Joining me today is singer songwriter Connor Sherlin.
I'm musician out of California.
Connor has written over 300 songs, released 60 Ps,
and has his first full-length album, Lake, coming out soon.
Possibly out when this episode airs.
Welcome, Connor, and thank you for being on the show.
Thanks for having me, Steve.
Yeah.
Appreciate you joining, and again, thank you for the flexibility.
We had to postpone this a couple times,
but definitely gave me more time to dive into this particular album,
which I really enjoyed.
So, let's jump right into this.
What album did you bring to the table?
And what makes it special to you?
Yeah, the Gaslight Anthem 59s sound it.
You also mentioned that your wife really digs this album, right?
She does.
She came into my office several times when I had this playing
and nodded with approval, and she wanted me to thank you
for finally getting me to listen to the Gaslight Anthem.
Yeah, she would walk in, and no matter what song was on,
she'd know the words.
She knew it front to back.
It's so good.
The way I describe this album to people is, it's not.
I don't think it's the best songs in the universe on it.
I think it's just like when it comes down to,
like, who has the best album, I'm like,
if you want to pick one that's like very specific to me,
like this is the one that I like really listen to
and has like really formed.
Not only like how I want to song right,
just like how I engage with an nostalgia in a more positive way.
I have my Lincoln Park era where you're just like going back,
and it's like, it's nostalgic, but it's also like,
hyper-oceanal and like kind of painful, you know?
Right.
And then you have like your like stupid love songs kind of nostalgic.
But this is like, so I first heard this album
because I had this room in college back at UC Santa Barbara.
His name's Dean, and he would put this on,
and then we would just play Super Smash Brothers
for like the duration of the album.
And like, it took me like three listens through to the album
being like, wait, what is this?
This is my favorite thing ever.
And it like, so it had already like sunk in like three times through.
But like this kind of album is like a spiritual touch stone for me
where like you just continue to go back to it.
Because you're like, how do you like the song,
the actual title track has just like the most perfect song structure?
Honestly, it feels like that should have been the intro to the album
just because it like, it has the big like guitar feedback sounds
at the beginning like it's starting.
The album, if I ever do get to meet Brian, the lead singer,
that will be my question.
But the first verse says,
"Will I wonder which song they're going to play when we go?"
I hope it's something quiet and minor and peaceful and slow.
As we float out into the ether, into the everlasting arms,
I hope we don't hear Marley's chains we forged in life.
Because the chains I've been hearing now for most of my life.
There's a lot to unpack in that particular statement.
Yeah.
That feels so personal for me because it's like,
I think so many people relate to this,
which is like, ideally you want Funeral to play the songs that you like.
Right?
It'd be because a lot of the times at Funeral's,
they're playing like, I went to one recently and it was like,
church music, which is like fine, but it was like kind of like,
praise church music and it's not necessarily the vibe.
And I think about the songs that I really enjoy now
and the songs that I would want to be played when I'm gone and being like,
yeah, I would want it to be quiet and minor and peaceful and slow.
I also just love the Dickens thing here because it's like,
when I was a kid, I watched the, you mentioned them up, it's earlier.
I watched them up.
It's Christmas Carol growing up.
Absolutely.
Yeah, the Marley.
Marley, Marley.
And that like, when you're a kid, that hit me so,
like it's so scary.
That scene is so scary and it's meant to be.
Yeah, absolutely.
Especially the children and being like,
yet that was just such a big part of my childhood of thinking about how
stinginess and like self-servingness like forges these chains on you
that like follow you into the afterlife and that can just be pulled on you
as soon as you get into the afterlife.
I'm like, oh, yeah, oh no.
It's nice that that classic reference is still alive today in this music.
I caught that right away.
That was a really visual reference.
Yeah, absolutely.
Well, thanks to the Muppets and also thanks to
there's Will Ferrell and Ryan Reynolds just did a take.
It came out like last year.
It was also pretty good and they have a good, they have a good Marley scene.
It's a lot less scary, so that's a little less good.
But yeah, I just think it's really hard to balance talking about death in songs
with like just like having a bang or song and having it actually be able to touch on and make
you like float around the topic of death.
And my read of this scenario is someone who is the same age as Brian Fowent,
someone who is the same age as him dies and him like singing this song to that person.
Apparently it was a fellow member of the New Jersey music
scene named Zach Finch who died in a car accident in 2007.
