Tom Ciurczak Interview - The Final on Vinyl Podcast

What great fun we had discussing Tom’s new release, Yorick, and vinyl!

Keith "MuzikMan" Hannaleck

Transcript

Speaker 2 0:14

Hi everybody, this is Keith MuzikMan Hannaleck with the Final on Vinyl Podcast and today we are with Tom Ciurczak , and he just released Yorick, um, which I received on a beautiful teal vinyl and listened to and reviewed. I thought it was an excellent album, very consistent all the way through. And um he's calling in from San Diego bright and early. Hi, Tom.

Speaker 0:43

Hi, Keith. Hey, thank you very much. Thanks for showing up, appreciate it. So I loved your album.

Speaker 2 0:54

And I don't say that just to people please. I say it because I mean it. I mean you were just so consistent through the whole thing with you and your your band and y your voice is just reminded me of classic rock. And I I couldn't put my finger on exactly who you reminded me of. Uh but I'm sure you've heard comparisons out there over the years.

Speaker 1 1:19

Yeah, thank thank you very much. I mean, I guess that's my sweet spot, is is is the classic rock era, and I've been absorbing all that music, you know, through my lifetime, and I guess that's what comes back out in my writing is uh all of the uh singer-songed doors of that era.

Speaker 1:39

Right. I get it. I grew up on it too.

Speaker 1 1:44

And I'm a I'm a big fan of the S Springsteen, Tom Petty, Warren Zevon, Steve Earle, uh, you know, that whole group of singer-songwriters.

Speaker 2 1:57

Yeah. I definitely heard that. Yeah. Springsteen and and Petty, I think they even mentioned it in one in one of the songs that I heard. That that's really cool. So your influence of Shakespeare is predominant here. How did all that come about?

Speaker 1 2:16

You know, that's it's really funny. My very first album was called Call Me Ishmael, and and I used the opening line from Moby Dick, and nobody got it. And uh on this nobody got it. I don't know why. And uh and and on this one, you know, I was uh watching a lot of different series on TVs, and they were doing all of these, like, you know, we're gonna go back and we're we're gonna do a prequel. And I'm like, you know what? No one's ever done that story about for whatever reason I was reading something, no one's ever done the story as to where the Yorick skull came from. And so I kind of did a you know a mashup story as to where that Yorick story came from. And I um, you know, I put some other different, you know, uh storylines in there, but um I had a lot of fun with it. Uh uh my songs all always have a little bit of humor in it, so you could probably, you know, get some of the uh the wink and the nod stuff that I I put into some of these songs, and that one has a lot of it as well.

Speaker 2 3:26

Yeah, I love that. I love that kind of humor injected in there. You have to listen and you you have to be on the ball and to catch those things, you know.

Speaker 1 3:37

Well, you know what I I I tell everybody it's usually what happens with music. People hear the surface level of the hook. So it's very important to to put the hooks into songs, whether they're musical hooks, uh or instruments, or you know, some type of lyrical hook. But in terms of getting the story, it's usually the deeper listeners that will go back and listen multiple times and they'll start to unravel whatever the story is. And I'm a story writer. I mean, um, and I like to write, you know, full-blown stories, and usually they're like many three three-act plays, and I'll throw a twist in there quite often that you don't always see coming. I'll I'll I'll lead in one direction and then I'll come back in a completely different direction in a third act with something different. And and in fact, even in York, I I you know kind of changed the story up. But it's the traditional, you know, uh uh wicked witch story in in York where he thinks he's rescuing the princess, but the princess uh it turns out to be the wicked witch, which is right out of your your standard fairy tale story. But um uh some of them are not so uh clean like that. There's there's a lot more, you know, like the very first song is is is about a stranded alien who was put down on earth to carve the NASCA lines and then they never came back to pick them up. And so he winds up photobombing, photobombing everything and becomes the original man in black. Eventually, you know, the aliens recognize that he's been photobombing the pyramids and the Stonehenge and the Moon Landing, and they come back and get them. But uh, you know, they're all you know little tongue-in-cheek humor thrown throughout the songs, um, and it helps me write it. I mean, it it it it it it it helps me put everything together and it also makes me think about okay, how do I put a twist on it, and how do I make it a little bit different at the end. So if you've been listening and reading lyrics, it has uh something to grab you.

