SNEAK PEEK: New Single from Denver Band AMZY – “Beast in the Bottle”

AMZY have been long-time friends and also one of my favorite bands. Both live and recorded. I have photographed them both personally and professionally many times. Which is why I was so touched that they hired my 18yo son Dex – who is in college for art – to illustrate the cover for their latest single, “Beast in the Bottle,” due to be released on April 20th.

Photos by Melissa Calvert

Not that they did it because of me. It all happened separate of our relationship, although I love the results. And not just that! There is actually a series of three singles coming … and Dex is doing the artwork for all of them. I love they are working with a young local artist for this, and yeah OK, majorly mom-proud that artist is my son.

“Beast in the Bottle” Cover Art

“Beast in the Bottle” Giveaway

I am also touched that they asked me to do a giveaway to celebrate “Beast in a Bottle,” as well as sneak peek of the song itself. This is the only place on the web you can taste the song until its release date of April 20th. The giveaway will take place both on my Instagram and Facebook fan pages this week. Three winners in each place will receive their choice of either joining an informal Zoom chat with AMZY or getting an 11×14 print of Dex’s album cover, signed by the band. All you have to do for the giveaway is pre-save the song and tag friends on my posts about the giveaway who would also like to join in! I’ve explained why pre-saves are so important below.

Pre-Save The Single      Facebook Giveaway      Instagram Giveaway

Sneak Peek of New AMZY Single “Beast in the Bottle”

Sounds amazing, right? I can’t wait to be able to put that one on repeat. The band also took the time to chat with me a little about about the song, how they spent this past year and their plans for the future.

Interview with AMZY about “Beast in the Bottle”

First – how is everyone? How have things been the past year?

Oh god, has it been a year?? We were having a blast playing shows before the pandemic, but we decided at the beginning of 2020 to take some time off from shows and get back in the studio. We flew out to Nashville in February 2020 and recorded some initial takes, but the full impact of Covid came rushing in the following month and put a lot of plans in disarray. Ultimately, we shifted gears and continued recording in our quarantined worlds with the silver lining that the different environments led to a lot of new sounds and ideas.

Our personal lives didn’t see much change outside of learning how to properly use the mute button on Zoom calls, so it’s all steam ahead into 2021 to safely get back out there.

Next, I am very excited for your first single in a minute, “Beast in The Bottle.” What is the song about?

The song follows a single moment of struggle with a “beast” of addiction. That flashpoint in time where rationality is twisted into self-enablement. The true nightmare of addiction is it doesn’t announce itself until you’re deep within its grasp. It’s not one of those D.A.R.E commercials where you become a complete addict from a single act on temptation, but rather a series of small concessions made within this daily struggle. We can all relate to that because the mechanisms are similar regardless of our own vices, so we wrote about that moment of descent further into addiction. Whatever the beast may be, it is a constant battle to keep it at bay.

And I know you have performed the song at shows in the past. Why did you decide to release the song now?

Well, that’s the exciting part about AMZY shows – you may get to hear secret unreleased songs! We’ve always wanted to release this song, ever since we started playing it live, but we wanted to ensure the recorded version had the same energy as it does at a show. Songs tend to lose that energy when run through the hygienic recording and production process, so it took a lot of circumventing that to get “Beast in the Bottle” to a version that captured that feeling.

Many thanks for hiring my son Dex to do the artwork. What was it about his style that made you think it would be good for the song?

We’re so thankful Dex could do the artwork! We really dug Dex’s unique, eye-grabbing style from the get-go and knew it could convey the emotional grittiness that is important to the song. Furthermore, Dex has been close to AMZY pretty much since the beginning and has heard “Beast in Bottle” live multiple times. In a similar sense to how we approached recording the track, Dex could imbue that energy of hearing the live performance and visualize it in a way that we never could. We loved working together and felt more great artwork could come out of the collab, so we’re excited to say Dex will be creating a full series of artwork for future AMZY tracks!

What are your plans for 2021?

Get vaccinated! We’re also putting some final touches on new AMZY songs that we plan to release as singles throughout 2021. We’re still rather cautious when it comes to shows as we want to make sure they’re safe for everyone involved, but we’re not ruling out the possibility. We miss everyone so much and can’t wait to meet back up.

What can fans do to support you right now?

Our fans can pre-save “Beast in the Bottle” right now on Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon, as well as pre-order on the digital stores. Also, we welcome everyone to share AMZY and “Beast in the Bottle” with anyone that isn’t already in the know! We’re on all social media (not Parlor) and love to respond to messages. Lastly, stay safe and healthy so we can see everyone at the next AMZY show!

AMZY Web Site | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube

Why Are Spotify Pre-Saves Important To Independant Bands?

I know, it seems kind of silly, right? I like a band, I will go listen to them when the song comes out! However, in the everchanging streaming landscape, it’s become SUPER important to help our fave indie bands by pre-saving music on Spotify. The more they get/have on release day, the more likely they are to hit very popular playlists curated by an algorithm, such as your Release Radar and various others. It helps a band IMMENSELY (ALL CAPS) to get this exposure – and seeing as they only get paid a few pennies per thousands of streams, it’s an easy way to help all of our favorite bands. The big guns have record labels to help get placement on these lists, as well as on the radio – we have to help the indies where we can. ❤️

Pre-Save The Single      Facebook Giveaway      Instagram Giveaway