Brooklyn-based songwriter Camille Schmidt just released her debut EP, Good Person. This six song collection of folk-drenched indie pop was brought to life with the help of producer Phil Weinrobe, known for his work with Adrianne Lenker, Tomberlin, and Florist.
In May 2023, Schmidt, Weinrobe, and Schmidt’s band gathered at Weinrobe’s studio – Sugar Mountain – to record. Schmidt’s band features Brooklyn-based guitarist Sam Talmadge, drummer Pele Greenberg, and LA-based bassist Eli Heath. Weinrobe took a unique approach to the recording process: he instructed Schmidt not to share any songs with the band beforehand and even not to create a track list for the EP.
When they arrived at the studio, Schmidt played whichever song felt most present to her that day, choosing from a few hundred she’d written over the previous few years. The band began experimenting, and whenever they entered a flow state – or what Weinrobe referred to as “the pocket” – he would hit record without allowing them to listen back. In this way, the songs were recorded mostly live and over four days, maintaining the raw and authentic sound of the band playing these songs together in the studio.
The result is an enthralling folk-drenched indie pop EP, chronicling the autobiographical experience the artist had with grappling with feelings of shame and perfectionism. She confides, “This EP is very much about struggle, about process – specifically the process of becoming. And looking back at all the things you’ve been through in your childhood, looking back on the different versions of yourself you’ve been in friendships and relationships, the different fake versions of self you’ve presented to the world (as well as looking directly at the f*cked up things happening in the world) and then sort of asking with a real honest earnest hope, is there something else? And then betting with your life that there is.”
Are you going to give Camille Schmidt’s EP Good Person a spin?
