Speaker 1: W MNH will rip the nobles.
Speaker 2: When Matts wakes up in the morning, he gets into
the shower and to the top of his lungs.
Speaker 3: He sings.
Speaker 4: Man the rain wind because I can't.
Speaker 5: All right, I'm back doing a radio show.
Speaker 4: Now, all the best and cherry.
Speaker 2: I've been enough, Daves, Mine's amazing ablaze. I've been catching
figus since before the twelfth grade. I had this design,
but couldn't get out of my way. Now I'm double
the age, still rewinding the days. Can't believe what all
love done. I'm still looking back big cleaning up, but
still remember the cooking crack. The strength I had for
the needle never quite took it back. Some days I
still find that I'm quite shook. In fact, the light
keeps going out. Maybe that's a sign for me. I
have accepted that one day will be time for me
someone's revenge. I suppose that it's fine with me. Nothing
in life often happened when the timeins sweet. All I
can do work to build a good Now when then
staking the sunder makeup for days of shrouded in dens.
I am the howling man standing upon the howland winds.
Night of the hunted the preacher upon the prowl again.
Not perfect, not even close.
Speaker 4: To all right.
Speaker 5: Can't remember the last time I slept all night.
Speaker 1: W open, but I need another hour. I just fell asleep.
Speaker 5: Off any time for the shower. No sugar added, no
sugar added. I just need water.
Speaker 2: Mentally I can padded, no sugar added, no sugar added.
Somewhere between be get happy and mad apocalypse, now anxiety
and alarms again.
Speaker 5: Hope my horrible ways could never harm a friend.
Speaker 2: Some men crossed me again. I saw him again. Even
a heathen nor demon can fall from a sin Who
called it again?
Speaker 1: I'm not offred to them?
Speaker 5: Drownding in my own flood, I hardly can swim. Then
I stopped too late.
Speaker 2: How could I be so selfish? Do the superdice things?
But know that I'm not helpless? Bad pattering habits I
need to learn to break. I'm mad scattered this matter.
If I need to learn to shake, we'ld extinguish every light,
the match to burn the lake. Every roll of the
dice is the one determined fate. Slipping into the void
for just a few hours to do within my vest
and not flip. I got no new flower, my dreamscape
is a place that I do scalur in search events
is like how I could better use power? Not perfect,
not even close to all right, can't remember the last
time I slept all night. Eyes why I'm open, but
I need another hour. I just fell asleep off any
time for the shower. No sugar added, no sugar added.
I just need water.
Speaker 1: Mentally, I can.
Speaker 5: Padded, no sugar added, no sugar added. Somewhere between being
happy and maddened.
Speaker 4: I love it. That is Cody Pope and Byron g
No sugar added from the album Giant Steps in Gates City.
And we have Cody Pope here with us in studio.
We're gonna speak with him in just a moment. But
welcome everybody, if you are listening live on Saturday. We
have entered our number three New Marrow trace of Matt
Connerton Unleashed. We are live from the studios of wm
n H ninety five point three FM and Glorious Manchester,
New Hampshire. Jenny is here, of course, at the news table,
and it is a Saturday, August thirtieth, and I hear
the doorbell. Oh my goodness, are we expecting company. Jenny
is going to uh well, that's very strange. Let me
get this mic on here. Oh, actually we switch to
to the other mic. There we go.
Speaker 2: Cody Pope is here.
Speaker 4: Hi Cody, good morning. Well everybody, welcome back. Yes, I
don't know why the doorbell is ringing up. It's occasionally.
I don't know. If you know this, we've probably told
you this. You probably know this used to be a
bus station. Yeah, and occasionally people will come here trying
to buy bus tickets, because I think if you look
it up on Google, it still shows this is a
location where you can purchase bus tickets in Manchester.
Speaker 2: It's funny that all the big signage outside that says
like radio and TV doesn't sway them away.
Speaker 4: And they're literally I told someone this once and I
think they thought I was kidding. There's actually a sign.
I don't know if you've seen the sign on the
building that actually says we do not sell bus tickets here.
Speaker 2: No, that's so good.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's on the building. I don't think people notice it,
as evidenced by the fact that people still come here
to buy bus tickets. But yeah, there's a sign on
the building that says we do not sell bus tickets here.
Speaker 2: That's like wild.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, pretty crazy. But uh no, I love that
track now that Giant Steps in Gate City. That was
out the last time you were here, right.
Speaker 2: So I think we were here before. I think we
might have been here before it came out, right, but
we were like in the run of getting ready for
that to come out.
Speaker 4: That's right, that's right, Yes, Okay, I recall now and
you're still now you're you're working with Byron. G's still right,
but he's got something else he's doing as well. Yeah,
so you guys are kind of working separately but still
still together with Hellhound Publishing. Correct.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so Hellhound is still running full steam. Byron and
I have a bunch of music in the vault, I
want to say a little earlier this year. Anybody that's
like been to any of our shows, obviously you know Byron,
but you also know Patrick. Patrick was our live sound
engineer for a number of years. The two of them
have actually started a new company called six ZHO three
Beat Collaborative, Okay, and they do live audio, They do engineering, podcasting,
stuff for big corporate events, all sorts of stuff like that.
So they've just been killing it and doing a lot
of the like initial groundwork of getting that all up
and running. And so while they were doing that, I
just figured I should keep keep the bus moving, keep
the hell hound thing going.
Speaker 4: Yep.
Speaker 2: They you know, they have families and kids and things
that occupy a lot of time. I have the I
have the position in life to be a rapper with
a cat and a fiance, so it affords me a
little more flexibility. And so I'm just taking the torch
and running with it and uh trying to keep things
moving until uh, you know, until everything settles down.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you don't have any kids, No, isn't it nice?
I'm also childless.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's it is. It is a very fortunate position.
Speaker 4: Absolutely. I mean, don't get me wrong. People with children
always look really happy and everything.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's the thing is like, but I imagine that,
like parenting could be cool. Like I'm sure there's people.
