Folk Guitarist Brian Campbell Releases New Single “I Saw You Going Out Today”
Montreal-based contemporary folk artist Brian Campbell continues his string of poetic, emotionally resonant releases with “I Saw You Going Out Today,” out now.
Known for his deft fingerstyle guitar, intimate lyricism, and storyteller’s charm, Campbell delivers a song that feels both timeless and immediate, rooted in the traditions of classic singer-songwriters yet bearing the sensitivity of modern folk expression.
The single is part of Campbell’s upcoming full-length album Let’s Talk, which explores the theme of communication—both tender and fraught—in love, politics, and the world at large. “I Saw You Going Out Today” stands out as one of the album’s most personal, bittersweet entries.
Set to a delicate nylon-string guitar and enriched by Erich Kory’s cello, the track reflects the joyful unease of lasting love, asking whether the comfort and safety we feel in someone’s presence are real or just other “flights of fancy that swiftly die / that come from voice and guitar.”
Originally drafted on a Montreal balcony nearly 30 years ago, the song was recently completed with input from acclaimed Canadian folk artist David Francey, who helped shape lines like: “Your presence in my life, my love / Is sunlight showering from above.”
The tension between security and doubt gives the track its quiet magic.
“Maybe sorrow is not very far,” Campbell sings, but the memory of a kiss and a cheerful wave brings a grounding peace: “Ah, you made me feel so glad.”
Influenced by Latin American nueva canción artists like Pablo Milanés and Victor Jara, the song’s structure and sentiment echo their honest aesthetic—gentle, poetic, and laced with socio-emotional depth.
Campbell’s collaborators on the track and forthcoming album include Karina Marquez and Leesa Mackey (backing vocals), and Chard Chénier (harmonica), Danilla Carbert (trumpet), the aforementioned Erich Kory (cello), Martin Bennett (lead electric guitar, bass) and Michael Rien (drums), all of whom contribute to the warmth and intricacy of the arrangements.
“I Saw You Going Out Today” follows previous singles “Planet on Fire,” “Only Breath,” and “A Crystal Rim,” each praised for their lyrical craftsmanship and emotional reach by outlets like Canadian Beats, Tinnitist, and Record World International.
The single will be officially launched at a special album release event for Let’s Talk on Thursday, June 19 at Mariposa… le café in Montreal (5562 Upper Lachine Rd., 6–8 pm, doors at 5 pm). Campbell is also slated to perform at Hudson Porchfest on September 13–14, with selections from Let’s Talk featured in the setlist.
With “I Saw You Going Out Today,” Brian Campbell once again proves that quiet truths—delivered by voice and guitar—can speak the loudest.
Hi Brian! Good to see you again! Care to introduce yourself to the readers for those not familiar with your music?
Here’s a fun story: I first learned how to play guitar – and discovered my passion for making music – while doing a Spanish immersion course in Antigua, Guatemala, back in the mid-1980s. There was a fellow student who taught me a fingerstyle piece on classical guitar, which I practiced for hours after classes. Back home in my native Toronto, I befriended a Guatemalan woman, an aficionado of the Latin American nueva canción movement of the ’70s and ’80s, which included singer-songwriters like Victor Jara, Violeta Parra, and Pablo Milanés. Transcribing and translating with her their gorgeous, poetic songs – it wasn’t so easy as looking them up on the internet in those days – I absorbed not only their sensibilities but also the essentials of songwriting craft. Here’s another fun story: over one summer in the mid-’90’s after moving from my native Toronto to Montreal, in a garret-like apartment with a view of the belfries of one of the large churches in the Plateau neighborhood, I composed some twenty-seven songs of all sorts of different moods – lyrical, plain-spoken, humorous, serious, of love, breakup, and angst. I’ve been writing and performing songs, as well as poems, ever since. I’m a mostly acoustic folk/singer-songwriter, still based in Montreal, who has released three full-length albums and 2 EPs of original music.
You wrote the first version of “I Saw You Going Out Today” nearly 30 years ago. What made now the right time to finish and share it—and how did revisiting it across decades affect your relationship with the song?
“I Saw You Going Out Today” is one of two on the album Let’s Talk that were first drafted on that balcony so many years ago! But unlike most of my songs, which take maybe a few hours over a couple of days to write and then a week or two to shape and fix into a final form, this one took years–no, decades–to write. The first two verses and the chorus came readily enough, but the other verses I had to compose by revisiting the song again and again, with years in between! The song itself came out of a brief relationship that was seemingly smooth but had an uneasy undercurrent that eventually led to its breakup. The relationship in the song is happier and more solid than the one I drew upon, but haunted by the same ambivalence and foreboding. Maybe it’s the difference between those relationships that made the song so difficult to write! But frankly, I’m not even sure about that. Many songs are what I’d call “honest fantasies,” the brevity of the form necessitating the bold strokes and idealization that make them enter a realm of near-fantasy, or pure fantasy, for that matter. At any rate, at a certain point a couple of years ago, I became convinced the song was strong and complete, and ready to be recorded. And decades after that initial relationship and inspiration on the balcony — which seem truly distant now — the song through its revisions has been imbued with experiences and realizations I’ve had since, informed even by the long-standing, loving relationship with my wife, so that looking back on this song’s process feels like taking a survey of much of my adult life.
The line “Your presence in my life, my love / Is sunlight showering from above” is both romantic and reverent. How did collaborating with David Francey shape the emotional depth of that lyric—and the song as a whole?
As much as I love David Francey and his music, calling it a collaboration is a bit of a stretch! During the pandemic, in 2021 or ’22, I believe, I had the good fortune to be accepted for an online songwriting consultation with David Francey in response to a Facebook ad he had put up. In those days, of course, there were no live performances, so a lot of us were doing as much as we could to sustain ourselves online. The two songs I had him consider in our hour were “I Saw You Going Out Today” and “Colourless Man”, which is also, by the way, on Let’s Talk. Both songs were pretty well complete, but for each, he suggested a tweak or two that were extremely helpful. I think the line you quote went something like, “Your presence in my life, my love/is a gentle shower in warm sunlight.” He suggested the perfect rhyme, which is so much better, isn’t it? At the time, I was also considering turning the “praise be to sun and moon” verse into the chorus – an idea advocated by members of an online songwriting circle I was attending. It would have transformed it into a real torch song if I could pull it off, except that it seemed far too over-the-top to be sincere. David assured me the melancholy, pensive chorus, such as it is, is a perfect counterpoint. It was then that the song finally felt complete.
Your nylon-string fingerstyle and Erich Kory’s cello create such a delicate atmosphere. What role does silence and softness play in your songwriting process?
Music and words are, at their best, articulations of silence (said with a mysterious air, pretending to be profound.) Actually, there is quite a variety of musical approaches on Let’s Talk – from the raucous blues rock protest of “Planet on Fire”, to the rockabillyish “By Heart by Hand” to the soothing bossa-novaish “The Room” and “Veils of Nightfall.” The world pulls us in so many different directions, doesn’t it? It’s hard not to express that in one’s own writing, it seems to me. Gentle and soothing, though, are qualities I deeply value and repeatedly turn to.
The single feels intimate but also universal—like a love letter that could be for a person, or for a moment in time. What do you hope listeners take away from it, especially those sitting with their own memories?
No matter how smoothly things are going, no matter how in love or happy we may be, there is always an undertow of uncertainty. How long will it last? When will mortality, tragedy burst through? Maybe it’s not real! That’s the poignant reality that pulls at people’s heartstrings. And we can all infuse this song with our own variations on that theme. If we can derive joy and beauty in life and in art from that hard reality, it makes it all worthwhile.
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