Misplaced Pages

Dave Kerzner: Difference between revisions

Article snapshot taken from[REDACTED] with creative commons attribution-sharealike license. Give it a read and then ask your questions in the chat. We can research this topic together.
Browse history interactively← Previous editNext edit →Content deleted Content addedVisualWikitext
Revision as of 01:46, 27 May 2013 editWinkelvi (talk | contribs)Extended confirmed users, Pending changes reviewers, Rollbackers30,145 edits Sonic Reality and Sonic Elements: removing in studio photo as undue weight -- one already exists in this article of kerzner in studio← Previous edit Revision as of 02:07, 27 May 2013 edit undoWinkelvi (talk | contribs)Extended confirmed users, Pending changes reviewers, Rollbackers30,145 edits remove -- article is about kerzner, not sound of contactNext edit →
Line 68: Line 68:
* *
* *

{{sound of contact}}


{{Persondata {{Persondata

Revision as of 02:07, 27 May 2013

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.
Find sources: "Dave Kerzner" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (May 2013) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Dave Kerzner
Dave Kerzner, 2011Dave Kerzner, 2011
Background information
Birth nameDavid Nathaniel Kerzner
Also known asSquids
BornJuly 1968
OriginPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
GenresClassic Rock, Progressive Rock, Alternative Rock, Ambient, Film Score
Occupation(s)Musician, Songwriter, Producer, Sound Designer
Instrument(s)Keyboard, Piano, Guitar, Drums, Vocals
Years active1989–present
Websitedavekerzner.com
Musical artist

David Nathaniel Kerzner (born July 1968), also known by the nickname Squids, is an American musician, songwriter, producer and sound designer. He is currently a member of the band Sound of Contact as a songwriter, keyboardist and co-producer with Simon Collins.

Early life

Dave Kerzner grew up in Hollywood, Florida and began taking piano lessons at the age of seven. He bought his first synthesizer, a Realistic MG-1, at age fourteen, which was quickly replaced by a Yamaha SK30 and CP35. Throughout his teens, he played in various rock bands while attending Hollywood Hills High School in Florida and Ecole Classique in New Orleans, Louisiana. He sold his Yamaha SK30 and CP35 keyboards to Adam Gaynor, another Hills alumni who became a guitarist for the band Matchbox 20. Several years later, Gaynor returned Kerzner's original keyboard rig to him, now belonging in Kerzner's extensive collection of vintage keyboards.

Kerzner moved from Hollywood, Florida to Los Angeles, California in 1989 after two years attending Syracuse University studying television, radio and film. After a year spent at Grove School of Music and UCLA Extension, Kerzner ventured into the music industry as a session keyboard player and sound programmer.

Music career

During the span of his music career, Kerzner has worked with artists and bands such as Alan Parsons, Genesis, Francis Dunnery, Neil Peart, Keith Emerson, Tom Waits, Smashing Pumpkins, and Sam Phillips.

Early Years

Kerzner and Ken Scott in the studio

In the early 1990s Kerzner began to collect rare musical instruments. When 16-bit stereo digital sampling became available, Kerzner sampled these instruments to license to such major digital musical instrument manufacturers as Alesis, Roland and Yamaha. Following this endeavor into the music software industry, Kerzner worked with such recording artists as Madonna, Ringo Starr, and Moog Cookbook as both a musician and as a sound engineer.

In 1993, Kerzner played keyboards and programmed drum sequences for an album with L. Shankar featuring Phil Collins, Bono and The Edge. As well, he toured as a keyboardist with Shankar and Caroline on Peter Gabriel’s 1993 WOMAD Festival Tour. During New Year's that same year, Kerzner performed with Barbra Streisand at the grand opening of MGM Grand in Las Vegas. His role in Streisand’s concert performance was to play samples of actor's voices from a digital keyboard during skits between Streisand's performances to emulate the sound of off-stage psychologists responding to her on-stage character.

In 1994, Kerzner collaborated with Kevin Gilbert on his solo album, Thud, also being featured on the CD, “Kevin Gilbert Live at the Troubadour”. Kerzner also joined the band, Giraffe, as keyboardist for a one-off tribute performance of Genesis' The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway album at Progfest '94 in Los Angeles.

