Speaker 1: W MNH Rip the Dobles.
Speaker 2: This is Eleanor Langthorne from Vices Inc. And you're listening
to Matt Connorton Unleashed on ninety five point three w
m n H.
Speaker 3: Time stands still. Do you know my drink moble pulling
air into my chest? Oh?
Speaker 4: I know, visit instant dandy, It's gone out and flow.
Speaker 3: Let the current take me.
Speaker 1: Tide.
Speaker 4: Let's time. Let's time. We are less time at think time.
It is time. Let's till moning sorry.
Speaker 5: Seconds flow, lean up my glass, sans yeroad, tip me over,
take me back to.
Speaker 4: Whine my day, to that lifele theless song, sample again.
Speaker 3: To that summer vetl.
Speaker 6: So never read off, walking drue dancing across the surface
of the sun, goes around, chase it down, he's eating body,
have it's slip.
Speaker 7: So oh time, let's time.
Speaker 4: Let's time. We are less time then we thing time,
less time left till the moment sadery.
Speaker 8: Oh my god, that is great. That's brand new.
Speaker 1: Huh thanks man, Yeah, brand new.
Speaker 8: Wow, that is fantastic.
Speaker 9: If you're just joining us, Willie Chases here with us
live in studio on this Saturday morning.
Speaker 8: That's very cold Saturday morning. But yeah, that's how new
was that.
Speaker 9: You said you just wrote that with a friend who
didn't know you were going to play it today.
Speaker 8: Is that true?
Speaker 1: That's pretty accurate.
Speaker 10: We just had our last co writing session maybe a
week ago, and I had written the song thread probably
five or six months ago. It sat for a while
in my in my voice notes on iPhone, as a
lot of them do, and then I threw it over
to my friend Ian Gallipo, who's from the Keen area,
and he liked it, kind of wrote a chorus to it,
maybe some verse parts I think, and then we just
put our heads together over a video chat and kind
of hammered it out. I had written that bridge, and yeah,
it kind of came together, and then I was kind
of like, holy cow of a song, you know what
I mean? Yeah, which is a really cool moment as
a songwriter.
Speaker 9: I feel like Ian Gallipo is a name that's come
up on the show. I don't think he's ever been on.
I wlways say I don't think he's ever been on,
because it does become I've been doing this a long time.
It does become a little bit of a blur, of course,
but I don't think he's been on the show, but
I feel like his name comes up a lot on
the show.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he's awesome. So I work a lot with the
New Hampshire Music Collective.
Speaker 8: That might be how I've why I've heard his name.
Speaker 10: Yeah, yeah, so he's he's, you know, a member of
the collective as well, does all sorts of stuff with
that and other things. But that's how I met him.
And he's great man. If you've never heard his song
little Things, check it out. It's a gut wrencher be
ready to cry. Yeah, but he's just an incredible lyricist.
He's an incredible musician and a down to earth guy.
You know, he's really enjoyable to be around. So I
had a really good experience writing with him, you know,
in the level that I'm at right now, there's no
skin in the game really, you know what I mean.
I'm kind of just starting out on the songwriting journey
over the last few years really. Yeah, And I've been
a musician my whole life. I can fill you in
on the back story if you want, But with the end,
it's just great because we it's just pure creativity, you
know what I mean. Two musicians hanging out writing a song,
there's no pressure to do anything. And for whatever reason,
I was just kind of had that feeling when we
were doing that together, and and that's what it's all
about for me. Yeah, those kind of experiences and writing
music and being just purely creative, no doubt.
Speaker 9: So you you've been a musician for a long time,
as you said, but you only started writing songs a
few years ago.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, I quote unquote have written other stuff.
Speaker 8: Yeah.
Speaker 10: I was a horn player in high school. I was
our class instrumentalist. I was in like every music group,
did all of it, show choir, I did a lot
of theater.
Speaker 1: I was.
Speaker 10: I started in high school musical when I was in
high school, all sorts of you know of stuff to
lead me on my musical journey. And then I kinda
I kind of went a totally different direction for the
last decade. I got a degree in resort management and
have worked at ski resorts and done all men or
of other things. But I never put down the guitar.
That's kind of what kept it alive for me. And
then yeah, like three years ago, I had a really
good friend who was living around here, and she convinced
me to go to an open mic up at Patrick's
Pub in Guildford, New Hampshire. That's where I met John MacArthur,
who's one of the owners of the New Hampshire Music Collective.
Speaker 8: Yeah, we had him on the show. He's great.
Speaker 10: Yeah, he's awesome. Can't say enough good things about him.
And you know, especially in this context with the opportunities
he's given me playing a lot of these bar gigs
and stuff around here, which is just it's like with anything, right,
if you want to be really good, you got to
just put in time and hard work. It's kind of
the grind that I've been on these last few years
since doing that. And then you know, I've, like I said,
I've been a musician my whole life, and I have
a really I lean really heavily on my ear, Yeah,
and I can be judgmental in that way. So I think,
as most musicians will probably tell you, there's a lot
of stuff that goes on with songwriting in terms of
being hyper critical of yourself and self confidence, releasing tracks
and everything.
Speaker 1: So you know, it's a slow process.
Speaker 10: But I'm in early production of making a record hopefully,
and you know, that might be one of the songs
that's going to be on it. Oh, I hope. So yeah, yeah,
it deserves it. That's totally good. Yeah, that's very kind
of neat to say. I yeah, it's it's something I'm
really interested in. But like I said, it's it's just
tough not to be able to overly critical. But at
this point in my life, on my early thirties, I
feel like it's a really good place to be doing
what I'm doing with music. I think that if I
had gone right into music school like I kind of
wanted to after high school, after doing all that stuff,
I don't think it would have gone well. I think
I was on the edge of burnt out really because yeah,
I mean we had jazz band practices every morning before school.
