We have been working hard securing a few headline acts to perform at our very own podcast festival ‘Lollopamusobury’ which is going to be taking place on Sunday June 28th and I thought I’d drop the manager of The Amazons a line to see if they’d be up for donating a track. I was amazed when he came back and said that they’d love to be a part of the event and provided me with a specially recorded ‘lockdown’ acoustic version of their track ‘Mother’ to play. He also asked if I’d like to have a chat with ‘an Amazon’ and find out what they’ve been up to, who am I to miss out on an opportunity like this….

Fast forward a week and we spoke to Joe Emmett (drummer) all about the hobbies and interests that he has picked up since going into lockdown, work on their 3rd album, topping up his tan whilst sitting in his children’s paddling pool and LOADS more, read on to find out more….

Joe, thanks so much for sparing your time to chat to me, tell me what you’ve been up to since we all went into ‘lockdown’

I’ve got a good tan……I’ve been spending lots of time in the garden!

Gardening?

No, mainly sat in my children’s paddling pool!

We’ve had some cracking weather lately, it certainly is paddling pool weather!

I’m not complaining about it at the moment!

So, as you’re aware, I’m putting on a ‘festival’ style podcast where I’ve asked loads of bands to take part, provide a track for me to play in order to try and raise some funds for local independent venues here in Devon, your manager was really kind and has allowed me to use your lockdown acoustic version of ‘Mother’ which is going to be a real boost to the lineup. We have acts such as Dub Pistols and Wildwood Kin on the lineup already so to have yet another heavy hitter in the form of The Amazons is incredible!

Sounds like a great idea, we’re more than happy to be involved!

So, apart from your paddling pool tan, what else have you been up to?

Oh, it’s not a very good one to be honest!

As a band, it’s been difficult for us to do anything, Matt has been holed away busy writing and getting loads of new ideas together so when we can finally get together, we can start to go through his work and start pulling some things together which will go towards album number 3.

Personally, I think it’s been really nice just being able to spend time with the twins, my wife was furloughed from her job and she’s only started back today so we have had time together that ordinarily, we wouldn’t have had this summer as we would have been playing festivals most weekends, so in one way, that’s been a real positive as, during the latter stages of lockdown, we’ve been able to get out and visit the local parks. I’ve also been doing something with a good friend of mine who is a wine buyer for the wine society, it’s called ‘Vinyl Winyl’ (must ask Joe to confirm the spelling of that!) It’s a podcast where he takes me on a wine journey as I am a self confessed ‘amateur enthusiast’ and he also loves his music but is keen to broaden his musical landscape somewhat. We cover a different region on every episode, I go out and buy the wine, we taste it and he tells me all about it and then I suggest some bands and artists for him to go and listen to, it’s a bit of a learning experience for both of us! 

So have you actually learned anything about wine or is this just a cunning plan for you to enjoy a drink?

To be fair, it’s been great, he is really knowledgable about wine and we wanted to set this up so anyone could understand what we were talking about there are quite a few ‘high brow’ wine podcasts out there and that’s all well and good but for the likes of me who just wants to know a bit more about wine that you can pick up at your local supermarket, it’s ideal! I have learned quite a lot so far, I think we covered the left bank of Bordeaux this week and next week, we venture over to the right bank, exciting stuff!

I guess working your way, I mean drinking your way around France is quite a fun thing to do!

It is GREAT fun!

Are you a fan of any particular wines or wine growing countries?

Before we started this thing off, I was very much into the ‘New World’ wines, Malbec’s etc and I was a stickler for always buying the same wine but since the weather has changed for the better, I’ve really been enjoying a good Beaujolais, red wine, slightly chilled in the fridge has been really refreshing! I probably would have discounted that before because NOBODY puts red wine in the fridge…

I was going to say, that’s a BIG NO NO in my book!

You must try it, it’s really nice, especially on a nice hot summer’s day!

I’ve also been getting involved with an Austrian Gruner Veltliner which has a very slight fizz to it when you open it and I found out that they put a small amount of Co2 in there to keep it fresh and that was a wine that I’d never tried before, so yes, its been a great way of expanding my repertoire!

Joe, you’ve steered me away from my Blue Nun and Black Tower, I’m actually going to check out the wines that you have just told me about!

So, paddling pools, wine, music, any other hobbies that have started since lockdown?