And event influenced several songs on this album.
Because death and reflection is a recurring theme through many of these songs.
Yeah, yeah.
Decisions what happens after did you live a good life? Will you be remembered?
All of those things happen in cars. A lot of references to cars.
A lot of Reynolds hits cars.
And radios.
It was great how he did mesh all that together in a very beautifully flowing album.
Yeah.
Because similar to you when I listened to it, you mentioned you were playing video games and just
it was in the background and then it kind of hit you. And it was kind of the same for me.
I had it playing several times and I was digging the music.
Sotically, this is good. This is like if the killers Jim Blossom's and Bruce Springsteen had a baby.
This is pretty good. I like it.
Yeah.
Should have stood a long time ago.
And then as I do with a lot of these albums, I just repeat listens and then I start
zeroing in on these lyrics.
And what the narrator is trying to say.
And it's very poetic and very honest.
Authentic. That's the word I'm looking for.
You could tell that this is authentic from the guy's soul.
It really is.
Yeah.
Yeah, it's very interesting how I mean there's really good lyrics on its own.
But I think this this album also taught me a younger age like how important it is to reference
things that are already in the public consciousness.
Because when you reference those things, you have an alleyway like directly into whatever that
means for that person.
So like there's just so many literary references where like great expectations, you like have
a set you're like, oh, I remember that.
Dickens right off the bat.
Yeah.
So just like the importance of touching nostalgia as a tool to like get to people's hearts so that you
can actually like speak to their hearts a little bit easier.
Well, there's also a million musical references throughout the whole thing from from spring
steam to Tom Petty to Bob Seeger and Elvis and counting pros.
Obviously Miles Davis.
Yeah.
Oh, it's redding and Tom weights.
There's just there's a million of them in there and it's it's great how he weaves that in there
and it's almost like a love letter to the music that he grew up with that shaped in.
Yeah.
Yeah, absolutely.
I was just on a Bruce Springsteen centered podcast and we got to talk about big ass light anthem
as well as they're like, yeah, I mean, because this guy is really pulling from a lot of Bruce
Springsteen.
Yeah, lots of springs.
Yeah, but apparently they opened for some festivals and springsteen joined them on stage.
Yeah, I don't remember which tracks, but there was some some stage sharing there which is pretty
cool of Bruce.
Yeah, that's the dream.
When you were listening through to it, what was it's like your your first song that you were like,
oh, I really want to keep listening to this one or like dig into this one more.
Oh, film noir.
Film noir.
Interesting.
Why?
Let me scroll down to my notes on that one.
It's a bit of a breather.
It's track five.
It track five is almost like always a turning point on an album tracks five and six usually are,
which has been my I'm not saying always.
I'm just saying of all the albums we've done on this show that's always been the pattern.
And the albums that are brought to the show are the cream of the crop.
You know, no one's bringing duds to this show.
They're all great albums.
Right.
Track five is just kind of a turning point.
And this one is the the pace stalls for a second and it has a different sort of intro.
And then it builds back up.
But I like the lyrics of it.
I like the concept and I have a note here.
Great line, but nobody never going to tell you the way.
You got to figure it out.
Boys is the stuff of the rain.
Yeah.
I like that line a lot.
Yeah.
They're like actually from it.
Well, we can start at the beginning of the tracks and see how,
because one of my questions is how do you listen to it?
Do you go all the way through or do you skip around?
Oh, I listen to this album all the way through just like,
it's stuck at start to finish that I listen to it again.
But this is very frequently.
I live in Los Angeles, but I do a lot of work in Santa Barbara because I move to Los Angeles
in the last like year and a half.
So I very frequently have this like, it's either an hour and a half drive
or it's like a three hour drive from here to Santa Barbara.
It's very.
So like this album on and there, there are like a couple of others that I'll bounce around with.
But this one I'll just listen to all the way through.
What's really like a cool, because it's very interesting for me to hear what sticks out to you.
Like which lines stick out to you because I come out everything from like a songwriter's
perspective being like, wow, that's fascinating that that category of thing hit my heart so well.
So the phrase at the beginning, I'm all washed out by the side of the road.
I think that's good phrase.
It's like decently poetic.
And then is this broken bones matilda left the note in the rose saying baby on a child?
Like that line is insane to me.
Broken bones matilda left a note in a rose saying baby honey child.
That like one he's giving a nickname to a person like Matilda is now called broken bones Matilda.
