Speaker 1: W M N h rip the nobles.
Speaker 2: I've been cooped up in this minie Cooper, singing to myself,
going through drive through, have to drive through looking for
some help.
Speaker 3: I'll miss my family and my girl and my friends.
Speaker 1: There find my side.
Speaker 4: If you feel the beat and you're feeling me.
Speaker 2: Come on, let's ride.
Speaker 5: We need a bigger bus to get our friends, more windows.
Speaker 1: And more piles. Party in the d party in the back.
We'll go sway inside to side, down the highway. Surrender,
all wheels go around there riding.
Speaker 6: I'm gain all the bumper stickers from all the places
that we found.
Speaker 1: Need a bigger bus. We need a bigger bus.
Speaker 3: You can bring your friends.
Speaker 1: They can sing too.
Speaker 3: You can even bring your mama as long as she
can hold too. You can bring a dog and that
does ease buy out no wind.
Speaker 1: They will pick up old in town and singing a game.
We need a big up bus to.
Speaker 5: Get our friends on my windows and mouse.
Speaker 6: Party in the front, party in the back. We'll go
sway inside to side, right down my way up, surrender,
all wheels go around and by mumbo get all the
mamba stickers from all places that we found.
Speaker 5: Need a bigger bus. We need a big up bus
and I wanna fly or take the train and hears
the road call in my.
Speaker 6: Neck when feels this good bod ship, get the mon
singing on.
Speaker 5: We need a big bus to get our friends on
my windows in.
Speaker 1: The front, in the.
Speaker 6: Back, well sways, side the side down where surrender.
Speaker 1: All wheels go out there and back. We just want
big out of the family from all the base cities
all the time. We need a big up bus.
Speaker 5: Do get our friends on my windows in one party
in the front, party in the baby.
Speaker 1: We're gonna sways inside.
Speaker 6: To side, back down where.
Speaker 5: Surrender, all the wheels go around and by the bumbo,
get all the bunker stickers from all places that we found.
Speaker 1: Need a bigger bus. We need a bigger buzz.
Speaker 7: We're gonna need a big up us.
Speaker 8: If you didn't catch yourself at any point singing along
to that while you were hearing it, check your pulse,
there might be something wrong with you. Hey, everybody, we
have entered our number two New Marow dose of Matt
Connorton unleashed, and we are live from the studios of
w m NH ninety five point three FM, Inglorious Manchester,
New Hampshire. Today is Saturday, May twenty four, twenty twenty five.
It is Memorial Day weekend, and we have joining us
live in studio making his return to the show. Eli
Levis here. Hello, Eli, Oh, I just realized. I apologize. Wait,
I got a I've got you on a different mic
because you're gonna be performing. Let's see if we can
hear you. No, oh, I hear something. Oh I hear
your voice. We got to turn this up. I apologize.
Here we go, Here we go. I think I can
hear you now. Oh good, Oh, there you are. Aha,
I found you all right. Sorry about that. I'm gonna
blame I was distracted by my crackling voice. I sound
like Kirk Cameron on Growing Pains because my allergies have
been so so we're talking. You told me something really
interesting off air that I didn't know. That actually is
not a huge shock to me when you told me.
But this is the highest concentration of pollen in the world.
Speaker 3: Is the hotspot? Yeah, mid Atlantic?
Speaker 8: Yeah, it's it's it's brutal. I mean, my allergies are
like the worst they've ever been this year. It's really bad.
It's really bad. But I love that song we need
a bigger bus. And you've been You've been traveling all
over the place, right, Yeah, I've been.
Speaker 3: Just got back from a tour in Europe. I flew
into Portugal and played shows in Portugal, Spain and Dora, France, Wow, Switzerland, Austria, Poland,
Czech Republic, And then I flew to London and I
played shows in the UK for another month. Yeah, and
if that wasn't enough, then I jumped over to Ireland
and played a few shows over there. So it's quite
the epic journey over there, and it was really cool
playing the new audiences and meeting new folks.
Speaker 8: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I mean at this point, how many, Like,
what do you think the ratio is? I don't know
if you've done the math. Well, I know you're a
numbers guy, a number you pay attention to this stuff.
Have you ever done the math on what the ratio
is of shows that you've played outside of the United
States to shows domestically.
Speaker 9: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I think last year I played about two hund and
fifty shows, and I think about fifty of those were
outside the US.
Speaker 8: Oh, no, kidding.
Speaker 3: So last year was a big domestic year. This year,
I mean all those shows, it is probably about probably
played about sixty shows, no kidding, okay, because it was
pretty much every evening. Yeah, so yeah, so far this
year it's been a big international year.
Speaker 8: Yeah. I'm sure we talked about this last time, but
it may have changed since then because you've continued to
play play shows on other continents. Is there any place
that's been particularly challenging as far as traveling or are
just dealing with the logistics of playing a show in
a place that you haven't been before.
Speaker 3: I mean other countries with different languages, you know, different
laws and different you know stuff like that. That was
you know, you're driving on the other side of the
road in the UK, it was like, you know, I
was driving a manual, so that was interesting. But you know,
for example, like I'm in I'm in Portugal for a
few days, so I learned just enough Portuguese to get by,
and I'm in Spain. Yeah okay, I guess which is Spanish.
And then I'm in Andorra so they're speaking Catalan. Then
I'm in France, where it's like, okay, now I got
to speak in French to folks, and Polish is not
an easy language should pick up in a moment. So,
you know, in Poland a lot of people spoke English too,
but it's nice to know, hello, goodbye, thank you, my
name is So I just kind of get that and
people are really appreciative of that. So it's a little
bit difficult being in a new country with a different
language and a different culture. But you know, music is
the universal language.
Speaker 8: Exactly. Do you use a translator app?
Speaker 3: I do? Yeah, Yeah, there's one that's really good and
you can even like they can speak into it. They
can tell you what it is, and I can speak
into it and they give the language.
