Not That We'd Notice - Christian Silva

Christian Silva is an outlet for the various competing identities lurking under the superhero cape of Christian Hardy, a multifarious twenty-something poly-instrumentalist with a kaleidoscopic voice reared in Burton-On-Trent and now embedded in leafy South London.

Early EPs 'Bring His Head' and 'BFTP', (which have both have now sold out, mainly at shows) met with critical fondling, and saw Christian veer from delicate Sufjan-y acoustic lilts to piano-led space gospel and Sparksy electro-glam mini-epics. The debut album, “ONWARD!” takes in all these things and much more and is a shockingly accomplished piece of work for a first effort. 13 songs in 41 minutes and each one a winner.

“ONWARD!” is already selling at shows and online. It was put together during 2007, mainly at Christian’s flat and completed with some mixes by Dave Bascombe (Verve/Bruce Springsteen) and is due for release on the Something In Construction label in January 2008.

The artwork from Onward! contains details concerning how to download a free and rather splendid bonus album, entitled “The Location Of Christian Silva.”

July 2007 saw a UK tour in support of ex Mercury Rev chamber rock-pop collective, The Silent League (with whom Christian also performed vocals, ukulele and percussion). Highlights included Godiva festival with Super Furries and Truck festival with The Band’s Garth Hudson.

Christian finished the tour with a triumphant show to a packed Bush Hall in support of, and again performing with, Amanda Palmer (Dresden Dolls). Amanda found Christian on Myspace and has released one of his songs on a compilation on her label in New York, where Christian has a small but avid following, having played there a few times.

November saw another batch of dates opening for Peter, Bjorn & John and Maps.

Christian Silva appears onstage usually as a piano/drums duo with a nice lamp, sometimes solo and variously with all kinds of musicians including Mike Siddell (Lightspeed Champion) and Nick Hemming, with whom he also plays as folk band 'The Leisure Society' (as heard in numerous Shane Meadow's movies such as 'Dead Man's Shoes'). They’re also working with Unkle vocalist Gavin Clark and fellow Burtonian, Paddy Considine. Keen listeners will also have heard Christian's music in the Nintento ads sponsoring Green Wing on C4. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.