Speaker 1: Let go of the way you're supposed to behave the
things you should walk, the things you should say.
Speaker 2: You shocked us both.
Speaker 3: You open the door, we both walk through, and now
you're running through my body like the current, like the
rising time, the fom.
Speaker 4: The something about you.
Speaker 5: Transcence time transcends time.
Speaker 6: Leaps over decades between your.
Speaker 2: Mind. There's a break. We can't tonight.
Speaker 7: We can tonight to try to stop it.
Speaker 2: Would be a food.
Speaker 6: F sumaraniski, the need for retreat.
Speaker 2: Now look in your an.
Speaker 8: Said seat. Chose it out of moday. Nothing good of
a game? Tu say it inside. You shocked us both
over the door.
Speaker 3: We both walk and you're running through my body like
a current rising time.
Speaker 2: Bob, do something.
Speaker 5: About transcence time, transcend time, leave silver.
Speaker 2: Decades between your.
Speaker 4: Smile. There's something can stop stock.
Speaker 9: It's a great track. I love that. That is Fool's
Fight by Jesse Kilgis, and we're gonna be talking to
Jesse in just a moment. Welcome everybody. We have entered
our number three of 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. Today
is Saturday, December thirteenth, twenty twenty five. Genius here at
the news table and let's see joining us, joining us
via WhatsApp. Jesse Kilga is here. Jesse. Can you hear us?
Speaker 10: Yes, I Ken, can you hear me?
Speaker 9: Absolutely? Yes, you sound great. Welcome to the show.
Speaker 10: Thank you, Thank you so much.
Speaker 9: Yeah, I love that song. It's one of those things
he just kind of sway to you know when you
hear it, that's really really good. Well, thank you also,
so we we love your sound. Also excited to talk
to you because we were playing actually I played at
the end of the Last Hour Win by Charlie neland
because I was very as I was reading about you,
I was quite pleased to see that that you've worked
with Charlie because he was actually on the show with
us recently and we had a fascinating conversation. He's an
amazing guy. Oh great, But he's he's your producer. Is
that correct?
Speaker 10: Well, he produced this record.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 11: I've worked with multiple different people on all the different
records I've made, but Charlie and I have been working
on and off for almost twenty years.
Speaker 9: Oh no, kidding. Wow, yeah, Oh that's amazing.
Speaker 10: Yeah, he produced this one.
Speaker 9: What is it about? What is it about working with
Charlie out? Because the record is great? They have a
Howard Johnson's there. I love it. What is it about?
What is it about working with Charlie that that brings
out out this great music in you?
Speaker 11: Well, Charlie's just multi talented, plays a bunch of different
instruments and is a great engineer and producer.
Speaker 8: Yeah.
Speaker 11: But yeah, but IM a wonderful person too, So he's
just very easy to work with.
Speaker 9: Yeah, yeah, no, that makes sense. That makes sense. And
tell us about the title, by the way of the album.
I love the title. There's a Howard that they have
a Howard Johnson's there.
Speaker 11: So that's a line from my song Howard Johnson's and
I wrote that song. I took a poetry writing workshop
with the performance artist Karen Finley and the theme of
the workshop was Dog Day Afternoon and Oh we had
to watch the movie and then we had his poetry
workshop inspired by that and this. I took this workshop
about a month after my father died and his name
was Howard. And there's a line in the movie where
al Pacine says something like I'm going to Algeria.
Speaker 10: They have a Howard Johnson's or something.
Speaker 11: I just really stood out to me because my dad's
name was Howard and it was just so ridiculous to
the line. Yeah, yeah, I wrote a song kind of
based around that.
Speaker 9: Oh that's cool. That's funny too. That's such a great film.
But I haven't watched it in so long, and I
didn't I didn't even remember that line until you said it.
Speaker 2: It holds up.
Speaker 10: It's such a good movie.
Speaker 9: Yeah, yeah, it does, it does absolutely absolutely. And what
can you tell us about Fool's Fight? That's a that's
a great track. I really like that as I thank you. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's.
Speaker 12: You know.
Speaker 11: That was kind of inspired a little bit by some
books I was reading by Ellena Ferrante, but it's also
inspired by my own life and experiences. But I have
a songwriting club with my friend Rembert Block, who sings
back up on that song. Okay's She's a great singer, songwriter,
multi instrumentalist. She and I have a club of two
people we meet every month and have to share a
new song.
Speaker 9: Okay.
Speaker 11: So that song came out of that process, which is
really useful to have you know, a deadline every month.
Speaker 9: Yeah, I'm curious about that because that's such an interesting
concept to me, because is it like, because obviously everybody
writes differently. Some people like to some people need to
feel a little bit of pressure, you know, to really
get the known writing. Some some people can't stop writing,
and they actually write more music than they could ever
or books or whatever it is, than they could ever
actually use. Like, do you find that useful to have
that little bit of pressure, like to have that deadline?
Speaker 4: I do.
Speaker 10: E've been REMEMBERT and I have had this club for
over two years now. It's really useful.
Speaker 11: Just sometimes I feel more productive with writing and like
I have more ideas. But sometimes it's just useful to
flex the muscle, even if I don't like the song.
Speaker 10: Yeah, it comes out of it.
Speaker 9: Yeah yeah, yeah, it kind of forces well obviously, and
you know it's a successful partnership. Clearly. Are any of
the other songs on the album? Did they also come
out of that?
Speaker 13: Yes?
Speaker 11: Saint Teresa in Ecstasy from that process?
Speaker 10: Hm, what else is on there?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 10: I think all of them except for Howard Johnson's.
Speaker 9: Oh No kidding okay, yeah, excellent, excellent And what about
your approach. You know, I was, I was reading something about,
you know, nostalgia clever layered nostalgia online. I mean, is
that is that something that that you might have uh
said or I forget exactly where I saw that. As
I was researching you, I thought you had said something
about that somewhere.