Speaker 8: Yeah. Are people generally pretty cool about that, like having
the patience for that, you know, especially if you're handing
your phone back and forth and having to do all that.
Speaker 3: People are generally pretty cool out there, Matt.
Speaker 8: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I would say about ninety ninety five percent of people
are pretty cool.
Speaker 8: Yeah.
Speaker 3: You know, if you look at the screens around us,
you wouldn't think it, right, you know what I mean?
If you just consumed our media as humans, yes, you'd
think we were probably some big old dirt bags, right,
But we're not. We're very kind folks, and you know,
I feel like that, uh, in person, interaction and that
face to face interaction, Like even if I didn't know
a language and I needed something, people would, people are helpful.
Speaker 8: Was it intimidating when you first started touring internationally? Was
that intimidating at all? Or were you able to just
kind of just go for it and not worry.
Speaker 3: So I've spent quite a bit of time overseas. I
lived in a small country called Andorra.
Speaker 8: That's right, you're talking about there.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so I had a little bit of experience in Europe. Yeah,
so I kind of knew a little bit of the
lay of the land. I still went to a lot
of new places this time around, but I had a
general like context, so it wasn't like that too much
out of my depth.
Speaker 8: Okay, yeah, that's cool. That's cool. Now where are you?
Obviously at this point in the tour, you're you know,
since you're you're coming through the area and it's it's
so cool that we're able to do this again. Yeah,
where are you?
Speaker 2: Well?
Speaker 8: Where did you play?
Speaker 10: Uh?
Speaker 8: Where was your last show? Assuming you had a show
last night somewhere?
Speaker 3: Yeah, last show was in Biddeford. Okay, Yeah, I was
in Maine quite a bit Maine was was awesome. I
was up in a bar harbor.
Speaker 8: Yeah, that's up there, way up. That's up there.
Speaker 3: And then I've got a show in New Hampshire tomorrow
the afternoon in Brookline.
Speaker 8: Excellent.
Speaker 3: That's at April House Vineyards and that's at one thirty. Okay,
So I'll be a New Hampshire okay.
Speaker 8: And then where do you go from there?
Speaker 3: There? I'm going back down to d C. I have
a pretty awesome show in Blues Alley. It's the longest
running jazz club in the country.
Speaker 8: Oh, no kidding.
Speaker 3: So they're like putting a merging artists Mondays there. It's
a legendary stage. Ella Fitzgerald, stan Getz, Dizzy Gillespie, they
all played there.
Speaker 8: Oh wow.
Speaker 3: So I'll be there on Monday this Memorial Day.
Speaker 8: Oh fantastic. Wow. Good for you.
Speaker 3: Up and down and back and down, left and right
and back again.
Speaker 8: That's fantastic. Have you released new music since since we
had you on last I have.
Speaker 3: I got a couple of songs I love to share
with you.
Speaker 8: Yeah, yeah, you're gonna play you play the live?
Speaker 9: Yeah?
Speaker 8: Oh beautiful. All right, Well let's do that. Let me
get that mic up on the guitar. Don here you
play live if you are just joining us? Eli lev
Is here with us in studio, and uh, when were
you on with us? I know it was it was
less than a year ago, right, It wasn't that long ago.
Speaker 3: I think. So, Yeah, that is about a year ago.
Speaker 8: About a year. Yeah, And I'll tell you what. It
all becomes a blur. It must for you too, I
would imagine. I'd imagine that guitar sounds nice. Yeah, that
sounds really good in madphones, all right. So I think
we're a good whenever you're ready cool.
Speaker 3: This is a brand new single. This one's called No
Wrong Turns All Right, and it's a co write that
I did with my friend Aaron Michelle from Maryland. It's
about how when you're you know, with someone you love
or your bestie, when you're on a road trip, sometimes
you just go. It doesn't matter if you stop or
you start, or you go left or you go right,
No wrong.
Speaker 8: Turns all right.
Speaker 3: I have this dream that week, jump in the car,
we flip a coin. We'll follow the brightest star. Yeah,
leave it all behind, pack a bag, ready, said go.
We'll spend all day to see along to the radio.
Matt Connerton unleashed. Yeah, no, I'll just follow your car.
We found each other.
Speaker 1: We'll never get lost.
Speaker 10: They're a new.
Speaker 3: Long now that we get wrong turns, that's good, you'll
miss the exit. I'll just laugh. You drive slow and
I'll keep on talking fast, faster than yours can listen.
Nothing out there that we're missing anyhow.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'll just follow your heart. Since we found each other,
I'll never get lost.
Speaker 10: There are no.
Speaker 3: Wrong now that we do get living.
Speaker 10: Un God with you forever.
Speaker 3: Moll in life, so we know as long as there's
love left to burn.
Speaker 4: Yeah, your phone asleep and this passenger seat with smelling
your face, and I don't want to wake you to
ask where we're going.
Speaker 3: So I'll just keep driving on night, sleeping, just thinking
again and again how good.
Speaker 10: It feels to trust the wind in your hand.
Speaker 3: Your eyes are my compass without.
Speaker 1: Even knowing the way, I know we'll find it because
with you, I know that I know.
Speaker 3: Wrong now that we're too gether them.
Speaker 10: Wrong.
Speaker 11: Ride with you forever, live in the moment, so we
know living wrong now that we're twogether in the moment it, so.
Speaker 12: We know we've got all the time in.
Speaker 3: The world there are no wrong turn.
Speaker 8: Mm hmm, that's nice. That's really nice. Eli Lev live
in studio with us here on Matt Connorton Unleashed and uh,
that is very very cool. Have you had since we
obviously you've released new music? Have you had a new
album come out or an EP or what's what's kind
of the I do situation there?
Speaker 6: Yeah?
