April Patterson Clemens unveils haunting new single "Our Campfire Days" and connects with us for a revealing interview
- STAFF
- Sep 3
- 9 min read
By: Staff
“Our Campfire Days” is a breathtaking masterclass in lyrical depth, emotional nuance, and sonic intimacy.
Something quietly powerful has arrived: “Our Campfire Days,” the haunting new single from April Patterson Clemens. With just a few chords and a voice that sounds like memory itself, the song pulls you into a story at once tender, tragic, and achingly familiar. It’s a track that doesn’t ask for your attention; it earns it in a single breath.
This is not your usual heartbreak ballad. It’s a doorway to someplace older, quieter, where flickering campfires light up faces now lost to time. The production is stripped back to its bones, the vocals delivered with a rawness that feels less like performance and more like confession. But who exactly is the girl in this song? And who was the boy she never stopped loving?
We spoke with April about how a teacher's offhand comment in junior high shifted the course of her life, how a flyer pinned to a Guitar Center wall started it all, and what it means to open your heart to strangers through music. She revealed the strange alchemy behind the creation of “Our Campfire Days,” how a friend’s guitar loop led her into unexplored lyrical territory, and how another collaborator’s ear reshaped the song’s ending into something unforgettable.
There’s grief in this track, but also warmth. There’s history too, both personal and ancient, and a sense that time may pass, but truth always lingers. Through ghostly melodies and painterly lyrics, April invites listeners to remember who they were, what they lost, and what they still carry.
This is a story about music, memory, and the kind of love that doesn't end just because someone is gone. Step into the flicker of the firelight, and read on.
Here’s how it went:
Begin Interview:
Hello April Patterson Clemens, we’re thrilled to have you here for this interview! We've had an amazing time exploring your music and diving into your creative journey. Now, we’re even more intrigued to get a deeper look into both your brand and your personal and professional inspirations.
Q. We were instantly drawn in by the acoustic strumming that opens “Our Campfire Days.” A beautiful and understated choice, it allows your voice and delivery to truly shine. The stripped-back production highlights the emotional depth of the song and creates such a powerful, immersive experience for the listener. When did you first recognize the power of your voice and creative expression? Was there a moment when it shifted from something personal and private to a way of sharing your story with the world, ultimately laying the foundation for the artist you are today?
A. In choir in junior high school, I was always doing silly things with my voice, trying to make my friends laugh (my dream at the time was to be a comedian on SNL, ha, ha), and our teacher, Mr. Taylor, said (in his subtly disdainful way), “You know, April, if you’d just take this seriously, you could really sing.” So, thanks Mr. Taylor! He probably never realized it, but that one moment was pretty pivotal and I took what he said to heart (although it would be funny if he hadn’t actually meant it at all, but just wanted me to behave). In high school, I got someone to drive me the forty miles to Dallas to put up a “bandmates needed” flyer at Guitar Center and I met some dudes. Singing with them was great, but once I taught myself guitar, it helped me write more intimate songs. Then I had my first little solo set (my heart was in my throat), playing all the songs I’d only been singing in my living room, and when people stopped and listened it felt amazing. That moment you bring out something that was so private and say, “Here, world, is what I made,” is a vulnerable moment and I think that’s what makes it powerful.
Q. Who are the key people involved in bringing “Our Campfire Days” to life, and what did each of them contribute that felt essential to the song’s final form?
A. I usually write songs by myself, but my friend Matthew Knesel sent me little guitar pieces he’d been writing and I started looping them and adding a melody and lyrics. It opened up a whole new way of writing songs for me because his playing is different than mine and I also came at the lyrics from a different angle, you know, what does this music make me see? That’s how “Our Campfire Days” came about. Then, when Cobalt started playing guitar with me, he put his own twist on it and also suggested the melody change at the end, which really completes it.
Q. What is the story behind the meaning of “Our Campfire Days”?
A. It just came from the music, this story about a girl and her first love, a kind of wild, guitar playing, bad boy. She grows up and he kind of doesn’t. Then he dies. It’s about that nostalgia and regret, how when you’re in a thing its so real, it seems like forever, and then something changes, you see it differently, and suddenly its gone. But you always want that back, that feeling, that person you were.
Q. What made you choose the title “Our Campfire Days” for this song? Was it always the title, or did it emerge during the writing process?
A. After the story got fleshed out, it seemed like a natural choice, because that’s the place the girl in the song always goes back to in her mind, the magical days along the lake with a campfire, when all they needed was each other.
Q. There’s something both universal and intimate about revisiting memories of a first love. What were you hoping listeners might feel or remember from their own lives when hearing this story?
A. Anyone who’s ever been crazy in love, especially as a teenager, knows how all encompassing it can be. You’re the only two people in the world. We all have these moments, these places in memory, almost painful to revisit. The song is like a doorway to those memories, a sort of comforting dirge.
Q. You’ve described the song as being about someone who has passed away. Did writing it shift your perspective on grief or memory in any way, or offer clarity you didn’t expect?