It's an amazing nickname for someone.
It's like there's a giant story inside of that nickname.
Yeah.
And it creates a past like within two words.
All of a sudden you have this backstory on a character and then left a note in a rose,
which is like decent.
They gets like it's good and it like it matches the vibe perfectly.
And then saying baby honey child baby honey child right next to each other they all like there's a reason why so many songs say baby all the time.
It's because like it's reassuring to us to like hear it and like and then when we hear honey and when we hear child like
ooh child things are gonna get easier like yeah they do feel reassuring and to have them said one after another it feels so good to be like
oh baby honey child they're like oh yeah it felt like begging to me I mean when you use those terms of
endearmate all at once yeah it's a begging sort of nature you'll please listen to me yeah baby honey child
yeah and I'm trying to remember where there's another really good it might have been in
it at each episode I do I have three to four takeaway tracks that I put in a large playlist music rewind
selects it's on Spotify and my three takeaway tracks were yeah high-loan some track four nice
the film noir and here's looking at you kit oh yeah gosh Miles Davis and the cool was was borderline but
here's look at you kid I just kind of enjoyed that song that's fascinating it's very interesting what
which of these songs are coming after you because it sounds like you would you'll like Brian Fallon as a
solo artist to possibly more than in the gaslight at the back because my wife she was like when she first
listened to this album she was like yeah I really like she she loved here's looking at your kid and
what of that is because his voice is like so tender and he really good at emoting in his lower register
but in a lot of the other songs he just kind of stays at this like top level where he's singing really high
the whole time and I can sense that that is not everybody's vibe but I'm like I'm like all about it but
yeah I would say that like if anybody's looking to get into Brian Fallon gaslight anthem like
here's looking at your kid is just a heartbreak of a song like not only the lyrics but I was playing
the little melody part where it's like what is that what is it as it goes
and then
and then that's like you're like in between yeah between every little like for some course and it's
just so pretty and it's so simple it blows my mind how simple this song is but for me number one I
love this story around it and I don't know the true stories I mean obviously he's talking to
girls from his past yeah as far as you know did gale ever call you know that sort of thing and
he's writing it as if he's a big rock star but he wrote it before he was a big rock star and I love
that aspect of it because he says in there this is a deceit yeah even if that's a lie yeah and that's
and that goes back to the authentic honesty and yeah and one of the themes of reflection you know
he sees thinking back on it but then also musically I love the way it this is a slower song and it
really goes well into the end yeah the backseat I know we're jumping around the album but that's
fine but it just it really cuts into a great album ending banger yeah I mean the backseat is also
insane okay so sticking with here's looking at your kid for a second the line you said like that's
total deceit the next line is but she should have married me and I think it's such a beautiful way
because it's I think another huge thing to take away from this album is like certain phrases could
sound really trite depending on how you set it and the way that he delivers but she should have
married me it's like really gentle and tender and like I think that this song like and that line has
a an analog to it in every stanza so like he's talking about gale in the first verse and he says
and even if that's a lie she should have been me a try and the second one he's talking to a janey
and he says that's total deceit but she should have married me as the brothers won he said that you know
if you had chosen me I would have saying your name through the the halls of the high school or something
oh yeah yeah yeah and through the Hollywood stars and stuff like that yes there's a song out there
by Toby Keith how do you like me now and it's in the same vein but yeah it's completely different
because at that point he already was a star I think so really yeah in the country yeah music sphere
that one was gloating yeah this one is reflection I enjoy this one I mean that that I mean
that the song's fine but I like this one so much better because it just it's it's him really kind of
feel just he's not pining for these girls he's just reflecting back on things that happen
yeah I think it's super relatable in the sense that I think everyone sees themselves
as special in like some particular way and we've all had people look at us and consider us not
special yes reasons x y and z exactly and so like he's really leaning into this idea of like all
these girls like couldn't see that he's actually really brilliant and like I love that it's
that it he uses like varying degrees of how much commitment they should have given him
like she should have at least given me a try like is a really a small level of commitment but it's
really beautifully said and then should have married me as a different one but the delivery of some
of these lines where he says and tell her I spent every night of my youth on the floor bleeding out
from all these wounds okay now I remembered my first back to the nicknames thing great expectation
and so lyrics he has another really great title and great expectations about
grow with blood and yeah here we go and they burned up the diner where I always used to find her
