Speaker 1: So Coop to day.
Speaker 2: He was listening to the Greatful Dead for the rest
of the day.
Speaker 3: I wonder what this meant.
Speaker 2: That I said.
Speaker 3: That Cockball Day Lasting.
Speaker 1: That Codall said.
Speaker 3: That Cockball Day Lasting song com Tony.
Speaker 2: He was listening to the Grateful Death.
Speaker 3: He said, hey man, what show is that? He said,
show me your hands. Then he shot my dogue.
Speaker 2: Cop said.
Speaker 4: That comeball in West.
Speaker 2: That cop that come ball in.
Speaker 5: That is Cops on Acid by Plague Dad. And we're
gonna be talking to Plague Dad this morning here on
the show.
Speaker 1: Welcome everyone. It is Matt Connorton Unleashed.
Speaker 5: And we are alive from the studios of w m
N ninety five point three FM, Inglorious, Manchester, New Hampshire.
Of course, you can stream the show at Matt connorton
dot com.
Speaker 1: Slash live.
Speaker 5: Go there for all your live streaming options, social media links,
contact and fosh archives, et.
Speaker 1: Cetera, et cetera.
Speaker 5: Today is Saturday, October twenty six, twenty twenty four, and
I am not alone.
Speaker 2: Jenny John Show guests.
Speaker 1: Jenny is here at the news table.
Speaker 4: Good morning, sunshine.
Speaker 1: Yes, welcome, Welcome.
Speaker 4: I know something they don't know.
Speaker 1: You know something they don't know who's they.
Speaker 4: Our listeners may not know. Well, some might know, but
some may not know.
Speaker 1: Oh, what's up?
Speaker 4: Happy birthday, Matt? I have surprise for you.
Speaker 1: MS supposed open this now? Yes, you're supposed.
Speaker 4: To open the snow as I.
Speaker 1: Knocked down my All right, well, thankfully.
Speaker 4: Let's see you can you.
Speaker 5: Know you have to?
Speaker 1: Should I open the card later?
Speaker 6: Okay, I'm just I've been excited. It took every ounce
of my being. Can I give you your birthday presently?
Speaker 1: Oh? Very nice? Should I read it?
Speaker 4: You don't? You can if you'd like it. You don't
have to if you don't want it.
Speaker 5: Say's happy birthday to my strong, hard working, dependable, handsome,
supportive and truly amazing boyfriend.
Speaker 1: Very nice, Thank you, you're well, Matt.
Speaker 5: A very happy birthday to the man I love always, Jenny,
Thank you very much, very sweet. Oh there's something else
in here too, Yeah, all right.
Speaker 1: Let's see.
Speaker 5: I should put the camera on me for those watching
on online.
Speaker 1: Yu, let's see I couldn't. Oh. Oh, we got some
Matt Connorton unleashed.
Speaker 4: That's just a bonus.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 4: The other one is more.
Speaker 5: And some Matt Connorton hypnosis stickers a graphic.
Speaker 1: Yeah of my logo. Yes, my fancy logo.
Speaker 4: It will be available for purchase.
Speaker 1: Oh very nice, thank you.
Speaker 4: I thought you would love those.
Speaker 1: Yes, thank you very much. All right, yes, well they're okay.
My birthday is officially over.
Speaker 5: Now, okay, that's that's the end of my birthday.
Speaker 4: We limit discussions.
Speaker 5: I loved birthdays when I was a kid, no kidding, right,
you know, then you get to be an adult and
it's like, uh.
Speaker 4: Oh, my dad was like, I want a list. Me mean,
I want a list. What a list of the things
you'd like to have. Doesn't mean you're getting all of them.
I just want a list. That was birthdays, and that
was Christmas.
Speaker 5: I mean, I don't know about everywhere else but here
in New Hampshire. You know, when you're an adult, it's like, hey,
time to register and inspect your car.
Speaker 1: Happy birthday.
Speaker 4: Give us money.
Speaker 6: Yes, yes, that is the State of New Hampshire's Happy
birthday to you, all of it. Residents of owned vehicles,
that's right, and to have a driver's license, that's right.
Speaker 4: Give us money. Happy birthday to you.
Speaker 6: You have to pay the government to wish a happy
birthday by engaging in commerce.
Speaker 1: That's right, that's right. Although the government never forgets it's
your birthday.
Speaker 3: Got to give.
Speaker 1: Credit for that, they never forget nop. So yeah, So
welcome everybody.
Speaker 5: We've got an exciting show in the second hour, really,
October Suns is coming in.
Speaker 1: Dave Wally's already in the chat room, really looking forward
to that. Yes, yes, And.
Speaker 5: In the third hour we have Rebecca Turmel, yeah, joining us.
But right now, and this is the gentleman who is
responsible for that song Cops on Acid. Plague Dad is here.
Let me get that mic up there. Frank Gallagher, better
known as Plague Dad. Hello, sir, how are you doing?
Thanks so much for having Yeah, we're very happy to
have you here. We're gonna play some of your other
tunes today as well. But I do have to ask
you right off the top, is that that song Cops
on Acid? Is that based on an actual experience? Did
you did you encounter a member of law enforcement who
was on acid?
Speaker 1: Well?
Speaker 3: No, not so much that that was more the speculative part.
It isn't It is actually based on an incident though
a former life. I used to be a bike messenger
back in San Francisco. Okay, so I rode around the
city delivering things, picking up things and dropping them off
for money. So one day I had picked up a
filing that needed to make it to city Hall by
a four thirty a deadline, you know, and need to
get there quick quick.
Speaker 1: It was on my way.
Speaker 3: I was riding up Marcus Street as quickly as I could,
and I ran into a police officer who was the
doors of his cruiser were wide open and he was
directing traffic but blaring out of the He was listening
to the dead out of the out of his cruiser
while he was directing traffic. And I was like, Okay,
that's just interesting. You don't see that every day, And
it stuck with me. And then later that night I
wrote that song.
Speaker 5: Oh okay, I know, I thought, maybe, so what about
the shooting of the dog, because that that does happen
as you know it does.
