In the studio…

I’m delighted to say that my new album, which will be titled ‘Dragonfly’, is almost at the final mixing stage!

While gigging has had to take a backseat, (Covid’s fault initially then I had some time out following having my daughter in 2022) I’ve been spending any free time I could in the studio recording the album I have been wanting to make since I started songwriting many years ago.

It is looking (and sounding) like it will have all been worth it and I can’t wait to share it with you all when it is done. The album tells a story from light to dark through grey and back up to the light at the end. Featuring a mesh of genres including singer-songwriter, acoustic, pop, rock and prog it is shaping up to be my best work to date. Now that I’m getting closer to releasing it, I thought it was about time I got back out there and did some gigs, as well as taking this opportunity to introduce the musicians I’ve been lucky to work with!

Introducing the band on the new album:

Tim Bond is a brilliant musician himself, and is a pleasure to work with as a recording engineer and producer. Thanks Tim for your awesome patience and honesty throughout. We have done all the recording at his studio near Cambridge: Bookmatch Studio

Tim Bond Producer extraordinaire

Tim Bond Producer extraordinaire

On drums I have Scott Hunter, who brings a wealth of experience, technical prowess and rhythmical genius to the songs. Currently gigging with a phenomenal band ‘Skylines‘ who I saw live last summer at the inaugural Nene Valley Rock Festival and I was completely blown away by their set. Check them out live if you get the chance – they are excellent.

Scott Hunter on drums

Scott Hunter on drums

A couple of years ago I performed at the brilliant N FEST in Needingworth, Cambridgeshire. After my performance the bass player from another band on the line up that year approached me and I’m delighted to say the rest is history! Introducing the excellent Bob Jakins on bass; his wonderful bass lines cement the rhythm section and he and Scott had a musical dialogue that just worked straight away – it was meant to be! You can catch Bob performing live with ‘The Lonely‘ I really recommend getting to one of their gigs – brilliant band.

Bob Jakins on bass guitar

Bob Jakins on bass guitar

When I first started thinking about this album, I asked the fantastic Chris Newman if he would play guitar on it and I’m chuffed that he has played some sublime guitar on several songs for me. Chris has a gorgeous guitar playing style and he gigs regularly around Cambridgeshire and the UK with the beautiful singing sensation Stella Hensley and the amazing ‘Barefoot Doctors

Chris Newman on guitar

Chris Newman on guitar

Pete Nash on guitar

Pete Nash on guitar

Pete Nash and I have been friends and band mates for many years and it has been awesome to work on music together again! Pete features on several songs both with his unique and brilliant guitar lines and he has worked on arrangements for the songs as well. It is exciting to have him as part of the album and you can also check him out live with his band ‘Faith No Man

I couldn’t do any of this without my family behind me so big thanks to Ben, Ross & Arwen (spot Ben and Ross at an early recording session below) for putting up with me and always being my best supporters!

I’ll keep you posted and see you at a gig soon!

Claire X

Some more photos of the various recording sessions that we have done across the past couple of years to make Claire Cameron’s Dragonfly album a reality:

Claire Cameron in the studio

Claire Cameron in the studio recording her new album ‘Dragonfly’ with Tim Bond at Bookmatch Studios

Recording Claire Cameron's new album 'Dragonfly' at Bookmatch Studios

Recording Claire Cameron’s new album ‘Dragonfly’ at Bookmatch Studios

Song for Saigon…in words

As a few people have asked me to share the lyrics to ‘Song for Saigon‘  I thought it would be cool to share them with the world, so here they are.

Listen to and download ‘Song for Saigon’ on CD Baby,

Song for Saigon

Saigon growing up my window

She’s creeping right under my pillow

With warm lights and motorbikes and sleepless nights and I know,

It’s go with the flow

 

In this place which goes by many names,

Both different yet somehow the ‘same, same.’

There’s smiling and trying and guessing

..Means ‘no’ when you’re ‘yes-ing’…

 

Where the city sleeps whatever ways

A nap can be taken most times of day

A floor here, a desk, but by far the best is stretched

the length of a moped.

 

Stop, watch the ride

of the people who live, the people who give their

calm, moving tide

of peaceful exist; it’s hard to resist this life.

Hard to resist this life.

 

Language can defeat me

With much local hilarity

Em tên  là Claire

một hai ba yo!

hẹn gặp lại

Rất vui được gặp em

 

Drumming dreaming anti-rhythm

The unrelenting sound of construction

Blends into calls of street food stalls and busy malls

Then hush; the heat of the day

 

There’s a beauty in her coloured hems

Old houses standing tall and thin since then

When bicycles and cyclos ruled before

The sound of an engine…

 

Such a happy, truthful open place

With an honest and an easy grace

The busy waves of peoples days and humid haze

Keeps on

While I’m just observing.

