Former Italian Opera Singer Marisa Balistreri is Live in the Lair

If it's local music from Wisconsin, it's heard here.

This is Max Inc. Radio.

We are local music.

Marissa Ballastrieri is a Madison, Wisconsin bass vocalist, a former professional Italian

opera singer.

Marissa currently collaborates with her songwriter, guitarist, husband, Stefan Hall, an original

folk jazz tunes inspired by music from around the world.

The Marissa Ballastrieri group performs duo, trio and quartet.

It's vocals, guitar, bass and drums, and plays jazz standards.

Jazz Manouche, Latin Jazz, and originals in several languages.

That's right.

Marissa, Stefan, welcome to the layer on Max Inc. Radio.

Thank you.

Thanks for having us.

We got a mic there, Jimmy.

Just try it out.

You there?

Thank you.

All right.

We got Stefan.

We're online here.

Did you guys come down here?

Have dinner or anything go on?

I know I worked all day.

You worked all day?

What kind of work do you do beside musicianship?

I wore my t-shirt tonight because I knew I was going to be on the radio.

Nice.

That's a classic bookstore here in Madison.

It is.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

It's been around for 40 some years.

It says 1994.

Amazing.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Marissa and Stefan, let's get to know you both.

An opera singer and a guitarist.

This must be a story of the Amore.

Tell us about how you met and became a performing duo.

Well, I stalked him a little bit.

Yeah.

No, that's well, it's sort of true.

So my cousins were living up in Green Bay while I was all over the world doing things.

And they literally lived right around the corner from Stefan.

When he was a professor at UWGB.

And they said, there's a guy you should meet.

There's a guy you should meet.

One day I actually went up and met him.

And then I met him.

I knew I was going to marry him.

Really?

Yeah.

So it's a love it for a sight story?

Yeah.

Kind of.

Yeah.

For me, it was.

It was a little different for him.

And what did you think when, you know, they were like, do they say, oh, there's this girl

you got to meet?

I'm just trying to play it.

Cool, man.

Yeah.

Yeah.

He avoided me for an entire year after that.

It took me a while to, um, to pop the questions so to speak.

Yeah.

You know, he avoided me for a year.

And then we started, um, so actually I was playing in a jazz group with my cousins up in

Green Bay.

Uh-huh.

And our guitar player went and got into a PhD program.

So we were looking for a new guitar player and we asked Stephanie if he knew anybody.

And he said, what about me?

And so sure.

Yep.

And we started playing music together and eventually, I don't know.

We kind of went from playing music to getting married.

Wow.

How quick.

How much time was there between that?

Well, you said a year.

Well, he avoided me for a year.

Right.

I did.

No, he did.

Like I'd go my two.

And then we, uh, we, uh, were together as, uh, boyfriend and girlfriend for a year.

We never really even had a date.

Were we not boyfriend and girlfriend?

We never really.

No.

It was kind of like played music.

You took me on something that you called a date, but it wasn't.

He took me to the brew store in Milwaukee.

We went to the beer store.

Yeah.

Yeah.

The brew store.

I don't think that counts as a date.

Her reaction when I picked up a 50 pound bag of grains.

Yeah.

I'm like, that's okay.

I'm okay with that.

Once I said, Oh, I'm okay with that.

He's like, Oh, okay.

I'm going to ask her to marry me.

Right.

That is pretty much it.

This could totally be a podcast.

Soul proper.

Right.

Yeah.

Right here.

I mean, it's an opera.

Right?

Yes.

An opera.

Perfect.

Yes.

It's an opera.

So now, uh, when you guys go to gig, who does the navigating, who does the driving?

Stuff and drives.

I know.

Okay.

I load everything in.

I load everything out.

I take my stand.

I usually take my stand.

Last time I was in charge of my stand and I forgot it.

I got to stand.

I forgot it.

Dakota.

Yeah.

And stands.

You guys know.

You guys got all this equipment around here.

I mean, that's a hundred dollar stand.

I wouldn't get a ball in the other one.

It's got all the fixings on it, too.

Oh, Marissa, you were a professional Italian opera singer.

How did you get started in music?

Oh, my goodness.

Um, I think I was just always in music.

I think I was one of those kids that was just always like singing and making up stories

and dancing.

And my parents were like, you want to like do this for a living?

Mm hmm.

And I was like, do I do it?

How old were you when they were?

Honestly, it was like five.

Wow.

I remember them showing me burn it at Peter's once on television.

It's like, come and watch this.

Do you think you want to do that?

I was like, do I have to take voice lessons?

And then I ended up taking voice lessons for like 30 years.

So yeah, I have to take voice lessons.

