$15 at the door

Montreal singer-songwriter and producer, Chris Velan, has always been crossing borders with his mix of world music-influenced, singer-songwriter pop. Drawing comparisons to the smart, genre-blending writing of Neil Finn, Nick Lowe and Paul Simon, he has toured throughout North America with festival performances at The Lincoln Center, Sundance Festival, Montreal International Jazz Festival, and Osheaga.  As a producer, he has worked with Sierra Leone’s Refugee All Stars and Haitian music collective, Lakou Mizik. The single, "Un-American Gothic", from his sixth and most recent album,"Glow", was in CBC Radio 2's Top 100 Songs List for 2016. 

Chris’ latest album, Amateur Hour (to be released September 14th), was recorded over a winter week in his country studio with a stalwart Montreal crew of musicians. The snowy, pastoral setting did nothing to temper what is at its heart a vital-sounding album of songs that revel with brash resolve in the effort of dealing with what he dubs, “a breakup album with myself”. 

Adroitly produced and recorded by Rod Shearer,  Amateur Hour, achieves a low-humming, thrilling point of humanness that spans bare-bone ballads and cascading free-for-alls. One is left with the distinct sense that this time around, Chris is gleefully participating in his own dismantling, anxious to explode into his own, joyful splinters.