Amelia Berry, aka Amamelia, is a songwriter and music producer. She is originally from Tāmaki, but has been living in Naarm (Melbourne) for three years. Amamelia began with humble beginnings with an upload of a breakbeat rework of Savage’s 2005 single Swing to Bandcamp. This led to a wide discography of remixes and the project has shifted from classic house and jungle music through to weirdo synth disco and dancefloor psychedelia. In 2024 Amamelia won the Aotearoa Music Award for Best Electronic Artist for her sophomore album, Bananamelia. She made that album after being diagnosed with a chronic illness and describes it as “quite sweet, soppy music”. Now she is back with another release, 10 mostly instrumental tracks which together create a whimsical retro futuristic world she’s called The Joy Of Living.
Here is Amelia’s Shameless Plug.
My hot take on music is that everything should sound a little worse!!! I think that digital audio production tools are so advanced now that people can make the most pristine, clean, clear audio mixes ever. And once you know how to use EQ and compression it's tempting to carve out the shiniest, most professional mix possible. But shiny and professional is not necessarily musical! The music we like from the past is largely not the most hi-fi music of the era because a lot of that sounds very boring. Let a little mud in, leave a bit of masking, do something interesting because that's what art is for!
My closest collaborator is definitely Aaliyah Zionov aka Baby Zionov. None of my music gets released without a signoff from Aaliyah. We met like a decade ago and pretty quickly bonded over our love of various super niche disco tunes. I think Aaliyah is the only person who absolutely gets what I'm trying to do, has the patience to listen to all my stupid half baked experiments, and I trust to be critical and honest when I take a wrong turn. Their album Raceways of My Heart is a masterpiece check it out!
The place I feel most creative is when I’m on the move! I only sit down at an instrument to write music if I absolutely have to, all my best tunes have come when walking through a park or waiting for a train or sitting on the bus. Extremely embarrassing to have to sing a voice note into your phone in the middle of the city but often absolutely crucial.
An artwork I wish I had made is the novel Mrs. Caliban by Rachel Ingalls. It's incredibly short, you could read it in an afternoon, but it's so beautiful and sad and weird. It's about a miserable housewife who falls in love with a bizarre frog man sea creature. If I could make music that made people feel like how Mrs Caliban makes me feel, I'd be very happy.
An artwork everyone should experience at least once in their life is The Wicker Man. The original 1970s one. I don't have any deep or profound reason for this one, I just think it's a really sick movie. Beautiful folk rock soundtrack, eerie pagan atmosphere, odd, ambiguous ethic. I saw it once at Hollywood Avondale and they burned a huge effigy made of pallets afterwards. A great night out!
My hottest career hack is to make friends and be a good hang. It's true that it's all about connections but that doesn't mean you have to be a nepo baby - most of the time it just means showing up for the first band at the gig, chatting with the soundie, messaging the artist whose song you like, just like putting yourself out there. And hey, if it doesn't work out in the career, this is also how I met my wife so probably worth it regardless.
My all time favourite album changes with the weather, but the other day I pulled out my copy of The Softies’ 1996 self titled 10” album and that's a hot contender right now. I originally found this on CD in the bargain bin at Real Groovy when I was about 16 and it opened up this whole world of beautiful music made by cool women. A very important album to me.
My favourite TV show is John Berger’s Ways of Seeing, if that’s not too cliche to say. Marxist art critic John Berger made this as a response to Kenneth Clark’s landmark arts documentary series Civilization. I still can't believe some of it was allowed on prime time TV in 1972. Weirdly, I watched Civilization a lot as a child and so Ways of Seeing hit for me in a way it probably didn't hit for many other 90s kids. A must watch.
My favourite local artist (that I don’t know) is tough to choose because when you've been around long enough you end up on “hey, how's it going?” terms with almost everybody! But last year I got pointed to Jackaltheblackal for the first time and his album GUNS AKIMBO (0-VII) blew me away. Just totally way out there rap with bonkers beats, real wild stuff that always feels just on the edge of falling apart. Real good.
The best thing about being in the arts is getting to be there while whole new things are created. It's so beautiful to be the first person to hear something that nobody has ever heard before – to see the performance that nobody has ever performed before. Being on the inside of that is such a privilege.
My shameless plug is my new album The Joy of Living! Available now via Bandcamp and on vinyl at a record store near you!
