During his set at the Tamworth Country Music Festival in January Shane Nicholson — singer, songwriter, producer and a champion of emerging artists — invited a guest to the stage. Her name was Camille Trail, a young singer songwriter from Central Queensland, who’s debut album Shane had just produced. 

One of the interesting things about Camille, Shane told the audience as his guest took to the stage, was that she’s the only person he’d ever worked with who paid for the recording of an album by selling a couple of bulls.

As much as that is true — Trail was born, raised and still lives and works on her family’s cattle farm west of Rockhampton — anyone in the audience expecting a singing cowgirl was in for a surprise. 

Instead Camille, accompanied by Shane and his band, delivered a haunting and masterful rendition of the moody title track of Nicholson’s ARIA award winning album Hell Breaks Loose. 

Camille nailed it, the audience loved it, and it tipped the scales into a recording agreement with Compass Bros Records — a stellar start to 2020 for the 21 year old singer songwriter from the cattle farm in Central Queensland.

Camille Trail was introduced to the joy of music at an early age. 
“Most mornings I’d wake up to music — Norah Jones, Bob Dylan, Kasey Chambers & Shane Nicholson, and other great singer songwriters. Dad and I would dance in the kitchen while Mum cooked breakfast. I think that’s why I love music so much — plus I loved listening to my mum play piano accordion — it was my entire childhood really”.

She learned piano from the age of eight and was soon writing her own songs. After high school she committed to her musical ambitions and studied song writing at the JMC Academy in Brisbane.  

While attending JMC Camille would study by day and play as many gigs as possible at night — honing her craft, testing her songs on audiences and finding a community of peers. 

It’s also when she wrote the songs on her forthcoming album.
“I was writing in the early hours of the morning or late at night. I found that was when inspiration hit me the most. I was inspired by heartbreak of course, love, and also what I was reading at the time and even just looking out the window and people-watching.”

Camille sent a demo to Shane Nicholson asking if he’d be interested in producing her album. Nicholson responded enthusiastically and the album was recorded in three weeks during February 2019. 

Camille graduated from JMC with a Bachelor of Music, specialising in songwriting, in April 2019. In July that year her debut single and video Humming Chain was released independently. It reached #6 on the iTunes singer songwriter chart and introduced the world to an extraordinary new talent. Her second single Devil’s Drink soared through the charts, peaking at #19 on the Music Network Country Airplay chart and #16 on the CMC Top 30 Countdown.

Camille’s subsequent single, Little History, a laidback song about hanging out with friends, having a few drinks and a dance and really just forgetting about everything else, enjoyed similar chart success and featured on Spotify’s Country Chill and Apple Music’s Southern Craft playlists with over 110, 000 streams to date. 

Camille’s latest single Holding Pattern, a duet with the extraordinary Brad Butcher, is out now on Compass Bros through Universal Music Australia.