At six forty, it was taking trumpet lessons. It's just
completely saturated in music. Yeah, and not really knowing you know,
at that point in my life, you know, late teens,
early twenties, you're just figuring out who you are, right.
So all the experiences I've had over the last ten
years of not being involved in music, I think have
just fueled this crazy fire that I have now to
write and collaborate with people and just really like I
just started taking guitar lessons a couple, you know, maybe
a month or two ago with a really great guy.
So I'm actually put some of the old theory knowledge
that I have to use with like the fifteen years
of guitar playing, just playing songs that I like to
hear and play. Yeah, So it just feels really, really awesome,
and I'm really grateful to be here doing what I'm
doing now.
Speaker 9: You know, during the span of time where you you know,
you had kind of gotten away from it all, did
you always kind of know that you would come back
to it, or did you really at the time kind
of feel like you know that was you know, I'm
sort of done with that.
Speaker 8: I'm sort of burnt out on it.
Speaker 10: If you asked me that question years ago, I probably
would have told you the latter. I probably would have
told you now, you know, And I think that comes
from being jaded and my no, through no fault of
his own, my trumpet teacher was one of the ones
who convinced me not to go to school for like
performance really yeah, which how much of that was actually
him and how much of it was in my head,
I can't really tell you, but you know, and his point.
Speaker 1: Was very valid.
Speaker 10: You know, forty years ago there was just so many
horn players working in places like New York Boss. You know,
all these clubs and theaters have live orchestras, and now
it's just a percentage of what that was. So yeah,
the statistics just make it pretty daunting. Yeah, but I
think subconsciously, very deep down there, to answer your question,
I think it was inevitable of coming back to music.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's just such a part of me.
Speaker 10: It's part of who I am, been part of who
I am since a very young age. And like I said,
you know, I rely heavily on my ear. I don't
like to say I have a good ear because it's
like what does that mean? But I just the way
I hear music and interpret music is so ingrained with
everything else about me, and it affects my you know, emotions,
it affects my goals, it affects you know. So I
think it was it was inevitable.
Speaker 8: Yeah, no doubt. Well I'm dying to hear another one.
If you want to play another live shirt chorus, Yeah,
if you're just joining.
Speaker 9: Us, will he chases here with us alive in studio
and playing some stuff and that guitar sounds.
Speaker 8: I love the way that guitar sounds.
Speaker 1: Thanks man. Yeah, it's uh.
Speaker 10: Since you can't see it, it's a rain song, fully
composite guitar. It's fully made of carbon fiber, and really yeah,
the whole thing that, the bridge, the body, everything, the
whole thing's carbon fiber. And the reason I got it
was I've I've got an old tailor that I really
really love, which you know, it's not a special instrument
by most people's standards, but it is to me. And
playing all these gigs, like playing outside a lot, playing
around campfires all my friends, was just getting trashed. So
you know, I saved up some tip money and got
this thing, and it just holds tune really consistently. I
don't have to worry as much about it. But it
turns out that despite all of that, it's a really
fun guitar to play, and it sounds great plugged in.
You know, it's a little tinny acoustically if you're gonna
make it up, because it's not very it's pretty cold,
but right, right, So this next song, I go a
bunch of different directions, so forgive me, but this is
what I like to call cheap country song. But this
this song, it has some country roots, but it's it's
it's deeper than that. It's about kind of being in
a bad place. And this vision I had of of,
you know, if I didn't kind of get my act
together and you know, have a few less beers and
stop feeling sorry for myself. It was kind of a
place where I was gonna end up. So it's a
little bit about that. But yeah, this song is called
I don't know what this song is called. Oh I
guess it's called Pushing my Luck something like that. Okay,
so it's a country song and g about that.
Speaker 8: All right, There we go Willie Chase Live.
Speaker 4: Mama's in the kitchen, here he be's in New York.
Dog's on then. I ain't got it too far. I
keep on living here, you keep on growing. I'm burying
my money out in that yard, down on my luck,
strutting my stuff. It's wearving me down. I'm anna sweeter,
I'm tough. I ain't doing a lot. It's getting hard.
The baby I make it too far. It's time keeps moving.
Speaker 3: Like in Norse win blow in. That's one thing knows
right where it's going.
Speaker 4: I tried and mon on, but I just couldin stays wrong.
So I cracking another bottle, try to make a quick Fuck. Man,
I know that I'm pushing my luck.
Speaker 3: And pushing up.
Speaker 5: Out.
Speaker 4: Hear the bullets third night are running thirty minutes, calls.
She don't think it's funny. She's pissed off, pissed, drunk family,
end of that, all the things I can handle. So
I'll just talk to mister Daniels. Because time keeps moving
in the whiskey keys flow in, drunk need nose.
Speaker 3: Right away, I'm going.
Speaker 4: I tried and moving on, but I just couldn't stays wrong,
So I cracking another bottle, try to make it quick.
Fuck cause man, I know, and I'm pushing my up.
I am pushing my love. Yeah, I'm pushing my up.
Mama's in the kitchen, he's in the yard, dog's all
the bed, and man, I'm trying to up. I keep
on drinking there, you keep on leaving, burying my soul
out in the backyard.
Speaker 3: Because time and keeps.
Speaker 4: Moving, like can the north wind blowing, that's one thing
knows right where it's going. I tried and moving on,
I us couldn't stay strong so I cracking up the bottle,
try to make a quick fuck man, I know what,
I'm pushing my up.
Speaker 3: I am pushing my.
Speaker 11: Yeah, I'm pushing that.
Speaker 8: That is really good.
Speaker 1: Hey, thanks man, really good.
Speaker 9: Willie Chase us here with us live in studio and
uh yeah, that's fantastic.
