Chuck Surack

Interview by Brian Cowell.

Early in the 1980's, Chuck Surack started a recording company called "Sweetwater Sound". From a modest start, based in his mobile home in Fort Wayne, Indiana, Chuck built one of the worlds's most successful mail-order music companies in existence. Along the way he became a seasoned expert on Kurzweil's K250 and K2000 Series synth/samplers... and thus a dynasty in soundware excellence was born.

SONIK had a chance to catch up with this master entrepreneur and saxophone enthusiast. Here is what he had to say . . .

SONIK: How did your company begin and how long have you been running it?

CHUCK: Sweetwater Sound first opened its doors in 1979 as a recording facility at my mobile home in Fort Wayne, Indiana. I also did live-sound recordings from my VW Microbus. Before long, our studio time was solidly booked. When we weren't recording local artists we were writing and producing jingles for a number of local businesses. In what little free time was left, we bought, sold, and traded recording equipment.

A few years down the road, in the early 80s, Kurzweil Music Systems introduced the K250 keyboard. This was right about the time I was considering buying a grand piano for our studio. After a lot of research I finally decided to dive onto the cutting-edge of music technology with a K250 and believe me, $20,000.00 for a keyboard was a significant investment for our small business, but time proved it to be exactly the right move. With this amazing machine we could finally produce the sound of almost any real acoustic instrument. That's no big deal today, but back then it was mind-boggling. Our Kurzweil 250 was so much in demand that we were renting it out for $200 a day! Once we realized that our K250 had quickly paid for itself we bought a second unit.

I was so invigorated by the potential of the K250 that I soon created my own library of programs and samples. I figured there'd be lots of other K250 fanatics furiously creating their own samples as well, so I started a network of Kurzweil K250 owners with the idea that we could trade our custom-made sounds to build an even bigger library. Surprisingly, the letters I got from other K250 owners were asking how much it would cost to simply purchase my sounds, as they had not made any themselves. High-profile K250 users including Kenny Rogers and Stevie Wonder were soon requesting and buying various instrument samples. Before long, people wanted to know if I could help them buy the factory options and accessories for their K250's.

And then, in what may have been one of the most significant decisions of my life, I decided to become a dealer of this amazing Kurzweil technology. That's when things really began to snowball. Sweetwater Sound went full-speed-ahead into fulfilling these requests by selling and servicing these products to help my professional musician friends.

This is how Sweetwater Sound's philosophy of relationship-based selling began. As the industry became more sophisticated, these friends/customers returned again and again for more product advice. Additional product lines were acquired, and the company's emphasis shifted from a recording studio to a musical instrument retailer which also housed a professional recording studio.

Within a few years, we had to move out of our home to a bigger facility. But even then, we were growing at such a staggering rate that we outgrew that location and began building at our current address, 5335 Bass Road. Almost as soon as we were moved in it was apparent that there still wasn't enough space for everything, so we added on what essentially amounts to a whole new building. In 1997 we added an inventory warehouse that again doubled the existing facility's size to over 40,000 square feet. Even now, 20 years since the Sweetwater's beginning, we are considering yet another major construction project.

SONIK: Is there a story behind the name "Sweetwater"?

CHUCK: Unfortunately, the story of the Sweetwater Sound name is not that interesting. When our recording studio was in a residential zone we needed to create a yard sign that let clients know where we were without attracting too much attention to ourselves. Sweetwater was one of the names we thought of to put on the sign and everyone involved seemed to like it.

SONIK: What is your role at Sweetwater on a day-to-day basis?

CHUCK: My official title is "President of Sweetwater", but what I do every day has changed many times over the past 20 years. At first I was an engineer, a producer, and a performer. Then I taught myself to be a soundware designer and soon found myself taking on the role of a musical instrument retailer. As the company expanded from a handful of friends to a team of thirty I was dragged into the management, hiring, accounting, payroll, and marketing responsibilities that came with the territory. Over the past 20 years we have been collecting experts from all over the country to take on these rolls which allows me more time to develop new ideas for the future of this company. We now have over 170 employees and there's no end in sight.

SONIK: What instruments do you play?

