Spock S Beard

The Neal brothers (claviers and singing) and Alan Morse (guitar and choir) created Spock's Beard in 1992, in Los Angeles. They surround themselves with Nick D'Virgilio (battery and choirs) and John Ballard (bass), who will soon be replaced by Dave Meros. The combo released The Light in 1995. The band's music surprises the maturity of this first album (which lasts an hour for four tracks), and the Rock Progressive a little psychedelic by Spock's Beard is quickly compared to Pink Floyd. After the release of this first album, the band recruited a fifth member: Ryo Okumoto, a Japanese keyboardist. Neal Morse does not abandon its synthesizer, however, the group simply has two keyboards. With this line-up, a "first era" begins for Spock's Beard, which will release five studio albums and four live albums between 1996 and 2002. Starting from Day For Night (1999), Americans choose a sound halfway between pop and prog, offering songs that are sometimes long, epic, and full of experimentation, sometimes catchy and formatted like quality pop tubes. These two sounds will increasingly blend into a unique, technical but stubborn, progressive but accessible music. In addition, Spock's Beard develops a huge sense of second degree and always offers a lot of humor in his records and concerts. Just after Snow's release in 2002, Neal Morse announced that he was leaving his Spock's Beard and Transatlantic bands to devote himself to a solo career focused on religious themes. The band then lost its main composer and parolier, and the future of Spock's Barbe was on the edge of the razor (pardon, but it had to be done). It's the drummer who takes the lead in the band becoming a quartet. Like Phil Collins with Genesis, Nick D'Virgilio becomes lead singer and plays a few guitar games in addition to keeping his drummer position. Ryo Okumoto now handles all keyboard parts. The composition of the songs becomes collective. Spock's Beard's second era can begin. During the concerts, Nick D'Virgilio sings and plays guitar, and Jimmy Keegan is a session drummer. The scene still contains two batteries, and the group leader hits the instrumental parts. During this period, the concerts all include a "drum duel" between D'Virgilio and Keegan. From 2003 to 2010, four studio albums and three live performances will be recorded in this format. Nick D'Virgilio left Spock's Beard in 2011, and the band was again deprived of his leader. To remedy this, the Americans recruit Jimmy Keegan to the drums (which was already the fifth wheel of the live coach for almost ten years), and Ted Leonard (of the band Enchant) to the songs and guitar. Once again a quintet, the group approaches its "third era" with aplomb and proposes Brief Nocturnes And Dreamless Sleep in 2013 (for which Neal Morse returns to participate in the writing of two titles). The same line-up returns in August 2015 with The Oblivion Particle . Jimmy Keegan leaves the adventure and the band becomes a quartet again, without a drummer. Nick D'Virgilio, without becoming a permanent member again, will record the battery for Noise Floor, which is born in 2018.
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