June 11, 2024 • 46 mins
Just 2 more episodes left of Season 2! This episode we have:
Morgan Stambaugh:
Musician, videographer, audio engineer, and an MRT graduate of Lebanon Valley College. Morgan is the Production Manager for the annual CPMAs & Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony. Morgan is also a member of Cold Spring Union, an Americana/Country/Rock band.
https://www.facebook.com/coldspringunion
&
Beautiful Divide:
A musical duo from Central PA featuring Rachel Robison on vocals and Tony Pichler on drums. Winner of Best Duo/Trio at the 2024 CPMAs.
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100087425067940
https://www.youtube.com/@beautiful_divide
@beautiful_divide
You can find out more about the CPMHOF @ https://cpmhof.com/
Brought to you by Darker with Daniel @ Studio 3.
http://darkerwithdaniel.com/
All media requests: thecpmpodcast@gmail.com
Want to be on an episode of the CPMP? For all considerations please fill out a form @ https://cpmhof.com/guest-consideration
Join us back here or on your favorite audio streaming platform every other week for more content.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Central Pennsylvania Music
Podcast Tonight Morgan Stambaughand Beautiful Divide.
This episode is sponsored byEnglewood Brewing.
And now your hosts, daniel Kimeand Alan McCutcheon.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Welcome to the Central Pennsylvania Music
Podcast.
I'm your host, daniel, comingup.
We have Morgan Stambol andBeautiful Divide.
Stay tuned, we're here withMorgan Stambol.
Morgan, thank you so much forcoming on the show tonight.
Yeah, thanks for having me, ofcourse.
So I guess the big thing totalk about is you are the
production manager for theCentral Pennsylvania Music
Awards, so how did you getinvolved in that?
(00:52):
Tell us a little bit more aboutyour role and what you do.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
Sure.
So I got involved with it.
When Brandon approached me withthe idea and you know he's had
this idea for years, um, and itjust been kind of sitting in the
back of his brain.
And then one day he's like no,I want to do this, I want to
make it a thing.
Uh, you know, I want to put ona ceremony it's like what are
(01:18):
you talking about?
Yeah, like that, that doesn'tmake any sense to me.
And he said well, I might needsome help with the production.
I was like well, look, if thisever comes to fruition, sure,
yeah, like, whatever you need,man, I'll help you out, because
I've been buddies with him for along time.
We played together in ColdSpring Union.
Him and I went to collegetogether and high school
(01:43):
together, played in a couplebands throughout high school and
college, like known the dudefor a long time yeah, you got a
little history with them yeahyeah um and yeah, as time went
on, it became very apparent thatit was going to happen.
So, uh, yeah, I said I'd step inand help them.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
You know, kind of wrangle, all the production side
of things so what was that likewhenever he finally came to you
and was like hey, morgan, we'redoing this.
Yeah, I said I'd step in andhelp them.
You know kind of wrangle, allthe production side of things.
So what was that like wheneverhe finally came to you and was
like, hey, morgan, we're doingthis.
What was your?
Speaker 3 (02:12):
reaction Like okay, what's next for you?
Then?
Yeah, for me it's okay.
And you know, my mind went, youknow, back into live event mode
and just you know, ask thebasic question.
So like when is it?
Where is the basic question?
So like when is?
Speaker 2 (02:27):
it?
Where is it?
Speaker 3 (02:27):
what all is going to be happening and you know how
many people, so that I can startplanning accordingly and make
sure that I have the rightpeople involved, gotcha so the
first year it really took off.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
So I mean, what was it?
What was the expectation?
Like knowing, like, oh my gosh,it's the first year and you got
what?
Speaker 3 (02:41):
four, four hundred people the first year was it?
Yeah, there were four.
I mean the first year.
And you got what?
400 people.
The first year was it?
Yeah, there were four.
I mean the first year we had itat the Whitaker Center first
two years.
Yeah, and yeah, the first yearwas not sold out, but I mean it
was full and I'm pretty sureI've told Brandon this at some
(03:01):
point, but I it was way morefull than I certainly expected
it to be, okay.
Um, because I still, I honestlystill had my doubts with, like
all right, cool, we're havingawards and people are gonna pay
to show up to come see this.
But, um, I mean, it reallyshowed, and certainly has showed
over the years as, as the eventcontinues to grow and grow, how
(03:24):
strong the local music scene is, uh, which is fantastic, yeah
yeah, I mean it's crazy.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
I mean this year, uh, I believe it, we're, you know,
looking at over 1400 people sofar, or something like that.
So over a thousand people morethan the first year.
Um, so I mean, you said there'smore people than you were
expecting.
Was there any panic with thator anything?
Or you're just like nah, I gotgot years of experience, we got
this oh, no.
Speaker 3 (03:50):
Like as far as the event itself, no, uh, yeah, no
panic, no worries on my sidethere.
Um, I was just surprised to seethat many people I was
expecting you know.
Oh, there's gonna be 20 or 30people that show up.
Yeah, it was expecting you know.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
Oh, there's going to be 20 or 30 people that show up.
Speaker 3 (04:05):
Yeah, it's something new, you know, something brand
new and something that hadn'tbeen done in the, in the area
before.
So, like you, don't know whatthe market for that sort of
thing is, the viability of it.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
Yeah, I would say it was a good turnout.
Speaker 3 (04:16):
Yeah, that was a great turnout, and I mean from a
production standpoint.
I had no, no worries on that.
I contacted some of my buddiesthat still work at Anderson
Audio, which is a company that Iworked for for many years, and
you know they did production forus, so I had no worries.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
That's good.
So can you kind of give us aninside, behind-the-scenes idea
of what it's like to be theproduction manager for an event
this big, as it's grown over theyears?
What are maybe some someinformation that people wouldn't
know or think of running anevent like this?
Speaker 3 (04:53):
well, I think most people don't understand or
really have a good concept ofwhat happens backstage kind of
period, whether it's at an awardshow event like this, you know,
which I'd consider a corporateevent.
Or whether it's at an awardshow event like this, you know,
which I'd consider a corporateevent.
Or whether it's backstage at arock concert, um, you know, or
even at, uh, you know, highschool, high school theater play
(05:13):
yeah, um, there's always somuch that happens behind the
scenes and the larger the showgets, then the more that happens
back there.
The more different departmentsI'll call it that you have to
deal with.
So we're not deal with butorganize.
So for for our events I meanit's lighting and as we
(05:44):
sometimes call it, with all thedifferent presenters coming up,
everyone coming out from theaudience.
So there's a lot of planningand rehearsing that goes into
make sure that it runs smoothlyand starts on time but, more
importantly, ends on time.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
Yeah, I mean, there's a lot of variables, a whole lot
of moving parts to somethinglike this, so let's maybe go
back a little bit further.
How did you get started intothe production in the beginning?
Is this something you wanted todo since you were a kid, or
just something that you kind ofgrew a love for from being a
musician over the years?
Speaker 3 (06:21):
So a little bit of both.
I was actually thinking aboutthis randomly the other day, um,
and I've always enjoyed kind ofbuilding stuff, putting stuff
together like doing somethingwith my hands and seeing a
tangible result of it, yeah, um,and I've always had, uh, an
incredible love for music of ofall kinds.
(06:44):
So the you know to me that liveevent industry when when I
pursued it was a natural fitbecause it blended the two
things you know that I enjoy themost together yeah um, it got
into it.
(07:04):
I.
I went to college for musicrecording.
So I mean, at the time when Istarted college I was, you know,
had all the intent of, oh, I'lljust go work in a studio
Because I loved playing music, Iloved recording music, so you
wanted to be like a soundengineer, basically.
Yeah, like a studio soundengineer, be like a sound
(07:28):
engineer basically, yeah, like astudio sound engineer.
Um, as I started to go throughcollege, that's when the digital
age and recording or digitalasian music period happened.
So you know, I think it was mybetween my freshman and
sophomore year you saw, all thebig studios started to close.
So the hit factory in new yorkuh, muscle shoals.
Um, all all those big studiosstarted to close.
So the hit factory in New Yorkuh, muscle shoals.
Um, all all of those big namestudios that, as aspiring
(07:49):
engineers like you learn, closetheir doors.
Very small job market.
So I thought, okay, well, I'llalso get a degree in bass
performance, because I'm a bassplayer and you know, so that
that'd be my backup.
Um, and then, honestly, itwasn't until we had taken
internship senior year and oneof my buddies had interned with
(08:11):
a company called Anderson audiothe semester before and he's
like well, hey, if you'relooking for an internship, give
these guys a shot.
Uh, it was pretty cool.
Uh, so, luckily enough, theyaccepted me as their intern, um,
as an intern my spring semester, senior year, and then was
immediately offered a job andtook it and was there for a long
(08:36):
time.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
Wow, that's awesome, yeah, I mean, it seems like it
really worked in your favor,though.
You really grew a passion forthe production production side
of it, and that's that's awesome.
So what, what do you see in thefuture for you doing production
?
Do you see yourself maybe doingmore outside of the hall of
fame, or do you have any future?
You know, I guess you knowdreams that you want to work on
(08:57):
with this, or I don't even knowwhere to put forward sorry, no,
I mean dreams.
Speaker 3 (09:01):
As far as production goes, not not necessarily um.
In my career, I mean stillfreelance, yeah, um, and in my
career, but most most especiallywhen I was at anderson audio, I
mean I had the opportunity todo an awful lot of very unique,
very cool things.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
Um, yeah I mean you travel, travel the country for
years.
Right, doing that, doing that.
Speaker 3 (09:24):
Yeah, uh, primarily East coast base, but I mean we
did shows in California, we didshows in Florida and Maine, I
mean.
So we were, we were kind ofkind of all over the place, Um.
So no, I don't know dreams uhfor anything bigger than that,
but I I do want to continuedoing it.
(09:45):
Yeah, um.
So there's still, there's still.
I still keep in contact withsome, uh, some of the companies
in the area and I'll getrandomly get called to help
support a gig.
So a couple of times a year Istill get to go out and you know
, and do live production, um,which you know, I appreciate the
opportunity to still be able todo it.
Speaker 2 (10:06):
Yeah, no, that's awesome.
So when you were working forAnderson, is there any crazy
stories you got or anything fromfrom those days of being out
there on the road?
Speaker 3 (10:15):
Oh man, um yeah, there's, there's quite a few, um
, just which?
Speaker 2 (10:22):
ones.
Do you want to say?
Speaker 3 (10:25):
Oh man, yeah, well, yeah.
Which ones do I want to say?
Oh man, yeah, well, yeah.
Which ones do I want to saywhich?
Uh, there are certainly acouple that you know probably
shouldn't be told publiclytotally understandable.
Got a couple on my end um whatwas your favorite part so on the
on the rare occasion when weactually would get to mix,
(10:46):
because that's what we allwanted to do.
But I think, something that Ilearned very quickly and
something that unless you're inthe industry, you don't
understand Like very few guysactually get to stand there and
mix on the console.
That's a fairly prestigious jobin most situations and that's
(11:08):
all they do In the regionalsound company.
