Silent Stranger®

Richard Simpson - Songwriter / Arranger / Producer

Silent Stranger® is an Independent rock band with origins in Gananoque, Ontario, Canada, when Richard was asked by some high school friends, to join an existing five-piece band “Lift” in 1976, as their new guitarist. However, “Lift” came to an end in 1978 following the departure of two members in 1977 and when they tried to carry on as a four-piece, some unfortunate events resulted in the end of the band. Those being, the keyboard player was injured in a car accident and shortly afterwards, the drummer and bass player (brothers) had their family home burn down and along with it, their instruments.

Later in Trenton, Ontario, Canada, Richard helped form the band “Generation” in 1982 and it underwent a name-change to “Stylus” in 1985, after a short break-up and a new drummer. Playing gigs around their local area, they also wrote original material during this time and some of these were played live at their gigs. One of the members had to move in July 1987 due to his job. Meanwhile Richard found out in Oct 1987 he would also be moving for his job in July 1988, so in the spring of 1988 they decided to record some of their original songs in a local studio, as a four-piece.  

Richard has been writing songs since learning guitar during High School in the ‘70’s, but never had the resources to get past the demo stage of recording.

In the summer of 2012 while living in Cornwall, Ontario, Canada, Richard made some music videos using the audio from his 1988 demo versions of “Make Way For the Ladies” and “Something About a Dream” and put them on YouTube under the name Silent Stranger®.

In 2014 Richard began finding different music platforms on the internet, which introduced him to many bands and artists, as well as internet-based Independent radio stations, which Richard submitted his 1988 demo versions of “Make Way For the Ladies” and “Something About a Dream” for airplay under his YouTube name Silent Stranger®. These songs began to get favourable reviews from the other bands, artists and listeners of these Independent radio stations. Richard also found that many of the bands and artists had songs that were recorded to a high standard. Knowing there were technical and musical errors in his demos and would need a complete re-recording to correct these, Richard began re-arranging and, in some cases, rewrote parts of his demos by adding new music and new lyrics in order to have his songs recorded up to the same standard. In the spring of 2015, he began booking studio time and studio musicians to get his demos and new songs recorded.

 Some of these songs are included on the 10 song self-titled debut album from Silent Stranger, that is at the following Spotify link: 

https://open.spotify.com/album/6fjbvZmWLfVZrlRLNQxQty

Other songs are available by selecting the MUSIC link at the top.