In Conversation With: Louie Cameron

Photo Credits: Cenia Zitter

When Louie Cameron released his debut EP Do You Wanna Go Out? earlier this year, it marked the beginning of a new chapter. Since then, the record has found its way onto the shelves of Rough Trade, both online and in-store, and Cameron sold out his first headline (and official
release) show at the London branch of Jack White’s Third Man Records.

With the excitement of the release behind him and a handful of shows under his belt, now feels like the right time to take a step back and reflect.

When asked to describe the EP in three words, the bassist-turned-frontman doesn't hesitate: "Moody, fun, me-esque."

It feels like an unexpectedly simple answer for a project that carried so many firsts. Although he has been writing music since the age of eleven, releasing a solo record wasn't something he had spent years carefully planning. Looking back, the beginning feels almost accidental.

"There wasn't much thought behind it really," he says. "Everything sort of happened by chance."

Following the end of his previous band, Cameron met producer - and artist in his own right - Pat Dam Smyth the very next day by chance. A phone demo, recorded after an early morning walk through Düsseldorf, became the starting point for what would eventually turn into his debut EP. Once the songs were finished, however, there was no desire to let them sit on a hard drive. "I'm quite impatient," he laughs. "From having the songs ready I was keen to put them out."

"I never thought I'd be able to 'sing' on stage in front of people."

The evening could easily have felt intimidating. Instead, it became something much more familiar. The room was filled with friends, family and people from the music community he had met over the years. The two support acts, Amsterdam’s Virgil W.X and Gareth Freiheit, a Munich/Dublin artist now based in South London, were musicians Cameron had shared stages with before, making the night feel less like being thrown in at the deep end and more like a celebration of the people who had been part of his musical journey along the way.

The line-up complemented each other naturally, each artist bringing something different to the evening while creating a shared atmosphere that carried through the night. By the end of the show, what had started as a personal challenge felt like something everyone in the room was rooting for.

When I asked whether pushing himself outside his comfort zone had actually worked, the musician paused. "Did it work?" he repeats. "I think it did work, in the fact that I did it."

"Now that I've done it, I do wish I started sooner," he says. "There's an inner confidence and enjoyment that I can do it."

It is a refreshingly honest answer. Not because it suggests every fear disappeared overnight, but because it doesn't. Cameron still gets nervous before performing. The difference is that the uncertainty has been replaced by experience and the knowledge that he has managed to go through with it before.

That shift has also changed his relationship with the songs themselves. Rather than trying to recreate the recordings exactly, Cameron enjoys letting them evolve on stage with his band. Live versions have grown longer, new sections have appeared, and arrangements continue to change from one show to the next. "I love finding live bootlegs where bands play the songs differently at every show," he says. "So this is our little piece of that."

Photo Credits: Cenia Zitter

Looking back, Cameron says there is very little he would change about the process. More recording sessions are already planned, there are more live shows ahead, and alongside his own project he continues playing bass in other bands. The past few months have been full of milestones - a debut EP, a sold out first headline show and a record sitting on the shelves of Rough Trade.

Looking back now, though, those achievements almost feel secondary. The most interesting part is what happened in between: discovering that stepping outside your comfort zone becomes a little easier once you've done it for the first time.

DO YOU WANNA GO OUT? OUT NOW.