David Campbell's Official Site

biography

"I'm an entertainer," says David Campbell firmly. There are many singers in many styles on the Australian charts. But there's only one David Campbell. He has featured on television programs, starred in musical theatre, devised in his own cabaret shows in New York, recorded two Top 10 albums and sold out a concert tour from coast to coast.

Although a master of many trades, music is Campbell's main passion. It's music, which has seen him through tough times and given him the great highs.

Born in Adelaide in 1973 he was raised by his grandmother while his father, Jimmy Barnes went on to be a rock & roll star. David was drawn to the performing arts, initially as an actor. He showed a talent for music theatre and appeared in several large musicals. In the late 1990s he moved to New York where his downtown cabaret show was acclaimed by the New York Times and he moved to major venue - Rainbow and Stars. Returning to Australia, Campbell took on the role of Johnny O'Keefe in the musical Shout! Which toured nationally. In the meantime he has hosted his own shift on the radio station Nova and featured on shows such as Dancing With the Stars and It Takes Two.

"Two years ago I was singing in a club to sixty people," he says. At that point he had retired from his contract with radio station Nova. With nothing to lose, he wrote an assembled a combo to play swing and jazz standards at the small Bar Me in Kings Cross.

The word spread and Sony Music CEO Denis Handlin came along. In show business style, The Swing Sessions was quickly recorded and almost as quickly entered the Top 10 with platinum sales. The Swing Sessions 2 followed a year later with the same results.

With two top 10, multi platinum albums under his belt, in the winter of 2008, Campbell found himself in 301 Studios making the album that became Good Lovin'.

"After Swing 2 I felt satisfied," he explains. "We could have done Swing 3 - there's heaps more songs to do. On the tour last year I tried to find songs that were brass driven and still swung but were more rock. We delved into Louis Prima and more `50s swing and that moved towards the Elvis / Tom Jones Vegas period that was the germination of this idea that I could bridge the gap between shout and swing."

The answer came late one night as Campbell was browsing online and re-discovered Len Barry's 1965 hit "1-2-3" and Campbell's new direction - blue-eyed soul - was clear.

"What we're trying to do with this record is evoke that mythological period of the `60s where it all came together the world started to get funky and groovy. You could still wear suits but you are Michael Caine. All that stuff was really strong references for us," he says. "That sound is almost semi symphonic pop rock. I find that really exciting and it's great because there's this epic scope in it but its really tight and really dancy."

Campbell again enlisted Chong Lim - probably best known as the MD on Channel 7's `Dancing With The Stars'- who had produced both Swing albums. Over the course of two months they worked up an eclectic list of other songs such as: "Good Lovin'" (the Young Rascals), "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling" (the Righteous Brothers), "Keep On Runnin' (the Spencer David Group), "How Can I Be Sure" (the Young Rascals), "Jackie Wilson Said (Van Morrison), "Tell It Like It Is" (Aaron Neville), "You Make Me So Very Happy" (Blood Sweat & Tears), "Yeh Yeh" (Georgie Fame), "Baby Now That I've Found You" (the Foundations, "Suspicious Minds" (Elvis Presley) and "Devil With A Blue Dress On" (Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels.

Campbell and Chong Lim again used a crack band including Joe Accaria on drum, guitarist Stuart Fraser and bass player Joe Creighton. The idea was to cut most of the songs as live as possible and the to augment the sound with a full string section and a horn section.

"I did want to do something with my voice that was epic and theatrical and with this sort of music," he explains. "It's a very emotionally connected way of singing. The songs are a high reach and they push me in different areas. You have to be right in the emotional space. It's almost operatic in some of the singing on this album."

Campbell clearly relished the challenges that this new project offered. In avoiding a particular genre, he was able to make this album a more personal statement.

"It was the right emotional growth and the right growth musically," he explains. "With the Swing Sessions I chose songs based on having a Bobby Darin track or a Sinatra tune but with this I gave myself a loose theme and all these songs came up and if they worked they worked. But it's not a concept record, it's not a 'swingin' 60s sound'.

"It's about colours and moods. We never tried to reinvent the wheel we tried to bring out different moods and times Like I would say to Chong, `I want Van Dyke Parks meets Nick Drake meets the early Led Zeppelin string arrangements.

"There's lots of great singers out there like Winehouse and Duffy who are starting to do this as well - looking back at the `60s. It was an exciting and adventurous time."

Campbell's personal life has been on the up in recent years, and that too is reflected in the song choices. "All the songs are up-temp and positive," he says. "Even the ballads are positive. But I'm having a good time - I'm getting married, I'm not fighting with any one in my family,"

In fact, the key track on the album is a duet with his dad, Jimmy Barnes on the Righteous Brothers' classic "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling."

"There is a bit of history," says Campbell with a smile. "He called me up a few years ago for his album Double Happiness and we did `Wichita Lineman' and when I was putting this album together I called him up. He suggested this song. I said, `Okay let's do it' but I want to go the whole hog and we'll do massive strings and tympanis and tubular bells and brass band and choirs.

"The last few years with him occasionally singing at my shows and me singing at his I think has been very healing and I feel with this song we've come to another level. I own it more now - being Jimmy's son. We communicate through music. We always have done in a way. Listening to his records that's . maintained some sort of relationship with him when I was younger and he wasn't around."

The family connection was extended when Campbell's sister Mahalia Barnes and her band the Soul Mates came in to do backing vocals on "Loving Feeling."

"The minute she came in and sang she was perfect," he says. "She was incredible. In fact, one of the most fun times I have ever had was producing Mahalia's vocals on this record. I realized what an incredible talent she has become and so we booked her for every other session. I think she does eight tracks now, and we got her in for two."

Good Lovin' has that up-tempo, positive sense of unlimited possibilities that typified the `60s. It was the era of the space race, free love, James Bond and blue-eyed soul. David Campbell's album encourages is to party like it's 1968.

Campbell will be doing that over the coming summer as he rolls out a touring schedule that will hit all the major urban and regional cities. "I consider myself an entertainer and it's really important to me how these songs are going to reach out from the album and how we're going to perform them live."

And let's face it, what we all need right now is Good Lovin'.