Speaker 1: All right, that is pushed. The band is Sepsis. Welcome everybody.
We have entered our number three New Marrow trace of
Matt Connorton, unleashed and we are live from the studios
of WM and H ninety five point three FM and
Glorious Manchester, New Hampshire. If you are listening live. Today
is Saturday, November fifteen, twenty twenty five, and it's the
big day. Swarmy Fest is here, the day we wait
for all year and we are very pleased to have.
So we have Sepsis in the studio with us. Hello everybody, Yeah,
Zachi be over there. Who's leaving the band?
Speaker 2: Wait?
Speaker 1: Mention that? So are you having auditions already, William.
Speaker 3: Or what's Well's that's one way you could translate it,
I should call that. So there really is a process,
and the first process, because we're a social media band, yeah,
is to like the band, learn a song and upload
it to the internet.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: We've had a lot of people that have shown interest,
but nobody who's really gotten past step one. Okay, okay, Yeah,
Zach beat packy Be is like step twelve, right right,
so he really set the standard. Yeah, so we kind
of now we kind of know, more close to what
we're looking for long term.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah, it's always always a prospers. We're
not in a rush though, right, okay, good good, Yeah,
that's not something you want to rush into certainly. Uh
Melissa is here of course as well. Hell well, welcome
back and uh over there is a Lexi. Who is this?
Is it right? This is the big debut?
Speaker 4: Yeah, this is the big debut.
Speaker 3: On stage out with the band. Very good, Actually, it's
pretty good. She's being demoted.
Speaker 1: Oh, it's not a step down from well, the band member.
Speaker 3: I could. I think it's I think it's spiraling up.
It's just a different department. But like in the business
in our company, the treasury, but the merch girl actually
has a higher administrative oh rank.
Speaker 1: Oh okay, so so you've lost your power. It sounds
like alexis yeah the one player. There you go, there
you go. I'm a creative role yeah yeah, no, outstanding.
So now we need a merch girl. So now you
need a bass player and a merch girl. Yeah wow, okay,
all right, So who else is in is in the
room with us? We have various.
Speaker 3: Everyone hears auditioning for merch and bass.
Speaker 1: Merch excellent, excellent.
Speaker 3: So this is the crazy thing. But a lot of
us are Halo players, okay, And for ten years Melissa
has a gaming community called Inclusive Community Gaming.
Speaker 4: I don't screw it up.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and if you meet all kinds of crazy people
online anyway, But we play Xbox and is for those
of you that are familiar with Halo, it the multiplayer
respawn shooter. It's an older game, yeah, but there are
newer versions of it and you can play multiplayer with
people all over the world. So we have a game
in community. And we're not just a band. We're also
a game in community.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: And in all of our communities, you know, people have
things in common if they find common ground a lot
of times. And like, video games in general are like
one of the last untapped markets for advertising. Like it's
one of the it's one of the few places where
you can go online where there isn't a pop up okay, right,
Like if you're playing a video game, there isn't constant
advertisements for Nike.
Speaker 1: And yeah, I never thought, I never thought. I never
thought about it before. But there must be some games
that have some sort of mobile games. Yeah, mobile games
are big on advertising. Okay, okay, but all of this
is changing too. Oh that makes sense, yes, yes.
Speaker 3: Yes, But so we've had the game in community and
originally the first time we ever did like a band
created festival, like something that we organize our selves. Yeah
we uh, most is gaming community came down and sponsored it.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 3: So that's kind of where we started to get the
idea for this originally because a lot of are the
people that we play games with and and and we
play Halo. They're from all over the country. Okay, so
some of the people in this room are people that
we play Halo with real yeah, and they may and
they may they may not be directly related to our
game and community. But like our friend Lindors is here.
That's his gamer tagged guy and read he's he's from
New Orleans and he came up wow for the show.
So he brought himself and in some of his friends.
And Eric is a good friend of ours from PA
we played. We get around when we can, and and
he is a returning swarm me fact. I don't know
if you remember before, but he's returned. This is your
third time I think coming so oh second second, so
he's returning and and Bernie and Ed in the corner
there are like they are like they're almost like band members.
Speaker 1: Okay, but like the.
Speaker 3: Closest thing that you could be as like staff or
band members. Okay, the og okay, all right. And then
in the doorway, the young fellow with the dreads is
my son. Oh, he works for me for free today.
Speaker 1: Nice. Nice.
Speaker 3: And behind him is staff member Rints. Okay, he's a Scepts,
a staff member.
Speaker 1: Oh, very good, very good.
Speaker 3: Hell and he has a girlfriend Maggie with him. Okay,
all right, that's a lot of people.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, very nice, excellent, excellent. So let's talk about.
