The Sit Down with Cam
As we stood in The Roundhouse in Camden back in 2015 at Carrie Underwood’s Apple Music Festival show, one of the things we knew we would look back on was the incandescent glowing of light from California that opened for her. Fast forward ten years and Cam certainly has established herself as a true favourite in the eyes of the UK audience and she has found herself a second home here over the last decade.
Having played at The Long Road Festival, C2C: Country to Country, Black Deer Festival and BST in Hyde Park in addition to numerous headline shows of her own, she really walks the walk in terms of showing how much the British market means to her and so much so that she chose The Tabernacle in London to launch her brand new album “All Things Light”. The project has been a long time coming and the now Grammy winner has created a fascinating journey sonically with a strong ode to spirituality and writing songs as a parent.
I was trying to work out how many times you've actually been here now.
“Yeah, I would love it if you could tell me.”
Well, the first time was 2015, I know that for certain.
“Yes, that was the Apple Music show.”
Then by my working back, I think there have been eight more trips since so this show will be the tenth trip performing.
“That feels about right.”
This show will be eleventh time that I will have seen you play which puts you level with Bon Jovi and Little Mix in my world where Kacey Musgraves is the only artist that I have actually seen more and she’s at thirteen.
“Dang it, I need to work on that then ha-ha.”
However, we look at it, it’s ten years of Cam in London!
“It's amazing, I mean, I love travelling but who doesn't?”
I was so late on getting the travel bug, I didn’t really do too much until about a decade ago just before I turned thirty, but I’m doing my best to make up for it now.
“I mean, yeah, it’s not easy to do, but the best feeling in the world and I love coming here. Since the first few times coming here, it's like, there's something about the people here, how they listen to music with the way that I write music and we are just joined, we are pals.”
Having played at The Long Road Festival, C2C: Country to Country, Black Deer Festival and BST in Hyde Park in addition to numerous headline shows of her own, she really walks the walk in terms of showing how much the British market means to her and so much so that she chose The Tabernacle in London to launch her brand new album “All Things Light”. The project has been a long time coming and the now Grammy winner has created a fascinating journey sonically with a strong ode to spirituality and writing songs as a parent.
I was trying to work out how many times you've actually been here now.
“Yeah, I would love it if you could tell me.”
Well, the first time was 2015, I know that for certain.
“Yes, that was the Apple Music show.”
Then by my working back, I think there have been eight more trips since so this show will be the tenth trip performing.
“That feels about right.”
This show will be eleventh time that I will have seen you play which puts you level with Bon Jovi and Little Mix in my world where Kacey Musgraves is the only artist that I have actually seen more and she’s at thirteen.
“Dang it, I need to work on that then ha-ha.”
However, we look at it, it’s ten years of Cam in London!
“It's amazing, I mean, I love travelling but who doesn't?”
I was so late on getting the travel bug, I didn’t really do too much until about a decade ago just before I turned thirty, but I’m doing my best to make up for it now.
“I mean, yeah, it’s not easy to do, but the best feeling in the world and I love coming here. Since the first few times coming here, it's like, there's something about the people here, how they listen to music with the way that I write music and we are just joined, we are pals.”
When you first came to play at The Roundhouse with Carrie (Underwood) did you have any idea how things were going to go and that a decade later the love and demand for you continues to grow?
“No, I think it was just a hope that it was like, "Well, I'll enjoy, like I said, I'll enjoy the trip and I'll have a great time." I couldn't be more tickled and grateful that it seems to have worked out this way because I believe it was at The Roundhouse last time, I made some promises about coming back here first, I don't exactly remember when I did it, but I remember I made that promise. Then when we were figuring out what we were going to do to launch this album, I was like, I'm going there first, we're going to do a little preview show and I'm making good on it.”
We were talking before, The Tabernacle is somewhere where we haven’t been to for gigs before or haven’t been for a long time so it’s really nice to go to different places and I really appreciate it because it is very close to where I live!
“It’s beautiful and that was one of the first gigs that I played on my own. I just had two players with me and I feel like it went on for like, two and a half hours because I just chatted the whole time and that's kind of what we're about to do again.”
So, I guess the show is going to be heavily focused on people not just hearing the record for the first time but also for you to share everything behind it.