Speaker 10: That doesn't ring a bell.
Speaker 9: Yeah, but.
Speaker 10: I think that you know, some of my songs are
can be pretty nostalgic.
Speaker 9: Yeah, but yeah, Well it's funny though, because there's almost
a timelessness to it in a way, like you listen
to a song like Fool's Fight and and that could
that could have been any time? Really, you know, that's
obviously it's it's a current song, but it could have
been you know, it could have been ten, twenty thirty
years ago and it would fit in any era if
if that makes sense, and which I think, which I
think is cool when you have something that it could
it could have come out anytime and it would have
sounded relevant to that period.
Speaker 10: Oh cool, that's a that's a really nice compliment, thank you.
Speaker 9: Yeah, no, no, like I said, I mean, and the
whole thing is it sounds like that to me. It
kind of reminds me a little bit of you know,
it's funny. I remember when I was a kid and
the MTV at a show called one hundred and twenty
Minutes on Sunday nights, and it was two hours of
It was two hours of music that you wouldn't necessarily
hear on mainstream radio at that time. And uh and
a lot of the music, you know, the alternative music
from that period. I remember it. It had that sort
of sort of that timeless thing about it where it
was like, Okay, this is this is something happening now
that's not in the mainstream, but this could have this
could have happened ten years ago and it would have
sounded you know, or maybe it would happen in the
future and it would sound good. So yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
I'm also really curious to ask about your acting career.
Uh yeah, sure, that's that's it interesting to me and
and and I'm very interested too in how that informs
your approach to music or or whether you kind of
compartmentalize all that as some people do, or or or
you know, or do the two kind of influence each other.
Speaker 11: Well, I don't act anymore. It used to be my
prime primary art forum. I haven't acted in about twenty years.
Speaker 9: I all walked out on it, Okay, but I did.
Speaker 11: I did, you know, go to college and graduate school
for it.
Speaker 10: And I did work professionally on.
Speaker 11: The stage in England, and I did one movie The
Crucible with Daniel da Lewis, and one on a writer Wow,
and yeah, and but I had this amazing experience working
on it. I was part of a Tom Waits musical
that the star was Mary Unfaithful and the other star
was Mary Margaret O'Hara, who's another amazing songwriter, singer, songwriter,
okay Canadian. If you don't know her, she's worth looking up.
And the band of that show was incredible. The music
was by Tom Waits and the the band with all
these musicians who had worked with all of my favorite musicians,
and Mary and Faithful was one of my favorite.
Speaker 10: Singers at the time.
Speaker 11: And it was an incredible experience and it made me
think that I wanted to maybe not act anymore real
kind of yeah, And that's when I started to think
about focusing on music more because I have always.
Speaker 10: Been a singer.
Speaker 11: But yeah, and in terms of how my acting life
background perform informs my writing, I think creativity is just
seamless and you can direct it towards any art form.
So it's the same energy I use for same energy
I would have used for acting.
Speaker 10: Just I funnel into music and I perform live all
the time.
Speaker 11: I still really love performing as a singer, so that
kind of informs my per formance style.
Speaker 9: When back in acting, when you were really heavy with
the acting career, when when that was your primary focus,
was it always kind of in the back of your
mind that that maybe you might sort of switch to
a different modality with your creativity or or you know.
Speaker 11: Or yeah, I've always been interested in creative writing, and
I've always been a singer, so it's and I never
really liked musical theater. Yeah, I mean Tom Waite's musical
is different than regular musical theater. But so it was
always in the back of my mind what to do
about music, how to incorporate it into my life.
Speaker 9: Yeah, oh okay, okay, very good, very good. So then
it was so then it was working on that musical
that made you think, okay, that's the that that kind
of gave you a push more into that direction.
Speaker 14: Yeah.
Speaker 11: Yeah, and I and after that musical, I actually had
to move back to the States from England. Okay, and
because I would get a visa for every acting job
I got there, but I couldn't get an overriding visa
to just like get a job while I wasn't acting,
and so so that was tricky, and I decided to
move back to the States.
Speaker 10: And the acting world in the States is very different
from in Europe, and.
Speaker 11: So I just kind of fell out of love with
that and started experimenting with music.
Speaker 9: Okay, okay, Yeah, when when you say the acting world
is very different in the United States, what do you mean?
I mean, you don't have to you don't have to
get too far into the weeds. But I'm just I'm
just curious.
Speaker 11: I feel like it's more of a respected art form
in the UK, especially, there's a real tradition of you know,
going to drama school and studying the craft, which I loved,
and here it's very commercial.
Speaker 9: Yeah, no, that makes sense, that makes sense.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 9: What was it like working with Tom Waits. He seems
like he's probably an intense guy, but I don't know.
Speaker 11: Well, he actually wasn't part of our production. He eyed
from Afar because this was in London and it was
a remount of The Black Writer, which I think was
first done in the nineties. Oh. The director was Robert Wilson,
who just passed away, and it was written by Tom
Waits and William Burrows. Gotcha, Yeah, but Tom Waits wasn't
part of the rehearsal process.
Speaker 9: Oh okay, interesting interesting.
Speaker 15: Yeah.
Speaker 9: So then so then when you came back to the
United States, I mean, was that was it right away
that you that you got out of acting or did
you kind of work your way out slowly or it.
Speaker 10: Was gradual I would say within a year or so.
Speaker 11: Yeah, Wow, Yeah, I just I stopped liking it. Yeah,
And I feel like it's such a tricky profession that
if I figured, if I wasn't enjoying it, then it
wasn't worth putting my energy into anymore.