Speaker 3: Tonight Swarmy Fest. One thing about swarm Fest. We always
bring new bands. Yes, I can't ask these guys to
keep coming back and showing the same bands, right, unfair.
So one thing I have to promise is that remains
something that's grassroots, you know, something where we want to
grow it and we hope that it continues to get
bigger and we continue to do it because people request
us every year to do it. Yeah. So as long
as people are having fun and they request us doing it,
and they request cool features, Me and Melissa and Lexi,
everybody in the band are going to try to make
that happen. And the goal is to grow it, but
not grow it to the point where we can't have
a conversation on the phone yea, or we can't have
a solution. Because one of the big things that we
see with festivals or big shows is they get so
big or so corporate, oh yeah, that people can't supervise
or manage it right barely.
Speaker 1: It becomes this monster that's hard to even come all.
Speaker 3: Right, you got to have then you have to start
making friends with lawyers and you got this, you have
to know how to speak in court. That's not the
kind of relationships that we want to make.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, not for us.
Speaker 3: Right. We don't want to be so professional or so
industry that we need to hire people to live out
this dream for us.
Speaker 1: Right, we should talk about the lineup. So, of course,
obviously sepsis Silent Season, under the Horizon, Pulsifier, Temptress, and
the Cherry Fog. It's quite a show.
Speaker 3: I'm blown away.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I believe it, Yeah, absolutely, And these are all
we were talking earlier, Jenny and I too, about how
these are all bands that have been on the show
except for the cherry Fog, but I did, but I
was checking them out and I love them and I
have been.
Speaker 3: Like corresponding with them.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: So I think they were hoping that they could come
on some time in the near future.
Speaker 1: Oh definitely.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we got to get them. Mind, I'll try to
make that. I'll try to keep that conversation going.
Speaker 1: Really good, really good. And then, uh, and who are
a Lilith Cat and the Blood Witch again?
Speaker 3: Yeah? So they are horror alternative dancers models, and I
think I think Lilith Cat does some like like like
restraint or like I don't know what you would call it.
Speaker 1: Like dangling.
Speaker 3: No, no, no, is that what it's called? Yeah? Yeah,
you know when I'm just forgive me, I don't have
the education English for it, but you know when they
either do like hooks or ropes they okay.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, all right, oh interesting, interesting, okay, okay.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so they they have they have a stage dancing
performance right before the steps that set.
Speaker 1: Okay, okay, excellent, time, excellent, excellent. So we should talk
about the sponsors. So, of course, you know, we're very
honored and privileged Matt Connorton unleash to be involved as always,
and we have Legion of Solace on with us in
the last hour. Let's see. So also speed Gamon Promotions.
Speaker 3: Yes, yes, shout out to Josh and the yep.
Speaker 1: Okay, and what do they what do they do? Exactly?
Think I think Josh was supposed to be on the
show with us at one point and have the reschedule.
Speaker 3: But I love Josh and and I'm trying to I'm
always trying to get him on this show. Yeah, yeah,
because he has just such a wealth of information. He's
a vet. Yeah, he's a straight shooter. Yeah, and he
as well as everybody that's sponsoring this show. We keep
a close circle. And the reason why we do that
is so we can all communicate. And what we're communicating
is the same type of goals of like community enrichment,
independent business to business relationships, long term growth, you know,
not screw o who's a little guy, creating opportunities where
you know, there's not a lot of money in rock
and roll, in local music, but we want to try
to create events where they're incentivized, they're fair. If people
do get paid, they're getting paid fairly, right, that's it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Yeah, So is that kind of what Josh is doing?
Speaker 3: Yeah, and that that's his theme and we both we
both resonate and share that same goal. Yeah, and we
we we tend to have the same sponsors come back,
I think because I think I spoke on this before.
You all do such a great job, and we don't
want to take up a lot of flyer space, right
with people clout chasing or you know, and if you
and if you have a flyer and you put one
hundred sponsors on it, and people tend to overlook it, right, Yeah,
So we really want to have a little more quality
over quantity, especially this year. Yeah. It's hard to do
ten bands in two rooms. Oh yeah, and then some
bands get missed or some people don't get to see.
Speaker 1: Did you do that two years ago? Obviously you didn't
do that at U Tafada, but two years ago at
Julia did that, right, Yeah?
Speaker 3: And I don't think I do it again. And and
it's because we still want to be the type the
type of people that can hang out with everybody a
little bit. Yeah, and we want to be able to
We want Swormy Fest to continue to be a social event.
As I was being able to like support the bands
and check out a few vendors. It's also a place
where people can talk about culture and art and share
their ideas. Swormy Fest is a safe space, so people
can speak there and beat themselves and support the bands
at the same time.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and let's see also violets rain for all the sponsors.
