Taking the bull by the horns as he literally goes it alone with his new band The Maker Band, we catch up with former Red Star Rebel guitarist Jonny Amos to find out about his new band and what life means and holds for him.

MM - Hi Jonny, how are you today?
Jonny - Hi Linda nice to talk to you again. I’m very well thank you!

MM - You recently parted ways with the Red Star Rebels, a UK based rock band that had built up quite a solid following over the past 3 years.  What made you decide that now was the right time to move on?
Jonny - When I started out making music in the mid 1990’s I never expected how hard I’d have to work to make something of myself. Red Star Rebels were a workhorse of a band. Not a day had gone by in three years where there was anything that was more important that the needs of the band. We all had to make big sacrifices to our lives to enable us to tour as much as we did.

I feel in the end we’d lost something special when the original line-up split. I kept with it cos we had become better songwriters but I had given everything I had to this cause and after playing ‘In The City’ in Manchester (October 2007) I had decided enough was enough. I had given everything and there was nothing left to give. I couldn’t take the band any further. But I also had something else in mind.

MM - You’ve formed a new band called the Maker Band; a bit of a unique one-man band shall we say.  What made you decide to literally ‘go it alone’ this time around? Jonny - I didn’t form The Maker Band. I Made It. Being alone has never been something I’ve been afraid of. RSR was the first band I’d been in where I wasn’t on my own. I’d already chalked up a hit as a solo act a few years ago. I record alone, I eat alone, I write alone. It was a natural decision. MM - Your debut album with the Maker Band is due out early 2009, what can you tell us about the overall feel the album will have and how it compares with your earlier musical offerings with the RSR’s? Jonny - It's nothing like RSR. I use small portable devices and record in various different rooms such as halls, lofts, churches, anywhere I can that gives the right ambience the feeling of the track that I am recording at that time. I produce, mix, master everything myself.

MM - You’ve already released a few songs for your fans to listen to on your MySpace page, what feedback have you received from them so far?
Jonny - Yeah really good, people understand the honesty and can relate to it. Sonically it’s not dissimilar to what’s out there at the minute on the UK market… the Ting Tings, One Night Only, etc.. except these songs actually have meaning as well as the right hooks

MM - Going back to the actual songs that are to feature on your debut album ‘Based On True Stories’.  Where do the influences come from for the songs and what can you tell us about the songs you’ve already written?
Jonny - Yeah all the songs on the album are true stories. I’m not afraid to be brutally autobiographical in my tales. Sometimes I write in the third eye, sometimes I write about a friend of a loved one. Sometimes I write about people who exist but do not know that I exist. Every track is a true story. There’s a blog about it on my myspace which explains the meaning of each song. Authenticity help music breath and it helps you communicate real feelings to real people. 

MM - One track in particular from the new album, ‘Things We Must Leave Behind’ seems to touch on very personal feelings and emotions, did you find putting these down in words helped exorcise some ghosts?
Jonny - That song was written about leaving the Rebels. I am not afraid to admit that the guilt I left behind from the effectively ending the band left me in a very dark place. I had counselling, I had to take medication. That song explains everything of why I left the Rebels. It also teaches people that you can’t move on in life and take everything with you, there are some things that you must leave behind so that you can move on, ya know? 

MM - We’ve already established that you play all the instruments on the album, but can you clarify just what instruments they are and how hard was it to write and record a song from every angle as opposed to just the one, which you perhaps did in the past? Jonny - I truly believe that I have invented a new genre of music called ‘portable rock n roll’.  Everything is played on a guitar (yep event the bass is de-octavated), vocals and a harmonica. I project this music in a portable manner and record it in a portable manner. Music has never been done like this before. Not in this way.

MM - When writing a new song do you usually start with a lyric, a riff, what works creatively for you?
Jonny - I start with a title, a concept, a meaning. Songs have nothing without meaning. It’s taken me years to understand that. Everything else builds from there.

MM - What lessons did you learn from your time in the RSR, good or bad, that you can carry forward with you into your new musical venture?
Jonny - Music is a love, not a lifestyle, the best music comes from within when you’re integral side is relaxed. 

MM - Just how important to a band do you feel the music industry and record labels in particular are at this moment in time?
Jonny - Labels don’t have the power they once did and yet so many of the top corporate decision makers are obvious to it. The average kid on the street corner is no longer spending his ten-pound pocket money on an album; he or she is downloading it for free and spending the money going to the gig. Everything is changing and it favours the artist’s control. If you know what you’re it’s actually easier than it has ever been. I can’t understand bands moaning about the music industry, it’s a trade that owes nobody a living. Be different, be simple. 

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