CAMERON SAUL - TRACKS THAT SHAPED MY SOUND
- BabyStep Magazine
- 22 hours ago
- 4 min read

With his feet in the soil and his heart in the sky, Cameron Saul makes music that’s as spiritually rooted as it is sonically expansive. On new single ‘Bahia’, the Somerset-born, globally-minded singer-songwriter channels Afro-Brazilian rhythms, lush strings, and poetic lyricism into a soul-stirring celebration of joy, transcendence, and human connection. Produced by acclaimed folk artist Fink and inspired by a solo journey to the Bahian coastline, ‘Bahia’ is both a love letter to a sacred place and a call to honour life in all its complexity.
Now gearing up to release his debut album Simeo—a sweeping 12-track meditation on love, nature, and resistance—Saul continues to fuse his musical and activist worlds. As the co-founder of BOTTLETOP and #TOGETHERBAND, his work as a sustainability campaigner echoes in every note, with even the vinyl release of Simeo being fully plant-based. We caught up with Cameron to talk about the spiritual power of rhythm, creating art with conscience, and why Bahia is a song for anyone seeking light in dark times.
Paul Simon - Graceland
Every summer since I was a child our family summer holidays have been spent in the Scilly Isles in Cornwall and the road trip down there, in dads old Range Rover packed with anticipation and excitement, was as much about the soundtrack as the destination. Those sweaty, joyful, crisp packet, Kit Kat and tea flask laden moments were where my love for music - singing along at the top of our lungs to Paul Simon’s Graceland - was born. I think it’s also where I was first introduced to African rhythms via his production, which was groundbreaking at the time.
Sting & the Police - Roxanne
Sting and the Police were a regular feature in our home growing up and there is something so powerful, raw and beguiling about his writing of Roxanne. As a boy I loved the energy of the song without understanding what it was about and then as I came to understand the metaphors I developed another level of appreciation for it.Roxanne is about a man who falls in love with a prostitute and desperately wants to save her from that life. Sting wrote it in October 1977 while in Paris, inspired by the “ladies of the night” he saw outside his hotel and a poster for Cyrano de Bergerac featuring the name Roxane.He somehow manages to blend empathy, emotional depth, and social commentary, urging Roxanne to step away from her circumstances and envision a brighter life in a song and melody that is irresistible. The drums in the song are also what make it so special and distinctive with this heavy dub inspired flavour that was from another time and place; making the song instantly unique.
Fink - Biscuits
I had been a fan of Fink as an electronic producer and DJ and when he released his debut album on NinjaTune as a singer songwriter it blew me away. The title song to that album, Biscuits For Breakfast, written about his longing to leave the mundanity of his day job was the perfect contemporary folk meets blues track and was on repeat for me throughout that time. Biscuits for Breakfast influenced the way that I was crafting stories through song writing. It’s been an honour and a joy to work with Fink on the production of my recent singles Dance Alone and Bahia.
Nick Mulvey - Fever To The Form
Songwriting has been my personal toolkit for self-understanding and making sense of the world around me since I started writing 25 years ago. Fever to the Form by Nick Mulvey is a beautifully poetic meditation on that journey of self-understanding through music.It’s also a reflection on the balance between order and chaos that comprises so much of our daily lives as artists which is being put to the test with the challenge of processing and reflecting what’s happening in the world at a time of climate crisis, biodiversity loss, widening inequality and geopolitical conflict while a genocide plays out in real time on social media before our eyes. Nick himself says the song came “from a place of working out my inside world.”Rather than writing confessions Nick uses his own experience, made universal, which for me is the true art of songwriting; how to interpret the personal experience in a way that can be felt universally.We are on a fallow year in 2025 but each summer I host a music, art and culture festival called NEON In Nature and Nick performed this song with us in 2023, it was as powerful and beautiful as the first time I heard it on his debut solo album.
Milton Nascimento and Lô Borges - Tudo o Que Você Podia Ser
Written by the legendary Milton Nascimento and Lô Borges, this is a deeply evocative song that became iconic during Brazil’s military dictatorship, not through direct protest, which was forbidden, but through its deliberate poetic ambiguity. Released in 1972 as the opening track of the groundbreaking Clube da Esquina album, the song speaks to the possibilities that were denied - whether by society, the state, or personal fear.The title itself, which translates to “Everything You Could Have Been,” is rich with symbolism, suggesting unrealised potential and the quiet tragedy of dreams that were denied under authoritarianism. Framed in a Brazil where open dissent was dangerous, the song's subtle invitation to imagine freedom and self-determination carried deep political meaning.Just as Milton used metaphor to navigate Brazil’s military censorship, many contemporary artists confronting the genocide in Gaza—particularly in Palestine, the diaspora, and among global allies—are using symbolic storytelling, cultural references, and emotional landscapes rather than explicit political language. In both cases, this allows messages of human dignity, loss, longing, and injustice to reach broader audiences, often bypassing censorship or retaliation.Musically the song is unforgettable. It blends Brazilian popular music (MPB) with rock, jazz, and psychedelic textures, creating a lush, expansive soundscape. It’s this fusion of lyrical subtlety, emotional depth, and musical innovation that makes the song a beautiful expression of quiet resistance and hope, which I believe is perhaps the most important role that music can play. Music can bring people together and keep hope alive.
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