance on.
I set up singing a songs, going to change my tone,
seven deadly moves, going to turn to go, I said,
turn it, turn to go.
Speaker 1: Wonderful. Mark Winter is live in studio. Mark, thank you
so much. This has been wonderful. Where are you gonna
be next? You know we're in Manchester, but we have
listeners online all over the place. Where's your next show? Yeah?
Speaker 2: I'm headed up to Maine to hang out with my
dad for a couple of days along the Marginal Way, okay,
and then I'm headed into New Brunswick, so that's next
on the list. And then I'm looping around from there
west and then back south towards Texas.
Speaker 3: So come catch me.
Speaker 2: On the Positive Vibe Highway, surfing along with me and
my trailer.
Speaker 1: Outstanding, outstanding, And where should people go online to keep
up with everything that you're doing? Where's the best place
to go?
Speaker 2: Yeah, Mark Winter's music dot com is the place to
join the Positive Vibe tribe. Hop on that email list
and keep track of all the the places I'm visiting
and maybe catch a show live and pick up some
positive energy in your life, you.
Speaker 1: Know, outstanding. So to close out this segment, we're gonna
play this track Strong. What should we know about this
before we play it? Anything you want to tell us
about this?
Speaker 4: Yes, my h.
Speaker 2: So I'm I'm extremely competitive in athletics. So if we're
out running a race together, Matt and I saw the
finish line and you're standing next to me running, I'm like, Matt,
I'm about to beat you coming across that finish line.
And so anything athletics, I'm like that guy, super competitive,
but in other parts of my life not so much.
And so I wrote a song to remind myself and
my children both to be aware that finishing strong can
have a big impact in your life. And so the
song it's all about finishing the strong.
Speaker 1: Baby all right, very good. So we're gonna play this,
and if you are listening live on Saturday, sick Around
coming up in the second hour, we have the Gray
Curtain in studio, but we're gonna close out this hour
with this. This is Strong by Mark Winters and Mark
thank you again.
Speaker 3: Thanks Matt.
Speaker 2: We'll baby like this twist stenter times when you're feeling down.
Speaker 4: And when you want to give her and throw it
to the gownd.
Speaker 2: Ab Baby, Lord only knows it's true. Gave up a
few times myself.
Speaker 4: Help and didn't pull it through. Looking back is clearer.
Speaker 2: Now that a Pinto makes a great road sand for you.
Speaker 4: Hold up your head now, baby, hold up your head now,
eyes on the press? Did a concert finish line?
Speaker 7: Strong?
Speaker 6: Yeah?
Speaker 2: And when I watch you grow trying hard to find
your week bawling down looking around?
Speaker 4: What should I see? Looking back is clearing now? All
that appears to makes.
Speaker 7: A great road? Time?
Speaker 8: Now on my brown, get across that finish line?
Speaker 7: Strong?
Speaker 4: What should I do? Be strong? What should I do?
Make it tough for nobodas?
Speaker 8: Now?
Speaker 4: What should I do? Be strong? What should I do
say if you first give you easy? How should I
do be strong?
Speaker 1: What should I do?
Speaker 4: Show the way? Cast a shadow? What should I do?
Be strong? What should I do?
Speaker 7: Make you strong?
Speaker 1: Back?
Speaker 2: It's clearer now that a pen who makes a great
broad sam for you?
Speaker 4: The word now be of the ride?
Speaker 8: They're a quoted Finnish lie, stry, what of your herd?
Speaker 5: Now?
Speaker 4: Bead on the ride? You're a quoted Finnish lie.
Speaker 5: Try