Singer, songwriter and artist Camden Cox is fresh off tour with The House & Garage Orchestra, playing to sold out crowds across the country, including KOKO, London, the O2 Institute Birmingham and Gorilla Manchester as well as her very own support slot to a sold out O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire.She’s accumulated a string of successful features from the likes of Embody ‘Dreamin’ (Black Butter Records/ Sony Music) which has picked up over 12 million streams on Spotify and Basada’s ‘Good Vibes’ (via French label Play Two in 2018) which charted #1 across Belgium, Spain and France, and has now streamed over 12 million times. Camden’s most recent collab with Just Kiddin – ‘Stay The Night’ (3Beat) has got off to a promising start, with almost 400,000 streams in just a few weeks along with support on Kiss FM and 1Xtra. Recently she teamed up with hotshot production duo Leftwing:Kody on ‘Without You’ an anthem in the making and the follow up with last year’s I Feel It on Toolroom, which went on to be one of the biggest records of the summer.
Hi Camden… welcome to DMC! We’re only a few weeks into 2020, but are you feeling positive about the year ahead?
Thanks!! Yeah definitely, I’ve had the best start to the decade! My new solo single ‘Healing’ dropped 3 weeks ago which has been going down super well, and now another new track with Leftwing : Kody! Setting the bar high for myself ha!
Tell us a bit about your background… did you study music? If not, how did you first get into writing and performing?
I always wanted to sing so I did whatever I could throughout my childhood, amateur stuff, girl bands with my best mates etc. It wasn’t until I moved to London though that I started writing properly, I had to teach myself and it took a lot of time and practice. Listening back to some of those ideas is pretty funny now but I had to start somewhere!
The age old adage is to write about what you know… is that the case with you? Are a lot of your lyrics inspired by personal experience?
Absolutely! But I also write a lot for other artists, so when I’m in the studio with them we talk for a bit and catch up on recent feelings / scenarios. I make notes and get everything down while we chat and it gives us so much to play with! It’s about imagination a lot of the time, referring back to previous emotions so that you can channel them into a new concept and imagine its happening to you.
How does writing with people compare to the experience of doing it completely independently? What are some of the positives and negatives of each?
As much as I enjoy writing by myself and having that complete freedom, sometimes I can hit a dead end. Writing with others has its challenges – like making sure everyone is happy and in agreement, but overall I absolutely love collaborating through songwriting so that we can bounce ideas around and build something amazing. Takes patience and good listening skills, but it’s so exciting when you can merge melodies to create something you’d never have done on your own.
We’re loving your new one with Leftwing & Kody! How did the writing process work for the record? Were you sent the finished track?
Thank you! This one was actually written in my bedroom with two great friends and fellow writers – Emily Phillips and Tylr Rydr. We often get together to write hooks and get ideas off our chests, it’s so nice to have various teams that I can do that with! I actually sent the acapella to Jon from LWK as I had a feeling he would love it, and they came back with an absolute banger! We all knew it was great so I’m buzzing it’s out now!
Have you had the experience of being out and one of your records being played? How does it feel for the room to be suddenly filled with your own voice?
Yeah it’s crazy, honestly I black out from the adrenaline I think, it goes so quick and I just get a bit too excited then all of a sudden the song is finished, can’t beat the feeling!!
You’ve already had some big records despite it being fairly early on in your career… are you driven by success, or it this just something you love to do? Or both?
Both for sure. Mainly the latter because at the end of the day I can’t imagine myself doing anything else and I feel so so lucky to get to do it for a living. I’m so passionate about what I do and I just love making music…but when a song starts to get some attention and your hard work is validated it only makes you want to keep doing it! So there’s definitely an element of being driven by success. It’s an exciting feeling when people connect with my work!
What is it about dance music especially that you connect with?
Ahh it’s just in my blood. I grew up listening to dnb and garage so electronic music just gets me hyped. My mum was a dnb promoter back in the day and my dad was always in bands so I loved watching him play. I always used to buy the club classics compilation CD’s and blast them. Dance music for me is just timeless.
What else do you have coming in the next few months that we should be looking out for?
Plenty to be looking out for! More co-writes for other artists as well as another solo single from me, and a collaboration with Joe Stone too! I’m on a roll right now!
Do you have a message for DMC readers?
I hope you can follow my journey! Please check out both Without You with LeftwingKody and also my latest single Healing, cos’ if you’re into dance music these will be right up your street…
Finally, give us one record you heard recently that we’ll all be banging soon…
Duke Dumont – Therapy
Leftwing : Kody & Camden Cox – Without You is out now – listen & buy: https://Toolroom.lnk.to/WithoutYou