Maybe we'd get the chance tomix at some festivals, but most
of the time we were justbringing gear to support other
acts, gotcha, so there wasn't awhole lot of mix time.
So any time that I got to mixwas was cool.
Um did meet some, met a lot ofpeople.
(11:34):
Uh, the unspoken rule is youdon't talk to them like, pretend
they're not famous people.
yeah, don't be fanboying overyour favorite artist, yeah so.
So I mean there were a coupletimes that, like I personally
got starstruck.
One was doing support for aMotorhead show, okay, and I was
taking subwoofers out at the endof the night and Lemmy held the
(11:56):
door for me, so like I had aquick back and forth with him,
back and forth with him, um, solike one of one of my bass icons
heroes, you know, held a doorfor me and I got to say thank
you to him.
Speaker 2 (12:12):
Like that was pretty cool.
Yeah, it sounds, and you know,maybe somebody doesn't know
motorhead or hasn't, you know,been a musician?
You don't know motorhead?
Well, I guess, uh, that's good,that's a good point, but I mean
it's.
Speaker 3 (12:21):
It's crazy though, because that little experience
right there, I bet you were justlike buzzing for hours after
that just like oh dude, for days, I mean, and still, I mean, I
still, I still buzz about that,yeah, yeah it's crazy.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
I mean just meeting one of your heroes it's a really
cool experience.
Speaker 3 (12:35):
Yeah, um, I wouldn't say I met him.
I mean I I saw and worked veryclose next to you know proximity
, uh, to stevie wonder, that'sawesome.
Yeah, I mean he didn't see me,obviously, um, but that was,
that was a jaw-dropping momentfor me, the show that he was
(12:59):
doing.
I was helping tech monitors, soI was near the monitor console
the whole time and Stevie'sengineer would say the words
that Stevie was going to singnext, like into his in-ears.
So as Stevie's playing thepiano, he's hearing like the
next line in his ears From hisengineer, yeah, from his
(13:22):
engineer, as he's singing thecurrent ones like what?
Yeah, that's, that would throwme off.
Dude, blew my mind.
So I mean, obviously I had theutmost respect for stevie wonder
prior to actually getting tosee him perform in person in
that kind of situation, butdude's on another level, that's
is he like running like a clicktimer with that as well?
Speaker 2 (13:44):
No, no, no.
So what's the premise of having?
I mean, I assume he knows hisown lyrics to his song.
I mean, is it his method ofkeeping him on time?
Speaker 3 (13:55):
No, I mean it might, so I don't.
I guess I don't know the answerto that specifically.
My assumption would be that hemay not always remember all the
words.
Assumption would be that he maynot always remember all the
words.
There's a lot of people thatyou wouldn't think that are
fantastic singers, but justcan't necessarily remember all
the words to their own songs Imean, I guess when you have a
(14:16):
couple hundred or a hundred, youknow, maybe once in a while
they blend together brianjohnson of acdc has always used
teleprompters.
Speaker 2 (14:24):
Really yeah.
Speaker 3 (14:25):
That's actually something I didn't know, yeah,
so my assumption was that Steviejust couldn't remember all the
words, but obviously, since hecan't see, the only other way to
get them is through his ears.
Speaker 2 (14:34):
Yeah, I mean, I guess that helps focus on it too.
Yeah, man.
So you've traveled all over theworld.
You've been doing productionfor well over a decade.
How long have you been doingproduction for?
Speaker 3 (14:45):
Or how long were you doing?
Speaker 2 (14:46):
Well, almost professionally, I'd say 17 years
, so almost two decades of doinglive production.
Speaker 3 (14:54):
Yeah, not professionally, like including
not professional.
We'll call it 20 years Allright Call it.
Speaker 2 (14:59):
20 years of production.
You've traveled, you've met alot of bands, you've done a lot
of different things within themusic community.
Yep, what do you think?
What makes Central Pennsylvaniaso special?
I mean, of course, we have aHall of Fame for a reason.
What do you think is going on?
I mean, a lot of people say, oh, it's in the water.
What's your take?
Speaker 3 (15:17):
on it.
I think you could say it's inthe water.
I mean, what I've been seeingover these last handful of years
is a little bit of a revivalmovement of the Central
Pennsylvania music scene.
The music scene around hereused to be huge and it went away
(15:40):
, but the spirit of it I don'tthink has gone away.
Speaker 1 (15:43):
Yeah, I don't think so.
Speaker 3 (15:44):
So there is something special about this area.
There's a lot of differentcultures between the different
cities, this area.
There's a lot of differentcultures between the different
cities.
Um, there's still, you know,you get a little bit of that
like appalachia kind of music.
So the diversity of musiciansin the area, I think, is what
makes this this area so special.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
That's a great answer .
I never thought about it thatway.
I mean there was a large amountof diversity in the area and,
like as you said, I mean it'sit's awesome to see that we have
something so special here andyou know, continue to help each
other grow.
It's great to see you know thepositivity coming from the
musician.
Speaker 3 (16:23):
And you really see that in the award ceremony
different categories, becauseeven with as long as the show is
now, we don't always, we're notalways able to capture all of
the different types of musicthat this area has to offer.
Speaker 2 (16:38):
Yeah, I mean, it would be an all day event if you
tried to cover everything.
I mean, it's, it's prettyinsane, man, that's awesome.
Well, that's great.
Thank you so much for your timeand coming on here, man.
Yeah, man, thanks for having me.
Of course, dude, thank you foronce again.
Thank you, so we'll talk to yousoon.
All right, sounds good.
All right, it was great gettingto sit down and talk to Morgan
and getting to know a little bitmore about the production side
(17:00):
to our local music community and, of course, the Central
Pennsylvania Music Awards.
Morgan, thank you so much foryour time and please stay tuned
for Beautiful Divide.
We are here with Rachel andTony of Beautiful Divide.
Thank you two so much forcoming on tonight.
Speaker 5 (17:14):
Thank you for having us, thanks for having us, man,
of course, of course Iappreciate it.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
So Beautiful Divide is a music duo from central
Pennsylvania.
You've been around for abouttwo years now.
Let's kind of start at thebeginning, like I like to do
best.
Tell us how this all startedand where Beautiful Divide came
from.
Speaker 4 (17:35):
Okay, so in years prior to us playing as Beautiful
Divide, Tony and I wereactually in a cover band
together, an acoustic cover bandcalled Scissor Chicks that I
was in for a long time.
We had brought Tony in as ourdrummer, slash percussionist,
and as that developed, I don'teven really know I don't
remember how we got onto thetopic of like kind of moving on
to original music, but I know wegot the idea of what if there
(17:58):
was the challenge of writing asong that was vocals and drums
only?
It was how we wrote our firstsong.
Look Inside actually is kind ofjust.
You know, I would go to Tony'shouse, we would sit and he would
(18:18):
drum, I would come up withrandom things, random bits and
pieces in between the percussion.
And once we moved on toactually recording, it kind of
got introduced the idea of likewell, what if we can elevate
this song by adding somebackground, adding some ambiance
and things like that?
And each song just kind of tookoff from there.
So it's kind of our generalbeginning as far as the music
(18:41):
goes.
Speaker 5 (18:41):
Anyway, Yep, I would agree with that a hundred
percent.
Yeah, when we went to thestudio, as Rachel just mentioned
this, we were working with Gary, gary, gary conahan, who don't
look at me for names.
Speaker 4 (18:55):
You are the no, you are the name captain.
Yeah, minor panic there.
I was like I don't remember anynames ever yeah um, yeah, so
the.
Speaker 5 (19:05):
The initial intention again was to record.
Look inside now.
What, um, we're kind ofskipping over is that it took us
about nine months to write thatfirst song.
There was a lot of back andforth and rewrites, because when
you don't have guitar, youdon't have bass, you don't have
keys, there's a lot of space inthere.
So she and I were trying tofigure out whether it was, you
(19:29):
know, through harmonies with hervocals, me with an extra busy
drum part to fill out the space.
So that way the song from frontto back didn't have like these
open gaps in there.
So it took about nine months toget to the point where we were
ready to actually go in andrecord.
Once we recorded it, we did umreach out and we did have
(19:50):
friends of ours that ended updoing some like keys and synths
and that kind of thing to helpfill it out.
All right, after we recordedthe song, put that out and then
did the video.
That's where it was like,because initially we were just
going to do that one song calleda day, go back to our own
projects.
So we were but the but thereaction we got from everybody
(20:12):
was like, hey, when's the nextsong gonna come out.
We really like this.
This sounds really cool.
And now all of a sudden we werelooking at each other like,
okay, now what are we gonna do?
Speaker 4 (20:21):
so it just kind of took off from there in a very
great way we're like oh well,we're just a singer and a
drummer like how do we make moresongs happen?
Speaker 2 (20:29):
yeah, and just back by popular band.
Speaker 5 (20:32):
all of a sudden, so what we found is that we needed
to find people that writebacking tracks.
And through this whole processI mean I'm kind of jumping
around here, but through thewhole process there are quite a
few people in the industry thatare more than happy to write you
guitar, bass, synth tracks, andthen Rachel goes in, she does
(20:53):
her thing with it, I go in, Icome up with my drum parts, and
so it's actually been incrediblycool and incredibly creative
for us to take what's there andthen put our stamp on it and
turn it into our music you thinkthat's best for your writing.
Speaker 4 (21:12):
dynamic yes, 100, yeah and the fun part too has
been, I mean, so far, we havedifferent people working kind of
on each song too.
Um, as far, as the tracks go.
So from my perspective anyway,like tony does a lot of our like
background work, um, as far asgetting things rolling for the
next song, so he'll kind of justcontact me and be like hey,
(21:34):
here's, here's a song that I hadsomebody write us tracks for.
So for me it's kind of this funlike what's the style going to
be?
Like each song has kind ofproven to be a new style, a new
dynamic, new sounds that presenttheir own challenges, and I
think it's been really funproject creative wise too, for
(21:54):
that, you know, like there's notone sound that we're married to
not yet.
Speaker 5 (21:59):
Yeah, it's still too fresh and too too young, and
we're having fun with that partof it we're like each song, like
okay, well, this is more of aballad.
Speaker 4 (22:06):
Okay, wow, this one turned out to be more rock.
What's this?
You know it's just let's.
Let's see what comes out of it.
Speaker 2 (22:11):
Well, yeah, I mean music's art, and art is abstract
.
So you know, you kind of get todo whatever you want with it
and have your fun.
So do you have any, I guess,maybe ideas of a sound you would
maybe like to isolate in?
Speaker 5 (22:30):
the future or songs that we're getting ready to
record at the end of this monthat atrium audio, definitely have
a softer maybe would that be agood way to describe it um, more
synth and keyboard driven thansay, bend, not break, which we
put out, which had a lot ofguitar in it.
(22:50):
There's also other stuff in thechannel, so to speak.
That is what I consider muchheavier.
We have different definitionsof heavy um, which is very
guitar driven.
So I I don't know if uh onebeing better or worse.
