Perth alternative R&B duo amor have just unleashed their second single Smoke Rise, kicking things up a notch with vivid feelings of power and vulnerability paired with upscaled production and a fiery feature from Broome-born rapper Kayps. BRAYDEN EDWARDS caught up with amor to find out how they built on the good work of their triple j Unearthed-featured debut single scars with this release as they continue to merge their crafts into a sound of their own.
How did you guys come to form amor. and what was it that made you feel the two of you should combine forces?
We both initially met through IG when Dylan was working on his EP Negative in late 2020 and reached out to work on a song which would eventually become the track Skin which featured on the project. From there we realised we had very similar musical influences and ideas in terms of what music we wanted to write in the future. We then went on to create another track called Be There and just decided from there, starting the next project as ‘amor.’ was the next logical step.
Do you feel you have similar influences that have guided your music styles? Or do you feel the project is strengthened by coming at things from different angles?
Definitely similar influences in this case. But by not completely putting ourselves in a box as R&B artists, it’s allowed us to take influence from the artists we love from other genres. That and other production styles that Dylan has experimented with.
Congrats on the release of your new track Smoke Rise. What was it about this track that made you want to release it as a single and how does it compare to music you have written before this?
We’d been working on this one since February this year and just felt as though it very much encapsulated where we were both at at the start of the year. Since then our music has definitely changed but it almost serves as a move to the next chapter of ourselves as people too.
And how about lyrically? Is there a certain message or feeling you wanted to capture on this tune?
Writing wise, it was based on a real life break up scene. It’s kind of for people to make up their own minds about how they feel about the lyrics, it doesn’t necessarily have to be taken as a sad song.
How did you go about capturing the tune on record, and how did it evolve in the recording and production process?
Dylan had produced the beat behind the scenes and brought it to a session at Aidan’s apartment. We were going through various beats and as soon as it played we both felt some emotion towards it and ran with that feeling. From there, Aidan improvised melody ideas until we captured the hook. Lyrics came almost at the same time where we envisioned this fictional imagery of a man and woman ending their relationship in a car under rain. We drew upon our own experiences with heartbreak to fill in the rest.
We had chucked up a snippet of the hook on our IG stories and Kayps hit back on the reply with some love for it. We thought he’d be the perfect addition to the song so we sent him what we had and it all came together.
From there, we re-recorded with our engineer/mixer YVNGDA at his studio where we added certain top layers, harmonies, adlibs, etc.
What’s next for amor? Any more new music or live shows we can look forward to in the future?
More music and visuals come 2022. We’ve been planning a full length project for a while and think next year will bring that into fruition. First live show in the new year as well. We’ve got a lot of unreleased music to play so we’re keen to see how it’s digested.
