Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hm. I really like that a lot.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
The track is Breathe, the artist is Alienstone, and we're
going to talk with the gentleman behind that project in
just a moment.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
But welcome everybody.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
We have entered our number two numarrow Doos of Matt
Connorton Unleashed. For those of you listening live today is Saturday,
September thirteen, twenty twenty five, and we come to you
from the studios of wm NH ninety five point three
FM and Glorious Manchester, New Hampshire. Jenny is here, of
course at the news table, and of course hello to
everybody listening online or even around the globe. Matt connorton
(00:32):
dot Com. Slash live is how the easiest way to
get the show from anywhere, so we appreciate all of
you who tune in with us. And let's go ahead.
I'm gonna bring this mic up and we're gonna talk
with mister Keith Samland, the gentleman behind Alien Stone.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
Keith, are you there? I am, How you doing good?
Speaker 1 (00:50):
Good?
Speaker 4 (00:50):
So?
Speaker 2 (00:50):
I know you can't see us on video, but I
can see you on video and you look like you're
in a radio studio and I saw something online.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
Do you also do a radio show.
Speaker 5 (00:59):
Yes, upright, mo own internet radio station for about the
past eleven twelve years outstanding.
Speaker 3 (01:05):
I have a show too, Oh very cool.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
Very cool, and what's the station and what's the show called.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
Let's give that a plug.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
Just partly for selfish reasons, I do want to talk
to you about the music, but also as a radio guy,
I'm just super curious about what you do as a
broadcaster too.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
For sure.
Speaker 5 (01:20):
The station's called alien X Radio okay, and the show
that I currently do is called Inside the Mothership okay.
And I used to do interviews and all kinds of
stuff with movie stars and things like that, but as
of late, it's just become mostly just like comedy and
entertainment show.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
Oh interesting, I'm gonna have to check that out. Very cool.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
So I have questions about Alien Stone, and a big
one and part of the reason I picked that track,
and I chose another song too that will play at
the end of our conversation that I really like. But
I love your sound. I love the songs. I'm particularly
taken with the sound of the guitar. Is that you
on lead guitar and all.
Speaker 5 (02:00):
These I did everything on these songs with the exception
of leads and solos. Okay, what I did is I
went through all of the bands that I've played with
through you know, different bands that have played shows with me,
and I've gotten their guitar players from all the local
bands and had them all individuals, each one of these
tracks as a completely different person playing on it.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
Gotcha.
Speaker 5 (02:19):
So they all contributed these from their home studios and
sent them over and I chopped them up, spliced them
and put them together, and I got different. That's how
I got such different flavor throughout the course of the album.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
That makes sense because I really love the guitar tone
on that track Breathe And is his name David Quick?
Speaker 1 (02:35):
Is that how you say his name?
Speaker 3 (02:36):
David Schwick?
Speaker 1 (02:37):
Oh Schwick? Okay, yeah, I wasn't sure.
Speaker 5 (02:41):
The crazy thing about that, too, is that he's actually
one of the most talented drummers that I've ever met,
and I didn't even know he played guitar, and now
he's the he's the drummer of a band called Sonic
Smut in this area right now.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
But that's how a drummer plays guitar really.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
Yeah, wow, Yeah, he's really good. Yeah, and it uh,
you know, it fits the song perfectly, and I love
the I love the tone.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
Everything about it is is so good.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
And tell us about I mean again, I listened to
the you Know You sound Us a whole album. I
listened to the entire album. It's funny because we had
kind of talked I'll pull the curtain back a little bit. Uh,
we kind of talked online about you know.
Speaker 6 (03:21):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
One of the songs you gave me a four warning
has a word in it that we would have to
make a radio edit of I and I was willing
to do that, but then, you know, I listened to
the whole album and it's like, well, there's so much
great stuff here, there's no reason to even bother making
a radio edit of that song because there's no shortage
of great songs here.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
So I that.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
So I picked a Breath to open with, and I'm
gonna play criticize yourself at the end of the segment
because I love that one too. Those are my two favorites.
So selfishly, I picked my two personal two favorites. But
but I'm curious about your creative process, and it sounds
like you do all the production yourself.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
Is that correct?
Speaker 3 (03:55):
Yep?
Speaker 5 (03:55):
Right here where I'm sitting right now, is where I
did all of the production on that whole album. Yeah, ye,
recorded everything in myself. I used Superior drummer to program
and edit all the drums. I recorded my own bass tracks,
my own rhythms on the acoustic and actually all the
vocal tracks, I recorded scratch tracks that I was going
to re record later, and I ended up just cleaning
(04:17):
them up and using the ones that were already in there. Okay, okay,
so everything was a one take on all the vocals.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
Okay, Wow, Have you ever done this before? Or is
Alien Stone this album? And by the way, what's the.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
Name of the album?
Speaker 3 (04:30):
The album's called After the Gray.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
After the Gray is After the Gray?
Speaker 2 (04:34):
Is this the first album where you've done that or
have you released previous work where you've done all the production?
Speaker 5 (04:40):
Well, I it was kind of a collaborative effort. But
I was in a band for about twenty years called
Freak Stark and not to be confused with the current
Freak Star out of Los Angeles. But yeah, we were
together for about twenty years and we got into recording
our own stuff too, But of course it was much
harder to do back then with the equipment. You know,
it's much easier to do today. You can do with
(05:01):
a laptop and you know, a very small mixer. So
I and I also went to as you can see,
I am into radio, so I went to radio school,
so I know about mixing and and you know, engineering
and all that kind of stuff. So it just it
made it much easier when the technology caught up to
me and what I wanted to do.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
Yeah, it's an amazing time to be alive, isn't it
in terms of technology? And oh, for sure the things
you can do now really because.
Speaker 5 (05:25):
That great track that was was given to me in
many many takes from someone who never even came into
my studio, recorded at elsewhere and just emailed it over,
you know. So that's that's huge. Yeah, And had to
get a bunch of people in a room.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
Yeah, especially when you come out with something that sounds
like it was recorded, you know, with a live band
in a studio.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
I mean, that's that's fantastic.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
So so that that's a good good for you being
able to do that.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
And then and then you mentioned so you you recorded
everything else.
Speaker 5 (05:55):
Yeah, pretty much everything else on there was me with
the exception of piano that that came from another gentleman.
That he's the lead singer and piano player for a
band called Sweet Crystal, which is a Detroit Detroit Music
Award winning band for the last thirty years. I mean,
he's a huge, huge artist around the Detroit area.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
Okay, that's obviously very satisfying when you can do all
of that yourself, I assume. I mean, did you feel
any pressure putting this album together because so much of
it was on you? Or maybe you did and you
thrive on it, or maybe you didn't and you just
enjoyed being able to have such autonomy and so much control.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
I mean, what was what was that like?
Speaker 2 (06:32):
Did you feel any pressure or was it just like, yeah,
I'm just gonna do this mostly myself.
Speaker 5 (06:37):
That that was the best thing about it is that
there was nobody on my heels. There was nobody saying, hey,
we got a deadline. We got to get this done.
You know, someone's coming over to do the bass tracks.
We got to get them all done today, right. There
wasn't any of that. You know, if I came home
and I was tired, I just didn't do anything. I
went to bet you know, if it takes me a
year to record it. It takes me a year. I don't
even know how long it took me. I didn't even
(06:57):
pay attention to that.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
Yeah, no, that makes sense. And is this your first
because a project officially is called alien Stone, is this
your first project that you've recorded as alien Stone?
Speaker 5 (07:09):
Well, I did something a long time ago when a
freestar had like a hiatus in the middle where I
did my own kind of thing on the side, and
it was under the name alien Stone. But it was very,
very different from this, and it was much lower on
the production scale. It was kind of like a techno
e beat kind of thing with a lot of heavy
guitar on it. Yeah, and yeah, I just it never
(07:29):
really released or anything anyway, so I don't really count
it right right.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
Where does the name come from, alien Stone?
Speaker 5 (07:36):
It actually comes from all the way back in high school.
This would have been like eighty eight eighty nine. I
took a media production class and we were supposed to
write and produce a small video, and I wrote a
script that would have required me to get about thirty
or forty million dollars, So I never made the movie.
But it was about a meteorite that falls into Los
Angeles and an alien comes to retrieve it because it's
(07:58):
some kind of power source, and he goes a murderous
spree to retrieve the alien stone. Okay, it's just stuck
ever since.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
Yeah, yeah, all right. And the album is called After
the Gray? Where does that come from?
Speaker 3 (08:10):
That's actually uh.
Speaker 5 (08:11):
In one of the songs there's the title says, after
the Gray, maybe there'll be some kind of light, Okay,
And that's basically what the song was about. All this
crap that happens to you, is like, well, maybe after
this crap passes, you know, there'll be something better after that.
