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Apr 19, 2022 By Caleb Campbell

A.M. Boys is the latest project from seasoned Brooklyn multi-instrumentalist and producer Chris Moore (Light Vortex) and electronic musician and vocalist John Blonde (House of Blondes). Since first meeting at an Aphex Twin listening party, the pair have forged a thriving creative chemistry, creating beautifully layered minimalist electronic music. Next month, the duo are set to share their debut LP, Distance Decay, and they have been teasing the record with a string of singles. Today they’ve shared their latest effort with their new single “Traveler.”

“Traveler” is another taste of the pair’s electric combination of talents. The track has an almost cosmic undercurrent as if the listener is caught floating through a fantastical sci-fi soundscape. The track’s echoing drones and skittering drum machines give it form, while diaphanous bursts of synths and dreamy vocals color in the contours of the track’s world. As each element joins the mix, the track’s skeletal form takes on new layers, emerging into a vibrant climax, depicted in glittery form in the accompanying video.

As the pair explain, the video for “Traveler” was filmed and directed by NYC motion designer David-Lee Fiddler, incorporating live-in-studio footage shot by Doug Young. The duo credits Fiddler with being an energetic director that “seemed capable of translating any idea we had into reality.” Blonde says, “the Traveler video is what we think the electricity looks like inside our synthesizers.”

Check out the song and video below, along with our exclusive Q&A with A.M. Boys.

1. For anyone who has yet to hear this project, how would you describe it, whether in terms of your intentions as songwriters, or your sonic output?

CM: When we were writing the songs that ended up on the album, we were mainly thinking about how we would play them live. Each track began with an improvisation by one or both of us, and was eventually developed into a full composition. Even then, we wanted to make sure that the songs remained simple enough that we could still play them live as a duo.

Blonde: A recent review used the term “ecstatic minimalism” to describe one of our tracks. Chris said that’s our genre. I quite like that. We use analog synths, drum machines, space echo, and voice—these are the things dreams are made of. Our dreams, anyway.

2. What made you choose “Traveler” as your next single? What is its significance to you?

CM: Since Traveler is one of our most direct songs, short and to the point, we thought it would be an ideal introduction for people who haven’t heard our music.

Blonde: It’s a track that reflects the cosmic atmosphere of the album as well as our love of repetitive melodic refrains about transportation.

3. How did you go about translating the track into a visual medium?

Blonde: We wanted to depict the mysterious electricity moving inside our synthesizers. It was truly collaborative, between us and director David-Lee Fiddler. It began with posting still photos into a shared folder and evolved from a slide show in our minds into the fluid and kinetic video Dave put together. The starting point, vibe-wise, was the album cover. It took a few months to build out from that. The live studio footage that Doug Young shot added an unexpected ending, which Dave felt played as an arrival moment.