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Richard Reed Parry | |
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![]() Parry performing with Arcade Fire in 2011 | |
Background information | |
Birth name | Richard Reed Parry |
Also known as | Richy |
Born | October 4, 1977 |
Origin | Ottawa, Ontario, Canada |
Genres | |
Occupation(s) |
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Instrument(s) |
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Years active | 2000–present |
Richard Reed Parry (born October 4, 1977) is a Canadian multi-instrumentalist, composer, producer, best known as a core member of the Grammy Award-winning indie rock band Arcade Fire, where he plays a wide variety of instruments, often switching between guitar, double bass, drums, celesta, keyboards, and accordion. [1]
Parry comes from a musical family. His late father was David Parry of the folk band Friends of Fiddler's Green. His mother, Caroline Balderston Parry, was a poet and musician, and his sister, Evalyn Parry, is a theatre artist, songwriter, and spoken word performer. [2] [3] Parry's family is Quaker and Parry grew up attending Toronto Monthly Meeting. [4] [5]
Parry attended Canterbury High School in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada and was one of a dozen members of the Literary Arts program (first generation). His classmates include Stargate: Atlantis writer Martin Gero and The Holmes Show comedian Kurt Smeaton.
In the mid 1990s, he worked summers at a vegetarian camp in near Chelsea, Quebec, called Camp Au Grand Bois.
In the late 1990s and early 2000s, he studied electroacoustics and contemporary dance at Concordia University in Montreal.
The Bell Orchestre was formed in 2005, along with Sarah Neufeld, Tim Kingsbury as well as Stefan Schneider and French horn player Pietro Amato. Parry primarily plays double bass and is the de facto producer. [6] [7] Bell Orchestre released As Seen Through Windows with Arts & Crafts Records on March 10, 2009. [8] It was recorded with John Mcentire in Soma Electric Studios in Chicago, Illinois. The album since won a 2011 Juno Award for best instrumental album.
A long-time core member of Arcade Fire, he co-produced and collaborated on the debut EP, Arcade Fire , before the first lineup of the band fell apart. Helping to reform and recreate the band, Parry brought in Bell Orchestre bandmate Sarah Neufeld, and New International Standards bandmates, Tim Kingsbury and Jeremy Gara.
He has also made musical contributions to albums by The National, Little Scream, Sufjan Stevens, The Unicorns and Islands. On the latter's critically acclaimed 2006 album Return to the Sea, he played several instruments, sang background vocals and arranged strings, and appeared with the band's 2016 10-year-anniversary shows where they played the album in full. Parry has also performed in a cover band called Phi Slamma Jamma along with Arcade Fire bandmates Will Butler, Jeremy Gara, and Tim Kingsbury. The group performed at the 2011 POP Montreal Festival as well as the 2012 Crossing Brooklyn Ferry Festival.
On January 20, 2007, Parry returned to Canterbury High to perform a concert with Arcade Fire in the school's cafeteria. Only 400 students and staff were permitted to attend the show. Beforehand, those chosen had the opportunity to preview new, unreleased songs from the Arcade Fire's upcoming album. After the show, there was a brief autograph period and the students met with the band members. [9]
He was also formerly a member of the band the New International Standards, with Tim Kingsbury and Jeremy Gara. [5] His first work for Orchestra, entitled For Heart, Breath and Orchestra. It was recorded by the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony, on their 2011 album From Here on Out alongside pieces by Jonny Greenwood and Nico Muhly. He has also written commissioned works for Kronos Quartet, yMusic and Bryce Dessner, and his chamber works also have been performed by the Calder Quartet and Warhol Dervish. Parry appeared at each night of the 2012 All Tomorrow's Parties festival, mounting a "moving surround sound sci-fi composition for bicycles and boomboxes" entitled Drones/Revelations, as well as performing songs with a folk trio called Quiet River of Dust, and as part of a chamber music ensemble performing Parry's Music for Heart and Breath. The lineup included Owen Pallett, Nico Muhly, Bryce Dessner, Aaron Dessner, Gaspar Claus, Nadia Sirota, Kyle Resnick, and Dave Nelson. He occasionally performs as drummer and backup singer with Little Scream. [10]
Parry has also collaborated with The National, arranging vocals and writing guitar parts for their songs on their 2010 album High Violet and appeared with them singing and playing guitar and double bass in their Vevo live event as well as on their Late Night with David Letterman appearance in 2011. He has joined them frequently onstage as a guest during many performances, including Lollapalooza 2010 (at which Arcade Fire also performed) and also during a brief segment of Arcade Fire's 2011 midwestern US tour in which The National acted as openers. Parry has also collaborated with Bryce Dessner of The National on classical compositions, performing together at the Edinburgh Festival in 2015. [2]
Parry recently co-hosted a BBC 6 Music Takeover programme with the members of The National called Arcade Fire and the National Takeover [11] Parry and brothers Aaron & Bryce Dessner who play guitar in The National have been long-term friends since meeting on the American alt-rock circuit, regularly appearing on the same festival bills worldwide. [11] Their friendship was cemented when Richard from the Arcade Fire contributed to a number of songs on The National's album High Violet, most notably playing double bass and guitar on 'Vanderlyle Crybaby Geeks', and doing the vocal harmony arrangements on 'Conversation 16' and 'Sorrow'. During this show Parry mentioned he was producing an album by a local Montreal artist named Little Scream.
