Off the Record

Plover 0:05
What's gonna everyone you're listening to WKNC 8.1 FM Raleigh. We are a student run nonprofit radio station based out of North Carolina State University. I am clover and this is off the record and I'm here with me today are a number of people. This is not a very empty studio were crammed in here. I could we could everyone introduce ourselves, please kind of in a line, a mat southern. And Patrick Stovall. I'm Kevin Murphy. Awesome. So who we all will be an elevator pitch, maybe you would give to everyone if you wanted to sort of introduce yourself. Right. So we're here today to discuss a project we started, which is a local music series. We host live music, or recorded music in my living room here in Raleigh. And we're starting a just a local kind of community community outreach program where we just post the videos and yeah, nice. That's really cool. So um, is this like, have you dropped your first episode yet? Or is this like a? Yes, we started in June, I believe. And we've got

Unknown Speaker 1:12
probably like six artists already, or seven artists up there. It's awesome. Yeah. What are some names the way that we got hit already?

Unknown Speaker 1:22
We've got dissimilar South was one of our Sam fuller Smith.

Unknown Speaker 1:28
Trey Charles, who else do we have Lizzy from teens and triple? And right now we have a trumaine really talented artist

Unknown Speaker 1:38
that we posted? How many more videos we have him two, or one? Yeah, a couple more. So yeah, we post a video every Friday. And so we do a series of three or four songs in one session. And then we kind of tease it out over a month or so to give the artists some exposure, give them pretty much some content, because I find that so important in this day and age is just to have some content that you can point to. So that's kind of our goal. Yeah, we're basically trying to create something as an alternative to like the typical rock clubs seen, for people to connect with each other and connect with their community and have a platform to build a platform where people can showcase their talents. Because it's like, every time we are around or playing shows or anything, you just see so many amazing artists that you didn't know about. And you're like, We're trying our best to create something for the music community here to where there's a lot more connection.

Unknown Speaker 2:33
For sure. That's really cool. Um, what like, was there like a specific moment that like inspired this? Or is this just like a thing you've like, kind of noticed over many years that you like, Finally, together? Yeah, I think

Unknown Speaker 2:45
just the serendipitous

Unknown Speaker 2:49
having both a couple people were getting interested in camerawork and stuff, and being in bands and desiring, like, desiring a platform like this, that we wish existed in the community. Yeah. And then just kind of snowballed. Like, you know, I think,

Unknown Speaker 3:08
as a result of a lot of the typical clubs and venues being closed for better part of two years was another, added some urgency to, to Matt wanting to start this project. Yeah, the state. So this is like a kind of a response to the pandemic. Partially Yeah, absolutely. Definitely be fair to say, at least, at least subliminally or subconsciously. For sure. Yeah. That would have been great. And even the years of 2020 Of course, I'm glad we are having that up. Now.

Unknown Speaker 3:38
We've mentioned the series of beta What was the name of that series? Yeah. Oh, yeah. It's, it's live from the nest. On that one on YouTube. Yes. Live from the nest and see Instagram. And that's it right now. But we'll, we'll get on other platforms as we grow, I'm sure. Right. Nice. So what's the kind of the the vibe of the shows? Is it is it like Tiny Desk? Or is it like, like, that's, that's a fair comparison. Yeah, it's

Unknown Speaker 4:03
it's less

Unknown Speaker 4:05
like audience based where there's Audience clapping and stuff, and it's just kind of a

Unknown Speaker 4:12
we just set it up like a little video, and we shoot each song individually. So each song will be its own video, but it's Yeah, just a very quiet little living room setup. Yeah, it's a cool setup. Because like, full bands, we don't really have full bands is a small little living room. So like Lizzie from teens in trouble, usually a pretty pretty loud punk band gets to kind of come down into like our more stripped down setting and it's really cool to see those songs imagined in that different way.

Unknown Speaker 4:41
So Did y'all ever like, like do house shows and stuff? Is that kind of like drawing off of that? Or is it or is I guess more in those sort of Tiny Desk lane, one of our cameraman Chris Bennett. Used to have a big house show here close to campus or house venue. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker 5:00
I called the mattress for it is probably dating us a little bit, but it was maybe like 10 years ago. 2013. Yeah, 14 was the heyday. And we spent a lot of time going to those shows. And that was a nice supplement to all the club shows and all the venues. So it was, yeah. Didn't recreate that maybe in the virtual space. Yeah, I think we've all had at least some

Unknown Speaker 5:21
deep roots in DIY scenes, art scenes of various

Unknown Speaker 5:26
types. But yeah, that's, that's definitely there. And,

Unknown Speaker 5:30
you know, we've we've been around all of us have been in bands for a while now. And so we're kind of like thinking, what, instead of like, I wish this is what our scene was like. It's like, oh, we can actually influence and change and we can create the scene that we wish we were part of. Yeah. So what are some projects y'all have done? Kind of, I guess leading up to this? Not not not to say like, what's your local credit? Like? What What have you all been involved in before? So we've all been involved in a bunch of various bands.

