That mellifluous voice will be familiar to anyone who’s spent time with him over the years—and anyone who’s seen the much-repeated short documentary on his current group, 1913, aired over and over on Milwaukee PBS. Victor DeLorenzo, drummer for the original Violent Femmes, began his stage work as an actor and his persona were honed long before the Femmes started playing on Milwaukee street corners.
His latest project puts that speaking voice to good use. Available only on Bandcamp, Spoken Drum is a spoken word recording in the classic sense of words recited against a musical backdrop.
“I wanted to pay homage to the great voices I heard while growing up in Chicago,” DeLorenzo says. “Ken Nordine—Tom Waits did a little bit of this and Patti Smith too—but one big influence was Frank McCormick who had a Sunday night show on WGN. Each evening he’d recite some of his favorite poetry. That really stuck with me.”
Most of us in these tumultuous times will relate to the words of “Head” from Spoken Drum: “My head feels like a place to hide… can you give me sanctuary?” Drums accompany words softly spoken like a conversation cupped into your ear in a room full of sound. Janette Schiff, his partner in the 1913 duo, played cello and keyboards on a couple of tracks. Otherwise, it’s all DeLorenzo—except for “Civil Rights,” with a somber yet hopeful orchestral arrangement by Milwaukee composer Josh Schmidt. The YouTube video for “Civil Rights” (with its refrain of “Take it to the bridge”) is a tribute to Black civil rights leaders set to footage of the infamous police violence in Selma, Alabama, 1965.
“The genesis was different from piece to piece,” DeLorenzo says, describing how Spoken Drum was written. “Sometimes I’d write something down and imagine music for it. Sometimes I’d start with a drum improvisation and would see what came to light. I didn’t have a system. It was all pretty organic.”
|
|
Next up for DeLorenzo, a new album by 1913. He hopes to release it this spring.
