The Flavor That Kills - Music, Recording & Thunderbird Lodge - The Lorenzo's Music Podcast (Transcript)
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Tom Ray: Anything?
Ryan Corcoran: Yeah. Eric, you’re breaking up.
Eric Hartz: sorry.
Ryan Corcoran: Well, started up strong.
Tom Ray: Hi, and welcome to another Lorenzo’s Music Podcast. I’m Tom, and this is a show where I talk with musicians and to people who make things for musicians and things like that. And today I am speaking with a musician, and, I want to say for the first time, a musician that’s not only in the same time zone as me, but also in the same city as me. So why don’t you tell the people who you are and what it is you do?
Ryan Corcoran: My, name is Ryan Corcoran. I play guitar, sing, and I guess do other things with, the flavor that kills.
Tom Ray: That’s right. And you just released a new album that was called. Oh, great, Now I’m going to space on the name. I had it written down, the new album. Which is. What’s it called again?
Ryan Corcoran: Oh, Thunderbird. Lodge.
Tom Ray: Thunderbird Lodge, that’s right. No, I did have it written down. It’s further down. My questions here. So, one thing I wanted to ask first of all is, so how did flavor that, the Flavor that Kills get started?
Ryan Corcoran: Oh, boy. That’s a long story. That’s not very interesting. it’s just, started with me and Eric. Hartz the drummer. started working on some projects, recording projects, and, it’s slowly evolved over the. Guess the course of the last, like, almost, what, 15 years? So, yeah, you guys.
Tom Ray: And then, yeah, quite a bit of stuff. Or at least, I want to say four albums in one ep.
Ryan Corcoran: Yeah, sounds about right.
Tom Ray: Okay. And so did you guys know each other before that? Did you guys?
Ryan Corcoran: Yes, we did. I knew Eric. he, was running a record label in Madison. And, my. The band I was in before, Awesome Car Fun Maker, we were on his label, doing things with him. And after Awesome Car Fun Maker broke up, Eric asked if, wanted to, you know, work on some stuff with him. So that’s how it all started.
Tom Ray: Okay. So it was really just. He was waiting, he was biting his time to start working with you going, this band’s gonna break up.
Ryan Corcoran: Sometimes I think something. Yeah, I think something. I think one of his projects kind of stopped doing. Yeah, Yeah, I think they stopped working and stopped playing as much out. So he had a lot more time on his hands, and so did I.
Tom Ray: So right now was the, So I remember awesome Car Fun Maker. We played around town here in Madison during the same time period. Interesting story. So, okay, yeah.
Ryan Corcoran: Lorenzo’s Music. Yeah. I remember hearing that band name all over. Yeah, we played a show together. You said, I know we must.
Tom Ray: Yeah, we played one show together. It was at the King Club. Now here’s the story about it. Yeah, the old King Club. Now, you guys, I knew you guys from around. We had not played a show together yet. Now, there are two things. First of all, let’s talk about that show. We did the show together. It was with you, guys at the King Club. And I want to say, I want to say we went on first. At least in my mind remembering it. I hope we went on first because here’s what happened. I had not seen you guys live yet. You guys went on stage and blew me the hell away.
Ryan Corcoran: Yeah, we were like. You were a boy band. I mean, we had like, you know, dance routines and I mean, we weren’t even. Yeah, I mean, we had about 100 gimmicks within like a 45 minute set. So. Yeah, it just hurt. Yeah, it just. You get these.
Tom Ray: Well, at one point, your bass player was doing the worm on top of his bass while playing.
Ryan Corcoran: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. They were always trying to one up each other. Just, I mean, it, it’s kind of goofy how that whole thing. Yeah, it’s a much different group. Yeah.
Tom Ray: And then the, and I remember you guys, I saw, I want to say, I saw your last show, but I want to say the last show was at the Memorial Union Terrace. It was outside. Was the breakup of, of the band. Not to talk about the old band this whole time, but was the breakup one of those things where. And this is kind of what happened to the full lineup of Lorenzo’s that we had. College ended and everybody went, okay, going to go off and do the thing. I studied four years for now and move away. And then it’s like, oh, wait, yeah, you’re not going to be in the band anymore. Is that kind of what happened to awesome Car Fun Maker?
Ryan Corcoran: Nah, it was, it was, we were okay now. We were, all out of college at that point. it was more. More or less. Well, one of the guys quit and, then the other guy’s like, I don’t want to do it anymore if he’s not in it. And then that was that.
Tom Ray: Okay, gotcha. And then now Eric is here. Okay. When we first started the show, Eric was having back some problems connecting. And now we’re gonna see if he can stay connected this time, I think so.
Eric Hartz: I’m in a cottage. Yeah. Can you hear me?