Speaker 9: Right, absolutely, I mean everything always looks so glamorous from
the outside, right, but when you're actually doing it, you know,
people don't see what really goes into it. Yeah, and
it's it's yeah, I can imagine, it's you know, it's
enormously challenging when you so when you made that switch,
you know, and then you're doing music, did you ever
or maybe even today, like, do you ever think back
and do you ever feel like getting back into acting
or is that definitely completely behind you.
Speaker 10: It's definitely completely behind me. Yeah.
Speaker 11: I just burnt out on it, and the whole idea
of that makes me feel uncomfortable.
Speaker 9: Yeah.
Speaker 11: Yeah, yeah, so no, I mean, if somebody offered me
a million dollars to be in a movie, I would
do it.
Speaker 9: Well, of course. Yeah. Yeah. Somebody offered you a role
in a superhero franchise or something, you know, you'd have
to say yes to that.
Speaker 11: Yeah, yeah, but but yeah, I've I put that to
rest a while ago, and I haven't looked back.
Speaker 10: Yeah.
Speaker 9: Yeah, Well you're on a great path now. Like I said,
I love I love what you're doing. Have do you
do you write any song? Like have you written any
specific songs about your experience in in acting?
Speaker 5: I have not?
Speaker 11: Okay, okay, yeah no I haven't, but you know what
I am doing now. Also in addition to music, is
I just trained to be a breathwork practitioner. I saw
that you're a hypnotherapist.
Speaker 9: I am, yes, yes, yeah, oh good for you.
Speaker 11: So that's kind of yeah, And I would say that
that's maybe influencing the way I write or the way
I saying even.
Speaker 9: Well, that makes sense, that makes sense. Yeah, yeah, breathing
is such an important part of of how you're saying.
I've been looking into breath work myself actually because I
use it cool. Well, I use a little bit of
it in my sessions, you know, when I tell the
client to you know, focus on your breathing and focus
on the rhythm of your breathing and all of that.
But but I've been thinking about really learning, you know,
really getting into it and learning more about breath work
because I think it would be helpful and everything else
I do, or or even you know, even doing the
radio show, just not running out of air when I'm
you know, talking and you know sometimes if you're talking
a lot, you know. Yeah, but uh no, that's that's
really cool that you're doing that, And yeah, I would
imagine that would be very helpful with your singing.
Speaker 11: Actually, yeah, it's actually it's not any sort of like
gentle meditation that I'm doing. It's yeah, it's this three
part proniama all through the mouth, and you oxygenate your
brain so much that that your brain shuts off and
just all your feelings come out. So people people don't
find it gentle. It's often kind of like, uh, people
often cry oh wow, but it's it's really intense but
powerful and useful.
Speaker 9: Yeah about that. That's very very interesting. That's very interesting. Well,
that's wild. That's wild.
Speaker 11: Yeah.
Speaker 9: And as far as your your music, are you do
you play out? Do you play these songs out? Excellent
all the time.
Speaker 10: I just had a record release.
Speaker 11: Actually, Charlie and I shared a bill for both of
our record releases at this club in New York that's
called Berlin, okay. And I sing regularly with this band
called the Loser's Lounge at Joe's Pub, and I sing
with a couple other bands too, But yeah, I perform
almost once a week these days.
Speaker 9: Oh wonderful, good good.
Speaker 11: Yeah you're in New York, right, Yeah, I am in
New York.
Speaker 9: Yeah, excellent, excellent.
Speaker 5: Oh.
Speaker 9: The other thing I wanted to ask you to getting
back to they a Howard Johnson's there. The artwork. I
really like the cover.
Speaker 11: Oh thanks, Yeah, that was my friend Scott MX Turner
did that. I love it too.
Speaker 9: It's very retro it is it is maybe maybe that's
where I got the idea about the nostalgia, but yeah,
it is very retro. Yeah, it's very cool. Yeah, that
is excellent. That is excellent. And then what about what
do you have in the future, what's kind of your trajectory.
I mean, obviously, you know this album hasn't been out
that long.
Speaker 11: Right right, Well, you know, I did an artist residency
this summer in Iceland. I was in East Iceland for
a month, oh wow, and I was writing all new
songs there, and they gave me this beautiful space, this
recording studio and all the instruments. But I brought these
tiny synths that I was playing. So I've written a
whole bunch of new songs on these tiny synths. Found
nothing like like the current record that I'm really excited
about this new stuff. So I'm gonna be recording that
with my friend John Kengla, who plays guitar in my band.
We're going to be recording that sometime this year and
hoping to put that out. I don't know when, but
that's what I'm into right now. Okay, synth music, Yeah.
Speaker 9: Okay, very good, very good.
Speaker 11: Yeah.
Speaker 9: Well, Jesse, it's it's been wonderful speaking with you. We're
going to you know, in a moment, we're going to
play this other track after We Let You Go, we're
going to play Saint Teresa in Ecstasy.
Speaker 10: Oh cool?
Speaker 9: What should we know about that song? It's with such
an interesting title, oh thank you.
Speaker 11: Well, that was inspired by I was in Rome and
two different friends said, Oh, you have to go see
this sculpture in this little church and it's just magnificent.
Speaker 10: This culture. It's called the Ecstasy of Saint Teresa.
Speaker 11: Okay, And it has like this panel of gold above
the sculpture and there's a window above it and when
the sunlight hits the gold that lights up the statue.
It's just really incredible. And the song is about that,
just being really moved by seeing that.
Speaker 9: Okay, Okay, yeah, outstanding?
Speaker 11: Thank you?
Speaker 9: And where's before We Let you Go? Where's the best
place for people to go online to keep up with
everything that you're doing, all your music and everything.
