One of Scotland’s most accomplished singer-songwriters is releasing his first solo track in more than two years.
Willie Campbell, the former co-frontman of Scottish band Astrid and a core member of Gary Lightbody’s supergroup The Reindeer Section, will release his new single Holiday From Myself on March 20.
While both the music and the man have matured since those giddy post-Britpop years and turn-of-the-century adventures, Campbell’s fresh storytelling remains firmly intact with his latest radio-ready release.
Holiday From Myself explores themes of overthinking, navigating the push and pull of the heart and mind, and questioning the idea of success and ambition.
Campbell said:
“There’s a lot of noise in your own head if you let it in.
“Instead of a still small voice, it can grow and feel like an argumentative bastard, not saying very nice things to you or about your choices.
“Holiday From Myself is about trying to quieten the inner dialogue.
“The song is about giving yourself a break from that.
“I think a lot of people struggle with it.
“It’s also about missing somebody, in the sweeter sense of the word. Not because anything’s wrong, but because you feel the accumulation of time apart.”
His musical career has taken him far beyond his beloved Isle of Lewis roots.
Alongside touring widely in the UK and Europe, he previously honed his songwriting in Nashville and was signed by label Big Loud publishing.
Campbell is currently recording with his band The Tumbling Souls ahead of their forthcoming new album, summer festivals, and newly announced date at McChuill’s in Glasgow on November 13, along with developing his pioneering songwriting project The Recovery Sessions.
He writes, composes and produces on other projects too, and last year was inducted into the HebCelt Festival Hall of Fame.
He is also part of the all-star ensemble behind the acclaimed stage production Metagama: An Atlantic Odyssey, originally involved in its co-writing with DS Murray, which is preparing for another leg of its UK tour.
Releasing Holiday From Myself opens up a more personal creative space for him.
He said:
“I’ve had my loyalties tied up with The Tumbling Souls over the past while getting our new album ready, so I haven’t had much chance to work on my own tracks.
“It just feels the right time to start putting some of that out again.
“I had an early brush with perceived success when I was younger, that created a lot of upheaval mentally, I suppose.
“Ever since there’s always been that nagging thing that gets tangled up with your good motives for making music.
“The second bit of the line in the new song is ‘enchanted by the lie’.
“It’s enchanted by the illusion of perceived success, which doesn’t really equate to very much in the end.
“There’s a lot of things I need to make peace with.
“It’s trying to find the balance between the things you need to accept: what’s ambition, what’s healthy and what’s good.”
He added:
“Being a songwriter and musician can completely consume your life in good and bad ways, a bit of an obsession to be truthful. But the most important and best things that have happened to me have been unrelated to music.”
While his return may feel overdue for fans, Campbell says there is more new music on the way including some potentially surprising new directions.
“I’ve pretty much got a drum loop for this single.
“The next one sounds a bit like Bruce Springsteen.
“I’ve got a dance track and some folk songs, so it’s a real hodgepodge of stuff,” he said.
“I think I just have to follow my instinct, and try not to feel like a fraud.”
Holiday From Myself is released on March 20 on Invisible King Records
