Local singer-songwriter Cameron Stenger stopped by Live & Local last week, following the release of his new album “Lighter” – his first full-length LP in nine years.
“It was a long time coming for that album,” Stenger says of “Lighter.” “I finished it almost two years ago, and I’ve been sitting on it for a bit. And it just felt like (now) was the right time to release it.”
But “Lighter” is the product not just of a long time, but also a long journey, both geographically and personally. Stenger had been a rising fixture in the Chapel Hill music scene in the mid-2010s, with two albums under his belt, before a life change took him away – for a while.
“I went to Colorado, got my master’s in social work, and put music down for a little bit,” he says. Eventually he landed in Portland, pursuing his career and dealing with a difficult divorce, as far from music as he’d been in a long time – and it was then that the bug returned.
“(I was) working from home, in my basement, and these songs started to emerge,” Stenger says. “I hadn’t written a song in five years, and then the song “Weight of the World” – it was maybe the first week of (COVID) lockdown, and I was sitting on my back porch and it just kind of just kind of came out, and it sparked the idea of an album.”
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What ultimately emerged is an intimate set of 10 tracks. The songs themselves are raw and emotional, with shades of Elliot Smith or Nick Drake; Stenger then gave them a fuller sound in the studio – alongside co-producer Jeff Crawford, who’s also worked with Watchhouse and the Dead Tongues. The title, “Lighter,” carries multiple meanings: it refers to the sad-and-scary-yet-liberating feeling of unburdening yourself of a great life-defining weight – and it also refers to the metaphorical spark that launches a creative fire.
“It’s kind of a grief-oriented album, it’s about a divorce, my divorce,” Stenger says. “(But) in another sense it’s also about a reclamation of myself, my voice. I think this happens for a lot of creatives: there’s a period of time (where) you kind of lose that sense of direction, but in the process of (making) this album, writing it, recording it, connecting with people from my past and meeting new people, I think I found this new confidence in myself and my songs.”
And luckily for us, Stenger’s personal reclamation also came with a return to the Triangle – a place he first discovered right after college in 2012, almost on a whim.
“I rented a room sight unseen, (and) I just said I’m going to try it out for a few months and see how it is,” he says of that experience. “And I think the first night, I was walking down Rosemary (and) ended up at the Station, and it was an open-mic night. And the people that I met that night, that weekend, are the people that I still play music with today…
“It’s probably the most supportive place I’ve ever lived,” he adds. “There’s just such an element of people lifting each other up.”
Cameron Stenger is playing at the Carrboro Music Festival on Sunday, September 28, along with dozens of other acclaimed local artists and bands. Click here for more details about the free festival.
Cameron Stenger stopped by Live & Local last week to discuss the new album and play three songs: “On the Wire,” “Tattered Cloth,” and the title track, “Lighter.” Listen:
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