Speaker 3: That was something that literally torn from the headlines. Yeah,
so to speak. So that was, you know, I mean,
with with songwriting, you try to, at least my approach
is to try to start from something personal, whether it's
deeply personal or superficially personal. I mean, I guess really
is a judgment call. But then try to establish some
connections and broaden the universality of it at the point,
and given everything that's going on with our police these days,
that seemed to be a direction.
Speaker 1: Because they will. If you have a dog who needs
to be put down, they will, they will do it
for you.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, you just have.
Speaker 5: To have a you know, like if you have a
warrant for something, they'll show up at your house. Well
they're well, they're they're they're you know, if you have
like old Yeller or something, you don't want to do
it yourself. Yeah, anyway, but you're not. But just to
be clear, you're not. You're not pro law enforcement on acid.
Speaker 3: You're I assume, well, you know, I always think that
drug use is a personal choice. You know, while if
if somebody who holds that position wants to do that,
that would be fine. I probably while they're not on
do right, you know, but in what they do on
their own time is their their their business.
Speaker 5: It is a It is a fun song though very
catch it is, and it's fun and it's uh, it
makes me laugh when I listen to it, and we
should say, so you're getting some traction with this, you're
getting an airplane? Yeah, uh do you know, uh, do
you have any idea how many stations at this point
have picked it up?
Speaker 3: Eight or ten that I know of, you know, throughout
New England. And then there's there's some in California that
has started to play it as well. You know. I
mean it's funny because you look at you know, technology
these days, like Apple Music, you know, for the artists now,
if you're on Apple Music, they have started to track
radio plays, yes, and they will tell you what stations.
So it's gotten some play, and it's amazing, Like the Midwest,
it's gotten some play out in the Midwest. It's gotten
some play in Brazil. Yeah, you know, I mean, it's
gotten some play in Japan. It's so it's it's starting
to get subtraction. Yes, and you know, I've noticed that
shows now, I play a lot of shows. For me,
that's the essence of music. I mean, I love making
records and I love radio, but music to me is
and essentially it's a it's it's a very deeply personal experience. Yes,
And so at shows now when I play that song,
people are actually starting to sing long. Oh that's great,
blows me away, excellent.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's very cool. That's that's awesome.
Speaker 5: We should mention too, and I'll put the camera back
on me for a moment for people watching online on
the Facebook or YouTube so people can see it. So
you brought this, yeah, I'll kind of hold it up.
You can't can't zoom in unfortunately. But so this is now,
this is Vinyl.
Speaker 3: It is it's a seven inch record. Very cool for
songs on it, very cool.
Speaker 5: Yes, so a seven inch for for those who don't know,
young people might not know, uh, that is it's like
and this will you can put this on a regular
turn time? Absolutely obviously, Yeah, but for people who don't know,
you know, because Vinyl has had such a resurgence, but
to see a seven inch like this, that's unusual.
Speaker 3: Well, it's very I pressed two hundred copies of these.
I've sold more than one hundred of them now I
just realized, which is amazing to me. I mean, to
sell one hundred and seven inch records is just and
again getting back to that deeply personal experience. I mean
I listened to music through all sorts of medium. I
listened Spotify, I listen to band camp, I go to shows,
I listen to records. But what I'm finding out is
that for a growing number of people, they want some
sort of physical connection yes to the music. Yeah, and
a record or a cassette or to a lesser extented
CD will provide that.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I mean that the first fifty copies of that come
with a comic book as well that you can only
get with this record. And it was done by the
artist named Paul Kurt John who did the cover art
as well, and he's a fairly well known comics underground
comics artist in the UK okay. And I ran into
him online because on this record is a cover of
a tune by Black Flag called six Pack Oh okay,
And we can't play it here today because it's a
heavy laden with profanity and just isn't appropriate for the
audience on a Saturday morning here. But yes, he came.
He's a Paul is an enormous Black Flag fan, and
he came across the song and we hooked up and
we talked, and he's offered to do the cover of
the record because he just really dug the tune and
I was like, oh yeah, man, absolutely, and then he said, well,
could you you want to do a comic book too.
I said, I'll draw comic book and you could just
give it away.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 3: So he sent me the files, you know, from the UK,
and I printed it here and I printed fifty copies.
I have eight left. I keep forgetting to bring the
comics to the shows when I the records, so you know,
mail order, you definitely get the comic book you come
to a show. If I remember to bring up I
did bring him today. I'll bring one in after the show.
Speaker 1: Okay, all right, thank you.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's uh, it's a it's a it's a it's
a very offensive comic book to some people. Yeah, it's
it's it's uh. It pushes the boundaries. Okay, okay, which
is right up my alley?
Speaker 2: Uh?
Speaker 1: Now where do you record? You know?
Speaker 3: I record wherever I can. Honestly, this record was recorded
at Monaco Studios in Falmouth, Maine, and it was engineered
and uh mixed by a by a man named Dan
Capaldi who is an absolutely gifted producer, engineer, musician. This
guy has some of the best years that I've ever
run across. And he also plays drums and sits in
with me sometimes. It shows if I need a drummer.
Oh okay, So he's played with me a couple of times.
He plays with everybody in Portland. If you've seen a
band in Portland, you've probably seen Dan Capaldi play drumas
or bass or guitar.
Speaker 5: Or you know, well, every every drummer I know. I mean,
it's a consistent theme on the show. Every drummer I
know is in like multiple multiple bands.
Speaker 3: Indeed, So this one was recorded there at Monaco Studios.
Now Dan has his own little studio now that he's
just set up in Portland. I don't even know but
it has a name yet, but I hope to do
some recording there. I also, do you know, I'm touring
part of it. I play a lot of shows with
a band called Vice's Inc. Who are supposed to be
here this morning. They couldn't make it. That's by virtue
of their absences. I guess, it's not how I sort
of walked into this. But they have a studio, so
I'm gonna be doing some recording there. I've done some
recording with them as well, excellent, So really wherever I
can sit it in. I also just record up in
my attic. I have a little home studio that I
demo things up there, and I try to record as
many live shows as I can, really, yeah, because every
live show has a different feel. So I just did
a tour in August with vices In and I recorded
a bunch of those shows. And I have another set
that I recorded at the Cody In Theater in Portland
where I opened up a film festival. It was the
opening act for film, so I recorded that. That was
with a full band, very much the sound that you
heard with this track that you played, you know, bass drums, mandolin, vocals, guitar.
