Dr. Draw

Quick Draw
Hard-rocking violinist is more Gwen Stefani than Vivaldi by Jamie Calvert
Crowd control isn't typically a concern at violin recitals, but then Eugene Draw isn't your typical violinist. At the Beaches Jazz Festival this summer, so many people crammed the narrow stretch of Queen East to watch the sprightly 23-year-old electric violin virtuoso hammer out high-octane concertos that police were forced to shut down the show. The next day, the Moscow-born, Montreal-based violinist's 2004 album, The City-which had been languishing on shelves-sold out at record stores across the GTA. His rise to fame may be the stuff of rock 'n' roll legend, but his music defies any such pat formulas. A curious fusion of classical, disco, rock, blues and folk beats, with reggae and electronica mixed in, Draw's beat-packed fiddling references Mingus and Marley, Beethoven and Bowie. Raised in Toronto, he took lessons at the Royal Conservatory of Music but honed his wild sense of showmanship busking and breakdancing at the corner of Yonge and Bloor--a mixed pedigree that's equally in evidence whether he's jamming onstage with the Barenaked ladies or livening up swish private functions for Louis Vuitton and Dom Perignon. Now known as Dr. Draw, he's flown to Prague to play at product launches and New York to entertain Russian diplomats at the consulate. Jumping through frenetic sets, cartoon eyes popping, bleached-blond hair flying, Draw is a blur to behold. Like his music, he just can't be pinned down.
Dr. Draw plays Hugh's Room Nov. 20 and 21. 2261 Dundas St. W., 416.531.6604, www.hughsroom.com - Toronto Life-Jamie Calvert

Sweat Equity-John Terauds
Sweat. And more sweat. That's the key to having your dreams come true. That is, if your dream means going from being a teenage busker to a 23-year-old with a new album to tour. Exactly nine years ago, Eugene Draw was a thin, intense, bleached-blond Grade 9 student at Jarvis Collegiate. The 14-year-old had already been noticed for his violin skills as a busker when the Star's Janice Mawhinney caught up with him. "I'm going to move into directing, studio work, playing electric violin and playing in my own band as a career," he told Mawhinney.

On Sunday and Monday, Dr. Draw, as he is known on stage, will perform at Hugh's Room on electric violin, with a band. They are there to launch an album they spent countless hours recording in a Quebec studio.

After 45 minutes chatting with Draw last week before rehearsal for a private gig at the Carlu, it is clear that he is consumed by music and his craft.

Draw explains - perched on the edge of his chair, talking quickly, tightly coiled for instant action - that it's hours of daily toil that have gotten him this far this fast.

The new disc, Train 64, is a collection of 10 varied, intense forays into rock,folk, neo-punk and various electronically mixed points in between. You want to get up and dance to some tracks, while others draw you deep into a more meditative space.

Draw's violin plays alongside Montrealers Pierre-Luc Rioux on guitar and Marie-Michele Beausoleil on electric harp. There is a keyboard player, too, and Draw is currently breaking in a new drummer for a tour that is taking the 20-somethings from Halifax to Vancouver.

The disc's title is a nod to the VIA train that whisked Draw away to Montreal two years ago. "I wanted a more creative life-style. Toronto was killing me."

Before moving to Quebec, Draw and his violin were a familiar presence at Toronto venues such as Money and fly. Yet Draw knew that working the clubs is not conducive to daytime labour. "You can't get much done when you go to bed at 4 a.m., and I need to practise four or five hours a day."

Initially, the club gigs were solo affairs, but Draw soon had a band. Once they had a playlist, Draw was ready to tackle a recording.

A contact led him to the legendary Quebec recording studio of Guy Cloutier, the man behind onetime sensations Rene and Natalie Simard, among others.

"It was the most amazing place," Draw says. "It's all lined with wood and I was allowed to do pretty much what I wanted." and what he wanted was an album that wasn't "over-produced." "But it's hard to make an album sound like a live show."

So the band spent hundreds of hours trying to make it sound as live as possible.

Draw says they recorded in single takes - a time-consuming approach. "With experimenting, everything took twice as long. We would do take after take. Some of the best takes came at the point of exhaustion. It was like the way they used to record in the '60's."

"It was my first experience producing," says Draw. "And now I'm, like when can I get back into the studio?"

