Kameron Marlowe is a rising star in the country music scene. His passion for music ignited at a young age, influenced by listening to country legends like Johnny Cash and Merle Haggard with his grandfather. He began singing in church at the age of 10 and later became a worship leader. During his high school years at A.L. Brown High School, Marlowe was active in music, joining a band that performed locally. After graduation, he briefly attended college but left to support his family, working as an auto parts salesman. His big break came in 2018 when a talent recruiter discovered his YouTube performances, leading to his participation in Season 15 of NBC's The Voice,' where he advanced to the Top 24.
Following his stint on ‘The Voice' Marlowe relocated to Nashville to pursue a songwriting career. In 2019, he independently released his debut single, ‘Giving You Up' which garnered significant attention and amassed over 15 million streams. This success led to a management deal and a publishing contract with Sony Music Publishing. In 2020, he signed with Columbia Nashville and released his debut album, ‘We Were Cowboys,' in 2022. The album showcased his soulful and resonant vocals, solidifying his place in modern country music. Marlowe's momentum continued with his sophomore album, ‘Keepin' the Lights On,' released in 2024, which has been met with critical acclaim from ourselves and the wider industry. With over 900 million career global streams, Marlowe's authentic sound and heartfelt storytelling have resonated with fans worldwide, marking him as a formidable talent in the industry.
Today, (February 21st), Marlowe releases a new project, ‘Sad Songs for the Soul.' We were thrilled to catch up with him to talk all about it.
Thank you for your time today Kameron, how are you doing?
I'm doing really good, I hope you are too?
I am, thank you. All the better for speaking to you today about your fabulous new album. Before we dig into that, I must ask – how disappointed was your Dad and your family with that Super Bowl result? (check out Kameron's Instagram feed to see just what lengths Kameron's Dad went to in his fancy dress efforts to support the Kansas City Chiefs!)
(laughing) We all were disappointed. The Eagles just blitzed that first half and there was no coming back after that! It was a tough game. My dad usually doesn't dress up like that (laughing) but because it was the ‘three-peat' and it came from a bet too between him and my uncle too. My whole family are Chiefs fans – you should have been able to tell by the shrine of Chief's gear in the video – we've been fans for a long time.
My dad didn't think that we would make it all the way to the Super Bowl and he made a bet early in the season with my uncle to paint his head like a helmet if they made it! (laughing)
Before we dive into the new album – let's talk about the UK tour you did late last year. I saw you in London and loved every minute of it. How did that European run go and did we leave you with some good memories?
Absolutely! Some of the best memories, honestly, I had so much fun. Everywhere we went in Europe, I was surprised. I had heard from so many people that y'all are a very quiet, listening crowd but I found that once I gave everyone permission to have a good time and get loud with me, everyone jumped in! It was like playing in the States but even better because everyone knew all the songs, which also surprised me.
I appreciated just how deep people's knowledge of my songs went and I had a blast!
‘Sad Songs for the Soul' is out on February 21st, hot on the heels of last year's ‘Keepin' the Lights On,' which was in our top 3 albums of the year. Were these new songs written for this project exclusively or are they songs that you've collected over the years and melded into a project?
A little bit of both, actually. A lot of these songs are songs that I've had in my catalogue for a little while now that I have never been able to find a place for them before. The idea of this whole record came from a song called ‘Highway Song,' which is on this record. I wrote that song by myself – it was kinda like a palette cleanser in a way, I needed to write something that was different, not about me and was just completely creative and fresh.
I felt like I was coming out of a period where I had written a bunch of songs that were just ‘down the middle' every day for a while and I was needing to do something different. That snowballed into hearing Cam's ‘Burning House' song, which came up on a playlist out of nowhere! I wanted to record it but didn't really have a record to put it on.
It prompted me to begin to think about a project that was like a diary from somebody who was going through something traumatic. You know, torn up by a girl and wallowing in despair kind of stuff. The album is really just its own thing, it's a passion project and very much a concept record based around a singular idea which let me explore some different sounds and a different side of my brain which I haven't used as much in my writing before, so I'm very excited about it.
Picking up on ‘Highway Song.' The first time I heard that song it felt very cinematic, almost like it had been plucked from a movie rather than just being a three minute song you'd sing along to in the car.
Yeah! That's exactly the vibe I was going for with it really. I wanted it to be different, I wanted it to take you on a journey as you listened to it. The guy in the story is just throwing out everything that is on his mind at this point and what his heart is feeling in that moment.
I feel like you've paired ‘Highway Song' sequentially on the album with ‘The Basement' – right in the middle of the album, like anchors. The two most experimental, almost discordant songs, running together?
In my mind I saw those two songs together. I thought the album flowed much better with them side by side. This is a sit down and listen through record, in my mind, but I wouldn't say that the story runs sequentially – honestly, it might well be backwards because when you listen to the last song, ‘If You Stay' that might well be the start of the story!
