#164 Cameron McLeod
Merry Christmas, Join Host Rae Leigh and co-writer Cameron McLeod as they discuss his band Something Casual and their new single ‘Dreaming Of A Christmas’ we have a listen and discuss the meaning of Christmas and what it is for a lot of people during these times of restricted travel and during a pandemic. We also get to hear Cameron and Rae’s favourite Christmas songs and have a bit of fun.
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Rae Leigh: Welcome to a, Songwriter Tryst with Cameron McLeod. How are you doing
Cameron McLeod: Ray. I'm good. Thanks.
Rae Leigh: Good. You're really quiet. So let's just turn you
Cameron McLeod: I hold up the microphone a bit closer to my face if you're like? Yeah.
Rae Leigh: Yeah. It's very directional. Yeah. That's cool. right. Awesome. We might as well just, keep going. You happy with that?
Cameron McLeod: Yeah. I'm happy with that.
Rae Leigh: I want to take my headphones. So Cameron McLeod, one of my favorite songwriters to write with, that, but not everyone else does, but we've written a few songs together and you're a local gold Stijn and we got to collaborate on a song that you wrote, which I thought was absolutely stunning. And, this is a Christmas special.
Somewhere to tourists, Merry Christmas, it's Christmas Eve today. And I wanted to share your beautiful
Cameron McLeod: song
Rae Leigh: dreaming of a Christmas. Why don't you tell us a little bit about why you wrote this song and what it's about.
Cameron McLeod: Okay, sure thing. And thanks by the way, that's really you to say that you enjoyed the song writing with me. And it's been an awesome process to working with you. So this song dreaming of a Christmas, this. Came about approximately a year ago, it actually was inspired by my father.
He came up with an idea for a song completely different song by the way. It wasn't about Chris Christmas initially. Do you wanna hear about that? Yeah. Yeah. Sweet. Okay. He used to do a lot of driving and as he was driving, he used to see the little flowers and memorials. Through the roadside for people that have passed away.
And he came up with this concept for a song called flowers on the highway. And so I wrote that song with my dad and.
Over time, this song has just changed. And while I was attending the Logan boost program with yourself.
Rae Leigh: music business course. Yeah.
Cameron McLeod: Yeah. So music business course, and one of, one of them nights, a guest speaker said that we should, if you want to get sinked or people to use your music, you should use holidays, Christmas, summer, winter, all of these sort of things.
So that night I went, boom. Had a light bulb moment. And this song that I'd done with my dad, I thought it'll change the lyrics to Christmassy SOTA song. And I started to think about what was important at the time about Christmas and it just come flooding in like all these ideas about Christmas.
And so it's now turned into a Christmas song and
Rae Leigh: so
Cameron McLeod: It's very relevant to the times that a lot of people can't be together at Christmas. At the moment, we can't see friends and family can't travel. Can't go places and everyone's missing people.
Rae Leigh: Quite a lonely, sad Christmas song.
Cameron McLeod: Yeah. Yeah. It's yeah, it's a little bit melancholy, but at the same time, I think it's really heartwarming because it's not all doom and gloom. It's not sad. It's thinking about people and happy memories that you've got about people. Not just all about the sad things.
Rae Leigh: Yeah. And it's, I actually, I don't know about you I actually struggled at Christmas time because it is a time that. You have time off You're not working as hard. And so the brain runs away on you. And it, for me, it brings up all the family drama and, people that maybe I don't see anymore. And it's, it can be really challenging I don't think that's true for a lot of people.
or anything on the unit. It feels that way as much as, and then you feel guilty as well. I feel guilty because Christmas, every one at the shops and TV and everything is Christmas is a joyous time of year and it's beautiful. and it's amazing. But when there are relationships, or for example, three COVID where you can't spend time with those people whether the relationships are broken or not, or whether someone's died or passed away, all this. family and being together and Christmas time, shoves it right in your face and you can't ignore it.
You just got to deal with it. However you deal with it. Whether that's alcohol or therapy, either way so I feel like this song was therapy therapeutic for me Cause it helped me remember that there are good things about Christmas, even when. I can feel sad as well.
