Zoh Amba has shared the title track and video for Eyes Full, the second preview from their Matador debut, out June 5th. The clip, directed by Grace Bader Conrad, finds Amba alongside album musicians Jim White on drums and Kevin Hyland on electric guitar.
The title track lands harder than lead single Another Time. White and Amba lock into a single rhythmic pulse while Hyland’s lead winds around them — three players threaded together by weeks of playing every day in the same room. Amba plays acoustic and loses none of the song’s force for being unplugged. The lyric turns over what it is that makes a heart full, and why. The video opens inside a gym, a lone young girl working through boxing drills; midway through, younger kids arrive before the whole thing gives way to a pickup basketball game with Amba, White and Hyland. Solitary discipline becomes shared play — a light-handed counterweight to the song’s gravity.
Saxophone has long been Amba’s route to something past language; the guitar — their first instrument — has turned out to be something else entirely. It’s a way to meet darker childhood memories directly, and to find words for them. After years in San Francisco and then New York, where Amba built a reputation as one of the most arresting saxophonists in the city’s avant-garde, Eyes Full finds them reckoning with home. “When you try to run from something it ends up catching up to you,” they have said. “And you have to deal with it.” The record sets itself the task of seeing and being seen. “I hope these songs touch people’s hearts,” Amba says. “They’re about people who really need to be seen and heard.”
Alongside the new track, Amba has announced a substantial run of UK, European and US headline and festival dates. They spend the summer touring the US in support of Folk Bitch Trio and Courtney Barnett, with a sweep of solo headline shows running through September. The European leg kicks off on October 29th at Rockomotives Festival in Vendôme, France, with stops in Paris, Amsterdam, Berlin and Brussels before UK headline dates in November in Bristol, London, Manchester and Glasgow. The announcements arrive on the back of a recent sold-out headline at New York’s Nightclub 101 and a Coachella appearance as part of Iggy Pop’s band.
Pre-Order Eyes Full: https://zohamba.mat-r.co/eyesfull
ZOH AMBA LIVE DATES
May 7 – Asheville, NC @ Revival %
May 8 – Atlanta, GA @ Vinyl %
May 9 – Nashville, TN @ Blue Room %
May 11 – Houston, TX @ White Oak %
May 12 – Austin, TX @ 29th Street Ballroom %
May 13 – Dallas, TX @ Deep Ellum Arts %
June 27 – Spring Creek, NC @ Lighting Bug Festival
July 30 – Philadelphia, PA @ Silk City
July 31 – Brooklyn, NY @ Baby’s All Right
Aug. 1 – Washington, DC @ Pearl Street Warehouse
Aug. 3 – Durham, NC @ The Pinhook
Aug. 4 – Atlanta, GA @ The EARL
Aug. 7 – Toronto, ON @ Sound Garage
Aug. 9 – Chicago, IL @ Schubas Tavern
Aug. 11 – Cleveland, OH @ Agora Theater #
Aug. 12 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Roxian Theatre #
Aug. 14 – Cincinnati, OH @ Megacorp Pavilion #
Aug. 15 – Kansas City, MO @ The Truman #
Aug. 21 – Denver, CO @ Mission Ballroom #
Aug. 22 – Salt Lake City, UT @ Rockwell at the Complex #
Aug. 24 – Sacramento, CA @ Channel 24 #
Aug. 26 – San Francisco, CA @ The Fillmore #
Aug. 29 – Los Angeles, CA @ Hollywood Palladium #
Sept. 1 – Los Angeles, CA @ Zebulon
Sept. 2 – San Francisco, CA @ Cafe Du Nord
Sept. 4 – Portland, OR @ Show Bar
Sept. 5 – Vancouver, BC @ Fox Cabaret
Sept. 9 – Seattle, WA @ Barboza
Oct. 29 – Vendôme, FR @ Rockomotives Festival
Oct. 30 – Paris, FR @ La Boule Noire (Les Femmes S’en Mêlent)
Oct. 31 – Amsterdam, NL @ London Calling Festival
Nov. 2 – Hamburg, DE @ Aalhaus
Nov. 3 – Berlin, DE @ Kantine am Berghain
Nov. 5 – Brussels, BE @ Botanique
Nov. 6 – Den Haag, NL @ Crossing Border Festival
Nov. 7 – Groningen, NL @ TakeRoot Festival
Nov. 8 – Kortrijk, BE @ Sonic City Festival
Nov. 10 – Amiens, FR @ La Lune des Pirates
Nov. 12 – Bristol, UK @ The Louisiana
Nov. 13 – London, UK @ The Lexington
Nov. 14 – Manchester, UK @ Gullivers
Nov. 15 – Glasgow, UK @ The Hug and Pint
% w/ Folk Bitch Trio
w/ Courtney Barnett