Do you only, do you only sing or do you play any instruments?

Mm hmm.

She plays violin.

I play a little violin very badly.

Yeah.

Oh, okay.

Really bad.

A little very badly.

Yeah.

Wow.

Well, let's get to some live music here in the layer with Marissa Bellistry Duo presented

by the Aaron Weber group.

The first song you have for us tonight, it's called Spring.

Is this a song inspired by Rue the Rabbit?

Yeah.

I call it Rufus because I think it sounds more, I don't know, noble.

Yeah.

And he kind of rules the Roost at our house.

Yeah.

The Rabbit.

The Rabbit does.

And this is, it's kind of, it's really more of a story about getting through the bad times.

And the line that you'll hear is, I know Winter gives way to spring.

And so for Rufus, you know, he got to come and live with us.

So he, this spring time now.

Yeah.

But for, you know, just anybody who's listening to the song, you might go through some bad times.

But as long as you got love and, you know, beautiful wife like Marissa here.

Ah.

Wow.

Yeah.

Well, very cool.

Well, here it is.

This is Spring.

This is the Marissa Bellistry Duo.

You're listening to Live in the Lair, a Maxine radio.

I can't tell you where all I've been.

And I can't tell you what all I've seen.

I don't think about what it's cost.

And I won't dwell upon what's been lost.

Winter so long, eyes open wide.

No place for me just to hide.

So long alone, just need love.

And so I want to sit by my side and sing.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

Make sure it's on my own, always second guessing.

One day it would come looking for a blessing.

I can't tell you where I come from.

But I could scare you with what I know.

Oh, I've endured every kind of thing.

And I know winter gives way to spring.

Finally, content, confidence grows.

The forest no longer looms large.

Now I see trees, chaos to come.

And no other comforts of home.

And love, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na.

Save how insecure singing songs and laughing.

Trust now I can love.

I feel winter passing.

I know winter gives way to spring.

All right.

Wow.

Thank you.

That is the Marissa Ballot's Ballot Street duel here live in the Lair on Maxine Gradio.

That sounded really good.

Thank you.

Lots of fun there.

Tell us about being a professional Italian opera singer.

I mean, do you get a lot of free spaghetti like on the sopranos?

I hate to burst your bubble, but no.

What?

No.

Nobody gives you anything.

Actually, no, I think I exchanged some lessons for some spaghetti once.

I was about it.

Everybody in Italy is an opera singer.

It's really not a big deal.

I hate spaghetti for supper.

Yeah, we did.

We had spaghetti for supper.

What's it like, you know, being an opera singer, like singing in an actual opera?

I mean, that's so different.

It seems from like a band experience, something I'm used to.

I much prefer the band experience.

Really?

It's really more my style.

I don't know.

I thought opera was a good idea for a while, and for a while it was.

I got really good training.

It built confidence.

But I got to tell you, every time I went on stage, it was just, I was a wreck.

I was so scared.

Really?

Yeah.

And I mean, that's a lot of, and you have a theater background, right?

I do, yeah.

Where did you go to school and what theater did you do?

Actually, I got my theater degree from Udemy Madison.

Really?

I did, yes.

I did.

I did a lot of musical theater, like in high school.

Wow.

And college, I did a lot of musical theater, and I think that was the direction I wanted to go

at one point, and then somebody put me in an opera.

I mean, just they thought that was a good idea.

Yeah.

How did that happen?

Literally, that's how that happened.

I was a theater major in the music department, said, we can't get anybody who wants to do this

role.

She looks like she could do it.

You want to do it?

I don't know.

Sure.

So I did it, and I was terrible.

Oh.

No, I was, I was really bad, and everybody, and anybody is listening to this from like back then,

knows that I was really bad, and I'm okay with it.

But it taught me that I actually was actually better at classical music than I was at musical

theater, so that was the direction I chose to go way back in my early 20s.

And I stuck with it for a while.

Do you, do you ever go up to a person playing a piano and like, like an airport, and then

request like Queen of the Night by Bolta Art and sing and sing it?

All the time.

Yeah.

All the time.

Every chance I guess.

I see those kinds of videos, like they're like TikTok videos, and they're always amazing

where this person you never would guess that they're this opera singer, and they're sitting

in a restaurant, and you know, they start singing like some crazy song like that.

I thought it'd be fun.

I thought if I were really brave, I'd sing it for you online on the, on the air, but you

don't need to hear that.

Pull back from the mic a bit.

You moved to New York City and drifted into jazz.

Yeah.

Tell us about your slide into jazz.

My slide into jazz.

You're slummin' it.

I'm slummin' it now.

I love it though.

