The Unpronounceable Genius
Alan McCrorie speaks to guitarist Jan Cyrka about his past, present, and his debut LP for Food For Thought Records: Beyond the Common Ground.
Guitarist Jan Cyrka is perhaps one of this country's best kept secrets, yet his work is widely known and frequently heard. Besides a substantial session career and music for Budweiser and Irn-Bru adverts, he's also played guitar with ZODIAC MINDWARP as 'Flash Bastard,' worked with MAXI PRIEST, and strummed a few chords with ol’ snake hips Mr TOM JONES. Surely enough of a CV to reduce any sentient human being to a gibbering wreck.
The mantle of 'guitar hero' will probably rest heavily on Jan Cyrka's shoulders. After all, with his new label, he's hopped into bed with the likes off Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, and Stu Hamm, and the Zappa Clan is still tweezing people's brains just around the corner. Expectations must be running high. The tall Yorkshire man (born in Halifax and probably its biggest export next to to the BRIGHOUSE AND RASTRICK BRASS BAND!!!) still hides behind his Zodiac-Mindwarp-acquired granny specs and talks cautiously of what is to come. I still recall seeing photos of his first band CYRKA in old magazines, with Jan looking very much like RUSH’s Alex lifeson in his LSE blazer and blonde mop.
That was 1982. Around that time he joined up with a Jewish American actor called Jeff Michelson in a band dubbed MAX AND THE BROADWAY METAL CHOIR, which recorded an album for Powerstation Records modestly christened And God Gave Us Max. Here Jan shared guitar duties with one Stevie Bolton, ex-PAUL-YOUNG axeman who toured the United States with THE WHO in 1989/ 90, as townsend's ears turned to cloth. The 1987 Cyrka had gone from engineering Zodiac demos to rhythm guitarist as the band had toured on the back of Tattooed Beat Messiah. The rest, as they say, is history for Zody, but for Jan Cyrka things were just about to begin.
The mantle of 'guitar hero' will probably rest heavily on Jan Cyrka's shoulders. After all, with his new label, he's hopped into bed with the likes off Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, and Stu Hamm, and the Zappa Clan is still tweezing people's brains just around the corner. Expectations must be running high. The tall Yorkshire man (born in Halifax and probably its biggest export next to to the BRIGHOUSE AND RASTRICK BRASS BAND!!!) still hides behind his Zodiac-Mindwarp-acquired granny specs and talks cautiously of what is to come. I still recall seeing photos of his first band CYRKA in old magazines, with Jan looking very much like RUSH’s Alex lifeson in his LSE blazer and blonde mop.
That was 1982. Around that time he joined up with a Jewish American actor called Jeff Michelson in a band dubbed MAX AND THE BROADWAY METAL CHOIR, which recorded an album for Powerstation Records modestly christened And God Gave Us Max. Here Jan shared guitar duties with one Stevie Bolton, ex-PAUL-YOUNG axeman who toured the United States with THE WHO in 1989/ 90, as townsend's ears turned to cloth. The 1987 Cyrka had gone from engineering Zodiac demos to rhythm guitarist as the band had toured on the back of Tattooed Beat Messiah. The rest, as they say, is history for Zody, but for Jan Cyrka things were just about to begin.
Beyond the Common Ground started off essentially as a soundtrack for Bike magazine's Bloodrunners film, recorded on an 8-track basis. Between paying the bills and sleeping off the nights before, it seems Jan had entertained himself by recording material on an 8 track at home. Thanks to a chance meeting with a fellow called Andy Sparrow who was making Bloodrunners, Jan's manager, the explosive Harris Greenfield, helped marry five of Jan's instrumentals to bike chases in the movie.
“The movie had a number of chase sequences in it," says Jan, "and Harris suggested that some of my music might fit in nicely, and he passed along a demo with one idea on it. It worked, so I got clearance to go ahead and properly recorded five more pieces. In fact, the film was actually edited to suit the music, which is pretty much unheard off!”
Pleased with the overall reaction to his music, Jan slung a tape of his material to Music for Nations. The six instrumental demo was sufficiently impressive for music for Nations to offer Cyrka a a three album deal on their prestigious guitar head label, Food for Thought.
“I'll tell you.” you remembers Jan, “when Music for Nations got in touch about the tape, I thought, ‘nah, burger off, someone's taking the piss, who are you?’ But they were serious about it, and I was, and still am, pleased as punch.”So is being a label mate with towering guitar idols like Vai and Satriani going to be a good thing or a bad thing?
“I get the impression that people are going to expect a British Stevie or something. I spoke to this fellow from another magazine and he went off on all these tangents before he realised that I'm like any other person on the street, except that I make my living playing guitars and writing music,” he says in an effort to avoid a deluge of hysterical bullshit. “Yet I've got to tell you that it's nice to be lumped in with all these people, the album makes me really proud and I'm happy to hear all these comparisons. Everyone is influenced by the great guitarists of the time and I'm no exception, but I think I've managed to keep a very strong sense of identity with Beyond the Common Ground.”