Speaker 2 5:52

Well, there's also hints on the artwork on the cover, if you take a look at it, right?

Speaker 1 5:59

That was a lot of fun. I had a friend of mine do that, and and and what I did is I used AI to come up with the the basic design, but then I went to mine who's a great, great painter, and I said, Can you take this and can you do you know a painting of this? So um because I didn't want to use an AI picture, I I wanted something that was really artistic, and it came out beautifully. And the uh it it has all the story of Yorick right there on the cover. You know, you see the skull with the jesters hat, you see one of the gold coins with the witch in it, and so it's it's uh it's it's done very well. I I I really like the way it came out.

Speaker 2 6:42

That's gotta be very satisfying. How long did it take you to record the entire album? But it was over the past few months, last year, how long?

Speaker 1 6:52

Well, I did it about a year ago, and I gotta tell you, we went over to Sunset Sound Studios, which is really a famous studio. It's where uh, you know, the first three Doors albums were recorded, Dan Halen's first album, the Stones did uh Exile on Main Street. And I went in, we we each day we rehearsed uh ahead of time the day before, and in four days we recorded 20 songs. Uh and so the the basic stuff was recorded in in four days, and then we came back in probably over the course a little bit every you know week over the course of uh uh another month to do like the vocal you know sweeteners, etc., to to clean it up. It's it's funny. I was talking to somebody the other day, you know, I said, you know, when Bruce Springsteen did Born to Run, just the one song, Born to Run, he took six months to record one song.

Speaker 7:50

And I'm like, I did five in a day.

Speaker 1 7:56

Because these these studios are not inexpensive. Uh, but you know, I really wanted to to to there there's something, there's a lot of ghosts in the wall, uh as as I mentioned, you know, when you go to someplace like Sunset Sound, and I really wanted to go to someplace that was really iconic like that. And um I was a kid in a candy store. I mean, everybody's in there really working really hard, and I'm in uh looking at all the gold records on the wall. To me, it's like a museum. It was it was, you know, I it I was just amazed at all the people that had recorded there. And uh, you know, they got a place called the Prince Room, and I I was expecting one of the studios to be purple, but apparently the story is he used to he used to put a mattress down on the floor and sleep there uh overnight so he wouldn't lose his vibe. So it's very cool.

Speaker 2 8:48

Yeah, he was a taskmaster. He was he was like Kendritz. It's like he lived in the studio and always recording, you know. So I was just reading about him recently in Mojo magazine. Really interesting. So you said you recorded 24 songs. You have enough material for another album in the can, right?

Speaker 1 9:09

Oh yeah. We we did two albums worth of of of uh songs, and and there's another one that'll come out middle of 2026 that's you know already in in the uh in the vault. So it's just a a matter of flipping a coin as to which one came out first. And they're they're a little bit they're a little bit different because you know, one is a little bit more rocking and one is a little bit more uh I I like to think York is a little bit more mid-tempo, where the the next one has a lot more of the the the the the rocker tunes. But um again, they're they all were done in this the same sessions and they're uh it really we laid them out so they there I guess there's an art form in and and how you sequence songs. So they're it it's it's almost like draft team. We we sequenced them out very, very well, so they they both stand on their own, and I think they're very similar in terms of quality, and you'll be very, very surprised the next one.

Speaker 2 10:17

I look forward to it. I hope you can stay in touch and I get a chance to hear it. So uh how many copies of the LP did you guys press?

