Victor DeLorenzo Of Violent Femmes & The Night Crickets

Interview with Victor DeLorenzo Of Violent Femmes & The Night Crickets

DeLorenzo was born in 1954, the son of Victor and Charlotte DeLorenzo,\ grew up in Racine, Wisconsin, and has lived in Milwaukee since. He has been a drummer since the age of 16 while attending St. Catherine's High School (Racine, Wisconsin), and has been an actor since the age of five. While attending the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, he auditioned for and was accepted into Theatre X in 1976, and worked with them in various roles for more than 20 years.[ As a drummer, DeLorenzo paired up with bassist Brian Ritchie in 1980, as a rhythm section they called "Violent Femmes". When singer, guitarist, and songwriter Gordon Gano joined them in 1981, the band kept the name.[2] DeLorenzo's father loaned the band $10,000 to record their eponymous debut album in 1982. However, the band was forced to delay its release until 1983 after they signed to Slash Records. DeLorenzo's signature sound is a result of his minimalist drum kit. 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 kit because in their early days, the band often played on the streets. DeLorenzo continued to act with Theatre X, and record and tour with the Femmes until 1993, when he left to devote more time to acting and to recording his own music.He toured as part of Moe Tucker's band in that year. In 1996 he opened a recording studio called "Joe's Real Recording" He has released three solo records since 1990. In addition to recording his own music, he has played with several side projects, including Ash Can School. In 2000, he teamed up with Ritchie to put together a Femmes compilation, and subsequently rejoined the band until it disbanded again in 2009.In March 2013, Gano, Ritchie and DeLorenzo reformed Violent Femmes once more and played a homecoming show at the Summerfest music festival in their native Milwaukee. Three months later, in July, the band announced a new line-up with Dresden Dolls member Brian Viglione as the band's drummer. DeLorenzo confirmed in a statement that he had left the Femmes permanently because of a failure of the band members to resolve their long-standing business disputes. DeLorenzo performs percussion in the chamber rock duo Nineteen Thirteen with cellist Janet Schiff. Nineteen Thirteen's recording of "Hurricane Noel" was featured in the 2011 TED Global Conference.

Night Crickets, a long-distance groove affair conducted during the drawn-out days of lockdown and beyond. Featuring David J, Victor DeLorenzo, and Darwin Meiners.

 

Iconic and foundational bands in the history of alternative music certainly include Bauhaus, Love And Rockets, and Violent Femmes. San Francisco born artist Darwin Meiners was a fan of all three. A chance meeting 13 years ago with David J (Bauhaus, Love & Rockets) grew into a friendship, and Darwin not only became a bandmate, but David J’s manager. After reaching out to Victor DeLorenzo through e-mail, Darwin met the Violent Femmes drummer after the Femmes’ Coachella set in 2013. Soon after the three collaborated on Darwin’s 2014 release Souvenir.

As the pandemic took hold, Darwin was looking for a new project to occupy the lock-down time and approached Victor, who was keen to proceed and suggested that David join as well. The musical trust established between these three was immediate and Night Crickets were born. Within weeks a global process was initiated between them, the recordings eventually forming the album, A Free Society. To say this is something of a dream come true for music fans would be entirely accurate.

(The band’s name came from one of many Zoom meetings between the three members. After addressing various pressing musical issues the conversation rambled somewhat and turned to the subject of David Lynch, with David J telling an anecdote which was told to him by Lynch’s sound designer, John Neff. Lynch had asked Neff to obtain a field recording of crickets chirping at night for inclusion in Mulholland Drive. When Neff played him the tape, the director immediately recognized the sound that the insects make when it is light which is apparently a little different to their nocturnal chirp. “No! No! No! These are day crickets, John! I want my night crickets!” Victor, Darwin, and David then shared a look of mutual realization and instantly agreed that the project now had a name!)

Night Crickets Info

http://omnivorerecordings.com/shop/a-free-society/?fbclid=IwAR20Jsa93KV7Npoxfan53Mjd67ihiceYXEkESshe5I0SGiKhGAveeZJgMrk

 

Victor's Info

https://victordelorenzo.weebly.com/vf-press-release.html