Ian Wilson
Chicago, Illinois, United States | SELF
Music
Press
“ ‘I started to figure out that classical music wasn’t what I was doing it for, and I started to write music on my own,’ said Wilson. ‘I think a lot of classical players take a long time to get into that mode where they’re able to write their own music; not just reading sheet music and learning pieces because that’s all that we’re trained to do since you’re seven or eight years old…’
Before long, the cover ballads and love songs intended to woo handsome suitors gave way to sophisticated and nuanced medleys like those most recently showcased in Wilson’s official debut released earlier this year - The Crater EP…Wilson’s clear mastery of piano composition and sharp songwriting is reminiscent of his early classically-deviant influences, particularly [Tori] Amos.” –Joseph Erbentraut, EDGE Chicago, 9.22.08
- EDGE Chicago
"Inanimate Objects" is a playful pop romp with effectively eccentric chord structuring, "Creative Writing Workshop" showcases more skillful piano playing over a deeply personal lyrical presentation, and "Let’s Go" ends the record on a hauntingly moving note. –Andy Argyrakis, Illinois Entertainer, 8.29.08 - Illinois Entertainer, Sept. '08
3rd place for "The Crater" in American Songwriter's May/June '08 lyric contest. - American Songwriter (May/June 2008)
"...the debut of someone who I'd definitely like to hear more from... a welcome voice in the queer music scene and a positive sign of what's to come from Wilson."
-Alex Blaze, The Bilerico Project, 5.9.08
[www.bilerico.com] - The Bilerico Project
“This consummate keyboardist/singer/songwriter from the orchestral-pop sextet Canasta simply amazed me. There is an intensity about this man…I can’t pigeon-hole [him] at all.” – Michael Teach, Chicago Acoustic Underground - CAU Podcast
Discography
The Crater EP (2008)
Photos
Bio
Ian Wilson is a keyboard-based loop artist from Chicago, filling the vacancy between singer-songwriter and band with piano-centric electronica and a lyricism both dark and humorous.
In 2008, Ian released his debut studio recording, The Crater EP, a fusion of classically deviant piano and wry, good-natured brooding. The influence of the queer music canon—artists like Tori Amos and the Magnetic Fields—is easily heard in The Crater, and the tight-knit queer music scene in Chicago was fast to bring Ian into the fold. The Crater earned recommendations from the Windy City Times and EDGE Chicago, the nationally-featured Feast of Fun podcast, and a place on Outvoice.net’s Top 10 LGBT Charts. But to resist the cabaret labels associated with “gay boy + piano,” he introduced a loop pedal to his keyboards, following the influence of prototypical loop artists such as Owen Pallett, Andrew Bird, and Zoe Keating. Like this new breed of singer-songwriters, Ian had a classical training in theory and composition to draw upon, enabling one performer to produce the same fullness of sound as an entire band.
Following The Crater’s release, Ian spent two years with Canasta, an orchestral-pop sextet and one of Chicago’s best-known bands. Ian’s numerous performances with Canasta included a slot at the CMJ Music Marathon, live radio and TV performances on WBEZ’s Eight-Forty Eight and WTTW’s Chicago Tonight, and frequent shows with nationally touring acts like White Rabbits, Hello Seahorse! and Clem Snide. Ian was one of three new members that joined in the spring of 2008, and the dramatic lineup change evolved into a burlier and more eclectic incarnation of ork-pop, culminating in the band’s second LP, The Fakeout, the Tease and the Breather (RWIM Chicago, 2010). The album was released in May 2010 to two sold-out shows at Schubas (Chicago, IL) and a wave of critical superlatives including “one of the best Chicago albums of the year” (Matt Pais, Chicago Red Eye) and “so perfect…that you’ll swear you’ve heard it before” (Monica Kendrick, Chicago Reader).
Always the social butterfly, Ian can also be seen in the local performing arts scene. Most recently he has appearaed as a guest recording and performing artist for Chicago Tap Theater and in the pit band for Chicago Gay Men’s Chorus, one of the city’s largest community arts organizations. He teaches keyboards, voice, and songwriting at the Chicago School of Rock, the nation’s premiere educational institution for the corruption of well-mannered and quiet children.
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