Amrita: Supergroup Unlimited
The culmination of ex-suburban rock forces from the likes of -- take a breath -- Hoffman Estates' The Academy Is …, Blacktop Mourning and Fueled By Ramen-signed October Fall were fused at first by little more than a missed phone call. Amrita technically started its reign nearly two years ago when ex-Academy drummer Mike Del Principe rang Patrick Riley, the singer of Schaumburg synth-pop outfit White Claudia -- and Riley missed the call.
By the time they connected online, the five-piece progressive and rather Latin-infused rock outfit now known as Amrita was approached with caution if not hesitation. Del Principe was already in a band, and though he longed for an escape and obviously hoped to work with the White Claudia singer with whom he initiated that first call, he feared leaving a functioning project for a nonexistent one. That's how Riley tells the story anyway.
"He didn't want to do it," Riley says. "I just told him to trust me. And he did."
Three rather high-profile musicians later, including singer Marty Abezetian whose vocal skills in Blacktop Mourning pay off in slick, riff-cutting wails, Amrita sounds like early Mars Volta meets Pink Floyd's all-encompassing guitars with a touch of Santana-fueled jam pizazz. Riley calls it the musical lifeboat for anyone who's ever played by the music industry's rules and then found themselves spit back out. "It just happened to be five guys who'd gotten screwed over at one point or been in a band they didn't want to be in," he says.
Maybe that's why no Amrita show sounds the same as another. Different lead-ins and outros, not to mention dozens of ever-rotating peripheral instruments, ensure steady ingenuity of constant layering and tweaking, which pretty much throws off audiences about what's coming next. ("I love when you don't know what song's next," Riley says.) It also dissuades repetition and boredom for the guys themselves. After all, they've been here before.
Riley and the band -- which also includes bassist Matt Robinson from Del Principe's pre-Amrita project and pianist/synth master Owen Toomey from October Fall -- figure they sold a combined 800,000 records in their past bands. That's darn near a gold record and a heck of a positive outlook for a "super band" of sorts looking to garner some regional attention from the yet-to-be-named EP they're 80 percent finished with.
"We were really anxious to just, boom, hit everybody with it and just let them know we're here," Riley says of ultimately hitting the stage with their new songs and a sound that mostly diverts from the pop-punk and piano rock their original bands were known for.
And hit them they did. It took nearly a year of practicing and perfecting, recording and re-recording to do it, but Amrita ended up playing the Beat Kitchen, Clearwater Theater and the Penny Road Pub right off the bat. Though they've essentially emerged out of MySpace obscurity with little promotion save their connections with other local bands, they managed a spot at Chicago's Metro by their second -- yes, their second -- show.
"I'm surprised!" Riley says. His last band tried for three years to get on the Metro stage and never made it. The fact that Amrita did it almost immediately is almost more shocking than all of the positive feedback put together. People's first response? For a 20- or 30-minute set, Amrita fits more instruments on stage than any other band on the bill. Their second? This ain't your tween sister's Fall Out Boy. "I've had older people who've been playing guitar for years say, 'You're going to be revolutionary,'" Riley says.
Amrita's fan base tends to skew older these days, topping off around 50 and bottoming out among the 18-year-old set. That's nothing if not positive for this veteran group of musicians whose goal has always been to appeal to music fans at large. They hope to take their show on the road this summer after tying up and releasing their self-produced, six-song EP. The EP, by the way, is a story in and of itself, full of prestigious producers linked to Kanye West and Lupe Fiasco and impressive studio sessions that ended up getting scrapped in the end. Three months ago, Amrita found itself back at the drawing board, recording from scratch with Abezetian, also a producer. It ended up being the best move they could've made.
Sure, Amrita's been approached with a few record contract inquiries and, of course, they've passed them by for now. Of all the lessons this culmination of rock worlds has learned, their Label Deal Theorem is the most important: Hold out until you're ready and make sure you've got a good lawyer when you do. That isn't to say Amrita wants to hold out on the business entirely. Far from it. They recently met someone who wants to help them tour overseas, and their itinerary already includes plans to record a full-length album.
The best part about it, for now, is there's no commitment to anything in the band but the other members. No label to report to, no lost label checks to seek out. They could change the whole sound if they want to. For the first time since a lot of these guys' first bands, they're having actual fun.
"It's really good to be in a band like that," Riley says.
Upcoming Shows:
Feb. 4: Clearwater Theater, West Dundee
Feb. 22: Savage Event Center, Elgin
March 8: Mojoe's Rock House, Tinley Park