Caamp announced a new album, Lavender Days, due out via Mom + Pop on June 24. The Ohio-based band also shared the single, “Believe,” as well as a host of new tour dates around the new LP.
Lavender Days is Caamp’s fourth studio album and the follow up to 2019’s By & By. The band began recording for the new LP in February 2021 at Sylvan Esso’s recording facility in Durham, North Carolina with the aid of renowned producer and musician Brad Cook (Snail Mail, Waxahatchee, Indigo De Souza). In Durham, the band workshopped the songs and began initial tracking with Cook and also brought in special guests Nathaniel Rateliff and Katie Crutchfield of Waxahatchee on vocals.
Caamp then returned to Columbus, Ohio to finish up the album in their hometown with help from producer Beatriz Artola (Fleet Foxes, Adele, Sharon Van Etten). The return home to wrap the record was fitting as Lavender Days — a phrase that hit Caamp co-founder and primary songwriter Taylor Meier “like a coconut out of the sky” — was inspired by feelings of the familiar.
“It’s nostalgic,” Meier said of the LP’s botanic reference. “It can remind you of your grandmother’s perfume or maybe the air freshener in your mom’s car. It can summon up all of these incredible memories and transport you to those in-between days, which I think everybody remembers with more clarity than the big events.”
But the album isn’t all about warm and fuzzy memories. Meier wrote the material for Lavender Days during a difficult period.
“The past two years have been a big learning curve for us, especially since Caamp is centered on travel and human interaction,” Taylor continued. “That all got stripped away very suddenly. I lost my livelihood, then I lost a very deep love of mine. I lost my beloved dog. Then we all got Covid. You start to lose your sanity.”
But as is often the case, struggle gave way to art. “I learned a lot and I humbled myself,” Taylor revealed. “I think I became more patient, and I know I became more vulnerable around my bandmates, my friends, and my family. Getting these songs to tape was a huge part of that process of learning and healing.”
Meier also weighed in on the album’s lead single, “Believe.” “‘I believe in you baby’ – a mantra for yourself and for the world,” he said. “It’s about sticking through the tough and heading for the sun.”
Listen to “Believe” below:
Caamp wrote “Believe” during a soundcheck when they returned to the road in 2021 and the band is set to embark on another journey in 2022 beginning by supporting The Lumineers. Caamp’s headline tour kicks off in San Diego on July 5 followed by additional California dates in Los Angeles, Santa Barbara and Berkeley.
Caamp will continue on the Pacific Northwest beginning with a stop in Troutdale, Oregon on July 14 followed by plays in Vancouver and the Seattle area. The band will then conduct a two-night run in Bonner, Montana ahead of a show Bosie, Idaho on July 26. Following a couple music festival slots as well as opening for The Lumineers at the storied Wrigley Field on September 3. Caamp will headline Colorado’s iconic Red Rocks Amphitheatre on October 3 before returning home for their arena headlining debut at Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio on October 21.
Tickets for Caamp’s headlining dates go on sale Friday, March 18 at 10 a.m. local venue time.
