Chris Velan is a Montreal

Montreal

Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...

-based singer-songwriter

Singer-songwriter

Singer-songwriters are musicians who write, compose and sing their own musical material including lyrics and melodies. As opposed to contemporary popular music singers who write their own songs, the term singer-songwriter describes a distinct form of artistry, closely associated with the...

 and guitarist

Guitarist

A guitarist is a musician who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselves on the guitar while singing.- Versatility :The guitarist controls an extremely...

. While in college, he studied law. After passing the bar, he traveled to West Africa where he was the music producer of a documentary film based around a group of refugee musicians from Sierra Leone.

In 2003 Velan returned from West Africa, releasing his debut solo album "It's Not What You Think", which incorporated a mix of his old and new influences ranging from folk, pop and rock to world music and reggae.

Live, Velan uses a loop pedal which thickens and layers the music, as he performs live as a one man band. His last album “Solidago” was released on NewSong Recordings. This is his third solo album and some of the artists featured on this album include San Francisco artists The Mother Hips

The Mother Hips

-Formation and Debut:Tim Bluhm , Greg Loiacono , Isaac Parsons and Mike Wofchuck met in 1990 while attending California State University-Chico, living off campus in Bradley Hall...

, Animal Liberation Orchestra

Animal Liberation Orchestra

Animal Liberation Orchestra is an American musical group, currently signed on Jack Johnson's Brushfire Records label. They have released three full length albums...

, Jackie Greene

Jackie Greene

Jackie Greene is an American singer-songwriter and musician.-Career:Greene was born Chris Nelson in Salinas, California, and developed an interest in music at an early age, starting with the piano. At 14, he began to play guitar and within a short time, was able to sit in with local bar bands. As...

 and Adam Topol (Culver City Dub Collective, Jack Johnson (musician)

Jack Johnson (musician)

Jack Johnson was born May 18, 1975 is an American folk rock singer-songwriter, surfer and musician known for his work in the soft rock and acoustic genres. In 2001, he achieved commercial success after the release of his debut album, Brushfire Fairytales. He has since released four more albums, a...

.

Influences

Velan's influences include Neil Young

Neil Young

Neil Percival Young, OC, OM is a Canadian singer-songwriter who is widely regarded as one of the most influential musicians of his generation...

, Cat Stevens

Cat Stevens

Yusuf Islam , commonly known by his former stage name Cat Stevens, is an English singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, educator, philanthropist, and prominent convert to Islam....

, Robbie Robertson

Robbie Robertson

Robbie Robertson, OC; is a Canadian singer-songwriter, and guitarist. He is best known for his membership as the guitarist and primary songwriter within The Band. He was ranked 59th in Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time...

, Van Morrison

Van Morrison

Van Morrison, OBE is a Northern Irish singer-songwriter and musician. His live performances at their best are regarded as transcendental and inspired; while some of his recordings, such as the studio albums Astral Weeks and Moondance, and the live album It's Too Late to Stop Now, are widely...

 and Mark Knopfler

Mark Knopfler

Mark Freuder Knopfler, OBE is a Scottish-born British guitarist, singer, songwriter, record producer and film score composer. He is best known as the lead guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter for the British rock band Dire Straits, which he co-founded in 1977...

Velan has been compared to artists including Tom Petty

Tom Petty

Thomas Earl "Tom" Petty is an American singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. He is the frontman of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and was a founding member of the late 1980s supergroup Traveling Wilburys and Mudcrutch. He has also performed under the pseudonyms of Charlie T...

, Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...

, and Jack Johnson

Jack Johnson (musician)

Jack Johnson was born May 18, 1975 is an American folk rock singer-songwriter, surfer and musician known for his work in the soft rock and acoustic genres. In 2001, he achieved commercial success after the release of his debut album, Brushfire Fairytales. He has since released four more albums, a...

. Due to his use of the loop pedal at his live performances, he has also been compared to KT Tunstall

KT Tunstall

Kate Victoria "KT" Tunstall is a Scottish singer-songwriter and guitarist from St Andrews, Scotland. She broke into the public eye with a 2004 live solo performance of her song "Black Horse and the Cherry Tree" on Later... with Jools Holland...

.

Experience

Velan has performed with well-known acts across North America including:

Artist	Venue - Location
Duffy Duffy (singer) Aimée Ann Duffy , known as Duffy, is a Welsh singer-songwriter. Her 2008 debut album Rockferry entered the UK Album Chart at number one. It was the best-selling album in the United Kingdom in 2008 with 1.68 million copies sold...	Metropolis - Montreal, QC
ALO	Bowery Ballroom Bowery Ballroom The Bowery Ballroom is a music venue in the Bowery section of New York City. The structure, at 6 Delancey Street, was built just before the Stock Market Crash of 1929. It stood vacant until the end of WWII, when it became a high-end retail store. The neighborhood subsequently went into decline...  - New York, NY
Brett Dennen Brett Dennen Brett Dennen is a folk/pop singer and songwriter from Northern California.-Biography:Brett Dennen attended UC Santa Cruz from 2000–2004, where he was a student at Kresge College....	Cafe Campus - Montreal, QC
Johnny Clegg Johnny Clegg (musician) Jonathan "Johnny" Clegg is a musician from South Africa, who has recorded and performed with his bands Juluka and Savuka. Sometimes called Le Zoulou Blanc , he is an important figure in South African popular music history, with songs that mix Zulu with English lyrics, and African with various...	Metropolis - Montreal, QC
Corrine Bailey Rae	Mod Club - Toronto, ON

Discography

Solo:

"Fables for Fighters" - June 7, 2011

"Solidago" - Released April 7, 2009

"Twitter, Buzz, Howl" (2005) - Fontana North

"It's Not What You Think" (2003) - Barefoot Music

With previous group, "Equalizer":

"Rise" (1998) - Peter UnPlugged

AS PRODUCER:

Sierra Leone's Refugee All Stars

Sierra Leone's Refugee All Stars

Sierra Leone's Refugee All Stars is a band from Sierra Leone which was formed by a group of refugees displaced to Guinea during the Sierra Leone Civil War. Since their return to Freetown in 2004, the band has toured extensively to raise awareness for humanitarian causes...

-"Living Like a Refugee" (2006) - Anti- Records