Speaker 1: That is nothing's real. It's just a thing by Aaron Billadeau,
who is here with us the new album Aaron and
the Argonauts, and Aaron's going to play for us in
a minute. Really looking forward to this. This is Matt
Connorton Unleashed. We have entered our second hour on this Saturday,
November twenty third, twenty twenty four. We are live from
the studios of w m n H ninety five point
three FM in Glorious Manchester, New Hampshire. Jenny is here
at the news table and Aaron Billodeou is here. He
is all set up. Now I'm going to turn this
on and let's see if we can hear you. Hello, Eron,
see I think I might. Oh, there we go say
that one more time, Eron, Hello testing one two, there,
we got we got you, We got you. Aaron is
So for those of you, let me go ahead and
put the camera on you. For those watching online, actually
let me put on a little bit of a wider
shot here, because Aaron is entirely self contained. He's got
this whole setup and it's all but it all just
plug into one channel on our board, which is amazing.
And do you want to tell us any or or
or do you prefer to keep the mistique of it all?
It's pretty impressive. Soon's Aaron's gonna play some live songs
for us and then uh, and then he's going to
go over to the chair, and I kind of like
the tonight show. He's gonna go over to the chair
and we're going to talk. And Amy is here and
Jay is here as well, and so looking forward to this.
But I'm dying to hear you play and uh play
the Yah.
Speaker 2: You're the best seller. Frick we roll these.
Speaker 3: Wag no tepication of man today God parents, old.
Speaker 4: Brother without fears.
Speaker 2: We sell the r I was like my.
Speaker 5: Pride park outside the Serbec side.
Speaker 4: There's something in the sa.
Speaker 6: Fiter ro five fiveer.
Speaker 7: We'll call you like fiveter fiter rock five fiveer from
oil like fast fast roast bad fast, the bil life fast.
Speaker 8: There that ship of a Sirens billies will never be.
Speaker 4: For real, that dis God the matters of the heart.
See still be my hair. I'm not forever carbon outside
then the starboard side, right.
Speaker 2: Thank you.
Speaker 3: That song was called song and Temptation. This next song
is called slow clap mm hmm.
Speaker 1: Hold right, all right, I would be.
Speaker 8: One the song don't still almost crag with the bowl
No the void happiness.
Speaker 6: Go by.
Speaker 8: Through the night break A side echo back.
Speaker 2: The void.
Speaker 8: Wariness by.
Speaker 2: Queen Yeah.
Speaker 8: Godl wearness.
Speaker 6: To the bar.
Speaker 4: That be clean face.
Speaker 7: Cards StarLAN wearness.
Speaker 6: To the fire.
Speaker 2: That be Please, which one is pall bad on the way.
Speaker 4: On the wat I want to breas bump off the dods.
It's the only think about my my heart, and never
time to think of you.
Speaker 2: It closed me away, It closed me.
Speaker 6: Oh I had.
Speaker 4: I wanna be stoned up that I hide. It's the
only scene to cross my my hide. An got be
the time to take off? He spose you all hidepose.
Speaker 6: You know I hid.
Speaker 2: I'm gared of Oh.
Speaker 8: Well you understand I can't be crush?
Speaker 3: What is that.
Speaker 9: You won't come to me?
Speaker 4: I'm a lad.
Speaker 6: I wanna be drunk up a high.
Speaker 4: It's the old mis thing across my my hide to
man every time I think or go.
Speaker 6: It bots be away. Suppose you I had.
Speaker 2: M hm.
Speaker 9: Six, I was called do you had a son?
Speaker 8: Your second?
Speaker 6: Big God?
Speaker 4: Where by.
Speaker 6: Okay big had a son?
Speaker 2: You travel.
Speaker 6: So far away? Father? Now body.
Speaker 2: Big on the fund.
Speaker 6: A side hold on time so you don't die.
Speaker 8: If you want to go, go horrah, just take your
thumb up to die.
Speaker 10: Be me.
Speaker 8: Ap to the guy.
Speaker 6: Wh ray lie.
Speaker 4: Not he has a sign mm hmm deep.
Speaker 6: From this world one man, Tony hot be had the
side got holdni.
