“We thought we’d just throw out one more thing.”
That was Matt Thomson, lead singer of The Amazons chatting about There’s A Light, the last single to be released before their third studio album ‘How Will I Know If Heaven Will Find Me.’
“We wanted to give another side to the record.”
The song was incredibly different to their first single from the record, Bloodrush. “We knew Bloodrush would feel like a really good opening single, we knew that for ages. It’s how we wanted to start the story really.”
The band recently got back on the road, opening for their friends, the English rock duo, Royal Blood. During this time, they got into TikTok. The band began what they called “ZonTok”, a play on the band’s name, and used it to document fun but chaotic tour diaries.
“The conversation happened where we were like: ‘We’re going to have to use TikTok. I’m doom scrolling enough anyway, I might as well be more productive.’ We’re just trying to find our voice on it.”
When asked what song he was most looking forward to playing, there was no hesitation. “Say It Again.” He said it so quickly, I thought he wanted the question again.
“We never played it live as a band before we recorded it. When we play it in rehearsals, we are just trying to work out how to do it. We love it and it’s one of the best songs we’ve ever written, and we will crack the code and learn how to play it before October.”
The Amazons are going on tour in October, visiting 12 cities, and with a different support act for each venue. Instead of having an opening act that tours with them, a local band will support them at the corresponding gig.
“We’d got in contact with BBC Music introducing, they’ve been there for us for 8 years since the band has been around.
“They sent us a huge list of bands, some we were familiar with and some that we weren’t. There were honestly like ten bands from each county. So we listened to so much music.”
On playing live again, Thomson was just excited to be back: “Our light at the end of the tunnel as a band was the idea we were going to get to play these songs live.
“Our brief to ourselves was we should be making music for that festival, for that set, and trying to bottle up that desire and yearning for connection.
“It’s such a thrill to play these songs live and not even in the big lights and confetti way. It was designed in the ‘looking at people and they’re looking back, we’re singing the words’ way.”
Thomson continued: “I am excited about the tour because we’re going in a direction we haven’t been before. A conceptual show from the production. What you see on stage will be very different for an Amazons show. How we’ve constructed the set is different to what we’re used to.”
Leaving a lot to imagination, Matt didn’t go into any more detail about the look for the tour. “We’re very much ‘big lights, plug in, lets play, done deal,’ but this is a very different beast.”
Finally, we chatted about the fact that Jim Abbiss, the legendary producer of Arctic Monkeys’ ‘Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not‘ produced their entire record.
“Jim Abbiss was the number one on our list, but we didn’t know if it was going to happen. He listened to our demos and the songs, we had a couple of calls, and kinda had a couple of meetings at the pub.
“He helped us be a better band and be more open in our decision making and was deeply influential to how we approach music in the future.”
The Amazons will be playing SWG3 Galvanizers in Glasgow, on October 16.
Featured Image Credit: Ed Cooke
Film, Media and Journalism student who writes about things that catch her interest. Instagram @charlsutcliffe
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