But there's an album-launching tour to face, and Draw says his current challenge is to make the music sound as good as on the record. "I'm looking at the music differently now," he says.

He likes the idea of taking a three-minute track and stretching it out to 10 minutes in a live performance. "I always need to change things," he says.

Draw puts a lot of weight on being spontaneous during a live show. But at the same time - and here we have to admit that this young man is a control freak - he wants the live program to have a steady flow.

"It's going to feel like a concept show," he says, laughing at the connotations. "I want this show to flow from beginning to end." He says the violin will be the glue that holds it all together.

Asked how he feels about having achieved his dream of touring with a band, Draw pauses.

"You know, when you're a teenager, you think you will achieve that and that and that. But when you get older, you see it's more of a process. You never actually stop anywhere."

Not that Draw would stop for anything at this point in his life.
- Toronto Star-John Terauds

If you are sick of fluffy rock pop music, give Dr. Draw's latest creation, Train 64 (named after the VIA train from Montreal to Toronto) a good listen. This eleven track album will surely make the most cynical pop critic a run for his/her money. No, the doctor doesn't sing - it's all about his violin, and with that instrument he can express his emotions better than most singers can with their voices.

The CD starts off with a haunting melody and an energy that pulls you into his world, a controlled confusion that makes you feel lost on a (train) ride you are about to take with him. In the middle of the track, you can almost feel the engine moving. Eugene's energy is unparalleled and his influences are vast. I almost see each track as a different stop, a different expression of his musical journey.

My personal favorites include Welcome on Board, The Hearts are Racing Again, Bone Tone and Full Moon Lounge. Pay extra attention to Bone Tone. It's a great blend of a modern sound and drums with a Baroque style counter-line. Musically brilliant! Great energy from Dr. Draw (and you thought you always need a diva!). - GGT-Chester Wong

Victoria Day weekend, better known as May Two-Four, is prime time for opening the cottage, hanging with friends, and general outdoor debauchery.

Barrie isn't generally thought of as "the place to be" to catch great live acts, like the power melodies of one of the headliners at this year’s Barrie Waterfront Festival, Dr. Draw. But if you’re looking for some fun in the sun this Victoria Day weekend, why not make a trip up the 400 to drink a discounted local beer and do it all.

Eugene Draw, the violin player behind Dr. Draw, was born in Russia and moved with his family to Canada. He has spent time in Toronto and is now based in Montreal.

"People don't really expect to see what they end up getting with us," Draw, who plays electric violin on stage, said. "We have an interesting name, an electric harp and electric violin and these punk rock looking musicians, but when people hear the music they realize it's not an image thing. They hear tight musicians and get really into it."

He described his music as "the intelligent progression of pop". Draw and his band play a hard-edged, intense combination of rock, jazz, and classical music peppered with a little reggae and folk music here and there. He said it's helped them to stay away from any particular music scene.

"We don't do emo, or the stuff that's really in right now, but people who are old and young seem to really get into it," Draw said. "We are not pretentious with our music, it crosses a lot of boundaries, and it's open to interpretation because it's mostly instrumental. We do not participate in any particular scene or take any kind of sub-cultural instruction."

Keep in mind this is a group that caused a near-riot at last year's Beaches Jazz Festival, when thousands of people turned up to see them play a street gig after word of mouth spread from the smaller crowd at the previous day’s show. Draw himself has shared the stage with Ron Sexsmith, Jim Cuddy, Our Lady Peace, Usher and The Barenaked Ladies, not to mention opening for Patti Labelle at the Toronto Fashion Cares Aids Benefit.

He said he likes festivals because people aren't familiar with his music and he enjoys getting them revved up.

"At festivals like this, people are just a lot more chilled out," Draw said. "There's lots of energy and people feel the music on an emotional level. I expect lots of energy and people bouncing around. I expect craziness."

While the music will likely be the main attraction at the Waterfront festival, there is also street entertainment, lots of food, kids activities, and fireworks displays at dusk. There's even a circus. The festival kicks-off on Friday May 19, with a BBQ in Barrie’s Memorial Square and wraps up on May 21

Draw told S&H.ca his most embarrassing moment happened when he was sabotaged at The Roxy Club in New York City and he played the show covered in blood after falling while running on stage, but he promised to be in top form in Barrie.