Speaker 1 10:29

I didn't really know what to do. This was a new you know venture for me, so I pressed 200 copies of of the album just as a test, because you know what I found is uh at shows uh one of the um the better selling merch items was always vinyl. So I was watching what other what other people were selling, and I was like, all right, I'm gonna press some vinyl, and we're gonna we're gonna sell it at the shows to see you know how this goes, and it's going really well. I mean, typically uh a lot of bands make their money these days for merch sales after shows. And uh I'm no different than anybody else. So it's what kind of merch are you going to have, you know, to promote yourself after the show? And and vinyl is one of the popular ones.

Speaker 2 11:21

I agree. I mean, I I've seen that at shows I've gone to, and you know, if you think about it, if you're a music fan, it's like, oh, I get to buy it and carry it out. I have to order it, I don't have to worry about waiting for it, I have to worry about it coming damaged or whatever. It's like it's all intact. I put it in the car and go, right?

Speaker 1 11:40

Absolutely. And you know the thing is, you know, I use a uh a place in in LA, and so I went up there when I was picking up my CDs and we were talking about um the the vinyl. It's it's amazing what they've done to the world of vinyl. I mean, um, of course, it's it's it's much heavier right now, and and and I pressed it on 180 gram, but uh all the different colors that that you you can get, it it looks like bowling balls to me. I mean, any color imaginable, clear, uh and splattered. It's it's it's really, really amazing the the uh the transformation has happened in vinyl uh right now.

Speaker 2 12:24

Yeah, it's really cool. And I I think that's one of the hot selling points is you know uh you you'll you'll press 500 copies, and you know, 100 of them is one special collar, but the other hundred is another collar, then they become a collector's items, and you don't lose anything in sound like it used to be, say, back in the 60s or 70s. Uh, the technology has come up to standard, and you you're not losing a thing, you're just gaining, you know, every time you turn around with all this, right?

Speaker 1 12:55

Oh well, it's so much warmer sounding on on than than the CD. I mean, it's really it's a real noticeable difference when when you listen on vinyl. And um, you know, I I I'm I'm thinking to myself as we were talking, I said, the only album I even remember getting that wasn't your basic, you know, Henry Ford Black back in the day was I think Jay Giles came out with their blood shot album and it was a red vinyl back in the day. But other than that, everything was always black vinyl.

Speaker 2 13:25

True. And and one thing I didn't realize um with black vinyl is that it attracts the static, and it's any other color, and it's particularly clear vinyl, you're gonna get a better sound because it's not attracting any any static whatsoever.

Speaker 1 13:43

Oh, really? I didn't know that. That's interesting.

Speaker 2 13:46

Okay. Yeah. So it's when over the past few years I learned about that. You know, just poking around doing some research about things.

Speaker 1 13:55

So it's it's uh it's it's it's funny how it's all come full circle. You know, I hate to tell you this. So I go to the uh this place called Unified Manufacturing in Los Angeles, and and they they make all of my CDs and they made the vi. The other thing that's got a big uptick, they told me cassettes are all of a sudden they've got a big uptick on cassettes. That's weird. And I'm like, I can I I can't imagine that that's making a comeback, but apparently there's a niche out there that wants cassettes after shows. It might it might be in the it might be in the hip-hop community, but I'm not sure.

Speaker 2 14:42

Well, one thing for sure, it's easier to store those than it is CDs or LPs. I definitely have a problem with storage with LTs.

Speaker 1 14:50

Uh uh Well, I'm I'm I'm in my little office and I probably have in my office 5,000 vinyl records and another 5,000 CDs that I've that I've collected over the years. I'm I'm basically a mini radio station here.

Speaker 2 15:09

You're funny. I I'm pretty darn close to what you have. I have an entire room devo devoted to it. Uh it's getting to the point where I'd have a lane to walk through.

Speaker 1 15:21

Exactly. I'm very organized. I mean, I I have everything sorted by you know by band, so I I can take a box out and it's, you know, anything by Springsteen I would have, anything by Genesis, I would have. You name the band, I've got a box for it. And the problem I've always the the problem I've always had is is is once I got into a specific uh band or performance, I'd want to own everything they ever came out with.

