Kieran Webber
Director and Founder of CLUNK Magazine, CLUNK Events, and other CLUNK affiliate businesses. You’ll probably find me tucked away somewhere sending emails, listening to music, and creating content.
Canadian dream pop duo talk us through their latest release ‘Never Over You’, trips to Mexico, and more
Here at CLUNK we pride ourselves on music discovery and today we are stoked to present to you the Toronto, Canada based Amos Waits. We first caught wind of the dream pop duo with their latest release ‘Never Over You’, an ethereal and expansive release.
After feeling delightfully warmed up by the new single we were eager to find out more. So, we sat down with project lead and vocalist Leah to chat about Amos Waits, what the new single means to her, and more.
Kieran: So lovely to chat with you today! How have you been?
Leah: Hey Kieran, thanks for talking with me today. I have been doing great and keeping busy recording some new Amos Waits music. My actual name is Leah but I use the moniker Amos Waits for my music + photography project.
Kieran: Any highlights of 2024 so far?
Leah: I took a trip to Oaxaca, Mexico earlier this year, which I found to be full of vibrancy, curated, thoughtful spaces, colourful murals and gorgeous handcrafted textiles. While in Mexico, I saw Andy Shauf play Pitchfork Music festival and felt so connected and full of gratitude and belonging. That was a highlight that is still burning bright.
Kieran: How did you both meet and at what point did you decide to start making music as a duo?
Leah: Alex and I met ten years ago when I saw one of his previous bands playing an album release show in Toronto. It was so high energy and fun, I fangirled hard lol. We did not start working on music for a long time afterwards but our aesthetics really align and things just somehow started to click when we started in the studio.
Kieran: You recently released your latest single ‘Never Over You’. Could you talk us through this single and what it means to you?
Leah: Sure! This song started off with some really moody piano chords we were playing around with, that repeat throughout the whole song. We don’t practice or play as a live band so we are writing and recording at the same time which can sometimes create a never-ending project. But Never Over You actually was written and recored within about 2 months coming together really quickly in the studio. The lyrics are about a confusing situationship and I was trying to really get my voice to reflect the feelings of hurt that went along with it.
Listen to ‘Never Over You’ here:
Kieran: You teamed up with Juno award-winning producer Derek Hoffman for this track. What was your experience working with him?
Leah: Derek was amazing to work with, his whole team was so responsive and dedicated to giving us the best product possible. I randomly reached out to him via email on a whim, with no expectation that he would actually work with me, so his enthusiastic response and seeing where he took the song was amazing.
Kieran: How did working with Derek influence your sound with this release?
Leah: We have worked with our good friend and producer Josh Korody for all of our previous releases, as well as Never Over You. This time around, we only went to Josh for drum tracks and some extra overdubs then the track ran through Derek’s hands after tracking. Derek then fully produced and mixed everything, embellishing and making the sounds come to life. He did some interesting things like the sound design in the intro of the song and the heavy distortion on the guitar solo which were unexpected and very cool to hear.
Kieran: Did you learn anything during the writing and recording process that you will take into account with your next release?
Leah: It is easy to get tunnel vision when working on a song for so long. It was interesting to see how working with different people who are not connected to the way the sound has been during the writing and demoing process can change things. I love the idea of not clutching onto your ideas and making them too precious, unwilling to morph into something new. Everything can change and everything has potential to improve.
Kieran: Lastly, what else can we expect from Amos Waits in 2024?
Leah: We just finished two more song with Josh that are being mixed right now and have two more that he is about to start. So we will FINALLY be releasing a full EP this summer. We also plan to release some merch and a Zine with the EP, incorporating our photography with the music. There may be some more exciting surprises along the way…
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