Seventh Grade Breakups and Finding Your Sound: An Interview with Mcamp
Photo via Seven Small
Mcamp’s composed and equable demeanor is nothing less than a direct parallel to his craft as an artist. Undeniably inventive, his new single, sexy in the morning, is described as a “vintage take on modern soul,” an answer that somewhat rattled my brain. Right off the bat his ease at starting a conversation is made clear, never failing to insert commentary when needed, or missing a beat to add a joke to blow off some steam. A casual introduction kick-started by small talk turned into a prolific, 30 minute discussion about all things music, inspirations, and aspirations.
In an attempt to get to know the roots of Mcamp, we discussed the origins of his musical zeal which began where many of the greats do: piano lessons.
“I hated it because that was not my thing, like I was a big soccer guy back then and I didn’t think classical piano lessons were cool,” also adding a humorous anecdote about his first song which he calls a, “beautiful song about love and loss,” that stemmed from a 7th grade breakup. Writing songs further strung along his realizations about the world of music through playing instruments and in bands throughout middle school and high school.
A seemingly simple question about some of his musical inspirations had an exceptionally loaded answer. Having a strong taste towards old soul and funk, just a few of his role models are icons like Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, and D’Angelo (whose poster sits above him, watching over this interview and Mcamp’s songwriting sessions).
He pours his heart out about dissecting the origins of his favorite recent songs because, “all the music that you hear nowadays comes from somewhere, which comes from somewhere, which comes from Marvin Gaye. It’s all just straight from those sources way back when”. These pieces of artistry are all heard in his sunny and smooth sound because he, “[gets] the information, the skills, the chops, right from the source”.
Though obviously proud of all of his songs, he seems to be most proud of his single, Speed Dial No. 1, which was released back in 2019 and now has over 800,000 streams on Spotify alone.
“It was like an extremely happy accident in a way because I feel like I made something that was able to speak to a lot of people and I didn’t really know what I was doing”.
Photo via Seven Small
Though it doesn’t sound like it, this was towards the beginning of Mcamp’s journey in producing, mixing, and mastering all of his own songs, which he still does today. The aftermath of recording a song is a craft that everyone should have more respect for because a song isn’t halfway done after just laying down raw vocal tracks, and “there are still so many more creative decisions to be made after that point,” which is why he loves to have his own jurisdiction over his own music.
As for the future, whether that be near or far, Mcamp says that he wants to “be an artist first and foremost,” hopefully releasing a debut self titled album sometime in the next couple years. “There’s just so many artists and it’s going to take a while to feel confident in my artistry and musicality before I release an album, because when I release it I want it to be like, dope. You know?” Yes, I do know and there is no doubt in my mind that Mcamp will be a name to remember for a while.
