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, and in 2025, his next album, The Knowing embraced high-definition pop without a hint of shame.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. In 2025, Savage released his next album, The Knowing. This collection included mostly brand-new material orchestrated with bright acoustic guitars and shiny synth pop instrumentation. Along with a rearranged cover of Iggy Pop's sleazy rock classic, "Lust for Life," the album also included contributions from Better Person, Explo, and TOPS vocalist Marci.
© Fred Thomas /TiVo

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