So after the Gray, maybe there'll be some kind of light.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
So are these songs? Are they reflective of things that
you've been through? Because in listening to the lyrics, I
do feel like, you know, these aren't you know, they're
not just simple feel good rock songs.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
There.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
I feel like I feel like there's some heavy stuff
behind the lyrics of these songs. It definitely, you know,
without I mean, you know, there's ambiguity. And of course,
one of the wonderful things about music or any kind
of art is that you can kind of interpret it
however you want to. And sometimes people different people find
different meanings behind different you know, the lyrics to different
(09:03):
songs and so forth. But my impression because I listened
to the entire thing in one sitting, you know, I
wasn't like, Okay, I'm gonna listen to a song now
and I'll listen to another one later. So I listened
to the full thing, from front to back, and I
felt like there's a story there, like like there's something
that you're getting out, but I'm curious about that.
Speaker 5 (09:21):
Yeah, there's definitely a lot of heavy lyrics. I've been
criticized by a lot of people saying, can you write
a happy song? I'd be like, if there's any happiness
inside me, I want to keep it there, keep it inside.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
You know.
Speaker 5 (09:32):
If I get all this heaviness that's thrown on me
from the world, let's let's get that out through the
therapy of music, let's remove that. You know what I'm saying. Right, So,
I don't need to write a happy song. I just
live the happy stuff. But you know, yeah, the darker stuff.
If you don't talk about the things that get to you,
that the things that bring you down, then it's just
(09:53):
going to keep you down. So that's pretty much you
know what I do. It's like, if something bothers me
enough to wear I'm thinking about it a lot, then
then yeah, it's going to translate into the music. You know,
I'm gonna I'm gonna write a story about you know,
what once was that is no more or something that
has changed for the not for the better. M you
know that that's you know, that's that's gonna come out
(10:15):
that way. I have one song that's on there. It's
called long Way Home, which is basically about thinking that
the grass is greener on the other side. So you
take this long journey going around trying to find something better,
and then you find out that everything that was better
was actually at home, so you're right back where you started.
You took the long way home. So that's not really
a dark story. That's like, hey, you just you didn't
(10:35):
know now you do.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
Yeah, And it's relatable, you know, because I think we
can all we can all relate to that, uh you know,
at some point in our lives.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
So certainly.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
But I like too that you use the word therapy
when you're talking about about, you know, songs about dark
subjects and so forth, because something that comes up on
this show a lot because we talk about music, we
also talk about mental health and uh, something that comes
up on the show a lot is how creating art,
whether it be music or you know, visual art Jenny
as you know, she's a visual artist, or whatever it
(11:07):
is that you're creating.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
It's it's a way.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
I think it's the best form of therapy, right because
you're you're working whatever it is that you need to
work out through creating something. Not only are you creating
something that ultimately that helps you, it helps you to
express yourself, but it also helps others because then they
are able to relate to what you've created. And I'm
sure I don't know if it's happened to you. I
assume it has. Maybe you've heard from someone who said,
(11:31):
you know, hey, I listened to this song and I
get what you're saying, and I really relate to it
and it kind of helped me, helped me feel better,
help me feel like I'm not alone, whatever it is, right,
So I think that that's you know, the best form
of therapy is to is to create. And if you
can take your pain, your trauma, whatever it is that
you've been through, or maybe you're just upset about something
(11:53):
going on in the.
Speaker 1 (11:53):
World, whatever it is, If you're able to take.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
That and then make something out of it, create something
from it, you've taken something this negative, but you've done
something positive with it by creating something.
Speaker 3 (12:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (12:05):
And also, like you said that, if somebody else listens
to it and they say, hey, I you know, connected
with you on this level, it's like, okay, but you
wouldn't have, right. You know, you had no idea that
this person was on the same level with you, that
was there right there with you. But you didn't know
until you said something in the form of a song
or a poetry or a painting or whatever. Then somebody
looks at it and goes, you know what, I feel
(12:26):
the same way, and it's like, okay, well I had
no idea you did. Now at least I have a
kindred spirit. I now feel like there's more people with
me instead of against me.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
Right exactly exactly.
Speaker 2 (12:36):
Yeah, do you play any of these songs out or
I mean with all these guest musicians, Maybe that's challenging
to pull that off.
Speaker 1 (12:45):
I don't know, But do you perform any of these live?
Speaker 3 (12:48):
Yes?
Speaker 5 (12:48):
Actually, what I did is since I'm the one that
was in charge of producing the album. I was also
the one in charge of rendering the tracks. When I
was done, so of course I had rendered the entire album,
and then I went through and muted the acoustic guitar
and the vocals and rendered it again. Okay, So I
load that onto a loop pedal and I can go
out to any place I want now hit the track
and it plays everything with the exception of my acoustic
(13:10):
guitar and my vocals, and I can just play right along.
Speaker 1 (13:13):
Oh that's great.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
And you know, once again, it's an amazing time to
be alive, isn't it with all this technology.
Speaker 3 (13:17):
Yeah, that was not available. That was not available.
Speaker 5 (13:20):
You had to come out there with a reel to
reel and all kinds of crazy stuff.
Speaker 1 (13:25):
That's great.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
They were able to do that, So, uh, does anything
ever go wrong with that? By the way, when you're
when you're you know, trying to play to these loops.
Speaker 5 (13:34):
And uh, the only time it really went bad is
before I'm not I use loop pedal itself, which plays
the wave file straight from there, and that pretty much
is solid.
Speaker 1 (13:44):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (13:44):
But I used to use a laptop.
Speaker 5 (13:46):
Yeah, and you know how laptops are, Yeah, you know,
right in the middle of a song and goes, we're
gonna do an update in the middle, Like, dude, you
didn't even ask me, you just we're restarting your computer.
Speaker 1 (13:57):
Really yeh, yeah up, or.
Speaker 5 (14:00):
You'll get a notification or something, but right in the
middle of your song, you're like, that's not cool it
I deleted those.
Speaker 3 (14:06):
I thought I turned those off.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
I mean, if you're a if you're a DJ, you know,
you could say, oh, it's the part of the remix
or whatever if it suddenly goes meek.
Speaker 1 (14:14):
But if you're you know, you're playing a rock song, you.
Speaker 3 (14:17):
Know, and you get to know a critical error.
Speaker 2 (14:19):
Yes, but but it sounds like so now it works
pretty It all works pretty smoothly though.
Speaker 3 (14:28):
Yeah, it's pretty solid.
Speaker 5 (14:29):
When you when you you have to actually hit the
button to stop it. Now, yeah, you know it's not
gonna just empower would have to go out?
Speaker 2 (14:36):
Yeah, yeah, when you when you play out, are people
ever surprised because obviously, you know a lot of people
who maybe haven't seen someone play with loop pedals and
so forth. You know, they might see you with your
acoustic guitar and think that you know, that's going to
be it and not that there would be anything wrong
with that, But are do you ever see people in
the audience who are just surprised when they, you know,
(14:57):
when they start to hear these other instruments and these
other and they realize that it's actually a bigger production,
so to speak, then maybe what they were expecting.
Speaker 5 (15:07):
That's always the case when somebody who hasn't seen me
at first, they think I'm gonna come up there and
do some Hank William seeing your tear and my beer
kind of stuff, right, and you know, and there's nothing
wrong with that either, you know, IF's and there's other
people at these shows too that do that kind of music.
So maybe somebody right before them just did that, and
then I come up there and they think, Okay, this
is gonna be a continuation. And then all of a
sudden they hear the drums kick in and a and
(15:29):
a big fat bass kick in, and you've that guitar
solo that you just heard on that song. You know,
they're not expecting any of that, yeah, and it kind
of shocks them a little bit.
Speaker 3 (15:38):
First, dude.
Speaker 5 (15:39):
Sometimes they're like, are you just playing along with your album?
And sometimes I actually have to explain to people it's
like no, what I'm playing is live. Yeah, that's removed
from the sound.
Speaker 1 (15:47):
Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
Do you ever, I mean, do you have any thoughts
of putting together a band to play these? Or obviously
doing it yourself? It gives you a lot of freedom
and autonomy, and if you want book shows, you don't
have to check with three or four other people what
their schedules are. So I so maybe this, maybe this
is a pointless question, but I am curious. I mean,
(16:10):
have you thought about trying to put together a band
to play these?
Speaker 5 (16:13):
Yeah, I've I'm always open to that idea. But it
you know, something that I've learned from being in bands for,
you know, thirty plus years, is that, you know, the
more people you get into a band, the more schedules
you have to coordinate. Everybody has wives and lives and
husbands and car problems and jobs and vacation time and
(16:37):
all that kind of stuff. And to get five people
in a band and have all that lineup so that
you can record and you can do a show, it's
really hard.
