Camille Bloom Talks New Album
By Kim Ruehl Thursday, June 12th, 2008 @ 11:26 AM
Seattle Sound Magazine
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A few years back, local singer-songwriter Camille Bloom quit her full-time teaching gig and threw all her energy into her songwriting career. She even clipped her horoscope out of The Stranger, which told her she'd be on a new journey for the next 8-10 years. Now, six years into that journey, she's ready to release her third record--a live disc recorded at Columbia City Theater, called 10,000 Miles. The record does an exquisite job of capturing Bloom's live energy, while also presenting some of her more moving material yet. She's also gearing up for another tour, which will take her to Europe for the first time. There, she'll spend five weeks sharing gigs with fellow Seattleite Carrie Clark. But first, she has to get through two CD release performances: June 20 at Jazzbones in Tacoma, and the following night at the Tractor with opener Ian McFeron. We caught up with Bloom for a quick Q&A about the new album and its accompanying DVD, and info about what this dynamic singer-songwriter has in store.

SEATTLE SOUND: Had you initially intended to make this a record, rather than just recording for your own [show-recording collection]?

CAMILLE BLOOM: The idea was, how can I not be so broke all the time? There were two things behind it. One, I was in a lot of debt from pursuing my music full time. Recording the last album was really expensive, and so I thought if we can record a live show, it's going to save us all this money. The other part of it was that I wanted to shoot a DVD at the same time because I wanted to do something different, add new media. I've never done a DVD before. I just thought some cameramen would come in and shoot it. I didn't really think much about it. But, in the end, I'm not sure that it saved me a lot of money, and it was a lot of pressure to do it in one recording. There were 30 crew people there working on everything, but I was the only go-to [person]. It took me three songs in to realize, "We're recording the album right now! We're recording!" [laughs]

SS: So if you screwed anything up, it's on there forever.

CB: Yeah, in fact it is. It's pretty funny. When people record an album live, they can usually go back and fix things in the studio. But when you record an album and a DVD live, [you can't] change things in the studio. I screwed up lyrics, I can't tell you how many times.

In the first song, the first and second chorus are supposed to read "10,000 miles to nowhere," and the third chorus is supposed to be "10,000 miles to empty." Well, I messed that up. I thought I could fix that if there hadn't been a camera in my face watching me sing "10,000 miles to nowhere." [laughs] So there were some things I just had to live with. But, in the end, it made me let go of a lot of things...It's hard for me to [do] that. I was pretty devastated when I heard it the first time at the mixing studio. I thought I can't put this out, I can't do this. I almost canceled the whole recording. And then I just had to go, "You know what, people aren't perfect and you can't expect to sound perfect all the time." It may not be the pop-friendly version that some radio or some movie's going to pick up, but this is real, it has live energy. You just have to let it go, so I did.

SS: When you're out on the road, do you feel like you're representing Seattle? Do you feel like there is a Seattle songwriting scene and you're a part of it?

CB: I'd like to think I'm a part of it. There are so many niches. There's a very bluegrassy niche, a very strong folk group, a lot of indie alt-country groups, and I've been trying to figure out where I fit in. I've been a part of a lot of songwriters' groups. I love community and I feel like some people tend to be really competitive, not wanting to share their contacts and things.

I just went to breakfast with Adrianne the other day. She and I have played a lot together. We're sharing info. When you're really out there and hitting it on tour, you need every ounce of swapping that you can get. There's no reason for me to spend six hours finding all the media outlets in Ithaca, or wherever, when I know people there who can help me out. I think the people who tend to be just focused on Seattle tend to be a little more competitive, because it's all right here [for them]; whereas, when you're really touring nationally, you end up finding a network of people that are typically more into sharing, because they know how hard you're working to do what you're doing.

