Dr. Stephen Krieger uses a mix of keyboards, drum machines, and samplers to produce his music.
By Caitlin Heaney West — April 4, 2024
Article In Brief
Stephen Krieger, MD, FAAN, a multiple sclerosis specialist and member of the Neurology Today editorial board, is back with new music as part of the electronic duo The Formalist. Coming out April 26, their second album, the 10-track “A Trace of Yourself,” reflects Dr. Krieger’s experience treating COVID-19 patients in New York City and grappling with the stressors of the pandemic. It will be available on major streaming platforms.
New York City neurologist Stephen Krieger, MD, FAAN, bounced between the hospital and recording studio as he once again teamed up with collaborator Erik Laroi to release a new album of electronic music as the band The Formalist.
“With a busy career, it’s easy to start ideas, but it’s hard to finish them, so having this album completed was really great. And now we’ll see what people think of it,” said Dr. Krieger, a multiple sclerosis specialist and professor of neurology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.
Dr. Krieger and Laroi started crafting the songs for the new album during the COVID-19 pandemic, when much of New York City lived in isolation. They worked on the songs separately and then together in Laroi’s home recording studio.
“I would go back to my home, do a lot of sampling, looping, and producing,” Dr. Krieger said. “Then we would meet and develop the songs. The process is sort of what got us through early pandemic times.”
Coming out April 26, the 10-track album, “A Trace of Yourself,” reflects Dr. Krieger’s experience treating patients while grappling with the stressors of that era. But it’s just his latest step in a long musical career.
“Music has been my pastime for most of my adult life,” Dr. Krieger said. “I was making more experimental electronic music when I was younger, and even in medical school I had a band that was playing shows. We had a couple of albums out in the late ’90s, early 2000s. Then neurology residency and faculty life took priority, but I’m glad I finally got back into it.”
The band he played with in college, the Freight Elevator Quartet, was “a somewhat improvisational electronic group,” he said, which is unusual because most electronic musicians don’t perform that way.
“We had a cellist and created pretty abstract instrumental music that would go in strange directions,” he said. “I was always behind the drum machines, mixers, and effects processors.”
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