MISTER NOBU (CHOIR! CHOIR! CHOIR!) SHARES FIRST SINGLE “BEST OF ME” FROM UPCOMING LP TAVIEΒ
ARTS & CRAFTS
Mister Nobu is the solo project of Nobu Adilman, co-founder/director of Toronto’s Choir! Choir! Choir!. Today, he shares the first new single, βBest Of Meβ, from his upcoming LP TAVIE, out March 27 via Arts & Crafts. βTAVIE is all about the highs, lows, and ultimate breakup of a 20-year marriage but, the record begins with βBest Of Meβ, a song about my father who died over ten years ago,β says Adilman. βWorking through the grief, I developed a stronger relationship with the dead, realizing that these bonds can continue to develop despite the absence of physical presence. That shift in perspective has made me feel less alone.β
The twelve songs on TAVIE indelibly mark the emotional highs and lows of a perfect relationship running out of time. The range is unapologetically diverse but slides comfortably under Indie Pop, celebrating melody, harmony, and unironic emotionality. There are ballads, there are dancers, and, in one case, a popified cover of βDeep In A Dreamβ, the 1938 slow jam made famous by Chet + Sinatra.
The album is βmostly about connection,β says Adilman. βFrom my TV work to music stuff, I generally like to explore human interaction by throwing everyone into weird and collaborative creative environments. Music has a beautiful way of pulling peopleβs guards down, and cutting
through lots of emotional red tape quickly. Music helps me process my emotions, my life, and, if I can get it down in a song, then I feel more resolved.β
Some have said they hear traces of Lennon, others McCartney, perhaps some Dennis Wilson, maybe some Judee Sill and Sibylle Baier, but here’s hoping for .01% of Frank Ocean.
TAVIE was produced by Rob Benvie (Thrush Hermit/Bankruptcy), and mixed by Byron Kent Wong, mastered by Noah Mintz at Lacquer Channel Mastering. Mister Nobu is joined by many friends including Benvie, Mike Belitsky (The Sadies), Matt Murphy (The Super Friendz/Flashing Lights/TUNS), Moshe Fisher Rozenberg (Absolutely Free), members of Choir! Choir! Choir!, and Danielle Duval, with string arrangements by Chris A. Cummings (Marker Starling) + Benvie.
Nobu Adilman is one of the two founding members of Choir! Choir! Choir!, the international phenomenon that has collaborated with David Byrne, Patti Smith (twice!), Stewart Copeland, Rufus Wainwright, Brandi Carlile, and more. Theyβve wracked up millions of views on YouTube, sung for Lionel Richie on American Idol, been the subject of a half-hour PBS All Arts special for their 2019 performance at the 9/11 Memorial & Museum, and performed at Carnegie Hall and Radio City Music Hall. Even Rick Astley dropped by their Toronto weekly to RickRoll a sold-out crowd! And, most recently, held a gig at the border between Mexico and the US, with Nobu leading a group of singers from a stage in Tijuana, and his partner, on the other side of the wall, in San Diego.
Never one to sit idle, Nobuβs documentary film SHORT ROUND UP premiered at the Edinburgh International Film Festival earlier this summer. The film follows Nobuβs search for the Asian men who, like him, auditioned to be βShort Roundβ in Indiana Jones And The Temple of Doom, their first shot at becoming Hollywood Stars. Nobu has also appeared as a series regular in the cult-hit TV show and films Trailer Park Boys, co-created and starred in forty episodes of the gonzo cooking/gadget creation show Food Jammers seen on the Food Network and Cooking Channel, and travelled in the US in a short-bus powered by vegetable oil meeting innovators of green science for Invention Nation on Discovery Science USA.
Nobu started out as a writer on Canadian episodic television (Emily of New Moon, Cold Squad), and then co-hosted, with his brother, a couple of national Canadian TV shows (Smart Ask!, ZeD), and acted as a pop culture reporter (>Play). In the late 90s he co-founded and played in the Halifax rock band Rick Of The Skins (ROTS), and in the early 2000s he released his first solo album as Mister Nobu titled Cβmon Wid Your Cβmon.
Due out March 27 via Arts & Crafts, TAVIE is available to pre-order today on vinyl and digital download.
Mister Nobu
Tavie
(Arts & Crafts)
Release Date: March 27, 2020