Speaker 3: Yeah, So last time I seen us playing songs off
of a Present Journey, so that's out now, oh yes,
and then that was where we need bigger busses from.
Speaker 8: Yeah.
Speaker 3: And then I got a brand new album called Past
Lives coming out this summer. So Present Journey, Past Lives
and Future Myths coming next year are part of the
Three Worlds project.
Speaker 8: Oh okay, So tell me more about that, the Three
World's Project. What's kind of the concept beyond that?
Speaker 3: Yeah? So my first project was called Four Directions Okay,
and the four Directions were from my time teaching on
the Novel Indian Reservation in northern Arizona, Okay. So I
learned about the Four Directions there. It was a four
EP project took me about four years. All Roads East,
Way Out, West, Deep South and True North Okay. So
I completed that. It's amazing. It's south there. You can
listen to it. It's one of my favorite things I
ever done. And then I was like, well, what do
I do next? Do I do like Sky above or
Ground below or Northeast? I wasn't sure. Yeah, I thought,
you know what, let's stay with like the number theme,
and I thought, okay, four directions, three Worlds, two Friends,
and one Road. Okay, so that's my entire musical discography
that I'm working on now. Then after that it's Mike
Drop I retire for real. Yeah why I don't know,
because because I did the thing so right now I'm
on three directions yeah, and uh sorry, three three worlds,
and then two Friends will be a collaborative piece, and
then one Road will be my final album. That's it.
Speaker 8: Are you serious though? Like you like that? That's gonna
be it?
Speaker 9: That's it?
Speaker 8: Why you seem so certain about that? Yeah, you know
you're gonna you know you're gonna change your mind.
Speaker 3: Well, people going to retirement, they go out of retire,
what happens. We'll get there when we get there.
Speaker 8: But I'm really no, but I'm really curious about this,
Like do you like do you just feel like that
will kind of be Is that going to be something
where there's nothing you can do beyond that that will
top it? Is that? Is that kind of like like
you feel like that's gonna be the the ultimate yeah
expression artistically for you?
Speaker 3: Or Yeah, I think that'll be the story of Eli
live a as a you know, as an artist, as
a musician, as a music project really directions three worlds,
two friends, one road.
Speaker 8: Okay, wow? And then but do you go back to
playing a band because you were.
Speaker 3: I love playing band. It could be another project, it
could be instrumental, it could be another artist, it could
be a band.
Speaker 8: So it's not it's not like you're gonna be done
with music.
Speaker 3: Right Probably not? Okay, that'll be the end. That'll be
the El Love project.
Speaker 8: Oh that's really interesting though, that's really interesting. Do you so?
So three what are the are there when you talk
about three worlds? Like, what are the three worlds?
Speaker 2: So?
Speaker 3: I think it's interesting that you know, three worlds can
be past, present, future, it could be three dimensions as well.
It could be you know, the ground below the surface,
in the sky above. There's lots of different ways to
kind of like think about three worlds. And I kind
of went the time route because I wanted to show
that the past is here just as the present and
the future is also here present. So Past Lives is
a exploration of my ancestry. My mom's side comes from
South Mississippi and my dad's side comes from Chicago, so
I wanted to honor both of their kind of lineages,
and Past Lives follows the story both of those ancestors.
And you know, it actually uses the voices of my
great grandmother Bubby Sarah from Poland, and it uses my
great uncle from South Carolina and my great aunt as well.
So these are characters that audio is being like within
the songs. It is so cool, Matt, Like, it is
just it's one of the most amazing things that I
think that I've done as a as a creative. And
because you're awesome, because you're so awesome at you have
me back.
Speaker 8: Yes, I would.
Speaker 3: Love to perform the worldwide mirror of one of my
upcoming songs for you. Okay, this has not been public.
Speaker 8: Oh okay, it's from Past.
Speaker 3: Lives And I'm just like kind of like in Clan
desintely like a tuning my guitar right now.
Speaker 8: Yes, yes, but Is that cool?
Speaker 3: Can I do that?
Speaker 8: Absolutely?
Speaker 3: This wasn't a planned thing, ladies and gentlemen. Okay, but
what's since we're talking about it?
Speaker 8: Yeah, Yeah, I'm very curious to hear this.
Speaker 3: This song is from Past Lives. It's coming out this summer,
my next single. Oh okay, so worldwide premiere here on
Matt Connorton Unleashed. This song is called where We Come From?
Speaker 8: All right, ge't wait to hear this?
Speaker 9: Awesome.
Speaker 3: I to mom backpack off coming home from class, opened
up my NOE book. I had to ask my mom and.
Speaker 4: Died, where are we come from?
Speaker 12: They sat me down and smiled at.
Speaker 3: Me and took out some old photos to let them
breathe and say, this is who we are and all
we've done. It's the story of where we come from.
And my mom said, so, we come from a long
line of workers. Most folks never heard of us. If
I don't make us any less. We spawned the cotton.
Speaker 9: That most people for water.
Speaker 3: We built the fridges after the war. Life back then
was a lot more work than fun. Yeah, that's where
we come f.
Speaker 1: Working in the heat.
Speaker 3: The southern sun.
Speaker 1: We I swept to live.
Speaker 10: That's where we come from.
Speaker 3: My dad listened closely to my mom's reply and then
took my hand and looked into my eyes and said, son,
let me tell you about my side. He said, we
come from a long line of survivors. We escaped the
fires they're still burning around the world. We made the
shoes at most people water. We built the city from
a hardware store. Life back then was always on the run. Ooh,
that's where we come.
Speaker 10: Far.
Speaker 12: Over the oceans, through the slums we had believe to live.
That's a week come from.
Speaker 3: And then one day I'll look in my daughter's eyes
as she asks the same to me, and I'll tell
her about our family and each branch that made this tree,
and I'll say, we come from a long line of workers.
Most folks never heard of us about. Don't make us
any less. We spawned the cotton that most people wore.
