Interview with Hello Amnesia: ‘The lyrics are related to someone I know but ambiguous enough to avoid the politics of it’

London-based international five piece rock band Hello Amnesia have released their stomper of a second single ‘Suzy Blue’ today (18 March), taken from their debut EP ‘Retrograde’, out on 13 May 2022.

The band comprises Welsh/Kiwi frontman Sean Arkless, Italian keys player and backing vocalist Marco Ragozza, Turkish guitarist/backing vocalist Kaan Yurdakul, York-based bass player Wes Burton and Portuguese drummer Samuel Oliveira. ‘We sort of met through uni (in London) at a jam session,’ Sean said. ‘Me and Marco were at uni together, we wrote a song for a project and Marco and Kaan were housemates.’ Kaan graduated last year and Sean and Marco are in their last year of studies. Their band name is a happy accident, according to Sean: ‘When me, Marco and Kaan started working together, I was trawling for ideas. I was spitballing ideas and shared them with Kim, my housemate at the time. She said the rest were terrible but this one was great,’ he laughed. Marco is laughing as well: ‘I fully don’t remember anything about coming up with our name!,’ he said. ‘It’s a metaphor!,’ Kaan said.

‘Retrograde’ will consist of four tracks: their debut single ‘Cute Narcissist’, ‘Suzy Blue’, ‘What?!’ and ‘Stranger’, with the common theme of relationships interweaving throughout them all, according to Sean: ‘It’s very much relationship-focused,’ he said. ‘The next set of tracks on the way have wider societal themes, they’re more sociopolitical. It makes sense if you look at the journey of the person and love with another person. If you ever get to grips with that, you get more concerned about the rest of the world.’

Nonetheless, all the tracks on ‘Retrograde’ offer something different, according to Marco: ‘The third song (‘What?!’), I love that one, it’s my baby. It’s more slow, waltzy but it still retains that energy.’ Sean nods: ‘It’s an angry waltz where you’re shouting at the person but you’re dancing (laughs).’ Kaan joins in: ‘Yeah, it’s an interesting one,’ he said.

‘To us, the songs are old but to the rest of the world, they’re brand new’

They are enormously proud of their debut EP and the three tracks I’ve heard are all infectious and energetic, with great vocals from Sean and some high-octane, in your face riffs that pull all the tracks along: ‘The reason the debut EP is so strong is that we gigged a hell of a lot last year, starting in June,’ Sean said. ‘To us, the songs are old but to the rest of the world, they’re brand new. I wrote the chords to these songs on a nylon stringed guitar belonging to my old flatmate, Kim. She’s become part of the EP without meaning to. I’ll write the chords, take them to these talented people and they make it soooo much better.’

‘Cute Narcissist’, which they released last month, hooks you from the off, with its rocky, scuzzy intro riff and powerful, energetic vocals from Sean and once it ramps up the temp around 30 seconds in, it doesn’t let up. However, the initial version was quite different, according to Kaan: ‘I remember with ‘Cute Narcissist’ we changed it to its last form in one day, changing a few chords and lyrics when we got together in the studio,’ he said.

I ask them if it’s based on someone they know and they laugh: ‘The lyrics are related to someone I know but ambiguous enough to avoid the politics of it,’ Sean said. ‘I drew inspiration from a past relationship. What it turned out to be about is people in your life who are attractive to you – physically or emotionally. You believe them to be your friend or lover but they keep walking over you. You’re angry at yourself for going back to them but the hope is that you find the confidence to leave.’

As the track kicks off: ‘I’ve been walking round the hallways in my head / I’ve been talking to you instead of sleeping/ I’ve been knocking on doors that don’t exist/ Wondering if it’s me that you’re seeking.’

‘When I first wrote it, I wrote it as a love song, a kind of 1940’s Betty Boop soulful, wholesome romance thing’

Today’s single ‘Suzy Blue’ erupts with a gloriously fuzzy riff and bluesey undertones: ‘It’s the first song that the three of us did together,’ Sean said. ‘I actually wrote the lyrics and melody when I was just about at the end of my relationship with my ex-fiancée, backpacking around New Zealand. I woke up at 3 in the morning having had way too much to drink (laughs). When I first wrote it, I wrote it as a love song, a kind of 1940’s Betty Boop soulful, wholesome romance thing. Years later, I sang it to the guys and used Kim’s nylon string guitar again. She used to play classical guitar. It lived in the living room, we’ve had many jam sessions on it, even at Christmas.’

Interestingly, ‘Suzy Blue’ has been tweaked quite a lot over the past year, according to Kaan: ‘Sean wrote the opening riff, it took about a year to make it sound the way it does now. In the early demo, there was something missing. We’ve had a long time playing it live, so we had a lot of time to arrange it. We made it a bit more modern, the previous version sounded more vintage. We refined how we play it.’

