{"id":66095,"date":"2018-06-08T18:00:06","date_gmt":"2018-06-08T16:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/?p=66095"},"modified":"2018-06-08T18:00:06","modified_gmt":"2018-06-08T16:00:06","slug":"alex-cameron","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/article\/alex-cameron\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet the Roleplaying Musician Adopting the Web's Darkest Personas"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/span>
\nSydney-born musician Alex Cameron wants to create stories about \u201cactual things that exist in the world\u201d \u2014 and indeed people.\u00a0 With that comes a necessity to represent the not-so-nice side of humanity; the defeated, the frustrated, the flops and the morally repugnant all feature widely in the sleazy cast of characters he dreams up and embodies in his songs. In the final track off his 2016 debut, Jumping the Shark<\/em>, a down and out desperado resigns himself to the fact that \u201cI ain\u2019t half the man I wanted to be\u201d. In Cameron\u2019s lyricism, masculinity and failure combine to terrible, theatrical effect.<\/span>
\nCameron continues along the same vein in his most recent album, 2017’s\u00a0<\/span>Forced Witness,<\/span><\/i>\u00a0a surprisingly good humoured record that glimmers with all the warm, poppiness of an 80s\u2019 movie soundtrack<\/span>. This time, he takes the tragedy from the stage to the World Wide Web \u2014 \u201cI live with a deep regret of what I do on the internet,\u201d he sings on the stand-out track, ‘Candy May’. By his own admission, Cameron spends a lot of time on the web, \u201cengaging with it pretty regularly\u201d and the record ripples with the sort of sad, strange sagas of a life lived online. \u00a0In ‘True Lies’ he assumes the role of someone with an addiction to speaking to anonymous women on the net \u2014 \u201cWhen I feel it really coming on strong\/ Yeah I know I really shouldn\u2019t log on\u201d \u2014 or in ‘Studmuffin96’, the speaker \u2014 presumably a internet lurker preying on underage girls \u2014 announces, \u201cI\u2019m waiting for my lover\/She\u2019s almost 17\u201d. While, in ‘Strangers Kiss’, a duet with Angel Olsen, she sings, \u201cThey made a meme out of my legacy, darling\u201d \u2014 a lyric that is as pathetic as it is accurate about renown and significance in the 21st century. Somehow, Cameron manages to sing about ugly things, all the while ensuring that the listener smiles and sings along with him anyway.<\/span>
\nHowever,\u00a0Forced Witness<\/i><\/span>\u00a0isn’t just a reflection of our contemporary cyber obsession \u2014 according to Cameron, \u201cBerlin is a huge a part of the album\u201d too. In 2016, Cameron spent several months living in Neuk\u00f6lln, hopping on the tram and recording the album in Funkhaus Berlin. For Cameron, Berlin has not just been integral to <\/span>Forced Witness<\/span><\/i>, but \u201cmy music, and also, my life\u201d, he confirms. As he prepares to return to Berlin this weekend to play at Torstrassen Festival<\/a> \u2014 along with his collaborator, saxophonist Rob Molloy \u2014 SLEEK sits down with the chameleonic crooner to discuss everything from short stories to on-stage dancing to learning how to be a \u201cbearable human\u201d, both on and offline.<\/span>
\nMany of the characters you present deal with failed or tragic masculine figures. How did this become an aspect of your work? Why was it something you wanted to portray?<\/b> \nWell, it was just everywhere. I started writing the lyrics for <\/span>Forced Witness<\/span><\/i> back in 2013, so it came from observing and also from the place where I worked \u2014 a government legal office. I was working as an investigative assistant accessing instances of corruption and assisting victims of corruption. It was my experiences in everyday life and my job at the time that led me towards these characters that were everywhere. They are not a minority, they are everywhere. <\/span>
\nWhat are your key influences in music or otherwise?<\/b> \nI like authors, especially short story writers. Classic writers like Flannery O’Connor and people who create grotesque visions. I also like George Saunders, who is a contemporary writer. I am inspired by people who can find little sparks in hyper-specific stories and expand upon them, and bring the characters into a larger feeling, even though they are very small.<\/span>
\n\"\"<\/i><\/b> \nForced Witness<\/i><\/b> is filled with references to the internet. How has the internet shaped you as an artist?<\/b> \nWell I had the internet as a kid, even in primary school, so I’ve always engaged with it naturally. It’s interesting having been there since the beginning \u2014 in terms of the internet being widely accessible \u2014 because it was almost like no one was entirely sure what the rules were yet. The way I wrote about the internet on <\/span>Forced Witness<\/span><\/i> describes how people are existing in that grey area \u2014 not necessarily convinced that it\u2019s a real thing, because the idea of fantasy and the screen means that they are doing things that are questionable morally. That could mean someone lying about who they are and getting money out of another person, or someone communicating romantically with someone who is underage \u2014 it\u2019s these incidences of romantic drama that I think are very interesting.<\/span>
