Speaker 1: B w M N h rips the Nobles side.
Speaker 2: Mm hmmm, mm hmmm.
Speaker 3: How on the streets the other night you got me
a drunk got the fight there?
Speaker 4: I was onside of road lighting a pool of blood.
Stove stove stock left gay stove. I don't mind what
time it was, lean on the side food.
Speaker 5: Let left me to the other night. I don't know
any reasons why.
Speaker 4: Stop level the stove store left on gay stock stove
no level as stove stove lac stove.
Speaker 6: Then I was lying there looking.
Speaker 4: At the star to mo mad when I wonder how
I been and if my life was going to end?
Stove level ass stove stop stop left stop stop stop.
Speaker 5: That is called left four dead. The band is four
feet out and you are listening to Matt connorton Unleashed.
If you are listening live on Saturday, we have entered
our number two new Merrow dose. Today is Saturday, April twelve,
twenty twenty five. And again, if you are listen live,
please be careful if you're traveling. It is snowing outside.
Although while Jenny you said it looks like it might
have finally stopped, it does Okay, it stopped, Okay, good
but be careful traveling. The roads are are quite messy
as we are experiencing some winter weather in the middle
of April. But what are you gonna do? Anyway, we've
got Echo Ray is here with us live in studio. Welcome,
good morning, Hello, Hello. So you've actually been on the
show before. As we discussed off air, you were here
with Dark Rain, and that must have been well, we've
been we've been at the new location for what a
year and a half now, so that must have been
like two years ago.
Speaker 3: A yeah, I guess it must have been two years. Time
just flies, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 5: It's funny because sometimes we'll have we'll have people on
the show and I'll be like, okay, so this is
somebody new and then it's like, well wait a minute,
though I might I've probably met them at some point.
And then when you walked in, I was like, oh, yeah,
I definitely know you, but I couldn't remember where. And
then you said Dark Rain. I was like, oh, yeah, okay,
I remember now you are. And by the way, we're
gonna play another other couple other great tracks that you
sent us, uh later in the show, but you're wearing
your lone Wolf James Shirt, great great band. We saw them,
Jenny and I saw them at Swarmy Fest, and you know,
I was telling you off air about how how much
I was impressed with their live set and how it's
such a cool name, Lone Wolf. James and I seen
them live. I remember saying to Jenny, I said, they
sound exactly like their name. They sound exactly like you
would expect a band with that name to.
Speaker 6: Sound, which absolutely good hard and.
Speaker 5: We're gonna play a song from Diamond Edge later too.
In Diamond Edge they were really good live too. But
but tell us about you, what do you do in
the in the music industry.
Speaker 3: Well, I go by the rock and redhead. I travel
all over New England, up and down from Maine, the
Rhode Island and beyond, even in support of local music.
So New England definitely does not get the recognition that
it deserves for the music scene. And right now it
is truly thriving. Oh yeah, bands are coming out of
the woodwork and they're amazing bands with incredible talent.
Speaker 5: Well, there's so much great talent here and uh, you know,
sometimes people will ask me, you know, or they'll last
Jenny and Jenny handles the she does all the booking
for the show, but people will ask us, you know,
how do you find how do you find these musicians?
And it's like, well, it's it's not really hard because
they're everywhere.
Speaker 6: Yeah, they really are.
Speaker 5: You know, there's there's so much incredible talent around.
Speaker 3: Absolutely. I think one of the bigger problems we're having
is venues. The venues are shutting down or oh that's
opping local music, and that's always a problem. That's a
whole nother story in itself.
Speaker 5: Absolutely, were you gonna say, Jenny, they actually find us,
they find us.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 6: Yeah. A lot of the guests that are on actually
reach out. Yeah, so if you're thinking about it, you
should reach out. Yeah, absolutely, most definitely.
Speaker 5: Absolutely. By the way, our first guest in the first hour,
Katie Doins, said in the chat room, thank you Matt
for always supporting me and sharing my music and so
many local musicians so grateful. Well, we're we're very glad
to do it, Katie, And you know that is that
is such a joy of doing a show like this
and and on the show, of course, you know, we
have a we do have a lot of musicians from
New England or specifically New Hampshire and and we also
talk to people too from other parts of the country
and other parts of the world. Like we have a
great relationship with a PR firm in the UK, big GPR,
and they send us some great artists from over there
who skype in, you know, across the pond as it were.
But but but, but I think probably the majority of
strong majority of the artists we talk to are within
driving distance of the radio station here at w m
n H. And but I always tell people too, you know,
if you're you know, if if you're bored with whatever
you're hearing on commercial radio, you know, uh, there's there's
so much great talent, there's so much great independent music
being made, and wherever you are, whether you're here or
because I assume it's the same everywhere, I assume no
matter where you are in the United States, there's there's
probably incredible music being made right under your nose that
if you're not paying attention, you don't even know it's there.
Speaker 6: Absolutely, I can attest to that.
Speaker 3: Whenever I travel out of state, you know, like well
out of state, I always try to look up the
local scene. Wherever I'm at, there is definitely a scene
no matter where you go, you just you need to
find it, that's all.
Speaker 5: Yeah, absolutely, I'm looking for something. Oh yeah, so our friend,
I assume you're familiar with Terminus Terminus Underground in Ashville.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 5: Yeah, So our friend Eleanor had posted something the other
day kind of on this subject. Let me see if
I can. Why is my screen so dark? Trying to
look at this on my phone? So she posted, and
I thought this was a great insight. She said, You know,
when you support local bands, you're supporting new music. You're
part of an exclusive group of people who hear songs
the first time they're played. Get in on the ground
floor as a super fan, uh, and be up close
and personal to real rock stars. What's played on radio
is often decades old music of people who often are
no longer performing. Why allow a stage, screen or a
speaker to come between you and your music. When you
support a local artist, you are supporting real art and
real people, and you're not filling billionaire pockets? And does
anyone think about that? And then, you know, people made
various comments, but I thought that was a great insight too,
because yeah, when you support local musicians, yeah, you're you're
kind of getting you're getting it on the ground floor.