licking young boys blood from her clothes and I learned about the blues from this kitten I knew
her hair was draven and her heart was like a tomb my heart is like a wound that with like the way
these phrases are like speaking to each other of like here's looking at your kids saying like
bleeding out from all these wounds and then like that's such a like you could consider it a call
back to that first song where he's like yeah you know he's talking about this girl that he met who
it's licking young boys blood from her claws that's like a crazy that's like it's such a crazy
poetic line to have poetic is the is the best way I can describe that one yeah yeah and then like
her hair was raven and her heart was like a tomb is just like it just gives you so so much room
to wonder and I think that really something that lets this album shine so much is like you can guess
but you can't know the exact thing that he's pointing to and that space that you're allowed to
wonder allows you to put yourself in it and I was gonna say very relatable you know everyone has
had experiences like almost every single reference he has in these yeah yeah you said your favorites were
was it me by the river's edge was was the third now it was high lonesome high and lonesome
high track for high lonesome oh yeah yeah this one was was also you're very poetic so gravity came
and stole the temple that the boys praised you're getting drinks from the same boys who once bought
you everything and the powder on the bar was just this one time it paints a very clear picture of
again the girl from high school who was the thing but but now she's the one serving drinks at the
bar back home and that that cocaine on the bar was just that one time but yeah it wasn't just that
one time I mean it's it's sad but yeah yeah that's say most people know people like that
visits related you can buy a picture one it's also crazy how cool of a line the phrase I always
kind of sort of wish that I looked like Elvis it's cool because I mean it has a sister line which
is I always kind of sort of wished I was someone else well I took that as a counting crores reference
oh you did yeah from from round here the song round here Maria came from Nashville with a suitcase
in her hand says she wants to meet a boy who looks like Elvis oh wow so I took that as a counting
crores call back that probably is straight that yeah all right yeah but I mean it ain't high
loans to me he talks about Southern accents the 85 Tom Petty song and then goes right into quoting I'm
on fire from springstein it's a that's cool it's yeah that's the way he's able to weave all that in
there I love it yeah that's the you know the rest line right yes it's a good it's a pretty good
song maybe you know the rest yeah walk through the streets with my feet so good wet yeah the feet
so good and wet yeah it's a good tune you know the rest something like that yeah yeah well that's
good to know counting crows okay I need those and the counting crows then is is what it is yeah I think
that's off recovering satellites great album yeah I'm so shot with three I'm but I'm very I'm very
pleased or you were expecting the like like the first you know tracks one two and three I assume
which are all great tracks don't get me wrong I'm not saying that those I just those the takeaway
ones that I wanted to put on a separate playlist were those three I love it I love it yeah I think
come there with you with yours looking at you kid I feel so think probably the back seat and
a 59 sound are probably gonna be my my choices there again certain phrases you don't really know
why they get stuck in your head but like this is one of those were like I'll find myself very
frequent like coming back to the line the end in the back seats we just try to find some room
for our knees and that's like a very uh that's the note I made was that line yeah it's just a good
cramped vibe of a line yeah it to me it was the the guy that's in the middle he's he's not a kid
anymore but he's not adult enough to be in the front seat he's stuck in the back seat but he's running
out of room he's in the middle yeah yeah and that's a great way to describe it the knees the comment
and then he says in the back seat we need to find some room to breathe I just think he's so good at
opening songs like the the instrumentation of this song it starts off you said it was it was after
here's looking at you kid yeah in the track list yeah yeah and then so it finishes here's
looking at you kid and it's like don the don the here's looking that you kid and then it's quiet
and then all of a sudden it's like and it gets really really really good yeah I think that's like one
of the coolest ways to get into a song um like that goes up with me with like great expectations and
59 sounded by they open the song it is for me it's such a big lesson in like how to make a song
so hype in such a short amount of time you just pick like a really really good riff and then like
build it up with a bunch of electric guitars and bass and then just like crashing with drums and
vocals and it sounds it just sounds so good the he says in the back seats of burnt out cars in the
disenchantment lane the ideal angels twist and turn and ask forgiveness for future mistakes and I
think that that's just like it's so vague and so relatable at the same time what's like forgiveness
for future mistakes is one of those things that I'd like I don't know what he means by burnout cars
though that one escaped me yeah yeah I was thinking about people doing burnouts in cars because like
I like come from a desert town or there's like a ton of space so like there's just a bunch of people
doing like car racing and donuts and like that kind of thing just like happens a lot and I have no
