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ENTREVUE/INTERVIEW with DANIEL SVEINSON from BRASS CAMEL

REALIZED BY: PATRICK COSSETTE for PROFILPROG

Profilprog (PP): Hello guys. Thank you for taking the time to answer our questions! Here’s my first question: What’s the story behind the name of your band, Brass Camel?
DANIEL SVEINSON (DS): It's a bit of a non-story but it was a "bit" that I had with an old friend and singer of a previous band I was in throughout my teens (Mad Shadow)

PP: I’ve seen several people and reviewers try to describe your band, and I’ve also read your own take on your style. You’ve said — and I’d agree — that you really found “your sound” on this third album. Was that something intentional, or did it emerge more naturally? How would you describe your sound in 2026?
DS: I'd say the sound emerged from playing together, often! While I still did the bulk of the writing it was informed by the chemistry we've built up over several tours that we've done since 2023. If I had to give it a one sentence pitch I might call the sound 'funky prog' but it might be a little reductionist as there are a lot of places we'd like to go with this band. I love prog but it's also a fickle world where people get awfully hung up on labels to the point of madness. Is "The Wall" prog? What does it matter? Just enjoy it. We might well do a sidelong suite on album four, or we could bring in an acoustic and embrace our love of “Crosby, Stills and Nash”. Who knows. We are a mixed bag and that's what makes being in this band fun. And given how notoriously jading this industry is, fun is what matters most.

PP: You’ve said that your first three albums form a trilogy. What makes it a trilogy? Was that the plan from the start? What will be different on future albums? Is another concept in the works?
DS: It's a loose trilogy, more in long-term band arc than anything conceptual. A first album can be one where a band is finding their feet. A second album might be where the band gets to stretch out and explore. But oftentimes, at least with many of my favourite bands, the third album is where they really consolidate things and find 'their sound'. I liked the idea of the self-titled album being the third one - as if to say "this is Brass Camel". Hopefully we'll continue putting out albums long into the future and listeners can look back and see that progression. The first record opens with "First Contact" and the third one closes with "This is Goodbye". The idea there was to tie up this first chapter in the band's journey with a neat bow and move on from there!

PP: Speaking of that trilogy: the titles of your first three albums are really original. The first is “Brass”, the second is “Camel”, and the third brings the two words together to form the band name, “Brass Camel”. Whose idea was that, and what was the thinking behind it?
DS: The idea to name the third album Brass Camel had been on paper since the beginning, sort of a waypoint, in that I hoped we'd really have our own identity by then. The name "Camel" for the second one was brought up in jest originally but after picturing the three names lined up on spines in a record collection it really grew on us and eventually the jestful suggestion became the final title. What we didn't account for with album number two was there being a healthy contingent of Camel (the band) fans who have messaged us over the past twelve months feeling that crossed a line having an album named "Camel" with a moon themed cover. The reality is I haven't dived nearly as far as I should into the world of the band Camel. Before it was brought to our attention, I had no idea that “Moonmadness” or “I Can See My House From Here” existed, or that they have a song called "Another Night" (we have a 12-minute song called "Another Day" which serves as the finale for our second album). Pure coincidence. At this point I would love to go down the Camel rabbit hole - I have learned that Andy Latimer is a phenomenal guitarist and writer - but I don't know if actively being inspired by a group with half-the-same-band-name is a wise idea as far as dispelling the rip-off allegations go!

PP: What do the three album covers represent? Aside from the brass spheres on Brass, and of course the camel on Camel, your third album features a dromedary rather than a camel? What’s the story there?
DS: This might be a UK vs North America thing but as far as I knew a dromedary is a camel. Dromedary camels have one hump and Bactrian camels have two humps. We're a one-hump group. The album cover depicts a brass camel (of the dromedary variety) sitting in a symphonic gong filled with water and smoke reflecting all sorts of stage lights. We couldn't afford the 21st century's version of Hipgnosis so we got to work with what we had and one thing I love about the new cover is that it seems everyone who's seen the physical press pulls something different out of it. They might see a mirage, or fire pit, or a pupil - it's usually the drummers who pick out the gong/cymbal.
(Editor’s note: As a francophone writer from Quebec, I mistakenly confused the English terminology for camels! In French, a “chameau” (camel) is a two-humped animal, while a “dromadaire” (dromedary) is a one-humped animal. In English, however, I just learned that “camel” usually refers to the one-humped dromedary, while the two-humped animal is called a “Bactrian camel”!)