Speaker 6: You know absolutely and exactly what it's about.
Speaker 5: And you get to witness up close to their development
as an artist.
Speaker 6: Yep, yep. You know.
Speaker 3: Even the national bands, they all started out local at
some point too, exactly exactly your your favorite national band
wouldn't be where they are if it wasn't for the
local scene that boosted them to where they are.
Speaker 5: Yep. Yeah, Well, what's the expression? Every every overnight sensation
was years in the making.
Speaker 6: Yes. Absolutely.
Speaker 5: How long have you been? I mean, how long have
you been actively supporting I assume.
Speaker 3: You've well, you know, it's a little tricky to answer.
I mean specifically, I've been going with the rock and
Redhead brand, if you will, for almost two years.
Speaker 6: I think August will make two years. But I have
been a.
Speaker 3: I hate to use the term groupie, but a super fan,
if you will, as long as I can remember. You know,
way back in the eighties, I fell in love with
the Guns N' Roses videos and I just knew that
I needed to be in the music scene somehow, so
I lived out my life. I got stuck doing a
bunch of retail jobs, dead end stuff here and there,
but I was really good at it, really good at sales,
really good at people marketing, that sort of thing. So
I just kind of decided to take the skills that
I do have with all of that and twist it
into selling the music and the bands at a local
level here to kind of get that New England scene scene, because,
like I said, we don't get nearly the enough recognition.
Speaker 5: Right, So how do you do that? Like, what do
you do in terms of promoting these artists that you
work with?
Speaker 3: Most of it in today's day and age is all
on the socials, And as I was telling you off air,
I almost need an assistant just to handle the socials
because they're so out of control. And then you get
the different bands and all of their socials added into everything,
and it just becomes this huge tree of bands and
musicians and it's pretty wild.
Speaker 5: Yeah, Like how many how many bands are you sort
of actively promoting at any one time?
Speaker 3: Or quite a few, because I don't really limit myself. Basically,
if you have talent and you put your hard work, skill, blood,
sweat and tears into what you're doing, I will recognize
that absolutely. If your stuff's good, I will throw it
out there, share it as much as I can on
all of my platforms. I've got a bunch of different
groups that I'm associated with all around New England. Yeah,
and ever since I went with the Rock and Redhead,
my name is actually it's it's being remembered now.
Speaker 6: Yeah, you know, so people are hearing me.
Speaker 3: I was down in Massachusetts last year and I went
to hand somebody one of my stickers and he says.
Speaker 6: I've seen you. You're on social media.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 6: I'm like, yeah, that's that's me, the Rock and Redhead.
Speaker 5: Yeah, well that's you know, and you mentioned earlier kind
of building that brand, and that's you know, I'm very
into anybody who knows anything about my background, very into
marketing and branding and so forth, which is a part
of you know, whether anyone likes it or not, it's
an important part of the music industry, or or promoting
a radio show or a podcast or anything that you're doing.
Really so, so you're you're you're really in a sense,
you're doing both at once, right, You're building your brand
while promoting these bands, and and it sounds like it's
it sounds like it's working for you. Do you have
like do you create merchandise and whatnot for for the
rock and Redhead brand or how does that work exactly.
Speaker 6: It's gonna happen eventually.
Speaker 3: Right now, I just have some stickers, but eventually, as
I grow a little bit more, I'm hoping to get
some T shirts and stuff.
Speaker 6: I have been asked to make hoodies.
Speaker 3: Yeah, people want you know, little knickknacks, patches and stuff
like that. So yeah, it's definitely in the works. And
I myself, I specialize in merch sales. That's actually the
thing that I do the most of that. I really
it's my passion. Okay, So I definitely do want to
get into doing merch. I'm just not quite there yet. Yeah,
but yeah, it's basically just throwing throwing my name out
as much as I can and with it the bands
that that get the support. Just yesterday, I was in
a fast food chain and I was wearing my four
feet out hoodies. What's that hoodie represent? And I was like, Oh,
this is a band right out of Brunswick, Maine. Next
thing you know, she's looking them up and there they
gained another fan.
Speaker 6: So and I do that everywhere I go.
Speaker 5: The role of merch in the music industry, uh, in general,
I think is extraordinarily important because because for one thing,
it's it's one of the sort of dependable revenue streams, right,
And this is, you know, no matter what level you're
operating at, whether we're you know, whether we're talking about
somebody local just starting out, or whether we're talking about
a national touring act, because you know, you look at
other revenue streams. So streaming has has made it very
difficult to make any money off of the music itself.
You know, you talk to anyone about Spotify for example,
I mean it's it's it's so little, even for major artists.
In some cases, it's so little money. It's it's almost
not not not worth depositing the check.
Speaker 3: And touring too, like everything's you know, the price gouging
is just disgusting, right, Oh yeah, with everything.
Speaker 5: Tour touring has become cost prohibitive and even for some
for some.
Speaker 3: Artists, the merch is really the only way that they
can make the most of their revenue.
Speaker 5: Now exactly exactly. So that's so it's so important. And
it's funny though, I remember years ago saying, well, I
kind of I guess I predicted the way things would
go a little bit incorrectly because I remember thinking, Okay,
there will always be money. See, I thought the merch
part was going to go away, and I'll tell you why.
So I thought, well, you'll always be able to sell tickets.
