Callum Easter was born in 1987 in Hastings on he south coast of England. He moved with his family to Dunbar on the east coast of Scotland at an early age.
Deserting a promising career as a footballer, Callum’s teenaged head was turned by rocknroll when he was in the deep south of the USA on a sports scholarship and he was taught to play stride rhythm and blues on the piano by an older frat boy.
Back home, and growing out of the youthful energy of his first band, Callum went solo, using electronics and bar room piano to experiment and perfect his distinctive, growling croon and unique song structures. The first fruits were the EPs Get Don’t Want and Delete Forever, released on Soulpunk, a tiny label run by the manager of Young Fathers.
Over the following years, Callum became a part of the small, intense scene based around Young Fathers in Leith, Edinburgh, along with singer Law Holt and The Leith Congregational Choir (who now sing backing vocals with Callum).
His first album Here or Nowhere was released on Lost Map, the label set up by Johnny Lynch (AKA Pictish Trail) and received favourable reviews. It came to the attention of London’s Moshi Moshi (home of Metronomy etc) who dived in for the second album, System. Before System’s release, Moshi were intrigued enough by Callum’s experiments with accordion and drum machine to commission a limited edition of his, then, minimal live set, released as Green Door Sessions.
Due to Covid and the lockdown System was impossible to promote via touring. Instead, The Callum Easter TV Special was created, a long form video inspired by New York 1980s cable TV and Saturday night variety shows. It was eventually released on Callum’s Vevo channel and serves as a pilot for a future series of TV recordings.
As a second string, Callum has been performing on stage with Young Fathers on several tours. It’s a natural fit, with both Callum and the band sharing a similar artistic ethos. He has also been the main support on many of these dates and in 2023 he will have toured right across the UK, Europe and the USA, both with Young Fathers and performing solo.
In late 2022, Callum played the first two concerts of what is hoped will be a regular winter feature at Queens Hall in Edinburgh, featuring special guests and a wildly enthusiastic home crowd. The Callum Easter Xmas Special at Queens Hall is pencilled for Christmas Eve in 2023.
After a summer of festivals, including Glastonbury with YFs plus solo performances in his own right (including at the legendary Strummerville stage), Callum Easter and his newly named live band, The Roulettes, will embark on a mini tour of the lesser travelled parts of Scotland in the Autumn. A new album is scheduled for Spring 2024 and recording is well underway in his basement studio in Leith.