I think it's just you know howwe're going to react to it and
(23:13):
create with it.
It's just, it's an open book atthis point.
Speaker 4 (23:19):
Yeah, I'd be open for anything.
I'd be open for any style.
I don't really have likeanything that I'm like, oh, we
need to do with this type or weneed like, let's, let's see what
comes next.
Yeah, that, let's see whatcomes next?
Speaker 2 (23:29):
yeah, that's awesome.
It sounds like it's workinggreat because you are nominated
for best duo trio this year atthe Central Pennsylvania.
Music Hall of course, best ofluck to you on the awards.
Hopefully you guys get it.
I heard listen to your music.
It's fantabulous, so justescaped me there.
What is the?
My goodness, I'm so sorry.
(23:51):
So is there any plan to maybeexpand in the future?
I know we kind of talked aboutyou like your writing dynamic
currently, with hiring somebodyto do the backtracking and
whatnot.
Do you have any plans for that,or do you maybe want to keep
that, that dynamic, like certainbands?
Do you know?
Um, there's a lot of bands thatuse backtracks and, yeah, I
have no desire to ever.
Speaker 5 (24:13):
Yeah, you want to play guitar.
Speaker 4 (24:16):
Yeah, oh, yeah, right , uh, I can't even play the
tambourine and sing at the sametime so that would be.
I couldn't either it would be ahot mess.
Um yeah, no, I think we justhave been really enjoying how
well we work together.
We communicate really well, Ourcreative process.
Speaker 5 (24:32):
We often seem to be on the same page with stuff kind
of organically, so I don'treally want to mess with that
this has been the mostproductive project that I've
ever been in, and I've been inthis area for a long time in a
lot of bands.
I mean, we've already donethree high-end videos, we've
recorded threeprofessional-level songs, we've
got two more that we're going tobe doing, as I mentioned
(24:54):
already, the websites, the merch, everything.
So it's all you know and, ofcourse, the nominations.
I've never been nominated foranything in my life, so this is
just freaking awesome.
It's a big deal.
So working with Rach is anabsolute pleasure.
She's a hard-working individual.
She's a very talentedindividual.
(25:19):
So if we would hypotheticallyadd, like, say, a third person,
like a guitar player or somebodylike that, into the group,
unfortunately it wouldn't beBeautiful Divide anymore.
It would be something else, andwe've had this question asked
already before too, and I don'tknow what the name of that
project would be as a trio, butas far as Rachel and I goes, it
would just be the two of us asBeautiful Divide.
What's really cool is and it'sbeen a real learning curve for
(25:41):
me over the last year is beingable to take all those backing
tracks and then turn them into asituation where she and I can
actually perform this stuff live, because we've had.
I couldn't tell you how manypeople ask hey, where can I see
you play?
When is it going to be yourfirst show?
Because we haven't even done afirst show yet.
So all that has now gone intowhat's called a Roland Wavepad
(26:05):
that I have For all you musicalgeeks out there.
I'm sure you know what I'mtalking about.
Speaker 1 (26:11):
All right.
Speaker 5 (26:11):
So, but what it enables us to do is it enables
us to take everything that we'vehad, you know Carson Grant mix
over at Atrium and now it'scoming through the mains out on
stage.
She's doing her stuff live.
I'm doing my stuff live.
I have a click track going inmy in-ears and we can actually
play our stuff out live, sowe're ready to go.
(26:32):
We've got about an hour's worthof music, including cover tunes
, along with our originals.
Wow, so we're ready and it'sjust.
Speaker 2 (26:39):
It's been a very interesting process getting to
this point and you want to takeyour time with us and make sure
you're doing it right?
It sounds like, and it soundslike you certainly are.
And now, finally, my questioncame back to me earlier.
I apologize for that once again.
So you've mentioned AtriumAudio.
You've been working with Carson.
I mean, tell us about how therecording process is going over
(26:59):
there.
You said you have two new songscoming up.
Speaker 5 (27:01):
Yep absolutely the two new songs.
There's tracks that were Idon't know how long ago.
Those were written Five yearsago, seven years ago.
Speaker 4 (27:11):
These were songs that I had written what probably
five or six years ago, yeah,with Scott Gross and Don Belch
from Equinox Studios.
It used to be in Dallastown,Pennsylvania, so we had written
these songs years ago and then,as things do, they kind of, you
know, fell by the wayside.
You know, I'm sure so many ofus have written songs that are
(27:31):
just sort of like hanging aroundthere and um kind of like
cleaning out my emails one dayand found these, I was like man
gosh, I would just.
I hate that these songs are justsitting there and she sent them
.
Speaker 5 (27:42):
She sent them to me and it was uh.
The one song was just uh,basically piano and her demo
vocal, and the other one hadsome electronic drums with some
synth stuff and her demo vocal,and I was blown away by both.
I was like these are screamingbeautiful divide as far as our
(28:02):
style, and I heard all kinds ofpercussion and drum parts, like
right out of the gate, that Ifelt like I could interject.
So, basically, carson and Grantare going to need to recreate
the parts in their studio.
I'm going to record my drumsthere live and Rachel will then
go in and do all her vocals,harmonies and so forth.
So that'll be the processcoming up at the end of the
(28:24):
month.
Speaker 2 (28:24):
That's awesome.
You picked a great place forthat, because I'm sure those
gentlemen over there HM audioare going to do a phenomenal job
100% 100%.
Speaker 5 (28:33):
I have no doubt at all.
No doubt, I'm so excited foryou.
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2 (28:37):
So we talked about.
You're doing thingsmethodically with your music
releases and planning the bandas a whole.
When do you see your guys doinglive performances?
Do you have anything plannedfor the summer coming up or
anything?
Speaker 4 (28:59):
I'd do it tomorrow if somebody called us Honestly,
man, we're ready.
I think one of the challengeswe might face is just finding
the right fit of venue, Sinceour sound sort of is a little
bit more broad.
I don't think our genre reallyfits, fits into like a niche.
Speaker 5 (29:09):
Yet I agree, and this , the situation itself, is
unique.
There won't be a guitar playerwith an amp going up on stage,
it's literally just going to berachel and myself.
So there'll be plenty of stagespace, you know seriously get
some background dancers, yeahright on.
So you know, I'm hoping you know, once people actually give us a
(29:34):
chance which is what we needaudience wise that you know the
fact that they'll be hearingguitar or bass coming through
the speakers, but not actuallyseeing a guitar player, bass
player, that everything's goingto be just fine because I'm
going to be up there playing myass off, rachel's going to be
singing her ass off.
We're going to be performing upthere and playing our songs.
We've gotten so much positivefeedback from our originals that
(29:57):
we've already put out Not justLook Inside, but Shadow
Surrounds Me.
And then Ben Not Break was onthe radio.
Hawaiian Chris James, thank youwas absolutely gracious in
playing our song at least a halfdozen times on his show, played
us an afternoon drive back indecember when he was you know.
Uh, he put out a defiant, gotsome play, observed the 93rd,
(30:19):
got some play during duringafternoon drive and I apologize
for anybody else that was playedthat week that I think lynn
hearst was also on there.
Dinosaurs in paris, they're allgreat local bands, great local
bands keeping the scene alive.
Um so, and but he included us,which I thought was fantastic.
Very humbling for him to dothat.
So we just want to get out inthere in the mix and, you know,
(30:44):
put our songs out there forpeople to hear live yeah, no, I
think that'd be awesome.
Speaker 2 (30:49):
I think it's certainly something that you
could find.
I mean, when you say you know,finding the right venue in the
right audience, I mean you guyscould absolutely play a show
with a band like ObserverLyndhurst, you know, I think
that would be amazing.
Oh my gosh, that would beawesome, yeah, I think we all
know people, we can make someonehappy.
Speaker 4 (31:03):
We're pretty open to like really any, like your
grandma's living room, I mean,really we're very portable,
we're very flexible, we can makeanything happen, sure.
Speaker 2 (31:15):
So are we kind of testing the waters here with the
two new singles and then maybean EP or a full length album
after that?
Speaker 5 (31:22):
That's a good question because we've already
had that discussion.
Yeah, the plan is to put outone of the two new songs in
April, may.
Second song comes out inSeptember, october, and then the
plan is to release an EP offive or six songs in early
December, like right aroundChristmas time, kind of thing.
(31:44):
All right, I know CDs are goneby the wayside, but I've had
people asking for a CD and alsofor some vinyl.
I know vinyl is not cheap, buthey, we'll figure it out right.
Speaker 2 (31:55):
There you go Make some merch sales and reinvest
yeah.
Speaker 5 (31:59):
We have a recorded version of Look Inside.
That's in the catalog.
That is just Rachel and just me.
There's no-.
Speaker 4 (32:08):
Like the original version.
Speaker 5 (32:10):
The very, very first version of it.
So that's why I said five orsix.
If we throw that in there, thenthat gives us six songs to put
out.
Speaker 2 (32:16):
Look.
Speaker 5 (32:16):
Inside would be on there twice, just two different
versions of it.
That's really cool.
Speaker 2 (32:19):
Yeah, now did you find it to be maybe a challenge
or intimidating?
When it's just the two of you,it makes it almost like a very
musically intimate situationwhere it leaves a lot of room
for isolation on just certainthings, with just a drum and a
vocalist.
How did you attack that?
I mean, what was your, your, Ilove it, you love it, yeah, yeah
.
Speaker 4 (32:38):
And in a way, it almost for me, it actually
almost simplified the writingprocess.
Yeah, um, and because so welive about an hour apart, so the
way we would write things isreally just, you know, sending
each other, like you know,dropbox files or, for me,
(33:00):
literally like record on my cellphone, me singing into my cell
phone and then texting it to him, hey, what do you think of this
part?
And, like you know, it made itvery simple, just the back and
forth of it, and I reallyenjoyed that.
Yeah, yeah, that's awesome, andthank God for technology these
(33:24):
days to have the option to writelike that.
It's crazy.
I'm trying to get like the rightsound quality out of it to
write.
So I found the best way for meto do it, because I don't really
have a lot of fancy equipmentat home, so I have it plugged
into my iPad, plugged into mycar stereo, and then I have that
(33:45):
playing on my car stereo, andthen I have my phone while I'm
singing into my phone.
So I'm literally like sittingout in front of my house with
all this stuff going on.
My neighbors must think I'minsane this girl just sitting in
her car like playing the samelike eight beats over and over
again.
Speaker 2 (33:59):
Getting the right take on it.
Yeah, exactly.
For an hour every night, buthey, if it works, it works right
yeah.
Speaker 4 (34:04):
Yeah, you do what you got to do to kind of get the
creative process goingAbsolutely.
Yeah, oh my gosh, that'sawesome.
Speaker 2 (34:12):
I'm sure there's a big difference going from doing
that and then going over toAtrium.
Speaker 4 (34:17):
I prefer Atrium.
Speaker 2 (34:18):
Yeah, I can imagine.
I can imagine.
So what are some of the goalsfor the future?
I know you know this yearyou've been nominated for Best
Do it Trio.
We talked about that.
