Tom Ciurczak Interview
Q: Can you talk about your history as a musician?
A: Like a million other kids, after seeing the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show, I decided that’s what I wanted to do and so the next day I picked up a guitar and went about learning how to play it. I started out playing in cover bands through high school but found that I really enjoyed writing and playing my own songs more than someone else’s. So, when I got into college, I quickly switched to performing original music only. In the 1980’s I moved from New York to California, where I kept active in the local music scene performing and honing my original material in local clubs and coffee houses. But the real impetus, where I finally decided to put out an album came after attending “Steve Earle’s” Camp Copperhead Master Course for songwriters. Here, I was able to meet a lot of like-minded musician/singer songwriters and was motivated through this experience to get into a studio and I’m really proud of the results.
Q: You mention that people tend to compare you to artists like Steve Earle, Bruce Springsteen and Elvis Costello. Do you consider yourself to have an Americana sound?
A: I guess by definition I could be considered to have an Americana sound as I do try to incorporate many of the musical elements of rock, folk, country and jazz into my songs that are all inherent in Americana music. But I also like to include other musical elements which are not typically associated with Americana. As an example, “Ishmael,” the title track from my CD, is a song I often refer to as “outlaw country prog” as it represents the fusion of ’70s prog with today’s Americana sound. Blending together some of the more niche genres I believe has let me come up with something a little bit different and it allowed me to cover a wide range of styles throughout the CD.
Q: What is your creative process like?
A: I always have a half dozen or so finished songs that I’m working on. I usually write all the music before I work on the actual lyrics. In the process of creating the music, I’m a big believer in coming up with clever and interesting hooks to catch the listener’s ear. I really believe “hooks” both musically and lyrically are important elements in keeping your audience’s attention and getting them to like the song. The audience may not know what you are always saying, but they will hum it afterwards if it has a catchy melody or clever hook. As far as lyrics go, I use various techniques. I try to use lots of imagery, double meanings and many different types of rhyme structures. I’m a big fan of writing, what I like to refer to as “mini three act plays” and I often use a surprise third act twist. You will find use of this third act twist in “Guys Like Me” and “Mine Torne Road” on my CD.
Q: What are some of the themes of your release Call Me Ishmael?
A: Lyrically, I am a big believer in telling a story with a song and all the songs on my CD have very specific stories.
Here are a few examples:
The title track “Ishmael” is about exotic animal smuggling. I begin with the opening line Call me Ishmael from Herman Melville’s Moby Dick and the song continues to follow a similar narrative. However, to throw the listener a curve and get them to listen carefully to the lyrics, the story is told from the perspective of a parrot named Ishmael. The song is about the parrot and his protector, a jungle cat named “Jesus” (the song’s Moby Dick character), who destroys the smugglers camp, kills the smugglers and rescues Ishmael.
Shawn Colvin won a Grammy for her song called “Sunny Came Home” in which her character burns down a house with her boyfriend in it. I always thought it would be funny to tell the guy’s side of the story, about a crazy ex-girlfriend who burned him and his house down, so I wrote “Sunny Came Back.”
With the song “Mine Torne Road” a planned double cross goes sideways, and the main character’s partner takes all the money and disappears. He thinks she died, and he doesn’t realize until the end of the song that it was all a ruse, and he was set up. “Down and Out in LA” is about the homeless crisis in LA. With this song I tried to imagine what may have happened that changed a person’s life and left them living on the street.
“Guys Like Me” is about a stalker, who winds up stalking the wrong girl. I was always a big fan of the Looney Tunes characters, and based this character after Pepe Le Pew. I kept asking myself as I wrote this song “what would Pepe do in this situation?” (I had a lot of tongue in cheek fun writing this song).
“Winter Highland Falls” is about the decay of small town America. It’s a word play on Billy Joel’s “Summer Highland Falls” which also happens to be my hometown.
Q: Have you played any of the material live or perhaps virtually?
A: I was really looking forward to playing the new album out live with a full band, but like so many other musicians, COVID ruined those plans. So far, I have only done little bits and pieces acoustically using Facebook and Instagram. However, I hope to be out there in the near future once the “coast is clear”!
Q: What else should we know about your music?
A: You can find my music on all the major places online; Amazon, itunes Spotify; Youtube; Bandcamp etc. If you are interested in hard copy CD’s I do have them available at www.tomciurczak.com. You can also find me on Facebook @ Tom Ciurczak Music and Instagram @ tomciurczak
Q: Can you talk about your history as a musician?