Speaker 3 (16:44):
It's really hard.
Speaker 5 (16:45):
And then on top of that, you've got egos and
personalities that you also have to get along with, and
it makes it very, very difficult. So I'm always open
to the idea. But then you've got to find somebody
who's willing to play my music and then move forward
writing stuff yeah together, you know, don't change what I've
already written. That's already done, right, you know, So you've
got to be willing to do that. And a lot
(17:06):
of people are like, no, I don't want to, you know,
I don't want to be in the Dave Matthews band,
you know, right, And I'm like, no, that's what I'm
not trying to do that either, you know.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
Yeah, where are you from, Keith? I? I just realized too,
I never asked you where where are you located?
Speaker 1 (17:23):
Exactly?
Speaker 5 (17:24):
Well, I'm originally from Westland, Michigan, but I moved over
to Taylor, Michigan, which is a suburb of Detroit, pretty
close to Detroit.
Speaker 3 (17:31):
Okay, be there in about ten minutes if I chose
to go.
Speaker 2 (17:34):
Well, you're a you're in an area then you're you know,
being close to Detroit where. I mean a lot of
great music obviously is come out of that region. I
mean you must have. I mean, what's the music scene
like there right now? I mean there must just be
talent everywhere I would guess.
Speaker 3 (17:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (17:50):
I do a lot of open mic nights obviously, you know,
because that's the easiest thing for me. I go to
places like Grizzlies and Windott or Three Nicks in Allen Park.
But like the place I go to, it's a bar.
It's called road Rangers, and it's and Taylor and this
bar is set up as a concert bar. I mean
it has the full backing line, the full everything. I mean,
anybody can play there. Docing could play there tomorrow and
(18:11):
it would sound great. Yeah, you know what I'm saying, Well,
the sound would be great. I don't know if Docing
would be great, but.
Speaker 1 (18:17):
Yeah, depends if George Leitch's and the band or not.
Speaker 3 (18:20):
Right.
Speaker 5 (18:21):
So when I go and play there, it's like the
bands that come through that bar because of the fact
that it has such good sound and you don't have
to sell tickets and you don't have to be part
of a national thing. There's a lot of huge talent
that comes through that that bar. You know, bands like
the Creeping Chaos is around here right now. That's an
enormous band. And the band's like whole shot the WRF,
(18:42):
which is a huge radio station around here. They constantly
hire that band to play all their events. Oh yeah,
so yeah, there's a lot of really good bands that
come through there.
Speaker 2 (18:51):
Yeah. It's something that we talk about on the show
quite a bit.
Speaker 1 (18:55):
Is you know.
Speaker 2 (18:55):
Every around here, you know, because sometimes people will ask us,
they ask me, or they'll ask Jenny because she does
the booking. You know, how do you find all this
great talent? And it's like, well, it's everywhere, you know,
And I think that's true of probably every city, in
every town in the country. You know, there's there's local
musicians who are doing great stuff. And if you you know,
because sometimes people, you know, they get to a certain
(19:16):
point in their lives where they sort of say, Okay,
all the music that I've heard up to this point
in my life, that's all the music I ever need
to hear, and anything made after this point I'm not
going to listen to. I'm going to reject, you know.
And people who do that, they're they're missing out, you know.
I mean there's first of all, I mean, you can
get access to there's so much there's so much new
(19:37):
music being put out, but also right right in your
own backyard, you know, there's musicians making music and you
know you need to. I always use my father as
a very positive example of this. My dad, you know,
he's in his seventies, but he still loves hearing new music.
He lives on the sea coast here in New Hampshire
and there's a great college station at the University of
New Hampshire called WUNH and my dad I'd love to
(20:00):
listen to wun H because he loves hearing new music.
He loves hearing you know, new artists that he's never
been exposed to before, either young, new upcoming artists, or
just artists who maybe are not young but have been
around a while but he just had never heard them before.
Speaker 1 (20:15):
He loves hearing new stuff.
Speaker 2 (20:17):
And you know, and I can only imagine what the
scene is like there and how much great music there
must be there. But you know, I always encourage people,
you know, take a look around. You know this this great,
incredible music being created by musicians right in front of you.
You know you're just not looking.
Speaker 5 (20:34):
You know what I mean, I know exactly what you're saying. Well,
I hear it all the time. You know, people are like, well,
I don't want to go see that band. I'm like,
why No, I don't know who they are. I was like, okay,
but did you know who Metallica was before you heard
them for.
Speaker 3 (20:45):
The first time?
Speaker 1 (20:46):
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3 (20:47):
Everybody has to be unknown before they're known.
Speaker 1 (20:49):
Exactly.
Speaker 5 (20:49):
Go and spend two hundred and fifty dollars on a
ticket to see Metallica, whom you'll never meet, or you
can go to a bar and here's some brand new
music you've never heard and talk with them and do
shots with them after the.
Speaker 1 (20:58):
Show, right exactly. And then if it was a.
Speaker 5 (21:02):
Fifteen dollars ticket instead of two hundred and fifty bucks,
you know.
Speaker 2 (21:05):
Come on, yeah, yeah, and then if you know, if
they get big, you can say, hey, I knew them when.
Speaker 5 (21:10):
Exactly I did shots with you know, come upcoming Metallica
back in the day, you know.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
There you go, Yeah, I hear that a lot. You know.
Speaker 2 (21:17):
In this area where we are, people will say, you know,
I saw Aerosmith, you know, back in the day when
they were you know, just a bar band, you know,
and it's it's that's usually an example people use from
from in this part of the country. But yeah, there's
there's so much, uh, there's so much great talent out there,
and people people should definitely keep their eyes open for that.
Do you use your now with your your online station
(21:41):
and your show, do you use that to showcase indie
artists or do you do you use that to promote Sure?
Speaker 1 (21:47):
Yeah, yeah, I'm.
Speaker 5 (21:49):
Sure all the all the indie artists that are around
here that have they have, you know, recorded music that's
you know, you know, you know the level it has
to be at.
Speaker 3 (21:56):
Yeah, you know the quality level it has to be at.
Speaker 5 (21:59):
You know, anybody that has those albums and stuff in
it and they submit to me they've been on the
radio station. I go through those albums too, and I
pick a nice wide range of all the local music
and put it in there. And then I sprinkle in
some national stuff too, just for the people that can't
handle not knowing what the next song is, right, you know,
just to kind of keep them okay.
Speaker 2 (22:16):
I think there's value in doing that too, is sprinkling
in some national artists, because I've I've always felt that
that lends, uh for you know, for some people, that
lends a certain credibility to the independent artists, maybe the
local artists if they're mixed in with some national artists,
you know what I mean.
Speaker 5 (22:34):
Just yeah, for sure, you can have an unknown person
selling bar bells on TV, or you can have Arnold schwarzeneg,
you're selling bar bells on TV.
Speaker 3 (22:41):
Which one's going to sell faster?
Speaker 1 (22:42):
Very well? Put exactly, put a couple of.
Speaker 5 (22:45):
Pearl jam songs on a couple of things in there
around all these local artists.
Speaker 3 (22:48):
Yeah, it'll attract a little bit.
Speaker 2 (22:50):
Yeah, absolutely. So the where where should people go? Like,
where can they find the online station that you have?
Speaker 3 (23:00):
Well, it's at alien x radio dot com.
Speaker 5 (23:02):
Okay, And unfortunately I've realized within the last couple of
days that the player isn't working, so I have to
figure out how to fix that since it's been a
decade since I've been into the actual controls of the website.
Oh really, Yeah, there's no reason to change the website.
We just changed the music and stuff, you know, and
everything's live, you know, most of our shows and stuff,
so we don't have to go in there and change much. Yeah,
(23:24):
and I can't get back in there, so I got
to figure that out. Yeah, that's at alienxradio dot com.
And then I of course have a Facebook page. The
artist page is just alien Stone. Yeah, and you can
get me at Keith samlan at Alien at Facebook as well.
Speaker 2 (23:37):
Okay, and then the album. Can people find the album anyway?
I mean I assume it's on all the streaming platforms
and everything.
Speaker 5 (23:43):
Yeah, I went through that distro kid, so it's on everything.
So you've got Spotify, Apple Music. You know, it's even
on like Pandora and things like that, so you can
find it pretty much everywhere.
Speaker 3 (23:54):
Outstanding by the way in the freak Star stuff.
Speaker 1 (23:56):
Oh good.
Speaker 2 (23:56):
Oh yeah, I'm curious. I'm curious to check that out too.
Do you do physical copies of the album.
Speaker 1 (24:02):
Or is strictly online?
Speaker 4 (24:04):
No?
