ALEX CAMERON: Pages Of A Journal Falling From The Sky.
An interview by Sarah Kidd.
Alex Cameron is no stranger to New Zealand audiences, the twenty-nine year old singer-songwriter first introducing himself to the world by masquerading as an aging musician with his debut album entitled Jumping the Shark.
His sophomore album Forced Witness released in 2017 raised the bar, Cameron unpacking the male psyche through stories that were both fascinating and yet at times almost alarming in how they cut down to the bone.
With his latest album Miami Memory, gone are the masks and character studies. Instead Cameron stands before the mirror and examines both himself and his relationship with Girls actress Jemima Kirke; the long-term partnership allowing him to finally be in a place of security where he could compose his first love song. Of course there are also some twists and turns; songs about sex workers and explorations of what life would be should his own relationship fail peppering the record throughout.
It is an album where first-hand experience is dragged into the light and examined with realness, humour and of course a little tongue in cheek.
About to play his headline show at Auckland’s Tuning Fork I caught up with Alex to discuss both the upcoming performance and some of the aspects of Miami Memory that make this one of his most interesting and personal recordings to date….
Miami Memory is an absolutely stunning album, but one of the things that immediately grabbed me when reading some of your comments about it, was in regard to the track ‘Far from Born Again’ where you actually interviewed a sex worker.
This is an interesting process of research for song writing and I wondered have you used this before?
“I don’t think I have. I don’t think I have researched before; I have definitely asked people – you know if I’m like writing a character that has potentially bigoted views – does this feel accurate to you? A lot of people with voices whether it be journalists or people with online presence will present the idea that songs can hurt people and I really don’t believe that.
I don’t believe my songs can hurt people and if they do, I think that all it would take is a degree of understanding and a degree of conscientious research to get a grip on what the songs are about. So I think that I felt compelled to do it when it came to writing about sex workers because, I had the opportunity to do it you know; Jemima [Kirke] my partner was doing a series of paintings on sex workers so we were hanging out with people in the sex work industry just by circumstance.
I knew I was going to write an anthem for sex workers and I had the opportunity; I just wanted to get a grip on what it meant for someone in the sex work industry to be represented in art. In this case it was a woman, she goes by the name Fay and I wanted to know how Fay had been left out by art and by the media in terms of representation of sex workers
So I just wanted to be able to say confidently that I was doing a service to sex workers instead of just using the subject for the sake of using the subject.”
And I so applaud you for that, we here in New Zealand have consistently fought for the rights and recognitions of sex workers.
I also appreciated something else you said that people are more comfortable sending their eighteen year olds to war then seeing them involved in the sex industry. Why do you think we have such distorted views? Why is the sex industry seen as so hideously dirty and criminal? Why is it that we would rather see our kids blown up on a field in a war that we should probably not be involved in in the first place?
“Yeah, it’s a tough one isn’t it? I remember speaking with Fay and she had said ‘It’s not sex work that is the problem, it can be because the workplaces – even if they are supported or sanctioned by regulations and a government or any kind of watchdog – it’s the workplaces that can be bad’.
The sex worker isn’t bad and the person who is using the services, employing the services of a sex worker doesn’t necessarily have to be bad, it can be the workplaces themselves because there aren’t rules and there isn’t societal support for these places. I think that generally there is still a very puritan sort of traditional, Christian, religious outlook that is certainly still in government, in a lot of governments. You know in Australia there is a so called Christian prime minister; America you kind of have to be religious to get into the Whitehouse… you have to say you’re religious to get into the White House.”
Yes, agreed.
“And I think that is an example of ultimately who society trusts. For whatever reason – even though in the last thousand years there is no good reason to trust a religious person to run things – it still seems to be who society trusts generally and I think that there is a lot of shame around sex and sexual identity. I think that it is shame and embarrassment and it’s easier to pretend; I mean if you just say as a person that you disagree with sex work because it’s unsafe and it’s not right, I think that’s more an expression of insecurity with yourself, with your sexuality.”
Agreed!
“I think that the amount that pornography is consumed and used is just statistically so common. It’s certainly been a part of my life for years since I was a teenager and I just felt like ‘How can I sit back and not support this industry?’ Because it has gotten me through some really horny times you know?’”
[chuckles]
“Especially when you’re talking about going into puberty and certainly in life generally. I mean masturbation is like an incredible way to relax, it’s healthy to a certain point.”
Oh of course, very much so!
“But I think that the more we toured through America and Europe – actually what was interesting – before I decided to write this song, before I had the hook, we had more and more sex workers coming to our shows. And for whatever reason they related to the subject matter in the songs on Jumping the Shark and Forced Witness. And so it got to the point where we became friends with a group of sex workers who travel almost as much as we do in their specific line of sex work.
We would see them all over the world and I just became closer and closer with a certain few sex workers that became our friends and I realised that even – because of what they were telling me – when sex workers are in movies or in songs, its generally as a commodity or as items to purchase, not people with lives.
So I just thought it was a great opportunity to write something that not only empowered sex workers but showed them to be real people with real ambition.”
Well again, I absolutely applaud your for it, as that is exactly how they should be seen.
