Cameron Olver is Back in Town with a New Degree and a New Album

Local Fort Collins musician Cameron Olver may have temporarily departed from NOCO to complete his music degree at Berkeley University, but he’s back now and for good. Cameron has taken all that he’s learned over the last several years at school and packed it all nice and neat into his brand new self-recorded debut album called ‘Staying In’ that he’ll be releasing at Avogadro’s Number later in December. I recommend you ‘stay tuned’ to this local talent’s unique sound, but don’t take my word for it, take it from the man himself. Cameron recently sat down with New Scene to talk about the upcoming show and what all it takes to be successful at going solo.

New Scene: Are you from northern Colorado?

Cameron: Born and raised in Fort Collins, went to school here all the way until college and now I’m back.

New Scene: What have you been up to prior to this debut release?

Cameron: Immediately prior, I was in school at Berkeley, and I’ve done a few little shows around town but nothing extreme. I volunteer with KRFC, which is a lot of fun, so I get quite a bit of involvement there and get to talk to a lot of artists and all that fun stuff.

New Scene: So, you just recently graduated from Berkeley?

Cameron: Yes, in fact, this debut is my capstone project for Berkeley, so this is the last thing I have to do before I officially earn my degree, but it’s only like a two-credit thing. It doesn’t really feel like a school project, though, it feels like I’m done with school and just doing my thing.

New Scene: What were you (are you) studying at Berkeley?

Cameron: So, the degree is called Professional Music, but basically it just lets me pick some concentrations, so I studied performance and recording and production and there’s a good hefty business chunk in there, as well. I figured that would be best for me as someone who’s planning on being an independent musician. There is a label that focuses on my style of music, but I don’t want to be involved with them until I don’t need them.

New Scene: Sure, and, well, I feel like now more than ever is the time to be independent because people can really sort of take things into their own hands and represent themselves as opposed to having to sell their life away to some giant company.

Cameron: Yeah, definitely. I’m not about that. I have the skills, I hope, to do it myself, but I guess that’s what we’re finding out now.

New Scene: So, with that in mind, I assume you’re recording all of this yourself, the album that is, it’s all self-recorded?

Cameron: It sure is. I’ve got a couple of masters of the tracks, so I’m really excited about that.

New Scene: And where have all of the recordings been taking place at?

Cameron: My bedroom.

New Scene: Nice. I was hoping you might say something like that. That’s cool. So, I saw the words “intricate arrangements” associated with your name, but can you talk a little bit about your style of music or specialty of playing?

Cameron: Yeah, so, it’s called contemporary fingerstyle, so it’s a really cool combination of stylistic influences and it’s sort of like almost a pop music focus, like you can have people do different versions of pop tunes or originals, but it’s a very progressive form of music. It uses a lot of extended playing techniques like tapping or progression on the instrument or harmonics, all of these different types of techniques to create essentially your own entire band, so it’s not just like playing a chord and a melody, it’s like playing layers as if you were a band but you’re doing it all yourself.

New Scene: And so, in that sense, I’m assuming there probably aren’t lyrics with this, it’s just purely instrumental, correct?

Cameron: It is. Maybe when I learn how to sing I’ll add that in with it, but for now I will spare the world of that.

New Scene: Do you have a name for the album?

Cameron: I’m calling it ‘Staying In’ just because I’m a big fan of staying in, I think, this is a very calm, relaxing, internally focused music, if you will, it’s not like a big party thing. It’s something you put on while you sip your scotch and just sit by the fire or something like that. There’s going to be five tracks, there are samples of two of them on my website right now, so those are available at the moment.

New Scene: Do you have a date and time yet for the show?

Cameron: I sure do, it’s going to be Friday, December 16 at 8 pm at Avogadro’s Number in Fort Collins. There’s a $10 cover and I’ve got tickets available on my website.

New Scene: With regards to the release, can people expect to get a physical copy of the album or is it being released through a streaming service only?

Cameron: So, it’s going to be available on as many streaming platforms as I can manage, and I’m going to make 100 physical copies in CD form, so those will be available, as well.

New Scene: Beyond this debut, what’s next? Any plans on the horizon?

Cameron: What I’m really hoping with this is it will help me get a really solid local audience in the Fort Collins area because I really want to have a draw here so that for the future, I can continue performing all of these songs I’ve been working on and start branching out into other areas like Loveland, Boulder, maybe some in Denver. These tunes do take me quite a while to write, so future recorded projects are for sure a long way away.

New Scene: Where can folks find you online?

Cameron: So, the website is camolver.com, as well as my Instagram and Tiktok, which are both @cam.olver.