“Yes, I think the best way to describe it is that Eric Church did this kind of album preview show at Joe's in Chicago before he put out “Chief” which is like is a very important record to me personally and he just sat there with the writers. My manager and producer both were there and they will never forget that night with him just talking and kind of like also fucking up, you know but just getting through it. It's showing everybody what it was bare bones and that's what I'm doing tomorrow night so, I'm gonna play the songs because you're about to have the record and you're about to hear the songs and the why. I think especially fans here, they really do give shit about that, you know?”
When people see “All Things Light” as the album title and look at the track listing, there isn’t a song with that title, it’s a lyric from “Turns Out That I am God” so was that central to creating the whole project? Did you have that song and that idea to start off with, where you built from it or was it only when you had everything in place that this was what tied it all together?
“No, I think it was just a hope that it was like, "Well, I'll enjoy, like I said, I'll enjoy the trip and I'll have a great time." I couldn't be more tickled and grateful that it seems to have worked out this way because I believe it was at The Roundhouse last time, I made some promises about coming back here first, I don't exactly remember when I did it, but I remember I made that promise. Then when we were figuring out what we were going to do to launch this album, I was like, I'm going there first, we're going to do a little preview show and I'm making good on it.”
We were talking before, The Tabernacle is somewhere where we haven’t been to for gigs before or haven’t been for a long time so it’s really nice to go to different places and I really appreciate it because it is very close to where I live!
“It’s beautiful and that was one of the first gigs that I played on my own. I just had two players with me and I feel like it went on for like, two and a half hours because I just chatted the whole time and that's kind of what we're about to do again.”
So, I guess the show is going to be heavily focused on people not just hearing the record for the first time but also for you to share everything behind it.
“Yes, I think the best way to describe it is that Eric Church did this kind of album preview show at Joe's in Chicago before he put out “Chief” which is like is a very important record to me personally and he just sat there with the writers. My manager and producer both were there and they will never forget that night with him just talking and kind of like also fucking up, you know but just getting through it. It's showing everybody what it was bare bones and that's what I'm doing tomorrow night so, I'm gonna play the songs because you're about to have the record and you're about to hear the songs and the why. I think especially fans here, they really do give shit about that, you know?”
When people see “All Things Light” as the album title and look at the track listing, there isn’t a song with that title, it’s a lyric from “Turns Out That I am God” so was that central to creating the whole project? Did you have that song and that idea to start off with, where you built from it or was it only when you had everything in place that this was what tied it all together?
“I would say while I was making all of this music, I had the realisation that this was very deep, very spiritual in a way and kind of like soul searching. I would say that “Turns Out That I am God” feels like the little thesis art piece from the album. I didn't really have a title for the album until pretty much the end and honestly, my creative partner and manager, Lindsay was the one who reflected it back to me at first because I kind of forgot my, not forgot, but I hadn't put it together. My daughter's name, Lucy, means light and draw myself to the centre of all things light, the cover is like the light coming out of me and is this light that I think is in everyone. Like, the first time I ever meditated, I realised like, oh my gosh, there's this like hum of light inside me when I turn off this endless narration that's going on up here in my brain so it was like, oh, yeah, there it is, this through line and kind of like a bit of a funny wink to it’s not a light-hearted album. It's not a light piece at all. I have a songwriter friend named Roberta Lee who listened through the album and she goes, you know when you wade into the water and you start to get deeper then it gets colder all of a sudden, she’s like that's how this album feels from your previous albums. I was like, accurate!”
I think it's quite cool sonically, like as you go through it there's a lot of things that very different. I like kind of the real 80’s edge, particularly with “Hallelujah” and “Pretty Girls” at the end with the real cool synth elements.
“Yeah and I even think the guitar tone on (Turns Out That I Am) God too, I feel like there's something to those that there's something that's like a bit warm and percussive from the 80’s like with the synth where I really love those.”
The other one I really like is “Wherever You Are” and to me, melodically it has a real Midnights era of Taylor Swift type sound in terms of the fit and like a coastal sort of vibe but yes, like you were saying it isn’t light all the way through although there are some really strong conveyances of light in there.
“Right and I think that's kind of what country music is, where you take deep stuff and you pair it with things that aren't, you don’t try to hit people over the head. Like, there's sad ballads, but you gotta pick them up every once in a while, otherwise, no one's gonna like, you can't make it through life without a good dance or a chuckle every now and then. I think that's kind of sprinkled throughout the album.”
“Alchemy” was the first song that came out leading into the project, why did you feel that this was the way to tease what was coming and start the whole thing off?
