ICMP Spotlight | Hello Amnesia

The ICMP Spotlight aims to support as many students and alumni as possible in their personal careers within the music industry.

Whether you're working on a musical, have joined a cover band, started out as a booking agent/artist manager/music journalist/etc, we want to know all about it and support you with any possible means.

With each profile, we present a student or graduate music project, making it our #ICMPSpotlight. 

Hello Amnesia 

Hello Amnesia is an up and coming rock band with nearly all of its members from the ICMP community. 

The band includes Sean Arkless (BA Songwriting alumnus), Marco Ragozza on keyboards (BA Songwriting), Kaan Yurdakul on guitar (who now works in ICMP's Facilities and is an MA Creative Music Production alumnus) alongside Wes Burton who also studied the MA Creative Music Production while Samuel Oliveira plays drums.

They were recently named among the latest group of Pirate residents for 2023. 

Alongside this support, Hello Amnesia have been championed by Farrago and were asked to headline their upcoming festival at Brixton Jamm on 23rd July. The relationship came through Pirate following a gig at their studios in Dalston in June. 

We caught up with Sean from the group to hear what they have planned for the event and their future ambitions. 

Congratulations on news of the headline show - what have you got lined up for the Brixton Jamm festival? 

We are preparing a very special show for this one!

Nobody knows this, because somehow, with a lot of quick thinking we pulled it off without a hitch, but a lot went wrong (technically speaking) during our Farrago showcase that secured us the festival. We were forced to improvise a few bits as well as cut a song mid-set to keep to a strict timeframe.

Much of this improv turned into crowd interaction, and they went absolutely wild, so we’re now counting our lucky stars that we had to think on our feet, because out of a technical nightmare, was born an even more engaging show than ever before."

You can be sure you will be singing and dancing along to this one at the festival. In terms of how we’re approaching this differently, we believe opting for high energy engagement is the best course of action, it’s a show for people who are not necessarily there to see us – simply to have a good time listening to live music, so we want to make it about the audience as much as possible! We hope to see you there!

Here’s a link with our special discount code for early bird tickets... 

Have you any advice for bands looking to further their careers after finishing university? How have you grown your profile? 

Honestly, it’s different for everyone – we’ve spent the last two years playing as much as possible and slowly building a network of amazing people around us.

We’re rubbish at socials, and we don’t care for making contrived TikTok content. Not to bash the platform – if you can do it authentically, then what a great way to build an audience, but our priority is giving our audience our true selves, which means live shows and in-person conversation is the way forward (until we’ve got a team to direct us, then we’ll be all over socials with bells on!).

In terms of advice, the only thing we’d really suggest, is to be true to your impulses – if you don’t feel like being active on socials, then don’t be, or if that’s all you want to do instead of gigging (there’s plenty of artists that do this) then that’s great too – but you MUST be willing to accept the consequences, be self-aware and use the outcome of your choices to your advantage. Lean into it.

If you’re bad at making album art, then make bad album art part of your brand, you’ll save a lot of money, time, and stress. It’s honestly the best way to find your audience - kind of like dating - if you don’t tell the truth on the first date, that’s gonna be a rough relationship."

What’s next for the band? 

We always say next year will be OUR year, but that’s becoming more and more likely by the day, as our prospects of gaining decent festival slots and international support tours are growing significantly as the year progresses. We’ve got a tonne of new content we’re working on, so you can expect plenty of exciting new music on the way, including 'Molly’s Game' (out on 21st July).

We’re also headlining a big show at the Cockpit Theatre the day after Farrago Festival, so if you miss the festival, be sure to check us out there where we will play even more of our latest songs in a wild hour long set.

Get tickets for Hello Amnesia's future gigs including Moshpit in the Cockpit and the Star in Shoreditch. 

You can also pre-save latest single,'Molly’s Game'.