A: Like a million other kids, after seeing the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show, I decided that’s what I wanted to do and so the next day I picked up a guitar and went about learning how to play it. I started out playing in cover bands through high school but found that I really enjoyed writing and playing my own songs more than someone else’s. So, when I got into college, I quickly switched to performing original music only. In the 1980’s I moved from New York to California, where I kept active in the local music scene performing and honing my original material in local clubs and coffee houses. But the real impetus, where I finally decided to put out an album came after attending “Steve Earle’s” Camp Copperhead Master Course for songwriters. Here, I was able to meet a lot of like-minded musician/singer songwriters and was motivated through this experience to get into a studio and I’m really proud of the results.
Q: You mention that people tend to compare you to artists like Steve Earle, Bruce Springsteen and Elvis Costello. Do you consider yourself to have an Americana sound?
A: I guess by definition I could be considered to have an Americana sound as I do try to incorporate many of the musical elements of rock, folk, country and jazz into my songs that are all inherent in Americana music. But I also like to include other musical elements which are not typically associated with Americana. As an example, “Ishmael,” the title track from my CD, is a song I often refer to as “outlaw country prog” as it represents the fusion of ’70s prog with today’s Americana sound. Blending together some of the more niche genres I believe has let me come up with something a little bit different and it allowed me to cover a wide range of styles throughout the CD.
Q: What is your creative process like?
A: I always have a half dozen or so finished songs that I’m working on. I usually write all the music before I work on the actual lyrics. In the process of creating the music, I’m a big believer in coming up with clever and interesting hooks to catch the listener’s ear. I really believe “hooks” both musically and lyrically are important elements in keeping your audience’s attention and getting them to like the song. The audience may not know what you are always saying, but they will hum it afterwards if it has a catchy melody or clever hook. As far as lyrics go, I use various techniques. I try to use lots of imagery, double meanings and many different types of rhyme structures. I’m a big fan of writing, what I like to refer to as “mini three act plays” and I often use a surprise third act twist. You will find use of this third act twist in “Guys Like Me” and “Mine Torne Road” on my CD.
Q: What are some of the themes of your release Call Me Ishmael?
A: Lyrically, I am a big believer in telling a story with a song and all the songs on my CD have very specific stories.
Here are a few examples:
The title track “Ishmael” is about exotic animal smuggling. I begin with the opening line Call me Ishmael from Herman Melville’s Moby Dick and the song continues to follow a similar narrative. However, to throw the listener a curve and get them to listen carefully to the lyrics, the story is told from the perspective of a parrot named Ishmael. The song is about the parrot and his protector, a jungle cat named “Jesus” (the song’s Moby Dick character), who destroys the smugglers camp, kills the smugglers and rescues Ishmael.
Shawn Colvin won a Grammy for her song called “Sunny Came Home” in which her character burns down a house with her boyfriend in it. I always thought it would be funny to tell the guy’s side of the story, about a crazy ex-girlfriend who burned him and his house down, so I wrote “Sunny Came Back.”
With the song “Mine Torne Road” a planned double cross goes sideways, and the main character’s partner takes all the money and disappears. He thinks she died, and he doesn’t realize until the end of the song that it was all a ruse, and he was set up. “Down and Out in LA” is about the homeless crisis in LA. With this song I tried to imagine what may have happened that changed a person’s life and left them living on the street.
“Guys Like Me” is about a stalker, who winds up stalking the wrong girl. I was always a big fan of the Looney Tunes characters, and based this character after Pepe Le Pew. I kept asking myself as I wrote this song “what would Pepe do in this situation?” (I had a lot of tongue in cheek fun writing this song).
“Winter Highland Falls” is about the decay of small town America. It’s a word play on Billy Joel’s “Summer Highland Falls” which also happens to be my hometown.
Q: Have you played any of the material live or perhaps virtually?
A: I was really looking forward to playing the new album out live with a full band, but like so many other musicians, COVID ruined those plans. So far, I have only done little bits and pieces acoustically using Facebook and Instagram. However, I hope to be out there in the near future once the “coast is clear”!
Q: What else should we know about your music?
A: You can find my music on all the major places online; Amazon, itunes Spotify; Youtube; Bandcamp etc. If you are interested in hard copy CD’s I do have them available at www.tomciurczak.com. You can also find me on Facebook @ Tom Ciurczak Music and Instagram @ tomciurczak