Speaker 2: Do you want to go to?
Speaker 6: Just be your comb up to this guy.
Speaker 2: Tack it with the alience.
Speaker 3: All right, I have one more song to you called Grind.
This is gonna be a clean version.
Speaker 2: If you like this song, the official video for it
just went up at ten o'clock.
Speaker 9: We'll catch it on YouTube.
Speaker 4: Okay, I don't know.
Speaker 8: What head well my head pay every day every day?
Speaker 10: Why every day?
Speaker 4: Ride a day crime and the day every day? Every day?
Speaker 6: Ride at day, ride every day? Cry well my head.
Speaker 7: As day.
Speaker 2: You know where tay what I mean?
Speaker 11: What the heck?
Speaker 2: I apostasy a day every day?
Speaker 9: And you proy crime?
Speaker 8: You pron tesday crime, you.
Speaker 9: Proun from.
Speaker 10: West bare.
Speaker 4: Day from a jay.
Speaker 8: Wow glass.
Speaker 6: Well that film I'll be first.
Speaker 1: To all right, thank you you. The great Aaron Billado
is here with us live in studio. We're gonna play
another studio track. While Aaron gets uh settled in, We're
gonna talk a bit about the new project and uh
and all that goes with it. So, uh, check this out.
This is called the End of Time. This is from
the album Aaron and the Argonautsture.
Speaker 4: Still be.
Speaker 1: Come all right, that is the end of Time. That's
from the new album Aaron and the Argonauts. Aaron Bildeo
is here with us, and Aaron, you brought a couple
of fine people with you as.
Speaker 9: Well, Yes, yes I did.
Speaker 3: I brought the drummer of this album, Jason Staples and
my wife, Amy Bildto.
Speaker 1: Well, welcome to everyone. Welcome Aaron. So tell us more
about so the video. We want to make sure people
know about this. So the video for Grind that just
dropped today.
Speaker 3: Yes, that just dropped that at the beginning of this
interview at ten o'clock. Excellent, So as of now, I
wanted to put it up as soon as like I
played it.
Speaker 9: Yeah, yeah, yeah, no.
Speaker 1: That's perfect. That's perfect. And the video now, so Amy,
we're gonna make you talk because you had said something,
you had said something off air about how much fun
it was to make that video. Oh it was a blast.
So what what do you like? Are you do you direct?
Do you film everything?
Speaker 9: Do you know Aaron did all of it. She's the
female voice that the song.
Speaker 1: Oh you're on the song yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 9: And then yeah, you can hear her in the video.
It's explicit, so.
Speaker 3: You can hear it swear right right, all those all
those clicks yard, Oh, I got you edit.
Speaker 1: Yes, yeah, I appreciate that. Appreciate that. And then so now, Jason,
how did you get involved in this project? You're you're
one of the Argonauts.
Speaker 11: I yeah, since since band mix. Aaron reached out to
me lastly a year and a half ago and about
about doing a project. And at the time, my house
was under construction and stuff like that, so I couldn't
do anything. So I'm like, I'll get back to you.
I get I'm like, but you know, I kept we
kept bouncing back and forth like hey, like, my I'm
still not back in my house yet, but once as
soon as I am, I'll let you know.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I got back in my house and he did, yeah.
Speaker 3: You know, and I went right to his house and
he his his wife was all freaked out because the
stranger was showing up.
Speaker 1: Right right parrel house.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and then we just started, uh playing from brand
new songs from scratch. We played a couple of my
old songs, just you know, to get the groove down,
and then we just started writing and writing and writing,
and it really took most of the year.
Speaker 9: To write and record.
Speaker 1: Yeah, what's the meaning of like what is an argonaut?
Speaker 3: So so that's that's that's the old Greek stories. Uh
uh there a group of travelers. One of them was Hercules,
uhh and you know they were set off on on
on a quest. It's the old movies like Clash of
the tight Ends, U Jason and the Argonauts, Hercules, the
old fifties sixties movies with the stop motion. I used
to really like those when I was a kid, and uh,
you know, I was just sitting there smoking and uh
it just came, you know, it came to me and
I thought it sounded neat and I went with it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, you know.