In July 2018 Parry announced the upcoming release of two albums: Quiet River Of Dust Vol. 1 and Quiet River Of Dust Vol. 2. [12] The albums are inspired by Buddhist myths, death poems, British folk songs, and a recent trip to Japan. [12]
Between 2019 and 2021, Richard Reed Parry produced The Sadies' 2022 album Colder Streams at Montréal's Skybarn. [13] This was the last album by The Sadies to feature founding member Dallas Good, who died suddenly of natural causes on February 17, 2022, at the age of 48. [14] Shortly after, Parry announced via Instagram that he and Dallas had been working on an album on and off since 2008 with the working title The Watchtower. Unfinished at the time of Dallas Good's death, Parry plans to finish the album. [15]
In 2023, Parry composed the score of the biographical drama film The Iron Claw by Sean Durkin [16] and the score for Eileen by William Oldroyd. [17]
Arcade Fire is a Canadian indie rock band from Montréal, Quebec, consisting of husband and wife Win Butler and Régine Chassagne, alongside Richard Reed Parry, Tim Kingsbury and Jeremy Gara. The band's current touring line-up also includes former core member Sarah Neufeld and multi-instrumentalists Paul Beaubrun, Dan Boeckner and Eric Heigle. Each of the band's studio albums features contributions from composer and violinist Owen Pallett.
Tim Kingsbury is a Canadian musician and member of the indie rock band Arcade Fire. He plays bass guitar, guitar, and occasionally keyboards.
The National is an American rock band from Cincinnati, Ohio, formed in Brooklyn, New York City in 1999. The band consists of Matt Berninger (vocals), twin brothers Aaron Dessner and Bryce Dessner, as well as brothers Scott Devendorf (bass) and Bryan Devendorf (drums). Carin Besser, the wife of Matt Berninger, is not a band member but has written lyrics for the band alongside her husband since its 2007 album Boxer.
Pietro Amato is a French horn player with the rock bands Torngat, Bell Orchestre, and The Luyas. He has also performed with Arcade Fire.
Bell Orchestre is a six-piece instrumental band from Montreal. It was formed in 1999 by multi-instrumentalist Richard Parry and violinist Sarah Neufeld. Both also joined Arcade Fire. They were joined in Bell Orchestre by Michael Feuerstack, Stefan Schneider (drums/percussion), Pietro Amato, and Kaveh Nabatian (trumpet/melodica).
Jeremy Gara is a Canadian drummer from Ottawa, Ontario. He is most well known as the drummer of the band Arcade Fire. Gara is an active performer in a number of other projects, including work as a solo performer.
Sarah Neufeld is a Canadian violinist who is known for her work with indie rock band Arcade Fire, with whom she is a former core member and currently a touring member. She has contributed to each of the band's studio albums to date. Neufeld is also a member of the instrumental band Bell Orchestre.
"Neighborhood #2 (Laïka)" is the second single by Canadian rock band Arcade Fire from their debut album Funeral. Released on 28 March 2005, the single reached number 30 on the UK Singles Chart, and was released on the Rough Trade Records record label. The single also contains the song "My Buddy" by Alvino Rey, the grandfather of Arcade Fire members Win and William Butler, which was previously featured on the band's debut single "Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)".
