The Amazons, hailing from England and formed in 2014, have slowly but surely built up a solid base of tunes spread over two studio albums over the last couple of years and on the back of the latest album Future Dust they recently toured Australia for the first time, hitting Melbourne’s Howler last Friday.
Singer and guitarist Matt Thomson spoke to me recently about the tour and how things have been shaping up with the Brit group.
“Well, this is the first time for a while that we’ve been to someone new. We’ve been to Europe and the US but not Australia. So it is really exciting.
“I love touring. I tend to hate going home. Even though all dressing rooms look the same after a while. The key is to really go out and see the places you are touring. The Australian tour is really at the end of the festival season for us.”
The band, with some heady comparisons to Wolfmother and Jet were actually fans of those hard-rocking groups from afar and have a soft spot for newer music from Courtney Barnett and the old favourites AC/DC.
When it came time to write and record their latest album, the boys channeled at least some of that AC/DC swagger and rock sense to make a balls against the walls album.
“Some of the best decisions are made on instinct. With the last LP we really wanted to make the most unapologetic rock album we could. A lot of guitar music tends to be left-field. Or bands experiment. We tried to ignore all of that and just make the music we wanted to make.”
With The Amazons, every band member knows his role. For Thomas, it is the songwriting.
“I’ll usually bring in verse, lyrics and chord progression. And we build from there. We all have our place.
Bands tend to want things to move faster than they do, especially in the studio. But it takes time.”
The band are following their Aussie trip with some more touring time in the USA, and then plans for new music in 2020 are on the cards.
In the meantime, enjoy the live photos from their show below.
Written by Chris Michaels
Photos by Joshua Braybrook
