Dec
A Song for Inez
Sometimes small towns are home to the largest personalities, and Inez was one of the biggest in my life.Inez Scheideman was the longtime publisher of the Stony Plain Reporter and Spruce Grove Examiner, a couple of weekly newspapers I worked for back in the late ‘90s and early 2000s.
As a successful business owner in a time when it was rare for a woman to be in that role, Inez not only survived but thrived by virtue of shrewd entrepreneurship, hometown pride and a having a personality equal parts feisty and hilarious. She made a huge impact not only on her community and family, but on my own life, personally, decades after I no longer worked for her.
She died earlier this fall. Docs gave her three more months. She lived nearly three more years. But ultimately, she was gone.
This gentle and heartfelt ballad is my tribute to someone who was such a large figure in my life. It was recorded in my home studio in Edmonton, using overlapping guitar lines and a drum machine, stirring up a melancholic ‘80s sound that seems to be in my bones.
Thank you, Inez.
Nov
New single: Except Me
New single “Except Me” is out Friday on all streaming and downloading music services.
This is my third single released so far this year. As per usual, the song is written, performed and produced my myself in my Edmonton home studio.
Except Me is an uptempo, upbeat acoustic pop song, about feeling tired, fed up and exhausted by the increasing intolerance and hate coming to the fore in my home province, which makes me long to pack up and move out to the coast and stay.
This song, the previous two singles (Little White Lies, and Sunshine Now) and the next couple in the queue will all appear on a new album early next year.
As always, I hope you enjoy listening to my music. If you do, please share it out, and comment below - I’d love to hear from you!
#edmontonmusic #yegmusic #acoustic #singersongwriter #singersongwriters #alberta #canadianmusic
Sep
New official music video for my single “Sunshine Now”. Shot in one continuous take, in black and white, on location in Edmonton, Alberta.
Sep
New single: Sunshine Now
Good morning! My new single “Sunshine Now” is now available on all digital streaming and download services, including Spotify, Apple Music and YouTube.
Sunshine Now plants its feet firmly in ‘90s Canadian Prairie rock. Chunky guitar and sing-along hook.
Right now, I long for some positivity. So much bitter venom around us, especially from Alt-Right bullies. If anything, that’s the thing that’s been most draining for me over these past couple of years. We all need more sunshine in our world, and we need it now.
Mar
New single: Little White Promises
Good morning! And, surprise…it’s new music! My new single “Little White Promises” is now available on all digital streaming and download services, including Spotify, Apple Music and YouTube. It’s also the first of several new songs that will be coming out over the next few months.
Little White Promises is a poppy protest song. A singalong facepalm triggered by Canadian truck convoy protestors, anti vaxxers and politicians. I wrote, sung, recorded and mixed it in my home studio last month, using acoustic and electric guitars, drum machines and a microphone.
Nov
New album – Escalation Point! – available now
- Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/ca/album/escalation-point/1536234416
- Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/5CEF7w3QILQMLNBXPaJxLo?si=09IwQC9aSwCpt9nbVHINoQ
- Youtube: https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_lhheQk3PQmvLwh4AENbdqoSNUL01X_R9I
It’s real. It’s shipping (virtually, anyway). And on Friday, it will be out for the whole world to see: Escalation Point! My first full-length solo album. Woop woop!
Why make a full album? I’ve recorded two EPs in recent years, and I wanted to challenge myself to do something more ambitious, more artistically complete. Plus, I’m old school, and I just love albums. Always have, always will. So the time came, at least in my mind and heart, to make an entire album of my own songs.
This album is a collection of escalation points in my life, captured as pop songs drenched in ‘80s synths and stomping beats. I did my best to craft singalong hooks that sometimes highlight and sometimes conceal frank commentary or sly winks inside the lyrics: A Canadian’s take on Trump America. Witnessing the collapse of a company workplace. The death of an old friend. Turning the tables on some awkwardly backhanded musical compliments. And with the closing track, Corona Station, I’m even trying to find a light inside the tunnel of a still-ongoing COVID pandemic lockdown.
This one shows its synthpop genes in full view for the most part, with the majority of songs mixing real vintage synthesizers from the '80s with modern software, electronically-precise sequences with live performance, the fictional story with the deeply personal. The exception to the electro dance party is “Sanctuary”, which is a piano ballad written for my kids.