I think ‘If You Stay' could be seen as the most hopeful song on the album if the girl does decide to stay…………..
You see, I completely think the opposite. If you really dig into the lyrics on that song, I think it's the saddest song on the album by a long shot. The song sounds so hopeful but the guy in it is literally pleading with this woman to stay with him – it's heartbreaking, I can hear the pain in this guy's voice.
If it had been the first track on the album I might have thought she didn't stay, which then prompted all the pain that followed.
That's why I love this project because it is open to personal interpretation and people will put their own thoughts and experiences into it. I kinda leave some questions unanswered.
In your mind, do you know whether the girl in ‘If You Stay' stays or not?
Yes! I think I know the answer to that but leaving it open allows people to come to their own conclusions based around what they want to happen, what they don't want to happen – it's like a TV show cliffhanger, right? That's kinda where I want this record to live – I want it to be up to people's own interpretation.
Let's talk about Vince Gill………
Oh my gosh! The most intimidated I've ever been to walk into a room! (laughing) He's such a sweet guy, so talented and he really does care about the art of songwriting so much. That song (‘How's the Leaving Going') would not have been the song it is without him in the room. It wasn't my idea, it wasn't even Vince's idea, I'm pretty sure it was Lee Thomas Miller's idea. Vince took it to this 90s ballad place and I leaned on him a lot for the melodies and it turned out pretty beautifully.
It feels like it could have been recorded at any point from 1960 onwards. Was it a write you did for the ‘Keepin the Lights On' album or was it later that that?
Ah man, that's exactly what we were going for, so I appreciate you saying that. Actually it was a write for the ‘Keepin' the Lights On' record but it just didn't feel like it fit on that project. It was a writing retreat that another publishing company was having that they invited me to. I was there, Vince happened to be there the second day that I was there and he asked if I wanted to write. I hope to work with him more in the future because I think we could come up with some really cool stuff.
Talking about co-writing – the very first time we spoke, this would be pre-pandemic I think, you were very much learning to adapt to co-writing in Nashville after just writing for yourself. How's that going?
(laughing) I'm still there! It's very different for me and I don't know if I will ever fully grasp the idea. It's not 100% authentic to me, that's what I struggle with, even though I cut outside songs. When I record an outside song it has to be a song that I would have written or be in a voice that echoes something I would do or say, that's very important to me.
I'm greedy when I'm in a room and I want to be the leader in the room – so somedays It's not that and I'm not that, which I'm still learning to be better about! (laughing) I do feel like I have almost established a crew of writers around me now that I trust, that I admire and that are all of a similar voice, if that makes sense? Once I fully solidify that I group I don't know if I will ever look outside of it for songs any more. Wyatt McCubbin is one of the guys in that group – he wrote a number of songs with me on the new album. I trust him, I trust his voice and his melodies….
I would throw Kendall Marvel into that group with you as well?
Absolutely! Kendall is such a chameleon in a room. I've heard him write such a varied and different amount of things – when we write together he just seems to know what it is I'm looking for. We bounce ideas off each other and it just works so well.
You are now going to have two albums running in tandem with each other, which is quite unique.
And wait 'til people find out about the third one, man! (laughing) It's very different but I kinda like because the albums are two very different entities. ‘Sad Songs for the Soul' is a concept record, it's not going to hit all my fans or listeners – I'm not expecting this to be for everyone. This is a very different sound to what a lot of my fans are used to hearing. This album is for anyone who needs a song to cling to – I wrote this record for those people. Hopefully these songs will be part of a healing journey for somebody, I wrote them for that purpose.
So, you not going to be stepping out on stage supporting Parker McCollum playing ‘Sad Songs for the Soul' from beginning to end, right?
I'm not going to lie, I haven't quite figured out what to do with these songs live yet. I have to play them live but I don't think it will be in my normal show. Maybe I need to do a tour of some sort in smaller venues, stripped back, playing ‘Sad Songs for the Soul,' I think that would work well rather than trying to force them into my regular live set. That would be cool although the crowd would be depressed when they leave at the end of the night! (laughing)
Before we wrap up, Kameron, I want to ask you about ‘Broke Down in a Truck.' We voted it our second favourite song of last year behind Cody Johnson's ‘The Fall.' I feel like the story of that song is not finished yet – it's a huge radio hit-in-waiting to me.
I agree with you, I don't think it is either. I appreciate you saying that about the song, I feel very passionately about that song. It's been a sleeper on the album but I'd love to find out what its life would be outside the record. I'm still figuring that out myself……(laughing).. we could have a conversation offline about what I think regards the song…. (laughing) We'll see where the song ends up living and what happens to it further down the line.
I'm enjoying the process of marketing songs out to a wider audience – it can be frustrating and I haven't cracked the code yet but I'm grateful to to be in the position where we have choices because the opposite wouldn't be a great deal of fun, would it?
Check out Kameron Marlowe's new album ‘Sad Songs for the Soul' – out in all the usual places today.