We built the bridges after the water. Life back then
was a lot more work than fun. Yeah, we come
from survivors. We escaped the fires there still burning around
the world. Oh, we made the shoes and most people wore.
We built the city from.
Speaker 1: A hardware store.
Speaker 12: Life back then was on the run.
Speaker 3: Not my love is where we come.
Speaker 1: We call a.
Speaker 3: Part of a thread that we's the story of our family.
In one day you'll have a little one too. I
can only wish the best cool one day when you
have child on your own, Here you can.
Speaker 12: Tell them stories.
Speaker 13: We sun here, you can tell where we come from.
Speaker 8: Oh, fantastic, fantastic. Eli Love is here with us live
in studio. What's that called again? What's the name of
that song?
Speaker 3: Where we come from?
Speaker 8: Where we come from? That is so good.
Speaker 3: I'm in this summer.
Speaker 8: I love that. I love that if you are just
joining us, Eli Love is here with us in studio.
Is it hard to when you've when you've created a
song that's that's so good? Is it hard to sit
on it for a while because you have to?
Speaker 3: It's not funny you ask that question.
Speaker 8: Yeah, you know, it's harder.
Speaker 3: Playing it easy to sit on it like it's mine,
you know what I mean? No one knows it yet.
I haven't put it out there. It's just it's like
like my little baby, you know what I mean.
Speaker 8: That's interesting.
Speaker 3: And then it's like, oh my, is it time? Is
it time to share it with the world? Like, yeah,
is it ready for the for the vibration to be
out there. Yeah, so it was actually like it's hard,
It is kind of hard to sitting on these songs,
but it's still kind of nice because it's like I
can just listen to them whenever I want, right, and
only I can hear it right right. But now I
think it's I think it's ready.
Speaker 8: You're ready for the world. Yeah, Oh very cool. No,
I love that.
Speaker 9: I love that.
Speaker 8: That's really good. On everything that you've been recording, is
it is it still just is it you? Or do
you have collaborators in the studio.
Speaker 3: Or Yeah, So I I go to work with different producers.
So for Present Journey, I worked with Austin Bellow out
of Virginia awesome so Bigger Bus and all those songs.
And for this one, I worked with Taylor rig actually
from Peak Skill, New York. So it's a different vibe,
you know, it's a different studio, different sound, different equipment,
and I really like that. So like working with different
producers for different EPs to get a different kind of feel.
So Past Lives and Present Journey are with different producers.
And then I still have to find the producer for
Future Myths. I don't know yet, it will be different.
Speaker 8: Yeah, yeah, what goes into that finding a producer, like
what what do you look for it in terms of
because different producers has so many different styles and yeah
approaches and some are very hands on, some are like yeah,
some are like yeah, just I'll tell you if it
sounds good or not.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean yeah. For me, my search is pretty
much like where what producer is making the sounds that
I want to sound like? Okay, you know what I mean.
They don't have to work with somebody famous, they don't
have to have the best equipment. I don't really care
how long they've doing it or not. But it's like,
what is the sound that I'd like to enter into
that project? And I've worked with Taylor rig before and
his sound is very lush, very organic, very full. Okay,
So for Past Lives, I wanted to work with him
because that's the kind of sound and style that I
wanted for the album.
Speaker 8: Okay.
Speaker 3: Austin Bellow is like, man, he makes hits, you know
what I mean, He makes singles. They sound so good,
so pristine, so fun and upbeat. So I want to
work with him for Present Journey because they were big pop,
fun songs. Yeah, So I go for the sound and
then kind of try and match that to the project
and match out to the producer.
Speaker 8: Okay, okay, so everyone you work with as someone who's
done something that you've been able to hear and say,
I connect with that, that's what I want to sound like.
Speaker 3: Okay, exactly, that's it.
Speaker 8: Yeah. Are you ever surprised? Like, do you ever? Have
you ever worked with a producer where what ends up
what you end up with sounds very different than what
you can kind of had in mind, hopefully in a
good way.
Speaker 9: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I during the pandemic, you know, there was no
we could go into studios, so there we did. I
did a collaboration with my Silent Bravery and it was
all online, all virtual kid, and I had never worked
with the producer and I met him and I still
haven't met that producer.
Speaker 9: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but I sent in the vocals, I sent him
the guitar, we sent in the scratch, and the producer
did everything virtually. I worked together and kind of shaped
the sound, but I had no idea what that song
was going to sound like, which was great, you know,
it was a surprise. I was like, oh, this is
a cool, cool style. And it turns out this producer
has worked with you know, so many big names from
Springsteen to you know, Pearl Jam to just like the
top names.
Speaker 8: You were you were in good hands.
Speaker 3: So that turned out great.
Speaker 8: Yeah yeah, yeah, that's awesome. That's awesome.
Speaker 9: Yeah.
Speaker 8: If you are just joining us, Eli Love is here
with us in studio. You want to play another one? Yeah,
let's do it down near another one?
Speaker 3: Yeah, This one's from Present Journey. It's called they say. Okay,
this just won an award for a songwriting competition for
the North East Folk Oh congratulation folk lines. Yeah, so uh,
and it's I feel like it's a very special song.
And I don't write songs for awards, but it's very
nice when they happen. So yeah, here's a here's an
award winning song for y'all. It's called they Say, And
it's about all the advice that I got when I
was young, and how it was.
Speaker 8: All wrong interesting interesting, Okay.
Speaker 3: Maybe not like totally wrong, just like not one hundred
percent right understood, and I had to find my own
my own kind of advice.
Speaker 9: All right, Very good, we go, they say, get.
Speaker 3: Rich so I can buy all that I want, but
I've got all the smiles that I need.
Speaker 9: They say, get.
Speaker 3: Famous so everyone will know me. That sounds like a
movie I don't want to see. They say, get smart.
Speaker 12: So I can.
Speaker 3: Solve any problem as if there.
