"We’ll go anywhere if it’s free."
NOT OFTEN YOU GET SOMETHING FOR NOTHING IN THE BIG SMOKE
"We’ll go anywhere if it’s free."
NOT OFTEN YOU GET SOMETHING FOR NOTHING IN THE BIG SMOKE
– THE TALE OF INCENDIARY’S TRIP TO AMITYVILLE
Considering the streets of London are meant to be paved with gold, no-one is very generous here. Take the music industry – gigs anywhere else in the UK £10 – gigs in the capital £20.
It’s no good bleating about it – that’s the way it is. Supply and demand – gigs sell out in London faster than anywhere else. You got to be in it to win it – put your hand in your pocket and try not to think too much more about it.
That’s why it is really nice to come across a freebie – and a damn good one at that. Every Saturday Rough Trade runs an excellent event at the Notting Hill Arts Club called the RoTa Sessions. They get artists of all kinds, established and up and coming, to play for free whilst you relax in a cool underground bar and enjoy a mellow Saturday afternoon whilst planning that evening’s excesses.
It was at a recent RoTa session that Incendiary bumped into Andrew Montgomery, one time singer with Geneva and now back in the fray with new 4 piece band, Amityville.
A true Britpop survivor, Incendiary caught up with Andrew and asked him about the journey he has had from Geneva to Amityville via London, Brighton, Scotland and New York City.
Incendiary: First of all Andrew, let me ask about Geneva. There you were signed to respected indie label, Nude, with a string of hit singles, label-mates with Suede and touring with Mansun and the Bluetones and other late 1990s big names. You had recorded that difficult second album after the acclaimed first one, Further – it all looked so promising, so what happened?
AM: With hindsight, the main problem was that we took far too long with Weather Underground (Geneva’s second album) and didn’t tour during the time we were away. We got sucked into a quagmire of studio and demo hell. We kept writing more and more songs. The pop landscape changed whilst we were away and we wanted to be more experimental, that’s why we worked with producer, Howie B. The label wanted us to do more of the same – so we ended up in a half-way house, trying to do too many things at once. We could have consolidated on what we had done with Further. In the end it was a case of too many cooks stirring the broth and the album came out seeming a little bit cobbled together.
Incendiary: Hindsight is a wonderful thing but now looking back, it seems as if a new crop of bands – The Delays, Keane, even Travis and Coldplay – have more than a touch of Geneva about them?
AM: Maybe, but there is no point getting misty eyed about it all. I guess we are all musically informed by Jeff Buckley, Radiohead and The Smiths, for example. Everyone has to look to someone else for influences and we’re all in same ballpark. Geneva was a great experience – we got to play in America and share a stage with Suede and the Manics amongst others. The whole touring thing was brilliant but I don’t really hold truck with that whole "could have been a contender" thing. It’s more important now to look ahead.
Incendiary: So when Geneva finished in 2000, you turned your back on music and moved to New York. Did you fall out of love with music?
AM: Definitely. With Geneva at one point we were filming a video on the Strip in Vegas. It was bizarre, totally bizarre. We were laughing at our good fortune – of course we paid for it all in the end! The next thing we knew we were all on the dole and the label was demanding that we do go back to the studio and play almost whether or not we wanted to. All of those things that you read about in the music industry, they all seemed to happen to us. Even if music has been your life, it was enough to shake your faith. So Geneva broke up and I moved to New York with an idea of still working in music but on the admin rather than the creative side.
At this point Incendiary detected an undercurrent – a polite but nevertheless persistent desire to lead the conversation away from what’s been and talk about Andrew’s new project, Amityville. Of course, we could understand – Andrew is very excited about Amityville and so he should be. Their first Pacific Radio Fire e.p. is now totally sold out and they’ve already played a handful of gigs at London venues known as places to be played by anyone looking to get noticed such as the Bull & Gate, Hope & Anchor, Dublin Castle and the Metro club. Top indie station XFM gave them Single of the Week and they are favourites of influential DJ Claire Sturgess. The internet is twitching and the tag of "Boys Most Likely" is already being bandied about. To not discuss Amityville would have been rude and a gross dereliction of Incendiary’s duty…
Incendiary: So after New York, how did Amityville come about? Where did you all meet?
AM: By 2002, I had moved back to Scotland and then onto London. I had a whole restless muse thing going on – I’ve lived in so many places since 1999. I was introduced to Stuart (Peck – Amityville’s guitarist) by a mutual friend and listened to his demo. The guitar playing was great although the demo didn’t knock me out, but then we met up and hit it off straight away. We started writing songs quite quickly. I went back over to America to tour with break-beat DJ Ben Neill but kept writing. By now it was early 2003 and we decided to push it forward as Amityville.
Incendiary: In some ways you’ve gone full circle. Unsigned, signed and back to unsigned again. How is it this time round?
AM: I’m older and wiser, that’s for sure. We will still make mistakes, but my attitude now is if we need to ruffle feathers, then so be it. We’re hungry for Amityville to succeed and I’ve probably got it more in perspective. We are working on the creative side of things, with the belief that the business side will follow. We already have a good turn out at our shows in London and people on our website forum from across Europe, Argentina, America and Hong Kong. We have the view that if the Libertines are doing it, it then why can’t we?
