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My Beating Heart 3:560:00/3:56
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The Voice 3:440:00/3:44
“Something about Chris Birkett & THIS MAD DESIRE's performance at the Mule Spinner made me think of that period where Neil Young and Pearl Jam made an album and toured together. Just raw, tasty rock & roll with lots of attitude and great playing. ”
— Glen Marshall, The Mule Spinner
“This Mad Desire's outside the box world views, alt-pop-influenced hooks interlaced with a tinge of garage rock scores with the head & heart.”
— Earshot Distro
Like Neil Young on David Bowie drugs -now with a dash of Peter Gabriel!
Hot off their first ever joint Chris Birkett & THIS MAD DESIRE live show at the Mule Spinner in Hamilton, Ontario, this past October, Chris Birkett and Mackenzie Kristjon, the driving force behind This Mad Desire are excited to do some more joint concerts in 2027 where they will be playing each other's songs with backup from This Mad Desire rhythm section Abe Nagy on drums and Christian Cowsill on bass. Chris Birkett has been co-producing This Mad Desire's recent singles Paradise, Dancing Queen, and California Dreamin' and these new joint live performances are an extension of that working relationship.
ABOUT CHRIS BIRKETT
Multiple award-winning singer, songwriter, and instrumentalist Chris Birkett has traversed the music industry landscape, collaborating with many world-renowned artists to create timeless songs that have inspired and entertained music lovers everywhere.
Chris’s original music and his musical collaborations have sold over 100 million units and earned multiple prestigious awards, including:
- Ampex Golden Reel Award: Silk and Steel by Five Star (1986)
- Ampex Golden Reel Award: Home Talk by Mango Groove (1990)
- Grammy Award – Best Alternative Music Performance: I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got by Sinead O’Connor’s album (also nominated for other awards, this album contains the hit single “Nothing Compares 2U”) (1990)
- Juno Award – Aboriginal Recording of the Year, Running for the Drum by Buffy Sainte-Marie (2009)
- Polaris Music Prize: Power in the Blood by Buffy Sainte-Marie (2015)
- Juno Award – Aboriginal Album of the Year, Power in the Blood by Buffy Sainte-Marie (2016)
- Juno Award – Contemporary Roots Album of the Year, Power in the Blood by Buffy Sainte-Marie (2016)
- Juno Award – Indigenous Music Album of the Year: Medicine Songs by Buffy Sainte-Marie (2018)
ABOUT THIS MAD DESIRE
"Neil Young on David Bowie drugs." That's how one reviewer described THIS MAD DESIRE, and it stuck.
Behind the name is Mackenzie Kristjon, an Icelandic-Canadian songwriter from Hamilton, Ontario. He writes rootsy, heartfelt rock songs, then pulls them somewhere stranger: glam, art rock, a little cosmic.
The new album PASSING LANES OF FATE is out now. Songs about love and loss, John Wayne, Medusa, Valhalla, politics, life and death, recorded with real musicians from Canada, the U.S. and Europe: Dan Konopka of Grammy-winning OK Go on drums, producer Chris Birkett (Sinead O'Connor's "Nothing Compares 2 U"), Toronto Symphony Orchestra violinist Leslie Dawn Knowles, singer Jessica Magoch and banjo player Sarah Tolle.
Mackenzie has toured North America, the UK, Europe and Iceland. It all began with a toy guitar and a doctor who said he'd never play piano. His mother signed him up for lessons anyway.
Real musicians. No AI.
LIFE IS TOO SHORT. ENJOY IT.
Press photos