So I have a half hour set of that sound.
And then I have another show this a half an
hour that's solo, just me and a foot drum and
and you know, and and it's very different field, but
it's the same songs, yeah, I mean literally, I mean
it's almost the same set list. So I'm going to
release that on a cassette only release, Okay, So you're
gonna get, you know, the full band on one side
and the solo set on the other side, and I'm
going to print one hundred copies. They're in production right now,
and Paul is going to do the cover right for
that as well, and those are going to be available
on my website. Play Got Dad and on my band
camp page as well.
Speaker 5: By the way, I think it's so cool that your
side is plague dot Dad because a lot of people too,
you know, I'm a web designer, so I know this,
but a lot of people probably don't even realize that.
You know, you can get a lot of different you know,
you know, it doesn't have to be dot com or
dot net or you know, at this point, you can
get almost anything if you're willing to pay for it.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, yeah, you know it's funny. I kind of
backed into this one too, because I do a lot
of this myself. So I built the website myself. I
did you know, I came to the u r L
myself them all the marketing. I mean, that's sort of
the nature of the music business these days. And I
went through I'm going to name and shame here. I
went through go Daddy to buy my domain name. I
had plague dad dot com. Yeah it was you know,
which was fine, and I got it for a year
and it went to what it expired. Yeah, and Go
Daddy has created a company now and they bought the
thing out from under me and offered to sell it
back to me for six hundred dollars, and I was like,
you know what, I'm done. Not only am I done,
I'm actually gonna just, you know, whenever the opportunity comes up,
I'm gonna talk smack about you. So here we are
talk a smack about go daddy, because if that's their
business model for independent artists, then they are going down
the wrong road. So now I found somebody else. So
I've learned how to do this myself. I change the
domain plague dot Dad. It's much better.
Speaker 1: Well, who who do you own the we should plug?
Who do you own the domain through?
Speaker 3: Now you know it's uh, I believe it's through band
Zogle I think is yeah. Yeah. They help with the
website and make it really easy and set up the
store to sell the records. I mean it's just sort
of a one stop shop. And for a musician who
is really trying to, you know, do everything themselves, they
have a suite of tools that makes it just as
easy as it can possibly be.
Speaker 5: Absolutely one. Yeah, No, that's that's uh, that's very cool.
Uh So where does the name come from? Uh, plague Dad?
And and people can probably guess indeed, you know there
there we we did go through a little bit people
might remember, yeah, a bit of a pandemic.
Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely, well, in fact, that is where it comes from. Yeah,
you know, when the pandemic emerged, Like a lot of folks,
I lost my job at the time, so I had
a lot of time on my hands. I ended up
in my attic just writing songs and I've always been
a musician, you know, yeah, and writing some songs and
recording them and I would send them out to friends
or post them on you know, snippets on social media,
and it started to get some traction, and it's like, well, wow,
that's kind of cool. So the name just sort of
suggested itself. I mean, I am we during that time,
we sort of all better or worse turned inward. I
mean it was very you know, you were alone and
with your family. In my case, I have actually I
am a father, I have you know, three kids, and
it's just sort of emerged as a Yeah, in that
in a time like that, you know, you're you're at
least for me, family was one of the most important things.
Speaker 1: Yea.
Speaker 3: And so it's just sort of captured everything that was
going on at that time, both personally and culturally for me.
In a in a bumper sticker if you will. And
then from a marketing perspective, I was like, all right,
that that really conjures up everything that I would need
a band name.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 3: It does what it needs to do as a band name,
right right.
Speaker 1: Yeah, No, it's great.
Speaker 5: And I regular listeners hear me say this all the time.
But you know, but I always say, you know, the
pandemic was an awful experience for us all but you
gotta find these silver linings where you can. And one
of the big silver linings is, you know, just broadly,
is it really kind of forced people to be more
creative and and find ways to do things or or
expand on existing ways to do things. But you know,
for example, you saw a lot of like bands, you know,
doing online performances where they're all in separate places, that
kind of thing. Yeah, it also opened people up to
people who may have been you know, because I always
I ask every guest, you know, where do you record?
Because you have so many options now, But it really
kind of I think the pandemic opened people up to
people who maybe were resistant to you know, just sending
files back and forth and recording that way now found
themselves in a position where okay, well, I guess I
better figure out how to make this work. So it
really kind of, I think, expanded the boundaries that people
have in their minds in terms of how to be creative,
how to make music or anything else.
Speaker 3: Oh indeed, no, no, no, no question. And you know
it's interesting some with all the technology that exists now,
it by it there's a toolbox that is unprecedented. I
mean from a musical perspective. Yeah, power that we have
available to us now as musicians is exp eventually stronger
and more robust than it was even just a couple
of years ago, ten or twenty years ago. Curiously, though,
I used that technology too. I wanted to create a
sound and some material that could be played should that
technology not be available. You know, I mean, what can
I just do with a voice, right, some wood and
some guitar strings, you know, wooden instruments that don't have
to be amplified. You know, a foot drum, you know,
these these tools that are there regardless of whatever the
technology situation is. And again it gets back to that connection,
that deep personal connection. I'm not saying that, you know,
you can't forge that connection through technology, but I was
looking for something a little more primal, and so I really,
you know, you made an artistic decision to base this
in acoustic instruments, and that acoustics sound filtered through that
punk rock ethos that brought me into music in the
first place.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 5: So so prior to this, so prior to plague, Dad,
what what were you doing musically before?
Speaker 1: Were you in a band or were.
Speaker 3: You Yeah, this is a long sorted tale. How much
time we.
Speaker 1: Oh, we have time? Yeah, it's only nine twenty, we
have time. I love a long sorted tail. Yeah.
Speaker 3: No, I started playing, you know, a lawn back in
the tees. Into this. I'm in my fifties, Okay, So
I started playing. My first band was a band called
Scouts on Her and I went to the Berkeley College
of Music and with a couple of Berkeley students who
happened to be from San Francisco. Oh, and we you know,
we gigged around Boston. We played the rat, we played
T T's you know, you know, we're doing some things
like that. Yeah, and then these guys said, you know what,
let's just move to San Francisco. Man, Let's just yeah.
