[00:00:01] Speaker A: It's not just us we'd have to conquer.
[00:00:04] Speaker B: We've got folk singers, rappers, and punkers, everyone taking care of one another.
[00:00:18] Speaker A: Welcome to the unsigned unwind. I am Andy Scullen. I am your host, and welcome to our second episode. And if you're brand new to the show, basically what it is, is after two years of doing my unsigned 518 tier in the 518 area of New York state, I have decided to expand and include local musicians from all over the United States and Canada. And we'll basically just do a quick interview, get to know the band or the member of the band real Quick, play a song from the band, and then out. And then that way, if you're a fan of local music, you can expand your horizons and get to personally be introduced to music from areas such as Cincinnati.
We're going to Detroit this episode. There's, I think, Madison, Wisconsin, coming up. There's a bunch of places. So hopefully, my idea is that not only will you get exposed to new music, but the musicians that are on this show might get introduced to another band, and then their paths may cross. They may find that they're in similar touring circuits and get to know each other and just, you know, make a bigger community all about music. So that is my goal, whether I'll get there or not, or whether I just shoot the shit with some great musicians from across the country, that would be fantastic, too. And the way the show is set up is. Angela Taranjo is the showrunner of the unsigned unwind. She basically does everything behind the scenes of. And all I have when the show starts is basically a phone number and a first name, because that way, I'm finding out very organically about these bands, and you'll find out organically at the same time. And it's a great way for the band to introduce themselves to someone who, you know, I don't know anything about the bands. I want to find out, and that's how we do it, just very naturally and casually. So right now, I know that there is a gentleman named Nick who we're gonna speak with. So I guess, without further ado, let's go to the phone. Hey, what's up, Nick?
[00:02:36] Speaker C: What's going on, Andy?
[00:02:37] Speaker A: Not much. You know, I'm just here to find out a little bit about your band, I guess. First we'll start off, tell the folks the name of the band.
[00:02:46] Speaker C: Absolutely. We are called minor side effects fx, the last two letters.
[00:02:51] Speaker A: And where do you. Where do you hail from?
[00:02:54] Speaker C: We are from Detroit, Michigan. Detroit Rock City, nice.
[00:02:57] Speaker A: And you're from, like, Detroit proper, right there in the city?
[00:03:00] Speaker C: I am just over here on the west side.
[00:03:01] Speaker A: That's awesome. So, yeah, I'll probably come back to that because I think I want to find out a little bit about, you know, what the local music scene is like in Detroit. But before we get there, I guess, you know, tell me a little bit about.
Maybe think of it like the elevator pitch about your style of music. Like, if you were, you know, like I said, just, you had a minute or two to be like, hey, this is what minor side effects is all about.
[00:03:27] Speaker C: Like, yeah, absolutely. I'd be happy to.
So, basically, if I had to describe what we're doing here, it's pretty much just taking everything, you know, alternative, punk, metal, grunge, all these sorts of things. Funk, you know, I'm pretty much just putting that in a blender and figuring out what sounds good together and bringing it right to you guys. I don't really worry too much about a label as far as, you know, what genre I'm playing for you, but it's very guitar centric, for sure. It's all about the riffs and just kind of want something that makes people move, but also we try to add some dynamics in there as well.
[00:04:03] Speaker A: And how many people do you have in the band?
[00:04:05] Speaker C: The band is really my brainchild. Most of the first album was most of what you heard on there was me, 90% of it outside of the drums. The drums is Ryan Gruzian. He's a really, really talented drummer and producer. He did the production on that ep as well, but he just has some other commitments that prevent him from being the full time drummer. But as of right now, he's doing all the studio work, all the production, and he is incredible.
And then we've got Tim Gray. Tim is actually now in the band as a full time member. We've recently chatted and made sure it was the right fit and everything. Tim and I had been in a band previously. He's a really, really talented guitarist, bass player, and lyricist, and he contributed some lyrics and a guitar solo on the first album. So there are some contributions from him, and we can definitely expect a lot more going forward.
And then also, there's my good friend Jahi. He is a rap artist out here in Detroit who also has just been my friend basically since high school. We did a talent show together, played a Rachel's machine song, like a million years ago.
So this has been something kind of in the works between the two of us for a long time. And he's definitely going to be back for at least two songs on this next album that I'm working as well, and that's the squad and me, Nick. Nick furthest. I do all, most of what you see as far as the social media and the music, but I'm working on making it more of a collaborative thing going forward as well, while still maintaining kind of the vision that I had for this band.
