Welcome to the digital home for all things Swiss Citizen.
The new album Fully Finite is out!
Listen below and scroll down to the “Music” section for lyrics, etc.

About

About Swiss Citizen (official bio)
Swiss Citizen is the musical container for Victoria, BC multi-instrumentalist Craig Brown. A lifelong songwriter, Craig created Swiss Citizen in 2019 to make a home for his increasingly complex electronic compositions. Danceable polyrhythms, big synths and real instruments provide a foundation for poignant lyrical explorations. His albums blend Indietronica, Experimental Electronic, IDM, and Ambient approaches to sonics and songwriting with the goal of creating catharsis and excitement for listeners. The full-time scientist and teacher plans to start playing shows around Vancouver Island and BC’s Lower Mainland starting in late 2026.

About Craig
I’ve written songs my whole life, but in 2019 needed a new name for a new musical direction. Something to remind me that music repatriates me as a citizen of universal consciousness, and to remain neutral as my subconscious spills out as music and lyrics. But also, I liked how “Swiss Citizen” sounded, and it wasn’t taken.

My goals are pretty simple: I want to continue creating music, ideally with even more collaborators, and to keep chasing mastery as a songwriter using the piano, bass, guitar, hand drums, and Ableton Live. I want to start performing and to reach new people with my music—not  primarily for vanity, but because music is magic, and magic is worth sharing. Also, you can’t win if you don’t play. 

I live in Victoria, BC, Canada where I work in public health and teach, surrounded by nature and community.

Music

Here is my musical output from 2021-2026. It was a period where I treated music as sorcery, using these songs to grieve, to achieve catharsis, and as an antidote to shame and fear. The songs are usually best in headphones.

Liner notes and lyrics for the albums are below, and the music can be found at these links.

Fully Finite (2026)

The original writing process for these songs was fast and free and easy. I mistakenly thought that the rest of the process would be the same… that I would somehow escape the endless editing, reworking, and second-guessing that characterized my experience with the last two records. The process was also punctuated by long bouts of inactivity, and times when I felt called to just improvise on a real instrument instead of wrestling with my computer.

Despite this, I’ve never felt more proud of a collection of songs. They feel life affirming in form and content, with lyrics that culminate in a reminder to be grateful while the sand slips ceaselessly through our fingers.

Thank you to Lisa for helping in the creative process and for background vocals on ‘A Mile Wide’ and ‘Full Cloth’. The songs were mixed by Mark Guzylak-Shergold and mastered by Mat Keselman—big thanks to both. And thanks to everyone who shared encouraging words with me along the way.

Lyrics for ‘Fully Finite’ (click to expand)

  • I can’t believe…
    I can’t believe it
    The way it’s gone
    The way it’s gone

    A fleeting emotion
    An ocean of grief
    Divides our lives in two

    I want it undone
    I’m on the bottom rung

    I can just leave
    I can just leave it
    And be better off
    Better off

    Feeling awoken
    Even notionally
    (Are you really going to leave it?
    (Are you really going to leave again?)

    I want it undone
    I’m on the bottom rung

  • There is no way out
    We’ve lost our exit signs
    And atonements spread out
    Imagine my surprise 
    It may be for better or worse
    We’re the next in line, shut your tearful eyes, it’s through

    We’re overboard
    We’ve always been overboard
    We’re just an ocean wave
    A neverending light 

    Go your own direction
    In your own machine
    Can you believe in
    Everyone, everything?

    It’s all energy exchange
    What’s wood and what is fire?
    All memories erased
    Imagine my surprise
    It may be for better or worse
    We’re the next in line, shut your grateful eyes, and go through 

    We’re in an endless sea, and all will be revealed in light 

    Go your own direction
    In your own machine
    When you believe in
    Everyone, everything

  • Breathe in
    Breathe in, like a wind to your heart
    Breathe in, all the silence of a spark
    Be here, a mile wide
    Be here at the spiral’s start

    But you’re wild eyed
    Breathe in, like a wind to your heart
    Breathe in, let it into your veins

    Breathe in
    Like an autumn evening sun
    Breathe in and in and in
    On and on and on and on

    Be here, a mile high
    Up here where the spiral starts

    But you’re wild eyed
    Breathe in like a wind to your heart
    Breathe in let it into your veins
    Breathe in let it into your veins

  • It’s a safe rock, and it’s your home
    It’s a game of luck, and you’re long
    Just ‘cause it’s a safe rock, it could crumble

