Moniker
mystery tour

>> Introducing the band formerly known as Krief

THE WHO?: Roberto Piccioni, Patrick Krief,
Andre Bendahan and George Donoso III

by LORRAINE CARPENTER

“I’m still struggling with the fact that I hate my own voice,” says Patrick Krief, and he’s not in love with his last name either. After a few false starts, the Dears guitarist’s solo endeavour gained altitude last year with the indie release of the Take It or Leave It EP. His carefully crafted classic pop/rock songs gained muscle care of bassist Andre Bendahan, drummer George Donoso III (also of the Dears) and keyboardist Roberto Piccioni, , a band that quickly graduated from tiny bars to the Osheaga festival to a mini-tour of Mexico. And now their album is in the can, and they’ve renamed the band—both will be unveiled at this weekend’s launch, featuring string and horn sections, back-up singers and special guests for one night only. Ahead of this special occasion, the Mirror questioned the former child shredder about coming into his own.

Mirror: So your uncles got you playing guitar at three and doing blues bar gigs at 13. That’s crazy.

Patrick Krief: Yeah, seriously. My Uncle Robert had been a light and sound guy for a band with insanely amazing guitarists, so every time he’d come over and I had something amazing to show him, he was like, “Naw, that’s nothing.” He was always raising the bar for me, which was great because I had a lot of ego, I had to be the best.

M: Steve Vai style?

PK: Yeah, I totally went through that phase of playing as if you’re getting paid per note. I’m glad I did ’cause it brought some dexterity that comes in handy once in a while. Musically, though, it’s gibberish. When I got into songwriting, I pretty much gave up guitar wanking.

Mirror: I understand you initially wrote three-minute pop songs, whereas now there’s a more sprawling rock sound. What changed?

PK: Basically, I abandoned the idea of radio. I’ve seen great songs not get played so I figured I might as well make the record I wanna hear.

M: How has being a member of the Dears affected the launch of this band?

PK: I think the people, the music fans, the Dears fans, are more likely to take me seriously, but the industry side of it is like, “Oh cute, you have a little side project. When’s the next Dears record coming out?” But all the great things we have lined up have been connected to the Dears, so ultimately it’s a good thing, no question. With this record, we really want it to stand on its own and we’re trying to figure out a way to do that.

M: After working with a couple of singers, what finally drove you to sing?

PK: At one point, I gave Murray [Lightburn, of the Dears] a CD of 35 demos of me singing on acoustic, and when we met up later on tour, he was like, “Krief! I need to talk to you. Let’s go. Right now.” I was like, “What the fuck? What did I do?” and he said, “You’re making a huge mistake. HUGE mistake. You’ve gotta sing your own songs.” He was really laying it on me. And it wasn’t just him, it was everybody around me. So I made the EP as an experiment, I didn’t even plan on putting it out. But now I can’t imagine anyone else singing my songs.

With Jason Bajada at Lion d’Or on
Saturday, April 26, 9 p.m., $12