Ockham's Razor

Ockham's Razor bio

Ockham’s Razor formed in the spring of 2006 and began introducing audiences in the Pacific Northwest to their exciting, youthful style of Irish and Folk music in June 2006 at the Fremont Summer Solstice Festival. As a result, the band was commissioned to write and record their first original song (“A Face, An Echo”) for an independent film.

After working with Grammy nominated producer Conrad Uno (Presidents of the United States of America, Mudhoney, Posies) on their debut CD, Ockham’s Razor began performing shows throughout the Pacific Northwest, the San Francisco Bay area and Portland.

In the following months, the band of Kris Clements (whistle & vocals), Ben Ireland (guitar & vocals), Katie Corcoran (Fiddle) and Randy Whitelock (Percussion) would continue to write their own music as well as arrange traditional Irish and Celtic songs in new, modern ways with their fascinating technique to deconstruct and recreate them with a modern sound while containing the spirit and soul of what made each song memorable. The bands fun, young sound and exciting, inter-active stage shows also attracts new audiences to the music who may have never previously listened to Celtic music.

The summer of 2007 saw the addition of two additional members to the band. Tom Rooney on mandolin and banjoy and Dane Dorning on bass. The band met Tom at the Yakima Folklife Festival when he was filling in for another band. After the festival, Tom started working with Ockham's Razor. Dane met the band by proximity. He is a neighbor of Ben. When the band needed a bassist, they only needed look next door.

Within a month, the new members began practicing with band and performed their first live show. Ockham's Razor's second album, Ten Thousand Miles to Bedlam, was recorded and introduced fans to the evolved sound.

Since the recording of the album, original members Ben Ireland and Randy Whitelock as well as Dane Dorning have left the band and new members Dave Forrester and Oisin Mac Suibhne joined.

The musical backgrounds and influences of the members of Ockham’s Razor is widely varied which helps create a blending of genre’s into the music the band creates. With the back beat of a full drum kit, a classically trained Violinist with flowing blond, curly hair, a sean-nos singing tin whistler with a variety of hair colors, the bluegrass influence of the mandolin and banjo and the beat of the bodhran, Ockham's Razor isn't your fathers Irish band.

INDIVIDUAL BAND BIOS

NATHAN