Interview With Jim Abrahams - Surf Rally For Cali: Fire Relief, by Various Artists

Great call with Jim Abrahams of the surf instro band The Breakers. We talked about all of his work with the compilation Surf Rally For Cali: Fire Relief, by Various Artists!

Keith "MuzikMan" Hannaleck

Buzzsprout - Let's get your podcast launched!
Start for FREE

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.

Transcript

Speaker 0:15

Hello everybody, this is Keith MuzikMan Hannaleck with the Final on Vinyl Podcast, and tonight we are with Jim Abrahams of the Surf instrumental group, The Breakers. He also was the person behind the recent compilation that went out, Surf Rally for Cali. It's a fire relief project by various artists with just a ton of tracks, fifty-two tracks in total. It's a downloadable at Bandcamp. It's also a two-cd set, which I myself am waiting to get my mailbox. Welcome aboard, Jim.

Speaker 1 0:49

Thank you, Keith. It's a real pleasure to be on.

Speaker 0:52

Thank you for coming on. I appreciate it. I want to do all I can to help push this along, and uh hopefully you have a good update for us about things happening. And I know uh you were behind all this. Maybe you could talk a little about a bit about you know how that all happened, how you got the idea, and you're also the guy that's actually sending out the physical product. So we'd love to hear about all the work you've done with that and the progress you've made.

Speaker 1 1:20

Sure. Yeah, it's uh it was um well, first of all, you know, again, thanks for having me on. And and uh, you know, you can't do as I was good enough, good for part of the original idea, I suppose. And then um, you know, I owe a lot of credit both to the bands that contributed, and my three co-producers, Mark Lockett, who's our drummer, and my good pal, and the The Breakers, and uh Rick Delees, who uh has just moved here with his family somewhat recently in the last year from Mexico City, with his band uh Secret Agent, who's also in the compilation, and also Jet Sterling, who's got a great career broadcasting, and uh and has just started up uh his own band, the Jetstones, and and has uh a new digital radio station um that uh that is you know focuses on surf and garage and and that kind of stuff. So all these guys are really pretty well connected and knowledgeable and and uh and and led a lot of work to this and um and and uh a lot of spell checking, you know, and stuff like that. But uh yeah, uh we I guess the this started when we had just gotten some film from my brother, some video footage. Uh he works out in the uh the film industry in production out in California, and he had sent some videos to the rest of the family as he was leaving Al Tadena that was, you know, the day that that uh the fire spread over there. And it looked really bad, and and he was basically saying, I've got to get out of here, my tires are gonna melt, and it is really bad, it's uncontrollable. And you know, I had a quick phone call with him, and I was um uh out with Mark Lockett uh just having a uh a beer watching the uh uh you know, whoever was on at that point, the Bulls or whoever around here at a one of our local uh hangs. And we had previously done something a couple years ago called Chicago Surf Rally, and with that effort we just had the idea to um get some of the instrumentally oriented groups around the area here and just do a little uh CD and put the the money towards uh Blue Cross, Blue Shield, and and um the the Illinois COVID uh response fund, uh having seen some people get get very sick with that during that time. And that worked out really well, and um uh you know it was a good reason to get everybody together in a tough time when people kind of couldn't get together very often or frequently. And we were watching the LA fires, and I said, you know, we we ought to do something like uh like that again for this. And uh and Mark said, Hey, what the heck? Why why why would we limit it to Chicago? Why don't we just reach out to everybody and see if if anybody would be interested in doing this? We didn't really know if anybody would or or uh not, but it's it's the best musical genre in terms of this kind of stuff, and um you know, being empathetic, creative, and and uh uh you know, uh uh uh ready to give as well. And uh we very quickly we we made up a list of about two albums worth of people that we'd try to go get, and we figured we'd get maybe one album out of it if we had some interest. And um we'd reached out to the Wise uh in Japan, who uh uh and and a couple other bands from what would have been our last slot on the first album, and we'd met the Wise and hung out with them a little bit at Surf Guitar 101 Fest last year, Kim Long Beach, and uh Rico uh who runs that band came back to us and said, Hey, we're in and we have some some good news. The surf coasters are are going to come back and they would really like to be on the album as well. So we just looked at each other and said, Yeah, it's good news, but that means we're on CD number two automatically here. So uh unless somebody drops out, now we've got to go, you know, so you can fill out the rest of the second CD. And that happened in really short order. There are a few people we couldn't get a hold of or who preferred to not not do you know, not do the thing here for for what you know very good reasons. Uh, but but you know, most of those people even called to to talk and say, hey, well, I can't do it because of X, Y, and Z or whatever. So, you know, a really, really good response. And um Jet and Rick put the word out to some of the the guys that they know really well, and um really it wasn't hard to get to get the volunteers together, excuse me. Um could have been a triple CD or a quadruple CD, probably if we would have kept it going here. And uh Mark Thompson, who has done the art for uh a lot of our panels and a lot of our front covers of of our stuff, offered to uh to pony up the art and and spend a lot of hours drawing a great picture with a great concept that he had in mind uh for it and uh pro bono and sent that in. And um, you know, and then uh we started to get some good feedback as we were going along. We had to change a couple songs up due to uh either licensing or or uh you know a couple of the bands, uh the Mankuras in particular decided to record something new and had some great ideas. They they recorded a cover of the Dick Dale song, The Victor, uh kind of a slide guitar mode in Hawaiian uh style, which was just fantastic. And so a few of the bands are gonna put together something brand new for this, and um you know, to do that, they had to go into the studio, spend time, money, and and whatever to do it. So it's really, really appreciated. And uh, you know what you're getting into with this, you know, we're not gonna earn five million dollars with this, but hey, if we can earn a few thousand dollars and and help somebody out, uh and from what we hear out there, there's still plenty of people who need plenty of help after having everything they own, you know, kind of disappear in the night. And the news just doesn't report on it anymore, you know, at least as much as it was when it was happening. So we don't want that to be, you know, everybody to to walk away, at least, you know, if it helps a few people uh with it with a few things, and and we've done something good for the genre and put together a pretty good collection, and you know, we've done our job. Then we're about to uh to order the second tranche of CDs here. We're almost almost all out after huffing it through, sending them out uh for receiving them here after a little bit of a delay. So we're gonna try to get in front of that next one as well. And there's still in fact somebody just bought one. I think I just got an email like 45 minutes ago. That's the most recent one here. So they're still they're still selling, still going.