“Well, it was very hard. Honestly, I was choosing between that and “Turns Out That I Am God” because obviously conceptually “Turns Out That I Am God” is like the here's what I think you should understand before you hear the rest of this album and sonically it does what most of my albums do where it kind of goes in a few different directions. You definitely were just going to be like, surprise, here it comes. This album is new, different and “Alchemy” just felt like, I don't know, a nice a nice warm drink or something, you know? It was so sweet the way people responded like other friends, creatives and people that are listeners, like, everybody just seemed to just love it. I was like, thank God because nobody knows, you ask the label, you ask your friends and nobody knows.”
I think it's quite cool sonically, like as you go through it there's a lot of things that very different. I like kind of the real 80’s edge, particularly with “Hallelujah” and “Pretty Girls” at the end with the real cool synth elements.
“Yeah and I even think the guitar tone on (Turns Out That I Am) God too, I feel like there's something to those that there's something that's like a bit warm and percussive from the 80’s like with the synth where I really love those.”
The other one I really like is “Wherever You Are” and to me, melodically it has a real Midnights era of Taylor Swift type sound in terms of the fit and like a coastal sort of vibe but yes, like you were saying it isn’t light all the way through although there are some really strong conveyances of light in there.
“Right and I think that's kind of what country music is, where you take deep stuff and you pair it with things that aren't, you don’t try to hit people over the head. Like, there's sad ballads, but you gotta pick them up every once in a while, otherwise, no one's gonna like, you can't make it through life without a good dance or a chuckle every now and then. I think that's kind of sprinkled throughout the album.”
“Alchemy” was the first song that came out leading into the project, why did you feel that this was the way to tease what was coming and start the whole thing off?
“Well, it was very hard. Honestly, I was choosing between that and “Turns Out That I Am God” because obviously conceptually “Turns Out That I Am God” is like the here's what I think you should understand before you hear the rest of this album and sonically it does what most of my albums do where it kind of goes in a few different directions. You definitely were just going to be like, surprise, here it comes. This album is new, different and “Alchemy” just felt like, I don't know, a nice a nice warm drink or something, you know? It was so sweet the way people responded like other friends, creatives and people that are listeners, like, everybody just seemed to just love it. I was like, thank God because nobody knows, you ask the label, you ask your friends and nobody knows.”
Like the last project, Tyler Johnson is very central to the record once again, what makes it such a good fit with the two of you working together?
“It is a really personal thing and talking about the time that went on, I met him in probably 2011 or 2012 and he was roommates with an old boyfriend. He was like, do you know how to do country music? I'm pitching some songs for Faith Hill and I was like, "Yeah, let's do it." In his apartment, he could make things sound obviously we’re both much better now, but he could make things sound good out of his apartment and the two of us just clicked and I would say it's not because we're the same. I would say it's because we do different jobs in how we're making this music, but we both trust each other and get tickled by the things, you know, when it's something good enough that both of us and Lindsay like it. He's like my brother, it's very, very, very country because he's married to Lindsay and my husband is one of his best friends so it's very tight knit group. I feel very fortunate that, the two of us, I spent time on my own during the pandemic writing and coming up with concepts for this, then he obviously was doing his own thing with other artists and figuring stuff out but we kind of came back together and like, impressed each other with what we had come up with and how we could put this together. It was really fun sitting in EastWest, like Studio 3 is where The Beach Boys and Mama's & The Papas recorded so just a lot of this poured out really easily and enjoyably.”
Did you have a big batch of songs for this project and you were choosing from them or was it you just eventually kind of got to this point of having some set and hunting for a couple more?
“I write as I go and honestly, it takes me a bit to get there, which is very intentional and also you know, raising a kid and all that business. Every now it's like, okay, we need one more song and we'll try to find the last one but it wasn't too segmented, it felt like I had a bunch of them, we went in, we made more and then kind of added the last bits. Once we finally got into EastWest, it didn't take too long at that point and I feel like it felt a bit like a sitcom or like college a little bit. We had people pull through like Michael Uzowuru and Ethan Gruska where it was just so fantastic to have these world class people just pop on by, like a Seinfeld episode, you know "Hey, what's going on?” You're like, "Oh, okay" and it all felt like everyone could just be themselves, you know?”