Speaker 8: I love her.
Speaker 1: Voice, appreciate it.
Speaker 9: Is there anyone who influences you vocally? Is there anyone
you try to kind of sound like?
Speaker 10: It's probably an amalgamation of like twenty five people. Yeah, yeah,
there'd be some easy ones to name. But honestly, recently,
I've just been trying to sound like me. I think
in the past I've tried to sound country singing country
because of like the way I listen to music. I like,
if I love a song, I'll just try to play
it sound just like it, you know what I mean? Yeah,
which gives me great satisfaction to be able to be like, yeah,
I can play that song right. One thing I'm kind
of figuring out or thinking more about now that I'm
writing my own stuff is just, you know, how to
I sound like me? How do I convey even if
it's that feeling? But but you know, be unique? So
but but yeah, vocally, I mean, you know, I'm sure
a lot of people would say this is an influence.
But Chris Stapleton I think has an amazing voice. You know,
he's he's great. I'm a little below that, so you know,
I would I would say another vocal influence, even though
I don't think he's a great vocalist.
Speaker 1: I don't like being negative.
Speaker 10: But but David Gilmore, Yeah, you know, I think the
way that he sang was just really soulful and honest.
Speaker 8: I know exactly what you mean.
Speaker 9: Yeah, he's not a great like from a technical stand right,
He's there's nothing great about him at all. But yeah,
but you're right though, for what he's doing, for what
Pink Floyd is supposed to sound like.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, you know. And I was fortunate when I
was younger, I had some good coaches. I had.
Speaker 10: One of our theater directors was a Boston Pops pianist,
great woman, Jill Wriggles, God Rest your soul and she.
Speaker 1: You know, that was a lot of like theater based stuff.
Speaker 10: So yeah, I think from early on I had a
good foundation of like brief and you know, despite the
fact that I'm sitting back in my chair, like sitting
on that sit on the front of your chair, like
put vocal support, you know, sting out. And then also
YouTube great, there's great like vocal instructors on YouTube that
can give you tips on warming up and all this stuff.
So yeah, I don't know if that answered your question,
but oh definitely.
Speaker 9: I don't know if you notice I kind of reacted
when he said Chris Stapleton because if I were to
choose all the singer songwriters we've had on the show
over the years, if I were to choose the number
one name that comes up in conversation as far as influence,
it's Chris Staple.
Speaker 1: Hi, everybody, He's a monster.
Speaker 10: Yeah, I mean just you know, in the years he
spent writing before he was, you know, pop famous. I
especially like his stuff he did with the Steel Drivers.
Speaker 8: I've never I've never heard any of that Steel Drivers.
Speaker 10: Yeah, they're they're a bluegrass group and he was he
was there frontman and guitarist.
Speaker 8: I didn't even know that. Huh.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 10: Check it out, man. They've got a bunch of great tunes.
Blue Side of the Mountain, Angel of the Night, that's one. Sorry,
I do you don't mind if I play.
Speaker 1: A few minutes.
Speaker 3: No, go ahead, I love it.
Speaker 1: This is the steel Driver's Angel of the Night.
Speaker 4: Well, the music is playing in you had the Whiskey Saloon.
It comes through my window. I like my favorite tune.
I could walk down stairway, I can walk down the street,
laid down my money. Well it's not brod, I.
Speaker 3: Mean, let me fly on.
Speaker 4: Your ways, right, these earthly things they did all be
all right? Angel of the Night.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so that's that's Chris Stapleton and the steel Drivers.
Speaker 9: I've heard that song. I had no idea who it was,
but I recognize that song.
Speaker 1: Yeah, great tune.
Speaker 8: Well, yeah, no, that's that's really good. That's really good.
You do a lot of when you play live. Do
you do a lot of covers or yeah?
Speaker 10: Mostly covers. Yeah, I've got almost an hour of original
music that can do. I'll stretch it and do a
little storytelling. Yeah yeah, but uh but yeah, mostly covers.
I mean, you know, for the for the gigs that
I'm doing right now, you know, the main point is
entertaining everybody at the bar and stuff, and you know,
oftentimes people respond well to my music, which is you know,
just great and validating, and but you know, people want
to hear what they want to hear, right when they're
having a beer, which is which I totally understand, and
I think I kind of love that. You know, I
look at those gigs as a challenge. You know, how
do you get people's interest, How do you get foot
feet tapping? You know, how do you get people turning
around and going, whoa, who's this guy?
Speaker 1: Right or whatever?
Speaker 10: And that's a challenge to me. And I mean, you know,
that's that's how you make tips. Any performer will tell you.
But yeah, financially it's a good strategy. But but that's
you know, from the beginning, that's always been the fun part.
It's like, how do you get people to notice you?
Because that means they're enjoying it, right, They're having a
cool experience, they're listening to the music.
Speaker 8: Yeah, yeah, no doubt.
Speaker 9: How did you get involved with the with John MacArthur
and the Collective because that's again such a great organization.
And we had John on the show, and you know,
we've had a lot of musicians on the show who
who work with them. And John, by the way, is
he's very very busy. Like when he told us we
were talking about the events, how many events they do,
and he told us the number that he personally is
at running.
Speaker 8: It's like, dude, you don't sleep.
Speaker 9: It's staggering, which I which I admire, you know, But
but but how did how did you get involved?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 10: So I I met John He I mean now hosts,
but he goes to open mics around and kind of
you know, looks for talent a little bit, I think,
But uh, yeah, I met him at Patrick's Pub, Guildford.
We kind of hit it off and exchanged information. And
you know, at that point, I didn't have three hours
of consistent songs that I could play that were all.
Speaker 1: Polished and yeah and done. You know. So it took
me a little while, but I played a bunch of.
