Denny DeMarchi

Denny DeMarchi (28 November 1962 – 15 May 2020) was a Canadian musician best known as a keyboardist and singer-songwriter. He was also a guitarist, backing vocalist, audio engineer and record producer. DeMarchi played with the Irish band the Cranberries during their reunion tour (2009–11), and also performed with Dolores O'Riordan as her keyboardist and guitarist during her solo world tour in 2007. He played the signature keyboard notes for the 1990 No. 1 Billboard hit song "More Than Words Can Say" by the band Alias, which features his brother, Steve on guitar.

Denny DeMarchi
Denny DeMarchi on keyboard during Cranberries concert in Oct 2010 in Fortaleza, Brazil.
Denny DeMarchi on keyboard during Cranberries concert in Oct 2010 in Fortaleza, Brazil.
Background information
Born(1962-11-28)28 November 1962
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Died15 May 2020(2020-05-15) (aged 57)
GenresRock, alternative rock, indie rock, modern rock
Occupation(s)Musician, vocalist, songwriter
Instrument(s)Vocals, keyboards, hammond organ, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, flute, wind instruments.
Years active1990–2020
LabelsIndie
Websitewww.myspace.com/dennydemarchi

Career

1990s Alias

In the mid 80s, DeMarchi helped his brother Steve and their good friend Freddy Curci build the sound recording studio, Platinum Sound, out of the DeMarchi family basement where most of the songs on the Alias album were written and recorded. He was also involved with some of the production and engineering work for that album.

DeMarchi was the keyboardist and backing vocalist for the 1990 No. 1 Billboard hit song More Than Words Can Say from the ALIAS album. He also co-wrote the last song in the Alias album, "Standing in the Darkness".

DeMarchi played keyboard, bass and did some of the production and engineering work for the 1994 Freddy Curci Dreamer's Road album. He co-wrote and produced the song "Diamonds" in this album.

2007–2008 Musician for Dolores O'Riordan's Solo Albums and World Tour

DeMarchi and his older brother Steve are old friends of Don Burton, Dolores O'Riordan's husband. On a visit to Burton and O'Riordan's family home in Canada, DeMarchi played on O'Riordan's piano, DeMarchi's talent on the piano impressed O'Riordan so much that she decided to hire DeMarchi as her keyboardist for her solo project.

DeMarchi was the keyboardist for Dolores O'Riordan's solo albums Are You Listening? and No Baggage. In 2007 he also toured with Dolores O'Riordan on her solo world tour. In May 2007, DeMarchi along with other band members, were featured with O'Riordan in live performances on the Carson Daly Show, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno,[1][2] True Music on HDnet cable network TV,[3] and on Heaven and Earth BBC Manchester.[4]

Dolores O'Riordan won a European Border Breakers Award in 2008. DeMarchi supported O'Riordan on keyboard and as backing vocalist at the award ceremony at Midem 2008, Cannes, France – 27 Jan 2008.[5]

2009–2011 tour musician for the Cranberries
DeMarchi in 2009

DeMarchi toured with the Cranberries as their keyboard/guitar player and backing vocalist on their world tour, performing at major concert venues across the United States; Canada; South America; Europe and Asia.[6] DeMarchi's performance in the Cranberries concert at Club Nokia in Los Angeles was mentioned in two separate L.A. Newspapers. The Orange County Register's Entertainment Section review of the Cranberries concert printed that "Demarchi triggered the swelling orchestration and provided welcome background support all evening by bolstering the sound and enriching vocals."[7] Variety reported that "The Band, augmented by keyboardist-guitarist Denny DeMarchi from O'Riordan's recent solo disc No Baggage, brings sufficient energy to the set, the influence of the Smiths quite prevalent; oddly enough, the more racket they created, the more cohesive they sounded."[8]

DeMarchi was the opening act for the Cranberries On 5 July 2010 in Rome at the Roma Rock Festival, one of the premier events on the European summer music festival scene.[9] DeMarchi opened the show with 8 songs from his own Rockizoid solo project.[10]

On 28 August 2009. DeMarchi accompanied Dolores O'Riordan in a Live performance on CBC Radio in Toronto Ontario Canada.[11] Dolores O'Riordan joined guest host Jesse Wente live in Studio Q to talk about her second solo album release, No Baggage, and the reunion of the Cranberries with plans for a world tour in mid November 2009. Dolores O'Riordan introduced DeMarchi on the radio show as her keyboarder. They performed the songs "Linger", "It's You" and "Zombie" between interviews with other guests on the show. One of the guests was Walter Koenig, who played Pavel Chekov from Star Trek.

