5 Songs I Love w/ August Kamp

On the back of her stunning single 'Un(familia)rity' which blends between the digital age of pop and how technology should be used within music, August Kamp channels this energy so eloquently, and is an artist that will be on your radar in the coming months. We had the chance to sit down with her to learn all about the 5 songs she loves, exclusively for FLEX!

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1. Bon Iver – 8 (circle)

gotta open with my long-standing favorite song. it just seems perfect to me, idk. it’s such a great example of a song with everything i need and almost nothing more. it feels like i’ve known it forever - frankly - and it did at first listen too. bon iver is definitely the artist who made me realize i needed to make music. specifically this album - it just felt like a completely different view of music than i had ever gotten to glimpse before. like an artifact of a world that both did and did not ever exist. almost like a schrodingers cat situation/feeling - this record feels like it only exists for sure when and where i connect to it. interestingly enough, i didn’t listen to any bon iver until this particular album - the cover grabbed me instantly and the music still hasn’t put me down. this song is the centerpiece of all centerpieces in my view of how an album can be constructed. i learn something new from it each time i listen. 

2. sam gellaitry – duo

this song really woke me up about mastering in an important way - which is something very sacred to me because i master all my stuff. it’s so absurdly (almost disrespectfully) loud, but it feels completely full and present in a way that almost nothing else manages to, even quieter more “rounded” mixes. the way it breathes and chokes and splits time itself with the sidechain-compression around those drums. sam gellaitry is a legend in my eyes - even today he’s still really slept on imo. this track just has such an unmistakable way that it grabs you and looks you in the eye. the vocal mixing really connected with me too. 

3. Jamie T – Don't You Find

jamie t was my first “favorite artist” for sure - back before i even made music - in my teenage years. this song was my first “favorite song” for so many reasons, but those drums really grab me. the drop was one of the first “drops” i really felt as opposed to just hearing it. it builds this tension up in me and then cuts the line in such a tactile way - and i would just feel this release every time i heard it that felt unlike anything else i had found in music up to that point. 

4. Westerman – Paper Dogs

i heard this on the “jagjaguar fridays” playlist the first time i ever listened to that and it just snagged me immediately with the decision-making. i was new to hifi speakers at the time, and i had just gotten a feel for what good mixing really felt like - and the mixing of the kick/sub at the beginning just pulled me in like a tractor-beam. the whole track is such a masterclass in minimalism. there’s the cleverly paced delay in his voice (with some filtering and formant-shifting too iirc) and then on this incredibly clever lyrical move near the middle - it just does this dimensional-shift sort of thing and the song really kicks in. the sort-of low-mids bass line that comes in at that point just feels like every single poignant emotion stacked on top of each other in the best way. such a haunting banger. 

5. Bon Iver – 00000 Million

gotta close with bon iver too - this is the only song on this list purely (or i guess mainly) on account of the lyrics. i read these from time to time and it just echoes through me for months every single time i do. the end line of each stanza - and the way that line evolves - is the most tender and touching representation of ache that i have ever heard. there’s a couple words in here that justin vernon straight up just made up, too. i love that. so many call and responses that reach across the whole song. lines that repeat, sorta, but they’ve changed each time they return. “marking the slope, slung high in the low lands” becomes “marking the slope, slung low in the highlands” when it comes back a verse later. it’s brilliant - they are both, indeed, marking the slope. what an absolutely gorgeous way to say such a thing. the little sample that follows that each time is just pure feeling to me - “where the days have no numbers” - i don’t think that’s justin’s voice, or maybe even his words. it feels like another person who you remember from time to time. a guide. the closing line (right after that sample) changes each time as well. the first time it’s “if it’s harmed me, it’ll harm me, it harms me, i’ll let it in”. a perfect way to speak acceptance of a hard thing. the next repetition, “it harms me, it harms me, it harms me, like a lamb” means something new to me almost every time i hear it. i mostly think about something which does not mean to harm you. it harms you because it cannot care for itself, like a loving way to view a burdensome thing. the last repetition (and ending of the song) is an even more resolute, perhaps less studious return to that acceptance. i feel that the words are absolutely sacred to me and my growth as a person. 

Don't forget to stream August Kamp's new single 'Un(familia)rity' now: