artist Chris Belsito

Chris Belsito loves music. No, he really loves music. Belsito is an avid music collector and listener. He has been a music journalist. He wanted to support indie artists he liked so much that he founded an independent record label. On top of all that, he is an established recording artist and prolific songwriter.

As a performer, Belsito has played his music across the Americas, from Montreal to Vancouver, Memphis to Buenos Aires. He has showed up at cafes, clubs, lounges, theatres, and festivals, as well as being a formidable opening act on the larger stage with many of his musical heroes. His music has appeared in ad campaigns and indie films, played on indie radio and CBC, can be found across the web, and on CDs by other artists. Song scouts for some of Canada's top artists have even sought him out. Releasing four full-length CDs and one E.P. of his own material, as well as a live performance DVD, Belsito has wasted no time in making sure his ventures in the music world have been well documented. In return, his music is in thousands of homes across the world. Not bad for an artist who calls a small town in Northern Ontario his home.

Belsito, whose latest batch of songs are as poetic, cinematic and emotionally powerful as any he has ever written, is currently completing his latest CD. The songs are more expansive and moving than ever, sitting somewhere in between Norah Jones and Interpol, Ryan Adams and The National, Rufus Wainwright and The Decemberists. The music is at once uniquely atmospheric and immediately catchy. With more songs written than he could record himself, Belsito is also in the early stages of increasing his profile as a ‘songwriter for hire' in the music industry - with some of those new songs being targeted for other artists.

With his small record label, Murderous Butterfly Music/Murderfly Entertainment, now boasting some of Northern Ontario's top indie artists and a new album of new material near completion, Belsito is comfortable in his musical world. How does he define personal success? For him, success is being able to perpetually translate a love of music into new opportunities that allow him to continually develop as both an artist and a musical entrepreneur.