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by Tony Pascarella Published: August 8, 2005
If you haven't had the opportunity to hear Amber Pacific's music, you'll be in for a treat, provided you enjoy balls-to-the-wall punk rock. The band is made up of vocalist Matt Young, guitarist/keyboardist extraordinaire Will Nutter, guitarist Justin Westcott, Greg Strong on bass guitar, and the madman Dango on drums. "We have a broad range of influences, but they're mostly all punk. Dango is mostly influenced by all the fat bands like NOFX, all sorts of stuff with the faster beats; MxPx is a huge one of his," Amber Pacific bassist Greg Strong tells me in an interview at Warped Tour. He goes on to name some of his own influences, which include Less Than Jake, The Misfits, Further Seems Forever, and New Found Glory. The other members of the band have been getting into metal and hardcore lately, Greg explains, but it won't change the band's sound. He says we may see "different riffs here and there, but we'll still be Amber Pacific." Their full-length, The Possibility & the Promise came out on May 24th of this year, and sales have been far beyond expectations. "We exceeded the label's expectations and ours. Right now, it's just doing great. Our goals have been surpassed and we just want it to keep doing better. It kind of caught everyone off-guard how well it's doing." According to Strong, the band has sold over fourteen thousand copies of the album, and the numbers are still climbing. Those sales are well-deserved. Strong admits, "All the stuff we had recorded before was just crap." He explains that the songs that made it onto their Faded Days EP were tracks they had recorded back when Amber Pacific first started. For the LP, they sat down and wrote songs that they knew would specifically make it onto the new record. However, they did decide to include "Always You (Good Times" on The Possibility & the Promise, the only one of five tracks to make the transition. 2005 was Amber Pacific's second appearance on the immortal summer concert festival, Warped Tour. As part of their incentive to sign with Hopeless, the label put them on the 2004 Warped Tour for thirty-seven days. This year, things were a little bit tougher. They got only a handful of actual stage performances, which they made the most of. However, they made a collective decision to stick with the tour, doing acoustic performances in their merch booth whenever the sound levels allowed. "It's kind of hard when there's a whole bunch of stages around you. It's too noisy, and kids can't hear you. But whenever we have the chance to do it and it's quiet enough, we do it, and they've been going really, really well." Unfortunately, the day in which I spent some time with Greg and the guys from the band, they couldn't do a booth performance due to their proximity to the main stages. I had to shout over the tortured yelps of My Chemical Romance's Gerard Way just to set up the interview earlier in the day.  The band is definitely conscious of the fact that they're not on MTV or VH1 yet and they're always doing what they can to help and support themselves and the bands that they love. When I asked Greg what some of the bands were that they had become close to on Warped Tour, he rattled off a list that ranged from punk legends MxPx down to Smartpunk stage favorites Greeley Estates and Scary Kids Scaring Kids. He also went on to promote a band that recently released their debut album on Baltimore's Emerald Moon Records. "Our friend's in a band called All Time Low," Greg explains. "Their new CD (The Party Scene) is really good. They were actually here yesterday. They didn't play, but they came and hung out with us."None of the guys are pretentious about their success at all. Greg Strong is one of the most down-to-earth band members I've had the opportunity to sit down with. He's still in shock over the strides that Amber Pacific has made since getting signed to Hopeless early last year. "I'm plain and boring," says Greg after I ask him why he'd describe himself as vanilla ice cream if he were a delicious frozen treat. As a band or individually, they don't embody the rock-star look, nor do they possess an image that comes off as overdone. They're just five guys from Washington touring the country making a living doing what they love. Greg did have one last bit of commentary on the band, though. I asked him who he'd eat first if Amber Pacific ever were stranded on a desert island. "Dango," he responds with a laugh. "He's got the most meat on him." Click here to read my review of Amber Pacific's The Possibility & the Promise Special thanks to Greg Strong and the guys from Amber Pacific, Mike Cubillos, and Daniella Curry for her photo. To contact the author, click here. He will respond to most e-mail, hatemail included. If you are a publicist or associated with a band/label and would like either the author or any staff member to review your disc or conduct an interview, please use the same method of contact, and Tony will get back to you as soon as possible. |
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