Joe Deninzon established himself as one of the premier rock violinists in the world through his band Stratospheerius. In 2023, legendary rock band Kansas found themselves in need of a new violin player, so they called on Joe. Since then, Joe has toured heavily with Kansas while still fronting Stratospheerius who released a live set and are about to put out a new studio record. Joe took some time to talk about both bands and his amazing career.
Please press the PLAY button below for the MisplacedStraws Joe Deninzon interview –
On how Stratospheerius got its start – Stratospheerius got started in the early 2000s, believe it or not when I wanted to create a vehicle to explore my love of rock, fusion, jazz, progressive rock, and songwriting. I wanted to explore the outer limits of the electric violin and I didn’t see any opportunities to do that outside of creating my own band and writing my own music. So the challenge was finding like-minded people around me to play this stuff. It wasn’t like it was a very well-paid gig. We were just playing clubs and touring and hopping in the van and oftentimes playing for the door.
I was in college at Manhattan School of Music doing my master’s degree in jazz violin at the time. It was the late nineties. I just moved to New York and I just really wanted to play my own music. In addition to being a side man and a freelancer, but I wanted to have an outlet for my own stuff. So I went through a lot of different personnel. At one point I met Alex Skolnick, who was doing his bachelor’s degree in jazz guitar at the New School and we hit it off and I reluctantly asked him if he’d like to join my band, not thinking, why would he want to play with me? So we became friends and he worked in Stratospheerius the early version of it for two years before he got very busy with his career again. We’ve stayed in touch over the years, but it’s gone through a few different eras of the band and the current lineup is, I think, the strongest lineup we’ve ever had. With Jason Gianni on drums, Michelangelo Quirinali on guitar, Paul Ranieri on bass, and Bill Hubauer on keyboards when he’s able to join us. So that’s it.
On the new live release Behind The Curtain Live At ProgStock – We are good friends with Tom Palmieri and Ann Rinaldi who runs the festival. We’ve known them for many years. They invited us to play. We’ve played the festival four times. In 2019, we played the main stage for the first time. And when you play ProgStock, you get a multitrack recording of your performance and you get an eight-camera shoot. So you have the raw materials for a live video release. We were originally going to just use the 2019 performance, we had about 75 minutes of music. Then in 2021, we had been working on it over the course of the pandemic, editing it, mixing it, and in 2021, last minute, we got called to headline on Saturday night and we got more great footage, including a guest appearance by Rachel Flowers and Alex Skolnick. We’re thinking, “Wow, we got to re re imagine this whole project because now we have all this other great stuff we could use. So why don’t we take the best moments from 2019 performance and the best moments of the 2021 performance and make it a two-hour double live album and feature those moments?” So that’s how it came together. It took a long time to put it together because of all the editing involved, video and audio, and the packaging and everything, but it was worth it. It was a great project.
On if he tries to balance the progressive nature of his music with a sense of melody – I think it’s both. I love hooks. I like great melodies. You can still have complexity in music and things that people can dissect and dig into if they’re serious musicians, but also things that the general public can listen to and latch onto and sing along with. All my favorite artists have always released music that operates on multiple levels. I think of the Beatles, Steely Dan, The Police, Rush, I can go on and on. Yes had that, and Genesis, they had great hits, but they also had really deep, intricate music that you can dig into and analyze.
That’s what I strive for in my music. But for me, the most important thing is a memorable melody. Something that people can grab onto. I’m not into really esoteric experimental stuff. I appreciate it as a musician, but somehow I always end up writing more catchier kinds of stuff. Some of the hipsters might not dig it, but I don’t care. We have our, our extended 15-minute epic like “Heavy Shtettle” that I co-wrote with Alex, is an instrumental jam that can go on for 20 minutes. Then we have shorter songs like “Behind the Curtain”, which is in odd time signatures, but has a very catchy chorus. It’s like a four-minute song.
