Episode 158

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Published on:

24th Nov 2024

Talking Music with Kurt Reil, singer/drummer of The Grip Weeds! Who's Your Band Episode 158

"Who's Your Band?" Podcast Episode 158! Comedians Jeffrey Paul and Sean Morton with special guest, singer/drummer (The Grip Weeds) and engineer/producer Kurt Reil!

On this week's episode of "Who's Your Band?," Kurt Riel, the multifaceted singer/drummer of The Grip Weeds, and engineer/music producer, joins Jeffrey Paul and Sean Morton to discuss the ever-evolving landscape of the music industry and the creative process behind their upcoming album. They dive into the significance of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, debating the merits of bands like Foreigner finally getting the recognition they deserve. With a keen focus on the balance between artistic integrity and commercial appeal, Kurt shares insights on producing music while maintaining a genuine connection with listeners. The conversation also touches on the dynamic of playing in a band with family, Kurt's musical influences and collaborations, who his dream supergroup would be, and so much more! Check it all out in the newest episode of "Who's Your Band?"

Transcript
Jeffrey Paul:

Welcome, everybody to who's your band?

Jeffrey Paul:

I am Jeffrey Paul.

Jeffrey Paul:

I am joined by Sean Morton.

Jeffrey Paul:

How are you, Sean?

Sean Morton:

Yeah, I'd be ducky if I was in my office doing this podcast, but I had to be cheap and cancel my cable.

Sean Morton:

And I went with T mobile home Internet because The tower is 700 yards from my house.

Sean Morton:

But guess what happened?

Sean Morton:

The tower is down right now.

Sean Morton:

So that means I have no Internet for like the last 24 hours.

Jeffrey Paul:

Why did you cancel your cable?

Sean Morton:

Because it's expensive.

Sean Morton:

It's 300amonth for cable and Internet.

Sean Morton:

And now I got it for 160 bucks.

Jeffrey Paul:

Everybody is doing that.

Jeffrey Paul:

I want to see if our guest is doing that as well.

Jeffrey Paul:

We're going to bring him in.

Jeffrey Paul:

He is not only a singer and drummer and guitarist and a producer and the leader of the band the Grip Weeds.

Jeffrey Paul:

Okay.

Jeffrey Paul:

He's also on this show with us.

Jeffrey Paul:

Let's give it up for Kurt Ryol.

Jeffrey Paul:

Kurt, thank you so much for joining us tonight.

Kurt Ryol:

Glad to be here.

Kurt Ryol:

Virtually, virtually.

Kurt Ryol:

Glad to be here.

Jeffrey Paul:

It's good to see you again.

Jeffrey Paul:

Kurt and I met at 101.5 FM and I just got a little taste, a little taste of his band and his, you know, his background in music.

Jeffrey Paul:

I thought he was a real interesting guy.

Jeffrey Paul:

I think he'd been perfect for the show, but a lot going on in the world.

Jeffrey Paul:

A lot going on in the world of music.

Jeffrey Paul:

So two things.

Jeffrey Paul:

Kurt, were you an Iron Maiden fan?

Kurt Ryol:

Not so much.

Kurt Ryol:

The metal stuff isn't.

Kurt Ryol:

Isn't my line so much, but I'm familiar with the name.

Jeffrey Paul:

Yeah.

Jeffrey Paul:

Yeah.

Jeffrey Paul:

Because the world of music lost.

Jeffrey Paul:

We lost Paul Diano, who was the singer on the first two Maiden albums.

Jeffrey Paul:

66 years old, no cause of death given, but he.

Jeffrey Paul:

He'd been sick for years, confined to a wheelchair, but still getting out there singing the SO songs and, you know, and probably the singer on a top five made an album.

Jeffrey Paul:

I think Killers was.

Jeffrey Paul:

Was a great one.

Jeffrey Paul:

Yeah.

Jeffrey Paul:

That the sound changed a lot after he left the band.

Jeffrey Paul:

They were almost like kind of like a power punk band with Diano and then they became total a metal band with Dickinson.

Sean Morton:

I agree with that.

Jeffrey Paul:

Yeah.

Jeffrey Paul:

And then this is something I.

Jeffrey Paul:

That Sean kind of stayed in.

Jeffrey Paul:

I want to get Sean's reaction, and especially from a musician point of view.

Jeffrey Paul:

The Rock and Roll hall of Fame this weekend and the performances you watched all five and a half hours of that.

Sean Morton:

I watched everything.

Sean Morton:

Yep.

Jeffrey Paul:

Mary J.

Jeffrey Paul:

Blige and her unbelievably big legs.

Jeffrey Paul:

You know, at some point, wear a.

Sean Morton:

Dress she can, she can definitely crack a coconut with those thighs, I'll tell you.

Jeffrey Paul:

Listen, and I love Mary J.

Jeffrey Paul:

Blige, I really do.

Jeffrey Paul:

Yeah.

Jeffrey Paul:

Okay.

Jeffrey Paul:

But you at some time invest in a mirror.

Jeffrey Paul:

Kurt, did you see any of the performances again?

Kurt Ryol:

I gotta say no.

Kurt Ryol:

I mean, I.

Kurt Ryol:

As you said before, I'm a musician and a studio producer and I was, I was working it.

Kurt Ryol:

You know, that's the, that's the curse of being a working musician is you don't always get to see the show.

Kurt Ryol:

You get.

Kurt Ryol:

You have to miss, you know.

Jeffrey Paul:

Yeah, I obviously didn't have time, I'm sure.

Jeffrey Paul:

Yeah, you can go online.

Jeffrey Paul:

There's a bunch of stuff that I saw.

Jeffrey Paul:

I just want to get, you know, get.

Jeffrey Paul:

Sean, what do you think of foreigners induction and, and, and Kurt, this isn't.

Jeffrey Paul:

You didn't have to see the show.

Jeffrey Paul:

But don't you think there's something real sad that this is a band that should have been inducted years ago?

Jeffrey Paul:

Years ago.

Jeffrey Paul:

Okay.

Jeffrey Paul:

They had been put on like a 20 year almost hiatus, you know, like waiting list to get in.

Jeffrey Paul:

And you had no Mick Jones.

Jeffrey Paul:

You had.

Jeffrey Paul:

I mean, Sean, you saw it.

Jeffrey Paul:

I mean, how many songs did Lou Graham actually sing?

Sean Morton:

He barely sang I Want to Know what Love Is.

Sean Morton:

Kelly Clarkson was, was doing that with him, I think.

Jeffrey Paul:

Right?

Jeffrey Paul:

I think it was Kelly Clarkson and Demi Lovato.

Jeffrey Paul:

I saw Hud do something.

Sean Morton:

She did one too.

Sean Morton:

Yeah, but she the girl.

Sean Morton:

They did very smart booking when it came to putting some of the new current singers with the people that were getting inducted.

Jeffrey Paul:

Well, because they're going to turn this into a TV show, that's why.

Sean Morton:

Well, no, I mean, I think because like in some ways, like, you know, you gotta remember too, some of these people are in their late 60s, 70s, even close to 80s.

Sean Morton:

They're not singing the way that you.

Sean Morton:

They normally would.

Sean Morton:

You know, I mean, I think Cher sounded fantastic.

Sean Morton:

Don't get me wrong.

Sean Morton:

I think Cher sounded great.

Sean Morton:

But I think the Dua Lipa kind of added a little, a little bit to that.

Jeffrey Paul:

Yeah.

Jeffrey Paul:

You know, I saw the share went and I gotta say this is.

Jeffrey Paul:

And Kurt.

Jeffrey Paul:

What this is where I think you gotta give an old artist credit.

Jeffrey Paul:

It didn't sound like she was singing with the track.

Jeffrey Paul:

She was definitely singing live.

Sean Morton:

Yeah, 100%.

Kurt Ryol:

You know, that's the problem with the Rock and Roll hall of Fame is it's so political and it comes down to Jan Lenner a lot of the time, doesn't it?

Jeffrey Paul:

Yes.

Kurt Ryol:

Who gets in and who doesn't.

Kurt Ryol:

And a lot of Deserving bands maybe don't get in, or it takes so long time, and by the time they get there, maybe they're not a complete band anymore.

Kurt Ryol:

Maybe they've lost key members.

Kurt Ryol:

And, you know, that's.

Kurt Ryol:

That's unfortunate, but people get older, and you got to give props to somebody who's up there still doing it, you know, who can still do it.

Jeffrey Paul:

Exactly.

Jeffrey Paul:

Still being able to sing.

Jeffrey Paul:

But it.

Jeffrey Paul:

It kind of annoys me that you have Foreigner and, like, if you let.

Jeffrey Paul:

Let them in 10 years earlier, right.

Jeffrey Paul:

You have Mick Jones maybe playing, maybe you have a little healthier.

Jeffrey Paul:

Lou Graham.

Jeffrey Paul:

Also, Frampton got in, which I was happy to see.

Jeffrey Paul:

Okay.

Jeffrey Paul:

Because he got.

Jeffrey Paul:

He kind of got like, wow.

Jeffrey Paul:

No, he never was in.

Jeffrey Paul:

And this was.

Jeffrey Paul:

This was.

Jeffrey Paul:

The thing about.

Jeffrey Paul:

Was bullshit.

Jeffrey Paul:

We had talked about this on this show before.

Jeffrey Paul:

Sheryl Crow gets in before Frampton.

Jeffrey Paul:

Okay.

Jeffrey Paul:

Last year, during her induction speech, who did she say?

Jeffrey Paul:

If it wasn't for Peter Frampton, I would have never picked up a guitar.

Jeffrey Paul:

All right.

Sean Morton:

It happens every year, though, you understand?

Sean Morton:

This has happened.

Sean Morton:

The year that Nirvana went into, I was at that Rock and Roll hall of Fame induction, and they had all people filling in for Kurt.

Sean Morton:

And the first song was Smells Like Teen Spirit with Joan Jett.

Jeffrey Paul:

Joan Jet.

Jeffrey Paul:

Yeah.

Sean Morton:

And then once they did the speech, they were like, how the hell is Joan Jett not in the Rock and Roll hall of Fame?

Sean Morton:

And the place goes nuts.

Sean Morton:

And then what happens next year?

Sean Morton:

She gets into the hall of Fame.

Sean Morton:

The very, very next year.

