Speaker 1: You're listening to Mattconnorton Unleashed wm n H ninety five
point three right now, the world radio premiere of the
new single from Barron Kismo.
Speaker 2: This is called easy.
Speaker 3: By Yeah goes up again. You're trying to find the
battles last. You are betisy, you are easy.
Speaker 4: Now you poo your bit.
Speaker 3: Stop rather you will reason. You want any reason? Word
up your mind, trying to see it as it is.
Goldict now now yeh jan go ractify you had sided person,
He goes up for again. You're trying to find but
the battles lost. You want to reason. You will get
a reason. Now you pulling every drop that side your head.
Stop going out any he said, go ain't he said.
Speaker 4: Of your man.
Speaker 3: Change you see it as it is? You're it Dix
now now ye change gorat by what you have started. Hey.
Speaker 5: This is Mark Winters out on the Good Vibes Highway Tour,
hanging out in Manchester, New Hampshire with Matt Connerton ninety
five point three FM w m n H having a
blast and hanging out.
Speaker 6: Welcome everybody, here we go.
Speaker 1: It is that time again Matt Connorton Unleashed and we
are live from the studios of w m n H
ninety five point three FM and Glorious Manchester, New Hampshire.
Of course, streaming everywhere Matt connorton dot com slash live
for all your live streaming options, social media links, contact info,
show archives, et cetera, et cetera. Today is a Saturday,
October fourth. Wow, already well into October, well a few
days in. But time goes quick as we plunge into fall.
Speaker 6: But I am not alone. Good morning, Jenny is here
at the news table. I am president account for and
I'm looking at a blue screen.
Speaker 1: Oh no, your computer is giving you trouble. Uh well,
all right, I am present, yes, yes, and joining us
live in studio today. Let me get that mic up.
Speaker 6: Singer songwriter Mark Winters this year.
Speaker 7: Hello, Mark, what's shaking?
Speaker 3: Matt?
Speaker 6: Welcome to the program.
Speaker 7: Oh I'm loving it here.
Speaker 5: It's so beautiful in the area. And I have to
say I really love the tagline for your show. That's
pretty awesome. It's got a biggest story behind that.
Speaker 6: Well yeah, I don't, oh you know what it was?
Speaker 1: 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
wmn 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 going to 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.
Speaker 6: You know, I'm going to be truly unleashed.
Speaker 5: I love that unleashed. Yeah, that's I feel like sometimes
I'm in the same boat. I'm all about the positive vibes. Yes,
most singer songwriters are a little more moody than I am. Yeah,
I have to control how much I unleash all my
positive energy.
Speaker 1: You know, right right, you're currently on You're on a
How how long is your tour? You're going all over
the place.
Speaker 5: I had sixty five days of awesomeness. Okay, 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.
Speaker 7: To to Texas. Okay, wow, where do you live based
in Houston.
Speaker 1: Town, based in Houston. Okay, yeah, is this your first
big tour like going as far as you are?
Speaker 7: My second?
Speaker 5: So spring of this year I did a West Coast tour,
first time going out that direction as well, and 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 6: Yeah, no doubt, no doubt. We're glad you're here.
Speaker 1: Well, so you've got your guitar and you're gonna play
in a couple of minutes. But I think we're gonna
play this. This is the new single right, Man in
the Sky.
Speaker 7: Man in the Sky. Yes, it's uh.
Speaker 5: 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 know.
Speaker 1: Yeah, outstanding, all right, So let's play this. This is
called Man in the Sky and this is Mark Winters.
Speaker 8: Woke up this morning and this guy is my God
main ish FASTI in my mind somewhere in the car.
Speaker 4: Calling, look up, looking, look.
Speaker 8: Up, the journeys all around, even when the clouds.
Speaker 4: Are passing by, talking to the plane of in the sky.
Speaker 8: In the meadow, green soul, bast answer read were daisy
is bloom and the air so clean, standing on around.
Speaker 9: Getting ready take a walk, look up, looking, look out.
Speaker 8: The journey's all around, even when the clouds are passing bars.
