AMFM’s David Caruso Digs Brooklyn’s “Grittiness”

AMFM frontman David Caruso tells Brooklyn Roads that “I’ve always loved psychedelic sounds and bands.” This may account, in part, for the quintet’s spacey, guitar-synth indie rock sound, although, he notes, “I’m influenced by a lot of music that is not what I tend to sound like.”

AMFM at DeGraw Fest / photo by Julia Drummond

Many of the musicians he has admired “also listened to stuff that sounded nothing like them,” he says. “People have mentioned AMFM sounding like bands I’ve never really listened to before, which was always cool to hear.” However, he points out, “It’s never been a priority for me to sound like someone else or compare myself to them.”

Caruso tells us that music was very important to him at a young age. “I wanted to be Elvis when I was four,” he says, adding that, “I was really into ’80s pop and rock when it was happening” and was heavily influenced by the songwriters of that era. His influences also span the ‘60s (Beatles), ‘70s (Steely Dan, Led Zeppelin) and ‘90s (Radiohead).

“These bands are so different from one another, yet all have been a major part of my growing up,” he says. “Whenever I hear any of them I still get knocked out. They each give me a feeling that I try to find with my own music. If I come up with a song that makes me feel great just singing it with an acoustic guitar or on piano, then I know I’ve written something [worthwhile].”

David Caruso / photo by Abner James

That said, Caruso tells Brooklyn Roads that he wishes he had written Radiohead’s “Jigsaw Falling Into Place” or “anything off of their album In Rainbows.” Among his contemporaries, he says he’d love to work with Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker “because everything he has done has been incredible.” His well-rounded musical education also includes “listening to a lot of classical music and jazz, which I played for a long time.”

DeGraw Fest 2018 / photo by Julia Drummond

Caruso tells us that, for as long as he can remember, his artist friends have called Brooklyn home, and “It’s always been home to creative communities,” The borough (and New York City in general) has long been, and still is, a great music scene, he says. “I’m always meeting people who are making incredible music, which is super inspiring for me. There is a grittiness [here] that is really unmatched by anywhere else and so many different things to pull influence from which come out in your art.”

This grittiness extends to Brooklyn’s music venues, of which Littlefield is one of AMFM’s favorites. “A few months ago we played at the new location on Sackett Street,” he tells us. “The sound onstage is really good and listening out in the crowd sounds good too.”

You’ll have to cross the East River to catch their next gig, however; they’re playing The Bitter End on March 29. Meanwhile you can check out their recently released EP, Brevity, which includes the single “This Town.”