You'll always be able to sell live tickets, because that's
one thing you can't replicate, is the live experience actually
being there. And I don't see how, you know, even
with virtual reality and whatever advancements we see in the
next few years, with that, I don't see how it
would be possible to ever replicate actually being there. So
I thought that would be the one dependable revenue stream,
not not foreseeing you know, what would happen to the
touring industry in terms of costs. I thought merch would
be a problem. And the reason I thought so would
be because of three D printers. I thought. When we
first started hearing about three D printing, I remember saying
because prior to that, I had always said, like when
because I was working for a national retail chain of
music chain.
Speaker 7: Uh.
Speaker 5: I worked for Strawberries, which eventually became f Ye and everything,
And I remember when Napster came in and it was like, oh, okay,
so music is free now and at that time, I said, well,
we'll always have merch because at least you can't download
a T shirt. And then we started hearing about three
D printers and I said, uh, oh, you're going to
be able to download a T shirt. But it hasn't
that that hasn't panned out that way. So so now
actually because again it's so hard to make because the
profit margins are so thin with touring and and uh
and if you're a national act, you know Ticketmaster Live Nation,
I should say I guess to be more precise, they
take so much money. So so it really is in
the merch.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, absolutely, Yeah. They make most of their revenue
with that. So it's really important to be selling the
merch out there. And one of the things that I
run into a lot too. You know, bands will often
run the merch themselves, and you know they'll miss a
lot of their revenue when fans are coming back and
forth and you know they're tearing down that first fifteen
minutes while you're tearing down your set. So crucial, Yes,
merch sales, yes, and there's nobody at the table to
sell the stuff.
Speaker 5: That's a great point.
Speaker 3: That's that's where I step in and I want to
make sure I'm there to get out of the merch
soul at the times when the band is busy. Yeah,
and a couple of the band's two four feet out
lone Wolf James, I actually kind of work as a
personal assistant. I do everything and anything for these guys. Yeah,
you know, they need their their drinks filled up in
the middle of the set, or sweat rags whatever at
the end of the night.
Speaker 6: Come on up, your rocking redhead's got y.
Speaker 5: Yeah, No, you just set because a lot of music
industry people listen to the show and you just made
a great point though about with the merch that first
fifteen minutes and how crucial that is because you know,
you like anything any kind of you know, you got
to strike while the iron is hot. Somebody they've just
seen your set, they're enthralled. They're like, that's when they're thinking, Oh,
I'm gonna buy a T shirt, or'm gona buy hoodie,
or I gotta get something from I gonna buy their
CD if they have physical media, which not all bands do,
but that's when they're thinking about it. And if you
if you wait for that to cool off, then they
might think, yeah, you know I wasn't gonna get something,
but maybe i'll I'm just gonna spend this money on
another drink, and some.
Speaker 3: People want to scoot out and beat the traffic, don't
want to wait around.
Speaker 5: Yeah, exactly, exactly. So that's a that's a great point
that you bring up about the importance of making those
sales right away, and if you don't have a dedicated
merch person, you are in a very tough spot because
especially if if you're not the headliner and you've got
another band waiting to go on, because I I don't
I don't actively play anymore, but I've I've played in
a lot of bands at one time. And you know,
so anybody who's who's done that knows the pressure of
you finish your set, you've got another band waiting to
come on, you want to get off that stage as
quickly as possible so they can, you know, unless you're
a jerk, which I encountered that a few times. But
most musicians are good people. But every once in a
while you encounter somebody who's a little bit of a
slow poke getting off the stage, and then you want
to choke them.
Speaker 8: But yeah, I'm thinking of some specific stories that I'm
not going to tell on the air about the people
I wanted to strangle, but well, yes, yes, but uh
but yeah, so if you don't have a dedicated merch person,
yeah you are. You're losing revenue because you got to
get off the stage. You can't be unless you're the
lead singer, and you're not gonna help anyway.
Speaker 5: You know, there are.
Speaker 6: Those situations to that that happens to.
Speaker 5: You know, it's like, well, I could carry this amp,
but I don't really want to because I'm a singer.
Speaker 6: Somebody else will get.
Speaker 5: It right, Yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah, but no, but that's
that's a great point that you make. I want I
want to stay on that for a moment too, because
I'm curious, are there other mistakes that you see that
you see bands make, uh, when it comes to merch
or anything really with the live performance and that whole aspect,
because again, it is it's sales. Whether anyone likes it
or not, sales is a part of it. Like, are
there other mistakes that you see bands make for solo
artists or anybody?
Speaker 3: I don't know if i'd call them mistakes. I think
everybody has their own kind of method and way of
doing things. One thing that I do see that just
kind of makes me scratch my head is again going
back to the pricing price gouging. It happens more at
a national level than locals, but I'll see the locals
doing it a lot too. They're charging national prices for
their T shirts and stuff. I mean, I understand, you've
got to make your profit and the money's going out otherwise,
but there's pretty low, pretty high profit margin on T shirts. Yeah,
you know, yeah, so to be selling them for forty
five to fifty dollars just doesn't make any sense.
Speaker 5: One of the great challenges with that, in my experience,
is trying to figure out how much how much profit
should we really realistically be trying to shoot for, or
should we be trying to shoot for any should we
be trying to break even? Because you know, we're we're
trying to promote, We're not trying to make money on
this merch. Yet, We're not yet at that level where
we can make money on the merch. We're at a
level where we can use the merch to try to
promote the band, but not exposure, not expect any money.
Or are we even still at the level where we're
not even going to break even on the merch. We
just want to but we want to get that T
shirt on you if we can, so maybe we'll take
a loss. It's an investment. We're building a business. Again.
They don't want to think of it. They don't want
to think of the building the business part. That's a
bad phrase to a lot of musicians. But that is
what you're doing.
Speaker 6: It is what you're doing.
Speaker 5: Yeah, So that's very tricky.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 3: And that's a very good point too that you bring
up about. You know, sometimes you're giving the product away.
