Life & Work with Cameron Hawthorn

Hi Cameron, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstories.
I’m a small town boy from Kansas and grew up singing and songwriting. When I left home to go to college in California, my parents moved to Dallas. “The Big D” quickly became a new home for me when I would come home for summers or the holidays. After graduating from the University of Southern California, my parents allowed me to move home to Dallas so that I could pursue music. It was in Dallas where I began my journey as an artist. I had always written songs on my own, and I started acting and modeling to help pay for getting these songs produced. After releasing 2 projects and playing live shows for 2 years, I decided to go on a six-month adventure to Australia. Also, during this time, I was finding success in licensing my music in film and television. When I returned from Australia, I had saved up enough money to move back to California and continue pursuing music full-time in Los Angeles. I tried to continue to create music for licensing but was starting to hit a roadblock – the music I was creating wasn’t performing as well in the licensing world as it had originally done and was paralleled with my own personal journey of discovering a deeper part of myself with my sexuality. Ironically, I felt like the music I was writing, while true to myself, was only skimming the surface of what I wanted to say as an artist. I couldn’t find a way to tell the stories I wanted to tell in my music when there was a looming target of writing for film and television.

Right around the time when I came out as gay, I knew I was also having a rebirth as an artist. I had always been a singer-songwriter, but I had never allowed myself to do country music. I grew up on country music, listening to the classics on the back porch of my Mamaw and Papaw’s house in Oklahoma as a kid. My parents always had country radio playing and we would always watch the CMA’s. I dreamt of being there but never thought I belonged in that world because I always knew I was “different” from the typical male country artist.

The confidence I gained by coming out in Los Angeles inspired me to live my dream of writing and performing my own style of country music – the music that came from the heart of a Kansas boy who had been on quite the journey in order to bravely sing about his story. I finally got the courage to put my story into a song called “Dancing in the Living Room” and release a music video that shared even more of my story when I come home to dance with my partner at the end of the video. The song and video gained quite a bit of buzz with articles in People.com, Huffington Post, CMT, and The Advocate. It was the push I needed to leave California a few months after the release and make a move to Nashville, Tennessee.

In Nashville, I joined up with some talented writers to continue telling my story. Co-writing wasn’t something I often did, but I knew it would stretch me as a songwriter and artist. I worked towards releasing a 5 song EP called “Mustang” and finished it right before COVID hit in 2020. I had goals of finally getting to play live shows with these new songs, but COVID through a curveball in these plans.

When the world went into lockdown, I decided to go home to Dallas to be with my parents. While the world was in panic and confusion, the stars happened to align for me and my journey. I met the cowboy of my dreams and he had a ranch south of Dallas that we would go to get away from the city during the pandemic. We took a chance and started quarantining together in April 2020 and we’ve been together ever since. Finding him and getting to spend time with him on the ranch has been the biggest blessing and a new chapter of my life full of inspiration for my music.

In August, I released a song called “Love at First Sight” – the first song I’ve actually written and released about finding a love I’ve only dreamt about. The next song I released in October called “Dreamland” is a song I wrote inspired solely by the life I’m now living in the country.

I can’t wait to finally start playing shows again now that live music is back and Dallas is the first city on my radar. I’ll get to finally play the songs from the Mustang EP, including “Dancing in the Living Room”, as well as these new ones (and some even newer ones no one has ever heard).

It’s been QUITE the journey since leaving Kansas, but I know I’m right where I’m supposed to be in Texas and can’t wait to see where this country road continues to take me.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It has definitely not been a smooth road. I’ve faced rejection in the music industry in all shapes and forms. I’ve been on a roller coaster in terms of having financial success coupled with the burning desire to tell my story, no matter the cost. I’ve continued to be molded as an artist, in my sound, and in the stories I tell – especially when I came out as gay and decided I wanted to do country music and write and sing about my personal story. I’ve also lived in several different cities and had to find my way in all of them. All throughout that, I’ve had to continue believing in myself and fight off self-doubt and wanting to give up. I will be the first to tell you that being an artist is not for the faint of heart.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
It’s important to me to write my own songs. My primary instrument is piano but I also play guitar. “Dancing in the Living Room” is probably the most proud of a song and video I’ve been because it was the first time I put a part of myself into my music that I had never shared before. Another song I’m really proud of is called “To Break Hers”, a song I wrote about a girl I dated before I came out. I’ve been trying to be more and more vulnerable in my writing and I’m really proud of these songs and my Mustang EP.

I think what sets me apart from others is my authenticity, my story/journey, and my voice and style in country music.

Risk-taking is a topic that people have widely differing views on – we’d love to hear your thoughts.
I’m a BIG believer in risk-taking. My whole life has revolved around taking risks and “going on adventures”. I took a risk leaving Kansas and going to California for college. I took a risk pursuing music and being an artist and not taking the traditional route of getting a 9-5 job. I took a risk going to Australia on a six-month adventure which was a hiatus from my pursuit of music. I took a risk moving back to California after returning from Australia. I took a risk in coming out as gay in my personal life and as an artist. I took a risk to change gears and pursue my dream of doing country music and then moving to Nashville. I took a risk quarantining with my now partner after only knowing each other for a few weeks. All of these risks have pushed me forward into the next phase of my life which I look back on as chapters that are bookmarked by risks.

Contact Info:

• Email: cameronhawthornbooking@gmail.com
• Website: www.cameronhawthorn.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/cmrnhwthrn
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/cmrnhwthrn
• Twitter: www.twitter.com/cmrnhwthrn
• Youtube: www.youtube.com/cameronhawthorn
• Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/4pffLuF7STrHB1qQl6N1MQ?si=ef7NYs-ZRGKOli6LdS2sPQ