It’s been seven years since Fazerdaze—aka New Zealand musician Amelia Murray—first played Manchester’s Soup Kitchen. Now she’s back, selling out venues and embracing a new chapter. We sit backstage at Band on the Wall to talk about the journey, her recent EP Break! and what’s next for the dream-pop artist.
“It feels surreal but nice,” she says, reflecting on her return to the city. “Especially playing a sold-out show here. It’s a full-circle moment.”
Full-circle is a fitting theme. Just the night before, she played in Bristol with Alice Costello opening — mirroring her own experience seven years ago when she supported Alice Costello’s then project Big Deal. “It was really weird but also so nice,” she says. “The music industry can be tough and lonely, so it felt great to invite Alice along. I’m a big fan of her music, And I think she’s an amazing songwriter. And she’s so lovely. It’s just so nice to reconnect.”
“at the end of any project, I’m like empty”
A year on from the release of Break!, Amelia revisits her mindset at the time. “Gosh, at the end of any project, I’m like empty” she admits. “Like I don’t even have any capacity to feel anything anymore because it takes so long. There’s so much for me to write and create and then finish the music. I had done a few 4am nights and I was just so tired trying to get it in in time. … I think I just felt nothing.”
But looking back, she sees it differently. “I feel like it really makes sense with the story and I feel really proud of what it’s about and how honest it is as a body of work” she opens up. “It means a lot to me because it symbolizes such a break from a dark spiral that’s going down. And so I feel really for breaking that spiral and getting myself and just changing the trajectory of my life in a really positive way. The EP feels like it was a really low pressure way for me to exit – well just change tack.”
“I was letting it be rough and raw and ready”
Over the years, Fazerdaze’s sound has evolved—from the cleaner, mid-fi aesthetic of Morningside to the raw, stripped-back approach of Break! Was this oraganic? “Morningside was quite clean and mid fi. And then I think part of me was trying to go, Hi-Fi, but I didn’t really have the, um, skillset or the maybe yeah, the skillset or the team to make a Hi-Fi record that I was dreaming about. And so I kind of went the other way.”
It led to an opening up of creativity. “[I thought ] why don’t I just make what I know how to make? And I just used like my laptop mic and just did what was the path of least least resistance. And that’s what created … Break!, I was letting it be rough and raw and ready. And then, that really opened me up creatively, rather than trying to stick too true to this hi-fi vision I had. Which, that’s still, I think, going to happen down the line. But, it was just much easier to be rough and ready.”
The writing process is by her own admission vague. “Writing a song, it doesn’t feel like writing. It’s more just like something little pops into my head. In the initial stages, it doesn’t really feel like work. It mostly just feels like exploring and making sounds and then something sticks and then I just keep searching around that for other stuff that sticks” she says of the seeds of a track coming together. “Eventually it’s more a process of letting it reveal itself to me than of me sitting down and writing, I find. I think the more I try and force it, the harder it is. The more I’m just a bit more gentle about it, then the ideas reveal themselves to me. So, my process is pretty like… It’s a bit, a bit swimmy, but when an idea is good, it tells me it’s good. It sticks to me.”
And now, a new era looms. “I’m not supposed to talk about it too much,” she teases. “But yes, a substantial body of work is done. It’s been a big journey. Creating it and living through it as well as a woman in the music industry and in this world It’s been a really interesting journey and I’ve had to learn a lot of hard lessons while I made it. The record kind of speaks about that and my journey into womanhood.”
“I have to have a big purge of emotions”
With a packed schedule, Amelia has had to learn how to balance the intensity of life on the road. “I usually have a big cry before I get on the plane,” she laughs. “And now I’ve just accepted that that’s part of it! I have to have a big purge of emotions, because it’s scary. And then i try to take it day by day and just live in each day.”
She now prioritizes emotional and mental well-being. “I make sure I see friends in different cities, so it’s not all about work. That gives me energy. I also bring a yoga mat and do stretches in the venue before every show. It grounds me.”
This UK run is a solo tour, meaning she’s had to adapt her songs. “I’ve made backing tracks, but they still feel true to the project because I produce everything myself,” she explains. “They’re more skeletal, which lets me lean into the songwriting.” she explains enthusiastically, clearly relisihing the opportunity to showcase this side of her.
And setlists are equally adaptable. “I’ve kind of already solidified a setlist and I’ve been mostly repeating that every night with a few changes and then the changes that I make are often just on the fly. So, it depends what I’m feeling on the stage. Sometimes I’m like, feeling really confident and I want to play a certain song, and then sometimes I’m like, not feeling confident, so I cut a certain song out, or, yeah, or I’m having a great time, so I add another song in, so. Yeah. But, but, um, I just fly by the seat of my pants when I’m on the stage, but, but I have a structure to like, fall back on”
But what’s key is what’s going through Amelia Murray’s mind whilst she is up there. There’s no doubt performing songs filled with personal meaning can be emotional. Some artists embrace it, others try to block things out, some focus on technique, remembering lyrics, but whatever the approach there’s usually a lot going on. For Amelia Murray it’s primarily memories and emotion. “They do bring up, the memories of when I wrote the song and who I wrote it about” she explains. “And often I’m like, tapping into what the song is about and what it means to me. And I’m thinking about those kinds of things. Sometimes it can get pretty emotional for me. I think a few shows ago I almost started crying on stage because it brought up so much stuff for myself. And then the other thing I think about is ‘oh my gosh, what did I say to the audience at the end of the song?’ And then also I’m trying to think of the chords and the vocal technique, the pedals and stuff, so there’s quite a few things going on in my head. I’m trying to calm it down a little bit” she laughs.
“I’m going camping”
After wrapping up shows in the UK, Indonesia, and Singapore, Amelia plans to head home for some much-needed rest. “I’m going camping” she enthuses. “Then, more touring starts in March and April next year, and we’ve got new music coming out early next year.”
For now, she’s soaking in the present. As I leave, she’s getting ready. The yoga mat is in the corner.
Just a short while later she’s on stage with the audience absolutely transfixed. It’s clear that Fazerdaze’s new era is just beginning.
