Becoming Human Simon Collins

• 1 Into the Fray 01:18
• 2 Becoming Human 04:17
• 3 The Universe Inside of Me 06:55
• 4 Man Made Man 04:32
• 5 This is the Time 03:54
• 6 Thoughts Become Matter 05:04
• 7 I Will Be Waiting 07:27
• 8 No Love 04:01
• 9 Living in Silence 04:08
• 10 40 Years 04:18
• 11 So Real 04:28
• 12 Dead Ends 09:06
• Total Runtime 59:28

Info for Becoming Human

Simon Collins returns with his fourth solo album, “Becoming Human”, an album where he takes the musical inspiration of his previous band Sound of Contact and creates a strong and exciting mixture of rock, pop, prog, electronica, and dare we say, a hint of industrial. Simon has managed to master the sound of prog that the fans love so much, but keep it original sounding as well.

Collins paints with a range of emotional colors on Becoming Human. "I'm proud of these new songs," says Simon. "They reflect the person I am, the person I’m becoming, the person I'm striving to be. Writing songs on ”becoming," not just “being” is a powerful tool, it’s about evolving in time and space. The music is generous, intimate, openhearted. There's a lot of me living in these songs. They're deeply personal for me or anyone listening that has been through those experiences of fear, love and hope. The joy of freedom, of acceptance and forgivingness. Of figuring out who I am or anyone is, and how we relate to the world. What is really going on? What is the truth behind the truth?"

"Maturing as an artist and human being has enabled me to find my own voice and confident musical direction no matter what people say," explains Simon. Growing up on tour around being his Genesis, Simon naturally gravitated towards the drums as a child. "It's part of my musical DNA," he explains. As a teenager, he also became proficient on the guitar and the piano, which is how he usually writes. As children of famous parents often do, Collins has grappled with core questions about the meaning of success and failure. It also took years for Simon to create his own identity through his music, and he now looks out onto a wide scope of opportunity he has created for himself through much hard work and dedication.

Of the album, Simon says, "This body of work reflects a deep, wild existential journey and sonic evolution. The soundscape explores a progressive fusion of electronic and rock Influences, a cross-pollination of genres melding space atmospheres and ambient moods with progressive pop song craft, creating a futuristic progressive sounding album."

Produced, Mixed and Mastered by Robbie Bronnimann, and Co-Produced by Collins, he says of the album, "the record reflects a deep, wild existential journey and sonic evolution. The soundscape explores a progressive fusion of electronic and rock Influences, a cross-pollination of genres melding space atmospheres and ambient moods with progressive pop song craft, creating a futuristic progressive sounding album."

Guest musicians on the album include original Sound Of Contact guitarist Kelly Avril Nordstrom, the outstanding bass player Gaz Williams, and lastly guitarist Robin Boult. Robbie Bronnimann also brought his bespoke keyboard and sound design to the mix. Collins plays keyboards also, along with drums and of course, all vocals.

"Robbie and I collaborated on many of the songs, the album also features co-writes with Dave Kerzner and Kelly Avril Nordstrom on songs I initially brought to the mountain of material earmarked for the second "Sound of Contact" album," adds Simon.

"Becoming Human" is Simon's fourth solo release, following his debut "All of Who You Are" (2000), sophomore effort "Time For Truth" (2005), and his third album "U-Catastrophe" (2008). In 2010, Collins co-founded the critically acclaimed band Sound of Contact. Featuring Simon on lead vocals and drums, the rest of the band included keyboardist/co-producer Dave Kerzner, guitarist/bassist Kelly Nordstrom, and bassist/guitarist Matt Dorsey. The band received the Limelight Award (essentially "Best New Band") at the Progressive Music Awards in 2013. Their debut album, "Dimensionaut" ended up being the fastest selling debut album by any band in the 20 year history of Inside Out Music.

Simon Collins, vocals, drums, keyboards
Robbie Bronnimann, keyboards, programming, sound design
Gaz Williams, bass
Kelly Avril Nordstrom, electric & acoustic guitars
Robin Boult, electric & acoustic guitars

Simon Collins
first hit the music scene in the year 2000 with his debut album “All of Who You Are” with songs like “Pride” charting all over Eastern and Western Europe. The album also featured the song “Shine Through” which was co-written with Howard Jones. In 2005, Simon put out the album “Time For Truth” where he introduced more of his organic instrumentation and modern rock influences. The album brought about the introduction of Simon to guitarist Kelly Nordstrom with whom Simon would continue to collaborate with.

In 2006 Simon met Dave Kerzner, owner of the music software company Sonic Reality and former member of Kevin Gilbert’s bands Thud and Giraffe. They were both in New York at Genesis’ rehearsals for their final “Turn It On Again Tour”. Having similar musical tastes and a common interest in sci-fi they decided to pay tribute to Simon’s father Phil Collins and Genesis by doing their own version of the song “Keep It Dark” originally from the Genesis album “Abacab”. The song was played on the sound system before the very last Genesis concert of the tour at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles.

Simon, Dave and Kelly then worked together on Simon’s third solo album, “U-Catastrophe” in 2008. This time with Grammy-winning producer Kevin Churko who won a Juno award for the album. It also featured a guest appearance from ex-Genesis guitarist Steve Hackett on the song “Fast Forward The Future” as well as a thrilling ‘drum duet’ between Simon and his father Phil Collins on the song “The Big Bang”.

When Simon set out to perform “U-Catastrophe” live, he brought in Matt Dorsey as a bass player and multi-instrumentalist. Then, in 2009, Simon approached Dave Kerzner with the idea of doing a band project together. In 2010, Simon, Dave, Matt and Kelly went to record at Greenhouse Studios in Vancouver in different trio combinations with engineer Chris Holmes. The music and story of “Dimensionaut” was born.

Joining the team to mix the album was veteran engineer Nick Davis (Genesis, XTC, It Bites) who came from England to Canada to mix at The Warehouse in Vancouver. The album was mastered by Gavin Lurssen and Reuben Cohen of Lurssen Mastering.

In 2012 Simon Collins and Dave Kerzner found themselves working again on a Genesis song but this time it was by the invitation of Steve Hackett who was putting together his album “Genesis Revisited 2”. The album includes both Simon and Dave participating on vocals and keyboard for the epic Genesis song „Supper’s Ready“.

Now, in 2013, with their own album that took nearly 3 years to make, Sound of Contact are ready to unleash “Dimensionaut”.

Sound of Contact begins its touring schedule on March 24th in Montreal, Canada supporting Marillion on their Marillion Weekend Event. Then they’re joining Spock’s Beard and Beardfish in Europe in May for the Inside Out 20th Anniversary tour.

This album contains no booklet.