Spotlight On... Callum Easter

Callum Easter has always been one to defy expectations. The Leith songwriter's methods constantly shift, blending elements of rock'n'roll and R'n'B with an endless sense of experimentation. You might see him routing an accordion through a bass subwoofer; you might find him under a bridge playing his new album through a portable FM transmitter.

Having released new single Dark Angel earlier this week, Callum Easter plays his biggest headline show yet at the Queen's Hall in Edinburgh on 7 October, and we have a taste of the kind of thing that could be in store, in the form of The Callum Easter TV Special.

Easter's take on your classic Saturday night variety show features songs from his 2021 album System, which has just been named to the longlist for the 2022 Scottish Album of the Year Award. The TV Special features dancers, a dominatrix (Mistress Inka), a drag queen (Alice Rabbit), a dub-tap dancer (Charmaine Brocklebank), a knife and axe thrower (Todd Various), a comedian (Paul Merryck), an 'assassin' (Daniel Navarro Lorenzo) and The Leith Congregational Choir. It's a dark, strange and hilarious kaleidoscope of sound and vision – if this was on the telly, we'd definitely be watching it. 

You can watch The Callum Easter TV Special in the YouTube player below [warning: the video contains some flashing lights] and scroll on for a Q&A with Callum on the origins on the project, the challenges of finding a suitable knife-thrower mid-pandemic, and his plans for that Queen's Hall show...

The TV Special is like an extended music video of sorts, taking us through different tracks from your latest album, System. Why did you want to make a TV Special?

I didn’t really. It was [producer Tim Brinkhurst]’s idea. Something ambitious, push yourself. He’ll be like, “you should stand on a cross made out of a brush and a broom with your foot in a bucket and make a pop video” and I’ll be like “fucksake, alright then”.

With the TV Special we originally wanted something with free-wheeling anarchy and foul mouthed commentary with stoned guests but it was a lockdown and no one could touch one another. That’s why everything [cuts] to black. You can be three places at once if everything is to black and I got stoned instead. I’ve lost my trail of thought now... oh... I didn’t really want to make the TV Special.

I needed a haircut and I didn’t know what to wear and everywhere was closed so I wore an unmatching white suit and combed my hair back. Getting it done drove me mad like I knew it would. A constant list and generous helpings of self-loathing. Feels like the wheels have fallen off this past year. Anyway, they’re back on for now. Welcome to the Callum Easter TV Special!

Can you tell us about who filmed, directed and edited the TV Special; who brought your vision to life and how did you end up working with them?

Glenda Rome filmed and edited the performances. We kind of directed it together. We’ve worked with each other for a long time now but this was the most ambitious thing we’ve done. I feel like we can have a productive argument you know? The first time I met her I’d fallen asleep at a party and she was literally kicking me out the door.

Tim Brinkhurst is down as creative director. He wasn’t able to be on site for the filming but he’s the catalyst. Second camera was Ruth Barrie, and John Mackie took photos and covered the sound. We had to keep the crew streamlined for distancing.

From drag artists to comedians via dancers, how did you go about casting the TV Special?

We had a couple organisations help us find the dancers. We didn’t have a choreographer so we were looking for people who could improvise or do the choreography themselves. The rest of the cast was word of mouth, looking online, making calls, sending emails. 'Hi there, we’re looking for a knife thrower…'

I’d borrowed a load of black out and we set up at Ltd Ink Corporation for a week. It meant we could experiment a bit. We did a couple days filming at the Traverse Theatre too.

Next month you're set to play your biggest headline show to date at The Queen's Hall in Edinburgh. It's rare that you ever do the same thing twice, so will it be an extension of the TV Special, or will it be something completely different? What can people expect on the night?

I’m excited about it. I’m planning on using all my tricks. The band are sounding good and Jacqui and Pauline (Leith Congregational Choir) are coming up for it. Gonna be about 6 or 7 of us on stage at times. There will be some extensions and some introspections I reckon. It’s going to be a standing gig, hopefully a dancing gig. I might bring a megaphone to whip that into shape. We’re hiring in a bit more PA and lighting too.

We’ll also have the return of Law Holt to live performance after several years away. She has a new album on the way so looking forward to hearing it live. We’ll do one or two tunes together too.

And what's next for Callum Easter?

Fall down. Get back up. Keep going...

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Dark Angel is out now via Moshi Moshi; System is out now via Moshi Moshi in association with Lost Map

Callum Easter & Friends play Queen's Hall, Edinburgh, 7 Oct – tickets here