Neil Leyton

Lisbon-born Canadian singer/songwriter Neil Leyton, former frontman of Toronto art-glam retro rockers The Conscience Pilate. Since 1999 Leyton has enjoyed critical acclaim with a string of album and EP releases, touring Canada and Europe. He is also the founder of the Fading Ways Music family of indie labels (Toronto, London, Helsinki).

Leyton's first solo offering was Secret Avenue (1999), a brit-pop influenced grand oeuvre that paved the way for Midnight Sun (2003), featuring a multiplicity of soundscapes covering several bases of influence for Leyton - from personal acoustic songs to the hardest, most political moments on the double album. Leyton then headed to Sweden to record his third album, The Betrayal of the Self, after two European compilations were released in Germany and UK featuring solo as well as TCP tracks. 'Blacklight Skies' is one of them, and it features, among others, fellow Canadians Ky Anto, Steve Payne, Sean Kelly, George Bettencourt, Brian Christopher, and others.

Recorded later in Sweden, The Betrayal of the Self was a more stripped down, concise rock n roll album featuring his Swedish backing band, The Ghosts, and some local special guests (the Hellacopters' Nicke Andersson and Backyard Babies' Dregen, among others).

After two fans-only albums, 'A Reckoning' (acoustic) and 'Metacognitive Apperceptions' (electric), Leyton is presently at work on his next opus, Elite Nylon, due in September 2009.