I much, I much prefer the slum in it.

Um, actually so, for a lot of reasons, personal reasons, financial reasons, you know, operand

Italy didn't pan out, but the way I wanted it to, it led to some things, but it didn't,

it, you know, wasn't, it wasn't really keeping me float.

Not enough spaghetti.

Not enough spaghetti.

Well, there's never enough spaghetti, but yeah, not enough.

So I thought, um, I actually had some luck in New York, and I got a manager, and she

just started sending me on every audition she could.

And a lot of the auditions were not classical, she's like, hey, they called you for this,

just go.

And I started finding that I was getting called for things that were not opera, and they

were very interesting, and some of them were jazz.

And um, I remember one audition, oh, I messed that up, said, can you skat?

When somebody asks you if you can skat, just say yes, I said no, so I didn't get that

job.

But anyway, um, yeah, that was dumb.

Um, so what I ended up doing was booking a cruise ship contract.

Wow.

It was a classical singer, but they put us in a whole bunch of different shows.

And um, my favorite show was the jazz show, and it was a song book.

It was called song book.

It was a great American song book, and I'm like, this is, this is it, this is what I want

to be doing.

Wow.

So, um, when I first started, I sounded like an opera singer trying to sing jazz.

Well, let's get back to live music in the layer with Marissa Ballaster, you do all presented

by the Aaron Weber group.

The next song you have for us tonight, it's called Massageo.

Correct.

Uh, what is this letter to Italy?

So usually Stefan writes all the music and the words, but this one I actually wrote the

words on in there in Italian.

And it's, it's a love letter to Italy because, um, I spent a lot of time there.

I love Italy, and I haven't been back in a long time, and I really miss it.

And that's what this song is about.

All right.

Well, let's hear it.

This is a Marissa Ballaster, uh, do all Massageo, you're listening to live in the layer

on Maxing Radio.

Salle, pasato, tanto tempo, da cuando tío visto, espero que te trobo bene.

Molte volte, ti ho pensato, e un giorno, sicuro, tonero, manqueniso.

Forse la colpa ira mia, ma cuando son partita, pensavo que he se arretornata.

Si son cose que mi mano que no, a veterte y presto, mi piacera, manquilo sa.

Lido me ni que amare, el antique coline, el antique coline.

En la bella che ta, muzica, nalecerate.

Yeah.

Wow.

That's beautiful.

Thank you.

That was awesome.

Uh, I'm rocker here with Jimmy K. You're listening to Maxing Radio.

Live in the layer on the civic media, radio network.

And we're here with the Marissa by a street duo.

Now let's move over to the right a little bit, Stefan.

Let's get to know you a little bit better.

How did you get started playing music?

Tell us a little bit of your backstory.

Well, I grew up near Nashville, Tennessee, so I guess I didn't have much of a chance.

Yeah.

I also grew up watching both Sesame Street and Mr. Rogers.

And Mr. Rogers had the, uh, he had the, the jazz on all the time.

Yeah.

And I just, I guess that just sort of sunk into my brain.

We also had a local radio station in Murfreesburg, Tennessee called WMOT, jazz 89.

And so I got to listen to jazz all the time.

So by the time I was high school college age, I was, I was a hardcore jazz fanatic.

And when did you start playing music?

Oh, when I was a kid, probably 10, age 10, 19, um, but even before that, you know, we

had a piano.

Um, so your parents were involved a little bit, how did, what was their role in your musical

upbringing?

They, they supported me in every way of shape and form.

I mean, my dad, but my first guitar, wow, and, um, got me, got me guitar lessons.

They didn't go so well.

I was strongwilled and didn't listen to the guy who was trying to teach me anything,

but, but there you go, you know, where you always, a jazz instrument or, uh, pretty much.

Yeah.

I mean, when I first started out, I, I really liked the blues as well on, on guitar.

And I liked Eddie Van Halen.

I mean, you know, you can't, yeah, you couldn't grow up in the early 80s and not like Eddie

Van Halen and Steve Vi and all of those guys.

Um, I heard this in guitar player magazine, they had these, uh, sound pages that you could

pull out and put on your turn to record.

Yeah.

Man, this was amazing.

So I, they had one.

It was all Canadian guitar players.

It was Leon Boyd for the classical.

It was, uh, Rick Emmett and, um, triumph, yeah, from triumph and Alex Lifeson from rush.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And then this guy had never heard of this old dude.

He was all wrinkled and stuff and his name was Ed Bickert.

Wow.

He was from Toronto and he, I, I fell in love.

I mean, he played jazz and it was just the darkest, coolest thing I'd ever heard.

And I could play what they were playing on the triumph record.

