Paul Conte / Camus
Celli: Originally a singer-songwriter on the Jersey Shore, Paul was
signed by Amanda Scherer-Demme to herVentrue label. Camus has long been
one of New York City's top producers and engineers working with Nile
Rodgers on some ofthe era's major
artists. Together, Paul and Camus are one of the most lauded and
requested writing and production teams in the country. Partnering with
artists such as Gavin DeGraw *, their work can be heard on numerous albums
and films, as well ascommercials
including Nike, Coke, Fila and Adidas.
" To keep himself from overthinking
the songs, DeGraw made FREE in less than two weeks at the Brooklyn studio of
his producer Camus Celli, who has worked with such artists as Tina Turner,
David Byrne and Arto Lindsay. DeGraw and Celli have known each other since
working together on an early version of DeGraw’s 2003 major-label debut
CHARIOT. “I’ve been in the studio with several different producers so I
already knew what I wanted,” DeGraw says. “This was my opportunity to be
involved in the production and I knew Camus could get the sounds I was going
for.”
Gavin at Vel Records (Camus' Studio in Brooklyn)
The trust he had in Celli and the collaborative spirit of their
partnership freed DeGraw to dig deep and tap into something he hadn’t tapped
into for a while. “This album reveals the honesty about my love of
music,” he says. “It isn’t about the biggest, the strongest, or the
loudest. It’s about simplicity in its purest form. It doesn’t sound like
the big machine. It sounds like where you go to escape the big machine.”
