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In the world of psychedelic indie rock music, it’s not often that a young band like Amazing Baby gets the gold stars they deserve without having ever released a full-length album. With a popularity driven mostly by fans that have found them on the web, seen them live or heard them open for a slightly more famous indie band, Amazing Baby’s rise to semi-stardom is clearly amazing.
Formed in 2008, it’s been a big first year for this band of man-babies (sorry, I just had to go there). They’ve toured a couple of times in the U.S. and in Europe with the big kids like MGMT and currently with Phoenix.
I met with Will Roan (lead singer), Simon O’Connor (guitarist), Rob Laakso (bass player), Matt Abeysekera (drummer) and Don Devore (guitarist) at the Loring Pasta Bar before they opened for the sweaty dance party that was to come later that evening at the Varsity Theater last Tuesday. We toasted to musical creationism and the birth of their new album “Rewild”—which was released that very day.
Your album came out today and it's already on top of "Best of 2009" lists. That's gotta feel good.
Simon O'Connor: Yeah, we're really excited. We've been working on it pretty much since the band started, which wasn't that long ago—January 2008.
Is it a collection of songs that you guys have written over the year or something that came together while you were recording?
Will Roan: It's a little of both. We had some songwriting periods while we were travelling and getting our live shows together, but some of the songs were written during the recording process too. It has been pretty organic.
Who did the surreal artwork on your album? It's beautiful.
Don Devore: Yeah, the final looks incredible. The artwork was a big production. There were lots of people involved.
S.O.: The artist is Cameron Michelle, he's this awesome guy from Brooklyn. He's in a band called Golden Triangle.
Q. It seems like every track on "Rewild" is like well-planned chaos—lots of layers going on in each one but it comes together without seeming like a big mess. How do you do it?
S.O.: We just don't really veto ideas.
W.R.: I think we are smart about what to keep but we do keep a lot. There's quite a lot of creative ping pong between each other and some of the things we try don't end up on the final mixes. We try to be careful not to overdo it. There should be moments when the listener is like, "whoa," but we don't want to overwhelm them with too much.
D.D.: We try to balance the "whoa" while still preserving the dynamics. A lot of great things in life walk that fine line.
W.R.: It's a record for creationists of a different type.
S.O.: Intelligent design!
Q. Does everyone have a favorite song from the album?
Rob Laasko: We're not supposed to have favorite children.
Q. You and a bunch of other bands from Wesleyan University (MGMT, Boy Crisis, Chairlift) have blown up or are blowing up. Is it something in the dorm food?
Everyone: Ah, we keep getting questions about that. We didn't meet there...we think that rumor started in England somewhere, but the only one of us that actually went to Wesleyan was Simon.
So we cleared up one thing about Amazing Baby. Contrary to rumors, blogs and even legitimate music news sources, you guys did not meet at Wesleyan University. Not that there's anything wrong with meeting at Wesleyan. Where did you meet?
W.R.: Simon and I met while we were playing in different bands. We worked at a music company and made ringtones. Rob worked there at one point and so did Matt. Our old bands kind of died out so we started working on new music after work and playing shows together. Then Don, who had known Rob for a while, joined last summer to finalize the lineup we have now.
Do you see this as your breakout year?
S.O.: Kind of. We're hoping it is. As of a couple of hours ago, we had never had a record out. Now we do, so people can listen to us in places other than our MySpace page.
Phoenix has some pretty loyal fans (myself included). Have they been good to you on this tour or are they just trying to get you off-stage and them on-stage?
S.O.: It's been amazing with all the sold out shows. They have been some of the best crowds we've ever had. Our live shows are better now too, but the fans are great. Phoenix is a fun, high-energy band and so are we—even though it's not the same kind of music.
D.D.: The only thing that's kind of hard sometimes is that some shows sold out in an hour and people that normally would come to see us don't have a chance.
Do you think you'll be headlining the next tour then?
S.O.: I think we'll do a little bit of both. We'd love to do a headlining tour of smaller venues now that our album is out. We'd also like to do more support stuff too though.
What bands would you pick to open for you on an Amazing Baby tour?
R.L.: Aerosmith and ZZ Top—at least for Simon's birthday in September.
S.O.: That would really solve a lot of our problems.
R.L.: Steven Tyler, if you're reading this...
Annie D'Souza is a writer, editor and blogger behind The Suggestion Boxer. She lives in Minneapolis, works on the Internet and can often be found in her pajamas writing about music, food and (ironically) fashion.