On if original Kansas violinist Robbie Steinhardt was an influence – I had known about Kansas since I was eight years old and I saw the video for “Dust in the Wind” on MTV and they were always playing on the radio. You’re right that Robbie did create the template because you can’t have a violin in a rock and roll band without someone mentioning Kansas or comparing it to Kansas. I guess now if people compare Stratospherius to Kansas, I guess I have to just go with it. But yeah, deep respect for Robbie Steinhardt and what Kansas created. I think I was trying to do my own thing with with electric violin. I wanted to explore using more effects, getting trippier kind of sounds, and kind of expanding on what Kansas and other bands started. Now there’s a lot of rock violinists out there. It’s exploded in the last 20 years. But yeah, I grew up listening to Kansas. Maybe I wasn’t as hardcore as some of the fans that know every deep cut and every album, but I had deep reverence for that band. So obviously being asked to join was surreal and unbelievable. I’m very grateful.
On how he came to join Kansas – I had known Tom Brislin for many years, the keyboard player, we both live in New Jersey and I’ve seen his band play his original projects at Progstock, and New Jersey Prog House. And he’s seen Stratospherius play and we’re kind of in the, there’s a scene, there’s a scene up here in the progressive rock community and you always see a lot of the same artists and a lot of the same bands. So there was that. I think he kind of got to know me as the violinist in that world. So when David Ragsdale had some health issues and it was uncertain if he could continue. Tom remembered me and recommended me to Rich (Williams) and Phil (Ehart).
They watched the video for “Impostor”, which is probably one of our most Kansas-sounding songs. Then I got a call from Phil and we hit it off. We had a great conversation and then I started learning the music. Originally I was asked to be a sub in case David couldn’t make it because everybody in the band has an understudy because they don’t want to cancel shows. Then three months of on and off, not sure if I would be doing it, but being ready and learning all this music. Finally, it was determined that they would move forward with me as the violinist. So it was in May of last year and then everything changed, life life-changing event. So I think over the years, it’s just showing up, being active, booking a lot of shows, having my original project, getting to know people in the community, the music community. For many years, just constantly being present, I think kind of led to this moment and it wasn’t an intentional thing. I was just doing what I love.
On fan reaction to a mostly new lineup of Kansas – I think I was more nervous about that than actually playing the music. But I was walking into 50 years of musical legacy and filling big shoes. I knew I would be under a lot of scrutiny, especially from some of the diehard Wheatheads. So fortunately 99.9% have embraced me and given me a lot of great feedback. I read comments on Facebook and on YouTube, and mostly really positive. So I was very relieved that the community of fans embraced what I do. That was the biggest test I had to pass. So yeah, it’s been amazing. The fans are amazing.
On any plans for new Kansas music – Well, the tour goes through December, third leg of the tour and I don’t know what’s going to happen after that, but there are murmurings of a new record, Phil has talked about it, Rich has talked about it. I would love for it to happen, but it’s not my call. So that would be amazing. Hopefully, it will happen. Meanwhile, I’m just writing a lot and storing away material. You never know.
On releasing singles over the past few years that are compiled on the upcoming Stratospheerius record – The last two records were done that way. We kind of released singles and gradually recorded the album over time. It was good from a financial standpoint, cause we didn’t have to spend all the money recording everything at once. Also, we had something new to release. So we stay in people’s line of vision. But also there’s a whole other half of the album that no one’s heard yet. We started, this has been six years in the making and we were working on it simultaneously while we were mixing, mastering and editing the live DVD. So our thought was, “Whatever is done first, we’ll release it”. It could have been the studio album, but everything just came together. A lot of things happened during those six years, the pandemic, me getting into Kansas, personal things that happened in our lives. So everything just took a long time. But if you hear the album, it’s very cohesive. All the songs flow well together. Even though we released “Imposter” back in 2019, we remastered it. I think people will, will love it. See, it all makes sense when you hear it together, so that’ll be out October 11th and it’s on 7D Media, 7 and the letter D, that’s a label we just signed with, that’s co-owned by Trey Gunn from King Crimson.
On if there will be more live Stratospheerius dates coming up – We might try to do something in the second half of December, although that’s a weird time because it’s the holidays, a lot of people are traveling. But we’ll definitely try to book some mini-tours next year. Obviously, I have to work around Kansas’s schedule. Sometimes I don’t know what the schedule is going to be till kind of last minute, but we’re definitely going to keep going and play as much as we can within the parameters that I have. So if people visit the website and go on our social media, they’ll see the dates as soon as they appear.