PP: What was your writing process like for this third album? Who wrote what, and how did it all come together?
DS: I wrote the bulk of the album while taking a breather from a hectic 2024 schedule. What really changed was a lyrics-first approach. With "Camel" I had the lyrics penned for “Zealot” and “Another Day” and some bits for a couple of the shorter songs, but it took an awfully long time to flesh out the words for the others. Months and months. After they were completed in November or December 2024, I thought to myself "this isn't good enough" - if we are going to continue going all-out in this longshot industry we're going to need to be more prolific. So, I started waking up earlier and heading to the studio with the intention of not leaving without a new song penned. I'd pull inspiration from whatever I was reading about at the time (the Leeds Devil folk tale for example – “Careful What You Wish For”), what was in the news (the titan submersible implosion report in “This is Goodbye”) or something a bandmate suggested diving into (arctic resilience in the case of “Ice Cold”). Once the wheels started turning, they didn't stop and what resulted was/is a LOT of new material. We were about to hit the road, and we chose the ten songs we thought fit together best to form a cohesive record.
One new element of the writing process that excites me greatly was cowriting with Aubrey (Ellefson, keyboards and vocals) for the first time. We bashed out “Everybody Loves a Scandal” in an afternoon after tasking ourselves with writing a song about an unrepentant AI-music creator. We work together really well and he's a great foil for lyrics. We've written more songs together and I really look forward to continuing the process going forward.

PP: Compared with your previous album, this new record is made up entirely of shorter pieces, with the longest track running barely five minutes. Was that a deliberate choice from the start, or did it simply happen that way?
DS: It simply happened that way. It was never an intention to write long pieces for album two, they naturally ended up at those lengths but could have easily been shorter songs if we weren't feeling like there should be new twists and turns while working out the structure. And this time it was the opposite. The next album - who knows! There are concepts kicking around for significantly longer pieces, but we'll have to see what the feeling is when we really get down to pre-producing the fourth album. This bands ethos is a healthy mix of meticulous planning and absolute winging-it by instinct.

PP: Kevin Comeau, from the Canadian band “Crown Lands”, co-produced your new album. You met him when he came to one of your shows, and then you worked with him for a few days in the middle of your 2025 tour to record the album. It all came together pretty quickly, and as a result, the record has a live, raw feel, while still sounding impeccably produced. Can you tell us more about that experience?
DS: We hung out with Crown Lands at their studio a few days after our September 2024 Toronto show that Kevin attended. We jammed on “The Battle of Epping Forest” and talked shop while surrounded by a half dozen doublenecks and quickly felt like we were kindred spirits. Kevin and I talked about recording a live session video at Chalet on the upcoming “Camel” tour and pencilled in some dates. Originally that was the plan, however once all the demos of the new tunes started flooding in, he suggested that we could record an LP and we sort of took it up as a challenge. It was incredible setting up shop at the Chalet in between shows. Very much a “Le Studio” vibe there (Editor’s note: the famous “Le Studio de Morin-Heights”) - natural light and wild animals and pastoral scenes. A wonderful respite from the hectic road or usual cave-like studio environment. Kevin was great as a voice of reason and calming presence in the sessions. We see eye to eye on a lot and having someone there -for the first time- to offer feedback on arrangement and performance approach was great.

PP: Terry Brown, the renowned producer and mixer who has worked on Rush albums, among others, mixed your third album. He was introduced to you by Kevin Comeau. I understand most of the mixing was done over the phone. Did you also meet him in person? What was that experience like?
DS: We haven't met in person yet! Canada is too damn large; we're a little over 4000 kilometres away from each other. We do plan on meeting on the upcoming tour though. We spent a ton of time on the phone discussing the album, other albums, mix philosophies and more. Terry was the picture of a gentleman and professional throughout the process and from the get-go we were able to communicate like we were talking to an old friend. Any creative input he offered was informed by reason and experience which led to a mix we are all very happy with! What really got me excited to start the process was the first call with Terry - he asked what we were after with the mix and I mentioned that we thought the first two albums sound good but were too heavy-handed in the post production despite a lot of back-and-forth trying to achieve a natural sound fit for a hifi system with lots of separation. We wanted a record with minimal digital editing/no vocal pitch correction/drum timing tweaks - he replied, "good news: my job is to mix it, not to fix it". Just like that, we know we had our guy.