Tom Ray: Okay. That’s what we were debating when. When we lost your signal before we started the show. We’re like, wait, why is he in front of a log cabin?
Eric Hartz: Because I’m in a log cabin. That’s why I’m in front of one. He’s in a log cabin. All right.
Tom Ray: It’s as simple as that.
Ryan Corcoran: All right.
Tom Ray: And then I was in the middle of just explaining one more thing. So. Okay, so when we did that show at the King Club, and I want to say it was. The other band was something called like, Charlemagne or something like that.
Ryan Corcoran: Charlemagne.
Tom Ray: Charlemagne is the way Charlemagne. Yeah.
Ryan Corcoran: Yeah.
Tom Ray: Okay, so here’s the thing. There was an article in, oh, we lost Eric again. Yeah, I figured that was gone again. there was an article in Madison Magazine. And of course, Madison magazine was doing probably their, I don’t know, 800th, 900th interview with Butch Big, talking about he’s from Madison. And one of the things they said, they go, oh, do you still stay connected with the music scene in Madison? And he was like, you know, I think some of the bands to look out for are. And then I want to say he literally just looked at the isthmus or something.
Ryan Corcoran: Yeah.
Tom Ray: Read off what was at the King Club Lorenzo’s Music Charlemagne. Awesome Car Fun Maker Those are some bands to check out.
Ryan Corcoran: Yep, I remember that. It actually makes sense then. Yeah, I was like, why would he point us out? I was like, geez, I don’t think I’ve ever seen him come to one of our shows. Yeah, it’s like, I honestly, I never met him. recorded in studio a lot. I. Yeah, never. Just saying.
Tom Ray: All right, now that is the end of my awesome car fun maker questions for today. Okay, let’s move on to your new album. So, I went and saw you guys at Gamma Ray. You have the new album out. Now tell me about this album. Tell me about, the recording of it. What was your thought process in making it like? Let’s start with the basic thing, like this new album. You went like, hey, guys, new album? Or is it just a collection of songs? And you went, let’s put this out as an album. How did it come about?
Ryan Corcoran: Well, it’s a second of, a, ah, three part concept album series. now as far as, the recording process of it, we can go into that. It. It’s a little bit, brain numbing to think about how we did it because, I mean, we basically wrote the songs after we recorded them. it was a lot of piecing different ideas together and, trying to coagulate those ideas, you know, into the. Into songs that were written after the recordings. and yeah, I think, most of the guys in the group, and even Bo, who’s doing the engineering recording, they’re kind of scratching our heads, wondering what was going on until the vocals got put on. It’s like, oh, okay. It came together. So, yeah, we didn’t really have, a formulated music. when we first started recording. It was piecing together these different ideas, these different, motifs you might call them.
Tom Ray: Okay.
Ryan Corcoran: Yeah. Kind of rearranged, things we went along to, fit the music or to fit the songs, I think at the end. Yeah. Ah, okay.
Tom Ray: I’m intrigued. I’m intrigued. So the you’re saying you literally had no songs you had been practicing is. Is what I’m getting from that. Or like for this album you were like going, oh, we got a group of new songs we’re doing.
Ryan Corcoran: You’re saying, oh, we might. I think we had one or two that were like fairly close to something you could call a song.
Tom Ray: Okay.
Ryan Corcoran: So it’s like everybody knew. Okay, this part goes like this, this part goes like that. There was like a melody chain going there, but yeah, for the bulk of it. No. Okay. I love it.
Tom Ray: You were there during the recording process, right?
Ryan Corcoran: Yeah. Oh, I was there. I was there. I was just, And so I was just kind of using the different things, the different guys. I mean, the whole point of the, group, a lot of, you know, just, we don’t really tell each other what to do a lot. And so you end up with a lot of chaos because of it. and so it’s like, how do you organize that? a lot of that has to be kind of done after all the noise has been made.
Tom Ray: Yeah. Okay. Where did you record it at?
Ryan Corcoran: Oh, here in Madison. We did the, instruments, Oh God. Why is the studio. Mark Whitcomb Studio?
Tom Ray: Oh, DNA Studios.
Ryan Corcoran: DNA.
Tom Ray: Yeah.
Ryan Corcoran: I don’t know why it’s.
Tom Ray: We practice.
Ryan Corcoran: Oh, really?
Tom Ray: Warehouse in the back. Yeah.
Ryan Corcoran: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. So. So I sell used, cars for a living. He came in the other day, he was looking at Honda and he didn’t buy it. So any case. but no, it’s a. Everything I was talking to him about was that the pro. You have a profit there. those things are really expensive. Those are expensive machines, those profit keyboards.
Ryan Corcoran: And yeah, so yeah, keep my eye out for one.