Speaker 8:20

That's great, yeah. Well, I have to mention your band, The Breakers, uh, the album The Seahorse of a Different Co color. Uh I listened to that. Yeah, that's a great album. And uh, you know, and you you you think about Surf Instrumental and you you have a certain sound that's in your mind, at least I do, but you guys did a lot of stuff on that album. I mean, it's not easy stuff that you were playing on that album, man. Right.

Speaker 1 8:46

It's uh we we are definitely probably not uh among the more traditional groups out there. Um you know, but all of us have a pretty good background, and and we had some extra time to think about this one because um as we were getting ready to record, I broke my wrist in a car accident. Uh as that was healing, our our trumpet player had to go in for some spinal treatment. Gary is a very well-known uh trumpeter around here when we have horns on on our albums, which we do periodically. And um, and then in the midst of that, our our sax player dad was I can laugh about it now, but he was hit by a landscaping truck on his motorcycle, going home to have lunch with his his wife and had his full body armor on and everything, but was the guy who hit him, ran over him, and stopped on top of him once he realized he hit him. Uh so nine surgeries later, he's he's built like the Terminator, you know, from the waist down, but kind of fully recovered. So we were we're we're trying to joke. We didn't really mean the name to be the bad name to be that literal, but um that all kind of happened during the recording of this thing, and and everybody kind of recovered and got out and i i or you know had had breaks and and and good space to to get things done when we needed to get it done, get them done. And then we usually do it the same way. You know, one of us you usually all write the bones of the song, and then we go in and completely change it when when the three of us you know play it together. Sometimes we'll do that in practice before the song, sometimes we'll do it when we get there, but but we're pretty good about working through these things just right when we get there and at least getting one or two done uh a session. And um, we've got another one written up and ready to go, and we're planning on getting in pretty soon and and doing what we usually do, which is just kind of doing a two-sided single of a couple of the tunes that'll be on the next album to lead off. And um, I guess I should mention the first song on that album. Uh I played with an Ebo out of frustration because I was still in my my cast, and uh the only thing I could do pretty much was that. So we uh we taped the Ebo to my cast with uh with electrical tape, and then I I played that thing on a on a table just so I got it right because I'm like, I gotta get something done. I gotta get some work done here, even though I'm I'm laid up, and it turned out to sound pretty cool. So like, yeah, it's a pretty good little atmospheric opening to this deal. So yeah, it's uh they always and they always shake up pretty well. They're there it's a lot of fun to play out live. We just played with uh the tentacles and surfer joe in in the area here, and they're all great guys. We've known Surfer Joe guys for inzo for a while. Um with some rust to shake off there, but I think there's no other way to do it than get out there and do it. There's no no more fun than you can have by uh by getting out there and and doing it. We have a few more coming up this summer, and then uh who knows maybe next year. We'll we we were close to being out west this year, and we just postponed it a a year, so we'll probably be out west for a uh a few things uh next year as well. And I I know for sure Mark and I will be out at the Surf Guitar 101 fest just hanging out like we did last year.