I could play with, I mean, I had a band and we played rush.

I could not play with Ed Bickert was playing.

I said, I want to learn how to do that.

So I guess I was about 14.

Oh, wow.

Yeah.

So you took on the new challenge?

I started, I started learning jazz.

Yeah.

And then I'm still learning jazz.

So, um, yeah.

I don't think one actually, I don't think one actually has jazz figured out completely

ever, ever.

It's a nice thing about jazz because there's always experimental stuff to do, you know?

Exactly.

And, and Marissa and I are actually trying to incorporate sort of world music into

what we would call jazz.

There's still a lot of improvisation, especially when we had the group.

When it's just me and Marissa, I'm more like an accompanist.

And we play in a style.

So that last song was really a bossa nova, even though it had Italian lyrics.

And the first song, the first song throws everybody that we play with because it starts

out in two, four and then it goes to three, four.

And people are going, what, what do you do?

That's like your rush tendencies.

Exactly.

Exactly.

Seven, four, that's really cool too.

We're not going to.

All right.

Maybe we'll play that one on, on our next gig.

Oh, I love it.

Yeah.

Well, let's switch gears here.

Tell us something about medieval literature that most people don't know.

Yeah, I taught, I taught medieval studies up at Yuta, the Green Bay for about 18 years.

Yeah.

And, and before that, I was in graduate school for one, eight years, seven, eight years.

So I've been doing that for a long time as well.

That was the other bug that bit me.

It wasn't just jazz, but it was also JRR Tolkien.

And here's a, here's a fact, right?

Yeah.

I used to go to the medieval conference and you would ask people in costume.

No, no, no, no.

This was like academic stuff.

Oh, tweed, tweed jackets and stuff like that, right?

You know, and tweed jackets and penny loafers and, right?

Anyway, so I was, I was kind of the, the rogue there.

But if you took a survey of all of these medievalists who were teaching it, all of the big universities

and whatnot, how many of you got into medieval studies because of JRR Tolkien, you'd get

probably nine out of ten of them.

Wow.

Tolkien was that influential.

People had read the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings and they wanted more.

They wanted to know where, where Tolkien came up with it.

Yeah, they, yeah, they hit the silver, really, and, yeah, they hit the silver, really,

and, yeah, I felt like the first time being so ugly.

Exactly.

But Tolkien was a medievalist and I essentially taught the exact same things that Tolkien taught

in his career at UWB Greenback.

Wow.

Sorry.

Were you excited when the movies are coming out and now there's even a lot of renewed?

Don't ask about the scene.

Don't ask.

Oh, boy.

Yeah.

They weren't great.

The, the movies were actually better than the, the first three were better than I thought

that we're going to, then the Hobbit came out and that's what it does.

Yeah.

The same feeling.

Yeah.

I, I've read those myself a lot too, so, and then we could get into a Star Wars discussion,

but I don't want to digress in there.

Right.

Um, now, uh, let's see.

So Stefan, uh, you talked jazz guitars.

You said in medieval English late at UW Greenback for 20 years, did you become a packer fan

while you were there?

Oh, no.

I'm careful how you answer this.

Oh, I know.

I'm going to try not to.

I'm going to stay wide and not lose it.

Um, yeah, I've always followed soccer more than, then, curly foot.

Oh, that's, that's taking a left turn.

Yeah.

Exactly.

Uh, so, yeah, I'm, and, and, and rugby, um, and, and, and, and, and, and, and darts and,

and darts, um, my, my favorite sport is actually darts, darts.

That's the drinking game.

Exactly.

Exactly.

Ah, you just figured me out.

All right.

Well, let's get back to live music in the layer with Marissa Bellistry duo, presented

by the Aaron Weber group.

The next song you have for us tonight, it's called Hear Me.

Is this song inspired by a cell phone commercial?

No, this is actually, we, we call this our, our hippie song.

This is about reaching out and trying to, yeah, trying to respect each other and listen

to, to other opinions and trying to, and, and we want both sides, both sides to respect

the opinions, not just, not just one side, and, but, but our main message is that peace

and love and diversity are good things.

Yeah.

We want everybody to hear that.

So Hear Me.

Nice.

Let's hear it.

Here's Hear Me.

Marissa Bellistry duo, you're listening to Live in the Lairon Maxing Radio.

Hear Me, I want you to know Me, hear Me, and I will listen to, see Me, try really hard

to see Me, compromise is what we need to do, only when we try, can we overcome all those

fears that we have come to know, and if we just try, we would understand diversity,

strengthens everyone.

Let's stop the hate, try to tolerate, reach out hand, and I'll surely reach out to,

try to respect, everybody's point of view, let's make the world a better place for

us.

