Local lad releases debut album

Although he’s lived in Waihi Beach for the past two years, Sean Jamieson – aka Amnesia Jones – is a local Blockhouse Bay lad, and he’s recently released his self-titled debut album.

Educated at Marshall Laing Primary, Blockhouse Bay Intermediate and Lynfield College, Sean didn’t formally learn music until high school at Lynfield College. Through his guitar teacher he joined the jazz combo, a small ensemble playing jazz fusion. This was a big, eye-opening experience coming from playing guitar, listening to rock music and the blues, then getting thrown into jazz, and Sean credits this with piquing his interest into the world of combining genres. 

“Carving your own sound is the hardest part” says Sean. “I don’t really have a genre - subconsciously my music is a mixture of everything I’ve ever heard – rock, jazz, funk, soul…” 

After a quick stint at audio engineering school and five years at the Rock Shop, Sean and his wife, Tash, left Auckland to concentrate on his music.  Amnesia Jones is the result of that, produced entirely by Sean, in his tiny, shoe-box sized home studio in Waihi Beach.

"This way of working where people produce their own tracks and work on a laptop tends to be more common in the electronic music scene - hip hop for instance", says Sean. "This album is a combination of that way of working but also live instruments are involved, not just the computer. I’m trying to blend those two ways of working together.

"There's a lot of music that’s live nowadays - band orientated and all recorded in a studio - and a lot of people think that’s the only way to make music. I've combined the two elements together, as well as all the genres and my influences, but on a production side it’s a blend as well.

"I wanted to sound like a band, not one dude in a room, and I also want to bring it to the live stage - it's written to be played with a live six-piece band."

While more common to release a single or an EP first to try to gain traction, Sean released the album first. "Though it’s a lot harder getting people to listen to a whole album, the main reason is because the songs are designed to be listened to at the same time - they merge into one", he says. 

Although Waihi Beach is great for producing music, Sean and Tash will soon relocate the studio to Titirangi. “I’m interested in collaborating and producing with other artists as well as my own music. Auckland will fit our lifestyle better in that respect”, he says.
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Amnesia Jones is available on Spotify and all other streaming services.

See more at www.amnesiajones.com