There’s another bunch of songs where you see your name written amongst the credits and a Grammy came you way from them. You were a writer for five of the tracks on Beyoncé’s “Cowboy Carter” record, how did you get involved with that record? Were you pitching songs to them or did they come to you?
“For me, what happened is that this was the same time that I was making all this stuff for “All Things Light” that I went in by myself. I'm like a very close sibling with my sister and I think I am someone who loves being collaborative working with people, so I think I might have over attuned those behaviours. Then when I was by myself, it was a bit weird and then also a bit of a huge gift to now all my little sensitivities are tuned only to what I feel like I should be writing, not you know, managing anyone else's references or anything. The stuff that came out of that moment in time in like 2021, it was such divine timing because then the Beyoncé camp, you know, like I was invited to go in for a session, and it was like, oh, I have this new colour and this new palette that I’m working with. It was just so incredible that it fitted so well with what “Cowboy Carter” was becoming so I think it was just, not luck, that’s why I like saying divine timing because it took me a long time to find a space that I was working on and just was so lucky. That it is how it happens with any of the artists, like Sam (Smith) and Miley (Cyrus) too. Everyone has to just magically, all of a sudden be on the same page about what they'd like to create out of the ether.”
“It is a really personal thing and talking about the time that went on, I met him in probably 2011 or 2012 and he was roommates with an old boyfriend. He was like, do you know how to do country music? I'm pitching some songs for Faith Hill and I was like, "Yeah, let's do it." In his apartment, he could make things sound obviously we’re both much better now, but he could make things sound good out of his apartment and the two of us just clicked and I would say it's not because we're the same. I would say it's because we do different jobs in how we're making this music, but we both trust each other and get tickled by the things, you know, when it's something good enough that both of us and Lindsay like it. He's like my brother, it's very, very, very country because he's married to Lindsay and my husband is one of his best friends so it's very tight knit group. I feel very fortunate that, the two of us, I spent time on my own during the pandemic writing and coming up with concepts for this, then he obviously was doing his own thing with other artists and figuring stuff out but we kind of came back together and like, impressed each other with what we had come up with and how we could put this together. It was really fun sitting in EastWest, like Studio 3 is where The Beach Boys and Mama's & The Papas recorded so just a lot of this poured out really easily and enjoyably.”
Did you have a big batch of songs for this project and you were choosing from them or was it you just eventually kind of got to this point of having some set and hunting for a couple more?
“I write as I go and honestly, it takes me a bit to get there, which is very intentional and also you know, raising a kid and all that business. Every now it's like, okay, we need one more song and we'll try to find the last one but it wasn't too segmented, it felt like I had a bunch of them, we went in, we made more and then kind of added the last bits. Once we finally got into EastWest, it didn't take too long at that point and I feel like it felt a bit like a sitcom or like college a little bit. We had people pull through like Michael Uzowuru and Ethan Gruska where it was just so fantastic to have these world class people just pop on by, like a Seinfeld episode, you know "Hey, what's going on?” You're like, "Oh, okay" and it all felt like everyone could just be themselves, you know?”
There’s another bunch of songs where you see your name written amongst the credits and a Grammy came you way from them. You were a writer for five of the tracks on Beyoncé’s “Cowboy Carter” record, how did you get involved with that record? Were you pitching songs to them or did they come to you?
“For me, what happened is that this was the same time that I was making all this stuff for “All Things Light” that I went in by myself. I'm like a very close sibling with my sister and I think I am someone who loves being collaborative working with people, so I think I might have over attuned those behaviours. Then when I was by myself, it was a bit weird and then also a bit of a huge gift to now all my little sensitivities are tuned only to what I feel like I should be writing, not you know, managing anyone else's references or anything. The stuff that came out of that moment in time in like 2021, it was such divine timing because then the Beyoncé camp, you know, like I was invited to go in for a session, and it was like, oh, I have this new colour and this new palette that I’m working with. It was just so incredible that it fitted so well with what “Cowboy Carter” was becoming so I think it was just, not luck, that’s why I like saying divine timing because it took me a long time to find a space that I was working on and just was so lucky. That it is how it happens with any of the artists, like Sam (Smith) and Miley (Cyrus) too. Everyone has to just magically, all of a sudden be on the same page about what they'd like to create out of the ether.”
With the new album, it's been five years since “The Otherside” and there were five years between that and “Untamed” too.
“Yes, even though my manager would say four and a half.”
