Druckfarben

Druckfarben is a Canadian progressive rock band from Toronto. Founded in 2008 by Phil Naro, Ed Bernard, William Hare, Troy Feener, Peter Murray, the band released its debut album Druckfarben in 2011. In 2013, Druckfarben released the live performance DVD Artifact, which also includes a documentary chronicling the band's origins.^[1] They released a second full album, Second Sound, in March 2014.

Member history

Druckfarben was officially founded in 2008, but most of the five members had interacted or befriended one another in the Canadian music scene of the 1980s. Phil Naro is Druckfarben’s lead singer,^[2] and previous to the band worked with a range of artists,^[3] including Peter Criss of Kiss.^[4] Early in his career, Naro replaced James LaBrie in Coney Hatch before LaBrie joined Dream Theater and Lou Gramm’s Black Sheep in 1976. Years later Naro and Gramm worked together on albums by DDrive. From 1982-85, Naro was the lead singer of Talas before Billy Sheehan joined David Lee Roth’s band in 1985.

As Naro was becoming known for his work in Talas, in Scarborough near Toronto, ninth graders Ed Bernard (guitarist) and Troy Feener (who later drummed for Red Rider and Tom Cochrane) befriended one another over a mutual interest in progressive rock artists, especially Yes and Gentle Giant. The two rehearsed in an abandoned factory space, where they found the word “Druckfarben” stenciled on storage barrels. Druckfarben is German for “printing ink.”^[5]

Feener was later a member of The Full Nine, who signed to Mammoth Records in 2011, as well Big Faith. He also became a regular session musician for Chris Tait's Pirate Radio and Television. Feener has toured with Larry Gowan (Styx), Rik Emmett (Triumph) and David Usher (Moist). Feener also performed with Steve Lukather, Garth Hudson and Jeff Healey.

Guitarist Ed Bernard went on to become a session musician and composer in Toronto. After several North American tours in multiple bands, Bernard had opened the recording studio Ed Id Productions, where he produced independent artists and composed and performed for television and radio spots. In 2005, Bernard and Feener met William Hare, who played piano for a range of Canadian acts including country’s Crystal Shawanda, opera singer Angelica Decastro and ‘70s group Abraham's Children.

Peter Murray was already playing bass while attending Jarvis Collegiate Institute, a high school in downtown Toronto. Years later he wrote Essential Bass Technique, published by the Hal Leonard Corp.^[6] The book was endorsed by Billy Sheehan, Michael Manring, Alain Caron, Tom Hamilton (Aerosmith) . Murray also was the bass columnist in Canadian Musician. As a singer-songwriter, he released his debut solo album Ants and Angels in 2007.^[7] Throughout the 90s, Murray was a member of Surrender Dorothy. The band signed an international record contract with MCA Germany and their album Serum was released in 1997.^[8] Murray has performed and recorded with a variety of artists including Ron Sexsmith, Damhnait Doyle, Honeymoon Suite, Sass Jordan, Royal Wood, and Jian Ghomeshi.

In 2009, Naro won a Daytime Emmy Award for best original song and main title for co-writing the theme song for the animated series 6Teen.^[9][10] Naro as of 2014 travels in Canada playing covers with his acoustic act The Phil and John Show with John Rogers (of Brighton Rock).^[2]

Druckfarben history

Founding

In 2008 the Toronto concert series Classic Albums Live staged Yes’s albums Close to the Edge and The Yes Album. Troy Feener, Will Hare, Phil Naro and Ed Bernard played the show with another bassist - Jason Farrar (who went on to form the Dave Barrett Trio). This lineup had a show at the Phoenix Concert Theater in Toronto on September 20, 2007. Future bassist Peter Murray was in the audience, and the band Druckfarben was founded that concert.

Druckfarben features the consistent lineup of Ed Bernard on lead guitars, violin, mandolin, and backing vocals; Will Hare on keyboards and backing vocals; Peter Murray on bass, octave mandolin and backing vocals; and Troy Feener on drums and percussion.^[11][12]

Among Druckfarben's earliest gigs were Toronto's Orbit Room (co-owned by Alex Lifeson of Rush) and a monthly prog jam at Roc'n Doc's. A number of progressive rock musicians and producers frequented these early shows, such as Kim Mitchell, Nick D'Virgilio, Terry Brown (Rush producer), and Maurizio Guarini of the Italian prog band Goblin. In 2008, the group performed a show with Tony Levin's progrock group Stick Men.

Recordings

Guitarist Ed Bernard primarily handles songwriting and production. In October 2011 the band released their first LP, Druckfarben.^[12] According to a positive review in The Rocktologist, which gave the album an 8/10 rating, "The Hammond organ reigns supreme on Druckfarben's debut in the keyboard department, while Phil Naro should definitely be considered as one of the best progressive rock vocalists active on the scene today."^[12]

In July 2013, Druckfarben released their first DVD Artifact, which was recorded at the Virgin Mobile Mod Club in Toronto in March 2008,^[1] and includes a cover of Yes’ “Siberian Khatru.”^[13] Also included in the DVD is a "Druckumentary" chronicling the band's origins.^[1] They released a second full album, Second Sound, in 2014.

Style

The group has been compared to an array of progressive rock artists, most notably ELP, Gentle Giant, and Yes. Naro's vocals have been compared to Yes’s Jon Anderson, Foreigner’s Lou Gramm, and The Police’s Sting.^[2]

Members

• Phil Naro – Vocals
• Ed Bernard – Guitars
• William Hare – Keyboards
• Troy Feener – Drums
• Peter Murray – Bass

Discography

Studio albums

Live DVDs

References

External links

• Druckfarben.ca
• Druckfarben at CBC Music
• Druckfarben at BandCamp
• Druckfarben on Progarchives