I used to really want to be in the folk scene, and I still do. My heart is with folk, but I'm not a folk artist. I sat down with Kym Tuvim two years ago, we were playing songs together, and she said to me, "You're rock. You're a rock musician, do you know that? Because you're not folk." I was heartbroken. At first I was kind of insulted. Not upset with her, but just kind of like, "Really? I'm rock?" But I've started to embrace it a little bit more. And I haven't found a lot of girls in the rock scene here, so I end up double-booking with guys; unless I'm playing acoustic, then we can kind of fudge things. I guess I'm looking for that rock [community]. The closest I can think of is Carrie Akre. I think that would be the vein, if there were a community of those types of chicks--or guys, I don't care. I think there's great music coming from Seattle right now, though, and I'm excited to be a part of that. I'm proud of Seattle for what it is.

SS: Are you doing festivals this summer? After this comes out, will you be hitting the road?

CB: I'm actually focused on the two releases here in the next couple of weeks. After that, I decided I'm not going to tour in the summer. I toured for two summers and I found that I don't want to be inside when it's nice out, and neither does anybody else. I've found that touring venues in the summer isn't always fruitful. I'm going to stay home, promote, start booking my tours through the rest of 2008, start getting the spring [of 2009] geared up, and just do festivals on the weekends.

I did Folklife. I'll be doing the CD releases and then Bellevue Street Fair. I'm playing the Bite [of Seattle] this year, which we didn't play for a couple of years because I had paying offers and had to take those. And then, we're playing a bunch of wineries. I'm doing a Spokane and Missoula CD release this summer. Then I'm getting geared up for fall. I leave in September, doing a Western US tour for the whole second half of September. Then--get ready--I'm home for two days before I leave for Europe for five and a half weeks.

SS: So, since you're going to Europe, are you distributing this album worldwide?

CB: I have not shopped for distribution, and that's something I'm trying to work on--my business sense. I'm trying to work smarter, not harder. Right now I'm doing everything myself,...but I'd totally be up for some assistance. I feel like you can have distribution, but if you don't have a promotion company working for you, the distribution is pointless. I'm not actively looking, because I'm so busy doing the day to day. That's what happens. You just work so hard to book your tour, promote it. Routing it takes forever for me, because you really can make mistakes in routing. Booking it, promoting it, and then actually playing it, and [then try to] have time to write music and plan my next tour...

SS: As somebody who does all of that yourself, how do you feel about people getting free downloads?

CB: I'm so mixed about it. On one hand, I used to be all for anyone sharing my music...but my livelihood is made from people downloading and buying my record. So on one hand, I'm really excited that people want to share my music. I encourage people to make a mix and put some of my songs on it. Or, if you want to burn it and send it to someone who could help my career, that's awesome. But if you're really just burning it to save all your friends the money--unless they're struggling musicians--I have a hard time with that. But, it's hard. I see some advantage to having people be able to share music that way. Then sometimes it's a disadvantage, and that's called credit card debt. [laughs]

SS: There definitely are pros and cons, especially now that anybody can make a record.

CB: That's another interesting issue. It used to be so amazing to have an album. And now, anyone who wants to can have a studio in their house, they can make an album, sell it on CD Baby and make a website. As much as media has really helped our careers, it's also created this muddy plane where anyone and everyone can have an album. I think you constantly have to step it up. That's why I have the DVD. I got underwear as merch, because I thought it'd be something different; but then several other people started doing underwear. So I thought, I'll do something more different. I'm constantly trying to stay ahead of this mass of people who are pursuing it. I don't begrudge them at all, I'm so excited that people can do that, but it's even harder to set yourself apart.

SS: How do you set yourself apart, though, without it becoming a schtick?

CB: Right. I found when I first started touring that I didn't have time to focus on Seattle at all, because I was so focused on other things. I came back and had to start all over. The clubs didn't even remember who I was. They switched bookers and suddenly they're saying you should play here on a Monday, and I'm like woah I did that five years ago. You have to really keep in touch with your community. I came back and realized I can't lose this. This is a really huge part of what I do. This is a really supportive community for me. I can't forget about that.

I put my feelers out and I joined some songwriting groups and went to meetings. I think it's really important to stay rooted. I was just floating around and, granted, it was because I was busy, not because I was too good, or something. I was just overwhelmed. But now I see the importance of continuing to keep in touch with this community.