You have the EB coming out,hopefully playing some live
shows.
I mean, once again, everythinghas been very methodically
planned out for this.
I feel like there's maybe alittle bit more we could be
missing here.
I mean any other big plans forBeautiful Divide in the future
(34:40):
here?
Speaker 5 (34:40):
We're definitely going to be doing well in theory
.
I'm like what is he going tosay?
I don't even know.
Speaker 4 (34:49):
I'm part of this audience now.
Speaker 5 (34:51):
Like I said, there's the two songs we're going to do
at the end of February.
That's already in the books.
We're good to go.
There's a couple more songsthat will be happening.
Whether we record them thisyear, towards the end of this
year or early next year, justdepends on how things develop.
Naturally, there's apossibility we're still working
it out of putting out videos forthe two new songs.
(35:14):
That's something that we'restill toying around with,
probably some new merch, thatkind of stuff.
But I think the next big stepis trying to line up some shows
that make sense for what we doBecause, like I said, I don't
know if people necessarily knowwhat to do with us because there
isn't a guitar player in theband.
(35:36):
You know, anytime you think duo,generally speaking, you're
thinking somebody that sings,and then the second person is
playing guitar.
Well, the second person in thisgroup is playing drums.
What are you talking about?
Like, what is this?
So you know, for me as adrummer, my passion in this, in
this group and in this project,is to push the drums forward.
(36:00):
Drums, traditionally, aresupportive.
they're the rhythm section withthe bass player yep the uh
singer guitar players are theones getting the limelight.
Not that I need limelight, Ijust want the the drums to get
pushed forward and help tosupport her vocal, whether it's
through a particular drum, fillparticular accents, whatever it
(36:23):
is.
And if you listen to any of thesongs that we put out there,
there is a big stressor on mesupporting her vocals, whether
it's a certain syllable she'ssinging or a certain way she's
holding a note and then I'm kindof dancing in underneath it or
around it and just giving peoplesomething different.
That's that's also part of themotivation is something unique.
(36:44):
Yes, there's, to the best of myknowledge, there's nobody else
in the area that is doing thissetup.
Maybe, maybe a percussionist,like on a cajon.
That's cool, but I'm talkingdrum set playing at this.
Speaker 4 (37:01):
And if they are out there, we want to meet you.
Because, we should put a showtogether and have a really great
night.
Speaker 2 (37:07):
Closest thing I could think of it would be Keen.
Just drum, piano and a vocalist.
Were they even three members?
Speaker 4 (37:13):
Or was it just?
I think it may have been justtwo people?
Speaker 2 (37:14):
I don.
It would be like Keen, justdrum piano and a vocalist, you
know, yes, yeah, were they eventhree members, or was?
Speaker 4 (37:18):
it just.
I think it may have been justtwo people.
Speaker 2 (37:19):
I don't know, I'm not sure.
Anyways, this is about you guys, not Keen.
Speaker 1 (37:22):
Well, I mean I gotta say too, by the way, compliment
you are a hell of a drummer anda hell of a singer.
You guys Thank.
Speaker 2 (37:29):
It really blew me away, and I see what you mean
about highlighting your noteswhile you're singing.
You guys accent each otheramazingly Awesome.
I appreciate that I feel likethat word doesn't do it justice.
I was trying to pull somethingout of this, but it didn't
happen.
Speaker 5 (37:45):
It's a lot of writing , rewriting, listening and then
just rinse and repeat, rinse andrepeat, rinse and repeat.
I mean, you know these, thesesongs, they take time.
I think with Bend and Shadow wespent at least I would say well
, I probably because I had itbefore four to five months of,
like you know, trying to figureit out and hash it out.
(38:07):
Same with the new songs thatwe're getting ready to record.
I spent the last few monthsjust hashing it out.
Each of the two new songs, um,for something different.
Uh, one of the songs in thebridge, there's a drum solo, not
a guitar solo, a drum solo.
And then one of the other songs, uh, there's a drum solo, outro
, nothing like ridiculously long, but something that's just
(38:30):
different for people to listento.
So that had to be hashed out,written.
You know Rachel getting herblessing on it Like, hey, is
this cool, is this not cool?
Is it fitting?
The flow Flows, everything inthis band.
Speaker 2 (38:43):
Absolutely so.
It takes time.
So would you say I know there'sprobably a pretty obvious
answer to this, but would yousay there's any specific
challenges you face being a duothat is, just drums and vocals
that you haven't maybehighlighted yet, or rather spoke
of yet?
I mean aside from uh, you know,not having you know a guitarist
(39:05):
on a basis and stuff like that.
You've both been in bands withthose you know.
Speaker 4 (39:10):
Gosh, my words keep yeah, no, I see where you're
headed with that.
Yeah, oh, that's a goodquestion.
The challenges, I mean maybe alittle bit, because once we get
tracks that have other musicalelements on them, they're kind
of they're there we can't reallychange them.
I mean, we can to some degree,but you know, those, those
(39:31):
instrumental tracks, oncethey're written are pretty much
there and we have to work aroundthem, as opposed to having a
full band and other members thatyou can be like.
Oh, can we tweak that bass parta little bit?
Speaker 1 (39:40):
or can we?
Speaker 4 (39:40):
extend that guitar part, like we can't really do
that as fluidly as you might beable to.
So, um, but each of thechallenges that come up with
this, um, I kind of just view itas fun know, that's kind of the
fun part of this.
Speaker 1 (39:53):
It's part of the adventure.
We're getting to do somethingdifferent.
Speaker 4 (39:55):
That's not just.
You know what so many of ushave been doing for years and
years.
Speaker 5 (40:01):
Yeah, I would say from.
We're going to be limited onbeing able to improvise because
I'm tied to a click track.
I'm tied to whatever the musicis that's going on.
We're doing a cover.
This is an example where therecould be some room to play with
things.
We're doing our own version ofPrince's when Doves Cry.
(40:22):
Okay, and I overdubbed at leastfour or five different
percussion tracks.
So you're going to hear thepercussion tracks through the
mains.
You're going to hear me playing, and then you're going to have
the percussion tracks throughthe mains.
You're going to hear me playing, and then you're going to have
Rachel doing her thing.
There's no guitar, there's nobass, there's nothing else, but
at any point I can just dropthose backing things out and
(40:43):
then it would just be me ondrums and her.
So it's going to sound veryorganic, it's going to sound
very open, but we could expandon that.
But the point is that we'regoing to be locked into whatever
the arrangement is and whateveryou know we're starting and
ending with.
There's not going to be thatroom to hey, let's let the
guitar player go for 24 measuresand solo, and turn it into a
(41:06):
jam band that's not what this is.
We can't, can't, pull that off.
I have all the respect in theworld for bands like fish.
I love fish.
They're they're the ultimatejam band in my opinion, but
that's just not what we do yeah,no, I do, I do love fish, I uh.
Speaker 2 (41:22):
Yeah, there's a cover band that plays.
Is there?
Speaker 1 (41:25):
there's a fish tribute band that plays pretty
often, I'm pretty sure.
Speaker 2 (41:28):
Yeah, a couple times yeah well, I do want to ask one
more question.
Um so, and this actually I cankind of tell you guys into it
Something we like to ask all ofour guests.
It's typically what do youthink makes Central Pennsylvania
so unique when it comes tomusic?
Because obviously we have a lotof talent and you know you guys
are a unique act coming fromCentral Pennsylvania.
Thank you, I mean the biggestcompliment, of course, as well,
(41:52):
and I love to see it.
What about central Pennsylvaniado you think is so unique and
why do you think we bring suchgood music from this area.
Speaker 4 (42:03):
Well, it's really boring.
Speaker 2 (42:04):
Here We've got to find something to do.
Right, it's really boring.
What else are you going to do?
Speaker 4 (42:08):
You can go sit and watch the cows.
Speaker 1 (42:10):
Or you can make some music.
Speaker 5 (42:16):
I mean, we have both been in this area for quite a
while and played in a lot ofdifferent bands.
We know a lot of the musiciansin the area and there is a
ridiculous amount of talent inthis area.
You know, and it's everybody.
You know, 95% everybody'strying to help everybody else
out, whether it's throughgetting a gig or getting some
airplay or promoting on socials.
You know, I see so many bandshelping out other bands on
(42:39):
socials, which is whereeverybody's living these days,
on your phone with your ticktock and your Instagram, your
Facebook.
That's where everybody's at.
But you know, I see that and Iappreciate that.
I think that's a beautifulthing too, but there just is.
There's a bigger pool ofmusicians here than I think
people tend to give it creditfor.
Speaker 4 (43:00):
It's a sense of community.
Speaker 5 (43:02):
Yeah, I think so, and I love that Brandon is trying
to elevate that here through theCPMAs, through this podcast and
things like that.
I remember seeing somethingfairly recently maybe it was
Brandon when he was on here.
Speaker 4 (43:18):
I apologize.
Speaker 5 (43:19):
Where the ultimate goal is to really put Harrisburg
, york, lancaster in a biggerposition, where the promoters
won't just bypass us if they'regoing to be going to New York,
philly, baltimore.
It's like hey you know, thereis this really great music scene
that's produced hailstorm andpoison and you know, live you
(43:40):
know, so what?
What's going on here?
Maybe I should be looking intothis more.
As I'm talking.
Speaker 2 (43:45):
Promoters like yeah so no, that I mean that's, and
that's a great point.
I mean that that's.
You are right.
Brandon did say that.
I believe it was on the yeahand yeah, it's something that I
think is extremely possible.
We're getting closer and closer.
I think we saw kind of aslingshot effect in 2020 or, I'm
sorry, after 2020, with livemusic, and you know just, it's
great to see people out theregetting out seeing live music
(44:06):
again performing.
Speaker 5 (44:07):
Oh sure, Once COVID finally did its thing and stuff
yeah, the finally did its thingand stuff yeah the venues are
packed Ticket sales are throughthe roof.
Tours are insane everywhere.
Speaker 2 (44:17):
Bands are coming back that you haven't heard of 10,
20 years.
You know People are doingreunion tours.
It's so great to see.
I love it.
Speaker 5 (44:23):
Yeah, and people are there.
They're spending the money onthe ticket sales and the ticket
prices are you know?
Speaker 2 (44:29):
yeah, yeah, we could talk about that for a while.
That's a whole otherconversation.
Hey, we love to supportmusicians.
Thank you two.
So much for coming on here.
Speaker 5 (44:39):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (44:40):
Last minute.
Did you have anything you wantto maybe plug or promote that I
may have missed or anything?
We'll make sure to link allyour music, your YouTube and
everything.
Speaker 5 (44:49):
Yeah, I mean, we are very, very easy to find on
anything social.
All you have to do is just do asearch Facebook Beautiful
Divide.
Instagram.
At Beautiful Divide YouTubechannel same thing I think it's
beautiful underscore divide.
Our videos are out there.
Our music's out on Spotify.
Again, just check for BeautifulDivide.
(45:09):
It's super easy.
So, but yeah, anything likethat would be very helpful.
Of course, support the bandAwesome.
