Richard Parry (musician)
Encyclopedia
Richard Reed Parry is a Canadian multi-instrumentalist
, composer
and member of the indie rock
band Arcade Fire, where he plays double bass
, celesta
, keyboard
s, drums
, guitar
, and accordion
. He is also a member of the Bell Orchestre
, in which he primarily plays double bass and is the de facto producer. He was formerly a member of the band the New International Standards, with Tim Kingsbury
and Jeremy Gara
.
A long-time contributor with the husband and wife songwriting duo of Win Butler
and Régine Chassagne
, he co-produced the debut EP
, Arcade Fire and brought in New International Standards bandmate, Tim Kingsbury
. He has also made musical contributions to albums by 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.
of the Toronto
folk
band Friends of Fiddler's Green
. His mother, Caroline Balderston Parry
, is a poet and musician and his sister, Evalyn Parry
, is a singer, songwriter, and spoken word
performer.
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.
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.
Parry collaborated with The National
for a track on their 2010 album High Violet
and appeared with them playing double bass in their Vevo
live event. He joined them onstage as a guest during their set at Lollapalooza 2010 (at which Arcade Fire also performed) and also during a brief segment of Arcade Fire's 2011 US tour in which The National acted as openers.
Parry recently co-hosted a BBC 6 Music Takeover programme with the members of The National called Arcade Fire And The National Takeover
Parry and brothers Aaron & Bryce Dessner who play guitar and bass in The National have been long-term friends since meeting on the American alt-rock circuit, regularly appearing on the same festival bills worldwide.
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 arrangement on 'Conversation 16'. During this show Parry mentioned he was producing an album by a local Montreal artist named Little Scream.
Multi-instrumentalist
A multi-instrumentalist is a musician who plays a number of different instruments.The Bachelor of Music degree usually requires a second instrument to be learned , but people who double on another instrument are not usually seen as multi-instrumentalists.-Classical music:Music written for Symphony...
, composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
and member of the indie rock
Indie rock
Indie rock is a genre of alternative rock that originated in the United Kingdom and the United States in the 1980s. Indie rock is extremely diverse, with sub-genres that include lo-fi, post-rock, math rock, indie pop, dream pop, noise rock, space rock, sadcore, riot grrrl and emo, among others...
band Arcade Fire, where he plays double bass
Double bass
The double bass, also called the string bass, upright bass, standup bass or contrabass, is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra, with strings usually tuned to E1, A1, D2 and G2...
, celesta
Celesta
The celesta or celeste is a struck idiophone operated by a keyboard. Its appearance is similar to that of an upright piano or of a large wooden music box . The keys are connected to hammers which strike a graduated set of metal plates suspended over wooden resonators...
, keyboard
Keyboard instrument
A keyboard instrument is a musical instrument which is played using a musical keyboard. The most common of these is the piano. Other widely used keyboard instruments include organs of various types as well as other mechanical, electromechanical and electronic instruments...
s, drums
Drum kit
A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
, guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
, and accordion
Accordion
The accordion is a box-shaped musical instrument of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone family, sometimes referred to as a squeezebox. A person who plays the accordion is called an accordionist....
. He is also a member of the Bell Orchestre
Bell Orchestre
Bell Orchestre is a six-piece instrumental band from Montreal, Quebec, Canada.In late 2003, they recorded their first album, at the same time and in the same studio that Arcade Fire recorded Funeral. However, Arcade Fire's popularity was just beginning to break when they asked Bell Orchestre to...
, in which he primarily plays double bass and is the de facto producer. He was formerly a member of the band the New International Standards, with Tim Kingsbury
Tim Kingsbury
Tim Kingsbury is a Canadian musician and member of the indie rock band Arcade Fire. He plays bass guitar, guitar, and occasionally keyboards.He spent his early years living in and around Guelph, Ontario. His peers would become indie names such as Gentleman Reg and Jim Guthrie...
and Jeremy Gara
Jeremy Gara
Jeremy Gara is a Canadian drummer originally from Ottawa, Ontario. He currently plays with successful indie rock band Arcade Fire. He has played in many other bands in the past, including "slow-core" band Kepler and math rock band Weights and Measures. He also had a part in the self-titled album...
.
A long-time contributor with the husband and wife songwriting duo of Win Butler
Win Butler
Win Butler is the lead vocalist and songwriter of the Montreal-based indie rock band Arcade Fire. His wife Régine Chassagne and his brother William Butler are both members of the band.-Life and career:...
and Régine Chassagne
Régine Chassagne
Régine Chassagne is a Canadian multi-instrumentalist musician and singer, and a founding member of the band Arcade Fire. She is married to co-founder Win Butler.-Life and career:...
, he co-produced the debut EP
Extended play
An EP is a musical recording which contains more music than a single, but is too short to qualify as a full album or LP. The term EP originally referred only to specific types of vinyl records other than 78 rpm standard play records and LP records, but it is now applied to mid-length Compact...
, Arcade Fire and brought in New International Standards bandmate, Tim Kingsbury
Tim Kingsbury
Tim Kingsbury is a Canadian musician and member of the indie rock band Arcade Fire. He plays bass guitar, guitar, and occasionally keyboards.He spent his early years living in and around Guelph, Ontario. His peers would become indie names such as Gentleman Reg and Jim Guthrie...
. He has also made musical contributions to albums by The Unicorns
The Unicorns
The Unicorns were a Lo-Fi/Indie Pop band from Montreal, Canada formed in December 2000 by Nicholas Thorburn and Alden Penner , who were later joined by Jamie Thompson in December 2003.-History:...
and Islands
Islands (band)
Islands is a Canadian indie rock band formed in 2005 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, and currently based in Brooklyn, New York.-Return to the Sea:In mid-2005 Islands recorded a debut album titled Return to the Sea, which was released in April 2006...