Speaker 4: Who like, yeah, Jenny has a son.
Speaker 2: Yeah. So the thing is, like, parenting is cool as
you want to be as a parent. And for me,
I'm just too selfish, yeah, and too caught up on
this whole creative endeavor in life.
Speaker 4: That's always been my thing too. To have that degree
of responsibility for another human being. I don't even know
how anyone affords it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly now, especially nowadays. Yeah yeah, things have tripled,
are almost quadrupled in price in my adult life.
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, oh absolutely absolutely. Uh Jenny, my curiosity is
killing me. Uh why was the doorbell ringing? Somebody looking
for a bus?
Speaker 2: Real? That is?
Speaker 4: That is what it was? Yeah, yes, it was.
Speaker 3: Somebody looking for a bus to Boston. I did my
best to try and explain how to go to New London,
North Londonderry to get a bus to Boston.
Speaker 4: Yes, because I don't know any other way.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it's either that or Nashua. Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, taken uber to North Londonerry. I'm so sorry, sweetie, there's.
Speaker 4: No bus here. Yeah. Oh that's funny. Wow all right, Yeah,
I mean I said it half kidding, but apparently that
is what it was. Well, very good, So.
Speaker 1: Why locked?
Speaker 4: Yeah I can understand that. Oh yeah, because I don't
know says it online? Still does it? Well that's the
thing I was I was telling Cody that if you
look online, it still says you can get bus tickets here. Yeah.
When we first when we first moved into this building,
because you were at the Yeah, you were on the show.
We were at the old the old Place. I know
that at first, if they left the door unlocked during
the morning show on weekdays, people would just wander into
the building, you know, thinking they were gonna buy bus tickets.
So I'm yeah, some stranger walking in now. So Giant
Steps and Gate City. So this is this is your
newest release.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and then that is the second full length but
fifth project from Byron.
Speaker 4: And I Okay, okay, wow yeah, Now who who are
you working with these days? Because I saw so you've
got a band that you perform with sometimes.
Speaker 2: Now yeah, so back in So it's it's interesting how
it all kind of came to be. But big shout
out to DJ Myth and the Shaft Skiing. Oh yeah,
DJ Myth, DJ Myth and Sean Caliber, great artist from
around the Way too. The two of them do an
event called sound Off Saturdays at the Shasking once in
a while, I think it's like once a month and
it's always a different theme. And so they had the
theme of like rappers with a live band, and they had,
if I understood correctly, they had two acts, but then
one of them had to drop or maybe they just
had the one act and they needed to fill up
the other slot. So in me and Myth's like usual conversation,
I just was like, look, I can't promise that I
can pull this off, but if you really don't have anybody,
I was like, I certainly know people in bands. I
can try and pull this together for a show. And
I did the Facebook solicitation thing. I had a really
great drummer who I think you actually have met before.
Big shout out to Axel from Dead Harris.
Speaker 4: Oh of course.
Speaker 2: So Axel hit me up, and then a childhood friend
of mine hit me up as well, who played guitar,
and we all met at a jam space in Nashua
and Axel and I hit it off really well. The
guitar player ended up having some family stuff and things
that he had to deal with, so it just like
wasn't a good time. Yeah, so he kind of stepped
out of the picture quick, and so it was like
Axel and I and we were kind of like, look,
we just need to do this show. So even if
it's just the two of us, like we can you
could just drum over the music, We'll do the show
to help them out. And I appreciate it. Yeah, A
week before the show, maybe like a week and a half,
a guitar player hit us up, who I don't know.
Are you familiar with the band Volley?
Speaker 4: Yes, we've had the mine.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I love these guys, so shout out to them.
Dane from Volley reached out and he was like, look,
I'm going on vacation with my family this week. He's like,
if you don't have anybody on I think it was
the show was on the tenth, and I think he
was coming back from his vacation on the third and
he was like, look, if you don't have anybody by
the third, and me the music and I will do
my best to learn it. And I was like okay.
So we got together that tuesday, I think it was
like the fourth. We had one practice for a couple
hours and just like worked out a set, went and
did the show that night and absolutely like crushed and
we had so much fun. The audience. It was like
playing to all new people. It was a way different
audience than I usually played too. Yeah, they were super receptive,
We sounded great, we felt great. So like after the show,
I was like, oh man, we did it. Like, thank
you guys so much. And they were both like, well,
we should just keep doing this? Yeah, and I was like,
well what a dream, you know, Like I was just
going to be happy if we did it for one show,
and the fact that they wanted to keep up with it,
I was so ecstatic. So now we've set so we
have two shows in September now and we're currently on
the search for a bassist and a keyboard player. Nice
kind of fill things out, very cool. Yeah, Now, what's
it called Cody Pope? And what Cody Pope and the
Keyholders and the Keyholders? I like that.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, that's very cool.
Speaker 2: So people that are that are into the Cody and
Byron and stuff. We have a song from one of
our projects called the Keyholder's Theme Song. Oh, and that
kind of ties into us being from Nashua because Nashua
is the gate city and oh that makes sense. Culturally.
There's lots of talk now more than ever about gatekeeping
and the idea of gatekeeping. And I'm not a huge
fan of gatekeeping person Like, I understand it to a degree,
but I also am kind of of the challenger of
the ilk of like, look, I could give you all
the resources that I have, but you're not gonna do
what I do. Like, you know, it's like you can
give two people a paintbrush and they're gonna make a
different thing, right exactly. And so Keyholder just be kind
of came this thing of like I'm happy to share
my tools with the right people. Like if you if
you're on this path for real and you really care
about the craft and what you're doing, and I have
some something that I can share with you, I'm happy
to do that if it's for the right reason. Yeah,
Like I'm not afraid of sharing game, but I do
understand protecting the culture too, And so that's kind of
where the idea of like the keyholders came from. It's
just like we've kind of made our like we're a
part of hip hop as a greater thing, but Hellhound
is very much like its own kind of like community
and subculture, and like we have a lot of people
that come out specifically to our stuff and that specifically
rock with us rather than like the greater culture the
way we love it, right, And so we look at
that as like something we've cultivated and something we have
to protect too. We want to grow it and continue
it to blossom, but we have to like protect the
sanctity of these people that come and really appreciate this thing.
