Amor Y Powers heads out for a round of West Coast shows

By Amy Young

Beyond being its own very specific chaotic haze, the pandemic set many cloistered folks in motion. Plenty of restless creatives stopped chomping at the bit and worked on old projects or started new ones.

In Tucson, Arizona, just before the country's shades were drawn, a couple of musicians kicking around that desert town — Kid Congo Powers and Naïm Amor — got connected by that music-scene magnet that pulls folks together.

"We met right before lockdown, and I hadn't been in Tucson that long. Naïm was part of the music scene I was meeting. He came to see me do a solo show and we became friends. When lockdown happened, he reached out and asked if I wanted to trade some (music) files because we were so bored, so we started doing that," Powers says, adding that it "worked out really well."

Amor says he was "lucky to have a studio to go to outside the house" during the lockdown and made a lot of music. "I had an idea," he continues, "to do something with drum machines and rockabilly guitars." We don't doubt his rockabilly love. He showed up to the Zoom interview with a hollow body strapped to his person, and didn't remove it. It hung like a beloved necklace.

"I always wanted to do something like that, so I did a couple demos, and it was very exciting." That made him wonder how it would sound to have another person involved to forge a musical conversation. He wanted Kid and his electric guitar to get involved and see how the sounds would "ping pong" off one another.

Obviously Powers was into it, and voila, Amor Y Powers was born.

The duo released full-length Tucson Safari last year on In the Red Records, and it is a dreamy mix of surf 'n' twang. The songs are sultry, gritty, mysterious, and spirited. It feels like a sidewinding soundtrack for a wild desert movie; one that makes you want to be a character in the midst of the action. Tracks like "Still Like the Hummingbird" make you want to dance. It's got a lilting beat you can float to.

Shows started happening post-pandemic, and now the two are gearing up for a short tour. Their live band includes a couple of other folks: Miles Bartlett on six-string electric bass and Chris Carlone on drums.

Amor says bringing on more band members was another fun part of the process. "It is the continuation of the process we began with, which was very open. It's open to what people bring to the table. It's an experience of acceptance and a welcoming of differences — it adds richness."

Powers says he loves that they got to pick the band's additional players together. "They both bring so much to it. Chris has such enthusiasm, and Miles plays a very different kind of music in his band Laser Dad — a way more complicated type," he says.

Carlone made the band's videos, and the two can't say enough about his artsy skills.

"He's an artist, makes videos, he's a performance artist, a filmmaker, he plays instruments, he builds instruments," Amor says, while all our heads swirl a bit in awe.

When you watch the videos for songs like "Surf Sirens" and "Still Like the Hummingbird," you can see Carlone's adventurous spirit come through.

Watch: "Still Like the Hummingbird"

"We had a day off in Prescott and were like, 'let's make a video," Powers says.

"There wasn't a super concept, but it seems like while we're running around and having fun in the desert, Chris sees a bigger picture when he's doing these disparate things. He's very good at it."

Amor and Powers are both busy with music projects, but at some point after this tour, they'll gear up for another recording. "That's the idea right now," Powers says.

Powers has some things cooking with his bands Kid Congo and the Pink Money Birds and Juanita & Juan, his project with Alice Bag.

Amor is working on "various local projects and a score for a documentary film about the Tohono O'odham Nation and its struggles regarding the border wall," and about the next Amor Y Powers release.

"I've been thinking about what the right process for it will be. I like the idea of process more than the idea of, like, visions," he says.

"Sharing a process is something I find more open in a way, because it becomes about how you talk to each other, how you work and live together."

Both members like the organic way things form in the band.

"In a way, it's experimental. We don't know what's gonna happen, and it could go in any direction at any time," Powers says.

Amor Y Powers upcoming shows:

• 08/26 - Los Angeles, CA - Zebulon w/ Escapism
• 08/27 - Berkeley, CA - Ivy Room w/ Brad Brooks
• 08/28 - San Francisco, CA - Kilowatt w/ Low Bote
• 08/29 - San Pedro, CA - The Sardine
• 08/30 - San Diego, CA - The Tower Bar
• 09/01 - Pioneertown, CA - Pappy & Harriet's w/ Hot Patooties
• 09/02 - Phoenix, AZ - Chopper John's w/ Thee Madcaps