People of Long Now

Camille Davila

Office Manager (01998 - 02001)

Camille Davila is an international songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer and recording artist who moves around in a beautiful landscape of melodic electronica and glamorous synth-pop.

Born in Los Angeles, California, she spent most of her teenage years ping ponging the west coast until relocating to Europe, primarily England. In 2000 she signed to Below Records to release her debut album,”Not For The Disco”. Two European tours followed before a second album, “World of Gliding Monsters” was released in 2004.  She then played through a residency at Ladytron's famous Liverpool club "Korova" while continuing to tour.

In 2007, after a brief return to California to form a new band and play shows in America, Camille brought her band to London to record the album Hi-C.  Hi-C, was released in 2008 on Poly Records, half recorded in her home studio, half recorded with great help from the incredible artist/producer/arranger extraordinaire Jeron Gundersen (dibidim/Bearfarm) at Bakehouse Studios in Nofrolk, UK and was mastered by Jonas Raabe (Dibidim) in the Guillemots studio in London. A music video for song "Wireless World" directed by Jacqueline Passmore (visual artist for bands such as Ladytron and Stereolab) was launched in October 2007 and toured several film festival circuits.

Though Camille is very comfortable with doing most of the work herself, she has been known to collaborate with some of Europe´s finest musicians. This long list of talented people includes people like: Stein Urheim, Pop Levi, Jeron Gundersen (mentioned above) and the Norwegian producer HP Gundersen. HP had heard some recordings of Camille while visiting the band Bearfarm, and requested to meet her.  Camille had been living in Oslo, Norway during this time, and on trips to Bergen they started working on what was to become “Divided Skies”, released on Goodbye Records in 2013.  HP got her set up with a nice studio and help from drummer Mette Mathiesen (drummer of Jeff Lynne) and Daniel Birkeland, and then the hard post production and arrangement began with long-time collaborator Jeron Gundersen and cohort Jonas Lie Theis before being competed in Badminton Bay Studios with Jonas Raabe in Oslo, Norway.

Her music has received accolades from the likes of Jeff Lynne ( ELO ) and Van Dyke Parks who provided the text above, while she credits her inspiration to pursue music from her beginnings working for The Long Now Foundation in San Francisco where she watched artists such as Brian Eno enjoy a varying level of projects outside of music.

"I remember thinking "what an amazing life, to be immersed in music-making but also to be so involved in other subjects.  That's what I want to do, I want to be surrounded by sound but I also want to have the freedom with my time to pursue other interests".

And she continues to do exactly that.  Outside of music Camille is an avid runner, voice-over artist and works as a vocal coach with continued study in Vocal Pedagogy.  She is also interested in creating a collaborative book entitled "Borders" which examines the history of socio-economic borders through time.

Join our newsletter for the latest in long-term thinking

Long Now's website is changing...