Speaker 10: Volking mics and and got my act together, and you know,
John and I kind of became friends. He would, uh,
he would give me a call. We live pretty close
to each other up there in the Lakes region, so
he'd give me a call.
Speaker 1: We'd go out and see somebody.
Speaker 10: You know, I'm I'm not afraid to share my opinion
about other people, I guess in a friendship situation, which
is but you know, I've been around a lot of
music in my life and been around really good musicians
and and you know, regardless of whatever whatever I play,
I think I have a pretty good idea of you know,
who's doing what or who's who's been practicing.
Speaker 1: That's really all that comes down, right.
Speaker 10: But yeah, so we would go off for fun and
and you know, he would kind of ask my opinion
about people. And you know, I'm not trying to say
that I'm judging and jury but or anything, but we
just kind of enjoyed it. You know, we enjoyed each
other's presence and hanging out and talking about music and
and and John's just such a great guy.
Speaker 1: You know, he's you.
Speaker 10: Know, in an in an industry that and I haven't
experienced this really, but in an industry there's a reportedly
very cutthroat people will say about music and arts and
you know, getting gigs and stuff. John is just somebody
who genuinely cares about everybody he works with. He genuinely
wants everybody to succeed. And he'll give you an opportunity
if you're working hard, no matter you know, who we are,
what you look like, what you're doing, what kind of
music you're playing. He's just able to recognize people who
are there for the right reasons and are working hard.
So I really respect that about John and his partner Brad,
who is the other half of the New Hampshire Music Collective,
who's an unbelievable guitarist. I'll have to recommend you his
him for the show too. But yeah, but but yeah,
just John. You know, John's awesome, so from there, you know,
he he was gracious enough to give me some gigs
and you know, and I can.
Speaker 1: Crush the bargain pretty well.
Speaker 10: I have a lot of nineties tunes and I just
I know, so like I just listened to so many
different types of music that I have this kind of
weird catalog. But it works great for that situation, right
because you never know who's going to be in there.
Speaker 8: Yeah.
Speaker 10: Certain, you know, you think a lot of country, but
then like you play something yeah anyway, you know you
know what I'm saying. Oh yeah, yeah, So I've done
pretty well with the bar gigs and we have a
great thing going.
Speaker 1: You know. I love working with those guys. It yeah
helps me. It's a great side hustle.
Speaker 10: I do still have a day job, unfortunately, but but yeah, no,
it's awesome.
Speaker 1: All around.
Speaker 9: It's so important to find people who are who are
positive and honest, and you know, there are a lot
of sharks, you know, so to be able to connect
with somebody like John and the NH Music Collective, it's
so important.
Speaker 8: When we had Rebecca Turmel.
Speaker 9: On the show and we were talking about that too,
because it's I do feel like there, you know. I mean,
there's there's some people you want to avoid, but I
think generally, I think the music scene, at least around here,
is people are pretty supportive of each other and want
to work together and uplift each other. I always contrast
it with I've listened to some podcasts over the years
of stand up comics, and that my impression of that
world of stand up comedy. I mean, it's all part
of live entertainment, but stand up comedy, as far as
I can tell, is very cutthroat, like everyone secretly hates
each other, everyone secretly wants to see each other fail,
you know what I mean. That's just the impression that
I get, the vibe that I get from it. Whereas
I think, yeah, there's there's always people you want to
be careful of, but I think generally people are pretty
supportive in the music scene and yeah, cool, you know,
and and why not be you know, it doesn't, right,
none of it's a zero sum game. You know, life
is not a zero s game. Just because somebody else
is being successful, that doesn't take something away from you.
If anything, it should inspire you to maybe be able
to do what they're doing.
Speaker 8: You know.
Speaker 10: So absolutely, that's a great perspective. And that's been my
experience or in the music scene around here. And I'm
sure you've seen way more than I've been exposed to.
But yeah, so it's it's great. I think we got
a great thing going.
Speaker 1: On here, you know what I mean?
Speaker 8: Yeah? Absolutely, yeah, absolutely fun. You want to play another one?
Speaker 1: Sure? Yeah, yeah, definitely if you're just joining us.
Speaker 8: We have Willie Chase with us live in studio. Oh,
let me get that on.
Speaker 1: I make sure those things are tuned too. It's cold outside, it.
Speaker 9: Is, yeah, I think it's the coldest morning we've had
this season so far.
Speaker 1: I believe it. Yeah, there's plenty of ice on my truck.
Speaker 10: Yeah, after sixty in raining what three days ago?
Speaker 1: I know, right, that's this song.
Speaker 10: I've been playing this song out a little bit. This
is another song I wrote after coming out of a
hard place. This is kind of about just being who
you are and getting back to yourself and away from
other toxic people.
Speaker 1: But yeah, this is called back to me.
Speaker 3: Fell into ghosted you, my heart am sleep a fellow
party in front of you.
Speaker 4: I guid in your dreams. God never ever gonna come
back to you.
Speaker 12: Oh no, no, baby, please forgive.
Speaker 3: Me, but I'm coming back to me.
Speaker 4: I'm coming back to me, watching through the window page
and trying to sleep, wondering if the rain could wash
you from my sheets. Oh time, never ever gonna come
back to you.
Speaker 12: Oh no, no, baby, please forgive me, but I'm coming
back to me, back to me.
Speaker 3: I'm coming back to me.
Speaker 8: Very nice, very nice.
Speaker 9: Willie Chase is here with us live in studio, sounding great.
And yeah, I think that's a universal theme, you know.
I think we've all had that that moment.
Speaker 1: Definitely, definitely, And if you haven't, well you know it's coming.
That's right, that's right.
Speaker 10: Yeah, man, that that was that came from a dark place,
for sure. But there's always light at the end of
the tunnel, I guess.