Speaker 3: And then so like the album has a three songs
on it that are kind of loosely based on like
the old movies. Uh, Like the intro overture for the Argonauts, right,
and it starts off with like drums in the background
and it builds up the horns and war.
Speaker 9: Yeah, it's awesome, and it's like the opening.
Speaker 3: Credits to those old movies, you know, because they had
all the credits at the beginning. Yeah, back in the
old movies, and they would have all this epic music
and then these cards like you know, changing around of
like different gods and stuff.
Speaker 9: You know, So that's that was kind of you know,
it was all very loosely based off of that old stuff,
right right.
Speaker 1: Oh, very cool.
Speaker 9: Yes.
Speaker 1: Now, so when you play a lot now, obviously, as
as we said here, you're entirely self contained, which is
which is pretty cool. But when you when you play
live in venues, obviously we don't have a lot of
room here, so this is necessary. But do do jay
and and and you're amy perform with you No, No,
it's it's the same.
Speaker 9: Well, I've never performed on a song except for Grind.
Speaker 1: Oh so maybe when so when he plays Grind, maybe
that's something we've died. And yeah, the little stage right, Oh,
she doesn't really have.
Speaker 3: A stage fright because uh, we we had like a
performance part of the Grind video, right and she she
uh was up there performing with me and we had
like a whole crew of people, yeah, you know, dancing
and everything.
Speaker 9: It was it was kind of like a mock performance,
but she was getting into it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, so I think she'll just she'll be fine,
you know if I make an edit, yeah, for when
she wants to join me, right right, you'll pull out
her vocals and then she can do it.
Speaker 1: There you go, There you go. Now is there anyone
else on the album?
Speaker 4: Uh?
Speaker 10: So?
Speaker 9: Uh you know, it's just it's Jay. It's Gary Smith.
Speaker 1: Oh Gary Smith.
Speaker 9: Yeah, yeah, from Fox and the Flamencos and various other
Oh my god, like RDV.
Speaker 1: He's one of the busiest people I know.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he's like in six bands right off the top
of my head, Cosmic Bloss and he's in like all
of them. Yeah, and so thing the get Gos on
this album, he's on He's been on Everything's Destroyer. Yeah,
and of course my wife Amy.
Speaker 1: Yes, yes, very good, very good. This is not your
first full length.
Speaker 3: No no, no no, it's my fourth, your fourth okay
yeah yeah, and my fourth full length. And then I
also have an EP out there and a collab album
as well with he Oh okay, right right, Yeah, I
got a bunch of stuff out there.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, if you like it, yeah, yeah, Are
you playing out.
Speaker 3: Much or a little bit I guess some shows coming up. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
let's see here. Okay, So December seventh, I'm playing at
the Pophole Theater in Shelburne, Falls, mass And it's a
it's a movie. So I'm gonna be opening up an
old nineteen seventy five film called A Face in the
Crowd I've never seen. It's an Andy Griffith movie. It's
a black and white, but I'm gonna be opening I'm
gonna be doing a half hour before that movie starts,
and then this one's cool.
Speaker 9: This one was just added.
Speaker 3: So December fourteenth, at eight pm, I'm gonna be doing
the Jimmy's Deadheads X mess in Hell at Terminus. Okay,
So I'm gonna be doing a set at Terminus December fourteenth.
And this is this is gonna be a benefit show
for my friend Ben, who has he's been doing an
annual toy Drive now for the last eighteen years. You
know Ben from Change the Season. Yes, yes, he was
the singer of Changing Season and he's been doing this
like since we were in the band. Like his first
toy Drive was a show we did at the Spider Room,
No kidding, Yeah, called a clause for rock oh wow.
Speaker 9: And you know, I don't know how much he raised it.
I don't think it was that much.
Speaker 3: Maybe a couple hundred bucks sure, But last year he
raised seven thousand dollars.
Speaker 7: Wow.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah he he.
Speaker 3: He used to like make videos of himself going shopping
at like toys, r US and all that, make a
big production of it. I think he still does because
he's got he's got a channel called Bike's Beards and Bruce.