A. I think the girl in the story, that’s the main thing she’s grappling with. She’s dissecting the past, you know, “Did it have to end this way? Was this my fault? Should I have stayed with him?” and so on. For me, it parallels another song, “You’ve Been Gone So Long,” about this boy I had a crush on, a friend of my sister’s, who died. He called one night to ask me out, but he was drunk and I was like, “Call back when you’re sober.” He didn’t, though, and a few months later he was killed on his way to a party. So I always thought, if I’d said yes, would he still have died? Maybe we’d have been together that night. You can’t know.
Q. Cobalt Tolbert’s guitar work plays such a vital role in the track. How did you forge this relationship with this talented performer?
A. I’m friends with his brother, Titien, an amazing drummer, and they were both playing a show one night. It was the first time I’d seen Cobalt play and I was blown away. After the show, I was on him like Gollum on the one ring (“You must play guitar for me, Precious!”). He graciously accepted and surely didn’t think I was creepy at all! At practice, he continues to amaze me. He can hear something once and then just transform a song on the spot. He’s made my songs so fancy, it’s awesome.
Q. In earlier projects like Steamboat Wonderlust, introspection seemed central to your songwriting. Does “Our Campfire Days” continue that dialogue, or does it mark the start of something new creatively?
A. Introspection is integral to my songwriting process because whatever I write, I need it to be true for the listener in some way or its not going to resonate. That’s always the line you walk as an artist, “Is what I’m making real?” or have I veered into an area where I’m just trying to be something? That’s how a song gets whittled, because they all start out pretty bad, at least lyric-wise, and then it’s like, okay, what’s true in this? You put it through a sieve and hopefully get out all the bullshit. So, I’d say it’s a continuation. At heart I’m a storyteller and all great stories are based on universal human truths.
Q. Your music has been described as sounding like it was recorded in a “holy space” or “medieval forest.” Do you feel connected to timeless or ancient themes when you write or perform?
A. I do! I’m a huge history buff. I like to make collages and, while I’m cutting up ancient National Geographic’s, I’ll read the articles and that’s how at least two of my songs came about (“Anadem” about Alexander the Great and “Coldwater Creek” about a man killed during the eruption of Mount St. Helens). I love putting my mind back in time, what was it like to live when . . . ? What were the people thinking, feeling? Reading history, you realize the connecting themes that allow us to still relate to people from the past—love, regret, jealousy, joy—it’s always the same, just different scenery. I have a song about that, too, “The Procession.”
Q. You’ve lived in Texas, New York, and now Vermont. How do these places shape the emotional landscape of your music, particularly this song?
A. Texas was where I first started going to shows, going to clubs in Deep Ellum in Dallas. Then I travelled to New York with a Renaissance Faire, met a group of people, and we just played music like all the time. That’s what brought us to Vermont. A friend said there was a good music scene in Burlington, so we came en masse and got a big house together. So, yeah, each place was about the creative things and people there. Going back to the song, which is really about nostalgia, I definitely feel nostalgic for certain times, like when I first came to Vermont and we’d hang out at the coffeeshop all day. It felt like a big clubhouse where we were always creating, making amateur theatrics, puppet shows, collaborating with other bands, all just for the art of it. I think we all have times and places we’d like to go back to.
Q. Your voice has often been described as ghostly, spiritual, and otherworldly. Is there a particular feeling, emotion, or presence you try to channel when performing a song like this?
A. Whenever I sing, I just try to be as honest as possible. It’s largely a matter of where my mind is at. I want to feel open, like I’m part of everyone and everything. If I close myself off, that never sounds good. Another song,“I Dream of Wolves,” is about that, the artistic struggle. The more open you are, the more people can hurt you. But art takes authenticity. As an artist, I’d rather be hurt than be inauthentic.
Q. Was there a line in “Our Campfire Days” that felt especially raw or difficult to write, but one you knew had to stay?
A. Yeah, actually. The first line, “I reach for your back.” It makes me feel really vulnerable, because someone touching you on your back is an intimate thing. I wrote it that way on purpose, but then when I had to sing it, it felt really naked. Which was the intent, I suppose, so job well done, right?
Q. Reflecting on your journey through punk bands, jazz pop, and indie folk, does this song feel like a return, a departure, or a convergence of the different musical selves you’ve explored over the years?
A. Maybe a departure, because the writing process was different since it involved someone else. It was the first new song I’d written in a while, but after that I wrote like five more and I could feel that they were all coming from a different place.
Q. April Patterson Clemens, thank you so much for sharing the personal layers behind “Our Campfire Days.” It’s been a beautiful journey into your creative world. Looking ahead, what’s next on the horizon for you? Are there any upcoming songs, projects, or creative directions you’re excited about, and that we might be lucky enough to get an early glimpse of? We'd be honored to help share what’s coming next.
A. I’m going to release another single, “Time Takes Us,” in late September. I’m pretty excited about this song, it’s a newer one and it really highlights the intricacies of Cobalt’s playing. I also want to record a Christmas album. Vermont in winter is like living in a Christmas card, a dream come true for a Texas girl (In Texas we’d get like an inch of snow and then try to build a sad snowman that was mostly dirt and grass). Otherwise, I’ll be playing live as much as possible.
April Patterson Clemens, thank you so much, we appreciate you taking the time to talk to us!
End Interview
We’re happy to have shared April Patterson Clemens’s exciting journey with you and uncovered such inspiring insights about their creative process.