Speaker 8: Go away.
Speaker 3: They say go hard, but I'm a softy deep inside,
and I don't feel like hiding anymore. They say be nice,
but I'd rather be kind.
Speaker 12: And be there for those who are any.
Speaker 3: They say, you got to think twice. Maybe we should
think a little more about how we treat the world
that we call home. They say, settle down, but I
ain't one for settling, so I'll just keep on chasing
my dreams. They say go up.
Speaker 1: As if to give them.
Speaker 3: But I ain't taking those pills anymore. And you gotta
enjoy that's overflowing. They say, don't give it away, but
I'll do it anyway. They say, it get real when
the truth is in value.
Speaker 12: No one really knows.
Speaker 3: How f that's how it is, that, how it's always been?
Speaker 1: What about how.
Speaker 10: It could be?
Speaker 3: Nothing's enough? There's new voice is talking. Those are the
ones that I want to hear. Get They say too much,
but I know who I am, so I don't listen
to them anymore.
Speaker 8: I like that. I think that's probably pretty relatable too
for a lot of people.
Speaker 3: I got to find our own path, you know, make
our own advice, let their own lessons.
Speaker 8: That's right. Eli Love is here with us in studio.
They say, is what that's called? That's really good? That's
really good. Do do you run into that? Where do
you play shows and people come up to you and say,
you know, that song really resonated with me. I feel
like your songs just generally are very sort of relatable
and tap into things that that most people probably experience
at some point.
Speaker 3: Yeah, thanks Matt.
Speaker 10: Yeah.
Speaker 3: No, I get amazing messages online and at shows and emails,
and I'm very connected with my fan base. The fan
base are called the levitators. Eli Love levitators. Yes, so
you know to me, they're kind of like family. Yeah,
I do, you know, live streams every Friday.
Speaker 6: You know.
Speaker 3: My emails are not like newsletters, they're like conversations. Yeah,
and you know, my social media presence is also like that.
So I get to I get to get I get
to get to know people, which is nice. And yeah,
a lot of them, like you know, one one levitator
sent me about that song. She's like, you know, I
was in the hospital coming from surgery and that song
got me through surgery. I've had levitators that are like
I had a song called Move as You Do on
on my pandemic EP and it's about living life on
our own timelines. Yeah, and not being feeling rushed. And
I had a levitator contact me and she says, Eli,
I'm seventy six and I got married for the first time. Wow,
and your song inspired me to do that. And I
was just like, oh.
Speaker 8: My god, yeah, door, thank you.
Speaker 3: She's like, yeah, that was the that was the song
that me and my husband had for my wedding and
it's my first marriage, and thank you for the courage
to do that.
Speaker 8: Yeah. Yeah, that's that's incredible.
Speaker 3: Stuff like that happens.
Speaker 8: Yeah, is that is that? I mean that must be overwhelming.
Speaker 3: It is overwhelming.
Speaker 8: Obviously it's positive, but can't comprehend it when that first
started happening. Was it was that kind of hard at first?
Like like, did you feel overwhelmed by it? Like the
first time someone said something like that to you?
Speaker 3: Well, I mean it started making sense. It's like, these
songs literally save me, save my soul, so why wouldn't
they also help other people in some similar situations. Yeah,
and uh yeah, oh my gosh. There's just one story,
maybe like four years back, and I was on Way
Out West from Four Directions. I had this song called
oh my Lord okay, and it's about you know, finding
you know, divinity whatever that is for folks in nature
and feeling kind of held by that. One of my
fans was like, ELI, have to let you know that.
I gave my friend your Way Out West CD and
she put in her kind of like bedside CD thing
and she's having a lot of trouble with her life
and she wanted to end her life.
Speaker 8: Wow.
Speaker 3: And she was playing that CD and she had like
this is wild to say this, but you know, she
was about to do that.
Speaker 8: Wow.
Speaker 3: And she was playing that city and your song oh
my Lord came on and she heard a voices said like,
you know, don't do it. Yeah, thing like that.
Speaker 8: It's like, what Wow, that is wild? Wow. Yeah.
Speaker 3: And you actually know that like a song might have
saved somebody's life. Yeah, you know what I mean.
Speaker 8: That's incredible.
Speaker 9: Wow.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: And then I feel like there's like a there's a
channel there that we can enter, and there's different lessons
and different things for different folks listening to the song. Yeah,
you know, I love that. I love how it can
be different things for different people. So just powerful stuff.
Speaker 8: Yeah. Yeah, by the way, you CDs, I'm curious. This
is a subject that has come up a lot on
the show recently, especially Yeah, physical media. Yeah, because I've
been talking about how I don't know, maybe five six,
seven years ago. It all becomes a blur. But there
was a point, because I've been doing this a long time,
there was a point where most of the guests, probably most,
we're not doing CDs at all. There was a period
where everybody was like, no, we're just you know, Spotify
is it and and and other streaming services, and we're not,
We're not doing CDs. And then recently especially it seems
like there's a real commitment to physical media as well
as streaming. Obviously streaming is still the number one thing
that's the most important. But has that always been important
to you to release physical media?
Speaker 3: It has been. It makes it feel more tangible. Yeah,
And the way my physical media is set up is
like each EP goes together. Okay, design the four directions
all Rose East is Butterfly Flowers Deep South as Pine
Needles Way, out west as finnel seeds true North of Sticks,
and you put them all together and there's this mandala.
Speaker 8: Oh okay.
Speaker 3: So it's very important for me because it is actually
part of the art, is the physical part and how
they all work together, same thing for three worlds. When
you put them all together, they create a design.
Speaker 8: Okay.
Speaker 3: And honestly, Matt like, tons of people still buy CDs
and vinyl is one of my biggest sellers.
Speaker 8: Oh yeah, so you do vinyl.
