A small silver lining from an otherwise wretched lockdown season in 2020: we all got to know our neighbors and housemates a little better!
Amalgaband would be best described as an ‘accidental’ band consisting of three housemates and a neighbour who hunkered down during lockdown over Christmas in Sheffield UK. With not much to do and nowhere to go, they spontaneously formed a band, recorded a song in their basement and shot a video in the eerily deserted neighborhood streets of Nether Edge the next day.
The band consists of Austin TX born Ash Gray (vocals guitar) who has a career in his own name, Tom Jarvis (guitar) who used to play in the late Britpop group Reverend and the Makers, Thomas Lebioda (from Sheffield/Brooklyn based prog group Frogbelly And Symphony) on bass and 16year old prodigy drummer Flynn Hudson-Dean who also shot the video!
“Rock ‘N’ Roll Radio Christmas,” the Amalgaband holiday single, is a vivid demonstration of what can happen when you lock down a bunch of rock musicians in their house. It’s stomping, it’s catchy, it sounds tremendous, and it’s suffused with the spirit of the season. (It even has some rockin’ jingle bells.) These four musicians have poured all their pent-up urge to play and some heartfelt Christmas vibe into the track! Every snare beat and downstroke cuts through the bone like the winter breeze, as they’re singing about lifting spirits. They’re wishing us a raucous Rock’n’Roll Radio Christmas! After all we’ve been through, isn’t that just what we all deserve?
The character Nicky Claws, played by the charismatic Ash Gray is the focus of the video for “Rock ‘N’ Roll Radio Christmas.” We watch him take a trip around town with a little radio on his shoulder and a wreath in his hand, exhorting his neighbors to set aside their worries for a holiday season get-down. If he ends up in the gutter from time to time, well, that’s part of the rock and roll lifestyle we’ve all been missing. Yet the real star of the clip is the town of Sheffield itself, which, through Hudson-Dean’s lens makes for a backdrop with its unique and quirky character – typically rain-washed, streets filled with pubs, thick, picturesque topiary hedges, and thrift shops. These guys clearly love their town and Nether Edge Road, and can’t wait to reunite with friends and neighbours.
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