Camille Schmidt is taking some bold creative chances with her first album Nude #9. Where her debut EP Good Person was fairly straight ahead indie folk, this record borrows from other genres throughout, incorporating grungy guitars, drum machines, and vocal processing across its 10 songs.
“Stanley” (above) is the gateway drug. The fuzzy guitars, catchy melodies, and spoken-word interlude would be at home on Rabbit Fur Coat. On lead single “XOXO”, from November, Schmidt goes looking for direction and purpose, reinventing herself during a quarter-life crisis, with vocal effects and an electronic backing that builds to a heavy crescendo:
Constant throughout the record is Schmidt’s soft vocal, high in the mix to accentuate the songwriting.
And she’s a hell of a songwriter. Nude #9 is ultra confessional, ultra personal, sometimes uncomfortable to listen to. It’s shouldn’t be surprising that she’s got an MFA in writing fiction. In the Instagram post on release day, she writes:
I wrote these songs deciding to just be fully honest and see what happened..
Some of them might make you uncomfortable. Or maybe you’ll relate. I’m not sure. The art that’s struck me like lightning over the years is the art that’s said ‘well fuck what you might think of me because I need to say this’
The songs on Nude #9 do that in spades. Schmidt sings about failed relationships, alienation, mental illness, and trauma, among other themes. Take “Heaven” for example: simple, stripped down production and a warm melody with lyrics that will stop traffic. Schmidt channels the MFA into some creative nonfiction in the songwriting here, these verses hit hard:
Almost died in London
Ectopic pregnancy
Chris flew out the same day
Though I said I don’t want you here with me
He stayed up all night crying
Till I said is there someone you can call
I have surgery in the morning And I’m scared I’m gonna die is all
The chorus is a stunner too: “Heaven’s always closer than it seems/and lately it seems really close to me”. Brushes with death don’t usually sound catchy.
In this interview with The Luna Collective, Schmidt talks about the production differences between her EP and this record. Despite having some accomplished creative partners for the EP, it didn’t quite gel, so the approach here was a lot more hands-on:
With this album, I wanted to co-produce it. I feel like it’s fun for the pendulum to swing in a different direction. It’s not live at all. It’s individually tracked in a way that gives us a lot of control over each sound. It’s much more electronic which is really exciting to me.
Here’s another interview with Luna Collective where she says she’s already working on the next record. No time like the present.
