What/who influenced you to get into music/play music?
Sel – Started really getting into music in the 80’s and used to tape tunes of the radio onto blank cassettes.
I first got into playing guitar from primary school and wanted to play from then. Dad had an old broken guitar which he fixed and I’ve been playing from there. Later on in my teens I got into bands like Nirvana and Soundgarden and grunge.
How was the band formed?
The band has been together 14 years now. Sel and Matt have known each other from Music College. We both were in other bands but used to jam together in our spare time and Neil used to join in as well. We started to enjoy playing together more than our actual bands. It was the mutual love of the music which got us together.
For those who haven’t heard of amplifier, how would you describe your band and the music you play?
I will answer this quiet simply we are mixture of Beatles meets Led Zepplin meets Black Sabbath. Its Music but beyond music.
You write your own lyrics. How important is it to have 100% control of what you write?
The lyrical element of our music is not throwaway. All our life experiences go through the prism of the band. All our values and observations are set in the music we make. That principally is one of the things that people really like about Amplifier. It’s just honest. It’s not fashionable and that’s probably why we are still going cause its kinda timeless cause it’s not fashionable.
What do you think of the manufactured groups and artists out there?
The way we listen to music now is not how we listen to music back then. Records back then were not designed to be background music – like wallpaper like some of the artists out there now. The chart music that is in your face is not really music, at a push its entertainment and mostly advertising. You really need to go out and find good music rather than it coming to you. There are some great artists coming out Eastern Europe and Balkans right now.
What’s your favourite Amplifier track and why?
I don’t have a favourite Amplifier track, I like playing the tracks of “The Octopus” at the moment. I tell you what its like, you know the Generation Game at the end where you got that conveyor belt, well its like that with all the songs going across. “Ooo I like that one”.
Neil chips in “Cuddly Toy, Cuddly Toy” “Actually do you remember Cuddly Toy by Roachford, absolutely belter of a song” “When was that ’83” (I can officially say that it was ’88 – GaryO)
Which tune in another genre do you like right now?
Neil – Dutch Uncles (indie band out of Manchester)
Sel – I have been listening to a lot of classical music at the moment – Beethoven
What have we got to look forward to in the fourth album?
Keeping close to their chest but will be out 2012. At the moment it all about “The Octopus”
