"I don't care what anybody says" laughs Cameron Hons, regarding his new "Greatest Hits" album. "I don't like making Greatest Hits or Best Of album collections. I think all of my songs are the best!" "Then, you have the people saying 'Why isn't [insert track here] on the album? That always starts arguments."
Last year, in September 2022, Cameron made his very first Best Of collection "The Absolutely Very Best Of...So Far!" It was a 2 disc collection featuring many popular tracks and personal favourites from Cameron's shy of 20 years of original music. The original album can be found here. But this release is uniquely different.
The 2023 version of this album contains an alternate track list, and is suitable to fit on only one disc instead of 2. Both versions are different. "I wanted to try something unique and fun, and it turned out to be a good idea" said Cameron. "I have a wide variety of songs that hardly anybody has heard. Even my old school fans probably haven't heard half of the tracks on this compilation." he laughs again. Then, why is this a "Greatest Hits" CD? "These are songs of mine that I think are the best". Cameron explains. "It was difficult because I couldn't fit my entire back Catalog on the one disc, but I am happy with this selection"
"I have a wide variety of songs that hardly anyone has heard.".
Cameron Hons started making music in June 2004 at the age of 13. From Sydney, Australia, He formed his first band, "The Country Folk People" with his friend Stefan Goslinga in the same year and they released a bunch of chaotic and fun albums from 2004 - 2006 with album titles such as "Farm Yard Fucks" and "Bush Tucker Mother Fucker". Then in 2006 Cameron decided to become a solo musician, cutting his first breakout track "Jacob Menson Sucks At Super Mario 64" which was written and recorded completely on the fly. "I shelved the track for a couple of years but when I heard it a while later I thought it was funny and decided to release it, but it's never been on any official album of mine. It's a rare single."
You can find that track on the original "Absolutely Very Best Of So Far" release. This new version although doesn't include it, features the other breakout song "Texting You At Midnight" from the 2015 album "Breaking The Rules". "I never thought that track would become so popular". Said Cameron. "I wrote & recorded it within probably five minutes. Didn't think anything else of it and released it. People loved it."
"A lot of the tracks on this re-release I find are certainly some of my best, but are very underrated & feature some of my finest Guitar performances ever recorded. They deserve a great listen. I don't follow stats on Bandcamp, it's pointless because I don't get paid for streams. I don't usually follow who likes what the most. I make music that mostly appeals to myself, and if you like it - that's great."
Although Cameron has many fans, he isn't without his critics and stalkers. Every famous musician has a stalker. "I've had a few funny ones and some odd ones" says Cameron. "My critics are just usually jealous of me, there are some guys out there that go to excessive lengths to get their opinion heard. There are some idiot Youtubers out there that make fun of me sometimes by sticking poo emojis over my face on whatever and they think it's funny, to people sharing my music sites on other discord servers and insulting it, I usually just ignore it. I don't spend all day Googling myself. Why would I care about that and what others think? They don't get it at all. The other annoying people I find are the ones that come in and try to tell you what to do with the way you create and record music. They lecture you on and on as if you're a 12 year old. Other people think I should change from a Analog setup to strictly digital, blah blah blah. I hate all of that digital stuff. My main goal was to always record music in my own home, without having the need of using expensive music studios to record every album, and still make great music. I only record with a Zoom H6 portable recorder and a Shurebeat 57a microphone or two. It's great because they do the job well, sadly some idiots don't think that's acceptable enough and I need 16 microphones to set up my drums or 40 cables sprawling around the room. Some people just don't understand. If it ain't broke, don't fix it!" laughs Cameron.
"I make music that mostly appeals to myself"
Cameron always performs all of the instruments on his albums himself. "I always wanted it to be kind of like a "One Man Band" concept. It's so fun, because there are no arguments or creative differences with anybody else. Nobody sitting behind me going 'Don't Do That'!" He has recorded with a lot of notable people over the years who have guested on his albums, who he is still friends with, like Peter Northcote, Harris Stamos, Alberto Rigoni, Albert Marshall, & more. Lately he has decided to move away from using many guest musicians on his albums. "It's nothing personal," says Cameron. "I simply just can't afford the ongoing expenses. But I have enjoyed what we have done."
Cameron Hons never had a musical theory background, he always was a self taught musician which is what he prefers. Although him not knowing music theory does get him into trouble sometimes "It used to be a burden when I would record with guests. Especially when too much technology would get in the way. I record with less technology & more fun."
Speaking of technology, Cameron isn't even really impressed with AI either. "I've seen it, it's not as good as people make it out to be, and seems to be causing more harm than good". Cameron has even had a few problems with AI over the recent years. "There's this website called "Shazam". I have no idea what it is, it's some stupid AI thing that matches music that you've heard in public I think? A while ago, I was on Digital Streaming platforms like Spotify, Apple Music etc. Don't ask me why, I don't stream music. But anyway, in 2017 I made this song called "Ringtone" from the album Too Good For You. I couldn't upload it to the streaming services because they thought it was a actual ringtone just because of the song title. I had to change the name of the track to appeal to the Digital Streaming Gods. I just came up with some dumb title 'I Hate My Phone' and it worked. Didn't think anything of it. A while later I found out this song was getting loads of plays for no reason. Like in their hundreds. And I thought, "this song isn't very good. Nobody is telling me they like it. Why is it getting so many plays?" I Google the song and find this thing on Shazam. They found my song, but wrongly identified it as another song. They thought my song was a cover of a track by some band i've never heard of called The James Barker Band. They have a song called 'I Hate My Phone'. So I was getting a lot of plays from that, and when people found out the two songs were different, they'd back out, so I had to delete the [Ringtone] track entirely from everything. Shazam mistook my song for their track! It's so frustrating because I can't fix it. AI can be stupid sometimes.."
"I was on Digital Streaming platforms like Spotify, Apple Music, etc. Don't ask me why. I don't stream music."
Sometimes uploading music to the internet can be very frustrating. With limited resources, choices and people online who only have an attention span of roughly 10 seconds. "People don't click links on Facebook". says Cameron. "It's hard to promote your music online. Very difficult. Then it always gets found by the wrong people. I feel like i'm the new version of Nickelback!" Cameron laughs. "But to anyone has heard my music, and like it over the years, I thank you! "
Cameron is not professional, but always chooses to be an independent musician because "It's more fun that way". "It's amazing to me that some people don't understand what the concept of being an 'independent musician' is.
The Absolutely Very Best Of - So Far (Single Disc Edition) is now available on CD and Digital from Cameron Hons Music.
Cameron Hons - The Absolutely Very Best Of...So Far! (Single Disc Edition)
Released September 19, 2023
01 One Of Those Days (Feat. Maurizio Antonini & Hupa65)
02 I Feel Like Rockin' Tonight (Feat. Peter Northcote)
03 Why Bother Stopping
04 Is It Ever Gonna Finish Once Again
05 No Use Moping Around
06 Stayin' Alive
07 Texting You At Midnight
08 Don't Be A Darian
09 School Bell
10 What's The Point Of This Song (Feat. Tom Adamson)
11 King Of Memes
12 Hungry For Money
13 Caught In The Act
14 Hosin' The Driveway
15 I Don't Understand Football (Feat. Peter Northcote)
16 I Know How To Rock
17 The Fantastic Fiasco
18 You Need To Calm Down
Listen to or Download it here.
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