In Conversation | The Amazons
- Greta Kaur-Taylor
- May 23, 2019
- 4 min read
23/05/19
Interview with| Owen Stanley
Write up | Greta K Taylor
Owen caught up with The Amazons recently here’s what happened when they discussed gigs and their new album ‘Future Dust’ due for release Tomorrow (Friday 24thMay).
Owen: We are joined by Matt from The Amazons ahead of their release ‘Future Dust’ coming this Friday. This obviously comes of the debut record, the self-titled one, which is arguably a bands most important album, in terms of getting out there. What do you think the main difference between this album and the recent record?
Matt: Where do I start? I think there’s some fundamental differences between the first and most recent record, I think. For one I think we are better musicians, in more way then one I think we’re technically better at our instruments, I think we’ve got a lot more experience. I think over the years we’ve kind of refined our voice with our instruments a bit more, whether it’s with the guitar, bass, drums, my vocals or what I am singing about.
Lyrically I think I have more of a voice on this record. There is a lot more purpose and there’s some real cohesiveness in terms of the lyrically themes and the sound of the record. It was done in such an intense and condensed period, i think with the first album we kind of wrote it over three or four years without even realising we were writing an album. We were very keen to make up an album and i think we did that.
Owen: You're celebrating it and you just announced a big UK tour, as we're in London specifically, you're playing 02 academy Brixton, bands i've interviewed to before whether they're from London or not, they sort of see it as if you play Brixton it's a good indication that you're doing quite well. Is that quite a big deal for you?
Matt: Yeah, i think it is a big deal. We've been to some great shows there in the past. We've seen 'The Maccabees', 'Bombay Bicycle Club' at one of those NME awards shows and that was a huge one for us. It was probably one of the first times i'd been to Brixton; you know we're not London boys we're Reading boys, so you know it's not a home town show, but somewhere like Brixton in the music world is kind of renowned. It's definitely a fixture for bands that are established, popular.
Owen: It's always a good catalyst playing somewhere like there, as i say it's a big indicator that you're doing well.
We've got to talk about another band that you're quite good friends with, Yonka also have an album coming out. You worked together on the last album for the Ep that came out with Theresa Jarvis, are you excited to get out them out at the similar time, as you're such good friends?
Matt: Yeah, I've heard their record and i think it's really good. I think the song writing is so strong, i think Theresa as well especially, has a great voice. We wrote a couple of songs together at the end of last year before we went into the studio for our album and she's just got a real way with making melodies. That's what she does in the band you know, not sitting around with a guitar or anything.
It was me her and Alex (bassist) and she was instructing saying like"I want something a bit like this" then we would kind of interpret what she was saying, she was very much directing the proceedings and then she would kind of top-line over it, kind of work out vocal melodies. Very different and very different to what i would usually do. I think they've got a lot of talent that band and i think they've definitely got legs.
Owen: Is there one song you haven't released yet that you want people to hear that you're really excited about?
Matt: Yes, 'All Over Town' that kind of anchors the record in the middle, it's like the fifth or sixth song i think? It's quite mid-paced, quite groovy, quite anthemic. It's got a lot of heart that one and 'Georgia' the song that closes the album, that's probably one of my favourites. Yeah, I fucking love that song, it's very different to what we've usually done before; actually saying that '25 Reprise' as well, that's very different to what we've done before. That was a real moment.
It was the last night of recording and we were up at 5am just trying to get it all done, there was this beautiful pump organ and with it you kind of play the keys like you would a piano and the sound is generated through these peddles that you pump with your feet. That generates the air that goes up the pipes, it gives you this really kind of eerie sound. I'd worked on lots of different alternative lyricals for the main '25' version that we put out already and they are a lot more darker and there's a lot more religious imagery. It kind of gives it that apocylptic feel and it's not like anything we've done before. I think this album just offers a huge amount more than the first one.
Owen: I think it's a good time to release an album with festival season coming up, you're one of them bands that seems to take every opportunity you can to play festivals. Did you sort of have that in mind releasing this album?
Matt: Yeah, i think we learnt from the first record that it went well in that you release the album and a lot of other bands wrap up their UK and European tours pretty quickly, and they release the album. we like letting it sit, what we liked with the first album was letting it sit for a while, kind of work the festivals, almost try it out a bit ready for when we go on tour in the Autumn.
It's all build up for the first part of the year, release it in the middle, tour it for the rest of the year in terms of UK and Europe and we are certainly going to be going a lot further abroad next year. So yeah, October we are going to be doing a month in Europe then we are going to come to the UK for two and a half weeks or so. I am very excited about that.
Owen: Thanks for your time and good luck with new album!
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