Speaker 10: Talking to the man of in the sky, talking to
the man of in the sky, feeling like a song on.
Speaker 4: The oro.
Speaker 8: Oh either in the clouds of pers in fo.
Speaker 4: Talking to the mana in the sky, talking to the
man of in the sky, This like song of the
old bro.
Speaker 1: 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 going to 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. It's a risk
band wristband.
Speaker 6: Thank you.
Speaker 1: I was blanking on the name, So tell us about
this so that it says think like a proton, always positive,
which I really like. And it's got your it's got
your name on it, of course, Mark Winter. Good good branding.
Speaker 6: But but but yeah, tell us about that.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I'm you know, I'm my undergraduate degrees in aerospace engineering.
I took a 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,
you know, the world, a lot of times I think,
you know through those both of those lenses, And when
I rolled out.
Speaker 7: The glass was always like half full.
Speaker 3: For me.
Speaker 5: 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.
Speaker 7: For me not to put it in my lyrics.
Speaker 5: 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 and I feel like
I've contributed to the universe.
Speaker 7: And my Grandma would be proud of me for 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.
Speaker 6: And I always say, what's that? It is math? It
is math, it's it's me. It's geometry, Am I right?
Speaker 7: Geometry? It's applied physics?
Speaker 1: Yes it is yes, see, So there you go, there
you go. An expert is is master. 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 11: 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.
Speaker 4: But what what is it that?
Speaker 1: 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 7: Right, it's my it's my thing. Yeah, it's my vibe.
Speaker 5: 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. 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
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 sly I learned to play a song for
my wife for anniversary, okay, And I thought, oh, three months,
there's plenty of time to do. Go from nothing like
no musical experience to performing a song for my wife,
which was quite a bit to bite off. I buy
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 while my life was
out working to get ready for the performance. And then
we went out to dinner at our favorite place for
our anniversary, and I said, I forgot something in the car,
and I went back and got my guitar, and she's like.
Speaker 4: What are you doing?
Speaker 5: So she had no idea, had no idea, I had
a guitar. I had nothing. It was all all, you know,
right on the spot, 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 bidazzle 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 them 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 lyrics kidding, and my wife was like, you can't
change the lyrics.
Speaker 7: I'm like, well, that's what I want to say.
Speaker 5: 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 7: And when I went online and started doing.
Speaker 5: Charity fundraisers Zoom ticketed, cheer Aready 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 2: You know, it's music theory must have been pretty easy
for you, right.
Speaker 6: You know it was.
Speaker 5: It's very mathematical, That's what I'm thinking. Yeah, yeah, there's
a very math mathematical element. But part, believe it or not,
the instrumental part, uh, 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 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, really right, and so, uh, just learning
to control your voice is such a whole other experience,
and that was the hardest journey.
Speaker 7: And I started.
Speaker 5: I got a vocal coach in Houston, and that that
helped me a ton. It's really much easier to learn
from someone else.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 1: 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 uh, 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.
Speaker 6: To be with it.
Speaker 7: Yeah, it's a it's a it's its own journey.
Speaker 5: 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 6: Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 5: 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 saw 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.
Speaker 6: Yep.
Speaker 5: And I'd say, now 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.
Speaker 7: Ago it was much more difficult. Really, 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.
Speaker 7: Let's do it.
Speaker 5: Let's talk about one of those science meets philosophy juxtapositions. Okay,
I'm going to 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.
Speaker 7: A boundary in your own life. So let's rock and
roll with some boundary layer.
Speaker 6: Alright, Mark Winter is live in studio.
Speaker 4: Pushing that SuperSonics peed. I can see what I need.
I'm soaring faster and higher, breaking through. I belief in me.
Speaker 5: We find our limits when we're young, slowing down before
we've becne They tell me I'm too small to play
and that I don't look like them at all. Or
can I find the strengthen me to break my boundaries
and make me see pushing that SuperSonics peed.
Speaker 4: I can see what I need. I'm soaring faster and
nye breaking through our believe in me.
Speaker 6: Here we go.
