Amazons singer and songwriter Matt Thomson talks to RESOUND about the bands upcoming tour and the new album over a peanut butter sandwich.
As The Amazons embark on their tour, RESOUND met the band at the first stop in a record store tour at Dundee’s Assai Records. The band were promoting their new album How Will I Know If Heaven Will Find Me? which launched on 9th September.
This is the band’s third album, jam packed with interesting and sometimes very personal tunes and written during singer Matt’s forced separation from his LA based girlfriend during the Covid lockdown.
We caught up with singer Matt Thomson on the eve of the launch to chat about the album and the band’s upcoming tour including a gig at Glasgow’s SWG3 Galvanizers in October.
Matt is rightly pleased with the album, feeling that it is the band’s best and most musically accomplished work. ‘We’ve all come a long way musically, Elliot’s bass playing and Chris has turned himself into an amazing guitarist. We are pleased to have made it to the third album. As a band who has been releasing records since 2017, we’ve seen some great bands come and go. And if you listen to radio stations and see what people are streaming, it’s not necessarily that our kind of music is in vogue right now but we’re really thankful that we’re able to do this third record which I think is our most honest and interesting.’
It’s possibly the band’s most intimate and personal album, written during lockdown when Matt and his girlfriend spent seven months on separate continents, with Matt in the UK and his girlfriend in LA. ‘It is a personal album, not all the tracks but some like, Northern Star, In The Morning and How Will I Know are me working through the obstacles to a long distance relationship during Covid. It’s certainly the most personal record that we’ve made. My role is to bring the lyrics and it’s great when the other guys in the Band relate to them too. Northern Star is a favourite of Elliott our bass player, but for completely different reasons from me.’
The band met at school and we asked Matt which of the band members had improved most since they got together as young friends. ‘Well when we first got together, Elliott didn’t even have a tuner and never tuned his bass! But Chris was really quiet at school but over the years he has grown into an absolute monster lead guitarist. He’s the one who has really grown into the role. He’s also the one who is most interested in the technology and has really got involved with the recording. He has a producing credit on some of the tunes on the album.’
The band is looking forward to coming to Glasgow. ‘We’re looking forward to SWG3 Galvanizer in October. Our last visit was supporting Royal Blood at the Hydro. The crowd was great and the venue was stunning. Most places we play are theatre like but the Hydro is as wide as its deep. You’re enveloped by the crowd it was amazing. The only better crowd experience was at the San Siro with Muse.
Totally different from playing at Assai Records in Dundee and Edinburgh but just as enjoyable. It was great being so close to the audience and watching their reactions. We really liked getting to meet and chat with everyone.’
Matt talked to us in the middle of the promotional activity for the Album launch, grabbing a peanut butter sandwich between calls. He told us ‘This has been a process unlike anything we’ve done before in terms of the ambition and what we want to achieve with the music.
The trick is not to let the pressure of the commercial side get in the way of the music. We do all we can but now the record is out there on its own. There’s a little bit of mourning when you launch an Album out into the world. We’ve worked so hard on it and now we have to let it go.’
The Amazon’s tour kicks off in Dublin on the 6th October and How Will I Know If Heaven Will Find Me? is released on Friday 9th September
Assai Set List
- Will You Wait For Me
- How Will I Know
- Ready For Something
- Northern Stars
- Blood Rush
- Black Magic (The Amazons)
Interview and words: Graeme White @head_in_the_bass_bin