Tom Ray: Okay, so you recorded it. I love the fact too that like essentially at one point in time you and I were probably like maybe 30ft away from each other while you were making this album. And I had no idea you were making the album.
Ryan Corcoran: Oh, without it. Yeah, yeah, right. Well, I don’t think it could have listened to what we were doing and think that we’re making an album at that point. I mean, at one point we had six people standing around in the control room punching things on keyboards and it was just Everybody was kind of disallowed to listen what the other person was doing. and I think if you listen to that, you’d be surprised that it was anything else aside from sort of onvart garde jazz project or something, you know.
Tom Ray: So for, for people listening, how would you explain your music? we, we’ve talked about like, okay, the music has a different approach for the way you put it on the album. There is a concept, to the three albums as you mentioned. But how would you explain the music itself in general?
Ryan Corcoran: Yeah, it’s a concept album. It’s trying not to be a concept album. I think, is the best way to kind of describe that. now as far as you know, the, the sonic textures or them, I mean it’s going to be more in the realm of hard, rock.
Ryan Corcoran: You know, closer in that area probably. Anything else?
Tom Ray: Okay, yeah, I get, I mean very much so. I would agree with that. You also have some other instruments in the band. How many of them are people you’ve played with before? I know you’ve got synthesizer and of course bass guit guitar, two guitars, also with yourself. And then the person who keeps popping in on the video as he tries to connect from his cabin.
Ryan Corcoran: Yeah.
Tom Ray: How did you come about putting this group together?
Ryan Corcoran: Well, it just kind of aggregated. Christian started playing with us early on. he left the group at one time, came back in. he’s been, I mean I’d say for 70 of everything we’ve done, he’s been there. And Christian, Bernsten on base and then as far as Nick, or Eddie Davis there, he one day just started playing guitar with us on stage. And it just keeps on showing up. So I’m not kidding. I just showed up, we’re playing the show. Our other guitar player quit and he’s like, hey, I just took a bunch of mushrooms. I could play guitar with you guys. Sure. Guy go in the back, you’re playing guitar. And they just kept, they started coming to practice. That’s how he showed up. And then, Jon Paul one day, showed up to practice, and it’s like, hey, how you doing? And then he just started playing guitar and keyboards. so I knew Jon from a while back, but, okay, yeah, somebody. I think somebody must have had a conversation with him, but. Because I think what it was is that, Yeah, we needed. Because, like, the last record has some synths on it. We did a synth play player, I guess. And the more the merrier. Right?
Tom Ray: Right. Yeah. So now where. Where exactly do you practice? Because it sounds like you’re in an open area where people just wander up sometimes on mushrooms and go, I can play an instrument.
Ryan Corcoran: Well, that was at a show. That was at a show. When that happened, it’d be not. I mean, that’d be. Well, the neighborhood we’re in, it wouldn’t be that. Too far out of the ordinary to have that happen. We’ve had people wander into the building there and just start having conversations with us. But, yeah, we’re on the near east side there. Right. Right by, Right by, you know, where Dexter’s is.
Tom Ray: Okay.
Ryan Corcoran: All right.
Tom Ray: Over. Okay. Over by, Like farther down than East High School. That used to be Steven’s Pub.
Ryan Corcoran: yeah, I think.
Tom Ray: So you’ve lived around Madison?
Ryan Corcoran: Yeah, yeah, there’s a couple different things there. yeah. I guess it’s, By day, it’s like a wood flooring business, really. Yeah.
Tom Ray: That is a weird intersection over there. I love that.
Ryan Corcoran: Yeah.
Tom Ray: Getting all meta about.
Ryan Corcoran: Yeah, yeah, my address is. Yeah, I live in Madison.
Tom Ray: Okay. But are you from Madison? How long have you.
Ryan Corcoran: Well, I. I grew up, in a well on a farm, outside of Blackbird Falls, and I came to college here, like 1998. Vineyard for a bit.
Tom Ray: Okay. You just decided not to go back to the farming life?
Ryan Corcoran: Well, yeah, that and, Yeah, there wasn’t much to farm up there. Well, yeah, I guess I just stuck around here.
Tom Ray: No, I love the fact that a lot of the questions I ask you are, like, ones that you seem to have never really considered before. You’re like, I don’t know. Why do I live here?
Ryan Corcoran: Yeah, sometimes I wonder. I mean, it. It’s got great weather here. The, you know, calm political environment, you know, it’s,
Tom Ray: Right.
Ryan Corcoran: Nothing ever crazy happens here. You know, it’s. There’s never any events.
Tom Ray: Yeah, never. Never at all. Nothing going on here in Madison.
Ryan Corcoran: Yeah.
