This week, we had the pleasure of catching up with the talented singer/songwriter, Callum Spencer, as he graced the stage at The Mess Room in Skipton for a sold-out full band gig. As an Indie-Folk artist, Callum delivered a great performance, showcasing his remarkable vocals, powerful voice, and an array of captivating, well-crafted songs that left the audience thoroughly enthralled. Notably, his recent successful tour in Poland has further cemented his presence on the music scene, with a string of impressive gigs and coveted festival slots, solidifying his position as a rising artist to watch.

So what's it like playing at your packed out, sold out local gig?

It's very exciting. It's very scary. It's scarier when it's a hometown show, I think. It's lovely. It's really nice. But I think as a hometown gig there's a pressure there that you don't want to f**k it up in front of your friends and family, I suppose.

Yeah, I guess so. The room's looking good. It's the first time I've been here.

Yeah, it's a cool spot. It's fairly new. It's only been around for what, about a year? I don't think they have many proper ticketed headline shows on. They have a lot of cover bands on here. Yeah, and it's sick.

I noticed Jade Helliwell is playing here soon too, I interviewed her last year.

Oh really, that will be sick, I might come down to that. They always sell out really quickly, though, because it's obviously not a massive room. So when they get someone a bit more well known, it sells out straight away. 

So your roots are in Folk and Americana. What got you into that style?

Yeah, so I started playing acoustic stuff. I started out busking around here actually and then ended up gigging in little bars when I was 16, 17, still at school. Then I went out of school and started playing straight away and writing my own stuff. Then it progressed into more like indie rock stuff in the last couple of years. We got the band, the band's fairly new. This is our second show out together, so it's pretty sick. I was playing all these gigs and I've got quite a big voice and that's always been a characteristic of what I've been doing. And it was getting to a point where I was going out and doing acoustic shows and I was like, This could be a bit more hefty. So we got the band in and it's been pretty sick. It's just so much better playing with other people. Having a bit of backing and a bit of heft behind stuff.

Yeah, I imagine. Because have you just been doing a tour in Poland? Was that a stripped back kind of thing?

Yeah. That was really weird because it was like I've written all the songs in the last year or so with the band in mind. And then I went out and did this tour, which I've done before. I've done a tour there before, but that was when I was still writing acoustic tunes. So it was like a matter of reverse engineering all the tunes to work acoustic. So it was like rewriting every single song. But it went down great. We sold out the whole tour. And yeah, it was sick. But yeah, it's nice to be back with the band and doing that. I feel like that's what we want to push forward with now, I think.

So how did the whole Poland thing come about?

They got in touch with me pre COVID. I've done two tours with them before. So they got in touch and they were like, they'd seen a video on YouTube or something, a song that I had done. I think it's a different mentality for gigs over there and maybe some different parts of Europe as well. But people are just more up for going to see an artist that they maybe don't follow so much or have heard of but haven't really listened to or whatever. Because we're a bit spoiled here, maybe that there's so many gigs going on that you can always go watch someone really famous. So it's nice that there's a culture where people just go to gigs because it's a gig and they want to go watch some music.

What's the audience like in Poland compared to England?

It's different. My experience of it is only based on acoustic shows, which it lends to being a bit more attentive anyway. But yeah, it's been super attentive. But they're just generally more up for it if they don't know the artist. Because everyone here, when they know the tunes, everyone's up for it.

I suppose it's harder to get a band together over in Europe?

Yeah, well, that's what we've been coming across, really, it’s really great to go do that. But for the size of shows that we're doing over there at the moment or around Europe, they're not big enough to pay for the expense of taking the band. That's where we're at at the moment. But it'd be really cool to take the band out there and do that. Hopefully, maybe next year there's some scope for that. We'll see. It just depends on budgets, really, which is s**t. The acoustic shows are still nice. It's a nice change. But yeah, it'd definitely be cool to get the band out there and give it some over there.

I've noticed you've done some good festivals, some big festivals?

I did Fresh Out Of School actually, I did a festival in Amsterdam called Festival Of Brave, which is what maybe established straight away just wanting to do it. Because with Fresh Out Of School, God knows why they accepted me on that because looking back, I was totally under qualified to be doing what I did. But it went really well. And then I ended up doing some touring with a band called Seafret around the UK. Because they were the headliners of that festival and we got talking and whatever. So that's what got everything going, really. So that was the catalyst for it. I've done a few festivals in the UK, but more like small ones, really. But yeah, hopefully, maybe next year we'll get a few festivals going. That'd be so good. I feel like the type of music we do lends itself to that as well with that anthemic festival vibe. 

Have you got any new music coming out?

We do. Well, it's not actually totally sorted yet, but I'm working with a producer down in Bath. So we've got all the songs we've written. We've got probably enough songs for an album or whatever, but we're not going to do that because we're obviously not at that stage. But yeah, there's loads of new tunes and they're all pretty much done. But we've had interest from a really good producer down there. So we're going to go and do a bit of work with that. And then it'll probably be like the back end of this year that we start releasing all that stuff. But there's loads. There's so much. It's annoying, really, because I'm so eager to have some stuff out because it's been ages. But I feel like it's better to hang back and then release really regularly rather than once we've got a massive bank of songs, rather than just put one out and then wait another six months and let all the momentum die off. So we just want to hit the ground running when we start. That's the plan with that, I think. But yeah, we need to really get our act together and get it sorted, to be fair.

So you're picking up some traction around the country and you're doing some good gigs and festivals. Have you got a message for your fans and followers?

Cheers for coming, It's fun. When I put on the headliners, I do it fully expecting there to be not many people there. And so far everything is sold out. So it's been class, but I don't know how that's happening. So cheers for coming. Please carry on coming.

Thanks Callum!

Author: Andrew Braithwaite

Andrew is the founder and Managing Director of Music Talkers. He's also a keen music enthusiast and plays the guitar.