It’s not every day that you get to chat to the front man of a band that have made such a mark on the UK music scene. I first heard of The Amazons years back when they were just starting out and after falling in love with their first two albums, I was keen to learn more about what had gone into their next long player titled ‘How Will I Know If Heaven Will Find Me?’ set for release on 2nd September.

We chatted about the direction that the band are going in, how the global pandemic affected them, a very amusing story about being bitten by a horsefly at Reading Festival resulting in a piggyback ride from a member of Enter Shikari and Matt’s favourite memories of their recent arena tour supporting Royal Blood.

Matt, I saw the title of a recent email where you announced your forthcoming ‘anthem-filled’ album ‘How Will I Know If Heaven Will Find Me?’ -  on a scale of 1 to 10 how much more ‘anthemy’ is the new album over your debut which was VERY ‘anthemy’! 

Do you think so? I thought the debut was pretty quiet, introspective and intimate (smile breaks out on his face....) 

When I listen to our debut record, I hear 4 guys just trying to make it work, bringing a million and one different ideas together and just trying to find their feet whereas the new record is us being comfortable in our own skin, recognising what we want to do and what makes us feel full and satisfied. I definitely feel that the new record is more refined but that’s what you’d expect for a band as they get older. 

‘Future Dust’ was released in 2019 and it was a far heavier, darker and more energetic record with less anthemic qualities than your debut – Did you purposely steer away from the path that the debut carved out? 

Yes, I think so, there were so many different paths that we could have taken after the debut album and I felt that the stuff that we were responding to and the aspect of what we were really getting excited about in the rehearsal room at the time was indulging ourselves in those riffs and the heavier, darker tones. I guess you could hear that coming through on tracks such as ‘Black Magic’, ‘In My Mind’ and ‘Little Something’ from the debut record and these tracks bought about some really great live moments and created some amazing connections with the fans which just made us think that this was the way to go with the next record. 

Would you say that with your 3rd record on the horizon that you have now found your sound or are you still experimenting? 

Honestly? I’ve said to the boys whilst making the record that it feels like we’re doing a debut all over again owing to the amount of time that we have spent on it and like the debut record, we had a lot of time to go down different routes and regroup to make sure that we’re all on the same path. We feel that The Amazons is a ship, searching for its Northern Star and I felt that with the new record that we’ve found it and that we have settled into a path and will continue going down this route and explore it further, I know that I probably said exactly the same thing a couple of years back but I think the thing that has changed is that we feel more settled now and we know who we are and what we love to do. 

March 2020 – The date that time stood still, we were plunged into a lockdown to try and curb the spread of Corona Virus – What elements of this affected the band the most? 

I honestly think that our personal relationships with each other really benefitted from the forced break that was imposed upon us, there were certainly times when we were on tour, a bunch of mid 20’s people spending a lot of time on buses and in hotel rooms and men being men, we all bottle things up and rarely talk about things that we should really feel comfortable talking about. I guess it was nice to mature as people over the last couple of years was great and that gave us the time to focus on how important the band is to us all and not just the band but everyone who helps with the band, we have a great team behind us.  

Did being apart whilst you were writing the record help in any way? 

Definitely, being apart during the writing process really helped to influence it as things were really stripped back as we hadn’t met for months and despite us all being pretty close together (Reading, Brighton, London), we weren’t able to meet up owing to the various restrictions that were in place. I think it stripped it right back, I would write the songs in the attic where I’m currently living in Brighton, I would then send the band ideas for music and Chris would take my rubbish little demo snippets and being the great producer he is, would transform them into something that sounded a lot more like The Amazons. The writing process was far slower and I feel that nothing has been rushed through at all meaning that the song-craft really benefitted.  

I hosted a series of audio interviews during the lockdown period and I chatted to your drummer Joe Emmett who, at the time of us chatting, was sat in his twins paddling pool drinking beer so it clearly affected us all a little bit differently! How are Joe and the kids doing? 

Brilliant! Yes, Joe’s kids came and had a look around the tour bus just before we headed out on the road to support Royal Blood, his wife came to see a show and it was strange from playing an arena tour and then having to go back to being a full-time dad is something else but he’s doing well. He coped really well over the lockdown, being a drummer is tough as he was completely divorced from the drums and when the restrictions came into place, he delved into his other passion which is wine and wine making, he actually joined a vineyard in Binfield and picked grapes and helped to produce the wine, it was amazing!  

 

Tell me about the tour you did with the mighty Royal Blood – Highlights? 

I know that this sounds so cliché but I am going to say the whole experience. After two and a half years of nothing and then being given the opportunity to get back on the road and revisit places that you have previously played and also discover some new experiences such as playing in large arenas every night and I guess just being exposed to the mechanics of what it takes to make a show and a tour like that happen in the first place. It was incredible to see a crew setting up the stage from 7am, taking it all down again after the show, grafting hard until the wee small hours was incredible, everyone played their parts and did their thing to make sure that everything happened as it should have done, the caterers, the tour managers, production managers, it really was an amazing thing to see. I love events and watching the show unfold, it felt like, when you get to that level of show, it becomes more than a show, more of a spectacle and that aspect of it really enchanted me. I guess playing the O2 in London was really special, there’s always a weight of expectation when it comes to London shows and we were told that this publication were attending tonight and the manager of this band were coming along so you get nervous and really want to put on a show giving 110% and as it turned out, it ended up being one of the best shows that we have ever played! 

Would you say that you won a lot of new fans after supporting Royal Blood? 

