February 2015
The Saint Raymond story begins with his family. Even his name is a tribute to his paternal grandfather, Raymond Burrows, a Nottingham bus driver who died before rising music star had reached his teens.
The Saint Raymond story begins with his family. Even his name is a tribute to his paternal grandfather, Raymond Burrows, a Nottingham bus driver who died before rising music star had reached his teens.
“I liked the idea of
using Saint something,” says Callum Burrows, now 19, of the street name in
Bramcote where he grew up.
“But you can’t put
Saint in front of your own name because that’s kind of a big-headed thing to
do.
“Sometimes people do
think my name is Raymond but most know who I am, what I do, what I had for
dinner because the way social media is.”
Adding Saint to his
grandfather’s surname was by way of a tribute to a man who had an influence on
the youngster, much like the rest of his family.
Callum grew up with
an older sister and two older brothers and was exposed to their music tastes
from an early age.
“I saw Oasis at the
Arena when I was about seven; it must have been one of the last tours they did.
At 11 or 12 I started playing the guitar and getting into bands like The Kooks
and going to my first gigs. I remember seeing The Maccabees at the Rescue Rooms
who had Mumford and Sons supporting them, which was pretty weird because they
went on to headline Glastonbury.
“I saw Dizzee Rascal
at Rock City when I was 14... I was going to whatever gigs I could.”
It was at 14 that he
started playing open mic nights, his first was at The Maze just off Mansfield
Road.
He recalls: “A
friend of mine was in a band and I just played a set before them. It was actually
quite busy although I did many a gig at the Maze where there were just two
people there.”
He continued
slogging it around the city gig circuit with his guitar, playing around two
shows a week.
His talent was
noticed by a music scene that was just starting to get national attention, with
major label signings for the likes of Natalie Duncan, Liam Bailey, then, most
significantly, Jake Bugg.
Two years ago he
signed to Asylum Records, part of the Atlantic group, home to Ed Sheeran, who
Callum spent nine weeks on the road with at the end of last year playing arenas
across the UK and Europe.
Prior to the record
deal he’d released his debut EP on chart-topping singer Gabrielle Aplin’s own
label and reached the Top 25 on the iTunes chart. He also toured with Aplin,
the voice behind the No. 1 single The Power Of Love, as featured on the John
Lewis Christmas campaign TV ad.
“She was really
supportive,” he recalls.
As was Zane Lowe on
Radio 1 and rapper Example, who he is still in touch with.
“He’s always been
there on the end of the phone to talk to and text. He’s been wicked. He’s
really funny.”
The same year he
played the Reading and Leeds Festivals, toured the UK and Europe supporting
Haim and had his own sold out tour, including Nottingham’s The Bodega.
The momentum built
in 2014 with two more iTunes hits, more national radio support and an impromptu
slot at Glastonbury.
“I’d gone with my drummer just to enjoy it. Normally when you are playing them you don’t get to enjoy the festival experience, so it was nice to just go along to have some fun.
A bigger gig, or 37
of them, was to come with the Ed Sheeran tour that ran across the UK and Europe
and saw him facing crowds of up to 20,000 people.
“I’m usually kind of
chilled before shows but I must admit I was pretty overwhelmed by it to start
with.
“It’s harder to see
faces in arenas so you don’t realise how many people there are... not until the
moment in the set where we got everyone to light up their phones. That freaked
me out a little bit.”
And how was
Britain’s biggest-selling artist of 2014?
“Ed was great. He’d
come by the dressing room and ask how it was going, we’d text each other...
he’s really down to earth.”
Being away from home
for over two months wasn’t easy for the son of a teaching assistant and a
salesman, who admits to being quite “homey”.
He says: “Nine weeks
is a long time to be with anyone; even if you are married, so it was hard being
on a tour bus with the same people every day. But you learn each other’s
boundaries.
“I like to sit by
myself with my laptop and listen to music, play XBox... I take myself away from
it all. That’s what I’d do at home and I think the trick is to install as much
of home life into tour life.”
His band are like an
extended family. The bassist is his brother-in-law, who was in a band with the
drummer.
“Me and him went to
Glastonbury and Ibiza together,” he says.
“It has never felt
like me and session players. We get along in the dressing and we hang out
together.”
