Knight Shayd (band)

The following are from the notes on the 5-CD release of the complete catalog of Knight Shayd recordings.

The first thing you'll notice on this recording is how bad it sounds. With the exception of 2 rare studio recordings, these are all live performances, and recorded with the simplest of analog recording decks.

From the Spring of 2002 to Summer 2006, Knight Shayd Lead Guitarist Wil Gerkin (who owned the majority of the tapes) started digitizing these recordings (as the analog particles will one day turn to dust). Drummer, and brief Bassist Clarke M. Smith did the CD artwork, as well as submit the recordings he had on tape. He also digitally remastered the Toga party 8mm film and incorporated the sound, recorded separately on reel to reel.

## History

Back in 1982, Sophomores Clarke M. Smith and Peter Beam met in Algebra class and discovered they were musicians. Pete was an aspiring guitarist in love with Eddie Van Halen, and Clarke, a drummer in love with Neil Peart. Pete introduced Clarke to more Rush (he had only heard Spirit of Radio and Tom Sawyer). They both had an affinity for Rush, and got together and jammed to such oldies as 2112 and Working Man.  Soon after, the 2 met Wil Gerkin (then, Bill Gerkin) in PE class.  He was in love with the late Randy Rhodes. He was not a guitarist, but wanted to be. He picked one up and soon realized he was a promising natural talent. At any rate, the three of them started jamming at Clarke’s house, whose incredible parents allowed them to make all kinds of distorted, awful noise in the house.

This collection starts with some simply awful sounding stuff from these days. Soon after that, Wil brought over Bryan Owens, a guitarist/vocalist. This was a turning point in becoming a ‘band’. It was thrilling having vocals for the first time.  Bryan was a natural and a great singer.  A kid who could sing and play guitar at the same time.  Clarke explains - “I didn’t know this guy.  But he pulls out his guitar and his amp, and says ‘do you know ‘Hold on Loosely’ by 38 Special?  I said, sorta, maybe.  How’s it go? And he starts playing his part and I joined in.  Then - he started singing. This was pure magic, let me tell you.  As a trio with Pete and Wil, there is only so much you can do without a singer, and it always felt like the 3 of us were just messing around, nothing serious. But in that moment, with a singer and an entire song played correctly, it was fairly mind blowing for me.  And his singing was awesome.  After we ended the song, I said, ‘so are you a sophomore?’. He said, ‘sorry, just a lowly freshman,’ or something to that effect.

So Bryan was officially ‘in’ the band now (then called Vengeance).

Bryan (who passed away at age 55 of a heart attack in 2023) was supremely talented.  He wrote some very simple songs that we performed, but he was a great a front man for a teenager.  He was beyond his years in that way, standing up there at the microphone, fearlessly singing his heart out and talking to the crowd.  The band jammed all the time.  They challenged him to sing a number of songs he had never heard before and were not his particular style.  Bryan was heavily into Kiss and some southern rock such as 38 Special (and soon to be a huge Motley Crue fan).  The others  were into Iron Maiden and Judas Priest and Rush.  But he did it, and was open to anything. His two original songs (which the band occasionally made fun of because they were a bit cheesy) were called “Make a Move on Her” and “Wish You Were Mine”. But - at least he wrote something.  The others never wrote anything original, only did covers.  Bryan became very friendly with Clarke’s parents. His late stepfather Ande gave Bryan an affectionate and colorful name - “the red-headed fuzzy fucker”.

The 4 of them decided to call themselves Vengeance, and were an official garage band (with no bassist), albeit only high school students. They moved to the garage of the Felix residence and started jamming constantly, much to the chagrin of the neighbors.

An older guy whose name has been forgotten, joined in as a sort of manager, and got the band their first ever gig, the infamous ‘Toga Party’ at a church in northwest Tucson. Guests came in togas, and the band’s families came as well. The only thing truly missing from their sound, and it was a big thing, was a bass player. So they sounded tinny and terribly incomplete. They were all terrified, with the possible exception of Bryan, who loved to be in front of an audience and was fearless. The ironic thing is that most of the songs they played were not exactly appropriate for a church…Children of the Damned…Parasite…

Here is an 8mm film roll of the Toga Party, with occasional sound synched to picture.  This was super-8 silent film, with occasional sound from reel-to-reel tapes that were recorded separately. Some audio commentary to the silent parts.

The band kept jamming all the time, and started to get quite the high school following. They also met guitarist Denny Seefieldt, a beginner who started to play bass for the band (but he wanted to play guitar).  One interesting highlight was a brief professional recording session, courtesy of Clarke’s cousin David Uhl, who was studying recording engineering at the University of Arizona. The band was his class project. They recorded Round and Round (Ratt) and Rock You Like a Hurricane (Scorpions).  With Denny still a beginner on bass, Clarke performed bass on the final mix. At this writing, this version has yet to be found, as the tape was stolen in LA in 1993.

Another highlight of the band at this time was a live performance at their high school gym.  It was all set to be outside on the ‘commons’ but for some reason, some higher-ups changed their mind and forced them to play in the gym, certainly the worst place to play for acoustics. They were all nervous of course, but also angry about it all. A bassist on campus, Matt Federoff, played a few songs, even though he was not part of the band, and Denny played the rest. Disgusted with how it was stacking up to sound, Clarke canceled his drum solo at the last minute.