Speaker 1: I remember checking it out after you. I was like,
oh my god, there's Ben.
Speaker 9: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 3: So anyways, Uh, they're uh they're raising money for child
health uh the Child Health Services.
Speaker 9: Here in Manchester.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 9: Uh and uh if you want, you know, just go.
There's pictures of him.
Speaker 3: Going there every year, videos of him going there every year. Uh,
and and loading and filling this room up. You know,
first it was just a couple of tables back in
the day, and now it's the entire room. Yeah, he
fills it up and it's a big production. So I
definitely recommend donate to this charity. I don't like donating
anybody else. Uh, nothing else goes anywhere else. He spends
every dime on toys and then drops them off. Yeah,
so this is a great charity. Go to the show
Terminus Uhumber fourteenth, or just go to his website.
Speaker 9: He's got to go fundme h. You can donate there.
Speaker 1: Terminus is a great place, absolutely.
Speaker 9: I haven't played there yet.
Speaker 1: Oh you've been there.
Speaker 9: I've been there. I've been there to see Atlanta Corvette.
Speaker 10: Ye.
Speaker 9: I was supposed to play that show, but I got
sick over the summer. Yeah, so I could. I couldn't
play that show at that point.
Speaker 3: But I'm going to play now, so yeah, excellent, let's
see here and then I don't have anything for a
long time until October.
Speaker 9: I'm going to be playing Grafton Palooza, which is a
new show out there.
Speaker 3: Really Yeah, yeah, so that's gonna be uh October eleventh,
way way out then.
Speaker 9: Yeah, those are my shows right now.
Speaker 1: Okay, okay, excellent. Is it difficult to find because what
you do is obviously very unique?
Speaker 9: Yeah, so it's insanely difficult to find gigs.
Speaker 3: I've been told I don't fit in a lot of places,
and a lot of places just don't respond. Yeah, you know,
and it's hard like I don't have like I don't
have a live band with me and it's it's people
just like don't understand it if you explain it right,
you know, So I don't know, like, you know, I
keep grinded, yeah, you know, and I get gigs here
and there.
Speaker 1: Yeah. And you know when you do play out though,
like if you're on a show with other with with
like full bands, I bet they love you, yeah, because
you're set up and takedown.
Speaker 9: So I'm great for opening any band.
Speaker 3: Yeah, act because yeah, it's I'm I'm out in like
a couple of minutes, you know, off on the side stage,
and then it.
Speaker 9: Takes me forever to pack up there. But right right,
I can get everything off the stage within a couple
of minutes. Yeah, you know, it's really nice.
Speaker 1: Yeah, No, that's amazing. Is it easier doing it this
way because it's all you or like, do you ever
have moments where you think this would be easier with
a band?
Speaker 10: Oh?
Speaker 9: Yeah?
Speaker 3: So so the Erin and the Argonaut's idea first came about.
I wanted a live band, yeah, to play this album. Yeah,
And the idea was to form, you know, a live
band and call that band.
Speaker 1: OK.
Speaker 9: And you know I tried, I.
Speaker 3: Tried, I tried to try it and it just didn't happen. So,
you know, like it's either that or don't play right,
you know, So I do what I gotta do, yeah,
to get my show out.
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly exactly. How did you, like, do you record
this on your own.
Speaker 9: Or a studio?
Speaker 1: No kidding?
Speaker 9: Yeah, I recorded, yeah, on a laptop.
Speaker 3: Most most of it's at my house and then I
bring all my stuff over to his house and I
record all his.
Speaker 9: Drums there on drum days.
Speaker 3: Okay, okay, this was quite an experiment that I've never
recorded drums like this before. I've only done like two
mics in a room before, and this was like a
whole bunch of mics.
Speaker 9: Yeah, for the first time. So like, uh, it was
a lot of trial and error.
Speaker 1: Yeah, no doubt. No, that's a great experience though. So Jason,
in terms of your becoming a part of the project,
have you ever done because this is, like I said,
it's pretty unique, right, Yeah. Is this the most unusual
thing you've done in terms of playing drums more or less?