So we bought the school bus, ripped out the seats,
threw all a crap in and moved to San Francisco.
Speaker 1: O kid, Yeah, now, what what year was this?
Speaker 3: This is in nineteen eighty seven.
Speaker 1: Okay eighty seven.
Speaker 3: Yeah, So we started playing around there and did pretty
well put out a record. Uh we were. We ended
up playing a show with Nirvana, no kids, playing a
show with the Google Dolls. We ended up playing with
a couple of you know, dands like Alice Donut and
Primus and Mister Bungle, And I mean we were going
up and down the West coast, playing from La to Seattle,
doing that whole thing.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and uh you could you know, it's still a
copy a couple of copies of that record floating around somewhere.
I'm sure you could find it on eBay or discogs
or something like that. Yeah, but uh, it got to
the point where that just wasn't fun anymore, did it?
Speaker 1: What did it become more like work? It did?
Speaker 3: Yeah, and it became you know, it's a grind.
Speaker 5: I mean people think, you know, people think, oh, you
go on tour and oh my god, it's just uh wine.
Women in Song is like.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and beyond that, there's just sort of the emotional
aspect to it as well. You know, I've a I've
come to understand on the deeply personal level that comparison
is the thief of George. And at that point in
my life as a young person, You're all about am
I doing? Am I? Am I? Is it successful? Is
it going to be successful? What?
Speaker 1: Am I?
Speaker 7: You know?
Speaker 3: I mean, it's all about that competition. And one day
we had booked the show and we were going to
open for Helmet at the Kennel Club, which was, you know,
a club in San Francisco at the time on the
Visadero Street. And the guy we had played there a
couple of times in the show's great and the club
owner called me back a couple of weeks before the
show and he said, you know what, you guys are
off the show? Why? He said, well, you know, we
got to call. Helmet was on amphetamine Reptile at that time,
before they had gotten big huge, and he said, you know,
the label called and they said we can't get Helmet,
and we take these two other acts promote as well. Sorry,
And that was it. I could just feel something just snapped.
You know what, I'm done, This is it. I just
can't do this anymore. Yeah, So I went back. I
left San Francisco. I went back to school, and uh.
Speaker 1: Did you go back to Berkeley or No.
Speaker 3: I went to went to or and I went to
Umaie and became a journalist.
Speaker 1: Reporter.
Speaker 3: I was a reporter for a long time, reporter, columnist,
and an editor. Made my way back to San Francisco,
where I actually covered city hall politics in San Francisco
for for quite a while. And what's fascinating to me
is that the folks who were merging into the national
power structure now Gavin Newsom, who was the governor, Kamala Harris,
these were the folks who were holding local offices when
I was covering Oh wow, city hall. I remember when
Gavin was appointed to the city council by Willie Brown,
a good friend of mine was Commala's chief of staff
when she was the district attorney. So you know, I
did that for a very long time. Yeah, and uh wow,
the background of print journalism.
Speaker 1: Oh wow.
Speaker 3: And got married, raise kids and just sort of set
the music things aside for a while to yeah, concentrate
on journalism and raising.
Speaker 1: My family and yeah, you know, wow.
Speaker 3: When the pandemic rolled around again, though, the opportunity presented
itself to get back into some of the music. Yeah
so I did. Yeah, yeah, you know, three and a half,
four years into it. It just keeps rolling, which is
you know, yep, I'm thankful for that every day.
Speaker 5: Yeah, excellent, excellent. We should uh, well, let's play another track. Sure,
I'll I'll let you pick. Uh.
Speaker 3: Well, you know, there's like, there's four songs on this record.
The uh there's the there's one called slip the Leash,
which really speaks to sort of my love hate relationship
with technology. Oh okay, in a minute and a half, uh,
very short, which mix should we go with? Well, you know,
let's let's do the Let's do the Monoco mix and
then talk about the you know, because I like to
remix tunes and we've done that with something.
Speaker 1: Right, right, Okay, So we'll play the.
Speaker 3: Monaco Monica being the studio where we recorded it, which
is why.
Speaker 5: It's yeah yeah, yeah, and uh yeah, great, great sound
coming out of there.
Speaker 3: Fantastic studio. Sam Monico, who was the host of the
Locomotive Show on w MPG. Oh okay to Portland is
a fantastic support of the local music scene, and it's
just a great guy and that studio is remarkable.
Speaker 5: Okay, let's give this a listen. So, uh, this is
called whoops out there. It is Slip the Leash, the
Monico mix and play Dad, check this out.
Speaker 3: Have mine, but I need it for work.
Speaker 2: I need it for work.
Speaker 3: We've all got lap office.
Speaker 7: That's how we all in the world today.
Speaker 3: That's how we connect.
Speaker 4: At least that's what they say.
Speaker 3: I live near the airport, right under the flight path.
Speaker 7: I hear the engines and I see the planes.
Speaker 3: Take the kids to the airport. We'll get the flights.
Speaker 7: We talk move about where we might go start a
new life.
Speaker 2: We've all got smartphones and a wish to Christ.
Speaker 3: I didn't even have mine, but I need it for work.
Speaker 1: That is Slip the Leash. That is a Plague Dad.
Speaker 5: We have Frank Gallagher of Plague Dad here with us
alive in studio.
Speaker 1: That.
Speaker 5: Uh, that song in particular, I think is relatable in
that Uh. I think probably a lot of people feel that.
Speaker 1: Well.
Speaker 5: I shouldn't even say probably, I know a lot of
people feel that way, because, uh, people talk about it
all the time on on Facebook. You'll you'll see and
hear people. Well, I shouldn't say you'll hear, but you'll
see people talking about in post you know, I hate.
Speaker 1: Uh, I hate all this technology.
Speaker 3: Well it's funny. I mean this is of one company
now has made at the centerpiece of their new ad campaigns,
the ads featuring Atlantis Morset. Yeah, are talking about how
we all have to use our phone people. Is this
sort of this love hate relationship with technology. And it's
fascinating to me from a cultural and a personal perspective,
because you know, the promise of the internet was that
it would create community and that it would bring us
all together, right, and in some ways it absolutely has
done that, But in any other ways it has done
exactly the opposite. Has fractured communities, it has destroyed communities,
and it has very much provided people, you know, this
illusion of community when really they're just in their own
cocoon with that with that phone, and they interact and
people I shouldn't. I don't say they. I'm as guilty
of it as anybody. But we interact these days through
a screen as opposed to intentionally and personally, which is
it is what it is. We we make our own
decisions about how we deal with that.