    It’s a foot race
    In a diamond mine

    It’s a jewel-laced star
    It’s a safe rock that could roll away

    (But) it’s a good day
    In the diamond mine
    It’s a good day
    If the diamonds shine
    It’s a good day
    In your dying life
    It’s impermanent
    What an old, lost sign

    Now’s the time to let it sing
    It rearranges us
    Unassailed by anything
    There’s a light ahead of me
    A colour that arranges us
    That will sightline everything

    It’s a good day
    In the diamond mine
    It’s a good day
    If the diamonds shine
    It’s a good day
    In the diamond mine
    It’s a good day
    In the diamond mine

  • You can start, a rising sun
    Shining through, but then it’s done

    [Leave all… we will, leave all…]

    You cannot take
    The touch and taste
    Those ghost lives that sped away
    The lines on your mother’s face
    The phrases your wife would say
    Like: “You’re not too old, it’s not too late”

    Neverending hope for love
    The ways you can’t get enough
    Your hand in mine, held above
    The fall moon and winter’s shove

    You hopes for your dying breath
    Those nightcaps and cigarettes
    The last cloth you’ll ever don
    It’s got no pockets, you’re moving on

Sound Of The Way Up (2023)

Here are the original liner notes from 2023, with lyrics below:

“I'm very happy to be sharing ‘Sound of the Way Up’ with the world. It picks up where ‘Just as Everything Fades’ left off, with me striving to paradoxically write songs that are complex and simple, cryptic and accessible, programmed and spontaneous. Whether or not I succeeded is secondary to the fact that when I really listen to them, I find the whole thing to be so life affirming. And maybe that's the theme of the record. Where ‘Just as Everything Fades’ was an experiment in sorcery, placing my negative thoughts into songs in the hopes of transmuting them into something positive, ‘Sound of the Way Up’ seems to be about something more optimistic, even if still uneasy.

Despite my best intentions, I did way too much of this on my own again this time, but did get a lot of great songwriting and production advice from Lisa, and some last minute audio tips from Alex. And of course continued inspiration from so many artists who make music that help me feel alive and normal and OK.”

Lyrics for ‘Sound of the Way Up’

  • Down the hole
    In the softest ground
    There’s no stopping now
    The bottom’s falling out
    It’s cold, but the farther you fall
    It’s warm, it’s the start of it all

    You wanted a way out
    So, go way out
    Yeah, go way out
    Go way out

    We’ll take this of all of the way, the way up
    We’ll take this of all of the way

    I’m not fearless, but I’m on my way
    I’ll bear witness to all I’ve ever said
    I’ve had this part of my longing to end my days
    But I’ve got this, I’ve got this

    You wanted a way out
    So, go way out
    Yeah, go way out
    Go way out

    We’ll take this of all of the way up, the way up

  • A flash of the moonlight
    A glance at the bright side
    In a kingdom of cyanide
    And you don’t know where you’re going
    And you don’t know where you’ve been

    Kid dymanite
    Shines from the dark side
    But his kingdom is finite
    Have they got your tongue
    Have they got your lips
    Are you crumpled up
    With your broken sticks

    Fall
    Down into the sea
    Leading away
    (There’s a sound)

    A flash of the moonlight
    A glance at the bright side
    A kingdom of nine lives

    Is there no way up off the floor
    Is there no way out of here for me
    Is this some cloud upon the door

    Just stay, around, with me
    We caught on fire and full up
    Right behind me
    There’s a sound

  • A siren call
    In no one’s ear
    But tonight a lightning rod
    And now it’s something we can feel
    Oh, something we can feel

    Take the weight of the world
    Put it all down on me
    Take me over tonight
    All the colours and moons beside my face

    Take me over tonight
    And pardon these hands
    Put all the colours and moons beside my face

    A siren call
    To no one’s ear
    Tonight a lightening rod
    And now it’s something we can feel
    Oh, something we can feel
    Take the weight of the world
    Put it all down on me
    Take me over tonight

    Take me over tonight
    And pardon these hands
    Now all the colours and moons beside my face
    These are not my eyes
    This is not my skin
    Now all the colours and moons inside my face

  • You’re in your car
    To drive away
    To leave it all

    No back up plan
    No written words
    Just a wave, and then you’re gone

    You drive away
    In the summer sun
    It’s all you need
    It’s all we’ve got
    And it never ends
    Because it never was
    But now it’s done

‘Just As Everything Fades (2021)’

Here are the original liner notes from 2021, with lyrics below:

Recent music from Trent Reznor, Thom Yorke, Jon Hopkins, and Jack Garratt inspired me to transform my piano-driven compositions and find new ways of exploring my love of progressive, introspective music. The journey to create 'Just As Everything Fades' started four years ago in Toronto. Countless hours spent improvising, programming, resampling, and reversing resulted in selecting these four songs, chosen to give voice to common struggles, and to use music to transmute negative thoughts into something beautiful.