Tom Ray: so now with the new album, it. It. Thunderbird Lodge. Why is it called that? Why. Why did you choose the title Thunderbird Lodge?
Ryan Corcoran: Well, it just kind of, it does kind of fall into some of the themes of the record. But also, Eric stayed at a hotel in South Dakota called Thunderbird, Lodge once.
Tom Ray: Okay.
Ryan Corcoran: And I never heard it was like. Oh, actually that would work. That would work. That would work. for the title. it kind of ties into what’s going on with the, with the plot. So, so all right, now is
Tom Ray: the plot something you can reveal or is that something that you want people listening? Like what is the plot?
Ryan Corcoran: Oh, it’s very convoluted. And if I start getting into it, it’s gonna start to sound like a bunch of I’m always embarrassed to describe it.
Tom Ray: Okay.
Ryan Corcoran: and that’s why. Yeah, it’s kind of like a, A concept album is trying not to be a concept album. you know, it’s a. Songs kind of seem to try to get away from it a little bit, but but just kind of to run it down quickly. you got yourself this, this guy who’s like part. He’s a cyborg. He’s got embedded into him like a, an artificial intelligence along with the cybernetic apparatus. and he’s also, you know, also a human being. And he’s, he was created by some sort of, I, ah, guess non human interloper at some point in the past. that was in the last record. and he’s been having these violent confrontation, with the confrontations with these extra dimensional archon like entities. And yeah, he basically gets split into two parts and is unaware of it. Oh, here he comes. Oh, eat. There he was.
Tom Ray: Eric’s jumping back in.
Ryan Corcoran: Yeah. And so basically he figures out that he’s in two different pieces. He comes back together, confronts the archons, and at the end there they don’t want to deal with him so they send him back to Wisconsin. That’s basically it.
Tom Ray: And it’s even Wisconsin based is what you’re saying.
Ryan Corcoran: Well, he has a common sky. That’s where he goes. Yeah.
Tom Ray: Okay, I’m gonna try one thing I thought of here too. So now Eric’s video has jumped back in. Hey Eric, try this. video recording that you’re doing.
Eric Hartz: is this the right wedding party
Eric Hartz: I’m supposed to be in?
Eric Hartz: Are we planning the wedding right now?
Tom Ray: And just do the audio. Let’s see if we can keep you connected that way.
Ryan Corcoran: Yeah, turn off the video, Eric. Just keep. Do the Audio.
Eric Hartz: Well, let’s see how it goes.
Eric Hartz: I’ll do that next.
Eric Hartz: I think I’m okay. Yeah, I think I’m okay. Okay.
Eric Hartz: Can you hear me?
Tom Ray: You say that. This is our third try now. You coming back?
Ryan Corcoran: Well, you’re. You’re. You’re breaking up pretty bad, actually.
Tom Ray: Yeah, you sound very robotic. So if you could, kind of apropos to what you were just talking about. He was explaining the concept of the album.
Ryan Corcoran: All right. Yeah. Kind of like Eric, he kind of broke apart there, and it’s like a question.
Tom Ray: Nothing.
Ryan Corcoran: Yeah, you kind of lose a sense of identity if you can’t be seen. And, you know, if he’s, heard and basically a digital voice. Who is he? Who is he? Is he the guy on the screen? Who is there? Who am I?
Tom Ray: What am I doing?
Ryan Corcoran: And that’s what I’ll. That’s what. All these music always boils back down to that. Who am I? Who are you? What are we doing? Right.
Tom Ray: And do you know the guitar solo to this song?
Ryan Corcoran: Yeah, well, that’s.
Tom Ray: Yeah, it boils down to that too. You know, one thing I’ve noticed, and this is just a slight tangent here, speaking of guitar solos. So have you ever noticed, and I want to know if maybe you know what yours is, because when you ask the person themselves, they don’t know. But everybody, when they first go, oh, I’m going to try out this instrument, or they pick up their own instrument, they have the default thing that they do when they first go, oh, is this thing on do to do? Or whatever. Or they have a riff that they do. They have their go to riff that they do to test things. Do you have one?
Ryan Corcoran: I wish I did. I kind of wish I did. I could say that what I normally do is I just improvise and pentatonic minor scale. That’s normally what I do now.
Tom Ray: See, that’s still it. That’s still it. I’m not saying it has to be a song. It’s like something that. Like, mine is literally a. Like one of the first piano lines I ever wrote. I usually use one of those. And it’s like something I wrote like back in who Knows when, so. And that’s my go to on it. So. Okay, we got again.
Ryan Corcoran: Now
Tom Ray: this is like a game of whack a mole.
