Clean Sadness

Clean Sadness (born October 6, 1977 in Sudbury, Ontario) is a male writer and musician, and noted cult success in Ontario for his eccentric music and fiction.

Clean Sadness, so nicknamed by his apparently eccentric parents, was born in Sudbury to a French-speaking middle-class family. He spent his time divided between Sudbury and neighbouring North Bay in his childhood.

At 17, he was living in Ottawa and there he started his first musical project, "New Clean" with Eric Brynaert of Jesus and the Lizards fame but was discouraged by his initial lack of success and turned his focus towards writing. By 20 he had completed his first book, the modestly successful Now I Know My ABC'S , a bizarre satirical work with overtones of Edward Gorey in which he laments the latin alphabet.

Later, in 1999 his musical ambitions were rekindled with the successful release of his first album "SADism". The music, described in the liner notes as "Spew" music, is best described as a collection of spoken word rants delivered over rock and electronic oriented backing tracks, some rumoured to be contributed by his former "New Clean" collaborator Karl Rover. The album, however, contains some moves towards a more commercial sound, most notably on the track "Torque In The Warehouse" which features spoken verses over a bluesy backing track, and a memorable sung chorus. The album was voted "Best New Album Of The Year" by Sudbury's underground publication "'m0zg", and sold remarkably well.

In 2000 he became an outspoken critic of Canadian nationalism, describing Canada as "The Northern United States". When posted on his now defunct weblog, this ambiguous political statement caused some minor controversy.

Discography

Singles
* 1999: Torque In The Warehouse/"Unwanted" Pregnancy
Albums
*1999: "SADism"

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