Los Angeles psych pop band Amo Amo’s self-titled debut album – produced by Jim James of My Morning Jacket -has just been released!
Amo Amo formed in June 2017 when a group of dear friends – Love Femme, Omar Velasco, Justin Flint, Shane Mckillop and Alex Siegel – got together for an impromptu session in Los Angeles with Jim James. There had been a premonition that the five of them shared a sort of psychic bond that would lead to a revelation in sound. Five months later, after a month-long recording retreat nestled amongst California’s vineyards and out of range of cell phone service, Amo Amo emerged with a collection of soulful, magic songs.
The band will be joining Jim James on a national tour, opening for My Morning Jacket at Red Rocks Amphitheater in Colorado and performing at Outside Lands in San Francisco, CA. Love Femme and Omar Velasco from Amo Amo will , at times, also be part of Jim’s band for the tour.
In an effort to generate better interview questions for the globe-hopping artists of today, East Portland Blog has, at times suchs as this, has recruited artists to draft questions which we then pose other artists. For these powerful, topical questions to Amo Amo, EPB sought out Jason Matuskiewicz, Brooklyn’s funniest musician/publicist/label guy/lawyer and one of the TRULY NICE GUYS in this business. To know him is to love him,. His awesome company is called I Can’t Wait for Summer. Persons of all nations admire Jason for his talent, wit and intellect. We hope that you will enjoy the questions he presented here to Omar of Amo Amo. We hope that you will enjoy Omar’s answers even more.
Jason Matuskewicz [JM]. “Heaven or Las Vegas” or “Teen Dream” and why? You’ve got a lovely psychedelic inflected dream pop infused style. How did you arrive at that sound and were there particular influences on it?
Omar Velasco [OV] Have to go with Cocteau Twins. They were the originators and though I love “Teen Dream” and it’s certainly an influencial album of our time, it wouldn’t have happened without “Heaven or Las Vegas.” Plus, any time you invent your own language you get extra points.
Thanks for the compliment. Our way of arriving at a sound was very organic. It simply came from playing in a room together for hours and hours. Also, we don’t feel that we’ve “arrived” necessarily as the sound keeps evolving, and we love that. We all have many and varied influences but I’d say for this record our main inspiration was Bob Marley, mostly in terms of his message and the energy of unity that he puts out with his music.
JM. You got some Louisville, KY music royalty on this record with Jim James producing and Kevin Ratterman mixing. Were you aware of the majesty of their rock and mystery of their roll before making the album, any particular Kentucky connection or did this relationship come together?
OV – Honestly, not really. I became friends with Jim before I really delved into his music. We were all aware of MMJ of course but that didn’t really come into play in our relationship. Jim linked us up with Kevin and we think he’s an angel descended to shine sonic light onto this earth.
JM. The legend of the road is long and full of quotable anecdotes. Can you tell us a little bit about the adventures of Amo Amo out in the great unknown?
OV – We’ve toured a little around California but this upcoming tour opening for Jim is our first extended one. So maybe we’ll get back to you with some good stories.
JM. What else is up?
OV – We’re all just thrilled and excited to have our first album out in the world. It also creates the space to write and record new music which we’re all itching to do. Also very much looking forward to this tour with Jim and the chance to play our music to folks all across the US.