Speaker 9: Now, get a job and find a life. Listen to
everyone's advice. They tell me I'm too old the change
that I need to rearrange my mind. Where can I
find the strength in me to break my boundaries and
make me see pushing at.
Speaker 4: The supersonic speed. I can see what I need. I'm
soaring caster and I breaking through. I belief in me.
Speaker 9: Here we go, Bring some love along the way, Keep
my humble minded play bound to lay us are just
to test.
Speaker 7: To give the strength to be my best.
Speaker 9: Bring my circle up with me. Feel the love and loyalty.
Boundary to lay us are just to test to give
the strength to be my best. Pushing not the supersonic speed.
I can see what I need.
Speaker 4: I'm soaring faster and I breaking through. I believe in
me pushing, not the supersonic speed. I can see what
I need. I'm soaring caster and ie breaking through. I believe.
Speaker 6: In Very nice, very nice.
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 7: And that's what is that song 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 6: Somewhere I did?
Speaker 5: I did played down in Pennsylvania last night, and then
the night before I was in New York some 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 uh, you know, play a show
and come back and get up in the morning and
do the thing again.
Speaker 7: You know, it's it's amazing.
Speaker 6: And then where do you go after here?
Speaker 5: Where's your Yeah, I'm headed to Maynard I'm playing at
a festival this afternoon.
Speaker 6: Excellent.
Speaker 5: And then from there I go to Maine for a
two day break to visit my dad. He lives in
o Gunquit, Okay. So I'm gonna hang out and walk
the margin in a way, and then you know, recharge
a little bit, and then I'm up off into Canada.
Speaker 6: Oh nice, How many dates you have up there?
Speaker 7: I have five five shows in Canada outstanding?
Speaker 6: Wow. Oh that's great. That's great.
Speaker 1: So what's been like has anything been a surprise to
you doing that? Because you said, this is the first
story that you've done of this size, right, this many dates?
Speaker 5: 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 for me 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 4: Uh.
Speaker 5: And so I think getting out on the West Coast
was 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 tube, 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.
Speaker 7: I remember. The first time that happened to me was
in New Mexico. I was in Ridoso. It was a
beautiful city, and a couple drove three hours. They heard
me on the radio. They drove three hours.
Speaker 5: They're like, we got a lot of bad stuff going
on in our life right now, and we wanted an
evening of positive energy.
Speaker 7: And I was so touched.
Speaker 5: Three or four of the couple's 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. Yeah, and it told me I'm in the
right place and doing what I need to be doing
right in this world.
Speaker 7: And I've still got.
Speaker 5: Goosebumps because I had so many experiences like that along
my West Coast tour.
Speaker 7: Yeah, I was just on fire the whole time.
Speaker 5: 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 a lot, a lot.
Speaker 7: You're up every day early.
Speaker 5: You got a lot of stuff going on, you got
all this stuff in email everything else. It's a lot,
she said, how do you do it? I'm like, I'm
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.
Speaker 6: Yeah, you know, it's worth it.
Speaker 7: It's worth every effort, you know.
Speaker 6: Yeah, absolutely absolutely.
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 6: Is a lot.
Speaker 7: Yeah, yeah, for sure.
Speaker 5: So I had never pulled the trailer before, 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 it 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, Yeah, I 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 6: Yep?
Speaker 11: Right?
Speaker 7: That was That was a heart lesson.
Speaker 5: It took me about maybe four weeks into my West
Coast two or before I had played enough rooms that
I'd learned the thing. Yeah, and then something I'm still learning,
how do you read a room? So a friend of
mine is a brilliant songwriter from the Houston area, Ken Gaines.
When I first started off as as a songwriter or
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 6: How do you do that? Oh? Wow?
Speaker 11: Right?
Speaker 5: And so he's playing the show and then he would
stop in the show and he say, 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 forever just learning how to read a room and
land the story and the music in a way that's
gonna that's going to serve the room and the song
the best.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 6: Yeah, yeah, no, that's that makes sense.
Speaker 1: And 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.
Speaker 6: It's the only way you.
Speaker 7: Wish you could, man, I wish you could in a book.
Speaker 6: Yeah, the only way. Yeah. Really, the only way you
can learn is by by doing. And uh, it can
be tricky.