Jeffrey Paul:

But how is Joan Jett inducted into the hall of Fame before Peter Frampton, before Pat Benatar?

Jeffrey Paul:

It's like you have to go down, kiss the ring, you know, and then you're going to go in.

Jeffrey Paul:

Joan Jett shouldn't be in the hall.

Sean Morton:

Of Fame over those artists, you know, Sherry and said, but you think about it, she's really been an artist for seven decades.

Kurt Ryol:

Look how.

Jeffrey Paul:

Yeah, definitely.

Sean Morton:

So seven decades.

Sean Morton:

She's had hits in.

Sean Morton:

And she goes.

Sean Morton:

And she still had no chance.

Sean Morton:

I forgot who she said it was, but she goes.

Sean Morton:

Until he wrote a letter.

Sean Morton:

And here, miraculously, here, now I'm in the Rock and Roll hall of Fame.

Sean Morton:

So it's really.

Kurt Ryol:

They don't like certain kinds of music.

Kurt Ryol:

You know, they don't like progressive rock.

Kurt Ryol:

You know, they're not a big progressive Rock hall of Fame.

Kurt Ryol:

So it was.

Kurt Ryol:

It was.

Kurt Ryol:

It was really something to get.

Kurt Ryol:

Yes.

Kurt Ryol:

In there.

Kurt Ryol:

That was really something to get the Moody Blues in there because, you know, there's a bias.

Jeffrey Paul:

Yeah.

Jeffrey Paul:

Who's not in there?

Jeffrey Paul:

Kurt Who?

Jeffrey Paul:

Okay.

Jeffrey Paul:

Tribe Court Quest is in there.

Jeffrey Paul:

Public Enemies in there.

Jeffrey Paul:

And I have no.

Jeffrey Paul:

I like these as groups, but not in the Rock and Roll hall of Fame.

Jeffrey Paul:

But who's on there?

Jeffrey Paul:

Kurt Jethro Tull.

Kurt Ryol:

Yeah, exactly.

Kurt Ryol:

That's my point.

Kurt Ryol:

Yep.

Kurt Ryol:

Because why?

Kurt Ryol:

Because.

Kurt Ryol:

Well, they're progressive, Roman.

Jeffrey Paul:

Well, when you said that, that's exactly the first band that came to mind.

Jeffrey Paul:

And you're right, it did take a long time.

Jeffrey Paul:

They're definitely not going in.

Jeffrey Paul:

They should.

Jeffrey Paul:

If these other bands got in, then they should get in also.

Jeffrey Paul:

Now, the big one, Sean, Ozzy and the performers.

Sean Morton:

Was it hard?

Sean Morton:

I was heartbroken.

Sean Morton:

Literally heartbroken, looking at him because you know that he is dying to be out there singing.

Sean Morton:

And you saw him singing in his throne.

Sean Morton:

And it's just like they did the cutaway scene where like, you know, they kind of moved throne and then, you know, so you wouldn't see it on camera or on television that, you know, Ozzy was still in there.

Sean Morton:

So they do it.

Sean Morton:

The cutaway shot.

Sean Morton:

It was so horrible to see.

Sean Morton:

But I think.

Sean Morton:

I think the performances themselves are great.

Sean Morton:

I think Maynard jumped off and started.

Sean Morton:

I don't know if you caught this, Jeff, but May actually jumped in a little quick.

Sean Morton:

When they were doing crazy training, sure.

Jeffrey Paul:

They didn't have a lot of time to really perform it.

Jeffrey Paul:

I had no problem with Made it.

Jeffrey Paul:

I mean, I didn't think vocally, part.

Sean Morton:

Of me, the musician part of me was like, oh, shit, he can't.

Sean Morton:

He came in.

Sean Morton:

He came in early, but he was good.

Sean Morton:

I thought he was okay, but I thought that I.

Sean Morton:

Listen, I'm a huge fan.

Sean Morton:

I love this guy.

Sean Morton:

I think he's fantastic.

Jeffrey Paul:

I know where you're going.

Sean Morton:

Fucking jelly roll does not have to be on every goddamn show at this point.

Sean Morton:

I understand he's probably the biggest artist the planet right now, if you really think about it.

Sean Morton:

But for fuck's sake, I'm tired of looking at him now.

Jeffrey Paul:

He had.

Jeffrey Paul:

He struggled.

Jeffrey Paul:

You gotta.

Jeffrey Paul:

You know, he struggled during the choruses of My Mom Coming Home.

Jeffrey Paul:

Jeff.

Sean Morton:

I have sang my.

Sean Morton:

I have sang for almost 40 years.

Sean Morton:

I have a hard time singing that song.

Sean Morton:

And I know my limits.

Sean Morton:

And I'm not on television, you know, I mean, like, this guy should not have sang that song.

Sean Morton:

And I called it ahead of time.

Sean Morton:

I was like, I know this guy.

Sean Morton:

When I saw that he was gonna be one of the ones for Ozzy, I said, there's no song that he's doing besides, Mom, I'm coming home.

Jeffrey Paul:

But you know something.

Jeffrey Paul:

And we'll get off this right after this.

Jeffrey Paul:

It was good to see at least real rock and roll being represented this year.

Jeffrey Paul:

I thought.

Jeffrey Paul:

I thought it was, well, way, way overdue for Foreigner, Frampton and Ozzy as a solo artist.

Jeffrey Paul:

So that.

Jeffrey Paul:

That, in that regard is Dave Matthews.

Sean Morton:

And Dave Matthews.

Jeffrey Paul:

No, no, no, because here's the thing, like, I think it's a crime that Maiden's not in the rock and roll hall of Fame.

Jeffrey Paul:

Okay.

Jeffrey Paul:

They could have waited a year or two for Dave Matthews band.

Jeffrey Paul:

Now the thing is, with Dano dying, he'll never get to see.

Jeffrey Paul:

Because he would have been.

Jeffrey Paul:

He would have been in the Rock and roll hall of fame with him.

Jeffrey Paul:

Clive Bird died a couple of years ago.

Jeffrey Paul:

He's the original drummer.

Jeffrey Paul:

Nico, the current drummer, had a.

Jeffrey Paul:

You know, how many members have to die before the Rock and roll hall of fame, you know, lets these legendary bands that obviously deserve to be in, you know, let's.

Jeffrey Paul:

Let's.

Jeffrey Paul:

Them.

Kurt Ryol:

So what's the criteria?

Kurt Ryol:

That's.

Kurt Ryol:

What's the criteria to get in?

Jeffrey Paul:

There is no criteria.

Kurt Ryol:

It's a board that just goes, oh, I like that.

Kurt Ryol:

I like that.

Jeffrey Paul:

Exactly.

Jeffrey Paul:

Yeah, I think they'll get in this year.

Jeffrey Paul:

Tom Morello, who's very influential in the rock and hall of fame, has really been pushing for Maiden.

Jeffrey Paul:

And I think they do get in.

Jeffrey Paul:

But, you know, you would love to see Paul Diano go up there with those guys.

Jeffrey Paul:

Maybe he would have been able do like a song with them.

Jeffrey Paul:

It's ridiculous.

Jeffrey Paul:

But speaking of something that's not.

Jeffrey Paul:

The Grip Weeds.

Jeffrey Paul:

Yeah, the grip Weed.

Jeffrey Paul:

Okay.

Kurt Ryol:

Never make it into the hall of Fame.

Jeffrey Paul:

No, maybe not the Rock and Roll of fame, but maybe the Jersey hall of Fame somewhere down the line.

Jeffrey Paul:

You know, this is an.

Jeffrey Paul:

This is a very.

Kurt Ryol:

That's a possibility.

Jeffrey Paul:

Yeah, that's a very.

Jeffrey Paul:

It's a very interesting band.

Jeffrey Paul:

For those of you that are not familiar with the grip weeds, Tom, tell me if we're reading this right from what.

Jeffrey Paul:

From what I listen to.

Jeffrey Paul:

I think they are.

Jeffrey Paul:

You guys are very, very Beatles and kinks sounding.

Jeffrey Paul:

Would you say that's a good reader?

Kurt Ryol:

Sure, yeah, absolutely.

Jeffrey Paul:

Are those your influences?

Kurt Ryol:

I think so, yeah.

Jeffrey Paul:

Some of them, yeah.

Jeffrey Paul:

I mean, there's.

Jeffrey Paul:

I felt like a song like lies, you know.

Kurt Ryol:

Well, that's a cup.

Jeffrey Paul:

Yeah, that was.

Jeffrey Paul:

That's a great cover.

Kurt Ryol:

Yeah, that's originally by a band called the knickerbockers.

Kurt Ryol:

From Jersey Band.

Jeffrey Paul:

Did you ever release that as a single?

Kurt Ryol:

We actually.

Kurt Ryol:

Well, no, we didn't, but it was.

Kurt Ryol:

We recorded it originally as part of a compilation for.

Kurt Ryol:

To benefit Hurricane Sandy.

Kurt Ryol:

That's why we did it.

Kurt Ryol:

And it was Jersey artists doing, you know, Jersey tributes.

Kurt Ryol:

And we thought, we'll do that one because they were from Knickerbocker Avenue in Dumont, New Jersey, which we.

Kurt Ryol:

Where we grew up.

Kurt Ryol:

So that's why we did the song.

Kurt Ryol:

And the Knickerbockers who recorded it, they thought it was the Beatles.

Jeffrey Paul:

That.

Jeffrey Paul:

That was a great, great cover.

Jeffrey Paul:

I love that.

Jeffrey Paul:

I thought that was really.

Jeffrey Paul:

That really, I think, showed off the band.

Jeffrey Paul:

I really thought that.

Jeffrey Paul:

And speaking of the band, what's it like playing in a band with your brother and your wife and actually touring with them?

Kurt Ryol:

Well, you know, it's.

Kurt Ryol:

It's good.

Kurt Ryol:

It's actually good.

Kurt Ryol:

It's very stable in a way, especially with my brother, because it's.

Kurt Ryol:

Even though we've had our disagreements, you know, we can't really leave each other.

Kurt Ryol:

I mean, we could, but we're not gonna.

Kurt Ryol:

And our influences.

Kurt Ryol:

Our influences go back to our childhood and they're shared.

Kurt Ryol:

So there's a lot of stuff that we innately know about each other that if I write a song, I'll go, yeah, Rick, you know what I'm doing here.