Speaker 12:00

So that's cool. Well, make sure I get a copy of that new album, I'll review it for you. And uh it's uh the surf community, you know, as far as musicians and listeners, seems like a very small, close, well-knit community. You know? Yeah. Uh in comparison to, you know, rock, pop, whatever. I mean, it's not something that millions of people are into. And it it's a shame because there's so much great music out there. I mean, just check out this compilation. It's incredible.

Speaker 1 12:38

Yeah, I you know, I I that's one of the things that really kind of drew me to it when I started to know some of the people, and I always like the I I always had the feeling for the energy of the songs and the the moods, uh, not that I don't listen to a lot of vocal music too, but I listen to a lot of this stuff and um and have for a long time. And um I yeah, I mean it's kind of cool that it's sort of an underground thing in a way. You know, it's I kind of like it like that. And and uh at least around here when when people come out, there's there's some notable places that that this stuff pretty well, you know, pretty much plays well at, and then you know, some others where it's like it's certainly not nearly the the kind of opportunities that you have out in the west coast, but some very good bands around here. They're all they're all just excellent people on top of the the excellent bands that are in this area, and that kind of goes across the board and across the world. So it ends up becoming uh this kind of uh or or it is this this kind of global, you know, pretty wide, worldwide thing, but it's also a pretty small underground thing at the same time, which is pretty cool, you know. Yeah, yeah. And you know, you know, you know, my my my kids uh my kids bring some of their friends to to our shows, then we've got you know older people who show up and you know people who are more like kind of punk garage leaning and and it I you know and we've never heard anybody say man that was that was horrible. I went I left after like a you know one one uh song. It usually we're you know out there and sometimes with uh you know a couple other bands, and that's always kind of a cool thing too because you get a little different different angle from everybody, a little different sound and and different you know, sets of songs, and and it keeps it interesting for people who are seeing it maybe for the first time or don't listen to it a lot. Uh, and then we'll do some things live too when we have the opportunity, and it's dark enough. Uh we played a show at at one of the local places here, uh the landmark inn in Northbrook a couple years ago, and brought a 30-foot by 30-foot inflatable uh screen, which uh which almost floated into the train tracks and caused some problems there before we bungeed it down. But uh we got that down and then we just projected Godzilla movies and weird stuff and you know, uh ink you know, ink ink uh slide stuff and whatever behind us and and that kind of thing helps keep it keep it uh interesting too, you know, for people who who you know didn't make a special trip to go see it and just happen to be there and and maybe hearing hearing this kind of stuff for the first time.

Speaker 15:16

Yeah, it's fun. It's it's energetic, it's fun music, and I'm glad I'm back into it because uh that's when I decided to put up this site I've been working on. I'm putting up a review every day for a few weeks here now, uh the surf music and art uh site that I launched a few months ago. I think I had about 50 reviews up there right now, but I I'm just digging up all this stuff that I had the first few years. I started, you know, review music in 1998, so I'm up to the year 2000 now. And I don't know how much further beyond that I I w you know was covering surf, but I'm gonna put every single one up that I have, and I go get the Spotify embed code, put that up there, and you know, you know, re-edit everything, make it look better, and try to be make people aware of this music, you know. That's the most important thing to me.