Unknown Speaker 6:02
Some of us are currently in the band, Matt Southern and lost gold.

Unknown Speaker 6:06
Pat, it's just about to release a record.

Unknown Speaker 6:10
Yeah, I've got a solo project called kitten a que, and I recorded or performed, I should say, at live at the nest. And

Unknown Speaker 6:22
I also play drums, in teens in trouble with Lizzy. So that's the connection there.

Unknown Speaker 6:29
Yeah, and I play in Matt, Southern, and law school. And I play in Kitt McKay. And then Pat and I were in a band and I guess still are in a band called Seabreeze diner.

Unknown Speaker 6:40
That was active a few years back, prior to the pandemic, and our friends have since moved. So we've had to start these new projects. Yeah, for sure. So when you find bands, is it like, kind of like on a personal level? Like, like you said, like the teens in trouble connections? Oh, I know this person. Can I get them on to our show? Yeah, I think it's a lot of that. But it's also been awesome to see younger artists and folks just reaching out door DMS.

Unknown Speaker 7:05
And there's something there that I need to respond to. So if you're listening Hold tight, I'm gonna respond. But yeah, it's it's I think it started with, okay, maybe a platform for our friends to build it. But we are very excited to expand this group and kind of just be open to all sorts of new artists. Yeah, there's definitely been some just cold calls or emails are out of the gate that have been really exciting to meet people you maybe admire. You've seen their shows before? And have them come and do a little performance? Is it fair to say that we did not really expect the cold calls that people to just seek us out? And so that kind of

Unknown Speaker 7:46
was an indicator that there was room for this type of platform? Yeah, definitely, I think people are excited to do it. And when people are finding out about it there, a lot of them are reaching out to us. And we definitely invite that we want to be a platform that anyone can be a part of whether they're a really established band, or maybe someone who's just getting their first project together.

Unknown Speaker 8:11
So we definitely want to be open for the community, and help in any way we can.

Unknown Speaker 8:17
Yeah, so is there any like, kind of general fragmentation issues you notice kind of in the scene, like either like, I don't know, the triangle is, of course, a bunch of cities that are kind of far apart, or just like the clubs can be, like, hard to connect with what was some, like, specific, I guess, fragmentations you noticed around here? I think there's definitely little, you know, everyone has their little pocket of a few bands, or a few artists that they're familiar with, they play shows with that can be separated easily by Durham, Chapel Hill, Raleigh, but even within those cities, there's a lot of fragmentation. I think, like,

Unknown Speaker 8:53
Greg, I mean, it's natural. Do I think like, we're guilty of it, too, you know, like, we're all obviously in the same bands and stuff. But we're trying to expand those horizons a bit. I think it's fair to say so not like accusing anybody of being right, exclusionary, and then we know, like, I think we were very excited after the pandemic, and hoping that the clubs would open back up. And that's been a little slower than we thought. And we totally understand that like, that doesn't, you know, live shows and always make a bunch of money. And, you know, there's problems there for the owners of the spaces. But yeah, just Yeah, I guess that's part of it. Yeah, definitely. We're trying to hopefully fill in some gaps and providing something for for the scene. Yeah, for sure. Are there any specific live venues that you are missing or it's unfortunate that they're not opening up kings is a really big one. I think everyone's kind of mourning the the loss of that as as a community meeting place for some of my favorite shows in Raleigh that I've seen

Unknown Speaker 10:00
So that's a big one. Yeah, yeah. I think Knight Riders stepping up in a lot of ways and in having shows and

Unknown Speaker 10:08
yeah, it's, it's tough. We know it's a tough landscape. People are trying to make back money that was lost. And there's potentially better ways to do that. Yeah, we're trying to fill that void a little bit, maybe get people excited about going to see these bands again, in a live setting. Yeah, I think that's an important part of it. So it's like they were like, discover them to this series like, oh, how can I find a band and then they find a show that and it's even happening for us like Tremaine was not really on our radar, he reached out. And now I'm stoked to see this next show, wherever it is in the triangle. Yeah. And then, just to say another really cool thing that Kevin Kevin runs the social media of it. But he's done a great job, I think of people who have come on, and that's promoting their shows through social media. And just it's almost becoming kind of a bulletin board of like, this is the calendar of events going on with people who have been here and it's, I think, that's been a very surprising and cool development. Yeah, definitely, definitely seen a lot more push for like, I didn't think through social media, they're like, there's like a Google doc around like, all shows in the triangle and stuff like that. They're like Instagram, those have been those have been really clutch lately. For sure.