Speaker 2 (45:17):
Thank you.
Yeah, thank you.
We'll make sure we'll get allof that out there Thank you so
much, man.
Awesome, we'll be seeing you atthe awards.
Sounds good, awesome.
Speaker 5 (45:23):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (45:24):
Thank you.
It was awesome getting to sitdown and learn more about
Beautiful Div.
Please make sure you check thelinks below for all their music
and upcoming projects.
Once again, it's a CentralPennsylvania Music Podcast.
Thanks for staying with us.
I'll see you next time.
Welcome to the Central Pennsylvania Music
Podcast Tonight Morgan Stambaughand Beautiful Divide.
This episode is sponsored byEnglewood Brewing.
And now your hosts, daniel Kimeand Alan McCutcheon.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Welcome to the Central Pennsylvania Music
Podcast.
I'm your host, daniel, comingup.
We have Morgan Stambol andBeautiful Divide.
Stay tuned, we're here withMorgan Stambol.
Morgan, thank you so much forcoming on the show tonight.
Yeah, thanks for having me, ofcourse.
So I guess the big thing totalk about is you are the
production manager for theCentral Pennsylvania Music
Awards, so how did you getinvolved in that?
(00:52):
Tell us a little bit more aboutyour role and what you do.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
Sure.
So I got involved with it.
When Brandon approached me withthe idea and you know he's had
this idea for years, um, and itjust been kind of sitting in the
back of his brain.
And then one day he's like no,I want to do this, I want to
make it a thing.
Uh, you know, I want to put ona ceremony it's like what are
(01:18):
you talking about?
Yeah, like that, that doesn'tmake any sense to me.
And he said well, I might needsome help with the production.
I was like well, look, if thisever comes to fruition, sure,
yeah, like, whatever you need,man, I'll help you out, because
I've been buddies with him for along time.
We played together in ColdSpring Union.
Him and I went to collegetogether and high school
(01:43):
together, played in a couplebands throughout high school and
college, like known the dudefor a long time yeah, you got a
little history with them yeahyeah um and yeah, as time went
on, it became very apparent thatit was going to happen.
So, uh, yeah, I said I'd step inand help them.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
You know, kind of wrangle, all the production side
of things so what was that likewhenever he finally came to you
and was like hey, morgan, we'redoing this.
Yeah, I said I'd step in andhelp them.
You know kind of wrangle, allthe production side of things.
So what was that like wheneverhe finally came to you and was
like, hey, morgan, we're doingthis.
What was your?
Speaker 3 (02:12):
reaction Like okay, what's next for you?
Then?
Yeah, for me it's okay.
And you know, my mind went, youknow, back into live event mode
and just you know, ask thebasic question.
So like when is it?
Where is the basic question?
So like when is?
Speaker 2 (02:27):
it?
Where is it?
Speaker 3 (02:27):
what all is going to be happening and you know how
many people, so that I can startplanning accordingly and make
sure that I have the rightpeople involved, gotcha so the
first year it really took off.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
So I mean, what was it?
What was the expectation?
Like knowing, like, oh my gosh,it's the first year and you got
what?
Speaker 3 (02:41):
four, four hundred people the first year was it?
Yeah, there were four.
I mean the first year.
And you got what?
400 people.
The first year was it?
Yeah, there were four.
I mean the first year we had itat the Whitaker Center first
two years.
Yeah, and yeah, the first yearwas not sold out, but I mean it
was full and I'm pretty sureI've told Brandon this at some
(03:01):
point, but I it was way morefull than I certainly expected
it to be, okay.
Um, because I still, I honestlystill had my doubts with, like
all right, cool, we're havingawards and people are gonna pay
to show up to come see this.
But, um, I mean, it reallyshowed, and certainly has showed
over the years as, as the eventcontinues to grow and grow, how
(03:24):
strong the local music scene is, uh, which is fantastic, yeah
yeah, I mean it's crazy.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
I mean this year, uh, I believe it, we're, you know,
looking at over 1400 people sofar, or something like that.
So over a thousand people morethan the first year.
Um, so I mean, you said there'smore people than you were
expecting.
Was there any panic with thator anything?
Or you're just like nah, I gotgot years of experience, we got
this oh, no.
Speaker 3 (03:50):
Like as far as the event itself, no, uh, yeah, no
panic, no worries on my sidethere.
Um, I was just surprised to seethat many people I was
expecting you know.
Oh, there's gonna be 20 or 30people that show up.
Yeah, it was expecting you know.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
Oh, there's going to be 20 or 30 people that show up.
Speaker 3 (04:05):
Yeah, it's something new, you know, something brand
new and something that hadn'tbeen done in the, in the area
before.
So, like you, don't know whatthe market for that sort of
thing is, the viability of it.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
Yeah, I would say it was a good turnout.
Speaker 3 (04:16):
Yeah, that was a great turnout, and I mean from a
production standpoint.
I had no, no worries on that.
I contacted some of my buddiesthat still work at Anderson
Audio, which is a company that Iworked for for many years, and
you know they did production forus, so I had no worries.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
That's good.
So can you kind of give us aninside, behind-the-scenes idea
of what it's like to be theproduction manager for an event
this big, as it's grown over theyears?
What are maybe some someinformation that people wouldn't
know or think of running anevent like this?
Speaker 3 (04:53):
well, I think most people don't understand or
really have a good concept ofwhat happens backstage kind of
period, whether it's at an awardshow event like this, you know,
which I'd consider a corporateevent.
Or whether it's at an awardshow event like this, you know,
which I'd consider a corporateevent.
Or whether it's backstage at arock concert, um, you know, or
even at, uh, you know, highschool, high school theater play
(05:13):
yeah, um, there's always somuch that happens behind the
scenes and the larger the showgets, then the more that happens
back there.
The more different departmentsI'll call it that you have to
deal with.
So we're not deal with butorganize.
So for for our events I meanit's lighting and as we
(05:44):
sometimes call it, with all thedifferent presenters coming up,
everyone coming out from theaudience.
So there's a lot of planningand rehearsing that goes into
make sure that it runs smoothlyand starts on time but, more
importantly, ends on time.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
Yeah, I mean, there's a lot of variables, a whole lot
of moving parts to somethinglike this, so let's maybe go
back a little bit further.
How did you get started intothe production in the beginning?
Is this something you wanted todo since you were a kid, or
just something that you kind ofgrew a love for from being a
musician over the years?
Speaker 3 (06:21):
So a little bit of both.
I was actually thinking aboutthis randomly the other day, um,
and I've always enjoyed kind ofbuilding stuff, putting stuff
together like doing somethingwith my hands and seeing a
tangible result of it, yeah, um,and I've always had, uh, an
incredible love for music of ofall kinds.
(06:44):
So the you know to me that liveevent industry when when I
pursued it was a natural fitbecause it blended the two
things you know that I enjoy themost together yeah um, it got
into it.
(07:04):
I.
I went to college for musicrecording.
So I mean, at the time when Istarted college I was, you know,
had all the intent of, oh, I'lljust go work in a studio
Because I loved playing music, Iloved recording music, so you
wanted to be like a soundengineer, basically.
Yeah, like a studio soundengineer, be like a sound
(07:28):
engineer basically, yeah, like astudio sound engineer.
Um, as I started to go throughcollege, that's when the digital
age and recording or digitalasian music period happened.
So you know, I think it was mybetween my freshman and
sophomore year you saw, all thebig studios started to close.
So the hit factory in new yorkuh, muscle shoals.
Um, all all those big studiosstarted to close.
So the hit factory in New Yorkuh, muscle shoals.
Um, all all of those big namestudios that, as aspiring
(07:49):
engineers like you learn, closetheir doors.
Very small job market.
So I thought, okay, well, I'llalso get a degree in bass
performance, because I'm a bassplayer and you know, so that
that'd be my backup.
Um, and then, honestly, itwasn't until we had taken
internship senior year and oneof my buddies had interned with
(08:11):
a company called Anderson audiothe semester before and he's
like well, hey, if you'relooking for an internship, give
these guys a shot.
Uh, it was pretty cool.
Uh, so, luckily enough, theyaccepted me as their intern, um,
as an intern my spring semester, senior year, and then was
immediately offered a job andtook it and was there for a long
(08:36):
time.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
Wow, that's awesome, yeah, I mean, it seems like it
really worked in your favor,though.
You really grew a passion forthe production production side
of it, and that's that's awesome.
So what, what do you see in thefuture for you doing production
?
Do you see yourself maybe doingmore outside of the hall of
fame, or do you have any future?
You know, I guess you knowdreams that you want to work on
(08:57):
with this, or I don't even knowwhere to put forward sorry, no,
I mean dreams.
Speaker 3 (09:01):
As far as production goes, not not necessarily um.
In my career, I mean stillfreelance, yeah, um, and in my
career, but most most especiallywhen I was at anderson audio, I
mean I had the opportunity todo an awful lot of very unique,
very cool things.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
Um, yeah I mean you travel, travel the country for
years.
Right, doing that, doing that.
Speaker 3 (09:24):
Yeah, uh, primarily East coast base, but I mean we
did shows in California, we didshows in Florida and Maine, I
mean.
So we were, we were kind ofkind of all over the place, Um.
So no, I don't know dreams uhfor anything bigger than that,
but I I do want to continuedoing it.
(09:45):
Yeah, um.
So there's still, there's still.
I still keep in contact withsome, uh, some of the companies
in the area and I'll getrandomly get called to help
support a gig.
So a couple of times a year Istill get to go out and you know
, and do live production, um,which you know, I appreciate the
opportunity to still be able todo it.
Speaker 2 (10:06):
Yeah, no, that's awesome.
So when you were working forAnderson, is there any crazy
stories you got or anything fromfrom those days of being out
there on the road?
Speaker 3 (10:15):
Oh man, um yeah, there's, there's quite a few, um
, just which?
Speaker 2 (10:22):
ones.
Do you want to say?
Speaker 3 (10:25):
Oh man, yeah, well, yeah.
Which ones do I want to say?
Oh man, yeah, well, yeah.
Which ones do I want to saywhich?
Uh, there are certainly acouple that you know probably
shouldn't be told publiclytotally understandable.
Got a couple on my end um whatwas your favorite part so on the
on the rare occasion when weactually would get to mix,
(10:46):
because that's what we allwanted to do.
But I think, something that Ilearned very quickly and
something that unless you're inthe industry, you don't
understand Like very few guysactually get to stand there and
mix on the console.
That's a fairly prestigious jobin most situations and that's
(11:08):
all they do In the regionalsound company.
Maybe we'd get the chance tomix at some festivals, but most
of the time we were justbringing gear to support other
acts, gotcha, so there wasn't awhole lot of mix time.
So any time that I got to mixwas was cool.
Um did meet some, met a lot ofpeople.
(11:34):
Uh, the unspoken rule is youdon't talk to them like, pretend
they're not famous people.
yeah, don't be fanboying overyour favorite artist, yeah so.
So I mean there were a coupletimes that, like I personally
got starstruck.