Speaker 7: Yeah, I wish it was a journeyman process.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 5: 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.
Speaker 3: 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, yes,
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, yeah, we do
what we do, right, But when it's just you, there's
that added press. Sure of you really got to sell this.
Speaker 7: Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 5: 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 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 not 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
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, if
I got to learn, I've got to learn.
Speaker 8: To do that.
Speaker 6: Yeah, well, do you want to play another live one
for us? I will.
Speaker 7: I will do that. So this song is a it's
a song called Signal. It's all about being aware.
Speaker 5: Of the energy that you're putting out in the world
and the energy that you're taking in from other people.
Speaker 7: Like we're all little radio station, you know, And I
like to.
Speaker 5: Think about my channel being sort of the positive energy channel,
and have friends who live on both ends of the
spec 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 the single.
Speaker 7: This is called signal.
Speaker 9: Waves washing out from me, sending around my inner geez,
sometimes bright and shimmering, sometimes dark and stifling, crashing into
the walls.
Speaker 4: And floors, seeping in the minds and more. Should I
keep viewing random feelings? No, I should focus my mind.
Don't feeling I'm taking it in and putting it out.
I should cure up any lingering.
Speaker 9: Die. So I'm going up, dial in my signal and
make it a dream. Make it my positive screen.
Speaker 12: Dial in my signal, Hey, make it a dream, make.
Speaker 4: It my positive screen. Changing my mind to create a
layer intense Ity's fine.
Speaker 9: If your heart is there radiating the thoughts you want
the most.
Speaker 4: It is a powerful, purpose, cool piece of cruse.
Speaker 9: Reading the vibes back from with him. I can tell
the quote I'm pulling out, you get back in, not
accidentious in the Nagati, bring out the best and share
that narrity.
Speaker 4: I'm taking it in and putting it out.
Speaker 9: I should clear up any lingering die. So I'm going
up nyling my signal and.
Speaker 4: Making it a dream.
Speaker 9: Make it my positive screen. Dialing my signal and making
it a dream, make it my positive screet.
Speaker 4: Do you feel the vibes from those around you?
Speaker 8: 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. I'm gonna
dial in my signal land.
Speaker 9: Make it a dream, make it my positive screeen.
Speaker 12: Dial in that signal and make it a dream.
Speaker 4: Make it my positive street.
Speaker 6: Outstanding. Mark Winters is here with us live in studio.
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 6: Is it always? Is it always you?
Speaker 1: Or because yeah, because you mentioned back in Houston, there's
someone you perform with, right, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 5: So I have I've been on an amazing musical journey
and I've I've met so many amazing people in 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 3: He was.
Speaker 5: 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.
Speaker 11: We have this.
Speaker 5: You know, I'm competent on the guitar. I played lead guitar,
but you know, I'm just sort of competent. Sure, he's phenomenal, okay,
And the fact that he can do it on an
acoustic guitar, which is what I was looking for, creates
great energy.
Speaker 7: And so we started playing together.
Speaker 5: We play percussion back and forth on the guitars, and
lead and rhythm and everything. It's really amazing. 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, that's
her voice. 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 or like right down
the middle. And so we started hanging out playing singing
duets together 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 is 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. Okay, that's the 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 6: Oh cool, very nice, very nice. So how many? How
many albums have you recorded at this point?
Speaker 5: So there are three albums that are out ye. 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.
Speaker 7: Okay, And I felt like I was sort of.
Speaker 5: Drafting off of a lot of amazing musicians who are
helping me create that album. Yeah, and so that's the
first album I put out kind of a four piece
light rock band format.
Speaker 7: And then I put out.
Speaker 5: Boundary Layer, which was my album on the other side
of COVID, still four piece rock, light rock. And then
I started leaning more heavily into the singer songwriter mode,
and so I rearranged a lot of my music to
be singer songwriter formatted acoustic. Me album I was telling
you about is sort of Reimagine. It's got a few
new songs on it.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 5: And then I just put out Equal Sims 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. Okay, and so that would before into
when that album comes out, that'll be the fourth album.
