Biography
CAMERA OBSCURA being a part of this movie is even more interesting to us if we note the background of the movie's Music Supervisor: Liz Gallacher won a Brit Award for her job in "The Full Monty", and was shortlisted for Film Music in 2003's NME Awards for her job in "24 Hour Party People", as well as having worked with such directors as Atom Egoyan, Michael Winterbottom or Istvan Szabo.
The movie's good taste in music (noticeable from its very title, which takes the first line from "Happy together", the beautiful song by THE TURTLES which was also used by Wong Kar-Wai), is confirmed with the recent news that its director and writer (Ol Parker, who has also written a forthcoming movie script for Jonathan Demme) has just written the script for "Crosstown Traffic", the forthcoming Jimi Hendrix biopic.
In March, the band visits the USA for three live shows. The most important being undoubtedly their slot at the South By Southwest (SXSW) media and industry meeting in Austin, Texas. But they also play NYC's Knitting Factory, as well as Chapel Hill, North Carolina; the city where their American label Merge Records is based. On both these shows they're supported by Maria Taylor.
In May comes out "Lloyd, I'm ready to be heartbroken", first single taken from the band's new album. "Let's get out of this country" -title of this third album- was recorded and mixed in several studios in Sweden (studios that have been previously used for recordings by THE MAGIC NUMBERS, Neneh Cherry or even Per Gessleari from ROXETTE), and produced by Jarl Haapalainen, producer behind such gems as THE CONCRETES or Ed Harcourt. The string arrangements are provided by Bjorn Yttling, from infamous trio Peter, Bjorn & John. On this album, which comes out in June, CAMERA OBSCURA teach us all a lesson on classic, timeless pop with drops of country and soul here and there, featuring ten instant classics where Tracyanne Campbell's beautiful voice is wrapped in majestic and exquisitely arranged string arrangements (for which they had string musicians that have been in recent tours with Brian Wilson or Arthur Lee & LOVE).
This single's video was directed by Domingo González, the director behind the videos by Elefant Records' act LA CASA AZUL, as well as director of the celebrated short film "Las Superamigas contra el Profesor Vinilo" (you can know more about it on its website www.lassuperamigas.com). For this new video of CAMERA OBSCURA, Domingo González paid a tribute to the choreographies we can find in the best classic cinema, and he joined it with a constant bombing of retrofuturistic pop images: from the neons in Shibuya to the fabrics, dresses and furniture that reflect the glossy universe that all pop music lovers dream about, the same universe we endorse at Elefant Records.
By mid-year, in less than six months online, CAMERA OBSCURA's page on Myspace.com got over 90.000 visits to the site, and more than 350.000 plays of the songs they uploaded on the website. Special mention here to their single "Lloyd, I'm ready to be heartbroken", which in a few weeks got more than 145.000 plays.
Prove of this success among the internet crowd is that CAMERA OBSCURA were selected in June to appear as the recommended artist in the Myspace.com homepage (a big honour, if we consider there's a few million artists pages on Myspace).
In May and June, the band embarks on a successful UK tour, and during the whole month of July they tour the USA and Canada, coast to coast, on a 22-date tour which starts in Toronto on the 4th of July and ends in Cincinatti on July 30th.
English music mag Q Magazine reaches in their August issue the mag's 20th anniversary, and as part of its ongoing celebrations they release a cover-mount CD compilation paying homage to the decade the magazine was launched: the 80's. The CD, which comes out on sale with the magazine on June 30th, features fifteen cover versions of classic eighties tracks by some of the most interesting current artists: PLACEBO covering Kate Bush, THE FUTUREHEADS tackling David Bowie, Katie Melua taking on THE CURE, ORSON covering HALL&OATES... Among all these names, and showing the place of privilege the band is achieving on top of the international pop community, CAMERA OBSCURA included their own, newly recorded cover version of Sheena Easton's "Modern girl".
In September the band releases "Let's get out of this country", the second single taken from the album of the same title. It also comes with an excellent videoclip. A precious melody dressed with violins and melancholy, where Blair Young (on his best work yet - and that's a lot to say when we're talking about the director of all the videos by CAMERA OBSCURA, plus many other Scottish acts like TEENAGE FANCLUB, SONS AND DAUGHTERS or BELLE AND SEBASTIAN) shows the band lazily going through their repertoire in a living room rehearsal, matching perfectly the feelings of boredom and need to escape from routine that we find in the song's lyrics. An evocative video with a deliciously mellow atmosphere, giving even more charm and emotional impact to an already outstanding song.