Cameron McLeod: Yeah. Yeah, that's right. It's Christmas can be that really love height, sorta situation that what's Christmas without having a massive family, blow out someone throwing a plate of food across the room, or turning a table of some kind metaphorically having those sort of fights, but also.
When you can't be together at Christmas with PayPal, and I guess now more than ever, where you really can't fly to see someone overseas or go for those holidays, like that's something we've done in the past. Quite a lot is go for Christmas holiday. And we can't do that.
Rae Leigh: Yeah. Crossing the border is a challenge used to just be like, oh, let's just go to new south Wales.
We'll drive somewhere over the border. And it's just not as simple as that anymore. There's so many hoops, you have to jump through that. It almost makes it not worthwhile, especially if you're only planning on doing it for a few days, Like it's just not really feasible. And it's just exhausting to even think about it.
If I'm honest.
Cameron McLeod: It isn't a lot of people that just pulled the pin and said, it's not worth the hassle. Cause if they changed the tune, all of a sudden, and then you get stuck somewhere,
Rae Leigh: and then that's a risk. That's a risk of the world we're living in and. decisions not being made, I guess with enough time for people to really change plans and lots of anxiety.
But what is your favorite sort of memory or Christmas, like when you dream of, for Christmas, what do you dream of? When do you ed go back to?
Cameron McLeod: That's a good one. I think there's a lot of recent, really good Christmas memories. We. We've spent quite a few Christmases where I'd get photos with the kids and I'd read them a Christmas story on Christmas Eve, and it'd be the same book every year.
So as they've grown up over time, they've gone from little babies to bigger kids now. And they'd still sit on my lap and we'd read that story and we'd get a photo of daddy reading that Christmas story with the kids. So I think that probably sticks out.
Rae Leigh: Yeah. That's a beautiful moment. I didn't know what yeah, I don't know if I have that. yet,
Cameron McLeod: Yeah,
Rae Leigh: like a Christmas. Yeah.
Cameron McLeod: there's got to be something like you could probably think back.
Rae Leigh: I always, my favorite thing probably that Christmas was.
Cameron McLeod: carols
Rae Leigh: And like for me as a kid it was singing out the front of Woolies at my hometown, we'd be raising money for the church or some charity thing or just for people who had it tough at Christmas, And I used to love singing silent night.
That was my favorite song. What's your favorite Christmas song? That's not the one you've just released.
Cameron McLeod: Ah, copy to bias ghetto. Do you want me to go traditional or contemporary?
Rae Leigh: to you, but what's your favorite?
Cameron McLeod: Okay. So favorite is last Christmas by wham? Yup, absolutely. Favorite what a cracker
Rae Leigh: I love that. So I'm actually probably one of the only ones that can play on guitar
Cameron McLeod: and it's a sad one too. Isn't it?
Rae Leigh: It's also a seven. So tell me about you as a songwriter. Do you like writing sad songs? or where's your song writing come from?
Cameron McLeod: Yeah, so I think, yeah, drawn to a lot of writing, satisfying things, which is funny, cause I'm a pretty happy person in general, but
Rae Leigh: happiest
Cameron McLeod: yeah, but that come on. That's not always like that.
That could be a show and
Rae Leigh: bounce in your step.
Cameron McLeod: yeah. Yeah. I You've gotta, you gotta have that positivity and. Try to keep upbeat and that sort of thing. But I think it's interesting to explore those sadder sorta songs and red wine and beers and a couple of songs and start songwriting.
Rae Leigh: emotions flat out
Cameron McLeod: Yeah. Oh my God. He's red wine drunk. That's the Westcon. There is
Rae Leigh: oh,
Cameron McLeod: oh, it is. Yeah, it will. It brings out nice emotions. Doesn't it? And I haven't done that for a long time, but I've
Rae Leigh: Have to get it, but I don't think I've ever had. red wine and written a song before, but some of my favorite songs that I've ever written, other ones that.I've written with you, but they're not recorded or released yet.
Cameron McLeod: Good things to come.