[00:05:42] Speaker A: Cool. And how long or, I mean, how long and I guess, how much content do you have out there for folks to find? And I will link in the show notes on this. I'll link to your.
To your music and your social so that people can find you. But how long have you been Ben a band?
[00:06:01] Speaker C: So our first release came out November 16 of last year. We dropped a single called to you. It's one of those slash songs, you know what I mean? Where one song leads into the other.
So I released it all as one song ahead of the ep just to kind of give you a taste of what was coming.
Then we released an additional single right before the ep, and then we dropped the ep. So there are six songs total available from us right now. We are working. Working on the follow up, but the reception has been so far beyond what we expected that we've had to really.
[00:06:36] Speaker A: Really ramp this thing up nice. And before we wrap it up, I do just want to know a little bit about.
Tell me a little bit about what it's like being a local or unsigned musician in Detroit.
[00:06:50] Speaker C: It can be good and bad. I think it's a little bit easy to get lost in the mix just because there kind of are a lot of people trying to do it, and a lot of them are kind of trying to do it on their own, similar to what I'm doing. The difference was that I didn't intend to do, like, a solo project. I've always wanted a band. I just didn't really have the tools around me until I started making the music.
So I haven't had a ton of interaction yet with the local bands around me. I've been trying to bust into the scene real quick, and I think this ep is really going to help us because, like I said, the response so far has been nothing short of amazing. So we're. We're basically trying to push our way in because we don't have pretty much any connections yet. We're working on that.
[00:07:32] Speaker A: Nice. And is there, like, outlets, you know, like. Like local radio stations or, you know, publications that kind of cater or. Or assist local bands out there?
[00:07:44] Speaker C: Yeah, so we actually were on here in Detroit. There's a rock station called 101.1 the Rif. It's probably, like, most prevalent hard rock station in Detroit. And they do a Sunday show called the. I forget exactly what it's called. It's a local band show.
Motor City riffs is what it's called. And we've been on there maybe twice now, but I know the first time they actually played two of our songs, which was an incredible boost for us. Yeah, that was a really awesome thing for them to do. I'm not sure if they've continued to play it. It's not like they're going to send me a message every time they do it. Seems like it actually got a good response. We have gotten a little bit of traction with 101 the riff. I've been trying to get on some of the other local stations. I'm just not sure what time or when they do, like, local band type stuff. You know what I mean? So trying to figure that out.
[00:08:38] Speaker A: Right. And, I mean, one thing, you know, if I can give a little advice, is hit up the college radio stations. They even have. There's a lot of lists that you can buy. You know, they're not much, but you buy, like, a list and it'll be like all the college radio stations and all the names of the program directors, and then you can just fucking blast, you know, blast every college radio station in the.
[00:09:00] Speaker C: No, I think that's a great idea because that's kind of how we've gotten our word out, is just massive, you know, amounts of messages via social media. This, that, the other. Just sending people like, hey, here's our album. We think you'd like it. If it sucks, you get your money back, obviously, because they're not paying for it. So.
[00:09:19] Speaker A: Yeah, and I mean, that's the thing, because a lot of the time, you just need the ears. Yeah, you just need.
[00:09:23] Speaker C: Exactly.
[00:09:24] Speaker A: Once people. Once people hear it, if it's a. If it's got that merit, then that's all you need. And back in the day, you know, it was fucking almost impossible to get ears on your music because you had to send a physical tape. And, like, you know, most of the time, it wouldn't even get out of the mail room. You know what I mean? Like, now, like, it's. It's so nice to have a pipeline like that.
[00:09:44] Speaker C: It's nice. I've found a lot of individuals, and they're actually, you know, I've tried to focus on people in Detroit, but I'm not afraid to, you know, reach out to someone in Brazil, someone in Canada, someone in, you know, England. I've got, I've got fans all over that way. It's actually been pretty cool.
[00:09:59] Speaker A: Right. And, I mean, that's, that's the other thing is that, uh, your reach doesn't have to be, uh, doesn't have to be localized. Like, you can, you know, send your shit to a station out in the UK. And, like, my, I'm in a local band, too, and we sent our music out to the station in the UK, and they put us on a fucking top 20 countdown.
We're like, what? Like some town, like, we've never heard of on the other side of the world. Like, that's kind of fun, you know, it's awesome.
[00:10:28] Speaker C: Yeah, it's just about getting it out there, right?
[00:10:30] Speaker A: Yeah, just getting it out there. And I love the DIY approach of getting it out there.
[00:10:37] Speaker C: Learning how we fly here.
