We interviewed the A.M. Boys back in 2022 about their takeover of the NYC Electronica scene.
A.M. Boys is a current project of John Blonde from House of Blondes a Gay NYC Techno band, and Chris Moore, who’s fingerprints are allover the current techno industry. Established past the “Rising Star” phase, Chris and John formed A.M. Boys pre pandemic, and this is what the electronic music world has been waiting for. In our interview, we geeked out relentlessly about old school musicians and music history.
Now, they’re releasing a new album Distance Decay on May 16th, but here today, we get the first single “Frictional”. The song is rather intense, with so many synth layers, the story the song is telling reminds me of the band Tangerine Dream, met with modern New Order ideas. The video looks like a hit and I hope you enjoy this new work as much as I do. I’ve heard the rest of the album, and for all you Electronic Music fans, this one is a definite winner.
Before we get to the new song, here’s a quick Q and A from the guys.
Jeremy Hinks: “Frictional” has a strong physical energy to it—like it’s meant to be moved to. Do you think of your music as dance music in any sense?
John Blonde: I think some of our songs have a strong enough groove that you can dance to them. As far as identifying anything we do as dance music though would probably be a bit off the mark.
Chris Moore: We don’t consider A.M. Boys to be dance music, because we never intentionally set out to make music for people to dance to. A lot of modern dance music is solely focused on the rhythm, to the extent that it’s not very interesting to listen to if you’re not dancing.
JB: But some of the most undeniable dance songs in history are really just about the groove and seemingly had no intent to be proper dance tracks. Bowie and Kraftwerk made entire glorious careers tapping that vein.
CM: If something we’re creating locks into a good groove, we’ll stick with it and that groove will end up becoming an integral part of the song.
JB: Always follow the groove.
JH: The video beautifully explores the line between discipline and release. How does that concept connect with the track itself or the themes of Present Phase?
JB: Thanks so much for saying that, that’s great. The song has a driving rhythm but there’s also a lightness to it. I think the video captures both elements.
The Athlete in the “Frictional” video is played by Ares Novem, who I had seen dancing at the Good Room during a typically cosmic set by Minimal Wave’s Veronica Vasicka. I loved how he moved to the music, this floating freedom, unselfconsciously connecting to the sounds. The juxtaposition of the power of Ares’ muscular strength and his lightness when music is on was something that clicked for me and I think it naturally locks into A.M. Boys’ music. We worked with cinematographer and editor Kevin Rogers, who did an excellent job capturing Ares’ and the song’s duality.
CM: Our creative process is truly a balance of discipline and release. The release comes from jamming and experimenting, creating ideas without necessarily caring about whether they serve any specific purpose. But after that period of free release, we have to take the discipline to sort and edit this raw material to find elements that actually work as a song.
JH: There’s a clear post-punk minimalism in your sound, but it’s combined with modern rhythm and texture. How do you strike that balance?
JB: The music from the post-punk era, where artists were first getting their hands on synths and drum machines, is almost unbelievably inventive and rich. You can still hear their excitement. It feels like there’s a seemingly endless supply of great music that was being made at that time. DAF, Cabaret Voltaire, Fad Gadget—irresistible.
But we’re also contemporary listeners. There’s a ton of inspiring music being made today and we probably take for granted that it’s all at our fingertips.
As musicians I think we just cumulatively absorb what we hear. When we’re in the studio there’s no conscious effort to emulate anything, we write and play who we are.
CM: We may be fans of the post-punk era, but we’re equally influenced by modern artists. When we’re writing, we don’t reference or even think about other musicians – we’ve never been interested in exactly emulating another artist or genre. Influences from music that we love do seep in, of course, but these influences are just as likely to be modern as from older bands.
Here’s A.M. Boys and “Frictional”
Facebook instagram bandcamp youtube
#amboys #gayelectronica #electronicdancemusic #electronica
