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Formed in Sheffield, UK in the lockdowns, Amalgaband are an “accidental band” that formed as an outlet for the members’ irrepressible creativity. Coming up to the holiday season, they’ve released their holiday song and music video “Rock ‘N’ Roll Radio Xmas”. The Big Takeover recently interviewed vocalist/guitarist Ash Gray and bassist Thomas Lebioda, which can be read below.
Why Amalgaband? What does the band name mean, what significance does it hold, and how did you reach agreement for it to be the best option?
/əˌmalɡəˈmāSH(ə)n/
Learn to pronounce
noun
1. the action, process, or result of combining or uniting.
Nothing to do with our tooth fillings.
When and how did the Amalgaband members meet, and what makes you all work so well together?
The Amalgaband members were already living together and working together in different capacities. The lockdown made it almost made it necessary to work well together as we all were focused on music and passionate about doing something creative with music.
I’m sure we would have amalgamated well without any necessities. In fact, we have.
What does your creative process look like, and how did it play out for “Rock ‘N’ Roll Radio Xmas”?
The creative process really just involves us agreeing on a theme for a song and deciding what type of feel is going to suit the subject. In this case we wanted a real holiday screamer that sort of echoed a sort of punky Slade meets Kiss vibe. With not much to do and nowhere to go during one of the lockdowns before Christmas, we spontaneously formed a band, recorded this song in our basement and shot a video in the neighborhood streets of Nether Edge (Sheffield) the next day. “Rock ’N’ Roll Radio Xmas” was born.
What led the band to making and releasing a rock ‘n’ roll Christmas single? Where did you find inspiration for the song in the first place?
Lockdown created an atmosphere of wanting to take our musical skills and channel them for something creative. It was Christmas and dark and dreary and we thought it would be perfect to take a song and combine it with Flynn’s talent for getting the vibe down and channeling everyone’s ideas of a “Rock ‘N’ Roll Radio Xmas.”
What is going on in the Rock ‘N’ Roll Radio Xmas” visual? How was it shooting with Flynn Hudson-Dean?
In the video you have a sort of down and out rocker who lives in his own rock and roll world we call Nicky Claws who is a solid irrepressible party guy. He has a hunger for celebrating Christmas and just decides to crank up the holiday music and share the joy in the back-alleys streets and graveyard.
Working with Flynn is great. He is full of ideas and is able to take the feeling of the music and translate it into a visual. Flynn and Ash, who plays Nicky had a lot of fun coming up with spontaneous ideas and realizing them in quirky ways that could involve the immediate surroundings.
What does the new year hold for Amalgaband? What releases are in store for audiences next?
The new year could definitely yield more seasonal songs. We’re going to create a New Year’s song for 2023.
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