The Amazons Have Some 'Surprises' Up Their Sleeves For Their Debut Album

The Reading rockers talks their forthcoming debut LP plus nearly chopping off Chris' finger on tour...

Friday, January 20, 2017 - 12:08

Having won over their hometown at Reading Festival, The Amazons are eyeing world domination and festival headliner status. And they could do it, which is why the 'In My Mind' rockers are among our ten Brand New For 2017 nominees of acts we think you need to pay attention to this year.

What 2017 has in store for the four-piece - aka Chris, Matt, Joe and Elliott, pictured above left-to-right - is "really exciting" says Matt. "I think we spent [2016] building up to it really. We've been recording an album with Catherine Marks who's done some really great acts like Wolf Alice and Foals. We're excited just to show people different sides to The Amazons rather than just maybe rock and indie. We've got a couple of surprises up our sleeve."

WATCH OUR EXCLUSIVE SPOTLIGHT ON THE AMAZONS HERE:

They've definitely had their fair share of surprises. What's guaranteed with any up-and-coming band is that life on the road can be unpredictable...

It's a "a roller coaster of emotions," Matt proclaimed. Elliott then added, "it starts off happy, then slowly descends into madness...Chris almost got his finger chopped off in Glasgow, it got slammed in the van door but he continued the whole tour afterwards as well, which was pretty brave!"

The van in question is their beloved 'Big Suze'. "It had mould on it when we bought it but in the inside," they admitted. One of them even found a "hairy" piece of bacon in it.

"She's definitely not very safe but we love her," Matt said. "We got completely swindled there."

"Help us please," Elliott pleaded. And you can...

To change The Amazons' life, you can vote for them to win MTV Brand New For 2017 by hitting like/heart on the Instagram image below:

https://instagram.com/p/BPdBxWwgKBK/

See The Amazons Live:

2nd March - The Joiners, Southampton
3rd March - Clwb Ifor Bach, Cardiff
4th March - Coventry Central Library, Coventry
6th March - Buyers Club, Coventry
7th March - Whelan's, Dublin
8th March - Voodoo, Belfast
10th March - Bodega Social Club, Nottingham
11th March - The Cookie, Leicester
12th March - Zephyr Lounge, Leamington Spa
14th March - The Portland Arms, Cambridge
15th March - The Bullingdon, Oxford
16th March - THe Boileroom, Guildford
17th March - Patterns, Brighton

11 Things You Need To Know About The Amazons

Joe, the drummer, has a tattoo of John Bonham (the drummer from Led Zeppelin) on his arm.

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Joe was a “terrible bassist” (their words) when the band discovered him playing him in another band. They needed a drummer, and gave him a shot behind the kit. He passed because he “was the first guy to really smash the drums”.

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The book ‘Swallows & Amazons’ by Arthur Ransome, which vocalist Matt Thompson was reading, inspired the band’s name. He liked that ‘The Amazons’ sounded like a group, or a tribe.

Credit: Dan Harris

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The group had been making electronic music for a period, until they all got drunk and went to see Cage The Elephant & Foals at Alexandra Palace. After that, they wanted to make rock music again.

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When they were just starting out, the band used to slip their demo CD’s into unsuspecting shopper’s baskets in Waitrose.

Credit: Dan Harris

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While on tour, Joe shut Chris’ fingers in a door. Chris had to re-learn the songs with two fingers because the other ones couldn’t play.

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Elliot used to go to the same school as Laura Marling where she would play acoustically in assembly whilst Joe was taught by the same music teacher as Muse.

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The Amazons are from Reading.

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The band will be on a European tour from February to April this year.

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They’ve supported Jimmy Eat World and The Kooks on tour.

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Annie Mac made their track ‘Little Something’ her Track of the Week in December.

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