The latest single from Blue Acres is full of haunting vulnerability. “How to Start Again” exposes a side of Darrel Cameron that is clearly still looking mend as he practically pleads with the universe to help him find his footing while making nods to early Bon Iver and Gregory Alan Isakov.
Darrel Cameron is on something of a journey. After experiencing burnout in the field of Music Therapy, he’s made the switch to Music Production and, in the process, he’s discovering a whole new world for himself—and even a whole new version of himself. The song covers both the introspective (“learning to trust myself”) and a desire to connect with others (“will you let me into your heart?”).
The whole song pivots on that upheaval and an uncomfortable sense of growth, but as Cameron makes clear, it’s a matter of adapting to new circumstances.
“That moment of new connection is exciting but scary as hell,” says Cameron. “For me, I went through a divorce and break-up from church life about five years ago and started building new community, new relationship, and re-aligning my identity as a musician, as an artist and producer. I’ve been ‘starting over’ in some ways for the past five years and I’m super excited about it but it’s been hard as hell, too; burnout and mental health stuff, changing career, and trying to make an entrepreneurial step into the music business during a global pandemic.
“It feels authentic to sing about the hard stuff. I think this song holds some of the energy, for sure. I’m able to sing into the emotional vulnerability, maybe even desperation of the lyrics, learning to trust myself. I know what it feels like to question if you can actually trust yourself. And now I am at a place where I do trust myself, my decisions and where I’ve come from and how I got out of some damaging situations.”
“How to Start Again” appropriately dives in with a deceptive rawness. Cameron experiments with jangly, down-tuned acoustic strumming, ebow, and acoustic string buzzes, along with a healthy measure of falsetto singing. For all that, the production is far more refined than the end product suggests. That ragged edge has an artful delicacy to it that rings of authenticity.
“’I don’t know how to start again,’ that line is emotional to sing and it’s good to validate that place that I was in but, ultimately, I think I do know how to start again and I’m grateful and proud of how far I’ve come through this hard time,” says Cameron. “I generally present myself very reservedly, but I was able to be more sonically adventurous and ‘let loose’ more on this recording.
“It doesn’t matter if people like it or not. I’m not trying to please other people anymore, [and I am] recognizing that my gauge for ‘letting loose’ is probably laughable for others.”
Cameron currently has a lot of material in the works that will emerge over the next couple of months—including a new production endeavor where he will be working with other artists. With a handful of new singles already prepped, his new album, Quiet Light, is expected to be released on November 12, 2021, and is currently available for pre-order.