Speaker 5: I think, yeah, And people say things to online that
they would never say in person, you know, and and
the way people treat each other online. I mean, you know, yeah,
like some of the things that have been said to
me online. It's like, you know, sometimes I think, you know,
I'm not a violent person by any and I'm no
tough guy, but if this person said that to me
in real life to my face, I probably punched them.
Speaker 3: Absolutely.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: No. The facade of anonymity that that we either believe
in or you know, construct is yeah, it allows that
to happen and encourages.
Speaker 5: That yeah, yeah, time courage, yeah yeah. And I also
hear people say too, you know, well, like you so
you you stepped away from Facebook, absolutely, and from a
mental health perspective, you're probably a lot better off. But
at the same time, it's like, you know, because we
were kind of talking off there about how at the
you know, it does, but it does put certain constraints
on you in terms of promoting what you're doing.
Speaker 3: No question, I'm read I will reach fewer people because
I'm not on Facebook. Yeah, But in the balance, if
you make a list of the upsides and the downsides,
upsides of beating off of Facebook vastly outweigh the downsides.
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, see, I doing this radio show and everything,
there's no way I can oh, yeah, you know, like
I'm I'm locked in. But I but I don't, you know,
I don't engage much in terms of you know, like
the way that I use it. You know, I'll share
out things related to the show or promote other things
that I'm doing, and I use it for my hypnotherapy
practice and all this, you know, is to let people
know what I'm doing. But and sometimes I'll I'll post,
especially in the last couple of years, I'll post things
that might be more personal or that I just think
are funny. But when when people start commenting, if because
the thing is too We live in a in a
time when you don't have to be you don't have
to be even remotely. Like I posted something recently about
about getting vaccinated, and you know, i'd gone to write
eight and you know, got my flu shot COVID booster
and so of course and I just posted something funny
about it. How you know, the pharmacist said, you know,
go sit down and for fifteen minutes, and then you know,
as soon as he's not looking, I sneak out.
Speaker 1: You know, because you know, it's not my first time
with it.
Speaker 5: I know, you know, I am gonna have a side effect,
but it's gonna be later when I'm exhausted.
Speaker 1: But of course, you know, so.
Speaker 5: I just post something like that because I think it's funny,
and of course, you know, anti vaxxers and everybody's may
make it a totally political thread. But what I do
is I don't engage because because I just I don't
argue about politics or anything. I just I don't argue
with people on social media. I refuse to. I find
it both just unenduringly just it's it's so tedious and
it's entirely pointless, and and uh so I just I
actually learned to kind of enjoy when that happens, because
people start posting all this mean, angry stuff at me
over what I thought was just a funny post.
Speaker 1: But instead of.
Speaker 5: Engaging, I actually take pleasure in not engaging, knowing that
it's making them crazy that I'm not engaging, because they
want me to argue with them, right right, and uh
they want me to fight with them, and I'm not
doing it, and I know it bothers them indeed. Well, yeah,
and I absolutely get get a laugh out of knowing
that it bothers you.
Speaker 3: Yeah, no, there's there's a lot to be said for that. Yeah,
it's just yeah, emotionally, I just like I said, emotionally,
intellectually just didn't have the bandwidth. Yeah for it. Again,
it's do I want to give an hour to these
people and Mark Zuckerberg or do I want to spend
an hour in a meaningful time that you know sparks joy?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 5: Yeah, exactly, yeah, yeah, exactly choose joy choose absolutely absolutely.
Well no, no, So let me ask you this, So,
how how have you because you know, as we discussed,
I mean, you're having some success. You know, Cops on
Acid is catching on and and you know you're you're
selling your music.
Speaker 1: What because a lot of a lot of people.
Speaker 5: In the industry listen to the show, A lot of
a lot of musicians listen to the show. Like what
advice do you have for for anyone who maybe doesn't
want to have to do? You know you utilize Facebook? Like,
how are you what is your approach? How are you
doing this?
Speaker 3: Play as many live shows as you can.
Speaker 2: Ye.
Speaker 3: Music is all about being heard. Yeah, it's you know,
it's like that old if tree falls in the forest
and nobody hears it? Does it happen right? Well? You know?
I mean, if you write a song and nobody hears it,
did it get written? Go out and play shows? Yeah,
go to open mics, go play wherever you can. You
know when I when when this project first started to
come together and seemed as if it would have legs,
we couldn't play shows that there was no place to
physically get a get a gig because the pandemic had
taken care of everything was shut down. So I literally
went out into the streets and played started busking. I
absolutely and I still do it. I love it. I
go as often as I can if I don't have
If I'm in Portland and at home and I don't
have a show on a Friday or Saturday night, you
will typically find me down in the Old Port between
six and nine playing music.
Speaker 1: Kid.
Speaker 3: Absolutely. I use what's called an AMP that is a
rolling tube street. This thing runs on batteries. Yeah, it
runs on eight double a's and it runs for six
hours on eight double as pushes fifty watts. It has
three channels. I can run my guitar and my vocals
and my little foot drum through it. And I will
just go play for three hours. And I've met some
amazing musicians just just doing that, and people will gather around,
and you know, I'll bring a crowd, you know, and
that I love busking because you will know immediately what
works and what doesn't. Yes, you know, if people stop
and are listening, then you're doing something right. If people
are walking by, you know, I'm and I the thing
I'm looking for, reaction. You know, what works, what doesn't work,
what makes people happy, what pisses people off. The worst
thing in my mind is ambivalents. That's what drives me nuts.
Hate being ignored. And maybe that's a personal thing, and
I fully cop to it. You know, call me attention
or whatever. No I think, so I don't if you
hate it, you know, but a reaction is what I'm
looking for and busking provides that immediate feedback. And beyond that,
you know, part of being a musician is learning how
to perform and make no mistake. That is a skill
set that is separate and apart from learning your skills
and your modes and how to solo and how to improvise.
