Known for high-concept ideas and inventive musical storytelling, Alex Cameron is an Australian singer and songwriter taking on the world. With his eyes set on making music that connects deeply with its listeners, Alex is leaping from one career success to the next.
As he grows as a musician, Alex has become more confident in his unique style, releasing songs that are tender, vulnerable, lustful, and conceptually interesting. True to form, Alex’s interest in character and narrative shines through in his latest releases. His new single, ‘Far From Born Again‘, “celebrates the legitimacy of the independent sex worker,” and the video for single ‘Miami Memory’ has a strong focus on elaborate costuming.
Miami Memory, Alex Cameron’s latest album, is set to release on the 13th of September. We sat down with Alex learn to more about where his inspiration comes from.
Your music has a really distinctive, unique sound. Who and what has influenced your style?
Growing up in Australia, there was a lot of people like Crowded House and Cold Chisel. Certainly coming up younger, and then the more I started working, I’d keep just attaching myself to the classic rock radio, it continues to inform me, consistently. At least with the tone and certain sounds.
But I’m open to anything these days. I’m really much more focused on the story than I am on productions or anything like that.
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And with the story, character and narrative have been a huge part of the content you’ve been creating so far. What is it about the storytelling of music that draws you to it, and which role has been your favourite so far?
When I work with characters, I’m just finding, accessing certain stories that I want to tell and giving a certain platform for ideas to launch off, that I get carried away with. It excites me, writing with characters, generally.
I think that in order to do that properly, to do it to a point where I’m satisfied, it generally takes quite a lot of real-life experience, and consideration, and living, and learning. I just found that I start with it, and it was the most exciting way to go about telling stories. It was to use characters. It was just fun for me.
I think it’s a really interesting approach. In your recent music video for ‘Miami Memory’, you chose a lot of characters and a lot of really bold, high-concept ideas. Could you tell us a bit about what inspired the creative decisions behind that clip?
Yeah, I think that, in general, the city of Miami is usually inspiring for me. It’s a place where I’ve had a number of experiences, huge highs and very deep lows.
It felt like the kind of city that maybe, in a hundred years, might be underwater. I wanted to have a song and a video that captured parts of Miami that I really hold dear.
Song-wise, I suppose the concept is that there is this place out there for – I think each couple has their own destination or location that they either found themselves in or want to move towards.
So it’s a fantasy, and at the same time it’s based on something real. Those extremely lucid romantic moments that in some ways can be a little bit too good to be true.
Watch: Alex Cameron’s clip for ‘Miami Memory’:
Along the vein of your new music, your song ‘Divorce’ opens with the line “Well, in the age of conversation I guess I got the gift of gab”. How do you think that our age of conversation has affected music and the music industry?
I think people are able to speak things into existence. And I think that ideas turn from gossip to tangible results extremely quickly. I don’t know if it’s ever happened at this rate.
I know that people in the music industry are extremely potholed. No one really knows where to put their music, no one knows how people are listening for music. There’s so many different platforms and so many different ways.
You could have a hit record using a method that no one’s ever used before, and that can change next week as well. So I think technology, and certainly the internet, and if you want to call it “the age of conversation,” it’s levelled the playing field in many ways.
But in order to level the playing field, it has to create this vast space for everyone to exist in. It’s just vast, very vast. And I think it’s confusing for some, exciting for others, challenging for some.
It’s a crazy time to be writing music, and to be recording it, and certainly releasing it.
Obviously, there are a number of songs from the new album that we’re yet to hear. Which one are you most excited about?
I’m really excited. The whole record gets me so gassed up. I’m extremely excited. I’ve got goose-bumps when I’m rehearsing the songs.
With my energy, I’m very much invested in this album, not only meaning-wise, but the recordings are hot. It’s the first time I’ve ever felt like the recordings are as good as the songs.
At the moment, I’m really, really excited about ‘Far From Born Again’. It’s one of my favourite songs I’ve ever written. But also the title track, ‘Miami Memory’, I just don’t think I’ve ever succinctly expressed something as effectively as that.
Watch: Alex Cameron, ‘Far From Born Again’:
So this album’s tour is set to be pretty big! Where are you most looking forward to visiting?
I am always excited about big European cities. We go to places like Amsterdam, Paris, London, and Berlin, which over the years have slowly started to feel like hometown shows, for one reason or another. Touring America always feels like a real privilege, coming from Australia and having access to American cities and towns. Taking the van out there and just hitting it. Always, it’s just exciting.
You’re achieving some incredible successes with your career. Where do you see the future taking you? Do you have any really big goals or plans?
I just recently realised that I have to set new goals for myself, because I haven’t set a goal since – the last goal I had was to get a record deal in America, and I just haven’t thought about it since then.
I feel extremely lucky to be doing something that I’m motivated to do. It took a while to access the position and to get my feet firmly in the dirt.
I guess my goal is to keep making music, stay motivated, stay healthy, and keep releasing records that people want to listen to. And keep performing.
I feel like I’m getting better and better at singing and putting on a show, so I’m just excited to keep doing that. That’s a goal right now.
Miami Memory out Sept 13 via Secretly Canadian, pre-order it here.
