New To Hot Press: AMOS

At 36, Damien Brennan of AMOS is a latecomer to music, but his band’s sound is still refreshing and innovative.

“I only picked up a guitar at 31,” he says. “It was just for fun, but then people started saying to me, ‘Man, you’ve got a bit of a talent there, you should record these songs.’’’

It took a while for Damien to break into the industry. Situated in the countryside near the Mourne Mountains in Newcastle, County Down, musician contacts were not easy to come by. Originally a solo artist, it was when Damien found chemistry with producer Michael McCluskey that the pair decided to team up and form a band.

With their new EP Soulkeeper out last month, it’s an electric departure from earlier acoustic works. Damien is adamant that, stylistically, AMOS shouldn’t be pigeonholed.

“I don’t like being pinned down,” he says. “I like writing whatever comes to me – I like that versatility. Sometimes you listen to an album, and one or two songs are really good, but the rest seem to be… just lesser versions of those songs? I like to have a lot of variety, so every song has something different about it.”
• AMOS play McHugh’s, Belfast on August 2.