Graham Backman MEISNER

GRAHAM BACKMAN MEISNER Musician, songwriter, composer, and cat lover. Born January 3, 1964 in Ottawa, ON. Died December 6, 2022 in Vancouver, BC, of brain cancer, aged 58. Graham Backman Meisner was a thoughtful, introverted, sensitive, funny, and creative person. He dedicated his life to music, starting out as a songwriter, singer and guitar player in a few bands through the 1980s and '90s in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. He became a more established musician in Halifax with the alternative music duo, Mecca High. His collaborator Mark Whidden writes that the style of music they developed ran 'the gamut from sea shanty to punk' (meccahigh.bandcamp.com/community). When he arrived in Vancouver in the late '90s Graham became a composer, producing a unique musical repertoire but also working collaboratively with voice, sound, and video artists, including Marina Roy, Matilda Aslizadeh, Randy Lee Cutler, David Clark, Natasha McHardy, Mark Whidden, Jeremy Todd, and Soressa Gardner. He earned a BFA in music at Vancouver Community College in 2008, where he focused on experimental allegorical opera performances and audio-visual works. Graham lived and breathed music, but he also had a great love for film, literature, and visual art. He has an extensive repertoire on his YouTube channel (youtube.com/@bstedu), where he would regularly post audio-visual works that responded to urgent or incredible political events. Graham made humorous/satirical and heartfelt works. In the last years of his life, he focused on ambient experimental music, a sampling of which can be found on his album, Aspotogan (grahammeisner.bandcamp.com/album/aspotogan). Friends recall running into him as he walked about the city with his headphones on, listening to music: David Bowie, Prince, Steely Dan, Captain Beefheart, Bach, and Stravinksy were amongst his greatest inspirations. After surgery and treatment for brain cancer in 2012, he dedicated the rest of his life to making music and volunteering (care homes/DTES). Graham is survived by his wife, Marina Roy; and his parents, Zane and Doris Meisner (née Backman). Graham felt a great attachment to the Aspotogan peninsula, where his ancestors are from. He spent six months of the year with his parents in Bayswater, NS, in the last 10 years of his life. Graham was passionate about life. He is deeply missed and fondly remembered for his music, Grahamisms, gentleness, and wry humour. If you would like to make a contribution in his memory, please consider donating to brain cancer research (bccancerfoundation.com/donations).