Toronto’s Sheltered in Sound, the musical guise of Sean Nilsson, plays intimate 21st century indie folk music. The economy of words, mixed with acoustic guitar, harmonica, and looped percussion, has garnered comparison to Hayden, David Gray, Mark Kozelek and Nebraska-era Springsteen.
Sheltered in Sound has received national Canadian airplay on CBC Radio 2, and also airplay support from U.S. college radio.
Field Recordings from the City
Sheltered in Sound released Field Recordings from the City in 2008. The album was produced by Scott Cooper and includes guest performances by Marlon Gibbons, Alex McMaster (A Northern Chorus, Arcade Fire), Jackson Myers and Jason Leong.
Lyrics
This marginal lifestyle, darling what’s the use
Some are born to win, some are born to lose
The sun is rising on someone else’s day
Where the life we live becomes the price we pay
I’m tired, I’m tired, of wishing on falling stars
I’m tired, I’m so tired of falling stars
You try to stand up, they push you to the wall
In a drone of apathy, no one hears the call
Coma day time high, future’s fading
Staring blankly back destiny keeps us waiting
I’m tired, I’m tired of wishing on falling stars
I’m tired, so tired of falling stars
Maybe I could have been somebody
Back when all my hopes were new
But I was much too busy chasing down the shadows
Wishing these lies would come true
These big ambitions will leave you hurting
Blinded, bruised and beaten down, dazed and deserted
You know they’re loaded, the dice you’re playing with
The hold nothing for you just fairytales and myth
I’m tired, I’m tired of wishing on falling stars
I’m tired, so tired of falling stars
Someday you just might find the world’s perfect metaphor
Emulsion to celluloid and what you keep them for
A minor disaster or just a major pity
Spend your days listening to field recordings from the city
Held hostage by a restless heart
And it just won’t stop until its torn apart
It sounds so sincere but still seems kinda fake
All these conversations in the city by the lake
Everyone walkin’ around talking into their hands
It’s called communication but I don’t understand
Held hostage by a restless heart
And it just won’t stop until its torn apart
And there ain’t no cure for it
Some things are easier to stop, than quiet
Where the stories told and the race is run
Armed in grey business suits, fortunes lost and won
Spend your time waiting for answers that don’t arrive
Started out winning now just you’re just trying to survive
Held hostage by a restless heart
And it just won’t stop until its torn apart
A dimming light
A shadowed sky
Everything that’s born
Must someday die
I was waiting
By your bedside
The end came unannounced
And undenied
All the colours dulled to grey
On the night you went away
And I don’t know how, and I don’t know when
I’ve got a feeling like, we’ll meet again
I’m being told
It’s for the best
I need to sleep
I can’t get no rest
You’re in my dreams
I see your face
Just out of reach
Returned to grace
All the colours dull to grey
On the night you went away
And I don’t know how, I don’t know when
I’ve got a feeling like, we’ll meet again
Words of comfort
Papers to sign
An empty house
Is all I find
We are all alone
As time goes on
No direction home
For a wayward son
They’re pulling down statues
They’re raising up the flags
Celebrate with bottles
And gasoline soaked rags
A beautiful tradition
Just don’t get in the way
The smiles will fade tomorrow
But the guns are hear to stay
It’s on the news, it’s all we hear
For months and months. And years and years
Follow your pride swallow your fears
Its worth your blood and your mother’s tears
Pushing through religion
The purchase is the key
Here’s to the land of Wal-Mart
Home of the shopping spree
I’m standing on the side lines
Waiting for the fall
Looking up into the night
For what I can’t recall
It’s on the news, it’s all we hear
For months and months. And years and years
Follow your pride swallow your fears
It’s worth your blood and your mother’s tears
Something here distracting
Al least that’s how I felt
Worrying about the price of oil
While the polar ice caps melt
This war is fully branded
The mission is to kill
The rich watch the death count
While the poor foot the bill
The poor foot the bill
’m not trying to change the world
I’m just trying to get by
Went out looking for the truth
And all I found was a lie
Oh, sleepwalking
There are no simple answers
At least that’s what they say
Best remember where you’re going
Or your bound to lose your way
Oh, sleepwalking
I’m sleepwalking but I’m not the only one
A hundred million out there, lost souls on the run
I’m sleepwalking, half orphaned only son
With anthem dreams of songs I’ve never sung
It’s said we’re all born guilty
We all have a debt to pay
If it wasn’t for the interest
I’d have paid mine by today
Oh, sleepwalking
Staring down the barrel of another broken day
I would have tried hard if there was any other way
A city full of strangers dying for a win
The music plays on Clinton, ambition works on King
I’m feeling like the man on Mir
The one they left in orbit for a year
Feeling like the world passed me by
And you’re the reason, the reason why
I’m nowhere without you
I’m no one
Adding up the zeros that never come to two
Spend a life in transit but never get to you
Fading only slightly, falling from your grace
Only thing that’s certain, won’t find it in this place
I feeling like the man on Mir
The one they left in orbit for a year