Jeffrey Paul:

It's that thing.

Kurt Ryol:

And he'll go, oh, yeah, yeah, sure.

Kurt Ryol:

And he'll know.

Kurt Ryol:

Exactly.

Kurt Ryol:

And then Kristen, it's really great to be able to go on tour and have my wife there.

Kurt Ryol:

And she was a musician before she was my wife.

Kurt Ryol:

And she.

Kurt Ryol:

We were in rival bands or, you know, bands that were contemporaries of each other in New York City.

Kurt Ryol:

And.

Kurt Ryol:

And so I knew her as a musician first, and then we thought, you know, we had.

Kurt Ryol:

The first guitar player was not working out in the grip weed.

Kurt Ryol:

So we thought, let's bring her in.

Kurt Ryol:

And at first I was a little bit like, well, I don't know if we should do that.

Kurt Ryol:

And.

Kurt Ryol:

Because, you know, boyfriend, girlfriend, and.

Kurt Ryol:

And honestly, the original Gripweeds format was kind of the old rock and roll standard.

Kurt Ryol:

You know, four guys, four young guys with long hair and guitars.

Kurt Ryol:

That was kind of it.

Kurt Ryol:

And the woman.

Kurt Ryol:

Bringing the woman in was like, oh, that's going to change the.

Kurt Ryol:

That's going to change the.

Kurt Ryol:

You know, the mold.

Kurt Ryol:

And we thought, well, we got to do it because she's so good, and she's actually probably the best musician of all of us to be.

Kurt Ryol:

Truth be.

Kurt Ryol:

So it's.

Jeffrey Paul:

Right answer, by the way.

Kurt Ryol:

Yeah.

Kurt Ryol:

Hopefully she'll be listening to this.

Jeffrey Paul:

Yeah, exactly.

Jeffrey Paul:

Exactly.

Jeffrey Paul:

Good answer.

Jeffrey Paul:

You're smooth.

Kurt Ryol:

Well, I mean, it.

Kurt Ryol:

It's easy when it's true.

Kurt Ryol:

And you know, and it also gave us a uniqueness, even though nowadays it's not as unique to have females in the band.

Kurt Ryol:

But what is unique still is that she's a lead guitarist.

Kurt Ryol:

And every time we go and play a show where.

Kurt Ryol:

Where the, you know, the club doesn't know who we are, inadvertent always will happen is that the will show up and the sound guy will go, okay, so she's the singer.

Kurt Ryol:

Right.

Kurt Ryol:

And you know, I'm the singer and.

Kurt Ryol:

And who's the drummer?

Kurt Ryol:

And I'm the drummer and she's the lead guitar player.

Kurt Ryol:

And by that time their brain is scrambled.

Jeffrey Paul:

Well, that is a uniqueness.

Kurt Ryol:

I stupid in this day and age.

Kurt Ryol:

But, you know, it is what it is.

Jeffrey Paul:

You and your brother start the band.

Jeffrey Paul:

Were you playing in high school?

Kurt Ryol:

Yeah, we.

Kurt Ryol:

My brother got his first drum set when he was about 10 years old.

Kurt Ryol:

My parents, or 11, I would say 10.

Kurt Ryol:

My parents got him a drum kit for Christmas.

Kurt Ryol:

And I remember seeing the drum kit and going, I was seven.

Kurt Ryol:

I'm like, wow, that's really cool.

Kurt Ryol:

And looked at it for maybe six months.

Kurt Ryol:

And then eventually I made my way back there and started playing.

Kurt Ryol:

And then I started avoiding the neighborhood football games so I could play drums because it was a whole lot more fun and I wouldn't get hurt.

Kurt Ryol:

So I played drums instead.

Kurt Ryol:

And by the time I was 13, I could play, but my brother was a drummer and I was a drummer.

Jeffrey Paul:

Were you self?

Kurt Ryol:

Pretty much, yeah.

Jeffrey Paul:

Wow.

Kurt Ryol:

So we were never like in the same band for the longest time until we started to realize the crap bands we were in because the guitar players were.

Kurt Ryol:

Whatever they were doing wasn't what we wanted to do.

Kurt Ryol:

And my brother and I also played guitar.

Kurt Ryol:

So we started to think, well, how can we get more control over this music we want to make and do what we want?

Kurt Ryol:

Well, I guess one of us has to switch, unless we want to try to be the Allman Brothers.

Kurt Ryol:

And we didn't really want to do that with two drummers, you know, so we decided not to go that route and one of us switched to guitar.

Kurt Ryol:

And it was really like drawing us drawing straws.

Kurt Ryol:

Like, it was kind of the short straw has to play drums.

Kurt Ryol:

So I got the short straw and I'm like, well, I love the drums anyway.

Kurt Ryol:

You know, it was not an ego thing at all.

Kurt Ryol:

It was like, well, I don't mind it.

Kurt Ryol:

And.

Kurt Ryol:

And I thought, well, eventually we'll probably switch it up.

Kurt Ryol:

I'll come out front, he'll go back, and we'll do that and.

Kurt Ryol:

But that never happened.

Kurt Ryol:

And then three decades go by and I'm writing songs for the band on guitar.

Kurt Ryol:

I'm playing, but I'm still in the back of the band on the drums.

Kurt Ryol:

I'm like, you know, can I play a song?

Kurt Ryol:

And it was like that for the longest time.

Kurt Ryol:

And now I kind of.

Kurt Ryol:

It's like a bit we do live.

Kurt Ryol:

I say that basically what I just said.

Kurt Ryol:

And then I come out and like play a song on guitar.

Kurt Ryol:

So it's kind of a little fun we have.

Kurt Ryol:

But you know, we're both.

Kurt Ryol:

That's how we had to do it to play together.

Jeffrey Paul:

But how are you self taught and are you self taught on guitar as well?

Kurt Ryol:

I had a few lessons on guitar, but it's a lot of it, honestly is listening and watching.

Kurt Ryol:

I mean, I think the Beatles would even say, you know, that they were self taught for the most part, except for when they go into a music store and somebody would show them something, or they were watching Little Richard, you know, at the Liverpool Empire or wherever he was, and they're like watching his band and going, oh, that's how they play the B7, you know, or that's how he's singing that, you know, and it's a lot of like really paying attention to how it's done.

Kurt Ryol:

And if you listen, if you have your eyes open, especially me in the studio because I'm the fifth band member of every band that comes in here.

Kurt Ryol:

And a lot of times, a number of times it's been people who are, you know, pretty well known.

Kurt Ryol:

And so I get to kind of eavesdrop.

Kurt Ryol:

Not even eavesdrop, just be part of the band on how they do what they're doing.

Kurt Ryol:

And before you know it, you're being schooled on how to, how to really sing or how Jim Babjack from the Smithereens gets his guitar sound, you know, and how he plays the chords.

Jeffrey Paul:

Yeah, but Kurt, hold on a second.

Jeffrey Paul:

It's one thing to watch Jim play guitar and you're in the studio, okay.

Jeffrey Paul:

And.

Jeffrey Paul:

But then how do you know where to put your fingers?

Jeffrey Paul:

How do you know what, like, like how do you, like, how do you do.

Sean Morton:

There's we, there's ways, like I.

Sean Morton:

I used to spend all my allowance on Guitar World magazine or a tablature.

Kurt Ryol:

Yeah.

Sean Morton:

And they teach you and it shows you, it breaks it down how you know, what notes you gotta play, what chords you're going to play.

Sean Morton:

So once you have the basic idea of where chords are and then you can put Together a couple songs.

Sean Morton:

I mean, if you.

Sean Morton:

If you know how to play a bar chord, you can play any Ramones or Green Day song that's ever been recorded.

Sean Morton:

You know, once you get a little.

Kurt Ryol:

Bit of knowledge, like, especially you learn the chord shapes, so the root chords.

Kurt Ryol:

And once you get that.

Kurt Ryol:

And then somewhere along the way, someone opens up like, oh, this is a bar chord.

Kurt Ryol:

And you go, oh.

Jeffrey Paul:

And how long does that take?

Kurt Ryol:

How long does it take?

Kurt Ryol:

I don't know.

Sean Morton:

Seven days.

Sean Morton:

Jeff, it's only seven days to learn everything.

Kurt Ryol:

If you're.

Kurt Ryol:

I've told students like Kristen, my wife has too, that, like, they'll be in a hurry.

Kurt Ryol:

They'll be like, how long is this going to take me to get good?

Kurt Ryol:

And I said, well, you know what?

Kurt Ryol:

It's a life journey.

Kurt Ryol:

You're starting to play, it's going to take what it takes, and you just have to put the time in.

Kurt Ryol:

So it's not like by the time, you know, six months from now, you're going to be a virtuoso.

Kurt Ryol:

Probably not.

Kurt Ryol:

You know, it's just.

Kurt Ryol:

It's like.

Kurt Ryol:

It's just.

Kurt Ryol:

It's a life journey.

Kurt Ryol:

And I swear to God, I've been playing drums since I was.

Kurt Ryol:

Well, I've been playing since I was about 8 years old.

Kurt Ryol:

And I'm still learning.

Kurt Ryol:

Stuff is still coming, you know, it's.

Sean Morton:

Still exactly like stand up, too.

Sean Morton:

It's exactly like stand up in a way where you think about it, you can start off and you're building your, you know, you're building up your jokes and you're learning how to do material, and you're learning your timing and you're.

Sean Morton:

Your pacing.

Sean Morton:

And then you're starting to get to a point where, you know, then you can do the host spot.

Sean Morton:

And then you.

Kurt Ryol:

You've.

Sean Morton:

You've managed your way to get to a feature spot.

Sean Morton:

And then you go into your headliner, then you're going to.

Sean Morton:

Doing your own club, then the theater.

Sean Morton:

So it's kind of like this constant buildup all the time, you know, and he's right.

Sean Morton:

I mean, I'm.

Sean Morton:

I'm a.

Sean Morton:

I'm a different guitar player than I was when I was 12.

Sean Morton:

I'm a different comic than I was 15 years ago.

Kurt Ryol:

That's it, you know, and.

Kurt Ryol:

And there's a lot of things that, you know, it's like, it's.

Kurt Ryol:

Doors are opened or, like, you know, you get these realizations, like, oh, that's how I should be doing it.