. On the latter's critically acclaimed 2006 album Return to the Sea
Return to the Sea
Return to the Sea is the full-length debut by indie rock band Islands. It was released April 4, 2006 on Equator Records.The cover painting is "The Sea of Ice" by Caspar David Friedrich, 1824.-Track listing:# "Swans " – 9:31...
, he played several instruments, sang background vocals and arranged strings.
Background
Parry derives from a musical family. His late father was David ParryDavid Parry (folk musician)
David Parry was a Canadian folk musician, storyteller, actor, stage director, and teacher. He was an important presence in the Canadian folk music scene from the mid 1970s up until his death in 1995. He worked both as a solo artist and as a member of the Friends of Fiddler's Green, a Toronto-based...
of the Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
folk
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
band Friends of Fiddler's Green
Friends of Fiddler's Green
Friends of Fiddler's Green is a Canadian folk music group based in Toronto. The original members of the group for its first recording, The Road to Mandalay, were Grit Laskin, Tam Kearney, Ian Robb, Laurence Stevenson, David Parry, and Jeff McClintock on keyboards...
. His mother, Caroline Balderston Parry
Caroline Balderston Parry
Caroline Balderston Parry is a Canadian writer, musician, celebrator, and consultant. She is the author of Let's Celebrate Canada's Special Days, an important reference work since 1987, and Eleanora's Diary, based on the 1830s diary of a Canadian immigrant girl, Eleanora Hallen...
, is a poet and musician and his sister, Evalyn Parry
Evalyn Parry
Evalyn Parry is a Canadian Quaker singer/songwriter and actress/playwright who grew up in Toronto, Ontario in the Kensington Market Neighborhood...
, is a singer, songwriter, and spoken word
Spoken word
Spoken word is a form of poetry that often uses alliterated prose or verse and occasionally uses metered verse to express social commentary. Traditionally it is in the first person, is from the poet’s point of view and is themed in current events....
performer.
Parry attended Canterbury High School
Canterbury High School (Ottawa)
Canterbury High School is an Ottawa-Carleton District School Board high school in the Elmvale Acres neighbourhood of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.It is an arts magnet school, and located at 900 Canterbury Ave...
in Ottawa
Ottawa
Ottawa is the capital of Canada, the second largest city in the Province of Ontario, and the fourth largest city in the country. The city is located on the south bank of the Ottawa River in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario...
, Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
and was one of a dozen members of the Literary Arts program (first generation). His classmates include Stargate: Atlantis writer Martin Gero
Martin Gero
Martin Gero is a Canadian screenwriter and co-executive producer for Stargate Atlantis.Born in Switzerland, Gero spent much of his childhood in Ottawa, Ontario. He attended Canterbury High School for the Arts and Ryerson University in Toronto...
and The Holmes Show
The Holmes Show
The Holmes Show is a Canadian sketch comedy television series that premiered on CTV on September 24, 2002. The 22 episode series stars Jessica Holmes, Roman Danylo and Kurt Smeaton. Filming took place at the CTV studios in June and August 2002. Each scene was shot twice with the second scene...
comedian Kurt Smeaton.
In the mid 1990s, he worked summers at a vegetarian camp in near Chelsea, Quebec
Chelsea, Quebec
Chelsea is a municipality located immediately north of Gatineau, Quebec, Canada and about 7 miles north of Ottawa. Chelsea is located within Canada's National Capital Region. In 2006 the population was 6,703....
, called Camp Au Grand Bois.
In the late 1990s and early 2000s, he studied electroacoustics and contemporary dance at Concordia University in Montreal.
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.
Parry collaborated with The National
The National (band)
The National is an indie rock band formed in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1999 and currently based in Brooklyn, New York. The band's lyrics are written and sung by Matt Berninger, a baritone...
for a track on their 2010 album High Violet
High Violet
High Violet is the fifth studio album by The National, which was released on May 10, 2010 in Europe and on May 11, 2010 in North America via 4AD. The band produced the album themselves assisted by Peter Katis with whom they worked on their previous albums Alligator and Boxer at their own studio in...
and appeared with them playing double bass in their Vevo
Vevo
Vevo is a music video website. It is a joint venture among Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group, and Abu Dhabi Media with EMI licensing its content to the group without taking an ownership stake. The service was launched officially on December 8, 2009...
live event. He joined them onstage as a guest during their set at Lollapalooza 2010 (at which Arcade Fire also performed) and also during a brief segment of Arcade Fire's 2011 US tour in which The National acted as openers.
Parry recently co-hosted a BBC 6 Music Takeover programme with the members of The National called Arcade Fire And The National Takeover
Parry and brothers Aaron & Bryce Dessner who play guitar and bass in The National have been long-term friends since meeting on the American alt-rock circuit, regularly appearing on the same festival bills worldwide.
Their friendship was cemented when Richard from the Arcade Fire contributed to a number of songs on The National's album High Violet
High Violet
High Violet is the fifth studio album by The National, which was released on May 10, 2010 in Europe and on May 11, 2010 in North America via 4AD. The band produced the album themselves assisted by Peter Katis with whom they worked on their previous albums Alligator and Boxer at their own studio in...
, most notably playing double bass and guitar on 'Vanderlyle Crybaby Geeks', and doing the vocal harmony arrangement on 'Conversation 16'. During this show Parry mentioned he was producing an album by a local Montreal artist named Little Scream.