More I learn the less I know
Tethered by faith and I let go
And I’m nowhere without you
I’m no one
There’s a place I go, late at night when I’m all alone
High above the sky among the stars so far from home
In outer space, the signals are getting through
From satellites through skies of aqua blue
And all I can think of is you
All I hear is static, always out of tune
Everyday I wake, with an impending sense of doom
A City full of strangers, looking for the cure
Eyes to the street like its hidden or obscure
Words can harm, words can heal
Words can give, words can steal
Words can starve, words can feed
Words can’t give me what I need
There are no words for you
There are no words for you
A thousand love songs strong, they all have it wrong
The poets talk in prose, no one’s even close
The writers of the bourgeoisie, They look but never see
A pale compromise, to the beauty in your eyes
There are no words for you
There are no words for you
And words, words get thrown around
Spoken so casually, forgive me if I don’t speak them
You just mean to much to me
I try my hand at this, explain your fortune’s kiss
Not a signal quote, from a million pages wrote
A world without law, two hearts on Bloor & Shaw
I will never find, words to your perfect rhyme
There are no words for you
There are no words for you
Paving over wheat fields
Digging up the ground
Making room for another store
That sells lifestyles by the pound
Strip malls and fast food chains
There’s nothing left with soul
Sedate the kids with TV
And indie rock n roll
The price of progress, there ought to be a law
Against these road signs that read Welcome to Generica
Another double double
Set it on the dash
Roll the rim
Use the road side for your trash
This heartland is buried
A cold and mangled view
Hidden behind the billboards
The truth is bleeding through
The price of progress, there ought to be a law
Against these road signs that read Welcome to Generica
I went out driving, I’ll tell you what I saw
A hundred thousand road signs that read Welcome to Generica
Everything looks the same
You never arrive or leave
I just need a few square miles
Where a man can still believe
At my funeral, play this song
And have my friends sign along
Let them know, though I am gone
Do not mourn, for we all move on
And if I have any say
I’ll look on come what may
In all the world and the heavens too
I’ll never find a love like you
So if we part and you must stay
I will return to you some day
And on that day the angels sing
I will wear our wedding ring
When I shake this mortal coil
And they bury me in the blackened soil
Well all should know a love so true
All I did, I did for you
In blue skies or dark of night
Look for me in your guiding light
Morning sun, snow flies
Another day in this place that I despise
St. Joes, heaven knows
Another night sleeping in my clothes
If you hear me, give me some kind of sign
If you hear me they say you’re running out of time
But I don’t believe them
In this place, it occurs to me
With birth and death there is no dignity
So stand me up on the firing line
That’s the way to go when it is my time
If you hear me, give me some kind of sign
If you hear me they say you’re running out of time
I’m starting to believe them
One last song before we’re through
Something sad, something blue
Something that might break your heart
take you back towards the start
I need you, do you need me too?
I love you, do you love me too?
I’ll stay here and wait for you
Or I’ll go out, chase after you
Whatever it takes, whatever it takes for you
One last song before you go
Something sweet and something low
Something that might make you stay
Remind you of brighter days
I need you, do you need me too?
I love you, do you love me too?
I’ll stay here and wait for you
Or I’ll go out, chace after you
Whatever it takes, whatever it takes for you
One last song, you’ve heard before
The one I play as you slam the door
A sour tune, a bitter melody
Out of time and out of key
Selected Quotes
“A quiet intensity that holds all 11 tracks together. Nilsson seems to have been concentrating hard on his writing, as Field Recordings From The City is a well-executed collection that effectively captures the urban ennui suggested by the title.”
- Jason Schneider, Exclaim Magazine
“He’s a modern day folk musician. On the porch, hat and old boots with a laptop on his knee.”
- Rich Terfry, CBC Radio
“Every so often I come across a song that completely stops me in my tracks; that pushes the world around me away for a few minutes. Sean Nilsson, a.k.a Sheltered in Sound, is the first artist to do this to me in over four months”
- getyourmelancholyon.com
“A gorgeous piece about loneliness on both the personal and global scale. Sheltered in Sound may not be trying to change the world, but it is possible that with this disc, he can change the way some see it.”
- Natalie Herman, PWRadio.net
“(Field Recordings From the City) is a great debut album from Sheltered in Sound. Think of it like taking a lonely trip through a busy world.”
– Sandy Smansmith, slowcoustic.com
Honest lyrics and simple composition, Sean Nilsson has made an album he should be proud of. Field Records From The City has charm and is a pleasant discovery.”
- Lidia Vila, Torontoindie.com
“There’s a real starkness of emotion. [It] really draws you in and keeps you transfixed. A wonderful album, from an undeniably gifted musician, who I’ll be paying close attention to in the future.”
- Colin Meeks, indielaunchpad.com

