We’ve been excited and delighted by everything we’ve heard from Hello Amnesia over the past year or so. Easily one of our favourite rock band discoveries, we’re recommending them left, right and centre, to all of our friends and colleagues. Now we get the chance to interview these super-cool dudes and find out a little more about just what makes them tick!
You’ve been described as the ‘United Nations of Rock’ because you hail from all over the place. We know it’s probably an over-asked interview question but, how on earth did you meet?
Sean (NZ) and Marco (Italy) were in the same class at university and Marco’s roommate Kaan (Turkey) who was studying for a masters in audio production at the time helped them record what became the first Hello Amnesia song as part of our class project. We found Sam (Portugal) at a jam session in Dalston and Wes (North England) who happened to be in Kaan’s class came along a few months later after we recorded a song with him for his MA portfolio. Essentially we came from all corners of the world to study and really make a good go of our music in London. The odds of us all coming together were so slim, but now it just feels like it was meant to be!
We’ve been pondering it for a while since our most recent review of your music but what does UTYLGO stand for?!!
Listen to the song some more, you’ll get there eventually!
You consistently blow us away with your musicianship and superb technical skills. Tell us about each of your backgrounds.
Curiously, we’re all from different backgrounds, Kaan (Guitar/BV’s) has that classic rock crazy guitar solo man background, bolstered by an incredible talent in classical guitar, which he still practices regularly. Sean (Vocals) was classically trained as a soprano and spent his youth in numerous choirs, growing up on Dylan, Joni Mitchel and more recently, Passenger. Wes is a left-handed metalhead, he’d been jamming in his basement with fellow metalheads for his whole teenage life and is incredibly partial to Japanese funk. Marco (Keys/BV’s) grew up on Jeff Buckley, is a singer/songwriter first who spent much of his younger years performing on a stage in choirs, and, like Sean, had very little exposure to the rock world before Hello Amnesia. Sam (Drums) grew up jamming rock music with his brother Afonso (who has toured with us in Portugal and will be making an appearance on a future Hello Amnesia record!) and before moving to London they had a rock band in Portugal called Paradigma who are well known in his hometown.
It seems you’ve really put work into making sure each member of the band gets a chance to shine in every song – even the bassist! How do you write and arrange your music to make this work?
In truth, we have a lot of respect for each other, the rehearsal room is a safe space for us to share, listen and create – it’s probably why everyone gets to shine, we don’t do it on purpose, it just happens.
What can fans expect of your live show? Do you have upcoming dates to share with our readers?
Everyone who comes to our live show says that they’re blown away by how much better it is than the records. We really do give 110% on the live stage, and it’s more than just 10 songs over an hr.. It’s a tight, curated show that will take audience members on a wild journey of friendship, heartbreak and rebellion. We reckon it’s the way we interact with the audience, and each other, that makes the live show so impactful – we truly enjoy every moment, so it makes it hard for the audience not to I guess. The next big show will be the end of a chapter for us, we’re playing on April 1st with legendary Bournemouth rockers ‘Saints of Sin at The Camden Club in London after nearly a year-long residency. This will be a show worth coming to! Ticket link is here – https://fixr.co/event/the-camden-club-rocks-saints-of-sin-edition-010420-tickets-859561195
Have any of you ever been bored on stage? Why? What happened?
Fuuuuuuck No.
Do you write songs together or individually? Does one of you work on lyrics? Chords? Tell us about your process.
Our songs come together very organically, often Sean comes into rehearsal with what he thinks is the next big thing, Wes tells him it’s crap, Kaan comes up with a riff, Wes tells him it’s crap, Sam comes up with a groove, Wes loves it, Marco throws down chords and tells Kaan to be more daring, Sean throws in the lyrics from his original idea, Wes insists we need a half-time breakdown and somewhere down the line, we end up with a song. We once did a collaboration with an American artist who visited London – he brought lyrics and a melody and we had a fully formed song in 10 minutes. We jam a lot, so we’re pretty good at capturing the creative energy in the room!
What do you listen to?
Between us, literally everything.
Tell us something about each of you that we wouldn’t believe!
Sam studied to be a gym instructor before pursuing music, he still teaches swimming in his downtime! Kaan is a qualified Architect. Hello Amnesia is Sean’s only experience singing rock music so the style is still quite new for him. Wes was a guitarist long before he picked up a bass. Marco never played ‘keys’ before Hello Amnesia and he never liked rock music very much till after our 1st show in May 2021
What’s next on the agenda for Hello Amnesia?
We’ve got a bunch of new songs on the way and our goal for 2023 is to support an artist bigger than us (like Whitesnake #thedream) to really establish ourselves on the national scene. Our new music offers a far more mature sonic palate and lyrical content than our debut EP, showcasing a clear progression and a solid foundation to continue building upon over the coming year!
To find out more about Hello Amnesia, follow any of these links;
https://www.linktr.ee/helloamnesia
https://www.facebook.com/helloamnesia
https://twitter.com/hello_amnesia
https://open.spotify.com/artist/4R0nIFhdDZMyI0F3PTarV5?si=4zVXVVR-TH6EdBAdQpORtw
https://soundcloud.com/hello-amnesia
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSIWMaerM5PQWKIwDclBGug
https://www.instagram.com/hello_amnesia/
https://helloamnesia.bandcamp.com/follow_me