Speaker 3: I do vinyl, I do CDs, I do streaming, I
do band camp. It's like people have different modalities that
they enjoy, so as an artist, I have to do
all of them.
Speaker 8: Yeah yeah, now that's for me. That's one of the
really interesting things over time is seeing how technology changes
and how you know, sometimes people predict technology that's going
to go away that manages to hang around and in
some instances even have a resurgence and and like vinyl,
and I'll hear people say all the time too, oh
vinyl it you know, vinyl went away, but it came back,
and it's like, well, no, it never went away. There
was never a point where at the very least at
the minimum, major labels were still releasing music on vinyl, right,
you know, very limited distribution obviously, But now I think
it was either twenty two or twenty three. I read
that it was the first year that vinyl actually outsold CDs. Wow,
since CDs became the primary totally makes sense delivery mode
because but my theory is too that most people and
I haven't seen any statistic on this, and I never will,
I'm sure, but I think most people who buy vinyl
probably never actually play it because if you're really into
an artist, if you're a big fan, you want the
vinyl because you want to be able. Like Jenny has
been decorating the office slash studio that we have set
up at home with with vinyl because we have guests
who occasionally will give us vinyl and then we you know,
we mount the car on the wall. Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
I don't have a record player at home and I
don't intend to buy one, although we have one. We
actually have one here in studio. One of the other
hosts brought one in and said, whoever wants to use
it can, and we have a CD player here too,
but I think I think the only one who uses
it is Rob as a Vedo he has to show
here called gran state of Mind. But but yeah, but
I think you're right. You know, people like something tangible.
Speaker 9: Yeah.
Speaker 8: When I was growing up, it was always such a
kick too. If I was really into an artist, I
would look at the liner notes. Yeah, and if I
was a big fan, I'd want to know everything, like
even just like like the name of their management company
and you know, just all that kind of stuff.
Speaker 3: Lyrics, the musicians, yeah, the production company.
Speaker 9: Yeah. I love.
Speaker 3: When I did the vinyl, I made sure to put
all the lyrics and the liner notes and like this
kind of like photo insert because I just love that.
Speaker 12: Yeah.
Speaker 8: Oh yeah, yeah, absolutely it's out there. Absolutely. You want
to play another one? Sure to hear more. Yeah awesome
if you're just joining us. ELI loves here with us
live and studio. Is it weird singing this early?
Speaker 3: It would be if I didn't know what I was doing. Yeah,
So every morning before I come to the studio, Yeah,
got do a little run, Yeah, gotta drink a lot
of water yep, to my vocal warm ups, yep, do
some jumping jacks and get my voice formed up. Yeah,
because otherwise it would not be as good as a
show as is right now.
Speaker 8: Your voice would be cracking like minus.
Speaker 10: Yeah, you got it.
Speaker 3: Well, I love to sing a song. This is called
that universal song. We're talking about music being the universal language.
Speaker 8: Yeah, I like this one a lot.
Speaker 3: This is from present journey.
Speaker 8: Okay, here we go.
Speaker 3: I was on a train in the middle of the city.
Saw girls sitting on the floor with their headphones on.
She was humming a tune, looking as happy as she
could be, nodding the head and closing her eyes and
singing the song she was singing, and the song came
through the window. Now everyone's humming alone. No, no, no, no.
Speaker 10: She got everybody singing.
Speaker 12: That universal song.
Speaker 9: Here we go.
Speaker 3: I was on a cruise in the middle of the ocean.
I was sitting alone at a table for two. The
band was on a break because the singer he was late.
But the second he got on stage started singing that
same too. He was singing, and.
Speaker 12: Everyone got on the dance floor.
Speaker 3: They were shaking the hips, moving alone.
Speaker 1: You got everybody.
Speaker 3: Singing that universal song. Let's bring the aliens. We're about
to get unleashed.
Speaker 10: Here here we go.
Speaker 3: Well, I read on the news today that they made
contact without a space a transmission was coming in loud
and clear, and all the scientists and linguists and astrophysicists
try to decipher the sound that was coming into their ears,
and all their.
Speaker 12: It was no, no, no, no no. And they started
shaking their shoulders too. No no, no, no no.
Speaker 3: They all agree that that's what we should do, everybody
in the world.
Speaker 1: And they got the hands up in the air.
Speaker 12: No none.
Speaker 14: Now, everybodies getting along because the bigbodies singing.
Speaker 3: That universal song.
Speaker 12: They're singing no no, no no, just like that. No
no no, no, no.
Speaker 3: No one more time for the road.
Speaker 9: Here we go.
Speaker 1: No no, no no no.
Speaker 8: Mmmm I love it. I love that.
Speaker 1: One's fun.
Speaker 3: That is a funny one.
Speaker 8: Absolutely absolutely. Eli Leve is here with us in studio.
We should mention too, there's a cool video for that.
Speaker 9: There is.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I've got a lyric video for that. And a
lot of these videos, a lot of these songs have
some awesome videos to them.
Speaker 8: That is that important from your perspective to lyric videos.
I feel like that's a really strong tool as far
as distributing music and marketing on especially on YouTube. Obviously.
Speaker 3: Yeah, what happens is there's a huge international audience, so
you know, on Spotify, people listening to the music all
over the world. Yeah, and let's say let's go to
like India for example. So imagine you're a you know,
twenty twenty one year old guy listening to Spotify. You
hear this American you want to learn English, and you
go to YouTube, yeah, and you find the lyric video
of these songs. So, sure enough, my top songs on
streaming are the top songs of the lyric videos because
people online to YouTube, listen to the lyric videos learn English.
Speaker 8: That never occurred to me.
Speaker 3: And a massive international audience on YouTube for those Yep.
Speaker 8: I'll be damp. So that never never occurred to me.
That's so interesting.
Speaker 3: You did it to me. Then I realized it's like,
wait a second. Most of these folks are from Korea
or India or Brazil or I mean, yeah, they're English
speaking people who like lyric videos. Yeah, but a lot
of it is folks outside of the US and the
UK and even Australia who want to learn the song
how to sing along.