idea where this guy's from but like oh this jersey this is all jersey oh okay yeah head
to Bruce Crankstein you know slammed in there yeah that's a good question yeah I've just been in a lot
of cars as they've been burning out their tires and I was picturing like a car you know burnt to a crisp
it's a lot harder to sit in but it would feel yeah the visual also works yeah I also think of like
another way to interpret that is like you have a bunch of burnouts in the car but I think that's
that's it would be yeah yeah I mean think it back to my childhood where yeah in the 80s where you
could get into a car where smoking was just comments so if you're 19 years old and go over to your
friend's house and the family drives you somewhere and you're like well the car's full of smoke because
the dad's smoking in front it's that's that was kind of weird my family didn't do that so it was just
it was always kind of odd yeah I mean that's probably the more reasonable interpretation of the lyric
just a bunch of because I mean it kind of fits with that's one of those visual memories I have where I
can smell it just sitting here yeah yeah yeah and I think that's a much more reasonable thing to
to have experienced in in this scenario you mentioned song intros and going back to great expectations
a song that is about reflections and did I meet my great expectations that I had for myself
kind of thing yeah but it starts with a skipping record yeah let's so so right off the bat you've
got an audio metaphor of repeating mistakes right off the bat and I thought that was really really
cool that's really cool man I didn't even pick up that that was it's so man you're really doing
your research here I always thought that was just too good electric guitarist that were just doing
well they think they do the needle drop and then it it skips like three times I think and then and
then well then the I think they play it and then I could be completely wrong because I'm not a musician
but just you got the the state like you said the guitar riff do do do do do do do do do do do and they
play it like three times with still that with that skipping sort of record still in the background
and then you know the song takes the left turn of yeah but that intro is feels like skipping
repeating something that's really cool man that's a really good catch man I'm quite impressed with that
I have my moments yeah that's a that's a really good one it's so impressive to me when an album
feel and I don't know like if he thought about that being like a metaphor in and of itself but
man I really hope that he did because that's that'd be such a cool such a cool thing yeah I mean
I just might be reading way too much into it that's that's also true but that's the way I heard it
I would hope not the first time again this is on repeated listens once I had really dove into
the lyrics and then he listened to it again and you just catch different new things which it's
cool to have an album where every time you listen to a year you grab it on to something new yeah
absolutely yeah what's really interesting for this as like as a songwriter is like I continue to
as my ear continues to grow and like learn how to like differentiate certain things like
this is the album that I go to when I'm like learning about drum patterns is like
the like anytime I like start learning like what another instrument sounds like I'm like I always come
back to this thing to try and parse out like all the different parts and there was where's one
cassanova baby had the nice drum intro on it my notice live in the blue collar life while trying to
build a band and be with the girl on the casserole he's the cassanova but not really he's faking it yeah
this is another cool background vocals track as well the oh no I'm mixing this up
is the I think so yeah yeah yeah I like this one as like such a break from the other ones like
this one feels happier to me yeah like the just overall the chorus that oh my my Virginia we could
run all night it feels a lot dance here compared to the other ones which are like kind of heavy
subject matters this is like a lot sweeter a lot more light harder yeah this is it's him
live his life trying to get the girl yeah that's similar to I think to the one prefer the patient
pharis wheel with this kind of just live in the moment yeah what are the things are you typically
listening for when you're listening so intensely to an album this is I'm getting a a lesson in
like how to listen to an album specifically because I'm listening to it as like a I feel like
you're really studying these things but in a very different way I do for the show but this yeah
I probably really was the target audience for this album in 2008 I think I came out 2008 all right
yeah 2008 I'm surprised that I missed it but that was a bit of a transition year for me from
one life to the next and you know jobs and stuff like that traveling a lot so I kind of missed
a whole music scene that year and it's a shame because this really wasn't excellent album it hits me
in my sweet spot because his influences are what I regularly listen to yeah I listen to a ton of
Tom petty I listen to a lot of spring steam Tom weights and Otis Redding Bob Seeger Elvis Costello
I listen to all that and then I think I mentioned earlier that they reminded me a lot of the killers
love the killers yeah and I listen to a lot of them in you know 050607 you know the during their
heyday and yeah this unfortunately blew right by me I would have lashed onto this pretty quickly
had I heard it then yeah and really the authenticity of his vocals with the lyrics I mean with the
if someone was singing these lyrics without that honesty behind it it wouldn't work yeah
anything more you want to mention on the 59th song oh yeah okay this is the one with the fun
