Although Amy Taylor, the lead singer of the Australian punk rock band Amyl & The Sniffers, is not — yet — widely known outside the underground circuit, three recent events suggest she is about to fully break into the mainstream. She has been featured on the cover of Vogue Portugal (“Seeing the frontwoman star in this fashion editorial makes you realize that being in the spotlight doesn’t intimidate her — it fuels her,” journalist Sara Andrade said about the cover), released You’re a Star alongside Fred again, and performed on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon.
But the Australian singer is more than ready to face fame. Back in 2018, music outlet NME described her on stage as “defying gravity, as though she’s possessed.” Just to be clear, that’s a compliment.
Even Billy Corgan, the lead singer of The Smashing Pumpkins, is a fan. “I looked at her for 10 seconds on stage and I said: ‘Holy mother of God, this is a true rock star.’” he said.
“Amyl & The Sniffers, with Amy Taylor at the helm, have brought back punk fun to rock,” Xavi Sancho said when discussing the 50 best albums of 2021 in EL PAÍS.
“A friend turned to me and said, ‘I think we have the new Iggy Pop.’ I said, ‘Mate, no, she’s Amy Taylor — she’s not Iggy Pop.’ Amy is a superstar, there’s no question about it.” Andrew Parisi, the band’s co-manager, told the Australian edition of Rolling Stone.
But as Amy herself explains to Vogue Portugal, she doesn’t take the compliments too seriously. “It’s flattering, I like compliments, and I dont take accolades too seriously, I think there just a fun bonus and a compliment, something to dress up and go, but not something that hangs over my head, more like a party with a show bag,” she said with a humility rarely seen in punk band leaders.
Last April, photographer Ellen Virgona, who has been friends with Taylor for 10 years, interviewed her for Russh magazine before the singer and her band embarked on their world tour, which included a performance at Coachella and opening for Green Day. When asked what it’s like to be a woman in the music industry, she said that, contrary to what one might think, it’s not a question she’s asked all that often. “It is tough, I can feel isolated from female company [on tour]. I have to actively push to have the support band be gender diverse and to make sure there is someone in the crew that’s not a male. Just to understand little things,” she said, before adding that after the last three weeks of touring in Europe and the U.K., she was told that some men had been groping people in the audience. “That really upsets me. That’s why it’s important to say something, telling the boys in the band when they ask, ‘what can we do?’ I say, ‘you can say something on stage, you can stand up for us so we’re not carrying it all by ourselves,’” the Australian explained.
The band has taken additional measures to ensure fans’ safety, including installing signs at venues denouncing racism, sexism, and classism. They have also implemented extra safety briefings and onstage discussions to help eradicate these issues at shows. “Feminism is at the forefront of our music, and unfortunately in live music spaces, including our own, there’s still so much sexism,” the singer told IQ Magazine.
The rest of the band doesn’t mind at all that she’s the one who attracts all the attention and takes the lead in interviews. “Amy’s platform involves us playing music behind her,” said Declan Mehrtens, the band’s guitarist. “We’re a vessel for her message,” added bassist Gus Romer.
When the group came together, “we were all misfits, so it took me a while to see that Amy had something unique,” Mehrtens told The Times. “Eventually I realized I was in a band with a talented person, and that’s when I buckled down and took it seriously. I certainly didn’t want Amy to get poached by someone else.” When journalist Will Hodgkinson asked them if they have any suggestions for her, Taylor responded: “They wouldn’t dare!”
Selling nuts is a thing of the past
Born in the coastal town of Mullumbimby, Amy Taylor moved to Melbourne in 2015, where she worked at the nut stand in her local supermarket. She realized something had changed when someone recognized her. But selling nuts is now a thing of the past — her band has gone on to open for AC/DC for two nights in Melbourne. “AC/DC are the biggest band in rock’n’roll, they make the best music, and the way I’m choosing to see it is: this is probably their last tour, so they’re passing the baton on to us,” Taylor told The Times, with the kind of star-quality aura that defines her.
“Taylor devours the stage from minute one with the energy of a stray dog that has just been freed after being tied up for a long time; like a shark that, if it stops moving, sinks,” wrote Alejandro Santos Cid for EL PAÍS when he interviewed the group during their visit to Mexico two years ago.
The band’s name, formed in 2016, is a not-for-the-faint-of-heart pun: Amyl is a type of drug that, as the Sniffers part of the name suggests, is snorted. Considering the band has songs like Blowjobs, Gacked on Anger, and Don’t Need a Cunt (Like You to Love Me), the name is a pretty clear introduction to what to expect. On the cover of their album Cartoon Darkness, the singer flashes her breasts while sticking out her tongue.
But Taylor stresses that her looks and attitude are tools for empowerment. “In a lot of my life, I actually don’t feel empowered and I don’t feel liberated, and I feel really trapped and suffocated. Wearing tiny clothes is a way that I feel really strong, and I feel really free. For me, wearing that on stage and being extremely feminine at some points is a way for me to just reclaim that, and show that femininity isn’t weakness,” she told IQ Magazine.
After writing and recording their first four-track EP, Giddy Up, in 24 hours, they released Amyl & The Sniffers in 2019 on the British indie label Rough Trade. The album won their first Australian music industry award, the ARIA, for Best Rock Album. Now the band is nominated for Best Video for Big Dreams. “Our ambitions were so low back then [when they formed in 2016]. When we put out our first EP on Bandcamp, it got 200 streams. We looked at each other and said: ‘We’re massive!’” Taylor told The Times. Now, she would have a hard time selling nuts without being recognized.
Soon, we may find out if AC/DC really passes the baton to them, and whether Amy Taylor will become the next Iggy Pop — or simply, the one and only Amy Taylor herself.
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