[00:10:38] Speaker A: Yeah. Right. Before we go, though, I do want to just kind of ask, you know, the name of the show is the unsigned unwind. And, like, you know, I'll be real. It just kind of came because, like, it has a nice rhyme and ring to it, but I'm trying to incorporate, like, how, you know, an unsigned artist unwinds. Like, it's so hard to, like, do everything yourself to maintain a day job, to maintain a home life, and to do the music. So, like, what do you personally do to unwind and kind of cut out the noise for a little bit?
[00:11:09] Speaker C: Yeah, it's a great question.
Me personally, I've got probably too many hobbies. That's the type of person I am. So I'll try to keep it to a few, but I personally, I like to go hunting, fishing. I go foraging for mushrooms. I try to provide myself with a lot of food, and that way I also have a dog named Stevie Nix. She's the light of my life.
And, yeah, I don't know. I've really tried to diversify just all the things that I do because at one point, I feel like my identity got so caught up in music and trying to be a musician all the time that I just felt a little shallow. So I would say if I had any advice for other musicians is don't be afraid to take a step back real quick and enjoy something else, because that kind of revitalized my love for music at a certain point. It was a few years ago that I was kind of wavering if I even wanted to continue doing this, and I just kind of needed to take a step back and find the joy again. And, you know, once you find the joy, the music starts coming out a lot better also.
[00:12:12] Speaker A: That's fucking really solid advice, man. Like, it really is. All right, cool. So before we go, why don't we give the folks a taste of your music? You got a song you want to throw on there?
[00:12:23] Speaker C: Fuck, yeah, dude. So we've got a song called all I have are ghosts. It's pretty self explanatory. It's just about kind of feeling deserted. But the instrumental is fun. There's a big, loud scream at the beginning, but then it gets into a more melodic sort of singing style. And I honestly really love this song. I wrote this song many years before I even started, minor side effects, and it finally just got to come to the front. And so far, it's honestly been probably people's favorite, so I feel like it's a great choice.
[00:12:54] Speaker A: All right, so, Nick, I want to thank you so much for taking time out of your day and coming on and talking to me. I don't know where this show is going to go, but, you know, I'm hoping that with just, like, a lot of consistency and keep putting it out and keep reaching out to musicians across the country, such as yourself, that it'll grow and flourish. So I appreciate you taking the time. I really do, man.
[00:13:17] Speaker C: I appreciate it as well. It's a great opportunity just to kind of chat with a cool guy and maybe connect with some of your crowd, have a little bit of our crowds crossing each other, and maybe you'll get a couple new followers as well. So I, you know, it's awesome. And, you know, let's see where this thing goes. Maybe in a couple of years, we'll be looking back at this like, you know, this was right before both of us, right? Big time.
[00:13:38] Speaker A: I fucking love that. All right, so, Nick Firth of minor side effects out of Detroit, Michigan, and right now, we're going to listen to all I have are ghosts.
[00:14:47] Speaker C: All I.
[00:14:48] Speaker B: Have are girls left behind the ones I need the most won't look me in the eye I saw my soul at least a thousand times and if I wanna chance I might just try again tonight I've lost control just let it go black and folk can't concentrate and lost inside my head I haven't got enough to sleep my eyes are swollen around my ears are ringing from the sound and silence from your little mouth and lick never to forget.
[00:16:13] Speaker C: Just.
[00:16:13] Speaker B: Let it go all I have are goats left behind the most won't look me in the eye I answer my soul at least a thousand times.
And if no one objects, I might just drag into that.
I lost control.
Just let it go.
[00:17:16] Speaker A: Alright? So that was all I have are ghosts from minor side effects and check the show notes so that you can go and like, and follow minor side effects and check out their music. And as always, I would appreciate it if you would do the same for the show. You know, like follow rate, subscribe, whatever, wherever you're listening, and, and tell a friend about the show. That's really how we help build the community. Because if you tell one person and they tell one person, then we, we've got a bunch of like minded people all kind of, kind of gathering in a positive way. So it's a good thing. But anyway, that is it for this week's episode of the Unsigned Unwind. If you are a local band in any small market or large market in the US or Canada, and would like to appear on the unsigned unwind, just send an email to
[email protected] and if you would like to help support the show, you can go to buymeacoffee.com. unsigned 518. I am Andy Scullen, this is the unsigned unwind and I'll see you on the road.
If you would like to be a guest on the unsigned unwind, send an email to angelaunsignedproductions.com. take care of one another and I'll see you soon.