Other tracks, such as ‘What?!’ are even bluesier, kicking off with a gentle, mellow piano line which reminds me slightly of ‘House of the Rising Sun’: ‘The song started with Marco writing that piano line – it’s like a gentle, sad but bouncy line that maintains through the song,’ Sean said. ‘Representing the sadness in the moment and joy in the aftermath that lie underneath all that anger.’ His vocals really shine before it explodes around the one minute mark with a huge riff: ‘That’s Kaan working his magic – it really captures the desperation to be free of the situation, building up to the big ‘set me free!’ at the end,’ Sean said. ‘We mostly used amp modelling software for our instruments on the record, not a specific pedal.’

‘Stranger’, for its part, wasn’t initially conceived for them to play as as band: ‘We wrote the lyrics with Kim for another artist,’ Sean said. ‘Lyrically, it’s ridiculously simple. Either it’s about alcoholism or a one night stand (laughs). I kind of like it like that, it’s fairly ambiguous.’

‘I love that it’s got political connotations but it’s a summer bop’

This summer. they will turn their attention to other themes, according to Sean: ‘Our summer single is about what occurred with Donald Trump, Brexit, and touches on Russia – not so much the war with Ukraine but the people in power. I love that it’s got political connotations but it’s a summer bop,’ he said. Kaan nods: ‘It gets more and more relatable every day,’ he said. Marco agrees: ‘You get the political references as soon as it starts,’ he said.

As a band, they have a lot of different influences: ‘I’m very grateful for songwriters like Jeff Buckley,’ Marco said. ‘He would be my first pick and, of course, the Chili Peppers.’ Kaan, for his part, brings other musicians into the mix: ‘I can’t really choose but for me, personally, Def Leppard is my biggest influence. I do some production work so I do a lot of research to see how we could sound. I love Guns N’ Roses and Aerosmith. Foo Fighters are also a big influence on me. I have a classical background – I learned classical guitar – and I’ve been thinking what I could bring to Hello Amnesia as a Turkish person, I have a lot of Turkish influences.’ Sean describes their background as ‘a crazy mix’: ‘The songwriters who’ve influenced me are Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell,’ he said. ‘If I took the potency of their lyrics and the nonsensical nature of the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ lyrics, that’s where I stand, that’s the perfect fit for me. It’s a great way for me to express myself at 2 in the morning (laughs). I think the EP captures the youth of the band. I saw Passenger live in New Zealand in 2018 at the point where my relationship had broken down and thought “I’ll do that”. It took me to London, where I met these guys. As a performer, I’ve been compared to Robert Plant, so I’ll say him as well.’

These influences would all feed into their dream line up: ‘Jeff Buckley, he was it,’ Marco said. ‘His Grace album is soooo good. Queen would be a close second for me.’ Sean agrees: ‘Queen is a massive influence for me, Freddie is my dude! He’s absolutely into my skin. I’d definitely have Queen and the Chilis. I want a four band line-up. Queen would bring it down emotionally and then the Foos would be “Here we go!” I can be quite shy about certain types of expression but not onstage. Or we could headline, why not?!,’ he laughed. ‘At the O2 in London! We’re an arena band, I really want to play arenas.’ Kaan is laughing: ‘Sean stole my answers! I’d add Deep Purple and Whitesnake – you’d need to take the next day off to sleep!’

They’ve had some entertaining moments as a band: ‘We look back fondly on this beautiful disaster!,’ Sean laughed. ‘The first gig we had on our wild run of gigs in 2021, and Wes’s first ever gig with us, was a small daytime festival in a local park. We played around lunch time and it was a plugged in acoustic set, which was weird enough in itself, given we’re a loud rock band! We were all crammed into this little outdoor stage with a really low hanging roof, so we couldn’t actually see properly without ducking. Our audience consisted of a Jamaican food truck and a few people with umbrellas looking like they’d rather be anywhere but outside in a park. The real highlight was when a middle-aged couple turned up and came right to the front of the stage to cheer us on. The couple were absolutely smashed, constantly falling over because of how drunk they were – bearing in mind this was a festival for young people with rides and a bouncy castle – and totally unfazed by the bad weather. One of them was holding a big bottle of rum and kept offering it to us during our set and was properly offended that we kept politely declining, while trying to perform. Towards the end of the set, the wind caught the stage roof, which nearly came down on us – thankfully, the sound engineer ran over and grabbed it in time before we all went down with the ship! Needless to say, every gig from here on was a walk in the park in comparison!’

(Main photo from left to right: Wes, Marco, Sean (front), Samuel and Kaan.)