"Keep the Car Running" is a song by Canadian indie rock band Arcade Fire. It is the second single released from the band's second album, Neon Bible in the UK. This song was #22 on Rolling Stone's list of the 100 Best Songs of 2007. In October 2011, NME placed it at number 61 on its list "150 Best Tracks of the Past 15 Years".
Bryce David Dessner is an American composer and guitarist based in Paris, as well as a member of the rock band the National. Dessner's twin brother, Aaron is also a member of the group. Together, they write the music in collaboration with lead singer and lyricist Matt Berninger.
Aaron Brooking Dessner is an American musician. He is best known as a founding member of the rock band The National, with whom he has recorded nine studio albums; a co-founder of the indie rock duo Big Red Machine, teaming with Bon Iver's Justin Vernon; and a collaborator on Taylor Swift's studio albums Folklore and Evermore, both of which contended for the Grammy Award for Album of the Year in 2021 and 2022, respectively, with the former winning the accolade.
MusicNOW is a contemporary music and arts festival founded in 2006 in Cincinnati, Ohio, by Chamber Music Cincinnati. President Audrey Luna and guitarist and composer Bryce Dessner curated this inaugural season. It was originally held at the Contemporary Arts Center and later moved to Memorial Hall, a small historic theater located in the city's historic Over-the-Rhine district. Festival performers have included contemporary music advocates Bang on a Can All-Stars and Kronos Quartet as well as indie rock groups such as Grizzly Bear, Dirty Projectors and The National. Two annual elements of the festival have been the inclusion of visual art, including installations by Karl Jensen, and new music commissions.
"Ready to Start" is a single from Arcade Fire's third album The Suburbs. It was released as a single on October 3, 2010. The band performed "Ready to Start" as their second performance at the 53rd Grammy Awards, immediately following The Suburbs winning Album of the Year. The band also performed the song at the Brit Awards several days after the Grammy Awards.
Little Scream is the stage name of American-born, Montreal-based singer, songwriter, multi-instrumental musician and artist Laurel Sprengelmeyer. Her debut album The Golden Record was released on Outside Music in Canada and Secretly Canadian elsewhere on March 15, 2011. Her musical style has been described as a blend of folk, pop and art rock.
Andrew Gilmore Barr is a drummer and producer based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada who is best known for his work with The Barr Brothers and The Slip.
Day of the Dead is the twenty-fifth compilation release benefiting the Red Hot Organization, an international charity dedicated to raising funds and awareness for HIV and AIDS. Featuring fifty-nine exclusive recordings of covers of Grateful Dead songs by a number of independent artists as a tribute to the band, the compilation was released on May 20, 2016, as five CDs, a limited edition vinyl LP box set, and as a digital download. John Carlin, the founder of the Red Hot Organization, was the executive producer for the album. The members of The National first performed with Bob Weir at his Bay Area studio in 2012 as part of the Headcount benefit The Bridge Session. The group's budding friendship with the Dead cofounder pushed them to record the massive Dead tribute.
The Golden Record is the debut studio album by Montreal singer and indie rock artist Little Scream, released by the Secretly Canadian label on April 11, 2011.
Cult Following is the second studio album by American-born, Montreal-based indie rock artist Little Scream. It was released on Merge Records and Dine Alone Records on May 6, 2016.
Everything Now is the fifth studio album by Canadian indie rock band Arcade Fire, released on July 28, 2017, through Sonovox Records, Columbia Records, and Rough Trade Records. It was produced by Arcade Fire, alongside Thomas Bangalter of the electronic-house duo Daft Punk and Steve Mackey, the bassist of the band Pulp. Additionally, Markus Dravs, one of Arcade Fire's frequent collaborators, co-produced two tracks, and he, Geoff Barrow of Portishead, and Eric Heigle each provided additional production on one track.
Big Red Machine is an American indie folk band that began as a collaboration between musicians Aaron Dessner and Justin Vernon. The band is named after the nickname for the dominant 1970s Cincinnati Reds baseball team, which won the 1976 World Series in Dessner's birth year.