The hero’s journey into the abyss

A conversation with Toms Rudzinskis about the construction of a musical message and the musician’s journey in the independent world

I often look at how musicians release their albums and can’t resist making an analysis — what was good, what was bad, whether there was enough information in the CD packaging, whether the album is easily found online, whether it’s possible to find interesting information about it, and so on. These thoughts lead to the musicians themselves who release those albums, and I start thinking — is that musician recognizable? Not popular, something else, but has that musician ensured that people are informed about them, informed about their concerts? Do jazz music listeners know who he is, and is there an opportunity to keep up with his updates? Let’s be realistic: in today’s world, without a presence on the internet and in the media, it’s quite challenging to make people aware of you and see that you’ll have another concert or album soon. It’s a job that some deem unimportant, and unfortunately, I can only remember a few musicians who actively engage on social networks and always remind people of themselves. One of them is the hero of this conversation — Toms Rudzinskis. Toms is a great example that successfully combining musical activities with self-management is possible, that’s why we know everything about him all the time. This time, although we met to discuss not his latest internet achievements but rather his album, which, by the way, was awarded the beautiful «Zelta Mikrofons» statuette, we concluded the conversation with the topic of the independence in the music business, which I find a very important and relevant topic nowadays.

In October, you presented your album «Abyss» in a double concert with Kenneth Dahl Knudsen!

The album was created a while ago, in 2019, when I started writing new music in Berlin. We performed with that lineup at various venues in Berlin, and I had the chance to play that music with local musicians, which was really cool. It was a good process where I could improve the music because I had the opportunity to listen a lot to how it sounds and what feelings it evokes while playing. We also recorded that music shortly before lockdowns in 2019, the pandemic, and everything else that happened in between. I was excited about what I was writing, and that music was really created for those musicians I recorded it with, and the result was quite good. My idea for that music was to write songs that are not musically too complex to perform but something we can collectively build musical material on. More about improvisation and playing together. We had good rehearsals before recording; there were concerts throughout the year where I could test out various pieces and understand what works and what doesn’t. And then, at the end of 2019, we recorded the album in a fantastic studio called «Blackbird Studio» (now «Soundfabrik Berlin studio»), where many cool musicians have recorded, and I was glad we could be there too. As we recorded everything, and considering that the post-production of the album took a very long time, with all the restrictions and everything else, it was really time-consuming. There are various layers of tracks and different synthesizers; I overdubbed various saxophones, clarinets, and flutes, and I had the opportunity to work on them. It was quite a lengthy process, but I think I learned a lot from all of it, and, in my opinion, the outcome was successful. At least the vision I had imagined for that music has truly come to fruition. Now it has come together as an album, as a separate project.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hero%27s_journey

On the cover of your disc, it says that you were inspired by the ‘Hero’s Journey.’ What is it, and how did it inspire you?

«The Hero’s Journey» is a book by Joseph Campbell in which he examines various myths and stories, including, for example, film scripts… In essence, the book is about how we construct a story that people find interesting to listen to and follow. In broad terms, it is a meta-analysis of all these stories, and if we want to build a good story, we have to have a hero; the hero faces a challenge, embarks on a journey, must overcome some internal or external resistance, and if we find ourselves in the abyss, where we encounter the lowest point, how we escape from that point, learn something, and become better people. This cycle is the basis for constructing 95% of stories, films, and books. Therefore, the album is titled «Abyss,» which signifies the lowest point, and hopefully, with this music, we have taken the listener on a journey. If you follow the sequence of the songs and how the story is structured, it is depicted in the musical material as well.

So, you took methods of creating music or film plots and applied them to your music?

Actually, yes. Maybe not exactly methods used in films or books, it’s more about how to structure a story. There is more analysis that pertains more directly to the literary and film world, but I found it interesting to figure out how it relates to the musical world. Of course, in a musical context, events are ultimately quite similar in a broader sense, but specifically thinking about structure, it was interesting to translate those ideas into the language of music. Hopefully, it has been successful in the format of the CD as well.

But how did you practically accomplish that — did you have a plan? Did you develop a structure and try to create musical material based on that structure?

I had this book in mind when writing this music. I practically had a month where I wrote compositions every day, so I had many sketches and compositions to choose from. As we played and tested the music over time, we had the opportunity to crystallize what it would be and how the story would unfold. After we had recorded the music, I had more time to think about how the structure might look, and at that point, I could adjust the music to fit the narrative.

