“On a road trip, you’re going through different scenery, through tall mountains and then total
flatlands,” says Sadie Campbell. “You have beautiful and sunny mornings, and then the sun goes
down, and everything is moodier.”
Campbell’s first full-length record Metamorphosis embodies the ups and downs of a long drive.
“It’s a variety of light and dark—different scenery, moods, and themes all together on the same
project,” says Campbell. “It’s my lessons and my journey.”
Metamorphosis describes Campbell’s crossing through the dark spell she documented with
producers Stuart Cameron and Peter Fusco on her 2021 EP The Darkroom. For Metamorphosis,
Campbell, Cameron, and Fusco finally met in-person for the first time to collaborate at the Bath
House in Ontario. The record they made spans a variety of genres and explores a similarly
diverse range of emotions. Country, rock, and soul pepper tracks about sadness, discovery, and a
dance-to-this kind of joy. “I wanted this record to have songs about these totally polar opposite
topics, because that’s life,” says Campbell. “Songs about anxiety and hopelessness can live on
the same record as love songs and hopeful songs.” And on Metamorphosis, they do.
On the title-track, Campbell explores the transformative nature of suffering. “You’re never the
same, but who wants that anyway?” She sings, “I’d rather shed my skin than keep living the
same life I’m in, ‘cause you can’t grow wings without a metamorphosis.” Campbell continues
her embrace of growth and change on “Getting Older,” a track that celebrates aging in a youth-
obsessed culture of botox and fillers. “Count the rings on the tree. Count the wrinkles on me,”
sings Campbell, “I’m so damn proud to be getting older.”
“What Love Can Do” is a more upbeat celebration of the leap of faith required by love and the
rewards reaped by taking that risk. “You bet it all on a chance you might lose. Set a fire. You
walk right on through. Let it burn cause you don’t wana move. That’s what love can do,” she
sings. While Campbell falls in love on the album, we also see her fall out of faith on the moving
track, “Saved.” It is a powerful moment on Metamorphosis and a defining experience for
Campbell, whose winding road of a musical journey began in a church choir in Canada.
Steering her way from those humbling beginnings in a small-town choir, Campbell ventured out
to the United States, where she made a pit stop in Brooklyn before settling down in the city of
Nashville she now calls home. In the Music City’s famed honky-tonks, Campbell worked to
support herself and solidify her style as an artist. She has come a long way since; an exciting
publishing deal with Park Avenue West marks the latest stop on her musical journey. With gas
in her tank, Campbell continues the drive.