Speaker 8: Yeah, yeah, yeah, well it could be an oncoming train.
You never know.
Speaker 1: Sometimes it is sometimes.
Speaker 8: It is no. No, I really like that a lot.
Are you playing out a lot? Are you doing a
lot of shows? It sounds like you are.
Speaker 1: I am.
Speaker 10: Yeah, probably coming up on sixty or seventy book for
next year already, wow, And yeah, pretty much every weekend.
Speaker 8: Good.
Speaker 10: Been a little bit of a light stretch right now.
I really just this past like August, I really kind
of had a revelatory moment where I decided I was
just gonna say no to nothing and say yes to
everything and just kind of give everything I had, you know, yeah,
because yeah, this is what I want to do for
the rest of my life. Yeah, and I'm planning on
it so good through a set of experiences that I
don't have to go into, you know, that song came
out of and dedication and so yeah, I've I've.
Speaker 1: Been playing pretty much every weekend. We've had a couple
of really cool shows. Recently.
Speaker 10: We had a singer songwriter competition up there in Guilford
and then John put together John MacArthur put together a
show at the BNH Stage and Conquered where all the
finalists from that competition came and played and played with them.
We did a couple numbers together and it was really fun.
I mean, just what a group of talented people.
Speaker 8: Yeah, yeah, excellent. Do you always play? Is it always
just you? Or does anyone ever join you?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 10: I've got a couple of different settings. I mean, most
of the stuff I book is solo. But there's a
shop in Laconia called NH Vintage Vinyl. This guy, Dan
McLaughlin owns it, Dan mack He's a friend of mine.
He plays bass, so he comes out. We do a
really cool duo. We do like a bunch of grunge
oh stuff, so to have like you know, it's still
kind of acoustic. But then there's a couple of different
groups I've played with in more of a band setting,
but nothing, nothing super firm. I'm definitely looking to collaborate
more with other people and you know, getting into more
of a production role and self producing a lot of
stuff just for you know, demos and yeahnt in preparation
of going into the studio. And that's all always been
a h A fun thing for me is you know,
I took a few recording engineering courses in community college
before I kind of went went to school, and and
so knowing how to use pro tools, what I interface does,
and you know, spend a little money on plugins.
Speaker 1: So I do a little bit of that.
Speaker 10: And I'm looking at you because I just playing with
other people is magical. Yeah, you know, I think that's
one thing that's a little bit I don't want to
say it's lost, but you know, not as common these days.
You know, fifty years ago, you didn't have any any choice.
If you wanted to play with somebody else, you had
to go in and link up with them and say, hey,
let's sit down and play some music. And now there's
everything's in the Internet, and it's obviously it's you know,
there's so many bonuses from that. But yeah, it's been
it's been kind of tough, honestly to get people to
h to want to collaborate. I mean, I don't know
if it's a function of just the location I'm in
or my you know, lack of outreach, I don't know,
but but it's something I'm craving. Yeah, if you're listening
to this and you want to collaborate, you want to
play some music up.
Speaker 8: Have you ever played in a full band?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 10: Okay, yeah, yeah, we had with Dan Mack and then
we had another drummer and his name was Dan Hewitt.
We played a couple of shows like my buddy's birthday
party and stuff, but we put together like two hours
having a killer.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 10: We did this cover of Comfortably Numb and I don't know,
I think we all shocked ourselves.
Speaker 1: I thought it sounded great. Yeah.
Speaker 10: And then I have another friend, another friend, Dan Fallon.
I don't know if you've come across him.
Speaker 8: Dan's been on the show.
Speaker 1: Yep.
Speaker 10: Dan's another buddy and I've played a little bit with them.
We played the reck Yard up in uh up at
you know, Tower Hill, Weir's Beach.
Speaker 1: Yeah, a couple of times. It was fun. Did a
couple other things, but.
Speaker 10: Yeah, I haven't I haven't really been like a you know,
a standard with with anybody, but you know, hoping to
find people and collaborate.
Speaker 1: I'm I just kind of take it as it comes,
you know what I mean?
Speaker 10: Because that's sometimes you can rush into situations and it's
not where you want to be or you And conversely,
you could just sit in your apartment, play guitar.
Speaker 1: All day and never talk. Sometimes I find myself that's
all a balance, right, do you?
Speaker 9: As far as shows and you got out of New England,
at all. Have you done that yet or not?
Speaker 1: Really? Yeah?
Speaker 9: No, yeah, I mean it's not it's not as though
there aren't a million places to play here, because there
definitely are.
Speaker 1: True.
Speaker 10: Yeah, yeah, I haven't really. I spent the last four
winters out in Park City, Utah. Really yeah, why working
at a ski resort out there?
Speaker 8: Okay.
Speaker 10: Yeah, I've been a SnowCat operator for like twelve years,
building train parks and grimming and stuff.
Speaker 1: So I that's kind of the other side of my life.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 10: So I've been out there and and did like one
or two open mics and and kind of you know stuff,
but nothing significant outside.
Speaker 1: Of New England. Now.
Speaker 10: Yeah, I'm getting ready though, you know, I'm geared enough
for the big launch. But once I get some you know,
once I get like a solid record out that I'm
happy with, you know, and then can release and like capitalize.
But I'm I'm yeah, I just I'm cool, kind of
cool with where I'm at now because I feel like
I'm just racking up all these hours, right, all these
gigs and just like, yeah, I want to blow the
doors off when I go somewhere, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: Right, Anyway, it's it's all it's all just fun.
Speaker 8: But yeah, but yeah, excellent, excellent?
Speaker 9: Is so is the goal to make an album because
you know, we live in a time when you you know,
people approach it all kinds of different ways.
Speaker 8: You can make an album.
