Stratospheerius
Stratospheerius
Dumont, NJ
Rock / Jam / Jazz, ProgRock
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About
When you first listen to Stratospheerius, each song occurs as a go for broke experience, with the players attacking their instruments with a fire and urgency that is a far cry from most current artists. The New York based four-piece has been called everything from "psychojazz trip funk" to a “full-on electro-fiddle-trip-funk experience”, but however they are classified, they play with an immense passion and unique inventiveness that is on display on their new album, Headspace.
Stratospheerius stems from the talent and vision of Joe Deninzon, electric violinist and vocalist for the band. A classically trained player, Joe was born in Russia, but moved to Cleveland when he was a boy. Influenced by everything from Frank Zappa to Led Zeppelin to the Police and Steely Dan, Joe got his music degree from Manhattan School of Music in the late 90's and began working as a freelance violinist. After playing a show at the Westbury Music Fair, he encountered another violinist who, having to play a really high passage, joked about his own playing, saying, "I should have brought my Stratospheerius," a word play on Stradivarius, the legendary 18th century violin maker. The name conjured exactly the combination of modern and classic that Joe was looking to create in his music, and he took the name on.
While teaching violin at the New School in Manhattan, Joe met and began playing with Alex Skolnick, the guitarist from the legendarily inventive late 80's metal band Testament. Alex played in the band for three years, and introduced drummer Lucianna Padmore, a Bronx-bred R&B devotee, into the band. Current guitarist Mack Price met Joe wile accompanying him at a clinic at the Berklee school of music. Mack grew up on southern blues and jazz, and brings a fusion of both styles to the band.
Stratospheerius has paid their dues, playing the club circuit, opening for artists such as John Scofield, Tim Reynolds and Mike Stern and finding themselves playing some highly unusual shows. Recounts Joe, One of the most unusual gigs we've ever done was a nude Pagan fest. It was filled with naked hippies who look like Jerry Garcia. We were promised a hotel room and instead we slept in the mud next to an all-night drum circle. Then, a couple of years ago we did a rock and porn fest at Old Miami in Detroit – the place was filled with bikers and dominatrixes (as well as 12 screens of hardcore porn). This was a club where Kid Rock and The White Stripes used to play. It might have seemed weird, but actually, we were the perfect band for the gig.”
What should ensure Stratospheerius playing more fitting gigs is their new album, Headspace. Recorded in a week and mixed over the course of a year, Headspace is an ambitious work that that ties together the work that the band has done in the past three years while taking it into new directions. There is the pop hook and sardonic wit of “New Material,” inspired by Joe's viewing of miserable rock stars on VH-1, comparing his relatively happy life to theirs, and then wondering what he was going to write about. The poignancy of “Old Ghosts,” a song about Joe returning to Cleveland to see many of the people he grew up with struggling, will resonate with anyone who comes back as an adult to the place they grew up. As Joe explains, “I came home and went to some of the bars I used to go to, and I saw people I knew and hadn't seen for years. It was like I was watching them fade away before my eyes.”
A Stratospheerius album is always a diverse musical experience, and in “Heavy Shtettle,” you can hear Joe and the band reaching beyond their limits into new terrain. On top of a propulsive rhythm section, Joe and Mack trade intense bursts on their instruments, taking their playing and the song into new dimensions, but always keeping the focus on the song as a whole.
The band is planning to tour throughout 2007 behind their breakthrough, Headspace, and is poised to take their music to a new and broader audience. Joe concludes, “I want to take the band to Europe and Japan, where I know there's a huge audience for what we do. My goal is to be Les Paul; I want to be 93 and still playing onstage with power and passion. This band is the culmination of everything I've ever done or heard in music. It's my opportunity to take people on the musical journey of a lifetime.”
Stratospheerius stems from the talent and vision of Joe Deninzon, electric violinist and vocalist for the band. A classically trained player, Joe was born in Russia, but moved to Cleveland when he was a boy. Influenced by everything from Frank Zappa to Led Zeppelin to the Police and Steely Dan, Joe got his music degree from Manhattan School of Music in the late 90's and began working as a freelance violinist. After playing a show at the Westbury Music Fair, he encountered another violinist who, having to play a really high passage, joked about his own playing, saying, "I should have brought my Stratospheerius," a word play on Stradivarius, the legendary 18th century violin maker. The name conjured exactly the combination of modern and classic that Joe was looking to create in his music, and he took the name on.
While teaching violin at the New School in Manhattan, Joe met and began playing with Alex Skolnick, the guitarist from the legendarily inventive late 80's metal band Testament. Alex played in the band for three years, and introduced drummer Lucianna Padmore, a Bronx-bred R&B devotee, into the band. Current guitarist Mack Price met Joe wile accompanying him at a clinic at the Berklee school of music. Mack grew up on southern blues and jazz, and brings a fusion of both styles to the band.
Stratospheerius has paid their dues, playing the club circuit, opening for artists such as John Scofield, Tim Reynolds and Mike Stern and finding themselves playing some highly unusual shows. Recounts Joe, One of the most unusual gigs we've ever done was a nude Pagan fest. It was filled with naked hippies who look like Jerry Garcia. We were promised a hotel room and instead we slept in the mud next to an all-night drum circle. Then, a couple of years ago we did a rock and porn fest at Old Miami in Detroit – the place was filled with bikers and dominatrixes (as well as 12 screens of hardcore porn). This was a club where Kid Rock and The White Stripes used to play. It might have seemed weird, but actually, we were the perfect band for the gig.”
What should ensure Stratospheerius playing more fitting gigs is their new album, Headspace. Recorded in a week and mixed over the course of a year, Headspace is an ambitious work that that ties together the work that the band has done in the past three years while taking it into new directions. There is the pop hook and sardonic wit of “New Material,” inspired by Joe's viewing of miserable rock stars on VH-1, comparing his relatively happy life to theirs, and then wondering what he was going to write about. The poignancy of “Old Ghosts,” a song about Joe returning to Cleveland to see many of the people he grew up with struggling, will resonate with anyone who comes back as an adult to the place they grew up. As Joe explains, “I came home and went to some of the bars I used to go to, and I saw people I knew and hadn't seen for years. It was like I was watching them fade away before my eyes.”
A Stratospheerius album is always a diverse musical experience, and in “Heavy Shtettle,” you can hear Joe and the band reaching beyond their limits into new terrain. On top of a propulsive rhythm section, Joe and Mack trade intense bursts on their instruments, taking their playing and the song into new dimensions, but always keeping the focus on the song as a whole.
The band is planning to tour throughout 2007 behind their breakthrough, Headspace, and is poised to take their music to a new and broader audience. Joe concludes, “I want to take the band to Europe and Japan, where I know there's a huge audience for what we do. My goal is to be Les Paul; I want to be 93 and still playing onstage with power and passion. This band is the culmination of everything I've ever done or heard in music. It's my opportunity to take people on the musical journey of a lifetime.”
