Rising musician Callum Stewart chats with Hot Press

Meet Callum Stewart. Raised on the north coast of Ireland, the teenage tunesmith’s name has been on the lips of taste-makers for a while now and rightly so. After all, it’s not every day a relatively unknown indie artist breaks the internet in half with a new single, without a big bucks record company behind them. A pensive pop song with a huge, glossy hook, the June 2016 released ‘Parachute’ has so far helped Stewart amass a staggering 100,000-plus views on You Tube, as well as 96,000-plus streams on Spotify.

“2016 was a great year for me,” says Stewart modestly. “One of the highlights was releasing ‘Parachute’ – it went much better than expected. I was hoping for 10,000 views on You Tube and maybe a thousand streams on Spotify, but it’s gotten over 100,000 views on YouTube so far, which is just mental.

“The opportunities I got from only one song are unbelievable. It’s really encouraging and exciting, because I have even better ones to come out.” Mentored by American born producer Tre Sheppard from the age of 12, the soft spoken Stewart also spent the year writing for other artists. He tells us he’s relishing the collaborations, which have taken him to places such as Nashville.

“I didn’t know much about Nashville before I went over,” he explains. “But when I got there I found that the people are quite similar to those in Ireland – they’re friendly, helpful and conversational. I think a lot of people from here gravitate towards it, because it has a closeknit music scene that’s quite similar to Belfast. There’s a big pop scene growing there too, and that’s something I’d love to be more a part of. “I write for myself and I write for others, which I’m really enjoying as well. I love it, because most of the time you come away from a writing session thinking, ‘How did that song even happen?’ It’s very satisfying.” And after working with Rudimental and Nile Rodgers in the past, who else would be on Stewart’s wish-list of collaborators, we wonder?

“Max Martin has to be there because he’s a hit machine,” he replies. “Then people like Tom Odell and Chris Martin. I’m a pop writer at the end of the day, but I love drawing from different genres like soul or the Nashville thing.”

With a new year just started, we ask Callum how he sees the next 12 months shaping up for both himself and the music industry.

“Despite what some say, I don’t think the music industry is any worse than it was before the digital age,” he suggests. “I see it as an interesting time that we have to embrace. I’m in a lucky position in that I’ve never known anything different to streaming. People need to adapt and I think most are. I still buy vinyl records though, but only if I really like an album.

“For me, the plan is to release my new single ‘The Dam’ over the next few weeks. I wrote it quite a while ago and have been playing it live and I’m excited to get it out. After that, we’ll hopefully do a tour and get some good support slots. We’ve a limited budget and we want to get the most out of it.”

Check out Callum Stewart’s YouTube page for more music.