Two days after Callum Smith released his music video God, he had 3,500 YouTube views, with absolutely no promotion.

“The response to it has been great,” said Mr Smith, who performs under the name BermudaCal. “I think God might be my best work yet. I am getting better all the time.”

God is part of a series he is compiling into his first album, and also the first release since walking away from American hip-hop label Empire.

He signed with Empire in San Francisco, California in 2021, after his song Novacaine caught their attention.

“I gave myself two weeks to sign, but the process took six weeks,” he said.

He made Sirens with them nine months ago, but the reality of being signed was disappointing.

“When you are a smaller artist you do not get the attention or love you feel you deserve,” Mr Smith said.

He quickly learnt that some of the big recording houses create stables of emerging artists, then sit back and wait for one to become popular without putting much effort into the process.

“Then when one starts to blow up and become known, that covers the rest,” he said. “I was the rest. When you are a small artist you are shoved to the back of the priority list. Trying to get any momentum going was very difficult.”

While with Empire his social media followers fell from 168,000 to 40,000.

Last year, he did not sign a second contract with the label.

“It was best to part ways,” he said. “We might be able to work together again in the future, but, for now, I need to work independently.”

He has not settled on a name for his new album, but said the songs form a storyline.

“God is meant to be the middle point of the album,” he said. “It is the peak of turmoil. In the song I ask if God exists, then why isn’t he answering me in my time of need? I’ve been faithful and I don’t feel I am getting anything back.”

The second part of the song is a conversation with God, where God tells him, ‘I have a lot on my plate. I will get to you’.

Mr Smith described the song as hip-hop with a jazzy influence. He started playing the saxophone while a student at Warwick Academy.

“I play the saxophone in some of the songs on the album, but not in this one,” he said.

He wrote God in 2022 as the Covid-19 panic was easing.

“I write a lot of my songs once I’ve come out of a certain head space,” he said. “Then I can reflect back on it and put it into words that make sense.”

The song was partly inspired by the loss of several friends in road traffic accidents.

“Not to get political, but the world also felt like it was going crazy,” he said.

God, the music video, was filmed at Chaplin Bay by Edd Roberts and co-produced with Rickai Richardson.

Mr Smith is proud, not just of the music, but also of the artistry of the video.

“There are some beautiful, scenic shots,” he said.

He was also pleased that the project involved a number of other Bermudians. Actors included Makayla Latham, Wesley Tucker, Warwick Academy student Jackson LaHuta, and fire dancer Ashley Orianna.

“For the choreography, a friend put me in touch with Taye-Zino Trott,” Mr Smith said. “A day later, I walked into the studio and every single dancer had it down. It was insane.”

The dancers: Arianna Brown, Honor Minors, Javier Franks, Taye-Zino Trott, Brandi Benjamin, and Ceyarie Jackson, seemed dedicated and happy to be a part of the project.

“Taye-Zino told me they actually learnt the dance first, without the music,” Mr Smith said. “Then, when they had the moves down, they did it to music.”

God was filmed last March.

“I’m sure a lot of people that were in it put it to the back of their mind for a minute,” the singer said. “Now that it is out on YouTube, everyone is reliving the takes and the fun we had making it.”

The hardest thing about making God was reining in some of Mr Smith’s ideas.

“You come up with an original idea for the video, and then realise you do not have any money for this,” he said. “We were relying on favours from everyone, and everyone had jobs. I did not want to feel like a burden on anyone.”

Scheduling shoots was also challenging. “The dance scene alone had six people, plus me, in it,” he said.

He thanked everyone involved for their help.

“When they saw a Bermudian trying to push themselves in a creative space, they were happy to be a part of it,” he said.

Mr Smith wants to put Bermuda on the map again in the music space.

“No one has really done that since Collie Buddz,” he said. “My music is very different from his; I’m not trying to step on his toes. I look up to him. What he has accomplished on the music front is phenomenal.”

Mr Smith said everyone feels proud to be Bermudian when they hear music by Collie Buddz. He wants his work to invoke a similar feeling.

His goal for 2024 is to get his album out, and get his follower numbers back up.

“I would also like to do an event in March,” he said. “I want to perform some of the music live, and I want to get other Bermudian artists involved.”

• For more information, seewww.bermudacal.com