The last project came out during the pandemic and you had recently become a mum but we all know the process of putting music out is not quick, you know you’ve been working towards it for a couple of years so, I guess the biggest thing about this new record is that it’s the first body of work that you have fully drawn from being a parent. This has had more input in terms of ideas and how they are shaped where “The Otherside” wouldn’t have been.
“Yeah. so, the last one was mostly done and then I had a label split and then the pandemic hit, like, I went with a two month old baby to New York to do late night and morning TV, and then it shut down right after that. Everyone's like, you can wait to put it out later but I was like, no just put it out, I'm so excited for people, when I when I'm ready, it's ready and we're doing it. Like you're saying, I hadn't been writing as a mother so this time around was like, I don't know if you've gotten to see the vinyl, but there's an inscription for my daughter, it's beautiful.”
Will there hopefully be UK availability for the vinyl when it comes out?
“There’s shipping to the UK and then nobody wants me to say this out loud but obviously eventually, I'll come back, you know wink, wink, nudge, nudge and surprise but for I would recommend everyone just buying it on the website right now.”
Thank you for the hang, it’s nice to finally meet you in person.
“Yes, thank you for knowing so much, I feel like I'm talking to somebody who appreciates it, it’s really nice.”
It’s really good that you're back and I genuinely didn't realise how much you had been over before, it was only when I went back through notes to prep where It's like, well, she did Hyde Park, she's done C2C twice then you were here for Black Deer. We won’t talk about how gutted we were for that set being cut short though but you’ve done Long Road twice as well and tour here, tour there.
“I love being here and that festival, The Long Road, it was so funny because they' like, who can we call? And like, oh my God, you can always call me! If there's a last minute trip to the UK, I will be there. I was kind of nervous though because sometimes when you step in for people, I totally understand you've bought a ticket for someone else so you can get frustrated so, I was like okay, let's put on my big girl pants and people were so overjoyed and I was so overjoyed too, so, thank God.”
The new album “All Things Light” from Cam will be released on July 18th and is available to pre-order/pre-save/pre-add HERE whilst you can further information on any future dates on her WEBSITE or you can keep up to date with her socially on TIKTOK INSTAGRAM X & FACEBOOK.
“Yes, even though my manager would say four and a half.”
The last project came out during the pandemic and you had recently become a mum but we all know the process of putting music out is not quick, you know you’ve been working towards it for a couple of years so, I guess the biggest thing about this new record is that it’s the first body of work that you have fully drawn from being a parent. This has had more input in terms of ideas and how they are shaped where “The Otherside” wouldn’t have been.
“Yeah. so, the last one was mostly done and then I had a label split and then the pandemic hit, like, I went with a two month old baby to New York to do late night and morning TV, and then it shut down right after that. Everyone's like, you can wait to put it out later but I was like, no just put it out, I'm so excited for people, when I when I'm ready, it's ready and we're doing it. Like you're saying, I hadn't been writing as a mother so this time around was like, I don't know if you've gotten to see the vinyl, but there's an inscription for my daughter, it's beautiful.”
Will there hopefully be UK availability for the vinyl when it comes out?
“There’s shipping to the UK and then nobody wants me to say this out loud but obviously eventually, I'll come back, you know wink, wink, nudge, nudge and surprise but for I would recommend everyone just buying it on the website right now.”
Thank you for the hang, it’s nice to finally meet you in person.
“Yes, thank you for knowing so much, I feel like I'm talking to somebody who appreciates it, it’s really nice.”
It’s really good that you're back and I genuinely didn't realise how much you had been over before, it was only when I went back through notes to prep where It's like, well, she did Hyde Park, she's done C2C twice then you were here for Black Deer. We won’t talk about how gutted we were for that set being cut short though but you’ve done Long Road twice as well and tour here, tour there.
“I love being here and that festival, The Long Road, it was so funny because they' like, who can we call? And like, oh my God, you can always call me! If there's a last minute trip to the UK, I will be there. I was kind of nervous though because sometimes when you step in for people, I totally understand you've bought a ticket for someone else so you can get frustrated so, I was like okay, let's put on my big girl pants and people were so overjoyed and I was so overjoyed too, so, thank God.”
The new album “All Things Light” from Cam will be released on July 18th and is available to pre-order/pre-save/pre-add HERE whilst you can further information on any future dates on her WEBSITE or you can keep up to date with her socially on TIKTOK INSTAGRAM X & FACEBOOK.
