Del Marquis (born Derek Gruen on August 31, 1977) is an American musician and the lead guitarist for the American group

Scissor Sisters Scissor Sisters were an American pop rock band formed in 2001. Its members include Jake Shears and Ana Matronic as vocalists, Babydaddy as multi-instrumentalist, Del Marquis as lead guitar/bassist, and Randy Real (who replaced Paddy Boom) ...

. He is also the creator and producer of the American group Slow Knights.

Scissor Sisters

Born in New York City, he was introduced to the

in 2001 at the insistence of a friend who, at the time, was dating

Jake Shears Jake Shears (born October 3, 1978) is an American singer and songwriter. He is best known as the male lead singer of pop-rock band Scissor Sisters. Early life Shears was born in Mesa, Arizona, the son of an entrepreneur father and a Baptist moth ...

. He originally dismissed the band when he first saw them perform at The Cock, a New York City gay bar.

Solo career

Gruen produced the DVD '' Kuvaputki'' released in 2008 by Embryoroom director Edward Quist about Finnish noise artists

Pan Sonic Pan Sonic was a Finnish electronic music group founded in Turku in 1993. The group consisted of Mika Vainio, Ilpo Väisänen, and Sami Salo. Salo left in 1996 leaving Pan Sonic a duo. The group was originally named Panasonic until 1998. In De ...

.
IMDB listing for Kuvaputki On Halloween 2008, he began releasing solo material, starting with the song "Hot House", only available with a digital film from his official site.
Video page of Del's official site. The video was made by Embryoroom, the same director who made '' Kuvaputki''. Further to this, on November 6 it was announced that Del was to digitally release a series of solo EPs, with one released the first Tuesday of every month from December 2008 to April 2009. These contained collaborations with

Joan As Police Woman Joan Wasser (born July 26, 1970) is an American musician, singer-songwriter and producer who releases music as Joan As Police Woman. She began her career playing violin with the Dambuilders and played with Black Beetle, Antony and the Johnsons, a ...

and

Basement Jaxx Basement Jaxx are an English electronic music duo consisting of Felix Buxton and Simon Ratcliffe. The pair got their name from the regular club night they held in Brixton, London, UK. They first rose to popularity in the underground house sce ...

. The first EP, titled ''Hothouse'', was released on December 2.
Scissor Sister Del Marquis to Release Solo EPs" The ''Runaround'' EP was released in September 2009, and includes remixes from Baron von Luxxury and Lifelike. The other EPs were titled ''Character Assassination'', and ''Litter to Society'', each with an accompanying videos by Embryoroom. Gruen &

Boys Choir of Harlem The Boys Choir of Harlem (also known as the Harlem Boys Choir) was a choir located in Harlem, New York City, United States. Its final performance was in 2007 and the group folded shortly thereafter due to several controversies, including a ...

alumnus Xavier - credited as ''Del x Xavier'', who would later join Slow Knights, collaborated on an EP titled ''Tickle''. It was released online as a free download in February 2013. Del Marquis was included on a list of openly gay entertainers in '' The Advocate''s "Forty Under 40" issue of June/July 2009.

Slow Knights

After

announced their hiatus in 2012, Gruen founded a five-person collective that became Slow Knights. They released two albums, ''Cosmos'' on March 26, 2013; and ''Living in a Dark World'' on April 20, 2015.

Personal life

Gruen is of German, Irish, Polish and Austrian descent, though his great grandfather was born in

Riga Riga (; lv, Rīga , liv, Rīgõ) is the capital and largest city of Latvia and is home to 605,802 inhabitants which is a third of Latvia's population. The city lies on the Gulf of Riga at the mouth of the Daugava river where it meets the ...

. He is formally trained as a furniture designer.''windycitymediagroup.com''
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References

External links

* * *
Embryoroom Official Site
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Marquis, Del 1977 births Living people American people of Latvian descent American rock guitarists American male guitarists American LGBT singers American LGBT songwriters Scissor Sisters members Songwriters from New York (state) American gay musicians Gay singers Gay songwriters LGBT people from New York (state) Guitarists from New York City 20th-century LGBT people 21st-century LGBT people