Joseph Shabason | |
|---|---|
 Shabason playing with Destroyer in 2011 | |
| Background information | |
| Origin | Toronto, Ontario, Canada |
| Genres | Jazz, Ambient, Experimental, Indie rock, Synth-pop |
| Instrument(s) | Saxophone, flute, clarinet, keyboard[1] |
| Labels | Western Vinyl |
| Website | josephshabason |
Joseph Shabason is a Canadian multi-instrumentalist and composer.[1] He is best known for playing the saxophone.[2][3][4] As a band member and session musician, Shabason has contributed to bands such as DIANA, Destroyer and The War on Drugs.[3] As a solo project, Shabason has released experimental ambient jazz albums under his own name.[3] He has also made numerous collaborative albums.[5]
Shabason grew up in Bolton, Ontario.[6] He began playing jazz music at 10 years old.[7] After first learning to play the guitar, he took an interest in the saxophone when he enrolled in a jazz program at Humber College as a child.[8] His father was a jazz pianist.[9]
In 2006, he graduated from University of Toronto in jazz performance.[1] His musical focus shifted from jazz to pop in his twenties.[8]
Shabason is one of three members of DIANA, a Toronto synth-pop band.[4] It formed after another project fell through involving Shabason and Kieran Adams, who met during university.[10]
Its first album, Perpetual Surrender (2013)[11] was longlisted for the Polaris Music Prize. It was followed by Familiar Touch (2016).[4]
The first Destroyer album to feature Shabason was Kaputt (2010), which was shortlisted for the Polaris Music Prize. Having toured with Destroyer in an opening band, Shabason contacted Destroyer front-man Dan Bejar in 2010 while in Vancouver. This led to Shabason improvising a few hours on the saxophone for the album. His involvement "could not have been more casual", according to Shabason.[8]
Shabason went on to play on Poison Season (2015) and ken (2017), Destroyer's next two albums after Kaputt.[1][12] He has toured as a member of Destroyer.[3]
Shabason played an important role in Lost in the Dream (2014) by The War on Drugs.[2]
As a session musician, Shabason has recorded for many singers and bands—including Born Ruffians, Hannah Georgas, Jill Barber, Matt Barber, Dragonette, The Operators, Allie X, Peter Elkas, The Fembots and Fucked Up.[1][3]
Around 2008, Shabason and a friend started a rock band, Everything All the Time. He played keyboard and sang backup vocals.[7]
Another band he played in was called Bass Groove.[7]
Aytche (2017)—pronounced like the letter "H"—was his first solo album.[13] It was inspired by composers such as Jon Hassel and Gigi Masin.[3] After the album was finished, Shabason realized that the album reflected the impact that Parkinson's was having in his personal life—his father-in-law was suffering from it and his mother was recently diagnosed.[3]
Only "Westmeath" has vocals. The song features clips from an archival interview from a son of a Holocaust survivor.[3] (Shabason's grandparent were survivors.)[2] A music video of "Westmeath" was directed by Maxwell McCabe-Lokos.[14]
Though Shabason voiced some dissatisfaction with the album, suggesting there was "a lack of vision",[3] it received positive reviews. On Metacritic, the album rated 82 out of 100, indicating "universal acclaim".[15]
The album was funded from a grant by the Ontario Arts Council.[1]
Anne (2018), Shabason's second album, is named after his mother. Focusing on his mother's Parkinson's illness, the album includes audio clips from interviews with his mother.[3] Shabason was determined that the album not be overly sentimental or exploitative; in his own words, "the challenge becomes how do you take that [interview] and weave it into the fabric of the composition and extract the essence of it without beating people over the head with it."[16] His mother was pleased with the result, calling it a "beautiful album".[16] Critical reception was positive. On Metacritic, the album is rated 77 out of 100, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.[17] Music critic Miles Bowe of Pitchfork called it "gorgeous and empathetic ambient music".[2]
Anne, EP has five songs and was released May 10, 2019.[18] The record label describes it as an "afterword" to Anne.[19] Its song "I Don't Want to Be Your Love"—previously a bonus track for Anne—features vocals by Destroyer's Dan Bejar.[2]
Shabason's third album was released April 30, 2021.[20] The Fellowship "focuses on Shabason’s own past, examining his fraught religious upbringing within—and eventual need to walk away from—an insular Islamic community called The Fellowship."[21] Like his previous two albums, it was critically well received. On Metacritic, the album scored 76 out of 100, indicating "generally favorable" reviews. [22]
Released October 20, 2021 by labels Western Vinyl and Telephone Explosion Records, this concept album[23] re-scores a 1996 skateboard film with the same name distributed by Toy Machine—a modified version of the company is used for the album's cover art.[24] Shabason recieved permission from Toy Machine founder Ed Templeton for the project, and Templeton even supplied the cover art.[25] A video set to the original film was released for the song "Jamie Thomas".[24]
The idea for Welcome to Hell came to Shabason record as he thought about the expression "write what you know."[25] Besides spending summers skateboarding as a kid, he had an interest in skateboard videos.[25] He also wanted to do something "much lighter and joyful" than his previous concept albums.[25] Shabason sees jazz and skateboarding overlapping in that both rely on a progression on players/skaters that have come before and carving out a unique voice.[25]
In 2019, Shabason released an experimental ambient album titled Muldrew with Ben Gunning,[26] recorded at a remote location in Northern Ontario.[27]
In 2020, he collaborated with Nicholas Krgovich and Chris Harris on the album Philadelphia,[28] which was a longlisted nominee for the 2021 Polaris Music Prize.[29]
In 2021, Shabason worked again with Nicholas Krgovich and Chris Harris, releasing the instrumental album Florence in 2021.[30] Shabason also composed the musical score of the 2021 dark comedy film Stanleyville.[31]
In 2022, Shabason and Andre Ethier released the collaborative album Fresh Pepper.[32] At Scaramouche, Shabason's third collaboration with Krgovich, was released in October 2022.[33]
In 2024, the second collaborative LP between Shabason and Ben Gunning, was released: Ample Habitat.[5] It was recorded in Shabason's Toronto studio. Also in 2024, the album Shabason, Krgovich, Sage will be released in April.[5] Musician M. Sage had invited Shabason and Nicholas Krgovich to collaborate on an album in a barn in Colorado.[5] Speaking about this project, Shabason stated: "As long as we can get into one space together for a short amount of time, the collaborative magic that is needed to make a record is totally possible.”[5]