Speaker 11: I post the most stuff on Instagram, Okay, so it's
just Jesse Jesse Kilgus on Instagram. And then the best
place to check out my music is band camp, especially
if people want to buy it, because band camp gives
the artists the most money. Yeah, But in terms of
staying up to do up to date on news, I
would say Instagram.
Speaker 9: And I like to tell people too, I love band camp,
and I like to tell people not only does band
camp give the artists the most money, but you get
you get a high quality file, You get a better
sounding file than you do if you just you know,
stream on YouTube or whatever. So I really encourage people
to use band camp as well.
Speaker 10: Nice.
Speaker 9: Yeah, absolutely all right, Jesse killed Gus, thank you so much. Well,
definitely when you've got some new stuff, when you got
some new music, we'll definitely have you back. Absolutely love
what you're doing, what we enjoyed speaking with you this morning.
Absolutely we're gonna hit this track Saint Teresa in ecstasy
will let you go. Oh and and again, congratulations on
the breath work. And I got to learn more about that.
I'm very curious about that. So we might have to.
Speaker 5: Oh very good.
Speaker 9: I'll check out the site and we we might we
might have to have you back to to talk about
that too, so we might we might have you back.
Really outstanding. All right, all right, Jesse, thank you so much,
Bye bye, all right, very cool. That was Jesse killed
Gus from New York City. Check out her album. They
have a Howard Johnson's there. It is available on band
camp and we're gonna play this track, uh, this is
a Saint Teresa in Ecstasy, and then when we come back,
we're gonna have Evan's from Audio Gust with us on
Microsoft Teams. Hopefully we don't have any tech issues with teams.
That was unusual what happened there with with WhatsApp. We
don't usually have any trouble. But I'll clean it up
on the on the podcast version. But here it is.
This is Saint Teresa in Ecstasy by Jesse Kilgas.
Speaker 7: In roam, I found expansion. My heart exploded in till
night like one of those room and candles.
Speaker 3: Let flicker and brighten up the night, or like.
Speaker 11: Saint Theresa, and next to see the.
Speaker 1: Day she had her epiphany the agel, shein an row
into her.
Speaker 3: Heart, and the sky lit up with the great event
and danced over the monuments, and the world passed for
a day and selebration, and she fell overwhelmeding joy and.
Speaker 16: Love and exquisite pain coming from above.
Speaker 3: And everything combined into the supply.
Speaker 4: Until eryyterrecer.
Speaker 3: Be came divol, walking around the room and form listening
to sinnate or con I do not want, but I
haven't got, making a pilgrimage of Palatine Hill on my.
Speaker 10: Way to see the Bernie that came.
Speaker 7: Sohly recommended to me.
Speaker 4: A humble priest let me in the tiny.
Speaker 3: Tool box of a church, where statues line in the
walls and gold.
Speaker 4: Paint crumbles from the ceiling.
Speaker 6: I carry on down the.
Speaker 8: Aisle, chast any feed or so, and as a.
Speaker 6: Ray of light pierces through the window, and it catches.
Speaker 2: The gold and rays on fire.
Speaker 5: And aluminaid the sculpture's face, and I lose myself.
Speaker 3: And of this transit and brains.
Speaker 16: I see say Toresa and acts to see the day
she had her apuffany.
Speaker 2: The angel shooting in her arrow.
Speaker 3: Enter her heart, and the sky lit up with the
great event and danced over the.
Speaker 16: Manument, and the world stopped in time, ceased to exist,
and I felt over aware, enjoyed love, an exquisite.
Speaker 5: Pain coming from about thverything combined.
Speaker 2: Into the sublie. As I see a narrator recon they
can't dev they can't divide.
Speaker 17: You're listening to Matt Connorton unleashed on double im an
h ninety five point three.
Speaker 18: Just look at your smile, keep listening eyes then Nicklas
on you, but get from last year. I see your
lips moving as I not approving, but in your eyes
a narrow.
Speaker 2: And oh if you are a narrow.
Speaker 14: This is the point where I want to disappear.
Speaker 2: You just roll out I was anywhere, but he Doey
has to do the stands gain.
Speaker 12: We're playing the arguments you I don't know where in
disrespect to you with not my side.
Speaker 2: Sorry, I hear what he was saying.
Speaker 13: Another statis meeting and I'm just stair eating.
Speaker 2: I'm shocking to attention when you ask my opinion.
Speaker 9: This is the point where I wanna disappear.
Speaker 12: You just found out that I was anywhere with he
do We has to do the stance again. We're playing
arguments from my don't know disrespect to you as they chance.
Speaker 2: Time.
Speaker 12: Sorry, I hear what you said.
Speaker 19: I'm sorry I didn't he I'm sorry I.
Speaker 20: Didn't you want Tom said, I'm sorry I didn't he.
Speaker 6: I'm sorry I didn't you want.
Speaker 20: He said, I'm sorry I didn't here.
Speaker 2: I'm sorry I.
Speaker 12: Didn't you want. You said, you know what you have
to do this dance again. Argument from I don't know why.
Speaker 2: I don't know what to with my chance.
Speaker 4: Time.
Speaker 12: I'm sorry, I hear what he was saying. Do we
have to do this hands again?
Speaker 9: How catchy?
Speaker 1: Is that?
Speaker 11: Wow?
Speaker 9: That is I didn't hear what you said. The project
is Audio Guest and let's see. We have Chris Evans
from Audio Guests here with us via Microsoft Team.
Speaker 20: Hello Chris, Hello, what are you doing?
Speaker 2: Good?
Speaker 9: Good, Welcome to the show. I love that song. I
love the whole album of course, that is from Falling
from Down, and it's just so like, you know, it's
the kind of song you tell people, at least I
tell people, you know, if that didn't make you move,
you know, check your pulse, you might be dead. It's
just really really catchy. And I love the vocals, the
layered vocals, everything about that is just it's just really good.