Speaker 3: Yeah. And Gypsy is a good friend of mine. She
she brings in like healing oils candles Okay, yeah, okay, yeah,
this this year, we wanted to go with with a
magical theme. Okay, you know, you know, healing aroma therapy.
She does. I think she's making a black light invasion
steps as candle.
Speaker 1: Okidd Oh, that's cool. That's a cool idea.
Speaker 4: You's got a bunch of stones and things too.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Danee Lin's creations is similar where it's like everything
from like patches and trinkets and you know, self help,
motivation and LGBT inclusive themes.
Speaker 4: Yeah, knitting, crochet.
Speaker 3: Chakra stones. Yeah, and of course you know, and you
get all the bands there with this stuff.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah. And then what about BPS Records? Are they
still gonna be there?
Speaker 5: I know?
Speaker 1: And they were, they were supposed to be on the
show with us, and I know there was some sort
of an emergency, So I don't know if there.
Speaker 3: Is, I'm not I hope they can make it to
the actual Yeah. So yeah, I've yet to get a
full update.
Speaker 1: Okay, okay, yeah, I hope everything's okay with them. I know,
I know something went wrong, but hopefully nothing too serious.
Speaker 3: But when you have a show like this, this is
the weirdest thing, and not just the part I don't
like when you have a show like this because it's
getting a little bit bigger. You know, you start off
with thirty people, then yeah, forty people, but as the
show gets bigger, the more people, you know, you make
relationships with and you're trying to hold it together. If
you have the larger your audience, something's going to go wrong.
Oh of course with somebody. You know, if you have
an audience attend people, the likelihood of somebody twisting their
ankles a little low. But once you have an audience
of seventy five people, somebody's mother passes away. Yeah, somebody
gets sick that week. So you know, when you have
a show at this size and you're one of the organizers,
you kind of have to prepare for some a little
bit disappointment.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, you have to.
Speaker 3: It's not really prepared. My job isn't prepared for things
to go well, right, it's kind of and my job
is to prepare for how am I going to behave
and how am I not? How am I going to
respond and not react when things don't go my way?
Speaker 1: Exactly? Exactly? Have you had this is the fourth fourth
Swarmy Fest. Have you had a lot of surprises over
the years doing this or My impression is that the
things have gone smoothly overall, right, But I mean I'm sure,
I'm sure things go wrong.
Speaker 3: That is a that is a fair impression. We have
a lot of people working on this.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so it's it's not like you've got a good team.
I do, and then and and many of them are
in this room. Yeah so, and we're working on it
all year.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I want to give a special shout out to my
partner for Swarmy Fest, Larry Loud from Loud Entertainment.
Speaker 1: Oh he's great. Yeah, we had him and uh, I'm
never sure.
Speaker 3: Yep.
Speaker 1: We had them on the on the show not too
long ago. Hopefully. Baboo's okay. I know he has some health.
Speaker 3: He's doing good, he's at he's at their new club tonight,
the Canary they got, they got, they got that big
club now up in Massachusetts. Yeah, so he's doing that,
but Larry will be there tonight.
Speaker 1: Oh excellent, excellent. Yeah. Yeah, he's a nice guy.
Speaker 3: Yep.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: And how did that come about working with Loud Entertainment
because you didn't have them on board?
Speaker 3: Want me to tell you the truth?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: So the truth is we were doing an event and
I won't say where, but we were doing an event
and Larry wanted to book us for a show.
Speaker 1: Why won't Why won't you say where? I'm curious? Can
you say why? You won't say where?
Speaker 3: Just because because people become emotional and and and there
are there are levels of emotional where people tend to
throw out rational thought. Okay, and that's just something I'm
not going to engage with people online because then it
becomes negative and if it's negative, it's a failure.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Okay, so you know I don't kiss and tell.
Speaker 1: Ok fair enough.
Speaker 3: But Larry was asking, you know, promoters want to know
who can you get in the door? Can you get
five people? Can you get ten people? It's not ugly,
but it.
Speaker 1: Is a question that Yeah, it's a valid, valid concern.
Speaker 3: So you know, if you got a room capacity it
two fifty promoters interested in you, they're gonna they might
ask a band, or they might ask the talent. Hey,
how many people do you think? How many tickets? How
many pre sale tickets do you think you can sell?
And I, you know, I I have an open door.
I have a pretty open policy. Yeah, you know, we sepstants.
We show our mistakes.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: So he said, what would you get at your last show?
And I said, oh, you know, go ask the promoters themselves.
I said, don't take my word for it. Get in
touch with the venue, and I want you to double
check to so you can see what our attendance was.
