American Camels - Sordid Country Songs

It seems that the recurring force behind the story of American Camels is the evasion of work. Although, not in the lazy sense. In fact, the bands debut offering the Sordid Country Songs EP is the product of hard, independent work. For UK-based founder and songwriter Tom Milway and engineer/producer James Lutley, the project only really started to flourish when the "shackles of the corporation" as Milway puts it, were firmly buried and banished into the past. "I remember most evenings, coming home from this 9-5 I was doing at the time, and just feeling burned out. The last thing I could do was create anything, other than be pissed off and tired. So, I quit."

The overpowering sense of our need to escape (heard on the pensive "Time" and "Burning Tyres, Flaming Wrecks") meets with the dissolution of relationships and the mortal realisation that we are all as significant as we are insignificant ("Winter on Steel") in a vivid and dramatic fashion across the 7 musically varied songs that form Sordid Country Songs. Depression makes way for hope ("Black Dog In The Room") and decides that today is the day to make that change ("Only Thing That Matters"). These are grand subjects to handle on a debut - especially an EP - but the writing behind American Camels comes from a very personal place and, together with rich instrumental layering, intricate guitar lines and crystalline drums Milway's songs are given energetic vigour. This allows the plaintive but disarming melodies to shine through in a way that will leave these songs stuck in your head for days.

Written, recorded and mixed over the period of a year, the last songs to make it onto the EP were written in San Francisco, California in early 2009 after Milway quit "every conceivable duty and bill" (including the 9-5) and flew the 5,500 miles from his London home to give love a chance; staying with a pretty girl who liked to party hard. Upon his return, he set to work attempting to capture these songs with a laptop and little equipment. Then the song list grew, the envelope was pushed and without the help of best friend, sound engineer and now band-member James Lutley it may never have seen the light of day. Initially meeting during a drunken night in 2003 Milway and Lutley's friendship grew through a shared enthusiasm for the Indie Rock sounds of America's Pacific Northwest, as well as Lutley's skills as a qualified sound engineer and producer. This lead to all other duties being cast by the wayside during the EP sessions as the pair worked tirelessly through late nights across multiple weeks and locations, sleeping on floors to develop the songs into much more than just demos and into the Sordid Country Songs EP. For them this is it. This is the only path to follow. Maybe that's what creates the dark and sordid undercurrent that makes Sordid Country Songs an electrifying prospect; raising all those personal questions we all keep avoiding in life. Along the way, squalid tales are relayed, agonising over our inevitable surrender to life in a stark and vivid manner ("Sordid Country Songs" and "Dead Peoples Furniture") whilst still avoiding gloomy tones through the pretty, understated melodies and pop hooks. The frequent references to trees and countryside aren't inconsequential either: "It’s where I grew up and where I was often wanting to escape back to whilst living in the city. When things weren't going so well I guess I would fantasise about leaving behind the relentless noise, the pollution, the constant illumination, the insecurity of the city and just disappearing."

This is not only music to escape to, but to find yourself moved by. "For me these are songs to instigate that jump of the fence to a better, happier side of life" explains Milway. Whilst the Sordid Country Songs EP may well represent an early collection of recordings made on a shoestring budget, it hints towards a new songwriting talent and an encouraging first step for the band.

Sordid Country Songs will be fully available January 2010: self-written, self-recorded, self-mixed and self-released.

» Download as a PDF file