Grab a beer and tune in. Our Beer Could Be Your Life is a new podcast produced by three Springdale colleagues who love talking about music, life, and of course beer, with musicians.
A nod to the 1996 D Boon and the Minutemen tribute album Our Band Could Be Your Life, the podcast is produced by Springdale Director Joe Connolly, Chain Account Manager Matt Ozelius, and Packaging Team Lead and QC Tech Dennis Donovan. They wanted to do something different and more in depth than just a typical beer podcast; bringing music into the mix made perfect sense to Connolly and Ozelius (Oz), who are record collectors, music enthusiasts, and play in a band together.
“Beer is a medium to connect with human beings, and so is music, so we’re exploring how those things cross over,” said Connolly.
Having a brewery to hang out in after shows helped spark the the idea for the podcast.
“Whenever I would play shows with friends or met bands from out of town, I’d invite them to the brewery and we’d drink, hangout, and eat pizza,” said Oz.
Even though this hasn’t been the norm for the last year due to Covid, enticing musicians with beer and pizza is still a good way to begin a conversation, and book podcast guests.
“Sometimes we randomly ping people and say, ‘hey we work for a brewery. Wanna talk to us?’” said Connolly.
Although not all of it is so arbitrary. An interview with New England singer-songwriter Aldous Collins will be going live next Friday, 4/16 to coincide with the recent release of Spiritual Gangster Hazy IPA. Spiritual Gangster is our first artist collaboration beer, and third release in Springdale’s musically-inspired rotating Hazy IPA series — a series which releases a new beer every month that’s inspired by a song on our brewery’s 2021 Spotify playlist. The series release slated for June is another artist collaboration, with Jeff Rosenstock, who is already confirmed for a podcast interview. Others are in the works.
For the second episode, Connolly and Oz talked to Jeff Rowe from the Boston-based band Tied To a Bear following his “live” virtual solo set for ONCE Somerville. Rowe is a perfect example of how beer and music intersect: he’s a musician, record label owner (Sound Investment Records), former brewer at Harpoon, and former proprietor and brewer at Somerville’s Winter Hill Brewing Company. They talked about hot sauce, brewing beer, music-writing inspiration, and drawing parallels between music and beer.
The guys catch up following Jeff’s live performance at the Dead Moon Studio in Somerville. L to R: Jeff Rowe, Joe Connolly, Matt Ozelius, Dennis Donovan.
“I think it’s cool when there’s a direct crossover,” said Connolly. “There’s a lot of connective tissue between our industries.”
Once the podcasts are recorded, Dennis Donovan works his behind-the-scenes magic. An Audio Communications graduate of Bridgewater State University, Donovan was introduced to this podcast project by friend, colleague, and fellow music-lover Cameron Crown. After he found out about it, he offered to help.
“Joe and Matt know how to talk to people and engage on a social level, but they don’t know how to record it, or get it online, or share it, which is something I genuinely like to do,” said Donovan.
For the Our Beer Could Be Your Life crew, it’s all in good fun. For Oz, he’d consider scoring a few free concert tickets and producing beyond ten episodes a success. Besides, he’s already talked with Travis Shettel, guitarist for Andover-based hardcore band Piebald — a band he grew up listening to. Longer term, Connolly hopes to utilize the space at Springdale to host live music and podcast recordings, and obviously, drink some beers with musicians.
Follow Our Beer Could Be Your Life on Instagram for the most up-to-date news and links to new podcast episodes.