Speaker 11: Yeah, I mean I've figured I'm more like a I'm
a I'm a prog like metal rock jazz, yeah, you know,
And I mean I've played I played in everything from
jazz bands to to metal bands. And actually we never
played gigs. We never played gigs together, but actually played
a lot of shows at my rock club. That changes,
He's play in the day. I put in a band,
Akila Dama.
Speaker 10: You know.
Speaker 11: So but as far as being as far as uniqueness,
this is the most unique I've done, like band wise.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: So, so how does that work in terms of like
what you're going to play? Like Aaron, do you do
you explain what you're looking for? Or Jason do you
just kind of feel your way through it? Or I
mean how does how does that work a little bit
of both? Yeah?
Speaker 3: Yeah, Sometimes it's jamming, yeah, and sometimes like I just
write the songs at home and then I throw it
on the Googles drive and I send it to him
and then go to his house and I play it
and we work it out. Yeah, you know, so it's
kind of like a half and half thing.
Speaker 9: You know.
Speaker 3: Sometimes it's you know, just formed together and sometimes I
bring him.
Speaker 1: Songs, right, I would imagine too, So as you're as
you're recording, and you know, and you're doing it yourself,
using able to the songs probably change from what you
originally had in mind, right, I would imagine that I write,
I write like.
Speaker 3: Drum machine stuff, yeah, you know, and enable him so
you know, I'll do like a like a techno drum
plate and then I bring it to him and he
throws his drums on there.
Speaker 9: You want to pull him out.
Speaker 1: Yeah, But doing it the way you do it allows
for a lot of experimentation obviously, you know, because I'm
sure you have like when you first conceive of a song,
I'm sure you have ideas of what it's going to be,
and then it ends up being something.
Speaker 9: I'm always open.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's that's kind of nothing.
Speaker 9: Nothing is absolute, you know what it's going to be
like this.
Speaker 11: Right, that's kind of the adventure of it, right, Yeah, Yeah,
but that was that was Hiding behind the Sun too,
because I play I play a lot of like weird
math stuff, like on my own practicing like nobody else
but myself, like I record it, yeah you know, and
on my go pros and stuff. And he saw one
that I did, and he's just like, hold on and
he went he wrote, he wrote Hiding behind the Sun,
which changes from five to three to four and then
back and back and forth and through.
Speaker 9: Different time signatures.
Speaker 10: In it.
Speaker 1: How many three?
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, five four and then three and then four four.
Speaker 9: Yeah wow yeah and then back again.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, I want I wanted to see if
I could do it like Pink Floyd did it with money. Yeah,
you know, so like they switched back and forth, true,
from jazz times to rock time?
Speaker 9: Right?
Speaker 1: Has your approach changed over the years with uh, with
with what you're doing with your solo work?
Speaker 3: I mean, oh yeah, I mean every year it's different. Yeah,
you know, every year you gross more, you want to
try it. Like what one year I did a techno album,
you know, you know, yeah, a couple of years ago,
and uh, that was very different, you know, and my
first album is very different from myself. I feel like
everything's getting gotten more smooth as far as the sound,
the songs themselves, that have been.
Speaker 9: Better every year.
Speaker 3: It's it's amazing. It's it's just it's like a reflection
of your whole year. It's because I put out an
album once a year. Now, it's my goal every fall
put out a full length.
Speaker 1: Okay, are you already working on the next one?
Speaker 10: No?
Speaker 9: No, no, I'm not.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna be taking the old Christmas break right then
and then come back and start fresh. Yeah, you have
to take a couple of months off, you really do. Yeah, yeah,
I learned that like right away.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so grind is the first video? Do you have
plans to make more videos from this album?
Speaker 3: So that's not the first video that there's this video
for the End of Time. That was the first video
and that came out like a month ago. Oh I
didn't realize. Okay, I'll go back and check that out. Yeah,
the video is awesome. It's I want to to do
a film noir look to it. So uh yeah me Jay.
And then I got Gary on that video too, so cool.
I made him climb through like a little covey up
to my attic and filmed him in my attic, you know,
with Dale sticking out of that.
Speaker 9: You got to watch your ahead otherwise you're gonna need
a tennis shot.
