Hello, I’m Steven Cowley, aka Camp America. I make electronic pop music and I do remixes for other artists.
Here is some blurb about me…
Join a band. Believe you’re the next big thing. Get disillusioned when nothing happens. Repeat.
Do whatever it takes to fund the cycle – in this case though, we’re not talking about dealing or pimping. More like TV gameshows and medical trials. The low point was probably composing mobile phone ringtones for the people responsible for elvismobile.com. Despite multiple tours, radio sessions for LA’s KCRW and BBC Radio 2, even a private showcase for Rick Rubin in LA, none of these bands made the grade.
But that’s all in the past.
Steven Cowley’s youth was spent coaxing sounds from the family Atari. Then came the afore-mentioned ill-fated bands. It was only after he purchased a computer of his own and started experimenting that things started coming together. Throwing whatever he could find into the mix – charity shop keyboards, borrowed guitars, vinyl found lying in the street – Camp America came to life as a one-man laptop project.
Cheap-hop, lap-pop, beep-bop… Whatever it is, the sound of Camp America was made public with the release of the Camp America EP in early 2008, featuring vocals on one track by Joel Pott from Athlete. Other collaborations are in the works, and new material will be available during 2011.
As well as the original songs, the Camp America remix style has caught the attention of bands far and wide, with recent remixes commissioned by Bloc Party (Wichita/Atlantic), Athlete (Parlophone/EMI), You Say Party! (Paper Bag/Fierce Panda/PIAS), Andy Hunter (Nettwerk) and unsigned buzz bands such as Hollywood Kill (Los Angeles), Atlum Schema (UK), The Framework (Toronto) and Helicopters (Chicago). Remixes have been featured on www.stereogum.com and www.rcrdlbl.com
