New Zealand-born, Melbourne-based artist CAMP 8 has set the bar high with his beautiful debut EP, Everything. This five-song collection is haunting, hypnotic, and just what your soul needs right now.
This EP had me from the title track’s gentle opening strains. There’s a real quiet strength about this music. It’s subtle, but so moving. CAMP 8 creates lush, atmospheric soundscapes that sit so perfectly with his poignant vocals. As each song builds, the emotions behind it are palpable. I can’t remember feeling so moved by a collection of songs in a while. It’s life-affirming listening to something so stirring.
Perhaps it’s not surprising that these songs hit so hard right now, against the backdrop of the pandemic, because CAMP 8 wrote them when he was also struggling through a difficult time.
“I wrote all the songs in the couple the months before, during and after I found out that my ex-partner was cheating on me with my sister’s boyfriend at the time,” he revealed. “We all lived in a house together which all went to shit in a very chaotic 24 hours. Two months later I met my now fiancé.”
Listening to the songs, you can hear when those emotions shift. There a dark melancholy about the opening songs, but by the time “Happier” rolls around things get a little lighter. There’s still lingering sadness, but there’s an optimism about this song too. While it was inspired by very different circumstances, the hope that springs from it really resonates right now as I contemplate what the future might look like. By the time “Shudder” rolled around, I felt lighter, healed.
Listening to Everything is such a cathartic experience. It demands shutting the world out and just sitting with it for a while. How fortunate we are that CAMP 8 has released these special songs right now, when it’s just that little bit easier to do just that.
Images used with permission from Habit Music Co.