Let's stop the hate, try to tolerate, reach out hand, and I'll surely reach out to,

try to respect, everybody's point of view, let's make the world a better place for

me, and you, let's make the world a better place for me, and you, let's make the world

a better place for me, and you.

Yes, a song with Pergambit meeting in today's world, you know?

Indeed.

Absolutely.

Make a break real quick, we'll have more live music live in the layer coming up, presented

by the Aaron Weber group, Maxine Gradyo is also sponsored by Selveteurs Tomato Pies, there's

pizza, then there's cells, or your tomato pie right now, at Selveteurs Tomato Pies dot

com.

If it's local music from Wisconsin, it's heard here, this is Maxine Gradyo, we are local

music.

All right, we're here with the Marissa Ballastry duo here live in the layer on Maxine

Gradyo.

Marissa, why did you move back to Madison?

I know you've been Italy, you've been to New York City, you've been to Green Bay, what

brought you back?

Right.

The green, yes.

So I went to New York and Rome and Florence and Green Bay, it's a very simple answer.

It's our folks, both our folks.

My parents are still living here, they've lived here since 1977, and his folks were interested

in moving up here, and my dad wasn't.

Well, he got, he didn't have a choice, he just got put in the car, I was going to say

it's a snow.

He's done, they've actually done very well with the transition, and the only place in this

area that they were interested in moving to was Madison area.

Oh wow.

So it was just sort of like, well, I couldn't get my folks to go anywhere, and the only place

his folks would go was here.

Wow.

And so that was that.

You're very lucky, actually, that's a nice thing to have both at the parents of one city

that you live in.

Wow.

What do you love about Madison?

What kind of brought you back?

Oh my goodness.

Well, how do I put this?

Well, Madison has grown up a lot.

Well, I'm just trying to think how to say this on the radio.

There's lots of good restaurants.

There's always been lots of good restaurants.

There's always been lots of good restaurants.

So when I grew up here, it was a lot smaller.

You probably remember what it was like in the 80s, you know, about half the size and half

the opportunities.

And one thing I do really appreciate about Madison is the sensibilities here.

It's, um, people here are educated and have a certain style.

Yeah.

A certain style.

Yes.

Yeah, friendliness.

And, um, there are a lot more opportunities here.

It's not quite as close as it was when I was here in the 80s.

It was, it was a lot more close off.

The opportunities weren't there.

Now everyone's really open and friendly, and there's, there's just a lot more going on.

Do you mean music, music, music?

Musicly.

Restaurants, just people like, you know, people are friendly or you can just walk up to anybody

and talk to them.

There was a time when you couldn't really do that without getting looked at like, what's

the matter with you?

So, um, yeah.

And I appreciate, I just appreciate all of the, all of the resources that Madison has.

I really do.

It's, it's a really nice place.

And I think everyone's discovering that.

And so we got priced out to want a key.

Yeah.

Now we're getting, now we're getting priced out to want a key.

Yeah.

It's going to be dain for us pretty soon.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Do you, uh, do you miss, uh, do you miss Green Bay at all or any parts of me Green Bay?

I miss legend Larry's.

Yeah.

Oh, the chicken wings.

Yeah, the chicken wings, man.

Fantastic.

Yeah.

Yeah.

If you get a chance, go there.

I will.

Now you guys, you root for the underdogs.

We do.

How does that influence your music?

Well, I'm, for instance, uh, the, the first song, kind of about the, the little defenseless

rabbit who takes this great journey from up north where he was living on, on her cousin's

farm, all the way, I mean, gosh, that drive was, was scary that drive back from Bayfield

all the way.

Yeah.

Poor rabbit.

Every, well, scary for me too, because every bump I hit, I thought, Oh, man, I'm scaring

the rabbit.

Um, you know, it's just sticking up for the, for the, for the little guy, because, you

know, little guys are, her sweet little guys have a lot to offer.

And, um, they just released a study.

It's on the news the other day scientists say that if you have a pet, it makes you happier.

And I got to tell you, Rufus has made us happy, so, um, but, but, you know, even, even more

so even in, in these times, I don't want to get too political, but, um, you got to stick

up for, for the little people, the little people are getting stepped on.

Yeah.

All over the place.

Yeah.

And, and I'm a little person.

Me too.

I don't like getting stepped on.

So we, we, we have to stick, stick together and stick up.

Roof for the underdogs.

Yeah.

Well, let's get back to live music in the layer with the Marissa Ballastery duo presented

by the Aaron Weber group.

The next song you have for us tonight, it's called I Want to Believe in Socrates.

He said that belief can either be true or untrue.