background vocals that I was thinking it's funny that there's a song called like that
in both like a Ferris wheel when I listen to this one I always like see myself like on a roller coaster
with my hands up because there's a there's like this really fun chorus of like you in your hot
tops sneakers and you see like that too yeah yeah but in the background it's like this one's just
like another one of those feel good I think this album does a good job of breaking up the like
really heavy topics with some feel good songs and I think this is definitely one of those yeah do
have other things to say about the album one one note I have on old white Lincoln and then into high
lonesome was that you tracks one through four are perpetual motion forward it doesn't stop you
know once once you get past the the skipping record of those those few notes it goes and goes and goes
and and then when you throw the lyrics in there it's almost like the way I visualized it is
a guy moving forward through life and making choices in all of these songs are him looking back
when he can't stop to see if the choices were correct or not yeah and it comes to a stop at film
the war yeah I'm not saying it's a concept album just saying sonically that's how the music
flowed for me and I like that and the lyrics matched the pace of the album in that first half really
well over that whole theme of reflection and did I make the right choices yeah I'm trying to think
about closing statements for this record of things that I love about it I think it does such a good
job like it's interesting that you're using the word reflections because I think about reflections as
like introspection and I do think there's like a ton of introspection here but I feel a bunch of like
and the reflections are certainly involved in this but I just feel like a ton of sadness one word
I didn't use was regret so he's reflecting but he's not saying that I made the bad decision because
as we all know in life there's really is no right or wrong decision most of the time it's just a
decision so yeah could things have happened differently sure if gale could have called sure things
would have gone differently for him you know but things happen and he lived his life the best he could
you know with the decisions he made yeah and I think that that's good I think that I feel like I
really resonate with is this feeling of like looking back and no it's not regret but it is
wonder again in the 59 song he's asking like did you hear the rattling chains in the hospital walls
meaning like like he's looking back at his past not knowing whether it's like good or bad he's
looking at himself now not knowing if it's good or bad he doesn't know what the future is going to
hold what are it be like eternal damnation or like embrace into the everlasting arms you know like
that I think is like this very interesting through line of like just looking back and not having
an answer to that being very unsettling and I think that that's like something that makes me feel
very seen as I listen to the record I think that's how a lot of people like look back and retrospect
was just like a lot of us say like oh I don't regret anything in my past me like no I don't regret
my past because it brought me here and like I wouldn't trade the things that I have here but I don't
know that I did my best and I don't know that I'm good and so I live with this ambiguity it's scary
and that goes back to it's very relatable yeah everybody can listen to this and imprint it on their
own lives and and have the same sort of you know reflective nature yes also like starting out with
with great expectations as like the counter to that of being like you like start off with life with
these great expectations for what you're going to be and then you are what you are and then you
have to deal with that difference yeah whatever whatever your expectation was and I just think this
also held holds like morning that pretty well so moving on from 59 sound what would be on your short
list so three to five albums that maybe you could have spoken about ones that meet a lot to you
we're not gonna dive deep into them just use the short list ones that you may have brought to the tip
okay well this was also on I think one of your like promo things but the Lincoln Park hybrid theory
is a big one it just based off of when I was young several people have wanted to talk about that one
that's it's a popular yeah yeah that's I mean it's for a good reason it's defining the
question that one came out right at the right time and yeah I was 20 yeah as it was perfect yeah I mean
I was in like elementary school and it was still perfect like I would it's amazing how much
how much angst someone in the suburbs can have it such a yeah okay and my thinking the stranger
is out I'm thinking Billy Joel Billy Joel the stranger oh it's my favorite Billy Joel album yeah
the scenes from a Italian restaurant continues to be like something that I continue to go back to old
time there's a Randy Newman album called dark matter and that I continue to come back to he put
that out in like 2016 and it has some of the most heartbreaking songs the like if you're into
here's looking at you kid then I would go to Randy Newman's Randy Newman like like short people
are Randy Newman the yeah yeah oh yeah you're the you're the first person to bring of Randy Newman on
this podcast so yeah his album dark matter has two songs one is called she chose me and another one
called wandering boy and that those are just brutal listens but like it's so so beautiful and
interesting all I know of Randy Newman are the songs for movies yeah like the beginning of major
league is the first thing that pops into my head when you mention Randy Newman yeah he none of these