Speaker 5 (24:05):
I have physical copies too. I've made some CDs and
also what I really like is they look like business cards,
but they're actually a flash drive. It pops out the side, oh,
perfectly straight in. Those are really nice too.
Speaker 2 (24:14):
We had someone on the show recently who used that
same concept, and yeah, that's a great idea.
Speaker 5 (24:20):
Some people you hand them a CD and they go,
what is this? Is this America online?
Speaker 3 (24:23):
What is this? They don't know?
Speaker 1 (24:26):
Well, it's interesting.
Speaker 2 (24:27):
That's a subject that comes up a lot on the
show too. Because there was a point where, because I've
been doing this a long time, and there was a
point where it seemed like none of the guests we
would have on nobody was doing physical media. I'm talking
like maybe seven or eight years ago, and you know,
and that's fine, you know, just you know, email me
the tracks whatever. But lately, well I shouldn't say lately,
(24:48):
I'd say probably for at least the past five years,
it seems like, at least in this area, for the
guests that we have coming in person from our area,
physical media has had quite a resurgence.
Speaker 1 (24:59):
A lot of our guests bring in CDs.
Speaker 2 (25:01):
Now, you know, they send us the files ahead of time, obviously,
but they'll also bring in a physical copy or even
we've had some who even do vinyl and they'll bring
in a vinyl record, not for us to play, but
just to have. Although we do have a record player
here that one of the other hosts uses, and we
even have a CD player that I've never used, but
we do have one here in the in the studio
that I know one of our hosts sometimes will bring
(25:22):
in CDs to play. But but it's interesting, you know,
uh physical media never seems to completely go away, and
sometimes it has these little resurgences, and uh so a
lot of the artists around here are releasing things on
CD and even on vinyl, which I understand is very expensive.
But but I like your I like your concept with
the flash drive.
Speaker 5 (25:43):
Yeah, it's it's you know, the physical media is kind
of it's just kind of changed what its purpose really is.
It's like, we know that when this guy gets home,
he's probably going to listen to it on his smart
device or whatever from a streaming service.
Speaker 1 (25:54):
Right.
Speaker 3 (25:55):
But you know, now the physical media I don't.
Speaker 5 (25:57):
Even like when I when I ad a show or something,
I find people who were interested and I just give
them one. Yeah, okay, it's it has become the physical
media has become the promotional tool to get you to
go and stream exactly.
Speaker 3 (26:10):
It's almost what it's become now. You know.
Speaker 5 (26:11):
So I'm not trying to sell I'm not, you know,
out of the trunk of my car out there going
I got yeah, I you know, I don't do that.
Speaker 3 (26:18):
You know.
Speaker 5 (26:19):
I just find someone who I think was interested and
I give them a copy.
Speaker 1 (26:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (26:23):
Yeah, I think that's an excellent strategy. Well, Keith, I
appreciate you joining us. In a moment, I'm gonna play
this track. Criticize yourself because this is this is the
other one that I like, I said, I enjoyed the
whole album, but breathe and criticize yourself for the two
that really really kind of struck me. I'm curious if
there's anything we should know about this song, if there's
(26:44):
a backstory to this one, or what this one might
be about, because again, this is another one of those
songs too where I'm listening to the lyrics and it's like,
well there's something here, you know, and and and I'm.
Speaker 1 (26:54):
Really curious about it.
Speaker 2 (26:54):
And by the way, and also too, if you want
to talk about the guitar player on this one, because
this is also another song where I really love the
guitar work on this.
Speaker 5 (27:01):
Yeah, the guitar this one is really involved. Yeah, it
really is. Basically, he came over and he had nothing planned.
This is Donnie Stanfill. He's the league. He's one of
the guitar players from the band Creeping Chaos here in Detroit,
and he probably recorded I just I just played the
song and just let him go and improvise. He did
(27:21):
probably fourteen tracks. Wow, just improvised. Yeah, and then I
went through and cut and spliced and put together all
my favorite pieces Okay, so that's what we ended up with.
And then when I played it back for me, he goes, dude,
I don't think I could play that.
Speaker 3 (27:35):
I was like, you just did? You just did.
Speaker 5 (27:39):
That's what we're telling everybody, right right, So that's where
that came from. And the song itself is basically about
just all the things that can kind of build up
and start suffocating you. Is basically what it is, you know,
the just the day to day grind, the things that
happen around you and stuff. It's just it's choking you.
It's it's suffocating you. And it's like, when will we
(28:00):
get a chance to breathe? Yeah, give us a chance
to take a breath. You know enough, it's enough, right right?
Speaker 2 (28:07):
Well again, congratulations on the album. I think it's really good.
And uh, and remind people again to uh where should
they go to keep up with everything that you're doing online?
Speaker 5 (28:17):
Well, it's alien Stone on Facebook or Keith Samlan on Facebook.
And then you got alien x Radio of course, when
that's all you know, moving and grooving again. Yeah, and
anywhere on any streaming site anywhere you type in alien
Stone or after the Gray and it should pop right up.
Speaker 3 (28:32):
Man, it's everywhere YouTube everything.
Speaker 1 (28:34):
Yeah, yeah, excellent. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (28:35):
I suggest people check it out and alien Stone is
one word, by the way too for people when you're
looking for it. And yeah, fantastic. Keith, thank you so
much for joining us this morning. We will we will
definitely have to do this again. In fact, maybe we'll
have you on again soon. I'd love to talk to
you more about your your career with you mentioned you
used to interview movie stars, and I'd love to talk
to you about that in the future too, because you know,
(28:57):
we we kind of mostly we talk about music on
the show, but we do mix it some other things
as well, so we'll have to figure that out and
set up a time for that. But congratulations on the album.
I think it's great. I suggest everyone check it out.
I'm gonna hit this track in a moment, criticize yourself,
another very very strong track from the album.
Speaker 1 (29:13):
But we'll let you go for now. But Keith, thank
you so much.
Speaker 3 (29:16):
Thank you for having me on the show.
Speaker 1 (29:17):
All Right, you got to take care.
Speaker 3 (29:19):
I have a good one.
Speaker 1 (29:20):
Bye bye, all right. Wonderful.
Speaker 2 (29:21):
So that was Keith sam Land and the project is
called alien Stone. The album is after the Gray and
we're gonna give this a spin, and then we're going
to come back and Jenny and I are going to
talk to you for a couple of minutes about for
those of you who are listening live on Saturday, some
exciting things going on today that Jenny and I are
going to be doing. That you can come join us
and be a part of. But for right now, again,
this is Alien Stone and the track is called Criticize Yourself.
Speaker 1 (29:45):
I really like this one a lot. Check it out.
Speaker 7 (30:54):
There's a Storemas's brewin.
Speaker 6 (30:59):
It's gone. Then the real slow from glass houses, your
programs a question all I know by then out. By
(31:26):
then I ride out.
Speaker 7 (31:33):
There's a fire that's building your entry and the flames
and now the fire is raging.
Speaker 6 (31:47):
And killing and the names. By then I ride out.
By now I had out.
Speaker 4 (32:10):
Well your story in this by life with your neighs
and Saty getting here for your big moment, by face
uh Bran's you sell him a wheel.
Speaker 6 (32:23):
Till you print sash yourself.
Speaker 4 (32:28):
Don't you print sash yourself? Why can't you print sash yourself?
Speaker 6 (32:40):
There's a war.
Speaker 7 (32:41):
Wheel flight is.
Speaker 6 (32:45):
It's not a battle with it.
Speaker 7 (32:49):
You're judgment strikes light light me.
Speaker 6 (32:54):
Is this a warking within by me? Not hide up
by men? Add an, will you go in this sideline?
Speaker 4 (33:20):
W dornaser safty get on? You gonna jumping on in
my BASI bet not? Your sails can get the wheel
till you priti sis your sell? Don't you pretty stash
your sall? Why can't you pretty sis you sell? Will
(34:15):
you st don my life with your neighs? And sat
to kill you for your bingle in my faser? But
I just sail be never within till you pretty side
to sell?
Speaker 5 (34:33):
Well, don't you.
Speaker 6 (34:33):
Bread out to sell?
Speaker 3 (34:37):
Why can't you fret side you say?
Speaker 2 (35:05):
I love the guitar sound on that. I love that
guitar tone that is alien Stone. The song is called
Criticize Yourself. Alien Stone, of course is Keith sam Land.
And thank you again to Keith for joining us. Check
out alien Stone, check out alien x Radio and I'm
going to be checking that out looking forward to learning
more about that. We'll probably have Keith on again because
(35:27):
like I said, I'd love to talk to him too.
I'd love to have a supplemental conversation with him about
his radio career. And you know he mentioned Houston interview
movie stars and some of the other things he does
on his show. Very very interesting guy.