I see a lot of bands often will do just
that and just hand out their T shirts like here
have a free T shirt.
Speaker 5: Yep.
Speaker 3: You know, I hand out my stick for free. I'll
you know, every once in a while somebody will pay
me a dollar for them. I'm like, okay, great, thanks.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 6: Yeah, but you know, I hand it out like this
is me, get me out.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Look at what I'm you know, look at all the
bands I'm promoting and what we're doing.
Speaker 6: Yeah, we're making waves.
Speaker 5: Yeah. And it also depends on what your priorities are,
because I'll act that's true. Obviously a lot of bands
they're not Some bands aren't interested in building a business.
Some bands are just they're just doing it for fun.
Maybe maybe you've got a band member who has a
super high paying job who's willing to put some money
down to get these T shirts made, and they don't care.
This is just a hobby to them. They don't care.
They're just whatever. You know, we're just having fun anyway,
you know. So you know, so you've also got that aspect.
Speaker 6: But definitely see my fair share of that too.
Speaker 5: Oh yeah, yeah, And there's nothing wrong with that. No,
not a thing wrong with that.
Speaker 3: Like I said, everybody kind of has their own method
and their own way of doing things, and people are
in it for different reasons, as you were just saying
as well.
Speaker 5: So yeah, yeah, absolutely. I assume the bands that you
tend to work with or are bands that that are
not thinking that way, but rather they're thinking they want
to you know, they're trying to get somewhere with this.
Speaker 6: Yeah, yeah, most of them.
Speaker 3: I do work with a couple of bands that are
that are kind of in it for funzies and just
doing stuff. But we all love playing and I think
that's that's what it boils down to, is we're just
in it for the musicianship and the camaraderie and yeah, yeah,
I just love it.
Speaker 5: Yeah. What are you a musician yourself? Do you play?
Speaker 6: I'm not.
Speaker 5: Okay, I'm not.
Speaker 6: I always wanted to be, but I just couldn't find
the right skill.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 3: So, like I said, I found a way to morph
the skills that I do have into and bring it
into the music business.
Speaker 5: Yeah. Yeah. Are there are there certain bands that you've
been that you've associated with them, that you've helped to
have who have kind of, I don't know, gone to
the next level or just really kind of kind of
broken through it a big way, because we should talk
about some of those. Yeah.
Speaker 3: Absolutely, well, First and foremost, I want to give a
shout out to the first band that we played at
the top of the hour, four Feet Out. Those guys
are my brothers. I've known them for over half my
lifetime and they've been jamming together. The three of them
have been jamming for like ten years, maybe a little
more as four Feet Out they've been together for about
five or six years now.
Speaker 5: So they're a three piece. Yes, I'm always impressed when
you've got a three piece that has like a big
sound they've got a big sound.
Speaker 6: Yeah. Oh, they've got a really big sound. Yeah.
Speaker 3: They don't really fall into their own genre, which I
really like. We kind of refer to it as like
your psychedelic stoner hard rocker.
Speaker 5: That's kind of thee from Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but those guys kind of gave me my start
doing what I'm doing. I started as their merch girl
five years ago. Yeah, a little less than that actually
because of COVID. But as soon as COVID let us
get back out there, we were, we were hitting the storm.
And they've got a pretty good following right now. You
can find them on YouTube and on Facebook. So they've
got they got a gig coming up in Turner.
Speaker 6: I believe.
Speaker 5: Is that in Is that Maine?
Speaker 6: Turn Turner, Maine? That's right, thank you, I forgot where
I'm at.
Speaker 5: So they're from Maine.
Speaker 6: They are from Brunswick, Maine.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 3: We also I want to give a shout out for
dark Rain. Dark Rain also, as you mentioned, I I
roll around with them for quite a while doing some
merch and those guys make waves. They're they're just out
playing anywhere and everywhere they can good and I love
that for them. Yeah, Lethal Creed They are also a
three piece that that they are from Newfield, Maine.
Speaker 5: Newfield. Where's Newfield? I don't even know where that.
Speaker 3: Is, literally right on the border of New Hampshire, it is,
kidding Rochester Oh okay, Yeah, it's right up by Rochester.
Speaker 5: Okay.
Speaker 3: But they are also a three piece and they are
made up of a grandfather, father, and son, no kidding.
Speaker 6: And they are incredible.
Speaker 3: If you're in the thrash metal and you really like
getting into the hardcore headbanging, Lethal Creed is definitely your band. Okay,
they've been jamming, not as the piece that they are now,
but they've been a band since nineteen eighty seven, no kidding,
and they just carried the name right along and now
it's the father, grandfather and son.
Speaker 5: Oh that's fascinating. We got to get them on.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I definitely recommend them there. They're solid group of
people to now and musician musically.
Speaker 5: Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 3: Paradise is canceled. Those guys. I don't know if you've
heard about them.
Speaker 5: I have. Did we have them? Jenny, Paradise is canceled.
Did we have them on the show? The names, the
name's super familiar.
Speaker 6: Yeah, they're out of Biteford, Maine.
Speaker 5: It becomes a blur. We've been doing this a lot, No.
Speaker 3: I understand. Yeah, that's my thing. I had to ds
some names down for the exact reason.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I also have Burning Time on my list. Those
guys are really making waves out there right now. Okay,
And actually, speaking of Burning Time and Paradise is canceled tonight.
They are both playing a show at the Palladium, which
is super exciting to have our main boys down there. Yeah, Palladium,
So I think I'm probably gonna brave the weather and
scoot down there after I'm done up here with you guys.
Speaker 6: Who are they check them out?
Speaker 5: Who are they playing with?
Speaker 3: They are playing with a cursed death's hand. And I
believe Scarecrow Hill.
Speaker 5: Oh, Scarecrow Hill.
Speaker 6: I'm actually unfamiliar with them.
