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BIO
Ambre
Leigh – vocals // Bay Dariz - vocals, guitar, keys
//
Alex Gallner – bass // Joe Herrera - drums
Some
Hear Explosion’s debut album It’s Our Time Now
is quite a bold statement for a new band to make.
Then again, this is the same band that got
matching “S.H.E.” tattoos after only four shows.
This Los Angeles threesome certainly has the
commitment, confidence, and talent that they need
to take that statement and make it come true.
When
Bay’s former band, The Mercy Kiss, disbanded, the
first call he made was to Ambre, a friend he had
known from Milwaukee, remembering that she’d once
off-handedly told him she wanted to sing in a rock
band. Ambre had never written a song and hadn't
sung publicly since she was a child, but Bay
convinced her to give it another shot, and the duo
penned their first track / mission statement “It’s
Our Time Now” in early 2008. The chemistry was
undeniable and the two musicians spent the next
several months writing, eventually realizing that
a one-time experiment had evolved into a
full-fledged band.
“I had
no preconceived notions,” Bay says. “When we wrote
the first song, I didn’t even know if we were
going to be a band. I just wanted to write a song
with Ambre. There wasn’t some grand plan. Once we
had a few songs, I realized it sounded like
nothing I’d ever done before. Not only was I
pushing myself in different musical directions,
but Ambre and I have very different tastes in
music. Where our sensibilities converge is what we
sound like.” Bay’s favorites include Bowie, Queen,
Smashing Pumpkins, Remy Zero, and Bright Eyes.
Ambre’s choice playlist would include IAMX, The
Kills, Tom Waits, Jeff Buckley, and No Doubt.
The
resulting sound is innovative and dynamic: the
kind of sexy, sultry music that also somehow
manages to rock a lot harder than you would
expect. As the band puts it “We wouldn’t sound out
of place on tour with bands like Garbage and the
Killers”. They recorded a three-song demo in 2009
with producer Michael “USA Mike” Eisenstein, the
former guitarist of Letters to Cleo, and his wife
(and former Cleo lead singer) Kay Hanley took
Ambre under her wing. They started playing shows
all over Los Angeles, including buzz-worthy gigs
at The Roxy, The Viper Room and The Key Club. It’s
been said that "Aesthetically, Leigh bounces
around the stage like a modern day Pat Benatar",
and Ambre is "What Deborah Harry would look like
if she was a brunette and a young post punk pop
rocker today on amphetamines that were washed down
with Red Bull".
After
completing their lineup by recruiting drum
virtuoso Joe Herrera, the band began work on their
self-produced debut album. "We had been planning
on working with outside producers, but after some
false starts and scheduling conflicts, a year had
gone by and we just really needed to get these
songs out there," Bay says. "Even though I hadn’t
planned on producing it myself, it feels like this
is the way it was always supposed to happen."
The
songs on their debut album vary from the
call-to-arms opening track “Explode”, to the dark
electro/pop kiss-off “Baby Won’t You (kiss my
lips)”, to the gorgeous ballad “Amazing”. What
manages to tie these songs together are Ambre’s
unmistakable voice and melodies, which perfectly
compliment her lyrics of personal struggle and
sexual empowerment. Songs like “Hell A” and “Too
Forgiving” chronicle the challenges of moving to
Los Angeles and trying to succeed in life and in
love, while some other songs have origins you
might not expect (“Shotgun Romance” was inspired
by David Lynch’s film Wild at Heart),
others like “Give / Take” are just, as Ambre has
been known to say at concerts, “about f---ing”.
Some
Hear Explosions have seen a significant amount of
success since their inception. They were invited
to perform at Milwaukee’s Summerfest in 2009 as
part of the festival’s “Emerging Artists Series,”
where they were voted by fans onto a compilation
CD that was widely distributed at the festival.
The band has licensed several songs to feature
films, including the upcoming films The Lake
Effect, and Pound of Flesh starring
Malcolm McDowell. Bay also wrote several songs for
the hit indie film Dakota Skye, which came
out in 2009, where he had a role as a member of a
fictional rock band, and has recently begun
composing for TV commercials and film projects. In
addition, Bay is a working actor in LA and has a
hip-hop side-project with acclaimed actor Idris
Elba called Trampions, while Ambre does commercial
work and modeling. Their most important
achievement, however, has been making music that
pleases both themselves and their fans.
“This
band saved my life,” Ambre says. “I was at a point
where I’d forgotten what I was even doing out here
and was ready to pack up and head overseas in
search of some purpose. This is what I've always
wanted to be doing and Bay gave me the courage and
outlet to dive into it again. When we started the
band, we just wanted to make music that we wanted
to listen to ourselves, and the fact that so many
people have responded so positively has been
extremely gratifying."
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