Six months on from the release of sophomore album, and break through LP, Future Dust, rock and roll gods The Amazon are getting ready to head back out on tour and shake up the world. Damian Robinson caught up with guitarist and vocalist Matt Thompson to find out more about the tour, new work in progress, and the state of rock n’ roll.
Future Dust was released in May, how do you feel when look back on the album?
Very fondly, I love it and the doors that it opened for us. We achieved what we wanted to achieve, sonically, with Future Dust and it helped us build on the sound of the first album; something we’re continuing to do as we write new material.
So you’re already planning new music?
For sure, we’re always working and writing material so we hope we can get new music out next year in the form of a new single, or EP, or whatever music releases are called nowadays. We’re going to build on the evolution of our sound and try to release one, two, or three songs as soon as we can. We want to help people see that this is a functional band who are constantly looking for new ideas and new sounds.
Do you find that exploration for new music a pressure?
No not at all. Like we did with Dust we want to be really experimental and collaborate with as many artists as we can. Future Dust has helped us grow in confidence and dream up even bigger ideas.
You’re taking Dust out on tour in November including a date in Newcastle, for those who haven’t seen you play live what should people expect?
We’re a rock and roll band and you should expect a rock and roll show with all of the energy and chaos that comes with that dynamic. What we want to create is a show where everyone, both the crowd and the audience, can swim in the energy of the show and be present and forget about the worry’s of life. We want to help everyone, including ourselves, escape from the prisons of our minds and break out for a bit. After our show people can return to their worrying, but not during it. A lot of bands nowadays play to a backing track so that their music is as close to their recorded sound as they can make it. We don’t do that. We play everything live. We want to be as real as possible.
Do you have any special plans for the Newcastle gig?
We love being in a band, and we love listening to music, so when we’re on tour we try and cover a local act at each location. My dad was a Geordie so we’re looking into the back catalogue of Lindisfarne at the minute.
The Amazons play Newcastle o2 Academy on 12th November.