CHUCK: My primary instrument is the tenor saxophone, and I have in my office a soprano, alto, tenor, bari, and even a 5' tall bass saxophone. I also own WX7 and WX5 MIDI wind controllers and a flute. I can also play keyboards well enough to demo them and to create MIDI sequences that I can play my saxes over.

SONIK: What synths do you own?

CHUCK: I'm fortunate in that I have instant access to pretty much any keyboard made, but I personally own a Kurzweil K250, K2000S, four K2500RS, and my latest addition is a fully-loaded Korg Triton Pro that I'm quite excited about.

SONIK: Do you play in a band?

CHUCK: I've been in various bands for most of my life, including rock, jazz, fusion, wedding bands, and even professional big bands. Right now I regularly perform with a small group based around a rolling MIDI-rig that has 2 fully-loaded K2500S racks, each with KDFX. Above the modules are several additional processors and a Mackie Mixer. A MOTU Midi Timepiece AV (USB) provides an interface to my Mac G3 Power Book that has hundreds of fully-produced MOTU Performer sequences. The laptop G3 is unique in that it has 320MB of onboard RAM which allows me to have hundreds of my songs loaded at the same time for instant access.The flexibility of this system allows me to perform with as many or few musicians as the job requires.

SONIK: Who are your musical influences?

CHUCK: Probably my favorite band of all time is Tower of Power. I see them every chance I get, and I'm knocked out by the magnificent power of their horns every time. My favorite artists include Boots Randolph, Lenny Picket (the screaming sax player/musical director from Saturday Night Live) and Stevie Wonder.

SONIK: What are some of your favorite CD's?

CHUCK: Anything by any of the above artists, but my CD collection as well as my radio station presets cover pretty much every musical style in existence, as long as it's by artists who've mastered that genre.

SONIK: What hobbies do you have outside of music and business?

CHUCK: I have always appreciated automotive excellence and have been fortunate enough to own and drive some of the most awesome machines the world has to offer. I also enjoy a good game of pool and my state-of-the-art home theater system.

SONIK: What do you like the most about the Soundware CD-ROMs which have been developed over the years at Sweetwater?

CHUCK: As Sweetwater grew in size, I found myself able to spend less and less time on the actual creation of soundware, so it was important to find a Soundware Engineer that could maintain my original standards of hi-quality and, most importantly, the musicality of how the instruments respond to your playing technique. Since 1994, Daniel Fisher has been our Director of Soundware Engineering where we've created over 25 CD-ROMs for various brands of samplers/synths.

SONIK: What musical personalities are Sweetwater customers?

CHUCK: This list would include many of the biggest names in the industry. It's the top professionals who most appreciate the "Sweetwater Difference" when it comes to product knowledge, speedy repairs, and a Sales Engineer who keeps track of every piece of gear they own and how they like to use it. Without their specific consent though, I'm hesitant to publish their names on a public Web site.

SONIK: What did you do before you started "Sweetwater Sound"?

CHUCK: As a child I sold hundreds of potholders door-to-door ("15 cents each or 2 for a quarter") which were woven from loops of yarn that I purchased by the van-load. I also grew and sold hot banana peppers and actually won several sales contests. While other children were delivering newspapers door-to-door, I sought out apartment complexes and was delivering papers by the hundreds.

Later I was a member of several professional touring bands where I got a lot of real-world experience in music technology.

SONIK: Do you see Sweetwater expanding into other States in the US in the future?

CHUCK: With our current "Music Technology Direct" model of sales, Sweetwater already services every State in the Union on an almost daily basis. But Sweetwater is always looking for additional ways to provide the best quality service it can.

SONIK: What keeps you *fresh* day to day?

CHUCK: I get an incredible amount of energy and satisfaction from being surrounded by experts who make up our Sweetwater staff. I'll challenge anyone in the industry in terms of hiring the greatest number of highly-regarded experts in every area of the music-making industry including soundware, analog recording, digital tape recording, hard disk recording, signal processing, technical support, instrument repair, acoustic treatments and PA systems for buildings, web design, graphics, and brochure and directory development.

It's also nice to put the pedal down on a finely-tuned Porsche every now and then.

SONIK December 1999