You know, they come and they feel safe, they feel
like they can express themselves, they can be vulnerable, they
can cry and dance and laugh and have fun and whatever.
And so it's like we want to make sure that
that always stays a part of the ethos of what
we do.
Speaker 4: Yeah. No, I think that makes sense and it's very positive.
And how long is Hellhound existed? Now?
Speaker 2: So we started Hellhound in twenty I started Hellhound in
twenty eighteen.
Speaker 4: Okay, okay, and then Byron became a part of it.
Speaker 2: In twenty twenty two.
Speaker 4: Twenty twenty two, okay, Yeah, so it did already existed
for a while. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So it was like a very interesting time period.
So when we we had met, I think we talked
about this before, but you were doing local outbreak at
the I forget the name of the place, but it
was like a vintage store in Laconia. Yeah, and that
was the first time we had met, that's right. Yeah,
that was around the time that I had just kind
of started linking up with Bizza Took. I think Bizil
was the one who introduced us, yep, and I had
started a record label called Vatican Life back then, oh right, right,
And the last record that I put out on Vatican
Life was my album called Not Having a Good Day,
which a lot of people that's kind of like the
thing they know me for, but coincidentally, as well known
as the song has become now. When the album came out,
it didn't do very well in terms of like just
selling the album, and then I did like a short
tour to promote the album, and most of the shows
on the tour did not go very well, just like
low attended weak Night, kind of like didn't seem like
people cared kind of thing. So I just became very disillusioned,
and I was like, man, all the artists that I
put out records for have like, I don't want to
say fallen off, but kind of chosen to not pursue
music anymore. And life dealt them other cards, and I
was in this weird place where it was like, man,
I had built up such momentum and somehow I'm looking
at my last album thinking like, oh, I got covered
in the Hippo, I had more people at the release show,
I sold more CDs, Like what did I do wrong?
I'm so proud of this album. I thought it was
such a tremendous body of work. But I think I
had just burnt myself out and I think that I was, yeah,
you know, I just I was applying too much in
the wrong places. I needed to step back and learn
how to like do more for myself in like the
creative sense, the marketing sense, like how to just be
more self dependent. And one of the things that I
had started kind of coming to grips with at that
time was I don't know if I'm going to be
able to do music forever.
Speaker 4: I want to.
Speaker 2: I hope that I always have the privilege of doing so,
but I just you just never know. The culture could
dictate that your time has come, your audience could be
exhausted with what you've done, You could have some sort
of something could happen, I could prevent you from executing
your craft at the full level. And so I realized
it was like, I need to be able to do
other creative endeavors and still have a platform for the
music as well. And one of my big influences in
life has always been Henry Rawlins. I grew up a
punk rock kid. I loved Black Flag, but I found
that when I was like about twelve or thirteen years old,
So it was like a very pivotal time in my life.
And I had, like I don't want to like drag
on the story, but basically I had been like a
punk rock fan already. I used to go hang out
at Barnes and Noble all the time because back then
Barnes and Noble was open till eleven o'clock at night.
He had the Starbucks, so it was like a place
you could just take the bus and go hang out. Yeah,
And I was there one night and I liked, I've
always read like I'm a big fan, like the Hellhound
logo is a book and flame, Yeah, like it's very
much a part of my ethos as a person. But
I was just looking through books and I found a
book and it's and it had Henry Roland's name on
it as like the author, and so like thirteen year
old me is like, I picked it up and I
opened the first page. It was the book it's called Sillipsist.
I don't know if you've ever seen it, but it's
like it is as raw as it comes. The very
first page is just like raw, unfiltered, honest disgusted with
the things that he's seeing at the time, and I
didn't think books could be like that. Like I didn't
think books can say that kind of stuff. And then
it was like, oh, the guy from Black Flag writes
books and like puts out And then I saw the
record label that he had and they put out books
and they did concerts and they put out spoken word albums,
and so it just made me realize that, like, maybe
I had boxed myself in too much. Like I write.
You know, it's not that I write raps. You know,
I started off as a punk rock I played in
hardcore and metal bands. Like I've played numerous instruments, I've
written poetry, I've done all these other things, including rap.
Rap is a skill set that has taken me the
furthest of all of my skill sets. Doing hell Houn
Publishing was like, look, we're not calling this just records
or music group or whatever. This is now the entity
that we can do everything through. It's the cultural ethos
that brings all of this art together.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 2: It's being raw, being vulnerable, being honest, not feeling like
you have to playkate to societal standards or even industry standards.
Just being comfortable carving your own lane at whatever that costs.
And so I kind of so the dissolution of Vatican
Life was also the start of my hiatus as a rapper,
and I ended up taking the next like almost three
years off wow, and didn't really I think. I think
I put out like an EP and I played like
one show or something, but I didn't really do anything.
I had put all of my energy into this hell
Hound publishing project, and the first things that I was
working on were podcasts. I had written like a radio play,
so I wrote like a whole script. It was like
eight thirty minute episodes really this very like film noir
based like old school radio play style thing. I had
cast a bunch of voice actors wow, brought them to
my studio and was like producing this thing. And a
few months in I just realized I was like way
in over my head in terms of doing a production
of that magnitude. But I knew that I was like
on the right path. I knew that I was like
this is why I made hell Hound, chose to do
things like this.
Speaker 4: What was the radio play about?
