Do any of you Know the story of the dirty night clowns?

“One night the new baby sitter of a couple was taking care of their 6 year old while they went out for diner. As the couple left, the girl crashed on the couch to watch some satellite TV. In between zapping through the channels and being in half a comatose state from the heavy day at school she noticed a clown statue in the corner of the living room. While not being really able to sleep she went to the kitchen to drink something. Slightly refreshed on return to the living room she was caught by surprise that the clown statue had disappeared. She immediately phoned the couple to tell them their clown statue had disappeared. They told her they didn’t have a clown statue. The couple rushed home to find out what happened; a bizarre situation or a crazy baby sitter. The police was contacted, and the same night they caught a midget dressed up as clown. Apparently as stated the clown had spend a week in the house of the couple molesting their 6 year old son.”

Reading this you would think at first this would be the theme to an eighties horror movie. Instead this true story was the inspiration for “Dirty Night Clowns” one of the songs on Chris Garneau’s new album “El Radio”, set to be released this coming June. As gruesome the story, the music of Chris Garneau is anything but horror. It is the type of music you want to play on your iPod while walking away from a heartbreaking relationship, to drown yourself in that misery and realize life isn’t that bad in the end. No wonder 3 of his songs ended up in the American television drama Grey’s Anatomy. Chris Garneau (1982) is a singer songwriter from New York City who has a distinct sound that combines elements of folk, Americana, pop, baroque and carnival music. And as far as referencing music can go I prefer to stick to his influences, which are; Jeff Buckley, Nina Simone, Nico, Chan Marshall and Elliott Smith. I would say that Chris makes music about the mysteries of life, which can be something simple as love or something gruesome as the story above. And as magically this is translated in his instrumentation, the magic of it all is that the songs of Chris Garneau are like a warm cozy coat. And that is what we all want in the end: music that is like a nice warm garment to hide out in. At the end of last year I went for a few days on tour through Europe with Chris, while driving through France he told me all about his difficult start in New York and his new record “El Radio”.