Born in Champaign-Urbana, Cameron McGill credits his father's record collection for sparking his musical interest. Childhood years spent listening to the Beach Boys, Neil Young, Willie Nelson, and Johnny Cash left an impression, and by the time he was in high school, McGill was playing guitar and writing songs. In 1998, he moved to Chicago after graduating from the University of Illinois. After playing the coffeehouse/bar scene for two years, he formed Morris Minors with Paul Callen and Gabe Grout. The band issued a self-titled EP in 2002 before calling it quits a year later.
McGill went solo and issued Stories of The Knife and The Back on his own Post-Important label in fall 2003. Additional solo tours in and around North America followed into 2004, along with international dates with Rachael Yamagata and Tom McRae. McGill's second long-player, Street Ballads Murderesques, was released in January 2006. Starting with the EP The Company of Great Thieves, McGill's next run of releases -- Hold On Beauty (2007), Warm Songs for Cold Shoulders (2009), Is a Beast (2011), and Gallows Etiquette (2013) -- would be attributed to Cameron McGill What Army. Between 2009 and 2014, McGill served as a member of Indianapolis chamber pop/indie rock outfit Margot the Nuclear So and So's, and in 2020 he released the poetry chapbook Meridians, with plans to unveil his first full-length collection, along with a new album, the following year. ~ MacKenzie Wilson & James Christopher Monger, Rovi