With a surfboard under one arm and a guitar under the other, Kym Campbell’s signature brand of acoustic pop is making waves across the Pacific. Originally hailing from Seattle, the American-Australian songstress is often described as the female Jack Johnson, performing acoustic, surf and reggae music, peppered with guitar, ukulele and harmonica.
Kym was inspired to learn to play guitar at the late age of 20, after hearing Ben Harper play at her university in California. Shortly after picking up the guitar, Campbell moved from Seattle to Australia, where she discovered and embraced the Australian coastal culture of surf, sun and music. Campbell may have been a late starter as an Australian, a surfer and a musician, but this combination was such a natural fit that she progressed rapidly in all three pursuits.
By 2008, Kym was beginning to turn heads, becoming a finalist in the Top 10 Music Oz Awards for Best Singer/Songwriter and being Highly Commended by judges for three songs from her debut EP, So Alive. This was quickly followed with the selection of So Alive as the soundtrack for a number of surfing DVDs and events, with Campbell also selling over 2,000 copies of her independently released and self produced debut EP.
Since then, Campbell has signed with an independent record label in Australia and released a second EP ‘Preview’, which received generous radio play throughout Australia in 2010. Kym also received international attention, being chosen by Sounds Australia to showcase her music in Japan in late-2010, leading to a full album release deal with one of Japan’s largest record label giants.
Campbell’s busy schedule has seen her performing alongside such notables as Ash Grunwald, Bobby Long, Joseph Arthur and Hayley Sales as well as receiving a large amount of international media coverage, including Nylon Magazine in 2011. Recent festival appearances include the highly coveted Greenroom Festival in Yokohama, Japan, as well as The Noosa Surfing Festival, The Yackandandah Folk Festival, Blues on Broadbeach and The Tablelands Folk Festival within Australia.
Kym will be touring nationally in Australia in 2011 to promote her new single ‘Anyone But You’, as well as playing internationally to support her full album release in Japan, where she will be taking full advantage of her appearances to highlight environmental, political and social issues close to her heart.
Source: http://www.kymcampbell.com/bio