So he had been in contact with the venue and
they said, oh, well, Sepsis, they only brought sixty people
to the show, so I wouldn't recommend them. They said
that we that Sepsis only brought sixty people to the show,
and that we're not a big enough band, which I accepted,
and then I reminded them all that not many bands
in New England get twenty five people in the door.
It's tough, yeah, yeah, And I'm not trying to be
mean right, I'm trying to tell the truth right exactly.
You can think whatever thought and focus on that, but
ignoring your thoughts and focusing on the truth that the
truth is the biggest local bands in New England don't
draw twenty five people every show.
Speaker 1: Sure.
Speaker 3: Or consistently. It's very difficult and if they did, we
would be the first band that sent them an email
to try to book with them, right of course, because
it's a win. Well to me, is to lose if
you're the only person in the band and Zachie b
has to get all the audience members, or Melissa has
to write all the songs, or the headliner and the
co headliner are responsible for the majority of the draw,
we have a and I think that creates an inside
sir from an outside circle and it leaves independent artists subservient,
submissive and relying on national acts and talent buyer talking power. Yeah,
and we don't want nobody to be able to repurpose,
misuse or set our value for us. Right, So it's
a good way of putting it our pathway and there
is no wrong way for anybody. This is just for us.
We're not telling people what to do. Continue doing whatever
works for you, yep. But we believe that no band
and that's what Swormyfest is about, that no band should
have to get one hundred people in the door, right,
Not because we're moral or there's good guys and bad
guys or evil or good. It is because we just
don't have to. Logistically, local bands don't have to get
one hundred people in. How about just ten?
Speaker 1: Right?
Speaker 3: But if you've got five bands and this you know,
five people in the band, twenty five people there, and
every band member brings two or three people, then it's
not you're not leaving it to one band member or
or a headliner, and then then you don't have all
of the lobbying in playing with the paperwork when it
comes to local when it comes to national acts coming
into town, right right, it takes.
Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely, absolutely, yeah, yeah, definitely definitely. This is a
little bit of a side street. But I know Jenny
had told you that, uh so this show, we usually
stream it on Facebook and we're not doing that for
right now, and she said, you kind of chuckled that
about that and the reason we're not and we're still
going to YouTube and actually LinkedIn, believe it or not.
But Uh. Facebook has banned me from live streaming until December,
and I have and I have no idea why, because
they don't like to tell you. You know, these social
media platforms, they don't like to tell you what you
did wrong. They just like to tell you did something wrong.
I can do everything else on Facebook, I just can't
live stream the show.
Speaker 3: That's the I mean, that's the way it is for
That's the way it is now for all of the apps. Yeah,
you know they have that for sure. I mean that's
kind of a hack, isn't it. You know, you create
a special program and there's no human beings that you
can talk to. Rights, does it Twitch?
Speaker 1: Does it?
Speaker 3: All the apps on your phone do at Yeah, there's
no customer service.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: It's funny too because people, you know, we talk a
lot about.
Speaker 3: AI, but AI is all supposed to make the world
easier for us, right in theory. We're supposed to save
money and be happier. But it's been with us.
Speaker 1: It's also been with us for longer than people realize,
because if you're talking to a chat bot, I mean
you're literally talking to a chat bot, you know, And
I know that I know that the person who told
me via Facebook support that I'm banned from live streaming
until December. Who couldn't tell me the reason why? I
know that that wasn't a real person, right, I know
that was a chat I was talking to AI, and
you know, and I don't know if they even fully
understood what I was describing as the problem.
Speaker 3: Right, you know what I mean? But most people, most people,
if you sit most people down and you remove them
from a group of other people from the construct, and
you sit them down and you ask them what the
purpose of artificial intelligence is, they're not gonna be able
to tell you.
Speaker 4: Yeah, but I mean, isn't it supposed to be intelligent?
Speaker 1: Yes?
Speaker 3: Well what what made the intelligent thing a human being?
So so if you're a gamer, you know, I gotta
tell like me and my gamer friends, like AI is
not new to us, like if like the idea of
AI or just all of these gadgets and gizmos. If
you're a gamer, if you've been playing Xbox your whole life,
it's not really a new concept for us, right.
Speaker 1: Right, Yeah, that makes sense. That makes sense. Are you
concerned about and curious any any of you? Are you
concerned about AI and its effect? On on music.
Speaker 3: Did you see the news Did you see the new
Bathwater video where where the hornets were flying out of Lexi's.
Speaker 1: Yeah, oh so those weren't actual hornets. I was concerned
when I watched it.
Speaker 3: I was like, poor, Unfortunately our lead singer Melissa sets
herself on fire and her body skeleton burn up into flames.
Speaker 1: But that but that didn't actually happen, right, That was
a because I was also concerned about that. I was like,
poor Melissa, that looks very painful.