Incendiary: So tell us about Amityville…
AM: We have a great sound. A lot more rocky than people expect, raw and back to basics. It was partly organic and partly a conscious process. Stuart and I write straight-ahead pop tunes but rocky around the edges as he gets a lot more noise out of a guitar than any of the guys in Geneva. Dave from Geneva was a great guitarist but very trebly and a lot of picking – more like Johnny Marr. Stuart is influenced by Neil Young and plays with blasts of feedback. In fact Neil Young & Crazy Horse is a touchstone for us all. Geneva was more considered and brainy if you like. We were worried about what people thought. The bass and vocals were almost the lead instruments with the drums and guitars almost adding jazzy touches.
Amityville has had a few line-up changes but we’re settled now as a four piece with Ben Ellis on bass and Dave Bevis on drums. Amityville is more straight-ahead – a lot more oomph. Bigger, bolder, wiser: something I find very exciting.
Incendiary: Obviously, your voice plays a big part in the Amityville sound, as it did with Geneva. When did you realise you could sing like that and have you worked hard at it?
AM: My Mum is a great singer and my Dad can carry a tune so there is an element of genetics. I suppose the way that I sing now comes from listening to the likes of Tim and Jeff Buckley and soul singers like Marvin Gaye. Singing along to them, I was able to imitate the way they went about things. I was encouraged by Tim Buckley – in fact he was almost a de facto singing teacher for me. I did have a couple of lessons but what I took from them, was that singing is 95% in your head. It is about being relaxed and letting it come out. That said, my voice is an acquired taste – some think it is too high and they prefer a more aggressive edge. But you’ve got to play to your strengths, I can’t be something I’m not – I can’t be a rapper that’s for sure.
Incendiary: Some of the lyrics on "Come Down Rock" are "come down, find you’re all alone" and "all those friends who come and go". You have another song called "Do Me In Again", is there something cathartic going on, helping you get Geneva out of your system?
AM: Definitely. I see it as a lyrical expression of relationships from that time and you know, finding out who your friends really are and who you can trust. I like to use emotive, personal language. Lyrics are influenced by what goes on in your life as much as anything else.
Incendiary: What’s on the Amytiville stereo right now? Anybody you would like to work with in the future?
AM: Lots of stuff – not necessarily all new. God Speed You Black Emperor’s Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven is brilliant. All the layers and repetition – quiet and loud – wonderful stuff. TV on the Radio. The Killers album is superb pop. I always go back to Greg Dulli and the Afghan Whigs, Mark Lanegan, Big Star, Skip Spence, Roberta Flack. Soulwax are great – I saw them with LCD Soundsystem recently.
I’d love to do something with Richard Rainey, who has worked with U2. Greg Dulli – he is so rock n roll. He’s a voice of complete sin which would make a great contrast to mine. Mark Lanegan too, it would be an honour; he has a beautiful whole room of a voice.
Incendiary: Looking forward, what’s planned for Amityville in 2005?
AM: It’s a big year for us. The rest of the band is London-based and I’m leaving Scotland to move to Brighton in January so we can really get moving. We have a hardcore of fans and great support via the internet. The internet is brilliant – people come to you and eventually you can’t be ignored.
We intend to gig a lot more and get as many people as possible to hear Amityville. There’s a band in Brighton called The Love Gods. They’re unsigned but have a massive following in the area from just playing live. They connect with their fans in a way that record companies won’t be able to ignore for long – something I would love us to do.
One of the things we are looking at is putting a downloadable track on our website every month – just like the Wedding Present when they released a single every month in 1991 or whenever it was. For me this isn’t gimmicky – it is a genuine engagement with our fans. They might be alternative versions of songs, remixes, live tracks or just songs that we won’t put on an album – we haven’t decided yet. I’d love to do it but we’re looking at the logistics of it.
At this point Incendiary would love to throw in a "Montgomery burns" reference, but it would be pure plagiarism as we have already read it on another website. A definite "doh, why didn’t we think of that?" moment, but credit where credit is due.
Incendiary: Finally, I have to ask as Incendiary writers are all big fans- did you get to meet Billy MacKenzie? I know he was signed briefly to Nude and was a fellow Scot and all.
AM: Unfortunately, I never got to meet him, God rest his soul. He came to one of our gigs in around 1996. He spoke with Douglas the drummer after the show and said he enjoyed it, which was great to know.
With that Andrew was away and we wish him and Amityville well for 2005. Everything seems to be falling into place and the lamest of cliches spring to mind – on the verge of the big time, soon to be huge, ones to watch etc.
What more do you want to know? Great big, noisy, soaring pop tunes that are sitting up and demanding to be heard. Looking for something hard-edged but vulnerable underneath? Amityville might just be the place for you…
http://www.amityvilleuk.com/index.html
http://www.roughtrade.com/docs/rota.htm
http://www.xfm.co.uk/Article.asp?id=34326