Prolific songwriter and lush indie balladeer
Sean Nicholas Savage came up as part of a thriving Montreal underground scene, exploring warped takes on new romantic pop with a prolific series of releases. His songwriting incorporated a plethora of influences and styles as it developed, with his different albums tying in elements of wistful sophisti-pop, breezy disco, and even a turn towards orchestral chamber pop on 2020's
Life Is Crazy.
Savage's solo career began around 2008 with the release of his album Summer 5000. He recorded and released music often, doing scads of cassette albums, culminating with a highly active 2011 wherein he released three albums: Trippple Midnight Karma, Won Ton Jaz, and Flamingo. Part of the scene of friends that gave rise to artists like
Mac DeMarco,
Grimes, and Doldrums,
Savage performed often at the Lab Synthèse performance space and was one of the first artists signed to the Lab Synthèse-affiliated label Arbutus Records. He also co-wrote and sang many of the songs on the debut album of his friends' band Silly Kissers.
Extended touring and 2013's fantastic
Other Life brought
Savage to the attention of a larger fan base, and he followed in 2014 with the similarly R&B-rooted
Bermuda Waterfall. Recorded in Santa Monica, California, and released in 2015, the more uptempo but still slinky
Other Death saw him collaborate with Agor of
Blue Hawaii and
Errhead of Doldrums, among other guests. Magnificent Fist followed in 2016 and, doubling down on elements of '80s synth pop as much as R&B,
Yummycoma arrived on Arbutus in 2017. The next year, Screamo took a similar route of bouncy, disco-informed material, but also had moments of austere, cinematic balladry. Those moments would become the sole focus of
Savage's next album, 2020's
Life Is Crazy. The record was stripped completely of rhythmic elements, offering a set of piano-led ballads and torch songs backed by glistening string arrangements. ~ Fred Thomas