On September 16th the band played the eleventh edition of the Lemon Pop Festival in Murcia, where they shared the stage with THE REZILLOS, TENDER FOREVER, SCARLET'S WELL or THE FRANK AND WALTERS. The show was aired live nationwide in Spain through RNE-Radio 3.
It's clear: the music by CAMERA OBSCURA is perfect to go along with the footage of the best TV series. In the fourth chapter of the third season of "Grey's Anatomy", the two first minutes of the opening credits are soundtracked by CAMERA OBSCURA's song "If looks could kill".
At the end of the fifth episode in the new NBC series "Friday Night Lights" you can hear another song by CAMERA OBSCURA: "Let's get out of this country", almost the whole track!
And also "Lloyd, I'm ready to be heartbroken" has its television minutes in the opening sequence in one of the chapters of Channel 4's "Hollyoaks": a soap opera for younger people, with more than twelve years in Britain and a weekly average of three-million viewers.
Since "Let's get out of this country" came out, the band has been touring the world and playing its songs live: concerts all over Britain, North America from coast to coast, Sweden, Germany, the Netherlands... And finally Spain, with fourteen packed venues between November 16th and December 16th.
In Madrid they sold all the tickets for their show at El Sol days before the actual dates. The show in Barcelona was a part of the eighth edition of a benefit festival, "Los Reyes son Rockeros" (The three Wise Men are rockers), where the entrance ticket must be a new toy for poor children.
On this very succesful year, indie pop label from Singapore Fruit Records organized a party to celebrate the domestic release of "Let's get out of this country" at club BarbaaBlackChic, a two-storey building at the Little India district in Singapore.
One of the latest countries to join the international fever for the band from Glasgow was Mexico: on December 4th "Let's get out of this country" was released through the Noiselab label (in their roster we can also find THE ARCADE FIRE, BRAKES, BLOC PARTY, CANSEI DE SER SEXY, CAT POWER, MORRISSEY, THE LIBERTINES or VERACRUZ).
Thanks to this domestic edition in Mexico, CAMERA OBSCURA take advantage of their second American tour -starting at the end of January 2007- to play their first show in Mexico: february 10th at Poliforum Siqueiros in Ciudad de México.
To give a perfect end to this magnificent year, the video of "Lloyd, I'm ready to be heartbroken" appeared on the list of the best videos of the year for the TV show "Subterranean" on MTV2.
2007
"If looks could kill" is the third single taken from "Let's get out of this country". It comes out on January 22nd, to coincide with their second US tour promoting the album.
Along with the title track, the CD-single format includes two previously unreleased tracks: "Hands up baby" (a duet between Kenny McKeeve and Tracyanne Campbell, recorded during the album sessions in Sweden) and the new song "Alaska", recorded on the last weekend of October 2006 by Paul Savage (THE DELGADOS) at the Chem 19 studios in Glasgow (also used by Vashti Bunyan, TRASH CAN SINATRAS, Scout Niblett or TEENAGE FANCLUB).
As usual, the 7" vinyl is a limited edition and includes an exclusive, previously unreleased B-side: a version of Phil Spector and the PARIS SISTERS classic tune, "I love how you love me".
The new single is released at the same time the band travels again to the USA for a second tour promoting the album, starting January 18th until February 18th. After this, the six-piece will travel to Australia for seven dates in the Antipodes, and from there they will follow through to Asian territories.
Their coming back to Europe is due for the spring of 2007, with a new British tour in March and more shows in Spain in April.
During the summer of 2006 CAMERA OBSCURA had already toured the States, playing the songs from "Let's get out of this country". During those shows they travelled with Blair Young, who we can consider as CAMERA OBSCURA's visual biographer (he's filmed most of their videos, as well as others by TEENAGE FANCLUB, SONS AND DAUGHTERS or BELLE AND SEBASTIAN). Taking advantage of a colourful month travelling through the American states, Young filmed a frantic videoclip of the song "If looks could kill".
In the first weeks of 2007 we start receiving the Best-of-year lists, where the third album by CAMERA OBSCURA is well ranked. In other musicians choices, too: in Mojo magazine Richard Hawley chose "Let's get out of this country" as one of the best records from 2006. On The Independent we can read Brett Anderson (SUEDE, THE TEARS) saying that this is his favourite record this year, and that it reminds him of the bes moments by THE CONCRETES.
On The Daily Telegraph, the song "Let's get out of this country" is one of the five best singles of the year (along with worldwide megahits like "Crazy" by GNARLS BARKLEY or "Hips don't lie" by Shakira), and on the same newspaper we can read Stuart Murdoch (BELLE AND SEBASTIAN) saying this is "the best contemporary album I've heard in a long time".
