In Conversation With: Kamille

Introducing Kamille: Grammy award-winning singer-songwriter..

You may not have heard her voice directly, but you’ve heard and sung the songs she’s written for some of the music’s biggest stars. From Boyzone, to Clean Bandit to Mabel, she’s worked with some of the biggest names in UK and Irish music.

Kamille’s songwriting career spans over 10 years. Having written songs for Little Mix like Black Magic and Shout Out To My Ex, she’s been contributing to the UK charts for a decade. But with her having written for artists for so long, it’s fair to assume that her own artistry may have taken a backseat.

“I never stopped working on stuff for me. I think every day I probably write something for myself”, she responds. "So that's like, a general thing in my life. I'm always making songs for myself. But it's been amazing. Like getting to the point where I'm releasing [music] now, and I….I guess there's a strong theme to my music. It's so honest."

We’re talking about ‘weight loss’ here, Kamille’s latest single, a melodic track that slots perfectly into her songwriting credits yet still has its own distinct sound. The song is about heartbreak, but Kamille more aptly describes it as weight loss “You might call it a breakup, but I call it weight loss." There’s that sense of dropping that physical weight of the person you were with, perhaps they weren’t ever truly right for you.

The track was co-produced by Jon Shave, whose credits include Charli XCX and Girls Aloud.

Having also co-produced the track herself, Kamille says it’s something she’s immensely proud of “...It was a session we set up because sometimes what happens is a lot of my collaborators will force me into doing a session just for me, because I'm always trying to work for other people. That was one of those days they were like,’we're gonna write something for you today’. And I was like, ‘okay, cool’, and it was amazing. I love the fact that I co-produced this one, I love producing, obviously.”

But aside from the new single, I have to ask her how married life is treating her. Last year Kamille married producer Taser aka Tomi Adenlé and part of the couple’s journey into married life was documented on Channel 4’s ‘Highlife’.

She’s the complete antithesis of the character on her single weight loss; happy, joyous and in love. Its smooth, techno-like beat coupled with the ballad-like lyricism can evoke faith in love even amongst the biggest skeptics and cynics.It makes you want to get up and try love again. This feeling is emblematic of Kamille’s approach to her career,“I’ve written millions of songs and there were times that nothing happened. But I mean, the joy of making a song, it just feels like it isn’t work”.

And this determination has paid off. In 2021, the year COVID-19 brought the world to a halt, she won a Grammy for her work on Dua Lipa’s Future Nostalgia (an album that quite literally carried me through lockdown).

Along with her multiple Grammy nominations, Kamille is a 6-time Brit Awards nominee for her songwriting work with Jess Glynne, Mabel, Clean Bandit and Headie One. She was also nominated for and won ‘Music Week’s 2019 Women in Music Awards’ for "Music Creative" - an award which recognises ‘exceptional’ achievements and contributions to the industry.

When I ask her about her Grammy, she laughs shyly, “Oh my gosh, I really forgot about that. Yeah, I have one….. I finally understood what it meant to be a part of something so incredible, on a worldwide platform”. Despite the size of the accomplishment, Kamille is coy and humble about receiving such an award. "It will never stop being something that I'm amazed by and something that I don't even associate with myself. I think my imposter syndrome will never allow me to take it on board that I actually am a Grammy winning songwriter. So yeah, it's incredible. I'll tell my kids one day about it and show off to them and annoy them.” Kamille has tunnel vision, and I get the sense that she's on track for many more awards and more achievements.

With a spirit aligned to helping others she’s been a great source of inspiration within the industry for those coming up behind her. Kamille has a true spirit for helping others, a rarity in an industry which is known for pitting artists against one another.

In an industry that is notorious for pitting artists against each other, Kamille has a passion for helping those behind her. She’s worked alongside The Ivor Academy since 2020 on its Rising Star award to uplift young female talent in the industry. In being a mentor she hopes that women who look like her have someone to turn to and in turn can feel seen in the industry.

Kamille ends our conversation by reflecting on moments throughout her career she thought were impossible. She tells me about how she’s consistently outdoing herself in the most surprising of ways. In 2018 she co-wrote a song with Clean Bandit called Solo, it was a hit. The most Shazamed song of 2018, it entered the UK charts at the top spot. Riding this high Kamille didn’t imagine that things could get much better when Solo was knocked to second place by another song that she had co-written Jess Glynne’s, I’ll Be There. “When I think about my career, I definitely always think about that moment. I cried so much, I couldn't believe it. Being number one was hard enough, let alone number one two weeks in a row.”

Kamille has heart and hustle, and a strong fanbase behind her (shout out to the Kam Gang). With her debut single she’s proved to the industry, and perhaps to herself that she’s an artist within her own right. She’s here to stay and ‘weight loss’ is just the beginning.

‘weight loss’ is available now on all good streaming platforms