Ammonite is the new project from songwriter and producer Amy Spencer. Her debut mini-album, Blueprints, explores two opposing sound worlds, voice and technology. Where layers of improvised vocals meet electronic processing and flow like a glorious, glitchy blue river.
Although she was a competent singer-songwriter and guest vocalist for Bicep (who wrote two songs on her debut album), TVAM, DC Gore and Motsa, like many women in music, she experienced "imposter syndrome" in male-dominated environments and preferred to leave others to produce. But with Ammonite, Spencer decided to try something new: creating fragments of self-reflective lyrics, droning vowels and staccato repetitive words, she constructed this debut 7-track sonic manifesto, with her voice at the forefront.
Throughout Blueprints, Spencer displays vulnerability and strength. Her music is close and intimate, but distant and reflective, as if from another time, floating in the atmosphere between space and earth. It is both organic and artificial. Neither good nor bad; human or machine; male or female.
We have had the pleasure of speaking with Amy, and this has been the result.
What was Amy Spencer's main goal in creating Blueprints?
Blueprints came out of me wanting to try and make music on my own. My voice is my main instrument, so I just began to play around with sampling it and ended up making a lot of slow chord progressions made from my sampled voice. I then started to record improvised bits of singing and chopped them up across the tracks. It became my own way of making music, which was fun and exciting. It was an explorative process, I didn’t know what the end goal was, which was really freeing. My background is mostly in songwriting, so just sitting next to the mic and making one sound that is then used for the majority of the track is a really different approach, but it’s been quite amazing.
What sets “ARP” apart from the other compositions on Blueprints in terms of mood?
ARP was one of the last tracks I wrote for my new record Blueprints. The other compositions are quite a bit more moodier and melancholy. But I wanted to explore some more rhythmic elements so started playing around with my voice and arpeggiators, and it just sort of happened! My friend and collaborator Calum Duncan worked with me to finish the production and mixing.
What techniques did Spencer use to develop the rhythmic structure of "ARP"?
I sampled my voice – a simple OH or AH sound, then used Logic’s built in arpeggiator to create two arps that weave within each other. The timing was a bit crazy when I brought it to Calum (I’m not very good at fine tuning so love to collaborate on that stuff hehe), but we made it work! This track is so bonkers but it’s a special one to me. I never thought I’d be able to create anything like this.
Why did Spencer decide not to include a lyrical vocal line on "ARP"?
ARP doesn’t have a lyrical vocal line because I wanted to try something new for this song. Adding a lyrical vocal line just didn’t work since it was already so busy and intense! But the track does have some effected voice notes where I’m talking through my process, and trying to understand what this music represents. These were initially much clearer voice notes – you could hear me say things like “I want to find the perfect ways to utilise my voice, but I think part of my approach has to be trying to escape this need for perfectionism, and just letting what happens be…” but Calum and I ended up making these a lot blurrier and intense so they fit better with the track. I think the sentiment is still there though, and this is really underlying throughout all of the tracks on Blueprints. ARP also has these kind of choral vocals in the background which make everything pretty epic!
What inspired Yasmin Vardi to create the visual representation of “ARP”?
When Yasmi heard ARP, she said that she imagined my vocals as “jolts of electricity”. They carry quite a lot of energy as they travel throughout this song, so she wanted a way to showcase this throughout the visuals. The visuals are really intense but are even more impactful on a big screen while I perform live.
What does Spencer’s new release Blueprints represent?
Blueprints isn’t just about the music, but it’s also been a way for me to figure out who I am, understanding how to let go of expectations and ideas of how things should be. It’s a really intimate and vulnerable record, but it’s also quite distant at the same time –– you hear all of these revealing lyrics but there’s no story or way to connect them. The process was often me just saying what was on my mind, rather than telling a story. Blueprints are the beginning of something, starting fresh. This record is me laying new foundations, revealing a new chapter, telling my story… but in my own, glitchy way!
The music also represents this visual world of blue I’ve created with Yasmin Vardi. We drew a lot of the inspiration from runs and walks along the River Thames in Deptford where I live. As I went further along the river, I found all of these beautiful parts I’d never seen before, and when the tide goes out you can see all of these patterns in the riverbed that look so otherworldly and also like a fossil / ammonite. I then brought Yasmin along with me to capture that.
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