If you slept through the 1980s (or just weren’t born yet), you may not be familiar with the artist who present to you today. Even if you were an avid music lover during that special decade, you may not know him by name, but you certainly will be familiar with his band – the Violent Femmes.

A founding member of this pioneering folk/punk outfit, kick-ass drummer and an achieved solo artist in his own right, Victor DeLorenzo delivers his new Tranceaphone EP. This is a release we can embrace with wide-open arms, an offering that’s the first recording under his own name, Victor DeLorenzo, since 2013 and his sixth release overall.

Over the course of its five tracks, DeLorenzo proves himself to be a master of his craft, with compelling compositions – from title track ‘Tranceaphone’ that contrasts gritty rock guitar with floating synth notes to the addictively rhythmic ‘Lullaby’ and restless ‘Invisible Shadows’, to the deepening ‘Then Don’t Say A Word’, and continuing to the pinnacle – the final track ‘When She’s There’ that is imbued with DeLorenzo’s deep and dreamy vocals.

Tranceaphone is an EP that will summon mental associations with Talking Heads, David J (of Bauhaus), and The Velvet Underground, but will nevertheless find you painting an entirely new canvas of delight with DeLorenzo’s clever sonic paintbrush.

DeLorenzo is best-known as drummer for Violent Femmes, which he formed in 1980 (at the age of 16) with bassist Brian Ritchie (singer-guitarist Gordon Gano then joined them the following year). Milwaukee was where all the magic happened, DeLorenzo having moved there from Racine, Wisconsin for school. A little known fact from back in the day: DeLorenzo’s father loaned the band $10,000 to record their eponymous debut album in 1982, an album that was delayed until 1983 upon signing to Slash Records.

DeLorenzo came into his own in the mid-‘90s with a solo career. In the course of his career, DeLorenzo has also had the pleasure of being an actor, writer, audio engineer, and producer. His acting career got an incredible launch when he replaced Willem Dafoe in the Milwaukee-based theater company Theatre X, when Dafoe left for stage and film brilliance in NYC and beyond.

DeLorenzo is also one-half of the chamber rock duo Nineteen Thirteen with cellist Janet Schiff, and was previously the drummer in Moe Tucker’s band, which also included former Velvet Underground bandmate Sterling Morrison in the mid to late ’90s.

“I wanted to write a collection of music that suggests a story, but doesn’t really lay anything out in a concrete way. A mystery of omission featuring a folk/art instrument as a good luck charm. Whatever happens to the maybe woman and man in this story is anybody’s guess, but the cadence of the lyrics against the musical thought intrigues me. It’s like listening to a film noir feature if pictures could sing,” says Victor DeLorenzo.

“The Tranceaphone EP is lovingly based on the idea of multiple layers of drum choirs that sing out not only in time, but with joyfully implied melodies that bob and weave. After recording different drum systems, I then wrote music that could breathe within the improvised drum set structures. The bass parts are very important to the drum sounds on this EE in the way the bass and drum parts help to create a sonic mystery of sorts for the vocals to hide in.”

DeLorenzo’s signature sound is a result of his minimalist drum set. He often uses nothing more than a snare drum, a tranceaphone, and steel brushes. The tranceaphone consists of a metal bushel basket inverted over a tom. He favors this style of drum set because in their early days, the Violent Femmes often played on the streets.

DeLorenzo continued to record and tour with the Violent Femmes until 1993, when he left to devote more time to acting and to recording his own music. In 2000, he teamed up with Ritchie to put together a Femmes compilation, and subsequently rejoined the band until disbanding again in 2009. In March 2013, Gano, Ritchie and DeLorenzo reformed the Violent Femmes once more and played a homecoming show at the Summerfest music festival in their native Milwaukee.

Tranceaphone was released on March 19 and is available digitally across key online stores and online streaming platforms, including Spotify, and Apple Music.

CREDITS
Produced by Victor DeLorenzo
Recorded and Mixed by Victor DeLorenzo at The Past Office
Mastered by Justin Perkins at Mystery Room Mastering
Victor/Tranceaphone drawing by Carri Skoczek
Back Cover Photo by Michael Hoffmann
This is a bFrecording
c&p 2020 defendimusics bmi
‘Tranceaphone’ : Victor – Tranceaphone, Gretsch snare drum, Cymbal, Bass, Vocal; Mike Hoffmann – Electric Guitars, Vocal; Janet Schiff – Synth Strings
‘Lullaby’ : Victor – Vocal, Keyboards, Drumsets, Percussion; Janet – Cello, Keyboards, Bass; Mike – Electric Guitar
‘Invisible Shadows’ : Victor – Vocals, Bass, Keyboards, Drumsets, Percussion; Janet – Keyboards
‘Then Don’t Say A Word’ : Victor – Drumsets, Vocals, Keyboards; Janet – Bass, Synth Vocals, Keyboards
‘When She’s There’ : Victor – Vocals, Drumsets, Percussion, Keyboards; Monia – Vocal; Matt Meixner – Keyboards; Janet – Bass

Also check out DeLorenzo’s video for single ‘Carry Me’, released several years ago:

VICTOR DELORENZO
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