Nottingham based four-piece band Amber Run mess around, teasing each other childishly like old friends do. They’ve been through a lot and we got the pleasure to capture them on an absolute high. Agata Wolanska photographs the boys during their sound check, getting themselves prepped and ready for the last and biggest gig of their run of shows to date. Playing at the O2 Forum Kentish Town, the boys reminisce on their life since we last spoke to them two years ago, how far they’ve come and the challenges they faced. Following the release of their second album, available here, and successive four-week tour, we sat down for a quick chat with the boys prior to their last show.
They’re close. There isn’t a doubt about it. They’ve been through a torrent of diminishing self-doubt, but have learnt to lean on each other to support themselves through. It was only for a moment. Losing count of the beers that get passed around the room, the mood is light hearted, carefree and fun. This is why they do what they do - the pure love, enjoyment and excitement. They’re anticipating the future, keen for what comes next. Steering themselves down a path that is their own vision, driven by their ambitions, surrounded by the right people. The immediate future already holds an intense journey of activity, playing Dot to Dot festival in May and another UK tour due to begin in autumn - the boys show no signs of slowing now.
Bound together by a relationship that has undoubtedly made them stronger than ever; they are a band of brothers more than anything. Their charismatic charm is engaging both in person and on stage. Audiences hang on every lyric sung from Joe’s melodic voice, there’s passion everywhere. There was a private moment shared at the end of their show; phones away, only those there during that night will know. A moment of intimacy and connection. The boys have no boarders, there’s nothing to hide and they’re proud of where they’ve made it to now.
Can you guys introduce yourselves?
Will: My name is Will, but people call me ‘Chillis’. 'Big daddy Chillis’.
Henry: My name’s Henry Wyeth, I’m the keys player in Amber Run, and also Will’s primary care giver.
Will: How about an actual fact about yourself, stop trying to be funny mate, ‘cause it’s just not.
Henry: Of the four of us, I’m the least popular. That is an actual fact. With our fans, there are queues for everyone else, but never for me.
Tom: There was once!
Henry: Yeah, once.
Tom: My name is Tom, I play bass and I have a Canadian passport.
Joe: My name’s Joe and and I was born in Milan.
Henry: He likes to sigh, twiddle his hair.
Interesting. Sound check sounded really good, how are you feeling about tonight?
Henry: Pumped.
Tom: Gassed.
Will: Inflated.
Joe: It’s gonna be really really fun. We’ve worked real hard to get here, so it’s gonna be a real night for us.
Tom: We were talking about it the other day, you kind of have to toe the line between absolutely buzzing off the adrenaline for it, the biggest show that you’ve played and getting absolutely up for it and then just not concentrating too much on what I’m doing, it’s a weird one. You have to be in the moment, but not lose yourself in it.
It must have been pretty full on the last couple of weeks. What have you been doing to try and keep the energy flowing?
Will: Pretty much just slogging through, dwindling slowly.
Henry: A couple of naps in the van.
Joe: Honestly, before you go on stage and do all the big stuff, the adrenaline starts flowing so intensely that there’s just no way you’re not gonna be up for it. Even if you’re feeling really naff all day, 10 minutes before stage time or you can start hearing the crowd, there’s no way you’re not up for it. I don’t know can’t really explain it other than just there’s no way that you’re not just going to be buzzing.
Your album was out earlier this month, do you want to tell us a bit about that?
Henry: It was forged in the fires of Mordor in a pretty dark time for us when we weren’t really sure. It was actually written before we got dropped by RCA, we weren’t sure whether or not we would be able to re-convince them to let us do it and it was a time where we were essentially being rejected by people that we were supposed to be working with constantly. It’s not a happy album. It’s one where we were lost. We couldn’t be in a room with each other, because as soon as those sorts of doubts start to creep in, you start questioning each other more than you are questioning yourself and it got really quite bad, to be honest. All of us were really low, and then D-Day did come and we got dropped by the label and it turned on its head. Then we said straight away; ‘right, we’re gonna do this’. We sifted through the 30 tracks or whatever we had, chose the best and came out with a quality album in my eyes.
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Images taken from Boys by Girls, shot by Agata Wolanska.
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