Genreless Band has It’s Own Sound
Doylestown natives, Am()ra, a genreless band, released their first EP late March 2015 and appeared locally in April.
Am( )ra takes influences from bands like Saosin, The Wonder Years, and Underoath on their mixed genre EP “In Lieu Of”.
Am( )ra is made up of Vocalist Billy Zee, Vocalist and Guitarist Tristan Wikler, Guitarist Tyler Ditlow, Drummer Brian Rodriguez, and Bassist Nick Magidson. The band has been taking the underground scene to a new level these past few months and puts on a wild live show.
“We feed off crowd reaction” Vocalist Billy Zee said. “It’s our energy and we strive to give them the same”.
At many of their shows, Billy will jump inside of a trash can while the crowd hoists him into the air while he yells out the lyrics. “I figured these people aren’t into it. I had to do something to make these people remember this,” Billy said, “so I jumped into a trashcan of empty cans and had it crowd surfed while doing vocals in it.”
Their crowd tend to be really loud, shouting the words to the catchy song “Mackenzie” and letting their emotions roar to tough lines of “7414”
“The album is very accessible,” Billy said. “There is something on this album for everybody.”
The album opens with “Hollow Bastion”, which was the first song the band ever wrote together. “Tristan and I both had our own songs written lyrically and we cut out parts and combined them together, which ended up being a common theme.” Billy said “The first verse and bridge about a girl I grew very close with.
“Tristan wrote the chorus about his ex girlfriend.”
“Mackenzie”, which is one of the most popular songs on the album, takes more pop punk influences from The Wonder Years.
“We wanted a song that was like an anthem. It had that party, unity feeling. Just everyone coming together and it was like a massive break in the record.” Billy said. “Lyrically, Mackenzie is written by Tristan. He wrote it about a really close friend of ours and they went from talking everyday to not talking at all, like she was pushing him away.”
The common theme on the record is about people missing in the lives of the band. The song “7414” continues this by portraying the emotions felt by Billy when he mourned over his Poppop, who died on the 4th of July 6 years ago.
“That’s the date. It’s very self explanatory and in this situation I can’t write it all out, but it’s very about death,” he said.
The song has a lot of imagery and when seeing the show live, emotions roar from the crowd when Billy starts yelling. “Another year and I am back to square one, another year that I am losing the sound of your voice/Fireworks go off while my heart drops/I try to contain it all but there’s those moments where I just see your face/the last time we ever spoke has gone from a movie to an image that haunts my mind.”
“In Lieu Of “ was written by both Billy and Tristan about a situation Tristan had with his parents.
“In ‘In Lieu Of’, musically, we were writing a song and I think the main point was that it wasn’t going anywhere until Bryan said. ‘Yo, let’s throw in a breakdown!’ and that’s what we did.”
“Revive” is another anthem that the band wrote but with a more acoustic vibe. It is named after Billy’s and Tristan”s booking company they run in Doylestown. It’s about having fun and just chilling. It’s a fun song to sing along to live and the crowd loves it.
Am( )ra recently played a show at the Gilbertsville Firehall in early April, and their next show is in Reading May 16th with Upon A Burning Body and Butcher Babies, and Landsdale at the Upper Gwynedd Township Firehall May 17th with locals Armory Infirmary, and Eye 4 an Eye, and touring acts The Things They Carried (New York City), Caramel Carmela (Denver), and Bitter Kids (Canada). Am( )ra plans on going on tour this upcoming summer and are continuing to write music for their next release.
You can listen to and purchase the album on bandcamp