Kurt Ryol:

Like, I spent.

Kurt Ryol:

Probably spent a good 20 years singing not the right way and kind of maybe blowing my voice out sometimes.

Kurt Ryol:

Until I realized through working with some people, like Mark Lindsay from Paul Revere and the Raiders, I'm like, oh, that's how you do it.

Jeffrey Paul:

So you don't want to get into that.

Kurt Ryol:

You access into the higher register and it's something you got to learn.

Kurt Ryol:

It doesn't come overnight.

Kurt Ryol:

It's not like all of a sudden you get it, but you have to work on it.

Kurt Ryol:

But it's these little things that open up to you, and if you're smart enough to see them and incorporate them, then you get to the higher place and it's like, you know, when you get to a plateau, you kind of like, oh, okay, now that you're up here, you can see what there is to see.

Kurt Ryol:

Because you're at a level as a musician, you kind of go, oh, now I see where I can go from here.

Kurt Ryol:

So there's another level.

Kurt Ryol:

Another level.

Kurt Ryol:

So I'm hoping that I just stay on this level of learning all the time and I'm just doing the best I can, you know, Like, I've always.

Jeffrey Paul:

How much time do you spend practicing, especially early on?

Kurt Ryol:

Not that much, actually.

Kurt Ryol:

More time.

Kurt Ryol:

Like if I'm practicing, I'm just, I'm listening for sounds and I'm kind of just playing a beat or, or I'm just maybe working out something tempo wise.

Kurt Ryol:

And I'm doing small things now, but a lot of it's in the head too.

Kurt Ryol:

Or I'll do vocal scales.

Kurt Ryol:

See, I'm.

Kurt Ryol:

I'm a singer, drummer, guitarist, and I play piano.

Kurt Ryol:

So I'm doing all these different things, like trying to build up my chops on each thing and stay in the zone on each instrument.

Kurt Ryol:

And it really is just kind of like staying with it and not letting it sort of get too far out of the picture, you know, like if you get into something for a while, sometimes you get into, I don't know, you study in something and then you kind of get cold on it, you go do something else.

Kurt Ryol:

But I try to keep up on all my disciplines, you know, so it's, it's just that way.

Kurt Ryol:

I stay, I stay fresh, I stay flexible.

Kurt Ryol:

But also I stay in shape, like physically so that I can play the drums and I have the air to play the drums, you know, and all those things.

Kurt Ryol:

So it's like, for me, it's a, it's a lifestyle really.

Jeffrey Paul:

So being a multi musician like you are.

Kurt Ryol:

Yeah.

Jeffrey Paul:

I mean, how much does that help you as a producer when you, when you're recording other people's records a lot.

Kurt Ryol:

A lot.

Kurt Ryol:

And sometimes it could be a curse because I'll have the guitar part in my head that they should play.

Kurt Ryol:

And you have to know when not to suggest it or correct them, you know, because it's like you might have the answer, but sometimes they need to work through to find the answer.

Kurt Ryol:

And sometimes in their defense, their answer might be better than yours.

Jeffrey Paul:

So hold on a second.

Jeffrey Paul:

You bring up something really good here that I don't want to let go of, and that is, how much of it is your influence?

Jeffrey Paul:

Or are you just recording them or as if, like what?

Jeffrey Paul:

I guess the heart of the question is what does a producer do and what makes a good.

Kurt Ryol:

Really good question?

Kurt Ryol:

Well, if you're talking historically a producer, historically, what a producer would do is he'd be given a budget from the record label.

Kurt Ryol:

Like a George Martin.

Kurt Ryol:

Right.

Kurt Ryol:

George Martin would be given the budget from the record label.

Kurt Ryol:

You can't spend X.

Kurt Ryol:

You can always spend X amount of dollars.

Kurt Ryol:

You got to get it done in this time and don't waste a lot of time in the studio.

Kurt Ryol:

So you're the guy that's setting the pace and you're going to bring it in on time under budget.

Jeffrey Paul:

Are you behind, Are you behind the soundboard?

Jeffrey Paul:

Or are you just kind of like.

Jeffrey Paul:

Are you just facilitating, like, kind of being like the head coach?

Kurt Ryol:

I'm talking historically.

Kurt Ryol:

And historically, in the past, when the music industry was functioning fully, you had an engineer who pushed the buttons and the faders, and then you had a producer standing behind him, kind of overseeing, going, yeah, that's good.

Kurt Ryol:

Or how about a little more of this?

Kurt Ryol:

Or maybe you need a little more balance.

Kurt Ryol:

So you had a guy, excuse me, guy working the dials, producer behind him, band out in this, in the playing performance room, making the music.

Kurt Ryol:

Right.

Kurt Ryol:

And everybody had their jobs.

Kurt Ryol:

Yet an A and R got artist and repertoire.

Kurt Ryol:

He was feeding songs.

Kurt Ryol:

He goes, you guys should play this song.

Kurt Ryol:

Let me suggest this, this song for you.

Kurt Ryol:

So you'd have this guy feeding the songs, producer running the whole show, engineer getting the sounds, band making the music.

Kurt Ryol:

That's how it used to work.

Kurt Ryol:

Now in the group leads, I wear all those hats.

Kurt Ryol:

I'm in the studio.

Jeffrey Paul:

Well, that's good because you're saving yourself some money.

Jeffrey Paul:

You don't have to hire an engineer, you don't have to hire a producer.

Jeffrey Paul:

You're the guy.

Jeffrey Paul:

And you're also the musician and you're the songwriter.

Kurt Ryol:

Well, exactly.

Kurt Ryol:

So now it's like all the band Is doing everything.

Kurt Ryol:

The lunatics are running the asylum.

Kurt Ryol:

But in order to make that happen, we had to spend years and years and years to develop our crafts.

Kurt Ryol:

Like on in all ways.

Kurt Ryol:

We were in studios before.

Kurt Ryol:

We worked with some producers, not too many.

Kurt Ryol:

And we eventually had to figure it out.

Kurt Ryol:

And the way we figured it out was we started with making our own demos.

Kurt Ryol:

A demo is like, you know, your home version of what you're going to record.

Kurt Ryol:

You know, you write a song, you make a demo.

Jeffrey Paul:

It's a scaled version.

Kurt Ryol:

Sketch.

Kurt Ryol:

Yeah, it's like a sketch.

Kurt Ryol:

And then you take that demo and say to your band or to your producer, whoever, this is what I have in mind.

Kurt Ryol:

But I want to make a record out of this, right?

Kurt Ryol:

And so we were making these demos and eventually we decided, well, the demos are kind of pretty close to the recording.

Kurt Ryol:

Why don't we just make them better?

Kurt Ryol:

And that's when we started getting more equipment.

Kurt Ryol:

And actually what happened was we actually released.

Kurt Ryol:

Our first release was four track demo recordings and we put it out on an EP, a vinyl, a little 45.

Kurt Ryol:

And how many years ago was that?

Kurt Ryol:

That was mid-90s.

Kurt Ryol:

So how many years ago is that?

Kurt Ryol:

Is that 30 years?

Jeffrey Paul:

That's over 30 years ago.

Kurt Ryol:

Yeah, 30 years.

Kurt Ryol:

It's.

Kurt Ryol:

It's going by, time is going by.

Kurt Ryol:

But anyway, so we put it out and that was our first thing.

Kurt Ryol:

And the bands that we were playing.

Jeffrey Paul:

You didn't put out a casingo?

Kurt Ryol:

Oh, no, no.

Kurt Ryol:

We had.

Kurt Ryol:

We had cassettes too.

Kurt Ryol:

That's true.

Jeffrey Paul:

The singles were shit because they were so light that they kept getting caught up in the machine.

Kurt Ryol:

We never thought a cassette was a real release.

Kurt Ryol:

It wasn't a legit release.

Kurt Ryol:

We thought, you know, you got to have vinyl at the time because I guess There were CDs too, in the 90s.

Kurt Ryol:

Absolutely there were, yeah.

Jeffrey Paul:

Yes.

Kurt Ryol:

And our first album was a CD as well, so.

Kurt Ryol:

But when we put out the vinyl, we started getting notice from the other bands that we were playing with.

Kurt Ryol:

And it was like, oh, can.

Kurt Ryol:

Can you record us?

Kurt Ryol:

Like, yeah, sure, you know, I think we could.

Kurt Ryol:

And it was.

Kurt Ryol:

That was when we went the next step to becoming on the other side of the glass as like an actual producer and engineer and doing it for someone else, which means you're getting paid.

Jeffrey Paul:

Yeah.

Kurt Ryol:

And once you cross that stair, that step that, you know, whatever threshold, well, then your mindset changes.

Kurt Ryol:

I remember actually being a little physically ill when I started out for the pressure of having to do this and make sure that you get something that's Usable.

Kurt Ryol:

You're not wasting people's money, you know, and there's a lot of pressure involved, but now it's more.

Kurt Ryol:

Much more comfortable with that role.

Kurt Ryol:

So I can't remember what your original question was.

Kurt Ryol:

Well, there's probably a couple of them in there.

Jeffrey Paul:

There were.

Jeffrey Paul:

But again, every time you say something, you bring up something that's interesting.

Jeffrey Paul:

So, you know, you're a singer, musician, drummer.

Jeffrey Paul:

You know, obviously, you know, you've had success with the producing as well.

Jeffrey Paul:

Who would you rather be?

Jeffrey Paul:

Would you rather be Don Henley or Mutt Lang?

Kurt Ryol:

There are times when I would rather just be Don Henley out.

Kurt Ryol:

Out in the room playing.

Kurt Ryol:

But then I.

Kurt Ryol:

Part of the way I write a song and the way we write songs in the grip weeds is we.

Kurt Ryol:

I have a recording in mind.

Kurt Ryol:

So when I'm writing a song, a lot of times, if I'm thinking it up and before I write it, I'm thinking it maybe I'm out on a jog, I'm running, and I'm like, I got a whole visual, I got a whole sonic picture in my head.

Kurt Ryol:

So I'm hearing the song and then I got to translate it into reality.

Kurt Ryol:

And that translation starts with an acoustic guitar.

Kurt Ryol:

Then you flesh it out with vocal and lyrics.

Kurt Ryol:

And then you flesh it out with how does the bass go, how does the drums go, how does.

Kurt Ryol:

What are the lead guitar parts?

