AHEAD OF THE RELEASE OF

COMPANION ALBUMS

COME DOWN 

AND

MIRROR RING

OUT MAY 16TH

Photo by Ivan Otis

 

“Dark, lush songs from a Canadian glam cult artist…Sniderman makes old-school glam sound urgent, gritty, and absolutely vital”- 8/10 UNCUT Magazine 

“Jason Sniderman returns as Ensign Broderick, his 80s glam-rock persona”- The Globe & Mail

“a dash of David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust mixed with Nick Cave’s bold audacity, and a splash of Mick Jagger’s’ flamboyant swagger” – The National Post

“After quietly crafting Ensign Broderick songs for decades, the thrill of giving them a public release here feels palpable Exclaim!

“The arrival of Ensign Broderick on the scene is one of the most fascinating musical stories…”- Billboard CA

 

Toronto, ON – April 11th 2025 – Ensign Broderick, the long hidden glam rock alter ego of Jason Sniderman, today shares two new tracks, “Swept Away” and “When We Were Pretty” from his forthcoming companion album: Come Down and Mirror Ring, out on May 16th.

Ensign Broderick finally emerged six years ago on to the music scene and was at once declared one of the most fascinating musical stories of 2018” (Billboard CA), earning praise from likes of UNCUT, Exclaim, and The Globe & Mail.   Ensign Broderick has been an integral part of Sniderman ever since he was a teen, before Sniderman began his storied career in the studio and on the stage, working Back then, he would write and record original songs on a reel-to-reel tape machine as Ensign Broderick. But no one else heard them until six years ago with his first ever releases. 

Listen/Share: Ensign Broderick ““Swept Away” &  “When We Were Pretty”

Now with the upcoming release of companion albums Come Down and Mirror Ring, both built around just piano and voice Ensign Broderick is stripping everything down and starting anew. Speaking on the new albums Ensign Broderick says, ““I made this stuff in isolation and for the most part alone. It gave me a chance to reveal true expression, with acceptance and without subjugation or avoidance. And to have the presence of mind to contemplate loss with some clarity. A small measure of courage in the face of uncertainty.” 

Come Down and Mirror Ring feature the kind of songs few people seem to write anymore including the latest singles “Swept Away” and “When We Were Pretty” both ambitious, with an air of grandeur, with emotional, visually evocative lyrics about faces behind veils of tears.  

Ensign Broderick is an enigmatic man, suggestive of another time, another place and space. His new music is timeless—not just in the sense of being both familiar and future-forward, but as from a place where clocks don’t exist. So don’t worry too much about who Ensign Broderick is. Revel in the mystery and sink deep into the songs. Come Down and Mirror Ring are set for release on May 16th.

ENSIGN BRODERICK RETURNS WITH TWO NEW ALBUMS

COME DOWN
AND
MIRROR RING
OUT MAY 16 TH

PRESENTS “INVIOLETTE” AND “CATHEDRAL CITIES”

“Dark, lush songs from a Canadian glam cult artist…Sniderman makes old-school glam sound urgent, gritty, and absolutely vital”- 8/10 UNCUT Magazine
“Jason Sniderman returns as Ensign Broderick, his 80s glam-rock persona”- The Globe & Mail
“a dash of David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust mixed with Nick Cave’s bold audacity, and a splash of Mick
Jagger’s’ flamboyant swagger” – The National Post
“After quietly crafting Ensign Broderick songs for decades, the thrill of giving them a public release
here feels palpable” 8/10 Exclaim!
“The arrival of Ensign Broderick on the scene is one of the most fascinating musical stories…”-
Billboard CA

Toronto, ON – March 6 th 2024 – Ensign Broderick today announces his return with not one but two
new albums: Come Down and Mirror Ring, set for release on May 16th and unveils the first tracks
“Inviolette” and “Cathedral Cities.”

