During the Langley staff versus students soccer game in 2012, students were given the unique experience of sampling an array of foods from across the globe, watching their peers beat the faculty, and listening to the folksy twang of then freshman Camille Thornton’s guitar as she performed her own written songs during halftime.
Now a junior, Thornton has been writing songs since she was ten years old and has written over seventy-five songs since.
“I definitely used to write a lot of country, but recently my music’s been gearing more toward pop and folk. I still love country, and it shows up in my songs a fair amount, but it’s become more of an underlying tone than a genre,” said Thornton.
When she writes a song, Thornton is inspired by people in her environment, emotions, and ideas.
“I write a lot about wanting to leave Virginia and go somewhere where there’s more music. I try to listen to a lot of different genres and look for new music a lot, and often whatever I’m listening to sort of shows up in my music. I’m very impressionable like that,” said Thornton.
Over the past couple of summers, Thornton has traveled to Nashville, Tennessee to both perform and record her songs with producer Bobby King. In addition to that, this past summer, she interned with local singer/songwriter/producer Todd Wright.
“He showed me a lot about the recording process and how to actually work the software and all that, so that kind of got me into recording my own stuff, which is mostly what I’ve been doing for the past couple of months,” said Thornton.
She has also attended the Interlochen Arts Camp where she studied cello and composition and has attended GRAMMY Camp, which is an intense summer program run by the GRAMMY Foundation in Los Angeles.
“GRAMMY Camp was amazing. There were seventy-eight or so kids from around the world, and eleven other songwriters. I met so many amazing people, including Ryan Seacrest and ZZ Ward,” said Thornton.
Thornton’s friends are very supportive of her and enjoy listening to her songs.
Junior Shannon Suh said, “Camille has a lot of musical talent, but even more than that, a dedication and drive that will take her far. Her songs are so well made and fun to listen to, I would genuinely buy them even if I didn’t know her.”
Junior Amy Owens added, “I admire her for having an album so young, and her songs sound so professional! I’m just waiting for her to become famous.”
Thornton performs at a variety of venues, which range from restaurants to Viva Vienna as well as local Writer’s Nights and YouTube.
“The best part of performing for me is that it’s kind of a personal connection with people, one I don’t really get anywhere else but on stage. Social interaction is not my forte—I’m quite possibly one of the most shy and awkward people on the planet. I’m so bad at talking to people, so I guess I kind of just do the whole social interaction thing through music,” said Thornton.