I love that.
Speaker 20: Thank you. I appreciate that a song.
Speaker 9: Absolutely absolutely. And you are in Seattle, is that correct?
Speaker 20: Yeap?
Speaker 9: Just outside, just outside it's yeah, ah wow, quite a
music scene there. Yeah, absolutely absolutely. What can you tell
us about the album Falling from Down? I did listen
to the whole thing. I really really like it. Like
I said, I love what you're doing. Sonically, and there's
nothing that I've heard recently that sounds quite like it,
But what can you tell us about it?
Speaker 13: This is my third album, that one this year, and yeah,
it's sort of a it's it's it's sort of a
song about the times these days.
Speaker 20: Basically, like with all sort of angst and and and
sort of.
Speaker 13: Sort of angst about communication, about what's going on in
the world and things like that, and then how people
are pretty stressed about this. And it starts off, you know,
with just sort of a set of a darker set
of songs and than all my previous albums, I think,
songs like Isotope and Falling from Down. And then it
hits a song called Easier, which is sort of it's
sort of a reflection of the whole album, which sort
of asked the question, man, it seems like it could
be if I didn't know what was going on, like
if you weren't paying attention to the news and things
like that, it seems like life might be easier. But
yet you really can't avoid it because it sort of
keeps coming back to you. But the whole sort of
shift in that song where it goes from being this
sort of introspective thing to the sort of pop punk
banger of a.
Speaker 20: Ridge, and then it comes back into the sort of
the final verse there, and.
Speaker 13: Then the whole album sort of shifts at that point
where it sort of goes into, hey, things are a
little bit more. You know, it's as if you weren't
paying attention to all of that, and we could just
sort of get back to songs about people and about
relationships and about the way you feel. And that's sort
of where you know, I didn't hear what you say
comes in sort of in that middle part of the album, right,
and then it sort of slides.
Speaker 20: Back towards the end of the album.
Speaker 13: So it's you know that the whole album is sort
of a reflection of the song Easier Written Large.
Speaker 9: Okay, okay, yeah, we'll play that one at the end
of our conversation because that's another great track. Like I said,
I like the whole thing. But but yeah, it's interesting too,
how you know you're able to uh take these themes
of of angst and and all of it that that
people feel and but but do something that's actually fun
and interesting to listen to, you know, because it's it's uh,
if if you can take something that's dark or negative
or however you want to think about it, but make
something positive out of it.
Speaker 21: You know.
Speaker 9: That's that's the best way I think to be able
to relate to people and and say here, here, here's
what I'm saying. But but I'm putting it in a
package that that you're going to enjoy listening to, and
maybe we can kind of connect and relate on that level.
And uh so I think it's great. You know, it's
melodic and like a lot of these tracks are really fun.
What about now, specifically that song, I didn't hear what
you said. I'm curious to know more about that. It
seems to address, as is evidenced by the title, you know,
miscommunication and misunderstanding And and was there something specific that that,
uh sort of pushed you to write that, or or
maybe just more of a general thing.
Speaker 13: Like like many people, I'm a bit on the ady
d side, and and I've certainly run issues where my head,
you know, sort of my mind wandered in the middle
of a conversation and I realized that I'm not quite
paying attention to this person that I'm supposed to be
talking to right now. They don't know this yet, but
it's true, and so I am sort of nodding along,
and yet my head is somewhere else, just sort of
like in the beginning of that song where it's like
this sort of persons just start talking to a girl
and sort of daydreaming and thinking about her and looking
at the you know, the necklace that she's wearing.
Speaker 20: Oh yeah, I got that for her back.
Speaker 3: What was that?
Speaker 20: When was that back in June? I think it was.
Speaker 13: And then she's saying something and you're realizing I'm not
hearing this, And in the song, she realizes that she's
not being listened to, and yet she's looking right at
her right. She gets a little b upset about it,
which is understandable. Any feels bad about this. I feel
bad about this, but it's it's not a it's not on.
Speaker 9: Purpose, right, right exactly.
Speaker 20: And then the second verse is the same thing happens,
except for your at work.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 13: You're in a meeting somewhere and you're just sort of daydreaming.
You didn't expect anybody talking to you in the first place,
and so you're just sort of in some meeting and
then they ask you a question.
Speaker 20: You're like, oh, wait, what I have no idea what
he was talking about.
Speaker 13: And you're sort of, you know, sort of embarrassing to
get caught in one of those moments there of you
were supposed to be paying attention and you weren't.
Speaker 20: Right totally, everybody knows this now and what are you
gonna do?
Speaker 21: Right?
Speaker 9: And it's and it's universal. Everyone's been in situations like that.
But you know, it's all stuff that happens to everybody. Absolutely,
But yeah, in the moment, though, it feels it's such
a terrible feeling.
Speaker 20: Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 9: I'm curious too about your history. So you you were
you played guitar and bass in some eighties bands, Is
that correct?
Speaker 20: Yeah?
Speaker 13: I was in a few bands back in the eighties
actually a little bit in the end of the nineties
as well, Okay, And nothing big though, I mean, you know,
just we were all sort of thlearning and getting better
and playing things and planning clubs and and uh this
this is like back in Ohio and Michigan and places
like that.
Speaker 20: Sure, uh yeah.
Speaker 13: And then and then I sort of, you know, once
I once I finished university and at the University of Michigan,
I was, uh, you know, we're trying to do something
interesting I wanted. I wanted to do a recording thing.
We started a company doing podcasts, but it was a
little bit early for podcasts because it was.
Speaker 20: The late eighties.
Speaker 5: Wow.
Speaker 13: So yeah, I mean the thing we made were if
you listen to the now you like, those are podcasts,
but it was wow, way too early for that. We
shipped them out on audio cassettes to like there's company communication.
