Sean Nicholas Savage
Prolific songwriter and lush indie balladeer Sean Nicholas Savage explores warped takes on new romantic pop with a sizable series of releases. Coming up as part of a thriving Montreal underground scene, 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 dabblings in folk balladry and city pop on his 2022 Mac DeMarco-produced effort, Shine. In 2024, Trilogy collected choice cuts from his early catalog.
Savage's solo career began around 2008 with the release of his album Summer 5000. He recorded and released music often, making 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 Grimes, Blue Hawaii, 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. Savage turned his muse towards the theatrical side that surfaced on Screamo over the next few years for his first foray into musical theater, a production entitled Please Thrill Me. The cast included Savage along with members of TOPS, Better Person, and Cadence Weapon, and it was put on a dozen times in early 2020. Savage's next album, Life Is Crazy, released in October of 2020, was a counterpart to the sentimental and romantic Please Thrill Me. The record was stripped completely of rhythmic elements, offering a set of piano-led ballads and torch songs backed by glistening string arrangements. For 2022's Shine, Savage worked with longtime friend Mac DeMarco in the producer's chair. Recorded in Los Angeles, Shine again stripped drums and rhythmic instruments from the arrangements, but it shifted gears stylistically from the hyper-expressive torch songs of Life Is Crazy in favor of gentle acoustic folk and light, elastic city pop influences. In 2024, Savage shared Trilogy, a compilation release that revisited work from cassette-only releases Magnificent Fist (2016), Yummycoma (2017), and Screamo (2018). Trilogy selected specific songs from these releases, as well as unearthed, previously unheard mixes from this time. The compilation represented the first time any of this material was released on vinyl.
© Fred Thomas /TiVo
Discography
21 album(s) • Sorted by Bestseller
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Bermuda Waterfall
Alternative & Indie - Released by Arbutus Records on 12 May 2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Yummycoma
Alternative & Indie - Released by Arbutus Records on 13 Oct 2017
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
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Screamo
Alternative & Indie - Released by Arbutus Records on 15 Jun 2018
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Other Death
Alternative & Indie - Released by Arbutus Records on 18 Sep 2015
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Life Is Crazy
Alternative & Indie - Released by Arbutus Records on 2 Oct 2020
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Magnificent Fist
Alternative & Indie - Released by Arbutus Records on 26 Aug 2016
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Other Life
Alternative & Indie - Released by Arbutus Records on 28 May 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Flamingo
Alternative & Indie - Released by Arbutus Records on 13 Dec 2011
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
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Disco Dancing
Alternative & Indie - Released by Arbutus Records on 9 Nov 2010
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Over The Night (Lost Mix)
Alternative & Indie - Released by Arbutus Records on 27 Mar 2024
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Last Emperor (Lost Mix)
Alternative & Indie - Released by Arbutus Records on 29 Feb 2024
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
It's Happening
Alternative & Indie - Released by 4997465 Records DK on 20 Apr 2023
24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo -
I Feel Alive
Alternative & Indie - Released by Arbutus Records on 14 Dec 2022
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Live 4 Real
Alternative & Indie - Released by Arbutus Records on 1 May 2020
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Propaganda
Alternative & Indie - Released by Arbutus Records on 24 Aug 2015
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Thrill Me
Alternative & Indie - Released by Arbutus Records on 16 Jan 2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Casablanca
Alternative & Indie - Released by Arbutus Records on 23 Jun 2015
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo