Biography
The origins of Phreeworld trace to 1976, yet the group did not coalesce as an official band until 1990. Brian Phraner, who handles vocals, bass, acoustic guitar, keyboards, and drums, first connected with drummer Donovan Michaels—previously known as Don Freeborn—around 1975, joining forces with guitarist Bruce Main in the progressive rock trio Medusa. Dave Wheeler, responsible for vocals and guitar, had already encountered Brian Phraner during high school, while Brian’s brother Mark Phraner, who contributes vocals, bass, guitar, and keyboard, remained part of the circle. As college students, the Medusa lineup performed daily in their school’s jazz ensemble and spent nights developing original material alongside occasional covers of PFM and Led Zeppelin. After Medusa dissolved, the musicians pursued separate paths. Wheeler joined the jazz fusion and progressive rock group I Am, penning songs inspired by subjects ranging from J.R.R. Tolkien to Arthur C. Clarke’s Childhood’s End, several of which later supplied material for Phreeworld. Between 1984 and 1989, Mark Phraner worked with Bruce Jones in Eternia, whose output spanned symphonic, hard, and progressive rock, crafting compositions that would reappear as Phreeworld tracks. Michaels performed with multiple ensembles, some of which toured across the United States. Following Medusa’s breakup, Brian Phraner—a prodigy on bass—played in various bands, worked as an engineer, and designed sound systems for sports arenas while composing lengthy, ambitious solo works, most notably the concept piece “The Tarot Meditations,” drawn from Paul Foster Case’s The Book of Tokens. Conceived to contain 22 songs in total, three of these pieces appeared on Phreeworld’s debut release, Crossing the Sound. The band finally united in 1990, drawing from sources that include the theatrical majesty of Genesis, the progressive complexity of Gentle Giant, classical composition, fantasy, and the occult. Friends in the Garden issued Crossing the Sound in 1998.
Albums