Surprisingly, Jan is one of the last people to surround himself with guitar albums and not the kind of person who takes his guitar to bed with him.
“You'd be amazed at what I listen to when it comes to inspiration,” he says with a hint of mischief in his voice. “I can sit and listen to DEL AMITRI and THE BLUE NILE (Scots bands - praise the Lord!!!) and here and there I’ll hear little things that will appeal to me. It was the same when I started playing when I was 16. I'd listen to Jeff Beck, Stevie Howe of YES, and RUSH. Yes I loved how their songs would have these fabulous passages after a couple of lines of lyrics. Something I still appreciate, as I don't see myself as a great lyricist. My lyrics are very average."
One of the things that will strike the listener on first hearing Beyond the Common Ground is that lyrics can actually be woven into the instrumentals - we are not really dealing with someone who finds musical overkill a comfortable mode of self-expression.
“I have been tagged as a ‘guitar instrumentalist’ and I'm not too happy with it, to be honest with you. I suppose I'm a bit of both; songwriter and composer. When I write and lay out backing tracks for recording, I'm restraining myself - I don't want to go over the top and blow out all over the tape. I'm into crossing over and touching as many people as I can,” he opines. “My music's getting some great exposure thanks to Tommy Vance, from both rock fans and everyday radio listeners. Tommy uses Western Eyes for the chart countdown on The Friday Rock Show and On the Contrary and Sitting on Eggs for his Drive Time program on GLR [Greater London Radio]. That's two separate audiences, and the music is getting a lot of interest. People seemingly want to know who I am!”
Of course this theme shit isn't all it's cracked up to be.
“I'm not going to be too comfortable with all this attention,” he says thoughtfully. “When I was with Zody I was only partly in the limelight, but I could enjoy all the benefits that being with his band brought without all the hassle. Now I'm on my own and if anything goes wrong, then, that's up to me. I am a bit wary of a lot of things, as as this attention is all very new. I enjoyed my time with Max and Zody but this is my way forward now.
I recall reading in another place that when Jan was with THE LOVE REACTION he was always ‘off practicing his scales and stuff.’ Like most musicians he is always in search of other avenues in music.
“I think the album is very much something that belongs to the time when it was recorded. Since finishing it off last year I've been looking at other things. For instance, I spent a short but intense time studying the Blues. You’ll hear this in my playing, but I won't be playing the Blues. I just love to take ideas and build them into my own music. I put my heart and everything else for that matter into Beyond the Common Ground but now I have other things to give. I've already got eight pieces of music ready for the next album. I just can't sit still and do nothing.”
A regular magpie by the looks of things.
Like Steve Vai's Flex-able, Beyond the Common Ground was recorded at home on an 8 track machine surrounded by friendly paraphernalia -- DAT machine, a mixing desk, and loads of auxiliaries…
“The bloody nylon bedroom carpet,” says Jan ruefully. “When I started work on this, I kept getting shocks thanks to all the equipment in my bedroom. I would touch the equipment and, of course, cause an earth connection - I couldn't sit down without having to take one of my shoes off.”Of course, two Bare Feet wouldn't help?
Jan did not perform this labour of love alone. Included on the album are bass contributions from a gentleman called Giles McCormack-Smith, keyboards from Pete Giles, and drum samples come from…
“A very famous American rock drummer who will remain nameless,” he says.So how is he planning to promote the album?
“I'm not into doing clinics and all that sort of thing,” he says disdainfully. “I'm a heavy rock guitarist and I'm happy to play live to people. I don't want to do clinics and watch people fall asleep while I disappear up my own arsehole! Also, my manager wasn't too happy about drafting another guitarist into the band, but I'm not an octopus and I want to be able to do all this music justice when I play live. There's so much I want to do, but I've got to say it again, I want to entertain people - that's why we'll be slotting songs into our set too.”No sleeping on the job then? “Certainly not,” he rumbles.
At the time of writing, JAN CYRKA’s Flying Circus will consist of guitarist/ keyboardist/ vocalist Simon Gregory (“he's a better comedian than he is a singer,” quips Jan), bassist Mark ‘ Father’ Brown, and drummer Pete Riley. “Pete's my very own Terry Bozzio,” says Jan of the drummer. The world's can only cope with one Terry Bozzio, thank you.
I found it refreshing that Jan speaks well of British guitarists like JEFF BECK and STEVE HILLAGE (note the slight resemblance) and hopefully this album will inspire younger musicians. Perhaps there's going to be more UK guitarists in the limelight in the future, and if they’re as enjoyable as Jan Cyrka then all the better.
It couldn't have happened to a nicer guy!
Alan McCrorie
Riff Raff
April 1992
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