Rae Leigh: I know, get some budget under the belt and Yeah. See what
Cameron McLeod: But yeah, songwriting for me is, I think you got to have a mood to start you off. If you've got a concept, that's great. Like a title and a story that you want to tell. But then you've got to set a mood really.
If you're playing a couple of chords and just to get that emotion and that feeling and say, yay.
Yeah. Th these are the right sort of chords and you've got the concept in mind and then the chords. And then that's when you can start to tell that story
Rae Leigh: do you always start with the codes?Like the melody
Cameron McLeod: generally yeah. It's concept then.
Rae Leigh: chords
Cameron McLeod: And melody, and then can start writing lyrics to that unless I've had an, a really old song in my head where I've already thought of lyrics and everything, but yeah, if it's a new song, it'll just be concept then chords and then start to tell that story.
And for me writing any kind of music it has to be subtle. I don't want to just jam a story down. Someone's. Just to be super obvious what you're talking about. You have to hide the meaning and it needs to be vague so people can listen into the story and make up their own mind.
Rae Leigh: relate it to their own
Cameron McLeod: it has to be relatable. And not just. I don't know too many modern pop songs where it is jammed down your face. Like I want to slap your butt. I want to slap your butt. It's just really specific in your face
Rae Leigh: come on. That's a great song.
Cameron McLeod: right? There's something there's your next hit?
Rae Leigh: He likes to spank
Cameron McLeod: Yeah. I like just bang.
I'm going to slap your book,
Rae Leigh: next. Hit right
Cameron McLeod: yeah.
Rae Leigh: Okay.
When it comes to songwriting, what's. been The best advice or something that's really stood out to you that you really like to always put into your songs or think about when you're writing a song.
Cameron McLeod: I think that piece of advice about for sinking songs, like to turn it into something Christmas summer went to, I thought that was great.
Cause it was something that I applied immediately. But in general tough question. So what do I think about when writing a song? I think it's probably my own advice, which is just don't. Over-complicate it. The, you can have you easy chord songs and keep simple yet subtle. And that's yeah, that's what I always tell myself.
Don't get bogged down with trying to make it really complex in nature where you're doing difficult chords or intricate pieces of solo work. Cause I don't have the skill to do that myself, but there's a lot of other talented musicians who can do that sort of stuff. And you can draw upon their help from your circle of friends and
Rae Leigh: yeah.
Cameron McLeod: good to collaborate with them. And it's if you need a really snappy, solid base, speak to someone who's good at that. It's yeah.
Rae Leigh: All right. If you could go back in time and speak to yourself, maybe as a teenager or a young musician and give yourself. one piece of advice, what would you say to yourself?
Cameron McLeod: that's a good one. Yeah. Cause I wasn't a young musician. I've only started doing this in the last few years.
Yeah. So that would be an easy one. It's getting into music. Yeah. I never thought I would. I would do that.
I didn't think I'd have the patience for learning guitar to sing and that sort of thing, and do karaoke that was in, growing up. But no I didn't think I'd have the patience to do guitar.It was always sports and that sort of thing. Yeah, I think just over time kinda got overdoing
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Cameron McLeod: sport sports. Great. Cause it like drives you forward. Like it's a team thing and I'm not like good at solo sort of sports, like having that discipline to go do running or gym or weights or anything like that.
Not for a long time, team sports would just keep me driven it. You're doing it for the team. But then. You get it like a lot of injuries and that sort of thing over time. And I picked up music and started to get, like a little bit of skill over time. And as I got better and better, I thought this is great.
And I found that music is both a solo and a team sport because you can do it by yourself and get better and enjoy doing it.
Rae Leigh: I think it's the most boring solo sport ever
Cameron McLeod: Oh yeah. Yeah.
Rae Leigh: doing it by yourself. I wouldn't even, I wouldn't bother doing it. I couldn't Do it without
Cameron McLeod: not doing everything by yourself is boring,
but it's also a great team sport. So I know, like the more you collaborate with people in the more you play with people, like it's awesome. So much
Rae Leigh: it's incredible because for me, I just find if you're referring it to sports teams, sports, you can pass it off to people who were just better at different things and yeah.Make makes you stronger.in general. If you could collaborate with anyone in the world.dead or alive, who would it be and why?