Speaker 20: Kind of thing. Okay, but it was definitely too early
for that.
Speaker 13: So I sort of shifted into writing software and uh
uh you know, was in this is the Massachusetts actually
this is in Boston and Cambridge area, and uh yeah.
So I worked you know for a company doing you know,
router tech support and then writing code and building applications
and building things in the Mac. And then eventually one
of the things that we did caught the eye of
Apple and Microsoft, and they flew me out to California
and ended up working for Microsoft for twenty years off
and on, wow, and and some other places in between
some startups and some personal projects. And then a few
years ago I finally finished that and said I really
want to do the music thing again, and so yeah,
I sort of left Microsoft and software at that point
and started writing songs. And that's what the last it's
been pretty much for the last three years.
Speaker 9: Oh, excellent, excellent. Now, was that always kind of in
the back of your mind that you would end up
back with doing music, or was there a moment of
epiphany where you realized you had to get back to it,
or how did you, like just kind of mentally, how
did you get back to a place where you said, no,
I need I need to really jump back into this
full force, I need to do music.
Speaker 13: I'd always I bounced back and forth doing music at
different times during that the you know, the software times,
so you have you never I would.
Speaker 9: You never disengaged entirely from it.
Speaker 13: Well, I mean there were years where I did almost
nothing with it, and the guitar sort of stayed in
the closet. But I had the guitars, and then every
few years I would sort of you know, open up
like logic pro and and try to figure out some
more stuff on it and maybe do a few songs
on it.
Speaker 20: And then.
Speaker 13: And then stopped for a while and sort of would
it would come and go. And we had you know,
a family in there, we had kids in there, so
a whole bunch of things happened, ye, But I always
loved that. And there was an aspect of creating, writing
songs and creating songs and recording them and doing the
whole thing that that I loved. And you know, back
in back in the University of Michigan, I ended up
in a dorm that had a recording studio in the basement,
the student run recording studio, and learned a whole bunch
of stuff back then about doing this on you know,
reil the real tape recording and things like that, and
I just love doing it. And so every once in
a while I would, you know, do some more of that.
And then it was the point where it's like I've
I think I'm done with the full time software thing.
It wasn't more that I really wanted to get out
of it. And and during the pandemic, we bought a
place up here on Widbey Island and it had a
four car garage and I don't have four cars, so
took half of that.
Speaker 20: And made it into a little studio.
Speaker 13: Nice made it soundproof so that when when you're recording
a song, I think musician will know this that you
play the same part over and over and over and
over and over again, and to anybody who's not involved
in that, it's really annoying. But if you're doing it,
you need to do that so you can hear it.
Then you're making all these little fine tweets and stuff
like that. So building a room that was soundproofed meant
that I could do that and not bother anybody else.
And I could do that without having any you know,
cars or dogs or whatever it is barking well and
trying to record vocals or guitars or something like that.
And so once I sat up the space, it was like, okay, wait,
I could do this for real now. And that sort
of coincided with the hey, I'm sort of feel like
I'm done with the software business, and which has an
ironic twist on that one, but we'll get that later, okay, okay,
And yeah, so I started I just started writing songs
and realized that I can.
Speaker 20: I can do this full time now.
Speaker 13: And I think that's what you know, twenty to thirty
years and software will do for at least, let's set
up we can we can dedicate time with this. Yeah,
I'm very appreciative of that, and so yeah, so I
started doing this all the time, and then writing with
other people and getting involved with, you know, a bunch
of different songwriter communities and collaborating and and writing with
other groups of people and and producing the songs. And
did my first album very early. Actually, I go back
and look at them, like, there's some songs in therely
I love, but it's it's clearly early.
Speaker 9: Yeah.
Speaker 13: But then I spend a bunch you know, I just
did a lot of writing, and you knew a lot
of it, and you keep you know, keep at it,
and you get better at it. And yeah, so the
songs have gotten better, the production has gotten better, the
collaborations have gotten better, and uh yeah, so I just
love that. It's just so satisfying to be able to
come in here each day and just work on it
and write some new songs. And and the tough part
is keeping track of all of it.
Speaker 9: Because there's a lot right right, no doubt are you?
Are you doing everything yourself in terms of the instruments,
is all the playing on these?
Speaker 13: Is that all you yeah, these are all me okay,
and uh and and I as you'll you know, you've
listened to it. So there's a few songs where I
have some guest vocalists in yeah, and those usually off
off of those people that I write with. You know,
they'll they'll they'll join in for for you know, one
of the songs we collaborate on. But most of the
songs there are just me. I wrote to myselves and
produce the whole thing and recorded and it's on me.
Speaker 9: Okay, wow. I mean that must be incredibly liberating. I mean,
it sounds like you enjoy collaboration, but at the same time,
I would imagine to be able to do so much
of it yourself, aside from you know, guest vocalists as
you mentioned. I mean, that's got to be pretty pretty satisfying,
I would guess.
Speaker 11: And it is.
Speaker 13: I think it comes from a you know, I don't know,
maybe not the best place of I don't like getting
stuck or I'm blocked on waiting for someone.
Speaker 20: Else to be able to finish something right, yep.
Speaker 13: And if it was a point where it's like, oh,
I'd love to do more, but oh this person's I
need them to do this, but they're busy, or that
you know, I can't get back, they won't get back
in touch with me, or those kinds of things.
Speaker 20: And I just I hate the idea of being stuck.
Speaker 9: Yes, yes, blocked on it.
Speaker 20: And so by being able to do any of.
Speaker 13: The parts, I'm never blocked, right, So I can always
finish songs and release them and and those kinds of things,
and I'm not stuck by someone else. But at the
same time, you know, a having there are songs that
I write sometimes that we write that are songs to
be sung by a woman, and I can't do that,
and so that's you know, it's it's having having a
group of people that I can write with or or
call on say hey, I think the song would be
amazing with your voice, and having to be able to
jump in is just wonderful.
