Today, BC Camplight announces his new album A Sober Conversation out 27th June via Bella Union and available to preorder here. To accompany the announcement BC Camplight has shared lead single “Two Legged Dog”, an instant classic duet which features Abigail Morris from The Last Dinner Party. The song is a classic example of Brian Christinzio’s sumptuous songwriting, juxtaposing raw Rundgren-esque piano punching against moments of sophisticated classical grandeur.
Commenting on the track Abigail Morris says: “I was so thrilled when Brian reached out and asked if I would feature on this track. I will never forget the first time I heard BC Camplight – my band was driving from London to Brighton, I was astonishingly hungover and sunken eyed in the back seat when ‘I Only Drink When I’m Drunk’ came on my Discover Weekly. I had it on repeat for the rest of the journey and spent the next week exclusively listening to the rest of his discography. This track was a joy to sing, and I felt so honoured to be involved in such a powerful and personal song. Thank you, Brian – you are the GOAT.”
Additionally, BC Camplight has announced news of an extensive Autumn UK/EU tour featuring his biggest headline shows to date including performances at the Roundhouse in London and the O2 Apollo in Manchester. All dates are listed below.
Every BC Camplight album has a backstory every bit as compelling as its music. A Sober Conversation is no different, as virtuoso songwriter and pianist Brian Christinzio documents the last two years of his life, finally confronting a shocking childhood trauma while embracing sobriety, to create his bravest and most revealing record. It’s an enthralling, sometimes haunting quasi-concept record marked by ruthless tragic-comedic purging and sublime, intricate melody, knitting lyrical screenplays to dazzling arrangements. It is BC Camplight at the height of his remarkable powers.
A Sober Conversation follows Christinzio’s 2023 album, the critically celebrated The Last Rotation Of Earth (his first Top 40 album), a record centred around the agonising break-up of his long-term relationship. It received the most ecstatic reviews of his career – “A masterpiece” (Sunday Times), “Masterful” (Uncut), “An extraordinary record” (MOJO) – and his biggest headline shows up to that point at London Shepherd’s Bush Empire and Manchester’s Albert Hall. But even increased recognition for the man’s considerable talent cannot compensate for the man’s long history of depression, and Christinzio admits it’s been a hard-fought battle to reach this point in life.
“Around the time of The Last Rotation… I realised I was living in this perpetual childhood, messed up all the time, trying to free myself from responsibility and all the bad thoughts I had. It led to a kind of existential crisis… I was craving meaning, thinking about having kids… I’ve been running away from stuff for a long time. You can either try and achieve milestones in life or chase a dime bag – you can’t do both. And I’ve decided not to let myself be defeated anymore.”
In part, Christinzio’s new-found clarity led him back to childhood, to summer camp in New Jersey when he was abused by an adult counsellor. Previous BC Camplight records have referred to it obliquely, but it’s now front and centre of A Sober Conversation. “I had spent 30 years being terrified to open that door, and afraid of the price I’d pay once I had. I’ve opened the door. To some extent this album is what was on the other side. I hope it helps me but this album is also for everyone that is having trouble finding their bravery, finding themselves” he says.
As album intro ‘The Tent’ evolves from an ominous crescendo of synths and footsteps into a pensive country-tinged piano ballad into a passage of increasing tonal violence and euphoric choral harmonies, Christinzio sets the scene of the crime. Later on in the album, stunning magnum opus ‘Rock Gently To Disorder’ underlines how the struggle continues. “I might be owning my life, but it doesn’t mean it’s not going to hurt,” he affirms. “It’s always going to hurt.”
Hurt, alongside its good friends Confusion and Anger, have shaped every BC Camplight record, from his 2005 debut, when he was backed by musicians who would eventually join The War On Drugs. But by 2010, after he released a second album, Christinzio knew he had to leave Philly. “If I’d stayed,” he once mused, “I’d be dead. Period.” So he took a friend’s advice to escape his circumstances and moved to, of all places, Manchester. He found his way to Bella Union, when he began again, releasing the album How To Die In The North. Just days before it was released in 2014, Christinzio was deported back to Philly. He got back to the UK via an Italian passport and made Deportation Blues – but just days before its release in 2016, his father died, triggering the breakdown that inspired Shortly After Takeoff, the last part of what Christinzio calls his Manchester Trilogy.
The Last Rotation Of Earth followed, and Christinzio got through the break-up, started therapy, buried his addictions, and made his new masterwork A Sober Conversation. The album is self-played except drums (shared between Sidonie Hand-Halford and Adam Dawson, who plays in Christinzio’s live band), plus backing singer Jessica Branney. Live band members Jolan Lewis and Thom Bellini make cameos. Christinzio believes that his sobriety, “really comes out in the music. It’s more meaningful because it’s coming from a place of clarity.”
The BC Camplight live show is considered to be among the very best there is – a powerful and breathtaking affair. This year’s touring features a bunch of solo instore shows around the album’s launch and a full band UK tour in November, including London’s Roundhouse and Manchester Apollo. Upcoming live info below. All shows are full band unless listed as solo:
Saturday 17th May – Sheffield – Get Together Festival
Friday 13th June – Penzance – Minack Theatre (solo)
Saturday 5th July – York – Museum Gardens
Sunday 3rd August – Edinburgh – La Belle Angele
Saturday 30th August – Birmingham – Moseley Folk Festival
Friday 12th September – Lille – Aéronef (solo)
Saturday 13th September – Paris – Le Point Ephemere (solo)
Sunday 14th September – Antwerp – Venue TBC (solo)
Tuesday 16th September – Germany, Jena – TRAFO (solo)
Wednesday 17th September – Germany, Berlin – Kantine am Berghain (solo)
Thursday 18th September – Germany, Hamburg – Reeperbahn Festival (solo)
Friday 19th September – Denmark, Copenhagen – Hotel Cecil (solo)
Sunday 21st September – Germany, Cologne – Jaki (solo)
Monday 22nd September – The Netherlands, Amsterdam – Paradiso (solo)
Thursday 30th October – Bristol – SWX
Saturday 1st November – Leeds – Project House
Tuesday 4th November – Norwich – Norwich Arts Centre
Wednesday 5th November – London – Roundhouse
Thursday 6th November – Cardiff – Tramshed
Friday 7th November – Exeter – Phoenix
Saturday 8th November – Southampton – The 1865
Wednesday 12th November – Newcastle – Boiler Shop
Thursday 13th November – Glasgow – Queen Margaret Union
Friday 14th November – Manchester – O2 Apollo
Sunday 16th November – Nottingham – Rock City
Tuesday 18th November – Dublin – Button Factory
Wednesday 19th November – Belfast – Mandela Hall
Thursday 20th November – Galway – Roisin Duhb
Friday 21st November – Limerick City – Dolan’s
Tracklist:
1. The Tent
2. Two Legged Dog
3. A Sober Conversation
4. When I Make My First Million
5. Where You Taking My Baby?
6. Bubbles In The Gasoline
7. Rock Gently In Disorder
8. Drunk Talk
9. Leaving Camp Four Oaks