Speaker 2: So it's called Gates and I based it in like
early like nineteen fifties Nashua. Yeah, And it's really like
a mix of like a sci fi murder mystery kind
of thing where I took a lot of those like
the Raymond Chandler stories, like those kind of like detective
mystery things, and I tried to imbue that with my
love of sci fi. How would people react to science
fiction scenarios in that time in the fifties without the
lack of technology that we have today. So it was
really fun and I still have a lot of the
stuff like in the vault, and I'm just trying to
figure out Now it's like, all right, how do I
finish it? Because I was I was like I think
coming from like CD culture and concert ticket culture, it's
like I have this very way of thinking that was
like I need to get all eleven voice actors to
the studio to like play off of each other, and
how do I record that all at the same and
it's like people just don't have the time. And it
was just like technological stuff that it was like I
need to figure out how I could produce this better,
and now I have. But then in that time, the
music stuff kind of picked back up so much that
it was like Okay, I understand now I have a
better understanding of how to charge forward, and it's that
doing the music is the thing that shines a lot
of light into what I'm doing, yeah, and provides me
the leverage to take risks on new creative ventures like
a radio play or doing a podcast, or writing a
book or whatever it may be. And so I think
as long as I stay steady doing music and not compromising,
that people will also take risks on me doing new things.
And the band was kind of an example of that too.
We're constantly trying to bring new elements into what people
see as like a hip hop show, and like the
flyer I gave you, you'll see we're doing an unplugged
show at the end of September, so we're basically all
acoustic and percussion stuff, and we're going to be doing
all new renditions of some of my songs oh wow
and stuff that was like I was like very inspired
by like Incubus, Alice in Chains, yeah, stuff like that
that It was like, how do I bring that kind
of like goose bump inducing energy and still use my
like the spinal cord of the music that I'm making
right right now?
Speaker 4: I think that's really cool, and you know, to have
the music as the nucleus, but but to not limit yourself,
you know. Yeah, now I think that's I think that's
excellent if you are just joining us. Cody Pope is
here with us on this this Saturday morning. And so
when is the next When is the next show that
you're doing with the band with the Keyholders.
Speaker 2: So the next Keyholders show September fourteenth, we're going to
be at the Shaskiing Okay, We're going to be doing
like a regular like electric, pretty high energetic set for
rap night.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 2: And then September twenty seventh, we're doing our unplugged Acoustics
show at the Spot in Nashwa, Newhamshire.
Speaker 4: Okay, oh that's very cool. Yeah, all right, excellent, excellent.
You want to So we had talked off air about
you were gonna wrap something a cappella for us. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I had a couple of songs that I so
like we were saying before. With everything that's been going,
you know, I've been so fortunate to have the band
I had, Byron, I had Bus. I've always had people
to bounce off of creatively when I'm on stage. But
the only way that I got any of those people
to mess with me in the first place was by
just being up there by myself, and so I had
been so far removed from that that for this show
that I did about a week ago, I was kind
of like tied into just celebrating my birthday, Like what
else would I want to do besides the thing I love?
And so I put together this hour long set and
I picked songs that I had, some I had never
performed before, some I hadn't performed in like ten years,
some were like unreleased songs, and then of course some
of the stuff that people have come to know and enjoy.
And it was just like I kind of just built
this night around cell braiding, my catalog and the work
that I've done, and it was like very cathartic. A
lot of like old friends came out, a lot of
new people that had no idea who I was just
happened to like buy tickets because they liked the venue
and it went really well. So I thought that it
would be cool to kind of pick a couple songs
from throughout the catalog that I could do acappella because
nobody's ever heard.
Speaker 1: Them like that.
Speaker 4: Yeah, very curious. Yeah.
Speaker 2: So the first one that I was thinking of doing
is from the Cody and Byron collection. This is a
song We've been opening the show with it a lot
because I feel like, subject wise, it's kind of how
some people think about or start the day or whatnot.
And so this song is called Gratitude. This is one
of the closing songs from the Giant Steps in Gates
City album.
Speaker 4: Okay, Yeah, Whenever You're ready, Cody Pope live in studio.
Speaker 2: Some days I wake up and I wish I had it.
I hate that I'm sad, Oh my loved ones feel
so glad. Then easily tripping, don't know why I'm.
Speaker 4: So mad man?
Speaker 2: Got a lot to be grateful for, even when I'm
damn bad man. Some days I wake up and I
wish I had it. I hate that I'm sad, but
my loved ones feel so glad, Then easily tripping, don't
know why I'm so mad man. Got a lot to
be grateful for, even when I'm damn bad man. Wake
up in my brain already feeling dark, Hit the couch, already,
chase a spark, contemplating in my sick of unhealthy? Is
this depression of Calma for unwealthy, enough clarity to know
that I'm the end of me, the one destroying me,
the one should be defending me. Gotta take time enough
to know you can't make time, So make mind filled
with the things that shape lives. What you heard on
the grapevine might not taste right, so you don't gotta
make wine. You'll still make flights, Plant that seed that
gone way to your family. We the real money tree.
Life's obstacle, standard fees. Still days, I'm fighting to get
through it, but I survived when I've remain my truest.
When the fight come at your door, you can't be truant.
You missed that chance. Might as well accept your ruins.
Some days I wake up and I wish I had it.
I hate that I'm sad, but my loved ones feel
so glad. Then easily tripping, don't know why I'm so
mad man. Got a lot to be grateful for, even
when I'm damn bad man. Some days I wake up, thank.
Speaker 4: You, very cool? Very cool? Is that difficult to do?
Like to do that acapella without?
Speaker 2: I mean?
Speaker 4: Or do you just kind of play the beat in
your head? Or how do you do that?
Speaker 2: I think I do kind of play the beat in
my head. I just like try to black out a
little bit because it is definitely like nerve racking, you know.
