Camu Tao
- Location: Columbus, OH
- Website:
- Bio: In 2004 Camu Tao started writing what was intended to be his debut solo album King of Hearts. Having already recorded a handful of songs on which he was singing ... (more)
- Bio: In 2004 Camu Tao started writing what was intended to be his debut solo album King of Hearts. Having already recorded a handful of songs on which he was singing as opposed to rapping in Central Services, he began honing a unique sound for his debut solo album that was, as far as we were concerned, truly incredible. For three years we played the rough demos as though they were a finished record because Camu hadn't provided us with any other versions of the songs. We all knew that once he got in the studio and laid it all down the results would be mind blowing. Before he had the chance to do so he was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer and in 2008, after a long painful battle, Tero Smith, aka CAMU TAO, died.
In many ways this is a record of what could have been, a snapshot of an artist mid-evolution. Camu was a wildly talented man on the verge of something different and exciting that, due to his tragic and unexpected sickness, was left mostly unfinished. The majority of the tracks he left behind were rough demos with only the occasional fully fleshed out Pro Tools session. Some of the recordings use stock sounds from Garage Band, and none of the vocals were intended as final takes, save for one or two exceptions. Nearly all of the vocal recordings were done via internal laptop mic, capturing the natural reverb of the room where he recorded them. Camu would record his demos with the levels so hot that they would naturally bit-crush and distort - in lieu of being healthy enough to record and mix professionally he used the natural distortion as a sonic effect. We used it as a guideline when piecing together the most faithful representation of what we think he wanted to put out.
Without going in to the exact process of how we did each song, I'll just say it wasn't easy. In some cases we simply took the demos as they were and mastered them - the sound they had, versus what we could do with the materials at our disposal, was the best and most faithful reproduction of Camu’s vision possible. In other cases, we were lucky enough to have separated vocal and music tracks that we could mix individually. When we did so we followed his level and pan settings while maintaining his desired grit and distortion as faithfully as we could. Without Camu around to tell us exactly how he wanted the record to sound we had to use the album file he had left in his iTunes as the reference, from the sound down to the song order. We didn't want to change what Camu left behind, just enhance it as tastefully as possible.
So again, this is some of what could have been but it also is an accurate and true collection of the songs he wanted to put out and present to the world. Despite its raw and unfinished nature the end result is, I believe, beautiful. In some ways it’s a diary discovered in the belongings of a friend who passed away. Or maybe it's the scrapbook of a master inventor with only half of the schematics to some new invention detailed inside. You don't need to see the invention fully realized in order to recognize the magnitude of the creative force behind the sketches.
We hope that when you hear the record you feel the way we feel: that this is some of the bravest, most surprising, weird, and (now more than ever) poignant music around from an artist who was only just beginning to tap into his full potential. It's a reminder for his fans, friends, and family of how special and off the wall his energy was, without sounding like anything he'd done before. In fact, I don't think it’s an exaggeration to say that King of Hearts sounds like nothing before it because I know for a fact that there was never anyone like Camu before him. There won't ever be another after, either.
On behalf of the wonderful Smith family, as well as Camu's fiance Gayle Gutter, Definitive Jux and Camu's many friends and fans, I am proud to present to you Camu Tao's first and final solo album: KING OF HEARTS. (less)