Six years ago Ensign Broderick, the long hidden glam rock alter ego of Jason Sniderman, finally emerged and put out an astonishing five records at once becoming “one of the most fascinating
musical stories of 2018” (Billboard CA) and earning praise from likes of UNCUT, Exclaim, and The
Globe & Mail. Ensign Broderick has however been an integral part of Sniderman ever since he was
a teen, before Sniderman began his storied career in the studio and on the stage. Back then, he
would write and record original songs on a reel-to-reel tape machine as Ensign Broderick. But no one
else heard them until six years ago.

With his latest releases, Come Down and Mirror Ring, Ensign Broderick is stripping everything down
and starting anew. Both albums are built around just piano and voice. They’re companion records,
split into two only because back in Broderick’s earliest career, albums should never be more than 40
minutes anyway.

Come Down and Mirror Ring feature the kind of songs few people seem to write anymore:
ambitious, with an air of grandeur, with emotional, visually evocative lyrics about faces behind veils of
tears. There are three unexpected covers: one is a deep cut by Rush (“Bravado”). “I Keep a Close
Watch,” is from a mid-’70s John Cale album and The Kinks’ “(A)Face in the Crowd.”

Ensign Broderick is an enigmatic man, suggestive of another time, another place and space. His
new music is timeless—not just in the sense of being both familiar and future-forward, but as from a
place where clocks don’t exist. So don’t worry too much about who Ensign Broderick is. Revel in the
mystery and sink deep into the songs.

Accidence, shown at The Toronto International Film Festival and Cannes, is now part of the legendary Criterion Collection channel! Directed by Guy Maddin, Evan Johnson and Galen Johnson, Accidence is a perfect cohesion of visuals and sounds, with music by Ensign Broderick.

The mesmerizing 9 minute, one-shot film is a murder-mystery ballet of characters co-existing in a story seen from the perspective of a Hitchcock hero — the ultimate in voyeur viewing.

Watch Accidence now via the Criterion Channel: https://www.criterionchannel.com/accidence

Now this is so cool. Thank you JUNO Awards, Kris Knight, James Mejia, Chris Peters, Stefanie Schneider, and Six Shooter Records.

Thanks everybody for everything.
Love
xoxo

ONE TO WATCH – Jason Sniderman returns as Ensign Broderick, his 80s glam-rock persona

“His grand music bears the influence of Roxy Music and a glittered David Bowie. Standing in My Light is a glam-rock boogaloo from the past, with bouncing piano notes and a disco ball gone super nova. Love Died/Dies Here is a heroic exercise in epic minor key balladry, standing as tall as Elton John’s highest platform boots. Electric Blue follows footsteps left on The Dark Side of the Moon.” – Brad Wheeler (The Globe and Mail)

READ FULL FEATURE

THE KEY OF X: ENSIGN BRODERICK JOINS SARAH SLEAN AND ERIN COSTELO FOR PIANO-FOCUSED SHOWS IN TORONTO AND NYC.



“A reclusive, romantic, tear-stained baritone and unabashed opus bringer.” – Globe and Mail

“Broderick makes old-school glam sound urgent, gritty, and absolutely vital.” – Uncut


A condemnation disguised as a benediction, Ensign Broderick’s BloodMyth speaks out against hate, pernicious nationalism and vainglorious self-destruction through characters that embody these, the very worst, ways of being. The album is an inverse/reverse/perverse excavation of 2018’s BloodCrush, a meditation on frailty and fallibility that edged ever closer to the brink. With BloodMyth, more a finale than a companion to its partner album, Ensign Broderick pushes things over the edge, where concepts of personal and political extremism come to swirling, chaotic conclusions.

Swept Away,” a 5-minute melodrama, explores the oceanic disorientation of being over one’s head. With a classic backbeat, horns and pedal steel, the song channels late 60s FAME Studios rock, the overall aesthetic somewhere between bedazzled Manuel contrition and glam dandy swagger, the twin pillars of Ensign Broderick’s sound and style.

