Amamelia Announces Release Show + Shares ‘(Listen To) The Sound Of The Wind’
Amamelia is the musical project of Amelia Berry (she/her), a musician and songwriter from Tāmaki Makaurau (Auckland) who is currently based in Naarm (Melbourne). Amamelia’s catalogue explores electronica and breakbeat while experimenting with sapphic synthesis.
The last six months have been a strong run for Amamelia with the release of the singles The Floating Opera, Summerlong and Theme From Living, all taken from her forthcoming album The Joy of Living (out on vinyl LP and digitally April 17). The tracks have reigned supreme on the 95bFM Top 10, been celebrated on the Aotearoa Hot Singles Chart, and featured in Rolling Stone, Sniffers and undertheradar.co.nz. Recently Amamelia was profiled by Martyn Pepperell for Audioculture.co.nz and spoke at the Future of Arts, Culture & Technology Symposium at ACMI alongside Michael Brown (Music Curator at Alexander Turnbull Library).
With the album’s release imminent Amamelia has shared (Listen To) The Sound Of The Wind, the final single from The Joy Of Living. She also announces a rare live show in Auckland with support from Baby Zionov, Samara Alofa, and, after a 20 year hiatus, the return of Kiss and Make Up Club DJs Lazy Mama and Dustin Diamanté. Tickets are available now from Undertheradar.co.nz.
STREAM AMAMELIA – (LISTEN TO) THE SOUND OF THE WIND
(Listen To) The Sound Of The Wind croaks into life with frog guiro & cabasa, only to be met by a thick, flatwound bass line and warm strums of an acoustic guitar. Synths lines squelch while Madison Van Staden delivers reflective refrains backed by Moe McGlashan, Hannah Renwick & Baby Zionov.
“I wanted a kind of far out flower child moment on the record,” notes Amelia. “I was listening to a lot of 60s sunshine pop like The Millennium, Free Design, and Margot Guryan and I just love how evocative some of that groovy 60s optimism is.”
“Originally (Listen To) The Sound Of The Wind was more of a showcase of me synthesising a bunch of weather sounds, but it turns out it’s hard to hear music through an electrical storm, so I had to push a lot of that stuff into the background. Synth thunder is so cool to me, I have always been a huge fan of BBC radiophonic workshop albums so when I finally got a synth with a Sample & Hold (S&H) LFO I was dying to use that kind of random modulation to create more naturalistic sounds. I’m also really proud of the bass tone, I went for a 60s pick bass thing, like Carol Kaye / Wrecking Crew style with a little bit of slapback. Don’t hear it enough anymore!”
Amelia reflects “The song is different from how I thought it would be, but I think it’s turned into something really cool.”
To celebrate the release of The Joy Of Living Amamelia will return to Auckland to perform at Whammy Bar on April 17 with support from Baby Zionov, Samara Alofa + Kiss & Make Up Club DJs.
“I absolutely had to come back home for the album release, I wouldn’t do it any other way. Tāmaki has always been so generous to me and my music and I couldn’t think of anywhere else I’d rather celebrate. So much of this album is about Auckland or has the sounds of Auckland in it so it just makes sense.”
“I always choose openers just based on who I really want to see! I mixed Baby Zionov’s brilliant new album Raceways Of My Heart and I made a remix for Samara Alofa’s Aquaries: Age Of Uranus project with PollyHill. The whole time I was working on that stuff I just was thinking ‘man, I wanna see this stuff on stage.’ Kiss and Make Up Club are just legends, I never got to see them as a kid but was in awe by reputation. Honestly, it always feels self indulgent to choose a lineup, like ‘here is my big party for me…’ well I guess here is my big party for me.” Tickets are available now from Undertheradar.co.nz.
Photo Credit: Madison Van Staden