Speaker 9: You could make an EP, you could make a series
of singles that eventually becomes an album. You know, is
but are you is that kind of your goal is
to make a full album?
Speaker 1: Creatively?
Speaker 10: Yeah, I think just the way that I've listened to
music always and the way that I think about music,
I think like a song is too short for me
to convey what like a message.
Speaker 8: Yeah, you know what I mean.
Speaker 10: And I understand the way the industry is, so I'd
probably release some singles, yeah, you know, once I can
get things recorded properly and whatnot, which is mostly just
you know, financial Oh. But but yeah, I think like
my favorite albums are the ones that you just you know,
front to back, right, you just put put the needle
down and go through it, and it tells a story
or it conveys a feeling, or even if it's just
totally your interpretation of it, it all fits together. I think
that's really beautiful. It's like a book, right, Yeah, yeah,
people release a chapter of a book. I mean maybe,
but that's.
Speaker 8: A perfect and now yeah yeah, yeah.
Speaker 10: So but you know, I you know, there's obviously other
real world limitations like resources and time yea, you know,
and I understand, you know, singles are the big thing now.
I think you really want to push singles and yeah,
the way music is released and distributed, but I'm I'm
a long way away from that, you know what I mean.
I'm sure I'd love to be in a place one
day where that all that really, you know, matters, and
a lot of people are.
Speaker 1: Listening to the music.
Speaker 10: But and I gave up on I'm fantasizing too much
a long time ago, you know what I mean. That's
part of what I said earlier about being in the
position I'm in now. You know, I do just for myself,
and I realized that as some of those first open mics.
It's actually just a quick story that I won that
songwriter competition three years ago and it took me. There's
eight qualifying weeks and I played all of them and
I didn't qualify until the very last week and went
to the finals and then I was I won the competition.
Speaker 1: But the process it was all new to me.
Speaker 10: I'd never performed like solo acoustic like that, and I
hadn't performed any type of music in twelve years, no kidding.
So I was like, you know, I'm gonna come in
here and everybody's gonna love me songs and I'm gonna
be great.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be famous in two weeks, right, you know
jokingly of course.
Speaker 10: Yeah, But that taught me, you know, I realized through
those eight weeks, I was like, man, you know, because
it was all about the competition.
Speaker 1: It was new, it was freshness, was like everything to me.
Speaker 10: Yeah, and I just realized that if they weren't gonna
let me through the finals, I didn't care because I
just it was the only place I could go and
play music in front of people.
Speaker 1: At that point in time.
Speaker 10: It was the only opportunity I had, And I just
kept signing up for slots because I was like, I
just I love this feeling.
Speaker 1: I love being up here. This is really cool.
Speaker 8: Well and isn't that a relief too, to let go
of the caring about it? Part?
Speaker 1: Massive?
Speaker 8: Yeah?
Speaker 10: Yeah, massive, weight off your shoulders, right, yeah, exactly, because
so much of it is based on luck and connections
and stuff like you can't. You know, it's a great
Quincy Jones quote, God Rest his Soul that I always
think of. It's like when you start talking about money,
God walks out of the room.
Speaker 8: And I've never heard that, but that is a great quote.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and it's just it's so true.
Speaker 10: Man, if you're here for all the those other things,
like it's with anything in life, right, you know, do
what you love, work really hard at it, and all
the things that you want, all the material things will
come usually in excess, if you know, if you're really
devoting yourself to something right, and and that just you know,
it has a whole set of problems with it. And
you know, listen, I live in the real world. I
got credit card dead right, I got we got all
make money. But but man, I just do this because
I love it. I never get sick of picking up
a guitar and playing music or talking about music. Like
being here with you right now is awesome just because
we get to spend time talking about music and thinking
about it.
Speaker 1: And yeah, so I'm.
Speaker 10: Just grateful for where I'm at. And I'm going off
on a tangent like I normally do. But you know,
but yeah, that's all right.
Speaker 8: It's kind of what we do here.
Speaker 3: Well, do you want to play another one?
Speaker 1: Sure?
Speaker 10: Yeah, I'll play a fun song that I wrote for
that competition. Cool that my my friends and folk friends
love this song.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 10: The song is called Misery and Tequila. Uh, and it
is in fact about a bottle of tequila.
Speaker 8: Excellent hope. How we signed Willie Chase slive in studio.
Speaker 3: There's a battle lea.
Speaker 4: You go it staring mean the things that Blanco's got,
this haunchoke dying on lock of the Lakes. I ain't
got no girl to leave me.
Speaker 3: If I did it, will she be through?
Speaker 1: Here's a.
Speaker 4: Ki I love you one another shot on the front
porch knocking? Maybe three more? Who have you knocking on
my door?
Speaker 8: Poor little?
Speaker 4: More misery and k I love you.
Speaker 3: Listen on somes goude mean thinking aboutt old day day.
Speaker 4: Then when it's starting to taste like water, I get
the feeling and I should call her and lifting when
I do, she'll tell me that we're through. Misery, Kee,
I love you. The parting of the shot on the
front porch knocking baby three board, will have you knocking
on my door?
Speaker 3: Poor little moment.
Speaker 4: Misery and kr misery and misery tends to kill you, but.
Speaker 8: You I love it. I love it.
Speaker 9: Will he Chase here with us alive in studio today
and uh sounding fantastic.
Speaker 8: Uh what do you have coming up? Are you?
Speaker 9: Are you playing anywhere this weekend? You got any for
our live listeners? Anything to plug?
Speaker 10: Not this weekend, but coming up. Yeah, I got a
bunch of stuff. You can always go to my website
Willichase music dot com. Uh, there's a schedule tab on
there with all my upcoming shows. But yeah, I'm playing
just about every weekend around the Lakes region. I'm gonna
be at the Waterview Pub this coming Wednesday. I can't
remember exactly where that is. That's a new one for me.