Speaker 8: Oh that's cool. Do you think that's contributed to your success,
your ability to be able to tour internationally.
Speaker 3: I think it has a little bit not as much
as you'd think, you know, not as much as I
would think, but I think that it has helped a
lot to build an international audience. Yeah, and the fact that,
like I, you know, on streaming, I really do concentrate
on international audiences as well. Even though the US is
like top listenership by far, it's still nice to have
you know, people in Australia and South Africa and you know,
Middle East, all over Europe and Germany, and that, you know,
my levitator's community is very international, which is awesome.
Speaker 8: Yeah, that is that is that's really cool. Yeah, what
is there? Is there anyone you've heard from who's particularly
surprised you geographically like where you said, wow, I wouldn't
have a fan. There really anyone who's surprised.
Speaker 3: See, like we we forget how interesting streaming is. But
I will go on Spotify and you see your monthly listeners,
and you go all the scroll all the way down,
and you will I find countries that I just never
heard of before, Like I didn't even know exist, these
countries exist. There are people in these countries listening to
this music. I mean, like you know, like far out
places like you know, Tonga, Fiji, you know, Siberia, like
just Monaco, you know, you name it, the Falcon Islands. Yeah,
just like random stuff.
Speaker 8: Wow.
Speaker 3: And there's like, you know, okay, one or two or
three listeners there Mongolia. Twenty people listen to my music
in Mongolia.
Speaker 9: You know what is that?
Speaker 3: What is that scene?
Speaker 14: Yeah?
Speaker 3: Can you imagine what that scene would be? I can't, right, right,
but it's amazing just to know that there are, you know,
lots of lots of folks out there that are enjoying
the music.
Speaker 8: Yeah, and there are probably people who are sharing it
with like in the in the case of you know,
twenty listeners in Mongolia, Yeah, you know, they're they're they
probably all know each other and they're sharing you know, hey,
check this out. Check this guy out. You know, I
really like what he's doing. And that's so cool.
Speaker 3: That is that is say what you want about streaming,
and I get it. You know, it's like, you know,
it's it can be us. It's it's a big change. Yeah,
but I consider streaming just as like a discovery tool. Yes, oh, absolutely,
that's all it is.
Speaker 8: Absolutely somebody has been sharing out. I kind of wanted
to this thing on social media about you know by
physical media, you know, which we talked about earlier, in
the importance of that to support these artists, And there's
so much of if I if I knew a place
where I could pull it up quickly, I would. But
there's a bout maybe you've seen it. There's a bunch
of stuff in there about how about how it's so
important to support artists through by physical media. But then
there's this thing at the end about you know, only
by by physical product, don't don't stream stop streaming, And
then it's like, oh, it had me all the way
till you get to the end. But then when we
get to the end, it's like, well, no, don't stop streaming.
I mean, I'll tell you too, And I can appreciate
because so I'm generation X. So my my generation is
the last. We're the last people to grow up completely
no Internet, right are you?
Speaker 3: So?
Speaker 8: I remember vividly, as I guess you do too, what
it was like pre Internet. Different, And don't get me wrong,
I have wonderful memories of going to music stores and
flipping through finding vinyl, finding CDs, finding stuff. But I
wouldn't trade what we have now to go back to
that ever. I mean because now we live in a
time where it's almost like it's almost even hard to
believe that it used to be the way it was,
because now you can hear anything at any time, anything
you want to. I mean, we're so spoiled compared to
what it was growing up.
Speaker 3: You know, you remember mixtapes, of course, you know.
Speaker 8: Oh, I vividly remember taping off of the.
Speaker 3: Radio, absolutely and taping other tapes on other tapes and
writing all the names on the back, giving it to
someone being like, this is so much I care about you.
Oh yeah, speaking words, but I can share it in
music all that stuff.
Speaker 8: Yeah, yeah, So I love the way it is now.
I think it's better, and I understand people get nostalgic,
and you know, I see people I call it old
man syndrome. I see people online on social media all
the time, my age and younger, you know, doing this
thing like back in my day, we actually bought music
instead of just streaming it. It's like, yeah, I know,
but yeah, things evolve and it is better now.
Speaker 9: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I remember tape players. I remember the cassettes breaking and
trying to take them together and winding them up with pencils,
and I remember CDs when they didn't have the automatic
skip function, so you had to like hold the CD
player put it on. You couldn't move the skip, but
CDs would scratch and it would very easily just break
and not work. And like four months listening to a
CDs like, oh, well there that goes. So it's interesting
and you know, there is trade offs, but I think
it's just you know, as an independent artist, it's important
to just roll with it, you know, like roll with
the times. Like, okay, streaming is there, people are going
to stream. Let's use that as a discovery platform and
then invite them into my community through the levitators, through
live streaming, have CDs, have vinyl, have all the things,
and actually go to their countries and perform for them
so they get to you know, and they wouldn't never
have known that I existed without streaming, exactly. It's interesting.
Speaker 8: Or the Internet, yeah, exactly. So I love the way
it is now, and I think embracing just in a
broader sense to embracing technology. You know, if you don't,
you get left behind, you know, And that's fine.
Speaker 3: If you're cool with that, that's all right.
Speaker 9: You know.
Speaker 3: Some people are just like I don't want anything to
do with it, and it's like that's great. Yeah, but
like for me, it's like I would really want to
utilize you know what I mean, what what the tools
are available to connect with people?
Speaker 8: Yeah? Yeah, yeah, yeah, you want to play one more,
let's do it, all right? If you're just joining us.
Eli Love is here with us in studio and.
Speaker 3: We were talking about cassette tapes. Yeah, and this song
is about the good old days of mixtapes.
Speaker 8: Okay, okay.