Saigon lives near, chaotic yet placid here

Rising high, her focus on present times.

It’s hard to resist this life.

 

 

Claire Cameron  Copyright 2013.

Song for Saigon…..in pictures

After I finished Song for Saigon I spent a long time looking through my own photographs, trying to find one which encapsulated everything I was trying to say with the lyrics.

The image for the cover art of the single needed to convey a busy city, chaos, tranquility, people and traffic and shops and food, the beauty and the unlovely, the noise and quiet.  It needed to say; ‘here is modern Saigon, as though a woman to be reckoned with, a city who has faced much and grown up, a person who moves on and moves up and forwards with modern times yet holds onto tradition against the odds.  A place with two names and one heart, a home, a contradiction and an inspiration and a change.’

So the song covers a lot of ground!

After attempting the design myself and unsurprisingly failing miserably (mainly because I’m not a graphic designer or an expert photographer) I decided to look for ideally a local Vietnamese designer who might be able to put my words and music into a picture.

Then I met Nguyen Thi Kim Hue.  She is a wonderfully modest and sweet person who was more than a little daunted by my over-descriptive and perhaps at times (!) confusing proclamations about what Song for Saigon is all about and how she might translate this into art please?

I wanted to share this process because Hue didn’t just produce one amazing image but several, and she managed to capture such a wonderful array of moments from life in Saigon that it was hard to select only one!  In the end I chose the one we have because it contains the essence of the song in that you can see if you look closely the traditional long thin Vietnamese houses on the street as well as the modern Bitexco building looming behind a bustling night street scene full of motorbikes, people, shops, bars, restaurants, lights and life.

image-for-web

 

 

It is exactly what I was looking for and taken on a popular street in District 1, which is apt as that is where I lived when I started writing the song.

However the peaceful moments, the old, new, fast and slow pace and the construction and the calm and the chaos Hue found in these other images had to be shared as well. Because Song for Saigon is for the whole city with all of these scenes interwoven.  Here are a few of my favourites, with my heartfelt thanks to Hue for taking a difficult brief and answering it with beauty.

Saigon 2 by Nguyen Thi Minh HueSaigon 3 by Nguyen Thi Minh Hue

 

 

 

 

 

saigon

Saigon 8 by Nguyen Thi Minh Hue

Saigon 7 by Nguyen Thi Minh Hue

Saigon 6 by Nguyen Thi Minh Hue

Saigon 4 by Nguyen Thi Minh HueSaigon 5 by Nguyen Thi Minh Hue

Song for Saigon Single Launch

On a warm, sultry Saigon evening in December, I gathered my friends and fans together at La Fenetre Soleil, 44 Ly Tu Trong, District 1, to launch ‘Song for Saigon‘.

Two years in the writing, and another one waiting for the right time to release it after flying back to the UK to record it, the time was now.

It was overwhelming to see so many familiar faces in the crowd enjoying the music and supporting the launch. A huge thank you to all of you that came along!

Filming the event were ‘Impressive Vietnam for VTC 10 Net Viet’ and ‘Tuiotre Online’ and it was a privilege that Song for Saigon generated so much local interest. I was really delighted to perform it live and play the recording with the complete Claire Cameron Band performing through the PA for everyone to get the full impact!

There are some photos from the night below, and here is the ‘Impressive Vietnam TV Show about Song for Saigon.’

Download ‘Song for Saigon’ here.

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Claire Cameron interviewed by Yorkshire Post

It was great to be asked by the Yorkshire Post to give them my thoughts on balancing life as a musician (as Claire Cameron) with a day job at a busy marketing agency (as Claire Hunter-Smith). Having an alter ego surely needs to become a song at some point….

Read the interview in full here on the Yorkshire Post website, and here is a snippet:

‘After some frustrating experiences at ‘pay to play’ gigs, where we only got to perform for a three-minute slot sometimes, I took a step back and realised that the only real way to grow your audience is to be truly a part of the community you serve. A band in the unsigned music scene has to support the local community and give something back, you can’t just expect a captive audience to land in your lap and love your music because you do……Happily, I’ve also become friends with many brilliant people through the music scene, and I love being surrounded by artists and inspiring minds. It’s a huge commitment; but totally worth it for the thrill of musical performance.’

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Claire Cameron Blog

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