CAMPBELL MAKES HONEST LIVING IN THEATRE AND MUSIC
Montreal is a hub for creative innovators, entrepreneurs and artists. In this column, Brendan Kelly offers a snapshot of individuals pushing the boundaries of their field and how they’ve become successful financially in their chosen domain.
Name: Torquil Campbell Occupation: Singer-songwriter with Stars; actor, playwright Length of career: 19 years Savings: Yes
Assets: Second-hand 2010 Mercedes B 200
Torquil Campbell knows all about how hard it is to be compensated for creative work in the digital age. He is co-lead singer of the Montreal alt-rock band Stars, who have fans around the globe, and he’s also done very well with True Crime, the play he created and stars in, which is on at the Centaur Theatre through Jan. 27.
So he’s doing better than most indie artists. But he says his career peaked financially when he was still in grade school.
“I was a child actor,” Campbell said in a recent interview at a downtown hotel. “The year that I earned the most money in my life to this day was when I was 10 years old. I was the star of a Hollywood film (The Golden Seal) and I made more money that year than I’ve ever made in my life. Peaked at 10. I’ve been working and earning money since I was eight and I think that’s part of my economic tragedy. That I learned how to handle money as a child and I still handle money like a child.”
He comes from a theatre family. His dad was the noted Glasgow-born Canadian actor Douglas Campbell, who died in Montreal in 2009. His mother, Moira Wylie, is also an actor.
“I think that really, man, when I started doing it, it was to be with my parents,” said Campbell. “And to please people. That’s the unhealthy thing about getting your kid into art. You shouldn’t do art to please people and I continue to struggle with that.”
That’s one of the themes of True Crime, a one-man show about his obsession with the American con man and convicted murderer Christian Gerhartsreiter.
Campbell started making music in New York City when he was 20, with Jimmy Shaw, who would later found Metric, and Chris Seligman from Stars.
“We didn’t get a record out as Stars ’til I was 27 and we didn’t make a living at it ’til I was 32,” said Campbell. “Everybody was still working at coffee shops or selling weed or whatever. We didn’t really make a living at it until Set Yourself on Fire came out in 2004. We might’ve been getting a little money from Stars but we had to have other jobs. I was still acting. Patty (McGee) was doing all kinds of stuff. Amy (Millan) was working at a coffee shop. Seligman never really had another job. He just didn’t eat. He would sit still and wait.”
Campbell’s sideline was working as an actor, “just barely” making a living is how he puts it. He worked in New York, mostly in theatre, doing Shakespeare in the Park and a long stint in the hit Shopping and F---ing, starring alongside Philip Seymour Hoffman. He also had small parts in Law & Order, Law & Order: SVU, and Sex and the City.
Stars had a gold record with Set Yourself on Fire, signifying sales of 50,000 units in Canada, more than 200,000 copies in the U.S. Now almost no band in Canada sells that amount of albums because so few people buy music in this streaming universe.
It was also the moment when media across the globe, including Spin and the New York Times, were proclaiming Montreal as the worldwide centre for cool indie rock. That hype was largely fuelled by Arcade Fire.
“We pierced through the wall between struggling and being OK,” said Campbell, who lived in Montreal for several years but now calls Vancouver home. “And that is a hard wall to pierce. We got very, very lucky. We rode other people’s coattails, basically.”
Around 2010, Campbell and his bandmates, and every musician on the planet, noticed they were selling fewer albums. He says around 2007, 30 per cent of Stars’ income came from record sales. He figures today that number is somewhere around five per cent and the other revenue comes from “touring, touring and touring.” There’s also the revenue generated from licensing their songs and merchandise.
“We’re in quite a handbasket,” Campbell said. “We’ll see what happens.”
That said, Stars have fans all over the world. He estimates around half a million people around the globe are “lifers” — faithful Stars supporters.
He dropped out of the theatre world when Stars were taking off, but he’s back with True Crime, a show he created with Chris Abraham from Crow’s Theatre in Toronto. It has played in several cities in Canada and will continue to tour the country this year.
“I have maintained all the ownership of this thing, along with Crow’s, and we produced it together,” said Campbell. “Provided people come to the show, it’s good for me. I’m making good money. I worked on it for four years without being paid and so if you added up all the hours, it would probably be 10 bucks an hour. But for an artist, that’s pretty good money.”
THE PLUG
True Crime is at the Centaur Theatre until Jan. 27. bkelly@postmedia.com Twitter.com/brendanshowbiz