Speaker 3: It's called singing Along for the First Time. And I
got my first mixtape when I was in probably fourth grade,
fifth grade. Yeah, and I had some very eclectic artists
on it. You might you might remember some of these,
you know. I had Bruce Springsteen, you two Fleetwood, Mac
Johnny Cash, but it also had mc hammer. Oh new
Kids on the Block.
Speaker 8: I giggle at mc hammer because that's a well, we
won't get into it. There's a there's a long running
radio bit. I'll just say this. If you go on
YouTube and you type in Matt Connerton mc hammer, A
whole bunch of stuff coming up.
Speaker 3: Really, Oh, I can't wait.
Speaker 8: I'll leave it at that, all right, A whole bunch
of stuff comes up that's amazing.
Speaker 3: Yeah yeah, Chris Cross was on there. Oh yeah, so
this is this is a song about my first mixtape.
Speaker 8: All right, excellent, Thanks for having me on.
Speaker 3: Y'all really appreciate the support, and thanks for giving original
music a chance always. This one's called sing along for
the first time. It was the age of eight when
I played the tape and I heard a voice come
through you singing loud and singing strong to the words.
Speaker 12: I was sanging known to the edge.
Speaker 3: The song, waking up all my senses.
Speaker 1: Untime.
Speaker 3: I'm singing along for the first time. Oh oh, Selem
singing along for the first time.
Speaker 1: Shoo oo.
Speaker 3: Mm el was singing lodah. Now. I've been singing songs
since I came along on radio and TV. This one's
song win came on, felt like it it was just
for me. Now I'm singing along for the first time.
Speaker 12: Oh oh oh.
Speaker 3: For the first time, Oh oh oh, singing along for
the first time. It was Springsteen in the Street, Cash
in the summer, heat, Willie on the Road, Cobaine in
the cold, Steve in in my room, learning every line
of that tune. When the chorus came, it was my
chance to get up and start to dance away. What
dance away?
Speaker 12: Why I'm sitting along for the first time.
Speaker 3: For the first time. On it was Springsteen in the Street,
Cash in the summery Willie on the Road, Cobing and
the Child Stevie in My Room.
Speaker 1: Then the Navy line of that too.
Speaker 3: When the corners came, it was my chance to you
up and start to dance away, dance away.
Speaker 12: Now I'm sitting along for the first time.
Speaker 10: Oo ooh.
Speaker 3: Ooh, for the first time, I'm singing alone for the
first time.
Speaker 8: Love it, love it, absolutely, absolutely that it's such a hit.
Speaker 15: That's such a such a hit you no one loves
about your music is it just makes me feel happy?
Oh thanks, love it and I need that, yes, good
happy feelings.
Speaker 8: Absolutely for increasing my cortosol oh Well said absolutely absolutely. Eli.
For those listening live on Saturday, we should remind people
where you're gonna be tonight and tomorrow.
Speaker 9: And yeah, I'll.
Speaker 3: Be in Brookline, New Hampshire on Sunday at April House Vineyards.
That starts at one thirty, okay, and then I've got
some more shows up and down the East Coast. I'm touring,
you know, most of the year I'll be back this
way probably fall as well.
Speaker 8: Excellent.
Speaker 3: And then if people really like the music and want
to connect with me online, they're invited to become a levitator.
Speaker 15: Yes, and you get great reminders when new stuff comes out.
And how do I know that because I'm.
Speaker 8: I'm on there too.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's great. Yeah, And so if you like to
do that, you can just go to my website. Type
in the Google machine ELI lev E L I L
E V and you'll get to the website and on
the bottom it says join the levitators.
Speaker 8: Excellent, excellent, outstanding. We should Uh, what do you want
to end with? Well, we'll play one of the studio tracks.
Speaker 3: That's great.
Speaker 8: I don't know if you remember what you sent me.
Do you have a preference?
Speaker 3: You can pick one, you can surprise me.
Speaker 8: Let's see what didn't Oh, honkey talk.
Speaker 3: True, that's a good one.
Speaker 8: That's a good one.
Speaker 3: We're gonna get done of honkeey talking, but let's see.
Speaker 8: Yeah, let's go download that. Yeah, very good, very good.
And for those of you listening live on Saturday, we
have Jack Lianos coming up from the Perimeter Jazz Ensemble.
If I'm saying that correctly in the third hour, and
we will close out this segment with this again. This
is monkey talk truth. This is Eli left Eli, Thank
you again, Thank you both.
Speaker 9: So far.
Speaker 1: It's been quite an adventure with you by my side.
There's a part of me that goes on forever.
Speaker 10: And the willing.
Speaker 6: Two Lady shine, if I talk.
Speaker 16: Dude that we're just getting started, would you keep monkey
keeping on with me?
Speaker 1: Because I try, try, try.
Speaker 16: To be opening hardy.
Speaker 1: I hope that's all right.
Speaker 3: Common And as I know, it's a long winding grow
we pas and dangerous turns.
Speaker 1: The hardest part stay true. But I know when you
know with me, that's all that I want to do.
So far, we've built the Time Empire.
Speaker 3: In the middle.
Speaker 5: Of a wild and wondrous work.
Speaker 1: If we keep ongoing, lie, we're going with.
Speaker 3: There's no telling.
Speaker 6: How big ain I found this Couk. There's a sens
my mind, laskin what's all happened?
Speaker 1: What you much to look at? Old time?
Speaker 6: Cause I'm knowing when you're with me?
Speaker 1: Up poor gone on me?
Speaker 3: All right, let's me saying our first song together. I
knew that we'd be just fine.
Speaker 1: We're gonna keep on singing. Two starts.
Speaker 3: We'll stay on the run and keep on chasing daylight.
Speaker 1: It's a thing with perils and dangerous turns. The hardest
bon staying at Bud. I'm know when you're with me.
Speaker 6: That's all that I want to do, all that I
want to do