Joe Krapf Brings Renaissance To Newport – Entertainment – The Newport Daily News

Local music fans know Bristol native Joe Krapf as a drummer for alt-funk music group Providence Northeast Traffic and reggae rock group based in Newport Blue Dream. Recently, Krapf started to change from being behind the kit to becoming a guitarist and singer in his own band. They are known as Joe Krapf & The Renaissance and the trio has a hard rock sound that incorporates elements of blues and psychedelia. To finish the act, stage veteran Nick Iddon on drums and bassist Jared Souza, who also plays guitar in Bristol metal Noxii Arena. On March 13, they will head the Parlor Bar & Kitchen at 200 Broadway in Newport with their compatriots Ziggy Gnardust and Beauquet.

Krapf got his own six strings through a paternal story with the instrument and having the funds to get injured on the job to buy one. He's still in the know, but he also has a knack for making his own sounds out of this.

"I have always loved the guitar," he said of how he started playing the instrument. I haven't played for so long, maybe three or four years. My father is a guitarist and I played his acoustics when I lived with my friends. I bought my guitar with money I had to be out of work, it was a worker plan, I guess you could tell. I broke my wrist in 2014 and when it healed it didn't heal properly, it took me about a year and a while with the conviction of my doctor to have surgery. "

"I'm glad I did it and 15 months a day for surgery, I used the money I had to get a guitar," adds Krapf. "After I started learning the instrument, I vowed never to hurt myself again. I just fumbled about it, learning a few licks from people and YouTube videos while trying to "Learn scraps and songs. With guitar, bass, and drums. I ended up storing between four and five original songs."

Involving others in the group was a bit complicated at first. It was only during a chance meeting with a like-minded person at a certain festival that Krapf started to shake things up in a lineup.

"I always wanted to meet people with this project, but I couldn't find anyone who could do it," he says. "I ended up meeting Nick last summer at the Live Local Music & Arts Festival which happened in Newport for a little while. I asked him if he wanted to play one day and he was okay, since we are both drummers, he was a little confused about me playing with him on guitar but he was interested. Then I asked Jared, who finished by being one of my best friends in Bristol, if he wanted to play bass. It was downstairs and I had a concert reserved for my birthday at the pub O & # 39 ; Brien in Boston with Northeast Traffic and the promoter and I was looking for other bands to play. "

"He formed a group, then I went to see Nick and Jared to play these songs," said Krapf during the group's first concert. "We must have practiced only a month before the show, then we played four songs. From there we rehearse once a week while learning new things. I added some riffs here and there and when we jam together we write new material together and that's pretty much all the excitement for me. I knew collaboration would make me play better and I love music and being able to play. "

When it comes to facing the Renaissance and drumming in Northeast Traffic and Blue Dream, Krapf noticed some relative things between the three groups. At the same time, he wants to learn new things to integrate into his own musical talents rather than directly copying his contemporaries.

"I would say that there are certainly similar influences in these two groups and with what I do on guitar with The Renaissance in a way that I never thought of", a- he says about the similarities that each act shares. "All the camaraderie of writing together and being in a group is more influential than I try to adapt to the style of a certain guitarist. I don't want to make a another northeast traffic or another blue dream, I'm just trying to do my own thing while being connected to the concepts and ideas that make these other groups successful. Samuel Clemens of Northeast Traffic works for a company of guitar, so it was very useful, the same goes for Alex Claros in the band. TC and Steve Demers in Blue Dream were also great to learn, I love these guys. "

At the time of publication, the only recording available for Krapf & The Renaissance was their live performance at the Broadway Street Fair in Newport last October. He plans to work on a studio release in the near future.

"Right now we have about 10 songs that we are ready to record," he said of an upcoming album. "I'm actually going to meet a friend of mine by the name of Marc Poulin, he is an engineer at The Chamber in Warwick. He has definitely expressed an interest in recording us and I would like to enter the studio soon. I don't want to rush , everything so far has been great fun and I don't want to push for it to be the opposite. I hope we can release something this year. "