On their earthy, jubilant new album, the Columbus, Ohio, band Caamp examine those in-between days that make up a life — not the best or most eventful days, certainly not the worst or most tragic, but those full of small pleasures and forgotten disappointments. Taylor Meier, the group’s singer and primary songwriter, came up with the phrase Lavender Days to describe them — a phrase that struck him out of the blue, “like a coconut out of the sky,” he says with a laugh. Why lavender? “It’s nostalgic. 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.”
Caamp have been writing and singing about those lavender days — in tender love songs tinged with melancholy and determination — ever since Meier played his first notes with bandmate Evan Westfall more than a decade ago. They met as students at Ohio University in Athens, playing local coffeehouses and growing more committed to this extracurricular project. With the addition of Matt Vinson on bass and Joseph Kavalec on keyboards, they built up a grassroots following well beyond the Buckeye State based on the inventiveness of Meier’s songwriting, the exuberance of their live performances, and their tireless dedication to touring as much as possible.
From their self-titled 2016 debut album to their releases of By and By in 2019 to Live From Newport Music Hall, “Fall, Fall, Fall,” and “Officer of Love” in 2020 and Lavender Days in 2022, the band has amassed over 1 billion streams globally as well as achieved multiple #1’s at AAA radio. The band has headlined sold out shows, including their first arena show in 2022, and performed at major festivals around the world including Firefly, Shaky Knees, Forecastle, Outside Lands, Austin City Limits, Great Escape and many more. They have also performed on national TV on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, CBS Saturday Morning and Late Show with Stephen Colbert.
Del Water Gap is the solo project of songwriter and producer S. Holden Jaffe, born in New England. He has already amassed a cult-like following with more than 52 million streams worldwide and a slew of collaborations all before a debut album. Most recently he was featured on two songs “(Does It Feel Slow?)” and “New Song” from Maggie Rogers’ 2020 album Notes from the Archive: Recordings 2011-2016. In 2020 he collaborated with Claud on their track “My Body,” which Nylon called “an intimate and bittersweet ballad.”
His newest singles “Sorry I Am,” (his debut release with Mom+Pop) and “Hurting Kind” have been well received by fans & media alike. “Sorry I Am” is a deeply confessional track, accompanied by an alluring music video filmed in a picturesque desert in Joshua Tree directed by Angela Ricciardi. This single follows his breakout 2020 track “Ode To A Conversation Stuck In Your Throat,” which racked up over 8.5 million streams on Spotify alone. It was the soundtrack to actors Margaret Qualley and Kaitlyn Dever’s summer pandemic dance party, and earned praise from Vogue UK as an “ear-worm.”
