Dave Kerzner: South Florida’s Rock Star

If you’re over 40, you’ve likely asked yourself “where did all the good music go?” Well, the answer is closer than you think. Dave Kerzner is one of today’s top international progressive rock stars and he lives right here in South Florida. He’s creating music today that’s been compared to the great classic rock bands of the 1970’s by Prog Magazine and others.

In fact, Kerzner has garnered such strong respect from his own musical heroes that “Stranded”, a song from his first album, was introduced on UK radio by the late Keith Emerson (of Emerson, Lake and Palmer). He also has praise from Steve Hackett (former guitarist of Genesis) who has added his guitar work on both of Kerzner’s solo albums. It’s also no mistake that the amazing Lorelei and Durga McBroom (vocalists of Pink Floyd) are in his band.

Kerzner, a Miami native, grew up listening to Genesis, Rush, Yes, Led Zeppelin, The Beatles and Pink Floyd. “I loved the progressive rock sound, the lyrics and the emotion in the music,” says Kerzner.

His new album “Static” is a concept album, in the same vein as Pink Floyd’s “The Wall” or The Who’s “Tommy”. Kerzner explains, “The album is an eclectic blend of classic rock, alt rock and other genres. It’s about the noise, clutter and chaos that gets in the way of our own happiness.” Each song on the album explores a different facet of this “static interference”, ranging from technological distractions, to drug addiction to social disconnection, hypocrisy, jealousy, paranoia and other obstructions within one’s head or in modern day society.

Originally a keyboardist, Dave played in garage bands in the 80s before going to college where Kerzner focused on the sounds that could be produced by synthesizers and then finding his way to a musically-electric Los Angeles. One day a friend invited him to a studio recording session and asked if he’d program the band’s Minimoog (the world's first portable synthesizer). His results were impressive enough to create a buzz around town. Soon other bands like Smashing Pumpkins, Crowded House, Sheryl Crow, The Black Crowes, Madonna and Pearl Jam were calling on his services.

Kerzner soon opened a business programming sounds into keyboards called Sonic Reality. Bands like Coldplay and Eminem and manufacturers including Yamaha, Roland, IK Multimedia and Alesis and even the legendary producer/engineer Alan Parsons took note. “Our sounds are in many keyboards and music software used today, explained Kerzner. “They can be heard in all styles of music and have been for decades.”

But that wasn’t Kerzner’s only passion. He had been writing privately for years honing his craft until he was ready to unleash his music on the world. “I worked a bit with Steve Hackett from Genesis and Steve Wilson from Porcupine Tree, but the journey really took off in 2007 when I started recording with Simon Collins, Phil’s son.” Kerzner and Collins created the band Sound of Contact in 2009 and released "Dimensionaut" in 2012 to rave reviews. The album won the Progressive Music Awards “Limelight Award” in 2013.

With a taste of rock success, Kerzner pushed himself to make his own album where he could be a solo artist and front man. His freshman effort, “New World”, was released in 2014. It got him nominated for “Anthem of the Year” in the 2015 Progressive Music Awards and led to him performing with bands like Yes and Marillion on Yes’ “Cruise to the Edge” and more.

On “New World” and now “Static”, one of Kerzner’s main collaborators is Miami native Fernando Perdomo. The mix of Kerzner and Perdomo’s musical styles is a catalyst for many good things. It creates a rock n’ roll energy and chemistry you rarely here these days. Newly released “Static” shows a trust in Perdomo’s strong guitar riffs and a shift allowing the keyboards to better blend with other instrumentation in a way that takes Kerzner’s music to a new intensity. “It’s a dream for me to work with this caliber of musicians,” gushes Kerzner. “To create new progressive music and get such a positive response from fans and fellow artists/musicians is incredible.”

As an enthusiast of music with great lyrical and musical depth, it is a pleasure to listen to Kerzner’s music with headphones on at volume 11. The quality of engineering, production and songwriting is staggering, especially considering that Dave Kerzner does this mostly on his own. Taking care of most of the writing, singing, playing, engineering and producing without major label involvement is ballsy-level ambitious. Succeeding at it is a major accomplishment.

Worldwide fans follow Dave to the select live concerts he has in the USA, including the upcoming ProgStock in New Jersey and a slew of dates in Chicago, New York and Baltimore. A highlight of his touring schedule is his return to the February 3, 2018 sailing of Yes’ “Cruise to the Edge”. The hope is that Kerzner can reach all of the true fans of the music he is influenced by. When music lovers catch wind of what Dave is doing, they’ll have hope for great new rock music again!

Dave Kerzner - “Static” is available on iTunes, Amazon and on Bandcamp https://sonicelements.bandcamp.com/album/static. His music streams on streaming services like Spotify and Pandora. Like his Facebook page facebook.com/davesquidskerzner and check out davekerznermusic.com for the latest touring information and more.