Greg Camp is the former guitarist and backup vocalist for Smash Mouth. He also wrote the majority of their songs, including the hits, "All Star", "Then The Morning Comes", "Holiday in My Head", as well as many others. Love them or hate them, the band produced many catchy pop hits, some of which have been in many popular kid's movies. However, earlier this year, Greg decided to leave Smash Mouth and go it alone - his new CD, Defektor (released on September 9th, 2008), shows that he brought some of the Smash Mouth catchy pop sound along with him.
Defektor is a cross between surf punk, spaghetti western, new wave, rock, and pop - and Greg pulls it off very well. It starts off with an instrumental "Introduktion" which sets the scene for the tracks which follow. The introduction track quickly moves into a surf/new wave song, "The Maid", which is about a hotel maid with "sticky-fingers" and the problems she causes for the hotel goers. This song has a catchy synthy guitar riff which follows throughout the song - it really works well to get stuck in your head, even after the song is over.
"Cat's Game", is the first single off the CD, and it sounds like it could be a throwback to new ways 80's bands like New Order and Joy Division. Images of shoegazing performers come to mind when listening to this song, and since it was inspired by a never made film set in the early 80's, that could be the reason!
The next song starts off like a banjo pickin' country song, but with a title like "Zombies on Parade", and when the spacey keyboards kick in - it's obvious that it's not meant as such. It seems to be about celebrities and what happens after they "hit the big time" and lose who they used to be.
The song that follows, "Gina Marie", is a song Greg wrote about his wife of the same name. It's a rock/pop song about how there needs to be a song called "Gina Marie" - and Greg now has written it. Yes, Greg seems to write about whatever comes to his mind, and these songs show that he's got plenty to share - I'm sure this is only the tip of the iceberg. Greg shows that he has more to give with his two side projects, Gina Marie with his aforementioned wife, and the other is The Maids Of Honor where the entire band dons wrestling masks.
Article comments
1 - Luna
Hey,my name's Luna and i just wanted to let Greg know...your music is drop dead awesome!Recently my mom picked up your solo cd from the Edge,one of our favorite radio stations and i was surprised she got it for free!I listened to Defektor for weeks!My favorite song was armogeddon slide.I mainly appreciated the beat and drums,but it also inspired me to play my bass more.The bass in that song was so strong and heavy,it flowed perfectly with the lyrics and i thought it was amazing!I was listening to it a few days ago and i thought....i should save up some more money and buy a six-string guitar,so I can figure out how to play that kickass song.
anyway,thanks for letting me share.
it's nice to tell a guitarist
how much their music helps.
~Luna~