songs got put into any movies which is a bummer because these are like these are really really
good I mean it's all it's no short people I'll tell you that there's nothing there's probably like
some pop punk emo kind of stuff like a data remembers okay maybe like for those who have heart or
something which is one of their early albums that's like something for me to run to
I don't know where they're going it's a hard question and I love the answer it's always great when
I get some interesting answers on that one yeah because there's again there's like so many songs
that people like but when it comes to like I'll like what what are the things that you put on oh
the over the garden wall soundtrack that's like that it's a cartoon network show that's like one
of my biggest inspiration kind of music on that all it really ranges because it's it's like a
soundtrack to the show it was made by Cartoon Network in like the 2000 I don't know we'll call
the 2010s and it's a 10 episode cartoon network series each episode is eight minutes it feels very
like brothers grim kind of stories but none of these stories you would have heard they just feel
familiar because they use a lot of Americana and so there's a ton of there's like ragtime kind of
stuff okay they get like Jack Jones and Tom weights to be on it oh no kid Elijah Wood is the like
lead voice I know nothing of this cartoon I might have to go watch this so like my music teacher is the
composer for that sounds cool and so when I moved to Los Angeles I was like I was like well I've been
in love with this for like eight years now how about I like try and reach out to this person see if
this person's willing to teach me and he's like yeah I live 15 minutes for me and so it's like
crazy that's awesome yes I've been able to like study with that guy and he's actually featured on
the record that I'm putting out in October well I mean let's just lead right into that I mean tell
our listeners what you do what you got out there and what's next for you yeah gosh I can't believe
I didn't say any bony bear records or any the national records or any hosier records I'm the
worst or any shaky graze records the national just released two singles today actually oh really
all right out of nowhere yeah I need to they just released an album too so hey don't quote me on
that but they might not be on the album oh really or maybe they are just I don't know don't yeah don't
quote me on that but uh gotcha my friends said it to me space invader and alphabet city both released
today nice yeah so hosier's debut EP behamas his brown album earth tones these are all in there as well
nah nah now that you've asked me about my my music I'm like oh yeah I listen to these people all the
time okay yeah I an artist and I make music and now I'm transitioning from thinking of all these
other artists toward my own music I'm in the process of finishing my first full length record
we just raised uh $15,000 in about two months to make this and it's going well the
first single comes out an hour and a half from now so by the time this is coming out absolutely it's
out that her song is called is called drugs the second single is called rocket and yeah and
though the whole album is called lake and it's a it's a ten song album about very similarly 59 sound
about death and reflection and we experienced a the death of a of a family member in this last year
and um this was also the year that I had intended kind of separately that this was going to be the year
that I make a full length record and so it just turned out that like a lot of the processing of
that grief showed up in this album and that was not what I had intended it's not when you make a
record you don't hope that it's sad at all that's not the goal to be like oh yeah but the reason why I
pull on the 15 sound so constantly is because it's this reminder I mean and for that reason like
on that same note like hybrid theory and like a lot of these big records the reason why they're
connecting with you is because they're dealing with really hard concepts you're actually watching
someone struggle through something but the music is so good that it's
needed pick up like it it's approachable because of the good music and if you want to engage with
what's actually being said there's like a lot of depth to be plumbing there and it's really good
for me to know that some of my favorite records are actually grappling with hard things and that's
kind of what this last year has been been looking like so all tracks written by you all that's
written by me these are written basically November through March of like 2022 through 2023
one of the songs called loretta and it's those that whole chord structure for that song was
written by the same guy who did over the garden wall okay and he's playing piano on like a lot of
the songs as well and so it's his brother who's also in that same band he's like playing a lot of the
horns and so yeah it's been cool to go from like a fanboy to like hiring the people who have been
inspiring you for years and yeah now I'm just nudging little files in my bedroom all day just like
and like all right and are you released that on like like bandcamp a Spotify and everything it'll
be on bandcamp as well okay I'll be linking the bandcamp stuff to you in the show notes I know
the bandcamp gives the best kick back to the artist it's true yeah and they have bandcamp Fridays where
they give 100% to the artists which is crazy yeah so use bandcamp when you check out Conor's music
absolutely yeah so that's that record that's awesome I'm looking forward to that album I want to
dive into that one when it comes out yeah now that I know that people are looking with toward albums
of fine-toothed coms like you I'm gonna be a lot more careful about where I put my songs in the
