Keram
Los Angeles, California, United States | Established. Jan 01, 2007 | SELF
Music
Press
Keram came back to the T.Dot with a bang and a hot new album. Unfortunately, he dropped in from El Lay just long enough to light up The Supermarket with a killer performance of tracks off current cookie Come to Life. The movie actor/singer/songwriter/ multi-instrumentalist and conceptual artist brought all of that and more to the gig. The album’s lush and sprawling conceptual art-rock was brought to sparkling life in all its multi-layered glory with the able assistance of some of the 30 players on the album.
Afterwards, looking around at the sweat soaked and emotionally drained looking survivors, it comes to mind Keram just doesn’t play our town often enough. - Lenny Stoute, Cashbox Canada
Eclectic is a word that will be used to describe Come to Life but that doesn't really do it justice. A mix of styles, it fits together as a seamless whole, taking the listener on a journey through the inventive musical mind of Keram. - Richard Crouse, 1010 Talk Radio
After listening to COME TO LIFE, I feel as though my entire music listening life has flashed before me - in a very good way. Keram makes excursions into almost every style of music imaginable here and does it with such flair that these very pleased ears, he could have settled on any of these genres and made just as brilliant a record. - Mark Rheaume, CBC Radio
Canadian-born actor and musician Keram Malicki-Sanchez has collaborated with Alex Lifeson and 20 other renowned artists for his Come to Life album which was officially launched via a listening party for Indiegogo contributors yesterday evening in Toronto. The album is now available for digital purchase via a number of outlets including iTunes, Amazon, Bandcamp, and eMusic; and physical copies can be purchased via CDBaby. In addition to playing guitar on the album, Alex Lifeson is also executive producer. - RushIsABand.com
"...But my pick of the evening was something I peeked into on a lark on my way home. [Keram] played a gorgeous, short set of his solo stuff, with just an acoustic guitar. This guy is the epitome of a renaissance man...From his coat of many colors, I choose his solo acoustic gig as my favorite. [His] wonderful voice doesn't follow the typical pop/rock song structure most artists re-hash. He writes un-melodic non-rock, with high-brow, intellectual themes and a very hippy attitude that reeled me in and left the most lasting impression of this night's showcases." - Karen Pace - Daily Alternative Music News
"[Keram] brings rare songs with angular melodies and blipping sonics. Combine one part hipster presence, one part folky sensitivity, and one part electronic experimentation, and you've got a musical chameleon in the best David Bowie tradition." - download.com
"Keram Malicki-Sanchez is on stage and all dressed up with every place to go. The boys a psychedelic vision...a one-man cultural blitzkrieg. Fans of his band Blue Dog Pict are enthusiastic to the point of being cultish." - Lenny Stoute - Toronto Star
If you want to listen to something a little different, I would recommend Keram. I just hope he keeps making music because when he hits the mark, he really hits it.
- - music-reviewer.com
Box is an acoustic collection of ballads, rich in self exposure and warmth of tone and soul. When not contemplating the twists and turns of affairs of the heart, Keram settles heavily on the theme of death. Whatever life-altering incident caused his subdued yet noticeable cynical disposition to surface may have altered how he pictured the world, but it brings out an intense determination that gets infused into his music.
- - Pitch Perfect Reviews
Keram has made what has to be one of the most compelling albums of this last year. Any one of these 9 cuts could conceivably make it onto rotation; pick up a copy of this album and learn who Keram is before everyone else does.
- NeuFutur Magazine
Prior to scoring real success as an actor in film and TV (True Blood, American History X), Keram (Malicki-Sanchez) fronted adventurous T.O. rockers Blue Dog Pict. He released solo album Box in 2008, and he now re-emerges musically with the stunning Come To Life.
This is an eclectic and adventurous work with prog-rock roots, one sometimes evoking Smashing Pumpkins. Rush axeman Alex Lifeson is credited as executive producer, and he also plays on three cuts (he's one of 30 musicians featured).
Thanks to the closing 21-minute title cut, the album spans 76 minutes, a rarity these days. Thankfully there's no filler on this killer album. - Kerry Doole, NewCanadianMusic.ca
Discography
(1988) Malicki-Sanchez - eponymous (Fe Discos)
(1991) Blue Dog Pict - The Picture Album (indie)
(1992) Blue Dog Pict - Anxiety of Influence: a nodding into...? (Constant Change)
(1995) Blue Dog Pict - Spindly Light und Wax Rocketines (Constant Change)
(1996) Automated Gardens - AN4 (Constant Change)
(1998) Ribcage - For Machines To Dream About
(2008) Keram - Box
(2014) Keram - Come to Life
Photos
Bio
Keram, an accomplished musician, film and television actor, is an out-of-the-box artist. His new album, Come To Life, executive produced by Rush guitarist Alex Lifeson, is a sprawling, other-worldly rock adventure that took an army of about 30 musicians, whose collective credits include Coheed & Cambria, Zappa Plays Zappa, Edwarde Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, Mary Margaret O’Hara, and of course Rush.
From “Killing Days, Living Nights” that sounds like a cross between Neil Young and D’Angelo to the 12-minute “The Devil Knows Me Well,” an audio history of the blues that starts with the Delta, visits the Stones, pulls in Beach Boys-type harmonies and stops at Hendrix, the 10-song opus is an unpredictable hybrid of Americana, new age, electronica, roots, rock, theatre, experimental, jazz, pop, and then some. It ends with the 21-minute title track.
As an actor — who has appeared in the films American History X, Punisher: War Zone, Irvine Welsh’s Ecstasy and Texas Chainsaw 3D and TV shows True Blood, The Mentalist, Saving Grace and The L Word — Keram (Malicki-Sanchez) brings that expression to his music too, writing from other people’s perspective.
Recorded in Toronto and Los Angeles, Keram chose the musicians for their improvisation skills, including Lifeson who appears on “Devil Knows Me Well,” “Mary Magdalene” and “Moving Dark Circles.” The album was mastered by Andy Vandette (Rush, David Bowie, Dream Theater) and “Mary Magdalene” was mixed by Rich Chycki (Rush, Dream Theater, Aerosmith).
Band Members
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