Speaker 6: Right.
Speaker 3: It's a great video. My wife thought it was my
best video yet when I did it.
Speaker 9: Yeah, I shoot some of it, Yeah, shoot some a
little bit of it, all the all the scenes where
the camera's floating on me.
Speaker 1: Oh okay, okay, oh very cool.
Speaker 9: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so I'll have to check that out. And that's
cool that Gary Smith is in that. Yeah, he's been
on the show a bunch of times and actually very cool.
Is there anything we didn't mention that you have coming up?
I only ask because you you came extra prepared. You
brought a piece of paperwork.
Speaker 9: No, no, I mean the big things that were the gigs.
Speaker 1: Very good and so this is out on all the
streaming platforms, correct, Yeah, yeah, any plans to make physical
copies of anything or maybe you already have or that's
something every every everybody agonizes over do we do that
or not?
Speaker 3: You know why because it because it because it's like
fifteen hundred to three thousand dollars and then it's like
a four to six month wait. Yeah, you know, it's
just it's such a chore, right right, Like I want
it and it's but it's it's a it's a lot. Yeah,
they'd like to get it out on time, right, it
just is the nightmare. It never happens, right.
Speaker 9: Maybe next year? Yeah?
Speaker 1: And do you have any other projects that you're doing
or are you just focused on solo stuff?
Speaker 3: That's it. It's been the solo stuff, you know. You know,
I have friends and if they uh, if they asked
me to come help home and stuff, you know, I
will Yeah, but uh yeah, that's that's just been it
very cool.
Speaker 10: Oh.
Speaker 3: Another thing about the grind video let me let me
do this shout out is uh that was filmed at
Jim Hurley's place.
Speaker 9: Turbo Cats.
Speaker 3: Oh you've met him, he was there in here not
too long on the show, ye, and he Jim Hurley
plays the grinder.
Speaker 9: Yeah, so he plays he plays like the.
Speaker 3: Antagonist, you know, yeah, chasing, chasing, chasing me around with
his grinders.
Speaker 10: You know.
Speaker 9: So he did a great job doing that.
Speaker 1: Jason, do you have any other Every drummer we have
on the show is in like ten different bands. You
must have something.
Speaker 11: No, I'm honestly like, is this is it like I'm
trying to find you know, I live, I live right
on the mass New Hampshire border and nobody, nobody around
me wants to play anything other than metal or like
maybe blues or whatever, and you know, and I'm I'm
I'm a weekend Warrior I have you know, so yeah,
exactly that too. So it's just like and it's something
like I have you'll see in the video. Then at
the end of the time that my kit, like I
don't travel with that like I don't. That's why I'm
a studio drummer because I have my kit the way
that I want to, you know, and it's just like
and I when when we were getting the project together
was when I was finalizing my room, you know, like
I said, in other projects around my house. So it
was like I already I built the I built the room,
and I'm building the studio around my drum set. So
you know what anybody is, He's available for studio work. Yeah,
come to me, come to me, and I will play anything.
Speaker 9: Yeah. And also he's got Jay Staples lessons.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 9: Oh if if you're interested in drum lessons.
Speaker 1: Oh okay, very cool, very cool. Yeah. The drummers are
most of the drummers we know. They're they're in so
many different bands. And you know, my theory has always
been when you first have the conversation with the parents
about you know, you want to play an instrument, and
if you tell them the drums, they they try to
talk you out of it because because they don't want
all that sound.
Speaker 11: My dad was blaring music when I was little. He's
just like, nope, I'm turning the radio all.
Speaker 1: The way up.
Speaker 10: Yeah.
Speaker 9: You know, my father was a drummer.
Speaker 1: Yeah no, that's uh, that's good. That is uh, that
is yes, excellent, excellent.
Speaker 9: I played the clarinet.
Speaker 1: Yuh oh, very good. All right, outstanding. Well we will
will close out the segment. But thank you guy. Yeah,
the time goes so quick, but thank you so much
for coming in, all three of you. And you know, Aaron,
I love what you're doing. It's it's very unique, it's cool,
it's fun.
Speaker 9: I'll definitely see you next year.