Heartbreak on Valentine’s Day with Finding Amelia’s ‘Miss You’
For Finding Amelia, love takes center stage this weekend, in all of its devastating shades. On Feb. 14, the virtual band (more on that later) shared the stripped down music video for their moody single “Miss You.”
With most of the band members hailing from the Midwest, the band retained that sound and approach to the industry despite moving across states and continents.
Recorded fully remotely, in their debut album “Onwards and Upwards,” Finding Amelia shows us what is possible when art and connection are the driving force.
We got the chance to hear firsthand the ups and downs of this experience.
Some of the Finding Amelia team first joined forces in another band Mannhattan. How did you find each other to build this new project?
We’ve all come from different musical backgrounds, but we wanted to create something fresh and exciting together. Sam and Joe had been kicking around some ideas for a more pop-focused sound, and we started collaborating with Mark and Ethan. Brandon, who's been a longtime friend and producer, came on board, and it just clicked. We all felt this energy, this shared vision, and Finding Amelia was born.
Where did the name Finding Amelia originate?
At the very very beginning (not sure all of us even remember this) we knew that a lot of bands took after street names—Joe lives on Earhart Rd. Sam suggested we take her first name instead. But Amelia Earhart’s amazing, with any luck one day we can do what she did (inspire people, that is, not die in a mysterious plane crash). Right now we just want to create music that pushes some boundaries and explores some styles both familiar and new.
When Finding Amelia launched, you were meeting and recording remotely from across the country. Is that the case for your most recent release?
Yeah, we've got to be the most “virtual classroom” band there is right now. We've been working across the country. For most of the writing process Joe was buried beneath a stack of medical textbooks on an island, Brandon was perched in a studio outside of Los Angeles, Ethan was playing metal concerts all over the Detroit area, and Mark and Sam wrote from their basement in Grand Rapids. Writing an album is already hard before you add several thousand miles between everybody. It’s an interesting challenge that forced us to find new ways to be creative with each other. Our live show in January was the first time we were all together outside of a video call, which we were super excited about!
Share more about the music video process. What’s the best part about filming?
Mark had this vision of making music videos for every song on the album, which was awesome. With the help of our very talented friends, Ethan Kaiser and Ben DeKryger, we’ve had the crazy opportunity to shoot an album’s worth of video, a feat very few bands get to fulfill. With immaculate planning, by the time we got to shoot the video the hard part was done and we just had to have fun with the music.
We’ve gotten a lot from you in the last few months, signaling some big moves in the works! What inspired this new wave of releases?
Believe it or not, most of the stuff we’re putting out has been in the works since mid-2023. When we put out Paper Planes and Black Box in 2023, there was a general feeling that the next singles and album would be out a lot sooner than the very last moment of 2024. But all things happen in their own time—we hope the love and care we’ve put into this set of song shows, and that it will have been worth the wait.
How would you describe your growth between your launch with Paper Planes and now with Onwards and Upwards?
The biggest thing is we got better at doing this apart from each other. Once we learned how to communicate creative things via Zoom calls and group chats a bit better, putting these songs together became a little easier. Logistics aside, with each song we write we understand a little bit more what we want ‘the sound’ of this band to be, and each of us learns how to write music the rest of us will like.
The album really captures the youthful excitement that comes with uncertainty. Applying this to your life in the music industry, how do you navigate the anticipation and unknown of an in-between stage?
There’s a lot of uncertainty when it comes to making music. We try not to focus on it too much—one day, one song, one chord at a time. If we can manage to write and play music that makes us happy, the rest we can figure out as it comes.
What does 2025 look like for Finding Amelia?
We’ve got a lot of songs still in the oven! Some tracks didn’t quite fit the vibe of what we chose for this album, so if nothing else we know whatever’s next will be a little different. There’ll definitely be plenty music to come, and we hope plenty of live shows too!
Where can fans keep up with you?
We’re on pretty much everything except Myspace and White House press releases (for now). You can follow us on Facebook, Instagram, X (let’s be real here—Twitter), and Joe occasionally puts up random behind-the-scenes clips on TikTok. You’ll find the music videos as they come out there and on Youtube. We love interacting with everyone, so we’d love it if you come say hi!
With tons of content at the ready, we’ll be seeing a lot more of Finding Amelia in the near future. And we’ve got our eyes peeled.