Ryan Corcoran: Yeah. But normally when you pick a guitar up, the first thing you do is you play something, anything, and it’s out of tune. So your. Your first riff is. That’s. That’s the first riff. All right.
Tom Ray: Now, so moving back to the album here now, one thing I wanted to ask about too. So with the albums themselves, there is kind of a. The albums have a, I want to say a, ah, collage type artwork to them is there. Who does the covers for the albums? Who makes the artworks for the albums that you guys have been putting out?
Ryan Corcoran: Claire, third as, Christian’s wife here, she. She’s a real artist. We’re not real artists. She is. Okay. Okay. So. Yeah, she, Oh, we got a monster down there. How you doing? So don’t, don’t, don’t give up, Eric. Don’t give up. We believe in you.
Eric Hartz: I was just gonna say Claire Castlevig is the artist.
Ryan Corcoran: Yeah. Okay. Claire. Yeah, you got the. Yeah, you sound great. Yeah, I stumble on the last name Yeah. So you know, I was just looking this up just yesterday. The difference between a marsh and a swamp. I guess there’s a difference.
Tom Ray: Okay.
Ryan Corcoran: Yeah.
Tom Ray: Marsh is marshes, I want to say have more ecosystem. I feel like it’s something they teach you in grade school. They don’t teach you.
Ryan Corcoran: Yeah, just something I haven’t thought. It’s just a matter. If it’s full of trees, it’s a swamp. If it’s full of grass, it’s a. Sorry. Yeah, it’s a marsh. If it’s full of grass.
Tom Ray: I think what it really is is a marsh is a swamp that has cranes in it. That is going to be my example of what that is.
Ryan Corcoran: Well, yeah, I suppose. Yeah.
Tom Ray: Yeah. I don’t know. I’m no scientist, so.
Ryan Corcoran: Yeah, you’re talking about swamps. I don’t know.
Tom Ray: now with. Okay. With the artwork, that’s who did the albums. Now you have a live action slash animation or I guess CGI sort of video on your YouTube channel for the song Spin. And that one was done by Heavy Visuals. who’s Heavy Visuals?
Ryan Corcoran: Eric. His name’s Eric. Okay.
Tom Ray: Visuals.
Ryan Corcoran: No, no, no, no. It’s, a guy Eric knows. I can’t remember. I think it’s. I can’t remember his last name at the moment. Eric Nelson. Oh, Eric Nelson. I was going to say Johnson, so I’m glad you didn’t want to get it wrong.
Tom Ray: Eric Johnson is the bass player for Knuckle Dragger.
Ryan Corcoran: Oh, is it? Yeah, Eric Johnson. Johnson. Yeah, there’s a lot of different Eric Johnson’s out there.
Tom Ray: Yeah, I know. It’s actually a very common name. I just grew up with Eric Johnson, so that’s how I know that one. so with that, how did you guys go? Did now. Did the person come and record the video with. I mean, of course they recorded it with you, but, like, what was the process of doing that video? Because it’s fairly intricate. You guys are set up to do different things that have different effects. you’ve got alien arms and exposed brains, kind of a la Mars attacks sort of type stuff going on. So what was the process for making that video?
Ryan Corcoran: For me, all I had to do is take a picture of myself in a T shirt. and, I think we, showed up and, wore a couple masks and the, Just. Just kind of. Kind of flicked the camera at me a few times, and then he did all the magic.
Tom Ray: So you didn’t even have to jam along with the song or nothing also?
Ryan Corcoran: Oh, no, no, not. No, no, we. We don’t do that. No, that’s. That. That would that require a little bit more, time and energy than I think we’re capable of putting into his time.
Tom Ray: Okay.
Ryan Corcoran: We’ve only had so much time to work on it, so I was like, okay, well, we’re gonna try to get as most. Most out of it as we can.
Tom Ray: All right.
Ryan Corcoran: We did jump. We did jump around a little bit.
Tom Ray: I was gonna say. I mean, you guys did do some stuff. I mean, I know you said you sent a T shirt picture, which, I mean, I guess people ask me to do that all the time. Just get a message and they’re like, hey, I need a picture of you in your T shirt.
Ryan Corcoran: Yeah.
Tom Ray: but so the. I, mean, was this at your studio? Was this. Did you have to go somewhere to do it? Like.
Ryan Corcoran: No, no, we. We, took a photo of myself at home. And then, we just. At a practice space, Donna. Ah. At north and Johnson down there.
Tom Ray: Okay. All right. Wait, so over by, Okay, I know you’re talking about. Sorry, we’re getting to the point again where it’s just like, what’s the address of the place?
Ryan Corcoran: Yeah. What’s the zip code? Yeah.
Tom Ray: It’s really hard not to just talk to you about where we live.
Ryan Corcoran: Yeah.