It's like I can like even feel myself now a
little bit being like, oh boy, I don't know, I've
never done that before, but I think it's just one
of those things that I need to be able to
do because I thrive in the live atmosphere, right, That's
very much my comfort zone. I love performing. But what
happens is everybody experiences the live show differently. Some people
are feeling the music, some people are seeing your like
action and reaction to stuff. Some people are processing what
you're saying. Some people might miss entire lines and segments
of what I'm saying because it's just a different kind
of atmosphere. And so being that what I do is
so rooted lyrically, it's cool to have opportunities like this
where it's like, hopefully people can kind of be like, oh,
you know, I've heard that song fifteen times and hearing
it that way really hit home what he's talking about
or what he's trying to say.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and you know that's the best I could ask for. Yeah, No,
that's really cool. So have you have you done that
live just acapella like that and in front of an audience.
Oh no, this is the first time.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Oh wow, well yeah, we just we we always
play it at the showses the album came out, because
it's just such a cool thing. Yeah, And I usually
open with it because doing some of those vocal inflections,
it's like, if I try to do that at the
end of the set when I've wore you know, the
show gets a little rowdy at times.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's like you got to get some of the
more challenging vocal vocally nuanced stuff out of the way.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, no, makes sense. We had talked about playing
let's see studio track clipped wings.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, this is a this is a cool one.
I'm glad that we're playing this because when we put
the album out, we that album release show is the
only time we played the album top to bottom. Okay,
And so after that show, that song has just yet
to have fit into a set list really Yeah, and
it's not it's a great song, but it's a little longer,
and it's a it's a little more of like a
serious subject matter kind of thing. So it's like you
can't just like play that at every you know, it's
it's not as fun as doing not having a good
day and everyone's jumping around and singing along. So so
it's cool when we were, you know, but when we
were off air, I was like trying to go through
the the new album to pick some songs that I
figured hadn't been as widely picked up on or talked
about or whatever. Sure, and this is definitely one that
like I don't want to say his on unrecognized, but
it doesn't get the kind of conversation that like, you know,
no Sugar Added or some of the other songs on
the album, people of our gratitude. People really gravitate to
these songs, and that's also because we've exerted a lot
of energy pushing them. So yeah, clipped Wings is really cool.
It's kind of the idea behind it is essentially not
allowing yourself to be stifled where it's easy for situations
to dictate or for circumstances to dictate how much room
you have to do X, Y and Z, And ultimately
it's like you can accept those terms or you can
create a new way and not allow yourself to feel
so beaten down.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I like it all right. Let's give this a spen.
This is Cody Pope and Byron g It's from the
album Giant Steps in Gate City and Cody Pope is
here with us live in studio. This is called clipped Wings, So.
Speaker 2: Carl Kings want me to clip my wings? Don't like
it how I sing and still do my thing? If
you the type does not leave the house. We just
don't believe your mouth.
Speaker 5: You can discuss anything with no apps what you're talking
about and.
Speaker 2: In the down and dirty, with the dirt in my nails,
ice pack recovery from the hurt of my sails. Nice
that people loving me? Sure I feel swell. They're lifting
dead weight that want to burn me in hell had
a list for change of mad insane brain. The target
to me more than the store or the range. Different
missions when you're missing what you never had been doing
this most of my life.
Speaker 5: It was never a fad, been here for.
Speaker 1: Years, never different, Not to fear.
Speaker 2: No man can program me different that clear searching for
clever and sometimes I've made it differently to keep on
this hunt.
Speaker 1: It's not something you'll have.
Speaker 2: To dare me make it mountains out of mow hills,
but I'm still climbing. They lit my wings, but you'll
see I'm still rising. Probably needs every people. At least
I'm still rhyming. I hope you find the thing that
helped you make the most of thiment making mountains out
of mohills, but I'm still climbing.
Speaker 1: They lit my wings, but you'll see I'm still rising.
Speaker 2: Probably needs every people. At least I'm still rhyming. Hope
you find the thing that help you make the most
of timing. I am on the mission to make sure
that my circle eat no more portrayals from these sucker
arkle peaks. We on the meat and tip to us
the first of the week, working right after work again,
know hurting my feet certainly deep on the path that
we've been coughing out. Always say she ain't in hunger,
but still starffen now so looking me like a martian,
I'm offing. Now. When you evolve, you gotta leave behind
the laugh and now, even if you not be ritual,
think of karma, how it can disrupt and derail. Don't
work you all the bout. Climbing ladder is easily lead
just look it fall you get your shot.
Speaker 1: How wes to le? Can you grip the ball at
the wall lights?
Speaker 5: Flash time to say nothing?
Speaker 2: If you win a jam, don't give them the turkey
stuff and the recipe state locked.
Speaker 5: Don't like Golevn spices, even.
Speaker 1: If it puts you down for for Levin.
Speaker 2: Like making mountains down of bow hills. But I'm still climbing.
They clit my wings, but you'll see I'm still rising.
Probably needs to ever be pleased.
Speaker 1: I'm still roming.
Speaker 2: I hope you find the thing that helped you make
the most of tom and making mountains out.
Speaker 1: Of bow hills.
Speaker 2: But I'm still climbing. They clit my wings, but you'll
see I'm still rising.
Speaker 1: Probably needs to ever be pleased. I'm still romming. Hope
you find the thing that helped you make the most
of tom And.
Speaker 4: That has clipped wings. That is from the album Giant
Steps in Gates City. That's Cody Pope and Byron g
And we have Cody Pope here with us, alive in studio,
and Uh Mike McDowell, also known as the Healer Uh
is in the chat room.
Speaker 2: Hello much love brother.
Speaker 4: Yeah, he's been on the show. I really enjoy talking
with him doing He's doing a lot of great, great stuff.
Speaker 2: The first time we connected was the last time that
we were here. Mike was on the show before us, right,
So he was headed out of the building as we
were headed in. Oh yeah, and he stopped us and
was like, hey, what's up, Like you guys are going
on like with da da da da da. And that's
when we started keeping in touch.
Speaker 4: Oh yeah.
Speaker 2: He let me know about the spot and and he's
been a huge advocate for me on this, you know,
as I talk about this next chapter of what I'm doing,
he's been a huge advocate for me already letting me
do the solo show and like, we that was really
kind of the foundation of like how I want to
put shows on again. So we have we have obviously
we're gonna be back there with the band. Yeah, we
got some really special stuff in the works. I'm very
really grateful that we got connected.
