Today we’d like to introduce you to Shannon Camacho.
Shannon, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I started singing at a very young age. I was involved in voice lessons, choir, musicals, church productions, talent shows, really anything that I could possibly be involved in. In high school a good friend of mine introduced me to two artists that changed my life forever, Frou Frou (Imogen Heap) and Regina Spektor. These incredible female artists are the reason I started songwriting, and are still two of my major influences to this day.
When it came time to apply for colleges, I applied to only one school, the University of North Texas, to study music. That is where I met my now producer and husband, Jonathan Camacho. Our working relationship started in college when Jonathan recorded a few of my songs under my name (that still exist on MySpace) at his studio, C-Factory Productions.
My project, Hello Shannon, technically started in 2012 when I started making YouTube covers with my ukulele. In 2014 I released my debut EP called The Tide, produced, of course, by Jonathan at C-Factory. At the time I wasn’t really sure of who I was as an artist or what I wanted to sound like, two very important things to consider when creating music. Nevertheless, at some point, especially starting out, you just have to put something out. After releasing the EP, we started playing as a full band at venues around Dallas, played an acoustic tour in Europe, drove to California for a short tour, etc. In 2015, we started working on a full-length album with the intention of including the songs from the EP. However, over the last few years the project evolved. Our influences began to expand as we started listening to James Blake and Kimbra, among others. We started experimenting with synths, samples, and vocal production. We ended up scratching most of the old songs and started writing brand new material. Once again, I was faced with the uncertainty of who I was as an artist and what I wanted to sound like, which is one of the reasons why the album took so long. I didn’t want to put out another record “just because.” I wanted to be certain of every sound, every emotion. To be proud and sure. Which after three years, I am. We are.
Though the project began as my solo project with Jonathan as the producer, over the last few years, the making of this record has involved so much of both of us. While Hello Shannon will forever be my brainchild, it has evolved into a project with both of our names on it. A project we are both incredibly proud of. Jesse Rodriguez, our good friend, and drummer, was also involved in the production of several of the songs as well. It’s been quite the journey but I’m thankful for the time it took to get here. The full-length album, Wander, which took three years to complete, is finally finished and will release on October 19th of this year.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc. – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Not really. Our full-length album, which was only supposed to take three months, ended up taking three years, for several reasons. We began recording in C-Factory’s first location, a building owned by SMU on Dyer Street near Mockingbird Station. Halfway through recording, SMU gave notice that they were tearing down the building, forcing the studio to relocate. We moved our equipment into storage and began recording in our apartment. After several months, the studio relocated to Deep Ellum and remained there for about a year. At this point, we had already gotten rid of the songs on the EP and started some of the newer songs over from scratch. Two years ago we started a GoFundMe and put together an album preview show with the intent of releasing the record in January of 2017. But shortly after that show, the Deep Ellum building was bought out, forcing the studio to move again to its current location in Carrollton inside of Drive35 Productions. I could say that the studio moves were the main reason why the album took so long, but that’s not really true. If anything the studio moves forced us to examine and re-examine the songs. Most of the songs don’t even sound the way that they did when we played them at our preview show. Most of the songs went through as many as three fully produced versions before we finally landed on what we felt to be the right sounds and emotions. One of the songs, Adventure Dear, started with a melodica and a classical guitar, which, when you listen to the record, you’ll hear how far we deviated from. It wasn’t necessarily that the original versions of the songs were bad, they just weren’t “right.” I think about what the record would have sounded like if we had released it in 2015 and can’t help but simultaneously cringe and breathe a sigh of relief. Though the last three years have been both incredibly frustrating and humbling, I’m grateful for every second.
So, as you know, we’re impressed with Hello Shannon – tell our readers more, for example, what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
We like to say that we are Indie/Alternative Pop, although we’re not really sure what that means. While we use a lot of organic instrumentation, we also use a lot of electronic elements as well. One of the things that I think Hello Shannon is known for is the vocal production. As I mentioned earlier, I participated in choir most of my life and studied music in college. I was always fascinated with counterpoint, dissonance, and resolution, especially when it involved human voices. Therefore, every song features layers (and more layers) of vocal production.
So, what’s next? Any big plans?
Our plan is to release the record on October 19th and see where it takes us. The goal is to have a release show at the beginning of 2019 followed by shows and festivals. Since we took a break from playing live to focus on recording, we are very excited to start playing out again both as a duo and as a full band.
Contact Info:
- Website: helloshannonmusic.com
- Phone: 817-343-7657
- Email: helloshannonmusic@gmail.com
- Instagram: __helloshannon
- Facebook: facebook.com/helloshannonmusic
- Twitter: _helloshannon
Image Credit:
Kathy Tran
Getting in touch: VoyageDallas is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
