Fernando von Arb or simply FVA (born 17 January 1953) is a

Swiss Swiss may refer to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland * Swiss people Places * Swiss, Missouri * Swiss, North Carolina *Swiss, West Virginia * Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses *Swiss-system tournament, in various games and sports *Swiss Internation ...

guitarist A guitarist (or a guitar player) is a person who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of guitar family instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselv ...

songwriter A songwriter is a musician who professionally composes musical compositions or writes lyrics for songs, or both. The writer of the music for a song can be called a composer, although this term tends to be used mainly in the classical music gen ...

and producer. He is best known for being the lead guitarist of the

hard rock Hard rock or heavy rock is a loosely defined subgenre of rock music typified by aggressive vocals and distorted electric guitars. Hard rock began in the mid-1960s with the garage, psychedelic and blues rock movements. Some of the earliest hard ...

band Krokus.

Career

In the early 1970s, Von Arb was playing in the band Montezuma when he was recruited by Chris von Rohr and Tommy Kiefer to join their band, Krokus. He joined the group in time for their second album, '' To You All'' as the rhythm guitarist. In the 1970s, Von Arb undertook the task of finding a powerful voice to front the band, encountering trouble until he discovered Maltese-born

Marc Storace Marc Storace (''Sto-rah-che'') (born 7 October 1951) is a Maltese born rock vocalist. His career in music started in the 1960s. He is most noted for his position as frontman, lead singer and songwriter of Swiss hard rock band Krokus from 1980. B ...

to lead his band's vocals for years to come. Although Von Arb and Storace have been apart for a few albums, they are still in Krokus to this day. At one point, Storace and Von Rohr quit the band, leaving Von Arb to create another band with ex-Krokus member Juerg Naegeli. They took pseudonyms which were Rob Weiss and Ben Branov (Branov is von Arb spelled backwards), and the two released a couple of albums that were big in Switzerland. In 1990, Von Arb assembled another line-up for Krokus, which would be shunned and uncared for. Around the same time, Von Arb became ill, leading to suspicion that he may have been diagnosed with

lymphoma Lymphoma is a group of blood and lymph tumors that develop from lymphocytes (a type of white blood cell). In current usage the name usually refers to just the cancerous versions rather than all such tumours. Signs and symptoms may include enlar ...

, but he is healthy now. 1994 rolled around, and Von Arb again tried to build Krokus. He was successful, with former vocalist Marc Storace rejoining the lineup. Failing to keep Storace in 1999 proved to be a downfall. ''Round 13'' was released, but was less noticed. In 2004, Von Arb and Storace reunited once again and released live albums that proved to be an advantage of having Storace. In 2005, Von Arb temporarily left Krokus due to

tendonitis Tendinopathy, a type of tendon disorder that results in pain, swelling, and impaired function. The pain is typically worse with movement. It most commonly occurs around the shoulder (rotator cuff tendinitis, biceps tendinitis), elbow (tennis elb ...

in his wrist to be replaced by

Mandy Meyer Armand "Mandy" Meyer (born August 29 1960) is a Swiss-Canadian guitarist best known for being a member of the hard rock band Gotthard, the progressive rock band Asia, and the heavy metal band Krokus. Meyer has also worked with Cobra, Stealin' H ...

. However, by 2007, he had returned and was able to reunite the four principle members of the group's classic line-up (featuring himself, Storace, Von Rohr, and Freddy Steady). By 2008, the group's rhythm guitarist during much of the "classic lineup days," Mark Kohler, had also rejoined the lineup, a landmark in the band's history, and the quintet played several live shows. In 2010, Krokus released the album '' Hoodoo''. Von Arb and Krokus released ''

Dirty Dynamite ''Dirty Dynamite'' is the seventeenth studio album from Swiss melodic hard rock band Krokus, released through The End Records in North America. It includes a cover of the Beatles song "Help!". Reception Since its release, the album has been me ...

'' on 5 March 2013 with minor success in the US, but a major hit in Switzerland. It contains a cover of

The Beatles The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatles, most influential band of al ...

' hit song "

Help! ''Help!'' is the fifth studio album by the English Rock music, rock band the Beatles and the soundtrack to their Help! (film), film of the same name. It was released on 6 August 1965. Seven of the fourteen songs, including the singles "Help! ( ...

". In 2017, Krokus and von Arb went on to release their cover album, ''Big Rocks''. In 2019, Krokus announced that they would be retiring following their farewell tour. Plans for the tour were postponed into 2021 due to the ongoing

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

References

* http://krokusonline.seven49.net/Web/en/Fan_Club/HISTORY/KROKUS_Family_Tree/ALPHABETICAL/FERNANDO_VON_ARB.htm * http://www.fernandovonarb.ch/p/fva/songwriter.php?lg=en {{DEFAULTSORT:Arb, Fernando von 1953 births Living people Swiss guitarists Swiss rock musicians Lead guitarists Krokus (band) members