Tom Ray: So how did you approach this person for doing the video? Or did they approach you? Because I know they’ve. It looks like they’ve done two videos with you.
Ryan Corcoran: Oh, I think he did, He did a video with us earlier on. Ah. We did a song called Save for you that was like, maybe like almost 10 years ago. and, well, Eric Harts knows him.
Tom Ray: Okay.
Ryan Corcoran: Guy that keeps on coming and going. So he. He. He Knows him. and, he, Eric Nelson. He used to do videos, for Culver’s, oddly.
Tom Ray: That’s right. Don’t know why that’s making me laugh so hard. I just did not expect that. And that seemed to tickle me, so I don’t know.
Ryan Corcoran: Yeah.
Tom Ray: All right, so welcome to Delicious. All right. We need that guy. Get him.
Ryan Corcoran: Well, I mean, hey, the commercial looked great. What can I say?
Tom Ray: That’s true. That’s true. He really made. He really made that owner of the place seem like a human. And you were like, if he can make him do that, maybe he can make us look like aliens.
Ryan Corcoran: Yeah, Yeah. Less effort in the other degree, perhaps, but.
Tom Ray: Yeah, exactly. so, yeah, that’s the thing is, I meet, like, there’s, There’s these bands I know out in Milwaukee and that I’ve spoken to on the show, and it’s just one of those things where it seems like everybody seems to know a videographer, and, like, I’m the only person in the world that doesn’t know videographer. They’ll have these videos that are just like, fully orchestrated, practically recorded on film. And that’s what I was fascinated by. I’m just like, so where did you get this guy from?
Ryan Corcoran: Yeah, he’s like Eric’s neighbor. I mean, he’s a. Yeah, he just lives right down the road, too, you know? Yeah, that’s. That’s how they got it done, I think, because they live so close to each other, and I think Eric was. Eric was more involved with it. So usually with our group, it’s like, if somebody’s doing something, you just give them full reins to do it. You just kind of take the hands off, you know, whether it’s. I, don’t expect somebody to play the guitar for me. I’m not going to expect somebody. Tell somebody how to play the drums, so to speak, you know? Or if somebody decides, hey, I want to set a show up, I’m not gonna poke my nose in it. Well, what about this or that? It just. That’s how you could persist as a band. You just don’t get into conflicts. You know,
Tom Ray: Every rockumentary I’ve ever watched would say the opposite. I mean, of course, those bands always break up, but. Yeah.
Ryan Corcoran: Yeah,
Tom Ray: when. And with that, too. Like, what is your studio setup like? Like, how often. How often do you guys get together, and what is the songwriting process?
Ryan Corcoran: We get together about, you know, well, on paper, once a week. It’s never once a week. you know, because life stuff happens. So if somebody, anybody wants to just, you know, duck out, we just don’t practice at night night. We, you know, schedule practice once a week on Monday nights. and, as far as, the songwriting process, it supposedly usually starts with bass and drums, right? So whatever, let the bass drummer do something. You work around it. Because, like I said, it’s, you know, you don’t want the. A drummer to tell you how to play the guitar. Guitar players probably shouldn’t be telling drummers how to drum. And same thing with bass. You know, it’s like you’re trying to. You’re trying to teach a guitar player. Trying to teach a bass player a bass line. It’s like you’re. You’re always running into, you know, loggerheads, you know, because the bass is a completely different instrument. So, yeah, it’s always from the bottom up. Okay.
Tom Ray: And hence.
Ryan Corcoran: Hence the recording process, where it’s like, okay, we don’t have any songs. Yeah, yeah. So it’s like, okay, let the drums and bass do what they’re going to do. And if they decide, okay, well, this is how long the verse is going to be, that’s how long the verse is going to be. if they decide, well, we’re going to use this note instead of that note, we’re going to have to use that note now.
Tom Ray: Well, and that’s this. This brings me back to that, too. So it’s like, at that point, why would you decide to go into the studio if you’re like, we’re not really sure where, How. How we’re going to put this together. I mean, you would think most people go, all right, we’ve got these down. We’re paying for studio time. Let’s go in and record it and see how well we can put it together. And then with the time left over, we’ll try and polish it up or do some of the nifty things that you can do in the studio. And you’re saying that you kind of went like, well, we have these, you know, kind of the process you just said that you do in the studio or that you do in your own practice rehearsal space. And then you went into the studio and you kind of explained them both the same way. And I’m curious what prompted you to go, hey, let’s. Let’s try and make another album? Like, well, that fascinates me.
