The Amazons - Interview - Krøsset

The Amazons have taken several European cities by surprise, and last week Oslo had the chance to catch this exciting act.

Foto Sadan Ekdemir

Their second time playing here, The Amazons performed at Krøsset Wednesday 27^th, and before the gig band members Matt Thomson and Elliot Briggs sat down with disharmoni to talk about their album, concert and future expectations for their career.

Classic guitar rock

Named after the book series Swallows and Amazons written by Arthur Ransome, The Amazons is a four-piece guitar band consisting of Matt Thomson (vocals), Chris Alderton (guitar), Elliot Briggs (base) and Joe Emmett (drums). Exciting and honest rock with introspective lyrics is how they describe their own music.

─ Let’s see what happens tonight, the last couple of shows were smaller than what we do in UK, but everyone seems to dig it. Our sound is a little bit more universal, because it’s inspired by a lot of American bands.

The band has recently been listed on the BBC’s Sound of 2017 longlist and MTV’s Brand New 2017 list. Whilst the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) has recently announced that The Amazons (along with Dua Lipa) will be honored with the ASCAP Vanguard Award in October this year.

─ It all started around four years ago, but the current band came together when we met Joe, the drummer, he was kind of the catalyst we were looking for, says Briggs.

A Classic guitar rock band, the members of the Amazons have been portrayed as the band in charge of ‘reinvigorating the rock and roll music’. With a look and attitude that certainly reminds me of some of the the classic rock bands, their musical influence comes from different sources. Obvious acts like Queens of the Stone Age are brought up first, but they are also open about the influence from other genres, including pop songs. Slightly reflected on their record, they included six versions of their songs performed in acoustic.

There is no pressure, that’s why a lot of debut albums are successful.

─ Maybe we’ll reveal more of this side to us in future music, but it makes sense this time around, all the songs we are writing are just full of excitement.

The Record

The Amazons released their first album by the same name in 2017, with a powerful cover said to be their own tour van set on fired, the music is more like a compilation of songs that they have been playing for about four years now. Some of them, like their first single Stay with me, even started with a previous band.

─ With debut albums, they don’t really start, you never know that you are writing for a record. There is no pressure, that’s why a lot of debut albums are successful.

Before Fiction signed them, The Amazons’ had created their own record label, a move that allowed them put out their music even before they were signed. Fiction has however allowed them to continue to develop their honest sound.

─ We would get in at mid-day, turn the lights off and put the candles on, so it would be like a friendly afternoon, you might as well be at 3 in the morning that probably affected the tone and mood of the record.

However the guys admit that recording in studio wasn’t as fun as they had expected. As a rock band that toured tirelessly for the last years, the experience at studio came off a bit strange.

─ I’m more comfortable on stage, because I have been only one month in the studio in all my life. We pretty much tour all the time, that’s all we do. As a supplement to the tour we put out a record, says Thomson

Tour and future

Continuing their extensive tour, which has included festivals such as Glastonbury, Reading Festival, Pukkelpop, and Fuji Rock among others, the Amazons still have a lot of cities to visit in Europe and a couple in the US.

─ Being out on a tour is part of being a rock band, and to be fair, we did want to get out of Reading.

Reflecting about their future, they foresee a natural development, putting out new records based on ideas they collect during their tour.

─ I always imagined that the Amazons would be a cool band, with mystique, I almost feel we haven’t become The Amazons yet, we are working towards becoming that band. In 4 or 5 years from now, we will be doing our best music, honest and exciting music, keeping fresh, and creative, hopefully at our most creative point. Let’s see what happens, but with rock bands it’s never boring.