When the lockdown started, I started running again, I’ve not run for years and I did the London Marathon with my dad years back when I was much fitter and younger and when we were only allowed outside the house for exercise, I started it up again and I’ve been doing 5k a day! I’ll admit, I’m a ‘plodder’, but even so, it’s really helping me to stay sane. All was going really well until I picked up a foot injury so I’ve been resting for a while and I went out today for the first time and I’ll admit, it was pretty tough!

That’s your body telling you that 5k a day is a bad idea Joe!

I know, the fact that I went from ‘zero to hero’ as I didn’t run for such a long time, I got the bug and I thought that 5k a day would be no problem at all, I guess when you’re doing that 5 or 6 times a week, your body is screaming at you “What are you doing to me?”

Stop it Emmett, stop it now!

Exactly!

I also worked out that there are 500 calories in a bottle of wine so you NEED to be banging out 5k a day just to break even!

I was checking on the band’s Facebook page for any juicy gossip (I didn’t find any BTW) but I did notice that your debut album turned 3 years old at the end of May, what would you say has been the band’s biggest achievement over that 3 year period?

I would say getting out to America and doing a pretty lengthy tour was a real achievement which I think without the albums under our belt, we would have struggled to do that. I think that ‘Future Dust’ really opened the doors to allow that to happen in the first place. It’s really hard for British bands to get out to the States at all as firstly it’s so bloody expensive and secondly, you really do need to be out there for a good length of time if you want to stand a chance of getting into people’s minds. We were fortunate to sign to Island Records in America and this was the first opportunity for them to get us out there and present us to American audiences so I’d say that was a pretty big moment for us. 

Which shows did you enjoy the most?

We really liked some of the older venues, The Bluebird Theatre in Denver was really good, there was a really cool place in Flint ,Michigan called The Machine Shop, there’s a Netflix documentary about Flint being the most dangerous places in America and we were really worried about it but it turned out to be one of the BEST gigs on the whole tour! Shows just sell out really quickly in Flint as the people there love their rock music. It was absolutely freezing in Michigan as well….

How long were you in America for?

Six weeks in total, we left at the end of January and I flew back at the start of March!

You didn’t go there for the warm weather then?

No…..But the funny thing about it was, we had spent six weeks in America and we felt like we barely even scratched the surface of the place! We started in Texas and went down through Florida and up the East coast, we went nowhere near the Carolina’s, nowhere near the middle of the country, we bypassed so much of the place. It was really exciting though as it felt like we were starting all over again, nobody knew who we were, there were no preconceptions flying around and I think that made it even more of an amazing experience.

Would you say that you won the crowds over by the end of the show?

I really think we did, we were getting down and selling merchandise after the shows, you have to in a different country as I said, nobody knows you so you just get on with it. We’ve always thought that our music was tailored more towards an American market because a lot of our influences come from the American rock scene and the feedback we received was amazing so we need to get back there as often as we can to keep the momentum up!

I remember watching a DVD by MUSE and they hit the States in 2002/2003 when their Absolution album had just been released, they’d be playing large arenas in the UK and in America, they were playing to 50 people a night in small bars, such a contrast!

There’s definitely a couple of ways of breaking America and one of those is just to keep plugging away at it and look at MUSE now, they’re playing stadiums all over the world! I know of bands (not naming any names) that play major UK venues and then go to another country and play to 50 people and that really affects them, you really need to have your head in the right place to do that sort of thing, it’s almost like you are starting all over again, nobody knows who you are and you need to start from the bottom rung of the ladder and if you do play to 50 people and you do sell 10 shirts after the show, that’s a big win given the circumstances! 

Were you playing headline shows in America or were you supporting another band?

We were supporting a Los Angeles band called Dirty Honey who I think they were the first unsigned classic rock band to reach the number one spot on the radio charts in America. They already had a pretty strong following and we ended up playing venues like the El Rey in Los Angeles which was a pretty big show, they were great shows and they really looked after us!

So, you’ve released two studio albums to date, when can we expect album #3?

I think you can safely say that we are creating it at the moment, we’ve all had to be very malleable with our plans and all I can say is that when things return to ‘normal’, there’s going to be a LOT of music out there owing to the fact that we’ve had nothing to do apart from write and create! The quality of music is definitely increasing and this will have a knock on effect to things like festival slots as there will be so many bands with great songs all trying to get limited places on the lineups, that’s for the festivals that have managed to survive anyway! We’ve been using the time to allow Matt to create and write and we’ll be going in to rehearse and demo the tracks as soon as we’re able to.

‘Future Dust’ sounds different to your debut album, would you say that you have ‘found’ your sound now or are you still experimenting with other styles?