I see that in the lineup for the presentation tour, only the guitarist from the recording session remained. On the Baltic tour, you were with Kenneth Dahl Knudsen, Matias Fischer, and Rudolfs Macats, right? Also, Kristīne Cīrule, or was she only part of the tour in Latvia?

Kristine performed with us only in Latvia. In Vilnius, we played instrumentally; in Kaunas, we played with a vocalist, who was part of the exchange program, Vakare Urbaite. In fact, she helped us organize the Kaunas exchange program because we also played with local students, which was cool and beautiful.

So, it wasn’t a unique case when you used student forces in the presentation tour, as JVLMA students and teachers, such as Indriķis Veitners, were also part of the concert in Riga!

Yes, exactly! We involved people! In Riga, we had masterclasses for Kenneth, Matias, and Igor [Igor Osypov], and then we played the concert at «Tu jau zini kur» in Riga, which was very nice. In Kaunas, a similar scenario unfolded where we all taught together and then played a concert at «Teatro Klubas,» which is a new venue. Then, in Estonia, we played the final concert at the «Philly Joe’s» club in Tallinn, where we were only for a day, played the concert, and headed home.

And tell me a bit about the album’s design — why ice?

It is ice, yes, and the design was created by my wife Kate Elpo, which is her work name, also a stage name since she also performs and does other creative things. We released this album ourselves, so it’s a DIY version of self-releasing an album. And why ice — it was probably about a sense of the abyss feeling. When we stand on ice, we don’t know what’s happening beneath us, on what we’re standing, especially if the ice has cracked, as seen on the album cover; we don’t know what’s waiting for us beneath that ice or how deep the bottom is. In a way, we find ourselves in an unreal feeling where we don’t know how deep the bottom is, what we stand on, and what’s beneath the ice.

This can be related to real life; when you release an album yourself, you are responsible for everything, and you can’t guarantee the result. Everything depends solely on you.

I think it’s significant that it happened precisely during the COVID era; we all had to reassess what reality is and how much we can rely on something, how confident we can be about the future. Because we never really know what will happen, and then that feeling might very well align with the material and how we deal with that internal anxiety and how we get to the other side of the abyss because the last couple of years forced us to rethink what reality is and how confident we can be about things; and then actually dealing with it, living life confidently and courageously.

You currently have several albums in your pocket, and you have experience working both with labels and on your own. Can you define the pros and cons of both options?

Hm… Let’s start with labels, perhaps. The pros of working with labels are that someone else takes care of designs, publishing, promotion, and sometimes even recording, depending on the label. For some labels, extras like payment for recording sessions are no longer a standard offering. In reality, many labels simply take an already recorded album and assist with distribution and maybe design. At the same time, a downside can be that you have less control over how you want things done and less say in what you want it to look like. Depending on the label’s offer for the collaboration model, there can be different scenarios regarding how much the label keeps from streaming royalties or sales. Of course, physical album sales are not as much of a livelihood nowadays, at least not to the extent it might have been before, especially in jazz; it might not be a significant income source. However, if it has to be shared with the label, then considerations have to be made…

And for yourself?

At that moment, you have complete freedom in how you want to do things. You might not have specific deadlines, which can be both good and bad. You are solely responsible for the design and everything else, and thus, you have a greater influence on how it sounds and looks and on the overall feeling of the album.

Which scenario, in your opinion, is better?

That is a good question. I think the future looks more like people will take on more themselves, so maybe they can get more back from it. Because maybe the profit in monetary terms isn’t as significant as with a label, as it is their business. For the label to support you, for example, in a recording session, pay musicians, sponsor designs, and everything else, that may not happen to the same extent anymore. The part of label support in terms of funding will diminish. This, of course, depends on the artists and individual cases. But the financial support from labels is already lesser, and the opportunities to self-release are much greater — everything is accessible and can be done quite comfortably. So, I think, looking forward, this is not a bad model, and it’s cool that you have all the control over the music; it’s all in your hands. Of course, if there’s a good label and a good offer, why not?

How did you cope with all this yourself, as it is quite a large load — composing, producing, design, distribution, presentation, touring, in other words – everything! How did an actively performing musician handle all of this?

I have been very lucky because my wife helps me. She actually has quite a lot of experience with all of this; without her, this definitely wouldn’t be possible. She deserves all the gratitude. Otherwise, it requires an investment of time, but in the long term, it’s worth it — the feeling when you get to play with great musicians for a cool audience. Those are good memories that we can cherish afterward and enjoy for a long time.