Kurt Ryol:

And that's where the band comes in and fleshes everything out.

Kurt Ryol:

And then.

Kurt Ryol:

But the Guiding hand is still my original idea of what the song could be and trying to achieve that.

Kurt Ryol:

So that's how I write the songs, at least the songs that I write.

Kurt Ryol:

And I do have a production in mind.

Kurt Ryol:

So someone asked me that very question once of like, you know, how would you feel about having a producer work with you?

Kurt Ryol:

And I thought, wow, that would be a real luxury.

Kurt Ryol:

But, you know, it's.

Kurt Ryol:

It's a real handoff because I really love to birth the track and.

Kurt Ryol:

And make it become what.

Jeffrey Paul:

That's got to be a huge.

Jeffrey Paul:

That's got to be a huge decision, you know, but, you know, you.

Jeffrey Paul:

Because it's so personal to you, and.

Sean Morton:

Then you understand, like, everything that he's saying is exactly what we do as well too.

Sean Morton:

We can have.

Sean Morton:

And I'm.

Sean Morton:

I'm saying this too, from even like a songwriting point of view as well.

Jeffrey Paul:

You have.

Jeffrey Paul:

You see it on both sides, Sean.

Sean Morton:

I see it on both sides.

Sean Morton:

What I'm trying to say is for.

Sean Morton:

But like this.

Sean Morton:

Think of it this way.

Sean Morton:

Do you have an idea for his bit you know exactly in your head how this joke is a.

Sean Morton:

Is a million dollar joke, right?

Sean Morton:

It involves a didgeridoo.

Sean Morton:

Right.

Sean Morton:

You realize that this joke is a winner, right?

Jeffrey Paul:

I have a great joke about didgeridoo Curry, you got to come see me sometimes.

Kurt Ryol:

Recorded a didgeridoo.

Jeffrey Paul:

Of course, you did know what didgeridoo was until he saw my bit.

Sean Morton:

So then you have this grandiose idea.

Sean Morton:

But then you have to realize you can't just go from A to B to A to Z.

Sean Morton:

You got to fill in all those little gaps with little tags and add ons and your buildups and stuff like that.

Sean Morton:

So writing a great joke is exactly the same as writing a song.

Kurt Ryol:

Well, there you go.

Kurt Ryol:

The thing about it is though is like, you know, if you get too insulated, like if you don't have outside viewpoints, if you don't have any perspective other than your own, that could be very dangerous.

Kurt Ryol:

And it could also be.

Kurt Ryol:

And it could also be wasteful because maybe when the song is done, it doesn't measure up and you didn't listen to anybody, so you've got no other viewpoints.

Kurt Ryol:

And that can happen.

Kurt Ryol:

You can, it's.

Kurt Ryol:

That is a.

Kurt Ryol:

Is a major problem these days with people working in their bedrooms, like musicians working, you know, in their own little cocoon.

Kurt Ryol:

They don't have the outside view.

Jeffrey Paul:

You got the luxury that a lot of these bands don't.

Jeffrey Paul:

You're living with someone in the band.

Jeffrey Paul:

So does your wife will say to you, hey, you know, have you ever thought about this?

Jeffrey Paul:

Or does your brother who has a connection with you, do they add that 2 cents in?

Kurt Ryol:

My favorite thing to do actually is, let's say a band is coming in to work.

Kurt Ryol:

Before we start, I'll go, hey, give a listen to this and.

Kurt Ryol:

And maybe it'll be one of our songs.

Kurt Ryol:

Because I.

Kurt Ryol:

What I want to get.

Kurt Ryol:

I saw Pat from the Smithereens do this.

Kurt Ryol:

Pat.

Kurt Ryol:

Before he passed away, Pat Denisio.

Kurt Ryol:

Obviously, if you can get an honest viewpoint from somebody about how your music is hitting, then you've got some valuable information.

Kurt Ryol:

Absolutely.

Kurt Ryol:

Like it's okay to, you know, I could say, oh, I, you know, I've thought this song up and I know what the vision is and I gotta, I have it all, I have it all figured out.

Kurt Ryol:

But when you play that song for somebody, does it work?

Kurt Ryol:

Does it move them?

Kurt Ryol:

Or do they go, eh, I don't know, you know, and that's what I look for.

Kurt Ryol:

I look for.

Kurt Ryol:

It's about a minute.

Kurt Ryol:

It takes one minute.

Kurt Ryol:

You watch them, you play the song and you watch for when they check out and when they lose interest.

Kurt Ryol:

And right, there you go, okay, I don't have it.

Kurt Ryol:

All right?

Kurt Ryol:

What did I not do?

Kurt Ryol:

How can I make this stronger?

Kurt Ryol:

What am I missing?

Kurt Ryol:

You know?

Kurt Ryol:

And that's the viewpoint I'm always looking for, because I don't have that unless I put the song away for a while and then pick it back up and then maybe I'll get it, you know?

Kurt Ryol:

But it takes a long time.

Kurt Ryol:

If you make a record, it takes a while to pull that record out and go, oh, I could have done that better.

Kurt Ryol:

Why didn't I do this?

Kurt Ryol:

Why didn't I do that?

Kurt Ryol:

You know, and it's the viewpoint of the cold listen.

Kurt Ryol:

It's for you guys to be like the audience member who has no ax to grind.

Kurt Ryol:

He's out there.

Kurt Ryol:

Does he laugh?

Kurt Ryol:

Is he.

Kurt Ryol:

Is he moved?

Kurt Ryol:

You know, did you hit?

Kurt Ryol:

Did you hit him?

Kurt Ryol:

Or.

Kurt Ryol:

If you didn't, go back and do something better, you know, but you've also.

Jeffrey Paul:

You've also have had the luxury of working with some really monumental guys.

Jeffrey Paul:

Yes.

Jeffrey Paul:

Have you ever discussed this with Brian Wilson, who I know you work with and I know you on.

Jeffrey Paul:

I think you toured with Mark Lindsay from Paul Revere and the Raiders.

Jeffrey Paul:

I mean, so did they ever give you any type of insight tips, you know, something that you took with you that you're able to, like, apply to your band and the other bands that you produce?

Kurt Ryol:

Well, not so much Mark.

Kurt Ryol:

I'm sorry.

Kurt Ryol:

Brian, personally, with Brian, I didn't get to know him personally very well.

Kurt Ryol:

I play.

Kurt Ryol:

I spent one day with him and another time.

Kurt Ryol:

Another two times actually after that.

Jeffrey Paul:

That's still incredible because, I mean, would you say.

Jeffrey Paul:

And Sean, you too?

Jeffrey Paul:

Would you say that he's the greatest American songwriter?

Jeffrey Paul:

American songwriter.

Kurt Ryol:

He's one of them.

Kurt Ryol:

If not, he's right up there.

Jeffrey Paul:

Dylan, Springsteen and Brian Wilson.

Jeffrey Paul:

Would you say those are the top.

Kurt Ryol:

Three major influence on my work and on my.

Kurt Ryol:

What?

Kurt Ryol:

You know, when I was a kid, I just loved the Beach Boys and, you know, and it's the type of music that you can grow up with, you can grow old with, because it's totally, you know, totally.

Kurt Ryol:

So, you know, while.

Kurt Ryol:

While I didn't learn anything directly from him telling me, I learned a whole lot from him just by soaking it in.

Kurt Ryol:

Mark Lindsay is someone who I worked with very closely, both in the studio and live, so I learned a whole lot on both sides of that.

Jeffrey Paul:

How's that come about?

Jeffrey Paul:

You're.

Jeffrey Paul:

Because You're a Jersey guy.

Jeffrey Paul:

How do you hook up with Mark Lindsay?

Kurt Ryol:

Well, he came to New York to do.

Kurt Ryol:

It was a.

Kurt Ryol:

It was called Cave Stomp which they were putting on in New York City and as a garage rock festival.

Kurt Ryol:

And he was Steven Zandt.

Jeffrey Paul:

Van Zandt have a hand in this?

Kurt Ryol:

Well, he was there and yes.

Kurt Ryol:

Yeah, he did.

Kurt Ryol:

So it was before the underground garage.

Kurt Ryol:

Not that long ago.

Kurt Ryol:

Okay, right before it was.

Kurt Ryol:

Specifically it was right after 9 11.

Kurt Ryol:

It was the month after.

Kurt Ryol:

So what happened was Mark was putting a band together to play New York and he got a guy who I knew and I happened to make a short list of drummers.

Kurt Ryol:

Number one drummer was Clem Burke from Blondie.

Jeffrey Paul:

Oh great.

Jeffrey Paul:

Yeah, I remember Clem Brooke from years ago.

Kurt Ryol:

Sure, yeah, great, great drummer.

Kurt Ryol:

I love him.

Jeffrey Paul:

He used to play in, in another local band.

Jeffrey Paul:

Oh my God.

Jeffrey Paul:

What?

Jeffrey Paul:

He had a side project that's a Blondie.

Jeffrey Paul:

What was it called?

Kurt Ryol:

I don't know, but colors.

Jeffrey Paul:

The colors.

Kurt Ryol:

Okay.

Kurt Ryol:

Yeah, he's had a lot of.

Jeffrey Paul:

Yeah, I used to go see them.

Kurt Ryol:

He's done a lot of different things.

Kurt Ryol:

But Blondie was his main obviously claim to fame.

Kurt Ryol:

But anyway, he was on the left, he was on the west coast and his wife said, you're not flying.

Kurt Ryol:

It's 9 11.

Kurt Ryol:

I don't want you up there.

Kurt Ryol:

You can't go.

Kurt Ryol:

So Clems off the list, number two, Dennis Steichen from the Smithereens.

Kurt Ryol:

They had a gig that night.

Kurt Ryol:

So no, can't do it.

Kurt Ryol:

So I was number three.

Kurt Ryol:

So I'm like, oh, Mark Lindsay, New York City.

Kurt Ryol:

Yeah.

Kurt Ryol:

Okay.

Kurt Ryol:

So I took the gig and I remember it being very.

Kurt Ryol:

The city really smelled of the Twin Towers had come down.

Kurt Ryol:

It was still in the air.

Kurt Ryol:

Who knows if I got sick from that, you know, you never know.

Kurt Ryol:

But anyway, I learned Mark and I just hooked a.

Kurt Ryol:

Sort of hit it off right away at that time and we did the show.