\nDo you view the internet as a positive thing mostly or a source of negativity?<\/b> \nI don\u2019t know. I think that communication is very important. Communication and information should be widely accessible at all times, so I believe in a free internet for all. <\/span>
\nYour dancing is a significant part of your identity as a performer. Were you always a dancer?<\/b> \nI wasn\u2019t always a dancer. I started dancing when I was younger on stage, around 18. I think it\u2019s probably easier to dance on stage to entertain an audience. I find that I am much more comfortable dancing on stage than I am dancing sober at a party. When the mood is right, when I\u2019m with the right people, if I\u2019m dancing with my girl, I\u2019ll dance anywhere, anytime, but I certainly dance on stage as a response to the audience. <\/span>
\nYour music and your on-stage persona are very unique. Do you have any advice about staying true to yourself in that sense?<\/b> \nI think it\u2019s a matter of finding how you can operate at a level that gives you a degree of consistency and you have got to balance that with necessity. It\u2019s a really amazing opportunity if you find something that you\u2019re good at, that you find bearable and inspiring, and you can do it regularly for money. We\u2019re talking about employment here: how you can earn money to live. I wanted to be a musician since I can remember so some might say I got lucky that way. I don\u2019t know if staying true to myself is necessarily my priority. My priority is more making sure that you keep yourself fulfilled. You fulfil yourself with beautiful music, romance, education, entertainment, socialising, community \u2014 these are all buckets of water that have to go into the well, and then you can start to function as a bearable human. The shorter answer is that you\u2019ve got to find something you can do, so when you do it, you mean it. <\/span>
\nLastly, what can we expect from your gig on Sunday at Torstrassen Festival? <\/b> \nWe will have the full band with us. We have never played this set\u00a0 and will play songs off the record that we haven\u2019t played before. I am just excited to be back in Berlin. Last time we played here the vibe was really strong and I really like Torstrassen Festival. The organisers are really good people and the crowd seem to be really strong and sweet as well. I am just excited to come back and put on a red hot show.<\/span>
\nAlex Cameron will perform at Torstrassen Festival on Sunday, June 10 at Volksb\u00fchne. More details hier<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ahead of his show at Torstrassen Festival this weekend, Alex Cameron discusses how the internet has shaped his identity as an artist.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":66121,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8,10172,10217],"tags":[10704,34,10705,994,10706,1473,10707,4496,10708],"class_list":["post-66095","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-berlin","category-film","category-music","tag-alex-cameron","tag-berlin","tag-forced-witness","tag-internet","tag-masculinity","tag-music","tag-rob-molloy","tag-social-media","tag-torstrassen-festival"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nMeet the Roleplaying Musician Adopting the Web's Darkest Personas<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Ahead of his show at Torstrassen Festival this weekend, Alex Cameron discusses how the internet has shaped his identity as an artist.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/article\/alex-cameron\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"de_DE\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Meet the Roleplaying Musician Adopting the Web's Darkest Personas\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Ahead of his show at Torstrassen Festival this weekend, Alex Cameron discusses how the internet has shaped his identity as an artist.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/article\/alex-cameron\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Sleek Magazine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sleekmag\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-06-08T16:00:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@sleekmag\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@sleekmag\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Verfasst von\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"sleek\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Gesch\u00e4tzte Lesezeit\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6\u00a0Minuten\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/\",\"name\":\"Sleek Magazine\",\"description\":\"Sleek is Germany\u2019s leading independent media house\/brand for creativity and innovation located in Berlin the creative capital of the world. 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