BC Camplight: Back in Philly with a new album and outlook

Where in the world is BC Camplight?

A call to the Philadelphia-bred songwriter, born Brian Christinzio, might reach him in Manchester, industrial capital of northwest England, where, with his life at a low ebb, he moved in 2011.

That's where Christinzio recorded How to Die in the North, his gleaming and gorgeous first album in eight years. His first album ever actually to be released in America, it came out on the prestigious Bella Union label in January.

Or Christinzio could have been in Paris. That's where he lived for a month this spring. What was supposed to be a sold-out, triumphant tour of England to promote How to Die had to be canceled after he was kicked out of that country for overstaying his business visa. (He's appealing the decision and hopes to return in the fall.)

Instead, when Christinzio picked up the phone last week to talk about his journey from being a talented Philadelphia failure ("the guy who blew it," in his own words) to a heartening success story on the other side of the Atlantic, he turned out to be at his parents' house in Sewell in South Jersey.

Christinzio grew up in nearby Wenonah, and, for now, he's hunkered down in Gloucester County. He's also preparing for a provisionally planned U.S. tour that includes a show at Union Transfer on Tuesday, as well as the Bonnaroo festival in Tennessee on Friday.

"I'm thrilled with the record," says the 35-year-old pianist and singer. "It's the first thing I've done that I can stand 100 percent by."

Making How to Die was a joy, Christinzio says. He worked on it for two years in a studio in a converted mansion in Manchester. "As long as it took, it really was an effortless record," he says. The album's graceful melodicism and unpredictable arrangements bring to mind such pop wizards as Todd Rundgren, Harry Nilsson, and Brian Wilson.

To get to that point, however, Christinzio had to go through his share of troubles. He moved to pre-gentrification Fishtown in 2001, and in 2003, he recorded his first album, Hide, Run Away, which came out on a British label, One Little Indian, two years later.

He followed that with Blink of a Nihilist in 2007, and built a rep as a standout player who couldn't find commercial success.

In 2009, in a video for "Your Daddy is a Little Girl," recorded for Shaking Through, a documentary series for producer Brian McTear's Weathervane Music, Christinzio talked about his unconventional method. "I don't sit at the piano and try to figure all this stuff out," he said. "I basically have the whole song in my head, and then I go in and try to play it."

Christinzio grew up listening to his father's opera records and his mother's Jerry Lee Lewis and Little Richard records. He never felt he fit in musically in Philadelphia. But then he has never felt he was part of any scene.

"I've never had that gene to care what other people have thought about me," Christinzio says. "It's good, but it has also been a detriment to my career. But at least I've been able to be honest to myself."

As time wore on, Christinzio spiraled downward.

"By 2011, I was in such a bad place in Philly," he says, though that was also the year he won a contest to have his music played on the WHYY-FM (90.9) radio show NewsWorks Tonight, where it runs as theme music Monday through Friday.

"I was squatting in a church in Fishtown," he remembers. "I was getting more and more bitter. It was like, 'I'm either going to be the church floor guy, or I'm going to do something. But I knew I couldn't do it in Philly. I hadn't felt good about myself there for years. I had burnt too many bridges, been [mean] to too many people. I just needed something new."

After corresponding with a fan from Manchester on Facebook, Christinzio moved there "mostly because I had a good show there once, and that's how I make decisions in my life. I just thought, 'Hey, it can't get any worse than it is now.' And two or three years later, I've got this record and I'm on this great label, living with my girlfriend with a house and a cat. I'm like, 'Wow, how did that happen?' "

In 2013, Philadelphia songwriter Bill Ricchini headed to Manchester to record Himalaya, his new album as the act Summer Fiction. It comes out June 16, with help from Christinzio. "He's always been a great player and collaborator," says Ricchini, explaining via e-mail why it was worth crossing the ocean. "Brian has a special gift in the way he can hear music. . . . He kind of exudes music from his pores."

"In England," Ricchini writes, "he had an expression: 'It's too pretty; let's [mess] it up,' and I think that relationship of ugly/beautiful and that push/pull is at the center of his art and something he helped bring out in my work. Maybe he's internalized that philosophy because of what he's been through. . . . I got the sense that Manchester freed him and was a way for him to start over. He was brimming with ambition and confidence but in a very self-effacing BC way."

The title of How to Die is a grim joke about the direction in which Christinzio felt he was headed. "I wanted to be a little less whimsical and darker," he says. "I didn't want many of the twee elements that were in my songs before. I couldn't feel further away from being part of a Wes Anderson sound track."

When he finished, Christinzio sent the nine songs to Bella Union head Simon Raymonde, formerly of the Cocteau Twins. After not hearing back immediately, he says, "I started to get mad at the world again. 'Nobody gets it! Is anyone listening?!' " A few days later, Raymonde offered a multi-album deal. In an interview with the website Pais.com, Raymonde said of Christinzio, "I put him in the same bracket as Nilsson in terms of songwriting genius."

Good news has been tempered by the visa problems, the result of a foot injury that prevented him from leaving the U.K. soon enough to satisfy British authorities. But Christinzio sees only a temporary setback. "I can do what I would usually do, which is to sulk and try to drink myself to death," he says. "Or I can be more positive. I'm on the right track here."

Back when he made Hide, Run Away, producer McTear told him, "You're amazing. I can't wait till you get bit by a dog."

"I think what he meant was, 'You're a talented dude, but you're not saying anything yet. You just need to live,' " Christinzio says. "And I certainly did a lot of living that really showed up on this record. Nothing on this record is trying to be there. It's just me."

StartText

BC Camplight, with the Real Gang and Southwork

8:30 p.m. Tuesday at Union Transfer, 1026 Spring Garden St.

Tickets: $10-$15. Information: 215-232-2100, www.utphilly.com

(BC Camplight will also play at 10:45 p.m. Friday at the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival in Manchester, Tenn. Information: www.bonarroo.com.)

EndText

215-854-5628

@delucadan

www.philly.com/inthemix