Speaker 6: Okay. So where do you record?
Speaker 7: You know, it's a I've I've recorded my very first album.
I met a guy.
Speaker 5: I went looking for a producer. I'm pretty thorough guy.
So I interviewed a bunch of producers and told him, look, I'm.
Speaker 7: The new guy. I don't know anything.
Speaker 5: 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,
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
located to LA six months or earlier. Oh like, okay, well,
how do we do this? And he's like, well, you know,
why don't we just have a he has a bunch
of contacts. I said, why don't we? 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 out in California. So the
first one I did with him, and then I learned
a ton he was. 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 Houston and sugar Land actually
and did my second album. It was a bit the
process for that one was was much more difficult for
me because he's kind of a live sound person. Okay,
so he wanted me to show up, do the thing
live and then okay, you know, he'll clean up some
stuff and you're done, which is not how I'm wired.
And so I found another guy in town in Houston,
john nyberd 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.
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 7: I don't get the energy out of that.
Speaker 6: Sure, sure, yeah, it's funny.
Speaker 1: 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 in 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 one drive
or whatever service you want to use.
Speaker 6: And it's sometimes some of the guests we have on
the show.
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 3: But but.
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 6: It sounds. It just sounds. That's how I mean.
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 7: If that makes sense, Yeah to me, I think there's Uh,
it's kind of like it's like co writing.
Speaker 5: 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 and you
know two people.
Speaker 6: Ish.
Speaker 5: 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. Yeah, 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.
Speaker 6: Nine.
Speaker 7: Because of the transport.
Speaker 5: 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 7: I have a studio for that. 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 11: Right.
Speaker 5: 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.
Speaker 4: Room with them.
Speaker 7: It's so hard.
Speaker 6: Oh yeah.
Speaker 5: 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 and so
we've got the genesis of the idea is now done
and it's down and we we've got that, and then
we we do the parts. 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 7: We need to do the live.
Speaker 5: So I think there's there's moments in the song's genesis
that you really need to be live to give it
its best effort, and then after that you can be
you know, sort of remote.
Speaker 7: That's just my personal experience.
Speaker 6: Absolutely. Well, you want to play one more live one?
Speaker 7: Yeah, let's let's let's do it.
Speaker 6: Okay.
Speaker 7: So this next tune I'm going to.
Speaker 5: Play for you is all about me getting out of
a bad mood.
Speaker 6: Okay.
Speaker 5: So even when I'm writing about a bad mood, I
have to put a little positive spin on it.
Speaker 7: I was in a bad mood about it two years ago.
Speaker 5: 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.
Speaker 7: Yeah, and that usually gets me out of any funk
i'm in. H Usually just a run does.
Speaker 5: But I got in a bad mood that I couldn't
get out of it, and I said, you know you're
a songwriter.
Speaker 7: You should write a song about it.
Speaker 5: 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 6: All right, Mark Winter is live in studio.
Speaker 9: I've got these bad moods living in my head, snapping
and biting name, putting me on edge. It's like a
hydra spitting with seven hairs, sneaking around and trying to
spread ran Sadness got a hold on me.
Speaker 4: What's it gonna take to make you leave? My mind's
tied up in a funky moods got me on edge?
Why do I do? I said, I'm mooding.
Speaker 9: I need muffings around me with dance on nights, set
up very feet singing our songs.
Speaker 4: Gonna change my tone? Seven deadly moons, gonna turn to go.
Speaker 7: Here comes those bad moods?
Speaker 4: Who's creeping back in?
Speaker 9: It's lonely and quite just sitting on my cow. No
one's around, they help me out, shameful, depressing and mercid thoughts,
constricting and squeezing.
Speaker 4: I'm hit it south, anger and sadness, SO saiding, what's
it gonna take to make you leave? My mind's side
up in a punker moods? It's coming on it? Why
do I do?
Speaker 9: I said, I'm mooding, handing my pons around me with
dance on. I said, our word street singing.
Speaker 4: Our songs, gonna change my tone. Seven deadly moves gonna
turn to go, I said, turning, turning, turning to go.