Although he has been
in search of a new guitarist for the upcoming tour, since his original one
quit.
His elder siblings
have long flown the nest so when he comes home to Bramcote it’s just him, mum,
dad and the dog. And he loves it.
“When I was living
at home I just wanted to go out all the time,” he says.
“And by the time I
reached 16 I wanted to move to London but then I spent six months going down
there working from Monday to Friday... now I just love being at home.”
His fans on Twitter
know his mum, Diane, who goes under the name Momma Burrows, as she is a
prolific tweeter.
“I was interviewed
by Jo Whiley on Radio 2 and she spent most of the time asking me about my mum,”
he laughs.
Callum is at home
now working on new material, including a song for the soundtrack of an upcoming
British film called Kill Your Friends, starring
Nicholas Hoult and James Corden.
He’s already had
songs featured on computer games, TV and film, including an advert for ITV
Player and Us comedy This Is Where I Leave You, which starred Tina Fey and
Jason Bateman.
“My mum collects
cuttings from papers and magazines and records all the shows. She’s like ‘you
were on Hollyoaks, hang on let me find it,” he laughs.
This month he will
be on a headline tour of the UK that includes a sell-out show at Rock City.
“Every year me and
my manager do a bucket list and playing Rock City was on it but when he talked
about booking it I thought ‘no, I’ll never sell-out Rock City’. Just because
I’ve seen so many big artists here. I didn’t think it would happen, so I can’t
believe it’s sold out.”
“When I came home
after the arena tour with Ed, I came to Rock City to see Years and Years
supporting Clean Bandit... and it felt so small. But I love Rock City gigs. I
like that you can see people texting or whatever. An arena is an amazing
experience but it’s a different feeling to playing here.”
After the tour he
has no idea what will be happening.
“I honestly don’t
know what I’m doing next week. Plans are constantly changing; which is great,
you just enjoy the ride. But the down side is that you can’t, say, book a
holiday with your mates because you don’t know if you’ll be free.
“Not that I’m
complaining.”
The key event will
be the long-awaited release of his debut album.
“You only release
your first album once so you’ve got to be so sure with the timing. I’d love to
release it tomorrow but you can’t get it out there for the sake of getting it
out there.
“But it’ll
definitely be this year. I’d like to hope it’ll be in the next six months.”
Saint Raymond plays
Rock City on February 11. Sold out. For more about him visit
saintraymond.co.uk. Follow him on Twitter: @Callum_SR.
Bugg and Burrows
Mention Jake Bugg
and Callum Burrows, aka Saint Raymond, will stifle a sigh but the parallels
with Nottingham’s biggest music star are numerous.
Both started out at
the age of 14 playing opens mic nights at city pubs and venues with an acoustic
guitar.
Although he turns 21
this month, Callum’s Clifton counterpart was, like him, 18 when he signed his
record deal.
Both were given a
helping hand by a major British music star on a tour of Europe. In Jake’s case
it was Noel Gallagher, while Callum spent two months on the road with Ed
Sheeran.
They are the only
two Nottinghamshire musicians to sell-out Rock City’s main hall. This month,
Saint Raymond will play the 1,950 capacity venue, two years to the week that
Jake Bugg did the same.
And both are Notts
County fans.
“Around the UK I do
get asked about Jake Bugg, or he gets mentioned in interviews because of the
Nottingham connection,” he says.
“And that’s nice
because there’s a real vibe about Nottingham now. But we’re in different
genres.”
True enough, while
Bugg trawls Sixties and Seventies rock, blues, country and folk, Saint Raymond
is more of a contemporary, anthemic indie pop artist.
It doesn’t help when
we meet at Rock City that he makes a throwaway remark about meeting Cara
Delevingne, the supermodel and gossip column regular who Bugg dated for a
period.
“I played Call Of
Duty with her,” he laughs.
“It was at a random
game launch party. They invite a lot of people to test the game and tweet about
it. I was with my mate, who knew how much I loved her, and he said ‘do you know
Cara Delevingne is here?’. I thought he was joking. But she was sat next to me.
“I was about to
leave and she said right let’s all have one big game against each other.”
He pauses, before
adding with a grin: “She’s... interesting.”
