Thom Kurtz Interview
Q: Can you talk about your history as a musician?
A: I started writing poetry as a kid. In my teens I learned how to play piano and write songs. I imitated a lot of good examples from popular music and radio hits. In college I learned some guitar playing. I kept writing songs for a long time. It wasn’t until I left the high tech industry around 2014 that I started arranging, producing and recording the best songs that I’ve kept playing over the years. These are my Friends To The End. A few years back I spent time out and about the singer/songwriter scene in Austin and doing open mikes and meeting lots of musicians and singers to recruit for song productions. Those open mike performances built confidence I can do live and recruit a band when the time’s right.
Q: It seems like video is an important aspect to your music. Can you talk about some of your video and how they have a symbiotic relationship with the music you make?
A: My wife Kelle and I made homemade music videos for awhile with demo music, still images, B-roll and Windows Movie Maker. Typically we added lyrics as subtitles and put them up on the Friends To The End Music channel on YouTube. Then I graduated to getting original footage shot and learning how to produce music videos. “Where’d You Put The Baby?” is our first really all original music video. I’m really happy with the quality we achieved on a shoestring budget, mainly thanks to the excellent folks I found. The goal with the videos is mainly to get some attention. Most every business needs great video. The chill factor comes when you get down to dreaming up a script and putting a production into gear. For one music video I just started with a collection of Vietnam travel footage. We shot more original footage there and some in Austin. That created space for reflection in the song “As Sure As Your Sorrow Is Joy.” The team in Vietnam did a great job bringing the rambling characters to life. I’m über-satisfied with “A World Of Troubles.” Jeff Stolhand the director and Tom Hennig the cinematographer and Susanna Lee the singer put it over the top. The early response on YouTube has been great. I think people like the animated lyrics. This song has a positive message that the music video illustrates. Everybody loves the overall production level, even though it still has a good bit of B-roll video and some stills that illustrate the message in an entertaining way. You don’t want to miss Susanna’s super sweet singing and Keith Fiala’s jazzy trumpet parts.
Q: What is your creative process like?
A: Let’s talk about how I’ve been producing song recordings. Modern soft rock is the style I call Friends To The End music. It’s a fusion of singer/songwriter and chamber-pop or baroque pop. Chamber or baroque is a small ensemble of musicians, like a little rock or pop band, but I change up the parts and like to feature a solo instrument, like the trumpet on “A World Of Troubles,” the viola on “As Sure As Your Sorrow Is Joy” or the piano riffs in “Love On The Rocks (Shipwrecked).” I like to show a little love to old music like Quentin Tarantino pays homage to old movies. Like my unreleased song “Falling For The Flash.” I call it “Riders On The Storm” (the Doors) meets Steely Dan. (You can hear samples at https://soundcloud.com/friendstotheend.) Another one, “Soap Creek Saloon” has a nod to the mandolins on Rod Stewart’s Every Picture Tells A Story record. Upcoming tracks feature flute, pedal steel guitar, mandolin, cello and marimba, to name a few. There’s a bunch of new wave guitar on “Where’d You Put The Baby?” coming in March 2021. Each song stands up for itself. This song is an exception because it’s a recent one I wrote and produced in rapid fashion in just a few months. Usually it takes months from start to finish until all the session work is done and I get the perfect artwork for most of the songs. The music video is another process itself. A signature element of my sound recordings is the perfect intro, just a short little sequence that announces this one song is coming. I used a celesta at the intro to “Poetry Pop,” a bicycle bell for “At The Matinee” and a little piano riff introduces “Top Of The World.”
Q: Can you talk about your history as a musician?
A: I started writing poetry as a kid. In my teens I learned how to play piano and write songs. I imitated a lot of good examples from popular music and radio hits. In college I learned some guitar playing. I kept writing songs for a long time. It wasn’t until I left the high tech industry around 2014 that I started arranging, producing and recording the best songs that I’ve kept playing over the years. These are my Friends To The End. A few years back I spent time out and about the singer/songwriter scene in Austin and doing open mikes and meeting lots of musicians and singers to recruit for song productions. Those open mike performances built confidence I can do live and recruit a band when the time’s right.
Q: It seems like video is an important aspect to your music. Can you talk about some of your video and how they have a symbiotic relationship with the music you make?
A: My wife Kelle and I made homemade music videos for awhile with demo music, still images, B-roll and Windows Movie Maker. Typically we added lyrics as subtitles and put them up on the Friends To The End Music channel on YouTube. Then I graduated to getting original footage shot and learning how to produce music videos. “Where’d You Put The Baby?” is our first really all original music video. I’m really happy with the quality we achieved on a shoestring budget, mainly thanks to the excellent folks I found. The goal with the videos is mainly to get some attention. Most every business needs great video. The chill factor comes when you get down to dreaming up a script and putting a production into gear. For one music video I just started with a collection of Vietnam travel footage. We shot more original footage there and some in Austin. That created space for reflection in the song “As Sure As Your Sorrow Is Joy.” The team in Vietnam did a great job bringing the rambling characters to life. I’m über-satisfied with “A World Of Troubles.” Jeff Stolhand the director and Tom Hennig the cinematographer and Susanna Lee the singer put it over the top. The early response on YouTube has been great. I think people like the animated lyrics. This song has a positive message that the music video illustrates. Everybody loves the overall production level, even though it still has a good bit of B-roll video and some stills that illustrate the message in an entertaining way. You don’t want to miss Susanna’s super sweet singing and Keith Fiala’s jazzy trumpet parts.