"I haven't peed myself on stage yet," Draw said, laughing. "Like the [girl from] Black Eyed Peas." Covered in blood or pee, he's ready to bring some new sounds to the festival goers in Barrie.

- sceneandheard.ca-Erin Taylor

Violin prodigy wows them from Dundas to deep south

Shinan Govani, National Post
Published: Saturday, December 23, 2006

And so draws the curtain on another stellar year for that friendly neighbourhood rock violinist we know as Dr. Draw, nee Eugene. He serenaded the prime minister of Singapore recently, and even made Jon Bon Jovi quiver. Now, the here-there-everywhere, traffic-stopping string musician is looking forward to finding some sleep under the Christmas tree.

After having been to Asia three times in the last bit, just for starters, the lanky prodigy that we've been on to for many years finally returned home to play two sold-out nights at Hugh's Room on Dundas last weekend. One of his recent stops in the Far East? The opening of a Louis Vuitton store in Kuala Lumpur. If that sounds sorta familiar to some Torontonians, it's because Dr. Draw also memorably medicated the crowd at what remains one of the more lavish parties to happen in this city in the past five -- the 100th anniversary of LV, thrown some years ago at The Distillery.

Since then, the Moscow-born exstreet-busker -- high-schooled at Jarvis Collegiate -- has seemingly become as indispensable to this upscale brand as its handbag line! Toronto. Newport. San Francisco. New York. Montreal. Honolulu. Wherever there's a Louis Vuitton, this fella and his genius fingers appear to be.

One party in Nashville, of all places, where an LV store recently debuted -- yes, obviously, they've got deep pockets in the Deep South -- was memorable indeed. A source tells me that Richie Sambora, there with Bon Jovi, went up to Dr. Draw and paid him the highest possible compliment: "You play like Jimi Hendrix."

A little Hendrix, a little Handel! That pretty much sums up this guy's metier, from where we stand. Question is: Is he remembering to get regular manicures? Very important for the 21st-century violinist, we figure.

"He's just starting to get into manicures," comes the official word. "But I think it has more to do with his new girlfriend, Drea, a drop dead gorgeous Serbian model."

Well, naturally.

- The National Post

QUICK TIP: If you ever find yourself at a performance by the North York bred rock violinist Eugene Draw (or “Dr. Draw,” as he’s known professionally) observe the faces in the crowd. They’ll be frozen in a kind of rapt, open-mouthed wonderment. The subject of their happy fascination is a whirling dervish who attacks his instrument like Steve Nash attacks the paint: fearlessly, yet with finesse. Just watching Draw’s human-pogo-stick act is tiring: even as your foot is tapping, your hamstrings may be having sympathy pains.

Not only is the 24-year-old a galvanizing performer, he’s also an adept composer: his slashing melodies and epic arrangements manage to evoke classical masters while maintaining a distinctly modern edge. Draw, who moved to Torresdale, near Bathurst and Finch, as a child with his family from Moscow, honed his chops at the Royal Conservatory of Music before becoming a beloved streetcorner busker (he was “discovered” as a teenager by The Toronto Star) and commercial sensation. His first album, 2003’s electronica-infused The City, was an underground word-of-mouth hit; his excellent 2006 follow-up, Train 64, which intersperses original tracks like the propulsive stomper “The Hearts are Racing Again” with interpretations of traditional standards like “Danny Boy,” was the second-best selling album in Toronto in its first week of release. It’s an amazing feat for a record without any vocals or majorlabel support.

“I made bets with people that my violin album would be the first violin album to go on the top 40 charts,” says Draw straight-facedly in a café near his parents’ Harborfront home. “And it did. I don’t check this stuff but my mom does. I tell her I don’t care, but you know, I do.”

During our interview, Draw talks a lot about caring: about his bandmates, whose airtight accompaniment helps to transform his elegant string-wringing into allout, industrial-strength headbangers; about his parents, whose support gave him the confidence to abandon his studies and focus on performing; and, above all, about his audiences, whose pleasure he prizes and prioritizes above all else.

“Recently, I’ve been feeling the exact same way I did when I was a street musician,” he says. “I feel like I have a duty — it’s a pact with the audience. On the street, I had to put on a really intense show so that I could change peoples’ days, or make them feel better. And that’s how I’m approaching it now.”

