‘Maintaining the momentum’

ROB FIDDAMAN TALKS TO A LOCAL INDIE ROCK AND ROLL BAND THAT HAVE THAT EARLY 2000S SOUND WITH A GHOSTLY STORY TO MATCH!

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This week I spoke to Scott Powell, the lead singer with The Camens. So tell me how you’d describe the band?

We are a four piece indie rock ‘n’ roll band called The Camens and we formed back in 2017. We’ve obviously been having to stop-start for the past two years but we’ve done loads in the past. In 2020 we put two singles out then covid came along and we had to slam on the brakes. It’s now just a case of maintaining momentum this year. We’ve just released our ninth single ‘Poltergeist’.

Who is the main songwriter?

I am. I put a rough guitar or piano scratch demo together and then we’ll sit around and take it from there basically.

Tell us about your latest single ‘Poltergeist’

It came out last Friday and it’s on all major streaming platforms. I was watching horror films at Halloween around 2019/2020. I was looking for a different narrative to pop songs and wanted something like a ghost story. I came up with a rough idea about a guy driving home to see his girlfriend and was texting her when he crashes his car and dies at the scene. His spirit then lives on as a poltergeist and starts to haunt her.

What has the response been to poltergeist so far?

The single reached 4,000 streams on Spotify within two days which is brilliant for us. It also got playlisted and record of the week on XS Radio in Manchester. The song was also added to the Apple playlist, so good times.

Who is your producer?

We work with the excellent Andy Gannon who is also from Stoke-on-trent and is based in Manchester. He has produced all of our singles so far. He has worked with a lot of other artists including Lissy Taylor and All the Young. We recorded the single at Edge studios in Cheshire a while ago and we’ve been sitting on the single until now.

Where do you rehearse?

Well I’m from Meir and the other lads are from Leek so I go over to them to save them all driving to me. We rehearse above the bed shop in Leek so that’s our HQ!

Favourite local artists?

There’s so much local talent from Stokeon-trent at the moment. It’s amazing but I particularly like Darla Jade. She’s an amazing talent - we’ve been working on a collaboration with her also.

Who would you love to support?

There are always two or three different bands we reference. The bands we would throw up have a kind of English Strokes kind of sound and something like the Vaccines. If we could support either of those one day it would be amazing.

What bands have influenced you?

The band Weezer, they had big hits songs like Beverly Hills and Buddy Holly. That band and their songs are always brought up a lot when we are writing and recording so they have been a pretty big influence on us all.

Any festivals you want to play?

We would love to play the big ones like Glastonbury, Reading and Leeds. They would be on most bands’ bucket lists and for a new band like us it would be great just to get out and travel and spread the love after two years of lockdown.

If you had to choose a music genre you’d fit what would it be?

We get told we fit an early 2000s indie band style which we’ll happily take!

Who did the Poltergeist artwork?

So basically that’s a photograph of our practice room and we took the photo then we edited it on photoshop. We were all really happy with it but we really do struggle with getting artwork done but as I say this photo really suited the track.