Taylor Meier has good fishing stories. The cofounder and lead singer of the folk-rock band Caamp gushes about the band playing in Alaska and catching salmon as big as guitars, or fly fishing while on tour near Idaho’s Box Canyon. “It’s cool what being on the water will do for calming your mind,” he says over dinner at a cozy Italian joint in his hometown of Columbus, Ohio. “I’ve definitely healed some of my stuff out there.”
He wasn’t the only one searching for some peace. Meier and fellow founder Evan Westfall have been best friends since they were kids. Meier is the charismatic front man, while Westfall is the quiet anchor, complementing Meier’s wistful lyrics with delicate arrangements. (The band also includes bassist Matt Vinson, keyboardist Joseph Kavalec, and drummer Nicholas Falk.) Meier and Westfall started playing coffee shops and sweat-soaked house shows while they were both students at Ohio University. After their song “Ohio,” from their debut self-titled album, became a viral hit in 2016, they graduated to clubs, theaters, and then arenas, recording three more albums. (Watch their 2022 G&G Back Porch Session here.) But the success became a case of too much, too soon: bigger paychecks, clashing egos, exhaustion, panic attacks, and remedying the messy parts with way too much booze.
“We talked about going as hard as we can, and whatever happens happens,” Westfall says. “But what happened is we were abusing our bodies and having our mental health deteriorate.”
The tension erupted into a heated argument before a show at Colorado’s Red Rocks Amphitheater in 2023, and afterward, Meier and Westfall began a series of needed conversations—helped by both seeking therapy on their own—about the band’s future. They took most of the next year off from touring, working on material at various locations, including an inspiring week in a New York City studio, where they recorded a chunk of the band’s thrilling new album, Copper Changes Color. “I just wanted to go somewhere I wasn’t famous,” Meier says. “I walked around and found warm bars and places to sit with my notebook and headphones.”
The album includes tracks recorded over the past couple of years, and songs like “Brush” and “Fairview Feeling” nail the sweet spot of Caamp’s trademark folk and delicate banjo beneath Meier’s distinctive baritone. But in the New York material, the band finds another groove. The anthemic “Millions” and “Mistakes” have a Strokes-like strut, all clanging electric guitars at a punchy clip. It’s not “Dylan goes electric,” but Copper captures the band in an enviable place—expanding its sound while not pushing the members into an early grave. Meier sums up the journey in the stunning “Living & Dying & In Between,” lamenting: “I wanna live / I don’t wanna die / they can feel so much alike.”
Caamp will be on the road this summer, including a July show in Idaho. It’s likely the bus will take a detour, and the band will wade into the river with a renewed sense of camaraderie. “There wasn’t a cell in my body that was gonna let Caamp end,” Meier says. “We’ve had conversations that have cleared years of dust, and all of a sudden, everything’s easier.”
Plus: New Music from S. G. Goodman
After two years of dogged touring, Kentucky’s S. G. Goodman reconnects with the earth on the gorgeous Planting by the Signs, which takes its name from an Appalachian folk tradition. “I’m in Love” and “Heat Lightning” are sparse, emotional wonders, with Goodman’s singular voice hovering over eerie guitars, while the highlight “I Can See the Devil” is a haunting blues wobbler that would feel right at home in the Mississippi Hill Country.
