Ted Hammig and the Campaign is one of three bands performing at KUAF's music benefit concert at George's Majestic Lounge Sunday night. The Fayetteville-based group recorded a KUAF Live Session with Ozarks at Large's Sophia Nourani at Fayetteville Public Television late last year. They talked about the band and their performance at Austin City Limits.
Hammig: We thought about professions, and then we landed on politicians. I think I was a senior in high school. My parents were like, I don't like that name. And I was like, why? And then I said, what about "the campaign?" They're like, that's better. And that's the really lame, uncool story of the name of the band. I wish there was a better one.
Nourani: It kind of starts off with you in high school. Maybe tell us a little bit about how the band came together.
Hammig: I had known Freeman for a long time through church and other things, and knew he played, but I'd never heard him play. Then David reached out to me randomly, and we played for a little while. Andrew had class with David. Then Ben interviewed us for the Traveler, and we had to wait until the story came out for him to join because of journalistic integrity — very serious. And then Blaze joined two months ago. He's the newest member. Everybody kind of naturally found each other. It took a few years to really get to this final formation.
Yeah, coming up on six years. For the first record, we had a lot of songs we'd been playing live, so we went into the library studio and tracked them all kind of the way we had been doing them. For the second record, we had 40 new songs that I'd written. I played those for the band — just acoustic — and they were like, yes, no. We got it down to 22, recorded all 22 in my house, and eventually cut that down to 12 songs for the record. What was it like for you all, hearing the songs for the first time and figuring them out?
Band member: It was a great process because we all got to hear the song and then add our own personal touches. David makes electronic music, and on some of the songs he's playing a bass synthesizer, which is pretty cool. We miked up the amps — Ted's amp was in his bathroom and mine was in his closet so we didn't have bleed.
Band member: It was a real home production for sure. A lot of learning as we were recording, too, because Ted would show us the songs but he wouldn't give us too much instruction off the bat. There was one instance where I had just come from work and he slapped a chord chart in front of me, and that ended up being one of my favorites. Great bass line on it.
Nourani: You guys have been playing live for a while in Fayetteville. Does that influence your sound?
Hammig: The first record was very live-influenced. The second one was more like in the studio, and then we had to figure out how to translate that live. With some of the newer stuff, we're going to try to play it live and let it grow a little bit on stage. But anytime I write something, I'm thinking about how we can do it live. That's what's exciting to me. We're definitely a live band.
Nourani: You were recently at Austin City Limits. What was that like?
Hammig: It was cool. There was salmon back there in the catering, and they had golf carts that took you to the salmon and all sorts of fancy stuff. No, it was really cool. We had a great crowd — we were first up in the day, so we got to open. We were on the same day as Sabrina Carpenter and Doechii and Djo. Car Seat Headrest was on our day too. We stood side stage for Car Seat Headrest. That was really fun. Yeah, the band played great and people seemed to like it. It was a surreal, awesome experience.
Nourani: What's it like being artists based in Fayetteville, and what’s it like to balance that?
Hammig: Schedules are hard with six people. He's the only one who doesn't live here — he's here about once a month for practice and comes down for things. Some of the guys are still full-time students. David makes macarons a lot and that takes up a lot of time. But we figure it out. We have Tuesdays — everybody's here on Tuesday.
Nourani: What do you think about the Fayetteville music culture and the artists and venues you've been a part of?
Hammig: I hate them all. Hate all the other artists. No — it's great. We've done this for five years, so we've seen waves of it, seen really good bands come and go. I think right now we're at the start of a new wave of musicians. Really cool bands like Lariat are coming up — Andrew plays with Lariat, they're fantastic. Oil and Sun is a new band. There's a lot of new bands. And I was just talking to somebody at Puritan about doing a show at the Likewise space. We did a bunch of shows at Likewise like three years ago. So people are finding those hidden gems again and rediscovering them. It's a very supportive scene. We're proud to be from Fayetteville.
Nourani: Is there anything else any of you want to say about the band?
Band member: Ted is an excellent songwriter and we're all very glad to be part of his creative vision.
Blaze: As the newest member, it's been really cool learning all these songs and hearing about all these memories from them playing together. Everyone's been super kind and inviting. I'm really excited to be a part of the Campaign.
Band member: Being a part of the Campaign is crazy because it's been such a core part of my life for so long. I joined Ted when I was a freshman in high school and I'm a junior in college now. Ted has been one of the most consistent figures and this band has been one of the most consistent parts of my life for so long. It's so intrinsically connected to my personality.
Hammig: Ever since I was a little kid, I wanted a band. This is all I've ever wanted to do. These guys are cool to put up with me and keep doing it. It's a special thing.
Ted Hammig and the Campaign perform Sunday night at George's Majestic Lounge as part of KUAF's music benefit concert. You can find the band's full interview and performance on the KUAF YouTube channel.
Ozarks at Large transcripts are created on a rush deadline and edited for length and clarity. Copy editors utilize AI tools to review work. KUAF does not publish content created by AI. Please reach out to kuafinfo@uark.edu to report an issue. The audio version is the authoritative record of KUAF programming.