Ryan Corcoran: Well, I think, we’ve, made enough records where we’ve done it that way. We’re saying, oh, wow, I got all These songs that we want to have done just, you know, like this or that and it’s not as rewarding or interesting. You can do a lot more in a studio than you can imagine while songwriting. And a lot of times sounds can drive what you’re going to end up creating musically. And sometimes something comes out while you’re recording. It’s like, oh, this, this sounds really great. Maybe we should focus more on that sound rather than maybe we need to focus on this presupposed song structure and lyric and melody structure and pre imagined, you know, orchestration, from two or three months ago that doesn’t really have all the bearing because you just don’t know when you’re, you know, in a control room. Listen to things come back how exactly it’s, it’s going to come back to you until you actually do it right. And so, you know, and you can always. It’s a lot easier to, Well, it’s a lot better actually. And not just easier, but it’s I mean it’s, it facilitates music more to work around with what you have rather than what you are kind of trying to create that might not ever come to be. You know, you’re always trying. If you’re trying to record something, it’s like, oh, I can’t get this just right. Or this is. Well, you’re wasted time if you’re trying to get a perfect guitar solo, you know, you’re. A lot of times, I mean, unless it’s, unless it’s perfect, unless you come in there, it’s like, boom, I got it. It’s over. For the most part. When my experience going into record, you know, parts are never perfect when you go in anyways. Right. Yeah. So. And a lot of that gets discovered by listening. But the things that you can do, well, a lot of times are the things that you really like are not even things that you would have imagined you would have done anyways.
Tom Ray: So yeah, my, my experience is there’s a lot of like, oh wait, that worked. Don’t touch it. You know.
Ryan Corcoran: Well, right. That’s just it. If something works, leave it. Right.
Tom Ray: Yeah.
Ryan Corcoran: And, and so go with the things that work. And then I guess the other, you know, philosophy thing is like just not getting married to ideas. You know, just don’t think it has to be this way and only that way. That’s just how it we think when we record. It’s just.
Tom Ray: Yeah.
Ryan Corcoran: It’s like, oh, okay, well we’ll try It. Try it two or three times. Doesn’t work. Try something else. Right.
Tom Ray: And so how do you, how do you promote the album, that you have out right now? And I know that you play shows. Like, how are you going about promoting it and finding shows? Like what. Who’s in charge of that? How do you get those?
Ryan Corcoran: it’s that disappearing. Ah, Eric Swamp Monster. He’s that. That is more of his realm. we’ve, done a bit to try to get the album out different places to get reviews. you know, okay, we can do online. You know, it’s. You know, in the past I’ve been in groups where, like with awesome Car Firemaker, I mean, there’s a certain limit to playing shows in a circuit. Right. And because what ends up happening is that all you’re doing is just playing the songs that you play and you’re not really growing musically. So you might put on a great live show, but you, you can’t focus on both at the same. And if you’re going to reach wider audiences, it’s the recorded music that’s going to reach them, you know.
Tom Ray: Right.
Ryan Corcoran: You can only play.
Tom Ray: You bring up an interesting fact too. Like, there was even during back in the time during, awesome Car Fun Maker and a lot of the bars around here, there were even rules that you couldn’t have played within a month of the next show that you’re trying to book at a different club. Like clubs wouldn’t want you to play if you played somewhere a month ago, for sure. It was not like in Prince in the Purple Rain, where you played every other night, the same band featured on stage and people would still show up and be crowds out the door. I don’t know why I’m referencing Prince in the Purple Rain.
Ryan Corcoran: No, it’s funny though. yeah, there were bars like that now. I think when Awesome Car Fun Maker first started though, we were playing like sometimes two to three times a week in Madison because, like, one bar didn’t know where the other bar was getting booked at. Right. So it was like kind of pre Internet, you know, so, you know, there’s Internet, but it’s like it wasn’t like you could just look at her, you know, you couldn’t go, you know, look at like, and see, oh, wow, Awesome Car Fun Maker is actually playing at this. We play out. Was it like Liquid Lyrics Lounge. And then, you know that two days later we’re at the King Club. And one side. I mean, people show up to both, you know, because people just show up at bars. Right. So. Right. There’s a different type, but yeah, it’s like there’s some places that are very adamant. Well, just actually certain promoters. There’s certain promoters I remember, that were very much like, okay, if you’re gonna play this show, open up for so and so. You can’t play a show for a certain amount of time.
Tom Ray: Usually it’s like, promoters. What happened to all of those? We used to have promoters in town here like Chuck, Chuck Toler and Tag, and they all just disappeared one day.
Ryan Corcoran: Well, they became alders. Right. They’re running the city. They got. They’re running the music scene. It’s like, there’s enough of that. Gotta run the city now.
Tom Ray: Respect what they do. now, you had mentioned before that.
Ryan Corcoran: Oh, man.
