MUSIC REVIEW: Callum Easter – Here or Nowhere

Callum Easter is one of the underdogs on the Edinburgh music scene. ‘Here or Nowhere’, released by the island of Eigg’s, Lost Map Records label, is set to come out this spring. Although an underdog, the former member of The Stagger Rats is by no means unheard of. Playing keys for Young Fathers, Easter has been creating waves in Edinburgh since 2016. His EP, ‘Get Don’t Want’ has been picked up by bloggers and radio stations across the nation. Featured song “Feelings Gone” is held up by the repetition of “hold me and the feelings gone”. While this sounds monotonous, the beat is so uplifting that you forget the sad meaning of the lyrics. This is a song writing characteristic that Easter has kept up with in ‘Here or Nowhere’.

The title opens slowly with long drawn out tones before Easter solemnly sings, “nothing lasts forever, well expect the weather”. This is typical of Easter’s blunt approach to emotion in his song writing. Most of Easter’s song narratives are erratic, leaving the listener wondering where the sequence of words came from. Easter proclaims that he writes down his lyrics when they come to him, often on scrappy pieces of paper and the backs of envelopes. When writing ‘Here or Nowhere’, he was sitting with his daughter as she ate breakfast at the kitchen table. These simple and mundane moments add to Easter’s minimalistic approach. The music video is an overexposed picture of, assumably Easter’s, eye. The eye stays still however the lyrics of the song flash through the pupil. This takes Shakespeare literally with, “the eyes are the window to the soul” premise.

Easter’s minimalistic style is best explored through his website where you are met with a simplistic white interface that runs through lyrics, videos and music. The minimalistic approach is relevant to Easter’s deameanour,  where the soundscape is intense and lo-fi. An example of such is “Back Beat”, which has been placed on the list of the top 100 songs to come out of Scotland.

“Back Beat” follows a steady bass riff paired by a whistling tune. A sensual song, Easter sings of, “feeling wild like a sinner, I’m looking tired in the mirror”. The backbeat of a song is a strong accent on a usually unaccented beat of the bar, most commonly heard in jazz and pop music. Perhaps this expresses Easter’s explorative nature, as although he is tired of “making love to the backbeat”, and tired of wearing a heart on his sleeve, he is “never tired of making love”. During pauses in narrative, there are the faint sound of giggles that add to the playfulness of the song. Easter makes his breathing audible over the beat which adds to the sexually charged vibe of the record. His proactiveness peaks at the end with a raspy “come here” before the melody faints into the gentle hum of sound equipment.

These are the details that make ‘Here or Nowhere’ the artful expression of indi lo-fi music. Once this album drops, one can assume that Easter’s status as underdog will drop too.