Unknown Speaker 11:17
Um, were there any like specific obstacles you didn't foresee in setting up something in your living room like that was like, was it kind of a process of like, being able to evolve, convert that into a space where you could play live?

Unknown Speaker 11:31
Well, luckily, I'm a huge music nerd. So I already have mic cables and things wired through my walls. And we had, we're, we're kind of slowly getting together some of the other pieces. We started out borrowing lights, and then we bought some lights, but

Unknown Speaker 11:49
getting some T shirts printed right now to hopefully raise a little money for our next upgrade. So yeah, it's a work in progress. But we were able to kind of pull our resources and get it going right away. Awesome.

Unknown Speaker 12:02
Are there any let's see, who will be some artists that you'd really love to have on there? Do you have any, like future plans for that for the show?

Unknown Speaker 12:12
Yeah, that's a really, really good question. Yeah, for sure. Like, every time I go through my Spotify, and I'm hearing local artists, I'm like, Oh, we got to ask them.

Unknown Speaker 12:23
Yeah, there's yeah, there's a ton and then there's some that it's Would would you just be kind of like, some of the bigger artists in the area, you're nationally touring acts.

Unknown Speaker 12:35
Your his golden messengers, or Sylvan ourselves or something like that would be obviously an absolute dream.

Unknown Speaker 12:41
But it kind of Yeah, the kind of the dream for me, has always been to be able to be a place that could host that. And then the next night hosts, someone who maybe wrote their first songs, and like giving equal space to people with varying success levels, and hopefully building some building some ties and some community within that. Absolutely. No doubt that I will go crazy to have like, Selvan into like, just right, right. Local artists, that's just coming off, that'd be great. If you're like, let's say, if you'll have like a, like a dream venue, like how would you like go about like, sort of present live will be kind of like, a dream venue for you in terms of being able to provide that kind of community and provide like, a really cool live experience would be like your your vision behind that?

Unknown Speaker 13:35
That's another great question. Great question.

Unknown Speaker 13:40
Yeah, well, we as for as far as, like this project, or no, like, just, like a like a

Unknown Speaker 13:48
live music thing? Yeah. Like a, if a live music venue opened in town, like what attributes would it have? That would be really exciting to us?

Unknown Speaker 13:59
Kings one Oh,

Unknown Speaker 14:01
I'm so sad. I never got to go to Kings.

Unknown Speaker 14:04
It's great.

Unknown Speaker 14:05
Neptune's two, I think. Yeah, I think I think a big thing for me is an environment where the performance is kind of centered. So Kings was good about that. Because there literally, there was nothing to do but look at look at the performance. And I mean, the Pourhouse is really good like that, too.

Unknown Speaker 14:27
But something

Unknown Speaker 14:29
I think the area needs more. All ages shows. There's a lot of 21 plus sorrows. Yeah. Which is, you know, great. But I think, yeah, that's

Unknown Speaker 14:43
something that there's maybe less of, so I would definitely put that in. While it's at least some nights, you know, to have all ages shows. I'm still not 21 And it's been Yeah, that's right. It's a little more difficult. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker 15:01
Anything else on the stream didn't you I don't think that you need like a collection of venues to make a scene like we have now we have a good amount of large rooms and like those those medium to large rooms, the poor houses the Lincoln theaters, I think we kind of need some of those smaller spaces that are less daunting for new artists to come into and not have to feel like oh, we have to pack this room out. Or

Unknown Speaker 15:25
you know, one thing that was really good back when we were playing around a lot in our other bands was the weekly or monthly shows that have those built in crowds like the local beer local bands, like it was kind of it was like a meeting place for everybody on that Thursday night at the poor house or even back in the day to your dog so stuff like that. You got to have the whole spectrum of venues Yeah, so it's not just like a show but like a social kind of atmosphere to

Unknown Speaker 15:52
that's great. If I were to run a bar. Oh, God.

Unknown Speaker 15:57
Great. I'll clear the schedule. This will be a while. I wouldn't do much. Yeah. But sitting at the bar, I know but I personally love Slim's. I love the setup there. And I think just for the sake of answering the question, I would want my venue to look like Slim's and like have a long bar like that. And what else? Cheap liquor. Nice.

