Calum Bowie has just released his latest single, “We Are The River”, the first since joining EMI records.
He began gaining recognition on Tik Tok, when he started posting videos of himself singing songs perched upon his window sill in Edinburgh, where he was studying.
Since then he hasn’t looked back, his Tik Tok account now has over 450k followers and in 2023 he played sold-out gigs across the UK and Ireland as well as performing at The Great Escape, TRNSMT, Kendal Calling and Y Not festivals.
From the get go, “We Are The River” is up beat and gets your foot tapping! A nice drum beat to reel you in, and a bursting chorus to make you stay.
There’s a nostalgic feel to this tune, as Calum mentions looking back to happy times that were simpler, in his younger days, which a lot of people can relate to.
I’m quite taken by the line;
“All I really had to know, was how late I could stay up”.
The transition from youth to adult is a struggle for most, it’s confusing and it’s not until we look back at how little responsibility we had to worry about compared to now that we realise how far we’ve come and how much has changed. Bowie has created lyrics that we can correlate with in looking to the past, but then instills a sense of hope coupled with the cheery chorus.
Using a river is a clever metaphor for time, and the ever changing world that we all have to negotiate with.
That’s the message I take from this song, as we get closer to new experiences, we become further from our childhood days. There will be change that we need to move and navigate with but it doesn’t have to be bad change.
Just finding our place in the world, one step at a time.
Exciting times ahead for Calum as he’s set to play live at London’s Lafayette on Friday the 8th of March, which there are tickets still available for! He also supports Dylan Gossett at Dublin Whelans on the 26th of February and London Tabernacle on the 28th.
“We Are The River” is a banging tune to blast in the car on a long drive, and can see it being a perfect soundtrack for the summer!