And then I'm usually at Twin Barnes and Meredith all
the time about once a month or so. I've got
shows coming up at the four oh five in Laconia.
I've got shows coming up at Foster's Tavern in Alton Bay,
so you know, kind of that circuit up there. I
will be in Manchester at certain points in January and
February playing in the Backyard Brewery and the Anheuser Busch
Beer Garden. I've done that those a couple of times.
I've got a couple more dates booked there. I'm going
to be playing at Defiant Records and Laconia. So yeah,
if you go to my website Willichase Music dot com
w I L L Y, or Google me social media,
Instagram and Facebook at Willy Chase Music, you can always
find I'm posting about the shows and stuff.
Speaker 9: So do you have a favorite place to play or
a couple that are just really really that you just
love playing it?
Speaker 1: That's tough.
Speaker 10: They're all fun, but I would have to say, you know,
Foster's Tavern is always a super fun time. Yeah, it's
always full of people and everybody's always usually singing along
by the end.
Speaker 1: Oh that's what it really gets people singing along these
days is playing Creed.
Speaker 8: Well. I keep seeing that meme.
Speaker 10: Yeah yeah, man, I've never had more people sing along
to a song and playing Take Me Higher by Creative,
Get the Whole Place Rocket.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's so much fun.
Speaker 10: Yeah, it's so funny some of those it's so interesting
the arc of some of those artists. Yeah, you know,
like very popular and then basically geting dragged on social
media for ten years, but everybody loves him.
Speaker 9: Oh yeah, that's happened to a lot of those lymp Biscuits.
A great exit, yeah too, Limp Biscuit is huge. Yeah,
and they were huge. But even but even when they
were huge the first time, a lot of people look
down on them and you know what I mean. But
now it's like everybody's just kind of like, oh yeah,
I guess I likelymp Biscuit.
Speaker 1: I know.
Speaker 10: Now Fred Durst comes out with like a silver goatee
and yeah, yeah Cowboy, Yeah.
Speaker 8: He's really having a good time and yeah yeah.
Speaker 1: West Portland's a great guitarist too, man, he is.
Speaker 9: Yeah in general, yeah, underrated I think because you know,
he gets overlooked because of the band that he plays in, right,
but yeah, no, I agree, I agree. Yeah, that's They've
been a topic on the show recently because of that
big two hundred million dollar lawsuit. UMG, talking about sharks
in the industry.
Speaker 1: No care but crazy stuff man.
Speaker 9: Yeah, but yeah, a lot of those, a lot of
those bands, yeah, like like Creed and who else?
Speaker 8: Do you so you play a lot of that stuff
right live in your set? Yeah?
Speaker 1: Yeah I do.
Speaker 10: I mean I don't play a ton of like you
know Unknown Creed. I guess you would say I know
some of the bangers. Yeah, but I play a lot
of like Alison Chain's Stone Temple pilots like That's always
been a very I've always been super fond of that, Yeah,
you know, kind of era in music.
Speaker 1: To be honest, it was never like a huge Nirvana fan.
Speaker 10: Yeah, which might seem weird, but I'm a huge Alison
Chains fan. Like Lane Staley, I think was it was
one of my favorite vocalists. That actually kind of goes
back to that earlier question. I try to sound like him,
but yeah unsuccessfully. Yeah, but I when the screen because
he's like he was a bit of a screamer, but
not a high register like I can never sing like
Chester Bennington or anybody from you know, more metal league groups.
I just I don't have that in my range. But
like guys like Lane, you know, we're we're kind of
in that lower register but still managed to get that
like rock high like screaming sound, which I really love,
you know. And then of course I'm big fan of
like Audio Slave and Chris Cornell, Yeah, Sound Garden and yeah,
you know and that, and but Chris Cornell was way
up there too, but he was one of my favorite
rock writers. I would I would say, yeah, what a legend.
Speaker 8: I know, I know, absolutely absolutely. You know.
Speaker 9: It's funny when you mentioned Lane Staley, I had to
stop myself because I started to have this thought. You
ever started to have a thought and then you're about
to say it, and then you realize it's stupid.
Speaker 1: Like all the time, all the time.
Speaker 9: Because I found myself thinking and I almost said, you know,
Lane Staley such a unique voice, as nobody who sounds
like him? And then of course I remember, no, they
found a new singer who sounds exactly like him.
Speaker 8: But other than other than that guy, yeah, other than
that guy.
Speaker 3: It is really he he was.
Speaker 10: He did have an unusual voice, yeah yeah, and very
like dark in drab. But then you'd hear it like
you'd be listening to jar of Flies and it's like,
you know, just do me almost and then there's like
this whole major, like beautiful acoustic song. I'm trying to
remember the name of the title of the track, but
it's like later on in that jar Flies album, Oh
just like super pleasant, you know what I mean, Like
very major and beautiful, so like the complexity is what
really hooks me.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, those guys you know.
Speaker 8: Yeah, no doubt we have time. You want to play
one more?
Speaker 9: Sure, I'd love to hear one more if you're just
joining us, will he chases here with us live in
studio and uh back up there?
Speaker 10: Yeah, so this last track, well, making sure my guitar
is in two and I'll tell you a little bit
about it, Okay, this I So I grew up down
in Connecticut, which evokes many things. But my mother's family
has been there for a very long time. They were
dairy farmers for three hundred years, and.
Speaker 1: I love it there.
Speaker 10: We have like a little bit of land left and
I have a big family and I love everything about it.
But it's there's no farming left, you know, we don't
farm anymore. And the last dairy farm in our town
just closed a few years ago. So this whole lifestyle
of generations and generations my family the way that I mean,
nobody left, like you know, it was just always there,
and it's just not a place I ever felt home at,
you know, outside of our little bubble like Connecticut. Rather,
you know, it's just this what used to be really
a graririan kind of nice place is just surrounded by
all this other stuff that isn't really interesting to me.