Things got kind of weird during the junior year, 1984. Vengeance jammed with different people, and Bryan’s father sent him back to New York, which is where his mom lived. He returned briefly and performed in the 1984 school show, but then disappeared back to New York, and no one heard from him again (until Clake found him on Facebook circa 2013). Then, Pete decided to quit, and concentrate on basketball. He had a bit of an identity issue, hanging out half the time with long haired, head banging ‘stoners,’ and the other with the clean cut ‘jocks.’  For the rest of the band, their hair was getting longer and longer too (except when Wil took a job at McDonalds).

During and after Clarke’s and Wil’s senior year (junior for Denny), all other parties dropped out, and they became a trio. Further, they decided to become an Iron Maiden cover band, playing a few exceptions such as Round and Round and Paranoid.  At the time, Maiden released an Egyptian-sounding record called Powerslave, and that made the band become interested in that kind of sound.  That’s when Wil came up with the name Knight Shayd. Not since Vengeance did they really have an official band name. A couple names circulated, like Little Egypt, Black Death, and Destiny. This was arguably the band’s tightest-sounding time, although perhaps not as fun as previous years. The only thing really missing, which made them even tighter, was when they finally got a second guitarist (Troy) a short time later.

For the first 6 months post-high school graduation, the band played on, and Clarke further developed his interest in playing bass guitar. He officially switched to bass, and they brought in drummer Richard McKinley. Ironically, McKinley was (more or less) in a ‘rival’ high school band with aforementioned Matt Federoff and guitarist Rick Leon. But before too long, Clarke simply quit altogether, after pondering the difficult decision to pursue college and TV/filmmaking. Wil and Denny also had desires to go into a much harder rock/heavier metal sound (like the then brand new band Metallica). Clarke was steadily leaning towards wanting to go into ‘softer’ progressive rock (and more challenging music from a drummer’s perspective), and also wanting to work towards playing gigs at bars, even doing some pop. He and Pete were both burnt out on distortion!  Wil and Denny would have none of that. They wanted to be more than that, since countless bands end up like that, and only playing in bars for the rest of their lives. The three of them did in fact write a few unfinished originals, but overall, remained an Iron Maiden cover band. After Clarke left for good, the others continued for a few years post-high school.

Slowly, the group that was then Wil, Denny, Richard and new guitarist Troy, dissipated and went their separate ways. As mentioned before, Bryan never played with the band again. Pete and Clarke remained in contact, living near each other in Connecticut and jamming occasionally with his synthesizer. After a brief change of musical taste (rap, dance, new age, techno), they both returned to their rock roots and became followers of Dream Theater. Wil and Denny continued with other Tucson bands, and Denny later completely switched to guitar and became quite good. Wil became interested in other kinds of music and bands.  Clarke basically quit the drums, but continues to play acoustic guitar. He went back to filmmaking, and attended the U of A. Both Wil and Denny became extremely good lead guitarists. Today Denny is a lead guitarist and frequently plays with Richard McKinley. So a small part of Knight Shayd is still alive.  Wil, who would very rarely make any contact with anyone from the band, quit music altogether and runs a software company. But alas, the saga of the band officially known as Knight Shayd ended by the end of the 80s.

## 2023 Reflection and Update

This wiki page was prompted by the sad news of Bryan Owens’ passing at age 55 in New York in March of 2023. In 2008, the band put together this 5-CD anthology of recordings, to best preserve them.  It has since gone out of print, and difficult to reproduce.  So the content and pictures have been repurposed for this wiki page, and a way to share it with Bryan’s friends and family.

As far as other band members, Denny Seefieldt and Richard McKinley were the only ones who continued to pursue a career in music. Denny has been in several bands, most notably as a guitarist in the thrash metal band Atrophy. The two of them often play together, with other people that came along long after high school. Troy Grey, an occasional performer in the band, went on to be an accomplished flamenco guitarist.

Wil has become a bit of an enigma, showing up every 10 years or so to say hello. He went into the computer security business in Tucson, and left musicianship behind altogether.  Pete still plays guitar and keeps it up it for fun.  In addition to drums, Clarke had initially become very interested in bass, which led to acoustic guitar playing.  He still gets to pound on the drums every once in a while at his brother in law’s house (also a drummer).

As for Bryan, no one in the band had seen him in person since 1986.  Clarke found him on Facebook circa 2012, and they were able to catch up on the missed decades. Bryan had some stints with different local bands in the interim.

The original band had all hoped for some kind of reunion, and even try to play some of those old songs again.  Alas, it never happened.  And now Bryan is the first one in the band to leave this earth.  Until we meet again, my friend.  We are sure you are using your musical talent in heaven now.

## Selected Song List

Based on the vast amount of material, the songs and clips have been spread out over 5 CDs. The CDs not only showcase the band’s best stuff, but also selections from their early days, as well as some solo work.  Comments are the best recollections and may not be entirely accurate.  Some have YouTube audio links. In chronological order…