Hm. I really like that a lot.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
The track is Breathe, the artist is Alienstone, and we're
going to talk with the gentleman behind that project in
just a moment.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
But welcome everybody.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
We have entered our number two numarrow Doos of Matt
Connorton Unleashed. For those of you listening live today is Saturday,
September thirteen, twenty twenty five, and we come to you
from the studios of wm NH ninety five point three
FM and Glorious Manchester, New Hampshire. Jenny is here, of
course at the news table, and of course hello to
everybody listening online or even around the globe. Matt connorton
(00:32):
dot Com. Slash live is how the easiest way to
get the show from anywhere, so we appreciate all of
you who tune in with us. And let's go ahead.
I'm gonna bring this mic up and we're gonna talk
with mister Keith Samland, the gentleman behind Alien Stone.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
Keith, are you there? I am, How you doing good?
Speaker 1 (00:50):
Good?
Speaker 4 (00:50):
So?
Speaker 2 (00:50):
I know you can't see us on video, but I
can see you on video and you look like you're
in a radio studio and I saw something online.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
Do you also do a radio show.
Speaker 5 (00:59):
Yes, upright, mo own internet radio station for about the
past eleven twelve years outstanding.
Speaker 3 (01:05):
I have a show too, Oh very cool.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
Very cool, and what's the station and what's the show called.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
Let's give that a plug.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
Just partly for selfish reasons, I do want to talk
to you about the music, but also as a radio guy,
I'm just super curious about what you do as a
broadcaster too.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
For sure.
Speaker 5 (01:20):
The station's called alien X Radio okay, and the show
that I currently do is called Inside the Mothership okay.
And I used to do interviews and all kinds of
stuff with movie stars and things like that, but as
of late, it's just become mostly just like comedy and
entertainment show.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
Oh interesting, I'm gonna have to check that out. Very cool.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
So I have questions about Alien Stone, and a big
one and part of the reason I picked that track,
and I chose another song too that will play at
the end of our conversation that I really like. But
I love your sound. I love the songs. I'm particularly
taken with the sound of the guitar. Is that you
on lead guitar and all.
Speaker 5 (02:00):
These I did everything on these songs with the exception
of leads and solos. Okay, what I did is I
went through all of the bands that I've played with
through you know, different bands that have played shows with me,
and I've gotten their guitar players from all the local
bands and had them all individuals, each one of these
tracks as a completely different person playing on it.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
Gotcha.
Speaker 5 (02:19):
So they all contributed these from their home studios and
sent them over and I chopped them up, spliced them
and put them together, and I got different. That's how
I got such different flavor throughout the course of the album.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
That makes sense because I really love the guitar tone
on that track Breathe And is his name David Quick?
Speaker 1 (02:35):
Is that how you say his name?
Speaker 3 (02:36):
David Schwick?
Speaker 1 (02:37):
Oh Schwick? Okay, yeah, I wasn't sure.
Speaker 5 (02:41):
The crazy thing about that, too, is that he's actually
one of the most talented drummers that I've ever met,
and I didn't even know he played guitar, and now
he's the he's the drummer of a band called Sonic
Smut in this area right now.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
But that's how a drummer plays guitar really.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
Yeah, wow, Yeah, he's really good. Yeah, and it uh,
you know, it fits the song perfectly, and I love
the I love the tone.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
Everything about it is is so good.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
And tell us about I mean again, I listened to
the you Know You sound Us a whole album. I
listened to the entire album. It's funny because we had
kind of talked I'll pull the curtain back a little bit. Uh,
we kind of talked online about you know.
Speaker 6 (03:21):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
One of the songs you gave me a four warning
has a word in it that we would have to
make a radio edit of I and I was willing
to do that, but then, you know, I listened to
the whole album and it's like, well, there's so much
great stuff here, there's no reason to even bother making
a radio edit of that song because there's no shortage
of great songs here.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
So I that.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
So I picked a Breath to open with, and I'm
gonna play criticize yourself at the end of the segment
because I love that one too. Those are my two favorites.
So selfishly, I picked my two personal two favorites. But
but I'm curious about your creative process, and it sounds
like you do all the production yourself.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
Is that correct?
Speaker 3 (03:55):
Yep?
Speaker 5 (03:55):
Right here where I'm sitting right now, is where I
did all of the production on that whole album. Yeah, ye,
recorded everything in myself. I used Superior drummer to program
and edit all the drums. I recorded my own bass tracks,
my own rhythms on the acoustic and actually all the
vocal tracks, I recorded scratch tracks that I was going
to re record later, and I ended up just cleaning
(04:17):
them up and using the ones that were already in there. Okay, okay,
so everything was a one take on all the vocals.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
Okay, Wow, Have you ever done this before? Or is
Alien Stone this album? And by the way, what's the.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
Name of the album?
Speaker 3 (04:30):
The album's called After the Gray.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
After the Gray is After the Gray?
Speaker 2 (04:34):
Is this the first album where you've done that or
have you released previous work where you've done all the production?
Speaker 5 (04:40):
Well, I it was kind of a collaborative effort. But
I was in a band for about twenty years called
Freak Stark and not to be confused with the current
Freak Star out of Los Angeles. But yeah, we were
together for about twenty years and we got into recording
our own stuff too, But of course it was much
harder to do back then with the equipment. You know,
it's much easier to do today. You can do with
(05:01):
a laptop and you know, a very small mixer. So
I and I also went to as you can see,
I am into radio, so I went to radio school,
so I know about mixing and and you know, engineering
and all that kind of stuff. So it just it
made it much easier when the technology caught up to
me and what I wanted to do.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
Yeah, it's an amazing time to be alive, isn't it
in terms of technology? And oh, for sure the things
you can do now really because.
Speaker 5 (05:25):
That great track that was was given to me in
many many takes from someone who never even came into
my studio, recorded at elsewhere and just emailed it over,
you know. So that's that's huge. Yeah, And had to
get a bunch of people in a room.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
Yeah, especially when you come out with something that sounds
like it was recorded, you know, with a live band
in a studio.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
I mean, that's that's fantastic.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
So so that that's a good good for you being
able to do that.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
And then and then you mentioned so you you recorded
everything else.
Speaker 5 (05:55):
Yeah, pretty much everything else on there was me with
the exception of piano that that came from another gentleman.
That he's the lead singer and piano player for a
band called Sweet Crystal, which is a Detroit Detroit Music
Award winning band for the last thirty years. I mean,
he's a huge, huge artist around the Detroit area.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
Okay, that's obviously very satisfying when you can do all
of that yourself, I assume. I mean, did you feel
any pressure putting this album together because so much of
it was on you? Or maybe you did and you
thrive on it, or maybe you didn't and you just
enjoyed being able to have such autonomy and so much control.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
I mean, what was what was that like?
Speaker 2 (06:32):
Did you feel any pressure or was it just like, yeah,
I'm just gonna do this mostly myself.
Speaker 5 (06:37):
That that was the best thing about it is that
there was nobody on my heels. There was nobody saying, hey,
we got a deadline. We got to get this done.
You know, someone's coming over to do the bass tracks.
We got to get them all done today, right. There
wasn't any of that. You know, if I came home
and I was tired, I just didn't do anything. I
went to bet you know, if it takes me a
year to record it. It takes me a year. I don't
even know how long it took me. I didn't even
(06:57):
pay attention to that.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
Yeah, no, that makes sense. And is this your first
because a project officially is called alien Stone, is this
your first project that you've recorded as alien Stone?
Speaker 5 (07:09):
Well, I did something a long time ago when a
freestar had like a hiatus in the middle where I
did my own kind of thing on the side, and
it was under the name alien Stone. But it was very,
very different from this, and it was much lower on
the production scale. It was kind of like a techno
e beat kind of thing with a lot of heavy
guitar on it. Yeah, and yeah, I just it never
(07:29):
really released or anything anyway, so I don't really count
it right right.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
Where does the name come from, alien Stone?
Speaker 5 (07:36):
It actually comes from all the way back in high school.
This would have been like eighty eight eighty nine. I
took a media production class and we were supposed to
write and produce a small video, and I wrote a
script that would have required me to get about thirty
or forty million dollars, So I never made the movie.
But it was about a meteorite that falls into Los
Angeles and an alien comes to retrieve it because it's
(07:58):
some kind of power source, and he goes a murderous
spree to retrieve the alien stone. Okay, it's just stuck
ever since.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
Yeah, yeah, all right. And the album is called After
the Gray? Where does that come from?
Speaker 3 (08:10):
That's actually uh.
Speaker 5 (08:11):
In one of the songs there's the title says, after
the Gray, maybe there'll be some kind of light, Okay,
And that's basically what the song was about. All this
crap that happens to you, is like, well, maybe after
this crap passes, you know, there'll be something better after that.