Kurt Ryol:

We did another two shows after that and then I didn't see him for a while and then I saw him a couple years later.

Kurt Ryol:

He hired me again to do something and then I didn't see him for another few years and then he came to do.

Kurt Ryol:

We were making a Christmas record and it was the grip weeds under the influence of Christmas that we were doing and we decided we're going to let guests in.

Kurt Ryol:

Gripweeds are very self contained.

Kurt Ryol:

We usually don't have anybody else playing anything because we all play.

Kurt Ryol:

But this time we thought let's get, let's, let's get some guest artists.

Kurt Ryol:

We've never done that.

Kurt Ryol:

So we got the smithereens.

Kurt Ryol:

We got a couple of local guys and stuff, and some legends.

Kurt Ryol:

And I called Mark, and Mark was like.

Kurt Ryol:

I said, I wrote a song for you to sing.

Kurt Ryol:

And I wrote it, and I thought, the only guy to sing this is the guy who sang Hungry.

Kurt Ryol:

Hungry for the Good Things, Baby.

Kurt Ryol:

That song.

Kurt Ryol:

That's the guy.

Kurt Ryol:

That's what I want.

Kurt Ryol:

That attitude of punk.

Kurt Ryol:

So I called him up and he's like, sure, I'll do it.

Kurt Ryol:

And he.

Kurt Ryol:

And I thought, wow, that's cool.

Kurt Ryol:

You know?

Kurt Ryol:

Glad he remembered me at all.

Kurt Ryol:

So he comes over, he does the song, and he's like, I really like the studio.

Jeffrey Paul:

Did you have to pay him?

Kurt Ryol:

No, he didn't want anything.

Jeffrey Paul:

Wow.

Kurt Ryol:

So I was like, hey, I really like the studio.

Kurt Ryol:

I like to work together again.

Kurt Ryol:

I'm working on some stuff.

Kurt Ryol:

I'd like to do something.

Kurt Ryol:

So he brought me a project of his, and we started working on his stuff in the studio.

Kurt Ryol:

Then we did another one, and then we did another one.

Kurt Ryol:

And then came time for.

Kurt Ryol:

He was doing some casino shows, and he needed a band, and he thought of the grip weeds to back him up.

Kurt Ryol:

And that opened up a whole other, like, thing.

Jeffrey Paul:

Oh, you guys did it?

Kurt Ryol:

Yeah.

Jeffrey Paul:

Okay.

Jeffrey Paul:

You all did it.

Jeffrey Paul:

Okay.

Kurt Ryol:

And backed him up.

Kurt Ryol:

And we're going to back him up again next year.

Kurt Ryol:

And that was really good for our growth as a live band.

Jeffrey Paul:

Definitely.

Kurt Ryol:

Like to work behind a legendary singer, to be tight, know those songs inside and Out Cold and deliver, you know, to a paying audience that you got to make sure you're measuring up.

Kurt Ryol:

It's got to be great.

Kurt Ryol:

And.

Kurt Ryol:

But.

Kurt Ryol:

But, you know, in the studio is where Mark and I really hit it off as well, because he had.

Kurt Ryol:

He had produced those songs.

Kurt Ryol:

He was the guy.

Kurt Ryol:

He did like, he was there when hungry, and he.

Kurt Ryol:

He did all those songs like he was a co producer or a producer of all those songs.

Kurt Ryol:

e was walking sunset strip in:

Kurt Ryol:

He tells us one story.

Kurt Ryol:

Always walking out the door of 16 magazine, having just seen Gloria Stavers for this and that.

Kurt Ryol:

She told him how to dress.

Kurt Ryol:

She was like his wardrobe person.

Kurt Ryol:

And he says, he goes, it was a monumental moment.

Kurt Ryol:

I'm walking out.

Kurt Ryol:

Jim Morrison's walking in.

Kurt Ryol:

And I felt like, wow, I just passed the torch to Jim, you know, and I'm done with the teen thing, you know, and so to work with somebody who's got that kind of deep Knowledge of the music that I love was just gold.

Jeffrey Paul:

So what is the music that you love?

Kurt Ryol:

Well, right there, I.

Kurt Ryol:

I love.

Jeffrey Paul:

You know what, besides that.

Jeffrey Paul:

I mean, because the name of our show and, you know, and before we run out of time, is called To Japan.

Jeffrey Paul:

Okay, so who is Kurt's band?

Jeffrey Paul:

Who do you love?

Kurt Ryol:

Well, it depends on what time period.

Kurt Ryol:

I mean, I love the Doors.

Kurt Ryol:

I love all the 60s stuff.

Kurt Ryol:

I love music in the 70s.

Kurt Ryol:

I love R.E.M.

Kurt Ryol:

i used.

Kurt Ryol:

I've loved.

Kurt Ryol:

I like Modern Bands.

Kurt Ryol:

I like.

Kurt Ryol:

Let's see.

Kurt Ryol:

Well, I loved Oasis, all the stuff that they do.

Kurt Ryol:

But you relate to Oasis?

Kurt Ryol:

Yeah.

Jeffrey Paul:

You and your brother were in a band together?

Kurt Ryol:

Well, you know, we always sort of like, you know, joke about that.

Kurt Ryol:

It's like, yeah, we have fights, but we don't have fights like that.

Kurt Ryol:

You know, we worked it out.

Jeffrey Paul:

Maybe the King, maybe the Kingston.

Kurt Ryol:

Close.

Kurt Ryol:

Yeah, we came pretty close a few times.

Jeffrey Paul:

But okay, so if we.

Jeffrey Paul:

If you have.

Kurt Ryol:

Well, the Kinks was another huge influence on me, too.

Kurt Ryol:

And, you know, but in all of that is like, yeah, those are the inspiration.

Kurt Ryol:

Like the Beach Boys, you know, I like to go back to kind of the 60s stuff is very impactful for me.

Jeffrey Paul:

But is that the best era of music influences?

Kurt Ryol:

I'll take from the 70s.

Kurt Ryol:

ELO.

Jeffrey Paul:

Love ELO.

Kurt Ryol:

60S.

Jeffrey Paul:

That's what I'm asking.

Jeffrey Paul:

Because we've debated this on the show as well.

Jeffrey Paul:

The best era of music, the best decade of music is Walker.

Kurt Ryol:

Oh, man, that's such a.

Jeffrey Paul:

You gotta answer.

Jeffrey Paul:

No, you can't.

Jeffrey Paul:

You can't.

Kurt Ryol:

They all such great things.

Jeffrey Paul:

Of course they do.

Jeffrey Paul:

That's what makes it a hard question.

Kurt Ryol:

So, like me, okay, I'm inspired by 60s, 70s, even the 80s, and even the 90s, you know, and Nirvana.

Kurt Ryol:

I love Nirvana.

Kurt Ryol:

And even that made its way into what we were doing because at the time, you know, when you're an artist, when you're writing a song, you know, you're reflecting on what's around you.

Kurt Ryol:

of like, I want to sound like:

Kurt Ryol:

nt to sound a little bit like:

Kurt Ryol:

In our own way, you know.

Kurt Ryol:

But we have a strong tie to those.

Kurt Ryol:

That music, you could probably say, yeah, all right, I'm going to give it to you, Jeff.

Kurt Ryol:

The 60s would be my favorite because I think it was less calculated.

Kurt Ryol:

The music industry wasn't quite as together.

Kurt Ryol:

They were Like, I think they were shocked at what the Beatles did.

Kurt Ryol:

Like, whoa, where'd that come from?

Kurt Ryol:

We thought that stuff was crap, you know, and all of a sudden, whoa, there's money to be made.

Kurt Ryol:

And then after that, it was like, wow, well, we can make more money.

Kurt Ryol:

We'll put these guys on the road.

Kurt Ryol:

And then FM radio and, you know, then they all got into it.

Kurt Ryol:

But I don't think they really understood how the bands were doing what they did.

Kurt Ryol:

So they gave them a long leash, you know, they let the producers do what they did, make the music that was effective, you know, and.

Kurt Ryol:

And then it started to get ruined.

Kurt Ryol:

Like, you ever see Aerosmith Pump?

Kurt Ryol:

Remember that album from the 80s, or was it 90 or something?

Kurt Ryol:

And there's a video called the Making of Pump, and there's the Aerosmith are trying to record their album, and they get these consultants that are wheeled and they come in, they show these consultants and they're listening to their music.

Kurt Ryol:

No, you should.

Kurt Ryol:

You should make that more accessible.

Kurt Ryol:

That chorus is no good.

Kurt Ryol:

You know, you gotta hit this market and that market, and all of a sudden, lo and behold, you get a hit.

Kurt Ryol:

But maybe it's not the pure statement from the band anymore, it's a calculation from the label to make money.

Kurt Ryol:

You know, not saying that that's not a good record, because it is a good record.

Jeffrey Paul:

But nobody could see you, Dylan, you and your band.

Jeffrey Paul:

I could see you being like the band, or at least the songs in a movie, like that thing you do.

Kurt Ryol:

Yeah, yeah, that would be.

Kurt Ryol:

Right.

Kurt Ryol:

That'd be great.

Jeffrey Paul:

No, because.

Jeffrey Paul:

Well, because your sound is.

Jeffrey Paul:

Is very catchy, very poppy, you know, and you know who the band that did that was, right?

Jeffrey Paul:

That was Fountains of Wayne.

Jeffrey Paul:

That was.

Jeffrey Paul:

Right.

Kurt Ryol:

I'm thinking Adam Schlesinger, as you say.

Kurt Ryol:

Adam Schlesinger.

Kurt Ryol:

Oh, yeah.

Kurt Ryol:

You know, and he's an influence.

Kurt Ryol:

You know, more contemporary, but for.

Kurt Ryol:

To us, but definitely an influence.

Kurt Ryol:

And it goes back to what I was saying before of where, you know, you're looking for what's going to hit people, what's.

Kurt Ryol:

You don't want to waste anybody's time.

Kurt Ryol:

You don't want to be too self indulgent.

Kurt Ryol:

You still want to be quality and you want to make sure that you've got your integrity, but you want to connect with the listener in a big way, if you can.

Kurt Ryol:

Somehow, you know, that's what it's all about.

Kurt Ryol:

And you're.

Kurt Ryol:

And.

Kurt Ryol:

And what you're doing is you're.