One was doing support for aMotorhead show, okay, and I was
taking subwoofers out at the endof the night and Lemmy held the
(11:56):
door for me, so like I had aquick back and forth with him,
back and forth with him, um, solike one of one of my bass icons
heroes, you know, held a doorfor me and I got to say thank
you to him.
Speaker 2 (12:12):
Like that was pretty cool.
Yeah, it sounds, and you know,maybe somebody doesn't know
motorhead or hasn't, you know,been a musician?
You don't know motorhead?
Well, I guess, uh, that's good,that's a good point, but I mean
it's.
Speaker 3 (12:21):
It's crazy though, because that little experience
right there, I bet you were justlike buzzing for hours after
that just like oh dude, for days, I mean, and still, I mean, I
still, I still buzz about that,yeah, yeah it's crazy.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
I mean just meeting one of your heroes it's a really
cool experience.
Speaker 3 (12:35):
Yeah, um, I wouldn't say I met him.
I mean I I saw and worked veryclose next to you know proximity
, uh, to stevie wonder, that'sawesome.
Yeah, I mean he didn't see me,obviously, um, but that was,
that was a jaw-dropping momentfor me, the show that he was
(12:59):
doing.
I was helping tech monitors, soI was near the monitor console
the whole time and Stevie'sengineer would say the words
that Stevie was going to singnext, like into his in-ears.
So as Stevie's playing thepiano, he's hearing like the
next line in his ears From hisengineer, yeah, from his
(13:22):
engineer, as he's singing thecurrent ones like what?
Yeah, that's, that would throwme off.
Dude, blew my mind.
So I mean, obviously I had theutmost respect for stevie wonder
prior to actually getting tosee him perform in person in
that kind of situation, butdude's on another level, that's
is he like running like a clicktimer with that as well?
Speaker 2 (13:44):
No, no, no.
So what's the premise of having?
I mean, I assume he knows hisown lyrics to his song.
I mean, is it his method ofkeeping him on time?
Speaker 3 (13:55):
No, I mean it might, so I don't.
I guess I don't know the answerto that specifically.
My assumption would be that hemay not always remember all the
words.
Assumption would be that he maynot always remember all the
words.
There's a lot of people thatyou wouldn't think that are
fantastic singers, but justcan't necessarily remember all
the words to their own songs Imean, I guess when you have a
(14:16):
couple hundred or a hundred, youknow, maybe once in a while
they blend together brianjohnson of acdc has always used
teleprompters.
Speaker 2 (14:24):
Really yeah.
Speaker 3 (14:25):
That's actually something I didn't know, yeah,
so my assumption was that Steviejust couldn't remember all the
words, but obviously, since hecan't see, the only other way to
get them is through his ears.
Speaker 2 (14:34):
Yeah, I mean, I guess that helps focus on it too.
Yeah, man.
So you've traveled all over theworld.
You've been doing productionfor well over a decade.
How long have you been doingproduction for?
Speaker 3 (14:45):
Or how long were you doing?
Speaker 2 (14:46):
Well, almost professionally, I'd say 17 years
, so almost two decades of doinglive production.
Speaker 3 (14:54):
Yeah, not professionally, like including
not professional.
We'll call it 20 years Allright Call it.
Speaker 2 (14:59):
20 years of production.
You've traveled, you've met alot of bands, you've done a lot
of different things within themusic community.
Yep, what do you think?
What makes Central Pennsylvaniaso special?
I mean, of course, we have aHall of Fame for a reason.
What do you think is going on?
I mean, a lot of people say, oh, it's in the water.
What's your take?
Speaker 3 (15:17):
on it.
I think you could say it's inthe water.
I mean, what I've been seeingover these last handful of years
is a little bit of a revivalmovement of the Central
Pennsylvania music scene.
The music scene around hereused to be huge and it went away
(15:40):
, but the spirit of it I don'tthink has gone away.
Speaker 1 (15:43):
Yeah, I don't think so.
Speaker 3 (15:44):
So there is something special about this area.
There's a lot of differentcultures between the different
cities, this area.
There's a lot of differentcultures between the different
cities.
Um, there's still, you know,you get a little bit of that
like appalachia kind of music.
So the diversity of musiciansin the area, I think, is what
makes this this area so special.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
That's a great answer .
I never thought about it thatway.
I mean there was a large amountof diversity in the area and,
like as you said, I mean it'sit's awesome to see that we have
something so special here andyou know, continue to help each
other grow.
It's great to see you know thepositivity coming from the
musician.
Speaker 3 (16:23):
And you really see that in the award ceremony
different categories, becauseeven with as long as the show is
now, we don't always, we're notalways able to capture all of
the different types of musicthat this area has to offer.
Speaker 2 (16:38):
Yeah, I mean, it would be an all day event if you
tried to cover everything.
I mean, it's, it's prettyinsane, man, that's awesome.
Well, that's great.
Thank you so much for your timeand coming on here, man.
Yeah, man, thanks for having me.
Of course, dude, thank you foronce again.
Thank you, so we'll talk to yousoon.
All right, sounds good.
All right, it was great gettingto sit down and talk to Morgan
and getting to know a little bitmore about the production side
(17:00):
to our local music community and, of course, the Central
Pennsylvania Music Awards.
Morgan, thank you so much foryour time and please stay tuned
for Beautiful Divide.
We are here with Rachel andTony of Beautiful Divide.
Thank you two so much forcoming on tonight.
Speaker 5 (17:14):
Thank you for having us, thanks for having us, man,
of course, of course Iappreciate it.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
So Beautiful Divide is a music duo from central
Pennsylvania.
You've been around for abouttwo years now.
Let's kind of start at thebeginning, like I like to do
best.
Tell us how this all startedand where Beautiful Divide came
from.
Speaker 4 (17:35):
Okay, so in years prior to us playing as Beautiful
Divide, Tony and I wereactually in a cover band
together, an acoustic cover bandcalled Scissor Chicks that I
was in for a long time.
We had brought Tony in as ourdrummer, slash percussionist,
and as that developed, I don'teven really know I don't
remember how we got onto thetopic of like kind of moving on
to original music, but I know wegot the idea of what if there
(17:58):
was the challenge of writing asong that was vocals and drums
only?
It was how we wrote our firstsong.
Look Inside actually is kind ofjust.
You know, I would go to Tony'shouse, we would sit and he would
(18:18):
drum, I would come up withrandom things, random bits and
pieces in between the percussion.
And once we moved on toactually recording, it kind of
got introduced the idea of likewell, what if we can elevate
this song by adding somebackground, adding some ambiance
and things like that?
And each song just kind of tookoff from there.
So it's kind of our generalbeginning as far as the music
(18:41):
goes.
Speaker 5 (18:41):
Anyway, Yep, I would agree with that a hundred
percent.
Yeah, when we went to thestudio, as Rachel just mentioned
this, we were working with Gary, gary, gary conahan, who don't
look at me for names.
Speaker 4 (18:55):
You are the no, you are the name captain.
Yeah, minor panic there.
I was like I don't remember anynames ever yeah um, yeah, so
the.
Speaker 5 (19:05):
The initial intention again was to record.
Look inside now.
What, um, we're kind ofskipping over is that it took us
about nine months to write thatfirst song.
There was a lot of back andforth and rewrites, because when
you don't have guitar, youdon't have bass, you don't have
keys, there's a lot of space inthere.
So she and I were trying tofigure out whether it was, you
(19:29):
know, through harmonies with hervocals, me with an extra busy
drum part to fill out the space.
So that way the song from frontto back didn't have like these
open gaps in there.
So it took about nine months toget to the point where we were
ready to actually go in andrecord.
Once we recorded it, we did umreach out and we did have
(19:50):
friends of ours that ended updoing some like keys and synths
and that kind of thing to helpfill it out.
All right, after we recordedthe song, put that out and then
did the video.
That's where it was like,because initially we were just
going to do that one song calleda day, go back to our own
projects.
So we were but the but thereaction we got from everybody
(20:12):
was like, hey, when's the nextsong gonna come out.
We really like this.
This sounds really cool.
And now all of a sudden we werelooking at each other like,
okay, now what are we gonna do?
Speaker 4 (20:21):
so it just kind of took off from there in a very
great way we're like oh well,we're just a singer and a
drummer like how do we make moresongs happen?
Speaker 2 (20:29):
yeah, and just back by popular band.
Speaker 5 (20:32):
all of a sudden, so what we found is that we needed
to find people that writebacking tracks.
And through this whole processI mean I'm kind of jumping
around here, but through thewhole process there are quite a
few people in the industry thatare more than happy to write you
guitar, bass, synth tracks, andthen Rachel goes in, she does
(20:53):
her thing with it, I go in, Icome up with my drum parts, and
so it's actually been incrediblycool and incredibly creative
for us to take what's there andthen put our stamp on it and
turn it into our music you thinkthat's best for your writing.
Speaker 4 (21:12):
dynamic yes, 100, yeah and the fun part too has
been, I mean, so far, we havedifferent people working kind of
on each song too.
Um, as far, as the tracks go.
So from my perspective anyway,like tony does a lot of our like
background work, um, as far asgetting things rolling for the
next song, so he'll kind of justcontact me and be like hey,
(21:34):
here's, here's a song that I hadsomebody write us tracks for.
So for me it's kind of this funlike what's the style going to
be?
Like each song has kind ofproven to be a new style, a new
dynamic, new sounds that presenttheir own challenges, and I
think it's been really funproject creative wise too, for
(21:54):
that, you know, like there's notone sound that we're married to
not yet.
Speaker 5 (21:59):
Yeah, it's still too fresh and too too young, and
we're having fun with that partof it we're like each song, like
okay, well, this is more of aballad.
Speaker 4 (22:06):
Okay, wow, this one turned out to be more rock.
What's this?
You know it's just let's.
Let's see what comes out of it.
Speaker 2 (22:11):
Well, yeah, I mean music's art, and art is abstract
.
So you know, you kind of get todo whatever you want with it
and have your fun.
So do you have any, I guess,maybe ideas of a sound you would
maybe like to isolate in?
Speaker 5 (22:30):
the future or songs that we're getting ready to
record at the end of this monthat atrium audio, definitely have
a softer maybe would that be agood way to describe it um, more
synth and keyboard driven thansay, bend, not break, which we
put out, which had a lot ofguitar in it.
(22:50):
There's also other stuff in thechannel, so to speak.
That is what I consider muchheavier.
We have different definitionsof heavy um, which is very
guitar driven.
So I I don't know if uh onebeing better or worse.
I think it's just you know howwe're going to react to it and
(23:13):
create with it.
It's just, it's an open book atthis point.
Speaker 4 (23:19):
Yeah, I'd be open for anything.
I'd be open for any style.
I don't really have likeanything that I'm like, oh, we
need to do with this type or weneed like, let's, let's see what
comes next.
Yeah, that, let's see whatcomes next?
Speaker 2 (23:29):
yeah, that's awesome.
It sounds like it's workinggreat because you are nominated
for best duo trio this year atthe Central Pennsylvania.
