Toronto band Krupke announces final show

Krupke burst into the Toronto music scene just over two years ago. The band initially had many things working against them. They have a very unique sound that has been described as strange, idiosyncratic, and unclassifiable. Their instruments consist of glockenspiel, clarinet, violin, piano, guitar, and drums. And to make matters worse, they were rookies in a city with a vast talent pool consisting of over 5000 local bands.

Krupke assumed they would play their first show to blank stares, or perhaps even a few giggles. Instead, they were an instant success- receiving rave reviews from critics and listeners alike. Krupke is indescribable. Their music is complex, poignant, and thought provoking... yet they create an environment that encourages dancing, shouting, and occasional crowd surfing.

The band is also well known for their fun DIY street promotions and art projects paper mache merch installations, crayon drawn show posters, and a press kit created by one band member's 8-year-old sister.

Krupke recently came back from a successful east coast tour to promote their album” The Pony You Always Wanted Died Today". They have played NXNE and CMW, as well as many packed shows at various venues throughout the GTA (including The El Mocambo, Rancho Relaxo, and Silver Dollar).

Sadly, Krupke has just announced their final show. I was in touch with Mike Rosenthal, Krupke's glockenspiel/keyboard player and vocalist, to find out why the band has decided to call it quits. He honored me with an interview discussing the band and their plans for the future.

AB: Tell me about Krupke's inception.

MR: Krupke started in 2008. Joe was working at a shipping yard carrying boxes of meat onto trucks. He would often come by after work around 3am since I was the only person awake that late. I said I'd only join a band if I could play glockenspiel. I didn't expect him to agree. We started inviting Fiona and Sep since they also kept weird hours. 


AB: I understand that you had a tight deadline to record your album. Was it stressful?

MR: We released "The Pony You Always Wanted Died Today" on June 5th 2010. It was pretty stressful getting it done in time. Since we were booked to play a few shows during North By North East and wanted the album done by then, we only had a few weeks to record and mix it.

AB:How did your recent tour go?

MR:The tour was a blast. Except for Fiona who's from Halifax, none of us had ever gone to the east coast before. It was in September, but we decided to camp a few times. It was cold but there's a lot of wood in New Brunswick so we had campfires any time we weren't playing. Our Montréal show was canceled without warning. We ended up running into some people looking for a show that invited us to play in their apartment above an old church. They said it used to be where the nuns lived back in the day.

AB: What are your most memorable shows?

MR: Our release party was exciting. We got to play with some of the best bands in Ontario -The Ruby Spirit, Fox Jaws (Barrie) and A Horse and His Boy (London). Another fun show was our Slap Bracelet release party. In November 2009 we attempted to record our album the first time and didn't finish it, so we released slap bracelets instead.

AB:You have quite a supportive fan base. Were you initially surprised considering how unique your sound is?

MR: When we first started the band, it was just a given that no one would ever like us. When we started playing shows, we were surprised that while people and reviewers found us weird, they still seemed to like us and keep coming. Toronto's a pretty hard city due to every musician in Canada coming here, so we were pretty lucky to always have people at our shows.


AB:So the most important question- why have you decided to break up?

MR: It's hard to give a single set reason for us ending the band. The truth is it's just kind of time. I'm sure we were all hoping Krupke would last longer, but we all are proud of the music we made but making it's a really stressful process. Most bands don't have every member writing for a reason. It's a slow fighting filled process. One that turned out to be completely worth it. I mean would you rather fight with people who all care equally, or just have people indifferently just play what you want. At the same time, I think we all need to work on other things for a while.


AB:So what will all of you be doing now?

MR:I'm sure we'll all be in various other musical projects. I'm taking a bit of a break from music to make music videos (doing one for The Ruby Spirit). Fiona's getting her PHD in music.

AB: Can you tell us about your upcoming final show?

MR: Our last show is at Rancho Relaxo on February 25th. Rancho is one of the few decent venues that really help new bands. It's run by Dan Wolovick who doubled as our manager, so only made sense to end there. There's just something fun and magical about that place. The show will be a masquerade with free masks for everyone who comes -handmade by Abigail Verkuyl, Joe's 8-year-old sister, who also made our CMW posters and press kit.

For more information about Krupke or their final show, please visit www.myspace.com/krupkeband or check them out on Facebook.