Unknown Speaker 16:24
Yeah. That sounds good. What about a, an upstairs pool table? Sure.

Unknown Speaker 16:29
Okay, so Pat's asked him to be part owner of slumps. Okay.

Unknown Speaker 16:35
If any ownership in

Unknown Speaker 16:38
a bed?

Unknown Speaker 16:40
See, we've been I know you've been dropping some songs recently. We've been playing your stuff on air. Is this building an album out of curiosity, sort of on the side of your other projects? Is that sorry, you've been dropping some singles lately? Yeah, sort of building towards them? Yes. So the singles I put out recently are kind of in between albums, our last full band album. Well, I guess it was just last year about a year ago as the songs of every lyric. But we're working on a follow up to that right now.

Unknown Speaker 17:11
I also have a nother kind of more sample beat based album. That will be coming out the first of January. So be on the lookout for yells too, if you're into that.

Unknown Speaker 17:24
So what would you say is like the kind of sound that you're like, I guess know the most about or kind of focus on more, just as as artists and I guess there are other projects. I think it kind of runs this towards the end of the spectrum of indie rock, and I'm really into folk music and early folk music and country music kit. Pat's ban kit McKay was about to release an album. He was our first guest on live from the nest. But um, his bands a lot more country, country rock sort of stuff. Yes, I think guitar is a through line for all of us. We like guitar. We'd like electric guitar, acoustic guitar, bass guitar.

Unknown Speaker 18:11
All the flavors. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker 18:15
Which is not I don't know. guitar is not the most common instrument in bands anymore. I don't think

Unknown Speaker 18:22
I'll sell them both turntables. Yeah. Still holding on to the dream. Yeah, yeah, we have. Yeah, we're tapped into like, the indie rock. Just kind of grew up with that. Played that in the clubs. And, you know, there's tasted that Matt Southern, and even in the new kit McKay stuff that's coming out.

Unknown Speaker 18:42
So y'all would like, Would y'all like no more NDA like indie rock bands to kind of bring on to like your life in the nest or y'all trying to like branch out? We're definitely trying to branch out.

Unknown Speaker 18:54
And we've we've had a little bit of success with that. But

Unknown Speaker 18:58
currently, we're trying to catch up a lot on people who have just reached out to us.

Unknown Speaker 19:04
But I mean, I'd love to have spoken word poetry. I'd love to have, you know, just keep keep going. We haven't had any rap artists.

Unknown Speaker 19:15
That would be great. I actually helped produce

Unknown Speaker 19:20
one of our friends first rep projects and

Unknown Speaker 19:24
twisting his arm a little bit trying to get him on so we'll see. Yeah, we would love to like a small jazz combo. Something like that would be amazing.

Unknown Speaker 19:35
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I think we've mostly started like kind of in our lane, but we're definitely trying to expand that and learn more.

Unknown Speaker 19:42
And have anyone who's willing to join us for a couple hours.

Unknown Speaker 19:47
That's kind of I guess, represent the scene more as a whole and just Yes, yeah, definitely. Nice. Let's see. Is there anything else you wanted to talk about for your show? Any any upcoming videos you want to plug or anything?

Unknown Speaker 19:58
Just keep

Unknown Speaker 20:00
It's live from the nest and see that is both on Instagram and YouTube. You can check it out please follow us. Every Friday we release a new video. We have a another video from trumaine coming out this Friday.

Unknown Speaker 20:14
So yeah, we would love for you to, to be a fan but also participate, reach out if you're interested in performing.

Unknown Speaker 20:23
We'll do our best to to get some as many people on as we are able to with our schedules and yeah, thanks for having us. Yeah, of course. Where can we find your music as well? Listeners on a on

Unknown Speaker 20:36
my album which will be out on Friday will be

Unknown Speaker 20:41
on Spotify this Friday. It is this Friday.

Unknown Speaker 20:46
Yeah, I Yeah. I was tempted to hijack this interview, but I will.

Unknown Speaker 20:52
So yeah, Kip Kip McKay. Matt southern is my solo work. Matt Southern and lost gold is the band.

Unknown Speaker 21:00
You can find us any of the streaming platforms Bandcamp.

Unknown Speaker 21:06
Designer, same thing. That's the Instagram handle on Spotify. We should shout out champs Billy's project, right? The drummer from Ghost blonde. Matt's producing his best. Yeah, that's the rap. So stay tuned for his stuff he has. I think he has one band camp single out. But he's got his second single coming in a couple of weeks.

Unknown Speaker 21:29
Well, yeah, thank you all so much for coming out here and I'm I'm really interested to see what videos you'll have coming up. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you very much.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai