Amber Run's Joe Keogh talks ahead of Wolverhampton show
He’s a bit hungover. Singer and founding member of Amber Run, Joe Keogh, was out with the lads last night. They enjoyed a day writing new material and then they hit the sauce. “We all live in central London now,” he says. “There’s been a bit of drinking . . .”
Joe formed the band with lifelong friends Tom Sperring and Will Jones in 2012, having met at the University of Nottingham. They were featured on BBC Introducing in 2013, landing a contract afterwards with RCA.
Their new digital EP was released one week ago, featuring two versions of songs from the current album, For A Moment, I Was Lost, and two cover versions.
The first is their take on Maggie Roger’s Alaska.
“We wanted to do something slightly different,” says Joe.
“We don’t normally play acoustically so we just thought it would be interesting. It’s something we are not comfortable with. We had to go about the whole process – pushing ourselves out of our comfort zone. It was a useful and interesting thing to do. We understand that a great song is just as important.”
The Nottingham-based band enjoyed re-imagining songs from their second album, For A Moment, I Was Lost. And they’re back on the road now with 12 shows throughout the autumn, including a headline gig at Wolverhampton’s Slade Rooms on October 10.
For Joe and the lads, playing live is where it’s at.
“We love it, man. We absolutely adore it. That’s why we started it. There’s nothing quite like it. It’s just amazing. The buzz you get is just unreal.
“We’re doing loads of places we haven’t been before on this tour. We can go and play in Manchester to loads of people but we haven’t really been to places like Wolves so we’re really excited.
“We’ve got some really exciting announcements coming in the next few weeks and really exciting things coming up. There were moments when we didn’t know whether we wanted to do the band and so it’s great that things are really, really amazing right now. You know, we’ve grown up and gone through this all together. If we weren’t enjoying each other’s company and having a good time, we wouldn’t be doing it.”