Speaker 3: Back then, we used to have to really throw bugs
at them.
Speaker 5: And is that why you're leaving the bid? It sounds
very remember we signed that paper, sounds very dangerous.
Speaker 3: Whatever happens in stays and step yes, yes, uh.
Speaker 1: Yeah we should Uh you want to play another what
should we? Let's play something? We can play a Sapsus track,
unless you want to play something from one another bands?
Speaker 3: Or what do you play a Silent Season song? You
want to play a silent which one?
Speaker 4: Hopeless boy my favorite song?
Speaker 1: Yeah, we played this one in the first hour, but
I'm happy to play it again. That's okay, we can
play it again. Different. It was a different hour. It
was a whole different hour. No, this is my favorite
Silent Season song. This is a great choice. All right,
let's give this s spend Silent Season. Of course, one
of the bands playing tonight at Swarmyfest, and we're going
to talk more about that on the other side of this.
But this is a great track. This is called hopeless
and I don't hear anything, and I think I know why.
I'm gonna try that again. I'm gonna have to edit
that on the podcast. This is dull, hopeless Silent Season.
Speaker 6: I feel the pressure falling, telling my s I fe
feel safe behind every single day, all those same like
my Sonchas and chanty. No is gonna make me fall time,
no chancey suit chel sing and well knows the goven Listen, Tess.
Speaker 3: I'm buried and I'm no praise.
Speaker 5: How it felt so sad and.
Speaker 3: I say that I can't break it.
Speaker 2: I charge change, serve me that starts so row.
Speaker 6: No's gonna save you, no chasy suits say test and
will know no s thank go saves a serious book.
Speaker 3: I'm not a sush with my inshie rits. I don't
know which way is still for.
Speaker 2: My ears from my shot make you work doctor God.
Still feel alone gol watching at back.
Speaker 6: Very signs not my.
Speaker 2: Here chassy, so.
Speaker 6: I'll say.
Speaker 3: Sas not well know.
Speaker 6: Thanks? Wis no checks.
Speaker 4: There it is.
Speaker 1: The track is Hopeless. The band is a Silent Season
and they will be playing tonight at Swarmyfest. If you
are listening live on Saturday, it is November fifteen, twenty
twenty five. This is Matt Connorton Unleashed And of course
we're talking today. It's all about Swarmyfest tonight at Jewel
right across the street really on Canal Street here in
Manchester and really looking forward to tonight. And of course
we have William and Zachie b and Melissa and Lexi
here from the band and uh and you brought you
brought some other folks with you and who now, Who's
who's going on last tonight? Is it? Is it Sepsis?
Speaker 3: Yeah? Yeah, we like to do that, yeah, because of
the clock, you know. Yeah, so if we're running a
little late, we could either add or take away music.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it gives you a little little bit of flexibility there. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
that's good. That's good. Who's opening the show? You know?
Speaker 3: At this I think I think Temptris is opening the show.
Speaker 1: Tempriss is opening. Yeah, yeah, we have them on. We
played I don't know if you've listened to that song
Carly that they have, but Jenny and I are like
addicted to that song.
Speaker 3: We make we make sure this is this probably sounds crazy,
but we listen to the bands that we book. Yeah.
Well yeah, I know it seems like that would be
like a generic thing, but a lot of times people
don't do that, you know.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, true.
Speaker 3: You know, if if a band says to a promoter, hey,
I pretty pretty pinky swear promise, right then I'm gonna
that I'm really good and I'm gonna bring fifty people,
sometimes people believe that, right, right, that is true that
I've never met a band that says my band is
terrible and we're bringing.
Speaker 1: No one, right Yeah, yeah, of course of course. So
now what is now after? Obviously, you know, today is
a very big deal. But after you get through today,
what's what's kind of the what else does the band
have in the works other than you know, you got
to find a new bass player or replace them with
AI or whatever.
Speaker 3: But I can talk about the a I think forever.
I think, I well, the Swarmy Fest really starts on
the Friday, which is last night, so we all, yeah,
we all hang out and we do like staff and
the VIPs and people that helped getting the show together,
we all hang out together, and folks that may have
came used years before and new people get to all
meet each other. Yeah, and it's nice because that way
you can go to the venue some of the people
that are traveling or familiar with people there, right, instead
of telling everybody, hey, just just meet at the venue
and we're the only people they know.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's just.
Speaker 3: Nice to have a few other people to that you're familiar.
Speaker 1: With, of course.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: But the real cherry on top is the Swarmy Fest after.
Speaker 4: Party, yeah, with our best Pajama contest.