Appalachian folk meets California pop in “Our Angel of Morphine,” a sweetly celestial treatment of a truly dark and nasty tale. Ethereal, soft-focus brokenness is also present in “Love Died Here,” an atmospheric opiated half-time reworking of a song from BloodCrush. Pain, of whatever sort, and the treatment thereof is a major theme in the album, in both lyrical and visual form. The vinyl package contains a collage built around a main image of a spinal-fusion operating table, its sleek chrome more Ducati than OR supply.

The inescapable disintegration reaches its apex with “The Telling Part,” the last and oldest song on the album (c. 1970), a tale of alienation and abandonment. Over twelve minutes, anger boils and bubbles over. ‘Tell me about starvation and sustenance,’ it goes, which in its way encapsulates the poisonous imbalance of give and take found at every turn. BloodMyth’s villains – anonymous caricatured embodiments of the deadly sins – trade only in damages.

In contrast to the desert glitter of BloodCrush, BloodMyth’s physical form – a vinyl-first release for Record Store Day Canada (a move true to form for an artist with such a deep connection to music’s physical places and pieces) – unravels in similar fashion. From jarring hi-def patent leather to the scribbles and edits on the lyrics, the vinyl edition echoes the devolution and deconstruction of music and narrative in art.

With six albums out in just over a year, Ensign Broderick’s story and experience of launching his solo career at age 59, has little precedent. Each album conveys a fully realized and distinct dimension of the artist and persona, yet a complete picture of the inner life and creative ambition of the artist is only just starting to take form. “You’re getting a different Ensign Broderick with each project,” says the artist. “The progression from the childlike perspective of Ranger to the totally superficial, fully realized glam of Feast of Panthers, to the very personal depth-plumbing of BloodCrush/BloodMyth is a maturation and a devolution. These are all puzzle pieces.”

Listen to Ensign Broderick in conversation with Danko Jones here.


TOUR DATES:

TORONTO, ON: The Key of X, The Mod Club, June 18 w/ Sarah Slean, Erin Costelo
NEW YORK, NY: The Key of X, Public Arts, June 19 w/ Sarah Slean, Erin Costelo


Ensign Broderick’s THE KEY OF X series brings classical, contemporary and experimental artists together to celebrate piano-based composition and performance.

The inaugural Key of X took place at Winnipeg New Music Festival in 2018 with Ensign Broderick and Jónas Sen (Björk).


For his second Record Store Day offering, the Making Vinyl Award nominated Ensign Broderick announces a double album creation BloodMyth/BloodCrush.

This Record Store Day 2019 edition, a deluxe double vinyl package, includes the artist’s first newly recorded albums, BloodCrush and BloodMyth. BloodCrush, originally released in 2018, is a meditation on frailty and fallibility, a collection of songs that edge ever closer to the brink. BloodMyth, the companion album, is a song cycle based in part on the seven deadly sins, and pushes things over the edge; concepts of personal and political extremism come to swirling, chaotic conclusions.

Each Record Store Day double package comes complete with original cover art by painter Kris Knight and one of five Kris Knight prints, artful booklets that feature polaroid photographs by German photographer Stefanie Schneider and handwritten lyrics by Ensign Broderick, with blood red splatter pattern 180 gram vinyl within (one print per package: either of two different Kris Knight prints: or one of three Stefanie Schneider prints of a Polaroid). This art-packed exclusive offers vinyl collectors a first listen of BloodMyth, the shattered looking glass companion to BloodCrush, ahead of its worldwide digital release.

 

We awoke Christmas morning to find a thrilling article from The Globe & Mail’s Brad Wheeler, about his “6 best under-the-radar Canadian musicians of 2018”, which included BloodCrush (Six Shooter Records).

From the piece: “Who is Ensign Broderick, and why has he chosen 2018 to blow our minds? It’s complicated. After the discreet release of four albums of stashed archival music earlier this year, the newly recorded BloodCrush represents the grand emergence of a reclusive romantic, tear-stained baritone and unabashed opus bringer. The grandiose Electric Blue wishes Pink Floyd were here; Love Died/Dies Here is operatic in its realization. The whole thing is undaunted. In this dawning era of hologram heroes, Broderick materializes real, proud and rich in blood.”