Speaker 12: Seven deadly moods sitting in my head.
Speaker 13: H I S S I n G love and light
and camarader read if I guess yes, I in G
take those moods.
Speaker 12: And loosen their whole k I S S I G.
Seven deadly moods gonna.
Speaker 4: Turn to go, I said, turn it, turn it, turn
into go. I said the mood. I need muffins around me.
We dance song and I said a retreat, singing up songs,
gonna change my tone. Seven deadly moves gonna turn to go,
I said, turn it, turn it, turn into gold.
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?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 5: 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 7: So come catch me.
Speaker 5: 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 5: Yeah, Mark Wintersmusic dot com is the place to join
the Positive Vibe tribe. Hop on that email list and
keep track of all the places I'm visiting and maybe
catch a show live and pick up some positive energy
in your life, you know.
Speaker 1: 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.
Speaker 6: Us about this?
Speaker 4: Yes?
Speaker 5: So I'm I'm extremely competitive in athletics, So if you'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.
Speaker 6: Huh.
Speaker 5: 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 is all about finishing the strong.
Speaker 6: Baby, all right, very good.
Speaker 1: 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 7: Thanks mat.
Speaker 8: Well.
Speaker 9: Baby life has a twist sentns times when you're feeling down.
Speaker 4: And when you want to give her and throw it
to the gownd. I been baby cold.
Speaker 9: Lord only knows it's true. Gave up a few times myself.
Speaker 4: And didn't pull it through. Looking back is clearing now
that happined? Who makes a great road sand for you?
Hold up your head down, Baby, hold up.
Speaker 3: Your head now, eyes on the press, get across at
finish line? Strong?
Speaker 12: Yeah?
Speaker 4: When I watch you grow.
Speaker 9: Trying not to find your week, bowling down and looking around?
Speaker 4: What should I see? Looking back? Is clearing? Now? All
that happens through makes a great road sid for.
Speaker 14: Now baby, Now that pri get across that finish line?
Speaker 4: Strong? What should I do? Be strong? What should I do?
Speaker 7: Make it tough for no reason?
Speaker 4: What should I do? Be strong?
Speaker 12: What should I do say if you first give you easy?
Speaker 4: How should I do be strong?
Speaker 3: What should I do?
Speaker 4: Show the way? Cast a shadow? What should I do
be strong? What should I do?
Speaker 3: Make strong?
Speaker 4: Back? It's clearer now.
Speaker 14: That I've been too makes a great road, Sam for you?
I heard now, baby, d are the ride at that
Venny's line.
Speaker 4: St now be rid line?
Speaker 11: This fall, the ballpark isn't closing for the season.
Speaker 15: It's waking up.
Speaker 11: Step beyond the gates and into fright Nights at the Field,
an immersive, haunted experience where the roar of the crowd
has been replaced by whispers in the dark. Wander through
twisted tunnels, ghost lit corridors, and the stadium itself now
home to the things that never left live scare actors,
movie quality sets, heart racing encounters around every corner. The
game is over, but the nightmare has just begun. Fright
nights in the field, there to play after dark.
Speaker 16: The heartbeat of our community isn't in the building. It's
in the people who help our students every day. It's
in the bus driver who gets them to school safely,
the crossing guard who greets them with a smile, the
teacher who inspires them. The Manchester School District needs you,
from substitute teachers and pair of educators to nurses and
speech pathologists. Come find your purpose. Attend the Manchester School
District Job Fair this Tuesday, October seventh that the welcome
center at one forty eight Conquered Street in Manchester. Learn
more at m a NSD dot Schoolspring dot com.
Speaker 15: Luigi's Pizza Bar and grow every one wet phrases life
subline with top into the ground.
Speaker 6: It's a pizza by your mind.
Speaker 15: Luigi's Pizza Bar and Grill, seven twelve Valley Street, Manchester.
Come on in or call six two two one zero
two one. Luigi keeping the tradition alive since nineteen seventy five.
Speaker 4: Pizza for every one.
Speaker 3: Come join a Beast tonight with each slice sense of it.
Speaker 4: Everything feels so