Kerzner also composed music with Gilbert for television as part of a ghost writing team under the pseudonym, "Matthew Delgado". Among the projects was the television show, One West Waikiki.

Collaborations

In 2005 Kerzner performed with Jon Anderson of Yes along with Nick D'Virgilio, Stan Cotey and Mark Hornsby as “Sonik Elementz” for a special one off performance of “Long Distance Runaround” at the Galaxy Theater in Anaheim during the Winter NAMM convention. From 2007 to 2010 Kerzner collaborated on music with Simon Collins, son of the popular singer/drummer/songwriter Phil Collins.

In 2010 Kerzner contributed sound design and assistance with music software for Steven Wilson’s album “Grace For Drowning”.

Sound of Contact

Kerzner with Genesis and Simon Collins

After his initial 2006 meeting with Simon Collins in New York City, the two musicians to co-produce a remake of the Genesis song "Keep It Dark". Kerzner also played keyboards and collaborated on songs from Collins' album "U-Catastrophe" such as "The Big Bang".

In 2010, Kerzner and Collins decided to form a band; in 2012, they announced the band, Sound of Contact, with Collins on lead vocals and drums, Kerzner on keyboard, and colleagues Matt Dorsey and Kelly Nordstrom on bass and guitar. The band has recorded and produced their debut album, Dimensionaut; it has since been released in Europe on May 20, 2013 and is slated to be released on May 28, 2013 elsewhere.

Sonic Reality and Sonic Elements

Kerzner sitting at an Emblem Steinway

In 1996 Kerzner founded the sound development company Sonic Reality Inc, shifting to a full time focus on the sampling of every type of musical instrument from vintage keyboards to drums to orchestral and world instruments. Developing music technology and creative tools for musicians, Kerzner collaborated with professional artists to sample and digitally reproduce the sounds of many types of musical instruments. The sounds are played from music software such as "samplers" and music recording tools. Sonic Reality also produces "play along" DrummerTracks and other backing tracks for guitarists, bass players, keyboardists, and singers to work with via various audio devices, mobile devices, and recording software. Through Sonic Reality, Kerzner's sounds have been used by artists world-wide.

In 2001 Kerzner teamed up with IK Multimedia to pioneer bringing the sounds he created for keyboard workstations into the “virtual instrument” world of software. Producing a majority of the sound range for the first comprehensive “software rompler” virtual instrument called "SampleTank", Kerzner developed a plug-in for popular recording software that offered every type of sampled music instrument with built-in effects to be played via midi.

While operating as CEO of Sonic Reality Inc, Kerzner has remained active as a musician as well as providing custom sound programming for touring and recording artists such as the Rolling Stones and Beyoncé.

In 2011, Kerzner put together Sonic Elements, a progressive rock project and electronic tribute band. Sonic Elements puts Sonic Reality samples into musical context, creating a virtual “super group” per song by combining different musicians with Sonic Reality sampled drummers and other instrumentation.

References

  1. ^ Sound of Contact Signs With InsideOut Prog Rock Magazine. Retrieved 28 April 2013.
  2. ^ Company - Sonic Reality Inc. Sonic Reality. Retrieved 26 May 2013. Cite error: The named reference "sonicreality" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  3. ^ Interview with Dave Kerzner - MacMusic. MacMusic. Retrieved 26 May 2013.
  4. Two Thuds and a Lamb - An Introspective by Dave Kerzner. KevinGilbert.com. Retrieved 26 May 2013.
  5. ^ U-Catastrophe album credits. AllMusic. Retrieved 28 April 2013.
  6. Steven Wilson Grace for Drowning album credits. Prog Archives. Retrieved 28 April 2013.
  7. The Brooks Bulletin. Brown, Rob. "Canadian Simon Collins releases first US album". n.d.
  8. SOUND OF CONTACT Release Debut Concept Album "Dimensionaut" And Reveal Live Video. Prog Sphere. Retrieved 26 May 2013.
  9. Genesis “turns it on again” with IK and Sonic Reality. IK Multimedia. Retrieved 26 May 2013.
  10. Sonic Reality Progressive Rock Project - About. Facebook. Retrieved 26 May 2013.

External links

Template:Persondata

Categories:
Dave Kerzner: Difference between revisions Add topic