MIA alumnus Cameron Jericho releases debut EP Starlight

Header image for Interrobang article CREDIT: PROVIDED BY CAMERON JERICHO, ALBUM ARTWORK BY ANDRES GARZON.
Fanshawe Music Industry Arts (MIA) grad, Cameron Jericho is well on his way in the music industry, with his recently released EP, Starlight.

After several years of heavy involvement in the London music scene, Cameron Jericho, a graduate of Fanshawe’s Music Industry Arts (MIA) program, released his debut EP Starlight just last month.

Jericho’s mesmerizing sound and inspiring songwriting effortlessly combines elements of Americana, folk and country, creating a tapestry of unique and memorable music.

Drawing upon these genres of music and songwriting inspiration from artists such as Randy Newman, Leonard Cohen, and Donavan woods, Jericho shared the style of the EP while recording.

“We found a unique sound that sits between my favourite genres, without compromising based on genre norms,” Jericho said.

Songwriting has always been major part of Jericho’s drive to pursue a career in the industry.

“I love writing songs. I’m always spitballing lyrics, melodies, and story ideas”, Jericho said. “I take pieces and I try to create a concrete theme before writing the rest of a song, and really try to be certain of what I want to say and the story I want to tell before I finalize any lyric.”

Once the songs have been written and performed over the course of several years, recording and getting the songs out into the world involved a number of key people including Joni Fuller, Marito Marquez and Andres Garzon. Jericho said that one of the most important players in getting this project off the ground was MIA program co-ordinator and JUNO award winning engineer, Dan Brodbeck.

According to Jericho, Brodbeck served as “the producer, engineer, and jack of all trades for this project”, also playing guitar, bass and throwing himself into the EP in any way possible.

“Working with Dan was awesome. Having someone with so much experience care about my music and help me bring my songs to life was an unbelievable experience,” Jericho said.

Brodbeck expressed just as much enjoyment in getting to work with someone like Jericho on this kind of project. According to Brodbeck, the recording process was “pretty much about as painless as it gets”.

Brodbeck had more positives to say about Jericho.

“He’s very organized, he knows what he wants and sings really well, sings the songs that he wrote properly. He didn’t need a lot of goading... he really knew the direction of how it was to be sung,” Brodbeck said.

However, Brodbeck doesn’t seem realize just how strong an impact he had on Jericho’s performance of the songs. Jericho said that after playing some of the songs for as long as three years, it’s easy to fall into a routine way of delivering them. All that changed however, with Brodbeck involved.

“When Dan initially showed me his production ideas, it was shocking because I had never thought of my songs as more than just guitar and vocals. It changed everything,” Jericho said. “The whole experience definitely reiterated to me how important collaboration is in music, as well as being open and receptive to change.”

Whatever the cause, the vocal deliverance and performance of the songs is truly captivating, with the focal point of the entire album being Jericho’s uniquely soothing voice. A voice that Brodbeck describes as “really likeable and as soon as you hear it you know it’s him”.

In order to premiere the music to the world, Jericho had a release show at The Rosewood Room in the London Music Hall, which was a huge success.

“I’m really thankful to Brandon Eedy [and] the folks at London Music Hall for setting me up at The Rosewood Room”, Jericho said. “It’s my favourite venue in the city, and it was the perfect intimate atmosphere for what we were doing.”

Things didn’t stop after the show however and after years of hard work, things finally seem to be paying off.

“I’ve had really good responses so far! My first single “Anchor” was played across Canada on a number of CBC Radio One stations, and was featured on some great Spotify [and] YouTube playlists,” Jericho said.

Jericho said he attributes much of his success to how he was impacted during his time at Fanshawe’s MIA program.

“I was always challenged and pushed to do better in every category. I don’t hesitate to say that everything I am able to do now is because of MIA, and the people I met in the course,” Jericho said.

Starlight is available now on all major streaming platforms such as Spotify and Apple Music. Those who want to stay in the loop with upcoming shows and other news on Jericho can go to CameronJericho.com.