Speaker 5: We had we had Scarecrow Hill on the show. Maybe again,
it becomes a blurb maybe three months ago, right, Yeah.
I love those guys. Yeah, that was that was great.
We had a we had a great discussion with them,
and I love their sound.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I'm super excited to check it out.
Speaker 5: Is that the headliner, Scarecrow Yeah?
Speaker 6: Okay, yeah, those are the headliners?
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, that's uh, you know two six one Main Street, Worcester,
mass at the Palladium tonight.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we're gonna rock hard on that one for sure.
Very don't let the the weather's clearing up, so.
Speaker 5: Oh yeah, by that it'll be fine.
Speaker 3: Yeah, don't let that stop you come on out and
rock out with us tonight. Yeah, the rock and Redhead's
there with stickers yep, yeap Diamond's Edge. I think you
have a song of their's queued up here too, don't you.
Speaker 5: Yeah, play that a minute.
Speaker 6: Yeah, yeah they are.
Speaker 3: They are the wicked friendly band from New Hampshire and
they are just that. They are amazing people inside and out.
Also three piece, yes, yes, also I love these three
pieces because you get so much sound out of them yep,
and you never even really know it, but they're just
rocking it.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 6: Yeah, and I love Trish, she's amazing.
Speaker 5: Yeah, we saw I think they were the opening band
ats Swarmy Fest. Yeah and yeah, I think that's right.
Very impressed.
Speaker 3: Yeah yeah, yeah, Midnight Positions making waves out there, and man,
I'm not entirely sure where me and they're based out of,
but I've seen them a couple few times and they're
just the crowd reaction every time I see them is
pretty insane.
Speaker 6: Yeah, signal to noise.
Speaker 3: Those guys are making waves that they actually just landed
a tour with Tantric I believe, going across the country.
Speaker 5: Oh very cool.
Speaker 6: Yeah, so we're excited for them.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I've got to find perspective in here.
Speaker 5: Uh.
Speaker 6: Fifth Freedom you've mentioned a couple of times.
Speaker 5: Yeah, is in the chat room, actually, says referring to
our conversation. Some bands are just trying to get some
music uploaded or play for friends, not everyone on iTunes.
That's trying to play live. That's true, that's true.
Speaker 6: That is true.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah. I also have Black Orange. They went on a
little hiatus for a little while there, but I think
they're coming back. I've seen some promotion, some promo pictures
and stuff on online in the last few days.
Speaker 5: So that's a that's a cool name, Black Orange.
Speaker 6: I love it. I love it.
Speaker 3: Their logos are usually pretty graphic and really pretty cool
looking too.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 6: Oh they're cool. Yeah. And Sonic Bomb.
Speaker 3: I recently caught a caught a show of theirs that
was in Bideford. They're Massachusetts based band, I believe, but uh,
I saw them up in Maine and it's fronted by
a female who's got one heck of a power voice. Yeah,
she's incredible and the energy to like just falls to
the wall. Yeah yeah all the way.
Speaker 6: I love that.
Speaker 5: Well, very cool. Well we were talking about them. Let's
give this a spin. So this is a track called Speak
and this is Diamond Dead. And where are they from?
Speaker 6: They are from New Hampshire.
Speaker 3: I'm not entirely sure exactly what part of New Hampshire,
but I know they're from New Hampshire.
Speaker 5: Oh, very cool. Yeah, let's give this a spin and
then we'll come back and we'll chat some more. We
have Echo, Ray the Rock and Redhead here with us
in studio.
Speaker 2: Speak Deil Mountain, speekl.
Speaker 4: Mountain, Sweet Mountain.
Speaker 9: Now you're here for a reason.
Speaker 5: Un don't let time run out.
Speaker 2: Region sign Now it's your season.
Speaker 6: What are you really?
Speaker 2: Fell out? As an inner man who knows is worth?
Speaker 4: Come on and let it out.
Speaker 6: Look alive. Now it's your word.
Speaker 2: Shut, speak to your master, tell me where to go.
Speaker 4: Speak?
Speaker 2: So the problem, don't you know?
Speaker 6: Speak to your mountain.
Speaker 2: Word's come true when you believe. Speak to your mountains.
Oh and cast it into the season. Want your eyes now,
your eyes on the windows to your very soul.
Speaker 6: What's your ears now?
Speaker 2: What do you hear your like PRISSI down so long?
What would you say?
Speaker 6: Your words tell your future son't make them good?
Speaker 2: Hand aloud like your voice.
Speaker 6: Now, run to your giant as shure.
Speaker 2: Speak to your mountain, tell it where to go. Speaks
to the problem, don't you know? Speak to real mountain
words going through?
Speaker 6: When you and me.
Speaker 2: Speaks real mountain and cast it into the sea.
Speaker 6: You you'll lie within.
Speaker 2: You make the time to lessen the lie, for in
the power of the dog. So speak, lie and live.
Speak to real mountain. Speak to real mountain. Speak to
your mountain. Let's that speaker your mountain, speak for your father.
Tell that to go, tell it to go. Speak to
you about it.
Speaker 6: Tell me where no.
Speaker 4: Me to the problem. Don't you know.
Speaker 10: Me?
Speaker 6: So your mountain.
Speaker 2: Were't going through? When you believe, speak to your mountain,
cast it.
Speaker 6: Into the sea.
Speaker 2: Just get into the city.
Speaker 9: Sleep.
Speaker 5: What that is called speak? The band is Diamond Edge
And you are listening to Matt Connorton Unleashed, and we
are live from these studios of w M n H
ninety five point three FM, Inglorious, Manchester, New Hampshire, and
if you are listening live on Saturday morning, please be
traveling safely. If you are traveling, it sounds like the
snow has stopped, and who knows, maybe this afternoon it'll
all just melt away. It'll be like it never happened.