The songs were written and recorded in my home studio over the last couple of years, brick by brick, session after session, at my home studio named after our beautiful Edmonton neighbourhood, King Edward Park.
How you can help
- Download the album on Apple Music, Spotify, Youtube or wherever you stream music. Add it to your libraries and playlists. If so inclined, buy the album as a digital download instead of streaming, but either is awesome, honestly.
- Share it out. Tell friends, share on social media, forward the email, add songs to playlists if that’s your thing… it all helps spread my music to new people who hopefully will like it too.
- Reply! Let me know what you think! Which song is your favourite on the album? What surprised you? Do you have any questions about how I wrote or recorded any of it? I’d absolutely love to hear what you think, so please reply to this email and let me know!
Album Credits
All songs written by Christopher Nash. ©2020 SOCAN.
Recorded, produced and mixed at King Edward Park, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada 2018-2020.
Backing vocals on Corona Staton by: Gillian and Jason Nash, Jen Horvath, Kyra and Lauren Schaefer, Ryan Ezinga, Jorg Bauer, Mike Berg, DC Motion, Icy Queue, Vienna Whyte, Margaret Bujold, Kayt Wilson and Jay Summach
Additional thanks to Ryan Ezinga and Jeff McLellan for their assistance.
Mastered using LANDR.
Distributed by CD Baby.
Instruments used on this album:
- Reason 10 (DAW and virtual instruments) on a Macbook Pro
- Native Instruments Maschine 2 (controller and software)
- Arturia V Collection software (mostly for virtual Prophet 5, Moog bass, Oberheim Matrix synths and Fairlight CMI sampler)
- Yamaha Montage 8
- Roland Fantom G6
- Roland JX-3P
- Yamaha DX7
- Ensoniq SQ-80
- Korg DW-8000
- Oberhem DMX
- Sterling Music Man AX40 electric guitar
- Ibanez Artcore semi hollowbody electric guitar
- Yamama APX500II acoustc gutar
- Hula Ukulele
Sep
Two shows in September
I have two live shows coming up on the last weekend of Sept. (Both are outdoors, at socially-distant venues).
Gig #1: the full O6 band is playing at Sherwood Park’s Festival Place on the evening of Saturday, Sept. 26. Link and ticket info to come next week. The band will play one set, and other act will play the other set.
Gig #2: my own (new) acoustic trio will be playing during the afternoon of Sunday, Sept. 27 at the Edmonton Ski Club. Jorg, Jeff and myself will be playing two sets in our fair city’s gorgeous river valley, near the Muttart Conservatory.
Acoustic event info and purchase tickets in advance: https://www.edmontonskiclub.com/event-details/christopher-nash
Given how long it’s been since we’ve been able to play live music in public, and given how quickly winter is approaching us, it would be amazing to celebrate and enjoy our music outside while the opportunity presents itself! I hope to see you there.
May
Lyric video for my new single, Corona Station. Created using BASIC on a virtual Commodore PET. Rock on and stay safe, everyone.
May
New single: Corona Station
My new single, “Corona Station”, is out now on all streaming platforms and online stores.
- Link: Spotify
- Link: Apple Music
- Link: Google Play
The song is taken from my upcoming album, Escalation Point!, and is of course inspired by the pandemic mess we all find ourselves in today. But, it’s not a sad song. It’s an upbeat synthpop fist-pumper, with a message of hope…sort of.
As I say in the song, COVID,“gives me hope that tomorrow’s going to be so much better than today, ‘cause it can’t get worse”. It takes its name from an Edmonton subway train (LRT) station I’ve used hundreds of times. I thought it was fitting symbol for our time. “Going down to Corona Station, just the same old destination, except this time there’s no going back.”
I hope you enjoy it. If you do, please download the track, tell your friends, add it to playlists and share it out on social channels if you can!
Special thanks to all my backing singers: Gillian and Jason Nash, Jen Horvath, Kyra and Lauren Schaefer, Ryan Ezinga, Jorg Bauer, Mike Berg, DC Motion, Icy Queue, Vienna Whyte, Margaret Bujold, Kayt Wilson and Jay Summach.
Feb
Upcoming show: Christopher Nash at Cafe Blackbird
Playing a solo show on Friday, March 8 with singer-songwriters Kayla Shanti, Indie Davis and Riceoustic. Details in the Facebook event (link). Hope to see you there!