At the same time, "Lloyd, I'm ready to be heartbroken" appears on Q magazine's list with "100 Great undiscovered songs".
In Spain, "Let's get out of this country" can be found high up on the lists of the main specialized magazines (Rockdelux, Go Mag), and the radio show "Disco Grande" (Radio 3) chose it as best record of the year. On that same show, "Lloyd, I'm ready to be heartbroken" is the second best song of the year.
April 16 2007 is the release date of “Tears for affairs”, the fourth single taken from “Let’s get out of this country”, Scottish band CAMERA OBSCURA’s third album. Singer Tracyanne wrote this mysterious and intriguing song inspired by the sleazy atmospheres of David Lynch‘s movies. The song is released in two different formats: seven inch single and CD-Single, each of them including different bonus tracks. In the CD-Single we find “The last song”, a brand new track recorded just before the band started a lengthy tour that took them around the United States, Mexico and Australia. The track was recorded by Paul Savage (THE DELGADOS) in Glasgow’s Chem 19 Studio (where other artists such as Vashti Bunyan, TRASH CAN SINATRAS, Scout Niblett or TEENAGE FANCLUB have recorded has well).
The CD-Single also includes a new video for “Lloyd, I'm ready to be heartbroken”, first single of the album and one of the most popular songs by the band so far; it has been included in many compilations all over the world, and it was chosen by renowned Q magazine as one of the “best 100 songs to discover”. This new video (not to mistake for the one directed by Domingo González, who also filmed videos for LA CASA AZUL and the short film “Las superamigas contra el Doctor Vinilo”) has been directed by Victoria Bergsman. Victoria was the singer of THE CONCRETES (and sang backing vocals in some CAMERA OBSCURA tracks); she now leads a new band called TAKEN BY TREES, and she also directs videos for such famous artists as NEW ORDER.
The clip was filmed by Blair Young, responsible for most CAMERA OBSCURA videos; this one features drawings by François Marry, French designer and musician currently living in England. François toured the States with CAMERA OBSCURA, substituting trumpet player Nigel, who has recently been a father.
As it happened in the three previous singles, the seven inch B-side includes a cover version; this time, it’s the recreation of ABBA’s “Super Trouper” that CAMERA OBSCURA recorded for Dermot O’ Leary‘s show on BBC Radio 2. The show listeners loved the track, making it the most requested track in 2006.
As usual, the video "Tears for affairs" has been directed again by Blair Young, on his sixth work for the Glaswegians. Once again, Young has done an excellent job combining visual elegance and a love and respect for pop music that he shares with the band, its fans and of course ourselves. The footage is a tribute that perfectly evokes, through the use of light and video effects, the different atmospheres of mythical English, American and European TV shows from the 60's. A master lesson in musical knowledge, a model in good taste and, once more, a most beautiful video for our collection.
After their successful tour round the United States, Australia, New Zealand and Mexico, CAMERA OBSCURA will come back to Europe to promote their new single “Tears for affairs”, the fourth single taken from their critically acclaimed third album “Let’s get out of this country”. There are three Spanish dates in the tour (April 27 in La Coruña, April 28 inSantiago de Compostela and June 1 in Madrid [Festival Indyspensable]). Besides, the band is billed for the new edition of Benicassim Festival, which will take place from July 20 to July 22.
From the last month of April, the song "Country mile" (taken from the band's successful third album, "Let's get out of this country") has been used as the soundtrack to an exclusive clothing ad from British chain Tesco. The ad, a minute long, is shown on TV and cinema, internet and the chain's outlets. Clik here
2008
Over the course of the year the group focuses on recording what will be their fourth album. Splitting their schedule between studio time and concerts, they give more than thirty concerts in the UK, Taiwan, Malasia, Italy and Spain.
2009
In April they release their fourth album, "My Maudlin Career”. The group decides to take a step forward in their career and after all these years with Elefant Records, they sign with the prestigious British label 4AD. The relationship between the group and Elefant remains strong, and Elefant invites them to perform on the Elefant stage at the Indietracks festival in England, which pays homage to the Spanish label this year for its twenthieth anniversary.
In Elefant Music Supervision we select the song "If Looks Could Kill" to be one of the songs to play in the movie “Yo, también”. The song is also included on the movie's soundtrack.
CAMERA OBSCURA choose Nick Garrie to perform with them in a concert they give in London at Sheperd's Bush Empire.
