Chris Garneau

Garneau worked across musician, pianist, songwriter, singer-songwriter and composer and 2 further recorded occupations. The registers place that work in indie folk. This article rests on 13 catalogued compositions, 13 issued recordings, 1 digitised documents and 11 scholarly references drawn from named institutional registers. Every statement below returns to a source shown in the evidence panel; where the record is silent or divided, the article says so instead of resolving it.

• Name — Chris Garneau • Birth Name — Christopher Michael Garneau • Born — 5 November 1982 • Birthplace — Boston, Massachusetts, United States • Instrument — Vocals Piano Guitar Harmonium • Occupation — Singer-songwriter • Years Active — 2006–present • Website — www.chrisgarneau.com/

Garneau, a native of Boston, lived with his family in Paris during grade school, and later New Jersey before moving to New York City. Garneau discovered a love of music at a young age while learning to play piano. Garneau participated in the Spring Awakening workshops and was cast in the Atlantic Theater Company's Broadway production. He opted out of the production to pursue his first record deal. After high school, Garneau briefly attended Berklee College of Music in Boston, but left after completing one term and moved to Brooklyn. There he began writing music and playing live shows at small venues in the East Village and Lower East Side of Manhattan, including CBGB's Gallery and the Living Room.

Garneau first signed with Absolutely Kosher Records, a California-based record label. He was brought to the label by Jamie Stewart and Caralee McElroy of Xiu Xiu. Garneau released his debut album Music for Tourists in October 2006. The Village Voice described it as "soft, honest, and wholeheartedly intimate." The soundtrack to season four of TV's Grey's Anatomy includes Garneau's music. The episode "Love/Addiction" features his song "Castle-Time", and the episode "Forever Young" features the song "Black and Blue". The series premiere of Private Practice, "In Which We Meet Addison, a Nice Girl From Somewhere Else", features the song "Sad News". In December 2007, he released an EP called C-Sides, which includes his cover of Elliott Smith's "Between the Bars". This song was later featured in Pedro Almodóvar's 2011 film The Skin I Live In. In July 2009, he released his second album El Radio. The song "Dirty Night Clowns" has over 14 million streams on Spotify. The lyrics speak to how "nightmares from our past still invoke fear, [while] others have become less frightening once we get past our young interpretations."

In 2011, Garneau left Brooklyn and moved upstate to a farm where he served as its caretaker. He lived on 40 acres and raised animals alone. In 2013, he released his third studio album, Winter Games. He asked friends to write down their first memories of winter. These memories and his move to rural countryside in the winter subsequently informed his writing for the album. Out described it as "haunting, melancholic, and utterly spell-binding". Following the release, Garneau toured Europe, China, and North America. In 2017, he premiered five new songs on stage as a quartet in New York City at Joe's Pub. He also scored dance pieces for choreographers such as Jonah Bokaer. In November 2018, he released his fourth studio album Yours. After a two-year break from recording and touring, Garneau worked with his friend and bandmate Maxime Vavasseur to create the album. He wrote most of the material over the summer of 2016, reflecting on mass incarceration, industrialized slave labor, and mass extinction.

In January 2021, Garneau released his fifth studio album The Kind. He described the record as an exploration into childhood, queerness, the process of owning one's identity and casting off shame.

Chris Garneau is recorded with the occupation singer-songwriter. Classed in the genre indie folk. Recorded as musician, pianist, songwriter, singer-songwriter and composer. Established in Discogs under 751565.