David DeFeis

David DeFeis

David DeFeis (born January 4, 1962 in New York ) is the front man and singer (also keyboard player ) of the New York heavy metal band Virgin Steele . He is the only member who has remained with the formation founded in 1981, their songwriter and creative mind. DeFeis' creative partner has been guitarist Edward Pursino since 1983 .

facts and figures

David DeFeis had a classical piano training at the age of eight, and at the age of eleven he founded his first " rock band ". His father was a well-known Shakespeare actor on Broadway in New York, his sister Doreen DeFeis is an opera singer living in Germany . His second sister Danae DeFeis is the singer of the internationally little known rock band Stalk, which is popular in the New York area and on the American east coast .

Musical creation

David DeFeis is known by fans and the trade press as a great musical talent, an accomplished songwriter and one of the most expressive singers within the metal genre. He uses his voice, which has a vocal range of more than four octaves , in a virtuoso manner and skillfully, especially on the Virgin Steele albums, which were released after 1985. His occasional change from a deep and sonorous pitch to a high head voice is typical . He has had a preference for classical composers such as Richard Wagner , Claude Debussy and Frédéric Chopin since early childhood - which also has a significant impact on his own musical and vocal work ( harmonies , song structure). Together with Virgin Steele, David DeFeis has released a total of 15 albums (including two compilations) with bombastic, symphonic heavy metal music. The most recent album was released in 2015.

Other musical projects

In addition to his work at Virgin Steele, David DeFeis also developed three extensive “metal operas” (1999: Klytaimnestra or Der Fluch der Atriden , 2001: Hel or Die Rebellen and 2005: Lilith ), which were performed at the Schwaben State Theater ( Memmingen ) in cooperation with David DeFeis and Walter Weyers , the artistic director of the Landestheater, were rehearsed and performed with great public success. Lilith was also shown at the Federal Garden Show 2005 in Munich . The reviews , even from the more conservative camp, were very benevolent. The opera Klytaimnestra even found attention in the culture section of Spiegel , which praised the work with a comprehensive article as an unusual and noteworthy work. Lilith received a very good review in Stern , among others . In 2001 and 2002 DeFeis could also be heard as a guest singer on the two albums of the Avantasia project by Tobias Sammet ( Edguy ).

Personal backgrounds

David DeFeis is unmarried and childless and lives in Long Island , New York. According to his own statement, he is of Italian , French , German and Indian descent himself .