And you know that's there's an element of showmanship that
you need to develop, and the only way to do
that is to get out there on the stage and
play in front of people. And so I'm thankfully I'm
fortunate enough at this point where I'm I'm actually getting
a lot of shows indoors. But if I, like I say,
if I genuinely love busking because I don't have to
be there at eight fifteen, I don't have to load
in at eight twenty five, I don't have to play
twenty two minutes. You know, I don't have to I
can play whatever a damn well please, I can play
the same song four times if I want, Yeah, you know,
and I use that to go workshop new material. Okay,
and you know some of these songs that we're playing
today have evolved dramatically out there on the pitch. Yeah,
is what does buskers call where we play?
Speaker 1: Okay? I didn't know. I didn't know that. I've heard
that phrase. Okay, okay, and.
Speaker 3: It's uh so I'm you know, if it's warm tonight,
I may actually go out, yeah, because you know, I
have some shows coming up next three weekends. But I'm
actually off tonight, so I may be out.
Speaker 1: There in Portland.
Speaker 5: I'm just curious, do you need any kind of a
permit or anything, or do they just let you do
it or you.
Speaker 3: Know, you're My understanding is that you're supposed to have
some sort of permit if you're amplified, and I often
am amplified. That said, I've never had somebody stop me
and ask me for that permit. And I'm Dan in
the old port where you know, on a Friday or
Saturday night where there is a police presence, and those
officers down there have actually come to know me because
I'm there frequently and like what I do because they know.
I mean, I'm a sort of a known commodity and
I've so I haven't had that problem yet. That said,
I've heard from some other buskers in Portland that they've
had some some run ins some uh you know, some
of the compliance staff. But every town is different. Like
in in Boston you don't need a permit across the
river and Cambridge you do. Yeah, oh yeah, absolutely so really,
I mean, if it's something that you're wanting, if you're
a musician, it is something you want to try, hey
do it absolutely because it's just fantastic experience. It's it's
so much fun. But look check into it. You know,
make some calls, do the research, sure, figure it out.
Speaker 1: Sure.
Speaker 5: And I don't even know what the I don't know
what the laws are on that or rules are here
in Manchester. You know.
Speaker 3: It's funny you say that to you, because I was
coming in this morning and coming over the bridge and
then wow, I bet I could.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: It's like whenever I come into it town, that's my
first thing. It's like, there's the pitch, Where would be
the best pitch?
Speaker 5: Yeah, because I see them on Elm Street. But not much,
actually not as much as I used to. It seems like,
so I don't know, I have no idea what the
what the rule is. But was that when you first
started doing that?
Speaker 1: Was it? Was it intimidating at first?
Speaker 3: Oh my gosh, yaaah? But you have to you know,
there's a couple of things going on. I'm at the
point in my life now where I just don't care
what people think anymore. I'm just beyond that, you know,
I really don't.
Speaker 1: And that's one of the few good things about getting older.
You did it.
Speaker 5: It's a short list, but as you get older, you
just naturally become less self conscious.
Speaker 1: It's more like, you know who cares what people think exactly.
Speaker 3: Beyond that, it's people you're not You're not hurting anybody,
you know, you know, just people can ignore it if
they want, you know, right. So it's it's as long
as you're not blocking the sidewalk. That seems to be
the you know, you don't want to cause anybody any problems.
But if you're just out there doing your thing, you know. Yeah, Now, man,
I'm a ham. Yeah, you got to work to shut
me up now.
Speaker 1: In the uh, you know what about in the winter,
do you?
Speaker 5: I mean, is there anywhere where you can do that indoors,
like in a mall or well.
Speaker 3: You know, it's it's it's it's funny. I don't know
about the mall, but like last winter. Uh, there's a
there's a a pub in Portland called bram Hall which
is on Congress Street and I just walked in there
one night. A guy behind the bar had to be
the manager. I said, hey, how about you just let
me play here every Thursday night? And he's like, what
do you mean? And I said, well, here's what I
explained to him. You know what's going on? I said,
I'm getting too cold and your places to play? Yeah,
I said, you know, to pay me, and there's no amplifications,
just me and my acoustic guitar and my drum. So
there's no laws about entertainment, there's no permits or anything
like that. How about you just let me roll in
here with my tip Jart Thursday night. Yeah, on Thursday
nights and play and if people are digging it, fantastic.
If they're not, I'll move along. And he's like, yeah,
all right. And I did that for six months.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 3: It actually turned out really really and it got to
be a thing. I mean, if people start to hear
about this, if you're any good, I mean, that's why
I encourage people to play live. If you're any good,
you will find traction because people like live music. If
you suck, maybe not so much, you know, because but
I was fortunate enough that people would would come around,
and people will come back. There were regulars, they'd come in,
you know, because they knew what was going on and
they people like live music. So I would start to
have friends come by, and you know, people other other
musicians that I know from around town, sit in, do
a couple of tunes. You know. It got to become
a thing, and it was actually pretty cool. And then
the plays change ownership and the new manager came in.
It's just the vibe wasn't the same really, and I
was like, yeah, okay, this was played so yeah yeah.
Speaker 5: But I mean, I think the broader point, though it
sounds like that you're making, is it's it's so important
to build.
Speaker 3: A relationship, absolutely, and that's the currency.
Speaker 5: You know, so you you can get around Facebook, oh yeah,
you know, or other forms of uh, but.
Speaker 3: Play live and when if you're a young musician or
a musician who's young in your career and you're just
starting out, play as many shows as you can and
stay for the other bands. Yeah, listen to those other
bands and talk with those other bands and create and
nurture those relationships, because that's how you find your audience,
and that's how you develop your audience, and that's how
you grow your audience. I mean, you can have ten
thousand followers on Instagram, but if you can't put twelve
people into a club, does that have any meaning? Does
that any value?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 3: What are you know?
Speaker 1: Good? Yeah?
Speaker 5: No, that's a great point and an important one because
of the club or the bar or the venue, you know,
they the promoter they don't.
Speaker 1: It's you know, they're impressed if you.
Speaker 5: Have a lot of Instagram followers, but what they really
care about is how many of them are going to show.
Speaker 3: Up exactly exactly. Yeah. Yeah, So now you know, it's
getting to be I'm looking around and again I'm thinking, well,
maybe I need to find another brand Hale, because it's
getting colder. And that said, I also just need to
take some time. I've been playing so many shows and
touring and I think you know, this past summer I
played probably seventy.
