Photo by Sarah Gardener
Gaining national recognition as a band is quite a feat, but to take an act overseas to a room full of people who know your catalog inside and out is often an anomaly. But as Upper Arlington natives Taylor Meier and Evan Westfall of the folk act Caamp took the stage in Denmark, both realized they were a long way from the Woodland’s Tavern brunch service that hosted their first gig together.
The Rest Was History
Meier and Westfall come from families that are close friends, and the two found themselves together at holiday parties for as long as they could remember. Westfall, a guitarist in his own right, piqued Meier’s musical interests.
“Evan was able to play guitar and had been playing for years,” Meier says. “One of my buddies had just got a guitar and we would hang out and pass it around trying to learn something. I couldn’t really play at all.”
As the two entered high school together at Upper Arlington High School, they did what any aspiring band would do; they got together to play and perfect their craft.
Photo by Zane Osler
“We started talking about music, he played guitar, I had an affinity for singing and words,” Meier says. “I don’t know, it all pretty much spurred from me asking him to come over and strum some guitar and seeing what we could come up with.”
Meier bought a guitar from a secondhand music store and the two got together after school trying to improve and make sense of their musical influences. The two even formed a short-lived band with another longtime friend, Jesse Henry, of Columbus-based band Spikedrivers.
“The band pretty much started out like any other high school band,” says Meier. “We’d play in the basement and smaller shows. Evan’s dad was the president of Arlington Bank, so we got to play that a few times.”
When high school ended and the reality of college slowly set in, the band separated with Meier’s move to Athens to attend Ohio University.
Both Ends of the Spectrum
Meier has so much love and appreciation for OU’s campus and realizes how important the Athens music scene was to Caamp’s growth and their individual growth as artists.
“We learned both ends of the spectrum down at OU,” Meier says. “That’s where I started playing and singing at the same time.”
Meier played as much as humanly possible around the city and was a constant presence at venues such as Casa Nueva, Smiling Skull Saloon and Donkey Coffee and Espresso. Athens is a college town where each venue caters to a specific crowd, making it an ideal scene to challenge and test yourself as a performer.
Just as the Beatles used the Cavern Club in Liverpool to perfect its act, Meier sought Athens to form his musical identity. He eventually convinced Westfall to move down and join him in Athens as their act continued to take shape.
Photo courtesy of Nikolai Puc Photography
“Whether we were playing to a very tender coffee shop or getting the attention of a rowdy open mic happy hour crowd, OU taught us a lot,” Meier says. “We learned how to play dead sober and playing to the convergence of being too drunk, dealt with hecklers … with broken instruments and broken strings.”
Meier would spend a year and a half at OU before realizing that his love of music and his desire to play was something he wanted to pursue beyond open mic nights and coffee shop gigs. He decided to leave OU, shifting his entire focus to music.
“It was honestly one of the easier decisions I’ve made, the hardest part was working up the courage to tell my parents,” Meier says. “They took it surprisingly well and made sure I had a job and was supporting myself. I had it in my heart and felt that it was what I was supposed to be doing.”
That’s a Lot of Plays
Photo courtesy of Morten Fog
With the band back in its hometown, Caamp had newfound momentum and a fierce focus on their music. Throughout the following years, Caamp released music on streaming platforms and, most notably, its song “Ohio” became extremely popular.
“We were going crazy realizing that people all around the world were listening to us after the song went viral on Spotify,” Meier says. “Spotify is our guardian angel as far as I am concerned.”
For groups like Caamp, Spotify is a useful tool to get discovered. Its utilization of playlists highlights lesser known bands, giving them a platform amongst the heavy hitters of the music industry.
“All it takes is one intern at Spotify or a playlist curator to say, ‘hey, I think I’ll give that a shot,’ and all of a sudden your song has over 100,000 plays,” Meier says. “From there, they’re listening to the rest of your catalog, trying to figure out where you are playing next to see if you can back it all up.”
This growing popularity in the music streaming world translated to their live shows. This became evident when Caamp embarked back down to Athens for a show at Casa Nueva.
“We were the headlining show that night,” Meier says. “We played a show there before, it had a decent showing. But when we got there for that show, there was a line around the block waiting.”
Nowhere to Go but Up
Nowadays, Caamp maintains a fairly rigid touring schedule when it isn’t in the studio. In Columbus specifically, Caamp has headlined popular venues like the Basement, has played to sold out crowds at A&R Bar and as support for Rainbow Kitten Surprise at the Newport.
“We are finally seeing this whole thing come to fruition in the eyes of our friends and family,” Meier says.
The band recently added a third member to the group, Matt Vinson, who began playing bass in fall 2017.
Caamp is set to cross another Columbus favorite off its list on Nov. 30 as the band will play its first headlining show at Newport Music Hall. The band’s homecoming will be full of surprises and collaborations from some of the band’s good friends from the area.
“The Newport, to us, was it growing up,” Meier says. “To see our name up on the marquee is going to be insane.”
The two Upper Arlington residents are doing what they always dreamed, on their own terms, and have come a long way from playing brunches and bank parking lots in Columbus.
“It had been a dream we’d been flirting with since high school that never felt real,” Meier says. “But now, all of a sudden we are selling out venues and actually making money for our art. It’s a dream.”
For ticket information visit www.ticketmaster.com. To learn more about Caamp, visit their website at www.caamptheband.com.
Rocco Falleti is an assistant editor. Feedback welcome at rfalleti@cityscenecolumbus.com.