Is this a song about finding truth?

Ha, ha, ha.

This is a song.

Um, it's, it's fan fiction, uh, based on Marissa's favorite, um, TV show.

You watch a lot of television.

What show?

I still watch them every night, like pretty much every night.

Like I say, I'm in the fantasy and science fiction always have been and, uh, I watched

the ex files as well.

And when I found out she was into the ex files, this is kind of another, here I'm writing

something wonderful for my wonderful wife, you know, that I figured she would like.

So, yeah.

All right.

Well, let's hear it.

We're going to listen to you, uh, let's see, what was the name of the song?

Is this one day?

Oh, no, I want to believe, I want to believe.

This is the Marissa Ballastry Dual, you're listening Live in the Lair on Maxing Radio.

We can tell truth from lies, stories that we tell ourselves, narratives inform our

lives, and we believe.

Who are we beyond our tails, what makes up identities, are they all just fantasies?

Think of all that we don't know, increase knowledge, increase world, truth is out there

and somewhere, maybe soon we'll find it, skepticism is the answer, open mind cause I want

to believe.

Truth is out there and somewhere, maybe soon we'll find it, skepticism is the answer,

open mind cause I want to believe.

I want to believe.

Marissa Ballastry Dual Live in the Lair and that was I want to believe, that was a really

awesome song.

That last note that you hung on to for a little bit, that was pretty suspenseful, yeah,

it was pretty awesome.

I love it.

That was awesome.

That's the idea, that's the intention.

Have you submitted that song or shared that song with any, uh, X, uh, X file fans online?

Really?

I mean, we have it up on our YouTube page with like a hashtag.

We're actually in the planning stages of our first album, which is actually a whole lot

of work.

It's going to take months, but yeah, when we find that might, that song might get released.

If we release that one, we'll be sure to share it to everybody, but we're a, I'm the

band manager, so I'm supposed to be doing all that stuff and I'm a little, I'm a little

slow on the uptake.

Now, how are you wrapping chords?

Oh, God.

No.

No.

No.

Not even close.

Drummers.

Drummers and singers share that same thing in common.

No, he's, he's tried to teach me and then he taught me how to turn on my amp the other

day.

I thought that was, we started mixed progress there.

Right.

And I had to turn the volume up.

No, I had to ask again where the volume knob was.

Oh, my.

How about the reverb?

Did you get it?

I know with the switches.

That's it.

Marissa of Ballastoree band plays as a duo, a trio and a quartet.

Tell us about the other cats you play with.

I mean, give the bass player some.

We have two fantastic bass players that we play with.

We play with a guy named Jeff Weiss, who has won so many Madisonary Music Association

awards that he doesn't know how many has lost count.

Wow.

Right.

Now, he's, he's amazing.

He's getting his masters right now.

Up rate, bass.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Oh, he's, he's, he's insane.

He's really good.

We also have a young guy who's main, main discipline is composing, but he also plays

bass really well.

His name is James Devar.

So maybe we'll get some, to some of his classical stuff one of these days.

He's really good at it.

And then we just, we're just starting to work in drums and we got a guy getting his PhD

Noah Brooks.

He's, he's amazing.

I don't, I don't.

PhD in drums.

Yeah.

And jazz.

And jazz percussion.

Wow.

I don't think.

Now, is he an actual like kit player?

Or are we talking like camp percussion?

He's amazing.

Yeah.

We hope he stays in the area, but he can play things that you look at and think, is that a percussion

instrument?

Yeah.

Well, it is now, you know, all those guys, they're really sensitive talented musicians

and, and we feel really honored that they'd want to play with us at all and hope they

stick around.

Yeah.

No, I don't get better jobs elsewhere.

Yeah.

They will, but they'll deserve it.

Amarissa, you are taking a music industry class from Ryan Smith's, he's with a solo

sign on guitarist.

That's right.

Tell us about the class.

Oh, my gosh.

It was just a four week class.

My sister is, um, she's been taking songwriting and tar lessons from him.

She actually lives in Minneapolis.

Oh, okay.

Oh, Ryan's going to do this class on music business music, I'm like, oh, I can't wait

to take it.

So it's been a four week intensive class.

Wow.

Information overload.

Yeah.

And, uh, but it's been so helpful because I don't know this world.

This isn't my world.

Um, and I have to learn, uh, learn the ropes.

That's probably why you're like, you know, I just sent out emails with whatever.

I have to get better at that because it's, it's, it's a world that I don't know how

to navigate.

Yeah.

But I feel like I'm getting to a point where I, I know at least what I have to do.

And if I don't know how to do it, I know where to look to find out.