Speaker 1 16:08

Yeah, I think that's fantastic. Yeah, that you know, our whole idea with this was hey, we got some target some and I I I saw your your uh review of um you know the space classics piece. And that's you know, the couple, two, three albums, the live one even, was like just like, holy cow, man, this just sounds ten plus out of ten. And uh that's a great guy. It's you know, real, real fundamental early modern album, I guess, if you want to call it that, that led me to a lot of other stuff. Um but um we Yeah, and and um we we thought when we were putting the the album together, sort of the same thing. It's the important thing is to have the presence of the bands, and we can maybe suggest a few songs that we like or that we listen to a lot or that we have on our you know, Spotify rotations or whatever. But with everybody, we kind of said, hey, would you like to use something like this or whatever you prefer, you know? And it's probably 50-50, probably 50% advanced, like, hey, you picked a great a great tune, and maybe 50% said, Yeah, you could use that, but it would be really cool if you would play this because the band it's the band's favorite tune. Like, that's your choice, man. Just you know, better to have the artist and the music on than some specific song we were thinking about. Um you know, so everybody's dialed in. We certainly had while we were going through the production, weren't a few people texting me or pinging me over emails and like, you know, kind of like, hey, how are we doing? Are we there yet? Are we there yet? I'm like, it's getting there, it's getting there. And uh and the the the the even the last step, we had to make a couple changes uh in um as we're mastering it, uh, just to move some things around and uh do the licensing and and um and the and the like. But the mastering itself and our our um longtime producer and kind of uh guidance counselor when we're getting in there, maybe after a night that went a little too late or whatever. I'm Craig Williams, who's been in the area for a long time and has produced folks like Styx and Dave Mason and uh some pretty cool um uh you know, we've met some some pretty cool people on the way out over there when we're on the way in, or vice versa. And um uh he said, I hope you're ready to stay here for a little bit. And I I'm thinking, well, these things are all just a hand in my head that are they're all you know two to four minute songs, they're all kind of similar in nature. There's you don't have to EQ vocals or anything. And he said, You the thing you ought to be thinking about is there's fifty-two different things here, and they're all gonna have slight differences in volume. That's pretty much all we're gonna deal with, but we gotta go through 52 of those, comparing that one to the next the one before it and the one after it. It took like five hours in there to to master this thing, and I I thought it would be like an hour and a half, an hour. You should know better than that at this point. And I'm like, Yeah, I probably should, but uh but that was fun.

Speaker 19:08

I gotta tell you, Jim, I really admire you for a lot of reasons, and you are an incredibly busy man, and in your professional day job, you um are up against a lot of changes seemingly like hourly because of the tariffs and all that stuff going on with what you do. And uh the the the fact that you've taken the time and made the effort to put this package together is just amazing. And I really, really appreciate your time, and I'm gonna do all I can to continue to promote this. I've got it on the sidebar of my surf site, and it's gonna stay there until you tell me it's over, and I'm gonna uh get this interview out there too. So thank you so much, and uh stay in touch. I hope we can stay in touch and we can do this again when uh the breakers are ready to release their new album. We can talk about that. What do you think?

Speaker 1 20:04

For sure. Yeah, absolutely. You can count on it. And and hopefully it won't take uh you know seven tries to get me on the phone or whatever it took here. But you're right, I've been we've been doing the tariff two step or whatever here for the the uh the last couple months, and uh and um you know it's uh hopefully that'll become a tune soon, but uh and and and everybody can regain a little sanity. Everybody's got yeah, do in been involved with this thing. But in any case, you've always got the all always got the music to to unplug at the end of the day and and pop on and grab a guitar and inspire something new and go play and listen to something and you know it's uh I think this thing came out sequenced pretty well. It was almost uh difficult to not sequence it well, but you know, everything was so good that we so we just gotta make sure it flows in one way or another. And there isn't uh you know, it was hard for there to be any kind of dead spot because there were no you know, no average tunes on the thing. But just it was we got that part done. Now we just gotta make sure we don't screw it up with the uh with the sequencing and um and I think it's a good listen all the way through.

Speaker 21:12

I agree. I listen to the whole thing. It's great.

Speaker 1 21:16

Thank you again, Jim Abrams. What's that? I was gonna say six twenty-seven. We just added another another CD purchase. So that's two over on the line here already. Or thereabouts. It's um definitely gotta over.

Speaker 21:32

All right, Jim. Thanks again. And we'll talk again soon. You take care now, okay? Yeah, thanks, Keith. All right, goodbye. Okay, bye.