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, oh that's really great. Well, you know, I'm
glad that we were a part of a facilitating that.
That's really cool. Yeah. Yeah, we I think when we
had what we had him on, he was in the
process of building up, you know, getting he wasn't open yet.
Obviously the spot. But but yeah, we should get him
back on to you know, talk about him, see how
things are going. Yeah, he said in the chat, let's
see he said, my man Cody Pope, morning boys and Jenny.
Uh and he said, love you homeboy, so very nice,
very nice. Yeah. And it's you know, it's so important too,
you know in the music business, networking and uh, you know,
meeting people, getting out and meeting people and all that.
So so that's that's great. Are you So what what
is kind of your I mean, what are you most
excited about? Because you're always doing You're always doing a
number of different things like obviously you know, playing with
you know, Cody Pope and the keyholders. That's pretty exciting.
Does that like the the biggest thing or or ah?
Speaker 2: So that is definitely one of the things I'm super
excited about. Yeah, but I also keep realistic expectations because
both of my bandmates are in multiple other projects right right,
It's not the kind of thing. But that's why I'm
also back doing the solo shows too, because it's like
I feel like now I've put myself in a position
where there's not really a room that I can't attack
if I have enough notice I could ask Byron and
me and Byron have a show that's unlike most artist
producer duos, and we have a chemistry that I'm so
proud of when we're on stage and on record. Obviously,
as I've been talking about, I can do my solo
shows and I'm doing that again anytime anybody needs any
size room, any place, you know, whatever. And having the
band now it's like those opportunities that may require something
a little different than a traditional hip hop thing. Now
with the band, it brings a different live element. We
can do different variations of my songs. We actually we
did a cover at our first show, which, like anybody
that knows me, I kind of like, I don't want
to say I hate covers, but I'm very judgmental of
covers in bands that do a lot of covers and
cover bands and things of that nature. But it was
like one of those things where I was like, man,
I haven't had a band in so many years, and
we're trying to pull this show together on a week's notice,
and we did a cover and it went over incredibly.
People went off, and so we were like, well was it?
So we covered break Stuff by Olympus, nice I was
in a.
Speaker 4: Band a long time ago that actually covered that song.
Speaker 2: People just went bananas because I knew it was going
to be a different audience for that show, and so
it was like in my head, it was like, oh,
let's do some obscure punk rock cover, like it's something
that's going to like make people smash the walls open.
And then it was like, let's do something that people know, like,
let's do something they could easily get. And and so
I've kind of found a little gravity in that where
it's like, Okay, I like picking like one song that
we can learn for each show, and so I think
that's kind of become our thing where like every time
we do a show, we're going to have like a
new cover that we do just for that show.
Speaker 4: Oh okay, Oh that's cool. That's a cool concept.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 4: I was in a band that we covered when I
was in my life crisis. We covered break stuff. And
it's funny because I related. The reason I laughed when
you were talking about covers initially is because I remember
being in that band and I was always kind of like, Guys,
our originals are really strong, we don't need to be
doing covers. And I resisted, but you know, I was
out voted on that, but I ended up being glad
we did it because that is a fun song. I
know from personal experience, that's a fun song to play live,
and people get into it, people react to it.
Speaker 2: And I think I got burnt out on like covers
and stuff like that because I worked in the motorcycle
industry for a number of years. I was doing marketing
and events for different Harley Davidson dealership. Oh okay, and
so as you can imagine, like that audience is a
lot different than what I normally work with. Sure, it's
very much play the hits. It's here skinnered, let's you know.
And so it's like doing that for years. It's like, man,
every week it's like we're just listening to God Smack again.
I just listening to whatever, Like butt rock band.
Speaker 4: Is like cool.
Speaker 2: At the it's like it just got so draining. It
was like I just want to hear songs I've never
heard before at this point, even if they're not good,
I just want to hear songs I haven't heard yet, right,
And so that kind of but I think now I'm
in a good place where it's like it's in doing.
I don't want to call it singing. I feel like
that's not There are people who are very incredible vocal
singers who are trained. I don't know what you would
call what I do. But the midst of vocalizing that
I've been trying to add into my like rap style
is doing cover songs is like a really good challenge
break stuff. Obviously not exemplary of that, but some of
the stuff that we're doing now is like songs where
it's like, all right, I'm going to try and like
maybe work with a vocal coach to figure out how
to do this song way, and then all the stuff
that I learned in that time I can now apply
to the stuff that I write going forward.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 2: So I'm excited about it in that sense.
Speaker 4: Yeah, Oh that's really cool. The time goes quick. You
want to do another, you want to do another a cappella,
but I want to make sure we got another one
in because I was really cool awesome.
Speaker 2: Yeah, definitely. I'm trying to think if we have if
we have time for one more, should I? Okay? So
I So I was working on this in the car.
I was hoping I was going to get through it.
It's a tough one, but I just did it at
the show that we this past show, and so I've
only performed this song two times live now because it's
from my last solo album that I did, called The
Howling Man, which came out in twenty twenty one, okay,
and the song is called Moonlight, and it's really just
about like losing people that have passed to drug addiction
and people that have like gone young and stuff like that,
and having overcome a lot of that myself. The kind
of duality of yeah, like I'm so fortunate to have
come out the other side of this thing, and then
the like, wow, so many people that I knew didn't
and like, you know, it just doesn't always feel great. Yeah,
But the times that I've done this song, it's really
connected with people, and it's really like brought a lot
of like people out of their shell that probably wouldn't
have talked to me or said anything. And so it
was like, all right, maybe I gotta like suck it
up and find a way to do this more often. Yeah,
crack open my cheet sheet here just in case I
need it.
Speaker 4: But yeah, if you're just showing us, we have Cody
Pope here with us live in studio.