You know, that's a part of being in a band or, you know, making music your life,

income and everything like that, be able to promote it and keep growing the machine.

You know, that's always important.

And it's a little detail.

A lot of bands overlook sometimes.

Yeah.

Well, you know, a lot of people don't, you know, realize that it's very hard to take

your hobby and the thing that you love, right, and turn it into income in your job.

Right.

Right.

That's like one of the hardest things to do.

You're not always happy with, with what you get out of the industry and it pays to learn

how to work it.

What kind of stuff are you guys like, you know, what, what would you say you've taken

away from it so far?

Well, I learned that we had to sign up for a PRO.

I didn't know that.

Apparently, Stefan knew that, but just a PRO, yeah, to get royalties for your songs.

Oh, yeah.

A fraction of a sentence.

Right.

Okay.

That's a fraction of a cent more than we've got.

Right.

So I'll take it.

And actually, the last class was how to map out an album release, which I'm working on

now.

And it's like, you know, two to three months worth of work that goes into it.

Like if we get into the studio in July, we weren't, we're looking at a release date of

September.

And what's the first rule?

Don't plan the release party until you have the album's in your hand.

That's a great idea.

That's a great idea.

Unfortunately, though, places, they booked so far in advance now.

That's the only thing.

But somebody will feel, feel pity for us and give us a break.

I'm sure.

Well, that's pretty cool.

And Ryan Smith.

He's with Solos Island.

And also the Mellus Mantis.

Yeah, that's right.

Yeah, yeah.

No, he's fantastic.

That guy is, he's got a lot of knowledge.

And he's willing to share it.

He's willing to give people breaks and help people.

He's actually one of these musicians who actually cares about other musicians and helps

him out.

He's got his own record label, but we played jazz.

Is this like zoom zoom or zoom?

Yeah.

Cool.

That's pretty cool.

So you do it online.

So you can find him.

Ryan Smith, Solos Island guitarist.

He's teaching class.

He's amazing.

Yeah.

That's good.

Don't you think that some of the entrepreneurial and business sense should be taught in the music

schools?

Well, the two now.

Well, the two now.

No, I went to music school in the 90s.

Yeah.

There was no internet.

Yeah.

There was no internet in the 90s.

You had to rely on agents and you had to throw yourself on the mercy of somebody else.

Now you've got the internet.

You've got social media, which, you know, you got to use it, even if you don't like it,

you got to use it.

And you've got all these tools.

You got CD Baby.

You got all these tools to do it yourself now.

When I was starting, it was just find an agent, right?

Yeah.

That was it.

That's true.

It was nice.

Yeah.

Oh, no, it was terrible.

Well, let's get back to live music in the layer with Marissa Balsdory-Dool, presented

by Aaron Webbing Group.

The next song you have for us tonight is called One Day, and I mean, why do today what

you can do tomorrow?

Exactly.

Right.

And I wrote it for her.

She says, did I forecast it?

No.

No.

No, wait a minute.

You weren't supposed to say that.

We both put things off.

We're both, you know, we're busy.

We got stuff to do.

So the living room doesn't get painted.

Right.

For five years.

Right.

Exactly.

Five years.

Nice.

We did clean our garage.

Yeah.

And now it's dirty again.

Yeah, of course.

This is One Day.

You're listening to the Marissa Balsdory-Dool, live in the layer on Maxine Credio.

One day, I'll do my laundry.

One day, I'll take out trash.

Maybe I'll change that light bulb.

Yeah, maybe I should carry cash.

One day, I'll write my novel.

I could even learn to dance.

It's really hard to play the lot.

Yeah, one day, I'll write my novel.

I could even learn to dance.

It's really hard to play the lot.

Yeah, one day, I will take my chance.

One day, it's always one day.

Yeah, maybe I just don't know.

Sometimes I second-guess it.

Why can't I make decisions?

I just need to be assertive.

Stop it with the long division.

Right now's the time for action.

If only I could take a stance.

It's really hard to gain some traction.

One day, I'll take my chance.

One day, it's always one day.

Yeah, maybe I just don't know.

My mind often wonders.

But I know what I need to do.

Let's say I'll do it tomorrow.

Yeah, maybe I just don't know.

Okay, don't call me crazy.

Yeah, I think I'm still okay.

Some folks will call me lazy.

But I will wait another day.

I could even write my memoir.

How I never learned to dance.

It's really hard to play the lot.

Do I'm giving up to take my chance?

One day, it's always one day.

Yeah, maybe I just don't know.

My mind often wonders.

But I know what I need to do.

Let's say I'll do it tomorrow.

Yeah, maybe I just don't know.