But today is of course Saturday, April twelve, twenty twenty five,
and we're talking with the rock and redhead Echo Ray
is here with us live in studio, and so I'm curious, like,
do you have any do you have like a like aa.
It's probably like trying to choose between one of your kids, right,
but do you have any any particular favorite that you're
really passionate about as far as these bands.
Speaker 6: That you work with, it is like trying to choose
my kids. That's that's not that.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 3: As a matter of fact, you know, this year, especially,
my calendar has been blowing up. I'm already booked all
the way in through October. Yeah, and I have a
couple of plan a couple of shows planned in the
winter as well.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 3: And I'm finding a lot of double bookings, so you know,
I get booked in with one band and then I
get another band that says, hey, we need you on
this date, and I'm already booked somewhere, and it's where
you gotta you know, I I literally have to choose
and pick between which one. I had this conversation with
somebody the other day and I say, you know, it's
not always very black and white. Sometimes it's about the
family you're born with versus the family you're married into.
Speaker 5: Right, I love you both.
Speaker 3: I don't know how to choose which one. Yeah, you know,
Lone Wolf James is playing a lot of national shows now.
They're they're making some huge waves out there with some
really big names.
Speaker 5: Excellent.
Speaker 3: But then I've got four Feet Out, who does a
lot of like barbecue and local kind of events and stuff.
But those are all really close to home. They're they're
like family reunions. Yeah, you know, so it's hard. Do
I want to go to a big Lone Wolf James
national show or am I going to a to a
local family barbecue with four Feet Out? Yeah, but you know,
I'm trying to balance it out. I'm actually trying to
work to the point where I might be able to
get an assistant or somebody to kind of help me
out a little bit, somebody that I can hire to
go to extra shows. When I'm not available to run
a show, they can run it for me. But I'm
kind of working through the business politics of everything and
trying to get like like an actual business plan down.
This has gone a lot farther than I ever dreamed
it would, and it's just getting started.
Speaker 5: Yeah, that's a good problem.
Speaker 6: Absolutely.
Speaker 5: But yeah, it sounds like in the scenario you presented,
I mean really just from a business standpoint, pragmatically, you
would have to go with Lone Wolf Games, right as
far as what commitment you're going to go with, because
pretty much it sounds like they they need you, and
you know you're you're working with them at a critical
time for them, when they're starting to, like you said,
they're starting to open for some nationals and and really
getting out there.
Speaker 6: So absolutely absolutely, And I gave him my commitment.
Speaker 11: You know.
Speaker 3: He told me when he brought me in that he
really needed somebody that was committed and that was dependable,
and I said, I'm there.
Speaker 6: I'm so there for it.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I remained to that. Yeah, absolutely, I'm here for the ride. Yeah,
as far as we can take it.
Speaker 5: Yeah, where does the name Do you know where the
name lone Wolf James comes from? If they ever told
you that. I'm just curious because it's such a cool name.
Speaker 3: Well, I you know, I don't really want to give
the whole story away because it's not my story to tell. Okay,
but the cliff Notes version is he was just referred
to as there goes the lone Wolf one day.
Speaker 6: Oh really, and it just kind of stuck. And his
name is James as it's Gary James.
Speaker 5: Oh, Gary Gery. Okay, gotcha, gotcha.
Speaker 6: He's a singer, he is yea and he plays guitar.
Speaker 5: Okay, Okay, if they've been around it, I mean I
assume they've been around one.
Speaker 3: They've been around for a long time. Actually, I found
them roughly ten years ago or so. I think they've
been around a little bit longer than that. Yeah, I
think they have five CDs. Okay, we're working on getting
on a new one out very soon. Yeah, but yeah,
you can get all of that. In fact, I did
want to mention while I'm thinking about it here, they
do have a show coming up with Tim Montana on
May seventeenth at the Webster in Connecticut. Okay, so we
want to give away some tickets.
Speaker 5: Oh, very nice.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 3: All you have to do is buy a T shirt
from Yours Truly, Echo, Ray the Rock and Redhead, or
you could get Gary James from Lone Wolf James himself.
But if you buy a T shirt between now and
May first, you automatically get a free ticket to the show.
Speaker 5: Oh that's good, yeah, very cool.
Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely, it's fifteen dollars for your tip for your
T shirt you'll get ticket for free.
Speaker 5: So excellent.
Speaker 3: You can hit me up on any of my socials Facebook,
Instagram and Lone Wolf James as well. You can get
them on Facebook, Instagram, I'm sorry. Lone Wolf James is
a on Instagram. They're on reverb Nation and YouTube okay
and Facebook.
Speaker 5: Yeah yeah, but.
Speaker 3: Yeah, definitely get in, get get a T shirt, get
a free ticket for the show with Tim Montana.
Speaker 6: Excellent, super excited.
Speaker 5: Oh that's very cool. And what's the data on that again?
May seventeenth, Okay, very good, very good. Something else I
wanted to ask you about, and we alluded to it earlier,
but physical media, you know, because you work with merch
this is this is a subject that comes up on
the show a lot, because a lot of artists now,
at least that we've interviewed, there seems to be obviously
it never went away, but there seems to be kind
of a newfound commitment to releasing things on CD and
in some cases even vinyl. I know vinyl is expensive
to produce, but we've had a lot of artists too,
a lot of guests who you know, they'll bring us
a vinyl record and it's like, wow, we even't have
a CD player now. It's it belongs to I mean
a DVD. Geez, I can't even say it were a
record player there it is. We actually have a record
player now in the studio that belongs to one of
the guys who does a show here, who brought it
in for anybody wh wants to use it. I haven't
used it yet. Well, we do have a functioning CD
player here too that I never used, but one of
the other guys uses. But but like, do you have
any thoughts on that, Like do you think it's worth
it for you know, because part of the calculus just
like just like there's some business calculus with what do
we do with these T shirts in terms of pricing
and are we trying to make money? Are we not.