Q: What is your creative process like?
A: Let’s talk about how I’ve been producing song recordings. Modern soft rock is the style I call Friends To The End music. It’s a fusion of singer/songwriter and chamber-pop or baroque pop. Chamber or baroque is a small ensemble of musicians, like a little rock or pop band, but I change up the parts and like to feature a solo instrument, like the trumpet on “A World Of Troubles,” the viola on “As Sure As Your Sorrow Is Joy” or the piano riffs in “Love On The Rocks (Shipwrecked).” I like to show a little love to old music like Quentin Tarantino pays homage to old movies. Like my unreleased song “Falling For The Flash.” I call it “Riders On The Storm” (the Doors) meets Steely Dan. (You can hear samples at https://soundcloud.com/friendstotheend.) Another one, “Soap Creek Saloon” has a nod to the mandolins on Rod Stewart’s Every Picture Tells A Story record. Upcoming tracks feature flute, pedal steel guitar, mandolin, cello and marimba, to name a few. There’s a bunch of new wave guitar on “Where’d You Put The Baby?” coming in March 2021. Each song stands up for itself. This song is an exception because it’s a recent one I wrote and produced in rapid fashion in just a few months. Usually it takes months from start to finish until all the session work is done and I get the perfect artwork for most of the songs. The music video is another process itself. A signature element of my sound recordings is the perfect intro, just a short little sequence that announces this one song is coming. I used a celesta at the intro to “Poetry Pop,” a bicycle bell for “At The Matinee” and a little piano riff introduces “Top Of The World.”
Q: What are some of the themes of your music?
A: That’s a nice question to ask me, since I like to mix-up themes and paint across a wide canvas. Our first four songs have four different themes. One is about defiance after romance betrayed (“Love On The Rocks [Shipwrecked]”). Another contemplates the duality of life with wordplay and poetry. “A World Of Troubles” is about hope in the face of many woes with a reminder about things you can count on in life. These are universal subjects. “Where’d You Put The Baby?” is a Rorschach test. The song is a double-take on the aphorism about throwing the baby out with the bath water. What parts of the music video and lyrics get the listeners attention says more about them than what little clues I leave there about me. Anybody can dig deeper at our website friendstotheend.net on the SONGS page and find all the lyrics and links for listening. You’ll have to try each one to see if I really created an interesting variety of modern soft rock songs with Friends To The End where sound and vision collide. If you like interesting topics raised in catchy songs with a little whimsy, or maybe you like to sing along with one-of-a-kind lyrics, then try out Friends To The End music.
Q: Have you played any of the material live or perhaps virtually?
A: I haven’t been performing publicly.
Q: What else should we know about your music?
A: “A World Of Troubles” music video featuring Susanna Lee dropped on New Year’s Day 2021. The digital single starts on Spotify and Apple Music on January 15, 2021. In March comes the grand finale, “Where’d You Put The Baby?” It’s a new wave take on modern soft rock inspired by Talking Heads with amazing guitar work by my sound engineer Tim Dolbear.
A: That’s a nice question to ask me, since I like to mix-up themes and paint across a wide canvas. Our first four songs have four different themes. One is about defiance after romance betrayed (“Love On The Rocks [Shipwrecked]”). Another contemplates the duality of life with wordplay and poetry. “A World Of Troubles” is about hope in the face of many woes with a reminder about things you can count on in life. These are universal subjects. “Where’d You Put The Baby?” is a Rorschach test. The song is a double-take on the aphorism about throwing the baby out with the bath water. What parts of the music video and lyrics get the listeners attention says more about them than what little clues I leave there about me. Anybody can dig deeper at our website friendstotheend.net on the SONGS page and find all the lyrics and links for listening. You’ll have to try each one to see if I really created an interesting variety of modern soft rock songs with Friends To The End where sound and vision collide. If you like interesting topics raised in catchy songs with a little whimsy, or maybe you like to sing along with one-of-a-kind lyrics, then try out Friends To The End music.
Q: Have you played any of the material live or perhaps virtually?
A: I haven’t been performing publicly.
Q: What else should we know about your music?
A: “A World Of Troubles” music video featuring Susanna Lee dropped on New Year’s Day 2021. The digital single starts on Spotify and Apple Music on January 15, 2021. In March comes the grand finale, “Where’d You Put The Baby?” It’s a new wave take on modern soft rock inspired by Talking Heads with amazing guitar work by my sound engineer Tim Dolbear.