Callaghan interview: The extremes of touring, Shaun Mullins & taking risks

When speaking to Callaghan over Zoom, the artist confessed to being a “in it to win it kind of person", and it’s a mentality that’s helped shape her journey. After launching her career in the United Kingdom, the Lincolnshire-born artist audaciously sent a message to Grammy-nominated songwriter Shaun Mullins on MySpace to ask whether he’d consider producing her debut album. Remarkably, Mullins wrote back to Callaghan, asking to hear more of her music, and the outcome was better than Georgina could have possibly hoped for.

“I guess he heard enough to invite me over to America and just record three songs with him. And then he said, 'Look, do you want to come on tour with me and open my shows for a year?' And then I'll produce your album,” an excited Callaghan said when reflecting on the experience.

“I mean, he was just amazing, and I think since being in the music industry a lot longer now and meeting so many more people and musicians of his level and above, I have realised that he was a rarity. Like not all successful musicians are as generous as he was.

“It was really amazing that he gave me that much time, you know, to really start my whole career in America and, you know, kind of mentor me. And I got to watch him on tour every night for about a year, you know, which was incredible, and sing with him every night. And I think I learnt so much about stagecraft and connecting with an audience and writing songs and all of that just through seeing what he did,” the artist concluded.

Relocating to the United States of America

In 2010, Callaghan relocated to the United States, recording her acclaimed ‘Life In Full Colour’ album – a record produced by Mullins, who invited the Lincolnshire-born artist to tour with him on four separate tours, underlining how highly he regarded the British artist. “It was a surreal moment in time, really, that I got to work with him so much and tour all over America,” she admitted.

“It enabled me to build my own fan base over there and be able to headline tours all over the States and then come back here as well and come back and do UK touring as well. So, yeah, I mean, I always name-check him on a lot of things, because I'm like, 'I will never forget what you did, Shaun.' He has got no ego at all. So, he gets a bit embarrassed about me doing that. But I still think I'll never forget it,” Callaghan closed.

Nevertheless, the decision to relocate carried an element of risk, but it was a leap of faith that paid dividends in the best possible way. When speaking to Georgina, she admitted that she’d always felt that travel always gave you the opportunity to hear unique stories and find stories that would later inspire songs in her discography. ‘When You Loved Me’, which became one of Callaghan’s most requested tracks, was written after speaking with an 85-year-old grandmother living in Atlanta, Georgia, who recalled her first romance in New York.

“She and I would just have dinner together now and again. And she would tell me these stories about growing up in New York. And, yeah, this was the time that she fell in love. And it just, it really struck me, that story. And so I put it in a song,” Callaghan remembered.

“It was probably about eight years ago that I had that song. And it just, it keeps going. Because so many people come up to me after the shows and say that song, 'When You Loved Me', made me think about my high school boyfriend. I've heard so many stories about people that I've gotten back in touch with an old boyfriend or girlfriend. And, oh, my God, it's just, it's amazing. I love it. I love hearing about people's lives and their stories. And, so, yeah, I love anything that sparks an idea like that and that there are universal stories that we can all relate to,” she added.

The “extremes of touring”

Callaghan’s decade residing in the United States certainly helped shape the Lincolnshire-born artist, who, in her own words, “did some real extremes of touring”, with performances ranging from house shows in front of five people to performing in front of thousands in traditional music venues. “I learned how to not let the audience size affect the show that I put on,” she said when reflecting on the biggest thing she learned from touring extensively. “I think that I definitely find nowadays it's hard to be thrown by anything. I've had it all thrown at me through touring,” she said with a laugh.

As well as the “extremes of touring”, Callaghan also experienced a variety of peculiar moments on the road. “I was playing at the Atlanta Aquarium one year with the whole band. And I got in a real discussion with the sound guy because the band wanted the sound to be turned up. But he kept saying that it was going to disturb the whales. And they were at the back of the room, and we couldn't have it up any louder; otherwise, the whales wouldn't like it,” Callaghan said.

“It was also somewhere in California that was on the rooftop of this amazing building, but it overlooked a beach with about 200 sea lions on it. And they were so noisy and smelly as well. And so I and my musician just had to try and play the show with (attempting to make sea lion noises) going the whole time. It was mad. So there have been a lot of moments where I'm like, okay, it doesn't matter what's going on. It's just me and the audience and the songs, and we're going to have a great time,” the artist added.

After living in Atlanta, Georgia, Callaghan relocated to Nashville, Tennessee, living there for around four years. For many country-influenced artists, working in Music City is the equivalent of reaching the National Football League or playing in the Premier League, and for Callaghan, it was no different. It was in Nashville where she went on to record with hit writer-producer Dennis Matkosky, who’d previously worked with Keith Urban and LeAnn Rimes.

“I felt like the songs that Dennis and I wrote were the easiest that I've ever written with anybody. We always seemed to be on the same page, and there were fantastic musicians on every corner. So it was always really easy to put bands together and get musicians at the studio sessions,” Callaghan reminisced.

"It's just kind of bursting with music in Nashville, really. So it was definitely a fun place to live. But then musically, I found after four years, I wanted to go and explore something else, because I was like, 'I think I know what the album is going to be like if I make another one in Nashville.' And I wanted something different. I wanted to push myself a bit out of my comfort zone,” the artist added.

Making the move to the City of Angels

By that stage of her career, Callaghan had begun to collaborate with various artists in California, leading to her decision to relocate to Los Angeles after the opportunity to work with orchestras and people involved in the film industry. During her stint in Los Angeles, Callaghan worked closely with Grammy-winning producers Starr Parodi and Jeff Fair, who had both worked on scores for ‘Mission Impossible’ and ‘James Bond’ movies. But how much did that collaboration help evolve her sound?

“I started writing things that were a bit more, I don't know, not theatrical, but a bit more like you wanted a big stage with dramatic lighting and that kind of thing and the orchestra in the background and the grand piano on stage. I mean, I'm like a total sucker for big shows, where you just get to have so much fun putting them all together and making it into a really big spectacle.

“I love doing that. But those songs also have to work if you're in a room of 50 people with just you and a piano or you and a keyboard. So I think that's really where the LA experience pushed me as an artist, because I saw both extremes, like, we can make this album enormous. It can just be huge and so much fun to make. And like recording with a 40-piece orchestra was just unreal. But then like on this upcoming tour, I'm going to be singing one of those songs just with me and my piano player. So like completely stripped back. So yeah, it was really fun to push both those extremes, you know. It's probably a test of if the song can stand up,” Callaghan finished.