Calum Bowie Interview — Here To Stay
Over the last few months, 20-year-old Aberdeen-born musician Calum Bowie has made a name for himself thanks to his viral TikTok singing covers from his flat in Edinburgh. 73.4k followers and 2.2 million likes later, Calum is about to headline his first major Edinburgh gig on the 3rd December, so we sat down with him over the magical medium of zoom to chat all things music.
Calum released his first single in 2017 and since then has released 10 other tracks ranging from indie rock to indie pop, all containing a Scottish twang in his singing style . When he was younger, Calum cites rock as his main influence, listing the likes of Oasis and ACDC, “which is not really what my sound is now.” Other influences include, “Ed Sheeran and stuff like that. Passenger, for me, was huge and one of my favourites… There’s people from loads of different places who have inspired me,” including more recently, Sam Fender.
Calum now studies music business. Promoting his music, he began posting on instagram but after his sister introduced him to TikTok during lockdown, he started gaining popularity for singing covers from his window. His audience grew exponentially, especially after an interaction between Calum and his neighbor, in which she tells him “it’s nice hearing you play, keep doing what you’re doing”. Unfortunately for the 80% female and 20% male audience on his TikTok, the romance was nothing more than a brief encounter. Videos from his window became his “wee TikTok thing,” singing covers from Bruce Springsteen to Paolo Nutini. Admitting it takes him around 10 goes to get the best take, Calum finds interaction from people on the street a great way to encourage him and make him sing the best he possibly can.
Calum’s three main sources of musical output are social media, busking and gigs and whilst “TikTok absolutely pushes my music and its rewarding when one does well, but I see it as almost algorithmic luck.” Despite the ability to reach a greater audience with social media, Calum says gigs as his “absolute favourite.” People are even starting to know the words to his songs and singing along at the shows which he finds “weird but cool.”
Coming from a small town outside Aberdeen called Banchory, Calum shared the difference between music scenes up and down the country. In Aberdeen, there is, “a small music scene,” and in Banchory, even less, however, Calum admits it is easier to get gigs back home as you can just walk into a pub and ask to play, although it is apparently quite, “cringe” to be a performing musician in his town. Contrary, Edinburgh is, “ten fold on Aberdeen,” and there is so much more to see and do gig-wise in the capital. Gigs are what people do for fun and Calum is enjoying performing and getting to do what he loves.
One of his most popular songs, ‘Anthem’, is all about hearing the right song at the right time. When asked about his own anthem, Calum singled out an acoustic-live version of ‘3am’ by Matchbox Twenty and the “untouchable” + album by Ed Sheeran. A deceivingly hard question but we rate his answers.
Regarding any dream collaborations Calum does not want to go rogue and just get anyone on a record for the sake of it. Instead, he would want to write and produce with different artists he admires, such as Plested and Matty Healy as to Calum, one of the most important parts of the process is the writing. It’s the “intellectual property” and it is so meaningful to him. He also shared his interest in meeting Sam Fender, but didn’t think he drinks enough cans to be able to keep up with him! I don’t think anyone does.
Wanting to keep up an element of “mystery”, Calum couldn’t tell us quite what is coming in the near future, but a his next single ‘Call Me Back’ will be released on the 10th December — produced by three people who have worked with the likes of Tom Grennan and Niall Horan. Think Alfie Templeman and Holly Humberstone vibes, the single has a new sound and is his, “biggest release yet.”
Calum Bowie will be playing at King Tut’s New Year’s Revolution Festival on 23rd January 2022 in Glasgow.
Instagram/TikTok: @calumbowiemusic