Kurt Ryol:

It's energy.

Kurt Ryol:

There's all this stuff is Energy.

Kurt Ryol:

It's like, it's, it's.

Kurt Ryol:

It's waves of sound, which is energy.

Kurt Ryol:

And you're just tweaking people, you know, you're trying to, like, influence them a little bit.

Kurt Ryol:

Oh, yeah, I love that.

Kurt Ryol:

Oh, it makes me feel good, you know, or.

Kurt Ryol:

Or maybe it makes me feel like hitting something.

Kurt Ryol:

Whatever it is, it causes a reaction, you know, that's.

Kurt Ryol:

I think that's what we all want.

Kurt Ryol:

A comedian.

Kurt Ryol:

You want a reaction.

Jeffrey Paul:

Well, we want one.

Jeffrey Paul:

We want one reaction.

Sean Morton:

I have a question.

Sean Morton:

So playing out in the 90s, the New York City scene and the Asbury park scene, what were the differences between those two scenes?

Sean Morton:

Knowing that you played both of them?

Kurt Ryol:

Who, me?

Jeffrey Paul:

Yeah.

Kurt Ryol:

Well, I would say a really a big difference.

Kurt Ryol:

It depends.

Kurt Ryol:

The New York scene that we were in was very much geared towards getting signed to a label in the 90s.

Kurt Ryol:

It was very much like, who's going to be seeing you?

Kurt Ryol:

And you got to make sure you get the industry people out to check out the band and the radio people and blah, blah, blah, blah.

Kurt Ryol:

You know, you've got to get these people to come see you, you know, and fill the place.

Kurt Ryol:

And I think there was less of pressure to do that.

Kurt Ryol:

Down the shore in Asbury Park.

Kurt Ryol:

It was a little bit more, let's have a party.

Kurt Ryol:

Come on, Bruce Springsteen.

Kurt Ryol:

You know, it was more of that to me, having done both and having.

Kurt Ryol:

Still do both.

Kurt Ryol:

We're playing in.

Kurt Ryol:

Well, we're just going to do a show on Friday, but this will air later.

Kurt Ryol:

So we will have done the show on Friday in New York City, which we're looking forward to.

Jeffrey Paul:

But yeah, yeah, I was gonna say.

Jeffrey Paul:

So tell us about what's the future plans of the Grip Weeds.

Jeffrey Paul:

Where can people follow you?

Jeffrey Paul:

How could they go see a Grip weed show?

Jeffrey Paul:

Tell us a little bit more Grip Weeds.

Kurt Ryol:

Well, I would say the best place to start there is just go on the Internet, type in Grip Weeds.

Kurt Ryol:

Where the.

Kurt Ryol:

We're pretty much the only one.

Kurt Ryol:

Gripweeds.com is our website.

Kurt Ryol:

Facebook, the Gripweeds, Twitter or X, whatever.

Kurt Ryol:

We're on all the social media accounts and if you just type in Doug Gripweeds or Gripweeds, you'll find us.

Kurt Ryol:

And we're pretty.

Kurt Ryol:

We like to keep things current as far as letting people know what we're doing.

Kurt Ryol:

And what we're actually doing right now is making a new album, which has taken up a lot of our time to get it right.

Kurt Ryol:

We want it to be good.

Kurt Ryol:

And all the stuff I was just talking about is pretty much What I do on a daily basis.

Kurt Ryol:

And it's the thought process of how can we make this music stronger?

Kurt Ryol:

You know, that's what it is.

Kurt Ryol:

It's like we got the song, but how do we make it stronger?

Kurt Ryol:

You know?

Kurt Ryol:

And hold on a second.

Jeffrey Paul:

Now what I heard on 101.5 FM, that's.

Jeffrey Paul:

That was a new song, right?

Kurt Ryol:

Yeah, that's right.

Jeffrey Paul:

That's a good song.

Kurt Ryol:

Thank you.

Kurt Ryol:

Yeah.

Kurt Ryol:

Well, that's an example of what we're doing in the studio now and just drawing.

Kurt Ryol:

We're drawing on all our life experience to knock this out of the park.

Kurt Ryol:

That's what we're trying to do, you know, and not screw it up.

Jeffrey Paul:

When will this record be finished?

Kurt Ryol:

Well, we're.

Kurt Ryol:

We're actually got a lot done on it, so it's going to come out in March.

Kurt Ryol:

That's the plan.

Kurt Ryol:

Which means we have to finish it up in December, which we will be able to do.

Kurt Ryol:

Just have to.

Kurt Ryol:

A few things we're still working on.

Jeffrey Paul:

And then after.

Sean Morton:

The great part about, you know, living and playing in this era that we are now is like, you don't have to wait three years to put out an album.

Kurt Ryol:

Yeah.

Jeffrey Paul:

Why?

Jeffrey Paul:

What is that, Sean?

Sean Morton:

Because people are just cutting songs.

Sean Morton:

Like.

Jeffrey Paul:

Yeah, you know, they're cutting songs, but sometimes they're not good.

Jeffrey Paul:

Like you take a guy like Tom Schultz of Boston, who was a.

Jeffrey Paul:

Who was an off the charts perfectionist, and Mutt Lang, who would also.

Jeffrey Paul:

47 takes, you know, for hand claps.

Jeffrey Paul:

Okay, so is it the industry, Sean, or is it, is it the producer in the band that, you know, that, that, you know, every little minutia has to be.

Jeffrey Paul:

Exactly.

Jeffrey Paul:

I don't know.

Sean Morton:

I think, I think that this, I think it's a good mix of both because, like, you'll have these artists who are putting out, you know, I'm noticing too.

Sean Morton:

And Kurt, I don't know if you, if you see this through, that full length albums are getting a lot longer.

Sean Morton:

They're more than I would think.

Jeffrey Paul:

They're getting less because people have the attention span.

Sean Morton:

No, I mean the amount of songs I'm seeing albums that are doing at a minimum 16, 18, 20 songs on an album.

Jeffrey Paul:

That's stupid.

Kurt Ryol:

No, because, you know, what's happened is with the resurgence of vinyl, it's becoming.

Kurt Ryol:

We're doing it because when we started making records, we were gearing it towards the cd.

Kurt Ryol:

Vinyl was dying, so we were gearing it towards the CD.

Kurt Ryol:

And the CD was 80 minutes of music.

Kurt Ryol:

Right.

Kurt Ryol:

And we wouldn't be trying to fill the 80 minutes, but we would sometimes we actually did put out a double album, 83 minutes of music, which wouldn't make a single CD.

Kurt Ryol:

But what I'm saying is the vinyl resurgence has, has made us go back to a 40 minute record, which is 20 minutes per side.

Kurt Ryol:

That's the ideal sweet spot for vinyl.

Kurt Ryol:

You don't want to go over 20 minutes, 22 minutes.

Kurt Ryol:

You don't want to go too far beyond that because the sound starts to suffer.

Kurt Ryol:

But that just happens to be a good length of time.

Jeffrey Paul:

It doesn't write songs like that.

Jeffrey Paul:

You're not, you're not LP, you're not, you're not doing an 11 minute number of songs.

Kurt Ryol:

But the number of songs that we were would put on a record, you know, will add up to 45 minutes or whatever it is, you know, and we don't want to go too far over that.

Kurt Ryol:

And it just so happens that they actually got it right with vinyl.

Kurt Ryol:

Vinyl is a good length of time for a listener not to get 100%.

Jeffrey Paul:

100% agree with that.

Kurt Ryol:

They got to flip the record over 20 minutes.

Kurt Ryol:

If you can hold them for 20 minutes, that's you're doing something.

Sean Morton:

Yeah, I mentioned, I mentioned Jelly roll before.

Sean Morton:

Like two weeks ago, he puts an album out, right?

Sean Morton:

It's 22 songs.

Sean Morton:

Hold on, it gets better.

Sean Morton:

The next day he releases the deluxe version with seven more songs, 29 songs.

Jeffrey Paul:

Listen, I'm going to good songs, Sean.

Sean Morton:

Honest to God, there was about seven of them that all sounded exactly the same to me and I like to do.

Sean Morton:

And out of 29, he had a third.

Sean Morton:

He had a really solid 13, 14 songs.

Jeffrey Paul:

Yeah, you don't need that many.

Jeffrey Paul:

But you edit again, like comedy editing the economy of words, you know, make it, make it, make it short.

Jeffrey Paul:

People don't have the attention span anymore.

Kurt Ryol:

But you know what's happening with that.

Kurt Ryol:

There's Spotify playing a game.

Kurt Ryol:

They're playing into Spotify, right?

Kurt Ryol:

People putting on their album, playing all 22 songs and Ka ching, ka ching, ka ching.

Kurt Ryol:

Even though you only get a fraction of a century per play, which is criminal by the way.

Kurt Ryol:

At least you're getting.

Kurt Ryol:

If you can get your fans to play it and play it and play it and play it and play it.

Kurt Ryol:

22 songs times a million plays.

Kurt Ryol:

Well, you've just made a good chunk of money.

Kurt Ryol:

So that's probably why they're loading it up more than we're going to lose them.

Jeffrey Paul:

You know, I hate the way, you know, we didn't talk about this.

Jeffrey Paul:

But I, you know, right out of college, that was my first job.

Jeffrey Paul:

I worked A and R for CBS Records.

Jeffrey Paul:

Okay.

Kurt Ryol:

Right.

Kurt Ryol:

Yeah, you're telling me.

Jeffrey Paul:

Yeah.

Jeffrey Paul:

And I hate what the record company.

Jeffrey Paul:

The record business has become is.

Jeffrey Paul:

It's completely.

Jeffrey Paul:

It's completely reversed the way it used to be.

Kurt Ryol:

Yeah, it's totally reversed, but it's, you know, where the keys of the kingdom, they used to hold them and hold them over your head.

Jeffrey Paul:

Oh, absolutely.

Kurt Ryol:

Right.

Jeffrey Paul:

But also, what they.

Jeffrey Paul:

But what they did, they provided a service because now you don't have to go on the Internet and listen to, you know, thousands of shit.

Jeffrey Paul:

And they kind of like, you know, edited out and gave you what they thought was going to be like.

Jeffrey Paul:

And sometimes they got it wrong.

Jeffrey Paul:

There was a lot of times I got it wrong.