What about physical media? You know, Uh, do like do
most of the artists you work with, you they actually
release physical CDs?
Speaker 6: A lot of them do.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, at this level that you know, it's it's
nice to have that, not not just at this level,
but it's nice to actually have that physical Yes, you
can have something to play in the CD player in
the car or whatever. A lot of fans, myself included,
Like I said, I'm a super fan. I just like
to have it just to have it, yes, just as
a collectible item.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 3: And I do see a lot of people will buy
them just to have them, especially you know, if you're
if you're there to see the band, you'll you'll buy
what they have to sell, you know. It's it's just
the market that you're selling it to. Yeah, So I
do see a lot of that, and I have you
You made a point about the records too. Those are
making a comeback.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I think they're probably a lot more expensive to reproduce though,
aren't they.
Speaker 5: Yeah, from what I understand, it's very expensive, uh to
do vinyl. But but a lot of our guests are
doing it. And I think with vinyl, to my theory
is most most people who purchase vinyl, probably never actually
open it. Yeah, they just they just want to support
that artist, and it's cool to you know, if you
don't have a record player, you know, mount it on
your wall or something. Yeah, or they open it so
they can look at it, you know, and because as
usually you know, the nostalgia. Yeah, yeah, I love that.
But uh but then they but they never actually play it.
Speaker 9: You know.
Speaker 5: I don't know how many people have an actual record player,
but it's cool to you know, if you're really into
an artist, it's cool to cool to have.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and they sell modern record players now at Walmart.
Oh yeah, forty five fifty bucks.
Speaker 5: Oh yeah, absolutely, Yeah, that's probably where that one came from.
Speaker 9: Yeah.
Speaker 5: Yeah, but yeah, I think it's interesting, you know, the
decisions that go into whether to do because there was
a trend. You know, like if I think about I've
been doing this a long time, and if I think
ten years ago, probably a pretty safe bet. Most of
the artists maybe maybe less than ten years ago, but
most of the guests at that time that I had
on the show were kind of like, eh, no, we're
just putting stuff online. We're not we're not doing CDs.
Who does CDs anymore, right, But but I also remember
when I first I've talked about this on the show too,
when I very early on in my days of interviewing bands.
Sometimes they would before I was even doing this on
FM radio, when I was just doing it as a podcast,
like they'd show up with when they were still doing CDs,
and they this was before people got super comfortable with,
you know, just using Dropbox or Google Drive or whatever
to send files. Guess would show up with a CD.
But there was this is the old uh put the
CD on the finger, you know what I mean? Like, oh, here,
well here, I don't know how many times that happened,
like here, man, here's here's here's our music, you know.
And it's not even in a case it's a CD
on the finger that they're.
Speaker 6: Trading the envelope for it.
Speaker 5: No, no, that would that would happen. That would happen.
Here here it's on my finger, and now we're going
to transfer the CD to your finger. Here you go due,
you know. And it's like and of course now everyone
just emails the files to us, but but uh, yeah,
it's it's interesting how technology changes and attitudes about technology changes.
Oh yeah, and I think it was. I think it
was twenty twenty two. If I'm not mistaken. Somebody in
the chat room can correct me if if you know,
maybe if I have the wrong year, But I think
it was twenty twenty two. Was the first year that
Vinyl actually outsold CDs because Vinyl has had such a resurgence. Yeah,
and Vinyl never went away.
Speaker 6: But I didn't hear that. That's that's crazy.
Speaker 5: But yeah, yeah, Vinyl's actually But like I said, I
think most people who open who buy Vinyl don't never
even open it. But but but so most of the
artists you work with at this point, they are doing
physical CDs. Yeah, yeah, do any of them ever sell cassettes?
Speaker 6: Oh, that's a good one I have. I think hmm,
I think I've seen one band that's that's come up
with with cassettes.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I'm just curious because I hadn't experienced. I think
it was six or seven years ago. I was on
band camp dot com and all of a sudden I
started encountering I was I was looking for new new
artists from the area, and I was encountering these uh
new Hampshire artists who were releasing cassettes and the first
one that I found. They were like just this, you know,
sort of indie pop band, and I was like, oh
my god, they have a cassette and I thought it
was a fluke and I thought, oh, they just thought
it would be funny to do that. Whatever, it's just
a gimmick. And then I found more and I kept
finding more and I was like, oh my god, odd
this is real, Like there's there's There was this resurgence
and I don't think it lasted very long. I think
it was a but there was this sort of nostalgic
resurgence of cassettes and I was like, I guess some
people like tape Hiss, I don't know.
Speaker 6: Slip Not dropped a cassette with their last album too.
Speaker 5: I didn't realize that. No kidding, I'll be damned, I'll
be damned. Yeah, it's wild. It's funny because I used
to play in a band called the Jinx, and we
used to it was a running joke in the band
that we were going to release a a single that's funny,
and we never did. But fast forward a few years
and it actually might have It might have worked. But yeah,
what's what's like the the are there any merch items
you've seen that are just really unusual where you go. Really, guys,
you're you're selling I don't know, like Frisbees or something.
Speaker 3: Um, goodness, I can't think of any off the top
of my head. I'm sure there's been some some random
items out there for sure. Yeah, I know, I have
a keychain from from four Feet Out bottle opener keychain. Yeah,
we love those classic seller. Yeah, these bracelets actually are
huge sellers. Okay, but no matter who I'm who I'm
working with. Actually, we're I just convinced four feet Out
we're getting some with them. Those guys too, so excited
to get those in. Oh you know, I saw somebody
was I was selling autographed stage worn bandanas really and
I don't know why, but I'm totally here for that,
Like as a super fan, I would totally get something
like that. Sure, So yeah, that's that's probably one of
the most obscene of well not obscene but awkward things
I think I've seen.
