Last spring Christo Graham brought home a four-track tape recorder that belonged to his grandmother. On an unlabelled reel that accompanied the mystical machine, he uncovered buried treasure — two songs his grandmother recorded years ago singing in four-part harmony with herself. Though Graham had no new songs written before acquiring it, the machine quickly began to turn out songs like chair legs on an industrial lathe and four weeks later he had 12 tracks all inspired in one way or another by this remarkable recorder.

Graham is no stranger to home recording. He began writing and producing his own music at age 13 in his final year of home-schooling in Bishop’s Mills, Ontario. Throughout high school he recorded in his bedroom with a guitar and Casio keyboard, releasing new “Casiocoustic folk” albums every summer. He graduated from Bishop’s University with an Honours Degree in Theatre and a Film Studies Minor, and two more full-length albums. He then turned around and started his acting career in Toronto, which soon sent him performing in theatres across the country.

Turnin’ retraces his steps through the chronology of recording at home, of “moving out”, and coming around to it again. The first track, “Lucky Me”, begins with that fated trip moving to Toronto, rifling through memories in search of a definitive moment that led to his meeting and eventual marriage with his wife.

All 12 tracks individually reflect the closeness and the constraint of recording at home. What started as Christo Graham messing around with a four-track tape recorder ended up being a philosophical journey rewound to the beginning.  

Released: November 6, 2020

This project is funded in part by FACTOR, the Government of Canada and Canada’s private radio broadcasters. Ce projet est financé en partie par FACTOR, le gouvernement du Canada et les radiodiffuseurs privés du Canada.