Jeremy Camp seems to have lived a lifetime in less than 30 years, and his ability to color his music with that experience has made him one of the Christian industry’s most successful artists.
His last three albums have been certified gold, and Camp was named ASCAP’s Christian songwriter of the year in 2005 and 2006. Along the way, he also has garnered numerous Dove Awards and multiple hit singles. He’ll co-headline a 35-city arena tour beginning the first of the year, and will follow that with a House of Blues tour in the spring and headlining state fairs and festival dates throughout the summer.
Camp’s latest effort is “Beyond Measure” on BEC Recordings, which bowed at No. 2 on Billboard’s Top Christian Albums chart and has scanned 45,400 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan.
“I think it’s the whole personal aspect,” Camp says, trying to explain what has propelled an Indiana preacher’s kid into a successful music career. “I’ve always been real honest in my music and real honest when I play live,” he says. “I’ve always just written my heart and allowed God to do what he wanted to do.”
Pouring his life into his songwriting has been cathartic for Camp. He lost his first wife to ovarian cancer when she was 21 and he was 23. The songs that developed out of that difficult period populated his breakthrough album, “Stay.” The title track was named rock recorded song of the year at the 2005 Gospel Music Assn. Dove Awards. Camp netted the best new artist and male vocalist honors in 2004 and repeated his male vocalist win in 2005.
Subsequent releases “Carried Me: The Worship Project” and “Restored” have continued to build Camp’s base of fans, who refer to themselves as Happy Campers. In 2003, Camp remarried. He and his wife, Adie, the former frontwoman for South African Christian rock band the Benjamin Gate, have two daughters. (Adie recently released her first solo project, which Camp produced.)
Camp readily admits that his new album reflects a happy season in his life. He adds that “Beyond Measure” is more stylistically diverse than his previous efforts. “I always write tons of different styles,” he says. “There are some rock songs and some ballads, but I think musically I took this to a different level.”
Camp hopes to do more producing and work more on film soundtracks. He produced and sings the classic “It Is Well With My Soul” for the upcoming film “Amazing Grace,” and he won a Dove for his participation in “Music Inspired by the Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.”
“So much has happened,” Camp says of the last few years. “I’ve been able to talk to so many people and hear stories about how the music has touched their heart and how God has used it to minister to them. It’s been a crazy whirlwind, but I’m so blown away by God’s hand on my life. He continues to open doors.”