Speaker 6: Bandana. Yeah, yeah, no, I see a lot of it
out there. It's hard to keep it all.
Speaker 5: Yeah, you know, no doubt. What's what's the most critical
thing to have, Like if if a band, if they
have a very tight budget for merch. Is is a
T shirt?
Speaker 10: Is?
Speaker 5: Is that the most critical thing to have?
Speaker 3: I would say, I would say T shirts and or
maybe do something like a like a small postcard. You
want to have something that's not quite as high price.
You want to have a lower price thing too, because
you're not going to get somebody that's gonna not everybody's
going to want to put down the full price for
the T shirt. You're going to want some smaller ticketed
items too. So that's why I like selling the bracelets.
These bracelets are easy for people. You know, kids come up,
they just you know, kids actually usually get bracelets for
free because.
Speaker 6: I'm like that, Oh really yeah yeah sometimes depends.
Speaker 5: Yeah yeah, oh that's that's very cool.
Speaker 6: We like to help the kids out, support the future
of the local music.
Speaker 5: Yeah, absolutely absolute. Where should uh? Where should people go
online who want to connect with you, want to learn
from you, want to work with you, whatever? Whatever? Like
what what's what's the best way for people to reach you?
Speaker 3: So my primary page is Facebook, It's just Echo Ray Straight.
I do have a business page that's Echo Ray the
Rock and Redhead, and you can find my happenings on
both of those pages. I am also on Instagram that
is Echo dot Ray Dot Rockinred and that page pretty
much mirrors my Facebook page. Working on boosting out a
little bit more. I don't know if I'm going to
go into snap or X or any of that stuff.
I'm just kind of trying to get my feet wet
with what I have right now, because it's still very overwhelming.
But that's primarily where I'm at right now with the
Instagram and Facebook and just out and about supporting your
local bands. That's where it's at. You know, go out
to the local, go out to the local gigs only
you can prevent empty venues.
Speaker 5: There you go, There you go, and do you want
to for people listening live? Do you want to plug again?
What's happening tonight?
Speaker 3: Yes, tonight you can catch your favorite rock and redhead.
That's me down at the Pollidium. I'm going down in
support of a couple of my favorite main bands. Paradise
is Canceled and Burning Time are going to be playing
with a Cursed and Death's Hand, as well as Scarecrow
Hill headlining the Palladium two six' one Main Street in Worcester,
mass and also Don't Want You to forget. If you
buy a Lone Wolf James T shirt from either myself
or Gary James online between now and May first, you
automatically get a free ticket for the May seventeenth show
with Tim Montana and that is going to be at
the Webster in Hartford, Connecticut.
Speaker 5: Oh, very good, outstanding, outstanding. Well, we encourage people to
do that and echo. This has been fascinating and very
very enlightening. And I learned some things about merch that
I didn't know, so that's very cool. And we will
end the segment with this track Cradle to Grave from
Lone Wolf James. And like I said, we saw them
live and we were very impressed. So so very cool.
Glad think glad good things are happening for them.
Speaker 6: You absolutely thank you.
Speaker 5: We will do this again in the future. And if
you are listening live on Saturday, Jesse Rutstein is coming
up next and the third hour. Can't wait for that.
But here it is. This is called Cradle to Grave,
and this is Lone Wolf James, your story.
Speaker 1: Walking to someone who kids, save.
Speaker 10: Your preaching, your rock, go adoptees.
Speaker 4: Willing to roll the slave.
Speaker 2: Maybe I'm not the world.
Speaker 11: You need to say.
Speaker 4: So keep it, my man, never change.
Speaker 2: From cradle dray.
Speaker 5: You know your knees.
Speaker 2: It's nothing to me.
Speaker 7: So see you're heaven in hell for the wishing well.
Speaker 5: You you know my.
Speaker 4: Time?
Speaker 5: Well we slay.
Speaker 4: Man, you need to saying, think you bla.
Speaker 11: Some from cret.
Speaker 2: My way, the fa black from.
Speaker 1: Yo's april.
Speaker 2: Where's the sun as it?
Speaker 7: Day's supposed to boom flowers?
Speaker 5: But the snow on the way.
Speaker 7: Manchester feeling like the North Pole zone.
Speaker 5: I'm out hearing buff lash.
Speaker 7: Of rock alone snow shipping the springtone Miles, I sung
a black life lingers say styles. People should be won,
but I'm bundled instead. Come on you, s why isn't
messing with my head?
Speaker 2: I'll put a shovel away.
Speaker 7: I thought I'd seen the last flake. Now I'm now
here again, cooning pass. I can't say win a chill
pulling Franks playing out of season?
Speaker 5: What's going on up there?
Speaker 2: Whether gotten no reason?
Speaker 7: So stripping the spring gone wild? I saw my black
life wringers ey Stiles. People should be won, but I'm
bundled instead. Come on you says it messing with my head.
Sun's on vacation and Cloud's taking charge. Driving here ring
the snowman. That's a sabotage. Those guy's a hostage by
frosty spring mother nature.
Speaker 6: What's this joke you're pulling on me?
Speaker 5: Dream of barbecues?
Speaker 2: Now I'm stuck with this view.
Speaker 5: I'm be coding gloves man, how about you?
Speaker 7: I want to see green grass and forget the bleak slaves,
but the sells crashing all my springtime dates.
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Speaker 5: Seven times out of ten.
Speaker 11: We listened to our music at night.
Speaker 10: That's gon titled books program.
Speaker 9: Late Night to Light with DJ Midas right here on
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Speaker 2: You want to know why because
Speaker 1: Saturdays and Sunday nights midnight to four am.