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(Fall 2005) by George Dionne
I know what you're thinking; who is Surrender? Don't worry; there are millions
and millions just like you. Surrender is the melodic/AOR band that never
was. I know it's confusing, but you'll be up to speed by the end of this
interview. I discovered Surrender through an e-mail in my inbox that was
touting their latest release Better Late Than Never (read
CD review). I really
shouldn't use the term 'latest', because as I read up on this band, I discovered
this recording was done almost twenty years ago. It never had an official
release, but it has been traded in the underground music scene for years.
It even developed a cult following. One person paid $1000 for a bootleg copy
on eBay. After listening to Better Late Than Never, I was blown away that
such a great album never got the attention it deserved. Curious to find out
more about Surrender, I went right to the source.
RIL: When & where did Surrender form?
KH: Surrender was originally a local New York City
band, from Queens, that was playing original music in the Melodic Hard Rock
vein. They had a bit
of a buzz about them, and were playing some of the bigger rock clubs in the
area. The singer for the band was a guy named Frank Sicoli. The band recorded
a demo at Studio 1212, some of which I engineered, and I remember being struck
by the quality and range of Frank's voice. On that demo was a mediocre version
of a song Frank had written called "Never". We later Surrenderized
it and accorded it the production you hear on the release, for which Frank
generously accorded a co-write. The band broke up (how unusual!), and Michael
[Olszewski] contacted Frank, who fortunately expressed an interest in working
with us on a demo of our own. None of us knew what was going to happen, but
Frank's
voice was PERFECT for the vocal sound we were trying to achieve. This was
winter, 1986, and by early '87 we
were doin' it. We used the Surrender name because we thought we'd be finished
soon enough to capitalize on Frank's following, such as it was, and build
from there. THAT didn't happen. Also "I surrender" was a Michael
and Kenny in-joke invoked during an argument when further discussion proved
futile.
RIL: Were you playing locally in your area?
KH: We never gigged together. We were too busy recording. Between the three
of us there was quite a bit of stage experience, but the studio environment
was for more intoxicating and challenging.
RIL: Were you always an original material band or did you play covers?
KH: No covers for this bunch. We'd all been in cover bands, and we knew how
for THAT usually went.
RIL: When did the group write their first album (Better Late
Than Never)?
KH: I'd begun writing much of the material a year or two before we began
recording. My marriage had gone down the toilet, and I was actually a very
unhappy man. The songs provided a great escape, comfort and release for me.
If you read the lyrics, there's a lot of darkness in these songs hidden in
the light and gloss of the production, quite intentionally. You don't wanna
depress your audience, even if you are.
RIL: What bands inspired you to create your style of music?
KH: I can say hands down that Rupert Hine's production
of Saga's "Worlds
Apart" pretty much defined the sound and quality that I wanted to achieve.
Great songs performed by great musicians - and I mean SHIT HOT players in
the studio - all cohesively blended in rich sonic detail. Tears for Fears' "Songs
from the Big Chair" also comes to mind. These recordings to me invoked
the big three of great RECORDS - great songs, great performances, and lush,
transcendent, cinematic sound.
RIL: Did you shop the finished album around to labels? Which ones?
KH: Sure, all the Majors as far as I know. I've never actually seen the list
nor the pile of rejection letters I'm sure we accumulated. I was promotionally
challenged, and more than happy to leave that portion of the music life to
Michael. I do remember all of us thinking we were UNSTOPPABLE, since we were
essentially delivering a finished master. Boy were we wrong!
RIL: What were some of the reasons they passed on it?
KH: We'd been buried so long with this project that we'd missed the wind
shift. This is a BUSINESS, sort of, trafficking in commercial art, if you
will, and if you can't sell it, you won't sign it. The fact that we insisted
on ownership of the Masters didn't help either, but that has way less to
do with it than the fact that we were too damn late. Sorry fellas, sounds
great though!
RIL: Was the album ever actually released (if even on an indie level or at
gigs)?
KH: No. We made a few hundred copies for promotional purposes only.
RIL: How did the album get into the underground circulation?
KH: I have no idea. I do know from the fans that it
was seriously bootlegged, so SOMEBODY did pretty well with it. It was actually
available at "legitimate" stores
as far back as the mid-90s. Here's a good story: very early during the promotional
phase of this record we received a fax from a Russian gentleman, basically
ordering 30,000 copies. You read that right. As we were basically broke and
not particularly possessed of any true business acumen, we did nothing about
it. No negotiating, no probing inquiries. We panicked. And he did fax us
several times. I have received many E-mails from fans alleging that there
were thousands of copies sold in Russia and Eastern Europe. Who knows, and
at this point, who cares?
RIL: When and why did you guys decide to call it quits?
KH: Frank was working for a company that was a combined travel agency and
blimp leasing company. They relocated to Florida, and that was the end of
Frank's participation in the recording process.
RIL: What did everyone do for work after the break-up?
KH: Frank's boss was Lou Pearlman, who apart from leasing
blimps became a boy-band impresario, nurturing the Backstreet Boys and N'Sync,
among many
others. Frank had worked for him for quite a while, and went on to become
a music executive for Transcontinental, Pearlman's music enterprise. He did
very well, and I don't know what he does now, to be honest. Frank did attempt
to help us out by getting "Sunrise Goodbye" placed, in exchange
for a piece of the writing action, on a record by yet another boy band, called
Take Five. Again, nary a dime was seen, and at this point...Michael is still
in the studio business, and he helped out considerably on the re-mastering
process. I make my living as a writer, so I guess that's what I'm meant to
do. I write about technology, and I
write music for industrial and instructional videos.
