Channeling Camille — How Prince Bent Time, Voice, and Funk Into Art
There are artists. And then there was Prince.
To call him a genius feels like an understatement. He was a world-builder, a sonic architect, a cultural disruptor wrapped in lace, leather, and a smirk. And nowhere is that genius more delightfully strange and profound than in the story of Camille — Prince’s high-pitched, androgynous alter ego who nearly got her own album in 1986.
Episode 040 of Why Make Music… dives face-first into the mystique of Camille, the madness of studio wizardry, and the muscle of funk basslines that still shake foundations today.
Camille: The Ghost in the Funk
Camille wasn’t just a sound. Camille was an identity.
Prince, always looking for new ways to explore self-expression, recorded a batch of songs where he pitched his own voice up, creating a character that sounded neither male nor female. The result was weird, wonderful, and ahead of its time. Prince planned to release a full-length album titled Camille with no mention of his name. Just an anonymous, gender-defying voice and a neon funk pulse to match.
Warner Bros. didn’t get it. The world, maybe, wasn’t ready. So the project was shelved.
But Camille never really went away. Her tracks snuck into the public disguised as B-sides and album cuts. “Housequake,” “Shockadelica,” and “If I Was Your Girlfriend” are all Camille moments — songs where Prince leaned into the strangeness of self-transformation and made it pop.
That Time We Thought Prince Was in a Dress…
DJ Warm Cookies, our co-host and resident storyteller, takes us back to 1987 to relive the absolute chaos that erupted over the back cover of the “La La La He He Hee” single. The image? A peach-colored dress, high heels, heart-shaped mirror on the leg, and a Cloud guitar. Fans swore it was Prince in drag. Others said it couldn’t be. As it turns out, it was dancer Cat Glover dressed to resemble the mysterious Camille. A brilliant decoy. A visual smoke bomb. And the fandom lost its mind.
It was, quite possibly, one of the best low-key publicity stunts Prince never admitted to.
Making Camille in the Bedroom Studio
What Prince did with tape machines and genius instincts, you can now do with software. In this episode, ThinkTimm shows you how to recreate the Camille voice using Logic Pro stock plugins — from pitch shifting to formant tweaking, EQ carving, and compression glue. It’s not just a tutorial, it’s a tribute.
Whether you’re using AI vocals, recording your own, or layering harmonies, this segment unlocks that creative spark Prince used to sculpt something alien yet emotionally human. It’s DIY funk theology. No expensive gear needed.
Then the Bass Walks In…
We close out with the low-end bible. Two Prince basslines get the full breakdown: “Partyman” (a potential vocal bass illusion) and “Alphabet St.” (raw funk with the pop of a champagne cork). ThinkTimm outlines channel strip presets, Bass Amp Designer tips, EQ curves, and compression techniques — all using Logic’s built-in tools. If you’ve ever wanted to recreate that Minneapolis slap, this is the blueprint.
The Camille Album: Still Waiting to Dance
Jack White almost got the Camille album officially released in 2022 through Third Man Records. Test pressings were auctioned. Tracklists confirmed. The estate gave a nod. But then… silence. Legal limbo? Artistic purgatory? Prince, even in passing, still controls the room.
But the music is here. The voice is here. The story is now.
Why Make Music…
Because Prince did.
Because Camille existed.
Because what we create today can bend the rules of tomorrow.
Listen. Laugh. Learn. Groove.
Read the full story. Share the blog. And as always:
ThinkTimm. If nothing else.