PP: You produced videos for three songs from your new album. They’re little gems — original, playful, and very funny. It really seems like you had a lot of fun making them! Who came up with the ideas behind those videos?
DS: Group effort! Dylan came up with the “Ice Cold” concept of shooting on a hockey rink - the song is about living in the far north but that was several lines of latitude further than our budget would allow so he suggested we lace up. And what a fun time we had making that video. I came up with the robot concept for “Everybody Loves a Scandal”. Curtis came up with the concept for a very cool animated video in the works for “Catch Us if You Can”. And there's more to come!

PP: You filmed the video for “What Are You Going to Do” at “Rufus Guitar Shop” in Vancouver. That store closed not long after the shoot. Did you know it would close at the time?
DS: We had absolutely no idea. We'd been chatting with Blaine from Rufus about shooting a video there but hadn't been able to nail down a time and then one day he calls and says, "you guys oughta get in here this weekend". I told him it was unlikely and he heavily implied that it was the best time to do so, so we moved things around and made it happen. He still never let it slip the store was closing. A couple weeks later the news came out of nowhere and all of a sudden that urgency made a lot more sense.

PP: Your lyrics cover a wide variety of subjects, especially on this latest album. Would it be fair to say that curiosity is part of your nature?
DS: That would be an understatement. I am passionately curious. About fucking everything it seems. It's time consuming.

PP: You said that on this album, there are lots of subtle details and easter eggs hidden in the arrangements. Could you give us one or two examples?
DS: Sure! In “You've Got Time”, for example, the reverse piano chord played under the intro drum fill is the same chord that sees out the finale “This is Goodbye”. In the same song, the 3 verses gradually get shorter - first 9/8 and then 7/4 and the 5/4 - so the listener 'runs out of time' despite the song’s lyrical suggestion. In “Scandal”, Terry Brown makes an appearance with a vocal cameo. And there are lots of little syncopations and things that were given a greater attention to detail than on the first two albums throughout.

PP: Musora, an online music-learning platform, invited you last year to cover of a song by pop artist Sabrina Carpenter. The result is amazing. That video has nearly a million views! How did that project come about, did you enjoy doing it, and how long did it take you to put the cover together?
DS: We got a shout from a friend of ours, Ayla Tesler-Mabe, who is a positively incredible guitar/singer/bandleader here in Vancouver. She's in the Musora fold and asked if they could talk with us about coming in for a Covers Challenge. The series hadn't been launched yet - they had just filmed the first video with Ulysses Owens - and apparently a touring act had to pull chute as they couldn't make it in. We did it on very very short notice, arriving at the studio to set up after driving 12 hours south from a gig in northern BC. It was a phenomenal experience, if not trying at times. We had no idea what song we'd be given and from the time we were set up/ready to start to the completion of the cover it took around 5 hours. The biggest lesson I learned on a personal level was that I don't need to be going full-send with the vocals while we're still just ironing out an arrangement. By the time we were ready to go for a proper take I was getting pretty burned out. But it all came together in an arrangement that was pretty rad! We haven't played it since, actually. Maybe one day we could bust it out for the hell of it.

PP: Which artists have influenced your music, or continue to influence it today? If possible, it would be great to hear each member’s individual influences as well!
DS: My (Daniel) biggest influences: Little Feat, Genesis (Gabriel era), Al di Meola, Parliament and 10cc.
Curtis: Rush and Yes and Gentle fucking Giant
Wyatt: Tool, Mars Volta, Pink Floyd
Aubrey: Biggest inspos for my instrument for this band are Tony Banks, Rick Wakeman, Rick Wright, Bernie Worrell, Benny Andersson, John Paul Jones
Dylan: Tommy Emmanuel, Billy Joel, Meat Loaf

PP: What can we expect from your upcoming tour? Is the setlist already locked in?
DS: There will be very healthy representation of the new album as well as a revolving door of material from the previous two. It's a safe bet that we'll be keeping Zealot in the set - no sense bringing two doublenecks on the road if we're not going to use them! We play live without a click or any midi samples which leaves the door open for improvisation and changing sets. If you happen to attend multiple shows this tour, you'll surely get some surprises!

We thank Daniel for his precious time and for the very generous answers!