Music Hall of course, best ofluck to you on the awards.
Hopefully you guys get it.
I heard listen to your music.
It's fantabulous, so justescaped me there.
What is the?
My goodness, I'm so sorry.
(23:51):
So is there any plan to maybeexpand in the future?
I know we kind of talked aboutyou like your writing dynamic
currently, with hiring somebodyto do the backtracking and
whatnot.
Do you have any plans for that,or do you maybe want to keep
that, that dynamic, like certainbands?
Do you know?
Um, there's a lot of bands thatuse backtracks and, yeah, I
have no desire to ever.
Speaker 5 (24:13):
Yeah, you want to play guitar.
Speaker 4 (24:16):
Yeah, oh, yeah, right , uh, I can't even play the
tambourine and sing at the sametime so that would be.
I couldn't either it would be ahot mess.
Um yeah, no, I think we justhave been really enjoying how
well we work together.
We communicate really well, Ourcreative process.
Speaker 5 (24:32):
We often seem to be on the same page with stuff kind
of organically, so I don'treally want to mess with that
this has been the mostproductive project that I've
ever been in, and I've been inthis area for a long time in a
lot of bands.
I mean, we've already donethree high-end videos, we've
recorded threeprofessional-level songs, we've
got two more that we're going tobe doing, as I mentioned
(24:54):
already, the websites, the merch, everything.
So it's all you know and, ofcourse, the nominations.
I've never been nominated foranything in my life, so this is
just freaking awesome.
It's a big deal.
So working with Rach is anabsolute pleasure.
She's a hard-working individual.
She's a very talentedindividual.
(25:19):
So if we would hypotheticallyadd, like, say, a third person,
like a guitar player or somebodylike that, into the group,
unfortunately it wouldn't beBeautiful Divide anymore.
It would be something else, andwe've had this question asked
already before too, and I don'tknow what the name of that
project would be as a trio, butas far as Rachel and I goes, it
would just be the two of us asBeautiful Divide.
What's really cool is and it'sbeen a real learning curve for
(25:41):
me over the last year is beingable to take all those backing
tracks and then turn them into asituation where she and I can
actually perform this stuff live, because we've had.
I couldn't tell you how manypeople ask hey, where can I see
you play?
When is it going to be yourfirst show?
Because we haven't even done afirst show yet.
So all that has now gone intowhat's called a Roland Wavepad
(26:05):
that I have For all you musicalgeeks out there.
I'm sure you know what I'mtalking about.
Speaker 1 (26:11):
All right.
Speaker 5 (26:11):
So, but what it enables us to do is it enables
us to take everything that we'vehad, you know Carson Grant mix
over at Atrium and now it'scoming through the mains out on
stage.
She's doing her stuff live.
I'm doing my stuff live.
I have a click track going inmy in-ears and we can actually
play our stuff out live, sowe're ready to go.
(26:32):
We've got about an hour's worthof music, including cover tunes
, along with our originals.
Wow, so we're ready and it'sjust.
Speaker 2 (26:39):
It's been a very interesting process getting to
this point and you want to takeyour time with us and make sure
you're doing it right?
It sounds like, and it soundslike you certainly are.
And now, finally, my questioncame back to me earlier.
I apologize for that once again.
So you've mentioned AtriumAudio.
You've been working with Carson.
I mean, tell us about how therecording process is going over
(26:59):
there.
You said you have two new songscoming up.
Speaker 5 (27:01):
Yep absolutely the two new songs.
There's tracks that were Idon't know how long ago.
Those were written Five yearsago, seven years ago.
Speaker 4 (27:11):
These were songs that I had written what probably
five or six years ago, yeah,with Scott Gross and Don Belch
from Equinox Studios.
It used to be in Dallastown,Pennsylvania, so we had written
these songs years ago and then,as things do, they kind of, you
know, fell by the wayside.
You know, I'm sure so many ofus have written songs that are
(27:31):
just sort of like hanging aroundthere and um kind of like
cleaning out my emails one dayand found these, I was like man
gosh, I would just.
I hate that these songs are justsitting there and she sent them
.
Speaker 5 (27:42):
She sent them to me and it was uh.
The one song was just uh,basically piano and her demo
vocal, and the other one hadsome electronic drums with some
synth stuff and her demo vocal,and I was blown away by both.
I was like these are screamingbeautiful divide as far as our
(28:02):
style, and I heard all kinds ofpercussion and drum parts, like
right out of the gate, that Ifelt like I could interject.
So, basically, carson and Grantare going to need to recreate
the parts in their studio.
I'm going to record my drumsthere live and Rachel will then
go in and do all her vocals,harmonies and so forth.
So that'll be the processcoming up at the end of the
(28:24):
month.
Speaker 2 (28:24):
That's awesome.
You picked a great place forthat, because I'm sure those
gentlemen over there HM audioare going to do a phenomenal job
100% 100%.
Speaker 5 (28:33):
I have no doubt at all.
No doubt, I'm so excited foryou.
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2 (28:37):
So we talked about.
You're doing thingsmethodically with your music
releases and planning the bandas a whole.
When do you see your guys doinglive performances?
Do you have anything plannedfor the summer coming up or
anything?
Speaker 4 (28:59):
I'd do it tomorrow if somebody called us Honestly,
man, we're ready.
I think one of the challengeswe might face is just finding
the right fit of venue, Sinceour sound sort of is a little
bit more broad.
I don't think our genre reallyfits, fits into like a niche.
Speaker 5 (29:09):
Yet I agree, and this , the situation itself, is
unique.
There won't be a guitar playerwith an amp going up on stage,
it's literally just going to berachel and myself.
So there'll be plenty of stagespace, you know seriously get
some background dancers, yeahright on.
So you know, I'm hoping you know, once people actually give us a
(29:34):
chance which is what we needaudience wise that you know the
fact that they'll be hearingguitar or bass coming through
the speakers, but not actuallyseeing a guitar player, bass
player, that everything's goingto be just fine because I'm
going to be up there playing myass off, rachel's going to be
singing her ass off.
We're going to be performing upthere and playing our songs.
We've gotten so much positivefeedback from our originals that
(29:57):
we've already put out Not justLook Inside, but Shadow
Surrounds Me.
And then Ben Not Break was onthe radio.
Hawaiian Chris James, thank youwas absolutely gracious in
playing our song at least a halfdozen times on his show, played
us an afternoon drive back indecember when he was you know.
Uh, he put out a defiant, gotsome play, observed the 93rd,
(30:19):
got some play during duringafternoon drive and I apologize
for anybody else that was playedthat week that I think lynn
hearst was also on there.
Dinosaurs in paris, they're allgreat local bands, great local
bands keeping the scene alive.
Um so, and but he included us,which I thought was fantastic.
Very humbling for him to dothat.
So we just want to get out inthere in the mix and, you know,
(30:44):
put our songs out there forpeople to hear live yeah, no, I
think that'd be awesome.
Speaker 2 (30:49):
I think it's certainly something that you
could find.
I mean, when you say you know,finding the right venue in the
right audience, I mean you guyscould absolutely play a show
with a band like ObserverLyndhurst, you know, I think
that would be amazing.
Oh my gosh, that would beawesome, yeah, I think we all
know people, we can make someonehappy.
Speaker 4 (31:03):
We're pretty open to like really any, like your
grandma's living room, I mean,really we're very portable,
we're very flexible, we can makeanything happen, sure.
Speaker 2 (31:15):
So are we kind of testing the waters here with the
two new singles and then maybean EP or a full length album
after that?
Speaker 5 (31:22):
That's a good question because we've already
had that discussion.
Yeah, the plan is to put outone of the two new songs in
April, may.
Second song comes out inSeptember, october, and then the
plan is to release an EP offive or six songs in early
December, like right aroundChristmas time, kind of thing.
(31:44):
All right, I know CDs are goneby the wayside, but I've had
people asking for a CD and alsofor some vinyl.
I know vinyl is not cheap, buthey, we'll figure it out right.
Speaker 2 (31:55):
There you go Make some merch sales and reinvest
yeah.
Speaker 5 (31:59):
We have a recorded version of Look Inside.
That's in the catalog.
That is just Rachel and just me.
There's no-.
Speaker 4 (32:08):
Like the original version.
Speaker 5 (32:10):
The very, very first version of it.
So that's why I said five orsix.
If we throw that in there, thenthat gives us six songs to put
out.
Speaker 2 (32:16):
Look.
Speaker 5 (32:16):
Inside would be on there twice, just two different
versions of it.
That's really cool.
Speaker 2 (32:19):
Yeah, now did you find it to be maybe a challenge
or intimidating?
When it's just the two of you,it makes it almost like a very
musically intimate situationwhere it leaves a lot of room
for isolation on just certainthings, with just a drum and a
vocalist.
How did you attack that?
I mean, what was your, your, Ilove it, you love it, yeah, yeah
.
Speaker 4 (32:38):
And in a way, it almost for me, it actually
almost simplified the writingprocess.
Yeah, um, and because so welive about an hour apart, so the
way we would write things isreally just, you know, sending
each other, like you know,dropbox files or, for me,
(33:00):
literally like record on my cellphone, me singing into my cell
phone and then texting it to him, hey, what do you think of this
part?
And, like you know, it made itvery simple, just the back and
forth of it, and I reallyenjoyed that.
Yeah, yeah, that's awesome, andthank God for technology these
(33:24):
days to have the option to writelike that.
It's crazy.
I'm trying to get like the rightsound quality out of it to
write.
So I found the best way for meto do it, because I don't really
have a lot of fancy equipmentat home, so I have it plugged
into my iPad, plugged into mycar stereo, and then I have that
(33:45):
playing on my car stereo, andthen I have my phone while I'm
singing into my phone.
So I'm literally like sittingout in front of my house with
all this stuff going on.
My neighbors must think I'minsane this girl just sitting in
her car like playing the samelike eight beats over and over
again.
Speaker 2 (33:59):
Getting the right take on it.
Yeah, exactly.
For an hour every night, buthey, if it works, it works right
yeah.
Speaker 4 (34:04):
Yeah, you do what you got to do to kind of get the
creative process goingAbsolutely.
Yeah, oh my gosh, that'sawesome.
Speaker 2 (34:12):
I'm sure there's a big difference going from doing
that and then going over toAtrium.
Speaker 4 (34:17):
I prefer Atrium.
Speaker 2 (34:18):
Yeah, I can imagine.
I can imagine.
So what are some of the goalsfor the future?
I know you know this yearyou've been nominated for Best
Do it Trio.
We talked about that.
You have the EB coming out,hopefully playing some live
shows.
I mean, once again, everythinghas been very methodically
planned out for this.
I feel like there's maybe alittle bit more we could be
missing here.
I mean any other big plans forBeautiful Divide in the future
(34:40):
here?
Speaker 5 (34:40):
We're definitely going to be doing well in theory
.
I'm like what is he going tosay?
I don't even know.
Speaker 4 (34:49):
I'm part of this audience now.
Speaker 5 (34:51):
Like I said, there's the two songs we're going to do
at the end of February.