Tom Ray: You had mentioned before that, Eric, the ghostly specter who keeps popping in and out of this conversation to haunt us. He, he’s the one that’s in charge of booking the shows and stuff. But you also mentioned that he was the one that was on the label you guys were on. And I believe that’s still the same label that you guys are on right now.
Ryan Corcoran: Short Wave. Right. Short Wave, yeah.
Tom Ray: What would you be able to speak to of Eric’s role in shortwave? Like, I know that they, You said he sent out stuff. He posts things on your, Instagram reels. Quite a bit. There was a, review that you had that he sent out. But I’m curious if you know more about his setup with the, shortwave records.
Ryan Corcoran: So, Shortwave, we’re kind of a small fish in that little pond there, actually. You know, he’s always getting involved with bigger, projects. a lot of jazz stuff that he’s done. but mostly what he puts us. Vinyl. so, I mean, so it’s proceeds. Always doing something with some group promoting them. so, yeah, as far as, you know, my, my. I have zero involvement in Short Wave aside from.
Tom Ray: Right. No, I knew that.
Ryan Corcoran: Yeah.
Tom Ray: Just. I wanted to talk about Short Wave, but Eric is losing Eric’s connection. So I was just curious. And you guys did put out a vinyl with your previous album. Yeah, you put. It was an orange vinyl. Where did you guys get that done at?
Ryan Corcoran: That is Eric’s answer. I have no clue. I don’t.
Tom Ray: Okay.
Ryan Corcoran: Dabble in that subject.
Tom Ray: Possibly super duper or. No, if it was local, it wasn’t super duper.
Ryan Corcoran: Okay. No, it wasn’t super duper.
Tom Ray: That’s what I was curious about. okay.
Ryan Corcoran: All Right.
Tom Ray: Well, there go those. There go my label questions.
Ryan Corcoran: Yeah, okay. Yeah, I’m not the. I’m not the guy for those questions here. Sorry.
Tom Ray: That’s quite right. I’ll have to have Eric on a separate time. Just talk about, Short Wave Records, just because he does have a lot of.
Ryan Corcoran: Oh, yeah, Short Ways records. A lot more interesting. So subject. Actually, I mean, it’s pretty crazy. Everything. It really is.
Tom Ray: That’s why you’re not promoting the band. they’re far more interesting things.
Ryan Corcoran: Yeah, far more. Yeah, exactly. You got it.
Tom Ray: What, what things do you guys. As we wrap up here today, what things do you guys have coming up that, you can tell us about?
Ryan Corcoran: Oh, boy. I think we’re playing in a cornfield here pretty soon.
Tom Ray: you’re gonna do Corn Fest, Is that what you’re implying?
Ryan Corcoran: No, there’s a cornfield, somewhere north
Tom Ray: of the actual cornfield.
Ryan Corcoran: Yeah, a bunch of bands will be playing up there. it’s coming up. we got a couple other shows in the horizon. I. We’ve been kind, of off for the last, couple weeks. everyone’s been on vacation and out of town, so a lot of this stuff’s not fresh in my mind. I know we have something coming up, shortly, though. Like I said, you’re right. There’s a reason why I don’t promote. They don’t have me in charge. I’m not the guy that you. I’m not the guy that’s putting the shows together. I’m not the guy promoting the group. You know, I just. I just write the songs, sing and play guitar, which is kind of ideal, but it’s, more my skill set.
Tom Ray: All right. And then I feel like I know the answer to this one. But one more thing I wanted to ask you. Is there anything else, any upcoming projects or anything you’d like to tell people about before we. Before we finish up today?
Ryan Corcoran: Oh, yeah, we’re gonna come up with another record here. Oh, we are?
Tom Ray: Okay.
Ryan Corcoran: Well, yeah, it’s a trilogy, so we got the first, A Book of Secrets is part one, and then, Thunderbirds, part two, and then third one.
Tom Ray: I thought Thunderbird was part three. I thought that’s.
Ryan Corcoran: Oh, no, no, that’s part two. That’s part two. Yeah. yeah, yeah, no, that’s not the combination. Yeah, so. So it’s gonna nite. Every time we go, we go, who knows what this next one’s going to be like? but, it’s probably going to be more like, poppy dance songs, the way it sounds, so I don’t
Tom Ray: believe a word you’re saying.
Ryan Corcoran: no, that’s what that. That’s what. No, that’s. That’s the. That’s what the bass player wants. That’s what the bass player. The bass player gets what he wants, you know? I mean, good, bass players is worth his weight in gold. So you gotta. You got to follow along, you know?
Tom Ray: Gotcha. All right, well, I want to thank you so much for talking with me today. This has actually been a lot of fun.
Ryan Corcoran: All right, well, thanks.