Interview with Saint Raymond
“I'm looking forward to that show a lot. It's going to be the last show of tour so by then I'll be in the full swing of things.”
Musical prodigies are rare. Being 19 and having a state-of-the-art music career is a thing most youngsters can only dream of. Some of them are living this through reality though. I recon you’ve all heard of the Nottingham wonder Jake Bugg, the world-famous 20 year old singer-song writer. What many of you don’t know, is that Nottinghams fine music scene has produced another young talent lately. Coming to the scene: Callum Burrows, aka Saint Raymond. Genius solo singer with supporting acts of Bruce Springsteen and HAIM on his resume.
Perhaps we owe the guy an excuse. He gets compared to Jake Bugg at least once in every article about him. Not so surprisingly though, since his success story makes everyone think about his colleague. Then again, they don’t sound alike. They don’t even look alike. The only thing they have in common is their hometown, Nottingham. “Nottingham is definitely making a name for itself. The scene is healthy and there are a lot of venues and gigs for people to attend and play at”, Callum states. Of course he’s the one to tell us all about the music scene in Nottingham. Actually, it’s quite curious he ended up there since he originally wanted to be a hairdresser. “I was kind of at a loose end after school”, he says “I tried college but didn't enjoy it, and just was gigging a lot. A few things got picked up that I had done online and it went from there really!”
And look where it got him. He supported HAIM and Bruce Springsteen lately and is about to publish his debut LP below major label Asylum, home to Ed Sheeran and Rudimental among other big names. “Asylum just really excited me when I sat down to meet them and I'm really glad I chose to sign with them”, he explains. “They brought up the idea to support HAIM. It was something I wanted to do big time as those girls are incredible. It was an amazing tour and those girls are the nicest girls going.” Now that he’s settled again and doesn’t have to worry about an international tour going on, he can focus himself again on his personal project: assembling his debut LP. “I’m in the process of that at the moment. I've been writing it for a while now and it's a case of me further developing the sound from the two EPs. So the EPs are just a glimpse of what to expect from the album, I hope people hear and feel good, that's the plan.” These EP’s, Young Blood and Escapade, prove what Saint Raymond is all about: creating sensitive pop music, accompanied by lyrical poetry.
Creating this unique sound is not an easy thing though. “You have to know Saint Raymond is a solo project. I've been writing these songs for a couple of years and gigging acoustically for that long so it just makes sense to use session musicians for live gigs although they're more people I know.” It was obvious Saint Raymond had to do more than just acoustic gigs after his song Young Bloods was proclaimed as ‘Hottest record of the year’ in Zane Lowe’s BBC 1 radio show. “This was a big thing for me, there's been so many artists and bands I've discovered from Zane's show so it was a big thing for me personally too”, Callum explains. “Then again, music is based on personal preference and I make music for the people who like it and I'd never take it personally towards those journalists that don’t.”
Journalists to promote or destroy your music are one thing. Self-promoting them is something different, as is proven by Saint Raymond’s very active Twitter account. “I think the way it works now is that for a lot of musicians it helps to be on social medias engaging with fans or even other musicians just to help people see what you're doing, especially now the world is so dependent on social medias”. Social media has even showed to be a great career incubator to Cullum since rapper Example stated on Twitter that he’d love to write with him. “We went in the studio a couple of weeks ago to do some writing which was great”, he states. Keep an eye open for this, something will come out of it.
So, here he is, a 19 year old, proven to have a musical talent and being picked up by the music industry in a fast pace. “It's been a crazy couple of years for me but one thing I've done that's helped is not moved away from home which helps just to go back to Nottingham and hang around with friends and family and get away from it all.” Now he’ll just have to leave home once again to come and play at Norwich Arts Centre at 31 March. “I'm looking forward to that show a lot. It's going to be the last show of tour so by then I'll be in the full swing of things.” Let’s hope he lives up to that promise. We’re definitely ready for it. Are you?
Musical prodigies are rare. Being 19 and having a state-of-the-art music career is a thing most youngsters can only dream of. Some of them are living this through reality though. I recon you’ve all heard of the Nottingham wonder Jake Bugg, the world-famous 20 year old singer-song writer. What many of you don’t know, is that Nottinghams fine music scene has produced another young talent lately. Coming to the scene: Callum Burrows, aka Saint Raymond. Genius solo singer with supporting acts of Bruce Springsteen and HAIM on his resume.
Perhaps we owe the guy an excuse. He gets compared to Jake Bugg at least once in every article about him. Not so surprisingly though, since his success story makes everyone think about his colleague. Then again, they don’t sound alike. They don’t even look alike. The only thing they have in common is their hometown, Nottingham. “Nottingham is definitely making a name for itself. The scene is healthy and there are a lot of venues and gigs for people to attend and play at”, Callum states. Of course he’s the one to tell us all about the music scene in Nottingham. Actually, it’s quite curious he ended up there since he originally wanted to be a hairdresser. “I was kind of at a loose end after school”, he says “I tried college but didn't enjoy it, and just was gigging a lot. A few things got picked up that I had done online and it went from there really!”
And look where it got him. He supported HAIM and Bruce Springsteen lately and is about to publish his debut LP below major label Asylum, home to Ed Sheeran and Rudimental among other big names. “Asylum just really excited me when I sat down to meet them and I'm really glad I chose to sign with them”, he explains. “They brought up the idea to support HAIM. It was something I wanted to do big time as those girls are incredible. It was an amazing tour and those girls are the nicest girls going.” Now that he’s settled again and doesn’t have to worry about an international tour going on, he can focus himself again on his personal project: assembling his debut LP. “I’m in the process of that at the moment. I've been writing it for a while now and it's a case of me further developing the sound from the two EPs. So the EPs are just a glimpse of what to expect from the album, I hope people hear and feel good, that's the plan.” These EP’s, Young Blood and Escapade, prove what Saint Raymond is all about: creating sensitive pop music, accompanied by lyrical poetry.
Creating this unique sound is not an easy thing though. “You have to know Saint Raymond is a solo project. I've been writing these songs for a couple of years and gigging acoustically for that long so it just makes sense to use session musicians for live gigs although they're more people I know.” It was obvious Saint Raymond had to do more than just acoustic gigs after his song Young Bloods was proclaimed as ‘Hottest record of the year’ in Zane Lowe’s BBC 1 radio show. “This was a big thing for me, there's been so many artists and bands I've discovered from Zane's show so it was a big thing for me personally too”, Callum explains. “Then again, music is based on personal preference and I make music for the people who like it and I'd never take it personally towards those journalists that don’t.”
Journalists to promote or destroy your music are one thing. Self-promoting them is something different, as is proven by Saint Raymond’s very active Twitter account. “I think the way it works now is that for a lot of musicians it helps to be on social medias engaging with fans or even other musicians just to help people see what you're doing, especially now the world is so dependent on social medias”. Social media has even showed to be a great career incubator to Cullum since rapper Example stated on Twitter that he’d love to write with him. “We went in the studio a couple of weeks ago to do some writing which was great”, he states. Keep an eye open for this, something will come out of it.
So, here he is, a 19 year old, proven to have a musical talent and being picked up by the music industry in a fast pace. “It's been a crazy couple of years for me but one thing I've done that's helped is not moved away from home which helps just to go back to Nottingham and hang around with friends and family and get away from it all.” Now he’ll just have to leave home once again to come and play at Norwich Arts Centre at 31 March. “I'm looking forward to that show a lot. It's going to be the last show of tour so by then I'll be in the full swing of things.” Let’s hope he lives up to that promise. We’re definitely ready for it. Are you?