Speaker 2 15:51

So yeah, I kind of get that way too. If I really love a band, yeah, I get it.

Speaker 1 15:59

I got lots of everybody. And and I'm always worried there's gonna be an EMP blast and you're gonna need hard copy. So I've got hard copy of everything.

Speaker 2 16:12

An EMP blast, huh? You think that kind of thing could really happen?

Speaker 1 16:18

No, I don't think it's gonna happen, but you know, I thought it was always funny. I um I I you know, I don't understand the whole I mean, I get it, the ease and simplicity of streaming and stuff to that, but there's a loss of quality, um, you know, with the type of stereo systems of the past that just don't exist right now, and everybody's self-contained with headphones, and you really don't have the home stereo systems being promoted like you did years years back. I think that's gonna come full circle as well, because of this you know, advent of final and everything. But uh, you know, as a just over overall theme, I it it's just not the same as it was.

Speaker 2 17:10

That's true. I really didn't think about that aspect of it. Uh, you know, um I just got a catalog here, I get it once a year. And um Mobile Fidelity Sound Labs and Music Direct. And I don't know if you you've seen those catalogs. This one has David Lee Roth on the cover of the new one. And if you flip through it, you'll see turntables for four grand, six grand. Can you imagine spending that kind of money on a turntable?

Speaker 1 17:38

Well, they're they're you know, there's a market they're they're feeding into, right? And they're feeding into the the real hardcore uh audio files. And um if you got a collection like I do of 5,000 albums, you may want to spend that type of money to be able to play those. Although I tell everybody, if I started to play everything that I have, I'd be long dead before I could play everything I own.

Speaker 2 18:10

True. Very true. You know what's funny with me is that I'm continually buying, and I think my New Year's resolution is going to be to get a hold of that and maybe give myself one a month. I probably I'd have to say probably ninety-five percent of what I have or even higher, I played once. Does that sound crazy?

Speaker 1 18:35

No, I you know, I'm you're it it's an 80-20, it's Pareto law. And and I I agree with you. It's it's like, you know, the 20% of of is is played a lot, is 80% of my playing is done with 20% of the collection. The other stuff is one time. That's it. And uh, and and uh but you know, my wife will say I'm a hoarder, and I will always say I'm a collector.

Speaker 2 19:05

That's the difference. That's right. That's so funny. Uh I'm really relating to you on so many levels here, Tom. It's been great talking to you. And uh once again, I want people to know Tom Zerzak, new release, Yorick, is out on CD and vinyl, and he's got a lot more music coming. Um I understand you have some Christmas music coming as well.

Speaker 1 19:31

I I released uh two years ago, I did a Christmas EP, and uh, you know, I I've got a video that's coming out um Wednesday uh on one of the songs, because ev every year you get to re-release it, which was the the the whole concept behind doing a little Christmas uh EP, and it's all original music. Um and I had a and again I went into uh Sunset Sound originally. That was the first first time I went there, and that's why I went back. Um and so every year I get to put it out again, and it's it's fresh every year, and I thought, what a genius idea. You know, it's only good for a month, but it's fresh every year again. So uh yeah, it's I I think you'll like it if you haven't heard it.

Speaker 20:21

All right. Sounds great. Well, thank you so much for your time.

Speaker 1 20:25

I I I I have it on CD, I'll I'll mail you a copy.

Speaker 2 20:29

Okay. Sounds good.

Speaker 1 20:31

All right.

Speaker 2 20:32

All right. All this is gonna go live within the next half hour, along with the review, your your stream, your video for Yorick, everything. So uh be sending you the the link soon, okay?

Speaker 1 20:46

Fantastic. Hey, nice talking to you, Keith.

Speaker 2 20:49

You too, you take care.

Speaker 20:51

I know.

Speaker 1 20:51

All right, you too. Bye bye.