Cameron McLeod: Oh, wow. You can go cut me off God with another
Rae Leigh: Okay. If you listen for these podcasts, you'd know what these questions are.
Cameron McLeod: would I listen all the time. Dead or alive. Hopefully someone that's alive because dead people escape me now.
Rae Leigh: Fair enough. Yeah. If I was riding with a dead person, that'd be
Cameron McLeod: Yeah, that'd be really weird. I would have someone on my mind, but can't really can't think of anything.
Rae Leigh: Who's your favorite
Cameron McLeod: song or like what's sort of
Rae Leigh: genres? Do you like to listen
Cameron McLeod: Jonna is, yeah, that's weird. Cause yeah, the music I like to listen to is like your Lincoln park living end body jar all of those sorts of green day offspring, those sorts of genres.
But cause I don't play that sort of music and not quite there playing the heavier stuff, then I'm more drawn to. Easiest songs yeah. For riding. Yeah. So I think my writing's very different to what I listen to
Rae Leigh: Is there a particular band or music that you like inspires you.
Cameron McLeod: I think lyrically anything that's got really good and subtle lyrics that just tells a story without just jamming Daniel, Nick again like crowded house, credit has is nice with the lyrics. Yeah, anything that's just vague where you can search for the meaning of that and find something Jimmy world, there you go. That bothered me. Okay. So yeah, if I could collaborate with someone, it would be Jimmy eat world because just the stories they tell.
It within their music. So lyrically they're awesome. And musically, so that for me would be that combination of what I like as a writer and the style of music that I like to listen to, that brings them both together. Definitely.
Rae Leigh: And What do you see your musical future holding?
What does 2022 look like?
Cameron McLeod: 2022 an interesting time. For me, because I haven't decided exactly where I want to go yet. So I've just finished writing. I'm dreaming of a Christmas
Rae Leigh: Yep. and
Cameron McLeod: I'm finally on Spotify. It took me a long time. Yeah. But yeah, looking at this year, I think maybe trying to migrate towards. Heaviest sort of rock songs wouldn't mind, like really trying to write quite a few rock songs.
Rae Leigh: Yeah, Cool. And so we will see more releases from what's your band called
Cameron McLeod: Something
Rae Leigh: something casual. and that is everywhere on socials and stuff like that.
Cameron McLeod: yeah, definitely. Yeah, we're on now. We're on YouTube. We've got a Facebook. I only made these recently a lot of them, but yeah. Instagram
Rae Leigh: we'll put all the links. to your socials and to your music on
Cameron McLeod: There, definitely. So as a band, there's obviously not much there yet. Because it's only really an emerging idea.
We've got the, we've got the branding and the idea, like the look of the band. But haven't decided what direction to go in.
Rae Leigh: the dream,
Cameron McLeod: I think, yeah, just to have some good rock songs, classic your nineties rock.
Rae Leigh: Nine is rock,
Cameron McLeod: Yeah,
Rae Leigh: Take it back to the nanny's. All right. cool. Nineties is an interesting decade. Is there anything else you'd like to share
Cameron McLeod: with
Rae Leigh: the song, we're an interest listeners before we finish? up. And it's Christmas. Eve, Merry Christmas,
Cameron McLeod: We didn't really go to Christmas. He did we,
Rae Leigh: a little bit of a chat about Christmas. yeah.
Cameron McLeod: I think that's the sort of thought that I'd like to leave. Is it, let's think back to some really good memories and there are heaps, a lot of things that we can that remind us of people during Christmas, like in dreaming of a Christmas, it's about two different people in two different places.
Thinking about. Christmas on the opposite sides of the world night, they can't be together. And there's a lot of special things like w you're pulling out the decorations, we're putting up the stalking or those sort of things. And they remind us of people. And I think hold onto those good memories because it's not going to be long before we can all just celebrate Christmas again together.
Rae Leigh: I love that. I'm going to finish up with one of my favorite Christmas songs. But thank you so much. and Yeah, thanks to everyone for somewhere a truce Merry Christmas and looking forward to a, another massive year of some writing in 2022. All right, bye.