Speaker 9: Well with AI tools though, and and you know this,
you probably could.
Speaker 11: Uh.
Speaker 20: I've played around with that a little bit, but I
don't like. I don't like the results. I mean, they're
getting better, but it's.
Speaker 13: There's something that's that definitely feels more, uh, you know,
connecting yes, an actual person singing it with the A.
Speaker 20: I mean, sometimes the A voices are a little bit
too perfect.
Speaker 13: Sometimes they're you know, they don't they don't breathe because
they don't have to breathe.
Speaker 9: That's true.
Speaker 13: The way that they see something, you know it it
starts to feel something just a little bit off in it.
And so yeah, it's it's you know, so I've tried
it and and for you know, when if I'm writing
something for a film or a TV show or something
like that, then you know, something for for a sinc opportunity.
It doesn't quite matter as much if you use some
of those things sometimes. But yeah, but if but if
I can get it, you know, actual person seeing it,
it's always going to feel a bit more connected.
Speaker 9: Right, right. Have you been surprised by by the reception
I saw Let's see I saw something here from Spill
magazine said it's infectious, feel good rock introspection and hope
A Sonics Morgas Sport. That's pretty cool. That's that's that's
definitely I praise.
Speaker 20: Yeah, it's been great. Yeah, it's been just a little
over months since the album came out.
Speaker 13: Uh, and yeah, it's been really just wonderful to see
you know, the the reviews of it and great, Uh,
the people I've heard from who've listened to it, I've
really enjoyed it. It's it's a it's there's a lot
of different sort of It's a little bit more stylistically
diverse than my second album, which is a little bit
more sort of power pop pop, you know, uh pop
punk type stuff, and this album has some of that certainly,
but you know, with with songs like you know, Isotope
and Falling from Down, which are definitely harder rock kind
of songs, which and I come from, you know, in
in in those bands in the eighties, we've played a
lot of you know, hard rock metal songs like Black
Sabbath and you know whatever, and so I love a
good crunchy guitar part. Yeah, uh, and so I was
really I loved doing those tunes. But then songs like
You at My Door, which has Lana Tani singing on it,
is you know, a more sort of traditional piano ballad
song but with a bit of a shift in it, uh,
twist in the story, and that's you know, that was
sort of a different thing. But I just loved that
song so much that that partument was like, I just
want to have it on the album. And then when
I and I got heart to sing it was great.
Speaker 9: Yeah. Yeah, I'm curious too. I have to ask you
and you probably got this question a lot. But being
where you are geographically, I mean, has that influenced your
sound at all or I mean being in Seattle or
Seattle A Jason, Are you actually in Seattle or even
one of those suburbs.
Speaker 20: I was in Seattle.
Speaker 13: I lived in Seattle, you know, we lived in Seattle
until until we bought this place up here and we
and uh so, I you know, I've been in the
area for since the nineties, so it's yeah, yeah, I've
been all of the airplace in the area basically. But yeah,
we were in in in Seattle proper for a while,
which was great. U until the pandemic Yeah, yep, yep,
less so I mean it was still fine, but it
was you know, you couldn't go do a lot of
the things that that were great about being in the city,
right uh and uh yeah, so I mean I I
you know, I love the Seattle bands, particularly from the
nineties of Pearl Jam and and and Nirvana and Sound
Garden and.
Speaker 20: You know, all of that sound is just you know,
was huge. And yeah, there's a lot of nineties sound
in what I do.
Speaker 9: Yeah, yeah, absolutely, so yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 20: You know, it was it's a huge influence.
Speaker 13: I wasn't actually here for most of the nineties, so
I wasn't here during the early nineties when all the
stuff was happening because I was in Massachusetts then, but
it was uh, yeah, it's it's it's still part of
the feel here. Going to go to the airport and
there's all sorts of you know, pictures in the airport
of of Pearl.
Speaker 20: Jam and Nirvana.
Speaker 13: I can imagine, yeah, Hendrix and and all these you
know things, because it's just a big part of what
Seattle is and uh and the feel is still there
for that.
Speaker 9: Yeah, yeah, no doubt. Well, by the way, where does
the name audio Guests come from? What's the meaning behind
audio Gusts?
Speaker 20: So I guess there's two parts of it.
Speaker 13: One, I can't use my regular name, Chris Evans, because
there's an awful lot of them out there.
Speaker 9: Yeah, common common name, one of them being very famous.
Speaker 13: Some of them are very well known depending on where
you are. There's another one in England who's very well known.
Speaker 8: Uh.
Speaker 13: And so I needed to have an artist named that
was something else. So audio gust is a it was
something that I could that I could get that was
you know available. Yeah, and you know, there weren't a
lot of other people doing it. But you could think
of like singing as just sort of a combination of wind,
air and sound. Yeah, and all sound really is sort
of waves and it's just sort of vibrations through the air.
So it's you know, it's moving air. It is is
sort of a sound. It is motion.
Speaker 12: It is.
Speaker 20: Yeah, just sort of a cross of of of sound
and motion.
Speaker 9: Yeah, that makes sense, makes sense.
Speaker 19: I like it.
Speaker 9: It's a cool name. Definitely a cool name. We're almost
out of time, Chris, it goes quickly. What's the ironic
twist about your software career?
Speaker 20: Ah?
Speaker 13: So, as I was writing all of these songs, and
when you write a song, there's a whole bunch of
information you need to track along with it, like for
of course, what are the lyrics and what key is
it in? But also like what do I need to
do still on this recording of it? And you know
where if I registered it with the different all the
different places you register songs with, and what's the link
to it on Spotify versus Apple Music versus whatever else?
