AM Boys announce their first album and first single
Today, morning boys (John Blonde and Chris Moore) announce their upcoming debut album, Remote Decay (out June 3), and shares her debut single, “AM theme.”
Speaking on the single, John wrote:
“’AM Theme’ is, for me, the basic song of the AM Boys. It was the first song we ever wrote, during our first jam session, and also the first song we played live. came as soon as we had the first day together, like it was already circling us and we just needed to hook up. It was an instant spark for the future. I think/hope you can hear us to be excited by this sublime moment of recording. Everything that we are as a band is captured in this song.
The cheerleading chant of the repeated “A” and “M” is meant to elicit support for what’s to come, both for us and for the listener. Musically, I think it has a balance representative of the AM Boys, between the evolution of the drums and percussion, the portamento on the melody of the synth on the drone and the blissful voice at the end.
The song was recorded at Glowmatic Sound, our studio in Brooklyn. The main melody is played on a 1979 Roland SH-2, the first synth I ever bought and, perhaps, the only one I’ll ever need.”
Distance Decay, the scintillating debut album by American electronic duo AM Boys, focuses on an intimate and minimal approach to instrumentation. The album’s ten original songs juxtapose rolling beats with melodic synth lines and ethereal vocals.
The album was written in dark late-night jam sessions with analog synthesizers, drum machines, spatial echo and vocals. These sessions were influenced by post-punk and cold wave, as well as the duo’s revered trinity of Kraftwerk, Aphex Twin and Prince. (Under one of these for Throbbing Gristle on a rainy night.)
The recording process was deliberately streamlined to allow the duo to recreate the songs during live performances. This minimal approach results in an album that develops an emotional resonance with each listen. “We knew we didn’t want to layer too much, we felt the songs sounded louder with less. A lot of modern music can be difficult and cluttered, we wanted to present the music simply, gaining transparency,” says Blonde. .
Remote Decay was written and recorded by AM Boys at their studio, Glowmatic Sound, in Brooklyn. Moore mixed the album, additional vocal recording was done by Jeff Berner at Studio G, and Steve Fallone mastered the record at Sterling Sound. Blonde took the cover photo and designed the band’s logo.
“Distance decay” is a term describing the tendency of criminals to commit fewer crimes the further they get from their homes. The duo can personally attest that this model exists.
AM Boys’ Distance Decay Record Release Show will take place at Trans Pecos in Brooklyn on June 9th. They will perform with Kristeen Young and Dream Prescription.
AM Organic Boys:
AM Boys combines the clean minimalism of the post-punk era with a contemporary approach to rhythm and arrangement. Multi-instrumentalist/producer Chris Moore (Light Vortex) and electronic musician/singer John Blonde (House of Blondes) create and perform using analog synths, drum machines, spatial echo and vocals.
After meeting at an Aphex Twin listening party in New York in 2014, the duo struck up an instant chemistry that resulted in an original batch of songs as early as 2018, leading to their first live performance: a opening for Suicide legend Martin Rev. They sent Rev’s team a track, “Distance Decay”, and were offered the slot the next day. This song became the title track of their upcoming debut album, Distance Decay, which will be released on June 3, 2022.
Other live performances included slots with Moon Diagrams (side project Deerhunter) and a memorable set for experimental venue Spectrum. The duo also performed DJ sets at Jupiter Disco, Troost, Sundown Bar, Wythe Hotel and other popular New York venues. During the pandemic, the band locked themselves in their studio and recorded an entire second album, and are now working to incorporate some of those new songs into their live sets.
John Blonde is an electronic musician and songwriter who releases solo music under the name Muscle Club. He is also a main member of the New York electronic group House of Blondes.
Chris Moore is a record producer, engineer, mixer, and electronic musician who releases solo music under the name Light Vortex and a variety of other aliases. As a producer and engineer, Moore has worked with TV on the Radio, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Scarlett Johansson & David Bowie, Foals and OSEES.
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Photo credits: Doug Young