Now obviously this album comes from a very personal place, you’ve stated yourself that it is a love record and obviously Jemima has had a huge effect on that; she is an inspiration and evidently your muse…
To me however there is also an unashamed honesty to the record as well, especially on tracks such as ‘Divorce’; honesty being an important factor in the construction of compositions such as the ones found on Miami Memory?
“I basically made a deal with myself; it’s like ‘Ok, I’ve done character work, now it’s time to see if I can put that same magnifying glass on myself’. The goal was to find aspects of my life and my personality that I also wanted to focus on and get a better understanding of.
You know, I often write about society because I’m just trying to understand it and I’m trying to and hope ideally to leave a little message behind for someone in the future about what it was like to be around back then. In order, honestly, to get better about writing tangents, I thought I would write about myself.”
Did you find it in some ways more difficult?
“I think it was more natural, I think there was kind of like less study involved. The hardest part was getting out of the way; you know I was hitting an obstacle for what it is and finding a way around it, you know? The hardest thing was unblocking myself so that I could be uncensored and not protect myself from things like embarrassment and shame.”
I love the fact that you just said that you put a magnifying glass on yourself; however some of the tracks it does also feel like you are stepping outside of yourself and then viewing how you are reacting in your relationship and the things that are going on around you. You are taking a third person view and then documenting the events.
“That’s interesting. Yeah, I think that’s an interesting take on it. The way I try and relate to people is to put myself in their shoes to try and understand if I have annoyed someone or have angered someone or I’ve hurt someone, I’m trying to get – even if it is just for a moment – an understanding of what it is like to be them.
Or if someone’s hurt me or angered me, I just try – and I think probably the therapy and the counselling kind of taught me this skill – and ask myself ‘Why am I feeling this way? What have I done to that person, or what have they done to me? What is it like to be around me, what is it that I do that hurts other people, or what is it that they do that hurts me?’
It’s a weird thing to say that I have to put myself in my own shoes, but there definitely was an element of watching the tapes from other people’s perspective in situations that involved me. Kinda strange but I suppose that is what went on in my mind at certain points.”
I actually think it is so incredibly healthy! Especially as a man – I know that you have many views on modern masculinity – but I think it is something that a lot more men need to learn how to do and that is to actually look at how they may have hurt people, or how people may have hurt them. And just cracking that open, rather than just putting up a wall and going straight into defence mode which unfortunately in some cases can devolve into violence.
“Yeah absolutely! I think that I am at my most intelligent when I experience an instinctual reaction, but instead of stopping there I then explore why I had that response. I mean that is how you sustain relationships and friendships and that’s how you create stronger bonds with people. It’s like getting an understanding of your own behaviour and the behaviour of the people around you.
I think if you are in it for the long haul with someone then you should absolutely be trying to; instead of just always responding you should be reflecting. And hopefully getting some understanding and getting some kind of empathy going, even if it is a small amount. Or you’ll just become fully isolated within yourself and having to find new friends or new partners or a new society, new communities. I would rather build a healthy community and sustain it than be constantly finding new ones because I worry about not growing and not getting a better understanding of who I am.
I don’t want to be stunted, I want to with each year really know more about myself and the people around me!”
I love that and I agree that in relationships, including long term ones you need to constantly work on things and evolve as a human being. Especially when it comes to blended families etc.
“It’s interesting that you say that, because the other part of the record Miami Memory was in my mind…
If we’re going to get real for a second, divorce and families having multiple sets of parents is becoming more and more common because often a person’s first marriage isn’t the right one, and so we are having this new type of family and I just wanted to expand upon this theme of new families and the new family structure that is becoming more common.
I just wanted to give the step-parent figure three dimensions as opposed to just… I just feel like step-parents in culture and art hasn’t really progressed beyond ‘You’re not my real dad!’ – that is the only real statement that I’ve heard properly. And so I was like let’s fucking add something to this story a little bit with my experience.”
In one review I read of the album there was a line that I absolutely loved. They said, ‘this album is like meeting Alex Cameron for the first time’ and I thought what a wonderful perspective.
Do you feel like this album is a chance for your fans to meet the real you?
“I think that’s a pretty fair assessment yeah. I definitely try in moments; in many ways people are still only looking through the keyhole, but what they are seeing inside the room is extremely personal and exciting.
There’s depictions of sex acts and there’s examples of emotional argument, you know it’s also pretty crystal clear in some moments the idea of where my politics stand.
They didn’t find the whole journal, but a few pages rained down from the sky. They’re piecing it together; they’re getting to read excerpts from my journal in some ways so yeah I’m glad that people are feeling connected to me personally through it because it is certainly a personal record.”
I have certainly heard some rather exciting feedback about your latest shows Alex, what can your kiwi fans expect?
“We’re bringing the band that we have been playing with for the past five months, it’s red hot, it’s by far and away the best concert we’ve ever put on. We’re doing songs from every record. New Zealand has been so kind to us; we’re gonna be setting that room at a real nice temperature and we’re gonna be sweatin and dancing.
I want people to bring their dancing shoes and I want people to move and feel good because that’s how we feel!”
Alex Cameron performed at The Tuning Fork in Auckland on the 14th March 2020. You can read our full review and view our gallery here.
![Miami Memory [CD]](https://i0.wp.com/www.ambientlightblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/MightyApeAlexCameron.jpg?w=372&ssl=1)
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