Speaker 3: Oh okay, yeah, this and we do a theme, so
there's a you know, just like with every show, Stepsis
does a wardrobe theme for anybody that's keeping score, and
we also do an after party theme. And this year
is the after party Pajama Jamie jam okay, and if
you bring if you don't have to, but there's a
limited amount of people. Yes, you know, we don't want
to get arrested.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but.
Speaker 3: Folks can if they if they buy tickets early, they
can send us screenshots and it automatically gets them into
the after party. And then if they bring pajamas, they
can win a gift card.
Speaker 1: Oh that's a cool concept.
Speaker 3: Yeah yeah, whoever's got the coolest pajamas on we have
or cosplay and we have you know, female judges that
are going to judge. Everybody'll be fun.
Speaker 1: Okay, all right, cool, So that's tonight.
Speaker 3: So if you're the only person out there and you
brought your pajamas, you won.
Speaker 1: Wow. Wow. So you can win by forfeit basically.
Speaker 3: A lot of people, yeah, a lot of people like man,
I don't want to wear any pajamas. But that's good
because that that just narrows down the competition. So when
no matter what, when no matter what, and I guess
if nobody wears their pajamas, we'll spend a gift card.
Speaker 1: And then so what happens after all this, So after
you get past Swarmy Fest? So like do you know,
like are you are you recording new music?
Speaker 3: Oh that's what you meant. Yes, yeah, yeah, yes, yes
we would. We would record more music, but it's expensive
to record our music. Yeah, it really is. And because
we really want the best quality we could get for us.
Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely absolutely. Where do you record normally?
Speaker 3: I mean, so there's two processes. We record track out
a lot of it at our house.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: And then the second half is working with Glenn Robinson. Okay,
we either meet with him video or he mixed and
masters on his own.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 3: Is he in the area or is he he's some Canada?
Oh he's Oh he is, Okay, but he's got studios
in New York, Vermont.
Speaker 1: Okay, Because I was gonna say, I know the name.
Speaker 3: Glenn Robinson is is world renowned? You know?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know Gore Jason Newstead. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Is that what makes it so expensive? Because you talked about.
Speaker 3: Well, no, but we are in it. We are in
an industry of showing people that we know important people
and that we've worked with important people.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3: That's the whole purpose of Swarmy Fest is for all
of us to create a long lasting resume.
Speaker 1: M h m hm. How do you when you're when
you're putting together Swarmy Fest in terms of the bands
that you have booked, and you know, you talk about
how you don't want to have the same bands every
year obviously because I gets stale. But but what what
is kind of the criteria that you look for with
the band. It's because it's a really good mix.
Speaker 3: It's disappointing and it's depressing because I have to do it,
and because you have to tell people, you have to,
you have to, you have to tell people no. That's
something I want to do. I don't want to make
people unhappy. I don't want to tell people or or
I don't I don't want to tell them no and
then they feel that I don't like their band or
that I don't like their because I like everything man,
but like like I loved, I love death metal. But
over the we used to book with a lot of
death metal bands in our shows, and and like we
had a lot of people say, you know, can we
just do one or two? Like a lot of our fans,
they want to more of a mix. So we've been
trying to do more of a blend. Yeah, you know,
or you'll get people to say, you know, we used
to book a lot of rappers and stuff, and people
wanted more of a blend. So just with with with
Because we book around Sepsis, we try to now book
the bands that really like us and fit in with us.
We used to book bands that didn't even like us. Really, yeah,
why do you got to like our music? All you
gotta do is be professional and get people in the door.
Speaker 1: Oh, that's true. You don't got to like me, right,
that's true.
Speaker 3: All you got to do, all you got to do
is what you agreed to do. Right, You don't. You
don't have to do what you're not committed to do.
And you don't have to do what you agreed to do.
You don't have to do which you didn't agree to.
Speaker 1: Do, right, right, So if they didn't agree to like, right,
we don't. We don't.
Speaker 3: We don't or don't us. We don't force people to
like us, and we don't. We don't make music and
some bands do do that. I'm not being sarcastic, of course.
Some artists make music for people to like it.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: We just make music. Yeah, and if you like it,
you like it.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: If you don't, then you don't. We don't care. That's
not it's not a goal of ours to create music
that Spotify likes, right, because then we have to go, Well,
let's find out what Spotify likes. What's the method of
Spotify likes to two minutes and eighty seve seconds Spotify
like that when you don't you swears Spotif so, then
who's right in the art?
Speaker 1: Now?
Speaker 3: Our fans. So if if we let our fans hold
us hostage, if we if we let the apps and
the gadgets hold us hostage, me and Melissa can't write right, yeah, yeah,
then we can't be authentic. Yeah, so that's week. There's
already a lot of bands that are writing for the industry. Oh, sure,
there are a lot of Always, there are plenty of
bands that write for their fans. Yeah, there are plenty
of bands that write to be monetized. Yea. We write
to be honest, We write to be authentic. Yeah, we
write to just be ourselves. We just write to to
do it.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Are the two of you? Your the principal songwriters?
