There’s nothing archetypal about the Melbourne four-piece.
Approachable Members of Your Local Community are hard to miss, sporting luminous tracksuits everywhere they go. “Josh [Blashki, lead vocals] ordered a bunch of identical tracksuits when we first started performing,” says keyboard player, Max Korman. “He just said ‘we’re all wearing matching outfits,’ and that was that.”
Their appearance, while unique, is not just for show. “We were definitely keen to have some kind of harmony from the start as far as our music goes,” Korman says. “We always wanted to not just push things in the visual element for the sake of it, but be something different and get people to talk about it and think, you know, there’s something a bit different about this band.”
Since ordering their first lot of Adidas attire, the band have worked closely with photographer Giulia McGauran, a driving force behind their image.
“We’ve kind of continued with the flow, but Giulia has been a big part of our image as well making it colourful and making it bright and what we think of as pretty approachable,” Korman says.
Off the back of their latest single release, ‘One I Need’ (feat. Heaps Good Friends), AMOYLC are jumping on tour with Polish Club. The band’s personnel recently had a shake-up, ditching the horn section and scaling back from seven band members to four.
“In a really general way, bands change,” Korman says. “Especially, like, two years in, I don’t think any of us thought it would have gone the way it’s gone and still [be] something that we feel is growing.”
There’s been talk of the band selling out by forgoing its horns and searching for a more mainstream sound. But, as Korman points out, it’s simply part of their journey, which began as a bunch of mates mucking around inside his family living room.
“Things change, music changes and people change,” he says. “There’s literally no negative sentiment with anything, it’s just how the project has evolved.”
The band’s tough decision to restructure speaks volumes to their maturity as a group, and this is palpable in their latest single release.
“With our songwriting now, we are spending a considerable amount of time going through things. Maybe sometimes overthinking elements of it as well,” Korman says. “But I think our music has streamlined into a cleaner and more wholesome sound.”
The band hooked up with some of their industry pals to bring ‘One I Need’ to life. The song features Adelaide trio Heaps Good Friends and production from Oscar Dawson (Holy Holy) and Gab Strum (Japanese Wallpaper).
‘One I Need’ is one of their biggest endeavours to date, putting several months into the single’s production. It’s a sign of their mellowed approach to creating music.
“I think, on one level, taking more time is absolutely part of our new outlook to developing songs,” Korman says. “But on the other level, [‘One I Need’] was still full of organic ideas.”
As for the live show, fans can expect a newly-styled sound peppered with their wildly popular tracks like ‘Millennium Queen’ and ‘Semiotic Vision’. While they are fewer in number, AMOYLC are as enterprising, charismatic, and approachable as ever before.
“The main aim of the project is, and continues to be, making everyone feel as though they are a part of it. And it’s not just us, on stage, playing instruments,” Korman says. “In all of our solo shows, we love the energy that the crowd brings. So, we’re excited to have that again and stoked to have people come out and see what we have to play.”
Approachable Members of Your Local Community hit 170 Russell alongside Polish Club on Friday June 28. The band’s new single, ‘One I Need’ ft. Heaps Good Friends, is available now.