And I was drawn in the mountains and you know,
the North Country and everything. So this song is kind
of about that feeling of this whole paradigm shift, and
you know, like feeling like you know, I have three
hundred years of dairy farming in my blood, but it's
like just this weird anyway, I'll stop talking about it
and play all right.
Speaker 1: This song is called Thicker than Water.
Speaker 4: There used to be a cornfield right here. Green backers
cut it eavy here. Now they're putting up panels, and
the picture on the mantle gets a little smaller. Every
wind house through in old barn window. That's the empty
stoves in old hay bells. That's blowing off of your
old hay, picking up a memory and flies into the Mama,
love is town. I got a lot of reasons left
sticking around, And that's blood run sticking in water. God Lord,
that's making me drown.
Speaker 3: No, my rootsca old me down.
Speaker 4: They on me me, tell me everything, how older and
sure of had no.
Speaker 3: I carry it in.
Speaker 4: They're always with kicking my battles or keeping my cool.
I see the way the world is going, but I
can't take it anymore. But my family, you keep me
around it. That's the only thing I know for sure.
Speaker 3: Mama, I love this town.
Speaker 4: I ain't got a lot of reasons left sticky around
because there's blood run sticky and water of my Lord
that's making me drown.
Speaker 3: No, my roots came all the down.
Speaker 4: From my roots can hold me down, and I feel
the break faster than ever who befooling good all the
e I'm bringing me home. No more my roots can
hold me down.
Speaker 3: And there's a million things that will put me.
Speaker 4: Because there's blood runs in water my Lord that's made
me drown. No more roots can down. No, my roots
can't hold me down.
Speaker 5: Hold me.
Speaker 4: Now.
Speaker 8: Oh that is so good. That is so good.
Speaker 1: Thanks man.
Speaker 9: Willy Chase with us live in studio today. Hey, before
we wrap up, I want to remind people if you
are listening live on Saturday, today is the Magical Market
at the Great North Ale Works from noon to four pm.
That's where Jenny is right now, and I will be
joining her in a little bit after the show, after
I get everything uploaded, So come say hello. Lots of
great artisans and local businesses participating in that event. And
as I like to remind people every holiday season, Walmart
and Target don't need any more.
Speaker 8: Of your money.
Speaker 9: They will be just fine, but please support your local
businesses and we'd love to see you there. So that
is a great north Aale works from noon to four
pm this afternoon on the fourteenth. If you are listening
live Willie Chase, this has been wonderful.
Speaker 1: Yeah, thanks so much, man, it's been so fun to
be here.
Speaker 8: Absolutely, remind everybody again where to find you online.
Speaker 10: Absolutely, you can find me on social media, Facebook, Instagram,
threads at Willy Chase Music all one word or Willichase
Music dot com wi l y excellent.
Speaker 8: You have much luck with threads. I forget it's there.
Speaker 10: Actually, it's been really great, mainly because there's no ads.
Oh best thing ever. Yeah, And one of the first
posts I put out I was just talking about like
jazz orchestras and got like ten thousand people viewed it
and got everybody talking about posting old pictures of jazz
clubs in New York. It was like the best social
media experience I've had in a long time.
Speaker 8: No kidding. So you're having good engagement from.
Speaker 1: It, well, no, it was just that one post.
Speaker 10: It just happened to go but uh, okay, but yeah, yeah,
it's been really cool.
Speaker 9: Yeah no, that's good. That's good, very good. And when
is your next show?
Speaker 10: I have a show coming up this Wednesday at the
Waterview Pub And yeah, go to my website. Everything's listed
right out of the schedule tab. You can see all
my shows coming up. I'll be playing all around the
Lakes region and south down to Manchester Conquered in the
next few months.
Speaker 9: Outstanding, outstanding, very good. Well, thank you so much, and
thank you to all of our guests today. Of course
we had Tom Modern in the second hour. In the
first hour we had Sean Devlin from the band Devil
inside Us and of course, uh they're playing tonight at
Terminus in Nashua. Big show there. It's the Christmas in Hell,
I believe, is the name of the show. But uh,
don't don't be put off by the name, because it's
actually for a great, great cause. They're raising a ton
of money for to buy toys for children who might
not otherwise have a Christmas this year. So that's a
great event to and Terminus is a great place, so
check that out.
Speaker 8: That out.
Speaker 9: If you can come to Great North Ale Works, come
say hello to Jenny and I and Willie Chase. Thank
you again, and if you miss any part of today's show,
it will be up in just a little bit w
Mnhradio dot org and at my website Matt Connorton dot com,
and we will talk at you all a little bit later.
Speaker 8: By everybody, My.
Speaker 12: God bless keep you always your wishes all come true.
Speaker 3: May you always do for others and let others do
for you.
Speaker 12: May you build the letter to the stars, climb on
every long.
Speaker 4: May you stay.
Speaker 3: Foreveryon.
Speaker 12: May you stay foreveryon.
Speaker 3: May you grow up to be righteous.
Speaker 12: May you grow up to be true. May you always
know the truth. Fancy the lights surrounding you. May you
always be courageous, stand upright, be strong.
Speaker 4: May you stay.
Speaker 12: Foreverrion, May you stay for everyon. May your hands always
be busy. May your feet always be with.
Speaker 3: May you have a strong foundation.
Speaker 12: When the wind of changes shift. May your heart always
be joyful. Mayor song always be song. May you stay foreveryon.
May you stay foreverial.
Speaker 4: M H.
Speaker 1: You're listening to W M and H.
Speaker 8: The Commander don't get so Maxell coming