You and Melissa, the two of you write everything.
Speaker 3: These days, it's it's whoever's doing it, Okay, Okay, these
days it's like if we're in the creative process. You know,
we were in the we were in the studio last
year and and and Zach sat sat down for a
few minutes and we just didn't have a baseline, you know. Yeah,
and it's just sitting here listening to the music. I think,
trusting our ears and playing with each other. We've all
been working with each other for so long. Yeah, there's
a little bit of our personality of the music. So
we we've all gotten accustomed to what each other like. Yeah,
so sometimes you know, LEXI will write a drum pattern
that she knows I'll be impressed with, or you know,
or I'll throw I'll throw a riff at Melissa and
I'll know because you know, she'll be sitting there like, Okay, yeah,
that's that's stock. I'm not ready yet. It's got to
be bigger than that. And when it gets big, you know,
and then Melissa doesn't doesn't say much. But but but
she's got you know, she got the communication when she
likes something, you know, that big old smile come up.
And really, I want to write music that my band
members want to play, you know, not.
Speaker 4: Just quiet here. I'm quiet in reality.
Speaker 3: So like I I go around and we have like
a peer reviewing process, and some of our most passionate
friends and fans and people that have been working with
us are in our staff chats and stuff. So like
we'll come up with riffs or creative ideas, and we'll
just ask people do you like it, and like if
they like it or if they have extra feedback. We
usually go as a team together what we all feel
is best for the music, right.
Speaker 1: Right, excellent? So what so tonight are you playing? Uh,
let's see, so are you playing the new song Bathwater?
Are you playing that tonight?
Speaker 3: Or we're playing Bathwater?
Speaker 1: Excellent? Excellent? What about force you to lay down? You
playing that one?
Speaker 3: Yes?
Speaker 1: Okay, good because I we played that in the first
hour today of the show, and I said, I hope
they play that tonight.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so tonight's set list.
Speaker 1: I'm glad you're answering these questions because I don't know
if you remember this, but last year I asked you
and you you didn't want to reveal anything on the
air about what was get mad at me?
Speaker 4: People get mad if we give everything away different.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we'll go, hey, tune into Matt Connorton and then
we'll tell them the set list. Yeah, that has happened. Yeah,
And people don't get like raging man. Of course, they're
like busting with us, you know, yeah, yeah, okay, but you.
Speaker 1: Are playing those two Yeah, so you've committed you've committed
to that, and I'll give you I'll give you a cheat.
Speaker 3: Okay, we have a new band member joining the band,
so naturally we're gonna play a lot of songs that
incorporate the new band member. Whether it be, whether it
be keyboards are screaming, you're gonna see a lot of
the new band member. Yeah, all right, all right, that
is because that is the new edition. Okay, so that
people haven't heard people haven't heard us with keyboards in
a while. We've had DJ's keyboards, all kinds of different
versions of this band.
Speaker 1: That's true. Yeah, the band has gone through a lot
of iterations.
Speaker 3: I've shown somebody a picture of Stepsis ten years ago
with Melissa before the braids, and they were like, yeah,
they didn't even know who they were looking.
Speaker 4: At such a baby face.
Speaker 3: Yeah they didn't know. Yeah, they thought were showing them
another band.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so it's gonna be a geared more toward newer
material then, right.
Speaker 3: I hope.
Speaker 1: So if it, if it's.
Speaker 3: I always want to because we because you know, we're
responsible for still pushing our very first song. Yeah, Like
artists make that mistake of believing that everybody heard their
first favorite.
Speaker 4: Song and then they stopped pushing it, and they stopped
pushing it.
Speaker 3: That's why we don't have a huge library or catalog
because we don't want to be one of those artists
with like twenty albums of music that nobody listens to.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's a really good point.
Speaker 3: Yeah, really good music that nobody listens to.
Speaker 1: Right, because you might have right because if you so.
Speaker 3: Much music gets missed with even with national artists, to
the big artist. Sure, even traditionally they only push a
couple of singles. Right, even ten years ago, thirty years ago,
even when the albums had seventeen tracks on it, they
only picked one or two songs. And that's what the
Yeah that that hasn't changed. Well, yeah, everybody pushed the singles. No,
they push singles back then too.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, well yeah, like when I work with clients,
when I work with radio clients doing college radio promotion,
you know, we pick a we pick a single, and
we we send that out and you know, if if
if a station isn't biting on that single, you know,
maybe you'll try to, well, you know, here's the whole album,
maybe there's something here, you like, try to get them
to play something.
