Music News - Amamelia shares new single and video 'Love Is Useless' feat. Junny
03 June 2022 - 0 Comments
Amamelia is the musical project of Amelia Berry (she/her), a musician and songwriter currently based in Tāmaki Makaurau. Amamelia's music combines breaks normally found in Jungle & Drum & Bass with a sugary synthetic pop sensibility.
Today she shares a new song Love Is Useless feat. Junny,
a standalone single accompanied with a music video, and two remixes.
Love Is Useless feat. Junny is a perfect song for when you feel like crying on the dancefloor. The tracks full on subby breakbeats are juxtaposed by an aching topline provided by Junny, the musical
project of Jennifer-rose Tamati (she/her, Te Arawa (Ngāti Pikiao, Ngāti Mākino), Ngāti Tuwharetoa, Ngāpuhi).
"I'd been listening to a lot of mid 90s downtempo, a bunch of Everything But The Girl and I really wanted to try out using those kinds of sounds and just make something a bit heartbreaking" says Berry.
"The first thing I made for the track was the pad, I really wanted to create a kind of Playstation startup noise. The sub followed next, which is just the test tone from the Akai S950. I'm really fascinated by how this particular sine wave has a different quality to any other."
Tamati says that "working with Amelia is always so fun and natural - she has a strong idea of what she’s wanting to make and I do my best to understand and perform that. Once we’ve warmed up and laid down the central vocals I often get lots of ideas for adlibs and harmonies!"
"Jenn is amazing," says Berry. "The ad libs were all her and she just belted them out and they were immediately perfect."
Love Is Useless feat. Junny is accompanied with a music video made by Benjamin Zambo, a director and videographer who has worked with Princess Chelsea, Jonathan Bree, and Cut Off Your Hands.
|
"Love is Useless is so iconic Amamelia", says
Zambo. "It's so referential and moody, but fun and full of expertly-used pop hooks."
"We watched a lot of old live performances and public access TV - Top of the Pops, Robert Ashby’s Perfect Lives, Abba videos, YMO, The Paul Lynde Halloween Special. We bounced around a lot of ideas for segments based on these shows. The idea was to treat it like a low budget variety show that we had just found and chopped-and-screwed to fit our song. That meant we could be very fun and inappropriate with our performances and costumes, and shoot extra segments that didn’t fit with anything. The song is very serious in its lyrics, so we wanted to hint at some painful past between the performers - but do it in a very stupid performative way."
Influenced
by the slew of remixes found on CD singles of the late 90's / early 00's, Amamelia has commissioned two remixes of Love Is Useless feat. Junny. The first is a delayed dub mix from Sunreturn alum Baby Zionov, while
the second sees Berry rework her own song, stripping it of it’s breakbeats and incorporating sleng-teng rhythm inspired casio, and virtuoso guitar solos.
Now that the song has been released Berry notes "to me Love Is Useless really is a send-off to that last set of music I made, a nice little cap on the Wow! era of Amamelia."
Amamelia
promises new music, with her sophomore album set to be delivered by the close of 2022.
Amamelia - Love Is Useless feat. Junny
Released digitally on June 3
BANDCAMP
YOUTUBE
SPOTIFY
APPLE MUSIC
The musical project that is Amamelia began with humble beginnings with Berry quietly uploading a breakbeat rework of Savage's 2005 single Swing to Bandcamp.
Her debut Wow! soon followed featuring the singles So Good, Hot Bitch Dot Zip feat. Baby Zionov & bb gurl, as well as Sad and Lonely feat. Junny. Wow! was shortlisted for the Best Independent Debut award at the 2021 Taite Music Prize.
2021's Wow! The 2021 Remixes saw Berry's community remix and rework her album, and featured contributions from Imugi 이무기, Tei., bb gurl, Dbldbl, Alexa Casino, Liam K. Swiggs, Go Nuclear, Jack Russell (Durham
Fenwick of Green Grove), Big Fat Raro, Citacsy, Trapjaw Kelpie and Eyeliner.
Berry took home the Favourite Solo Act Award later that year at the inaugural 2021 Student Radio
Network Awards.
Berry's remix of Imugi 이무기's Somebody Else was the lead single from their 2022 EP Dragonfruit Remixed. LOOP commissioned a
remix for Summer Thieves' Paradise Down The Road Remixed, and were so enamoured with her record that they asked for a second (the only artist asked to do so). Amamelia has also featured tracks on NZ Electro 2020 & INDEXOXO, compilations assembled by the Berlin / Manchester based electronic music label Index Records.
Outside of Amamelia, Berry can be found creating ambient soundscapes in caves as Old Chips,
playing in queerbo pop-punk band Babyteeth, indulging in the happy hardcore of Van Staden & Böhm (VSB), exploring electronica as the Forbin Project, as well as performing as one half of synth pop duo
Fimo and dungeon synth outfit Gayblade. In the past she's been the mastermind behind the romantic jangle of Polyester (fka as Kip McGrath), and one third of queer DJ trio PWB.
Berry has a long running history with 95bFM, where she is a weekly guest on the Breakfast show. Previously she hosted their illustrious chart show, the 95bFM Top 10, as well as the cult late night listen Amelia's Secret. Along with Rebecca
K. Reilly (who recently won the The Hubert Church Prize for a best first book of Fiction at the 2022 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards) Berry hosts The Frog & Cheetah, a podcast about the television series Brokenwood Mysteries.
Design Credit: Frances Carter
Most Viewed Artists
Latest Galleries
NZ Top 10 Singles
- APT.
ROSÉ And Bruno Mars - DIE WITH A SMILE
Lady Gaga And Bruno Mars - BIRDS OF A FEATHER
Billie Eilish - TASTE
Sabrina Carpenter - I LOVE YOU, I'M SORRY
Gracie Abrams - ESPRESSO
Sabrina Carpenter - SAILOR SONG
Gigi Perez - LOSE CONTROL
Teddy Swims - A BAR SONG (TIPSY)
Shaboozey - GOOD LUCK, BABE!
Chappell Roan
More Content on muzic.net.nz
Google Site Search
100% New Zealand Music
All content on this website is copyright to muzic.net.nz and other respective rights holders. Redistribution of any material presented here without permission is prohibited.
Report A Problem
There are currently no comments for this article. Please log in to add new comments.