Marc Storace
Marc Storace | |
|---|---|
| Genres | Heavy metal, Hard rock |
| Instrument | Vocals |
| Years active | 1970–present |
| Website | [1] |
Marc Storace (Sto-rah-chey) is a Maltese rock vocalist and songwriter. His career in music started in the 1960s, but he is most noted for his position as frontman, lead singer and songwriter of Swiss hard rock band Krokus from 1980. Before joining Krokus he sang with the Swiss progressive rockers TEA following smaller bands - including one he had formed himself in London. He has since also undertaken a solo project, duets and an acoustical project. He also had some close encounters with the classical world and has worked with numerous other rock acts as both a writer and a singer.
Marc has a very high, three octave voice, making him a very distinct vocalist, and has been compared to AC/DC's former lead singer Bon Scott or Led Zeppelin's Robert Plant in terms of vocal style, sharing many of their vocal qualities. Since he began singing professionally in the 1970s, his style and voice have remained largely the same, with a noticeable increase of character, through maturity and years of live and studio experience.
Marc has recently played a major role in the Swiss-German films Anuk and Handyman, in which he acted as well as writing and performing songs for the film's soundtracks.
Early life
Born as one of six children to Anthony Storace and Edna Crockford on the Mediterranean island of Malta, Marc taught himself to sing at a fairly early age. His life in music began at the age of fourteen when he made his first live performances with two local bands - Stonehenge Union (who covered the likes of The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and The Kinks) and The Boys (who covered some of the same songs, as well as chart material and more vocally challenging songs). In the late sixties, The Boys (still with Marc as lead vocalist) changed their name to Cinnamon Hades, and changed their genre to cover hard rock acts such as Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix and The Who.
After these early experiences, and wanting to make a career out of his talent, he moved to London, England, in 1970.
Further on in his career, after joining Krokus, many people who heard Marc sing thought that he sounded like Bon Scott of AC/DC. He did not take this as a compliment at the time,[1] saying that, with all respect to Bon, he had his own singing identity. In fact, Marc was later approached to audition for the frontman job with AC/DC after Bon's tragic death, but Krokus was enjoying a very fast increase in success and Marc's loyalty to his bandmates meant a lot to him.
Early career
At the end of 1971, Marc joined Swiss hard rock band TEA. With them, he toured with big acts such as Queen and Nazareth, and released three studio albums: Sprouts, The Ship and Tax Exiles. All were produced by Dieter Dierks, at that time the man behind the Scorpions. For a while, TEA became Switzerland's rock Flagship, performing as far as Hamburg, London or Glasgow.
In 1976, TEA performed their last tour, taking Krokus on-the-road as supporting act. His friendly encounters with the Krokus bandmembers were the seeds to what followed later on. He returned to London and formed the band Eazy Money. Their song "Telephone Man" was included on a Metal-Music-Compilation album called Metal for Muthas Vol.2. In 1979, he received a phone call from Krokus who were looking for a new singer and invited him to a "weekend jam" in Switzerland. After a very exciting weekend session both Marc and Krokus were pleased with the outcome and he was heartily initiated into the band.
Krokus
1980-88
In 1980, Marc recorded and released his first album with Krokus, Metal Rendez-vous. It was Krokus's first big hit, and made it to triple platinum status. With Marc, Krokus's success increased dramatically, and from then until 1988 they toured extensively around the United States and Canada, with tours lasting up to around nine months at a time, as well as releasing a further six studio albums (Hardware, One Vice at a Time, Headhunter, The Blitz, Change of Address and Heart Attack) and one live album (Alive & Screamin'). This intense period or touring and recording naturally wore the band out, and they went on hiatus at the end of 1988.
1994-Present
In 1994, Marc encouraged fellow ex-Krokus member Fernando Von Arb to re-form the band, and so a reunion tour commenced. It went very well, and in 1995, Krokus released another studio album, To Rock or Not to Be. Though this album was not as successful as some of those before it, it brought the band back together and they began touring again, with Marc once again the frontman. The year 2002 saw Krokus, with an altered line-up to that of the 1988 hiatus and 1994 return, begin touring Europe once more. Their long awaited comeback in the USA began in September 2005. To date, Marc has been Krokus' vocalist for twenty-six years, recording 12 albums and extensively touring Europe, the United States and Canada.