Speaker 3: But but it's push was that song?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 3: Push was the push?
Speaker 1: Was that?
Speaker 3: So when our album came out and our record label like,
you know, we wanted we want a black light to
be to be fun, you know. Oh yeah, but in
the middle of black Light it says let's go f
it r.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 3: We didn't know that getting into this.
Speaker 1: Oh.
Speaker 3: As a result, you haven't seen you haven't seen a
Sepsist song since with a bad word in it.
Speaker 4: Yeah's everything on our first well there is one.
Speaker 3: Uh fair to say it's on our first album. Oh okay, yeah,
Well never like anything anything that was written after that,
we will never yeah yeah, I'll never do it ever again.
We never swear Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah. I don't know if you even realize this.
I played black Light Invasion I made I made a
radio edit of it. Really, I played it years ago.
It was before we ever even met, because I do
that other show, Local Outbreak, Yes, and I played it
on that show just because I just found you guys
online and I was like, oh, I like this song,
and I just I made a radio edit of it.
So when it gets to that part instead of you
know what, it says yeah, yeah exactly, yeah, yeah, thank you,
yeah yeah, not to send that to us. Yeah, I don't.
I don't think I still have it, but that that
would have been geez, that would have been at least well,
when when did that song come out?
Speaker 3: It's over ten years, right, so I think I think
I think the first time we ever gave that to you,
it was like a demo version, I believe.
Speaker 1: Well, no, when I when I played it originally, I
just found like I said, we hadn't even met. I
found it on line. I found you guys online on
band camp, I think is right.
Speaker 3: So that song, the song that the version that everybody
hears now yeah, wasn't really was not recorded until twenty nineteen.
Speaker 1: Oh so the one I played was what was it
a dem Yes? That was online?
Speaker 3: Okay, yeah, yeah, strange Stepsis fact. We we we didn't.
We've we've been a band for fourteen years.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but we didn't.
Speaker 3: We didn't release music until five years ago.
Speaker 4: Oh it's because we've gone through so many different lineups.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and the music changes, you know. Oh yeah, oh wow, Okay,
that's true a lot of time. A couple a couple
of Stepsis facts. Yeah, most most people that play in
Stepsis don't play over don't play over eighteen to thirty months, okay,
and most members that play in Stepsis play under thirty shows. Okay,
that's just it's just what it is. Yeah, yeah, that's
just what it is, all right, So don't feel bad,
Zach there, hold on, hold on, hold on, never there
are there are no band members except for Robert Pan
and Lexi, who have lasted in the band more than
two and a half three years. Wow, no kidding, No,
that's just that's just what it is. Yeah, yeah, Lexi's
been in the band for seven years and Robert's been
in the band on and off for ten years.
Speaker 1: Well but she's only been in the band band today, right,
So that that resets the clock, doesn't that reset the
clock in a new apartment? Yeah, so you're starting all over, yes,
complete newbie. So now you can't leave at least for
another two and a half years.
Speaker 5: I could break.
Speaker 1: That's true. That's true. Well we are oh wow, we
are rapidly approaching the top of the hour. It all
goes so fast. So one last push for tonight, So
swarmy fast tonight. Doors open at seven or does the
show start at seven?
Speaker 3: Doors at six? Music six thirty oh.
Speaker 1: Music starts at six thirty.
Speaker 4: Yes, okay, gotcha's changed since the flyer.
Speaker 3: Oh okay, okay, no, that's what the original flyer did
say that though, And that's good.
Speaker 1: To tell our live listeners that though. So yeah, so so. Tonight,
Loud Entertainment presents US Swarmy Fest Sepsis Silent Season under
the Horizon Pulsifier, the Cherry Fog Temptress, also featuring Lilith
Kat and the Blood Witch, and of course Matt Connorton Unleashed.
We are very proud and honored to again be participating
along with Legion of Solace, Speed Demon Promotions, Violets, Rain
BPS Records, Denny Lynz Creations.
Speaker 3: Did I miss anybody that was really good?
Speaker 1: Thank you? I try. Well, We're Jenny and I are
really excited about tonight. So we're we're very very happy
and always wonderful to have you on and wonderful to
have all of you here. Thank you for coming in,
thanks for having me absolutely absolutely so yeah. So if
you're listening live on Saturday, make sure you come to
Jewel tonight for Swarmy Fest. And yeah we are. I
don't even have time to play another song, we are
out of time, but that's okay. We had a lot
to talk about. That's a good problem. So if you
miss any part of today's show, it'll be up in
just a little bit at wmnhradio dot orgon on my
website Matt connorton dot com. And that's it for us
for now. We'll see it's warm me Fest by everybody. Bye.