So after the Gray, maybe there'll be some kind of light.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
So are these songs? Are they reflective of things that
you've been through? Because in listening to the lyrics, I
do feel like, you know, these aren't you know, they're
not just simple feel good rock songs.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
There.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
I feel like I feel like there's some heavy stuff
behind the lyrics of these songs. It definitely, you know,
without I mean, you know, there's ambiguity. And of course,
one of the wonderful things about music or any kind
of art is that you can kind of interpret it
however you want to. And sometimes people different people find
different meanings behind different you know, the lyrics to different
(09:03):
songs and so forth. But my impression because I listened
to the entire thing in one sitting, you know, I
wasn't like, Okay, I'm gonna listen to a song now
and I'll listen to another one later. So I listened
to the full thing, from front to back, and I
felt like there's a story there, like like there's something
that you're getting out, but I'm curious about that.
Speaker 5 (09:21):
Yeah, there's definitely a lot of heavy lyrics. I've been
criticized by a lot of people saying, can you write
a happy song? I'd be like, if there's any happiness
inside me, I want to keep it there, keep it inside.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
You know.
Speaker 5 (09:32):
If I get all this heaviness that's thrown on me
from the world, let's let's get that out through the
therapy of music, let's remove that. You know what I'm saying. Right, So,
I don't need to write a happy song. I just
live the happy stuff. But you know, yeah, the darker stuff.
If you don't talk about the things that get to you,
that the things that bring you down, then it's just
(09:53):
going to keep you down. So that's pretty much you
know what I do. It's like, if something bothers me
enough to wear I'm thinking about it a lot, then
then yeah, it's going to translate into the music. You know,
I'm gonna I'm gonna write a story about you know,
what once was that is no more or something that
has changed for the not for the better. M you
know that that's you know, that's that's gonna come out
(10:15):
that way. I have one song that's on there. It's
called long Way Home, which is basically about thinking that
the grass is greener on the other side. So you
take this long journey going around trying to find something better,
and then you find out that everything that was better
was actually at home, so you're right back where you started.
You took the long way home. So that's not really
a dark story. That's like, hey, you just you didn't
(10:35):
know now you do.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
Yeah, And it's relatable, you know, because I think we
can all we can all relate to that, uh you know,
at some point in our lives.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
So certainly.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
But I like too that you use the word therapy
when you're talking about about, you know, songs about dark
subjects and so forth, because something that comes up on
this show a lot because we talk about music, we
also talk about mental health and uh, something that comes
up on the show a lot is how creating art,
whether it be music or you know, visual art Jenny
as you know, she's a visual artist, or whatever it
(11:07):
is that you're creating.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
It's it's a way.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
I think it's the best form of therapy, right because
you're you're working whatever it is that you need to
work out through creating something. Not only are you creating
something that ultimately that helps you, it helps you to
express yourself, but it also helps others because then they
are able to relate to what you've created. And I'm
sure I don't know if it's happened to you. I
assume it has. Maybe you've heard from someone who said,
(11:31):
you know, hey, I listened to this song and I
get what you're saying, and I really relate to it
and it kind of helped me, helped me feel better,
help me feel like I'm not alone, whatever it is, right,
So I think that that's you know, the best form
of therapy is to is to create. And if you
can take your pain, your trauma, whatever it is that
you've been through, or maybe you're just upset about something
(11:53):
going on in the.
Speaker 1 (11:53):
World, whatever it is, If you're able to take.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
That and then make something out of it, create something
from it, you've taken something this negative, but you've done
something positive with it by creating something.
Speaker 3 (12:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (12:05):
And also, like you said that, if somebody else listens
to it and they say, hey, I you know, connected
with you on this level, it's like, okay, but you
wouldn't have, right. You know, you had no idea that
this person was on the same level with you, that
was there right there with you. But you didn't know
until you said something in the form of a song
or a poetry or a painting or whatever. Then somebody
looks at it and goes, you know what, I feel
(12:26):
the same way, and it's like, okay, well I had
no idea you did. Now at least I have a
kindred spirit. I now feel like there's more people with
me instead of against me.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
Right exactly exactly.
Speaker 2 (12:36):
Yeah, do you play any of these songs out or
I mean with all these guest musicians, Maybe that's challenging
to pull that off.
Speaker 1 (12:45):
I don't know, But do you perform any of these live?
Speaker 3 (12:48):
Yes?
Speaker 5 (12:48):
Actually, what I did is since I'm the one that
was in charge of producing the album. I was also
the one in charge of rendering the tracks. When I
was done, so of course I had rendered the entire album,
and then I went through and muted the acoustic guitar
and the vocals and rendered it again. Okay, So I
load that onto a loop pedal and I can go
out to any place I want now hit the track
and it plays everything with the exception of my acoustic
(13:10):
guitar and my vocals, and I can just play right along.
Speaker 1 (13:13):
Oh that's great.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
And you know, once again, it's an amazing time to
be alive, isn't it with all this technology.
Speaker 3 (13:17):
Yeah, that was not available. That was not available.
Speaker 5 (13:20):
You had to come out there with a reel to
reel and all kinds of crazy stuff.
Speaker 1 (13:25):
That's great.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
They were able to do that, So, uh, does anything
ever go wrong with that? By the way, when you're
when you're you know, trying to play to these loops.
Speaker 5 (13:34):
And uh, the only time it really went bad is
before I'm not I use loop pedal itself, which plays
the wave file straight from there, and that pretty much
is solid.
Speaker 1 (13:44):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (13:44):
But I used to use a laptop.
Speaker 5 (13:46):
Yeah, and you know how laptops are, Yeah, you know,
right in the middle of a song and goes, we're
gonna do an update in the middle, Like, dude, you
didn't even ask me, you just we're restarting your computer.
Speaker 1 (13:57):
Really yeh, yeah up, or.
Speaker 5 (14:00):
You'll get a notification or something, but right in the
middle of your song, you're like, that's not cool it
I deleted those.
Speaker 3 (14:06):
I thought I turned those off.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
I mean, if you're a if you're a DJ, you know,
you could say, oh, it's the part of the remix
or whatever if it suddenly goes meek.
Speaker 1 (14:14):
But if you're you know, you're playing a rock song, you.
Speaker 3 (14:17):
Know, and you get to know a critical error.
Speaker 2 (14:19):
Yes, but but it sounds like so now it works
pretty It all works pretty smoothly though.
Speaker 3 (14:28):
Yeah, it's pretty solid.
Speaker 5 (14:29):
When you when you you have to actually hit the
button to stop it. Now, yeah, you know it's not
gonna just empower would have to go out?
Speaker 2 (14:36):
Yeah, yeah, when you when you play out, are people
ever surprised because obviously, you know a lot of people
who maybe haven't seen someone play with loop pedals and
so forth. You know, they might see you with your
acoustic guitar and think that you know, that's going to
be it and not that there would be anything wrong
with that, But are do you ever see people in
the audience who are just surprised when they, you know,
(14:57):
when they start to hear these other instruments and these
other and they realize that it's actually a bigger production,
so to speak, then maybe what they were expecting.
Speaker 5 (15:07):
That's always the case when somebody who hasn't seen me
at first, they think I'm gonna come up there and
do some Hank William seeing your tear and my beer
kind of stuff, right, and you know, and there's nothing
wrong with that either, you know, IF's and there's other
people at these shows too that do that kind of music.
So maybe somebody right before them just did that, and
then I come up there and they think, Okay, this
is gonna be a continuation. And then all of a
sudden they hear the drums kick in and a and
(15:29):
a big fat bass kick in, and you've that guitar
solo that you just heard on that song. You know,
they're not expecting any of that, yeah, and it kind
of shocks them a little bit.
Speaker 3 (15:38):
First, dude.
Speaker 5 (15:39):
Sometimes they're like, are you just playing along with your album?
And sometimes I actually have to explain to people it's
like no, what I'm playing is live. Yeah, that's removed
from the sound.
Speaker 1 (15:47):
Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
Do you ever, I mean, do you have any thoughts
of putting together a band to play these? Or obviously
doing it yourself? It gives you a lot of freedom
and autonomy, and if you want book shows, you don't
have to check with three or four other people what
their schedules are. So I so maybe this, maybe this
is a pointless question, but I am curious. I mean,
(16:10):
have you thought about trying to put together a band
to play these?
Speaker 5 (16:13):
Yeah, I've I'm always open to that idea. But it
you know, something that I've learned from being in bands for,
you know, thirty plus years, is that, you know, the
more people you get into a band, the more schedules
you have to coordinate. Everybody has wives and lives and
husbands and car problems and jobs and vacation time and
(16:37):
all that kind of stuff. And to get five people
in a band and have all that lineup so that
you can record and you can do a show, it's
really hard.
