A CONVERSATION WITH… AMBER RUN
We sat down with Amber Run’s Henry Wyeth to talk about their upcoming album, How To Be Human, and their place in the music industry.
If you were to describe Amber Run’s sound to someone who hasn’t listened to you, how would you describe it?
First of all I would say, go and listen to it. Some of the stuff we do is very rocky and some of the stuff that we do is sort of softer and more sombre. What we try and always do with our music is have it kind of mean something. We always try and write about something that affects us and that we feel like our audience and our fans can respond to. I think that’s the thing that you should listen out for!
What song first jumps to mind when you think of a song that you’ve written that has meaning?
I think the one that affects me most on a regular basis is probably ‘Amen’, which is about losing a loved one and having to deal with that. We play that live and every now and then if my mind’s wandering and I just let myself think about things even when I’m supposed to be professional, I still sometimes get a little bit choked up.
Your new album will be out at the end of the month. Why did you name it How to be Human?
When Covid hit and we didn’t know what the hell was going on. I think everyone took a look at what was going on in their lives and reassessed. Even though we’re incredibly lucky to do what we do and love our job of course, there’s always that part of you which is like “right, I’m nearly thirty now and this is my career and I’m very grateful that it is my career, but should I or could I be doing something else?” What we were dealing with at that time was a quarter-life crisis that everyone seems to go through.
With this sort of existential thought processes you’ve been following with the album, would you say you’ve come closer to finding any answers or is it all just as confusing as ever?
I think there are always going to be questions, I haven’t reached enlightenment. I don’t feel like I’ve done it, like completed it or know the answers. I would say no, it hasn’t answered that question or ticked that box. I’ve certainly personally taken a few steps on the right sort of path towards answering those questions, but it would also be terrible if I was further away from the truth!
The lead single for the album ‘The Beautiful Victorious’ is quite upbeat, would you say that your sound on this album has changed from your previous work?
We have been, fairly or unfairly - you can decide, criticised for being too sad at points. We don’t always want to do that, it’s just often how we write and how we feel. I would say the general sound is always going to be us, whether we write particularly upbeat songs or particularly downbeat songs, it’s always going to be the Amber Run sound. I would say this is a definite progression musically from what we’ve done before. I know that’s a cliché and everyone says that, but I think it’s true.
You said you felt you’ve been put into a box of being people that write sad music, what would you say about that label?
I wouldn’t say that generally, but my friends are always nagging me to write a happy song.
Would you say there’s value in sad music?
It’s counter-intuitive but sad songs make people feel happier because they feel heard and understood. If we can bring anyone who’s going through something solace and some companionship and friendship through that, then that’s fucking outsanding. It’s as good as, if not better than being able to make someone jump up and down. Although we do want to do that as well.
Your song ‘I Found’ has had a second lease of life on Tiktok as it became popular for people to make videos to a section of the song. What was it like to have one of your songs have a resurgence in this new way?
That song is like a phenomenon, in that it just doesn’t stop. It’s a juggernaut. I’m very grateful to it, it’s given me this career basically. It doesn't seem to go away. It is really cool, regardless of what medium people discover our music. For people to be discovering our music through TikTok is great! The medium itself, the app, I don’t understand it.
How do you think the music industry and Tiktok or other social media platfforms interact?
It’s interesting, Spotify obviously changed the way that music is consumed, forever. I don’t know what TikTok is going to do. I’ve heard talk of people writing songs, essentially just like thirty second niblets just so there’s a thirty second piece to be synced on TikTok and used like that. It’s affecting the way people are thinking about writing songs, which I think is quite scary. But, people could have been saying that about when the CD-ROM came out. Music changes. Culture changes. You can’t fight it. I’m not going to shake my fist at clouds and things like that.
What do you think is in store for amber run in the future and with this upcoming tour you are departing on?
We are so incredibly excited to get back on the road. We’ve got all these new songs to play and that’s one of my favourite things being in the band, is playing live. People across the country and across the continent and elsewhere singing them back to you. It’s like nothing else. The record is coming out on the 24th of Feb, physical copies are coming out on the 14th April. We also have a European tour pencilled in later this year - that’s hot off the press! It’s going to be a good year, I’m looking forward to it.