I hope so, you have to remember that our job on that tour was to warm the crowd ready for the main act and I guess it just coincided so well with us releasing new music (new single ‘Bloodrush’) - I love the competitive nature of trying to ‘win over’ new fans so let’s hope that a few went away and checked us out when they got home! 

A good friend of mine took his partner to see you in Cardiff and said that your set was incredible! 

You’re playing a bunch of UK festivals this year including The Great Escape, Isle of Wight and 2000 Trees, will you be looking to road test any of the tracks from the new album or will it be a set consisting of your more anthemic material to get the audience going? 

Hopefully by the time we play the festivals, we’ll have another song from the new record out so we’ll at least have 2 to play, I also want to squeeze another couple into the set as well.....When you work so hard on something for 2 years, it’s very hard to simply forget about it when it comes to playing festivals and trying to please the crowd. I think that we’ll have 4 ready to include in the set by the time we are due to play the festivals. 

I always think that festival audiences are a little bit different in that a certain percentage will know who you are and love you, there are some that may be familiar with you but not your music and then there’s the rest that may never have heard of you before so I guess playing anything, new or old isn’t really going to matter that much? 

Exactly and from our point of view, what’s the difference between playing a track from Future Dust that they’re not familiar with or a brand-new track from your forthcoming album, it’s a no brainer!  

Tell me your top 3 festival survival tips 

1. Water....this will help with alcohol and any other substances that you might decide to take.....including vitamin D from the sun! 

2. It is well documented that I am a red-headed guy, sun-cream is really important, even on a cloudy day as it can still get you! It’s a sick joke that the lord is playing on us! 

3. Lastly, I would highly recommend an anti-bug cream.....now, I have a story about this, are you sitting comfortably? 

Go for it! 

This happened at Reading Festival in 2011, I’m a teenager and a horsefly bites me on my ankle (ouch), I then proceed to dive into the mosh pit and walk around on it all day long (as you do). By the time we head back to the campsite, I’m struggling to walk on my ankle, by this time, it has blown up and resembled an elephant’s leg, it was hideous, obviously a huge allergic reaction to the bite and we are trying all we can to get medics to take me to the First Aid tent so I can get it looked at but owing to someone thrown an aerosol on a bonfire, they were busy helping people who had been injured because of that. I then went on what I can only describe as a 1am psychedelic journey where a motley crue of characters all helped me to move around, held me up and generally steered me towards the First Aid tent, on the way there, I stopped by The Samaritans tent where I had a cry to this poor teenager who had volunteered in exchange for his ticket to the festival, I’d been a horrible boyfriend to my then girlfriend and hadn’t called her back and coupled with the horsefly bite, this was all the guy wanted to hear! I finally manage to reach the First Aid tent and it’s clear that there is something going on as there are loads of people tripping (hard) on whatever they had taken and they were being restrained, their eyes popping out of their heads and there’s me just quietly freaking out and as it happens, there’s little they can do for me as it’s an allergic reaction and unless I want to go to hospital etc etc. I come out of the First Aid tent with a pair of crutches, I called my mum (I was s till at home at the time) and asked her to meet me at the main gate and there was this really long straight road to get to the exit and at the time, Enter Shikari (the band) were walking past me and I was a massive fan at the time and I think it was their guitar technician who gave me a piggyback ride to the main gates and I was pouring my heart out to them and telling them how much of a fan I was and they invited me to the show and I accepted and then 20 minutes later, I got picked up by my mum and taken home to rest, there goes the end of my Reading journey for that year! 

SO, the moral of the story is, make sure that you have an insect repellant, anti bug spray or whatever on you at all times as you just don’t know how you’re going to react in certain situations! 

I heard your new track ‘Bloodrush’ just after it was premiered on BBC Radio 1 by Jack Saunders and it is fabulous, really uplifting and joyous, more anthemic than I expected, the verses of the song (and the new album) are inspired by communications you had with your girlfriend during the lockdown period, at what stage did you think that these communications would make the strong foundations for the new record? 

Quite early on, it was as soon as I started to share them with the band, songs like ‘How Will I Know’, Northern Star’, ‘There’s a Light’ and ‘I’m Not ready’ and these just blew everything else that we were working on completely out of the water. We already had a good, strong 10-12 songs that were contenders but when the new ideas came to the table in November 2020, we all just had this lightbulb moment and it was clear that they were going to be featured on the new record. We then all decided to put our focus into the new songs and it was great as there were so many things to write about and so many dimensions and experiences to delve into and from then on, the majority of the record was based around this new material.  

It was just a way to bridge the gap, 7 months is a long time to spend apart! My partner and I met in Mexico around November 2020 as there was no way that I could enter the United States (where she’s based) and it was purely by reading through Facebook groups where they were discussing people being separated by travel bans (Love is NOT Tourism was my fave) and it soon became apparent that Mexico’s restrictions were much more relaxed than the USA, I was quarantined in Mexico for two weeks ahead of being able to enter the United States. Being apart raised loads of questions such as “Am I going to see this person again” and “If I do see them, will it be the same” and it was really tough as you just felt so powerless given the situation, the only way I could get through it was to write songs about the situation and reclaim the narrative and do something positive about it. 

Matt, it’s been brilliant chatting to you, I wish you and the rest of the boys all the very best for the festival shows, the album release and we’ll see you on the road in October, thanks you so much for your time! 

My pleasure, thanks for stopping by. 

 

The Amazons release their 3rd studio album ‘How Will I Know if Heaven Will Fine Me?’ on September 2nd, they take to the road on October 5th and will perform dates, culminating in a killer show at London’s Roundhouse – Tickets available HERE 

We’d like to thank Matt Thomson and the band’s PR Management for making this interview happen.