I’ll be honest and say that The Amazons are a band that are always looking to develop our style and whatever comes out of the band is going to be ‘The Amazons sound’. It would be unfair if I were to try and pigeonhole us into a particular style or genre. Future Dust was a much heavier album compared to our debut, we’re always looking to progress the sound and in my opinion, Matt has developed so well as a songwriter between the debut and Future Dust, I would now class him as an amazing songwriter and I for one am so excited about seeing what he’s got lined up for us to get stuck into when we get back into it! So to answer your question, I don’t know if we’ve actually ‘found’ a sound that we’d be happy to settle on for evermore but I will say that we are always looking and experimenting so watch this space!

So keep your eyes open for The Amazons Dub Step mega mix coming soon to a record store near you!

Funny you should say that as there was a famous quote from the NME when we attended their awards ceremony, they said that album #2 was going to be a grime/trap album…..which ended up being a great headline for us!

So you’ve clearly been soaking up lots of music whilst sat in your kids paddling pool, who has been ‘floating your boat’?

I’ve been listening to a band from Brighton called Creatures, they have a very long EP out called ‘Runt of the Glitter’ and it’s got a Spaghetti Western styled feel to it, I would compare them to a cross between Jefferson Airplane and The Last Shadow Puppets. They’re a really cool band. Gary Clark Jr has been on constant repeat I’m a big fan of his work, I was watching Sunday Brunch recently and Badly Drawn Boy was on it and I had forgotten just how good he is as a musician. The other album I’ve been spinning a lot is by Brendon Benson of The Raconteurs (Jack White’s band), his new solo album is really good.

Can I suggest a few for you to check out?

Go for it….

You need to hear a Devon based duo called Moriaty, filthy dirty blues, heavy beats and really catchy tracks. A Bristol based quartet called Mother Vulture who are quite possibly THE best band in the world right now (just behind The Amazons of course!), they are complete animals on stage but are SO good, you really need to check them out and finally, an Exeter based trio called Deadground, Ollie Harris is the guitarist/singer and he is on another level altogether, think Jeff Buckley, MUSE and Radiohead and you’re not far off the mark, exquisite stuff!

Thanks, I’m on Spotify right now adding them to my favourites for later!

I think we can safely write off 2020 for festivals, are you taking bookings for 2021 yet or is it too early to say?

I’m hopeful from what I’ve seen that  most of the larger festivals are rebooking a lot of the bands that were meant to be playing this year for 2021, I’m guessing that some of the headline acts’ touring plans would have been based around these large festivals so I’m not sure what they’ll end up doing. For us, I hope that we’re able to get as many bookings as we can for the ones that we were booked to play this year so fingers crossed.

Where were you planning on playing this year?

Mainly UK and Europe, if some offers come off the string of US dates we played at the start of 2020, that would be amazing but we’re not sure just yet, we just want to get back out and play again! I think it’s going to take a while for people to be confident enough to stand that close to people at larger gatherings so time will tell!

I thought it only fair that Joe be put through our torturous quick-fire question round….

Coffee or Tea? - Coffee

Camping or Glamping? Glamping

Sunday Roast or Fry Up? Sunday roast

Burgers or Hot Dogs? Oh…..Burgers!

Lennon or McCartney? McCartney for me!

Future Dust or your Debut album? Future Dust

Berkshire or Devon? (lengthy pause)……Devon

Beach or Pool? Beach

Tattoos or Beards? Tattoos

God or Google? Google 

Joe survived the quick-fire round so we thought we’d start to wrap things up given he is now a proud father of twins and there would no doubt be nappies to tend to!

Finally, I had a question from a young lady called Simone Rochelle who lives in Truro and she asked me to ask you what the background was behind the song ‘Palace’?

Ha, it’s a funny story…..the melody and chord progression came to Matt in a dream, it happens to him quite a lot and you’ll often see him waking up and scrambling for his phone to record the vocal melody or whatever has come into his head whilst he’s been sleeping! With ‘Palace’, he woke at about 4am and this is when he was still living at home, he dashed downstairs to the piano and if you heard the original phone message, the phone is just by the speaker and the volume is so low, you can actually hear the keys being pressed more than the sound that it is making! I think this is where the best ideas come from….

Joe, I’ve rambled on for far too long, I just wanted to say a massive thank you for chatting to me, I wish you all the very best for the future and look forward to hearing the tracks from album #3 when you finally decide to unleash it on us!

Thanks Steve been great chatting to you!

Keep up to date with The Amazons at the following social media sites;

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Interview by Steve Muscutt and Simone Rochelle