Speaker 2: So this song is called Moonlight. This is from my
album The Howling Man. Right, candles burning out, staring at
the moonlight. If I'm gonna make it through another spoon
light piano man, five bucks. If you play this tune right,
trying to see my friends, let my spirit sort of
new heights, heart hurts lone survivor of my friend's past.
Why this needle make me feeble but not end fast?
Only longevity I seek is that my pen last drive
my car a buck fifty and then crash. Can't explain
death's desire to those who love life. It's way more
than money in having a love life. Brain operate different
when you're drained of your thinking. This command vision's way
more than what you're drinking. Yo, it's hard to think
of all my friends gone, forget the ones who abandon them.
People bend gone. I know in our life plenty of
times I bend wrong. Wish I knew how to speak
instead of this song. It feels, it feels, It feels
that I won't make it, can't take my soul and
feel that I'm still naked. Nah, brother, you can fight
this battle, just another war. Nothing that we haven't overcome
when we've seen before. It feels it feels, it feels
that I won't make it. Can't take my soul and
feel that I'm still naked. Nah, brother, you can fight.
This battle just another war, nothing that we haven't overcome
when we've seen before. I can't take it, can't seem
to suppress the fall. My body hurts, brain, tire, depressing.
Y'all You feeling stressed, Hit the gym and go find
a brawl. All in all, there's a million ways to survive,
my dog. This world needs you, even that it's most feebled,
Even when you feel like God and the devil both
deceive you. You got brothers, you got sisters. We all
receive you. No matter what you gotta say, We're gonna
try to believe you might have strength. Something you gotta
fight for. Takes training, takes time, takes a life's work.
Hard to see illumination when your light pours, blinded by
the grinding of your shine and in your fight sores.
Save my number in your phone as never given up.
No matter what I'm doing now, I'm about to give
it up. Struggle runs deep. Please, No, I know you
did enough. Please don't ever worry about if you did enough.
It feels it feels it feels that I won't make it,
can't take my soul and field that I'm still naked. Nah, brother,
you can fight this battle, just another war, nothing that
we have and overcome when we've seen before.
Speaker 4: Hmm.
Speaker 2: I like it, thank you.
Speaker 4: I like that line, save my number on your phone
has never given up. I like that a lot. Yeah,
I think that's that's really cool. That's really cool, Cody
POPI are with us, alive in the studio, and so
what is the next what what's the next big show
you got coming up? So I go?
Speaker 2: So November sixth, November Wow, September sixth, I'm gonna be
in Northampton, Massachusetts at the Phoenix Rising Art Gallery.
Speaker 4: Oh cool.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm excited about that. Now that'll be a solo show.
September fourteenth, I'm gonna be at the Shaskiine with the
Keyholders for our Electric live set. We're gonna be playing
at Rap Night, so it'll be a little late Sunday
night gig.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Then on the only seventh of September, it's going to
be me and the Keyholders again. We're gonna be doing
an unplugged acoustics show at the Spot in Nashua, New Hampshire. Yeah,
so that is kind of this month in a nutshell.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 2: In addition to uh, I've been doing I don't know
if we had talked about it the last time I
was here or not, but I've been doing a podcast
every Monday. I do a live stream podcast on YouTube
as well. I'm glad you brought that up. Ye, I
was curious to ask you about that. Yeah. So it's
called Cody Central. We're almost forty episodes deep now, Yeah.
Speaker 4: Cool.
Speaker 2: It's been awesome. It's I so every week we essentially
bring on a new guest. We've had chefs, we've had musicians,
we've had athletes, we've had life coaches, trauma survivors, all
sorts of different people nice And it's been really cool
because it gives me a chance to use my platform
to let other people share their stories the way that
like people like you guys give me a chance to
share what I'm doing, you know, and so that's like,
how could I contribute back to the community that I
ask so much of.
Speaker 4: Oh, that's really cool.
Speaker 2: It's been really cool. Yeah, I've been really privileged to
have so many impactful and like really impressive people come
on and share their stories.
Speaker 4: That's fantastic.
Speaker 2: Yeah, do you do it live? Or is do you
see much?
Speaker 4: Excellent? Excellent? So it's Monday?
Speaker 2: Is what every Monday? Eight pm on YouTube?
Speaker 4: Outstanding?
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's been really cool. Yeah, we'll definitely have to
have you on the seat sometimes.
Speaker 4: Oh I would love it. Yeah, I would love it.
And it's called Cody Central yep. Okay, okay, yeah, I
remember seeing the logo for it. I dig the logo.
But I'm gonna have to check out the show now
that I know what it's about.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's really cool, very good, very good. Let's see
anything we didn't mention that you want us to know about.
You got a lot going on, so I want to
make sure we don't leave anything unturned before we run
out of time.
Speaker 2: No, I mean, the biggest thing is just kind of
letting the world know that that I'm back at it
in whatever form you need me to. You know, this
was since Giant Steps and Gates City came out, things
slowed down. Yeah, you know because of at Life and
everything that's happened, and I obviously was part of that.
So I'm just trying to like kind of get the
momentum going again. And next year We're hoping to go
back on tour next year. But in the meantime, I'm
just trying to kind of fill up with as many
regional dates as I can. I really just want to
get the performing wheels going. I have a ton of
new music in the vault right now, Like me and
Byron have a bunch of stuff. I want to release
that stuff soon, but I want to do it with him,
so so I'm kind of waiting until he's ready and
got the time. When he has the window, we're going
to run it and do that stuff. Hopefully we're going
to do the Holiday stroll together this year too. That's
been a big tradition of ours for the last three years,
so I'm hoping we're going to do that. But I
also have I have an album with eight Biza in
the vault that we're going to do soon. Yeah, We've
been working on it for like the last two years
or so, and once again, it's just a timing thing
and we're gonna we We got plans to do that soon.
I have an EP with a producer from Maine. His
name is Suede breaks and it's really cool. He's a
music teacher and so he actually played all of the
instruments on the record and made these songs and gave
them to me. And I've had these for a while too,
and so I'm gonna that's another project that we've got
in the vault. There's a producer from Maine named Graphic Melee.
