The Amazons return to Manchester next week for a gig at Manchester Academy following the release of their second album Future Dust earlier this year.
The gig marks a return to the city for the band who have previously performed at the likes of the Albert Hall, the O2 Ritz (for Neighbourhood Festival) and a red-hot intimate show at Jimmys. “Apart from London, we’ve played Manchester the most out of everywhere” comments Amazons frontman Matt Thomson, “When we played Albert Hall for the last album, that was one of the best shows we’ve ever played, if not THE best show we’ve ever played.”
The band have releases singles including 25 ahead of the Manchester Academy gig and album openerMother ahead of their show at Jimmys.
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The Manchester gig is one of 11 UK dates they are playing across November, opening in Birmingham tomorrow and culminating in a huge show at London’s O2 Academy Brixton. The dates follow a run across Europe taking in France, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, Austria, Italy and Denmark.
Future Dust was released in May 2019. It’s an album which Matt explains they were determined to make unashamedly rock’n’roll. “We wanted to get rid of the indie tag in a weird way” admits Matt. “We wanted to make a rock ‘n’ roll record, the kind of album we wanted to hear other bands make and we weren’t hearing it so you write and create music you want to listen to.”
The album draws influences from Queen through to Arcade Fire. And it also has a dance along feel to it, and how the album translates in to the live stage is certainly something the band had at the forefront of their minds. “The whole album was informed by recording the first record for a couple of years” says Matt, “and when you’re in the writing process for new music, you’re like “this moments gonna be great live” or “this is cool, we should extend this bit” or “cut this bit down for the live performance”.”
And certainly the live performance is something which the band has continued to develop. “I think it’s becoming more of a show” he explains. “I think we’re trying to grow and figure out what kind of live band we want to be really. We’re spending more time looking at the visuals and how that relates to the record, because I think with Future Dust, we’ve got a record that is strong and has strong themes visually as well as the songs and music in terms of the cave artwork and the story of making the record.”
In fact the importance of live shows is summed up clearly by Matt when considering the impact of album sales, streaming and live shows. “What we concentrate on is people coming to the live shows” he admits, “and what we definitely concentrate on is narrowing the gap between us and our fans in terms of the relationship. I think that one of our big, big focuses of 2020 is how do we communicate with our fans in a more meaningful way rather than an Instagram Q&A? That’s the story of our climate at the moment, when you’re building up a fanbase, you can’t shy away from that stuff, but I also don’t think it’s very interesting to just do Instagram Live all the time.”
When do The Amazons headline at Manchester Academy?
The Amazons headline at Manchester Academy on 15 November 2019. The Manchester gig is one of 11 dates they are performing:
8 November – Birmingham, O2 Academy
9 November – Leeds, O2 Academy
11 November – Nottingham, Rock City
12 November – Newcastle, O2 Academy
13 November – Glasgow, Barrowland
15 November – Manchester, Manchester Academy
16 November – Cardiff, Students Union
17 November – Bristol, O2 Academy 2
19 November – Bournemouth, O2 Academy
20 November – Norwich, UEA LCR
22 November – London, O2 Academy Brixton
image of The Amazons courtesy Alex Lake and Chuffmedia