The ethos is the same, but the circumstances couldn’t be more different: instead of angling for loonies, Draw is plying his trade professionally at clubs and music festivals across the world.

“The last five years have been non-stop,” he says, listing off the places he’s played in that time: every major city in Canada, Hawaii, Boston, New York, the Czech Republic and Switzerland, just off the top of his head. He also reveals that the day after our interview, he’ll be heading to Malaysia to play a Louis Vuitton party — he’s a regular guest of the designer, who first employed him for a jewellery launch in New York in 2004.

“I’ve taken over the whole corporate performance scene,” Draw boasts playfully. “Over the years, I’ve done every top corporate event around the country. It’s kind of on the side of what I’m doing with touring and recording.”

According to Draw, performing for the starched-shirt crowd is more fun than it sounds — and furthermore, the shirts don’t stay starched for long.

“I did one event on top of a mountain in Montreal, looking down on the city,” he says. “I decided I’d make it more intense. I was taking my shirt off, going completely nuts. It was absolute debauchery. The perception is that these events are going to be very tight, but when the show actually starts, the crowd dictates things. And if the crowd wants something more, I’m aware of it — even if they aren’t.”

Draw’s showmanship may come naturally, but his success has been built on a foundation of hard work. And plenty of risk-taking — it’s a brave (and maybe foolish) musician who would even consider leaving the Conservatory, much less taking his unpolished act to the streets and trying to build a rep.

“Busking was interfering with my studies,” recalls Draw of his school days. “And I didn’t want to play a lot of the pieces I was playing. I hated exams. . . I still hate exams. I hate competitions. . .all that preparation for nothing, for a piece of paper.”

Feeling empowered by his decision to drop out, he made his first trip to Montreal at age 16, where he was “absolutely broken down” by a music teacher who feared he might squander his prodigious gifts. “We’re talking tears here,” he says. “She told me ‘you have a talent. You’re not a classical violinist, but you have something no one else has. You have to work as hard as you can at it.’ She gave me rudimentary stuff to work on, because my technique wasn’t very good, and after a summer of practicing 10 hours a day for seven weeks, everything improved.”

Draw eventually moved to Montreal for the good of his career (“I’d been absolutely destroying the clubs there,” he says) but he looks back fondly on his time in North York. “Torresdale was where the Russian community was. We got a huge rented apartment in a complex beside a cemetery. There was this gorgeous park that I used to do everything there. . . I wouldn’t catch any fish, but whatever.”

He also recalls his years at Rockford Public School, stating his admiration for the teachers who helped to ease his culture shock.

“I had an amazing ESL teacher there who was very strict,” says Draw. “But it was great. He made us speak English and it really helped.”

Next year, Draw and his collaborators are hoping to mount a full-scale European tour and release a new album. Draw hints that it will sound somewhat different from Train 64 — he’s imagining a shift away from high-production values towards a kind of back-to-basics immediacy. “Working in a studio kind of sucks,” he laughs. “A lot of the next album is recorded outside, in a field. I have the resources and the time, so why not?”

It may sound like a laissez-faire approach, but Draw insists most of his best work comes out of off-thecuff improvisation.

“I ignore structure,” he says. “A lot of the songs have no distinct structure at all. An idea could come from a television show or a movie. Like The Squid and the Whale…that movie gave me a lot of ideas.”

He’s equally enthusiastic about his musical influences, which range from electronica pioneers like the Chemical Brothers and DJ Shadow to rockers like R.E.M. and Radiohead. Draw also expresses a fondness for experimental music: “you know those pieces that are just sound-waves? Well, I could listen to those for, like, 10 hours straight.”

Given Draw’s hectic schedule, that kind of concentrated meditation could be vital. Whatever Draw’s doing, it’s working — he says that while performing used to burn him out, he’s currently feeling energized and ready to keep pushing his creative envelope.

“Recently I haven’t been getting sick or exhausted,” he says. “I used to get aches in my body from what I was doing on stage. There were physical issues, but they’re going away. It’s all about balance. I’m working hard, but because of that, I’m not out all night till 4 or 5. That’s what I used to do. Now I’ve cut it off. I think I can do more.”
- Post City Magazines

Eugene Draw calls himself a rocker at heart but is busy playing all styles of music all over the world.

