The long Easter weekend saw Angus Murphy AKA Amastro smashing his live set at Ivy‘s Courtyard (peep a little snippet from the show below), and it’s safe to say that it looked like a pretty wild night for those who attended. Canberra’s rising talent continued to keep the hype alive after dropping his monster new single today titled Don’t Let Me.

Teaming up with 17 year old starlet Sara Flint, the pair have served up a super dreamy and refreshing collab to get you started on dem weekend vibes. From Sara Flint‘s smooth and mesmerising vocals, to soaring and emotive pads tied in with organic drum work, Don’t Let Me hits the sweet spot and showcases Amastro‘s developed signature sound.

 

We had a chat to Angus Murphy to get a little insight on working with Sara Flint, the beginnings of Amastro, and his plans for the future.

SR: Hey dude! So what’s your story? How did you get into music, who/what inspired you and when did you realise that ‘Yep, this is it. This is what I want to do in the future’?

A: It started when I got a toy saxophone for Christmas at like 3! Couldn’t stop blowing the thing so mum put me into piano lessons. 

At 5 my dream was to play at the opera house so I guess that’s when I knew hahaha. I was too stubborn to change my mind and I literally suck at everything else hahaha ?

SR: That’s pretty cool that you knew from an early age! How did you come up with your alias ‘Amastro’?

A: Well every week with my mates in Crappy’s shed we’d toss names around while watching the footy. My mates were always heaps supportive of my music. We’d nailed it down to two: Astro and Maestro. The week later I brought ‘Amastro’ to the table and the boys cheered!! 

SR: So you’ve always been musically talented, what made you take the next step and learn how to produce your own tunes on Ableton?

A: I can literally pinpoint it to a single moment. I was Sitting next to Alison Wonderland on the plane to Fiji. We got chatting and she started showing me her album (which wasn’t released yet) and I frikken loved it. I showed her some of my stuff after, which was like a singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran vibe, and she was just flat out not impressed. 

She asked me what type of music I listened to and I was like you, Hermo, Flume, Peking Duk, etc, so she hits me with a life changing sentence and said “well… don’t you make the music you love listening to?”. It was epiphanic.

SR: What was it like working with Sara Flint on your latest track and how did you two cross paths?

A: Sara is an absolute legend and one of the best vocalists I’ve ever worked with! I was down in Canberra writing the track and my sister came in and showed me this 17 year old’s cover on Facebook. I got goosebumps and contacted her immediately. She came over the next day and we recorded vocals. It was like it was meant to be dude.

SR: What was the process like for ‘Don’t Let Me’? Did it just flow out easily or did you hit a couple of walls?

A: ‘Don’t Let Me’ was one of those rare songs that just write themselves. I was in a heaps emotional headspace and tapping into some real personal memories and I think that’s what made it so easy. Definitely doesn’t always happen that way lol.

SR: It sounds like everything fell into place with both producing and working with a vocalist. Which ‘Amastro’ gig did you have the most fun at? Loose Crowd?

A: Opening for Sticky Fingers at Enmore was fucking insane. The second doors opened there was a stampede of people running to the front. Stickies fans should be proud of themselves!

SR: If you could play at ANY festival in the world, which one would it be?

A: Coachella ?

SR: Good Choice! Now imagine you’re playing at Coachella. What would your rider include?

A: Hahaha a plane ticket for the crew and the gang so we can all go hard. 

SR: Dream collab?

A: Alison Wonderland hands down!

SR: She’s definitely killing it at the moment! It would certainly be an experience joining forces with her. What are your plans for 2017? Working on anything new?

A: YEP! This is the first single of an EP which will be coming out this year then I’ll tour it- yewwww!!! As well as some festivals which is going to be super fun. 

SR: Thanks for taking the time to chat to us and we look forward to seeing what you have in store for this year. You’ve come a long way and have already accomplished a lot! Big Ups!

 

You guys can catch Amastro playing on The Plot stage at Groovin’ The Moo (Canberra) on Sunday 07 May.

Flick a like or a follow his way on Amastro‘s social media accounts – Facebook, SoundCloud, YouTube and Twitter – but in the meantime lend your ears and have a listen to ‘Don’t Let Me Feat. Sara Flint’!