He was born in
Cuckfield,
West Sussex, England. He emigrated to Vancouver, Canada with his family when he was eight. Southworth's orchestral debut record
Mars Pennsylvania was released on
Bar None Records in 1998. He has since released a number of cross-genre albums on small labels, each stylistically varied from the other, including
Sedona Arizona (1999),
Banff Springs Transylvania (2000 featuring
Mary Margaret O'Hara),
Yosemite (2005),
The Pillowmaker (2007) (performed with his longtime band The South Seas, featuring members from Toronto's avant-jazz-improv community) and
Mama Tevatron (2009). The South Seas also backed Southworth on the elegiac
Human Cry (2010) reissued on UK label
Tin Angel Records in August 2018. In 2011 Southworth released
Spiritual War Cassette Tape, recorded in part on a Sony Cassette Corder Model TCM-939. The following year he debuted the surreal cabaret song cycle
Easterween featuring arrangements by Toronto arranger
Andrew Downing at the Lower Ossington Theatre in Toronto. A collection of actual rejected jingles appeared later in the same year on
Failed Jingles for Bank of America & other U.S. Corporations (2012). In July 2014 it was announced that Southworth would be releasing a double record on
Tin Angel Records called
Niagara, featuring nine songs on the Canadian side and eleven on the American side. Co-produced by Jean Martin (a drummer and percussionist known for his work with
Tanya Tagaq) and again featuring The South Seas,
Niagara was named Album of the Year 2014 by Rolling Stone Germany and Canada's National Post. On September 2, 2016,
Small Town Water Tower LP was announced, set for an October release. The LP
Miracle in the Night was released May 3, 2019. On October 1, 2021, the album to the multiplatform
Rialto (album, podcast, book, show-film) was released on
Tin Angel Records. The album features singers
The Weather Station,
Martin Tielli,
Daniel Knox, Felicity Williams, Robin Dann, Thom Gill and Ryan Driver with arrangements for string quartet by Andrew Downing performed by Venuti String Quartet. An eight-episode podcast featuring chapters of the novella began on July 19, 2021, and features the speaking voices of the singers as well as 20 other artists including
U.S. Girls,
Claudia Dey and
Veda Hille among others. AllMusic's four-star review of the album said, "Southworth delivers some of the most serpentine and complex melodies of his career... one of his most fully realized and imaginative works". A show featuring an art film directed by Southworth with accompanying live performance premiered in Toronto in March 2022 at the Paradise Theater. On May 12, 2023, Southworth released ''When You're This, This in Love'' on Tin Angel. Southworth's songs have been covered by or written for such artists as
The Weather Station,
Basia Bulat,
Kevin Johansen,
Sarah Slean,
Luke Temple,
Buck 65,
Hawksley Workman,
Jully Black,
Martin Tielli and
Veda Hille. The Weather Station covered "Loving You" (from
Niagara) on their 2022 album
How Is It That I Should Look at the Stars.
Daydreams For Night, an alternative children's book featuring illustrations by
David Ouimet, was published by Azuka in Japan and Simply Read in 2015. A former film student, he directs his own videos. He is the son of
Peter Shelley, the British 1970s pop singer-songwriter, later a producer and record executive. ==Discography==