Ian Campbell
...is a storyteller. And over the course of his 42 years, the folk rock singer-songwriter has certainly developed some stories to share. With the release of his debut album, Ian shares a handful of stories in a raw, stripped down, and expressive set of songs with nothing more than his guitar and his voice. Stories from an Old Set of Strings is due for full release in August of 2023
What inspired you to pursue music and what motivates you to create?
I’ve wanted to pursue music since I was a kid. I still remember walking around video rental stores when I was like 5 years old singing and hoping that some random record exec would happen to be there and “discover” me. I figured it worked for Elvis, so maybe it would work for me!
I had a brief stint with an entertainment company out of Rochester, NY (my home town) when I was in my 20s, but it flamed out pretty quickly. In the time between, I started a business and was working in the world of marketing for a long time, but was never really happy doing it - I was always looking for something else to fill that creative need.
When I found out that my wife was pregnant with our son I realized that, if I was going to teach him that he could be successful in pursuing a career in anything that he wanted to do, I’d better be “walking the walk” and showing him that I really believed that. And that was the realization that made my decide to start moving toward a full time career as a musician and to start releasing music again.
And, when I think about it, that’s what inspires me to create as well.
Your latest release, “2 AM”, is a captivating and irresistible song that showcases your talent and style. What sparked your creativity and what do you hope to communicate to your listeners through this song?
2 AM is a special song for me. It was the first song that I wrote as a serious songwriter. I’d written one song before then in high school, but it was lost to the annals of the school corridors.
When I wrote it, I was a bit lost. I had just broken up with a girlfriend, was going out a lot, and just feeling a bit aimless. I remember walking home from the bar one night and thinking that I needed more in my life and that I was tired of these 2 AM journeys home. And that was the start of the song.
2 AM is really a story of a time in my life (one of many) that I realized that I needed to start working toward something bigger. And that I needed to start making better decisions about what was happening at 2 AM :).
“2 AM” is also the first single of your debut album, which promises to be a musical journey full of surprises and emotions. What can we expect from your album?
I’m really excited about this album. It’s called “Stories from an Old Set of Strings”, and it's the first record that I’ve released since the days when the only way to release music was to burn it to CD (about 15 years ago). I ended up turning this album into a musical storytelling of some of the highlights of the past 15 or so years. It includes songs that I wrote as far back as 2005 (like 2 AM), and songs that I wrote as recently as this past February. This one is all acoustic - just two guitar parts - and my vocals. There’s one song on the album that I wrote for my son, so I had my wife sing the backing vocals for it. It’s stripped back and raw, and I’m excited that this gets to be the way that I introduce myself to the world.
Making an album is a massive endeavor that requires time, effort, and vision. How long did it take to finish it and how did you select the songs that fit your vision?
Once I figured out the production direction that I was going to take on this album, it moved pretty quickly. Choosing the songs that fit, however, was a bit of a challenge. There were songs that I wrote that I loved, but didn’t make this album. At the end of the day, my goal was to use the songs to tell the stories of the past 15 or so years of my life, so I had to make sure that all of the songs that I chose fit that goal, and I think that, along with some assistance from my assistant and my wife, we did a good job choosing those songs.
As a singer/songwriter and storyteller, you draw inspiration from various sources and experiences. What are some of the influences that shape your music and your stories?
Well, more recently, my wife and son have been a massive influence in the songs that I’ve been writing. Two of the songs on this record are written directly about them, and there are a couple more that are heavily informed by my relationship with my wife.
Others are derived from the experiences that I’ve had in my life that shaped me over the years. One of my favorite things about songwriting is that I get to revisit and reconnect with my past at various stages and more fully process some of my experiences in ways that I wasn’t able to at the time they happened.
Being an independent artist has its advantages and disadvantages. What are some of the benefits and challenges that you face as an independent artist?
The benefits of being an independent artist are great - I get to be entirely my own creative influence. It’s nice to be able to look at these songs and not have to process them through a label filter as to what can be “a hit”. That said, it’s always a challenge to not have to answer to anybody because it’s really easy to lose focus and direction. Those are just a couple, there are plenty more on both sides that I’m sure I could think of, but at the end of the day, I think that the benefits of being independent definitely outweigh the challenges.
What are some of the projects or plans that you have in mind for the near future?
Well, there’s a lot in the works right now. The full record comes out in August, and there will be some promo around that for the next few months. My wife and I are expecting our second child at the end of September. And I’m thinking about doing some full band recordings of some of these songs to release next year. Plus I’ll be doing a lot of planning for the summer festival season in 2024. Other than that, I’m already working on some of the songs for my next record and will probably see that come together toward the end of 2024.
So the next couple years are already pretty stacked up with plans, but it should be a pretty fun ride!
