Midnight Ambulance and the rock heavy darkness of "5 AM"

 

photo by andrew laing  "do you expect me to believe that?"

Midnight Ambulance is the Scotland based collaborative alt rock project of creatively deep songwriters / musicians Amelia and Fraser who first met in the Edinburgh music scene roughly nine years ago while performing in their own bands. Since then, the two have lead very separate lives (see details in the press notes below) but have been brought together by fate, circumstance and, maybe in large part, by the pandemic. Their track "5 AM" steps right into the fray, one of dark tones, drama built on a subdued but stoic beat, shady synths, Amelia's serious sounding vox and hard breaths. When the song erupts with cool and vast sounding heavy guitar lines, the atmosphere pushes harder buttons and displays harder edges. There is bits of, um, artistic art rock stances and when the big musical break happens it is delightfully big, rock heavy, choppy and jaggedly cool, the aforementioned drama turns into musical mayhem and the darker tones feel like an eclipsing battle or challenge with a truly cinematic sweep.

Dig the artistic cool dramatic edges here.

-Robb Donker Curtius

Midnight Ambulance · 5 AM

THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM - PRESS NOTES:


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Midnight Ambulance are a two-piece alternative rock band from Scotland. Amelia and Fraser met briefly on the Edinburgh music scene nine years ago, when performing with their respective bands. After losing contact, they reconnected at the start of 2020 and discussed the idea of collaborating.

Fraser has worked in music for the last ten years — in various bands, as a session/function musician, teacher and songwriter. For the last four years, he has worked as a tour manager and backline technician for international artists such as Fatherson (inc. Lewis Capaldi’s EU tour), Idlewild and Skegss. As the pandemic brought the music industry to a standstill, he decided to return to writing and playing his own music, and built a writing studio at his rural, seaside Scottish home.

Amelia has been songwriting since age 10. She has worked around the world (including Chile, Mexico and France), writing songs and poetry wherever she went. During the pandemic, Amelia was based in Paris, working for an international creative agency. Confined to her flat, she too made her own creative space, with a travel guitar, microphone and electronic drum kit and some home-made soundproofing.

This need to be creative led Fraser and Amelia to start collaborating during lockdown. Writing together offered a creative focus which developed into a supportive space and cathartic outlet. They quickly developed a strong musical partnership, writing 70+ songs via video call by July 2020. On Amelia’s return to Scotland, after eight months of writing together, they finally had the opportunity to jam live and decided to form Midnight Ambulance.


The sound

Midnight Ambulance is a fusion of Amelia and Fraser’s different but complementary styles, favouring unconventional rhythms, bold guitar and raw vocals. Both from rural Scottish towns, they take inspiration from their environment, a shared love of nature and the unruly Scottish wilderness. From jazz and electronic music, hip-hop and low-fi surf-rock, Fraser has toured with artists that have influenced his writing, such as Fatherson, Lewis Capaldi, Idlewild, Skegss and Ruby Fields. He takes inspiration from their lyrics’ authenticity and earthy, expressive guitar playing. Amelia finds inspiration in poetry; in particular, Chilean poet Gabriela Mistral’s use of metaphor to depict acute personal experience. Amelia explores this relationship between the universal and the personal in her writing. Time working in Chile and her love of Scottish traditional music influenced her playing, favouring unusual rhythmic placements.

Midnight Ambulance, indie rock, alternative rock, dark tones, dramatic edges, "5 AM", hard edges, hard breaths, spy caper guitar lines, jaggedly cool, Scotland,