Okay, don't call me crazy.

Yeah, I think I'm still okay.

Some folks will call me lazy.

But I will wait another day.

I could even write my memoir.

How I never learned to dance.

It's really hard to play the lot.

Do I'm giving up to take my chance?

One day, it's always one day.

Yeah, maybe I just don't know.

Yeah, maybe I just don't know.

Very nice.

One day, I'll end this song.

That is awesome.

That song struck a chord, being a really bad procrastinator at times.

Oh, everybody can relate.

I love the line, Gearing Up to Play A Lotto.

Maybe one day I'll play the lotto.

That's great.

Well, we're here with the Marissa Balsari duo, Live in the Lair on Maxing Radio.

Now, you know, I was kind of just wondering,

what kind of guitar are you playing there?

Describe that.

It looks interesting.

Well, since high school, I've been playing Archtop electric guitars.

Because I just fell in love with the sound, the look.

Actually, a lot of it was the look.

This one is actually an Eastman, and it's a smaller guitar.

I also play a bigger, Archtop guitar called...

Huffner.

Huffner, Jessica.

Oh, yeah, okay.

Yeah, those are...

That's more in the name.

More names than the Eastman.

He names his guitars.

Yeah, and this one's quite stinky, because the guy I bought it from,

apparently didn't wear a shirt when he was playing it,

and his deodorant smell is still right there.

Oh, great.

Exactly.

Oh, well, you can see the Marissa Ballastrey duo coming up

at the Harmony Bar in Madison on April 17th,

and the trio is going to be at the Red Rooster on May 20th.

Tell the spot you're upcoming shows.

Well, on the 17th, at the Harmony Bar, it's just the two of us.

Yeah, that's this coming Thursday, from 630 to 830,

and it's just going to be us, and we're going to do a whole lot of originals.

Nice.

Almost the whole show will be originals.

And then on the May 20th at the Red Rooster,

that will be our first gig at the Red Rooster,

and we got Jeff Weiss on bass for that one.

Yeah, come out in here, Jeff.

Jeff's amazing.

And we're going to go a little blues heavy on that one.

Are you going to be able to pull the drummer in for that?

No, he's not available.

Oh, darn.

Yeah, but the following week, we have our first gig at the Rigby,

and that's going to be the full band.

We got James Deborah on bass.

Yeah, and then No Brooks on drums, so that'll be fun.

Wow.

That does sound fun.

But yeah, we can play the blues with Jeff and Phil in the room.

All right.

Yeah.

Well, we're coming up on the end.

We got about four minutes.

We got one more song.

So how do we keep up with you online?

What's your?

Oh, Marissa Ballasturi music on Facebook.

Marissa Ballasturi.com.

Marissa Ballasturi YouTube.

Yeah, if you hear us and you like what you hear,

give us a like, because we could use some likes.

Thank you for coming in.

Appreciate you.

Thank you for having us.

This is very exciting.

Thank you very much.

Yeah.

Well, we have time for one more song here in the layer presented

by the Aaron Weber group.

The last song you have for us tonight.

It's called New Monsters.

Isn't this the same as the old monsters?

There's always a new monster.

Oh, boy.

There's always a new monster rocker.

All right.

This is New Monsters.

You've been listening to Live and the Layer on Maxing Radio.

This was the Marissa Ballasturi duo.

When I was still young, I believed in monsters.

Hit under my bed in my room in my closet.

When I grew in structure, I became much bolder and I'd chased them

through the forest with my bow and arrows.

When I was still young, I believed I could beat them.

Good would overcome evil things.

I defeat them.

Now that I'm older, I've seen so much harder and things.

Always a new monster to confront and conquer.

Now that I'm older,

fears take new forms.

But I still have arrows.

So deep into the woods, I must wonder.

Awesome.

Thank you.

Wow.

Once again, thank you so much for coming in today, Marissa.

Thanks for having us.

We really appreciate it.

Once again, your next show where people come in, come on, see you.

April 17th, Harmony Bar 630, no cover.

Free show.

That's perfect.

And then coming up the red rooster.

A May 20th.

There's a cover.

But we'll make it worth your while, Thomas.

And then the rigby.

The rigby.

I think there might be a cover for that one.

But that's going to be fun.

That's going to be a lot of funky jazz that night.

Those covers are important.

It will pay for your upcoming album.

If people come, yeah.

Do you do a Beatles song?

We could.

We could.

All right.

That's the rigby.

You can be a great place.

Thanks again.

7,000 apart for a double dip coming up.

We got Terry Bar checking in next hour with an interview with Trevor Banks.

How about Clyde's Double Field?

It's Max Inc. on Saturday night.