Perhaps best known as one of the founding members of pastoral, Scottish twee outfit
Camera Obscura,
Tracyanne Campbell helped shape the Scottish music scene in the 2000s with album's such as 2001's
Biggest Bluest HiFi and 2009's
My Maudlin Career.
Born in Glasgow in 1974,
Campbell grew up listening to records from her mother and grandmother's record collections -- bands like
the Velvet Underground,
the Pastels, and
Yo La Tengo have been a lasting influence. After attending college, she formed
Camera Obscura with
John Henderson and Gavin Dunbar in 1996. Becoming an integral part of the Scottish music scene alongside
Belle and Sebastian,
the Delgados, and
Franz Ferdinand,
Camera Obscura delivered several albums, including 2009's U.K. Top 40-charting
My Maudlin Career. In 2015 the group went on hiatus after the death of keyboardist Carey Lander, which affected
Campbell on a deeply personal level; she retreated from performing, focusing instead on her son and marrying her long-time partner Tim Davidson.
In the early 2010s
Campbell crossed paths with
Danny Coughlan, and while a friendship developed over the years, it wasn't until
Coughlan sent
Campbell some demos that the pair decided to collaborate. Recording at
Edwyn Collins' remote Scottish studio in 2017, their debut album,
Tracyanne & Danny, appeared in 2018 on
Camera Obscura's previous label Merge Records. ~ Rich Wilson