Rich Aucoin

Canadian musician Rich Aucoin made a name for himself in the late 2000s, pairing his ambitious and exploratory pop music with impressive feats of endurance, including a coast-to-coast tour via bicycle and another that involved long-distance running, each of which supported a different charity. By the time he'd released his 2011 debut, We're All Dying to Live, Aucoin had made friends and collaborators all across the country and developed a reputation as a captivating live act. Subsequent releases like 2014's Ephemeral and 2019's Release only bolstered his renown as a pop auteur. Heading into the next decade, he continued to challenge expectations, recording his 2020 psychedelic American travelog, United States, and launching 2022's Synthetic, a massive four-album project devoted to rare vintage synthesizers. Aucoin got a Juno nod for the first volume and followed it in 2023 with Synthetic: Season 2.

A native of Halifax, Aucoin made his recording debut in 2007 with the Personal Publication EP. Following its release, he embarked on a cross-Canada tour on his bicycle, raising money for the Childhood Cancer Canada charity and supporting his album. After completing the journey, he immediately went on tour with Nova Scotian indie supergroup <a href="spotify:artist:6GMpOb6561Z81x30JdplvE">the Hylozoists</a>, who were founded by his older brother Paul Aucoin. The sudden lack of physical exercise during <a href="spotify:artist:6GMpOb6561Z81x30JdplvE">the Hylozoists</a> tour caused Rich to develop an iron deficiency, and once he recovered, he launched another solo tour, this time running partial marathons between shows and raising money for the Canadian Cancer Society. During these various tours, Aucoin collaborated with a variety of friends and musicians around the country, recording his first full-length album, 2011's We're All Dying to Live. Broad in scope, Aucoin's first grand indie pop statement included over 500 guest musicians and drew comparisons to <a href="spotify:artist:16eRpMNXSQ15wuJoeqguaB">the Flaming Lips</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:4tZwfgrHOc3mvqYlEYSvVi">Daft Punk</a>, and <a href="spotify:artist:3kjuyTCjPG1WMFCiyc5IuB">Arcade Fire</a>.

His live shows developed into a wild spectacle of symphonic pop and multi-sensory effects, including the unfurling of a giant parachute over the audience. Aucoin's second album, Ephemeral, released in 2014, was similarly broad in scope and inspired by the children's novella The Little Prince. Over the next few years, he continued to tour, write, and record, returning in early 2018 with the Hold EP. As its name suggested, it served as a sort of holding place and all four of its songs later appeared on Aucoin's experimental third album, Release, which came out in May 2019.

His first outing of the next decade was 2020's United States, a sort of sociopolitical travelog of observations and stories captured during a lengthy cross-country bicycle trek he'd made two years earlier. It was followed in 2022 by Synthetic: Season 1, the first volume of a sprawling quadruple album written on the National Music Centre's collection of rare and historic synthesizers in Alberta, where Aucoin served as Artist in Residence. After receiving his first Juno Award nomination for Season 1, the artist delivered its 2023 follow-up, Synthetic - A Synth Odyssey: Season 2, on which he again played all of the instruments, including 40 synths from the Alberta-based collection. ~ Timothy Monger, Rovi