Graham Van Pelt

Canadian musician Graham Van Pelt first earned widespread notice across the country in 2007 when Five Roses appeared, the opening full-length from his Miracle Fortress project and a Polaris Prize shortlist entry. He also belonged to the Montreal dance-rock outfit Think About Life and sustained activity in both ventures, steering Miracle Fortress toward electronic-leaning pop by 2011 while issuing club-focused material as Inside Touch. After relocating to Toronto, he issued Time Travel in 2018, his initial album credited under his own name.

Van Pelt began working in the mid-2000s as an engineer and collaborator within Montreal’s independent-music community, where he assembled the experimental dance-rock group Think About Life in 2005 alongside drummer Matt Shane and singer Martin Cesar. In the same period he started the exploratory pop endeavor Miracle Fortress, whose debut EP Watery Grave surfaced that winter. Think About Life’s first album followed in 2006, and Miracle Fortress earned critical attention the next year with Five Roses, a Polaris Prize finalist alongside Arcade Fire and Patrick Watson. Over the ensuing seasons Van Pelt balanced the two bands, touring with Think About Life after its 2009 sophomore release Family before returning to Miracle Fortress on the Secret City label. The 2011 album Was I the Wave? shifted further into electronic pop and again placed him on the Polaris shortlist.

By 2014 Think About Life had dissolved, Miracle Fortress had issued only occasional singles, and Van Pelt had begun the instrumental project Inside Touch to explore his growing interest in dance and club sounds. He moved from Montreal to Toronto, shed his various pseudonyms, and concentrated on leaner, synth-driven work under his legal name. Composing in a reflective, introspective mode, he built the material around a vintage Roland SH-101, resulting in Time Travel, his first proper solo album as Graham Van Pelt, which arrived in late 2018.