Speaker 3 (16:44):
It's really hard.
Speaker 5 (16:45):
And then on top of that, you've got egos and
personalities that you also have to get along with, and
it makes it very, very difficult. So I'm always open
to the idea. But then you've got to find somebody
who's willing to play my music and then move forward
writing stuff yeah together, you know, don't change what I've
already written. That's already done, right, you know, So you've
got to be willing to do that. And a lot
(17:06):
of people are like, no, I don't want to, you know,
I don't want to be in the Dave Matthews band,
you know, right, And I'm like, no, that's what I'm
not trying to do that either, you know.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
Yeah, where are you from, Keith? I? I just realized too,
I never asked you where where are you located?
Speaker 1 (17:23):
Exactly?
Speaker 5 (17:24):
Well, I'm originally from Westland, Michigan, but I moved over
to Taylor, Michigan, which is a suburb of Detroit, pretty
close to Detroit.
Speaker 3 (17:31):
Okay, be there in about ten minutes if I chose
to go.
Speaker 2 (17:34):
Well, you're a you're in an area then you're you know,
being close to Detroit where. I mean a lot of
great music obviously is come out of that region. I
mean you must have. I mean, what's the music scene
like there right now? I mean there must just be
talent everywhere I would guess.
Speaker 3 (17:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (17:50):
I do a lot of open mic nights obviously, you know,
because that's the easiest thing for me. I go to
places like Grizzlies and Windott or Three Nicks in Allen Park.
But like the place I go to, it's a bar.
It's called road Rangers, and it's and Taylor and this
bar is set up as a concert bar. I mean
it has the full backing line, the full everything. I mean,
anybody can play there. Docing could play there tomorrow and
(18:11):
it would sound great. Yeah, you know what I'm saying, Well,
the sound would be great. I don't know if Docing
would be great, but.
Speaker 1 (18:17):
Yeah, depends if George Leitch's and the band or not.
Speaker 3 (18:20):
Right.
Speaker 5 (18:21):
So when I go and play there, it's like the
bands that come through that bar because of the fact
that it has such good sound and you don't have
to sell tickets and you don't have to be part
of a national thing. There's a lot of huge talent
that comes through that that bar. You know, bands like
the Creeping Chaos is around here right now. That's an
enormous band. And the band's like whole shot the WRF,
(18:42):
which is a huge radio station around here. They constantly
hire that band to play all their events. Oh yeah,
so yeah, there's a lot of really good bands that
come through there.
Speaker 2 (18:51):
Yeah. It's something that we talk about on the show
quite a bit.
Speaker 1 (18:55):
Is you know.
Speaker 2 (18:55):
Every around here, you know, because sometimes people will ask us,
they ask me, or they'll ask Jenny because she does
the booking. You know, how do you find all this
great talent? And it's like, well, it's everywhere, you know,
And I think that's true of probably every city, in
every town in the country. You know, there's there's local
musicians who are doing great stuff. And if you you know,
because sometimes people, you know, they get to a certain
(19:16):
point in their lives where they sort of say, Okay,
all the music that I've heard up to this point
in my life, that's all the music I ever need
to hear, and anything made after this point I'm not
going to listen to. I'm going to reject, you know.
And people who do that, they're they're missing out, you know.
I mean there's first of all, I mean, you can
get access to there's so much there's so much new
(19:37):
music being put out, but also right right in your
own backyard, you know, there's musicians making music and you
know you need to. I always use my father as
a very positive example of this. My dad, you know,
he's in his seventies, but he still loves hearing new music.
He lives on the sea coast here in New Hampshire
and there's a great college station at the University of
New Hampshire called WUNH and my dad I'd love to
(20:00):
listen to wun H because he loves hearing new music.
He loves hearing you know, new artists that he's never
been exposed to before, either young, new upcoming artists, or
just artists who maybe are not young but have been
around a while but he just had never heard them before.
Speaker 1 (20:15):
He loves hearing new stuff.
Speaker 2 (20:17):
And you know, and I can only imagine what the
scene is like there and how much great music there
must be there. But you know, I always encourage people,
you know, take a look around. You know this this great,
incredible music being created by musicians right in front of you.
You know you're just not looking.
Speaker 5 (20:34):
You know what I mean, I know exactly what you're saying. Well,
I hear it all the time. You know, people are like, well,
I don't want to go see that band. I'm like,
why No, I don't know who they are. I was like, okay,
but did you know who Metallica was before you heard
them for.
Speaker 3 (20:45):
The first time?
Speaker 1 (20:46):
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3 (20:47):
Everybody has to be unknown before they're known.
Speaker 1 (20:49):
Exactly.
Speaker 5 (20:49):
Go and spend two hundred and fifty dollars on a
ticket to see Metallica, whom you'll never meet, or you
can go to a bar and here's some brand new
music you've never heard and talk with them and do
shots with them after the.
Speaker 1 (20:58):
Show, right exactly. And then if it was a.
Speaker 5 (21:02):
Fifteen dollars ticket instead of two hundred and fifty bucks,
you know.
Speaker 2 (21:05):
Come on, yeah, yeah, and then if you know, if
they get big, you can say, hey, I knew them when.
Speaker 5 (21:10):
Exactly I did shots with you know, come upcoming Metallica
back in the day, you know.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
There you go, Yeah, I hear that a lot. You know.
Speaker 2 (21:17):
In this area where we are, people will say, you know,
I saw Aerosmith, you know, back in the day when
they were you know, just a bar band, you know,
and it's it's that's usually an example people use from
from in this part of the country. But yeah, there's
there's so much, uh, there's so much great talent out there,
and people people should definitely keep their eyes open for that.
Do you use your now with your your online station
(21:41):
and your show, do you use that to showcase indie
artists or do you do you use that to promote Sure?
Speaker 1 (21:47):
Yeah, yeah, I'm.
Speaker 5 (21:49):
Sure all the all the indie artists that are around
here that have they have, you know, recorded music that's
you know, you know, you know the level it has
to be at.
Speaker 3 (21:56):
Yeah, you know the quality level it has to be at.
Speaker 5 (21:59):
You know, anybody that has those albums and stuff in
it and they submit to me they've been on the
radio station. I go through those albums too, and I
pick a nice wide range of all the local music
and put it in there. And then I sprinkle in
some national stuff too, just for the people that can't
handle not knowing what the next song is, right, you know,
just to kind of keep them okay.
Speaker 2 (22:16):
I think there's value in doing that too, is sprinkling
in some national artists, because I've I've always felt that
that lends, uh for you know, for some people, that
lends a certain credibility to the independent artists, maybe the
local artists if they're mixed in with some national artists,
you know what I mean.
Speaker 5 (22:34):
Just yeah, for sure, you can have an unknown person
selling bar bells on TV, or you can have Arnold schwarzeneg,
you're selling bar bells on TV.
Speaker 3 (22:41):
Which one's going to sell faster?
Speaker 1 (22:42):
Very well? Put exactly, put a couple of.
Speaker 5 (22:45):
Pearl jam songs on a couple of things in there
around all these local artists.
Speaker 3 (22:48):
Yeah, it'll attract a little bit.
Speaker 2 (22:50):
Yeah, absolutely. So the where where should people go? Like,
where can they find the online station that you have?
Speaker 3 (23:00):
Well, it's at alien x radio dot com.
Speaker 5 (23:02):
Okay, And unfortunately I've realized within the last couple of
days that the player isn't working, so I have to
figure out how to fix that since it's been a
decade since I've been into the actual controls of the website.
Oh really, Yeah, there's no reason to change the website.
We just changed the music and stuff, you know, and
everything's live, you know, most of our shows and stuff,
so we don't have to go in there and change much. Yeah,
(23:24):
and I can't get back in there, so I got
to figure that out. Yeah, that's at alienxradio dot com.
And then I of course have a Facebook page. The
artist page is just alien Stone. Yeah, and you can
get me at Keith samlan at Alien at Facebook as well.
Speaker 2 (23:37):
Okay, and then the album. Can people find the album anyway?
I mean I assume it's on all the streaming platforms
and everything.
Speaker 5 (23:43):
Yeah, I went through that distro kid, so it's on everything.
So you've got Spotify, Apple Music. You know, it's even
on like Pandora and things like that, so you can
find it pretty much everywhere.
Speaker 3 (23:54):
Outstanding by the way in the freak Star stuff.
Speaker 1 (23:56):
Oh good.
Speaker 2 (23:56):
Oh yeah, I'm curious. I'm curious to check that out too.
Do you do physical copies of the album.
Speaker 1 (24:02):
Or is strictly online?
Speaker 4 (24:04):
No?