Like it does for so many of us, music helps me cope with life. My motivation when creating music is to honour the mysterious wellspring from which musical ideas flow, in the hopes that it will never run dry.

Lyrics for Just as Everything Fades

  • When I look ahead
    When I turn around      
    This whole house of cards
    Is coming down (F#), coming down

    How do I dream without a surrender?
    When all I see is closing doors?
    My life raft is taking on water
    Looking around and around for the shore

    How do I dream without a surrender?
    When all I see is closing doors?
    My life raft is taking on water
    And its going down

    I need to bury these dreams
    Down in the softest ground
    I am what I will be

  • Waking up
    To this familiar sound
    To water in my ears
    And it’s all around, all around

    Pull yourself up
    It’s that or drown
    It’s every single day
    Learning all the lessons I forgot again

    But I’ve been in my head
    Been too afraid, I’ve been dancing in the dark
    ‘Cause in my world, it’s just swimming with the sharks

    Twisting and turning
    Bleeding dry
    As the sun is returning to the sky
    And it begins again

    Then I’m my head
    I’m too afraid, now I’m dancing in the dark
    And in my world, I’m just swimming with the sharks

    Why don’t you wind up
    Why do you stand and take a swing, at me
    Why don’t fuck it up, and push the air around
    And let’s see
    Why don’t you wind up
    How will I wind up

  • I want to see
    Something that you’ve never seen
    Seeing it with only me
    I want to be
    Somewhere that you haven’t been
    I want all your memories
    All the things that aren’t for me 
    I want all the history
    Always trapped in fantasy
    Wanting all the lips on me
    Ending of the mystery
    Its burrows out a part of me
    This terrifying jealousy
    All it ever does is take
    It’s all it ever wants from me

    It’s all it ever wants to do
    It’s all it ever wants to do 

    I thought I saw
    Gold halls
    But then I fall
    Fall
    Sometimes I crawl
    Lost
    I’m walking off
    Loved

  • I’ve got it made
    Like swimming in the sea
    It’s just too good for me

    I’ve got it made
    To talk with a God

What Endless Love

‘What Endless Love’ will function as an evolving home for musical creations that can't find a home on a proper Swiss Citizen album, but that deserve to be heard. New songs will be added as they are finished.

  • It’s a fall down
    All of the stairs
    On the cold ground
    There’s courage somewehere

    And the years, into weeks, into days
    Till the time’s been spent
    Don’t be discouraged
    Just shut up and dance

    But my knees are knocking, around
    Scaring the sacred sound
    My whole universe
    Is a memory that can’t be found
    All you left is a gold package in a sailing town
    Where nothing stays

    And there’s thunder, heading our way
    And the weather’s up
    And the bed is made
    Oh my knees are knocking
    They’re knocking in the breeze and sway
    I guess I need nothing
    Just nothing as the seasons change

    That you can’t stay, I know
    And the breathing is so slow
    And the nights have piled up, so let go

    You could call, you could come, I could see you around
    You could call up and we could just talk about
    You could call up and I could just hear a sound
    You could call up and we could not put it down

Shifting Shape of Sadness

‘Shifting Shape of Sadness’ will act as an evolving home home for soundscapes and songs that feel like they belong in a movie. New songs will be added as they are finished.

Videos

Watch the lyric video for Now Go Though by clicking on the image .
Video production by @meltedfaceprod

My friend Adele Thomas used Water Born in one of her short dance films. Click on the image below to watch on Vimeo.

Choreography by Elise Dawson
Dancer: Kalan Hauser
Director/Editor: Adele Thomas
Director of Photography: Vincent Cerone
Colorist – Carlo Ricci
Production: Chrissi Boryk & JP

Shows

I plan to start performing in late-2026 and to then apply to various festivals. The idea is to deconstruct my songs and put them back together in real-time, blending composition and improvisation using Ableton Live, my voice, and some real instruments (and maybe even other musicians).

Please do let me know if there is an opportunity for me to perform. In the meantime, here is a schematic of my live rig that you might find interesting.

Contact

This is a one man operation. Email me about anything and everything at craig (at) swisscitizen.ca