By MAXX BRADFORD-LESTER
This year Perth band Amberdown unveiled their debut album, Four Years. The band has been active since 2014, however has undergone a switch in sound for their new album. Compared to their past EPs and singles, Four Years has a much darker musical tone, stemming from the influence of Daniel Connell’s (guitarist/vox) abusive relationship through which he greatly suffered. The album leans in to the recent wave of pop punk that is seemingly surfing across our states at the moment but keeps itself with enough wiggle room to spice things up, featuring a cover of “What I Like About You,” a ballad and a power piece bonus track about KFC. Most tracks groove off a lighter alternative metal (or darker pop punk) style that really comes through with the power of Daniel’s intention. This album is genuine, whether you like it or not. The raw pain Daniel channels makes for some extremely personal and powerful moments that can be felt on the tips of your goose bumps.
I recommend this album to those who have suffered through hardships in 2019, those who find it hard to get back on their feet so that they may see that from pain can come beauty. Daniel has turned one of the darkest times in his life into an amazing piece of art and I think many can be inspired by listening to the album. It can be all too easy to fall into a trap of despair but by remaining productive, creative and true to ourselves we can learn to heal and overcome life’s tremendous challenges.
Full interview on YouTube at x2x Studios
Daniel it must be great to finally have your first album out!
“Yeah, it’s pretty exciting to finally get it all done. It took long enough so we are pretty happy with it.”
A long way from playing covers in high school?
“Haha definitely! To be honest we were never really happy playing covers its sort of a good starting point but not something we enjoy a lot…”
That’s interesting considering you put a cover in to the album. Did you include the “What I Like About You” cover as a bit of nostalgia as to the kind of stuff would you play before you had your own originals?
“That was sort of the first cover we would play at gigs. It is helpful to play a cover when you start because people know it and get a bit happier to hear it. Most of the people we play to may not have heard us and it’s good to put a cover in there so people can hear where you’re coming from. We thought ‘it seemed to go well live so let’s just put it on the album’.”
What other covers do you play live?
“We have just started throwing in a cover every gig. We’ve been doing silverchair, Pacifier, sort of late 90s/early 2000s songs we do every now and then. That’s sort of our vibe.
Four Years is a very personal album. In an interview with Amplify.com it was described as “a representation of the anger and aggression bottled up after a horribly abusive relationship.” How effective is music as a therapeutic outlet?
“It’s pretty much my only therapeutic outlet to be honest. I tend to write music when I’m upset or angry rather than happy. You might hear an upbeat song here and there from people who can write in that sort of fashion and that’s totally fair but I struggle to write when I’m feeling happy. It comes from a darker place, as cliched as that sounds.
“This whole album stems from problems in my life that have occurred over the last four years. That’s probably why it’s more aggressive than our older stuff; a lot of that was written when we didn’t really have any issues in our life. It was sort of that young ignorant time in our life. As you get older in your late twenties/early thirties, you start to see the world for what it is I guess… you get a bit cynical and write with more anger and sadness and that’s what’s happened with this album. Most of the album was based on a relationship I was in that was really, really rough. A lot of the songs on there are in reference to that.”
Do you think that this album and its release has an effect on your personal life and wellbeing?
“Yeah. After we released it, it was as if those problems that were there dissolved a bit. We’ve started to write again; we’re doing a new album early next year and it has been tricky to find those emotions to write in the new songs. I’m glad I had some down moments to write that album.”
It is good though that you are already working on your next album and it shouldn’t be as tedious a process….
“Well , so far the songs are turning out good. They aren’t so angry but they have moments because we still had to get over all that crap. For me it has been harder to write that angsty anger but it’s coming along, hopefully it’ll be just as good.”
You and Jason personally tend to like grunge and rock while other members (Marc drum and Jeremy bass) lean towards heavier stuff. Are you concerned about there being a divide in songwriting or creative direction?
“Sometimes. But to be honest, the two genres seem to melt quiet well together when we write. Especially with the new stuff, that obviously no one’s heard. But you can still hear and taste moments in Four Years where that angry grungy tone mixes with touches of almost prog rock. I don’t like to pigeon holed in genre, I just like to meld what I like together. But you’re right. I’m sort of a more grungy guy and the other guys are more in to metal. We are just trying to put everything we can into the songs without them sounding stupid.”
Do you still have those flame throwing guitars from the “Lifeless” video? Did you make them?
“Our bass player Jeremy is a plumber so he built all the gas lines behind the guitars. Anything he can do with fire, he’ll do it!”
A longer-term goal of the bands is to get some mainstream recognition. Do you think the band is ready to write a chart-topper?
“I used to think about it a lot when I was writing songs. I would think ‘okay, what could possibly get on radio in the Australian market?’ …which is what we did with the first EP. That varies from pop punk to metal, it was an odd EP.
“But on this Four Years album, we didn’t focus on what people would find likeable. I just focused on anything I could that was an outlet for aggression at the time. I knew it would be radio friendly. From now forward I may rethink moments in the songs where I put more hooks in to make them more memorable but I don’t think we will write for mainstream radio. I don’t think we will bother trying to appeal. You never know what people want at what time so it’s impossible to write to that.”