Speaker 1: Five eighty shows, no kidding, wow, it.
Speaker 3: Which is fantastic. I love it. Yeah, I'm not complaining.
What I'm saying is I have about twelve to fifteen
songs of a disturbing amount of songs that are half done.
Speaker 1: Okay, I really.
Speaker 3: Just need to finish, you know, So maybe I take
six or eight weeks and just take it down a
notch and finish those songs.
Speaker 1: And you know, and when you play live, is it
always just you? Do you ever have guest musicians.
Speaker 3: Or I you know, I do. I will play with
I look at the show, at what the venue is
and who I'm playing with, and pull together if it's
a tour, it's probably gonna be me sol yeah, because
the cost musically these days, and you know, the business
of the music business is so fundamentally broken now that
a touring band is very difficult to pull off.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I.
Speaker 3: Mean you're gonna a they're gonna low ball you on
the gate, you're not gonna get if you get paid,
You're gonna take a cutting and birch ye at. You know.
I mean there's just this. You can't do it. It's
very difficult, right, So off, when I go on tour,
I'm solo. When I'm playing locally or you know, regionally,
I will pull together a band. You know. I played
a show at Ginos the other night with the band
called Euphemia, who, for my money, is the best local
band in Portland right now. These guys are fantastic. Oh god,
their new record self released. It was It's been the
number one local record at Bull Moose now for a
long time. These guys are amazing.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 3: So I opened for them at at Geno's and I
pulled together the punk rock trio for that.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 3: I had Dan Capaldi played drums and a guy named
Mike Berkowitz who plays bass with a couple of jazz
bands around town, sat in on bass and you know,
and we just ripped it for half an hour, man
together a thirty minute set that you know, when I
go busk, now I have I'll play for three hours
at a time. I mean, I know a hundred songs, yeah,
you know, a bunch of covers and a bunch of
my stuff, and I'll weave that together and sort of
pull a set together in the moment based on what's working.
You sort of read the room. But when I do
a club gig, it's thirty minutes of unrestrained mayhem because
I know what works, because I've put that time in
and I've road tested this material, and I can put
together a set list that will it's contourt, that is
just relentless and it rips. And that's what we did
and the hell of a show. Yeah, I really enjoy
those kind of gigs. There's a lot to be said
for those you know busking aside this. You know, coming
in and doing a set like that, that's that powerful
and you know, at the end of it, people were
just cheering. I mean, because I do have that element
of showmanship that you know, I'm i enjoy that. That's
part of being on stage. It's got to be you know,
you have to leave leave it all out there. Man.
You know, these people are paying good money for a show.
I'm gonna make sure they get what they came for. Yeah,
you know yeah, speaking of paying good money, I mean, yeah,
I went to a club the other night. I couldn't
twenty dollars cover charts. Yeah, that was just to get
into the door. Twenty bucks in Portland. Yeah yeah, and
that's it was worth it because there were five bands
on the bill. But that's a lot of dope.
Speaker 1: Sure, you know.
Speaker 5: Yeah where we are yeah, yea these days yeah absolutely, yeah.
I mean there's there's major touring acts that have canceled yeah,
oh yeah, canceled tours because they can't afford to do it,
you know. And and Live Nation has things loted down.
Speaker 3: Their predatory Live Nation I just have.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we've we've talked about that a lot on the show. Yeah.
Speaker 5: Absolutely. I think they're getting sued again. Good they lose, yeah,
no kidding, uh yeah, no, these these monopolies.
Speaker 1: Let's play another track.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, let's play one off. I call the Mayhem Mix,
which is so for this is an interesting story behind
these these So I took the songs around this record
and I gave him to a friend of mine named
Chuck Gonzalez out in San Francisco, who was again another
very talented engineer, And I said, Chuck, go nuts. Yeah,
just play with it, have fun. And his sound and
his approach is very different than Dance who did the
initial mix, So he gave it this sort of psychedelic edge,
and uh, you know, for for example, there's a guy
named New York Mike who's a DJ on w MPG,
and he plays the Psychedelic Show and he didn't like
that Monico mix. But hell out of the of the Mayhem.
Oh okay, so okay, you know it does have a
very different feel. Which track, Well, let's play you know what,
play play this this the Cops, the may the Mayhem
mix the Cops, because that's a it's got a whole
different vibe to it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you're at you know, it's funny too.
Speaker 5: That's the first one I listened to when I listened
to the tracks that you sent me was was that
mix of yeah, Cops on Acid? Yeah, all right, check
this out. This is the mayn mix of Cops on Acid.
And this is a Plague Dad.
Speaker 2: Dot com today.
Speaker 4: He's listening Rat Dan, We're the rest of the day.
Speaker 2: I wonder what this man.
Speaker 7: Acid Cockbowl n LSD.
Speaker 2: Copone said, comball outst it's a comedy. He was listening
due Great Dead.
Speaker 4: Said hey man, what show was that?
Speaker 2: Said?
Speaker 7: Shoot?
Speaker 1: Answer then shot.
Speaker 4: My dog.
Speaker 2: That comeball the last got comball the listening.
Speaker 5: That is the Mayhem mix of Cops on Acid by
Plague Dad. Mister Frank Gallagher here with us alive in studio.
No dogs were harmed in the in the actual one, yes, yes,
but uh no, that is that is very cool, Frank,
this has been wonderful. Thank you so much for joining
us this morning.
Speaker 1: Pleasure.
Speaker 3: Thank you so much for having me. I really enjoy radio.
It's a medium that I keep turning back to because,
particularly community stations and college stations. I like to hear
what the DJs you have to say and what they
what they play. I mean, the algorithm is fine, but
I I have heard so much and been turned on
to so much cool new music by listening to college
DJs or community station.
Speaker 5: That I'll mention this briefly. My uh my, my father
who listens to the show hi, dad, if you're listening.
So he he lives on the sea coast here in
New Hampshire, and he's an a seventies And I only
mentioned that because you know, most people geez, I don't know.