Lorianna De Diorgio

It isn’t a question of where Eugene Draw has played. It’s more like, where hasn’t the young violinist played?

In a very short time the 24-year-old former North Yorker, better known as “Dr. Draw”, has gone from busking on the corner of Yonge & Bloor to wowing worldwide audiences at elite corporate functions.

Does playing for the likes of Louis Vuitton in Hawaii and Kuala Lumpur sound impressive?

Performances for heads of state and some of the worlds top glitterati are on his resume. He has even had a hand in promoting Toronto tourism by performing at Cesar’s Palace in Las Vegas. This month he will travel to Hong Kong, Toronto and back to his home of Montreal – all in a span of three days.

So it isn’t surprising to get the response, “I’m Just waking up,” when you ask him how he’s doing.

“I wake up at random hours,” the Moscow-born electric violinist said over the phone from Montreal. “I am lucky if I get four hours of sleep.”

While getting copious amounts of shuteye these days might not be an option, Draw is not complaining. After all, there’s no need to sleep and dream about success when one is living it.

“I don’t feel successful,” said Draw, who has lived in Montreal for the past few years but maintains a home in Toronto where his parents live. “I feel like I have accomplished something, but I have no idea of what the hell I have accomplished.”

If you’ve pegged Draw as a traditional classical violinist then you’re dead wrong. His music is a mixture of classical music with pop, electronic, folk and rock elements.

“Classical music has its very poppy elements and also its very underground elements,” said the independent musician, who lists a wide range of influences that range from Mozart to Nine Inch Nails.

For four years, Draw was enrolled in the Royal Conservatory of Music but soon found that his goals weren’t fitting with the prestigious school’s requirements.

When asked to play strictly classical music he would often deviate from what his teachers wanted and play a mixture of music.

He used to tick off his teachers “but it was just not my thing,” he said. “My stuff is very rhythmic and groove. “The harder the music, the better I like it.”

The self-proclaimed rocker opted out of the royal Conservatory in favour of educating himself in the school of life, he says.

“Competitiveness is a good environment for some people, but at the same time you see young classical musicians drive themselves to insanity by practicing 10, 12, 14 hours a day,” he went on to say. “You might get a technique, but you’re one in a million people that have a great technique, and you can’t really contribute any ideas or any soul to it because you haven’t really experienced life.”

He relies on his life experiences to compose music.

When he was 13, the corner of Yonge and Bloor became the stage upon which he played the violin and breakdanced.

It was more about putting on a show than making a few bucks here and there, Draw recalls about those years he and other musicians, including rappers, would often stop traffic with their live performances.

Passerby soon gave the bubbly teen the nickname of “Dr.”, given the fact he was able to “cure” people and cheer them up with his talented playing and positive energy.

The clever nickname has stuck.

“It socially connected me to so many people that are really cool individuals, who aren’t pretentious and are in the same position as I am,” Draw mused about the five years he spent on the fateful street corner. “Wherever I go now, I always meet people from that part of my life.

“It is really surreal.”

Surreal is also an apt description of Draw’s success. How many local buskers can say they’ve made it big in the music industry? Most remain in the underground scene, destined to play in subway stations or on street corners.

Draw, however, catapulted his street corner symphony to a record deal and later two CDs. His debut CD, the City sold more than 10 000 copies and his sophomore album, Train 64, which debuted in 2005, has gone on to win the acclaim of even the most cynical of music critics. He is currently working on his third CD, due out next spring.

Draw says that he deliberately stays out of city music scenes in order to remain true to his music values and to avoid getting mixed up in the pitfalls of mainstream industry.

Draw frequently comes home to Toronto, much to the delight of his local fans.

He will perform a holiday show at Dundas St. West’s Hugh’s Room on Dec. 16 and 17. Then, after a short holiday break, it will all begin anew.

While his life is chaotic and unstructured, and he probably has more stamps on his passport than an Air Canada pilot, Draw says he can’t see himself doing anything else.

“I live the best life,” he said, indicating he’ll be perfectly happy to catch up on his sleep when re retires. “I am lucky in many ways.”
- Bayview-Mills Town Crier