Jeffrey Paul:

But then there was also a lot of times they got it right and say people.

Kurt Ryol:

A lot of times they dropped the band.

Jeffrey Paul:

Well, that.

Jeffrey Paul:

Well, have you ever heard of a band called New Man?

Kurt Ryol:

No.

Jeffrey Paul:

Well, New man was a band that, you know, because actually, I wound up graduating in the late 80s, so they were kind of like a mid to late 80s band.

Jeffrey Paul:

They wound up getting signed.

Jeffrey Paul:

They won best Band out of Boston.

Jeffrey Paul:

They put out their first record.

Jeffrey Paul:

They barely sold.

Jeffrey Paul:

Sold 10,000 copies.

Jeffrey Paul:

And that.

Jeffrey Paul:

You never heard of New man again.

Jeffrey Paul:

Exactly.

Kurt Ryol:

Yeah.

Kurt Ryol:

That's what would happen if.

Kurt Ryol:

And they were lucky that they actually got the record released because I can tell you other horror stories of bands getting the budgets and, like, going to make their first album, and then the label saying, no, we're not going to put it out.

Kurt Ryol:

We're dropping you, and you can't take your album and go home.

Kurt Ryol:

You lose.

Jeffrey Paul:

That's right.

Jeffrey Paul:

That's right.

Kurt Ryol:

That's it.

Kurt Ryol:

Yeah.

Kurt Ryol:

So, like, this is actually.

Kurt Ryol:

In that sense, this is better because, you know, we're at least.

Kurt Ryol:

We're captains of our own ship.

Kurt Ryol:

It might not be the Titanic.

Kurt Ryol:

Well, no, not the Titanic.

Kurt Ryol:

The Queen Mary.

Jeffrey Paul:

Yeah, you don't want to be the Titanic.

Kurt Ryol:

Queen Mary, but it's a good ship, you know, and we own it.

Jeffrey Paul:

Okay, so we're going to end.

Jeffrey Paul:

Because we got two minutes.

Jeffrey Paul:

We're going to end on this.

Jeffrey Paul:

On this question.

Jeffrey Paul:

Sean, ask a final question that we always ask.

Sean Morton:

Okay.

Jeffrey Paul:

So, yeah.

Jeffrey Paul:

And especially Kurt is the perfect guy to answer this question.

Jeffrey Paul:

No bailing out.

Jeffrey Paul:

You can.

Jeffrey Paul:

You can't take a.

Jeffrey Paul:

You can't do the weeds.

Sean Morton:

Yeah, don't be a.

Sean Morton:

Don't be a answer.

Kurt Ryol:

I'll do my best.

Sean Morton:

You don't have to say your wife.

Sean Morton:

You don't have to say your brother.

Sean Morton:

You get to pick and be in your all time favorite band.

Sean Morton:

You get to pick the drummer, the guitar player, the bass player, the singer, the keyboard, whatever.

Sean Morton:

What is the band and what do you play in it?

Kurt Ryol:

Oh, so you're looking for me to put together a band.

Sean Morton:

You're a super group.

Sean Morton:

Your super.

Kurt Ryol:

My super group.

Kurt Ryol:

Well, okay, yeah, I gotta have Paul McCartney on bass.

Kurt Ryol:

Okay about it already.

Kurt Ryol:

This is a good band.

Kurt Ryol:

Yeah, I'm gonna put on drums.

Kurt Ryol:

Well, that would be me if I'm in the band.

Jeffrey Paul:

You're in the band?

Sean Morton:

Yeah.

Kurt Ryol:

Right.

Kurt Ryol:

So I'm gonna play drums.

Kurt Ryol:

Guitar player.

Kurt Ryol:

Well, like I tough one here, but I'm gonna go with my good buddy Jim babjack on guitar because he's so good.

Kurt Ryol:

And then second guitar will be Pete Townsend.

Jeffrey Paul:

Oh, wow.

Jeffrey Paul:

Okay.

Jeffrey Paul:

Yeah, I don't think we've ever gotten that answer before, Sean.

Kurt Ryol:

Paul McCartney.

Kurt Ryol:

Pete Townsend.

Kurt Ryol:

Jim, baby, my cell phone drums.

Kurt Ryol:

I'm in.

Kurt Ryol:

I'm in ridiculously stupid company here.

Kurt Ryol:

But let's see.

Kurt Ryol:

So keyboard.

Kurt Ryol:

So I pick the keyboard player.

Kurt Ryol:

Well, I'll pick.

Kurt Ryol:

Oh boy.

Kurt Ryol:

Maybe I'll pick.

Kurt Ryol:

Well, you guys probably don't even know who this is.

Kurt Ryol:

Rod Argent from the Zombies.

Jeffrey Paul:

Yeah, we know who Rod Arjun is.

Jeffrey Paul:

He was in the Zombies.

Kurt Ryol:

I'll pick Rod Argent for keyboard.

Sean Morton:

This guy.

Jeffrey Paul:

This guy.

Kurt Ryol:

And then vocals.

Kurt Ryol:

Oh man.

Kurt Ryol:

Vocals.

Kurt Ryol:

Well, the best singer of all time, John Lennon.

Kurt Ryol:

He's living or dead, right?

Jeffrey Paul:

You can't.

Jeffrey Paul:

You can go with two Beatles do.

Kurt Ryol:

I can't.

Kurt Ryol:

I can't do it.

Jeffrey Paul:

All right, you could, you could.

Jeffrey Paul:

But I mean, come on.

Jeffrey Paul:

And already this is insanely great band.

Jeffrey Paul:

It's a great band.

Sean Morton:

But like again, as everybody else in the world is like fuck Ringo and.

Jeffrey Paul:

And Harrison.

Kurt Ryol:

But I love both of those guys.

Jeffrey Paul:

But he's the drummer, so Ringo can't be in the band.

Kurt Ryol:

That's right.

Kurt Ryol:

Or I could come out front, I'll sing.

Sean Morton:

Ringo plays drums now John gets shifted over guitar.

Sean Morton:

And poor Jim.

Jeffrey Paul:

I loved it.

Jeffrey Paul:

Jim was on this show too, you know, he.

Jeffrey Paul:

Yeah, he.

Jeffrey Paul:

He was.

Jeffrey Paul:

He's great.

Jeffrey Paul:

He's such a good.

Kurt Ryol:

Oh, he did.

Kurt Ryol:

He was on there.

Jeffrey Paul:

Oh yeah.

Kurt Ryol:

There was a time when we were recording.

Kurt Ryol:

I'll make this quick.

Kurt Ryol:

We were recording Mark Lindsay and he just did a vocal and we're sitting there and I had this realization now Mark has had.

Kurt Ryol:

He had a number.

Kurt Ryol:

He had.

Kurt Ryol:

I think it was number one Indian reservation.

Jeffrey Paul:

Oh yeah.

Kurt Ryol:

Cherokee People.

Kurt Ryol:

Cherokee People.

Kurt Ryol:

Great song.

Kurt Ryol:

I used to love that song when I was a kid.

Jeffrey Paul:

It has that great bass and drum.

Kurt Ryol:

That's great.

Kurt Ryol:

The whole thing is amazing.

Kurt Ryol:

So here's mark Lindsay in the studio, and he puts down this vocal, and we're looking at each other in the control room going, holy.

Kurt Ryol:

Holy shit.

Kurt Ryol:

You know, and now I get it.

Kurt Ryol:

This guy, you know, we're just a bunch of, like, kind of average mules in a barn.

Kurt Ryol:

And the stallion just walked in and he's showing what he really can do.

Kurt Ryol:

Pitch perfect.

Kurt Ryol:

The guy's amazing.

Kurt Ryol:

His voices and he was 70.

Jeffrey Paul:

Why don't you make him usanga?

Kurt Ryol:

Well, maybe I will.

Kurt Ryol:

Okay.

Kurt Ryol:

Mark Lindsay, I love it.

Jeffrey Paul:

That's a great.

Jeffrey Paul:

That's now that now.

Jeffrey Paul:

That's a super band.

Kurt Ryol:

That's a super group.

Jeffrey Paul:

Kurt, thank you so much for coming on the show.

Kurt Ryol:

Well, thank you for having me and you too.

Jeffrey Paul:

We really appreciate it.

Jeffrey Paul:

You know, real great insights and stuff.

Jeffrey Paul:

Guys, please, please, please.

Jeffrey Paul:

Check out the grip weeds album coming out in March, will be done in December.

Jeffrey Paul:

Look for their dates, look for tour dates.

Kurt Ryol:

We're going to do st around the album, so we'll be playing out.

Sean Morton:

Yeah, go if you want.

Sean Morton:

If you want to record your own album.

Sean Morton:

House of vibe studios.

Kurt Ryol:

House of vibes dot com.

Sean Morton:

Yep.

Kurt Ryol:

Yeah, I'll.

Kurt Ryol:

I'll discuss it all with you, but we don't take everybody.

Kurt Ryol:

We take music that we feel we can, you know, work with.

Kurt Ryol:

I'm not taking, like, a rap artist because it's not really my genre.

Kurt Ryol:

So I'm looking for.

Kurt Ryol:

I'm profiling you as much as you're profiling me to see if you want to work with that work, you know, something that's great.

Kurt Ryol:

You know, if you're all comfortable.

Kurt Ryol:

It's not a job for me.

Kurt Ryol:

It's like, what I want to do, you know?

Jeffrey Paul:

Yep, I hear you.

Jeffrey Paul:

We appreciate your time.

Jeffrey Paul:

Thank you so much again, Kurt.

Jeffrey Paul:

Kurt Ryle, everybody.

Kurt Ryol:

Thank you.

Jeffrey Paul:

The grip weeds.

Jeffrey Paul:

Check them out, guys.

Jeffrey Paul:

This is who's your band?

Jeffrey Paul:

Remember, please, again, Follow, subscribe, Comment, like all that stuff.

Jeffrey Paul:

That helps more than you think.

Jeffrey Paul:

We'll catch you next time on hooja band.

Jeffrey Paul:

Thank you, everybody.

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About the Podcast

Who's Your Band?
Give it a listen!
Comics Jeffrey Paul and Sean Morton interview a different guest each episode about their favorite band, why it's their favorite, and how they got into that band, as well as finding out their favorite songs, albums, and sharing stories!

About your host

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Adam Holz