And so I did what a software guy does as
I wrote an app. Ah, I used to track all
of my songs and all of my recordings and all
the people that I write with and and the current
state of all of them. And I've recently realized, after
you know, showing a bunch of people and letting them
sort of play around with it, that I need to
release this app because it's a really really useful tool
for songwriters and music producers and such to do this.
So sometime in the next month or two, I'm going
to be releasing this app called studio Notes, which is
exactly that. It's an app for organizing all of your
songs and and it's not you know, we don't, I
don't store the music on there. They's playing a place
where you can anxious store the files. But it's yeah,
it's all of the information about all of the songs
you write, and the recordings of them, in the current
state of them, and the collaborations and who has signed
what agreements and all of those kinds of things.
Speaker 9: Oh, that is extremely cool and very useful, and I'm
sure a lot of our listeners will enjoy hearing about
that because you know, a lot of a lot of musicians,
and you know, people who make up our audience. There's
a lot of musicians, a lot of industry people, so
that's that's very cool. So it's called Studio Notes.
Speaker 20: Yeah, and and the website is up right now.
Speaker 13: You can't actually the store app is not in the
story yet, Okay, studio is Studio notes dot app. Oka
probably shouldn't have said that, but I did, because the
website's up there. The link to go to the store
course doesn't work yet because yea, it's not in the store.
But if you know, if anybody's curious, you can go
and sort of see what it's about, and you know,
send me a comment or whatever if your just did.
And I'll make sure to let everybody who does know
when it's actually a up in life of the story.
Speaker 20: But I'm sort of finishing nothing.
Speaker 9: Oh, extremely cool, very good, very good, Chris. This is
I wish we had more time. I could definitely talk
to you longer. You're you're an interesting guy and I'm
very I love your love your music. But but yes, yes,
we are approaching the top of the hour, so we'll
start to wind down. I'm gonna close the segment with
this track Easier that we were talking about. This is
another another great song from the album.
Speaker 2: But where's the.
Speaker 9: Best place for people to go to learn? More and
keep up with everything that that you're doing as audio guests.
Speaker 13: Uh, audio gust dot com is the website perfect sort
of the center of everything. You can follow me of
course on audio guest music, on on Instagram or you know,
I'm in Threads and a bunch of those places, but uh, yeah,
the the core of that would be your guest dot
com is where I usually try to keep everything.
Speaker 20: Yeah up to date.
Speaker 9: Yeah, absolutely, absolutely well, Chris, thank you so much. We're
going to play this track in a moment easier. Love
love the love the song, and I love the album,
and congratulations on everything that you're doing. And we look
forward to having you back when you've got new music
or jeez, we might even have you back on sooner
to talk about the app when when it comes out,
because like I said, I think a lot of our
listeners would be very interested in that. But I love
the album Falling from Down. Everyone should listen to the
whole thing. It's it's really really good. So we'll hit
that track and we'll let you go for now. But
Chris Evans Audio Gust, thank you so much and we'll
talk to you soon.
Speaker 20: Thank you. I appreciate that much, all right.
Speaker 9: Absolutely take care, Bye bye. All right, what an interesting guy,
Chris Evans. His project is Audio Gust. We're gonna play
this track easier and we are rapidly approaching the end
of the show, so that'll probably be it for this week.
Thank you to everybody who joined us today. Of course
the guys from Down Boys, they were in studio with us.
That was wonderful. We talked to Jesse Kill Gus and
Dots and Moon and a nice busy show. And let's
see if you want to keep up with everything I'm doing.
Sometimes I forget to plug my own website, Matt connorton
dot com. If you miss any part of today show,
it will be up in just a little bit w
MNH Radio dot org and at my website Matt Connorton
dot com. And uh, that's gonna do it for us
for now. We're gonna talk to you a little bit
later by everybody. And here it is. This is easier
and the project is Audio Guest.
Speaker 14: I shouldn't watch the head stirred up anger rensmile.
Speaker 19: I see all the wing signs, so I don't sleep
that well, says.
Speaker 14: It would get it.
Speaker 20: If I didn't know.
Speaker 15: Coastline shifted a big storms doing less the more weird
warm Friday, being on and informed. So I follow every
failing warm.
Speaker 2: Days and would be if I didn't know. If I
didn't know, No, I didn't know. I wake up early
and I jump out of bed.
Speaker 12: I step outside and trying to sun.
Speaker 2: On my neck and got nowhere. He's taking his face
in my hand.
Speaker 20: Wanted anywhere, seem on it.
Speaker 12: I know anything I want to need.
Speaker 2: Any proof gets conform of me.
Speaker 20: It shouldn't be a control you too.
Speaker 12: My contents would be the profat extrem.
Speaker 9: But then my gat comes here.
Speaker 2: And if I turned down and.
Speaker 15: I was raised, don't own cool stand man by Avery long,
believe in his history.
Speaker 9: Flew the flag in for my soul and stuff.
Speaker 15: Because now the virtue face the craft comburations.
Speaker 21: Fast sha pass.
Speaker 14: So I resist, but face the facts.
Speaker 2: So it would be.
Speaker 12: Most day it would be easy. Every day would be easy.
Speaker 2: If I didn't know.
Speaker 20: You are listening to W and H N.
Speaker 18: Command God, don't get supprimely maxill coming.
Speaker 17: You are listening to Matt Connorton Unleashed on W M
n H ninety five point three.
Speaker 20: Point three.
Speaker 21: You are listening to W M N H L ninety
five point three FM, broadcasting from the top of one
thousand Elm Street. Our studios are located at one nineteen
Canal Street and licensed to Manchester Public Television Service in Manchester,
New Hampshire. Contact us by email at wm NH nine
five three at gmail dot com, or through our website
at wmnhradio dot org.