Speaker 5 (24:05):
I have physical copies too. I've made some CDs and
also what I really like is they look like business cards,
but they're actually a flash drive. It pops out the side, oh,
perfectly straight in. Those are really nice too.
Speaker 2 (24:14):
We had someone on the show recently who used that
same concept, and yeah, that's a great idea.
Speaker 5 (24:20):
Some people you hand them a CD and they go,
what is this? Is this America online?
Speaker 3 (24:23):
What is this? They don't know?
Speaker 1 (24:26):
Well, it's interesting.
Speaker 2 (24:27):
That's a subject that comes up a lot on the
show too. Because there was a point where, because I've
been doing this a long time, and there was a
point where it seemed like none of the guests we
would have on nobody was doing physical media. I'm talking
like maybe seven or eight years ago, and you know,
and that's fine, you know, just you know, email me
the tracks whatever. But lately, well I shouldn't say lately,
(24:48):
I'd say probably for at least the past five years,
it seems like, at least in this area, for the
guests that we have coming in person from our area,
physical media has had quite a resurgence.
Speaker 1 (24:59):
A lot of our guests bring in CDs.
Speaker 2 (25:01):
Now, you know, they send us the files ahead of time, obviously,
but they'll also bring in a physical copy or even
we've had some who even do vinyl and they'll bring
in a vinyl record, not for us to play, but
just to have. Although we do have a record player
here that one of the other hosts uses, and we
even have a CD player that I've never used, but
we do have one here in the in the studio
that I know one of our hosts sometimes will bring
(25:22):
in CDs to play. But but it's interesting, you know,
uh physical media never seems to completely go away, and
sometimes it has these little resurgences, and uh so a
lot of the artists around here are releasing things on
CD and even on vinyl, which I understand is very expensive.
But but I like your I like your concept with
the flash drive.
Speaker 5 (25:43):
Yeah, it's it's you know, the physical media is kind
of it's just kind of changed what its purpose really is.
It's like, we know that when this guy gets home,
he's probably going to listen to it on his smart
device or whatever from a streaming service.
Speaker 1 (25:54):
Right.
Speaker 3 (25:55):
But you know, now the physical media I don't.
Speaker 5 (25:57):
Even like when I when I ad a show or something,
I find people who were interested and I just give
them one. Yeah, okay, it's it has become the physical
media has become the promotional tool to get you to
go and stream exactly.
Speaker 3 (26:10):
It's almost what it's become now. You know.
Speaker 5 (26:11):
So I'm not trying to sell I'm not, you know,
out of the trunk of my car out there going
I got yeah, I you know, I don't do that.
Speaker 3 (26:18):
You know.
Speaker 5 (26:19):
I just find someone who I think was interested and
I give them a copy.
Speaker 1 (26:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (26:23):
Yeah, I think that's an excellent strategy. Well, Keith, I
appreciate you joining us. In a moment, I'm gonna play
this track. Criticize yourself because this is this is the
other one that I like, I said, I enjoyed the
whole album, but breathe and criticize yourself for the two
that really really kind of struck me. I'm curious if
there's anything we should know about this song, if there's
(26:44):
a backstory to this one, or what this one might
be about, because again, this is another one of those
songs too where I'm listening to the lyrics and it's like,
well there's something here, you know, and and and I'm.
Speaker 1 (26:54):
Really curious about it.
Speaker 2 (26:54):
And by the way, and also too, if you want
to talk about the guitar player on this one, because
this is also another song where I really love the
guitar work on this.
Speaker 5 (27:01):
Yeah, the guitar this one is really involved. Yeah, it
really is. Basically, he came over and he had nothing planned.
This is Donnie Stanfill. He's the league. He's one of
the guitar players from the band Creeping Chaos here in Detroit,
and he probably recorded I just I just played the
song and just let him go and improvise. He did
(27:21):
probably fourteen tracks. Wow, just improvised. Yeah, and then I
went through and cut and spliced and put together all
my favorite pieces Okay, so that's what we ended up with.
And then when I played it back for me, he goes, dude,
I don't think I could play that.
Speaker 3 (27:35):
I was like, you just did? You just did.
Speaker 5 (27:39):
That's what we're telling everybody, right right, So that's where
that came from. And the song itself is basically about
just all the things that can kind of build up
and start suffocating you. Is basically what it is, you know,
the just the day to day grind, the things that
happen around you and stuff. It's just it's choking you.
It's it's suffocating you. And it's like, when will we
(28:00):
get a chance to breathe? Yeah, give us a chance
to take a breath. You know enough, it's enough, right right?
Speaker 2 (28:07):
Well again, congratulations on the album. I think it's really good.
And uh, and remind people again to uh where should
they go to keep up with everything that you're doing online?
Speaker 5 (28:17):
Well, it's alien Stone on Facebook or Keith Samlan on Facebook.
And then you got alien x Radio of course, when
that's all you know, moving and grooving again. Yeah, and
anywhere on any streaming site anywhere you type in alien
Stone or after the Gray and it should pop right up.
Speaker 3 (28:32):
Man, it's everywhere YouTube everything.
Speaker 1 (28:34):
Yeah, yeah, excellent. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (28:35):
I suggest people check it out and alien Stone is
one word, by the way too for people when you're
looking for it. And yeah, fantastic. Keith, thank you so
much for joining us this morning. We will we will
definitely have to do this again. In fact, maybe we'll
have you on again soon. I'd love to talk to
you more about your your career with you mentioned you
used to interview movie stars, and I'd love to talk
to you about that in the future too, because you know,
(28:57):
we we kind of mostly we talk about music on
the show, but we do mix it some other things
as well, so we'll have to figure that out and
set up a time for that. But congratulations on the album.
I think it's great. I suggest everyone check it out.
I'm gonna hit this track in a moment, criticize yourself,
another very very strong track from the album.
Speaker 1 (29:13):
But we'll let you go for now. But Keith, thank
you so much.
Speaker 3 (29:16):
Thank you for having me on the show.
Speaker 1 (29:17):
All Right, you got to take care.
Speaker 3 (29:19):
I have a good one.
Speaker 1 (29:20):
Bye bye, all right. Wonderful.
Speaker 2 (29:21):
So that was Keith sam Land and the project is
called alien Stone. The album is after the Gray and
we're gonna give this a spin, and then we're going
to come back and Jenny and I are going to
talk to you for a couple of minutes about for
those of you who are listening live on Saturday, some
exciting things going on today that Jenny and I are
going to be doing. That you can come join us
and be a part of. But for right now, again,
this is Alien Stone and the track is called Criticize Yourself.
Speaker 1 (29:45):
I really like this one a lot. Check it out.
Speaker 7 (30:54):
There's a Storemas's brewin.
Speaker 6 (30:59):
It's gone. Then the real slow from glass houses, your
programs a question all I know by then out. By
(31:26):
then I ride out.
Speaker 7 (31:33):
There's a fire that's building your entry and the flames
and now the fire is raging.
Speaker 6 (31:47):
And killing and the names. By then I ride out.
By now I had out.
Speaker 4 (32:10):
Well your story in this by life with your neighs
and Saty getting here for your big moment, by face
uh Bran's you sell him a wheel.
Speaker 6 (32:23):
Till you print sash yourself.
Speaker 4 (32:28):
Don't you print sash yourself? Why can't you print sash yourself?
Speaker 6 (32:40):
There's a war.
Speaker 7 (32:41):
Wheel flight is.
Speaker 6 (32:45):
It's not a battle with it.
Speaker 7 (32:49):
You're judgment strikes light light me.
Speaker 6 (32:54):
Is this a warking within by me? Not hide up
by men? Add an, will you go in this sideline?
Speaker 4 (33:20):
W dornaser safty get on? You gonna jumping on in
my BASI bet not? Your sails can get the wheel
till you priti sis your sell? Don't you pretty stash
your sall? Why can't you pretty sis you sell? Will
(34:15):
you st don my life with your neighs? And sat
to kill you for your bingle in my faser? But
I just sail be never within till you pretty side
to sell?
Speaker 5 (34:33):
Well, don't you.
Speaker 6 (34:33):
Bread out to sell?
Speaker 3 (34:37):
Why can't you fret side you say?
Speaker 2 (35:05):
I love the guitar sound on that. I love that
guitar tone that is alien Stone. The song is called
Criticize Yourself. Alien Stone, of course is Keith sam Land.
And thank you again to Keith for joining us. Check
out alien Stone, check out alien x Radio and I'm
going to be checking that out looking forward to learning
more about that. We'll probably have Keith on again because
(35:27):
like I said, I'd love to talk to him too.
I'd love to have a supplemental conversation with him about
his radio career. And you know he mentioned Houston interview
movie stars and some of the other things he does
on his show. Very very interesting guy.
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