track list I had a previous guest that he likes to rearrange tracks in his head it's it's an exercise
he does where he yeah if I were to produce a album where would I put these tracks and it was something
I had never thought of before it's it's in it's in yeah a neat exercise because it me and my friends
were music eeks and we like to talk about you know best album will put her best album clothes
your best you know to best track five you know that that's sort of thing so the flow of an album and where
it's where songs lie is something that is going through my head when I listen to an album why is
this album here because that was intentional it's not like the old days of you know a kiss album where
well we need a filler just throw something in there so that we can not have to have dead air on the
eight track those days are gone it's intentional yeah yeah it's fascinating like as I began to like
workshop this album and like show off all of these songs to people and being like what do you think
what should change should I cut any of these and even things like the song titles like I had a
buddy look at the song titles he was like seven of these are one word titles you should make them
all one word titles you like I don't think that like multiple word titles make it look more intentional
and he was like I think it'd be really cool if these were all like really short and he was like I
think they think they could all work that was like actually when I do reduce these word counts
they're kind of better titles that's that's the good point yeah yeah yeah the
tensionality there I do think especially with AI being this like really big buzz word that everyone's
thinking about everybody's worried that like someone is going to be phoning it in like maybe my
album art was done by AI or maybe like the drums were done by and I just want there to be like
intentionality in every single place and I want there to be like caring human labor in all the
places because like that's really with all of this art we're really hoping to like connect with people
and like see people so yeah like involving like even the album art got like my buddy that I play
pickle ball with who's like a fine artist like got him to like do a like legit acrylic painting
oh I asked yeah which I'm gonna be able to like photograph so I'm gonna be like yeah so they
there gets to be so much more intentionality this time around and I I just feel really grateful
for that and it makes me respect other people's intentionality so much more or I'm like man I like the
the track skipping thing at the beginning of great expectations of like that's the level of
intentionality you would want out of an album so number one I'm a big pink flight fan so I've been
diving into albums of that level of intentionality I'm the dark side in the wall and animals you know
since high school but one album of recent that we did on the show quadriffinia kind of blew my mind
and yeah yeah the who oh yeah I mean it was a mega episode me and my my friend Luke we talked about
it for over two hours because it's it's a double album concept album and it was one that still the
best album closer I'm gonna say right now love rain over me it's perfect and if you get a chance to
dive into quadriffinia it'll probably change your life a little bit and then you're gonna listen to my
episode after you do that absolutely we break it down we break it out because there's a lot in there
but it's not just telling the cause of story it's literally a story about a dude with four
personalities in his head and there's like motifs throughout the entire thing that he towns and puts
in there and you hear them in different ears well during you know these it's just amazing it's really
amazing and it's so intelligent I love it yeah and that's that's the kind of album that I could
probably list to right now and then do another two hours with with Luke diving back into it
wow so I highly recommend that one as far as it's one's like that that are making me more aware
to the little things again yeah that's really neat that's so cool when you think about the number of
people who have probably listened to that album and the number of people who are picking up on that
like it's probably relatively few like who are picking up on all those little motifs and I think
that's such a cool way to have a relationship with an artist of being like you know what everybody
might pick up on like XYZ but like when you were making this like super minute thing and you're
like you know what probably no one's gonna care and then you did it anyway you did it literally for
like me and like a couple other hundred people now is it like which is really cool like you you are
that person that they actually wrote that line for well I would say Luke is the one they wrote the
line for I'll give you the credit I love a good just all out rock it out like like Van Halen one
eight tracks made in 1978 is just boom boom boom boom boom sex drugs and rock and roll yeah rock on
I mean those albums are great too but I do love a good intellectual album that you can listen to
repeatedly and you find new things almost every time yeah absolutely that's great well Connor I'd
like to thank you for your time today it was a pleasure to sit and talk with you about the 59th
sound by the gaslight anthem yeah this was a pleasure thanks so much for having me find Connor on
Instagram I know are you on Twitter or in the ulcer Instagram TikTok Facebook YouTube
all right which didn't what your Instagram handle on there Connor Turland and co n and ERCHERLND
give him a follow on there after you follow music rewind and thank you for listening to music rewind
a podcast from the Cedereal Media Group as I always say listen to the full album until next time