RIL: When did you discover that your first album (Better Late Than
Never) was a
cult classic?
KH: March 11, 2005. I got a call from a guy named Mike Wilson, from a website
called ww.heavyharmonies.com, who relayed the whole story of the Surrender
mystery to me. I thought he was joking. He sent me a series of links to sections
of both his, and a number of other sites, and he was not joking. The original
had no title at all, by the way. That's a title I made up when I decided
to produce and fund a proper release for this poor abused baby. It's a pun
on the whole situation, and on the titles of tracks 1 and 8.
RIL: Your first album fetched $1000 dollars on eBay; can you believe
someone
would pay that amount?
KH: Based on the rarity of the thing, and what I know now, yes. At the time,
no way. Shortly after I went public about us, I received a FLOOD of E-mail
from all over the world. It was, and still is, unreal. One was from a proud
owner of the original, from Japan who'd settled off of e-bay, for a final
price of $2000. He very sweetly encouraged me to make a proper release, re-release,
whatever, as he thought it would do well outside of what was essentially,
by now, a collector's market. I got a lot of that, from real fans, and everything
I say in the liner notes is true: this whole thing is fan-driven.
RIL: Are you a little pissed that someone else collected that money?
KH: No. I have nothing to complain about. This sort of thing usually happens
to characters in books and movies, and I'm enjoying every minute of it. I
don't have TIME to be pissed!
RIL: You recently re-released (so to speak) Better Late Than
Never to curb
the bootlegging of it and to give your fans a proper version. Did you try
shopping it around this time?
KH: No, not yet. My rationale is that this was meant to happen, this whole
thing, and that this time, since it came to MY door, it was down to ME to
honor the opportunity and take care of business for a change, with graciousness
and gratitude. You know, GROW UP for a change. And I've done a good job with
it. It's a good-looking package, and between the fans and the press, who've
been so unbelievably cool it's STUPID! - well, the ball is rolling.
RIL: Was it expensive to put this album back together?
KH: Yeah, but again, I'm a lucky guy, so I could afford to do it. When you
pay for something, you basically get exactly what you want, if you stay on
top of everybody. It was worth every penny.
RIL: Were any of the songs re-recorded or are the songs presented in their
original form?
KH: No, all in the original crate, so to speak. Just louder and clearer.
RIL: How has the album been selling?
KH: Very well. The thing will actually be in the black in a couple of weeks,
so that's a relief. We have dealers all over the world, and the list keeps
growing, so that's cool, too.
RIL: Where did the bonus tracks come from?
KH: "Carrie" was originally entitled "Sonya", and was
this progressive dramatic mess with multiple time signatures and much more
challenging changes than you hear on the record-Kenny trying to have his
cake and eat it too. We were offered the opportunity to place a song in a
film that had just been green-lighted, and Frankie and Michael encouraged
me to Surrenderize "Sonya", and God Forbid! make something happen.
The character's name was Carrie, as it turned out, and this is her song,
whoever she is. This was Frank's last recording with Surrender, by the way;
he moved shortly after. This song represents the first and last time I will
ever kiss ass artistically, but in retrospect, it works, for what it is.
RIL: Why are their two vocalists listed on the CD?
KH: Frankie had moved, but we still felt compelled
to keep churning out the music. Eric Thompson was a gifted engineer and programmer
who worked a lot
at 1212. As it turned out, he was also possessed of a high tenor voice, though
earthier and less on the bell side than Frankie. To tell you the truth, he
was intimidated by having to fill Frank's shoes, but he did a great job,
and we recorded a number of other songs with him besides the two on "Better
Later Than Never". They were musically and stylistically not appropriate
for this release, but may be released down the road as a separate collection.
I think his performance on "A New Game" is brilliant, and that
song is one of my personal favorites.
Our fans HATE that song by and large, so...whatever.
RIL: Commercial rock music has gone through many stages since you guys began;
grunge, rap rock, and nu-metal (to name a few). What are your thoughts on
those styles of music and what do you think of the current state of rock
music in the U.S. today?
KH: Korn, Slipknot and Stone Sour are bands I listen
to pretty regularly. I'm also a huge fan of Basement Jaxx, Spymobb, Radiohead,
Mr. Bungle, Jet,
the Strokes, My Chemical Romance, Gillian Welch, P.O.D., Daniel Beddingfield,
Son of Sound... I think the state of rock/pop/whatever music is as healthy
or unhealthy as it ever was, if you keep your ears and your mind open.
RIL: Has Surrender reformed officially?
KH: No.
RIL: What’s next for Surrender?
KH: I'm not sure, honestly. My goal right now is to get a copy of the record
into the hands of any and every fan that wants one, at a fair price. If another
Surrender record, sort of Surrender 2005 type thing, is meant to happen,
it'll happen, and we'll have a real budget, do a real, proper tour, hire
a real band, and not take close to 3 years to make a record! The three guys
in Surrender all have separate, established lives and the type of offers
we've received have really not yet been sufficient to really DO IT UP, so
to speak. So we'll see.
I want to close with this, and make sure this gets
printed. I am the luckiest
guy in the world, absolutely privileged, to have been able to work with
two outsized talents like Michael and Frankie. I'd put either one of them
up
against anybody on the planet for dedication, perseverance and musicality.
Those two guys brought my music and all these ideas I was just bursting
with, to life, added a few of their own, and got it on tape for people
to enjoy.
I'm never gonna make a million dollars, or take a stroll on the moon, but
I've got a pot of gold in my soul.
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KENNY
HAMBERG