Other projects
Solo project
In spring 1989, Marc returned to Switzerland and wrote songs for his first solo project, The Blue Album. It contained a collection of pop and soul influenced rock music, and was released in 1991 by the short-lived record company Eurostar. It was re-released in 1998 under the name Vergeat-Storace (Vergeat was Marc's guitar player and co-songwriter during the project) at the time.
Various guest vocal projects
Shortly after AC/DC vocalist Bon Scott's death in 1980, Marc was offered the vacancy in the band, but he turned it down because things were going extremely good at the time for Krokus.[2] He also claimed that, besides his feelings of loyalty to his mates, he felt his band was going to continue to get bigger.
In 1993, Marc joined up as guest with the Swiss rock band China. A live album of their one and only tour with Marc in 1993 was eventually released on CD as "Live!" in 2000 (the live radio broadcast of the event was also released on the label Phonag Records). Shortly after Marc left the band, they split up due to the fact (according to Marc) that their use of a different vocalist for each of their albums meant that they could not establish a solid identity in the music world.[3] A "Best of China" album was recently released by Universal Records in Switzerland.
With China's guitarists Freddie Lawrence and Claudio Matteo, Marc formed Acoustical Mountain that same year. This trio, performing without drums, played rock 'n' roll classics around Switzerland but never released any albums of their own, making them a "live-only" project. They split and then reformed in 1995, this time with China's bassist Brian Kofmehl replacing Freddie, who moved on to join Swiss melodic-rockers Gotthard. Storace and Claudio today still perform regularly all over Switzerland as Acoustical Mountain, sometimes taking Charly Preissel along as 2nd guitarist. [www.acoustical-mountain.com]
In 1994, Marc, alongside the Krokus Reunion, became part of Manfred Ehlert's Amen and released an album with them in the same year in Switzerland. Marc was the lead vocalist along with Glenn Hughes, and together they performed rock songs with a light touch of classical music. Marc's second album with them - Aguilar - was released in 1996, but this time it was sung by Marc alone (bar one track that again featured Glenn Hughes).
In 2003, parallel to Krokus commitments, Marc wrote and recorded with Los Angeles based metal rockers Warrior. This adventure resulted in the one-off album The Wars of Gods and Men. He greatly enjoyed his Los Angeles stay which enabled him to do some filming for a planned Krokus movie, but also catch up with old Stateside friends. He experienced working with American guitarist and founding member Joe Floyd. This album was unique in portraying yet unexplored dimensions from the singer's vocals abilities.[4] It was released in the USA and Switzerland in 2004.
November 2004 saw German producer Michael Voss ask Marc to sing on the new album of the band Biss, titled Face-off, which was released in 2005. It was a melodic rock album with powerful riffs and melodies, and Marc said that he felt that the songs were "too good to be true".[5] *Face-Off* was released in May 2005.
The following year, 2006, saw yet another release by BISS featuring Marc on vocals again with the album X-Tension, and again, he collaborated with some of the songwriting. [www.b-i-s-s.com]
Anuk
In 2006, Marc took part in the German Film Anuk, playing the part of Geisterzunge, a tribal medicine-man. Produced by Luke Gasser (who also plays the lead role), the film tells the story of a Bronze Age tribe trying to save itself from eradication by maurauding horsemen. Marc helped to write the soundtrack also, and he sings on the song "On My Own" (which he also wrote) along with Gasser and Doro Pesch. His chanting can also be heard on the film trailer.[6]
Discography
Krokus
| Title | Year |
|---|---|
| Metal Rendez-vous | 1980 |
| Hardware | 1981 |
| One Vice at a Time | 1982 |
| Headhunter | 1983 |
| The Blitz | 1984 |
| Change of Address | 1986 |
| Alive & Screamin' | 1987 |
| Heart Attack | 1988 |
| To Rock or Not to Be | 1995 |
| Rock the Block | 2003 |
| Hellraiser | 2006 |
| Hoodoo | 2010 |
Others
| Artist | Title | Year |
|---|---|---|
| TEA | Sprouts | 1972 |
| TEA | The Ship | 1974 |
| TEA | Tax Exile | 1976 |
| Marc Storace | The Blue Album | 1991 |
| Amen | Amen | 1994 |
| Amen | Aguilar | 1996 |
| Marc Storace & China | Alive | 2000 |
| DC/World | A Tribute to Bon Scott & AC / DC | 2000 |
| Storace & Halsinger | One World | 2000 |
| Warrior | The Wars of Gods & Men | 2004 |
| Biss | Face-Off | 2005 |
| Biss | X-tension | 2006 |