If you've heard of him. He's a multi instrumentalist, producer,
DJ rapper, but he's from Portland and he hosts a
show called Stereo Dreams every month that's like a producer showcase. Cool,
and he sent me a batch of beats. So him
and I have a really cool project that's going to
be coming out as well. Yeah, the band and I
are writing some music that like so right now the band,
we play like songs for my catalog that we're working
on writing some new music that'll be like indicative of
just the band. Okay, So we got that stuff coming.
And then I also have a project that's going to
be coming out. I don't know if it'll be late
this year or next year, but I have an album
coming out. It's called Cranberry Cody, and I'm going to
be playing most of the instruments on that. Oh, it's
going to be a little more of like a indie
rock alt rock kind of instrumentation with my like rap
vocal stylings.
Speaker 4: Oh, very cool to it. Yeah, no, you got a
lot in the pipeline. That's fantastic exactly. And where should
people go on line to keep up with everything?
Speaker 2: So everything is Cody dash Pope dot com, c O.
D Y Dash Pope dot com or Hellhound Publishing dot com.
But that Hellhound is the universe.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, excellent, excellent. Hey, it's great to see you, man,
Thank you, thank you so much.
Speaker 2: So much. I'm so grateful. You guys have given me
a platform so many different times. So it's really cool
that I come in.
Speaker 4: Absolutely.
Speaker 2: You know, it's like New Hampshire is a small place
and there's not there's not many radio stations like this
where you can just go and pop up and perform
and talk and promote yourself and and you know, it's
it's really special what you guys do. So I'm grateful
to be part of it for sure.
Speaker 4: Oh, thank you. Well, we're happy to have you here.
I appreciate that very much. Absolutely, And Jenny, you've got
a big week ahead of you. You want to plug
your website so people know where to keep up with
everything you're doing. Good luck.
Speaker 3: Yes, come check me out at GENCOFPY dot com. J
E n n c O f f UI dot com.
You can check out the article from my new first
byline on common Dreams.
Speaker 4: Yes, up there on the on the blog.
Speaker 3: And yeah, I might be doing some stuff this week,
so you might want to, you know, check it out
maybe midweek or so.
Speaker 4: Absolutely, yes, yes, definitely good trouble and uh And if
you are listening live on Saturday, coming up at three
pm today, this is not on the radio station. This
will strictly be online, but a bonus fourth hour of
Matt Connorton Unleashed that will strictly be online, So keep
your eye on the social media. I'll be interviewing a
Senate candidate, Karishma Manzor. Yes she is. I'm gonna be
out here in the North and I think she's wonderful.
Speaker 2: Yep.
Speaker 4: We're gonna be doing a stream with her today at
three pm live, So keep an eye on the Matt
Connorton Unleashed social media channels. And if you don't get
to see it live, it will be in the podcast feed.
Uh and again that is completely separate from the radio station,
so that is online only and then also online only
a little bit later in the day, I'll be doing
a live episode of Tough Bumps with Eric Pilcher and
we'll be talking about the Rajah Jackson situation. That whole
debacle attempted murder in my view, but seriously, but hey,
but Eric and I are going to talk about that
later today. So a lot's going on, but I'm gonna
sneak in this track Layers, I think from Cody Pope
and Byron g from Giant Steps in Gate City, and
we'll we'll play us out with that. But Cody again,
thank you so much. Absolutely, and we'll talk to you
a little bit later. Bye everybody, Bye bye, Layers.
Speaker 1: I'm complicated like a game of multiple players.
Speaker 2: Everybody always got their target on a favor, yet they
needs and barely got time to see you later that
you expected to be up and out your wagon. Not
the day if my brain mostly got for the deep end,
it's all the same, no looking to what's the weekend?
Speaker 1: Pretty judgmental.
Speaker 2: I'm honest, I got some weak friends paint then see
the cap win inside of these men never could settle,
but I know I could do better dead or the
debtor still chasing me with brettos hot is the kettle.
Speaker 1: The water won't stop to settle.
Speaker 5: Medal the letters and dead on the slow pedals.
Speaker 2: Past that Nick now pragmatic with us a grand year
making moves to what I do like SUSA dancers already.
You know we could be New Hampshire's answer. But someone
rock with us till we're making cures for cancer legas.
Why it all got to be so complicated by my
brain cave when I know that I should make it
PLoP maps for others for stumble my feet naked legus
up on legos.
Speaker 1: The puzzles anteep in singers.
Speaker 2: Why it all got to be so complicated by my
brain cave when I know that I should make it
plot maps for others to stumble my feet.
Speaker 1: Naked leg us upon legos. The puzzles are deep in singers.
Speaker 2: The brain is a machine that's a laborred like trying
to draw a map well inside a labyrinth. Emotional roller,
coastic kinky can involve standing stronger. Some days it feels
like man O fall hard to teach when life's a
race on the learning curve. I'm trying to reach the
peak with how I'm burning words. Always seek to speak
something to see the light. Also, my own darkness can
always be the right on in the argument. Often so
what's donush?
Speaker 1: And communication gets so off?
Speaker 2: We started monishing, administer bring hay instead of seeking to
understand while we hate another, instead of lending the hand.
Damn And if we don't break the cycles that we've
been chained by the same mistakes that I've made.
Speaker 1: I've been drained by.
Speaker 2: Been so long since I can say I was saying, Man,
I know there's legas in my brain. Need to change
playing legas? Why it all got to be so complicated?
Why my brain cave when I know that I should
make it? Can PLoP maps for others? Be stumble my
feet naked legus upon lega's. The puzzles are deepest sagas?
Why it all gotta be yo so complicated? Why my
brain cave when I know that I should make it?
Can PLoP maps for others? Bestumble my feet naked legas
upon legers. The puzzles are deepest sacred. You're listening to you,
Matt Connorton, unleash tell you if it Ah ninety five
point three