The Live Amps
Toronto, Ontario, Canada | Established. Jan 01, 2007 | SELF
Music
Press
The Live Amps have released a video for their first single "Perfume". The album was recorded and mixed by Chris Crerar and mastered by L. Stu Young at Metalworks Studios.
Check out the video and bio!
They are playing this Friday (Feb. 22nd) at the Hard Rock Cafe at Dundas Square.
"They were born in a basement in Scarborough; The Live Amps, came into the world kicking and screaming, a raw unfocused energy that was at once arresting in it's intensity. Founding members, Michael Rochford (bass), Hendrix Gamalinda (guitar), and Dan Snyder (drums) drew from the diverse musical influences of their youth. Crafting instrumental jams that resonated deeply with early fans. Their unyielding sound lacked only a front man to put the exclamation mark in their arrangements. That voice came in the form of vocalist, Alex Treen. Joining the band in 2010, Treen's gritty and emotive vocal style fit perfectly into the heavy and propulsive sound of The Live Amps. Over the following years the band continued to evolve, maturing from an energetic jam band into a can't-miss live act, that puts their all into every set, and leaves nothing on the stage after but blood and sweat! The Live Amps' self-titled EP, released in 2013, showcases the impressive sonic diversity that has come to define them. Pulling from influences such as Deftones, Queens of the Stoneage, Nirvana, Led Zeppelin, The Ramones; The Live Amps is a record that captures the passion and intensity of the band's live show -- Gritty vocals over a thunderous rhythm and soaring guitars -- coupled with a sophistication that reflects the bands more experimental side". - Metalworks Studios
Discography
The Live Amps EP - 2013
Ruined By The City LP - 2016
Photos
Bio
A raw, unbridled flurry of guttural guitar riffs and growly, emotive vocals, The Live Amps deliver the kind of sound their name would suggest—loud, energetic rock music, the kind borne by the creative freedom of the jam session, and nurtured on the live stage. “Writing a song with The Live Amps is like trying to catch lightning in a bottle. We go into a jam with no ideas and press record and play whatever we feel like,” says Al Treen, vocalist and front man. “Most of what we do we completely forget until we listen back a few days later, and put pieces of it together to create a song.” Starting off as a three-man instrumental jam band in Scarborough in 2007, The Live Amps’ music has always thrived on its improvisational style. When Treen joined the band in 2010, his gritty vocals and intense stage presence were the perfect complement to the heavy, propulsive music bassist Michael Rochford, guitarist Hendrix Gamalinda, and drummer Dan Snyder had been playing together. The addition of a front man also gave The Amps the loose guidance they needed to write more structured songs.
The Live Amps now rock out as a foursome, with Treen’s rich voice and passionate lyrics enveloped in grungy guitar licks to create an incendiary breed of rock music inspired by the likes of Queens of the Stone Age, Nirvana, and The Ramones.
Ruined by the City, the band’s debut full-length album, is set to release in 2016. Recorded at Canada’s storied Metal Works Studio, it promises a more experimental, dynamic collection of songs, each with a more nuanced sound than the collection of tracks from 2013’s self-title EP.
Treen describes the album as being about identity, and “Something exhilarating that turns bad,” as well as representative of a journey with a beginning and end. Similar to the cyclical element of Pink Floyd’s The Wall, the ending notes of “Bat an Eye”, the album’s final track, are also the first ones you hear on the “Intro” track.
Regardless of the serious and at-times dark undertones of Ruined by the City, there’s still a playful quality to the album, apparent in vibrant, quirky songs like “Pirates,” a song about a self-conscious troupe of pirates who refuse to accept their thieving place in life, choosing to entertain a ship’s passengers with melt-your-face-off musical stylings rather than steal from them. Essentially, these are pirates who rock, not pillage.
The band members have all worked their asses off in the last two years and counting to complete the album, and it’s an opus they’re all very proud of.
"We used to be just a bunch of drunken guys who got in a room and to bang out songs. This album is the first time we've had purpose."
Band Members
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