Amid a whirlwind of activity — from getting married to grabbing award nominations — Cam is also preparing to launch her first-ever headlining tour.
Named for her breakthrough hit, The Burning House Tour begins Oct. 27 in Chicago and continues through two shows in Las Vegas in December. The tour follows an opening slot on Dierks Bentley’s tour this summer.
Fresh off the plane from her honeymoon, Cam visited the Nashville Songwriters Association International (NSAI) headquarters on Monday (Oct. 10) to accept a plaque for “Burning House” being named one of the “10 Songs I Wish I’d Written” by NSAI members.
Following the presentation, she chatted with Nashville media about the Burning House Tour.
Can you talk about what’s next for you? “Mayday” is still out there, but do you have some new music in the works?
Well, the next thing that happens at the end of October, which I’m really excited about, is that I get to do my own headlining tour. So, we have rehearsals. Like on the Dierks tour, we got a 30-minute set. Now we have a full set, the full dream of what the backdrop looks like, the production. Do you do cover songs? Do you pull in new songs? So, this is the manifestation of what you’ve been hoping to do.
It’s going to be exciting to have that moment. It’s just you and your fans. Sometimes you have people who are there for you if you’re [opening] a Dierks show. But for this, they’re really there for me, and we’re really going to have our little moment together.
Will you have a lot of cover songs in the set?
I’m traditionally against covers. I feel like those artists worked really hard to make that song what it is, and you’re kind of piggybacking on that. And you’re missing an opportunity to take your song up and introduce your song to more people. So, I may do one or two, just because I know people like them. (laughs) But I definitely have to love it to do it.
Can you describe your staging and what we will see at a Cam show?
Yeah, the venue capacity size is obviously different when you go from a Dierks show to a Cam show. And he was like, “Oh, those were our favorite!” And his entire band talks about how that’s where you cut your teeth, that’s where you learn what connects with an audience, and also where you dream up the next level of things.
He talked about how a lot of the show he had this summer came from those venues we’re playing, and where they learned a lot of things. Our show’s gonna have a lot of visuals but it’s also going to have acoustic moments. I talk a lot – shock! – but I love explaining where the songs come from and why they mean something and how grateful I am that people are there. Minimal cussing, I’m hoping. It’s going to be intimate but also showy.
Are you going to incorporate yellow into the production?
Yeah! And what’s great is that people now wear yellow to the shows too, so we’re all nerds together. (laughs)
On this tour, you have a VIP Sleepwalker Adventure planned. What can you tell us about that?
So, this is something that I love as much as the music part—things that are an experience, that you create for people. It’s probably related but I love making people feel something, and taking them a little bit away from normal life. That’s what’s going to happen with this adventure. (laughs) We’re going to do some dream analysis. It’s going to be like the coolest hangout.
This is the dream when you get a chance to design your own experience with people, instead of just the quick meet-and-greet where you get 10 seconds, smile and take a picture, and they run off. You get a little more time with these people, especially for this first tour. These are the original fans who are going to be with me for my entire career. They’re going to build my career with me, so these people get primo! You know what I mean? I’m gonna make sure there’s some awesome shit for them!
Cam accepts her MusicRow No. 1 Challenge Coin for “Burning House” from MusicRow‘s Craig Shelburne
You’ve done some epic videos, with the fire in “Burning House” and the water in “Mayday.” What’s next — ice?
(laughs) Yeah! I like that! Lindsay (Marias, her manager) and I do the videos together. My lawyer works with Kendrick Lamar, and Kendrick and his manager do their videos together too. So we called them up for the “Mayday” video and asked, “How do you pull this off”? They’re so creative! And they talked about their brainstorming style and how they get it done, and I can tell you – just like with the music, I can promise you that it’s all gonna be next-level shit.
We don’t settle and it probably is abrasive to some people. (laughs) But it is so much fun to think about something that is going to really make people feel something. And be visually stunning. That’s really important to us too, as babies of Disney. A lot of times when songs are written, we’ll have video treatments in mind already. Then you have to fight over a budget and see what you really can do! But I promise it’s going to be great.
As an artist based in music, how important is it that the visual way you present yourself is exactly the way you want it?
It’s really important! The only sense I would say it isn’t, I don’t really buy into the idea that women have to be sexy in order to be creators. There’s no intrinsic link there for me, so I don’t really get that part. But besides that, if you’re being who you are, looks aside, the other parts of the visuals are SO important.
I think it helps bring you into a space where you’re ready to have an experience. If you’re doing the singer-songwriter guitar thing, and you’re really close to someone, that’s really easy to make them connect. But the more people you have that you’re trying to connect with, the more you can make your visuals more bombastic—and something different that makes people think, “Oh wow, we’re here and we’re about to have an adventure.”
That’s so important to me. I don’t know exactly why but I was for sure born with that part. I love that imagination and storytelling and saying, “Come on, let’s go on an adventure.”
