You might have heard of the Disney Channel show, Best Friends Whenever. August Kamp, who played Barry Eisenberg on the show, has released his first two singles.

At age 19, Kamp is from Denver, Colorado and is taking on the music industry solo. Kamp taught himself most of what he knows in music. Kamp said in a press release, “Being self-taught stems less from cockiness, and more from insecurity, for me at least,” Kamp wrote. “I’ve always written poems and lyrics, but until about a year ago, I didn’t know anything about music. I didn’t know what a key or an octave or a chord was, I never played an instrument, and my only real singing training was at a musical theater camp when I was nine and still a soprano. The idea of meeting with a producer was daunting. I would imagine sitting in a silent, cool room with some music genius, showing them the songs I had been secretly writing on my phone for years, and not being able to even have a conversation about what the hell I wanted them to sound like. It was an anxiety-inducing thought.”

Kamp started to become interested in the entertainment industry at age two when he would act out scenes of movies he watched. His parents joked that he should move to Hollywood and become an actor. Only nine years after, his family lost their house due to a market crash and they had nothing to lose so they moved to LA  so Kamp could attempt to become an actor, which in the long run became a successful turn around. After being on the show, Best Friends Whenever on Disney Channel for two seasons and then it being cancelled, Kamp decided to start pursuing his music passions.

In a press release, Kamp says how he started to teach himself music. “So I bought a laptop, I bought Logic, and I started pushing buttons and turning knobs until I figured out what did what,” Kamp said. “I only wanted to make a couple of demos, I didn’t need to actually produce the songs. But then I did. I realized after finishing my first proper “demo” that I didn’t want anyone else deciding what my product would sound like. I kept buying new plugins and new synths, I kept trying new styles and genres, and for what I really think might be the first time in my life, I worked really hard on something.”

Kamp is slated to have his debut EP out on September 21st. He just released his first two songs, “Dance Alone” and “Loneliness.”

Dance Alone:

Kamp’s songs so far definitely have a different sound than most music today. “Dance Alone” is about wasting life not having a good time, so you should really just not care what anyone else thinks, “dance alone,” what is there to lose? “Don’t leave me alone, I can never keep with the bass of my tone, no I just keep advancing, I’m just dancing all alone.” The beat will definitely have you dancing alone, no matter where you are.

Kamp wrote in a press release what the process of writing “Dance Alone” was like.

“When I finished my first draft of this song, I sent it to a friend of mine to get some notes, he replied, “this is miles better than anything you’ve done so far”. Brutal? I sort of thought so, but also very motivating. Dance Alone was the first song on which I really played around with autotune. The texture I wanted for the vocals was something like sharpening a knife. I wanted it to “scrape” a little bit. There are a couple of moments on the track where I cut to myself speaking as a sort of professor character (who sounds a lot, evidently, like Alan Watts). I always wanted to have little moments of talking to punctuate moments within my songs. Initially I wanted to sample lines from movies, but I found that it was much more fun to act these things out myself.”

Loneliness:

Have you ever been alone? Left at home all alone for more than two days, those can be the most lonely times of your life. This song is perfect for those times, it speaks to you when you’re feeling alone and want something to relate to.

Kamp wrote in a press release what the song is inspired by.

“The first line is the essence of the song. “Loneliness is just as big for growing as any other damn emotion is, but god I feel so lonely now”. I recorded this while my girlfriend and everyone else who lives with me were out of town. I found the chord progression and thought it sounded pretty, and the words just sort of spilled out of me until the song was finished. I love it when that happens. I had been wanting to do a sort of pseudo-Lo-Fi, bedroom-pop type of song for a while, and I learned a lot about mixing and mastering by adhering to that idea. I sent this song to a friend to ask what she thought, and she said “I think that for a long time, the most honest songs have been about love. But I think right now, the most honest songs are about loneliness.” It made me so happy I cried a little.”

Make sure to listen to “Dance Alone” and “Loneliness” on iTunes and stream them on Spotify now! Let us know what you think of the songs by leaving a reaction down below and make sure you follow August Kamp on Instagram to stay up to date with his music! Kamp’s debut EP, Sketchbook will be available on September 21st.

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