Amphibious Assault

Fallon Bowman can answer that question. At the age when most of her peers were picking out junior prom dresses and thinking about SAT scores, Fallon, a former member of Kittie, was playing to thousands of screaming fans every night, touring with Ozzfest and opening metal festivals in Europe with all the big names of turn-of-the-century metal. Her band’s debut record had gone gold, and their videos were in constant rotation on MTV. Still, the teenage guitarist found herself more and more interested in industrial and trance, and as her bandmates began preparing darker, heavier material for their second album, Fallon decided that the band’s direction ultimately wasn’t for her.

So what did she do? Bowman quit the band and returned to her hometown of London, Ontario. Fallon likens her homecoming to a case of the bends; she returned to find that starting her life right where she had left off was easier said than done. She enrolled at her former high school and slipped back into her old social circle. In the late summer of 2001, Bowman was on a plane to New Jersey when the thought of creating her own electronic project initially struck her. After much trepidation, she bought a Groovebox and began writing her own music. She christened her new project Amphibious Assault (after a military tactic) and set about crafting the songs which would become her debut album, District Six.

Fallon discovered that creating on her own was an intensely personal, difficult experience, but when the record was finished, the result surprised her. District Six was released in late May of 2003. A political album at heart, it was a melodic, heavily danceable record that wore its influences on its sleeve. Through word of mouth and the band’s website, Bowman was able to build up her fan base and sell nearly a thousand copies of the record through her own record label (Social Unrest) with virtually no touring or outside promotion.

During the summer of 2004, Bowman began lining up Amphibious Assault concerts in Toronto. Initially, Fallon performed District Six as a one-woman show. “I learned it’s a lot harder to manage things by yourself,” she admits. “This may seem like a given to some people, but I had most of this stuff done for me before. Doing it all by yourself is tough, and sometimes it can make the experience not as enjoyable as it could be – but being onstage quickly dissipated those feelings. I remembered what I loved so much about being on stage – just the feeling of that connection between the audience and myself.” Shortly afterwards, she recruited former bandmate Talena Atfield and local guitarist Pete Henderson to complement her live show. The new additions both strengthened the live show and gave Bowman the confidence she needed to consider the band as something more than just an after-school pastime. Although Fallon started taking university courses that fall, she also began writing the second Amphibious Assault album in earnest.

The second Amphibious Assault record is in some ways a departure for Fallon Bowman, but in many others it’s a return to her roots. While “Salute!” continues District Six’s political agenda, the rest of the album focuses on more personal issues – relationships, loss, and a wide range of emotions. Lead single “Tears in Rain” was the first song Bowman wrote for the record, and while Fallon thought she’d lost the ability to write straight from the heart, the new songs flowed out of her with a familiar raw honesty that she hadn’t utilized in years. Musically, she borrowed from a wider range of influences, allowing an R&B feel to seep into her work while maintaining her dual foundations of rock and electronica. She found herself influenced by everything from Howard Shore’s arrangements to VNV Nation’s “Matter + Form” to Alicia Keys’ “Diary of Alicia Keys.” “I’m not shying away from what my voice can do – I’m embracing it,” she explains. “I think that when the resources are given to me, I will compose music on a more grand scale – more instruments, more complicated arrangements, etc.” Bowman’s successes have led her to discover that she could continue to push the envelope and expand her musical limits, attacking her sharp, deeply personal lyrics with a wall of full-on electronic abandon.

At 22, Fallon Bowman has seen and done things that older musicians can only dream of, but she’s still got her eye on the future. Although the heart of the album is in a familiar place, she’s taken her songwriting to the next level and hopes to take her show on the road – properly this time, with her loyal supporting band backing her on a full-scale tour. Amphibious Assault has finally developed a concrete battle plan, and Fallon Bowman will not rest until she has conquered it all.

-- Stefanie Schwartz