In Motion Sometimes it’s hard to express how you are feeling, whether that is positive feelings that almost make you feel like your heart is about to burst or negative emotions that push you down a spiral you think you will never get out of again. In times like these, we humans often like to turn to art to help us convey those exact feelings, but it is rare that you find something - or someone - that tells the world what you cannot seem to get off your chest just as easily. That is why the Nottingham-based indie band Amber Run have made it their mission to use their music to tell honest stories about often difficult and personal subjects to offer a supportive hand to people in times of need. And by doing that, the group has found its way to their own purpose and a life that is fuller than it has ever been, all the while the world around them is crumbling to pieces. Written by Laura Weingrill Photography by Jordan Curtis Hughes
Consisting of singer and guitarist Joe Keogh, keyboardist Henry Wyeth and bassist Tom Sperring, the British three-piece have used their musical journey as a band to create a space for their listeners and themselves where they can feel safe, and that is ruled by honesty, kindness and introspection. Their last release, the ever so enchanting EP ‘The Search (Act 1)’, is no exception to that and beautifully captions a world that is ruled by uncertainty, loneliness and utter hopelessness - even if it wasn’t written for that specific reason. “We finished touring for our last album ‘Philophobia’ at the end of 2019 and then went into a writing cycle, so we were writing the EP at a fairly interesting time in history,”, remembers band member Wyeth while pondering the fact that even while some songs on the record might feel like they were written during and for the pandemic, they were never given that purpose. “It was obviously going to affect it because your environment always affects what you’re writing. But we felt like we were at a period in our life when you’re in your late twenties, early thirties, where you’re questioning whether what you’re doing is right or not. There was this sense of listlessness, so we started to explore that with the music, and everything that was going on in the world and out came ‘The Search (Act 1)’ essentially.”
‘The Search (Act 1)’ might have an air to it that could easily be turned into a story of dread and emptiness during a global pandemic, the group has pulled it to the forefront to always keep their work open to individual interpretation, as bassist Sperring underlines: “The beauty of it is that people can read into things a bit, you know, place their own experience in a song and interpret it how they need at a time. So maybe it did help that it came up during the pandemic.” Jumping right to the top of the intensity ranking of all the tracks on their EP, the first release to see the light of day since their third full-length endeavour, the stunning ‘52 Blue’ put the nail on the head of exactly that formula. For once, the song not only sounds hauntingly beautiful, with almost cinematic undertones, sombre guitar strokes and lead singer Joe Keogh’s angelic vocals serenading the listener’s ears, but it also feels like meeting someone who finally sees you, the real you, with all your cracks and dents. Inspired by the solitude of one blue whale – one that sings at a different pitch from all the others, forever swimming in the ocean, crying out for companionship that never comes – it tackles intricate topics that couldn’t be any more current while still feeling incredibly personal and intimate. “We were in LA at a gorgeous place by the fire, literally by the beach in the sun. And we were just there talking about the bleakest things, like the complete lack of purpose in life or the fact that there’s no real drive or meaning to anything. And so we started looking at the saddest things or the loneliest things in the world, and that’s how we found the story of this whale,”, recounts Wyeth, while frontman Keogh adds that “the open ocean feels like a
Made up of five jaw-dropping tracks that each come with their own unique sound and story to them, the EP feels like a natural continuation of the trio’s previously released album ‘Philophobia’, which explored the complexity and irresistibility of connections and intimate relationships and how difficult they are to navigate, but also how important they are fundamentally. And while 10