By the time they get to be thirty or forty,
they kind of just say, Okay, I've heard all the
music I'm ever interested in, and I'm not going to
like anything that I anything new that I hear from
this point forward.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 5: My dad is the opposite of that. He still loves
new music. He's always been like that. Like you'd never like,
if you got into a car with my dad, you're
not gonna hear the oldiest station coming out of the stereo,
right right. And he so he lives on the seacoast
and he loves listening to wunh oh fantastic because he
loves hearing new music, and he loves college radio.
Speaker 3: Yep, yep, no it's great, Yeah it really is. And
you know to that, And yes, I do this, plagu dad.
But I also run a little blog in town called
that Portland Sound Oh really, where I try to bring
some attention to bands that I like. Yeah, so I'll
just write up little pieces about the bands that I like,
and I'll put that out there. Oh and you know,
I was a reporter for a long time, so.
Speaker 4: I write, Oh, I totally want to read this.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, it's I update it infrequently. I'm thinking, I
really need to start making that more of a regular thing.
And I'm actually toying with the idea of making it
a print thing. You know, really remember the old school
with zines. I'm gonna make this into a ze.
Speaker 1: We have here, we have a paper jam magazine. Yeah,
we've had them on the show. Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm gonna do that with this. There is a
market for it, and I'm gonna you know, I've started,
I've costed it out. I'm gonna rent up two hundred
and fifty copies, probably twenty four pages, and I'm going
to put together a compilation CD and just glue it
into the back page awesome, and just drop it around town. Yeah,
you know, so theyough like, you'll find ten copies in
a cafe, You'll find ten copies of Geno's, You'll find
ten copies of Hi Fi in in Portland, which is
one of my other favorite venues. That place is fantastic.
Speaker 1: Oh I love it.
Speaker 3: That's so yeah, I'm gonna start doing that as well.
Speaker 5: Fantastic, fantastic, And of course the website is plagued bleg
dot dad, bleg.
Speaker 3: Dot Dad dot Dad. And I'm on band camp as
well if you want, you know, and you can buy
the records there. I have other merch I have T
shirts and bandanas. Lot of stuff is sold out, which
is crazy. I gotta I gotta up my mid.
Speaker 1: Totally.
Speaker 4: I love your music because it makes me smile.
Speaker 3: Well, that's great, fantastic, that's one of the best things
that anybody has ever said to me.
Speaker 5: And and for those watching online too, let me hold
this up again, the seven inch final artwork.
Speaker 1: You can see that. Yeah, the artwork is very very.
Speaker 3: That's like I said, Paul court John is the artist there.
You like his stuff. He's got He's just got a
crazy amount of independent comics.
Speaker 1: And you're playing You've got shows this week?
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, we're playing. The next one is in Ellsworth.
So there's a new place in Ellsworth called the Black
Moon Public House. And this is my new favorite place
in Maine because it is a pub and it's a
record store together. You can like go in and and
they're having live shows there. So I was there, you know,
back earlier this summer and at the place a soft opening,
and I walked in and I saw that they looked around.
I found Steve, Steve Pierce, the Empressario, and I said, Hey,
do you ever do any in stores here? He's like, yeah, sure.
So I just started playing there, yeah, yes, And so
I've played there a couple three times now. But now
he trusts me a little bit. I don't know, you know,
whether better or for worse. So this weekend, Saturday, November second,
I'm bringing up a couple of friends of mine from
Portland and we're gonna just Portland comes to Elsworth, so
Plague Dad will be there crying. Caleb is gonna be there,
and a gentleman named Fine Pioneer okay, and he's got
a new single out that's just amazing as well. It's
called both Sides of Sleepy and it's a fantastic song.
So we're gonna take that show on the road. We're
gonna go up to Ellsworth on the second and we're
gonna play that.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 3: And there's a couple in uh in skou Hegan. There's
some there's there's some young people that are organizing shows
there now, house parties and other venues so that they
they reached out to me and asked me if I
come up play a couple there. I said, of course,
I will, absolutely. And then the spring Point Tavern in
South Portland, Okay, is right across the street from uh
SMCC from Southern Main Community College. They're doing live music
now and Cryon Caleb got a show there and he
asked me if I would play that show with him.
He said, oh, yeah, of course, yeah, So we're playing
there on I want to say the ninth. These are
all on my website, plague dot Dad. I put every show,
every this is on This is on there, you know,
and there's a mailing list if you want to stay
up with things. I promise I won't spam yet, but uh,
you know, there's a lot of really cool stuff going on.
Speaker 5: And drop a line outstanding. Well, thank you again, plague Dad.
This has been amazing.
Speaker 1: What should we close with? I'll let you pick.
Speaker 3: Oh, let's play, let's play the one tune we haven't
played yet, which is what ran us off right. There's
actually a video for this on YouTube as well.
Speaker 1: Ran us off. I don't see that.
Speaker 3: One that's the I don't have the record for me.
I can't remember. I've got I've gotten there just as well,
just as well as No, that's not that's not the right.
Speaker 1: Oh that's one of the ones you sent.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, you know what, play that. Go ahead and
play that. That's a great little tune.
Speaker 1: Okay, yeah, I like that one. Yeah, it's we'll give okay, yeah,
we'll give this a spin.
Speaker 5: And then if you are listening live on Saturday, of course,
coming up in the second hour, in just a couple
of minutes, we've got October Sun's Dave Wally is here
in the building, and I think he's got how many
is it just Dave.
Speaker 1: And Chris or is people?
Speaker 3: Really?
Speaker 1: Okay? All right, very good?
Speaker 5: And uh these are these are some some old old
and some old and dear friends of mine. So I'm
really looking forward to that. And then in the third
hour today we have Rebecca Turmel so stick around. But
here it is plague Dad.
Speaker 1: This is just as well, and.
Speaker 2: It's just as well either way, the one of us say,
and it's just as well.
Speaker 3: I always thought that me would have a celt another day.
Speaker 2: But I get drinking to you.
Speaker 7: Marie Fades away m seeing bad and it's just as well.
Speaker 2: He would have been it up. And Audi's a ways.
Speaker 3: So I get drinking to you'll, Ma.
Speaker 2: Marie fades away and it's just as well. I always
thought that you would have a Sealesan us A days
Speaker 7: Now there's nothing that for either one of us to say,
exit bad, and it's just as well.