2012 Producing/engineering Killer Bee album

Aside from being an experienced multi-talented musician, DeMarchi has also shown a keen interest in audio engineering and music production projects. His latest engineering and collaborative production endeavors from his recording studio, Denny DeMarchi Studios, produced an album titled From Hell and Back by a Swedish/Canadian hard rock band Killer Bee.[12] DeMarchi was also the keyboard and rhythm guitar player on this album, which was released by an English record label Z-Records on 22 October 2012.

Solo Projects

As a prolific singer/songwriter, DeMarchi engaged in writing and recording his own music under the name Rockizoid (2007–2010) and under the band name HedRek which he formed in 2011. DeMarchi has written well over 200 songs[13] in an ongoing personal musical pursuit. He has started recording work, whenever time permitted, on a small portion of his portfolio of songs and has released 10 tracks on his MySpace profile's music player.[14]

DeMarchi's music is explorative rock with a strong sense of groove and identifiable lyrics. "A song should be able to stand on its own by singing and playing it on one instrument. If it feels good doing that, then it's worth recording".[15]

In July 2009, DeMarchi's song "All Your Fault", released in May 2009, entered the Fame Games Radio and within three weeks quickly advanced to the 233 Wednesday edition of the quarter-final Show, with ranking of Number 2 and 233 edition of the semi-final show, with ranking of Number 3[16] which were aired on radio nationwide in the United States on the Citadel Media (formerly the ABC radio) networks in mid August 2009.

Personal life

DeMarchi was born in Toronto. His parents immigrated to Ontario, Canada from Italy. DeMarchi was an executive of a company that services the Dental Industry in the greater Toronto, Ontario area. His personal hobbies/recreation included riding the ATV, snowmobiling, boating and riding his unicycle.

Death

On 15 May 2020, website iHeartRadio reported that DeMarchi had died from cancer.[17]

Discography

Alias

With Freddy Curci
  • Dreamer's Road, (1994)

With Dolores O'Riordan

With Killer Bee
  • Hell and Back, (2012)

References
  1. Dolores O'Riordan interviewed "UGO.com" Archived 12 January 2009 at the Wayback Machine, cranberries.com
  2. Dolores O'Riordan interview Archived 15 June 2011 at the Wayback Machine by Daniel Robert Epstein, ugo.com
  3. True Music HDnet performance, youtube.com
  4. BBC live performance, youtube.com
  5. , EBBA Award Performance Video
  6. Press release about the Cranberries reunion tour Archived 31 August 2009 at the Wayback Machine.
  7. The Orange County Register Entertainment Section written by George A. Paul on Dec 5th 2009
  8. Variety review written by Phil Gallo on Dec 6th 2009
  9. "Great Roma Rock Festival Tickets to Roma Rock Festival: your Favourite Festival Online!". Worldticketshop.com. Retrieved 14 April 2011.
  10. , Denny DeMarchi Myspace profile
  11. Archived 6 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine Download link to the podcast of this radio show
  12. Archived 4 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine, Killer Bee band Hell and Back album info page
  13. Denny DeMarchi Myspace fan page
  14. Rockizoid Myspace profile
  15. Denny DeMarchi, Rockzoid, Airplay Direct
  16. "The Fame Games Radio Show". Meermusic.com. Retrieved 14 April 2011.
  17. Kennedy, John R (16 May 2020). "Canadian Musician Denny DeMarchi Loses Battle With Cancer". iHeartRadio. Canada. Archived from the original on 16 May 2020. Retrieved 16 May 2020.
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