That's already in the books.
We're good to go.
There's a couple more songsthat will be happening.
Whether we record them thisyear, towards the end of this
year or early next year, justdepends on how things develop.
Naturally, there's apossibility we're still working
it out of putting out videos forthe two new songs.
(35:14):
That's something that we'restill toying around with,
probably some new merch, thatkind of stuff.
But I think the next big stepis trying to line up some shows
that make sense for what we doBecause, like I said, I don't
know if people necessarily knowwhat to do with us because there
isn't a guitar player in theband.
(35:36):
You know, anytime you think duo,generally speaking, you're
thinking somebody that sings,and then the second person is
playing guitar.
Well, the second person in thisgroup is playing drums.
What are you talking about?
Like, what is this?
So you know, for me as adrummer, my passion in this, in
this group and in this project,is to push the drums forward.
(36:00):
Drums, traditionally, aresupportive.
they're the rhythm section withthe bass player yep the uh
singer guitar players are theones getting the limelight.
Not that I need limelight, Ijust want the the drums to get
pushed forward and help tosupport her vocal, whether it's
through a particular drum, fillparticular accents, whatever it
(36:23):
is.
And if you listen to any of thesongs that we put out there,
there is a big stressor on mesupporting her vocals, whether
it's a certain syllable she'ssinging or a certain way she's
holding a note and then I'm kindof dancing in underneath it or
around it and just giving peoplesomething different.
That's that's also part of themotivation is something unique.
(36:44):
Yes, there's, to the best of myknowledge, there's nobody else
in the area that is doing thissetup.
Maybe, maybe a percussionist,like on a cajon.
That's cool, but I'm talkingdrum set playing at this.
Speaker 4 (37:01):
And if they are out there, we want to meet you.
Because, we should put a showtogether and have a really great
night.
Speaker 2 (37:07):
Closest thing I could think of it would be Keen.
Just drum, piano and a vocalist.
Were they even three members?
Speaker 4 (37:13):
Or was it just?
I think it may have been justtwo people?
Speaker 2 (37:14):
I don.
It would be like Keen, justdrum piano and a vocalist, you
know, yes, yeah, were they eventhree members, or was?
Speaker 4 (37:18):
it just.
I think it may have been justtwo people.
Speaker 2 (37:19):
I don't know, I'm not sure.
Anyways, this is about you guys, not Keen.
Speaker 1 (37:22):
Well, I mean I gotta say too, by the way, compliment
you are a hell of a drummer anda hell of a singer.
You guys Thank.
Speaker 2 (37:29):
It really blew me away, and I see what you mean
about highlighting your noteswhile you're singing.
You guys accent each otheramazingly Awesome.
I appreciate that I feel likethat word doesn't do it justice.
I was trying to pull somethingout of this, but it didn't
happen.
Speaker 5 (37:45):
It's a lot of writing , rewriting, listening and then
just rinse and repeat, rinse andrepeat, rinse and repeat.
I mean, you know these, thesesongs, they take time.
I think with Bend and Shadow wespent at least I would say well
, I probably because I had itbefore four to five months of,
like you know, trying to figureit out and hash it out.
(38:07):
Same with the new songs thatwe're getting ready to record.
I spent the last few monthsjust hashing it out.
Each of the two new songs, um,for something different.
Uh, one of the songs in thebridge, there's a drum solo, not
a guitar solo, a drum solo.
And then one of the other songs, uh, there's a drum solo, outro
, nothing like ridiculously long, but something that's just
(38:30):
different for people to listento.
So that had to be hashed out,written.
You know Rachel getting herblessing on it Like, hey, is
this cool, is this not cool?
Is it fitting?
The flow Flows, everything inthis band.
Speaker 2 (38:43):
Absolutely so.
It takes time.
So would you say I know there'sprobably a pretty obvious
answer to this, but would yousay there's any specific
challenges you face being a duothat is, just drums and vocals
that you haven't maybehighlighted yet, or rather spoke
of yet?
I mean aside from uh, you know,not having you know a guitarist
(39:05):
on a basis and stuff like that.
You've both been in bands withthose you know.
Speaker 4 (39:10):
Gosh, my words keep yeah, no, I see where you're
headed with that.
Yeah, oh, that's a goodquestion.
The challenges, I mean maybe alittle bit, because once we get
tracks that have other musicalelements on them, they're kind
of they're there we can't reallychange them.
I mean, we can to some degree,but you know, those, those
(39:31):
instrumental tracks, oncethey're written are pretty much
there and we have to work aroundthem, as opposed to having a
full band and other members thatyou can be like.
Oh, can we tweak that bass parta little bit?
Speaker 1 (39:40):
or can we?
Speaker 4 (39:40):
extend that guitar part, like we can't really do
that as fluidly as you might beable to.
So, um, but each of thechallenges that come up with
this, um, I kind of just view itas fun know, that's kind of the
fun part of this.
Speaker 1 (39:53):
It's part of the adventure.
We're getting to do somethingdifferent.
Speaker 4 (39:55):
That's not just.
You know what so many of ushave been doing for years and
years.
Speaker 5 (40:01):
Yeah, I would say from.
We're going to be limited onbeing able to improvise because
I'm tied to a click track.
I'm tied to whatever the musicis that's going on.
We're doing a cover.
This is an example where therecould be some room to play with
things.
We're doing our own version ofPrince's when Doves Cry.
(40:22):
Okay, and I overdubbed at leastfour or five different
percussion tracks.
So you're going to hear thepercussion tracks through the
mains.
You're going to hear me playing, and then you're going to have
the percussion tracks throughthe mains.
You're going to hear me playing, and then you're going to have
Rachel doing her thing.
There's no guitar, there's nobass, there's nothing else, but
at any point I can just dropthose backing things out and
(40:43):
then it would just be me ondrums and her.
So it's going to sound veryorganic, it's going to sound
very open, but we could expandon that.
But the point is that we'regoing to be locked into whatever
the arrangement is and whateveryou know we're starting and
ending with.
There's not going to be thatroom to hey, let's let the
guitar player go for 24 measuresand solo, and turn it into a
(41:06):
jam band that's not what this is.
We can't, can't, pull that off.
I have all the respect in theworld for bands like fish.
I love fish.
They're they're the ultimatejam band in my opinion, but
that's just not what we do yeah,no, I do, I do love fish, I uh.
Speaker 2 (41:22):
Yeah, there's a cover band that plays.
Is there?
Speaker 1 (41:25):
there's a fish tribute band that plays pretty
often, I'm pretty sure.
Speaker 2 (41:28):
Yeah, a couple times yeah well, I do want to ask one
more question.
Um so, and this actually I cankind of tell you guys into it
Something we like to ask all ofour guests.
It's typically what do youthink makes Central Pennsylvania
so unique when it comes tomusic?
Because obviously we have a lotof talent and you know you guys
are a unique act coming fromCentral Pennsylvania.
Thank you, I mean the biggestcompliment, of course, as well,
(41:52):
and I love to see it.
What about central Pennsylvaniado you think is so unique and
why do you think we bring suchgood music from this area.
Speaker 4 (42:03):
Well, it's really boring.
Speaker 2 (42:04):
Here We've got to find something to do.
Right, it's really boring.
What else are you going to do?
Speaker 4 (42:08):
You can go sit and watch the cows.
Speaker 1 (42:10):
Or you can make some music.
Speaker 5 (42:16):
I mean, we have both been in this area for quite a
while and played in a lot ofdifferent bands.
We know a lot of the musiciansin the area and there is a
ridiculous amount of talent inthis area.
You know, and it's everybody.
You know, 95% everybody'strying to help everybody else
out, whether it's throughgetting a gig or getting some
airplay or promoting on socials.
You know, I see so many bandshelping out other bands on
(42:39):
socials, which is whereeverybody's living these days,
on your phone with your ticktock and your Instagram, your
Facebook.
That's where everybody's at.
But you know, I see that and Iappreciate that.
I think that's a beautifulthing too, but there just is.
There's a bigger pool ofmusicians here than I think
people tend to give it creditfor.
Speaker 4 (43:00):
It's a sense of community.
Speaker 5 (43:02):
Yeah, I think so, and I love that Brandon is trying
to elevate that here through theCPMAs, through this podcast and
things like that.
I remember seeing somethingfairly recently maybe it was
Brandon when he was on here.
Speaker 4 (43:18):
I apologize.
Speaker 5 (43:19):
Where the ultimate goal is to really put Harrisburg
, york, lancaster in a biggerposition, where the promoters
won't just bypass us if they'regoing to be going to New York,
philly, baltimore.
It's like hey you know, thereis this really great music scene
that's produced hailstorm andpoison and you know, live you
(43:40):
know, so what?
What's going on here?
Maybe I should be looking intothis more.
As I'm talking.
Speaker 2 (43:45):
Promoters like yeah so no, that I mean that's, and
that's a great point.
I mean that that's.
You are right.
Brandon did say that.
I believe it was on the yeahand yeah, it's something that I
think is extremely possible.
We're getting closer and closer.
I think we saw kind of aslingshot effect in 2020 or, I'm
sorry, after 2020, with livemusic, and you know just, it's
great to see people out theregetting out seeing live music
(44:06):
again performing.
Speaker 5 (44:07):
Oh sure, Once COVID finally did its thing and stuff
yeah, the finally did its thingand stuff yeah the venues are
packed Ticket sales are throughthe roof.
Tours are insane everywhere.
Speaker 2 (44:17):
Bands are coming back that you haven't heard of 10,
20 years.
You know People are doingreunion tours.
It's so great to see.
I love it.
Speaker 5 (44:23):
Yeah, and people are there.
They're spending the money onthe ticket sales and the ticket
prices are you know?
Speaker 2 (44:29):
yeah, yeah, we could talk about that for a while.
That's a whole otherconversation.
Hey, we love to supportmusicians.
Thank you two.
So much for coming on here.
Speaker 5 (44:39):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (44:40):
Last minute.
Did you have anything you wantto maybe plug or promote that I
may have missed or anything?
We'll make sure to link allyour music, your YouTube and
everything.
Speaker 5 (44:49):
Yeah, I mean, we are very, very easy to find on
anything social.
All you have to do is just do asearch Facebook Beautiful
Divide.
Instagram.
At Beautiful Divide YouTubechannel same thing I think it's
beautiful underscore divide.
Our videos are out there.
Our music's out on Spotify.
Again, just check for BeautifulDivide.
(45:09):
It's super easy.
So, but yeah, anything likethat would be very helpful.
Of course, support the bandAwesome.
Speaker 2 (45:17):
Thank you.
Yeah, thank you.
We'll make sure we'll get allof that out there Thank you so
much, man.
Awesome, we'll be seeing you atthe awards.
Sounds good, awesome.
Speaker 5 (45:23):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (45:24):
Thank you.
It was awesome getting to sitdown and learn more about
Beautiful Div.
Please make sure you check thelinks below for all their music
and upcoming projects.
Once again, it's a CentralPennsylvania Music Podcast.
Thanks for staying with us.
I'll see you next time.
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