Patrick Krief Uses Time Off From The Dears To Work On His Own Music

MONTREAL — One of the more unfortunate incidents to rock the close-knit Montreal music community this year was the break-in and robbery of Dears guitarist Patrick Krief's rehearsal space. Banditos made off with nearly $20,000 worth of equipment, including a beloved Stratocaster guitar that he received as a gift on his 18th birthday. The story doesn't have an entirely happy ending — the gear was uninsured and the cops never opened a file on the matter — but friends and family members chipped in along with rehearsal space neighbours The Stills to buy him an identical Stratocaster.

The building is now protected by industrial-strength steel and an alarm system, and Krief and his Strat are ready to move on to the next project — a solo record and tour. His debut EP, the seven-song Take It Or Leave, was available for sale on his website earlier this year and can currently be downloaded from the MapleMusic site. It will be released in stores on Aug. 28 via Toronto's SunnyLane label.

When Krief and his group — consisting of Dears drummer George Donoso, bassist Andre Bendahan and keyboardist Roberto Piccioni — release their first album, not only will the sound be different from the dreamy, Beatles-inspired EP, but Krief hopes the band will have a new name to reflect the cohesive unit.

"The name Krief or Patrick Krief doesn't represent what we're doing live," the 27-year-old Montreal native says. "It sounds more like a singer/songwriter thing.

"If you go see a show, you won't even recognize the songs or make the connection that it's the same band. On the EP, I played all of the instruments. There's just a different dynamic when you get four guys in a room banging away at their instruments."

It's always been Krief's intention to juggle his responsibilities with The Dears and his solo project. The EP was recorded over two weeks in 2006 and, with a bit of downtime now, Krief plans to tour vigorously to promote the EP and upcoming album (which he's in the preliminary stages of recording).

"The way that The Dears tour is on a much larger scale," Krief explains. "It's more organized and more clean."When we plan the tour out, we know we'll be in England for two weeks, for instance. It's so tight and organized that we rarely go back to a place. The Dears toured for about nine to 10 weeks last year, which is nothing. This band is going to have to get out there, touring for 30 weeks or as much as we can."

Krief has been writing songs since long before joining The Dears in 2004. He recently formed and then disbanded another group called Lesley Lane, largely because he was uncomfortable having another vocalist sing his songs. It was finally at the encouragement of Dears headmaster Murray Lightburn and his friends that Krief put his own insecurities aside and assumed the mantle of frontman, even if he still has issues with his voice.

"There was a lot of pressure from people around me to sing because they had heard the demos. After I recorded the EP, I was thinking if I didn't like it I would have just called it another demo and found someone else to sing it."

Catch Krief here:

Aug. 3 Montreal, QC @ Playhouse
Aug. 4 Wakefield, QC @ Black Sheep Inn
Aug. 19 Montreal, QC @ L'escogriffe
Aug. 30 Toronto, ON @ Rivoli